Eldar Domination

PC Gamer goes hands-on with 40K’s space elves in dawn of war iii. Watch your backs, Space Marines.

- Fraser Brown

A few squads of burly Space Marines, members of Dawn of War III’s Blood Ravens Chapter, are hanging around a communications device, probably swapping tips on the best oil to use on their bulky armor. Little do they know, right next to them, Eldar are gathering. Cloaked warriors hide in the open, while the rest of the army lingers in the tall grass, essentially invisible.Before the Marines have time to ask “Who is that running toward us?” one squad of them is already dead, sliced and diced by a dashing Eldar who moves with preternatural speed and grace. The second squad opens fire, only to be sniped by the previously invisible Rangers and the infantry in the grass. The final group, maybe because they’re smart, or perhaps they’re just cowards, run for it. Farseer Macha, the leader of this band of hunters, tosses her Singing Spear at their backs. Those who don’t die instantly fall a second later, as Macha recalls her magical weapon and it cuts through them once again.

If the Space Marines are Dawn of War III’s crushing hammer, the elegant Eldar are its scalpel: efficient, precise, and often subtle. I’m a lot more intimidated by the scalpel. Also that boomerang spear.

While the previous games focused on the Space Marines, leaving the other factions to mess around in Skirmish mode until they got expansion campaigns, the third game’s campaign jumps between the Space Marines, Orks and the Eldar, as they race to claim a superweapon hidden on a frozen world. For the Eldar, it’s not just a race for a weapon, though; it’s a race for survival itself.