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[Game] Dawn of War 2

can you build a base in multiplayer?

No.

I have the beta, it's a lot of fun. It has nothing in common with DoW, and is really the unofficial sequel to CoH. At first it felt like watered down CoH, but then I stopped playing Space marines and gave Eldar and 'Nids a try and found gameplay to be a lot of fun. It's definitely varied enough to keep my interest for at least a few months.

For those who play CoH, it's a less campy version of it with no artillery or brits to be found (yay!). It's kind of like every race is whermacht (though teching is linear as f*ck :(). Even if your not a fan of WH40K thats reason enough to play it.

Anyway open beta (more of a demo tbh) is next week on steam, I'll be owning you all then.
 
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Play enough games that I can formulate some kind of review of it, hopefully most of the 'cons' get fixed with the release patch(the beta is actually the release version).

Pros:

+It's CoH without arty/brit lameness
+Lots of cool unit upgrades that often completely change the function of your troops
+Cover/Garrison system taken from CoH fits pretty well into the game
+Sync kills are awesome to witness, lots of other eye candy
+Heroes are well implemented especially the support ones
+Not as campy as CoH, though defensive play still has many advantages which is good
+Nids/eldar have some cool gameplay mechanics that seperate this game from CoH
+units have more lethality compared to CoH, run into mgs and your units will be cutdown quite fast. Retreating units dont run as fast, can actually be killed by chasing them down with assault squads, swarming them with 'nids
+Very little click2win support powers, they only make an appearance once per game if at all

Cons:

-Games for Windows live is a hassle. People get dropped all the time midgame, automatch takes 10 years to find a game.
-Teching is way to linear, very limited unit selection (8 units for space marine)
-No base biulding makes the game kind of shallow
-Vehicles play a very limited role compared to CoH, most games you wont even see them. 1 tank, 1 apc per side.
-UI is awful
 
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Its a nice game but fact is that it won't take such a important part in rts esport because you do need even less micro / macro than in Dawn of War I. GFWL is actually really great, the netcode has to be improved and the ctd's too (its a beta don't forget). Everyone who wants to try this... from 28. on the beta is free to public. It's about 2.5 GB big.

Have fun, maybe we can met on the field, ma GFWL name is IVIAR (i v i a r).
 
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Its a nice game but fact is that it won't take such a important part in rts esport because you do need even less micro / macro than in Dawn of War I. GFWL is actually really great, the netcode has to be improved and the ctd's too (its a beta don't forget). Everyone who wants to try this... from 28. on the beta is free to public. It's about 2.5 GB big.

Have fun, maybe we can met on the field, ma GFWL name is IVIAR (i v i a r).

See, I feel like there is more microing in DoW2 than in 1. There's less UNNECESSARY micro, sure (read: base building).

But with CoH's style of reinforcing, units being more lethal, suppression and slower resource rates I feel like you really have to babysit your squads a lot more if you don't want them wiped out.

I'm really enjoying it though. Sure, the squads feel a little small, but setting off Waaagh with my warboss, 3 slugga boys and a shoota boy blitzkrieging some space marines it's really fun.
 
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It's a lot quicker than DoW 1 and CoH. It uses the Victory Point objective system from CoH, but they tick down faster.

The individual battles are typically quick and brutal.

Edit: As for in 2 seconds...eh...depends on the units. I mean some of my battles can be drawn out, but when like 25 or more orkz are in a frenzy and ambush 3 space marines it isn't going to last long.
 
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See, I feel like there is more microing in DoW2 than in 1. There's less UNNECESSARY micro, sure (read: base building).

Not really, you typically only have a few units on the field, so a lot of time is spent idling. Macro is an important part of RTS though. I think CoH had so little there was no reason to gut it completely, all it does is take out a layer of depth since you make so few decisions to make now.
 
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Not really, you typically only have a few units on the field, so a lot of time is spent idling. Macro is an important part of RTS though. I think CoH had so little there was no reason to gut it completely, all it does is take out a layer of depth since you make so few decisions to make now.

Yeah you usually only have 3-6 units on the field, but you have to look at it from the CoH style and not from DoW's style. In CoH you couldn't really group multiple units together and had to babysit each squad separately unless you wanted them all to die. Sometimes I know I'd get overwhelmed in CoH because all of my CTRL groups would be filled up as I tried to manage all of my troops (mid-late game of course). Meanwhile in DoW it was perfectly reasonable to move your units as one.

