Who'd have thought that a geeky, turn-based, sci-fi board game played in niche high street stores would have grown to become a powerfully popular computer game franchise with a loyal RTS fanbase?

Well, proof of that universal adulation is that the sequels keep on rolling out and the developers of the latest manifestation, Dawn of War II, feel confident enough of its success that they've attempted to redefine the whole real-time strategy system.

Set as usual in the 41st Millennium, an elite group of the Space Marines, the Blood Ravens, are waging a neverending war against their mortal foes which, in addition to the brutal Orks and the psychic Eldar, now include the insect-like Tyranids.

Whether or not you played the first Dawn of War game, you'd probably expect from the off to start gathering resources, building bases, churning out troops, vehicles and weapon-making facilities and then mounting an assault on your nearest enemy camp. Wrong.

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Relic has decided that the time is ripe for a radical shift in the usual RTS template and the most notable immediate change is the sweeping aside of all resource gathering and base building. Instead the emphasis is squarely on rapid action with small specialised units, without all the distracting micromanagement.

So you never control more than four soldiers in your squad and, more in the RPG tradition, you will choose which four from a larger group and then decide how to distribute the experience points, armour, weaponry and skills amongst the troop.

In single player mode you exclusively play as Blood Ravens and as well as your Force Commander (who will develop his own special skills) you will make use of Assault units with jump packs, Devastators who pack seriously heavy guns, stealth-using Scouts, Tactical marines with multiple weapon upgrades and teleporting Terminators.

While some gameplay faithfuls remain, such as gaining experience through killing enemies and capturing strategic points and buildings, there's a new cover system borrowed from Relic's earlier WWII strategy hit, Company of Heroes, whereby possible shelter is colour-coded according to vulnerability and plays a key role in the action.

The missions on the whole are designed to be relatively short and sharp, but while the task is often challenging, there's little in the way of variety. It ends to be a choice between destroying waves of minions before tackling the Boss, or defending a strategically important installation such as a communication centre or a generator.

On the multiplayer front there are more options, although conflicts are either 3 vs 3 Team Battles or Head to Head. To buy units and upgrades for your forces you need to gather Requisition and capture Power Nodes, but again, how you deploy and reinforce your soldiers may well determine the outcome of the fight. Co-op play is available in single player mode, with the advantage that a friend can drop in and out of the mission when things get tough.

Visually the graphics are detailed and lush and explosions in particular are spectacular, with tons of effects to make you aware you're in the middle of a war zone. If you don't mind the dramatic shift in pace and scale, then this could be a thrilling experience.

It's Warhammer, Jim, but not as we know it, now that radical changes have been made by ditching the resource gathering and base building in favour of smaller, faster, more complex units and character development. Gameplay, though, suffers from repetition and smaller maps.