It's a good game. Not sure it really belongs in the Dawn of War series, though. It could easily have done as well under a different title. It's more realistic (at least as far as the 40K universe goes) than Dawn of War because frankly, spamming Dreadnaughts, and having massive squads of Space Marines armed to the teeth with plasma and/or heavy weapons kinda grates against the setting. "A thousand chapters of Space Marines each of one thousand marines, a million battle brothers..." doesn't really apply when you can field countless marines and take countless losses. Only a hundred of that thousand of the chapter are given the opportunity to wear Terminator armour, according to the canon, you'll probably see more than a hundred in your game-time, possibly lose more too if you svck eggs.
DoW2's a squad-based RTS, utilising cover and introducing characters into the squad makes you care a bit more about upgrades (have a character specialising in melee while the rest are using plasma weapons, tie up the enemies with one character in close-quarters while the rest take them down at distance. Who gets what upgrades is up to you. Some good weapon and armour unlocks too.). You have one squad, you pick your team and you have to make do if your choices were bad. But yeah, Dawn of War 2 plays a bit like Dawn of War: Dark Crusade utilising a similar map as that expansion. You can do side-missions to secure certain areas against invasion later on, but often have to go back and defend them. But there is absolutely no "rushing" in Dawn of War 2. It's not about unlocking buildings and units as fast as possible in order to rush the AI or opposing player before they get a chance to rush you.
S'more about protecting your squad and slowly making your way around the maps using cover and flanking tactics to wipe out the opposition and achieve objects like "Hold an area for a certain period." "Shut down so many plot-nodes, or start so many plot-nodes up." lol I recommend it, but if you're looking for more Dawn of War, I'd check out DoW's expansions if you haven't already, as Dawn of War 2 is a totally different kind of game.
Edit: After edit... man, I either need sleep, or I'm becoming dyslexic. :cryvaultboy: