History Videogame / DawnofWar

** Numbers: Spammer for their infantry, Balanced for vehicles. Their squads of ordinary Guardsmen tend to be massive and inexpensive but squishy, while more specialist units serve specific support roles and are tougher but more expensive. Their vehicles meanwhile tend to consist of [[MightyGlacier tough, slow-moving but hard-hitting]] tanks that dish out a lot of damage while also taking it, and are less numerous and more expensive.
** Doctrine: Brute/Ranger/Technical, with a bit of Turtle. The Guard have a very defensive playstyle overall, with strong turrets and the ability to garrison their structures and move between them through tunnels (in Game 1) or build cover that their infantry can take to greatly reduce incoming ranged damage (Game 2). The trade-off is that ordinary Guardsmen squads are very fragile and will drop like flies under sustained fire without the benefits of either cover or supporting fire from their powerful tanks and artillery. Their morale for ordinary Guardsmen is also poor before research and if they break, they will stay broken for at least a minute without intervention. Specifically, in Game 1 the player can attach special sub-Commanders to their squads to strengthen their morale and provide benefits. The Commissar can shoot a Guardsman in the squad he's attached to in the head to instantly restore morale to surrounding squads and increase their damage output, while the Priest makes his squad immune to damage and the Psyker drains the morale of a squad he's attached to for his PsychicPowers.

** Numbers: Elitist. Most of their units, especially battlesuits, are prohibitively expensive, but Tau units compensate with their powerful ranged attacks while Kroot units boast superior toughness.

* SequelDifficultySpike: ''Winter Assualt'' to ''Dawn of War'' as there is no easy mode, only normal and higher, and each side (Order and Chaos) only have 5 missions each so the learning curve is sent to the multiplayer portion instead of being in the single-player campaign.

* NietzscheWannabe: [[spoiler:Avitus, if he is the traitor, which he canonically is.]]
** [[spoiler:Before the final battle of ''Retribution'', Kyras proudly declares that the senseless violence committed by the followers of Khorne is the only way to truly be free, as life and the universe is ultimately meaningless.]]

* NightmareFace: This is ''Warhammer 40,000'', but [[spoiler:[[BodyHorror Great]] Unclean One [[UltimateEvil Ulkair]]'s]] face takes the cake.

* ButtMonkey: The Imperial Guard, played seriously. Consistently low/bottom tier in the first game, they have in-game models in the second game but were not playable until ''Retribution''.

* AwesomeMcCoolname:
** Gabriel Angelos, for a start.
** Shas'o Kais translates to "Commander Skilled".

* AnAxeToGrind: Regular one-handed axes (or choppas) are the default melee weapon for Ork units (especially the basic Slugga Boy Squad) and their damage can be increased by the ''More Choppy'' research upgrade. Chaos Khornate Berzerkers use chainaxes.

** ''[[Creator/MontyPython "My chief weapons are surprise and fear."]]''

** ''[[Film/{{Predator}} "Get to da Valkyrie!"]]''
** On occasion, Catachan Devils utter ''[[Series/TheATeam "I love it when a plan comes together!"]]'' upon killing an enemy unit.

-->''"I will endure a thousand deaths before I yield."''
-->''"That ''thing'' is no more terrible than I."''
-->''"Faith is what fans the guttering spark of my existence."''

-->'''Assassin:''' They will quake at my shadow.

-->'''Merrick:''' He might be ''waiting'' for us, but he isn't ''ready'' for us.

-->'''Alexander:''' Enemies of the Imperium, hear me. You have come here to die. The immortal Emperor is with us and we are invincible. His soldiers will strike you down. His war machines will crush you under their treads. His mighty guns will bring the very sky crashing down upon you. You cannot win. The Emperor has given us His greatest weapon to wield, so make yourselves ready, we are the 1st Kronus Regiment, and today is our Victory Day!

-->'''Baneblade:''' Ready to unleash ''eleven'' barrels of Hell!\\

-->'''Daemon Prince:''' Despair, for I am the end of days!\\

-->'''Eliphas:''' I WILL SHATTER THEIR SOULS!\\

-->'''Davian Thule:''' We will send you back to your craftworld in a tomb!\\
'''Farseer Taldeer:''' [[NotAfraidToDie I have known my death for ten of your lifetimes, captain. Don't think to scare me with it]].

