Its campaign is set on the planet Kronus, where the seven playable factions engage in a free-for-all smackdown across a 'Risk'-Style Map. The next expansion, Dark Crusade, departs from the mission-based campaigns of the original Dawn of War and Winter Assault and introduces the Tau and the Necrons as playable races. In this story, two factions on either 'side' (as in Order vs Disorder) team up temporarily to defeat the other two and secure the power of a massive wrecked Imperator-class Titan that is lost somewhere on the planet.
The first expansion pack, Winter Assault, takes place on the icy planet of Lorn V, and expands the Imperial Guard into a full-fledged playable fighting force of its own.