Dawn of War: Soulstorm is the third addition to the Dawn of War RTS franchise. It is a stand-alone expansion, featuring two new factions: The Dark Eldar, and Sisters of Battle.
Publisher: THQ
Developer: Relic/Iron Lore
Release Date: 4 March, 2008 (worldwide)
Factions: 2 stand-alone, 9 total
Read full press releaseDark Eldar
In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000, the Dark Eldar are a Kindred of the Eldar, an ancient and advanced race of elf-like humanoids. Their armies usually have the advantages of speed, though they are often lacking in resilience. They are the thematic equivalent of the Warhammer Fantasy Dark Elves, and indeed Dark Elves in general. The Dark Eldar revel in piracy, enslavement and torture, and are sadistic in the extreme. Dark Eldar armies make use of various anti-gravity skimmers such as Raiders and Ravagers to launch high speed attacks. They strike with little or no warning, using an interdimensional labyrinth known as the Webway to traverse the galaxy safely and far more quickly than most races are able to with their Warp jumps.
The Dark Eldar are unique amongst the Warhammer 40,000 factions in the sense that they do not occupy many planets, but rather one dark city - Commorragh. They are mainly pirates, though are sometimes used as mercenaries.
Dark Eldar, like most Eldar Kindreds, make use of advanced technology, including anti-gravity devices, dark matter (in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, something more akin to antimatter) weaponry, nanotechnology and psychic artifacts. While Dark Eldar do make use of psychic devices, they do not use psychic powers themselves. Psykers are treated as playthings in Commorragh, and given the twisted sadistic nature of the Dark Eldar, this necessarily involves pain and torment for the psyker.
Games Workshop decided to make the Dark Eldar as a separate army, after it became fairly common to see gamers collect "Dark Eldar" armies, which are total conversions/customizations of Eldar miniatures while still retaining the standard Eldar rules. It was also relatively convenient to add the Dark Eldar to the existing Eldar storyline without any conflict, right at the catastrophe that destroyed the Eldar homeworld.
Sisters of Battle
In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000, the Sisters of Battle, also known as the Orders Militant of the Adepta Sororitas (often mislabeled as Adeptus Sororitas), are the female warriors belonging to the Ecclesiarchy, the religious arm of the Imperial government also known as the Adeptus Ministorum, and devotedly serve the God-Emperor. Where as the Adeptus Arbites serve as the enforcers of Emperor's Law, the Sisters of Battle serve to enforce the Imperial religion, seeking out and destroying heretics that defy the Emperor's Will.
They were officially founded in 36th Millennium by the Ecclesiarch Alexis XXII as Ordes Militant. Originally, they were their own army, but, like the Grey Knights, the Sisters of Battle were joined by the Inquisition and given new allies for their army. They have forged particularly close ties to a part of the Imperial Inquisition, the Ordo Hereticus or "Witch Hunters", which is tasked to hunt down and destroy heretics and unsanctioned psychics (commonly known as "rogue psykers" or "witches"). Together, the Sisters of Battle and the Ordo Hereticus gained a new rulebook: Codex Witch Hunters.
Features
Stand-alone expansion packDawn of War: Soulstorm does not require ownership of the previous Dawn of War games to play. Players will have access to all nine factions for the campaign and singleplayer skirmish, but will be limited to the two new factions for online multiplayer.
Two new factionsThe Dark Eldar and Sisters of Battle will bring the total number of factions in the Dawn of War franchise to nine. In addition, the Dark Eldar will introduce flying units, a first for the series.
A more expansive singleplayer experienceIn Dark Crusade, players had to conquer an entire planet. In Soulstorm, there will be four planets and three moons to conquer.
Persistent multiplayer achievementsPlayers can earn experience and unlock awards and medals for achieving specific goals. These awards will not affect gameplay.
Hardware requirements for Dawn of War: Soulstorm
Minimum Requirements:1.4GHz Pentium III or equivalent AMD Athlon XP processor or equivalent
256MB RAM
4X CD-ROM
1800MB hard drive space
Recommended Requirements:2.2GHz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent
512 MB RAM
GeForce 3, ATI Radeon 8500 or equivalent with 64MB of Video RAM