-->'''Eldar Warlock:''' Neither killing nor dying frightens me. Feel my wrath, humans!\\

-->'''Archon Tahril:''' I am the deadly shadow and the bird of prey! I am the poisoned dagger that brings sweet death!

-->'''Nobz:''' Angels of Death, me shiny green arse!

-->'''Nobz:''' You're gonna chop me?! I'M GONNA KILL YOU!

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[BadassCreed "None shall find us wanting]]..."[[note]][[KleptomaniacHero ...For wargear, that is]].[[/note]]'']]

** In ''Dawn of War II'', if a Chaos Aspiring Champion of Khorne or the Spare Marine Force Commander sync kills a Carnifex (really hard to do) he will perform a ColossusClimb and stand on the Carnifex's tusks, holding on to his melee weapon impaled in the side of the Carnifex's head, and blast it repeatedly in the face with his pistol before finishing it off with a blast to the mouth. This sync kill is featured in ''Retribution'' in the mission where you have to [[spoiler:escape Typhon as Exterminatus is being performed on it]]. When you get to a certain point the Deranged Chaos Champion (since this is his full title [[UpToEleven he must be crazy even by Chaos' standards...eep]]), will start roaring to the sky, enraged by the fact that people would be trying to [[spoiler:escape from Kyras's gift of death]] before doing this in the Typhon Arena.

** Everything the generic Daemon Prince says. ''[[UpToEleven Literally]]''.

* OmnicidalManiac: Taken UpToEleven with [[spoiler:Chapter Master Azariah Kyras]] in ''Retribution''.

* ShutUpHannibal[=/=]ShutUpKirk: In ''Dark Crusade'', [[UpToEleven everyone seems to be in a competition to see who can shut everyone else up the most]], as seen under DeadpanSnarker. Here are some more highlights:

-->'''Ork Nobz:''' [[FlatWhat What?]] ''[[SuddenlyShouting That's a GROT'S job!]]'' *{{Beat}}* ...Oh, ''fine!''

* NiceHat: [[http://media.pcgamer.com/files/2010/08/Wargear_Warboss.jpg Kaptin Bluddflagg]], in ''Retribution''. He also demands Inquisitor Adrastia's badass inquisitor hat as payment for a merc job, but she refuses. [[spoiler:He then mugs her for that same hat when she hunts him down to kill him in the Ork campaign's ending cutscene.]] The achievement for winning the Ork campaign? NiceHat, of course.
** When a certain named Commissar is killed by an Ork player assaulting Victory Bay in Dark Crusade, Gorgutz will exclaim "I liked dat Kommissar's hat. Too bad it blew up with his 'ead!"
** For players who preordered ''Retribution'' with the Imperial Guard bonuses, General Castor gets a ''very'' spiffy hat that he can equip. When you see the bonuses it gives him, you'll never want him to take it off.

* DifficultySpike: In ''Winter Assault'' each campaign is less then half the length of the original (5 levels each in ''Winter Assault'', 11 in the original), but the later levels are equally difficult, i.e, difficulty shoots up very quickly.
** The fourth level of both ''WA'' campaigns deserves a mention, as in the Order version you are under almost constant attack by infinitely spawning enemies and in the Disorder version it's a race against time to stop ''both'' enemies completing their completely independant victory objective causing you to lose automatically.

* HealingBoss: Chaos Rising: During Araghast the Pillager's bossfight, he summons squads of cultists which he attacks to regain health and pulls back through a portal when he runs low on health and cultists. The fight ends when the Eliphas (who's opening the portals) betrays him and leaves him to die.

