Burn the heretic.
Kill the mutant.
Purge the unclean.
===============================================================================
Table of Contents
===============================================================================
1. Introduction
2. Version History
3. Units
3.1 Infantry
3.2 Vehicles
4. Structures
5. Upgrades
6. General Strategies
7. Race-specific Strategies
7.1 Eldar
7.2 Orks
7.3 Space Marines
7.4 Chaos
8. Miscellaneous Stuff
8.1 Dreadnought vs. Killa Kan
8.2 Weapon Stats
9. Final Notes
10. Credits and Acknowledgments
11. Legal Information
I'm no good with introductions, and I'll be blabbering throughout most of the
guide anyway, so I'll keep this short.
This guide is meant to help those who are new to the Space Marines and need
some tips on using the Emperor's finest soldiers. Most of the statistical data
has been taken from the game's data files, or LUA files. I've tried to organize
the data as much as possible, but with this being my first FAQ, there may still
be some rough edges.
I'm primarily a Space Marine player who plays Eldar and Orks every once in a
while. I seldom play Chaos because the voices of the Heretics and Cultists get
on my nerves. Also, I don't play online. I usually play with friends at the
local LAN cafe. I'm no expert with Space Marines, but I know enough to get
around.
Hopefully, you'll come out a better Space Marine player after reading this FAQ.
If not, oh well. Like I said, this is my first FAQ, so bear with me.
===============================================================================
2. Version History
===============================================================================
v1.00 - 04/13/2005 - First public release. Most sections completed.
v1.01 - 04/15/2005 - Minor corrections and additions. Allowed Neoseeker to host
the guide.
v1.02 - 06/04/2005 - Just a change to the legal section to include DLH.Net.
I'll update the guide with information from Dawn of War
v1.3 as soon as I can find time to download the patch (the
thing is 43 megs in size!)
===============================================================================
3. Units
===============================================================================
I've included weapon damage information where necessary, but if you want
detailed information on how much damage a weapon does to a certain unit, go to
Aetherfox' site at http://dowstats.relicnews.com.
===============================================================================
3.1 Infantry
===============================================================================
These are the units you'll be using the most. Infantry units range from the
lowly Servitor to the awesome Terminators. You can survive without vehicles,
but not without infantry.
Servitor
Prerequisites: Stronghold
Cost: 75 req, 1 squad cap
Standard equipment: None
This is the Space Marines' builder unit. It is built for two purposes: building
and repairing. Try not to send them into a firefight; they don't react well to
enemy fire, and unlike the Eldar and Ork builder units, have no weapons. I
usually build just two of these to save space for more marine squads.
Scout marine squad
Prerequisites: Stronghold
Cost: 90 req, 1 squad cap (45 req per scout)
Maximum squad size: 4
Heavy weapon slots: 2
Standard equipment: Bolter, combat knife
Heavy weapon options: Flamer, plasma gun, sniper rifle
Special Abilities: Infiltration
This is one of the best scout units in the game, especially once you fit them
with plasma guns or sniper rifles. Their sight range is fairly large, and they
can infiltrate, making them invisible to all except commander units. Also,
their movement speed is not affected by cover. A scout with the health upgrade
has as much HP as an upgraded marine, which is good. But remember that they are
standard infantry, and as such, will fall easily to almost any weapon out
there.
Heavy weapon choices:
Flamer - Cost: 40 req, 10 power
- The flamer, unlike in tabletop WH40k, does little damage. However, it
wreaks havoc on enemy morale. With only 2 heavy weapon slots, Scouts
are better off using sniper rifles for morale-breaking. However, these
are useful if you want your scout squad to be a bit more mobile.
Plasma gun - Cost: 40 req, 5 power
- The plasma gun is a weapon that fires superheated packets of
energy. It is very useful against heavy infantry. The Scout
version deals less damage than the one carried by Space Marines.
Sniper rifle - Cost: 40 req, 20 power
- This gun has long range, heavy damage, and the ability to turn
enemy squads into gibbering idiots. It can take out almost any
infantry unit in one shot, and deals a whopping 150 morale
damage per hit. Two squads equipped with this weapon are enough
to break any squad. (Tip: use snipers and plasma against
Possessed Marines.)
Special Abilities:
Infiltrate - This ability makes the squad invisible to all units except
commanders. Units like Apothecaries can also see them.
Space Marine squad
Prerequisites: Chapel-Barracks
Cost: 200 req, 2 squad cap (50 req per marine)
Maximum squad size: 8 + 1 Sergeant
Heavy weapon slots: 2 (4 when upgraded at Armory)
Standard equipment: Bolter, Combat knife
Heavy weapon options: Flamer, Heavy Bolter, Plasma Gun, Missile Launcher
Special Abilities: Frag grenades
The bread and butter of your forces, the Space Marines (also known as tactical
marines) are arguably the most effective and versatile infantry in the game.
Chaos Space Marines may be more numerous, but they are a little less accurate
with their weapons, and they cannot rally when broken. Space Marines can be
equipped with a variety of heavy weapons to increase their effectiveness
against certain targets. They can also take on most other infantry in close
combat, though grappling with dedicated melee units is not advisable. In
addition, Space Marines rally at 50 morale, as opposed to 150 morale for other
races.
Heavy weapon choices:
Flamer - Cost: 40 req, 10 power
- The flamer, unlike in tabletop WH40k, does little damage. However, it
wreaks havoc on enemy morale. A full squad equipped with 4 flamers is
frighteningly effective at making opponents retreat in disarray.
Remember that ranged morale damage drops dramatically once the target
units are engaged in close combat.
Heavy bolter - Cost: 40 req, 10 power
- A larger, belt-fed variant of the normal Bolter, the Heavy
Bolter spits out a steady stream of bolter shells which are
devastating against infantry. Beware: the heavy bolter requires
2 seconds to set up, and is quite ineffective against
non-infantry targets.
Plasma gun - Cost: 40 req, 10 power
- The plasma gun is a weapon that fires superheated packets of
energy. It is very useful against heavy infantry, and is a viable
alternative to the heavy bolter as an anti-infantry weapon, as it
does decent damage agains infantry while retaining the ability to
fire on the move. Make plenty of these when fighting Space Marines
or Chaos.
Missile launcher - Cost: 60 req, 15 power
- This is THE weapon to use against vehicles. One missile
takes a huge chunk out of any enemy vehicle's health. It is
also useful for knocking around enemy commanders, which is
vital if they're trying to cast Orbital Bombardment or
Eldritch Storm. However, it takes 2.5 seconds to set up,
which makes it vulnerable to artillery and other forms of
disruption.
Special Abilities:
Frag grenades - This ability is researched from the Chapel-Barracks. They don't
do much damage, but are useful for disrupting enemy formations.
Best used against heavy weapon squads or incoming melee troops.
Space Marine Sergeant
Prerequisites: Monastery
Cost: 75 req
Standard equipment: Bolt Pistol (upgradeable to plasma pistol)
Chainsword (upgradeable to power sword, then power fist)
Special abilities: Rally
The Sergeant is primarily a close-combat soldier, which makes him a little less
useful for the "shootier" Space Marine squads. However, he is still important,
as he allows the squad to rally, returning their morale to full. He can also be
equipped with a plasma pistol, which gives him extra punch against heavy
infantry. Be aware that the Sergeant is relatively weak compared to other
leader units, especially the Ork Nob Leaders. Sergeants also add 2 to your
maximum squad cap, so you may find the second Stronghold squad cap upgrade
redundant. You should still research it, though; when the Sergeant dies, the 2
extra squad cap goes with him.
Special abilities:
Rally - The Sergeant rallies his squad, returning their morale to normal. This
is incredibly useful, and it is a huge advantage the Space Marines have
over the other races. Just make sure you use the ability before your
Sergeant dies (Trust me, those boys die a lot. Sarge, wear a helmet!)
Assault Marine squad
Prerequisites: Chapel-Barracks, Armory
Cost: 260 req, 2 squad cap (65 req per assault marine)
Maximum squad size: 8 + 1 Sergeant
Heavy weapon slots: 0
Standard equipment: Bolt Pistol, Chainsword
Special Abilities: Melta bombs
Assault Marines are regular marines with jump packs which allow them to fly
over obstructions and get across the battlefield quickly. They are armed with
bolt pistols and chainswords, and are primarily close-combat troops. Assault
Marines are useful for tying up enemy heavy weapon squads while the tactical
squads move into position in relative safety. They aren't any tougher than a
tactical marine, so expect substantial losses if you jump them into an enemy
position.
