Introduction

Nowadays, many games such as CounterStrike, The call of duty, Battlefield have become the most famous, enjoyable games in the First Person shooting (FPS) game industry. For almost all the FPS game players, being a soldier in game and holding a gun or a grenade to fight with your enemies who also holding similar weapons as you seem to be the major trend in the FPS concept, sometimes also includes team fighting. However, being a survivor and holding a gun with limited bullets to fight a number of zombies, or on the other side being one of the zombies and attacking survivors have never been considered until the first version of Left 4 Dead had been released in 2008. To stand out from other shooting games, different races (human and zombie) and fighting styles, special AI system and also a heavy emphasis on cooperative gameplay make Left 4 Dead 2 a very successful to be a "Canon Game". So like some players mentioned before to play as a zombie, now the dream has become true. Therefore in my opinion, Left 4 Dead 2 will make a huge effect on later game productions and developments.


Developers

Left 4 Dead 2 was developed by Valve Corporation and was released on November 17, 2009, for the PC and Xbox360. Valve Corporation is an American video game development and digital distribution company, it was founded as an L.L.C. based in Kirkland, Washington in 1996, and after incorporation in April 2003, it moved to Bellevue, Washington.

When Value made it so successful in Half-Life, the team started working on mods, spin-offs, and sequels. All current Valve games are built on its Source engine, which owes much of its success to mods and sequels. The company has produced six game series such as Half-Life, Team Fortress, Portal, Counter-Strike, Left 4 Dead, and Day of Defeat. It made Counterstrike, Team Fortress and Left 4 Dead by its distribution software, Steam, which is used to distribute games and related media online, from small independent developers to larger software houses. The company is also famous for their Source engine, one of the best 3D game engine in the world, and long development cycles.


Desinger


Mike Booth, the Left 4 Dead series designer, is actually not a crazy zombie fan. He talked about how him and his team came up with the early idea and how they designed the game: they did not started out with making a zombie game, but they actually started out making a shooting game just like CounterStrike, two counter strikers armed with machine guns fighting against a number of terrorists with knifives. And they came up with the idea -- making zombies, and the zombies will beat you until you can not move. However, the zombies who have rabies are not like like those ones that walk slow from old zombie game like Resident Evil, but run really fast. Likewise, the players will not be worried about the effection by the virus because for some reason they are immune to the virus, the only thing they need to do is to survive until they get to the safety.



Game overview

Four new survivors must work together to make it through the zombie apocalypse in the Southern United States, facing new threats and traversing new terrain as they fight their way through until they get rescued. It is a first-person shooter set in a post-zombie-apocalypse New Orleans. The game is cooperative multiplayer-focused first-person shooter, but also includes the option to play single-player with AI teammates. Furthermore, when in Vesus mode, it is possible to play as zombie side as well. 


Plot / Game Story



Left 4 Dead 2 tells a story about four new survivors, whose backstory is provided through dialogue within the game. Unlike the first version Left 4 Dead which had no significant story development, Left 4 Dead 2 tells a story arc positioned in the Southern United States which starts in Savannah, Georgia and ends in New Orleans, Louisiana. The four survivors have to fight their way through the hordes of infected, Special infected, using safehouses along the way to rest and having supplies, in order to get ready to enter the next scene.

The game story started from the four survivors climbing to the roof of a hotel in Savannah and waited to be rescued, however the survivors find themselves left by helicopters, then they find out they have to find their way to the local mall. ("Dead Center"). After a brief encounter with a gun store owner Whitaker (voiced by Dayton Callie) on their way, the survivors discover that the mall is overrun, and use the Jimmy Gimbs' stock car to bust out of the mall and travel towards New Orleans. On their way there they encounter the survivors featured in Left 4 Dead at the portside town of Rayford ("The Passing"), before finding the highway completely blocked by wrecked vehicles. (The first version of Left 4 Dead 2 does not have this scene.) The survivors are then forced to fight through a still-operating amusement park called Carnival Park, and start a huge fireworks-and-lights show used by the rock band, The Midnight Riders, in order to attract the attention of a helicopter pilot to rescue them("Dark Carnival"). After being rescued, they notice their pilot has been infected too. Nick is forced to kill him, which causes the helicopter to crash into a Swamp ("Swamp Fever"). They find brief shelter in a plantation house and make radio contact with a boat captain named Virgil who can get them to rescue, but he needs additional diesel fuel to make it to New Orleans. So the survivors go ashore, make their way through an abandoned sugar mill to a gas station to get fuel supplies, and return to the boat ("Hard Rain"). Virgil takes them to New Orleans where the military appears to be evacuating other survivors. The group head to the extraction point, but discover that the military is actually bombing bridges to cover their retreat ("The Parish"). The survivors then make their way across a lift bridge amid a massive of infected and board the last military helicopter leaving the city before the bridge is destroyed.

