Post beta impressions in here if you like. I'll go first:  
 
- Imperial Guard are overall interesting and nicely designed. Like in DoW1, they're quite squishy, but this seems more of a penalty in DoW2 since it's faster paced. The good news is that their reinforce is pretty much the cheapest in the game, and the Catachan devils are insanely good.  

- Not so sure about the tanks later in the game though. A lot of people are saying Manticore is imba but I'm not really seeing it; its ability is as easy to dodge as any grenade and the unit itself goes down quickly to any AV.   

- Eldar Autarch is an interesting unit, it's come-into-play ability acts like 5 plasma grenades which can be devastating if your opponent is caught unawares. The unit itself does little damage and doesn't really noticeably buff surrounding units, however it's insanely fast. Its default run speed seems to be that of banshees with fleet of foot, and the Autarch itself has fleet of foot. She can also jump over barriers. Combine that with Warlock's speed up global and she can cross an entire map at almost teleport speed, good for capping and disruption. You can also re-use her CIP ability for reduced cost. Overall, interesting and fairly effective unit, and looks spiffy leading a crowd of banshees, just not much good at actual hand to hand fighting vs. stronger units.   
 
Random Autarch Pics: 
  

Geno I want to play you 1v1.

Looks good. Unfortunately the DoW2 games run extremely slow on my computer, so I probably won't be able to see this myself until I either get a new comp or OnLive gets this game :(

Also wanted to add that the graphics and sound quality seem to have decreased, but many people offer the possibility that it is only for the beta to keep file size small (and to leave some surprises for the main game). 

I actually preordered yesterday and was about to download the demo myself but then realised it's only MP :(
DoW2 multiplayer just didn't hook me for some reason the way DoW1 did.

FC Vanilla Ice is the Blood Ravens' canonical traitor. Truth.

How's Last Stand?

" How's Last Stand? "

" @KaosAngel said:

" How's Last Stand? "

It's just more of the same good stuff. "

" @Fallen189 said:

" @KaosAngel said:

" How's Last Stand? "

It's just more of the same good stuff. "

...my dude carries over or I gotta start new? "

"  - Change in SM Force Commander model = ew.    "

" @Fallen189:  I guess I'm re-leveling.  No complaints, gives me reasons to play I guess.  It's not a day-one-buy, so I'll pick it up for the cheap during the holiday season. ...why do you have a Casshern avatar and not a Red Mage? "

" @DocHaus: I dunno if I'd mind re-doing it or not.  I only hit cap with the Soldier, so I'd still have more classes to play.  All I play is Last Stand as online DOW2 is kinda shit due to already having SC2.  >.>  No offense to DOW2 fans.   "

Last Stand characters should carry over, they're adding at least 1 new map and the Imperial Guard Lord General to the mix. Not heard anything else about it. 
 
The new look for the SM commander is due to him being removed from the campaigns.

" @KaosAngel said:

" @Fallen189 said:

" @KaosAngel said:

" How's Last Stand? "

It's just more of the same good stuff. "

...my dude carries over or I gotta start new? "

I don't think they've announced that. I would ASSUME that because of the client change between GFWL/Steamworks or however it works, it won't, but best to keep your save just incase 
 
"  This will make the game entirely stand-alone with all the races included (unlike Chaos Rising which required the original Dawn Of War II for the original four races in Multiplayer) along with no carry over of characters from the original two campaigns. " 
 
http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?188243-Dawn-of-War-2-Chaos-Rising-and-Retribution-FAQ   Don't count on it  "

Can anyone tell me how to have fun playing the beta? When I finally get into a ladder game I immediately get stomped before I even know what happens. If I just try playing against AI I capture a bunch of points and the AI suicides itself into me and it's not fun at all.

"Can anyone tell me how to have fun playing the beta? When I finally get into a ladder game I immediately get stomped before I even know what happens. If I just try playing against AI I capture a bunch of points and the AI suicides itself into me and it's not fun at all. "

I cant fucking wait for this to come out.

CoH is still superior imo in terms of gameplay.

