Dawn of War 2 magazine issue 1

DAWN OF WAR2MAGAZINE

INTERVIEW WITH RELIC

RUINS OF ARGUS EXPLAINED

DOW2: CODEX EDITION

Chapter2

WELCOMEEditor’s RamblingsWelcome to the first issue of Dawn of War 2 Magazine. We had a lot of struggle making sure this issue was good enough, with dozens of drafts made before we settled on a final design. This issue looks great so far, but there is always a point of improve-ment. The content we had from our writers was excellent, and hopefully you’ll enjoy it too. So far everything we made in this magazine is top notch, seeing as we have a strong connection with the whole team. I really love the guide on Ruins of Argus seeing as I know the map very well, I mostly laugh and think this is exactly how I play the map myself. Chaos Rising will be coming out just after Supreme Commander 2, on the 11th and 6th of March respectively, so we’ll get to see which RTS will be supreme that month. Personally, I am a heavy DoW2 fan, but SupCom will always have a place in my heart for being the most hardcore RTS game ever. I could talk forever about why it’s better than DoW2, but there is 1 thing it doesn’t have, and that’s the 40K universe. One of the things that still haunts me is the possibility of a True Skill reset. Will it happen or will it not? There is a huge discus-sion going on the forums about whether it should be reset or not. People talked about this when the “There shall be war” patch (1.5) arrived, but it never happened. The leaderboard hasn’t changed in the last few weeks. There are just a lot of smurfs going and staying there forever without logging in. A decay system should be implemented. My highest TS is 40 at the moment. I played a lot of games to gain that, and I don’t want to have to do it again. I think it should be optional. The amount of content that is coming for Chaos Rising is huge at the moment. Gametrailers have shown at least 5 videos, IGN and Gamespot gave their hands on preview. The information on the DoW2 official forums is growing by the day, and people are really getting all fanboi there. “Purge the heretics, For the Emperor” and “Chaos knows no Fear” are just some of the responses that are in almost every thread there. Let’s hope we will see this excitement on the battlefield too. If you like this magazine and want to help out, or just want to watch good games, stop by www.dow2live.com, the community is going strong and it continues to grow every day. I’ll see you there. Edtjuh

Contents

3 February events

A look at the events planned for dow2 this month

4 Path of the Seer

A player’s opinion of the Warlock.

6 Egon Spengler, up close

An interview with the developer of Chaos Rising

8 The top 5 replays

January’s best games on dow2live

10 Ruins of Argus

Caeltos explains the important points of this map

14 The Community Clash

A clash of the titans this February

16 Thunder interviewed

A personal chat with Relic’s Community Manager

18 DoW2 Codex Edition

A look into dow2’s hottest mod

Credits#Staff Officer Bogger#Editor Edtjuh#Content Design P. Uri. Tanner#Cover Design Sancti#Copy Editor Iko#Writers Oakwarrior, Caeltos, Infinity, Bogger

Email us: [email protected]

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UPCOMING EVENTSEvent Day Time

CybotCup 4 13th February 16:00 GMT

dow2live 2on2 cup Finals 13th February 20:00 GMT

dow2live Community Clash 1st Games 14th February 20:00 GMT


Codex Edition 1on1 cup open phase 20th February 20:00 GMT

dow2live Community Clash Semi Final 21st February 20:00 GMT


Codex Edition 1on1 cup Finals 27th February 20:00 GMT

dow2live Community Clash Final 28th February 20:00 GMT

Event Day Time

Chaos Rising Released 11th March 08:00 GMT

Dow2live Chaos Rising Release Party 11th March 08:01 GMT

The events listed on this page are subject to change. This is not a definitive list of events in February, but only a list of events we know will happen. If you would like your event to be listed here, email [email protected] with details.

>OPINION

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THE PATH OF THE SEERThese are troubled times within the Dawn of War 2 scene – Tyranids run rampant like a locust swarm, the Eldar cut a swathe through all, Orks desperately try to hold their own and Space Marines are getting bent over. However, the issue I would like to deliberate on is the Eldar Warlock commander and his current state of balance.

You’ve probably realized already that I am not talking about the Guardian squad leaders, but the so-called hero unit – the Warlock. He is advertised as an offensive psyker and a melee combat special-ist. Alas, calling him merely a specialist would be a humble gesture – he is much closer to a demigod. Let us see what his global abilities are, for instance – for 50 might you can boost up your allies and your own unit’s move speed, for 75 might you can make a squad practically impervious (50% damage reduc-tion)and if Distort Field is active simultaneously, the abilities will stack and the affected squad will actually be healed by incoming ranged damage. This puts the Eldar player at a significant advantage against any race besides another Eldar Warlock player. The opponent’s ranged weapons become a liability at certain points and retreating is almost always a success (combine Swift Movement with Distort Field and you can save any squad – almost guaranteed). Fighting Eldar in a war of attrition means that you will most likely lose due to the insane maneuverability of the units combined with the Warlock’s global abilities.