After the four survivors board on the chopper, the whole story of the game is over.


Gameplay

Left 4 Dead 2 has six campaigns: Dead Center, The Passing, Dark Carnival, Swamp Fever, The Hard Rain and The Parish. Each campaign consisted of three to five small maps. During their journeys, players traverse different environments as they cross the southern United States, looking for refuge (saferoom) from the zombie apocalypse. The four survivors must work together as a team level by level to advance to a safe room, and eventually to a rescue vehicle (car, boat or helicopter depend on which level). At the beginning of each level, players are armed with a health kid, pistol (or melee weapon), and primary weapon. They must fight all the way through the zombies to reach the next safe room, and on their way they will find new weapons and supplies, and of course new zombies too.

Instead of single player, Left 4 Dead 2 also has some other game modes such as Versus, Survival and Scavenge.  In Versus mode up to four other human players take control of the various Special Infected who try to prevent the Survivors from reaching the next safe house. The two teams swap sides once per chapter and are scored based on their play through as Survivors. This is one of the popular modes nowadays played online. Survival mode is a timed challenge where the survivors are trapped in a section of the campaign maps, and try to survive as long as possible against an non-stop onslaught of infected. In the four-on-four Scavenge mode, the survivor players are required to collect and use as many of the sixteen gas canisters scattered about a level to maintain fuel in power generators, while the infected players attempt to stop them( This mode is new in Left 4 Dead 2).


The basics


Each survivor can carry one main weapon, either a melee weapon, or single/double pistols as a secondary weapon. Melee weapons cause extra damage to the infected zombies, but the survivors need to get close to the zombies so it is more dangerous. Players can use any other weapon or item for weaker melee attacks and to temporarily push the infected back (maximum 5 times and then have to wait for cold down). Players also carry a flashlight, but may startle the infected (especially witch). They may also carry a single first aid kit or defibrillator, Ammo packs, Pain pills or adrenaline. They may also carry a single throwable weapon — Molotov cocktails to set an area on fire, pipe bombs, or "Boomer" bile, which can be thrown at infected to cause them to turn on each other.All players are shown the health and status of their team survivors. If a player does not have direct sight of another survivor, they will be shown the survivor's highlighted silhouette. If a player's health bar reaches zero, he or she will become incapacitated, leaving the player extremely vulnerable to further damage. When incapacitated, players cannot move but lay on the ground with their pistol out only as the new temporary health bar slowly runs down, leading to death. Now one of the other teammates have to revive incapacitated allies by helping them up, and the revived player will gain back a little bit amount of health. Players can only be incapacitated 3 times before their vision becomes blurry. If incapacitated again, the survivor will die straight away. Players also have the option to heal teammates by healing them with health kit or giving them other medical equipment, such as pain pills or adrenaline shots. When the health bar's colour turns yellow then the player will move slower than normal status, and if it turns red than players will move extremely slow which can cause troubles to the whole team.