Special Abilities:
Jump - This ability allows the squad to jump in and out of trouble quickly. A
squad of Assault Marines can jump twice in a row before the jump pack
has to recharge. Jump into enemy heavy weapon squads and artillery for
best results.
Melta bombs - This, when combined with the Assault Marines' jump ability, is
very destructive. Melta bombs deal decent damage against vehicles
and buildings. Two melta bombs followed by a lascannon/missile
salvo are often enough to take out any vehicle, except perhaps
Land Raiders. Best used in conjunction with the jump packs for
hit and run attacks. Jump in, bomb the target, then jump out.
Assault Marine Sergeant
Prerequisites: Monastery
Cost: 75 req, 20 req
Standard equipment: Bolt Pistol (upgradeable to Plasma Pistol)
Chainsword (upgradeable to Power Sword, then Power Fist)
Special abilities: Rally
Essentially the same Sergeant the tactical marine squads have, only with a
jumpjet. Assault Sergeants see much more close combat action, being attached to
melee squads. This also means their power sword/fist upgrades are actually
useful. Like the regular Sergeant, he adds 2 to your maximum squad cap.
Special Abilities:
Rally - The Sergeant rallies his squad, returning their morale to normal. This
is incredibly useful, and it is a huge advantage the Space Marines have
over the other races. Just make sure you use the ability before your
Sergeant dies (Trust me, those boys die a lot. Sarge, wear a helmet!)
Terminator squad
Prerequisites: Fortress-Monastery, Orbital Relay, captured Relic
Cost: 340 req, 100 power, 4 squad cap (85 req, 25 power per terminator)
Maximum squad size: 8
Heavy weapon slots: 2
Standard equipment: Storm Bolter, Power Fist
Heavy weapon options: Heavy Flamer, Assault Cannon
Special Abilities: Teleport
Terminators are, as they say, the Emperor's finest. Terminators are Space
Marines encased in massive Terminator suits which are pretty much the strongest
armored suits the Imperium has. They are armed with twin-barrelled Storm
Bolters and Power Fists, and can be upgraded with teleporters to help their
mobility (they are painfully slow). These guys go through infantry like a hot
knife through butter, but watch them carefully as they're rather vulnerable to
plasma. Also, they do not have a Sergeant, and therefore cannot rally.
I personally don't use Terminators much, since I can get much more out of two
extra squads of tactical/assault marines.
Heavy weapon choices:
Heavy Flamer - Cost: 70 req, 40 power
- This is the same thing the tac and scout squads have, only it
does a little more damage. Fairly useless, since you'll have
dedicated morale-breaking squads by the time you build
Terminators.
Assault Cannon - Cost: 70 req, 40 power
- Ah, now this is a weapon. This kills most infantry easily,
and, if memory serves, can be fired on the move, making it
somewhat more useful than the heavy bolter.
Special Abilities:
Teleport - This allows the squad to teleport to any point within a certain
radius. It's only useful for teleporting into battle, as there is a
long delay where the squad just sits there before they teleport to
the target.
Assault Terminators
Prerequisites: Fortress-Monastery, Orbital Relay, captured Relic
Cost: 340 req, 100 power, 4 squad cap (85 req, 25 power per terminator)
Maximum squad size: 8
Heavy weapon slots: 0
Standard equipment: Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield
Special Abilities: Teleport
While the normal Terminators' usefulness is questionable, this squad's
usefulness is undoubted. You are looking at the number one uber-unit killer.
They are armed with Thunder Hammers, which stun enemies, and Storm Shields,
which drastically reduce the melee damage they take. This doesn't sound like
much until you consider there's eight of them, each with a hammer that stuns
anything. Bloodthirsters, Avatars, and even Squiggoths don't stand a chance
against Assault Terminators.
Of course, they share the Terminators' slow speed and their weakness to plasma
and morale-breaking weapons. But they're still useful for tying up uber-units
while your other forces deal with the rest of them. Best used with commander
units, but don't attach the Force Commander to them; they lose their stun
ability while the Commander is attached to them.
Always keep a squad of Assault Terminators ready for deep striking, unless
your enemy's playing as Space Marines, in which case two plasma squads are
better.
Special Abilities:
Teleport - This allows the squad to teleport to any point within a certain
radius. It's only useful for teleporting into battle, as there is a
long delay where the squad just sits there before they teleport to
the target.
Force Commander
Prerequisites: Chapel-Barracks
Cost: 260 req, 85 power
Standard equipment: Daemonhammer (Power Sword in single player)
Bolt Pistol (upgradeable to Plasma Pistol)
Special Abilities: Battlecry, Orbital Bombardment, Inspiring Aura
Can be attached to squads
At the beginning of the game, the Force Commander is the second-strongest
commander unit, the Chaos Lord being the first. However, at the end of the
game, he turns into the strongest unit of all. Why?
Orbital Bombardment.
His Orbital Bombardment ability utterly annihilates anything in its blast
radius, except perhaps infantry. I once decimated an entire Fire Prism platoon
by waiting until they jumped then walling them in with Assault Marines while my
Force Commander called plasma lances down on them. Effective. I lost my Assault
Marines to a combination of plasma lances, prism blasts and shuriken cannon
shots, but it was worth it.
Also, due to a bug (or "design feature," pick one), the Force Commander has an
advantage over most other commanders. Basically, if he hits your commander and
you try to run away, your unit will just sit there. Apparently it's a
side-effect of the Force Commander's stun ability. Expect Relic to fix it soon
enough.
Special Abilities:
Battlecry - Gives all infantry around the Force Commander a 40% damage bonus
for a short period of time.
Orbital Bombardment - Calls a plasma lance strike down from the orbiting Space
Marine vessels. Effective against vehicles and buildings,
throws infantry around (and may even kill some). It takes
about 4 minutes to recharge, so don't go wasting it on a
bunch of grots.
Inspiring Aura - This gives all units a 10% increase in damage. Doesn't sound
like much, but every little bit counts with the Marines. This
ability is always active once researched.
Librarian
Prerequisites: Sacred Artifact
Cost: 245 req, 80 power
Standard equipment: Force Weapon
Bolt Pistol (upgradeable to Plasma Pistol)
Special Abilities: Smite, Weaken Resolve, Word of the Emperor
Can be attached to squads
The Librarian is the Space Marines' secondary commander unit. He has some
useful abilities that can turn the tide of battle. I usually keep him on the
front lines while my Force Commander and a few squads try to flank the enemy.
As a rule, whenever an uber-unit appears I have him and the Force Commander
help the Assault Terminators so it goes down faster.
Special Abilities:
Smite - The Librarian creates a pulse of psychic energy that deals damage and
knocks infantry off their feet. It's useful at times, but the Chaos
Sorcerer's Doombolt is better.
Weaken Resolve - Temporarily removes an enemy squad's ability to regenerate
morale. The only use for it I've found so far is for keeping
Possessed squads demoralized.
Word of the Emperor - The Librarian begins chanting, which keeps nearby
friendly infantry from dying. Their HP may drop to 0, but
they won't die until the ability wears off or the
Librarian dies. Be careful, the Librarian is not affected
by this ability. Attach him to a squad affected by Word
of the Emperor for best results.
Apothecary
Prerequisites: Sacred Artifact
Cost: 45 req, 15 power
Standard equipment: Chainsword
Special Abilities: Can be attached to squads
This unit is one you should create as soon as you reach tier 2 and build a
Sacred Artifact. It enhances the regeneration rates of nearby friendly
infantry, including heroes. This will drastically increase the survivability of
your squads. You are limited to 4 Apothecaries, but that's enough to cover most
of your squads.
Skull Probe
Prerequisites: Listening Post
Cost: 25 req
Standard equipment: None
Special Abilities: Infiltrate, Sabotage
Can be attached to squads
This unit is a skull with an antigravity drive that serves as a disposable
scout. It can infiltrate, and can self-destruct beside a building, which
supposedly disables the building for a short period of time. Never tried it,
though. Skull Probes lose HP over time, but you can place them beside
Apothecaries to heal them. Also, Skull Probes can be attached to squads to give
them a temporary boost in sight radius.
