DoW mods and expansion

[Fez]

There was a feature in Gamestar (a German games magazine) on the DoW Winter Assault expansion, showing some of the new features in the game.

New features in expansion known so far:

• No more clone armies: units in squads look varied now, have slightly different height, faces and so on.
  
• There's a new feature called the 'Kill-Cam' which shows a close-up of the finishing moves (think the dreadnought's move where it grabs a soldier and spins and crushes it to death).
  
• Commissar is included as an Imperial Guard unit, and boosts the morale by executing soldiers."Not one step back!"
  
• Sanctioned Psycher for IG.
  
• Techpriest Engineer for IG. He repairs vehicles, and one of the screen shots show him carrying an axe for close combat.
  
• The Sentinel is in, and will be the IG's walker unit.
  
• The IG Baneblade is in (screen shots showed this one early on) and will have awesome firepower, but weak armor.
  
• The IG Chimera troop transporter allows units to fire from the inside - Finally a transporter worth using?
  
• The main IG hero will be the Imperial Captain, which is just a bit weaker than the Force Commander. For WH40K tabletop addicts: Games Workshop will bring the unit to the tabletop soon.
  
• The four original races will also get new units, but the article doesn't mention what they will be.
  
• There will be a 'good' campaign which will let you play the Space Marines, Eldar and the Imperial Guard, and an 'evil' campaign which will allow you to play with the Chaos Space Marines and Orks. Each of them will consist of about half a dozen missions.

That last one worries me as it sounds like it will be another short campaign, despite all the other nice additions. The short campaign was a major complaint in the first game. They've at least let you play other races in the campaign, which was the other big complaint, but it will probably make the game feel even shorter as you get one or two levels per race. Hopefully this will be changed before the game is released.

Onto the mod news:

The DoW race mod Daemonhunters is now up to v0.7, and includes a sneak peak at the new Witch Hunters mod, by the same team.

Blurb from the mod homepage:

The Daemonhunters Mod permits to play Inquisitorial Forces ("Ordo Malleus"), which will be sent into the heat of battle by the Imperator when a Daemonic plague (Chaos) has infected a whole world. As a Inquisitor Lord you have access to the chamber militant of the Inquisition a special chapter of the Index Astartes - the Space Marines - the legendary Grey Knights (the chapter 666) as well a inducted imperial forces - the planetary defense forces the "Imperial Guard" (Armageddon Steel Legion regiment)

This isn't just a cheap color scheme and alteration of the unit names, this has it's own units, upgrades, models and animations already. It isn't finished but it's impressive so far and playable offline and online. Unit types included are the Grey Knights (powerful marines) with a retinue of Inquisitors and their henchmen, and the Steel Legion, which has WW1 style foot soldiers and a good selection of vehicles.

There's too many for me to list and show them all here, but to give you an idea:

Screenshots below show Grey Knights; Imperial Guard Stormtroopers; One of the new vehicles, the Chimera; Steel Legion Anti-tank unit.

I've been playing it for a while and it does take some getting used to the new units. They can be played in quite a few different ways, which can open up all kinds of strategies, depending on your preference as a player. Definitely worth downloading and trying if you have DoW. While the early versions were fun for a while, but nothing special, this new version is the first substantial mod for DoW that has impressed me. It's a free mini-expansion on it's own.

Links for downloading:

FileFront
Torrent

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Any Ork mods you know of?

 

[Fez]

Nothing susbstanial so far, sadly. I like the Orks too. I didn't think it was worth mentioning any mods that are still in the "PLZ JOIN TEAM, I HAVE AN IDEA" stage.

The Orks seem to get very little attention from mod makers. It's mainly SM stuff out there.

 

[Surlent]

Looks good. Glad they add other races as playable in single player campaign. Not to mention new units for old races.
Still I wish they'd add other race than Imperial cannon fodder.

btw there's also mod for Chaos called Thousand Sons. But I don't know in what state it is, the pictures show some progress though. http://wh40k.mednickonline.com/modules.php?name=XForum&file=forumdisplay&fid=53

 

[Saran]

Nothing susbstanial so far, sadly. I like the Orks too. I didn't think it was worth mentioning any mods that are still in the "PLZ JOIN TEAM, I HAVE AN IDEA" stage.

The Orks seem to get very little attention from mod makers. It's mainly SM stuff out there.

