Winter Assault

Winter Assault is the first expansion to the original Dawn of War, released Sep 21, 2005 by Relic and THQ. It adds the Imperial Guard and two campaigns, Order and Disorder, fought over a Titan on Lorn V, and is sold today inside the Definitive and Anniversary Editions.

Winter Assault is the first expansion to the original Dawn of War, released on Sep 21, 2005 by Relic and THQ. It adds the Imperial Guard as a fifth race and a campaign on Lorn V, a race to recover a mighty Titan war machine. It is no longer sold alone: you get it in the Definitive Edition or the Anniversary Edition.

Quick facts

Released	Sep 21, 2005 (PC)
Developer and publisher	Relic, THQ
New army	Imperial Guard
Armies in all	5
Campaign setting	Lorn V
Campaigns	Order and Disorder
New multiplayer maps	20
Metascore	85 from 33 critics
User score	8.3

Sources: Metacritic; Steam; Relic, Aug 14, 2025.

Imperial Guard

The Guard are the expansion's reason to exist, and they stay on the roster through Dark Crusade and Soulstorm. PC Gamer's ranking calls Winter Assault "very much for fans of the Imperial Guard." They are not among Dawn of War 4's four factions.

The campaigns on Lorn V

The story splits into two campaigns: Order, played as the Imperial Guard and Eldar, and Disorder, played as the Orks and Chaos. HEXUS describes how the Disorder path opens with Warboss Gorgutz, then hands you the Chaos Space Marines holding back his Orks, switching factions to tell the story. That makes it a broader campaign than the first game's, which is Space Marines only.

1:20 Gorgutz is the lasting legacy. He leads the Orks in Dawn of War 3 and returns in Dawn of War 4 as Warboss of the Bad Moons, which KING Art calls "one of our favourite Dawn of War Commanders." See Orks. In the clip, IGN's Jan 2026 hands-on calls him a "recurring Dawn of War big baddie."

Multiplayer additions

Steam's page lists 20 new multiplayer maps, an observer mode, arranged team play and skirmish against computer opponents on multiplayer maps.

Reception

Metacritic has it at 85 from 33 critics, one point below the base game. eToychest, scoring it 95, wrote: "It's everything the first game achieved, but improved, and with more."

How to get it today

The Steam page still loads but offers no purchase. The Definitive Edition includes the campaign and was still getting fixes in 2026: hot fix 2.10.3 on Sep 17 corrected Winter Assault campaign errors. Whether Winter Assault could run without the base game at retail could not be confirmed from the sources read.

Frequently asked questions

What does Dawn of War Winter Assault add? Winter Assault adds the Imperial Guard as a fifth race, two campaigns on Lorn V (Order and Disorder), 20 multiplayer maps, an observer mode and arranged team play to Dawn of War.

Can you still buy Dawn of War Winter Assault? Not separately. Dawn of War Winter Assault now comes in the Definitive Edition and the Anniversary Edition on Steam; its own page offers no purchase.

When did Dawn of War Winter Assault come out? Dawn of War Winter Assault came out on Sep 21, 2005, the first expansion to Relic's 2004 game.