Rhino Transport
Prerequisites: Machine Cult
Cost: 75 req, 70 power, 2 vehicle cap
Standard equipment: None
Special Abilities: Smoke launcher, can carry one squad of marines
The Rhino is just like all the other transports in the game except the Falcon
Grav Tank. It's useless. It's cheap, fast, can transport infantry and generate
temporary heavy cover with its smoke launcher upgrade, but it's incredibly
fragile; even bolters can destroy it. Plus, it takes 2 vehicle cap, which could
be better spent on Dreadnoughts, Land Speeders or Whirlwinds. The Rhino is
somewhat useful on large maps, but try to avoid using it. It's not worth the
resources, and it loses any semblance of usefulness once you construct an
Orbital Relay.
If you HAVE to use the Rhino, delete it after you bring the Marines to their
destination. The 2 vehicle cap it takes up can be better used by Dreadnoughts
or Land Speeders.
Special Abilities:
Smoke Launcher - This is the only good thing about the Rhino. Even then, it's
not enough to make the Rhino worthwhile. It launches a smoke
grenade that creates temporary heavy cover around the target
area. It doesn't last that long, but it has its uses.
Land Speeder
Prerequisites: Machine Cult
Cost: 150 req, 130 power, 2 vehicle cap
Standard equipment: Storm Bolter, Twin-Linked Assault Cannon
Special Abilities: Jump
Ah, one of the most underrated vehicles in the Space Marine army. It is
equipped with an array of weapons that utterly destroy infantry. Two or three
of these is enough to cut down a good-sized infantry force. Five is overkill.
However, it has very little HP and armor, which makes it vulnerable to just
about any unit on the battlefield. DON'T send Speeders to fight in the front
line. Instead, hit the enemy from behind or from the sides if possible. Your
enemy WILL panic when he sees his squad's unit count go from 10 to 4 in a
matter of seconds.
Be careful when using these things, though. They're effective, but once your
opponent devotes some firepower to attack them, they're toast.
Special Abilities:
Jump - Like Assault Marines, the Land Speeder can jump twice in a row before
having to recharge. Very useful for popping up behind the enemy force
and sandwiching them with the rest of your army. Also effective for hit
and run attacks on Ork bases. Ork buildings are pretty fragile.
Dreadnought
Prerequisites: Machine Cult
Cost: 170 req, 405 power, 2 vehicle cap
Standard equipment: 2 Close Combat Weapons
Heavy weapon options: Assault Cannon, Twin-Linked Lascannon
This is one of the most effective units the Space Marines have at their
disposal. Capable of taking on entire squads, its only weakness is its lack of
ranged weaponry. This can be fixed by upgrading it with an Assault Cannon or
Twin-Linked Lascannon, but doing so halves the melee damage of the Dreadnought.
Keep this unit away from missile squads.
Heavy weapon choices:
Assault Cannon - Cost: 30 req, 70 power
- Basically a larger, vehicle-mounted version of the Heavy
Bolter, this thing sprays hundreds of bolts at the enemy. It
is most effective against infantry. It's usually a good idea
to equip this if you're thinking of going after infantry,
since smart players usually make their infantry run away when
a Dreadnought closes in.
Twin-Linked Lascannon - Cost: 30 req, 70 power
- This weapon is most effective against vehicles. It fires
slowly and has a tendency to miss, but it deals good
damage. Not really an advisable upgrade for the
Dreadnought. Predators with lascannons are a better
choice for ranged anti-vehicle duty. Strangely enough,
the lascannon does very little damage to Killa Kans.
Hellfire Dreadnought
Prerequisites: Machine Cult
Cost: 120 req, 275 power, 2 vehicle cap
Standard equipment: Autocannon, Missile Launcher
Heavy weapon options: Twin-Linked Lascannon
A watered-down version of the Dreadnought, the Hellfire surrenders its close
combat weaponry for additional ranged firepower. It's significantly cheaper
than the normal Dreadnought, but for good reason. It has much less health, is
helpless in close combat, and is rather useless once the Predators roll out.
Also, its missiles deal less damage than a marine with a missile launcher (!),
and its Lascannon/Assault Cannon is weaker than the ones found on the regular
Dreadnought or Predator. Its only advantage over a missile squad is that it
can't be knocked down and is unaffected by morale. Armor penetration _is_
better, but only for light and medium vehicles, and the Hellfire just can't
match the volume of fire a dedicated missile squad can dish out. Unless you
desperately need some extra fire support and can't afford a Dreadnought or
Predator, avoid this.
The Hellfire DOES look like a regular Dreadnought from a distance. Enemies
usually run when they see Dreads of any kind, so you might want to build one or
two to scare them off while you gather resources to get some real firepower.
Heavy weapon choices:
Twin-Linked Lascannon - Cost: 30 req, 70 power
- This is just like the one you can upgrade the normal
Dreadnought with, only it deals less damage. Upgrading
the Hellfire with this means it'll be helpless when
infantry start attacking it. Not worth the resources,
but then, neither is the Hellfire itself.
Whirlwind
Prerequisites: Machine Cult
Cost: 145 req, 380 power, 2 vehicle cap
Standard equipment: Missile battery
This is the Space Marines' artillery platform. It's basically a Rhino with a
missile battery bolted on top, and it's just as fragile. It does decent damage
to infantry, but that's not what the Whirlwind is for. With each shot, the
Whirlwind does 60 morale damage and disrupts enemy formations. One Whirlwind
can turn the tide of a battle by knocking infantry off their feet before they
can start shooting. Two Whirlwinds are even better. Three is a bit of a waste,
but the volume of fire they can deliver is ridiculous. The Whirlwind (and just
about all other artillery pieces) is also good for destroying massed turrets.
Just remember that it's painfully inaccurate, so fire ahead of your troops
unless you want to see flying Space Marines with red circles around them.
Predator
Prerequisites: Fortress Monastery
Cost: 190 req, 455 power, 3 vehicle cap
Standard equipment: Autocannon, 2 heavy bolters on side sponsons
Heavy weapon options: Twin-Linked Lascannon, Lascannon (right), Lascannon
(left)
The Predator is the Space Marines' main tank. It has a lot of armor, good
speed, and a respectable amount of firepower. It is initially effective against
infantry, but can be upgraded to be stronger against vehicles. Most of the time
you'll want to upgrade the main turret to a Twin-Linked Lascannon while leaving
the heavy bolters to fend off infantry. Giving the Predator proper support
makes this unnecessary, and equipping the Predator with a full complement of
Lascannons makes it extremely deadly to vehicles. A Predator in the Annihilator
configuration (pure lascannons) can take just about any other vehicle out, but
is painfully expensive at 370req/915power (!).
Heavy weapon options:
Twin-Linked Lascannon - Cost: 90 req, 230 power
- Replaces the autocannon on the Predator's turret with a
twin-linked lascannon. This increases the Predator's
effectiveness against vehicles.
Lascannon - Cost: 45 req, 115 req
- Replaces the sponson-mounted heavy bolters with lascannons.
NOTE: The left and right lascannons are upgraded separately.
Land Raider
Prerequisites: Fortress Monastery
Cost: 470 req, 555 power, 5 vehicle cap
Standard equipment: Heavy Bolter, 2 Twin-Linked Lascannons on side sponsons
Special Abilities: Machine Spirit, can carry a squad of Marines or Terminators
Ah, the Land Raider. Huge, heavily armored, heavily armed, and capable of
carrying a squad of Terminators. All fire usually shifts to this massive tank
when it shows up on the battlefield. Use this to your advantage; a pair of
Servitors repairing it from behind helps a lot. It can carry Terminators to
battle, but its usually better to just Deep Strike them. The Land Raider may be
equipped with Lascannons, but due to an oversight, it's not very effective
against vehicles. But point the Land Raider's guns at a squad of heavy infantry
and you'll be surprised how fast they die. Of course, the 5 vehicle cap is
questionable. Theoretically, a Dreadnought and a Predator can do far more
damage than a single Land Raider, and are much more tactically flexible.
Special Abilities:
Machine Spirit - this calls on the Land Raider's Machine Spirit (fancy name for
AI, I guess) to take control of the Land Raider, reducing
damage taken by 20% and halving the Land Raider's speed for
the duration of the ability. Only useful if your enemy's dumb
enough to focus all his fire on the Land Raider while
completely ignoring your other units.