Crescendo Events


The same as in Left 4 Dead, survivors will periodically come on "crescendo events," where they must activate an object, to lead some sort of event to happen (such as calling an elevator), which in turn summons hordes of zombies that the players must fend off for a period of time before they are allowed to move forward. In Left 4 Dead 2, crescendo events come in greater variety than just the old "hole-up and defend" type.  So-called, "rolling crescendos" require the players to activate the event and then run a gauntlet while being assaulted by zombies to reach an end point where they can deactivate the event (such as turning off an alarm), otherwise the zombie horde will come non-stop.  Another type of new crescendo is the optional one, such as the alarmed cars, which, if touched or shot by the players, will alarm for a period of time and draw hordes of zombies. These new and more dynamic types of crescendo events were motivated by Valve's desire to reduce the effectiveness of popular and very effective Left 4 Dead strategies like closet camping or corner stacking, meaning players crowd into a small defensible space and wait out the event, easily killing all of the common infected toward them.  And some of the new special infected, such as the Spitter and Charger, can easiliy beat the camping strategies and warn the players camping or corner stacking does not always work.


AI Director 2.0

The artificial intelligence system in game called the AI. Director drives gameplay by procedurally randomly spawning enemies, weapons and supply items based on the players' performance. For example, if most of the players are hardly injured and have no healing items on them, health kid will be found more often. An improved AI Director is featured in Left 4 Dead 2 that dynamically changes the game experience more so than Left 4 Dead's Director. AI Director 2.0 has the ability to change the layout of certain areas of levels, making each play through more unpredictable, as well as being able to change weather patterns. For example, AI Director 2.0 can rearrange crypts and tombs in a cemetery in different times of playing, making it impossible to know in advance the exact route that the survivors must follow. AI Director 2 can also change the weather to create flash thunderstorms, dramatically reducing visibility and muffling voice chat, forcing survivors to hunker down and wait it out. All those unpredictable random phenomenons make the whole game more replayable, players will not feel bored always.


Survivor Characters



Left 4 Dead 2 features a new cast of human survivors, which include Coach, a portly high-school football coach; Nick, a stoic gambler and conman; Rochelle, a low-level production assistant reporting on the evacuation for a local television station; and Ellis, a laid-back mechanic, whos talks a lot. While the game is intended as a continuation of the original, occurring one week after the first game begins, Valve decided to create a new group of survivors because of the change in location. In addition to the four playable characters, Left 4 Dead 2 also features a supporting character in the form of Virgil, a rescue boat captain, who appears in the game's final three chapters only with sounds. This differs from the original Left 4 Dead, where NPCs made little more than a single appearance.


Affected Characters

 
With the regular infected, basically the game’s cannon fodder, Valve did a lot of generic jeans-wearing male and female zombies. But often enough they added some diversity in look and gameplay by varying the clothing and former occupations of the infected. While some of those infected just stood out from the crowd visually, like the ones in hazmat suits or the construction workers with their bright yellow helmets, others even asked for new strategies to beat them. The security guards in riot gear were tough to shoot down but only to shoot them in the back, because of their armor, and the clowns made funny squeaky noises, that would attract more infected, so the best way is to take him down first.

The special infected are a more advanced zombified mutation. Their bodies mutated in a way that would give them special powers and they are named accordingly. They are:
Charger: he charges towards the player to attack him. He puts his right side forward and starts to run, crushing everything in his path.
Hunter: instantly jump and pounce down one of the survivors, once get pounced, the player will totally lose the control and keep taking damage until other friend's help.
Spitter: a crazy woman shoot her burning spit from long distance away, the more time players stand on the spit, the more damage it will cause.
Jokey: jumps on the backs of survivors and rides them, causing survivors lose the direction of walking.
Boomer: spit bile onto survivors to attact more hordes of zombies towards them.
Smoker: can drag a survivor away from the team with its really long tongue, good for hiding on the roof or dark corner.
Witch: a walking fly trap. She lures humans close to her, by pretending to be a scared and hurt girl in need of help and comfort. When you get to close and get her attention, she enters a vicious rage mode, biting, scratching and slashing.
Tank: the big hulking mutant from the bunch. He is all about punching, smashing an throwing things. Basically all action happens in his upper body section.


Graphics and sounds

The graphic in Left 4 Dead 2 is very bloody and violate, that is why this game is only for 18+. In the game, players can slaugter zombies with guns, melee weapons, fire or bombs, zombie bodies can be cut into pieces, head, arm, leg and even stomach intestines can be removed away from the body. When close to zombies, players' screens will always get much blood from the zombies. Therefore, in some countries like Australia and Germany, the game is modified to reduce the level of violence. Left 4 Dead 2 has been a central issue in a number of critical discussions regarding its timing and its graphic and mature content.

