Yes, that's a gracious response to a gift...

I like DOW a lot.  I only play SP, which isn't a great way to find out how balanced the factions are.  But I've had the best luck with the space/chaos marines (they are similar, not identical), and the worst luck with the imperial guard.  I've only really experimented with the five from the original/winter assault package.

DoW, the original, is a great game, even by today's standards it is a very good RTS, mared only by balance problems.  It was "my game" for probably two years.  See my Avatar.  Not to mention being a fun action-packed RTS, it nails the Warhammer 40K license with pitch-perfect accuracy. 

Back in the day, Relic Forums was one of the liveliest gaming forums I've ever participated in.  It was small enough that a sense of community could form, and there were a lot of fans there devoted to the game, and people got to know each other over time.  For the more elite crowd there was DoW Sanctuary which was just as lively.

DoW 2 makes me cry.  After playing both demos I didn't even buy that garbage.  The only thing they got right there was the Warhammer look and feel, though the original was still better.

Company of Heroes is okay but the controls really suck and you can't modify them (like with DoW2), and enough alright already with the World War 2 games--hey news flash: America Won!  Now lets move on okay?  Sadly, for DoW2 they just reskinned CoH.  The heavy emphasis on the cover mechanic, while fine for WW2, is inappropriate for Warhammer 40K.

http://www.gamereplays.org/soulstorm/portals.php?show=strategies&st=30

Here you go mate, great game you should really enjoy it. I played a fair whack this year and had a ball, it is really in the sweet spot for tactics and speed, provided you embrace the early game. Try and get a few mates to play with as then you can throw a few agreements into the mix which always helps to increase fun.

As for the OP, uberunits will no doubt disagree but I find the game balanced enough, some teams pwn others though this can be tempered by skill level. The common consensus on that site I just posted (other than "broken" should be used in every second post) is that the Eldar can't be stopped, particularly against crons (broken waaahh! etc...), but I played regularly with an Eldar player this year and found the games really enjoyable.

Anyways, good luck with it.

PS: Watching replays are by far the easiest way to learn the game, and unlike many games they're quite exciting to watch, especially when you get a handle on the tactics.

i agree as well.

I may have to dust off my DOW disks and try the mods

Dawn of War 2 expansion: Chaos rising is coming out in March.

Also DoW2 has been made a LOT better thru the patches since the beta. It is almost a completely different game. 

Of course... if you can't stand Company of Heroes which was Game of the Year in 2006 then I dunno what floats your boat. You'll probably even think StarCraft 2 stinks when it comes out. (wow.. just wow)

DOW after my humble opinion the best RTS out there. DOW2 comes not even close. Part of that is the HUUUGE coverage of armies a three-expansion-DOW offers. The other part has to do with getting spoiled by all this brutality (DOW is NOT for the faint of heart). Somehow, when i am playing other RTS titles i always think: "hmm, those guys take combat somehow not serious enough". In DOW combat is glorious, detailed and gory. From flamethrower squads to unit smashing droppods... its always destruction and mayhem on a furious level. If you see the marines pull out their daggers and engage in hand-to-hand combat you know what i am talking about.

If you want to learn factions i rcomend installing the skirmish AI mod. If you do not want to install and mods... you have to pick up this one. The game is simply not complete without it. DOW's AI is not that good. The mod changes this to "uses every ability and viable strategy" and makes it as perfect as it can get.

All factions are good lategame. Earlygame the imperials suffer a bit (especially if facing 'Crons) btu all in all its pretty balanced. All factions are modelled in astownishing detail. It comes down to what you LIKE to play with in the endgame:

Demons? Go Chaos.

Tanks? Go Imperial.

Heroes? Go Spacemarine.

Hightech/Monsters? Go Tau.

Terminators? Go Necron.

Angels? Go SOB.

'Fants? Go Orc.

Lasers? Go Eldar.

Ships? Go Dark Eldar.

I'd say going Imperial needs the most skill but on the other hand you really learn the game by playing a bit with 'em.

DoW 2's good..jsut..it's not a RTS as such: since there's no base building and troop production...plus there's only the goddamn Space Marines as a campaign.

Sadly they'll release the Chaos Space Marines (Wow what a "diffrence"..) first, instead of the Imperial Guard (my favourite race..which gets raped and unbalanced in DoW1 and expansions) which would be way mroe kick-ass than just another set of Space Marines, but evil this time!.....and even then you'll still be stuck playing the Blood Ravens against Chaos troops..not a big step foward.