And yet I have not even touched the surface of the Warlock – lets talk about his wargear. In Tier 1, the Warlock is kindly presented with two amazing

weapons: the Immolator and the Merciless Witch-blade (MWB). The Immolator works wonders against massed units, Orks and Tyranids beware, while the Merciless Witchblade practically beats any unit in the game with the exception of vehicles. The MWB has an astronomical DPS output and it is a power weapon, meaning that anything with Heavy Armor will be severely punished. Combine all of this with the war-lock’s recently boosted 70 melee skill, special attacks trigger more often. And let me tell you, the special attack of the MWB is devastating. For example, it takes 80% HP off of a Slugga squad, almost destroys a Hormagaunt squad if they are placed too close to-gether; and as a power weapon it devastates ASM. So melee units against the Warlock are a bad idea – even with the Immolator, his melee prowess is formidable.

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The Champion’s Robe is also available in Tier 1 (also known as “bubble”) and provides the Warlock with an energy shield basically doubling the Warlock’s life pool. Adding a Tier 2 item, the Heart of Darkness (provides a charge-up-by-getting-beat-up ability that restores 80 energy) to the build means that the Warlock, already having considerable tanking capabilities with Distort Field and Champion’s Robe, gains a further survivability boost. You might think that you can focus fire the guy down, but remember that Distort Field is going to make that a very difficult task. What you will want to do most of the game is probably ignore the Warlock, but lo and behold – you can’t do that either because he is incred-ibly agile.

So to recap, here’s a quick rundown on the things a War-lock can do: Successfully hold off the entire Tier 1 force of the opposing army, gain huge bouts of speed when needed and deal massive damage either with skills or normal/special attacks. Lets compare this to the other Offensive commanders. Hive Tyrant – slow, has good crowd control, gets killed by anything that has a power

This article may as well be renamed “Nerf the Warlock!” because I am thoroughly stressing the point that he is very, very strong. His description says that he is an of-fensive psyker – I imagined this to be interpreted as a glass cannon of sorts, but obviously I was mistaken!

by “Ott Madis ‘Oakwarrior’ Ozolit”

“I’d have thought the warlock to be a glass cannon of sorts, but obviously I was mistaken”

>INTERVIEW

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EgonSpengler and Thunder took a small break from the Chaos Rising Development earlier this week to answer some questions for us! We felt that while ev-eryone was asking about Chaos Rising, no one really knew who the guys themselves were.

This is your 1st time heading a large project as de-veloper. How have you found it? I’ve been working on Dawn of War II since the proj-ect first started, so the game and the project is very familiar to me. I didn’t need to make a transition there, but I have had more chances to go talk to the press, and soon, more chances to talk to the fans. I’m looking forward to that.

What’s the hardest part of being the producer? I can’t complain about management any more, since that’s me now. The hardest part is getting used to how many more things I need to pay attention to, since I’m now responsible for the entire game, and not just one part of it. Really it’s a great role. I love the product we make, and we have a fantastic team that makes cool stuff every day. I don’t sweat the hard parts of my job because it’s all worth doing.

Now that you’ve been tainted by chaos for the past 6 months, which god are you going to serve? Why are you picking him? Tzeentch, the changer of ways. I’m more a “schem-er” than someone who enjoys blood or his own filth.

Who’s the best chaos player on the staff team? You guys will see for yourself when we release our upcoming Chaos Rising developer battles. We haven’t had the internal competition yet, but we will make sure the best match ends up online.

When you’ve been working on a project for a long time, I find that you stop fully appreciating some of the explosions etc. in it. But is there anything in DoW2 which still makes you smile when you see it? I’ll never stop appreciating the explosions, although I do notice more of the details when I watch someone else play. The new Chaos nuke is absolutely glori-ous, I can’t wait until we show it off. The Weirdboys “Foot of Gork” is pretty hilarious as well.

If you were told, suddenly, by GW that you weren’t allowed use 40k any more. What other fictional uni-verse would relic switch to?That’s a tough one. It would likely take a fictional universe for that to happen, since we have an awe-some relationship with Games Workshop. Knowing the people here, we’d probably try our hand at something completely unexpected.

Do you play 40k TT? If so, info / pix! If you don’t, what race would you play?I don’t have an army of my own yet. I’ve played the game with borrowed armies, and I’ve watched many tabletop matches between my coworkers. If I were to build an army, I’d probably put together an Eldar army, since that’s my primary choice in Dawn of War II.

Who’s your favourite dow2 hero, and why? I’m a fan of heroes who let you manipulate your en-emies, so the Warlock with his warp throw is my first choice in the original Dawn of War II. The Lictor and his fleshhooks is a close second. When Chaos Rising comes out, the Sorcerer will be my first choice.

RELIC INTERVIEW WITH EGON SPENGLER

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What are your top 3 favouritest games ever!? (ex-cluding reric games) Ever?

