There's really only one custom AI out there for this game, and its this one: the Dawn of Skirmish AI. This is a Skirmish AI upgrade that improves the standard "substandard" computer players in Skirmish and Multiplayer games, by AI maestro thudmeizer and his team. For those who have quickly learnt how to flatten the internal AI's and need a challenge, or at least some half basic training before jumping into the zoo Online, this is almost a mandatory install. Its pretty damn good - making Skirmish almost an end in itself, and worthy as an Online training tool, both for single and team gaming. In fact, its so damn good the thing can actually "dance" its own units, almost like a competent human player. Its an excellent tool for practising your team work with your mates, without having to play pot luck with droppers or griefers Online. Opposing teams of AI's certainly give you a run for your money - and even assist each other, even donating resources to each other when necessary! However, they're not the best team players, so teaming up with one yourself can lead to mixed results.

Still, if you need to pad out a odd numbered multiplayer game with an AI, the Dawn of Skirmish AI is far better than nothing. This will only work if all players have the same version of the AI mod installed and have activated it in the Games Manager. It installs as a separate mod, but doesn't actually change any game values or settings - so you can replay Dawn of Skirmish recorded games within the normal WA and DC game and vice versa. You will have to copy your army colour schemes to the dowai folder in your game Profile if you want to use them.

Old versions: 1.95 was exclusively for Winter Assault version 1.51 only. Dawn of Skirmish was also the official AI for a number of custom mods out there including DoWPro and Fairness balancing mods. 1.4 was the last version for the original Dawn of War.

Version 2.30 is exclusively for Dark Crusade. It now includes provisions for the Heroes Special mod. Go bananas.

This is a major fan built single player campaign. In W40K game lore, the Horus Heresy was the big event that saw the creation of the Chaos Marines. A number of devout Space Marine chapters betrayed the Emperor, and plunging the Human Imperium into a tea spilling, scone throwing conflict of darkly gothic, galaxy spanning proportions. Most of the mod's changes seem to be in armour types for the Space Marines (before they became Chaos Marine chapters) reverting back to older, more "primitive" designs and some distinctive "chicken beak" helmets found early on in W40K game history. You can read up on the original RelicNews Forum's starting thread.

It's produced a second demo.

This is quite a change from the regular game. For a start, line of sight plays a big part and for once, you simply can't shoot through things as though they're not there. Your squad members and the the claustrophobic map features restrict lines of fire, and while you might play a top down view, you can only see what your squad can see.

You start with a squad of five Terminators, and these must last you the duration of the mission. You get a leader with a couple of useful spells, two regular Termies with their standard issue Storm Bolters, one with a long barrelled Autocannon for ranged fire, and the other who is effectively unarmed except for a powerful flamethrower that has a strict number of uses. In the cramped and confined Space Hulk maps, there is barely enough room for two Terminators to squeeze past each; arranging your guys and using their respective strengths in the right place and time is what Space Hulk is all about. It's highly strategic. War's slightly less than optimal path finding trips you up a lot, and your men will either not move or mysteriously stop en route once they've worked out their path is blocked. Or worse - stroll into a blazing fireball and die in a second.

Current version: Space Hulk Co-op: 1.41 Release. This is the last version, compatible with Winter Assault 1.4. While the game features promised a twelve part single player campaign, only Co-Op mode is present in this release. This is hardly a problem: simply load up each of the Campaign maps in Skirmish and make yourself the only human player. At the moment it can only handle one victory condition at a time, and you must set all starting positions to be non-random, and make the AI enemy team slot 2 in order for it to all work properly.

Under the 1.5x patches, the Space Hulk loader insists on a CD-ROM being present, but if you use DoW's internal Game Manager you can avoid this issue. Its a cool little mod, and while I've only played singleplayer it looks like an solid co-op game.

Its not often you see a sequel for a custom modification. This starts where Space Hulk 1 left off. The results are singularly impressive! It adds a few extra features, and feels a slicker than before.

Current version: Space Hulk 2: v1.01. Like its predecessor, it comes complete with a full twelve level single player campaign to go with it that you can only access from the Skirmish Menu. Activating the Tutorial will only cause the mod to crash. Space Hulk only works with Winter Assault. As before, it can only handle one victory condition at a time, starting positions must be non-Random, and the enemy AI needs team slot 2 in order for it to work properly. Its well worth the time and attention.