** The Dark Eldar have the Dias of Destruction, a combination party boat/ giant HoverTank which sports huge dark energy blasters, {{Disintegrator Ray}}s, and some sexy ladies (not a euphamism for anything). It's piloted by Asdrubael Vect (leader of the entire Dark Eldar race, not just the faction present in the game) himself.
** The Sisters of Battle get the Living Saint, an ''actual angel'' with a flaming sword. She has ResurrectiveImmortality, teleporting back to the Shrine building when killed, and [[SwordBeam the ability to spray a jet of holy flames from her sword]].
* VideoGame/DawnOfWarII: Retribution: The campaign lets the player face against every faction's super unit as well as their own (and claiming it in the latter case).
** The Space Marines get a Land Raider stolen from the traitors before the can desecrate it.
** The Imperial Guard get a Baneblade, also stolen from traitors. Unlike the previous game, the main gun has to be fired manually.
** The Orks get a battlewagon, a Film/MadMax-esque vehicle that combines the roles of tank, troop transport, and road roller. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tvmgs6BPmZ4 The one faced in the campaign is called Daisy.]]
** Chaos gets Ulkair, a Great Unclean One of Nurgle and the BigBad of the previous game.
** The Eldar get the Avatar of Khaine by activating the one they fight after a completely avoidable misunderstanding leads to them fighting their own troops.
** The Tyranids get the Swarmlord, a melee monster that lets nearby Tyranids reinforce themselves.
* TacticalWithdrawal: Units whose morale has been broken in the first game have to resort to this -- their damage-dealing and absorbing capabilities are impaired beyond usefulness and they'll almost certainly die if they don't get some backup or defeat their assailant(s) very quickly. ''Dawn Of War II'' gives most infantry a button to retreat back to their base with, a system from ''VideoGame/CompanyOfHeroes''. However, now you have to make sure melee units don't get too close to your retreating units, since retreating causes them to take extra melee damage.
** Said word for word by the Space Marine Force Commander if his morale is broken:

* TakeThat: Apparently the team that did ''Dawn of War II'' shared many players' opinions about ''Soulstorm''. Not only is Brother-Captain Indrick "[[MemeticMutation SPESS MEHREENS]]" Boreale confirmed as being killed in action, but Scout Sergeant Cyrus calls the entire Kaurava campaign a "mistake" that dangerously depleted the chapter's manpower.
-->'''Cyrus:''' What happened on Kaurava was a mistake... [[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain I will not speak of it again]].
** There's a slightly more subtle strike on one of the loading screen tips: Cyrus' highly successful tactics based on ambush, planning and precision attacks were fiercely resisted by Indrick Boreale, but Captain Thule ignored Boreale's complaints.
*** And yet... Boreale is namechecked in a specific piece of wargear in ''Dawn of War II''; a SniperRifle called Cold Mercy used by the man himself during his Scout Marine days, with the flavour text mentioning how Boreale remained unmoving for days in sub-zero temperatures for the opportunity to (successfully) take out his intended target. Perhaps it soured his view on such tactics, or he could have been a better commander had he learned more from Cyrus and that experience.
*** [[JustifiedTrope Compared to the other unlockable Sniper Rifles you can get, Boreale's is not very good.]]
** In ''Chaos Rising'', [[spoiler:Cyrus uses this as an explanation for his turn to Chaos, if he is the most corrupted unit in your force.]]
** If you look closely, nearly all the trophies taken from Space Marines (Pile O' Gunz, helmets on the Knarloc and Warboss) are taken from the Ultramarines chapter, considered a CreatorsPet by many 40k fans. [[invoked]]

