Also, which game gives the most variety of maps for single player skirmish? Thanks

Not sure if you are looking for single player campaign or the true single player campaign so...
For dow1, dark crusade got the best cmapaign and soulstorm is the best for pvp since it's more balanced, so soulstorm is also good for single player skirmish against ai for practice if that is what you wanted.

For dow2, the campaign in base game and chaos rising is better imo, and if you are looking for pvp or ai skirmish then retribution is for you.


The base campaign in dow 1 and winter assualt is also pretty good and it's a linear campaign, so it might not suit you if you are looking for "single player skirmish against AI"

Thanks for replying, I actually bought the DOW 1 combo for less than $10 , each game has single player skirmish maps against the AI, and even teams set up against the AI, almost 100 maps to choose from. Awesome!

In terms of AI difficulty DoW I isn't even on the same league as DoW II.

AI on DoW I with control point victory can be Starcraft-level difficult, annihilation victory is so-so (sometimes they are dumb af, sometimes they team up and focus on one base).

On DoW II i remember that I had to gimp my team in order to challenge myself (like 2 vs 3). That's somewhat expected though, as it's much easier to program effective AI on a purely RTS game (DoW I) than on a micromanagement-oriented game with less squads that have many active abilities (DoW II).

In terms of multiplayer DoW I has much better player representation ...on Steam.
Since GOG isn't cross compatible I doubt that there are many people online - and I believe the same applies to its sequel.

Campaign wise DoW I completely blows II out of the water.

Having said that, they are both great games - for different reasons (DoW I is pure RTS, while DoW II has many RPG elements which I like).

Buuuut if i had to pick only one, it'd be DoW I any day (especially since for whatever reason, DoW II has almost double the price of I on GOG).

Thanks a lot for your input.

Ευχαριστώ !
ΔΚ.

While the story or campaign itself isn't so great in any of the Dawn of War games but stand alone skirmishes are superb in SoulStorm. Compared to Dawn of War 2 the AI actively try to counter you rather than playing with pre-programed setups. Not just challenging but actually insanely good on higher difficulties.

Dawn of War 2 is more accessible for casual players and because of how simple to set an army up to do specific tasks it works great for what it is. But as a strategy game it is uncomparably less "customizable" than SoulStorm, giving you less options for unique/unorthodox tactics.

It is clear DoW2 was developed for multiplayer that works even with noticeable player-skill differences much like the modern fighting games. DoW1 is much more like the classic RTSs in that regard there is a certain indescribable wall between players and good players. The balance also revolve around this: optimized min-maxing is countered by surprise strategies and the chaotic surprises is countered by cold headed army optimalizations.

For singleplayer skirmishes I definitely recommend SoulStorm but it is certainly not that balanced or at least not so accessible for everyone when it comes to multiplayer. The campaign is probably better in DoW2 but personally I don't like its story.