Filthy Casual here. So far I've only played the
'Dark Crusade' &
'Soulstorm' expansions of the first
'Dawn of War'. I'm more of a defensive player, so I loved the Tau Empire. Yes, there was the Kroot subfaction in that civilization, pretty good for close encounters I musy say, but the XV88 Broadside Battlesuit was a dream come true for me. That being said, I only dared to play myself offensively with the Necrons. I mean Gosh, how hard to kill they are
Troops slowly advanced across the map, enduring enemy fire until they reached hand-to-hand combat. I heard there were some nice mods of the game, but I never tried them.
I didn't play
'Dawn of War ll', but I heard that it's more tactical,
more oriented to the micro than macromanagement, since it doesn't allow you to build a complete base. You must pass by skirmishers while controlling small armies. I read that it was more similar to the
'Company of Heroes' games series that were made by the same studio. Undoubtedly the novelties were the Tyranids.
Btw, I heard there's a game on the way. it's not 40k though.