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Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Soulstorm - New Eldar, Imperial Guard, and Necron Units

By Staff, GameSpotPosted Mar 3, 2008 4:02 pm PT

Get up to speed on the new units in this soon-to-be-released expansion pack.

Dawn of War was an excellent real-time strategy game that brought the ultraviolent Warhammer 40,000 universe to life, and since then, the game has been supported by numerous excellent expansion packs. The latest expansion will be the soon-to-be-released Soulstorm, which will feature new playable factions, as well as new units to the game's existing factions. In our last preview for the game, we'll cover new units for the Eldar, Imperial Guard, and Necron factions.

The Eldar Nightwing.

Eldar Nightwing

Gameplay Movie

See the Eldar Nightwing in action.

The Eldar Nightwing is a new aerial unit that will act as a swift and powerful antiair vehicle for the faction. The Nightwing isn't the toughest vehicle on the battlefield, but it's one of the swiftest, and it can cover vast areas of ground quickly to even the odds. The vehicle is equipped with dual shuriken cannons and dual bright lances that are devastating against enemy air vehicles, though they're also useful against heavier targets such as tanks and mechs.

The Imperial Guard Marauder Bomber.

Marauder Bomber

Gameplay Movie

See the Imperial Guard Marauder Bomber in action.

The Marauder Bomber is a powerful unit whose versatile weapons make it an essential part of the Imperial Guard's forces. This aerial unit comes with heavy bolter weapons for use against ground forces, as well as lascannons to fight enemy air units. However, it can also be equipped with numerous types of bombs that can either be used to set up a clever feint or simply wreak havoc on enemy forces. For instance, the Marauder Bomber can be loaded with smoke bombs to cloud your enemies' vision, or with incendiary bombs to literally draw the line of battle with fiery walls. The unit can also be equipped with krak bombs to simply deal heavy damage to any enemy units below. This power and flexibility will keep most opponents guessing.

The Necron Deceiver.

The Necron Deceiver

Gameplay Movie

See the Necron Essence of the Deceiver in action.

Soulstorm will not add a new air unit for the Necron faction. Instead, this faction will receive an upgrade to the already-powerful Necron Lord hero unit. In the Dark Crusade expansion pack, Necron heroes could research a powerful upgrade that temporarily let this unit assume the form of the Nightbringer--a Necron god. The Soulstorm expansion will add Essence of the Deceiver as a new research path for this faction's heroes to let them take the form of the Deceiver, another powerful Necron god. You'll need to choose carefully, since these upgrades are mutually exclusive. While the Nightbringer was a form that granted Necron heroes immense power on the battlefield, the Deceiver, while still a powerful god that can dish out a lot of punishment, has subtler abilities, such as the power to cause enemy armies to flee in fear and the power to summon illusory forces to draw enemy fire while your other forces move in for the kill.

80 Comments

  • atomak20

    Posted Aug 26, 2009 5:08 am PT

    well i understand why the necrons dont get aircraft... but why the hell dont they get a unit that is more specialized in ground-to-air combat?

  • 2122

    Posted May 3, 2008 5:45 am PT

    the dark eldar are pathetic all there vehicles are skiffs taken right outa star wars its so sad

  • perfectsniper15

    Posted Apr 2, 2008 1:07 am PT

    dark eldar are so bad ass

  • RandomPerson232

    Posted Mar 31, 2008 6:01 am PT

    First ever warhammer game i got was DoW the Dark crusade, and it was awsome. Looked forward to this for quit a while.

  • teknocalpyse

    Posted Mar 31, 2008 5:37 am PT

    WarHammer:40k MMORPG ....Nufffffffffffffffffff said.....common sense will tell EA mystic to scrap that WoW copy game and make a real MMORPG with blood and gore....

  • kb1134

    Posted Mar 27, 2008 7:07 pm PT

    dodozx the deciever has been in w40k since the necrons came out in the tabletop and it's history as a c'tan does say it caused great fear in units, even spacemarines and khorne berzerkers. and also to me WOW sucks monkey *****.they should make a battlefield game based on w40k

  • Skinfaxi

    Posted Mar 26, 2008 4:40 pm PT

    the fact that they just made them floating air units like in starcraft betrays what their potential could have be and how they play in the tabletop game. they should be more of a quick run attack kind of unit that just flies by. boo.

  • funkyboy1989

    Posted Mar 20, 2008 12:38 pm PT

    For people who dislike the idea of Air units, think these units just as 'new 'units then this game will look cooler than before. Soulstorm, a good game.

    ma double thumbs up~! d^_^b

  • Smecheu

    Posted Mar 20, 2008 5:52 am PT

    nice game

  • samuro88401

    Posted Mar 19, 2008 6:58 pm PT

    9 races down one to go. . . Come on 'NIDS!!!

