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New units, a new race, and a new campaign mixed with the winning formula and presentation of Dawn of War makes for a great expansion worthy of the original.

Last year Relic Entertainment brought the popular Warhammer 40,000 table-top game to the PC with Dawn of War, and the result one of the best Real-Time strategy games of the year. The same team now improves upon that game with the new Winter Assault expansion. The expansion takes the formula from the original game and adds quite a bit of new content to keep those who enjoyed Dawn of War happy. A new two-part single player campaign and a new playable faction, the Imperial Guard, top the list of additions in Winter Assault. Also on tap are new units for the four playable factions found in Dawn of War (Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines, Eldar, and Orks).



The same rules found in Dawn of War still apply; instead of harvesting resources with peon the player must capture strategic points that generate a steady flow of requisition, the resource used to create new units. From there the goal is to destroy your enemies by building squads of infantry, which can be re-enforced and equipped with special weapons, backed by vehicles to sweep through the map to capture more strategic points and relics, which allow you to build special units.



The biggest change to this formula comes with the addition of the Imperial Guard as a fifth playable race. While in the original game the Imperial Guard made a brief cameo fighting beside the Space Marines now they are a full fledged faction of their own, though they still serve under the same Emperor as the Space Marines. While the Space Marines are elite, genetically modified soldiers bred for war the Imperial Guardsmen are the unaltered humans that represent the last line of defense against the enemies of the Emperor (think of them as the National Guard to the Marine Corps).



Unlike the other factions in the game the emphasis for the Imperial Guard is on defense rather than offense. The Guard excel when they are grouped together in large numbers but are relatively harmless when scattered. The best strategy for this new faction seems to be to grab as few strategic points close to their home base and endure enemy attacks by garrisoning bunkers and using tunnels to move safely around their base. If you manage to survive long enough you will be rewarded with the factions powerful late-game units such as the Ogryn and the Baneblade tank.  



The other major addition to the game comes with the new ten map, two-part campaign. While Dawn of War allowed you to play only as the Space Marines Winter Assault lets you play both the Order and Disorder campaigns which include missions for all three original factions as well as the new Imperial Guard. The Order campaign sees you take control of the Eldar and Imperial Guard and let you switch between the two. Similarly the Disorder campaign gives the player control of the Orks as well as the forces of Chaos.



The multiplayer game in Winter Assault has also been tweaked, with the biggest change being the new faction and a handful of new units for every side. While the new units are mostly there to complement the existing units and not to change the game entirely, the Imperial Guard represented a serious threat to disrupting the balance that existing among the four original races. However fear not, Relic proved to be up to the task, the game remains well balanced with no one faction possessing a considerable advantage in the multiplayer game.



A positive change comes from the need to come up with new techniques to counter or take advantage of the defensive nature of the Imperial Guard, helping to give the multiplayer scene a shot in the arm from what may have become routine for some. A diverse army is required to achieve victory in the multiplayer game, and that is very refreshing.



This is not the type of game where you can crank out an army of one super unit. Fast moving infantry are needed to capture strategic points and heavier infantry and vehicles are needed to protect them. Leaders must also be used to keep your squads morale up so they don't break under the heat of combat (this is particularly important for the Imperial Guard who suffer from low moral more than others).



The only major gripes about the game are mostly the same problems found in the original. The path finding isn't very good and with large numbers of units often moving at same time through small pathways units will frequently run into each other or go the wrong way. The lack of a way point system compounds this problem by forcing the player to either move smaller groups, making them susceptible to enemy attacks, or to constantly watch where their units are going, thereby neglecting the rest of the battlefield.



Despite these shortcomings the new units and Imperial Guard make a great complement to Dawn of War and add considerable variety to the multiplayer experience. Meanwhile the single player campaign should provide a good challenge even to vets of the original. Anyone looking for a great RTS game should definitely pick up Dawn of War along with Winter Assault, and anyone who enjoyed the original owes it to themselves to get this expansion.

Review by Chad Cid-Hogan.