Stronghold
Prerequisites: None
Cost: 450 req, 250 power (rises with each new Stronghold)
Builds: Servitor, Scout Marine squad
Upgrades: Monastery, Fortress Monastery, Squad Cap Increase, Vehicle Cap
Increase, Infiltration
The primary building of the Space Marines, the Stronghold projects an area
around itself in which you can construct more buildings. It is heavily armored
and can take quite a bit of punishment before going down. It can be upgraded to
a Monastery and then a Fortress Monastery, which unlocks more advanced units.
It also holds the Infantry and Vehicle Cap upgrades, which increase the number
of units you can build. It also generates +20 requisition.
This is the first thing you should build as soon as the game starts. It trains
the Space Marines' infantry units.
Listening Post
Prerequisites: None
Cost: 100 req
Builds: None
Upgrades: Escalate Engagement, Fortified Position, Heavily Fortified Position
These buildings are your primary source of requisition. Build one on top of
your strategic points as soon as you capture them. It adds 6 to your
requisition rate, and will give you 50 requisition upon completion. The
Escalate Engagement and Full Scale War research items give another +6 to your
requisition with each upgrade. The Fortification upgrades increase the health
of the listening post and improve its weaponry.
Generates power. Each generator boosts your power generation rate by 10, and
like the listening post, gives you 50 power upon completion. A Stronghold can
only support 6 generators; if you want more, you'll need to build more
Strongholds. Also, Plasma Generators explode violently when destroyed, damaging
nearby units and knocking infantry off their feet.
Armory
Prerequisites: Chapel-Barracks
Cost: 175 req, 50 power
Builds: None
Upgrades: Heavy Weapon Increase, Wargear: Target Finders, Wargear: Enhanced
Target Finders, Wargear: Bionics Level 1, Wargear: Bionics Level 2,
Wargear: Power Sword, Wargear: Power Fist, Wargear: Plasma Pistol
Carries various upgrades for your infantry. IMO, the most important upgrades
are Target Finders, Bionics and Heavy Weapon Increase. Also, keep in mind that
Deep Strike requires an Armory. If your Armory goes boom, you won't be able to
Deep Strike anything from your Orbital Relay until you build another one.
Machine Cult
Prerequisites: Monastery
Cost: 350 req, 100 power
Builds: Rhino Transport, Land Speeder, Dreadnought, Hellfire Dreadnought,
Whirlwind, Predator, Land Raider
Upgrades: Wargear: Smoke launchers
The Machine Cult creates all Space Marine vehicles. Build one as soon as you
can, as even a single Dreadnought can make a huge difference.
Sacred Artifact
Prerequisites: Monastery
Cost: 250 req, 125 power
Builds: Apothecary, Librarian
Upgrades: Commander Veteran Upgrade, Commander Hero Upgrade, Inspiring Aura,
Battlecry, Word of the Emperor, Weaken Resolve
This building creates Apothecaries and Librarians, and also contains upgrades
for your commanders. Build 4 apothecaries as soon as you complete the Sacred
Artifact; it'll help loads.
It generates about 4 times more power than the normal Plasma Generator, but
needs to be built on slag deposits. It generates 40 power, and gives you 100
power upon completion. 495 is a lot of requisition for one building, though. I
only build these if I have lots of requisition but no power, or I'm making lots
of vehicles. Lascannons are expensive.
Heavy Bolter Turret
Prerequisites: None
Cost: 150 req, 75 power
Builds: None
Upgrades: Missile Turret Upgrade
Now, this thing is effective for early scout rushes and the AI, but against a
decent human player, forget about it. Once a human learns you're massing these,
he'll just build some artillery to bomb your turrets to hell. Initially
effective against infantry, it can be upgraded to a missile launcher to make it
more effective against vehicles.
Mine Field
Prerequisites: None
Cost: 50 req, 50 power
Builds: None
Upgrades: None
A simple mine field. If a unit steps on it, it explodes. After a certain number
of detonations, the mine field disappears. Not all that useful, since
commanders and sergeants can detect the mines. Still, make a few fields around
your entrance to keep those pesky infiltrated scouts out.
Orbital Relay
Prerequisites: Fortress Monastery
Cost: 250 req, 500 power
Builds: Space Marine squad, Dreadnought, Hellfire Dreadnought
Upgrades: Wargear: Teleporters
Okay, this is at the very top of the Space Marine tech tree. Once you have
this, you can load units into it and drop them in a visible place after a short
delay. It can hold 6 units, with walker units taking up 2 spaces, so you can
load three Dreadnoughts into the Relay. It allows you to build Terminators from
your Chapel-Barracks, and builds some units itself, which are instantly
prepared for dropping the moment they finish building. Most importantly, this
building allows the Force Commander to call down orbital strikes on targets. Be
warned: if you lose all your Armories, your deep striking ability is
neutralized.
Squad Cap Increase
Prerequisites: None
Cost: 150 req
Effects: +5 to max squad cap
This upgrade increases your maximum squad cap, allowing you to build more
infantry. Hold off on purchasing this upgrade until you've filled the 10 cap
you start with.
Vehicle Cap Increase
Prerequisites: None
Cost: 125 req
Effects: +5 to max vehicle cap
This upgrade increases your maximum vehicle cap. Research this while building a
Machine Cult, since the Cult only gives you 2 vehicle cap to start with.
Infiltration
Prerequisites: None
Cost: 25 req, 15 power
Effects: Adds Infiltration ability to scouts
Allows scouts to use the Infiltration ability, making them invisible to most
units. This is nice to buy at the beginning of the game, since it still leaves
you with enough power to create a Force Commander.
Monastery
Prerequisites: Chapel-Barracks, Armory
Cost: 250 req, 100 power
Effects: Upgrades HQ to Monastery, allows production of more advanced units
Upgrades the Stronghold to a Monastery. This unlocks the Sergeant, plasma guns,
missile launchers, the Machine Cult, and the Sacred Artifact. It also allows
the research of more abilities. Get this as soon as possible, as you want to
have those missile squads ready fast.
Fortress Monastery
Prerequisites: Machine Cult, Sacred Artifact
Cost: 500 req, 250 power
Effects: Upgrades HQ to Monastery, allows production of more advanced units
Upgrades the Monastery to a Fortress Monastery. This unlocks the rest of the
Space Marine arsenal, including the Predator, Land Raider, Terminators, and the
Orbital Relay. It's expensive, but by the time you reach tier 3 you'll be
rolling in the requisition anyway.
Wargear: Frag Grenades
Prerequisites: Armory
Cost: 25 req, 75 power
Effects: Equips Space Marine squads with frag grenades
These grenades aren't very damaging, but are very useful for knocking someone
off their feet. Chuck them at heavy weapon squads or incoming melee troops.
Wargear: Melta Bombs
Prerequisites: Armory
Cost: 50 req, 100 power
Effects: Equips Assault Marine squads with melta bombs
This upgrade is certainly more important than the frag grenades. Melta bombs
deal respectable damage to vehicles and buildings. Great for picking off
badly-damaged vehicles and low HP buildings.
---------------
ARMORY UPGRADES
---------------
Heavy Weapon Increase
Prerequisites: None
Cost: 75 req, 75 power
Effects: Increases Marine squads' heavy weapon capacity to 4
This is a very important upgrade. 4 of any heavy weapon can do some serious
damage to the right target.
Wargear: Target Finders
Prerequisites: None
Cost: 100 req, 50 power
Effects: "increases accuracy" for all squads, actually increases ranged damage
by 20%
Standard RTS "improve weapon" upgrade. It says it improves accuracy, but the
datafiles show it just increases weapon damage. Still an important upgrade,
though.
Wargear: Enhanced Target Finders
Prerequisites: Monastery
Cost: 150 req, 100 power
Effects: "increases accuracy" for all squads, actually increases ranged damage
by 20%
Same thing as above.
Wargear: Bionics Level 1
Prerequisites: None
Cost: 100 req, 50 power
Effects: Increases health of all squads by 20%
This, IMO, is more important than Target Finders. With this, scout health is
boosted to that of an unupgraded Space Marine. While they still die easily, the
increased health means they'll get a few more shots in.
