I really enjoyed the first Dawn of War and played the multiplayer against Andrew several times (he still complains bitterly about the Cheesey Eldar in those games... webway portals are my friends) so when I had some birthday money I quickly purchased Dawn of War II.
Friday night I played a few levels in the campaign to get the hang of the new mechanics, and then multiplayer games against the computer to see the mechanics there. I got hammered in the first attempt, downgraded the computer to easy to get the hang of it in the second try, and then back to normal for victory in the third. Convinced I got it, I told Andrew I was ready.
Saturday night we got online and decided to play some two versus two with us working cooperatively against an Easy and Normal PC.
The first battle with my Eldar and Andrew's marines against Easy Orks and Normal Space marines proved to be a lot harder than we expected. The orks were virtually unseen, but the computer's dreadnoughts went on several rampages through our lines. Eventually we wore him down and took the prize.
In the second battle Andrew tried Tyranids and the computer tried Tyranids and my computer's graphics card choked to death. Or maybe it was just my computer choking on the processing. Or whatever. The point was it lagged to unplayablity and we exited.
Andrew went back to space marines and we tried the map again, this time our computer foe using Eldar and ... I can't remember. Orks? Or Marines? *shrugs* Doesn't matter as we easily rolled the computer back and quickly took control of the board and the game.
The last game really highlighted our different styles of play: Andrew was rolling up his side and getting as deep as he could early on, brawling with enemy troops up and down the board; while I cautiously advanced in a line making sure nothing could get behind me, and once I had control of at least half of the objectives I sat in defence waiting for the enemy to come to me, cutting him down from positions in cover. Each has advantages and disadvantages. Andrew's advance might cripple the enemy's economy but runs the risk of collapsing if it get counter successfully while my style of advance secures my lines but allows the enemy to build up more resources for larger attacks.
It was a good time but it highlighted my dire need for a new video card. Andrew's computer is not much newer than mine but has a video card one generation newer than mine and he was able to run easily at medium settings while I'm chugging at low. Come on Tax Return!
Next: Twilight Imperium
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The final game's enemies were Orks & Eldar. Remember the damned Killa Kans rampaging thru my backfield?
ReplyDeleteI'm finding that the all-out offense works well enough, but forces me to double back a lot. At least I have no base for them to destroy. :P
Marine infantry is also too damned expensive to field in numbers, and not as durable or deadly as the dreads and tanks.