1st – Star Control 2. I played this so much I could get past the opening copy protection questions without looking at the map. It was a great open ended space exploration game, with a huge galaxy, great music and funny dialogue.

2nd – Counterstrike. We’ve had a lot of great team-based shooters since, but this was the first that really got me going. I loved the balance of lethality in Counterstrike.

3rd – Rock Band. I was very skeptical people would accept a collection of plastic instruments in their homes until I saw Rock Band played at Penny-Arcade Expo. It transformed music games from an interest-ing competitive novelty into a great party game. It wrapped the best parts of Guitar Hero up with the best parts of karaoke.

Do you watch many dow2live casts? Who’s your fa-vourite dow2live caster?Don’t make me choose! Lokgar has an unhealthy obsession with the observer arrows, and that feature was my idea, so probably him.

“When Chaos Rising comes out, the Sorcerer will be my first choice.”

>REPLAY OVERVIEW

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The top five replays that can be found on DoW2live in January have all been selected from DoW2Live’s “No Nid Fun-Cup” tournament. These matches are here because the players involved displayed some strange, solid, or otherwise interesting strategies. All the games listed will have a brief word said about the strategies involved, and will contain spoilers! Viewers who are interested in keeping the casts they watch suspense-filled are advised to read this article post-match!

5. Lord Lokgar VS Paincarnate

Lord Lokgar’s fight against Paincarnate! Lokgar leads da Orkz as the Kommando Nob against Paincarnates’ Apoth-ecary on Leviathan Hive. Lokgar opens the game with a defensive build, reinforcing his initial Slugga Boy squad with only a Shoota Boy and Loota squad to defend his power. Paincarnate builds only a Tactical Marine squad, and an additional scout squad to secure the Victory Points. The game then revolves around Lokgar’s race to regain the field with Nob squads as Paincarnate desperately tries to stave off the greenskins and hold onto his lead.

4. Naftalin VS Bloodrain

Naftalin’s Kommando Nob vs. Bloodrain’s Warp Spider Exarch on Green Tooth Gorge! Naftalin opts for double Slugga Boy and Shoota Boy squads, destroying Bloodrain’s Guardian and Shuriken Cannon Platform, and nearly killing his banshee squad in the process. Severely crippled but undeterred, Bloodrain manages to stay in the fight by relentlessly pursuing the victory points, and holding onto the lead even as the Naftalin savagely attacks at every opportunity. Naftalin decides to tech rather than buttress his initial army, and Bloodrain narrowly wins the game as several Looted Tanks hit the field!

THE PICK OF JANUARY OUR TOP REPLAYS

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3. RoxaS VS RuW|Palad

Roxas and Palad duke it out on Typhon Jungle! Championing the Techmarine, Palad begins the game with a triple-Scout squad build backed up by a Heavy Bolter Devastator squad. Roxas opts for a more conventional Tactical Marine squad to start the game, but also quickly brings a Heavy Bolter onto the field. After reaching T2, Palad begins building Dreadnoughts and doesn’t stop until four of them are romping around the map. Roxas counters with several anti-vehicle weapons, and finally brings the game to a spectacular end with the entrance of a Preda-tor tank into the battle!

2. Naftalin VS Bloodrain

Naftalin and Bloodrain at Green Tooth Gorge, round two! Both players select the Warp Spider Exarch as their commander, but Naftalin chooses a triple Guardian build to start, and Bloodrain chooses to purchase a Banshee and second Guardian squad for his initial army. The T1 battle is heated as both sides take heavy losses, and both players enter T2 on roughly equal terms. Naftalin chooses to try and win the game in T2 by purchasing two Warp Spider squads. Bloodrain begins playing a defensive game to reach T3, where his D-cannon and Prism tank will decide the match!

1. Bloodrain VS Horror

Finally, the best battle to be captured on DoW2Live in the No Nid Fun Cup is the Final match: the second game between Bloodrain’s Warp Spider Exarch and Horror’s Warlock! The match takes place on Calderis Refinery, and is the number one game on this list thanks to the massive number of grenades thrown (you’ll know it if you see it!), the amount of melee brawls both players engage in, and the general intensity of the battles. Bloodrain begins by opting for Banshees and a second Guardian squad, while Horror starts with the three Guardian build. Horror counters the banshees by using the Warlock’s Merciless Witchblade to knock them down from a range, and then uses his Guardians to focus fire on whatever squads threaten him the most. Bloodrain responds by running his forces into melee to stem the tide of Guardian fire, letting his Banshees close into melee unharmed. Horror gains the upper-hand in the ensuing battles, and manages to gain a tech advantage in addition to his lead in victory points, which eventually wins him the game.

by Jean-Simon “Infinity” Webster

“The top five replays ... have all been selected from DoW2Live’s “No Nid Fun-Cup” tournament.”

