Relic’s Dawn of War II (that fun tactical RTS game for PCs) just launched its first expansion — Chaos Rising. I’ve gotten to play through a chunk of it this morning before work and really enjoyed what I saw thus far.

There’s new a new campaign for single players (or co-op, I presume, haven’t tried that) and new maps, units and army (Chaos, of course) to use in multiplayer. For 30 bucks, it’s not too shabby. (I wouldn’t of minded a second new army, of course…) I can’t remember if there were Imperial Guardsmen in the original campaign, but they do make an appearance in this one — meaning they’re probably coming in a future expansion.

As to the new campaign — it’s pretty much what you expect out of the campaign. More stuff, of course, and a Corruption mechanic that is pretty cool — let’s you slip closer to Chaos, but rewards you with really nice equipment. To recover from corruption you have to use gear that basically nerfs you or harms your characters — probably not a mechanic that is going to be enjoyed by all but is fairly fitting to the setting.

The multiplayer setting is where this expansion seems to shine the most for me, as you get to play Chaos. The original four get an additional unit type each (Tyranids getting 2) which helps spice them up a bit. I glanced over the units a bit, spent most of my time on the campaign, so I only know a bit about the new ones for the old armies. The Librarian for the Space Marines is a Psyker — basically a caster type that can do some impressive stuffs. The Weirdboy for the Orkz — didn’t get to try him. The Wrathguard for the Eldar — think about a trio of smaller Wrathlords, with lasers. (fought them a good bit, haven’t used them yet) And the Tyranids get a Tyrant Guard — basically a tank — and Genestealer Brood — seem to be stealthy melee units. (saw the ‘nids in action during multiplayer, the Guard was holding his own while assaulting the enemy base…)

The Chaos introduce several new units, many of which are really cool. The first thing you should know is that choosing a Chaos Space Marine Hero will change the type of shrine your Heretics can build — they can be pretty useful. The next thing you should know is Heretics have the ability to worship — this has in-game factors like buffing your units or healing them. There’s a range on worshiping and the Heretics won’t be able to do anything while it’s toggled, so remember to place them somewhere secure — they’re quite useful and there’s not sense letting them die easily.

I tried most of the units for Chaos at least some, and there’s plenty of units that have familiar mechanics — Chaos Space Marines are sort of Tactical Marine-ish, Chaos Havocs are your suppression machines like the Devastator squads. Heretics are… numerous and easily killed, but they can build shrines and worship. Plague Marines also fall into that Tactical Marine squad-ish of the Chaos Space Marines, but they are anti-vehicle spec’d and a bit tougher — no real customization here but when they die they do heal any friendlies in the area. Dreadnaught and Predator are both pretty simple to figure out — a bit of variation for Chaos but still somewhat similar to their Space Marine counterparts. Bloodletters are your assault troops — they can teleport and phase shift (don’t take and don’t deal damage) and do melee damage — fairly tough. The Bloodcrusher is quite tough — it’s a vehicle that’s melee based and has a fun charge ability — it’s the thing you send charging into a group of ranged enemies to cause… chaos. Lastly — the Great Unclean One. Nurgle is my favorite Chaos God and the inclusion of a lot of Nurgle themed troops and abilities is really great to me. The GUO is huge, costly, and powerful — it’s about the size of a Carnifex and has a huge, crude sword — create it, send it toward your enemies, watch them perish. That’s about all that needs saying. (ok, maybe not, but you get the gist of it)

I should mention — all of the new units for the old armies are on the second tier for manufacture, you’ll need to unlock the first base upgrade to get them. Not too difficult.