As for DoW1..as said, it is one of the top RTS there is; it's bloody, violent, large scale, over the top...everything Warhammer 40k is really.  Dark Crusade's the best mod to me- Imperial Guard wise, the Ogryns are still classed as Deamons, and Chimera transports can carry 3 squads instead of 2, even the Ork Squiggoth is a Vehicle instead of a Deamon (or vise versa)

Soulstorm's only good for the SoB and Dark Eldars and flying vehicles (which actually all suck short of the Chaos one)

I know Relic patched this game ALOT for some reason, almost listening and doing everyhting the community was telling them- basically making a few races uber-powerful (Space Marines, Tau, Chaos, Necrons) while making others totally underdogs (Imperial Guard, Orks, Eldar).

Do note it's been a couple of years since I played the game..could have changed alot..and even then at the end I could take on a Tau army until Tier2 (then they went all badshit crazy with the Kroots.)

But yeah- get a mod if you want- I know in Basic DoW, the Imperial Guard don't have access to Flamers not Rocket Launchers (which sucks) and other details.

Need some stretegy for the Guard? Lemme know...it's the only race I play(ed)

Here's some detail about the races:

SpaceMarines: "FOR THE EMPEROR!!!"

• Powerful but few squad members makes your squad last longer
• Customizability to respond to every possible threat. The basic SpaceMarine squad is the epitome of this
• Standard yet got everything they need
• 3 heroes
• Sniper Scouts! 1 shot kills
  

Conclusion: A solid faction that is easy to learn & use.

Chaos SpaceMarines: "DEATH to the FALSE EMPEROR!"

• Tier 2 Predators! (Anti-infantry tank)
• Defiler! A vehicle that are good at 2 roles but which got moderate HP
• Obliterators! The endgame daemonic infantry that got multiple weapons effective against EVERYTHING!
• Daemon Prince! With a lategame tech, the Chaos Lord can transform into this monster

Conclusion: The basic Chaos SpaceMarine squads are less customizable then their emperorserving brethren and are a bit worse in ranged combat but better in melee. Some units will be a little harder to use correctly then their archenemies the SpaceMarines.

Orks: "Orks are made for figtin and winnin!"

• High damage output from all units
• Large basic squads but cheap
• The Basic shoota squad can get a powerful weapon early and has no setuptime!
• Flash Gitz! Tier 3 ranged troops with superior anti-infantry firepower
• Mad docs! Like SpaceMarine Apothecaries (healers) but these guys can plant bombs
• Killa Kans! Heavy walker vehicle and the only unit in the entire game except relic units to have HEAVY_HIGH armor!
• The strongest heroes DPS wise in melee and ranged combat combined!
• Funny talking! They sound the funniest of all races, that's guaranteed

Conclusion: Some weak units but some really strong ones with strong abilities. The heroes are powerhouses and got great abilities! The Killa Kan got the same armor type as relic units!

Eldar: <Insert random philosophical oneliner>

• Specialized squads (Dark Reapers & Warp Spiders are experts at ranged combat but fight like 5-year olds in melee)
• Fleet of Foot! This ability rewards players who are great at micromanagement and is the reason for Eldar domination
  
• Abilityheavy race. Their hero the FarSeer are the icon of this with 4 abilities. The 2th hero the Harlequin got 2 but they're very powerful
• Rangers! Infiltrated (stealthed) squad with light sniperrifles that devastates morale and do good damage vs infantry
• WarpSpiders! The Eldar tier 3 infantry squad got powerful anti-infantry weapons and also haywire bombs for use against vehicles and buildings
• 2 ranged damage and armor upgrades that affect ALL Eldar infantry enables a very easy upgrade path for Eldar units
• The Warp Prism is the best Eldar vehicle and except the anti-infantry scatterlaser it got a beam of destruction that fires every 5 seconds which disrupts infantry and also cuts through vehicles and buildings

Conclusion: The Eldar is called Space Elves for a good reason. They're the fastest race with Fleet of Foot and their speicalized squads are very powerful in their roles. They're easy to learn but incredibly hard to master due to the player controlling them needing to micromanage like a Korean StarCraft pro to unleash their full potential.

Tau: "For the Greater Good!"

• Specialized units that are either fast melee or (very) longrange shooters
  
• The Tau hero only got a ranged attack and the lowest HP but he can upgrade with several powerful ranged weapons to make him effective against everything and he also got great abilities.
• Get increased population limit by building research buildings. Makes it easier for inexperienced players to know when to tech up
• Vespids! This unique jumping hardcapped squad is great support and harassment
• Firewarriors! The basic Firewarrior got the longest rangeattack (with great damage!) of all infantry in the game

Conclusion: Powerful specialized squads and a very powerful hero that requires a great micromanager to really shine.

