The new factions include the Sisters of Battle, a predominantly female band of holy crusaders, and the Dark Eldar, a twisted version of the Eldar. That being said, it still features fantastically addictive RTS gameplay, even if the formula seems a little tired at this point, particularly after Relic advanced their capture point mechanic with Company of Heroes in 2006. Naturally there's more content like two new armies, a retooled persistent campaign, flying units, and more maps, but there isn't much that drastically alters how players experience the game. While Dark Crusade changed quite a bit about the single-player campaign, the third expansion, Soulstorm, doesn't offer much that's surprising. Since then we've seen two expansions, Winter Assault and the superb Dark Crusade. It didn't hurt that it was based in a universe as rich as Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 fiction, where blood, beastly deeds, and brutal combat are commonplace.
The game shifted focus from base building to managing units in the field and provided an enjoyable method of resource collection. Back in 2004 Relic unleashed the original Dawn of War, a real-time strategy game, and established its distinctive, polished take on control point capture gameplay.
