Dawn of War
Dawn of War is a PC Real Time Strategy game set in the Warhammer 40k universe. As of the most recent expansion, Soulstorm, almost every playable army in the setting is present in the game in some form, with the notable exception of the Tyranids. Many popular stories and memes on /tg/, such as Love Can Bloom, have their origins in Dawn of War. Author C.S.Goto has written books about it. Apparently.
The best part of the series is widely held to be the narration, featuring lines delivered with apparently random emphasis and pauses. This sounds very grim and dark and is not at all ridiculous.
Well known characters from the games include:
- Farseer Caerys
- Farseer Macha
- Farseer Taldeer
- General Sturnn
- General Vance Stubbs
- The Harlequin
- Space Marine Brother-Captain Indrick Boreale
- The Vindicare Assassin
Games
The original Dawn of War release featured the Blood Ravens chapter of the Space Marines, led by Brother-Captain Gabriel Angelos, as they battle against an Ork WAAAGH on the planet of Tartarus. It is not long before the Eldar (led by Farseer Macha) and the Alpha Legion of the Chaos Space Marines (led by Lord Bale and the Chaos Sorcerer Sindri) show up, and as it turns out there's a demon imprisoned within an artifact on the planet that wants to use the bloodshed of the battle as a sacrifice so he may escape his prison. Spoilers, by the way.
Lord Bale is quite the irritable fellow and has little patience for Sindri's complex plans, frequently growling "SINDRIIII" at him in frustration.
Winter Assault
The Winter Assault expansion added the Imperial Guard as a playable army, and features two alternate campaigns that take place on the planet of Lorn V. It introduced Farseer Taldeer, General Sturnn, Ork Warboss Gorgutz 'Ead 'Unter, and the Chaos Lord Crull. Though the branching campaigns mean it is possible to achieve multiple endings, based on later games in the series, the canonical ending is probably that achieved by the Imperial Guard in the Order campaign.
Dark Crusade
Dark Crusade saw the addition of the Necrons and the Tau (led by Shas'O Kais), and was the first game in the series to drop the mission-based format of the previous singleplayer campaigns, instead adopting a Risk-esque strategic map where players were required to use their army to conquer the entire planet of Kronus and defeat all the other races present. Using the army to attack enemy-occupied territory resulted in playing a skirmish game against the AI, with the victor gaining (or retaining) the dispute territory.
Soulstorm
Soulstorm added the Dark Eldar and Sisters of Battle as playable races. Similar to Dark Crusade, the campaign takes place as a battle to control territories on the strategic map, but the fight now takes place over several planets in the Kaurava system, instead of a single planet as in previous games. It is unclear what, if any, continuity this follows from Dark Crusade.