In Left 4 Dead 2 different infected will have different kind of sound, especially special infected. When a special infected spawned in the game, there will be a unique sound track for him/her, so it can warn the survivors to be aware that which special infected is nearby them even the infected is not in their sight.


Development

Left 4 Dead 2 was released not long after the release of the first version -- Left 4 Dead, it is building on ideas from the development team to make the next game "bigger and better". Valve had created a full story for the cause and effects of the infection pandemic, including terms that they have used for the AI Director. Each campaign was purposely designed with a different feel. However, all 6 campaigns were mapped out at the same time by the entire team to provide the narrative flow and ensure the uniqueness of each campaign. The team used a Left 4 Dead dictionary developed to describe level design and flow within the game to provide a common language for developing the levels.

Left 4 Dead 2 contains about 7800 unique lines of dialog, a 40% increase over Left 4 Dead. The writers designed the characters and selected appropriate voice actors who had natural accents for their lines, and allowed the actors freedom to help authenticate the roles. Players will not only enjoy the gameplay but also entertained by the funny various of lines of dialog.

Sales for Left 4 Dead 2 is very good. On December 1, 2009, Valve reported that more than two million retailed copies of Left 4 Dead 2 were sold in two weeks, which represents "more than double" the sales of the original game's two week debut. According to the NPD Group, the Xbox 360 version was the fifth best-selling retail title for consoles in November 2009, with over 744,000 copies sold. In February 2010, Electronic Arts, Left 4 Dead 2 retail distributor, announced that the game had sold 2.9 million on retail so far.


Conclusion

Left 4 Dead 2 has made its own way to stand out from other FPS game with its unique character designs and gameplay. The Advanced technology dubbed "The AI Director" drove Left 4 Dead's unique gameplay - customizing enemy population, effects, and music, based on the players' performance. Left 4 Dead 2 features more co-operative gameplay that enables plays not only enjoy the game but also learn to always work as a team, emphasis the importance of teamwork. I believe that Left 4 Dead 2 has centainly become a milestone of the future cannon game.


Reference:

http://www.ea.com/games/left-4-dead-2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_4_Dead_2
http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=5448
http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/14423
http://store.steampowered.com/app/550/
http://au.xbox360.ign.com/objects/143/14352241.html
http://howtonotsuckatgamedesign.com/?p=982



 

Unit producing, Tech tree building, Battle tactics and Resource management.




That's a good idea. BUT what if thet want a real battlefield? What if they would like to build their units themselves? What if, they just want the offensive part?


Here comes Dawn of War!











The Imperium of Man
The Imperium of Man is a galaxy-spanning interstellar human empire, the ultimate authority for the majority of the human race in the Milky Way Galaxy. The founder and ruler of the Imperium is the god-like Emperor of Mankind, the most powerful human psychic born to date. Founding the Imperium over ten thousand years ago, the Emperor continues, at least nominally, to lead it as both political master and primary religious figure.
The Imperium is the largest and currently most powerful political entity in the galaxy, consisting of at least a million settled worlds dispersed across most of the Milky Way Galaxy.



Space MarineForemost amongst the defenders of mankind are the Space Marines of the Adeptus Astartes, the greatest of the God-Emperor's soldiers. They superhuman who have been made superior in all respects to a normal man by a harsh regime of genetic modification, psycho-conditioning and rigorous training. Space Marines are untouched by plague or any natural disease and can suffer wounds that would kill a lesser being several times over, and live to fight again. Clad in Power Armour and wielding the most potent weapons known to man, the Space Marines are terrifying foes and their devotion to the Emperor and the Imperium of Man is unbreakable.



Imperial Guard
The Imperial Guard is the largest fighting force of the Imperium of Man. It is comprised of countless billions of men and women - hundreds of thousands of different regiments, supported by a vast array of light and heavy vehicles. They are usually the first Imperial force to respond to a threat if a planet's Planetary Defense Force fails to suppress it.



