Can Dawn of War II play via LAN if nobody has Steam?

My friend doesn't have Steam and, in fact, it tends to cause his computer to crash. We learned this the hard way. I casually checked out the DoW website only to find out that DoWII had been released a while ago. However, they said that DoWII requires Steam to play online. I'm wondering whether it goes beyond that and Steam is necessary for all multiplayer formats or not.
Please and thank you.

Garviel Loken2009-06-10T11:08:13Z

Favorite Answer

The statement that you need Steam simply to play online is a slight miss there. You need Steam to start up the game, really. Can't play without it. However, if your friend does not enjoy the constant crashing experiences of Steam, then I suggest you or your friend contact Valve and ask them for assistance.