>STRATEGY

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General InformationThis map has a combination of melee oriented confrontations, as well as favouring ranged distance firepower depending on the situation you are in. This map has 2 main gen farms located very close to each other, making a 3rd optional gen farm almost a must for competitive matches, or for a more fast-teching oriented strategy. The only other optional generator farm is located on the northern section of the map, however that lane has no real other value, and mak-ing harassment on the top-side gen farm are pre-dictable with capping units operating mainly in the north. Upgrading your cap squad eases any troubles you might have. This is a definitely viable strategy for Space Marines in general, and I rarely go without scout upgrades when I’m operating in the northern section. With the buildings in the north, you can hold your ground much longer also, and forcing the enemy to get some sort of unit to clear garrison buys you some time in the tech-race also.

What makes this map good? ▪ Intense action from start to finish ▪ Perfect sized map for 2vs2 ▪ A lot of different strategies depending on

setups ▪ Encourages teamwork ▪ Garrison buildings! ▪ Good balance between ranged/melee combat

And the flaws… ▪ Might be a bit stressful for some players. ▪ Garrison buildings awfully in favour of the east

side ▪ Blind spot easier to reach if on the eastern

side.

STRATEGY RUINS OF ARGUS

Playing defensively is crucial if you are facing an overwhelming amount. Make sure you always have some ranged firepower in order to peel off some units from your enemy. You are better off doing dam-age on the enemy economy while waiting for your partner rather then doing nothing.

Ensure that the south side is covered with as setup team and assist the northern section. As you can see, we have a gen-farm behind the garrison building and a power node built in order to stall their teching. The setup team will deal with any unit that tries to deal with the power node, or try to capture it afterwards.

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The Northern Section:The northern section of the map is less valuable then the middle-bottom lane, but this doesn’t mean you should ignore this section of the map however. If you lose the south side, you’ll need to have a plan B. Make sure you tell your ally that you should set up another gen farm top-side in order to be steady on power in-come, or if you might try to draw their attention away from south by harassing the northern gen farm. This is easier to accomplish if you are on the east side, since you don’t have to worry about any garrisoned units on the western side of the map. Ignoring your capping squads harassment can lead to getting topside to your advantage, giving you the option to fully focus on the more important task at hand, controlling the middle and south.

▪ 2 Requisition Points ▪ 3 Power Points ▪ 1 Victory Point ▪ 4 Garrison Buildings

The Southern Section:The southern section of the map has 2 garrison build-ings, one in the middle of bottom middle. Where you can garrison any units and practically cover up to 4 points. The points are:

▪ 1 Requisition point ▪ 2 Power Points (2 main power farms) ▪ 1 Victory Point ▪ 2 Garrison Buildings

Holding the southern section is crucial, as it can be the turning point of the game if you manage to hold it, or manage to make a push. Making a fast power node might buy you time to set up some sort of defence, possibly maybe a push. However, if you fail in either- you’ll most likely end up losing that section of the map for a few minutes, meaning your enemy will have the economy upper hand and terrain advantage. Making comebacks really hard if the enemy is well entrenched in garrison buildings and you can’t find a way to stop them.

What to do?I can’t tell what people should do, but there are a few pointers that should be mentioned.Going double bottom is a gamble; it’s very common in high-end matches, since you can sometimes really shut down the early-game for 1 player and enforce a double team from the other team as well. This can lead to an easy time in the northern section, or leaving it un-capped for a longer period of time. If you are making the risk to double team bottom, make sure you have a viable team setup for it. That being at least 1 unit that is ranged that can hide in the blind spot to fire upon any garrisoned units, or garrison him and have an melee team-mate to tie up any units firing at him. A personal favourite is Knob with Apothecary. But it can be countered with a fast rush RA/WSE. However, tyranids in the start have a hard time if they can’t reach south faster then the enemy, since termagants are fairly weak without any support or upgrades. Spore mines can deal with garrisoned units, if used properly. Maybe even guaranteeing unit kills.

Head for south as quickly as possibly, the enemy usu-ally does the same and will try to get a unit in the garrisoned buildings to peel off units capturing the 1st power node in the south. However, it’s easily coun-tered by having a high hp pool unit capturing the 1st power node, and having your weaker squads in the back until you got your first BO out ready to reinforce you. You can decide to leave the 1st initial req point outside your base for your 2nd BO unit, or first one. It depends on how the situation looks like at south, or north for that matter. But prioritize the south, since you can maintain that map easy if you can garrison a setup team, or place a defensive unit there and focus on harassing middle/north.

“[Ruins of Argus] might be a bit stressful for some players.”

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What NOT to do!Many people seem to place all their first initial units in the north if their starting locations are to the north.. It’s not always bad, but for some reason you’ll not really accomplish anything if your team-mate is stuck against 2 players in the bottom. Even if you manage to capture a few points, you’ll need to focus your attention on the middle/south sooner or later, leaving the north unchecked again if you managed to push the opponent away. This however can be a good move if you have spare req left. Build a power node on the northern sections power node and consider a 3rd gen-farm, or go with plan B and set it up as a 2nd one if south failed.

