the dark crusade

There were a number of rumours earlier this year about a second expansion for Dawn of War, and some details were confirmed this week by the source. The new playable races introduced in Dark Crusade are the evil Necrons and the honorable Tau - two obvious choices, I suppose, given that they've used up every other race. Except for the Tyranids, who I thought were clearly ripe for exploitation. The game is in need of a truly alien organic race, something that doesn't involve mechanical units and building block-like structures.

The promotional trailer hints at some of the Necron's uniqueness in the way that newly built troops rise from the sands, emulating the ascent from their stasis tombs below the planet's surface. Gamespot's preview also adds some particulars to the ambiguous "meta map" that was referenced in Relic's press release. It's a logical addition to the game, and seems to be the way most RTS titles are going . The ability to play through "Planetary Conquest" mode as any race certainly adds some depth to the single player experience, but in a game as action-focused as Dawn of War is it even necessary?

Waging war on a large scale was made popular in real-time strategy by Shogun: Total War, and has since been adopted by Rise of Nations and The Battle for Middle Earth. However, in the latter the benefits always seem to be the same: get more territory, get more resource, eventually pushing your opponents right off the map. They aren't true Empire Building games when you get past the concept; it becomes a board game. There's no management of colonies, corrupt governors, spies, taxes, unhappy citizens - all things that are well covered by Rome: Total War and Civilization III (since simplified by the latest installment). I'd love to see the Civilization series be taken a step further into resolving real-time battles. The concepts are there, they've just been executed in different forms. Would it be really that hard to implement in a single game?

Regardless, I anticipate the new story campaign in Dark Crusade, and it's good to see the addition of such disparate races from the current five. As enjoyable as Winter Assault was, I felt Relic were simply repeating themselves with the Imperial Guard's campaign - they felt too similar to the Space Marines (the inclusion of an Evil campaign helped offset this, however). My only concern is that by increasing the scope of the game with the new "meta map", they lose sight of what made the original concept so endearing: its focus on up-close-and-personal, fast paced, visceral frontline RTS combat. Comparisons to Starcraft were prevalent in Dawn of War's first days - I'm finally starting to see why.