Warhammer 40K, Dawn of War, the games, the mods, the just one-more-level! syndrome.

Cafe Society
1

Okay, so a bit of a rundown. I played the old Final Liberation back in the day. It was okay, but somewhat lacking.

I played Rites of War which was a lot better but still a bit lacking. Heroes of Might and Magic III was a much better turn based game in pretty much every respect, for instance. (Besides, Eldar are just Elves. Stuck up, poncey bastards.)

But I became curious about the franchise. I liked the races they had, and the balance between them seemed pretty neat. The back story was also pretty fascinating.

And then came Dawn of War. Now, as a caveat, I generally hate real time strategy games. The Total War games are the only exception to that rule, and only because the action unfolds rather slowly. But I figured, hey, why not, might as well check it out.

Holy monkeyfucking deities on a stick! The interface is slick, the play balance is beyond reproach, and the graphics are the most amazing I’ve ever seen in a game like that, and my computer is rapidly aging. The single player campaign is pretty short, but skirmish mode helps make up for it.

It’s one of my favorite games now, far and away my favorite RTS game. (And a few months ago I would’ve sworn on Rome: Total War as a bible)

The only thing it’s missing, is the other races. I want to see a horde of spinegaunts getting stuck in while Tyranid Warriors lace the area with venom cannons. I want to see necrons advancing in a slow and steady wave as gauss fire flays opponents alive. I want to see Tau railguns punching through termie armor. All the mods I’ve seen, however, are somewhat half assed, or quarter assed in some cases. :wink:

The expansion pack is coming out soon (just in time for my birthday!!!) and my girlfriend might just be picking it up for me. But… the Imperial Guard? Yes yes, I know that one single world has held back the forces of the Eye of Terror for quite some time, but give me a break. Blaaaaaaaah.

But perhaps the most interesting side effect has been that I’m considering, when I have enough free cash, getting into the tabletop game. I already got the fourth edition rule book, and one of these days I’ll see if I can’t snag a relatively cheap army via ebay. I think I’d like to start with a Necron army, as they seem rather easy to paint (I’m already planning on getting some glow in the dark green paint), and their limited weapon and troop choices make them a rather simple race for beginners. Time and money permitting, I’d also like to build a 'nid army as well as an Ultramarine or Space Wolf chapter.

My girlfriend works for the theatre department at a college, and part of her job entails building models of her designs, so there’s always some foamcore lying around the house, and she’s real great at building stuff (n’ things too!). One of these days I’d like to build a little hobby room in a corner of my basement and set up a space for a few, oh… 2500 point armies to live in.

Ahem. So. Dawn of War is fucking awesome, it’s gotten me into the tabletop game, and I can’t wait to get the cash to make this a fullblown hobby.

I don’t know if there’s anything left to say now for y’all, but I felt compelled to post. Share your opinions, experiences, the location of any good mods, etc…

For the Emperor!!!

2

You better not be a corporate shill, cause you just sold me on it :stuck_out_tongue: - especially considering how much I love the Total War series (I enjoy RTS games immensely, but haven’t really played any classic styled RTS games since I first picked up Shogun [and every other expansion pack and title in the series since]). Maybe I’ll come back in a few days and add my 2 cents.

3

I used to play with a small Eldar army with friends back in… like 1992-ish or something. Fun times. I almost liked painting the models more than playing the game, but it’s all good.

4

Bloody GWI and their money-whorish ways. I knew they were ripoff merchants, I played the game for years.

But $50. For one expansion. That only adds the Imperial Guard as a new army?

DEATH TO THE FALSE EMPEROR!

But I’ll probably end up getting it anyway…

5

I always wondered why they didn’t try for a full-blown RPG or action-RPG version of Warhammer 40k. The scenery, the wild enemies, the quasi-magic - it’s really a fantasy game and a half, which just happens to be set in space. Heck, they even have energy weapons not that far removed from magic swords and Lightsabers!

