Dawn of War 2: Retribution

Yes Im making a thread about it. Anyways for those who dont know, Retribution is the newest DoW2 expansion coming out in March 2011 and will feature campaigns for ALL races as well as a sixth race (practically confirmed to be the Inquisition) and new units for existing races.
Also its ditching GFWL in place of something better.

Anyways, there are trailers for each race's campaign and unit profiles for most of their new units.

- Chaos/Space Marine trailer (Noise Marines featured inside)

- Eldar Trailer

- Tyranid Trailer

- Ork/Official Trailer

Now for some new unit profiles:

Unit: Land Raider Redeemer

Availability: Tier 3

Abilities:
Frag Assault – Launch a volley of grenades, knocking back and dealing heavy damage to most infantry units.

Retreat Beacon – When activated, all squads will retreat to the Land Raider beacon.

A late game behemoth, the Land Raider Redeemer is expensive and powerful. Although it is not particularly agile or quick, it’s dual Flamestorm Cannons spew enough fire to melt any infantry to get near. The Land Raider can serve as a base of operations for Space Marine players. With the Retreat Beacon activated, squads can quickly retreat to the Land Raider instead of the Space Marine base. Squads near the Land Raider can be reinforced, replacing lost squad members, and get back in the fight much more quickly than having to make the run to and from their base.

A Land Raider Redeemer parked near a strategically important sector, be it a power generator farm or Victory Point, can be a strong deterrent to enemy attack. Anything that comes close will have to be set to deal with a wall of fire, bolts, and frags.

http://community.dawnofwar2.com/sites/dawnofwar2.com/files/images/landraider.jpg
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Unit: Battlewagon

Availability: Tier 3

Abilities:
Deff Rolla Rampage – Spin up the Deff Rolla for a short period, knocking back and potentially crushing nearby infantry. Temporarily increases the speed of the Battlewagon.

Mega Boomshot – Fire an explosive long-range artillery shot. Deals heavy damage to most units.

An expensive late game unit, the Battlewagon can tear into enemy formations and receive little damage. It is a heavy assault transport vehicle that has anti-vehicle as well as anti-infantry weaponry. Garrisoning squads in the Battlewagon increases its speed and anti-infantry shootas on the Battlewagon get activated when two squads are garrisoned in the vehicle. The Deff Rolla Rampage ability greatly increases the speed of the unit when it is fired up, so it can track down fleeing infantry or simply charge through obstructions on the battlefield and get to where you need it quickly.

In true Ork fashion, there’s nothing subtle about the Battlewagon. If it isn’t blasting you from long range with its Mega Boomshot it’s running you over. It fits well with the fearsome Ork arsenal.

http://community.dawnofwar2.com/sites/dawnofwar2.com/files/images/ork_battlewagon.jpg
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Unit: Swarmlord

Availability: Tier 3

Abilities:
Leech Essence – The Swarmlord drains the life from surrounding infantry units for a duration which increases his health regeneration.

Blade Flurry – Unleashes the full strength of the Swarmlord, heavily damaging and knocking back adjacent infantry.

The Swarmlord isn’t going to be on the field until late in the game, given its cost and the Tier 3 requirement. The Swarmlord’s status as a powerful late game unit results in it being nearly unstoppable in melee combat, wielding four bone sabers, but it also increases the movement speed of all Tyranids within range of its synapse. Additionally, units can reinforce their squad, replacing lost squad members, when near the Swarmlord making it an important part of the Tyranid end game.

Not only does it move like it’s got a purpose, the Swarmlord brings with it the power to lead and back the attack, able to cut a swath through enemy units on its own or contribute to the objective as a vital part of the swarm.

http://community.dawnofwar2.com/sites/dawnofwar2.com/files/images/tyranid_swarmlord.jpg

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Unit: Autarch

Availability: Tier 2

Abilities:
Fleet of Foot – Greatly increases the unit’s speed but reduces the Autarch’s damage output for the duration of the ability.

Leap – Soar through the air and land at the targeted location. Upon landing the Autarch increases the speed, damage, health and of nearby infantry units.

Skyleap – The Autarch jumps high into the atmosphere, returning to the global ability bar to be called in for a reduced cost.



The Autarch descends to the battlefield when called in from the global ability bar. The unit can be dropped into any hot spot on the map, provided you have line of sight on the drop zone. A volley of grenades dropped from the sky precedes the Autarch, and you can strategically place where each of the grenades lands. Do you want them all to drop on an enemy strong point? No problem. Want one to fall on each of the three enemy squads you’re facing? Done. While they’re picking up the pieces, the Autarch lands to engage the survivors.

