Team Thudmeizer proudly presents the 13th Company Mod for Dawn of War : Soulstorm. The 13th are a lost Space Wolf Company that plunged into the warp chasing Abaddon during the Horus Heres yonly to re-emerge in normal space 10,000 years later. With very limited access to supplies they rely on cunning, infantry and Wulfen.
I have a question...
I say this mod is really fun! I like having few vehicles since it causes you to have a different plan of attack. I say it's pretty good for being a new one.
The little mod that could!
In a day and age where we are blessed to have many space marine races on offer for Dawn of War Soulstorm, it can be hard to stand out and make an impact. I'm more than happy to say that the Thirteenth Company mod does so in spades- by daring to be different in the face of other mods with bigger teams, this one has a great charm and really achieves its goal of making you feel like the ultimate space wolf badass when you actually pull off a genuine win.
How does it play?
The 13th company is, lorewise, a small elite group of space wolves who have had to adapt to overcome. In this mod you'll be leading them to cheese your opponent into death. 'Cheese?' you might say- but cheese is indeed what this mod is built for, and its beautiful. The space wolves are an almighty glass cannon that exist purely for the purposes of griefing the enemy every chance they have, as soon and as often as possible.
You start the game with a stolen hijacked chaos gate and a techmarine. This techmarine is a highly effective early game combatant that should supplement your forces in the field, deploying alongside either the terminator or wolf lord, a choice you should make immediately; you're only allowed one, and which you pick determines how your late game looks. Pick the terminator lord for a conventional terminator/armor push late game. Pick the wolf lord for a sizable midgame melee advantage and the ability to give chaos a taste of its own posessed medicine.
Either way, your lord deploys early and is meant to beat up and kill enemy early game commanders/do as much melee fighting as possible.
Grey slayers are your tac-marine equivalents that boast basic anti infantry weaponry and are essentially a cheaper, better, tactical marine squad with fewer members. They can lay traps (more on these soon) and use frag, melta, and SMOKE grenades. I'm emphasizing smoke grenades, because due to them having these, good micro will mean you will win most honest ranged fire fights against your early game adversaries, maybe even against the tau if cover is on your side.
As the game rolls on you'll get stormclaws (terminators and assault marines), long-fangs (ELITE devastators) and wulfen/wolves depending on your lord choice. Wulfen are basically posessed- even down to having the same model barring a few tweaks, and wolves are unique in that they gain strength when grouped and mobbed, possibly useful for swarm races. In general however, early game grey marine and long fangs will determine whether you'll get to enjoy most of these other units.
Immediately as you begin the match, deploy a chapter barracks to get your troops out, pick a lord, then get your second builder. From here, you need to fight smart and fast. Deploy quickly with the intent on taking territory and killing enemy troops. Once your done building 1 or 2 barracks, send the builders forward with the first wave. The builder's job is to lay mines when resources allow to annoy the enemy and soften them up, while also providing fire support to combat units. Ideally, you'll have a lord deployed early to counter enemy commanders and earl game melee specialists. If properly done, you'll have properly bullied the enemy into a submissive stance, allowing you to cap the field and occasionally deal with enemy task forces as you build up. Bear in mind, that your economy runs off of base structures, specifically barracks, HQ's, and armories- which is GREAT for you, as you needn't worry about map control at all save for denying it to the enemy.
Teching up will allow you to deal with enemy threats as he attempts to tech-race to stop you. Because of how straight forward you are, there are plenty of opportunities to grief and raid the enemy as you lay endless stretches of barbed wire and mines around the battlefield, perhaps even including a forward barracks. At any time, you can reinforce your units by using your chaos gate HQ to deep strike almost any aquad wherever you can see.
Naturally, if you lose this map control dance, if the enemy catches you unawares, gains the initiative, or kills your army, theres a very good chance you'll immediately lose. The 13th company is an all-in all or nothing faction, though late game research can make actually finding all your bases exceedingly annoying, as they'll be able to be stealthed by tier 2/3. Did I mention you can more or less build your stuff wherever you want? Because you can.
This is a mod designed to reward micro, cheese, rushes and aggression. It's bloody fun to play, and a difficult faction to master. Sadly, its a little light on units, and graphically its slightly inferior to some other mod releases- but given that this is release one, patches can smooth this over a great deal.
If you are a space wolf fan, play this mod. If you want to play a weird and different kind of space marine faction, play this mod. If you just want something different, play this mod.
Rating likely to rise with updates and new content.