" @MuttersomeTaxicab: Thanks for the link! I've been looking for something like that but I couldn't find anything. "

You can pickup a Beta key here:    http://community.dawnofwar2.com/blog-post/receiving-retribution-beta-keys-%E2%80%93-update

I'm more or less of the opinion that Catachans are completely broken. Grenade ability KDs and damages entire other team, nids are essentially screwed vs. them. Ranged DPS is equal to or greater then Warp Spiders' which is insane considering they're T1. Their melee damage puts them on par with shees, they can go head to head with fully upgraded ASM squads. At least one of these things needs to fixed. 

Just won about a dozen 3v3's in a row. I change my mind about Swarm Lord. He's actually the best unit in the game. Essentially grants invincibility (since you can reinforce, that late in the game resources aren't an issue) and Fleet of Foot to all of your units. The SL itself is pretty much invincible as well due to its heal ability, and when you have AG warriors around there's nothing stopping it. It might be a little too good, but as a nid player I'm enjoying while I can :).

I'm not getting why people on the official forums are saying Sentinel needs a buff, that thing is imba as it is. It out-kites everything in the game and also does moderate damage, all for the cost of 350 req at T1. As it is, it's almost impossible to kill until T2, and up till that point it's basically free to go around decapping your points and disrupting your team with stomp. 

Anyone up for some Arranged Teams? I play Ork, i tried imperial guard but got rocked, why are they so easily owned?

ah its seems early game against ork especially i cant even get passed tier 1, and the chick hero i sucked with

" @The_Drizzle: The catachans are shotgun scouts on steroids, use them as such. Female hero has, I forgot what it was called but this AoE light ray that damages and debuffs, highly effective against orcs. Best IG hero is probably the Comissar though.  "

" @The_Drizzle: I'd be glad to but I'm kind of busy as of late, sorry.  
 
Preview of 3.7 Patch is out. TL;DR: Tyranids are now useless.  "

With patch 3.7 stats will be reset :)

" @The_Drizzle:  If you're talking about the Manticore, then it's actually quite simple: find it and kill it first. If that isn't possible, then try not blobbing your units up in one spot where the IG commander can find you. The Manticore has no regular attack and its armor and HP are light enough that even some infantry can take it down given enough effort.
 
@Geno:
How are 'nids useless now? I'm not really a 'nid player, but all I see is that it nerfs the Swarmlord and termagants a little. And if you reached the point in a match where you can bring out a Swarmlord it won't really matter. Hell, barbed strangler got a buff, and it already was quite useful in tier 1 fights. 
-----------------------
 
Also, general strategy while I'm here for everyone who chooses to play in this beta and/or the full game: please please PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF THE EMPEROR remember to cap the power nodes closest to your base. And once you have capped them, build on them. Use what requisition you have to continue building them until they are full or they are filled by others on your team. You will generate req easily and regain your investment in power provided you aren't playing like complete shit. 
 
Sure, you can buy a flamer or big shoota for your troops as the situation demands it, but concentrate on take the power nodes, keeping your own, and then destroying the enemy's own power generators to make them waste time and effort rebuilding their dead forces before they can even think of upgrading. The more you do this, the easier you can move to tier 2 and grab a vehicle or two to steamroll over everything they throw at you while the enemy struggles with its tier 1 technology and units. I have played in too many games where they think that simply capturing a power node is enough only to have an enemy sentinel decap it before anything can be done.
 
Also, don't be afraid to retreat if the odds are against you. There's no shame in running away if you are simply outmatched. The fewer squads you have to reinforce, the more money you save. And it's always, ALWAYS better to reinforce single soldiers than having to buy entirely new squads to replace them. [This PSA was brought to you by some guy on the internet sick and tired of playing with pubbies online.] "

" @The_Drizzle: Just keep moving around. If you move out of the way as soon as you see the Manticor signal, you'll barely even get damaged. Manticor costs 100 energy, it's a huge investment for IG in T2. If you put it in some sort of walker for instance, you can just march into their base and kill it in 10 seconds. Or you can just ignore and upgrade your ground infantry. I actually have no problem vs. Manticor at all, I consider it one of their weakest units. 
 
@DocHaus: They nerfed TG crippling poison damage buff. That was essentially the core of the Tyranid army in T1 since Hormas are so terrible. If you watch game replays, most top nid players in CR made double termagants with crippling poison in the beginning of the game.  "

I am pretty happy that they added the Swarm Lord.