Like the original,
Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War: Dark Crusade focuses less on micromanagement and more on combat aspects. Little time is spent working on your base, instead giving you more time to plan battle strategies and manage your forces.
Dark Crusade’s main draw are the two new playable races, the Necron and the Tau. The Necron are a heartless race of machines with one goal in mind: destroy everything. Their play-style is completely different from other races in the Dawn of War series. Rather than focusing on building troops, the Necron focus on building bases and relentless strikes. They may not be the fastest troops on the battlefield, but they are powerful and hard to take down.
The Tau, on the other hand, is an alliance made up of several races all joined under militant leadership. They are a highly technological race and focus more on long-distance strikes rather than getting up close.
Dark Crusade centers on the planet Kronus, where each of the game’s seven factions have set up shop. All are intent on controlling the entire planet, making it your goal to wipe out the other groups.
Dark Crusade retools Dawn of War’s single-player campaign. Rather than follow a linear map-to-map story, gameplay takes place on a map of the planet Kronus. This large map is split into 25 smaller ones which players attack and defend each turn, similar to the game Risk. Once a battle is initiated, gameplay switches to a more familiar RTS setup.
On the surface, the campaign structure looks rather simple. You only control one army and you’re only allowed one action per turn. This one move soon takes on a number of strategic possibilities once you factor in that each territory grants a bonus to its controlling faction. Sometimes these bonuses are simply resource increases, though some offer larger strategic abilities. For example, controlling the territory containing the planet’s main space port gives you the ability to attack non-adjacent territories.
In addition to earning you new territories, victory also brings with it requisition points which can be spent on increasing your defenses or bolstering your attack forces. You’ll also earn new gear to outfit your commander with, giving him stat boosts and new on-field abilities.
Some of Dark Crusade’s best parts come when attacking enemy strongholds. These battles are long, hard-fought and intense – in other words, everything a good battle should be. Unfortunately, normal missions aren’t as exciting and often times feel like normal RTS battles. Also, you never face more than one faction per map, breaking the believability that everyone wants a piece of this planet. With seven groups gunning for the same plot of land, it is hard to believe that more than two factions wouldn’t cross paths sooner or later.