Wargear: Bionics Level 2
Prerequisites: Monastery
Cost: 150 req, 100 power
Effects: Increases health of all squads by 20%
Same as above.
Wargear: Power Sword
Prerequisites: Monastery
Cost: 65 req, 25 power
Effects: Equips all Sergeants with Power Swords (replaces chainsword)
Power Swords are supposed to be effective against heavy infantry, but I've
found that Sergeants die miserably before they can even get into close combat
with the enemy. Only get this if you use Assault Marines.
Wargear: Power Fist
Prerequisites: Monastery
Cost: 75 req, 40 power
Effects: Equips all Sergeants with Power Fists (replaces Power Sword)
Well, this is certainly an improvement. This allows the Sergeant to take on
vehicles, which is nice, until you consider that he's still weak and could die
en route to the target.
Plasma Pistols
Prerequisites: Monastery
Cost: 60 req, 35 power
Effects: Equips the Force Commander, Librarian, and all Sergeants with Plasma
Pistols (replaces Bolt Pistol)
This gives squad leaders and all heroes Plasma Pistols, which increase their
effectiveness against heavy infantry. A must have if you're going up against
Space Marines or Chaos.
Wargear: Smoke Launchers
Prerequisites: None
Cost: 75 req, 25 power
Effects: Equips Rhino Transports with smoke launchers
This lets the Rhino launch smoke grenades, which generate temporary heavy cover
at the target area. Nice when you're in a firefight with another shooty race,
but the Rhino still isn't worth the 2 vehicle cap it takes up.
Commander Veteran Upgrade
Prerequisites: None
Cost: 100 req, 25 power
Effects: Increases health, damage, and ability recharge rate of heroes
By the time you get a Sacred Artifact, the focus of the battle will have
shifted to vehicles, so this upgrade is important for improving your heroes'
survivability. The increase in the recharge rate of abilities alone is worth
the resources.
Commander Hero Upgrade
Prerequisites: None
Cost: 125 req, 50 power
Effects: Further increases health, damage, and ability recharge rate of heroes
Second hero upgrade. Same effects as the previous upgrade. If you use the hero
abilities a lot, get this ASAP.
Inspiring Aura
Prerequisites: None
Cost: 100 req, 35 power
Effects: Gives the Force Commander an aura that increases the damage dealt by
nearby infantry units
The damage boost provided by this ability isn't all that big (10%), but every
little bit helps.
Battlecry
Prerequisites: None
Cost: 150 req, 75 power
Effects: Allows the Force Commander to utter a battlecry that increases nearby
infantry's damage and morale.
Oh, now this is sweet. When used, the battlecry gives nearby infantry a 40%
damage boost and a morale boost. Pair this with Word of the Emperor and you'll
have your enemies screaming about how fast you're killing their units while
none of your own are dying.
Word of the Emperor
Prerequisites: None
Cost: 50 req, 40 power
Effects: Allows the Librarian to use the Word of the Emperor ability, which
prevents nearby infantry from dying while the ability is active.
For such a low price, this is one great ability. It keeps your infantry from
dying, though they still take damage. The ability deactivates after about 30
seconds or if the Librarian is killed, but you can just attach the Librarian to
a nearby squad to keep him from dying. The enemy will have to get through the
units in the squad first, and since they're affected by Word of the Emperor...
Weaken Resolve
Prerequisites: None
Cost: 125 req, 50 power
Effects: Allows the Librarian to use the Weaken Resolve ability, which reduces
the target squad's morale recovery.
This pretty much stops the enemy squad from regenerating morale (great against
Possessed), but doesn't last very long. Not really important, and expensive for
what it does. Word of the Emperor is loads better, comes before this ability,
and is much cheaper. Break the squad with flamers before using this ability for
maximum effect.
-----------------------
LISTENING POST UPGRADES
-----------------------
Fortified Position Add-on
Prerequisites: None
Cost: 100 req, 75 power
Effects: Increases the listening post's health and requisition rate, and adds a
Heavy Bolter to the building.
Get this as soon as your strategic points are covered with listening posts. It
gives a +6 boost to the listening post's requisition rate, and equips it with a
Heavy Bolter that can hold enemies off for a short time.
Heavily Fortified Position Add-on
Prerequisites: Fortress Monastery, Fortified Position Add-on
Cost: 450 req, 150 power
Effects: Increases the listening post's health and requisition rate, and adds a
more powerful Storm Bolter to the building.
Gives the position another boost in health, and again increases its requisition
rate by 6. The listening post also gains a Storm Bolter with extended range and
damage. When upgraded with this add-on, the listening post can kill entire
squads on its own.
Escalate Engagement Research
Prerequisites: Monastery
Cost: 75 req, 250 power
Effects: Provides a global bonus to requisition resource production rates
Increases your requisition rate. I'm not quite sure how much it increases the
rate at which requisition is produced, but it seems to go up by quite a bit
with this upgrade.
Full Scale War Research
Prerequisites: Fortress Monastery
Cost: 100 req, 350 power
Effects: Provides a global bonus to requisition resource production rates
Increases your requisition rate. I'm not quite sure how much it increases the
rate at which requisition is produced, but it seems to go up by quite a bit
with this upgrade.
Strengthen Electrical Grid
Prerequisites: Monastery
Cost: 200 req, 40 power
Effects: Provides a global bonus to power resource production rates
Increases your power generation rate. Very important if you're going heavy on
the vehicles.
Plasma Battery Storage Research
Prerequisites: Fortress Monastery
Cost: 350 req
Effects: Provides a global bonus to power resource production rates
Second upgrade. This increases your power generation rate even more.
----------------------------
HEAVY BOLTER TURRET UPGRADES
----------------------------
Missile Turret Upgrade Add-on
Prerequisites: Monastery
Cost: 50 req
Effects: Replaces the Heavy Bolter Turret's guns with Missile Launchers.
This equips the turret with missiles instead of bolters, which increases its
effectiveness against vehicles while reducing its effectiveness against
infantry.
===============================================================================
6. General Strategies
===============================================================================
Some of these may be painfully obvious, but it's better to be safe than sorry.
- Plan ahead. The game takes a long time to load. While it's loading, think
about what you can use against your opponent, and what he's likely to throw
at you.
- Know your hotkeys. It's much faster to click on a building and press the
hotkeys to build units than it is to move the mouse to the icon and click it.
If you can't be bothered to learn all of them, at least memorize the most
important ones: "R" to reinforce, "L" to build a squad leader, and "Q" to
stop the currently selected squad.
- Speed is important, especially at the beginning of the game. The faster you
can capture points and get those buildings up, the better. Again, hotkeys are
important. Once the game starts, I usually click on the Stronghold, press M,
M, S, M, then M to build 2 scout squads, a servitor, then another 2 scout
squads. Then I click on the servitor and press B, C to build a
Chapel-Barracks. Much faster than clicking on each button individually.
- Scouts will immediately head off to capture a strategic point if you set the
Stronghold's rally point to any strategic point. This is better than manually
ordering the scout to capture a point after being built.
- Be prepared for anything. If facing a race whose forces are composed
primarily of infantry (Orks, for example), it is tempting to equip your
squads with nothing but heavy bolters. Bad idea; if your opponent surprises
you with Nobs, you're dead.
- Base your actions on your opponent's movements. Keep an eye on what he's
doing with infiltrated scouts, and build accordingly. If he has many heavy
infantry squads, equip your men with plasma. If he has a lot of vehicles,
equip your men with missiles.
- Plasma is a nice general-purpose weapon, dealing decent damage to both light
and heavy infantry. They don't need time to set up, either. However, beware
plasma's low accuracy compared to regular bolters.
- Space Marines are few in number. All the other races' squads outnumber your
own, so be careful. You can and will get overwhelmed if you aren't careful.
The loss of even a single squad of Marines will hurt you badly, and in some
cases can be fatal.
- Always fill your squad cap to 10/10 before progressing to tier 2. A popular
combination is: 2 servitors, 2 scout squads, 3 marine squads. Another
combination, and my personal preference, is: 2 servitors, 4 scout squads, and
2 marine squads. It's cheaper by 50 req, and you have more squads to capture
points and dance around the enemy with. Plus, once you get an armory, you can
give the scouts sniper rifles, which can _really_ ruin somebody's day.