How do I counter double team in south?A lot of people have asked me about this, and all I can say is that you need to be fast at adapting. If you’re getting hammered, TRY and get inside the bottom building until your team-mate can assist you. If you are successful in defending yourself against 2 players, you’re becoming already a very good player even if they are mediocre in resistance. It takes brains to make the right decision, and it’s not always easy to make the right ones. Some races however struggle with this, but the easiest one to pull off is Space Marines, since you’re bound to get a high hp pool squad within the first few minutes of the game to defend the bottom. If you can main-tain your ground and peel off small hp pool units while keeping your own, it might just turn in your favour. If your team-mate manages to flank them from north side down on the southern section, you might achieve some exit kills and possibly making their risky double team bottom a complete disaster, ensuring victory for your side.

Playing defensively will reward you in this case, and it’ll make you become a better player and learn to pick your fighters in other engagements also. It helped me become a much better player by preserv-ing my units a lot better and learning the limits of my starting units against other races.

Philip “Caeltos” Englund

TIP: Do not go without ranged firepower on this map. You will want to use the “blind spot” in order to counter any unit(s) that might enter that garrisoned building, or have units nearby that can deal with them. Spore mines, grenades etc.

TIP: Do not immediately build power nodes and generators in the southern section. It is vulnerable in the early stages of the game. Wait until you have secured either the optional gen-farm, or the south-ern section is in your hand!

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>FEATURE

Chapter14

THE COMMUNITY CLASH

“This being the online world, these local pubs will actually be quite a bit away from each other”

“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”. These famous words by John F Kennedy apply to much more than national duty.In the world of online gaming, there may be a clan you’re a part of, but your community is your life-blood. It’s a place to share and gain knowledge, find out gossip and meet new people. Without your com-munity, Dawn of War 2 is nothing more than a game of point click boom!Your community gives so much to you, from cups to articles on races, from replays to epic lulz and let’s not forget the prizes. What does your community ask you for in return but that you enjoy it?

But now, the time has come to support your com-munity in the mother of all tavern brawls, as Dawn of War 2’s top 8 community sites duke it out for the honour of best community website! And yet still your understanding, loving community asks little. All you have to do is to show your colours and heckle who-ever your opponent is.

Some people have been lamenting the death of their community but the grim reaper hasn’t come yet. Your community has just been saving its energy for the big day, and a chariot of the top players have shown up to do their website proud. Players like Bhruic, Umpire and Skytear have all enlisted. You could say Dawn of War 2 is just waking up from a long slumber.

The great thing about all of this is that you’ll be able to watch your community play live! Dawn of War 2 livecasts, the baby of the communities, has been saddled with broadcasting the matches to the world! Dow2live isn’t complaining, though, this just gives them a home advantage. There will also be a

chat going on during the cast so you can support your community the proper way; with trash talk!The players aren’t doing it just for love of their community website though, THQ and Razer are put-ting forward prizes like Carchariases, Deathadders, t-shirts and much more.That’s a mass of prizes worth more than a thousand euro and it’s not just going to the winners. The fa-vourite player from each team will also win a prize.The Community ClashBasically, the community clash is a cup. Each com-munity picks a team of their 5 best players and then tells them to sally forth and defeat the enemy!

Each match will consist of two 2on2s first off, fol-lowed by a 1on1 in between the 2 lonely players who had no teammate . If one team wins these three games, then that’s it, they win. Otherwise, the teams nominate players to duel each other, and this continues until a team is ahead by 2 points. The win-ners will return home to a rapturous welcome, a slap on the back and a load of free pints and wenches at the local pub. This being the online world, these lo-cal pubs will actually be quite a bit away from each other, but that’s beside the point!The losing team will go home with their tails be-tween their legs after shaming their community, but they’ll be forced to do it all again the week after, as every community has to play 3 games. This means that by the end, not only will every community know who’s worse than them. They’ll also know who’s bet-ter!

Some of you older Dawn of War 2 players will re-member that DoW2Live ran a community clash in September (back before the “dark age”). This is actually the same competition, because we forgot to finish it last time.

Chapter15



Your community needs you!

From reading all of this, you may begin to think that it doesn’t affect you at all, but this is all about you!After the Final of the Clash on the 28th, the com-munities will be asked to pick who they thought the best player on each team was, democracy in action! If you haven’t seen the players play, how can you vote intelligently? The cynic in you may say that you’re only voting to say who the prize should be given to, but pride is at stake here too!

The four communities

dow2liveDow2Live is the new kid on the proverbial block of Dawn of War 2 communities. Eager to prove them-selves as the new top dog, they have an incredible passion for Dawn of War 2 and are constantly hosting competitions, prize give-aways and hosting plenty of other events. As their name suggests, Dow2Live hosts an active live gamecasting community with an affixed IRC channel for you to voice your opinion.. Sadly however, their forums don’t get much atten-tion at all and in turn are quite a bit dead.