And the Imperial Guard, i could have almost heard the howls of anger from the dozens of modders that were working away on IG mods when Relic announced their plans for the expansion.

You said you were worried about the shortness of the campaign, well, maybe the dozen missions refers to each race rather than the good and evil campaign consisting of 12 or so each.

I.E: Space Marines Eldar and Imperial Guard= around 25-30 missions and the evil side might amount to roughly the same, unlikely but you never know, after all the biggest problem most people have with the original game is its shortness and considering how long its taking for the expansion to be released they might be going all out to make the game worthwhile.

But then again maybe they are adding in another race that they havent revealed yet, that could be the reason behind the delay, one of the other complaints i have often seen mentioned is that you cant play as the Tyranids, maybe they are keeping them under wraps.

 

[Fez]

The Thousand Sons Mod looks good, but they haven't released anything yet. The screenshots and models are pretty, at least.

Screenshots of the Thousand Sons Mod:



@Saran: Yeah, I remember when the announcement came out that it was IG in the expansion it broke those poor modder's hearts, but it was bound to happen unless Relic chose an obscure race. There are mod teams working on all of the major groups, and even a few smaller ones.

The idea was already put forward that it might mean "Space Marines Eldar and Imperial Guard= around 25-30 missions and the evil side might amount to roughly the same", but it's pretty much been crushed already. It'll be 12 missions in total for the expansions, like the original game. There will be no monster sized campaign. 50-60 missions is not going to happen.

There might be a new race still to be announced, but that seems unlikely at this stage. They'd be better off adding to the campaign than adding in yet another race. More races only means they divide up more of the meagre numbers of levels they have.

 

[Saran]

Shite, its a shame alright but i wasnt really expecting it to turn out any different.

I also hope that they focus on adding more missions to the game than adding in the Tyranids or any other WH40K race.(They can leave that for the sequel, i doubt they will be able to do justice to the sort of destruction a tyranid invasion does to the Eco system of a planet with the current game, and even if the engine was up too it, it would probably be a bit too much to cram it into an expansion pack.)

The main reason i thought they were adding in a new race or creating a ridiculously large campaign was because of the lenght of time they have given themselves before they release it, DOW was released at least six months ago (but my memory could be hazy) , and while i wouldnt be surprised to find out that they had no plans for an expansion (i doubt they thought it would be such a success), i still thinks its a bit odd.

Meh, as long as i get to execute traitors and heretics in the name of the God-Emperor on holy Terra ill be happy.

At least until someone makes Warhammer 40,000: Total War. :wink:

 

[Llyranor]

I'd rather they do a 2nd race, since I'm a mp/skirmish player mostly. But that does sound pretty unlikely.

 

[Fez]

Warhammer 40,000: Total War can't happen as GW are fanatics when it comes to stamping out any use of their IP.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Tyranids are cool and all, but I might have preferred Necrons or maybe even Tau. Tyranids kinda remind me of Aliens moveis, creep me out.

 

[Fez]

The Tau race is coming in a mod. Hopefully. The previews for it looked good, nothing released yet though. Same goes for Necrons and Tyranids.

 

[Greatatlantic]

Yeah, I could really care less about official campaigns, I skirmish and play online. I'm also going to take this moment to announce I just beat a skirmish game on the insane difficulty level. I was chaos and the opponent was SM, I rule!

 

[Fez]

Hardcore players use the Ork or Eldar.

 

[Greatatlantic]

Dang it, why do you have to bring me down. Fine, I can't stand the Ork so I'll give the Eldar a wirl. When I beat insane I'll expect some compliment to butress my ego.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

What's wrong with Orks? They Rule! fucking insane man!

 

[Mefi]

Gamesworkshop Space marines will always be wombles even if their noses have shrunk since the old days

Still this is a pretty nice mod, thanks for posting it.

 

[Saran]

Im well aware of that Fez, most of the GW community would kill for a TB strategy that is a pure representation of the wargame, but its never going to happen, after all why go and spend 30 euro on a squad of plastic guardsmen when you can spend 50 euro and play any army you want at any time you want with people from all over the world, so something like that will never happen, but i dont know about a Total War style game, if it has a limited number of factions (The Imperium of man, the Eldar Craftworlds, The forces of one of the gods of chaos, Khorne would probably be the best option, and the Orks, The various Marine chapters could be the WH40k equivalent of the the various troop types in R:TW, while the IG Regiments would be glorified peasants and you could do something similar with the other races.) and a small playing area, lets just say one sector close to the eye of terror, they could pull it off without damaging the wargame itself, but then again they do have a habit of going a bit overboard when it comes to protecting the viability of the tabletop game, which is fairly understandable, at least until they start making more money from computer games and novels than they do from the wargame. (If that ever happens, which is fairly unlikely.)

