Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Soulstorm

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Soulstorm
File:DOW Soulstorm.JPG
Developer(s)	Relic Entertainment Iron Lore Entertainment
Publisher(s)	THQ
Platform(s)	PC
Genre(s)	Real-time strategy
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Soulstorm will be the third and final expansion to the PC-based RTS game Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War in development by Relic Entertainment. The Dawn of War game and all its expansions are based on Games Workshop's popular tabletop wargame, Warhammer 40,000.

Like Soulstorm's predecessor, Dark Crusade, the expansion is actually a stand-alone product. In single-player, all nine races will be fully playable and active. However, in multiplayer, only the two new races introduced by Soulstorm will be playable. To unlock the seven earlier races, the previous games and expansions that have the corresponding races must be bought.

The expansion will feature two new races: the Dark Eldar, and the Sisters of Battle, along with all the old races - Space Marines, Chaos, Eldar, Orks, Necrons, Tau, and the Imperial Guard.

Other new features of the expansion, revealed in the October 2007 issue of Games for Windows magazine, include the introduction of aerial units for all factions except the Necrons, a meta-campaign that features 31 territories spread out across 4 planets and 3 moons, the Dark Eldar being able to harvest souls from fallen opponents as a third resource (which is used as a cost for "Soul Effects", large abilities and effects which are focused on the entire army or entire game map), a new "Faith" system for the Sisters of Battle (allowing access to powerful offensive and defensive abilities) and the introduction of a medal system for multiplayer. The latter would yield rewards once players met certain milestones (so many wins in a row, a 5-to-1 kill ratio, and so forth).

Campaign

Soulstorm takes its name from the strange events in the area the game takes place in. A warp storm surrounds a planetary system and isolates it from all forms of contact. The nine factions drawn to investigate arrive in the system with their own fleets, and their own conflicting intentions. But the warp storm wreaks havoc with their navigational systems and strands them on the four planets and three moons of the system. The nine factions are then forced to battle between planets to ultimately conquer the planetary system and discover the reason for the warp storm.

Dark Eldar

The Dark Eldar are an ancient and advanced race of elf-like humanoids. Their armies usually have the advantages of speed and technology, though they are generally lacking in resilience and numbers. The Dark Eldar revel in piracy, enslavement and torture, and are sadistic in the extreme. Dark Eldar armies always make use of advanced anti-gravity skimmers to launch high speed raids on their enemy while transporting a large number of their warriors. Due to their use of the galaxy-spanning, interdimensional labyrinth known as the Webway, they are extremely mobile. The Dark Eldar can strike seemingly from nowhere and without warning, and vanish with their captives before a military reaction can be mobilized. The capital, and only city of the Dark Eldar, Commorragh, is hidden deep within the Webway.

Unique Resource: Soul

All Craftworld Eldar wear special stones, known as spirit stones (also known as soulstones or waystones), to protect them from the Chaos God Slaanesh. These stones trap their wearer's spirit after death, preventing Slaanesh from capturing, torturing and devouring their souls. After an Eldar's death, his or her spirit stone is placed in the Infinity Circuit of his or her Craftworld (the Circuit is a resting place for the souls of dead Eldar). As well as this, the spirit stone protects an Eldar from the constant hunger of Slaanesh. He will slowly devour the soul of any Eldar who is not wearing their stone. The Dark Eldar, however, do not possess any spirit stones. This means they are unprotected from the constant leeching of Slaanesh, and forces them to keep themselves alive through other means, namely the harvesting of other souls to replenish their own. This soul-drinking also has a reverse-aging effect, so that a Dark Eldar will live for as long as they have victims to sustain them. This leeching is, according to the Dark Eldar codex, kept at bay within their extra-dimensional city.

In game, souls are harvested from the fallen bodies of friends or foes alike by tortured slaves or by the Talos units. When a unit falls, for a short while their soul will linger on the battlefield, waiting to be collected. Also, buildings such as the Slave Chamber can be upgraded to produce fresh slave corpses around the chamber itself, allowing easy, non-combat harvesting of souls. The soul resource will be used to activate special powers for the Dark Eldar, such as "Piercing Vision", to detect stealth units, and the "Soul Storm", which creates a powerful storm that moves across the battlefield damaging friend and foe alike.

