Dawn of War: Campaign

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This article is part of the Dawn of War Player's Guide.
From RelicWiki

In the Dawn of War series of games, each installment has a campaign mode for those players who are interested in pursuing the single player aspect. A (spoiler heavy) compendium of dialog between characters in the campaigns can be found here.

Dawn of War

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In the original campaign of Dawn of War, you must lead Gabriel Angelos on an expedition across the planet Tartarus, seeking to discover a Chaos plot in the midst of an Ork invasion. Accompanying Gabriel is chapter librarian Isador Akios, who is a childhood friend and powerful psyker, and on occasion Carus Brom, an Imperial Colonel tasked with the defense of Tartarus. Inquisitor Mordecai Toth initially suspects Gabriel of being tainted by Chaos, since he had willingly put his home world of Cyrene to the torch, but later realizes it is Isador who has become corrupted. A fourth party to the events on Tartarus is the Eldar, who have sent farseer Macha of craftworld Biel-Tan to prevent the release of the Chaos daemon of the Maledictum. Seeking to gain favor with the dark gods, Lord Bale and Sorcerer Sindri Myr are trying to awaken the daemon, all while Warboss Orkamungus leads his Waagh! across the planet.

Spoilers end here.

Winter Assault

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In the Winter Assault campaign, General Sturnn of the Imperial Guard has been tasked with salvaging the Imperial Titan Dominatus discovered on the planet Lorn V with the aid of Space Marines of the Ultramarines chapter. However, Farseer Taldeer of Ullthwe Craftworld has foreseen that Necrons would soon awaken on that world and she must move to stop them. In addition to this, the Ork Warlord Gorgutz has chosen the planet as the site of his Waagh and the forces of Chaos are present, as well.

The campaign is divided into two halves, the Order and Disorder campaigns. In the Order Campaign, the player leads the Imperial Guard and Eldar forces to awaken the Titan and defeat the Necrons. In the Disorder Campaign, the player leads Chaos and Ork forces. The player is forced to change factions at certain points within missions and in later missions can change at will (that is, one can change from Eldar to Imperial guard and back, but not switch to Chaos or Ork).

Spoilers end here.

Dark Crusade

Metamap

In Dark Crusade, a new type of campaign known as a meta map campaign was created, different from the linear storyline of the previous two games. The meta map is a turn-based strategic map showing each of the seven races and the respective provinces under their control. The goal is to gain control over provinces by fighting for ownership of the territory and, ultimately, to annihilate all of the opposing factions.

By controlling certain territories, the player can gather planetary requisition at the beginning of each turn on the metamap. This requisition is distinct from that used in normal battles and is tracked separately. It is used to purchase special honor guard units to accompany the commander around the map or purchase garrison units to hold critical territories.

On easy difficulty, the AI opponents have just 25% of their usual health for all their units while the player has 250% health for theirs and starts with 600 planetary requisition. On normal difficulty, the AI has normal health and the player has 200% health and starts with 400 planetary requisition. On hard difficulty, both players have normal health and the player starts with just 200 planetary requisition.

Players-controlled provinces can be attacked by the AI-controlled factions, and the player may either auto-resolve the conflict or fight off the invaders. Auto-resolving is generally not recommended, as the player is far more likely to lose. Note that all player-built structures, except those immediately around the enemy base, are still present from when that province was conquered in the first place. This can make defensive battles particularly easy. Some players find it worthwhile to take and fully-fortify every point on the map before finally destroying the enemy stronghold (keeping the enemy 'pinned' with a large mass of troops just outside the base) and even build turrets or minefields outside the base to make early point-capture extremely difficult for the invading enemy. If this is done, a defensive battle can be won in a matter of minutes, allowing you to build a force and attack at your leisure. Also note that the base of the invader is usually in the same place as the original enemy, and if the enemy had two bases, the invader will have those two bases as well.

Special Territories

The following territories provide special bonuses to the faction who holds them. Some of these have special mission objectives that must be met to win the scenario. In addition, each race's stronghold will have its own particular objectives in addition to simply annihilating the enemy.