Sisters of Battle
The Sisters of Battle and formerly known as the Daughters of the Emperor, are an all-female division of the Imperial Cult's ecclesiastical organization known as the Ecclesiarchy. The Sisterhood's Orders Militant serve as the Ecclesiarchy's fighting arm, mercilessly rooting out corruption and heresy within humanity and every organization of the Imperium.



Ork
Orks are a warlike, green-skinned race of humanoids, spread across the galaxy. They are seen as savage, warlike, and crude, but they are the most successful species in the whole galaxy, outnumbering possibly every other intelligent race, even humanity. However, this massive population of Orks is split into hundreds of tiny empires, often warring between themselves.



Eldar
The Eldar are a race of elf or fey-like humanoids, one of the most ancient and technologically advanced of all the intelligent races of the Milky Way Galaxy. Their armies usually have the advantages of great mobility, potent psychic abilities and technology that is more advanced than that deployed by the human Imperium.


Tau
The Tau are a young, humanoid and highly technologically-advanced intelligent race native to the Eastern Fringes of the Milky Way Galaxy who are fighting to expand their interstellar empire and a philosophical concept they call the Greater Good. Tau society is divided into a number of castes, each responsible for managing a specific aspect of their society. The Tau's central motivating ideal is that everyone in their empire will work for the good of everyone else.



Necron
The Necrons are a mysterious race of skeletal warriors that have lain dormant in their stasis-tombs for millions of years and who are the soulless servants of the ancient C'tan, the terrible Star Gods of Eldar myth. They are ancient beyond reckoning, predating even the Eldar. At long last, however, they are beginning to awaken from their Tomb Worlds, for the galaxy is ripe for the greatest harvest of sentient beings to feed the eternal hunger of the C'tan.

 
Dark Eldar
The Dark Eldar are the forsaken and corrupt kindred of the Eldar, an ancient and advanced race of elf-like humanoids. Their armies, like their Eldar counterparts, usually have the advantages of mobility and advanced technology, though they are often lacking in resilience and numbers. The Dark Eldar revel in piracy, enslavement and torture, and are sadistic in the extreme.




Chaos Space Marine
They are former Space Marine, they were turned into traitors to the Emperor by the powers of Chaos. Their power armor twisted under the influence of Chaos energies to embody their new allegiance, and the Chaos Space Marines now fight for everything they were forbidden to have before: Wealth, riches, power and pleasure.











Gameplay

Being finding a new path, Dawn of War is more like a combination of RTT(Real-Time Tactics) and RTS(Real-Time Strategy), have put much focus on tactics and a decrease on resource management elements, Dawn of War become a game allow its players to put their attention on "how to lead my army to defeat enemy" without worrying about "how to ensure producing of my army".


Victory conditions in skirmish mode will be an inherent part of the selected map, and can be set by the game host. Only one of the victory conditions needs to be met to win the game. Two players can be going for completely different victory conditions.


Annihilate
This victory condition requires destruction of all buildings capable of unit production to be destroyed.


Assassinate
This victory condition gives each player a standard commander unit. Death of this unit results in defeat.


Destroy HQ
This victory condition requires the destruction of all headquarters, but other unit production buildings can be left alone.


Economic Victory
When economic victory is enabled, if a player can amass 12,000 requisition and 12,000 power they will win the game. Necrons must acquire 24,000 power.


Control Area
If this victory condition is enabled, a player or team can attain victory by controlling 2/3 of a map's Strategic Points for 8 minutes.


Take and Hold
This victory condition grants victory on the condition that a player or team retain control of 50% of a map's Critical Locations for 7 minutes.


Game Timer
The game timer is not really a victory condition. It merely adds a timer to the game for timekeeping purposes.


Sudden Death
If sudden death is enabled, then a player can be defeated simply by decapturing a strategic point that the player currently controls.






Key Features


1.Strategic Points System

In Dawn of War, all battlefields have locations of strategic importance, which in the overall context of a war represent the physical areas that give you tactical advantages over your opponent. These are called "Strategic Points".


Players can sending certain units(usually infantry units) to capture "Strategic Points", and of course, an enemy captured strategic point can be decaptured as well. And in all win conditions, capturing and holding strategic locations on the battlefield is significant for players winning the battle.


There are 3 kinds of "Strategic Points": Strategic Points, Critical Locations and Relics.


