The battle’s going poorly. The position had been good. Several Devastators backed up by super-heavy Terminators, and all entrenched by the shield generator (one of three key items to defend). The combined firepower was enough to quickly deal with most vehicle and infantry threats, and the shield protected against all ranged attacks. While close-quarter troops could get through the shield, they had no chance of surviving long enough to close the gap. The Orks had launched a vicious assault, but were getting beaten back. Then they launched a Bomb Squig: a small, toothy, suicidal blob with explosives strapped to it. Running through the shield, it detonated, the blast throwing my troops clear of the shield’s protection. This by itself was not a disaster, but the meteor shower that followed was. The Orks had placed a beacon drawing down lumps of celestial rock, and when the timer runs out, the grand finale – a huge meteor smashing anything in the blast zone. Not only would it annihilate my army, but it would also destroy the shield generator. Clicking like a madman, trying to get my troops clear, I accidentally clicked on the beacon and got a surprise when my soldiers grabbed hold of it. Within half a second a plan has formed: I order my Terminators to grab the beacon and teleport it away from the shield generator. Once clear, they’re to drop it and run (well, stomp) as fast as they can out of the blast zone. The plan works, the meteor smashes harmlessly away from my forces, and my Terminators survive to continue fighting.
I lose the battle, of course, but I can honestly say that Dawn of War III is the first strategy game where I’ve enjoyed getting repeatedly stomped on by the AI. Winning or losing simply doesn’t bother me – I’m just enjoying the experience of playing the game and (sometimes literally, if you’re playing the Orks) watching the fireworks fly. Lets make it clear, this game is very different from the Command & Conquer (C&C) series, and light-years away from StarCraft II’s (SC II) play-style, and that’s not a bad thing. Rush tactics don’t work. Neither does turtling, the old C&C standby of ‘whoever has the most tanks wins’, nor the (let’s face it) only slightly more sophisticated mixed-unit ‘blob-of-death’, and ‘I can scout quicker/click my mouse faster than you’ approaches occasionally seen in SC II. In fact, winning or losing a single engagement doesn’t spell the end of the game, and each game turns into a series of protracted battles, with the fight ebbing and flowing across the battlefield, until one player manages to get enough of an edge to push the enemy back. And that edge comes from battlefield tactics – from thinking and skill – not mix of units, economic strategy or clicks-per-second.
And a powerful edge it is. In fact, unlike games like SC II where you can have lost the match long before it’s actually finished (often due to some early mistake), in Dawn of War III, the match isn’t lost until it’s lost. Indeed, it’s possible for an entire game-ending army, if it’s been injudiciously grouped together, to be decimated by a few well placed drop pods and an orbital bombardment. Even the towering end-game super units, which can devastating in the right hand, can be quickly turned into so much scrap if not managed skilfully (just ignore criticism that these things are overpowered). Don’t be mislead by the above into thinking this game is micro-heavy (or macro-heavy, for that matter) – it has just enough to give you variety and a few tactical options, and you never feel overloaded, or indeed rushed when making decisions. The battle on-screen might look frantic, but the pace is comfortable for the player.
Dawn of War III has gotten some pretty mixed reviews. Some people hate that it’s not ‘Warhammery’ enough, some people hate the fact that it’s not like Dawn of War II, some dislike that it’s only got three factions (Space Marines, Orks, and Eldar) others hate the fact that the solo-player campaign makes you rotate between races for each mission. Personally, I don’t think these are really serious grips. I appreciate that, if you’re heavily into Warhammer 40K lore, the ‘Warhammerishness’ of the game might be a sticking point; but if you’re not, it really doesn’t matter. Each faction has a choice of elites (including super-units) and army doctrines (unique advantages, such as being able to reinforce at a listening post) which give the factions a surprising amount of variety. Rotating between each race does feel a little weird and may disorient RTS newcomers, but the only genuine criticism I can level at the game is that the pacing in the solo-player campaign feels a bit off, with resource points accruing simply too slowly (fortunately, not a problem in skirmish mode).
As for the rest of the game, the control scheme is comfortable, the Orks provide a wacky sense of humour and the battles are visually spectacular (yes, if you zoom right in you can see the units are fairly low detail – but, trust me, you’ll rarely ever want to do this as watching the battles from afar is so entertaining). In short, I rather enjoyed my time with Dawn of War III. While it’s certainly not for everyone (die-hard Warhammer 40,000 fans and Dawn of War II players in particular), it’s still a solid RTS game with plenty of fun for the right player. ■