That would be pretty cool.

6

This is a dangerous and expensive habit.

Unfortunately, a friend of mine decided to start painting again and was getting shockingly good results. I succumbed to temptation. $150 later, I had a set of paints, some brushes and accessories, and 24 Fighting Uruk-Hai.

Good luck! I suppose I have to add the obligatory DEATH TO THE FALSE EMPEROR as well.

7

Yeah, I’m not associated with the people who made the game in any way, shape, or form. But you can probably find Dawn of War for about 20 bucks in a bargain bin. That’s how much I got it for at Walmart.

Nopers. Thirty bucks.

It would indeed! They did make Shadow of the Horned Rat, but that was Warhammer, not Warhammer 40k. But that would be pretty awesome… though I’m sure it might be best to have more races to play then just the Space Marines. Although, there’d certainly be enough classes for players to be if that was the case.

Le sigh, I know. That’s why I need to make sure I’ve got some steady cash flow and spare money. However, I’ve seen entire 2000 point armies go for less than $150 on Ebay, maybe you just need to shop around first.

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Maeglin: For instance, Here’s a 2000+ point army going for currently about $135, the auction ends in about an hour and a half from this post, but deals like this aren’t terribly uncommon.

9

Personally I call the game Warhammer $40,000.
The largest regular scale Warhammer (24 x 48 feet IIRC) was at UW-Platteville.
Pretty impressive to watch.

Brian

10

I would actually make the main character variable, either at character creation or with branching paths thereafter. You could choose from a variety of odd “backgrounds” (sort of like classes) which determine hwo you game starts, what you start with, and what potential you have. Easy mode would be Space Marine: pure killing power. Medium Modes would be Assassin and Commando (Imperial Guard, non-Space Marine). Hard would be an ancient human: extreme versatilty and some odd psychic potential, but less toughness and so on.

11

Well, it can get really expensive, I’m sure. But I’m also pretty sure that one could create and paint a pretty nifty army for under $300. And, I mean, a good set of golf clubs or a tennis raquet will set you back at least that much. Hobbies can be expensive.

I’d imagine! How many points were the armies? Were there multiple players? Etc…

**smiling bandit **: Might be interseting. If they were only going to go with the Space Marines it might be neat to, say, start off as a plain grunt and be able to ‘level up’ into various sub-groups. Invest your points in psychic power and you can be a Librarian or Inquisitor, in heavy weapons and you can be a Devestator or Termie, etc… But I still think it’d be really neat if they did it kinda like the way Morrowind was done. Give the player a list of races with pluses and minuses (Orcs get a penalty to accuracy with shooting weapons, Eldar are penalized health and armor, etc…) And then let people specialize from there. Specialization would be really easy if one was playing an Eldar, less so with the tacticaly flexible Space Marines… and I’m not sure how they’d handle playing a 'nid, since from what I understand all biomatter, including 'nid soldiers still on planet, are digested and reabsorbed by the hive ships. Ah well…

12

I used to play 40k a lot back when it was the third edition (I think it was 3rd, the one with the dice modifiers) playing as Space Marines. I stopped when they changed the rules to effectively force you to have a larger (i.e more expensive) armies to play a similar time game. They also took away a lot of the flexibility you had to make up your armies (I used to love having a squad of Sisters of Battle or Arbites join in just for fun) and the games became a lot less fun to play, for me anyway. I left the scene just as Necrons were coming in, but a friend of mine worked for Games Workshop for a while and he says as a race the Necrons are pretty dull; you’ll soon get bored at having to field a very similar army every battle. A race such as the Space Marines or Eldar will be much more interesting to play with and give you a lot more room for uniqueness when it comes to painting. The Necrons all look the same and I’m sure you’ll get bored after painting the same model 30 times!

I did try the demo of Dawn of War when it was first released and I agree it is a fantastic (if a little simple) RTS with fantastic graphics. The only reason I didn’t buy it was because I wait for games to come down in price before I buy them! Having only 5 races does let it down somewhat, maybe I’ll see if someone is doing an offer and buy it.