Strategic Points
These are the basic and the most numerous point in game. They will increase your requisition rate by 6 after captured, and capturing as many of these as quickly as possible is necessary for survival in the game.


Critical Locations
Critical Locations takes longer to capture and decapture than normal Strategic Points. These points are generally located in the middle area that are designed to be the most fiercely fought over frontlines. The number of critical locations on the map tends to vary from 1 to 5, they provide the +6 requisition income, and they are different from strategic points and relics because they cannot be built upon. Critical Locations also give a large sight radius.
For Necrons, Critical Locations give a 10% reduction to unit build times, reinforcement times, and research times like an Obelisk.

Relics
Much less common than Strategic Points, Relics will often be positioned much further away from the start area of player's HQ.  Relics also take longer time to capture than normal Strategic Points, they give you the same +6 requisition income. There is never more than one Relic per player on one map, and there can be less than one per player or even none on the map at all. All of the ultimate or 'uber' units of each race require possession of a Relic to be built so this means that they can often be hard fought over.


2.Streamlined Resource Model


Resource management is critically simplized in Dawn of War, there are two primary resources: requisition and power. These resources are not collected by the player's units. Instead, requisition is generated constantly by the army headquarters.


Power is gathered by building generators for each headquarters with a maximum of six. Just like requisition, power generators will decay over time and consequentially produce less power. Additionally, some maps have "slag deposits", upon which more powerful generators can be constructed to produce power faster. As the player progresses up the tech tree, reliance on power increases.


Despite of these primary resources, Ork have a race specific resource. This resource is generated continuously by Waaagh!!! banners and is used up when creating Ork troops and vehicles. The number of banners and the size of the Ork population determines the Ork's Waaagh! level which in turn determines the technology level the player could access to.


3.Squad System


Originally come from Grond Control, this method was greatly applied in Dawn of War, players command squads of units, rather than individuals. Issuing orders to a squad causes all members of that squad to respond to the command.


Squads are complete production centers for a particular type of unit, allowing the addition of more squad members, the upgrading of weapons, or the addition of Squad Leaders to provide special capabilities, which provide players a choice to modify the combat effectiveness of particular squads versus specific target types.


When a squad lost its members, reinforced can be done in certain locations. Reinforcing a squad will add a single new member to the squad. Reinforcing usually costs the same as each individual squad member cost when the squad was purchased, but some units may cost slightly more or significantly less.


4.Unit & Population System


There are three types of units: Commanders, Infantry, and Vehicles.


Commanders are hero units, and each Commander can only be fielded one at a time. If they perish, they may be rebuilt. There are some Semi-Leader units in game, which has many abilities like the commander unit but several may be fielded at once. They could be attached to some squads and provide special capabilities, just like Squad Leaders.


Infantry are foot soldiers, and may either be regular or heavy, with heavy infantry being much tougher than normal infantry.


Vehicles serve as heavy weapon platforms and/or transports, and include tanks, artillery, troop carriers and walkers.



Except of Ork, which use a special population system, Population usage is determined by what squads are fielded and not how many individual units are present. No matter how many members in a squad, one squad will permanently take a certain cap.


5.Morale


Very different from other competitors, in addition to the typical health attribute, units in Dawn of War have a Morale attribute. Morale represents a squad's combat effectiveness.


Morale can be damaged during combat. When a squad member dies, the squad takes a large hit to its overall morale. Units also have Morale Armor, it's usually be set to 50%, but some special units have a higher or lower armor value.


 When a squad's Morale reaches zero, the squad is considered "Broken". When broken, a squad's combat effectiveness is significantly reduced, and its movement speed is increased, which allowing the player to quickly remove the squad from battle. Squad must spend a certain minimum amount of time when broken, specific to each squad. After that minimum time has passed and if broken squad has regenerated enough morale to reach the minimum threshold for unbreaking, it will rally and return to normal condition again.


