Dawn of W40K (DoW40K: formerly known as the Dawn of War Rebirth Mod. This is an attempt to adjust the game towards something as close to the original tabletop rules (a.k.a. "TT") as possible. Old figurine painting tabletop fans generally seem to have issues with the liberties Relic took interpreting the game to a real time format. At the very least, you can think of this as a "hardcore" version of Dawn of War. Apart from adopting the old TT philosophies, this mod has also been tempered by community feedback.

The turn based rules of the tabletop could often see a battle resolved by barely half a dozen turns, but DoW40K still makes use of the real time DoW game engine. The unit line-up is still based on the current game codices. Dice rolls, equivalent health points, cost, etc have been translated directly off the tabletop using the cost of units. Prices give you a good idea of just how well they perform: a basic Marine squad costs 300 Req to buy and 75 to reinforce; but a Terminator squad is 420 (for a starting squad of two - and 200 each to reinforce!) while a Dreadnought is 545. All the weapons have been rationalised across the board: that is, a bolter is a bolter is a bolter in this mod. Unlike the similar looking weaponry in DoW and WA that all perform wildly differently, if you see a bolter in the hands of a Scout, a Space Marine, or a Chaos Marine, you can be sure they all do exactly the same thing and have the same stats.

While for Winter Assault only, this looks like it started from the original Dawn of War. However, its economy is radically different from either. Requisition is used almost exclusively on units and heavy weapons, while power is reserved entirely for teching and buildings. Building up to a high end force takes quite a bit of effort and a fair bit of time. Reinforcing has been modified as well: overwatching ceases the moment a squad is in battle, and only resumes when they're well clear of it. This alone changes the whole dynamic of the mod compared to many others. Numbers count, as does a little bit of planning and common sense. If you haven't built up a sizeable force, you'll get eaten alive in the fight.

Hard counters abound. While the cost of a unit gives you an idea how useful it is, it can all but vanish in a few seconds if the right counters are used against it. Your tactics are also going to make you or break you.

Vehicles have been scaled up to "realistic" sizes, take up one Vehicle Cap point each - but you only get five of them. Each vehicle is a solid workhorse in its own right, and even light units like Vypers and Landspeeders look formidable.

Its a good little production, and eminently playable. It even has its own IRC channel for hosting multiplayer games. Current version: beta4 (v.99).

This is the next version of the Dawn of W40K mod, applied to the Dark Crusade expansion. The same design logic and sensibilities will be applied to the Necrons and the Tau races as the originals were in the first mod. A release was tentatively scheduled for June 2007, but there's nothing to see yet.

DCPro has superceded the classic DoWPro mod.

Current version: 1.98 alpha. DCPro picks up its version numbering where DoWPro left off. At this stage, its still in alpha and no public release is available.

Unhappy with the state of the original game under the old 1.3 patch, player Korbah began his own set of game balance changes for Dawn of War. Actually, he went further than that: he was convinced DoW's game balance was completely broken, and rebalanced it from scratch. The idea was to adjust and tweak unit stats so to maximize strategic options for "pro" players high up on the Automatch ladder. No unit or weapon or game feature has been left untouched. Total Annihilation fans might see some similarities here: DowPro works as an alternative to Dawn of War in the same way as the ÜberHack worked as an alternative to Total Annihilation. The "Pro" these days is an apt description of the current state of the mod itself: this is aimed for high level players, but you'll find its still accessible to those starting out. In a couple of words: pretty awesome. While it uses the Dawn of Skirmish AI, its not intended to be used with AI's: this mod is balanced for high level competitive play between human players.

If you ever played the original Dawn of War before the Winter Assault expansion, then you'll see where DowPro is coming from. At first glance it feels like the pre-expansion game. Many of the detailed features that disappeared when Winter Assault "streamlined" them (i.e. dumbed down in the eyes of some) and "opened out" (i.e. made too accessible for the tourists in the eyes of others) the game. The idea that a relative newcomer might be able to use the game interface to "outplay" an experienced player is anathema in competitive Ladder circles. However, the Imperial Guard, a Winter Assault army, have been seamlessly blended into the mod, so they too are as complex and interesting to play as the original armies. Chaos gets all its old heavy weapons back, Ork regains all its old techs and upgrades; and Eldar's Aspect Warriors have returned to their old specialist roles. Along the way, DowPro incorporates subtle little graphical touches: most of the armies now have randomised heads and bodies for infantry, and parts of the Steel Legion mod are being incorporated into the Imperial Guard.

