Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

Real-Time Strategy is one of those genres that has been on the decline since the late 90′s. I mean that, not to imply that RTS games suck now, but there just aren’t as many of them as there were in the nineties when Starcraft had pretty much blown the door off what RTS games could be.

Dawn of War, the Warhammer 40,000 RTS game released by Relic (the guys that brought you the uber RTS Homeworld series) was released back in 2004 and is easily the best RTS game since Starcraft. Nothing else approaches it in terms of balance, gameplay, and overall look and feel.

Monday marked the release day for the second expansion in the Dawn of War series, titled Dark Crusade. This expansion adds two races, (making a grand total of seven!) the Tau Empire and the Necrons.

Unlike Winter Assault (the first expansion), you actually don’t need either of the previous games to enjoy this expansion. If you don’t own the other games, you can still play Dark Crusade, but you will only be able to play multiplayer using the two included races. If you do have the other games installed, you can enter your CD keys to unlock all of the races. Regardless, you can play as any race in the single-player campaign mode, even if Dark Crusade is your only Dawn of War game.

The single-player campaign mode will seem somewhat familiar to those who have played Starfleet Command’s “Metaverse” concept or Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires. The premise is that you move your forces around on a strategic map, and move to normal gameplay as you meet enemy forces and try to capture their territory.

All of the territories have persistent forces, so if someone attacks your previously captured areas, you’ll start with the exact same buildings and resources you had when the last battle ended. Each territory also provides various bonus units and resources to your armies. For instance, the highly-valued space port allows your army to move and attack any point on the map. This is particularly handy when you want to quickly pick up other key resources such as the province which allows you to move and attack TWICE per turn, instead of just once.

If you’ve played the other Dawn of War installments, you know what you’re getting with Dark Crusade. The unit models and animations for the Tau and Necrons are excellent, but may seem a little dated compared to Relic’s other recent RTS, Company of Heroes.

After playing several battles with the Tau and Necrons, I’m hard-pressed to come up with anything negative to say about this game. It’s everything I expected and more. If you like RTS games, there is no reason to pass this up (especially since it’s retailing for US$30). If you haven’t played RTS games since Starcraft or Warcraft III, Dawn of War offers many innovations to the genre (such as using critical locations instead of peon conga lines as the basic resource).

Dark Crusade overdelivers on what an expansion pack for an RTS should include. New races and new units for old races, new maps, a completely new (and extremely replayable) single-player experience… Color me impressed.

The Good: Dawn of War is the epitome of RTS gaming. And Dark Crusade is easily the epitome of what an expansion pack should offer.
The Bad: Uh… needs more cowbell?
The Ugly: The Tau allies, the Kroot and Vespid are kinda ugly. Other than that…