- Once you hit 10/10 with your squad cap, upgrade your Stronghold to a
Monastery as soon as you feel it's safe to devote the resources to the addon.
Remember that Sergeants add 2 to your maximum squad cap, so that squad cap
upgrade at the Stronghold really isn't that important.
- Play aggressively. The more strategic points you take, the faster requisition
flows in, and the faster you'll be able to call down additional
reinforcements. If you wall yourself into your base, you'll just end up badly
outnumbered and outgunned, or you'll find yourself the target of a massive
artillery barrage.
- Cap your strategic points with listening posts and upgrade them when you can.
If you can gain requisition faster than your opponent, then you've secured
another advantage.
- Make good use of CTRL groups. It's always good to have your production
buildings hotkeyed, since this will allow you to replace losses faster. Also,
binding special weapon squads to one group number makes for efficient
response to any given situation. Lots of Orks coming in? Press 2 for heavy
bolter squads.
- Change unit stances and tactics as necessary. Hold ground (F1) is the default
tactic for units. If you want your troops to stand still and to refrain from
wandering off, use stand ground (F2). Attack (F3) and Burn (F5) are more
offense-oriented, and will make your units chase after enemies, even if it
means going through a chokepoint lined with bolter turrets. Use Ceasefire
(F4) if you need to pull units out of a battle. The weapon stances are also
important; Assault (F6) makes your units charge into melee, Ranged (F7)
causes them to hang back and fire from afar, and Versatile (F8) makes them
use ranged weapons from a distance and close combat weapons when the enemy
gets close.
- Refrain from using the scout rush. It may be a quick way to win, but people
will hate you for it. Besides, if you screw up, you'll be wide open for a
counterattack.
- Do not rely on F2. As of version 1.2 of the game, units on stand ground
stance and ranged tactics have their accuracy reduced to 1% if engaged in
close combat. So if your heavy weapon squads are attacked by assault squads,
switch back to hold ground stance so you actually have a chance. Flamers and
grenade launchers are not affected by this accuracy penalty.
- Reinforce, reinforce, reinforce. You only have 8 men in a squad of Space
Marines, and that means each unit that goes down hurts a lot more than it
would were you playing a different race. If one of your squads is taking a
beating, pull them out if you can and reinforce them, unless you're
sacrificing them on purpose. Fortunately, Space Marines are tough compared to
other infantry units. That's no reason to et careless, though.
- Morale is key to your victory. If you can destroy your enemy's morale while
keeping your own squads from breaking, you'll be able to massacre his units
with impunity.
- Keep your heavy weapon squads in the rear. Heavy bolters and missile
launchers can't do much good if they're the ones eating daemonic flames at
the front line. Use Dreadnoughts and Assault Marines to hold enemies at bay
while your heavy weapons tear them to bits.
- Morale is one of the Space Marines' strengths. Sniper rifles and flamers
break enemy squads quickly, your troops regain their normal effectiveness at
50 morale (the other races regroup at 150), and none of the other races have
an ability like Rally.
- Don't mix special weapons in squads. While having 2 heavy bolters and 2
missile launchers in one squad sounds nice, you end up with a squad that
really isn't effective against a particular unit. It also wastes firepower.
For instance, your 2HB/2ML squad comes up against a Killa Kan. The missiles
will do some damage, yes, but the bolters aren't doing much good now, are
they? Limiting your squads to one type of special weapon is much more
effective, and gives you a better idea about what that particular squad
should be doing.
- Make use of cover! I cannot stress this enough; the other races' numerical
advantage means nothing if you have the right weapons sitting in heavy cover.
Light cover means you'll take only 75% of whatever ranged damage the enemy
can do, reduces speed to 90%, and gives you a 50% boost to morale
regeneration rate. Heavy cover drops ranged damage taken to _50%_ and doubles
morale regeneration rate! Walking unit speed drops to 75% in heavy cover, but
the damage reduction and morale boost are well worth it. Negative cover
increases ranged damage taken by 10% and drops speed to 80%, so lure your
enemies into it while staying out of it yourself.
- Artillery is vital in taking out enemy positions. If he's in heavy cover,
have a Whirlwind throw a missile into the crater. That'll blow them out of
the crater, then you can pound on them with whatever you have while they
recover. Turrets and buildings are also deliciously vulnerable to artillery,
so if you find a wall of turrets at an enemy base, call in the Whirlwinds. Of
course, this same tactic may be applied to you, so stay sharp and keep an eye
on your squads in cover.
- Prioritize targets when in an enemy base. Knock out his plasma generators
before anything else, as that will make it much harder for him to build more
vehicles. Go for his Barracks next, since most infantry don't need power to
be built. Only go for the Stronghold when all of his production buildings are
down; the Stronghold is designed to take a beating.
- Protect your armory! If you lose it, you can't build special weapons, and you
can't use deepstrike. This is very bad if you have heavy infantry or vehicles
knocking at your door, or if you have three Dreadnoughts sitting in your
orbital relay. That's a potential 2000 damage per second going to waste!
- Abuse your special abilities. Word of the Emperor and Battlecry are there for
a reason. Infantry that just won't die and deal an extra 40% damage can make
a huge difference in battles.
- Infiltration is a valuable tool. If you can sneak a scout squad behind your
enemy's base and keep it hidden until you can build an Orbital Relay, you can
drop Dreadnoughts right into their base, which is sure to make them panic
while you take over more strategic points and critical locations.
- Be careful when infiltrating. Units that can see through the infiltration
ability are: Force Commanders, Librarians, Apothecaries, Farseers, the Seer
Council, Big Mek, Warboss, Mad Dok, Chaos Lord, Chaos Sorcerer, and
minefields (mines are triggered by infiltrators). So, if you're paranoid
about scouts coming into your base, leave a squad with an Apothecary at home,
or build minefields around your base's entrances.
- Build Apothecaries until you hit your limit (4) and attach them to your
squads. Your squads will live MUCH longer with an Apothecary nearby.
- Keep a few units in the rear of your attack formation as a reserve force. If
you've played any of the Total War games, you'd know how big a difference
fresh units make. It's no different here. Break and batter the enemy's forces
with your main force, then send in a team of fresh, undamaged units to mop
up.
- In team games, coordinate with your allies. For example, you and another ally
can take the brunt of the enemy charge while a third teammate pumps out units
like Fire Prisms or Possessed Marines. And for the Emperor's sake, support
each other. If one comes under attack, at LEAST send some Whirlwinds to knock
the enemy around.
- Familiarize yourself with bounding overwatch and tactical withdrawals. When
attacking, don't send ALL your forces in at once. Send half of your troops to
advance while the others cover them. When the first half reaches their
destination, move the other half forward while the first half covers them. As
for retreats, do the same. With proper coordination, this can be done on a
larger scale with teammates.
- Remember that you can finish teammates' buildings with your workers. This
comes in handy when you're cut off from your teammates and a big enemy force
is knocking at your door. Just tell a servitor to build a Stronghold
somewhere near your allies and ask them to finish the building with their own
workers.
===============================================================================
7. Race Specific Strategies
===============================================================================
The Space Marines have one important advantage over the other races in Dawn of
War. Anything the others can send at the Space Marines, they have something to
use against it. You just have to know which units and weapons can counter what.
===============================================================================
7.1 Eldar
===============================================================================
With the Eldar, you have a few things to worry about: Howling Banshees, Dark
Reapers, Brightlances, and Fire Prisms. The rest of their units are either
useless against you or easy to counter.
Eldar are pathetic in hand-to-hand combat. If you throw a marine squad into
melee with any of their infantry, the Eldar witches will either DIE, or run
away using Fleet of Foot. This doesn't work against Howling Banshees or the
Seer Council, obviously. Charging into melee with Eldar is a pretty viable
strategy in the early game, but once they get Fleet of Foot and Dark Reapers,
you're better off meeting them with some ranged punch of your own.
Eldar infantry are mostly light infantry, except for the Dark Reapers and Seer
Council. Take advantage of this by building at least one heavy bolter squad.
Four heavy bolters firing simultaneously take down Eldar squads FAST.
Howling Banshees are a real pain. Their Fleet of Foot ability allows them to
close on you very rapidly. The only solution I've found is to keep a
Dreadnought or Land Speeder close by, and to have some Assault Marines in the
front line to absorb their charge. Flamers also work, if you can dance well
enough; remember that ranged morale damage is reduced to 20% when the target is
in melee.