DowPro has (or had, pre- Dark Crusade) become a fully fledged alternative to the regular game. Many of the alterations address common multiplayer tactics, modify stats, and add a number of restrictions: strict unit caps for advanced units, no build auras around Critical Locations, and other checks.

Version 1.5 and onwards were designed to work for Winter Assault and made full use of the excellent Dawn of Skirmish AI. This was a slick, professionally produced mod; while the authors can seem almost fanatically one eyed about it sometimes, its not without good cause. If you were even slightly put out by some aspects of the official game and expansion, then there's a good chance that DowPro will more than fix those grizzles. Be warned though, it is a hard core version of the game.

Last version: 1.6. This is a DoWSanctuary forum thread, which you will have to register with to even see the page. (Don't worry, DoWS is mostly harmless). The installer is slick and problem free; it also give you the option to uninstall as well. This version now has its own DowPro Map Pack - which you can use in Automatch playing the DoWPro mod.

The DowPro mod has been superceded by the DCPro mod, incorporating Dark Crusade's Tau and Necrons.

The DoWPro.net site is also down temporarily. In the meantime, try this temporary, alternative link.

See also:

DoWSanctuary forums and replays.

DoWPro's own IRC chat channel: irc.quakenet.org #dowpro. Instructions on how to use IRC and get there can be found here (temporary link);

A continuation of the Fairness Mod, which has been canned with the arrival of the 1.5x patches. While the original Fairness mod went bananas and pretty much began to change everything in the game, Fairness 2 will only use "a feather touch to rebalancing the game this time around." Its biggest feature to date has been changes to how the close combat system works. Melee now plays a bigger part of gameplay. Current version: 0.3.

For those who wish to cram as much into their single player Skirmish game as possible, this mod does exactly as it says: all units are shrunk to half size and kept on the same old maps. This is expressly designed for massive scale battles, with multiple God units, and swarms of regulars. This is apparently compatible with the Dawn of Skirmish AI mod. You can track it's progress at its latest RelicNews forum thread.

Current version for Dark Crusade: 1.2DC. Old version for DoW 1.4: 1.14. I'm not sure if there was ever a Winter Assault version.

It generally peps up most of the original game's existing features. Building, reinforcing and capping has been sped up, weapon and visual ranges increased and many of the hand driven spells and effects (including overwatch) have been automated by default. It has other interesting changes too: making use of elevation lets your squads see further, and artillery that fires at the furthermost units first, preventing your front line troops from being targeted

This is not a mod that is likely to be enjoyed by serious Standard game players or anyone on Automatch who feels precious about their micro skills. It feels designed for Quickstart, actually. It eliminates a lot of fine control, constantly overrides Overwatch orders (unless globally paused), and sends broken squads running back to the nearest build to garrison. With build and capture times shrunk, range and line of sight extended, IG and Ork can spread across a large map like the Plague, even bombarding enemy bases with rockets from the middle of the map.

This creates its own kind of turtling game though; and as a sand boxing mod, its great fun. However, if you're dedicated to "proper" play or hate Quickstart, Heroes could very easily drive you up the wall. As the readme says, it does force you think in big picture terms.

Current version: v2. This has been replaced by the Heroes Special Mod for Dark Crusade.

Current version: v2.3

Quadruples the squad limit, triples the vehicle cap, makes everything cheaper, faster to build and inflict more damage. Basically, another turbo charged version of the original game. See also: modDATABASE entry. This is not compatible with any DoW patches before 1.3.

Triples the unit limit, and adds the Imperial Guard from the single player campaign to your build. Current Dawn of War version: 2.1; Winter Assault version: Beta Revision 3. There's a third mod version in this lot: Total War: Armageddon. This version is trying to amalgamate a number of different race mods (e.g. Tau, Tyranids, etc.) so they can all be played together.

I think its a fledgling Terminator (as in the T2 Arnie movie) total conversion. Its in its very early days by the looks, with very little to show - not even a FAQ. Hmm. The modder has also started a Colonial Marines Mod, based on the ALIEN series of films.