WE ARE THE ROBOTS. 8]

I can't wait to see how the Tau turn out. They are my favorite race in the tabletop game.

I eagerly drip with anticipation for this game. Any idea if the existing races are getting any new units or upgrades?

Not really. The only comparison I can make is that they are technologically advanced. There are a couple other races in 40k that are just ripoffs of other properties.

Necrons-Terminators
Tyranids-Zerg, Aliens (Although Games Workshop released them before Blizzard even thought of Starcraft so I guess they are not a true ripoff of the zerg.)

You know, it still feels almost criminal to have played DoW and Winter Assault as little as I have.

It's just such an excellent game. I'm definitely going to buy this new pack. I just hope I manage to keep my interest up longer for this one than I did for DoW or the first Expansion.

The game is certainly deserving.

Looking forward to it. I was hoping for Tyranids, but I guess that may never happen. I am curious as to how many expansions they will kick out before moving on to a completely new game?

I just got done reading Kill Team and, despite the usual focus on the Imperials, it got me very interested in what the Tau can do.

I'm very "Meh" on the Necrons, but I'll always take another playable race.

They will be in the sequel, the devs came out and said they won't ever be in this one as the engine can't do them justice.

That's a good question, Bots.

This might be the extent of their expansions, particularly since it provides a new play mode. They'll expect it to see out the life of the original, I wager.

However, the amount of work that would go into a second DoW is staggering to think about. Would they leave the (as of Dark Crusade) seven races and then concentrate on adding new ones as well as a revamp of the graphics engine? Or would it be the 'base pack' that we saw with the original, with multiple expansions (=more money for THQ)?

It would be refreshing to see a game that didn't focus on rebuilding the graphics engine at the expense of game play. Its beautiful now as it is, and with continual expansions providing new content, that could be a very lucrative business model as well.

They could leave the graphical level as it and the sequel would be fine. I'd like to see more flexibility in squad design. I thought Winter Assault went the wrong way by removing some of the customization options. Who cares if everyone upgrades their Predators anyway, you should still force them to spend the points.

That said, I personally think the way to go with a full-blown sequel is to go ahead just limit the number of races initially, but have a much better and more seamless addition of new armies. One of the problems with Winter Assault is that it was not just a pluggable army. So am I going to be able to use Imperial Guard in Dark Crusade now? What kind of hoops are they going to have to jump through to make that happen?

There are ways to make multiple mods work together, as such I can include user mods for Tau and Imperial Guard if I want to. However, it's not officially supported, which sucks. I'm not looking for them to support user mods to quite that level, but what I would like is to play base Dawn of War with their OFFICIAL armies without any weirdness. Winter Assault is all well and good, but actually plays with different rules instead of the base game. If I switch to the base game, not only do I lose the ability to play as the Imperial Guard but I also lose the nifty new units like Space Marine Chaplains and whatnot.

So that is what I would see and would pay for. Seamless integration of new armies. I will happily pay for new units, you don't even have to contrive some kind of campaign for me. In fact, the way they are doing the campaign for Dark Crusade would work just fine for the sequel. Give me a dynamic campaign and the ability to add armies and units with unlimited extensibility and I'll be happy with that.

As it is, I have yet to complete either single-player campaigns because they just bore me to tears. They are infuriatingly linear. The only mode I do is the instant action.

Thanks for that, where do you recommend picking up these books at a reasonable price?

I buy mine at Barnes & Nobles, Half Price Books, Borders, and Books-A-Million. Not sure about "reasonable" as paperback prices seem to be quite high to me.

I have done a couple of reviews on this site but no longer have the links. I am still reviewing books in the series though.

Couple of reviews here
Couple of reviews from my old blog

I have a long long list of books I have read from Warhammer 40K. If you want input on a book, let me know which one. I have probably read it at this point.

The only series I haven't touched yet is Gaunt's Ghosts. I am waiting for the omnibus to be released in the States. I have not been able to find the books in the series, so I haven't touched them yet.

A lot of the various novels are written as series unto themselves. Gaunt's Ghosts are a little weird as to how they are ordered, in that it is difficult to tell which is next (I go by publishing date, even the Black Library site isn't clear). First & Only is the first novel. I almost ordered it from Amazon, but there is an omnibus with the first three books in it. Typically when they do an omnibus it is cheaper ($9.99 for three books versus $7 a pop) and they usually contain various short stories that may have appeared in Games Workshop's magazine or in an anthology.

I highly recommend Eisenhorn, it was a good read and it covers the entire saga. Also, the Last Chancers recently came out as a collection and is easy to find in local book stores. You don't have to know much about the WH40K universe to get into it. Faith & Fire was also a good read. I picked up the Horus Heresy - Horus Rising, but haven't gotten to it yet.

An omnibus is a collection of books. For example, the Last Chancers omnibus collects two short stories, 13th Legion, Kill Team, and Annihilation Squad.

DoW doesn't follow the exact rules of WH40K, but I think it's still a good translation. I think they made some changes for the sake of gameplay, and I'm ok with that.

However, there was an actual novel called Dawn of War that expounds on the events of the game, and a sequel. Both were alright. I'm not sure if it was the story that was weak or the writer, as C.S.Goto hasn't really impressed me, though his Deathwatch book, Warrior Brood was still good, but not great.

Gaunt should be read in its publishing order, in my opinion. Clearest sense of who the characters are and their timeline. If you're really interested, I can post the list in reading order when I get home to my copies.

The series is also split up into smaller epicycles of three or four books apeice. We're currently in the third, I believe, entitled 'The Lost'. The third book of that cycle is entitled 'The Armour of Contempt' and will be released in November. Evidently some grots at the Black Library got their hands on a copy and saw that it was good.

Video interview.