How to Play With Friends in Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War

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Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Definitive Edition offers the full RTS experience, including the popular Soulstorm expansion. It’s a remaster, so the game looks and runs better than before, but many features from the original haven’t been changed much, like multiplayer options.

Luckily, this edition has made online play simpler. If you want to multiplayer in Dawn of War, here’s what you need to know.

How to Play with Friends

In the original 2004 version, setting up multiplayer meant using GameSpy to create a lobby. Now, in the definitive edition, you can do that right from the main menu.

The multiplayer mode is still somewhat limited. You can’t do campaigns with friends, but you can matchmake for player versus player (PvP) or player versus environment (PvE) skirmishes.

To play with friends:

Go to the main menu.
Click on “Multiplayer.”
You’ll be taken to the Dawn of War Online screen.
Here, you can invite friends from your Steam friends list.

Make sure your friends have the definitive edition as well. The original game won’t work properly online because it relied on GameSpy.

Once friends accept your invites, you’ll see a list of available maps. The number next to each map shows how many players can join—maps with a “2” support only two players.

After choosing who to play with and which map to use, you can tweak game settings in the Online Game Setup screen. You can also select whether it’s free-for-all or team-based play.

How to Matchmake with Others

Dawn of War also allows you to team up with other players. You can only do skirmishes, not campaigns, since campaigns are for single-player.

There are two main ways:

Use the Quick-Automatch button located at the top of the menu next to the Automatch button. This game matches you based on the last game settings.
Or press “Automatch,” which opens a window with filters to narrow down your search—great if you’re looking for specific modes or game types.

Another option is to click the “Join Match” button on the Dawn of War Online screen to find a specific game. Sometimes automatch won’t find suitable matches, but this way you can join ongoing games with available space.

You can also browse the list of current multiplayer sessions. The game list displays all active matches. Checking this list can help you find a session that interests you and allows you to hop right in.