Dark Reapers are designed to shred heavy infantry, which pretty much means all
your infantry except scouts. Fortunately, there aren't too many of them in a
squad, they're slow, they take some time to set up, and they break easily. So,
you can either send in sniper rifles (and risk getting mobbed by Banshees or
Warp Spiders if they build some), or use artillery. One Whirlwind is enough to
knock them around and break their morale; two is even better. Assault marines
also work, but you run the risk of getting eaten alive by any other Reaper
squads that may be lurking around.
Brightlance platforms are long range anti-vehicle grav platforms. These things
are very bad for your vehicles' health, as the Brightlances carve huge chunks
from them. They were even worse before patching, since back then they didn't
need to set up to fire. They're considered heavy infantry, so you should keep a
plasma squad handy to deal with them if they show up. Of course, smart Eldar
players will keep these things in the rear, so you might have to jump in some
assault troops or use artillery to keep them from setting up.
Fire Prisms are evil, evil things. They have shuriken cannons that waste just
about everything, a prism cannon that almost never misses, deals heavy damage,
disrupts units and knocks infantry around, and they can jump. They're also
ridiculously cheap to produce. A Predator can destroy two Prisms if equipped
with lascannons, but not without taking serious damage. Best way to deal with
them is to make plenty of anti-vehicle weaponry, preferably Predators. Missile
squads won't do much good unless they're out of range of the prism cannon.
Also, Fire Prisms can come out relatively early if the Eldar player skips
everything else. In team games, you should always be prepared to fend off
Prisms by tier 2.
Unlike before the patches, you don't have much to worry about from the Seer
Council. Sure, they can do some damage if they can get close, but since
conceal's been fixed, you'll be able to mow quite a few of them down before
they can start beating on you. The only way the council can get close without
getting ripped up is if they force you to shoot at something else or throw your
men around with Prisms. I, for one, wouldn't go through all that trouble just
to get an overpriced squad into CC with the enemy.
The Avatar is the Eldar uber-unit. It deals massive melee damage to everything,
adds to the Eldar squad and vehicle cap, prevents all nearby Eldar infantry
from breaking, regenerates health in combat, and costs an arm and a leg.
Obviously, it's a very juicy target, and unlike the Bloodthirster, should be
taken down ASAP. It may be a massive daemonic manifestation of the Eldar god
Khaine, but it's surprisingly easy to take down. A single squad of Assault
Terminators backed up by a hero or two beats the Avatar back into the warp
pretty damn fast. Of course, some people just leave the Avatar in the base so
they can benefit from the added squad cap while not risking their Avatar.
Beware the Eldar building relocation ability. If your opponent's smart, he'll
have you trying to punch through a non-existent base's defense while his real
base is sitting somewhere else, cloaked. Also, Eldar Bonesingers can teleport,
so stay sharp and keep your base's rear covered. If he manages to build a
Webway Gate in your base, you're screwed.
Orks, depending on how you deal with them, can be very easy or very hard. Most
of their troops are light infantry, so they're very vulnerable to heavy
bolters. Don't go overboard on the heavy bolters, though. Later on, they'll get
Nobs, which are very tough heavy infantry that can rip through your Marines
with ease. Also, they can build Wartraks, which are incredibly annoying, as
they can upgrade to Bomb Chukkas which knock your Marines around and break
their morale.
The Ork squad cap works differently from the other races. They have 100
Ork (not squad) cap, which means they can have, more or less, 100 infantry
on the map. Most of the time, they'll have around 80 Orks, since Nobs, Nob
leaders and heroes cost 2 ork cap each. The way the Ork population system works
means you don't NEED to reinforce squads, and people have taken to building
many squads of 4 instead of large Ork mobs. This pretty much eliminates Flamers
as an option, since you can only break 4 Orks at a time with one flamer squad.
So, the best way to approach Orks is with lots of heavy bolters and missiles,
with maybe a plasma squad or two to deal with the Nobs. Land Speeders are also
a good idea, as are Whirlwinds.
The Orks' strength lies in close combat. Keep out of melee range, dance around
them, and you will survive. Some of their shooty weapons, like Big Shootas and
Rokkits, are surprisingly effective. Keep an eye out for them and use your
assault troops to eliminate the boyz carrying those weapons.
Watch out for Wartraks. Like Land Speeders, these things are fragile, but
they're damn effective against infantry, especially when you put Bomb Chukkas
on them. If your enemy manages to build enough of these things, you'll have a
hard time keeping your marines on their feet. They pop up pretty early, so try
to get missile launchers as soon as possible.
Ork buildings are very fragile. Even Land Speeders can do considerable amounts
of damage to them. If ever you find yourself in an Ork base, go for the Waaagh
banners and production buildings first. If you raze his source of Ork cap and
knock out his Mek Shop and Boyz Hut, he'll be out of commission for at least a
few minutes, if not completely screwed.
The Squiggoth is the Ork uber-unit. It's a huge mammoth-like thing with guns
bolted onto its back. It can carry two squads of Orks, and is considered a
vehicle, so it can be repaired. The Squiggoth is by far the most dangerous
uber-unit on the map, capable of destroying just about anything you can throw
at it. It can also use the rampage ability to charge into infantry and throw
them around. Being a vehicle and not a daemon like the other uber-units, it
doesn't have as much resistance to weapon damage. Also, it is very large, and
has difficulty moving through maps without much open space; use this to your
advantage. A steady diet of missiles and lascannons should put it down.
Be cautious when engaging Ork heroes. Early game, your Force Commander should
have no trouble killing the Big Mek, but later in the game, when the Warboss
shows up and the Big Mek's upgraded with heavier armor and his Mega Blasta,
you can't just go charging at them and expect to survive. Orks have the best
heroes in terms of combat capability, so don't let them get a chance to kill
your Marines; hit them with missiles so they have a tough time getting up.
As long as you maintain a good balance of anti-infantry and anti-vehicle
weaponry, and keep your squads dancing out of melee range, you'll win.
===============================================================================
7.3 Space Marines
===============================================================================
A Space Marine vs. Space Marine battle is basically a race to plasma and
vehicles. If you can beat them to tier 2 and make vehicles sooner, your victory
is pretty much assured. The enemy will most likely build scout/marine squads
with plasma and missiles, so you might want to make scouts with flamers to
roast them from behind.
Never underestimate the power of Land Speeders. They're fragile, but if you can
distract the enemy with something else while the speeders let loose with their
bolters, they can mow down enemy squads with frightening speed. Of course, your
enemy can do the same to you. Assault marines with meltabombs work nicely for
picking off Land Speeders.
And for the Emperor's sake, have at least two missile squads ready. It's
inevitable the enemy will make vehicles, so be ready for Predators or the
occasional Dreadnought in a drop pod. Build minefields around your base, or
keep a squad with an Apothecary attached at the entrance. If an infiltrated
scout squad manages to get in your base, expect to find at least three
Dreadnoughts stomping around your base, destroying everything you have.
Deep striking Dreadnoughts are one of the things you'll inevitably face if you
reach tier 3. Expect these annoying things to drop behind you, where your
missile squads are. Dreadnoughts really aren't that tough as long as they're
unable to trigger kill animations, so run the targeted squad around and let the
Dreadnoughts have whatever anti-vehicle firepower you have left.
If there's one thing you should keep your vehicles clear of, it's the Predator.
If your enemy brings a Lascannon Predator into the battle, send missile squads
to hit it. Its two lascannons and twin-linked lascannon can cause a world of
pain for any vehicles that stray into its firing arcs. If building your own
Predators, try to save the sponson-mounted lascannons for when you really need
them; they're expensive, and they aren't all that effective against any
infantry that may attack your tank.
Whirlwinds are very important. Space Marines have small squads, so you might as
well knock them off their feet and keep them from shooting you as much as
possible. Grenades should also be used for this purpose.