* TacticalSuperweaponUnit: game.
* ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'' has its top tier of units locked behind the ownership of a "Relic," a special Capture Point. These include squads of heavy infantry and super-heavy tanks. In the original and in ''Winter Assault,'' you could build as many as you'd like, but from ''Dark Crusade'' onwards, they are restricted to one each.
** The Space Marines have Terminators (Highly decorated, elites-among-the-elite Space Marine heroes with extremely tough PoweredArmor and double-barrelled {{Hand Cannon}}s, which they can swap for [[GatlingGood miniguns]] or [[FireBreathingWeapon double-barrelled flamethrowers]]), Assault Terminators (the same tier of Bad Enough Dude, just with electrified warhammers and tower shields), and the Land Raider APC (which sports two laser cannon batteries and a pair of machine guns).
** Chaos Space Marines have the Bloodthirster, a BigRedDevil brandishing a battleaxe the size of a car. He literally wastes away from boredom if he's not fighting something.
** Orks have the Squiggoth, best describes as "an alien [[WarElephants War Elephant]] armed with several normal cannons and a LightningGun." Its attacks are as powerful as they are inaccurate, even in melee, and can theoretically charge through infantry mobs (but usually gets stuck on said infantry).
** The [[SpaceElves Eldar]] get the Avatar of Khaine, the ''manifestation of a dead god'' with a FlamingSword. He regenerates in and out of combat also lets them build more units and speeds up their construction time and makes them harder to demoralize (many of these traits being common fan complaints about the Eldar being overpowered).
** The Imperial Guard get the Baneblade Super-Heavy Tank, which sports no less than ''eleven'' seperate guns and is the size of their HQ building.
** The Necron get the Monolith, a teleporting BaseOnWheels with a huge particle cannon and a MookMaker. It has to be killed twice to be destroyed; first as a tank, then as a building. They also have the Nightbringer, the invulnerable manifestation of ''[[TheGrimReaper Death itself!]]'' In the ''Soulstorm'' expansion, they also get the Deceiver, basically "alien {{Satan}}."
** The Tau get, depending on which MutuallyExclusivePowerups they choose, either the Hammerhead tank, armed with two plasma miniguns and a [[MagneticWeapons railgun]], or the Greater Knarloc, a terror bird the size of a T Rex. It can have more HP than a Squiggoth (due to being a Kroot and therefore sharing in their CannibalismSuperpower), but spends most of its time turning around, and the Etherial, a MookCommander who is also a powerful "caster," able to call in airstrikes, summon a team of bodyguards, and create holographic dummy units, in addition to providing a map-wide morale boost.

* SimpleSolutionWontWork:
** ''Dark Crusade'':The two Imperial forces on the planet are officially at war with each other despite fighting for the same side because the Blood Ravens do not want their dirty secrets to fall into the Inquisition's hands, while the Imperial Guard is there to reclaim the totality of the planet. Both sides make it clear that they're JustFollowingOrders, and in the canon Space Marine victory, they make sure that the surviving Guardsmen are well treated rather than executed for treason.
** ''Soulstorm'': The ''three'' Imperial factions (Imperial Guard, Blood Ravens and Sisters of Battle) are also at war with each other for much the same reasons as in Dark Crusade (the Sisters are also too fanatical to think anyone but themselves can properly clean up the system).

*** Even worse, sometimes this feeds into itelf: targeting a squad that's spread out the entire length of the map results in the targeting unit moving ''towards'' the middle of the squad instead of killing the isolated units.

* KleptomaniacHero: The Blood Ravens have a habit of recovering, or otherwise "finding" relics from other chapters, among other sources. This quality of the [[FanNickname Bloody Magpies]] is a bit exaggerated in the {{Fanon}}.

** Some fans give Gorgutz [[FanNickname the title of "Bitchslappa"]] for defeating the Sisters of Battle in ''Soulstorm''.

* BaldOfAwesome:
** Played straight with all SpaceMarines in the first game (except Gabriel Angelos' mid fade Davian Thule's short crop). Also played straight with Inquisitor Toth.
** The Tau Ethereal is as smooth on the top as a billiard ball. Their Vespid allies are much the same.
** SubvertedTrope in ''II''-- despite it being close to a standard among Space Marines, the Blood Ravens' squad leader {{Player Character}}s all have hair, save for Tarkus and Diomedes.

