The best Dawn of War mods

What are the best Dawn of War Definitive Edition mods? Released in 2006, the original Dawn of War is probably one of the best RTS games in existence. In an incredible and unexpected renaissance for the series, a new game was announced days after we got the nostalgic Dawn of War Definitive Edition.

We have of course taken the opportunity to dive right back into one of our favorite RTS games of all time, made that much better with mods, and have found that the base game and mods all play considerably better now, so here are our top picks to try again - or for the first time - in Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War Definitive Edition or the OG (original game).

The best Dawn of War mods are:

Crucible

Unification is one of the best-known and most popular Dawn of War mods, and Crucible is an underrated but perhaps superior mod created by one of the parties behind the rebalancing in Unification's UA 1.89. That's how you know you're in good hands.

Continuing the work of UA 1.89, this incredible mod improves balance while regularly adding new content - as recently as May 2025, changes team colors and model design, and overhauls AI for a cleaner, more streamlined DoW experience.

Unification

We mentioned Crucible, so we should mention Unification. As the name suggests, the Unification mod is about unifying a bunch of disparate individual mods into a cohesive whole. There are more than a few new race mods, as well as mods that look at the vanilla races, the campaign, and a whole bunch of other aspects of the game. Unification, for Soulstorm, seeks to unify them all in a way that allows them to work together. And yes, there are also Titans. There are always Titans.

It's a modular creation, though - you can chop and change what you want across the various submods. Make sure you read the instructions carefully for this one - there's a bunch of things you need to keep an eye on, especially if you've not got much system memory to play around with.

3rd Generation

The only Nexus contribution to this guide, 3rd Generation is a mod for Dark Crusade that adds four new races (including Tyranids), new units for existing races, and a bunch of other stuff like new maps, new map modes, even Titans!

What's especially good about this mod is that it's keeping up to date with what's happening in the tabletop world (mostly). It hasn't been updated with the new-era Primaris units, for example, but generally newer units from across the tabletop line have been included. It also added the original Dawn of War campaign as skirmish missions, and even improved the AI as well.

Ultimate Apocalypse

This is one of the most popular, and, quite frankly most ridiculous, mods on ModDB. Ultimate Apocalypse is all about scale and getting the most bang for your bang-bucks. It adds new units, new races, new buildings, new abilities, Titans, and then generally enables you to have 'more' of everything. Make sure you follow the instructions carefully, as there are some additional standalone race mods you'll need (and that some other mods on this list also need) to source.

It's also worth noting that the final update for this mod was released in Summer 2020, and the team is now embarking on an overhaul project to create a new, better version of the mod. The current version should still be fine in the meantime, though.

Titanium Wars

This is an old mod, reportedly the first mod to include Titans in Dawn of War. It again offers new content in the form of new units, abilities, etc. Plus, it's also one of the few mods that offers dedicated content and support for the campaign. Usually, mods ignore this part in favour of skirmish gameplay. You can read more about it in the official mod FAQ.

While Titanium Wars is available for both the Soulstorm and Dark Crusade expansions, there are different versions to download, so make sure you choose the right one - here are the links: Soulstorm and Dark Crusade.

DOWPro

DOW: Professional is a multiplayer-focused Soulstorm mod that aims to offer a balanced, meaningful experience while also promoting unit diversity and longevity. It includes new units to provide better balance when leveling up, as well as an improved range of graphics for every race, enabling wargear for units in multiplayer and skirmishes.

Interstellar Travel

The popular Interstellar Travel mod for the Soulstorm expansion solves a long-term plot hole in the campaign - why can factions get to Kaurava in the Warp Storm, but that's the same excuse used for them being unable to travel the other way? Well, now they can.

How to install Dawn of War mods

Whichever version of Dawn of War you play on, downloading and installing mods is a fairly simple process. To install mods to DoW:

• Download your chosen mod from the link above.
• Open your downloads folder and unzip the file.
• Locate the Dawn of War installation folder.
  • If you play on Steam, this will most likely be: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common
  • If not, right-click the game in your Steam library, click Properties, open the Installed Files tab, and select Browse.
• Create a 'Mods' folder.
• Copy your unzipped mod download and move it into your new mod folder.

This should work no matter where you download your mod from, though we only recommend downloading from trusted sources like those listed above.

And there you have the best Dawn of War mods, whether you're playing the original, Anniversary Edition, or Definitive Edition - they'll work on them all. That should be plenty to keep you going until the Dawn of War 4 release date, and there are plenty of other superb Warhammer games to try, as well.