Interestingly, if you refrain from using Godhammer, it will accrue up to three “charges,” which power up his other abilities. Wielding his trusty Godhammer, he can also leaping great distances to send groups of foes reeling. Gabriel is capable of creating an AOE barrier that knocks nearby foes away while temporarily blocking incoming enemy fire. Along with Angelos, these elites have abilities that not only turn the tide of battles, but have interesting nuances and interactions to learn and exploit.Īs you’d expect, the preposterously resilient Assault Terminators can teleport directly into an enemy formation’s back line and wreak havoc with their Storm Hammers, which give them a special ability that can stun every enemy unit in an area around them. Accompanying him in the mission I played were an Assault Terminator Squad and the Titan-esque Imperial Knight, Solaria, who towers over every other unit on the battlefield. You’ll pick three from a pool of possible choices to take into battle, though during the campaign, one of those will always be Blood Raven Chapter Commander Gabriel Angelos.

None of that is counting any of the armored Elite units, which are a sort of mix between Dawn of War 2’s commanders and global abilities.

It lacks any direct attacks, but its rocket salvos can fire every 30 seconds, laying waste to wide swathes of enemy units from extremely long range. Dreadnoughts make their return, of course, while the Whirlwind acts as a sort of stand-in for the Company of Heroes Katyusha rocket truck. As a nice bonus, they can be outfitted with a Multi-melta to turn them into highly mobile tank killers to boot. Landspeeders are quick, deadly to enemy infantry, and capable of crossing gaps and other types of impassable terrain. In terms of armored units, there are simply more. While extremely beefy and hard to scratch, both Predators are more vulnerable when attacked from behind. The Predator Destructor wipes out infantry and light armor with its main autocannon and side-mounted heavy bolters, while the Predator Annihilator bristles with lascannons, making it more suited to engaging enemy heavy armor. In terms of armored units, though, there are simply more than in Dawn of War 2. Tactical Marines can be upgraded with either a flamer or plasma weapons, the latter of which are effective against heavy infantry, but will overheat during longer incursions. That’s not to say that unit customization is gone completely though. As an example, Scout squads with shotguns, proximity mines, and infiltration capabilities are a separate unit from the scout squad armed with sniper rifles. Some of that is because there are now separate units to represent different loadouts as opposed to highly customizable base units. Speaking of unit variety, based solely on my time with the Space Marines, there are definitely more tools in the tool box this time out.

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