Dawn of War: Definitive Edition Beginner's Guide: Which Faction to Pick and Which Campaign to Play First

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War is the real-time strategy game that got a whole generation into 40K, and the Definitive Edition makes it easy to play on a modern PC. It's also a lot to take in: four campaigns and nine factions. This guide covers what you get, how the basics work, which faction to start with, and the best order to play the campaigns. No big story spoilers.

What's in the Definitive Edition

• Released: August 14, 2025, on PC (Steam and GOG), by Relic Entertainment.
• Everything in one package: the original Dawn of War plus all three expansions, Winter Assault, Dark Crusade and Soulstorm. That's 4 campaigns and 9 playable factions.
• What's improved: 4K support, upscaled textures, better lighting and shadows, a camera that shows more of the battlefield, a widescreen interface, smarter unit pathfinding and better handling of large armies.
• Mods still work: the game moved to 64-bit while keeping support for the community's huge library of mods.
• Price: it launched at $29.99 USD, with a 30% discount for players who already owned the older Anniversary Edition on Steam or GOG.

The basics in 60 seconds

• Requisition is your main resource, and you get it by capturing points on the map: Strategic Points and Relics. More points means a bigger income, so expanding early is the biggest beginner lesson.
• Relics take longer to capture, but you need one to build your most powerful units. Always fight for them.
• Build Listening Posts on the points you capture. They protect the point from being taken back and boost your income.
• Power is your second resource. You make it with your faction's generator buildings, and you'll need lots of it for vehicles and upgrades later.
• Squads, not single soldiers: you build squads, then reinforce them and add upgrades or leaders. Keep reinforcing instead of letting squads die out.
• Morale matters: units under heavy fire can break and fight badly. Pulling a broken squad back is often smarter than throwing it away.

Which faction should you start with?

All nine factions are fun, but some are much easier to learn than others. Here's a quick guide for beginners:

Easiest to start with

• Space Marines: the best place to start. Tough, flexible squads that are good at almost everything, and the original campaign is basically a long tutorial for them.
• Imperial Guard: lots of cheaper soldiers backed by powerful tanks. Forgiving, and great if you like big armies. Added in Winter Assault.
• Chaos: the dark mirror of the Space Marines, more aggressive and great if you just want to attack.

A bit more to learn

• Orks: huge, cheap mobs and loud fun, but your army size depends on building Waaagh! Banners, so you have to manage that as you grow.
• Tau Empire: deadly at range but weak up close. Keep the enemy at a distance and you win. Added in Dark Crusade.
• Necrons: slow, durable and different: their economy works differently from the other armies, and their units can get back up after being killed. Added in Dark Crusade.

For when you know the game

• Eldar: fast and powerful but fragile. Built for hit-and-run, so mistakes get punished.
• Sisters of Battle: use an extra resource called Faith to power their special abilities. Added in Soulstorm.
• Dark Eldar: harvest Soul Essence from the dead to fuel their powers. Added in Soulstorm.

Which campaign should you play first?

Play them in release order. Each one teaches you a bit more and opens up more factions:

1. Dawn of War (the original): on the planet Tartarus, you lead Captain Gabriel Angelos and the Space Marines of the Blood Ravens chapter. It's a linear story campaign, 11 missions long, and the best introduction to the game.
2. Winter Assault: on the frozen world of Lorn V, where an Imperial Guard force under General Sturnn tries to recover a fallen Titan. The campaign has two sides: Order (Imperial Guard and Eldar) and Disorder (Chaos and Orks).
3. Dark Crusade: on the planet Kronus, and a big change. Instead of a fixed story, you pick one of seven factions and conquer a world map territory by territory, with each faction's own stronghold missions. The Space Marines here are led by Captain Davian Thule.
4. Soulstorm: the same kind of map campaign, but bigger: nine factions fight across the four worlds of the Kaurava system. The Blood Ravens are led by Captain Indrick Boreale.

Tip: for your first Dark Crusade or Soulstorm run, pick the faction you enjoyed most in skirmish. These campaigns are long, and you'll play the same army all the way through.

Beginner mistakes to avoid

• Turtling in your base. The AI grabs map points fast. Send your first units out to capture points right away.
• Forgetting Listening Posts. An unprotected point is free income for your enemy.
• Ignoring Relics. Without one, you can't build your strongest units.
• Letting squads die out. Reinforcing a damaged squad is usually cheaper than building a new one.
• Starting with the hardest factions. Learn the game with Space Marines or the Imperial Guard first, then try Eldar or Dark Eldar.

My take

I'm a 40K tabletop player, and Dawn of War is still the best way to see 40K come alive on a screen. Start with the Space Marine campaign on Tartarus, get used to grabbing points early, then dive into Dark Crusade for the replay value. Which faction was your first in Dawn of War?