Dawn of War II: Retribution Collector's Edition - Available at THQ.com

Aside from the "This isn't a deal" thing you often see,

Honestly, the $5 (for cheapest) shipping kills this one for me. I honestly don't see myself playing more than a few races (Chaos, Eldar, 'nids, maybe IG) so I imagine for myself (and others feeling the same way) it'd end up being cheaper to just buy the game for $30 on Steam (grabbing one free race pack then) and buying additional DLC once it's offered post-launch.

Therein lies the biggest weakness of the collector's edition:
All of the pre-order race packs have confirmed as being available for purchase after the game-launch. Not like you'll be missing out on anything down the road by only getting one race pack for free with your $30 game at launch.

[quote name='DaedalusIkari']Aside from the "This isn't a deal" thing you often see,

Honestly, the $5 (for cheapest) shipping kills this one for me. I honestly don't see myself playing more than a few races (Chaos, Eldar, 'nids, maybe IG) so I imagine for myself (and others feeling the same way) it'd end up being cheaper to just buy the game for $30 on Steam (grabbing one free race pack then) and buying additional DLC once it's offered post-launch.

Therein lies the biggest weakness of the collector's edition:
All of the pre-order race packs have confirmed as being available for purchase after the game-launch. Not like you'll be missing out on anything down the road by only getting one race pack for free with your $30 game at launch.[/QUOTE]

I think this all comes down to how much of a fan of Relic's Dawn of War games you are and how much you like game-themed swag. I like having a game in a nice box and, for my money, the Dawn of War series has been rivalled in recent years only by Starcraft II in the realm of PC strategy. Personally, this would be an insta-buy if my post-X-mas $ situation weren't as tight as it is and if my gaming PC hadn't died on me a couple of weeks ago. . . . (nice find, OP!)

anyone know who is doing the ig box beside thq?

[quote name='Dragonsbane']anyone know who is doing the ig box beside thq?[/QUOTE]
If you want the physical copy + box, no idea. I do know that Steam has all of the pre-order packs except for 'nids. (Even then, could have nids. This is all iirc)

Here's the Steam link.

It's not really clear to me that the other packs will be available as DLC post-launch. Do you have a citation for that? THQ's site says the Tyranids are a THQ-exclusive and Steam says the Orks are a Steam-exclusive, but the THQ link the OP gives states that the CE will have "6" races, which means it would have to include Orks.

[quote name='warreni']Here's the Steam link.

It's not really clear to me that the other packs will be available as DLC post-launch. Do you have a citation for that? THQ's site says the Tyranids are a THQ-exclusive and Steam says the Orks are a Steam-exclusive, but the THQ link the OP gives states that the CE will have "6" races, which means it would have to include Orks.[/QUOTE]

Here ya go.
http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?188243-Dawn-of-War-2-Chaos-Rising-and-Retribution-FAQ

On top of this, post launch we will be releasing all of the content from the race packs / collector's edition on Steam for users to buy for a nominal fee. So you could for example buy an Ork pack and then purchase the items for the Space Marines post ship. If you want everything you're probably better off buying the collector's edition though

Click to expand...

This quote is way down, at the bottom of the Retribution FAQ.

[quote name='DaedalusIkari']Here ya go.
http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?188243-Dawn-of-War-2-Chaos-Rising-and-Retribution-FAQ


This quote is way down, at the bottom of the Retribution FAQ.[/QUOTE]


I suppose it stands to reason that they would want to make money off the packs by selling them at a later date. I reckon that if you want all of them the CE pre-order's probably still the cheapest way to go.

FYI, don't be suckered by 'exclusive' wargear offers: it's all DLC (Disc-Locked Content). People will just hack the files as they've always done and you can just load a script to unlock it all at the beginning of the game. Chances are, anything the SE has to offer will be unlocked as well.

Glad I have no interest in this series anymore since it sounds like they're milking it for all it's worth. Sad, really.

[quote name='warreni']I suppose it stands to reason that they would want to make money off the packs by selling them at a later date. I reckon that if you want all of them the CE pre-order's probably still the cheapest way to go.[/QUOTE]

I wonder how much they're going to be. Really, I think the cheapest way would just be to wait and get it on sale next year sometime. As much as I want it, I think that's what I'm going to end up doing.

I've read this thread twice and am still confused.

If I don't buy the CE from THQ and get it on steam, I cannot immediately play all of the races or I miss out on some exclusive wargear (or both)? The former is a big deal, the latter not so much.

[quote name='S_DOG34']I've read this thread twice and am still confused.

If I don't buy the CE from THQ and get it on steam, I cannot immediately play all of the races or I miss out on some exclusive wargear (or both)? The former is a big deal, the latter not so much.[/QUOTE]

It's just exclusive wargear. If you look here:
http://forums.relicnews.com/showthr...on-FAQ&p=1045184841&viewfull=1#post1045184841 you'll see that the race packs are just the full Retribution game, different cover art, and four different dlc items depending on which version you took.

[quote name='warreni']I think this all comes down to how much of a fan of Relic's Dawn of War games you are and how much you like game-themed swag. I like having a game in a nice box and, for my money, the Dawn of War series has been rivalled in recent years only by Starcraft II in the realm of PC strategy. Personally, this would be an insta-buy if my post-X-mas $ situation weren't as tight as it is and if my gaming PC hadn't died on me a couple of weeks ago. . . . (nice find, OP!)[/QUOTE]

Yeah I heard about this a little while ago and was instantly sold. I made my preorder already. I definitely want the hard copy of the game + having all the game swag is nice too. I also agree that Dawn of War is in the top tier of strategy games next to SC2. Now I just need to go back and beat Chaos Rising before this comes out... haha

[quote name='Darknuke']Yeah I heard about this a little while ago and was instantly sold. I made my preorder already. I definitely want the hard copy of the game + having all the game swag is nice too. I also agree that Dawn of War is in the top tier of strategy games next to SC2. Now I just need to go back and beat Chaos Rising before this comes out... haha[/QUOTE]

CR was a terrific expansion; I just hope the campaign in Retribution provides some kind of clsoure for the Blood Ravens story arc.