  • Rually

    Posted Mar 19, 2008 1:14 pm PT

    This series and WoW are the only games I play on PC anymore. And I second halo129 "Imperial Guard FTW"!!!!!!

    P.S. and boooo to whoever complained about my last avatar!

  • dodozx

    Posted Mar 19, 2008 6:30 am PT

    The necron deceiver thing........fear?!?
    im thinking it's a bit of WoW in here

  • Cyber_Maniac

    Posted Mar 10, 2008 5:23 pm PT

    At first glance the game is awesome but is it just me or is it almost impossible to leave a planet cause everytime I go to take a critical point... I'm mobed by final-tech lvl mobs while I'm struggling to get just a few basic infantry to defend myself.

    In Skirmish its still a good game but the story is pretty much crap...
    - nearly impossible to take terrain to leave one planet
    - not many terrains to fight over
    - having to rebuild your base (unless your Sisters of Battle) from scratch
    - Marines have been nerfed so that they can only take on one mob at a time (with all their best weapons and vehicles)
    - Dark Eldar are more worse to use than the Eldar themselves (only three things are useful, the rest are just pointless)
    - Terrains are not big enough to allow you to have a proper fight in
    - (Could just me my computer but I doubt it) take ages just to go from lets say a victory page to map of the galaxy again
    - All the stealth units have been made stronger which means that unless you've got someone or something to see them, your screwed (but amazingly, the bots are able to see your stealgh units without any problems)
    - to get a terrain bonus, you have to take control of all the terrain on the planet before they work for you which makes fighting for them pointless

  • greenj30

    Posted Mar 10, 2008 12:58 pm PT

    I bought Soulstorm the day it came out and have been playing through my first campaign as the Tao (personal favs). On the plus side it has all the playability of Dark Crusade " I love the “Risk-like†take over the world(s) aspect for the single player campaign. Also, I think the aircraft is a cool add. It’s a new dimension and while they don’t dominate the game play like they can in some other RTSs I think they add a cool tactical twist. On the con side, the 4 planets only have about 6 territories each. I guess I was expecting more given the number that are on the 1 planet from Dark Crusade. Its almost like they took all the territories from 1 big planet in DC and spread them over 4 smaller planets in SS. Also, the territory maps and each unit’s stronghold map is not as intricate and involved as the those from DC. While there are “quests†on stronghold maps, I think the ones in DC where engaging. Finally, it is frustrating that your buildings are not persistent if you win a territory. You have to reinforce a territory once you take it over or all you have is your command center. I guess this is a balance thing since I have not seen any races build a mass of honor guard units like you could see in DC (even if they did not have all the territories). Given this, when you have to defend your at even odds with your opponent. They don’t have an unnatural amount of honor guard and you don’t have all your high-level buildings and ready-made requisition to lean on. You still have to build up while they build up and then attack so you miss out on the epic battle of your elite squads against theirs, which can be really fun. Overall, I’m really enjoining SS " I’ll let you know after I’ve completed it with a couple other races how they play out.

  • xxmicahxx

    Posted Mar 9, 2008 7:54 pm PT

    All the other DoW games have been awesome, this one looks like another sweet addition to the team of sweet DoW 40k games already out!

  • halo129

    Posted Mar 9, 2008 1:39 pm PT

    this game looks awesome!!!!! i am a rts fan that can't wait for this game, IMPERIAL GUARD FTW!!!!!

  • nate1222

    Posted Mar 9, 2008 6:32 am PT

    I'm still a bit of a n00b at PC gaming. But I've heard nothing but praises regarding the 'Warhammer 40,000 series. And this one looks good to my n00bie ass. So I might add it to my PC game library.

  • Killerserkan

    Posted Mar 9, 2008 5:16 am PT

    Everything look's great and all,but i just don;t what to expect from this game.

  • MuppArne

    Posted Mar 9, 2008 1:54 am PT

    Not sure if its a + or a - that they have removed ur old bases from the provins you have conquered. I mean.. in dark crusade ur bases and buildings where still there if you get attacked hence u could build up an army quite fast and defeat ur enemy. Now you have to begin from scratch every time a provins of yours get attacks aka your buildings etc are alla gone. Maybe its a way to make the game last longer (?) couse now youe have to spend alot more hours at the game when you have to rebuild your defenses every time! A few new ground units whouldent have killed any one etiher, just 1 new air unit is rather weak. Dont get me wrong I just love the warhammer games. I do agree with you lots that says that CoH grafic engine would be nice. it rly would. Maybe we will se something like that in Warhammer 2 if that is a game that will ever se the sun. =)

  • sdauz

    Posted Mar 8, 2008 6:19 pm PT

    i liked all of the warhammer games, i wish though they would just mod the fantastic company of heroes engine with a dose of warhammer......those graphics would be amazing

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