RelicnewsRelicnews used to be the official forum for all things Relic back in the days of Homeworld, but a dif-ferent precedent was set with Dawn of War 2. It’s been a bit of a mixed blessing for them, although it has meant that their overall size has declined, the official Dawn of War 2 forums act as a stupidity bin and keep the average post quality at Relicnews quite high. The website has a much more laidback atmosphere and is very mod-friendly. This has given the website a positive light and as such they are no longer mockingly labeled Relicnoobs anymore.

DawnofWar.deWith Germany having a much bigger competitive Dawn of War scene than the rest of the world com-bined, the country is teeming with skilled players. DawnofWar.de is the largest Dawn of War 2 com-munity website in Germany, so naturally the same applies. Dow.de has evolved to be about more than just Dawn of War, though. It has a large Tabletop community among other ventures. In DoW:Soulstorm, Dow.de played host to a very successful 5,000 euro tournament. If you want to make friends, avoid pointing out the irony that their website is run by an Austrian.

Warforge.ruWhile Germany may have a large competitive scene, it also has numerous casual players who play solely for fun. This isn’t the case at warforge, though. It is a well established fact that no Russian plays Dawn of War casually. An example would be in a recent dow2live cup where one of their “casual” players almost won the bloody thing. Warforge is noteworthy for their high quality of discussion, and every russian discusses heavily every day. Alas, Warforge play-ers have a reputation for causing huge lag, but the general rule is that the only players who lag are the ones who win a lot. By discussion, I meant vodka, sorry.

>INTERVIEW

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Many people think of Thunder as the face of Relic, as he’s the only person we really get in touch with at relic, but at heart, he’s just a fun loving guy, hope-fully you guys won’t be so harsh on him after reading this.

What exactly do you do at relic? We know you have to manage the community, but what does that in-volve? I do get asked this question a fair bit, Community Manager is a pretty vague title.

Essentially the job is to be the voice of the com-munity here at Relic and the voice of Relic out here in our game communities. That means making sure our team is aware of balance issues or bugs that get brought up in online forums, for example. I also get to work on content for our websites, revealing new units or posting news on upcoming patches or DLC. It’s a job that has quite a variety of tasks associated with it, so it’s difficult to get bored with the work.

What’s the hardest part of your job? Explaining to people what I do…kidding.Being everywhere at once. It’s often expected but impossible.

Do you find it easier to deal with the CoH community or the dow2 community (honestly) ?I can’t really answer that one. I think Relic is fortu-nate to have such dedicated fans for both games, I wouldn’t want to alienate a group of them by mak-ing them think they’re difficult to deal with.

Do you play 40k TT? If so, info /pix! I do not play the tabletop game. My first introduction to 40k in the form of a game was actually playing the original Dawn of War. I had several friends who were artists in the games industry that bought codex books simply for the inspiration that the artwork in them provided, and we were all pretty excited when we heard Relic was making a 40k RTS game.

Who’s your favourite dow2 hero, and why? Probably the Ork Mekboy. I have played him more than any other hero and really enjoy his shoot and scoot ability. I find he supports my strategy/play-style and augments my other brutish Ork units well.

…I will have a new favorite when Chaos hit the battlefield though.

What are your top 3 favouritest games ever!? (ex-cluding relic games) Excluding Relic games? Great! I won’t have to play favorites with our own stuff…but only three choices? Hard leaving off Starcraft, Medal of Honor, and other great games.

1) The Age of Empires series, the first games that addicted me to multiplayer games online.2) Civilization I and II, where I caught a case of “Just one more turn” syndrome.3) The Thief series, which was the most unique “FPS” I had played when it came out.

RELIC INTERVIEW THUNDER

Chapter17

Relic recently announced a job as assistant commu-nity manager. Will this guy be in place to help out with Chaos Rising? That would be great timing, but I really want to find the right person so we won’t rush it. We’re really looking for someone local to Vancouver who knows our games and will be a good representative for Relic.

How will you split work in between you and your minion? If we find the right person, he/she will be concen-trating on tasks like moderating our forums to keep them a clean and inviting place for fans to interact.

Do you watch many dow2live casts? Who’s your fa-vourite dow2live caster? I don’t watch many, but I’m sure just about everyone on the DOW II team has watched a DOW II live cast. It was great seeing some of the first multiplayer games live after the “There is Only War” update.

Can I just go with Hirm because he’s got a posh ac-cent? Posh.

Have you won a single game of Chaos Rising yet? I certainly, but they’ve all been team games so I thankfully had coattails to ride and skirts to hide behind. After a win I like to ask if my team mate’s back is sore from carrying me the whole time.

Now that you’ve gotten to know chaos a bit more, which god will you be serving? And why?

Nurgle. …you’ll see.

“Who’s your favourite dow2live caster?” “Hirm because he’s got a posh accent. Posh.”

