I preordered and got this game yesterday, altough the game is great when it works ,  it was a chore to make it runs, it was crashing locking up the pc  , at opening movie cause i suppose it was waiting for an activation check .I dont have crashes on the match altough.

 THe big interest of the game is playing multiplayer, and its their bestshield against piracy, but currently i cant say its very playable. Tried pantheon, it takes hours to get  a game, theres always someone who can connect, and even if by miracle everyone connect , then its not sure to start still.Tried skirmish games, same issues , it rarely start a game, and honestly i spend yesterday whole day trying to play i hardly had 2 hours of efficient play .To sum up the multiplayer part is completely unnaceptable and a shame for a released product. Was it like this in beta? and if it was known how could it be released in this state?

   I understand it use per to peer connection, that its supposed to be more efficient, but i dont think everyone knows how to forward ports from their router, its trivial for me and techies, but i know by experience its much harder for the common user .Not only its hard but i think you should pop a warning message in game and a link to a guide on how to do this. And also make people  be aware of this, i am not even sure those guys knows whats wrong with their setup, since its probably works well with 99% of the new games. In this state the game will be a source of frustration for many people , its impossible to get everyone with a good setup in an online match.

And theres another issue with the matchmaking, you dont know whats going on, you see people trying to connect ok, but no idea , no countdow on when the game will start, and worse you cant even chat with the other people while waiting, i prefered much much more the simple  lobby system in dawn of war 2 .Oh and alt tabbing when you wait crash it as well...

 Great game when it works but disapointed at stardock making me a paying beta tester, they used to release more polished and user friendly products like sins, or galciv, so i bought it before reviews.