With the versatility of being called in anywhere your forces are, the Autarch can be just what you need to swing the outcome of a critical battle in your favor. Once the battle is won, use Skyleap to return the Autarch to the global ability bar to be called on at a reduced cost, and with another volley of grenades to announce its arrival.

http://community.dawnofwar2.com/sites/dawnofwar2.com/files/images/eldar_autarch1.jpg

I can't fucking wait for this!
Noise marines, fuck yeah!

Cant wait for this.

I might get this.

Sounds OP as fuck and kind of messed. And yes its pretty much confirmed that the new race is the Imperial Guard (saw a couple of scans before they were taken down).

Today, 07:57 AM Just read an article that confirms the Imperial Guard as the new race in retribution.
Some facts:

-imps are defensive once again (heroes can build several types of turrets and cover)
-weak infantry, strong vehicle (baneblade returns yay; basilisk, too which will be strongest arty again; leman russ as tier 3)
-first race to build vehicles in tier 1
-units include stormtrooper, HWTs (now suppress; equivalent to devestators) and catachan devils
-globals include orbital bombardements and unit reinforcements

heroes are:
-Inquisitor (offensive ranged; female witch hunter who can ignite single targets and has flame aoe)
-Lord General (healer; can... well, heal, call all sorts of reinforcements and has a mustache now Oo)
-Lord Commissar (melee supporter; can cloak and has melee specials, much like lictor alpha; regular commissars are also in)

Facts about the campaign:
-story is that ten years after chaos rising the Imperium orders an exterminatus on Aurelius and you have to stop it because there is a terrible secret hidden in the sector
-campaign story is very similar for every race but some details are changed every mission for each race (they wanted to make an own story for each race but ran out of time)
-different enemies each time you replay the campaign (generic; doesn't affect story i guess)
-imp campaign heroes are Castor, Adrastia and Merrick
-playing the campaign is now much more similar to multiplayer: you have a base, you tech for new units and you have to capture requisition points. (right now a regular guards squad is 280 req and 8 pop and they repair stuff)
you can choose if you spend earned xp on the known upgrades (willpower, strebgth) of your heroes or level your other units which increases their general combat performance

Thoughts?

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii260/Topaz_61/DOWGS3.jpg

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii260/Topaz_61/DOWGS2t.jpg

Translation of a piece of the article:


DAWN OF WAR II : RETRIBUTION

Tactical variety and heroes with RPG-elements made Dawn of War II the hit it was.
This expansion lures you in with new building choices and races in the campaign.

How conservative does realtime strategy have to be? Blizzard needed twelve years to put out a new starcraft hat didn't shake the foundation of the game. Get ressources quick, gather lots of units and rush into the fray.
Relics Dawn of War II is a successful opposite of that concept. The focus is on few but characteristic heroes that gain experience and can be equipped like in RPG games.
Tactical decisions, quality over quantity. This recipe is found in Retribution, the new expansion, the second after Chaos Rising.

At the same time, Relic caters to the traditional fans of the genre. "Alot of people still want that common kind of experience in a game. They love to build hundreds of tanks and utterly crush their opponents with them." comments the lead designer Dan Kading.
Because of that, Relic wants to make both sides happy this time around. The production of units is introduced in the campaign, heroes stay.

Retribution is also more diverse in the amount of races you can choose to play the 16 mission long campaign.
Before Retribution, you were limited to the Space Marines, now you can choose 6 races. Space Marines, Chaos, Eldar, Orks, Tyranids and the new Imperial Guard, take your pick.
Every race has exclusive units, their own story and charm.

Even though every race has to accomplish roughly the same tasks, the mission design changes according to what race you play.
"It would have been ideal to have a completely unique campaign for every race, but it just wasn't possible to make it, and make it good, in the amount of time we had."
says Dan Kading, admitting that they didn't have enough time to do that with the quality they expect from themselves.

The main game, Dawn of War II was plagued by a flood of very generic and repititve missions. "We learned from that" Assures Kading "That's why we wanted to build every mission in Retribution from the ground up and include unique events that stay in your memory.
Playing trough the game more than once pays off even though the campaign missions start on the known maps.
But the story changes, depending on what race you chose, you clash with different opponents."

The initial position where the story starts from is equally critical for every faction:
Ten years have passed since the events of the last expansion, Chaos Rising. The Imperium of Man is annoyed by the persistent unrest in subsector Aurelia and orders the Exterminatus.
That's as dangerous as it sounds: A fleet of space ships arrives to completely destroy one planet after another with orbital weaponry.
To stop this method of cleansing the Imperium practices, your army jumps from one planet to another, using old teleport facilities (Most likely webways), to unveil the dark secrets of Aurelia.