Chapter18

Disappointment

In the Dark Future of the 41st Millennium there was only disappointment...

Since the release of the very first beta of DoW2, the community has been longing for a creative inter-pretation of the 40k universe that includes many of their favourite units and weapons from both the tabletop games and the rich fiction; affectionately referred to as the “fluff” of the 40k universe. With the release of Relic’s pre-alpha “concept video” showing Space Marines versus Eldar in a visually stun-ning carnage-fest, players were frustrated with just how much carnage and immersion was left out of the initial “vanilla” release of DoW 2.

The vanilla game was plagued with problems that were not only leading to stale, sterile battles and predictable gameplay, but also glaring holes in logic when it came to game balance and unit/weapon selection. Why didn’t tacs get grenades? Why didn’t the FC get a thunder hammer/storm shield combo in termie armor? Why did the Pred fire like a WW2 tank? Why were ork/nid swarms so small? The devs were silent; the players despaired. The light of the astronomican faltered...

CODEX EDITION

EldarFast and powerful on the offense, the Eldar army is de-fined by mobility and firepower. They have the lowest hp but can bring the most suppression to bear on en-emy troops. Fleet of Foot costs no energy now, and all Eldar troops can fleet except for Warp Spiders, who can teleport. DO NOT GET stuck in with nobz/ASM’s or the dreaded warrior broods, Eldar are incredible when well played but get EATEN in close combat. The banshees deal good damage but are not really tanks; the only “melee tanks” that the Eldar get are the Wraithlord, the Warlock, the Farseer, and the Seer Council; and all but the wraithlord are not durable enough to send in alone. All guardians and storm guardians are fodder; Warlocks and all Aspect Warriors are Elites.

Storm guardians come with flamers and can upgrade to Fusion Guns in tier 2.

OrkzOi! Orkz is back and betta than eva! The Orkz are a race that favors swarmy tactics with combined arms, and cheap/fragile but offensively powerful vehicles. All ork “boyz” are considered Fodder units, meaning that they refund some requisition when killed. Nobz and vehicles are considered Elites. Stikkbomma boyz are gone, replaced with Burna Boyz. Nobz are now tier 1, and slugga boyz can get stikkbombs.

Mega Armored Nobz and Flash Gitz are now avail-able in tier 3, with appropriate upgrades and 3 kinds of Snazzgunz for the Gitz. The most noticeably improved unit in the Orkz army has got to be the Lootaz, with 5 deffgunz and a Mek leader armed with a Kustim Mega Blasta, they are T2 now and VERY effective at area suppression. Orkz now have a very choppy tier 1, and all Orky heroes have new wargear and more health.

Chapter19

A mod was needed

Once last year, I remarked on the official forums that if Relic didn’t address some of the illogical and un-fluffy aspects of multiplayer, DoW 2 would lose popularity among die-hard 40k fans and it would be up to the mod community to save the game by rallying the community to maintain interest in it. Space Marines were under-powered in the vanilla game; they bore no resemblance to the superhuman combat monsters of 40k fluff. Cor-recting the depiction of each faction was one of the chief aims of Codex Edition.

The Codex Edition aims to be the answer to the com-munity’s longing for a more tabletop-familiar, fluff-friendly 40k. New units, weapons, abilities, and revamped battlefield effects add to the chaos and insanity of combat, and a rebalancing of existing units with all new stats and upgrades provides a fresh out-look for returning players.

Certain gameplay details from retail that made no sense have been altered as well. For example, Guard-ian Defenders with platforms can now garrison build-ings; units inside of buildings can now throw grenades out of windows at units outside. The Force Commander in Terminator armor now gets the appropriate Super Heavy Infantry armor type, and can equip a relic thun-der hammer and storm shield; the FC’s chainsword and storm shield war gear has been upgraded to a power sword and storm shield; plasma pistols are now danger-ous weapons that do noticeable damage. The razor-back’s heavy bolter turret now does good damage and suppresses.

Faction and Unit Changes

The first thing you’ll notice about Codex Edition is that squads are much larger than in vanilla. The most important balancing tool I’ve used for scaling Space Marines up in power compared to other race. It’s the difference between Elite and Fodder units.

Space MarinesThe most powerful individual units, but few in num-ber. Space Marines favor aggressive tactics that pur-sue the enemy and prevent them from getting “built up” to overwhelming numbers. This faction is elite, but subject to being overrun. Space Marines infantry are all considered Elite, and they possess no Fodder units in their army. Meaning, when a unit dies, the cost of it’s acquisition/reinforcement is gone. One of the first things you’ll notice is that Space Marine bolters and heavy bolters now fire a “hot” round that explodes on contact, and frequently gibs enemy troops.

