14 DAY TRIAL // After having spent Sunday on Head to Head matches of Dawn of War II, which pit one player against another on a map with three control points, I decided to give the Team Battle mode a swirl.
Team Battle mode is played 2 versus 2 or 3 versus 3 on slightly bigger maps than Head to Head. The difference between the two modes lies in the strategy you need to employ and, weirdly, in the ability to cheat of the players involved.
Head to Head is frantic. There are two players, three Victory Points which you need to take to win and other resources, requisition and energy. The population cap is at 100 and you rarely get to max it out so a player can't really try to get two Control Points and then go into defensive positions, riding out the clock. You need to be constantly on the move, responding to probing attacks from the other player, getting back points you lost while also trying not to lose previous units. Again, the correct description is “frantic.”
Team Battle is much more structured. There are still three Victory Points that can be controlled, but now there are more players joining in the battle. The maps also offer more structure, with more defensible areas and some easy to spot avenues of advance. This means that a team can go after two Victory Points quickly and then hunker down, defeat counterattacks and just wait to win. There's less running after individual squads and more semi-organized offensives where two or even three players coordinate squads and heroes in a push for a tactical relevant area. Probably the majority of multiplayer matches will take place in Team Battle once Dawn of War II is launched.
Team Battle offers superior experience, if you are willing to spend some time to get into the game and put up with a few dishonest practices. The Find a Game feature takes its sweet time in getting you into a match (I read almost a chapter of a fantasy novel while waiting) and some players really can’t accept losing. I played at least five games last night I can clearly remember and my game statistics only indicate one game played (one that I lost while hosting). My theory at the moment is that hosts who are losing should drop the game in the last few moments in order to keep their stats up. It's a truly sad day if gamers have reached the point of cheating in the beta stage of a game.