Somebody Tell Me About DoW2 Retail!

[Minischoles]

Finally got this, and its stupidly easy. My marines and Avitus basically sat back most missions as my commander and the melee marines ran around killing everything in sight. I literally had them charging Carnifex and Eldar tanks and meleeing them to death in every mission. The Calderis Banner healing as well as rallying is massively overpowered, think I used like 6 medpacks the entire game.
I barely used Cyrus and Davian Thule, mainly because Cyrus sucks, and Thule takes far too much damage and requires me wasting an equipment slot on the repair packs for him. I have to agree that the balance is hilariously broken, having my Force Commander running up to tanks and smashing them, or up against huge Tyrannid monsters with thousands of HP with only 800 himself and winning everytime very rapidly gets boring.
I did manage to find a use for the Devastators actually, theres a gun you get early on that gives like 11% chance on knockback, which in this game translates to 'knockback almost constantly'.

And personally, I kinda preferred the DOW1 approach where it felt like you were commanding thousands upon thousands of Space Marines facing off against an enemy with as many numbers as you. Limiting the number of squads and the numbers they have in them IMO goes against the whole 40k idea of massive armies clashing against each other.
And MP is just boring. You never get much of a chance to upgrade your hero to any decent levels before you're just being zerged.

[Mr. Coffee]

Try that mod I linked to, New Jack. It ups the strength of the badguys a good bit, especially on the harder difficulty settings.

Been playing with the Brother's of the Fourth mod some more and fun things I'm finding out...

1. Each level you advance you gain a greater number of points to put into your stats, eventually by level 20 your characters are all stat maxed. Also, the different stats all have higher maximums. Sounds like it makes things over powered, but you're going to need it...

2. You get Razorback and Predator tank drop beacons for your FC. Great fun to drop one right in a mass of badguys, squishes the hell out of everything, destroys building and cover too. Also, the rights of repair and captured resource points work on healing armor damage just like with a Dreadnought. Just be careful around the Predator, it's main gun does splash damage to everything in the blast radius and hits like a seriously over-powered grenade. I almost lost my entire team the first mission I used it before I figured out what was going on. Also, Eldar are VERY good at blowing up your tanks, so it's best just to use them for the drop damage and as cannon fodder against them. Oh, and while you can load units into the Razorbacks, there's an issue with it causing a SCAR error every now and the, but the mod creator is working on a fix for that for the next version of the mod.

3. Lot drops like crazy with this mod. You still have to wait for certain missions for things like Termie armor, but weapons, power armor, ect drop like candy from an pinata. Very helpful for leveling up faster and keeping your dudes in sweet gear. Sounds like it might over power the game, but you're gonna need the help, especially on captain or primarch.

4. Thaddeus is a gigantic pussy until you get him seriously leveled up and well equipped in this mod. The bad guys have been buffed a good bit, and have higher number of units per squad, and they can eat you assault marines alive while they're trying to close for close combat.

5. Avitus is still a dick, only now he's got a squad full of very powerful dicks to hand out with him. Avitus + Terminator Armor + Cyclone Missiles = WIN. By lvl 20 he's throwing down some serious damage and is even effective in melee.

6. Tarkus is still hardcore, only now he's got a squad full badasses with him. Tarkus + Terminator Armor + Powerfist/Stormbolter = Nothing can get close enough to Avitus to matter.

All in all, I'm really digging this mod. Makes the combat a lot more hectic, and the Space Marines are a bit more "epic" then the normal game.

[Teleros]

And personally, I kinda preferred the DOW1 approach where it felt like you were commanding thousands upon thousands of Space Marines facing off against an enemy with as many numbers as you. Limiting the number of squads and the numbers they have in them IMO goes against the whole 40k idea of massive armies clashing against each other.

I felt the small number of space marines (ignore the whole magic-reinforcements thing a minute) was fairly in keeping with the fluff*, but yes I still miss the big battles of DoW 1.

* Odd there aren't that many marines at such key recruiting worlds though.

[PainRack]

To be honest, I would love a mod that simply scales up squad members statwise along with level. Makes them brothers more "relevant" in the endgame.

I felt the small number of space marines (ignore the whole magic-reinforcements thing a minute) was fairly in keeping with the fluff*, but yes I still miss the big battles of DoW 1.

* Odd there aren't that many marines at such key recruiting worlds though.

Space Marines being limited in number in the fluff isn't abnormal.

Methinks Thule was sent back to the recruiting worlds to act as a training cadre, to replace losses from the Kronus and Soulstorm campaign, with other elements of the IV reassigned to bolster other squads. We certainly see signs of this in the wargear fluff.