Units recover Morale naturally as time passes. The amount of morale regenerated per second varies from squad to squad. Attaching Squad Leaders or Commanders to squads can either boost the squad's overall morale level, boost the squad's morale regeneration rate, or add special abilities which impact morale. Besides, some of them have abilities to either rally troops or lower morale damage taken. Units in Cover also receive bonuses to morale regeneration. Heavy Cover grants a 100% boost to morale generation while Light Cover grants a 50% boost. Also, units in melee receive extra protection from morale damage. When a squad is in melee, its members only receive 10% of the morale damage from ranged attacks. Morale damage from melee weapons and from squad members dying is unaffected.


Some weapons are specifically designed to damage Morale. Sniper rifles, artillery, and flamethrowers are particularly devastating in this regard, and opened up new tactic possibilities for players.


6.Cover


Another element made Dawn of War unique from other RTS games. A well chosen cover will make a squad fight much longer and give a better chance to survive when badly outnumbered.


Cover is applied on units, not a entire squad. Part of a squad can be under cover while the rest be exposed. A unit is affected by cover by simply standing on the cover terrain.


Don't think cover will only help, there are also Negative Covers in game that will put player's units into a more dangerous situation.


Light Cover
Ranged damage received: 75% (infantry only)
Maximum movement speed: 90%
Morale regeneration rate: 150% (infantry only) 


Heavy Cover
Ranged damage received: 50% (75% for vehicles)
Maximum movement speed: 75%
Morale regeneration rate: 200% (infantry only)

Negative Cover
Often found in any rivers or pools of water.
Ranged damage received: 110%
Maximum movement speed: 80%


7.Sync Kill


When two units are fighting in close combat with each other, if one lands the kill blow on the other and the defeated unit is an infantry unit, a special animation takes place called a Sync Kill. In a Sync Kill, which animation takes place dependens on what two units are fighting, and can range from the mundane point blank firing of one infantry unit at another to unique kill animations.



Not just for amusement, Sync Kills also have tactical importance, as when entering a sync kill, unit gains invulnerability to physical damage until the animation completed. Units who have many Sync Kills can wade into close combat with infantry and emerge nearly unscathed, even when fire is focused on the Sync Killing unit.

On the other hand, If controlled units become a victim of a sync kill from a particularly dangerous melee unit, player could use the short moment to disengage from melee and gain some distance, leaving it completely exposed once the sync kill is complete.






Key Faction Features


1.Space marine
Space Marines have the highest morale in the game. Their troops and vehicles are more expensive, however, reflecting their limited numbers.Space Marines are a favourite army for beginners for this reason, although they are in no way a beginners army. With a core of strong heavy infantry, they are capable of performing in any situation with the right planning and upgrades.


2.Ork
While generally lacking in sophisticated technology, they are physically powerful, using brute force and crude weapons that well complement their tendency to attack in massive hordes. In large enough numbers, they gain morale immunity. The tech tree for Orks differs from the other races in that it depends on the amount of orks currently in your army and the number of erected Waaagh!!! banners.


3.Eldar
Eldar are fast and agile. Swift both on foot and in their hovering grav-vehicles, they are also able to move quickly around the map via webway gates.They are a more micro intensive race, with the right use of abilities winning the game rather than raw firepower.


4.Imperial Guard
The Imperial Guard specializes in defense, and therefore has the strongest defensive structures of all the factions in the game. Their infantry tends to be of lower quality than that of their opponents in terms of weapons, armor, and morale, but the Imperial Guard makes up for this with a range of powerful tanks.


5.Tau Empire
Tau are unique in multiple ways. Tau Infantry and Vehicles are powerful in ranged battles, but lack melee prowess; their Commander even lacks a melee attack entirely. Also, they are the only race with a 'choice' in their final technology choices.


6.Necrons
The Necrons do not require requisition to build their army. All units are in and of themselves free of requisition point cost. Power is the only resource Necrons need, in order to perform research, construct buildings and to construct and reinforce squads. However, capturing Strategic Points and building Obelisks (the Necrons listening post) on them will increase the speed of research and building, and will also expand the population cap. The Necron Monolith, their home base, is restored as more buildings are built, while also unlocking new units, and functions as the only vehicle- and troop-producing building. Many Necron units have the ability to resurrect, and most will leave persistent corpses on the battlefield that may either self-resurrect after they die or be restored by specialized Necron units.





Summary