Commander

The Archon (primary commander) is the highest ranking member of a Dark Eldar Kabal. The Archon is considered to be the most powerful, cunning member of their particular Kabal. This is mainly due to the fact that if a stronger warrior existed in the Kabal, they would kill the Archon and take his place. The Archon cannot be attached to other Dark Eldar squads. He can however reinforce himself with two elite Incubi guards initially and up to five guards after full upgrades. The Archon and his Incubi are effective at both ranged and melee combat, and the Archon Commander himself can be equipped with an Agonizer, one of the most feared Dark Eldar melee weapons on the battlefield, as effective against enemy armor as is it enemy infantry.

The Haemonculus, a secondary commander, is a torture-obsessed command unit that can be attached to Dark Eldar squads. He is equipped with a variety weapons, one hand with a weapon for long range killing, the other hand replaced with a set of long blades for melee encounters. The Haemonculus Laboratory building can be constructed to greatly enhance the Haemonculus' killing power, adding upgrades such as poisoned blades to reduce enemy health over time, or abilities like Poison Darts which cause a target to explode upon death, causing splash damage. He is also credited for the invention of several Dark Eldar torture devices, such as the Talos.

Units

Incubi are elite Dark Eldar warriors, most commonly seen in service as an Archon's retinue in the field. Some vehicles, monsters and other units are also shown in the trailer and screenshots. These include Wyches, Raiders, Ravagers, Reaver Jetbikes, Talos, Warp Beasts with Beastmaster, Hellions, Mandrakes, Scourges and Dark Eldar warriors. The builder unit for the Dark Eldar is the tortured slave and the Relic unit of Dark Eldar is the Dais of Destruction, Asdrubael Vect's personalized Ravager.

Sisters of Battle

Female warriors of the Ecclesiarchy, The Adepta Sororitas (also "the Sisterhood" or "Daughters of the Emperor") is a religious group that was incorporated into the Imperial Cult millennia ago. They commonly serve as the Orders Militant of Ordo Hereticus, the section of the Inquisition responsible for hunting heretics and traitors to the Imperium . Sisters of Battle serve both the Ecclesiarchy and the Inquisition's Ordo Hereticus. These religiously zealous women prefer to use the power of flame, as, according to them, fire cleanses the souls of the wicked. Homeworlds of the Adeptus Sororitas are Holy Terra of Segmentum Solar itself and the planet Ophelia VII of Segmentum Tempestus.

Unique Resource: Faith

The Sisters are driven by faith, which lets them call on the Immortal God-Emperor for "Acts of the Faith," which are powerful abilities. Examples include a protective hand that shields them from damage, or raining brimstone down on the battlefield. Faith can be awe-inspiring to behold: in one instance, a story tells of a pure, white light that poured from the Heavens, inspiring the devout and searing the eyes of their enemies. Another describes the souls of fallen soldiers ascending from their bodies to take the form of vengeful angels, each burning with the fury of the Emperor and cutting through the enemy ranks. Faith is acquired through the investment of resources. Soulstorm players must balance spending on units and research versus spending on faith, which is used by deploying the special powers mentioned above.

Commander

The Adepta Sororitas Heroine, or Canoness (primary commander), is a battle-hardened veteran whose devotion to the God-Emperor is so supreme that she is able to call upon His aid in battle through the use of 'Faith'. She leads the Sisters of Battle in the name of the God-Emperor. She carries a Power Sword, Inferno pistol, and wears Power Armour in battle. A screenshot from the end of the demo showed the Canoness wielding a flaming torch, as a wargear update.

Units

A Battle Sister Squad has been spotted in some screenshots along with Seraphim jump pack squads, Exorcist missile launcher tanks, Penitent Engine walkers, and Inquisitorial stormtroopers. A Living Saint was also visible and believed to be the Sisters Of Battle's Relic unit. Also Sisters Repentia and an Immolator were seen in the sisters of battle trailer. A Repressor was also visible in several screen shots and will likely serve as the Sisters of Battle's APC.

New units for existing Races

• The Space Marines gain the Land Speeder Tempest.
• Chaos gains the Hell Talon Bomber.
• The Eldar gain the Nightwing.
• The Orks gain the Fighta-Bomba.
• The Imperial Guard get the Marauder Bomber.
• The Tau get the Barracuda.
• The Necron the Essence of the Deceiver.

Demo

On January 13th, 2008, Relic released a 1.12GB demo of Soulstorm on several gaming websites. The demo allows players to play a tutorial, as well as one skirmish and one scenario map as the Dark Eldar. The demo's loading screens also show the new additional flying units added in the expansion.

External links

• Official Dawn of War Website
• Unofficial Community Dawn of War Forums