JACK OF ONE TRADE
“We wanted to put the focus on making units that had a really crisp role,” said Boulle. “If you’ve got a melee hero, but then you’re able to give him a ranged weapon, it gets a little mushy. So instead of making wholesale changes to one hero, you’re swapp
hardcore to the extreme. We wanted to play that up, so bringing drop pods [via Orbital Relay], which had been a rare, special thing at the top of the tech tree, into something that you’re using immediately and using repeatedly across the match, is one of the ways that we’ve done that.
“Then just crisping up the unit roles and bringing in heroes that are bigger and more powerful than we’ve had before, like the Imperial Knight – who, as I’m sure lore fans will point out, the Imperial Knight is not actually a Space Marine, they’re allies to the Space Marines – but we’ve really tried to capture that personality and character, and you’ll see that with the Eldar and Orks, as well.”
During my demo, there were three slots for the new Orbital Relay feature, one of which had to be unlocked. Each icon on the UI is a miniature drop pod, and lets you quickly reinforce any area on which you have line of sight. To incentivise Space Marine players to use the drop pods aggressively, each pod is protected with a temporary shield and crashes to terra firma with enough force to damage and stun hapless enemies standing on the target position.
Some of the Orbital Relay options were locked, leaving me to choose between summoning a Scout Squad or Tactical Marine Squad to turn the tide of battle. I chose, instead, to squander 500 Requisition on a Deathstorm: a heavily armoured fortress armed with five blazing assault cannons. If I’d read the fine print, I would have realised it was temporary unit that drops with limited ammunition, which meant it wasn’t an ideal choice for protecting my base from the harassing Eldar forces. Oh well: caveat emptor, as the saying goes.
KNOWING THY ENEMY
Three factions have been confirmed for Dawn of War III’s launch: Space Marines, the Eldar, and the Orks. There’s plenty of information on the Space Marine faction above, and while Relic is remaining quiet on the Orks, the developer has been more forthcoming about what it will be like to play as the Eldar.
Boulle confirmed the campaign will “play in a round-robin style” in a linear approach wherein players rotate between Space Marines, Eldar, and Ork missions. This allows Relic to tell a fixed narrative with “really interesting setup and pay-off things”, but it also acts as a subtle form of multiplayer training, as players learn the strengths and counters of the three factions. In terms of my demo, I was up against the Eldar who aren’t as well equipped for prolonged battle as the Space Marines, but excel at hit-and-run, guerrilla-style tactics.
I had the upper hand when my sizeable army took on smaller groups of Eldar, but the space elves’ tendency to teleport away or behind my main force showed the
The AI attacked my stronghold multiple times while I was fighting on multiple fronts and against the clock
potential for effective harassing tactics with minimal Eldar losses in the hands of a proficient player. To highlight the harassing nature of this faction, the AI enemy attacked my stronghold multiple times, while I was fighting on multiple fronts and against the clock.
Eldar players will be able to control returning fan-favourite hero Farseer Macha, whose last appearance was in the original Dawn of War. She’ll be supported by Wraithknights, the Eldar’s Super Unit, which promise to stand as a stark contrast to Imperial Knights. Wraithknights move quickly and can use Jump to avoid incoming fire, Distortion Rift to obliterate infantry and slow vehicles, or Focus Beam to dish out concentrated pain in a fixed direction. The Wraithknights’ high mobility is essential for keeping them away from melee units that make short work of the Eldar Super Unit.
This idea of mobility carries over to the entire Eldar faction, with an emphasis on teleportation (both units and buildings) and fast-moving skimmer units. By making use of Battle Focus, Eldar units recover faster than other factions and can regenerate health and shields while in combat. Relic has the Eldar pegged as difficult but rewarding to master, which isn’t hard to foresee given the additional depth of micro required.
The good news is that my limited hands-on time with Dawn of War III shows plenty of promise. If Relic can get the balancing right – between hero and line units, then across factions – it could make for the kind of competitive strategy experience that has an intimidating amount of depth built atop the curious prospect of Hero-centric accessibility.