Replayable conquest campaign
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews
“whatever you build when attacking on a region map stays when defending that region map”
Steam review · 3.1 h played ↗
Warhammer® 40,000: Dawn of War® - Dark Crusade
Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.
Overwhelmingly PositiveOverwhelmingly Positive · 96%Relic Entertainment2007RTS · Base Building · Strategy
The verdict
A classic 40k RTS with seven factions and a Risk-style conquest campaign that is still fun for fans. Skip it if you want a story campaign or dislike cheating, rushing AI and clunky pathfinding.
Great for
RTS and Warhammer 40k fans who enjoy replayable conquest campaigns and trying many factions
Main risk
No story campaign, just repeated skirmishes against a cheating, rushing AI
What players love
Timeless classic that still holds up
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews
“it still holds up in 2026 as one of the best warhammer 40k game ever made”
Steam review · 120.1 h played ↗
Seven distinct factions
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews
“Seven playable factions, each with their own stronghold mission, personality, and strategy, make this one of the most replayable RTS games ever made.”
Steam review · 230.8 h played ↗
Nostalgic 40k atmosphere and gore
Mentioned in ~1 in 9 positive reviews
“Still pleasant graphics with juicy effects, a sea of corpses and epic bloody entrails of orks on chainswords.”
Steam review · translated · 17.5 h played ↗
Great fast combat and base building
Mentioned in ~1 in 14 positive reviews
“it's fast enough when it comes to base building, focussing more primarily on combat than other rts titles I'm used to”
Steam review · 8.4 h played ↗
Strong modding community
Mentioned in ~1 in 21 positive reviews
“the modding scene is awesome too”
Steam review · 434.4 h played ↗
What players complain about
Cheating, overwhelming AI and harsh difficulty
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 negative reviews
“Enemy has unlimited resources from the get go.”
Steam review · 146.9 h played ↗
Conquest mode replaces story campaign
Mentioned in ~1 in 6 negative reviews
“The "campaigns" here are essentially RISK, you don't follow a story.”
Steam review · 9.7 h played ↗
Crashes and save problems
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews
“Now it's just 90% crashes, 5% loading screens and 5% actual gameplay.”
Steam review · 14 h played ↗
Terrible pathfinding and clunky controls
Mentioned in ~1 in 9 negative reviews
“pathfinding is so awfully atrocious to the point where game is nearly unplayable”
Steam review · 4.5 h played ↗
LAN removed and locked races online
Mentioned in ~1 in 11 negative reviews
“ready to play LAN and the LAN option is gone”
Steam review · 5 h played ↗
Poor faction balance
Mentioned in ~1 in 11 negative reviews
“The Necrons, Chaos, and Orks are way to OP as they build a huge army which is very hard to destroy.”
Steam review · 28.2 h played ↗
System requirements
From the Steam store page
Steam Deck: Playable
Steam doesn’t list requirements for this game.
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