DoW2 beta infos!, INFOS! Options

[Oddies da Nerfed]

Toying with DoW2 beta, played for a bit last night vs computer. (online though, stupid mp only beta!)

First: graphics are fucking amazing, however beta is about as rough as crysis when cranked, you need a monster machine for ultra. I am hopping release will be a little more refined and fun better, but shall see.

First part two!: Forget what you know about DoW 1, this game is way way different. DoW2 is designed around tactical infantry fighting with some vehicles thrown in. It is also heavily designed around 'instant action', as in you are going at it from within a minute in game till one side wins. A main change beyond this, no base building. You start with a Fortress in MP with 1-2 turrets defending it, and that is it. No rebuilding it, no lil factories it does everything. You have 3 tiers, starting in 1 with upgrades to 2 and 3 unlocking more upgrades and more units. Heroes upgrades can be changed at any time for most things, certain ones like Force Commanders Terminator wargear is not reversable.

Races: Orks, SM (and IG in camp not sure if playable), Nids, and Eldar.

Base: This thing takes a fucking beating, 15khp with the omgwtf elite units like avatar packing 6k and its armored out the ass. Turrets have around 500hp and will mow down infantry or at least suppress them (more on this later). This thing is your baby, it dies you lose. It produces everything and contains the 2 tier upgrades. It can be repaired, however what units repair are limited per side. ie for SM the scouts repair, or the defensive Tech Marine Hero can repair.

Heroes: Unlike DoW these things are not walking machines of death, they go down decently fast though do unload some sever ass beating before dying. There are 3 to pick from before starting the map, and you CAN NOT CHANGE during the map, so pick carefully. Each has its own specialty like front line killing, back line support, front line support/healing and so on. Force commander for SM is offensive and has offensive 'calls', I'm not sure wtf they are truly called more on em later. Like all heroes he has 3 upgrade slots, usually wep, armor, and misc. You can alter these at any time for cost of new upgrade based on what you need him to do. The exception is the terminator upgrade, which is perm. You can however as term change from auto cannon or flamer for dug in units per what you need and for cost. When they get bitch slapped, if you are not on a team a counter shows over em counting down cost in requisition to revive them. It continues to drop as you wait. If you are playing team games you can run your hero over to a friendly downed hero and revive them.

Squads: Bread and butter of the game. Squads are handled much like CoH with reinforcements only being allowed at certain heroes, hero deployed stations, or at HQ. Size varies on race and squad type. SM have 2 primary heavy squads 1 airborne squad and 2 standard. The heavies are heavy bolter, 3 man squad 1 with the heavy bolter which requires setup and take down time. Heavy bolter suppresses units amazingly well. While suppressed enemy infantry have issues attacking, move very slowly and are easily mowed down. To counter this from enemies you have assault squad with jump packs, used much the same as DoW, drop em on entrenched bolter style squads and rip em apart. Heavy squad 2 is the plasma cannon, long range slow firing own machine this is. Splash damage and will take a chunk out of vehicles and flatten buildings. Standard infantry is tac squad with assorted weps ala DoW1, and scout squad. Scout squad this go can only have 1 sniper, but its nasty. For more pop cap you can add a sergeant with frag grenades and of course they can infiltrate (costs energy to use and energy over time, attacking breaks) as well as repair. They also get shotguns as opposed to snipers, nasty close range with knock back for dislodging people from cover.

Vehicles: Chew up pop cap like nothing, can chew up unsupported infantry like nothing. T3 ranged for SM is predator, rails infantry very badly, will roll over most types of object cover (trees etc) destroying them. Anti vehicle units and melee vehicles trash em quickly. SM also get razorback transport tank, this can be used to reinforce units in field. Melee vehicle is of course the dreadnought. Slow, melee primary (can be upgraded with an auto cannon reducing melee giving it suppression abilities), will 2-3 shot ranged vehicles and chew up infantry if they can get a hold of em. Infantry watching dread kill things gain boosts to their damage. Most vehicles are immune to small arms, meaning standard bolters and what not do no damage. Heavy infantry weps will damage them, but not very fast. Anti vehicle weps or other vehicles are needed.

Resources: Req is handled same way, just no listening posts to defend the point, so guarding areas either with turrets (certain heroes can deploy for pop cap) mines or units. Power is handled differently, these are now also points like Req points that must be captured. These can then be upgraded with 3 or so generators added on to expand production. These can be destroyed or stolen, so guard them as well. Resource points are shared in MP, does not matter who got it you gain the resources from it like you took it.

'Calls': Nifty little toys to turn the tide of battle. These require an additional resource type which is gained by killing and only killing. Additionally they may require req power or even pop cap if its a unit call. Offensive SM consist of things like orbital strike, termi assault, reg termi, dread, goodies like that.

Leveling: Everything levels up if it stays alive, leveling improves units health and damage. Reinforcing is also cheaper than replacement. Between those two keeping units alive is a must! Fall back makes the units haul ass back to HQ while taking reduced damage. Know it, love it, use it.

Terrain: Some weapons have firing arcs, some are flat trajectory, keep this in mind when shooting at shit behind stuff. Cover is used like CoH, no cover, light cover (trees, small objects), heavy cover (large stones, walls, even vehicles). Heavy wep teams in cover will slaughter any frontal assaults. Infiltration, jump units, vehicles etc must be used to dislodge them. Most heavy units have a limited firing field, so flanking maneuvers will force the heavy wep unit to pack its wep up, and turn it then unpack it before firing. There are also buildings on some maps, these can be garrisoned by 2 squads which will move around and fire on people as they can. Snipers and a heavy bolter make short work of any infantry that gets close. Vehicles and units with flamers or other 'anti cover' weapons will butcher the occupants however. Flamers ignore cover dmg and units inside take additional dmg being burned alive in a building. Most types of ground cover can be destroyed with vehicles, keep this in mind if you need to deprive your enemy of some good cover. Just be aware you deprive yourself of it as well.

more to come!



Overview: At first with me not having a clue wtf I was doing nor not realizing they went with such a different style than both DoW and CoH the game took me off guard and I view it rather dubiously. However the more I play it and pick up how things work, strategies and what not, the game has grown on me. Now that I have gotten in to it some I am enjoying it. This game is no your traditional RTS, they were certainly trying to do a 'unique' style game with it, and they did well. It has all the violence, killer sounds, and 40k goodies one would expect from a Dawn of War title. The AI even on easy is pretty nasty, there is a bit of a learning curve to the game as a whole. It uses MS live stuff like Xbox to track stats, easy invite friends to games and what not. All in all it currently gets two thumbs up.

content note: I have read, and need to verify their attempt at anti piracy. It appears the game as is, and as will be at launch will be a 'striped' down variation. You register on the website and download a patch which adds/unlocks a good chunk of units maps and what not. Current there is 4 races, all of 6 or so maps, and what appears like a lot of missing units and abilities. This could be just due to beta or part of their content control anti piracy gig. With that said, still enjoyable.

[Oddies da Nerfed]

Screenies! These are from SM v Nid computer.

edit: breaking pics for time being.