Meanwhile, units died a lot less easily in DoW and the cover mechanics were extremely basic, so you were less intimate with your troops than you are in DoW2.

Edit: I heavily disagree that there are no macro decisions to make in DoW2. With how the resources don't come in bountifully, every unit you buy in place of another unit (or generator) is going to affect your game heavily. Should I pick up an Assault Marine squad or upgrade to tier 2?

It's just that they've changed the "tech tree" that we're used to from every RTS into a hybrid tech/unit "guns or butter" type tree.
 
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Meanwhile, units died a lot less easily in DoW and the cover mechanics were extremely basic, so you were less intimate with your troops than you are in DoW2.

True. You dwell on your troops. Cover was really basic, but still a lot of fun.

Edit: I heavily disagree that there are no macro decisions to make in DoW2. With how the resources don't come in bountifully, every unit you buy in place of another unit (or generator) is going to affect your game heavily. Should I pick up an Assault Marine squad or upgrade to tier 2?

I have to say in the beta status there is simple no macro. The decision which unit to produce is not much bout macro i think. This is tactic. Also, if they would put a larger role to requisition points and change the cost of the generators (for example: 2nd gen costs more 125 and third one costs 150 points) and additionally reduce the energy the HQ is producing there would be more macro. Because harassing and fighting at the requisition points and the generators would become more important.

It's just that they've changed the "tech tree" that we're used to from every RTS into a hybrid tech/unit "guns or butter" type tree.

That is my point. Micro in DoW II? Sorry mate, but i was a good DoW I player. All of my friends do say that DoW II isn't much about any micro. Go for http://dowsanctuary.com/ it's fact. DoW I wasn't very micro intensive (@ highlevel playing bout 80 klicks per minute) and DoW II is much less.
 
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I play RA3 competitively and I can also assure you that DoW2 is not micro intensive. You have at most 6 squads on the field max, not a lot to work with especially when you have melee squads. Then it's a matter of watching their numbers go down and hitting retreat.

It's better to think of Dow as a team game rather then an RTS, because it excels at the former but is missing too many elements of the latter. No scouting, harrasing, expanding etc. There are just far too few decisions that have to be made. But playing as a team there's a lot of communication needed, what targets to focus fire, where AT is needed etc. Because of it's simplicity you can afford the time to play as a team rather then focus 100% on your own game.

Back to the beta itself, apparently the maps that came with it are all the maps on release. So 2 1v1 maps, 3 3v3 maps and that's it. Why no 2v2's :confused:
 
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Then it's a matter of watching their numbers go down and hitting retreat.

I'm not sure we're playing the same game. I'm trying to keep my units in constant motion. The only units I leave idle are suppression platforms/units (sometimes). I'm constantly moving my orks around and microing individual squads of them (not to mention all the unit abilities I need to activate, disrupt the platform with stikkbombz, stomp here, "aimin' what's dat" on these units, etc).

I will agree that it's not as APM demanding as a "vanilla" RTS, being closer to a RTT game...say World in Conflict, but I disagree on some of the other parts you've mentioned, nor do I positively correlate "high APM" with "fun" or "quality RTS."

If you don't scout your army will get suppressed and destroyed/forced to retreat/faced with a unit you have no counter for. If you do not harass then you will let your opponent get the upper hand. Harassing is very important. If you manage to take a raider group in and kill a squad the enemy may be using to cap then you've given yourself a strategic advantage.

I just really feel like people are downplaying it because it's different than the norm, so they assume that the differences mean it is shallow, which it isn't.

Also, the 5 maps that are in the beta are going to be on the disc. You get two more maps once you install/activate to discourage piracy, and they should be releasing plenty of maps for free over time, since they plan a lot of DLC with the game (maps, probably premium banners/armor appearances, campaigns?). But yeah...too few maps at first, but there will be seven.
 
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DoWII is a shallow game. There is no variation in biuld orders, and once you find the optimal heroes/units per specific MU the game will get stale. Theres no real strategy/suprise factor that you can do to win matches because you have so little to work with. For space marines my biuld order is pretty much the same for everymatch, start with apoc, 2 scouts, power node/2 gens, shotguns and then assault squad. This is how to win, and every variation I've tryed is less effective.

Thats pretty much the depth of DoWII's metagame, if you want to try and prove me wrong play some matches online vs me lol.
 
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