Hidden on the snowy wastes of the war torn Loren V is a gigantic battle titan that would no doubt swing the tide of battle for anyone who controlled it. On the surface, the forces of Chaos and Orks roam, battling non-stop. Enter the Imperial Guard to reclaim the titan in the name of the emperor. Lingering in the shadows are the mysterious Eldar, who have bigger concerns. This is Warhammer, and the winter assault has started!

Winter Assault is the first expansion to last year's award-winning real-time strategy game, Dawn of War that takes place in the Games Workshop Warhammer 40,000 universe. Developed once again by Relic, Winter Assault adds the Imperial Guard into the mix, making a total of four factions for the whole game. They work alongside the Space Marines but don't appear to use power armor or mechs. Instead, they seem to use pretty plain fair with soldiers that wear pretty standard uniforms. Even the building animations, which are over-the-top for the Orks and Space Marines, are pretty ordinary for the Guard. An aircraft drops off a bunch of crates and some automated arms proceed to weld the parts together. This plainness disguises their underlying ruthlessness and their powerful abilities. Designed to play as a more defensive group than the other three, which are built for more aggressive tactics, the Imperial Guard is incredibly powerful and competes with the original three factions with no difficulty.

The great thing about the Imperial Guard is that they are very unique in comparison to the other three factions. Their tactics tend to center around using infantry for distraction while the very powerful tanks and artillery deliver the killing blow. The ruthlessness of these units can be seen immediately with the Commissar unit, a leader whose special ability is to execute one of his own units, therefore making the rest so afraid of him that they'll fight harder and overcome low morale. There is also a Psyker unit, which is a human psychic. Although not as powerful as the elder, the unit does some significant damage... however, he does have a slight chance of blowing himself up should his powers backfire. There is also an assassin unit that can kill units with one shot. The Imperial Guard may look plain, but they still pack a huge punch.

Perhaps the most impressive arsenal comes from the Imperial Guard vehicles. There is a flame thrower tank that has pretty decent armor, a standard tank and a bipedal laser mounted mech. The heavy artillery, known as the Basilisk, has tremendous range. When it is first introduced in the campaign mode, we find that it can fire clear across the whole map! The trade-off is that it has a long setup time before it fires and it needs a line of sight from other units, otherwise it won't shoot. It does very strong area damage, though it will still take a while before it destroys a building. It may sound like a cheap unit, but it requires a large amount or resources to build and maintain. Besides, the artillery isn't the thing to worry about. The biggest bad boy of the block is the Baneblade, which is literally a gigantic monster of a tank. It has 11 heavy guns and nearly impenetrable armor. The Eldar summon an avatar, Space Marines have their ultramarines, and Orks get their giant beast... the Imperial Guard have a giant tank that is pretty much its own army.

The rest of the factions also each get a brand new unit. Space Marines get a Chaplain, an ultramarine that boosts health regeneration of units. Chaos Marines get the Khorne Berzerker, Orks have the Mega Armoured Nobz, and the Eldar receive the Fire Dragon. As their names suggest, they are extreme doombringers that mow down infantry like they're nothing.

The story as described above starts off seeming ordinary, but then takes on some great twists that completely change things around. Unlike the original game, which centered specifically on the Space Marines, this story involves playing four factions with different points of view. In fact, the Space Marines are the only ones that aren't specifically included in the campaign this time, but are more of an extension to the Imperial Guard story. It's only fair, we suppose. It also brings a refreshing amount of new gameplay, since the factions are so different from one another. The Eldar, not being able to withstand as much damage as the Guard have to rely more on stealthy maneuvers than all-out assaults.

Unfortunately, it's not all goodness. The pathfinding issue that was prevalent in Dawn of War, where units would bunch up and get stuck around each other, is still evident in Winter Assault. Many of the maps have narrow paths, and units have a tendency to block each other off instead of making room for one another to attack targets. So, we constantly had a handful of squads who stood around and did nothing while those on the front lines were being decimated. There is also a slight delay in between issuing commands and unit responses, probably linked to the pathfinding issue, which can make fast-paced battles slightly more frustrating than it should be.

Winter Assault is a great expansion to the Warhammer real-time strategy universe. It has everything you could want, including a powerful new faction that requires new tactics to confront, new units, and a compelling story. While it's too bad some of the old problems still aren't quite fixed, this is still a great game with very animated graphics and plenty of violence. Winter Assault continues the great gameplay that was found in Dawn of War, so consider this your call to load up and fight in the name of the emperor!