The big Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War 2 announcement is still coming in next month’s issue of PC Gamer, but Belgian gaming magazine PCGameplay has beat the US publication to the newsstands and has all the juicy details on the upcoming RTS.

Relic Entertainment has been hard at work on Dawn of War 2 since September 2006, and is hoping to have the game on store shelves in 2009. The game uses an upgraded version of the Essence Engine used by Company of Heroes, and takes full advantage of Havok physics, DirectX 10, and multicore processors. Visually, the game looks surprisingly close to Dawn of War’s opening cutscene, and there will no doubt be plenty of high-resolution screenshots to drool over after PC Gamer’s reveal.

So far, only the Orkz and Space Marines are confirmed as returning. While other races are to be announced later, only the Orkz and Space Marines will have co-op campaigns. You’ll use the same squads from mission to mission in the campaign, which will feature plenty of customization options to really tweak and personalize your individual squads.

The focus this time around will be on much smaller skirmishes, with control limited to just six squads. Like in Company of Heroes, unit positioning will often determine the outcome of a fight, and you’ll be able to garrison your units inside buildings, but Relic promises more than just “Company of Heroes in space.” For example, the series’ trademark visceral violence will return in spades, with fully destructible environments and the possibility of units damaging or breaking individual pieces of armor in combat.

Between Dawn of War 2 and StarCraft 2, it’s a very good time to be a fan of sci-fi real-time strategy games.

Dawn of War 2 Confirmed! The Immortal Emperor Be Praised! [NeoGAF]