13

Well, I kinda like that the 'crons are rather simple. Few weapons choices, etc… it’d make it much easier for me to field an army as a beginner. And, um I really like their models. Sorta a cross between night of the living dead and the Terminator movies… I think they’re neat. Besides, for variety I’ll have some 'nids and Space Marines.

But I don’t think I’ll ever play eldar. Purely aesthetic… but they don’t do it for me.

Yeah, if you can find it in the bargain bin like I did, it’s probably worth it. With the size of the single player campaign it’s definitely not a fifty dollar game, but twenty? Try walmart, they’ll probably have it.

Oh, and, it doesnt’ even realllly have five races. :frowning:

Space Marines, Eldar, Chaos, Orks. The Imperial Guard show up, briefly, in a few missions, but you can’t really do anything with them.

14

I dug up my convention booklet. It just says “Commanders field 2500 point armies as well as additional pre-assigned troops which are scenario specific”

There were at least 4 people per side, quite likely 6 or 8.
The game ran from 9am to 11 pm (all the army registration happened the night before)

I’ll see if I can get details.

Brian

15

Nopers. $50. Even more if I buy from Amazon like in your link, because they ass-rape me for at least $20 worth of shipping to get it out here…

Not everyone lives in America, you know.

16

How are you getting fifty?

And there is amazon.com UK, and such… But ah well.

17

That might work very well, but more for a FPS/Deathmatch game…

I could really get into this. Games Workshop should listen to me! :smiley:

18

They should! We should submit a proposal for a new game, and split the profits fifty fifty.
I think it’d be really neat to have it be an online FPS style game, but I’m sure they could make a kickass single player game too. That’d work real well for me, as I really don’t generally like online play for games. Just a quirk, and I do seem to be in the minority these days…

19

Your choice, but don’t come running to me when you get tired of painting the same model 50 times! I’ev had a quick look on the GW site and there’s only one troop type for the Necrons? I remember when they first came out (in fact I still have the White Dwarf it’s in!) and no-one bought them as there wasn’t enough variety - the only models available at the release were the troops, the Lord and the scarab swarms.
I suppose it would be interesting to have an army no-one else has, but it’s strange to see GW using the C’tan name again, the last time I saw it was with one of the assasins.

Yeah, I’ll buy if I find it cheap, but my usual source of cheap games (mx2.co.uk) is still selling it at £20 with the add-on at £17. I was including the addon in the 5 races bit.

Re: the computer games:
There has been an FPS, Firewarrior I think it was called where you’re an Eldar player. My friend who bought it said it was a bit crap and the best gun was the weakest one as it was the only one that hit when you aimed.
There was also Chaos Gate which was a turn based strategy game that was quite good, but I think it only had two races (in fact this thread inspired me to instal it again but it seems I’ve lost my CD wallet with all my games in, oops)
I’m sure there was a game where you started off as a Space Marine scout and worked your way up, but no-one else believes me, it could weel have been my imagination.

20

I doubt I’d be able to field fifty 'cron warriors in anything but the biggest game, although you do need quite a few to prevent phase out. I do think they’re neat, and wouldn’t mind painting a bunch of the skeletal horde :slight_smile: Also, although there’s only one troop type, they’re very, very versatile. Even the weakest 'cron has a chance of being a tankbuster under the right circumstances.

I think they actually worked that in. One of the assasin castes (culex?) has now been worked into the fluff, and they were evidently seeded by the C’tan, some of them became the 'cron Pariahs.

Ouch. Have you tried ebay?

Naw, Firewarrior featured the Tau, but I have also heard that it sucked donkey balls.

Yeah, playing Dawn of War actually motivated me to go out and buy a used copy off of ebay. It hasn’t arrived yet as the seller is shipping from the UK, but it should get here soon.

Hrm… Space Hulk?