	Pavonis: Grants the Spaceport ability, allowing the player to launch attacks or move to any province except enemy strongholds. To win this scenario, you must locate six of ten Servitors scattered around the map and return them to your stronghold before your opponent.
	Eres Badlands: Grants the Fury ability, allowing the player to move or attack twice in one turn on the planetary map. To win this scenario, you must kill a certain number of enemy units before losing that same number of units. The number of units you must kill depends on the defending race and the difficulty level. You only have 30 minutes to complete your objective.
	Aceria Forest: Grants the Extra Manpower ability, increasing your starting and maximum squad cap by 4 and support cap by 2 on all maps. This is just a regular map.
	Vandean Coast: Grants the Industrial Production ability, granting you an extra 1000 requisition at the start of each battle (1000 power for Necrons). This scenario requires you to stockpile a large amount of power or completely wipe the map of all enemy units and buildings. The amount of power to collect depends on the difficulty level. You only have 20 minutes to complete one of the two objectives.
	Hyperion Peaks: Grants the Forward Base ability, allowing you to purchase buildings before starting an attack. This scenario requires you to find and destroy all enemy structures on the map. You are given a large initial force and resource pool but are only able to build Listening Posts (and Waaagh! Banners as Orks and Necron Warriors as Necrons).
	Ariel Highlands: Grants the Bulwark ability, which makes garrisoned units 50% cheaper but also return only 50% their usual return value. This is a regular map.

Commanders

Each race receives a special commander that leads their forces. This unit will always be present at the start of any attack you launch, as well as any defenses on the same or adjacent territory to your army's current location. If the commander is not automatically available at the start of battle (such as when defending a territory distant from your army) or is slain during the fight, he can be purchased from the appropriate building with all of his acquired wargear intact.

Wargear

During the course of the campaign you have the ability to earn wargear for your primary commander, improving his base stats or even granting himnew abilities. In order to earn wargear, you must achieve one of the following goals during a battle. Although you can earn multiple pieces of wargear in a single battle by meeting multiple wargear requirements, each requirement can only be achieved once. See each commander's page for a list of the specific wargear that can be earned for that race. Wargear effects that are applied globally (such as Lukas Alexander's Governer's Raiment) persist even if the commander is slain.

1 Conquest
5 Conquests
15 Conquests
2000 kills
5000 kills
1 Defense
3 Defenses
5 Defenses
3-to-1 kill ratio
3 enemy factions defeated

Conquests are earned for taking over an enemy-held territory. Kills are the total kills inflicted by your forces throughout the whole of the campaign and are not specific to the enemies personally slain by your commander. Defenses are earned by personally leading your forces in the defense of one of your territories and cannot be earned by letting the computer automatically defend the territory. The 3-to-1 kill ratio also requires a minimum of 200 kills during the battle. Defeating enemy factions requires that you personally conquer the race's stronghold, not just that an AI player defeats the race.

Honor Guard

Each territory that is neither a stronghold nor one of the special territories listed above grants an honor guard unit. These special squads and vehicles form a cadre that follows the commander around the map, allowing a player to rush an enemy base very quickly in later stages of the campaign. Honor guard units are purchased with planetary requisition and remain with the commander until slain. Strangely, honor guard commanders (Commissar, Librarian, etc.) must be repurchased if attached to a squad at the end of a mission.

Most races receive squads of honor guard troops, but Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines receive individual veterans. Honor guard units do not use squad or vehicle cap, but require requisition and power to reinforce. The AI will receive honor guard units not available to a human player, such as Grey Knights for Space Marines. Fortunately, the AI honor guard is entirely comprised of regular units rather than the super powered units available to the player.

Soulstorm

In Soulstorm nine factions battle for control of the Kaurava System, a system on whose edge a Warp Storm has arrived. Each faction's motivation for fighting is listed below.

Space Marines - They have come to fight the enemies of the Emperor. Of particular interest to the Space Marines is eradicating the Orks that have long persisted on Kaurava II and defeating their ancient enemy, the forces of Chaos.
Chaos - They either came due to the presence of the Warp Storm or created the Warp Storm as part of an attack plan.
Eldar - They have come in response to the Necron awakening. They will defeat the Necrons and any that stand in the way of this goal.
Orks - The Orks have always existed on Kaurava II, and Warlord Gorgutz has come to lead them in a good fight.
Imperial Guard - As the Kaurava System is part the Imperium, it is their duty to protect it for the God-Emperor.
Necrons - Awakened from their slumber on the planet of Kaurava III by the Warp Storm.
Tau - The Tau seek to discover how to stop the Warp Storm before it can threaten their Empire, as well as bring the Kaurava System into the fold of the Greater Good.
Dark Eldar - Like carrion crows, the Dark Eldar descend on the battlefield to claim the spoils of war from the preoccupied combatants. Blood, slaves, and souls will all be claimed to slake the Thirst of these wicked raiders.
Sisters of Battle - Fanatical in their worship, they see all the other factions as heretics unworthy of the God-Emperor. With holy fire and unwavering devotion they will cleanse the Kaurava System.