Necrons: <Silence>

• Unique economy. The Necrons rely only on power and can build as many generators as you want, but the price increases by 20 for each
• Most powerful basic unit. The Necron Warrior are good at both ranged and melee and are tough as nails. They're slow as molasses though. They got 2 upgrades that increses HP and ranged attack. After the 2nd upgrade they're as powerful as tier 3 infantry!
  
• Can possess enemy units except relic units. The Lord Destroyer can put units in statis and also possess them thus negating the enemy their best units
• Snowballing effect. The obelisks (Necrons listeningposts) raises the population cap, increasing your power for every one you take
• Tombspyders collect fallen Necrons and recycles them to fresh basic infantry of your choosing
• TWO super units and can choose from 3! The relic unit The Restored Monolith and the Necron which can transfrom into The Nightbringer or The Deciever
• The Necron Lord is the most powerful of all heroes. He have a decent ranged attack and a powerful melee attack but his abilities are what really destroys nearly all opposition. He also got lots of HP which increases with every monolith upgrade

Conclusion: At low to medium skilllvls the Necrons are unstoppable since the free basic Necron Warrior aided by the Necron Lord with all his abilites force the enemy to flee or die thus supporting the snowballing effect. A restored Monolith with the entire army supporting it including the Necron Lord is nigh impossible to stop for EVERYBODY! Your only hope is to raid his generators and have large amounts of anti-vehicle vehicles blasting the Monolith down to 2500 HP while having something that kills or ties up his antivehicle infantry.

Imperial Guard: "For Emperor, and Imperium!"

• Large and cheap customizable basic squad, but extremely weak
• Many upgrades for the basic Imperial Guard squad
• Choose from 3 squadleaders to enhance thier effectiveness in three ways
• Can train 9 squadleaders which can be used on their own
• Good selection of vehicles for any situation
• Unique builders that builds and repairs faster then other builders but are hardcapped at 3
• Unique buildingsystem that functions like tunnels in that you can transfer infantry from one building to nearly any other
• Basilisks have the longest range of any artillery in the game and can use special Earthshaker rounds that cost 200/200 each that is absolutely devastating. Basilisks are hardcapped at 3 but one Earthshaker round will destroy an entire infantry squad and three simultaneous Earthshaker rounds will destroy nearly any unit and it will certainly devastate a Necron army camped around its Restored Monolith
• The Baneblade is the second most useful relic unit second only to the Necron Restored Monolith

Conclusion: Infantryheavy army especially in the beginning with lots of tedious micromanaging of attaching leaders to squads. Weak basic unit but large numbers means that the squads effectiveness will go down very quickly. I like them for their tunnelsystem and vehicles though and so should you. It's also the only race with the longest artilley and the ability to fire Earthshaker rounds from their Basilisks mean that they are alone in having an easy time to destroy an endgame Necron army. Their relic unit, The BaneBlade is fun to use and very powerful since it's ranged.

Ok that's my own guide. There's plenty of things I haven't included like Chaos Khorne Berserkers, IG Sentinels and Heavy Weapon Teams but I had to keep the points for each race to like 7 so as to not make too many.

I see alot of Dawn of War II hate here.  I don`t get it, I love it.  I honestly think it`s the best RTS I`ve ever played.

I have the entire DoW1 series, I liked them.  IMO DoW2 is far superior.  To each their own I guess.  I really enjoyed the SP campaign, It was way better then vanilla DoW1`s campaign.  The key to the whole thing is how much I enjoy the MP.  I`m not a MP guy, DoW2 MP rocks.  I love the no base building, It`s all focused on unit tactic`s.  It`s excatly the kind the of thing I`ve been looking for.  I honestly think DoW2 is the best game I`ve bought this decade.  I bought the game right after the 1.8 patch, I don`t know what it was like before that.

I`ve gotten more play time and enjoyment from DoW2 then any other  game I can remember(Star Control2 is the only competition).  I`m not exagerating, I like it that much.  Steam tells me I`ve logged 220 hrs so far on DoW2.  That`s a pretty good return on the 30$ I paid for it.

I`m not trying to start a DoW1 Vs DoW2 war.  I`m just saying DoW2 is the best game purchase I`ve made in a long time.

Is that package with or without Soulstorm?

Because if it's with, learn to love the Dark Eldar. Learn to cherish the Dark Eldar.

Wyches and Dogs, supported by Scourges and a Dark Scythe on the side to go, please.

Remind me to not get you any presents.

THEN maybe we'll see the Tau or Necrons.