Fantastic RTS title that keeps you focused on the thick of the battle!
Build up your armies in very handy squads.
Nice technology tree that you can climb up fairly quickly.
No magic bank! You are rewarded directly for holding locations.
Older game engine will run on a good variety of computer hardware.
Grab the Warhammer 40K Platinum edition and get all the expansions in one shot.
Nice camera controls lets get into the action or stay back and focused on the battle.
Great army variety as you get 7 races that are unique enough to stay interesting.
Dark Crusade has a great Risk style that makes it fun to play though as each of the races to see the outcomes.
Great race personality added in the visual and audio segments along with verbal quotes from units, great fun!
Cons:
Squad or Vehicle caps can be annoying in the standard game. There are mods that you can download that will increase this limit though.
Static maps can get dull, I know it would be a tall order but random maps would have been a welcome addition.
More dramatic ending. The original Dawn of War had that fantastic space marine squad fight CG squence, would have been nice to see a campaign win ending for each races side. In game engine does do a decent job though.
Would like to have a bit more story/scripting inserted into the game. Yes I am a sucker for a good story. : )
So in summary, your bored and looking for an RTS fix? Go grab the Plat edition and get to it!
Magic Bank and what is it and who uses it? Aka resource gathering models and you!
Games like Starcraft, Command & Conquer, etc have a resource gathering aspect inserted into their games. Players overtime learn that quickly munching up the resources will have it float up into their magic bank where no one can touch it except them. So as long as they have soaked up the resources and have a worker available they can build even more bases or simply dry out their opponents since resources are limited from the beginnning.
Other titles like Total Annihilation and its spiritual successor Supreme Commander use a similar resource model but with an important key difference, it has to be stored somewhere right? If you destroy or even better capture those storage areas.... this adds a great tactical aspect to the game. Also resources can be gathered indefinitely so it can make for - longer - games. The upside to this is that you can actually win games by playing the defender.
Dawn of War and its expansions uses a model where you must take and hold. The key difference is that these positions can be lost very quickly so you are always in the thick of battle either advancing, defending your positions or your base itself. Also the longer you hold a position the more requisition you gain. There is a limiter though as captured points will go into decay status and you will not gain as many points as you have before. This is an interesting concept as it forces you to move forward and not turtle up too much. Overall Dawn of War sits comfortably in the middle between the two and offers a nice compromise.