Dan Kading explains why, out of all races, they chose the Imperial Guard as new playable faction. "Unlike the Space Marines, the Guard consists of 'normal' humans, which you can easily relate to. It's the most beginner-friendly race we made yet, due to the defensive capabilities it has ingame."
In comparison to the crazy aliens and superhumans, the Guardsmen feel almost 'tame'. One could think they made a jailbreak from Relics WWII game "Company of Heroes". Advantages in the vehicle department make sure that the guys don't end as cannon fodder. The Guard has the heaviest tanks and artillery in the whole game.
In the multiplayer gameplay, they are the only race with access to a vehicle in tier 1. The Guard can build and request turrets, cover, reinforcements and artillery. Everything turtle-players need.
And even with all the love for normality, the Imperial Guard has their set of heroes:

In multiplayer games, you choose between a female Inquisitor (offensive ranged), the Lord General (defensive healer) and the Lord Commissar (melee with support abilities).

During our visit at Relics office in Vancouver, we were able to play the first four missions of the Retribution campaign. We chose the new Imperial Guard as our faction.
We control the heroes Castor, Adrastia and Merrick in the intro mission. Typical for Dawn of War, each hero has special abilites which need to be used tactical. Castor for example can heal or request reinforcements from above.
Merrick can turn invisible and Adrastia can burn single foes with a burst of witchfire.

By capturing the first post, we received the ability to build troops.
A guardsmen squad for example costs 280 requisition, which you can get by simple collection of crates scattered over the map.
A complex build and ressource system is lacking. To make up for that, we need to pay attention to the population cap, if it's reached, we can't produce any more units.
A squad of guardsmen costs of 8 population points - well worth the price, as these guys can already repair buldings and vehicles out of the box, more skills and upgrades are unlocked later on.
During the intro mission, we were already able to get our hands on the Catachan Devils, strong in melee, the Stormtroopers with their lasguns or an HMG-squad for supression.
Together with the heroes, the diversity of the units is growing quite huge.

After our bossfight against a local boss-tyranid, we were able to reap our rewards RPG-style:
Gather equipment, distribute points in the 4 attributes we know from the other DoW II titles.
The Imperial Guard includes 8 unit types, each can upgraded with up to 3 upgrades.
You can choose to either spend points on your heroes, or upgrade your general units.

That way you can choose to either keep the focus on your heroes, or go to a larger scale and rely on your units.
The management of our troops wasn't the only thing keeping us on our toes in the intro mission - in the ruins the temple in ladon, we are chased by a superheavy Baneblade-Tank, and only reprogramming of a few turrets makes us able to crack it's hide.
It became really hectic during our escape from planet Typhon, where the Exterminatus had already begun. While battling it out with the other races on a race to our escape point, we had to watch out for the destructive beams raining down on the planet, which were thankfully shown by markers before blowing anything close to pieces.
The time limit of 20 minutes was also pushing us to our limits.

The used terrain type "blasted lava" will also be the foundation of new maps in multiplayer, where you can play the gamemodes already knows: Team Battle, 2v2, 1v1, TFFA and FFA.

Dawn of War II : Retribution is supposed to hit the shelves in March 2011, and will be a stand-alone game.
If the current generation of Dawn of War is done with Retribution isn't certain: When we asked, Dan Kading didn't dare to say if it's already over and if Dawn of War 3 is the next in line.
He only said "With the first Dawn of War, we said Dark Crusade would be the last expansion... three months later the producer approached us and and wanted to talk about Soulstorm.. I don't know anything about Dawn of War 3 at the moment." with an innocent grin.

Conclusion:

Abmitious Seconds

To call Retribution a mere "expansion" would be an example of exaggerated modesty.
I can finally experience with races other than the Space Marines and experiment with the new unit-building mechanic in the missions.
My focus will stay on raising my heroes, I just like the RPG-elements and the smaller scale.

Potential: Excellent.

EDIT: Complete translation

WOOT! i was going to say my best guess for the last race was imps

now Seath will get it

looks nice =D gfwl was good in that most of my friends have it, but not steam though =/

noise marines: never gonna give you up...

Little piece of eye candy:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpeXR3rLKTI
Should show off most new units + a little bit of IG <3
For anyone complaining about the language: Fuck you and learn the proper tounge of Die Reich.

That baneblade looks fucking sweet. And did that LR just get called in via global??? (at the end)

well, my guess was entirely wrong. :/

What guess?

He was sure it'd be Inquisition, not IG

so was I. But I like the IG better so I aint complaining......much. The way they handled the release or the new faction is a little irritating though. Like if they hadnt of stapled all sorts of Inquisition stuff all over the place, I wouldve been fine with it but they kinda pulled a fast one on us.

Swarm lord and Autarch
How am i supposed to not buy this if i continue to watch videos and read about it -.-?

HuggleB wrote:Swarm lord and Autarch
How am i supposed to not buy this if i continue to watch videos and read about it -.-?

You aren't.
You're gonna buy it.