Unfurl the banners, swing the censers, and raise your voices to the Emperor – Dawn of War IV is getting a planet-conquering Crusade campaign mode! Fans won’t have long to wait, either, as the new mode will drop shortly after the game releases on September 17 as part of a free fall update. We asked KING Art Games’ creative director Jan Theysen what fans should expect from this new take on a classic style of campaign – and how it stands in comparison to Total War: Warhammer 40k.
If you missed out on the original Dawn of War – and if you did, you should get on fixing that immediately, it’s still one of the best Warhammer 40k games ever made – you might not know about the planetary conquest campaign modes. These standalone Dark Crusade and Soulstorm expansion pack each came with their own single-player conquest campaign, which added a turn-based grand strategy layer where your control of territories on a world map hinged on your performance in real time battles.
“We’re huge fans of those modes ourselves”, Theysen says, “there’s something incredibly compelling about looking at a strategic map and making plans”. In the new Crusade mode for Dawn of War IV, “players command persistent strike forces and conquer a planet territory by territory, building up bonuses, managing losses and gradually turning their army into something terrifying”. “We’ll release more information soon”, he adds, “but if you are a fan of the Dark Crusade or Soulstorm campaign modes, you’ll feel right at home”.
The Steam Page for DoW IV gives more details. “You can think of Crusade mode as Dawn of War IV’s endless mode”, played across a turn-based world map “featuring numerous territories spread all across Kronus”. You’ll have a Strike Force of combat units which will earn XP and upgrades that stick around between battles. You’ll have overall Crusade objectives to chase down, a limited amount of action points to spend each turn to maneuver your army, and rewards to earn from your victories that can buff your forces and reinforce your territories.
I’ve got shivers. The classic campaign was something special – not quite the first open-ended, globe-spanning campaign in a Warhammer game (that came in the turn-based Final Liberation), but one of the most fun and moreish ever made. Released before Total War: Warhammer was a twinkle in Creative Assembly’s eye, it was the most epic conflict you to be had in any Warhammer universe.
That’s my nostalgia talking of course. Dawn of War IV is going to emerge not far ahead of Total War: Warhammer 40k – still unannounced, but surely coming some time this year or next – and if it was hard not to compare them before, the distinctly Total War-like Crusade makes it impossible.
“We don’t really see [TWW40k] as direct competition”, Theysen says. “These are very different experiences, even if they share the same universe”. “Warhammer 40,000 fans are passionate about the setting as a whole, and we believe most players will happily play both games and have a great time for what they uniquely bring to the table”, he adds.
Even so, I wonder if the great shadow being cast by TWW40k has influenced what KING Art Games is willing to risk with DoW IV. “I think it reinforced something we already believed very strongly: Warhammer 40.000 is almost absurdly perfect for RTS games”, he says. “The scale, the faction variety, the visuals, the constant warfare, the larger-than-life personalities – it offers so much potential”.
He adds that the staff at KING Art Games are “super excited” to try out TWW40k when they get the chance, “first because we’re huge Warhammer 40.000 fans ourselves, but also because we know people at Creative Assembly and have a lot of respect for what they do”. “Both games are called ‘real-time strategy’, but they’re obviously very different experiences, so we’re genuinely excited to see what their take on 40k looks like.”
For years, Total War: Warhammer 40k was just a wish and a dream, and Dawn of War IV seemed like an impossibility. Now they’re approaching at breakneck speed. Will players have room in their hearts, hard-drives, and calendars for both games? Or is this shaping up to be a battle for global domination? I’m absolutely hyped to find out.
What parts of the old Dark Crusade or Soulstorm campaign modes do you want to see return for Dawn of War IV? Let us know in the Wargamer Discord community!
Source: Wargamer
