The Dawn of War series has continued to “show us how it's done” with their approach to tactical gameplay. The original Dawn of War series redefined large scale army battles by taking away much of the tedious resource gathering components of other RTS titles, but leaving in the meat of the gameplay: strategic control of battlefield objectives, and giant encouters between large numbers of foes.
Dawn of War II further refined this formula, making the battlefield more personal. The scale was trimmed down, and units were made more tactical; this was a marriage of Diablo-style gameplay with the now well bedded in strategic control RTS mechanic.
These two game types – DoW, and DoW II – provide a different and valid style of gaming.
Not content to sit on their laurels, the team have been hard at work expanding their DoW II game style. This expansion provides two essential components to your DoW II larder: a new race, and a new game type.
New races are always fun, but often lend to balance problems. The addition of Chaos seems more even-handed in this expansion, less prone to a war of escalating abilities and rebalancing.
The jewel in the crown however is the Last Stand game mechanic. At its core, this is a mix of Gears style Horde Mode, on top of an RTS mechanic. It's fun, it's addictive, and the nature of the gameplay means it's fun to play with friends or random strangers on the Internet. Further extension of the Diablo-style elements are here, with your commander units able to level up and keep their enhancements between game sessions.
Do yourself a favour and check it out :)