I don't remember ever having this much 'raw fun' in playing a RTS game...
Forget paladins of light fighting against the forces of darkness. While Orcs, Elves and Chaos/Daemonic forces will still be present, your soldiers are by no means 'soldiers of light'. Warhammer succeeds in its premise by taking an overused formula and adding its own twist. You do not control saints, but brainwashed soldiers so committed to the Emperor that they'd rather perish in suicidal combat in his name than to live another day without 'His' goals ("I'd rather die for the Emperor than live for myself"). Adding the religion fanaticism of the eternal fight against heresy, Warhammer presents the player with a scenario filled with hatred, intolerance, violence and betrayal, and that's just with the 'good guys'.
You'll play as the Blood Ravens, a group of Space Marines sent into the planet Tartarus, metropolitan planet once home to billions of humans, now completely overrun by rampaging orcs. Orcs in space? Yeah, and that formula works like a charm. The humor completely absent from the Blood Ravens side is the highlight of the Orcs, and the almost crude, uncomfortable mix between their harsh, simple nature and the wonders of industrialized technology (no unit or building of theirs can be called 'gracious', they're heaps of wood and metal that somehow just barely work). But there's a catch: the Orcs are being driven, led, perhaps, by the forces of Chaos, sworn enemies of the Empire of Mankind. From there, you'll slaughter your way from one battlefield to the next, furthering the Emperor's cause with every point captured and every enemy killed.
You'll do that in a manner all too familiar to those who have played Blizzard's famous double: Warcraft/Starcraft. You'll build your base, getting additional technologies each upgrade of your 'town center' (a.k.a. Stronghold), and with them, requisitioning new units, each more powerful than the one before. Base building is the foundation, but by no means the sole drive of the game, since each unit can be equipped with a large number of different weapons, ranging from heavy MGs to Missile Launchers, and the infantry soldiers can be led by a Hero, healer, or simply a sergeant, and this combination will be the key to winning you battles throughout the game. Supporting these foot-soldiers, you have tanks, huge mechs called Dreadnoughts, who can singlehandedly hold a pass against a horde of infantry troops, if armed right, and sniper/infiltrator scouts, who can take out the strongest unit of a group before you start your assault, ensuring the enemy will have a crushing morale-blow once the attack begins.
Morale, in fact, is one of the surprising adds to the gaming mechanics. Your soldiers will fight better when their morale bar is full, and with every drop they drop their attack and defensive capacities. This is changed by several different factors. Your/the enemy's morale will drop if punished by a heavy impact weapon, such as the flamethrower. Your/the enemy's morale will rise with the presence of a Hero, of if the opposing force suffers enough casualties. This make strategic 'presence', if not positioning, a key element in battles, who will at times be won by the most basic troops, if their weapons carry enough of a punch to kick the enemy's morale to the ground, no matter how advanced the troop is.
Combat is driven by holding several different strategic points. Once each is captured (removed the enemy's flag, put your own one) you'll want to secure that point, placing listening posts and turrets around the point, so you don't have to keep a big enough force in there only not to lose it. And that is, summing up, the whole premise of each level. While the stories will be driven forward by diary-based 'confessions' from the Captain, each level plays close to the same way. That can be the result by the different ways each faction plays. Orcs just build up forces and sent them all at you (For the horde!). Elves (cyber-elves) build several different structures around the field, and each is as a gateway to their base, amounting for near complete unpredictability from their part. Where will the next attack be? I remember having built up and cleansed my way through one half of the scenario, separated by a river, and concentrating my forces on the attack, only to find my original base under attack from a group of elven soldiers emerging from a clearing I had already scouted and killed everyone within (they sent a lone construction drone, and while I killed them in one end of the map I was being killed on the other one). Chaos forces are the hardest to fight, simply because they fight just like you (deep striking – sending group of soldiers in assaults deep within enemy territory), and concentrated waves of infantry attacks supported by machines. Your way will always remain the same, but the enemy will constantly change, and for that, you need to adjust your own way to counter theirs.
Supported by some excellent voice-acting, engrossing music and killer graphs (in their own, RTS way), Warhammer hits the RTS nail in the head, providing hours of gruesome fun for the addicted gamer. Its plot grinds its way to your head, and while there are only eleven missions, each will last quite a while, more so if you, like I do, prefer to play it safe (secure each point heavily before advancing). It provides a wonderful challenge in the midst of a great storyline.
It flies the Starcraft banner admirably. You just cannot ask for more from an RTS. I could ask from the store the damned expansion packs, and I think that's exactly what I'm going to do, right now.
Have fun, and claim your PC in the name of the Emperor.