 

[Astromarine]

this news makes me giddy. Want More DoW.


BTW, if any new race is coming soon, either in this expansion or the next/DoW2, I would expect it to be Tyranids. The reason is that they are currently in the process of being rereleased on the tabletop, with completely new miniatures for most units and a very different rules set. I'd guess they would want to tie it in.

 

[Fez]

@Greatatlantic: If you learn to play with Orks and Eldar you will be a better player for the ladder matches too. It's worthwhile. Plus, the Orks are great. :D

@Saran: I know that all the fans would love such a game, but unless someone can prove it will not harm their business, it is in GW's best interest to make sure that it never happens, for the reasons you said. Shame really. It wouldn't be so bad if GW weren't such fanatics at ruining the mod community's efforts, but they treat them like shit. Nice way to treat the fans after you rip them off with your over-priced toys. Bastards.

 

[Greatatlantic]

@Greatatlantic: If you learn to play with Orks and Eldar you will be a better player for the ladder matches too. It's worthwhile. Plus, the Orks are great. :D

I tried playing the Orks a few times (read over 20), but there was something about their play style that didn't agree with me personally. Nothing against people who like them, and they may well be awesome/great/rule. It just seemed to me their strategy was outnumber the enemy and charge. Plus building all those banners got to be annoying. Eldar I had better luck with. So, anyone else beat the game on insane?

 

[Major_Blackhart]

You know, I never played the Eldar before. I always did have fun with the Orks though, just because I thought SM and CSM were too easy to play as, but strangely enough, they were kinds easy to beat. I always played other Orks in Skirmish games (up to 5 or 6 against me, all of them on the same team). The games lasted for a good many hours, with me on the defensive for a bit of time until I could research everything properly and build a decent amount of troops. Hard as hell, but fun.

 

[Fez]

The Orks have the best CC skill, if you outmanoeuvre the enemy, you can crush them. The added bonus of having guns on all your buildings means that it is very difficult for the enemy to take out your base with an early rush. They also get access to the wartracks early on, giving them a lot of cheap, fast, high-end firepower. They have a good economy too. The Squiggoth is probably the best transporter there is, and the only one people use for transporting. They also have a great builder unit. Their buildings take very little time to throw up, so they can spread fast.

The Eldar's FoF power lets them control the battlefield when it comes to infantry engagements. If they are losing, they can run and save their squads, if they are winning and the enemy runs, they can run them down and kill them all, dealing a heavy blow. This works especially well against SM or CSM. They can also have the mighty Prism Tanks - up to ten of them! The Avatar kicks ass. Their builder is also pretty damn good and can be very useful in Eldar strategies.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Very cool. THe only reason I ignore them is because I'm not really into the types of philosophical thinkers that the eldar are portrayed to be. Im more of an Ork myself in terms of personality, so I just love the brutal bastards. Besides, have you ever seen what three groups of Fully loaded Shoota Boyz each with 3 Big shootas can do to enemy infantry?

 

[Fez]

Tips for the Orks:

NEVER EVER give the Nob Leaders powerclaws. You can give the normal Nobs them though.

Ignore the Stormboyz, only use their Nob Leader. He's a flying death machine. Just reinforce them with a leader and then never add troops to the unit, unless the leader dies. The squad of bad troops is worth the leader alone.

Invisible builders! Make your builder invisible as soon as you can and you can have him repair vehicles and turrets in combat zones. If the enemey doesn't have AT weapons, you can often repair faster than they can damage the vehicle/turret. You can have your units pull out of the front and back to your invisible repair team at the back. It will take a while before an enemy player will realise what is going on, if you are careful. You can also have a team or two repairing the Squiggoth as it is fighting, making it a lot harder to bring down.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Yeah, I never paid much attention to the jet pack orks. Their Sarge rocks tho! Why never give the seargents of ground troops power claws? I figured they did good damage w/them.