Scouts can get flamers, and can ambush with the Cleansing Flame ability. Flamers are much more powerful and useful than they were in vanilla. Tacs get frag grenades to start, and can upgrade to a heavy bolter in tier 1, and a melta gun in tier 2. The flamer and plasma guns are still present, and the Tac Sergeant is a detector now (tier 2). He comes with a power sword and plasma pistol. Tacs no longer get missile launchers (that goes to the Dev squads), instead favoring the Melta Gun for taking down hard targets.

Assault Marines are now hands-down the most powerful tier 1 melee unit. They are well worth their cost and scale well into later tiers, with melta bombs and flashbangs in tier 1, a sergeant with power sword in tier 2, and a power fist available in tier 3. The flashbangs can now target any units, not just units in buildings. Vanguard and Sternguard vets will appear in tier 2, the vanguards packing serious power weapons for close range mayhem, and the sternguards packing 4 different special ammo types to take on the Em-peror’s enemies.Devastators can now upgrade to Multimeltas and Lascannons, and Missile Launchers with a Frag Missile clicky. The Predator Destructor now gets an authentic autocannon, and is a worthy capstone unit to a tier 3 Space Marines army.

“The light of the astronomican faltered...”

Chapter20

TyranidsThe Nidz are not only swarmy, they are aggressive: with a new economic model based on biomass and a focus on deep striking nids as needed with the new global spore abilities, Tyranids have been completely revamped. Look for all-new biomorphs on every unit and a complete overhaul of the nids faction. All hormas and termas are Fodder; every other nid life form is Elite.

The Swarm has a new economy based on biomass, and brood nests are now togglable retreat points with a minor healing aura. Tyranoform towers now provide a debuff to enemy units fighting near them, as the toxic miasma of the Nid ecosystem adversely affects their nervous systems.

Hormas and Termas are Fodder units, and Termas come with Spinefists (think shotguns) and can up-grade to Scuttlers to infiltrate, and can equip flesh-borers to debuff enemy troops or devourers to deal more damage and snare them.

Warrior broods come in 2 types, melee and ranged; the melee brood can get adrenal glands to provide Asasult Jump and more speed, and Rending Talons to deal Rending damage - much more effective ver-sus all armor types. The Venom Brood can get the barbed strangler or venom cannon, and the rest of the brood come equipped with Deathspitters, large aoe acid-splash weapons.Raveners can get devourers and deathspitters as well, or can go full melee with rending talons and burrow... they aren’t as durable as warrior broods though.

There are now 4 different Fex variants in the game; the shovel tusker, with thornback upgrade for a deadlier charge; the Screamer-Killer, with bioplasma and scything talons (SK is a melee fex in Tabletop), the Venom-spitter, with a massive venom cannon or barbed strangler for fire support, and the all-new Bile Beast with a giant twin-linked Deathspitter, upgradable to venom cannon. The Bile Beast can get Bile Barrage, which douses an area in acid and

Fodder units are typically cheap, effective en masse, and provide some req refund when a model in the squad dies. They typically provide enough req refund to replace losses via reinforcement; you will still lose the req/pow you spent on upgrades, lead-ers, and a bit of the initial cost of the squad if you let the whole squad die. Unit preservation is still important, but you can take casualties with Fodder units and push through a SM or Eldar fussilade... en-couraging very orky tactics with da boyz, and allows Nid players to use gaunts in a more “fluffy” fashion.

Elites are just what they sound like - more expen-sive, typically more powerful or specialized units, but provide no req refund when they die. ALL Space Marine units are elites; every other faction has at least 2 fodder units. What this means is that you can lose a bunch of ork boyz and nids trying to dislodge a tac squad and devastator, but you don’t actually lose anything but time if you manage to retreat or force the other player off before losing entire squads of Fodder. This opens up all-new strategic elements for the “swarmy” races, while allowing me to scale up Space Marine units to better reflect their badassery in 40k fame.

For a more complete description, please refer to the Relicnews thread http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=239552.

These are just a few of the changes that players can expect from Codex Edition, currently in version 1.5.3, soon to be updated to 1.6. I listen to com-munity feedback and provide patches frequently, to better maintain game balance and add new content.

There’s nothing to lose from trying it

by Sean “Gabriel Gorgutz” Williams

Chapter21

Chapter22

The opinions expressed inside do not necessarily reflect those of the editor, publishers or their agents.This is completely unofficial and in no way endorsed by Games Workshop Limited, Relic Games or THQ. 40k, Adeptus Astartes, Blood Angels, Bloodquest, Cadian, Catachan, Chaos, the Chaos device, the Chaos logo, Citadel, Citadel Device, City-fight, Codex, Daemonhunters, Dark Angels, Dark Eldar, Dawn of War, ‘Eavy Metal, Eldar, Eldar symbol devices, Eye of Terror, Fire Warrior, the Fire Warrior logo, Forge World, Games Workshop, Games Workshop logo, Genestealer, Golden Demon, Gorkamorka, Great Unclean One, GW, GWI, the GWI logo, Inquisitor, the Inquisitor logo, the Inquisitor device.

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Documents

Dawn of War 2 magazine issue 1