* ACommanderIsYou:
** Space Marines:
*** Numbers: Balanced, edging slightly towards Elitist. Their squads are expensive, especially the elite ones, but tend to be slightly above-average in every respect.
*** Doctrine: Generalist with a dash of Brute and Loyal. Overall the Space Marines' combat doctrine can be summed up as BoringButPractical ''en masse''. They're designed for fighting and as such, their various upgrades tend to be a dozen individual upgrades for squads, sergeants, and Commanders that all add up over time. Basic Space Marine squads can be upgraded to be effective against any units, and most of their units feature at least one optional upgrade that lets them realign their weapons output as needed. Sergeants for basic Space Marine and Assault Marine squads also have the Rally! ability that lets them instantly restore their squad's moral and make them immune to morale damage for a time. Their final building gives them the option of sending units anywhere on the battlefield via DropPod, but can also train Space Marine squads and Dreadnoughts, letting them send reinforcements directly to the frontline.
** Chaos: (Renamed Chaos Space Marines in ''II'')
*** Numbers: Balanced overall, with a tug back and forth between Spammer and Elitist. Their units aren't as expensive as their loyalist counterparts but also aren't as adaptable. While their basic unit is the utter chaff Chaos Cultists squad, every other unit is much more cost-prohibitive.
*** Doctrine: Generalist, with a side-order of Guerrilla. They're less adaptable than their loyalist counterparts but still have units that can answer more than one role on the battlefield. As they tech up, their Chaos Cultists and Chaos Marines can become permanently infiltrated, making them adept at sneaky tactics.
** Orks:
*** Numbers: Spammer. Ork units are cheap and have above-average size limits, but individual Orks who aren't part of an elite squad tend to be fragile and easily killed.
*** Doctrine: Brute, with elements of Industrial and Gimmick. Orks are reliant on the exploitation of the Orky Population mechanic, which determines their maximum number of boots on the ground and their progress on the Ork tech tree. Orky Pop is raised by building WAAAGH! Banners, with the more of them built allowing more Ork infantry, more powerful Ork squads, and better upgrades and research to improve existing forces. The number of Orks in a unit or large area also determines a squad's movement speed, attack damage, morale recovery, and health regeneration. In fact, a big enough assembly of Ork infantry within a set radius makes every squad immune to morale damage. Orks also have building that self-repair outside of combat and {{Worker Units}} that can reinforce to make building them faster, as well as a lower wait time to capture Requisition points that allow them to expand quickly across the entire map.
** Necrons are Brute Force. Got some of the toughest units in the game but are slow-moving and take a while to get up to speed.
** Eldar are Elite and Technical. They require a lot of micromanagement to use effectively. Well...in theory. In practice they are easily the most powerful race due to continued tweaking by Relic, with units that hit harder than their counterparts in opposite forces, units that are immune to moral damage, and the ability to build buildings that instantly teleport units around the map, giving the Eldar unsurpassed mobility, durability, and strength in a departure from the tabletop.
*** Eldar being OP is more of a meme than actual thing. According to win statistics they win abot as often as orcs in DoW1 and a pretty meh race in DoW2 with Wraithguard being their only really strong unit. In fact, in the second game they are generally a lot less elite than at the tabletop.
** Tau Empire are the Rangers and Technical. They have a wide variety of units and require close management to utilize well. The Tau battlesuit units and vehicles are long range, but the kroot related units are good for melee. However the Tau also take a while to set up, needing different buildings to unlock different units. The home bases can be a tad vulnerable since they lack any kind of turret gun.
** The Imperial Guard is a combination of technical and ranger. Ranger in the sense that they have some of the best-ranged attacks, including by far the longest-ranged and all-around best artillery. Technical in that they have excellent special abilities, but their main units have lousy base stats.
** Sisters of Battle: Balanced and Gimmick. Their main fighting units are fairly versatile being able to use a variety of added on weapons. Their commander units can use special powers that use up the Faith resource, which is generated by Listening Posts with Holy Icon add-ons.
** Dark Eldar: Elite and Technical, much like the regular Eldar, but with an added Gimmick of being able to harvest purple soul essence from fallen enemies, which fuel special powers used by the Dark Eldar Archon Commander. Dark Eldar are a little bit more mobile with their builder units being able to drop a "seed" and allow the buildings to construct themselves.
** Tyranids are Spammers and the Gimmick faction (small units get buffs when paired with big ones).

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: ''Soulstorm'' featured the obsolete old-style Mandrakes which are a stark contrast to the current Mandrakes.
* AChatWithSatan: In the Chaos campaign for ''Retribution'', Eliphas talks with Ulkair (a [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Greater Daemon of]] [[ThePigPen Nurgle]]), offering it a chance to join their fight against the [[spoiler:now Khorne-aligned]] marines. Ulkair thinks this is a splendid idea.