Be wary of Land Raiders. They slaughter infantry of all kinds, but don't let
that change your target priority. If confronted by a Land Raider accompanied by
a variety of other vehicles, concentrate on the other vehicles first. Predators
can do more damage to buildings and vehicles, Dreadnoughts can utterly decimate
your infantry if they get close, and Land Speeders can be taken out of the
battle faster. Besides, shooting the Land Raider is EXACTLY what your enemy
wants you to do. That thing is ridiculously tough, especially with Machine
Spirit on. Conversely, if you build a Land Raider, use it to lead your charge
and activate Machine Spirit. The Land Raider is a sweet bullet magnet.
Kill their hero units as soon as you see them! Force Commanders can drop
Orbital Bombardments on your army, and the Librarian can use Word of the
Emperor to keep their infantry from dying. Eliminate either of them, and you'll
have secured a huge advantage for your own army. Expect the enemy to seek out
your heroes as well.
For Space Marines, Chaos is pretty hard until you get vehicles. They outnumber
you, and Possessed Space Marines are crazy when upgraded. Also, the Defiler can
be a pain. They have a cannon that knocks infantry around, an autocannon that
doesn't fire very often but hurts quite a bit, and claws to take on any assault
marines you might send at them.
Cultists are laughably easy to kill and should be ignored. That is, until they
get grenade launchers. Cultist grenades are horrible things. They slaughter
infantry, have splash damage, don't damage friendlies, and a squad of cultists
can get 3. If you see them toting grenade launchers, use smite on them and toss
a grenade; they only have 95 HP.
Chaos Space Marines are very similar to your own marines. But, Chaos Space
Marine squads can have 10 marines + 1 aspiring champion, which means their
squads will always outnumber yours by 2 men when fully reinforced. They also
break easily compared to your own marines, which is very bad for them since
aspiring champions cannot rally their squads. Chaos Marines are supposedly less
accurate with their weapons, though I have not seen anything in the LUA files
which support this (a little help would be appreciated, heh). In fact, Space
Marines and Chaos Marines are nearly identical, except for minor differences in
hitpoints, regeneration rate, and morale.
The Chaos Lord is similar to your own Force Commander, but he can't call down
Orbital Bombardments. He _is_ slightly stronger than the Force Commander, so
try not to engage him one-on-one with your FC.
Possessed Space Marines are classified as monster_med, which is basically heavy
infantry with a bit of daemonic protection to add resistance to attacks. These
guys are trouble. They have incredible close combat capabilities, and can be
upgraded to have flamers, increased speed and increased armor penetration,
which makes even the mighty Dreadnoughts vulnerable to these monsters. They are
exorbitantly expensive, at 300req/100power for a squad, with each possessed
marine costing 75req/25power. But damn, are they worth it. I personally deal
with Possessed with plasma, sniper rifles and artillery. Land Speeders do well,
too. Possessed marines run pretty fast when upgraded, so keep some Whirlwinds
handy, and toss out frag grenades when you see them coming. Keep your squads
very far away; a single possessed marine with daemonic fire deals 60 morale
damage per second (Each Possessed Marine flamer deals 30 morale damage and
fires once every .5 seconds). That means a full squad of 10 can deal _600_
morale damage per second, if they fire all at once. Even if you take into
account pathing problems associated with large squads, that's still AT LEAST
300 morale damage per second. Incidentally, 300 is the amount of morale your
squads have without a hero attached. If a possessed squad breaks one of your
squads and gets into melee with it, forget about recovering them; they're dead
already.
The best way to fight possessed is to keep lots of plasma handy, use Word of
the Emperor, and keep the mutant psychos occupied with broken squads affected
by Word of the Emperor. Or better yet, get your Predators and Dreadnoughts to
block them. Use sniper rifles to break their morale, then rally your broken
squads and KILL them. Oh, and don't forget to use Whirlwinds. The morale damage
they do is important in neutralizing the possessed marines' combat strength. If
you have an Eldar ally, ask him to use Entangle. It'll make the possessed
marines sit there and die as you pour plasma into them.
Horrors aren't as popular as Possessed, since they cost the same as a possessed
squad, can't be reinforced, lack close combat strength, and are useless when
broken. However, when Possessed don't have their upgrades yet, Horrors are more
cost-effective. Most players would rather get a Sorcerer first, though. Anyway,
Horrors do respectable damage to infantry, both light and heavy. But hit them
with flamers and they're pretty much neutralized.
Defilers are basically weaker Dreadnoughts with additional ranged weaponry.
Don't let the "weaker Dreadnoughts" remark fool you; these things can be real
bastards. For starters, they have these artillery cannons that don't require
time to set up. I haven't seen these things fire on the move, but I think it's
possible. They also have autocannons which are PAINFUL (264-322 damage),
although there's a bug that makes them stop shooting every once in a while. I
prefer to think of it as the effects of spending too much time with the Chaos
powers, heh. One Defiler is enough to completely disrupt your formation.
Additional Defilers make your infantry pretty much useless, as they'll be
bouncing around half the time with those ugly red morale markers around them.
Unless there's a horde of possessed marines charging you, make these your
primary targets.
Chaos gets Predators at tier 2, which means you'll see those tanks rolling
around early. They can't upgrade the guns to lascannons until they get to tier
3, but they'll still have the upper hand in vehicles until you can get your
Fortress Monastery up. Most Chaos players prefer Defilers to Predators, though.
Preds are too expensive.
The Bloodthirster isn't all that great. He can fly, he can wreak havoc on
infantry formations, and he can scare the living hell out of newbies, but a
single squad of Assault Terminators backed up by heroes takes him down easy.
Also remember that the Bloodthirster continuously loses health, and cannot
regenerate it through any means. Try not to focus all your firepower on it,
since it's resistant to normal weapons and is designed to take a pounding while
the other units wail on your army. Just occupy it with Assault Terminators
until the rest of the Chaos units are dead.
If you see Obliterators, you should point and laugh. Seriously; Obliterators
are expensive, take up 4 squad cap, and can have a grand total of 4 squad
members. That's right; FOUR. They're meant for fire support, but many people
mistake them for Terminators and send them into the front line. Bad idea;
Obliterators go down awfully quickly. They have weapons that are effective
against everything, but you'd get more mileage out of two squads of Chaos Space
Marines. Don't get me wrong, they do a good amount of damage, but it's just not
enough for what they cost. If you see a squad of Obliterators, don't kill them
unless it's absolutely necessary. Remember, while that Obliterator squad's
taking up 4 of his squad cap, he's missing out on two squads of marines, which
are potentially more dangerous.
Be careful when attacking Chaos bases. Their buildings have an aura that hurts
your morale regeneration rate, and increases Chaos units' regeneration rates.
Blast them from a distance before moving in.
Here, I'll place crap that doesn't belong in any of the other sections.
===============================================================================
8.1 Dreadnought vs. Killa Kan
===============================================================================
There's been a lot of talk on the Relic forums about which of these walker
units would win when pit against each other. DukeRustfield and PrisonerofIce
did some tests ingame, and released a replay of their test game.
Watching the replay provided disproves the Kan's superiority completely.
At first glance, the Kan would seem to be superior to the Dreadnought. While
only having 3700 HP unupgraded, its melee damage range is 584-716 as opposed to
the Dreadnought's 324-396. Wrong. The Dread has a twin fist that attacks every
.75 seconds, so the real damage the Dread does in CC is around 567-693. The
potential damage the Kan can do is STILL greater than that, but here's what
screws the Kan over: the Kan's accuracy sucks. The Kan's Buzza Saw has an
accuracy of 0.600; that means there's a 40% chance the Kan's attack will miss
completely. Both the Dreadnought's CCW's have an accuracy of 0.650, which isn't
much better. However, as mentioned before, the Dreadnought has TWO weapons. In
the event one CCW misses, there's still a chance the other one will connect.
The Killa Kan does not have a chance when unupgraded. Without its armor
upgrades or rokkits, the Dread will trash the Kan with ~1000 HP to spare.
Rather unfair, considering the Kan comes later in the game and is painfully
slow.
With a rokkit launcha, the Kan has a chance of destroying the Dreadnought, as
long as at least one rokkit hits the Dreadnought. Even then, the Kan's low
accuracy may result in it losing against the damaged Dreadnought.
With the rokkits and its armor fully upgraded, the Kan has a chance of stomping
Dreadnoughts, but even if it kills the Dread, it'll have very little HP left.
The cost of all the upgrades for the Kan isn't cheap, either. The armor and
rokkit upgrades cost a total of 130req/180power, while a Kan with a rokkit
launcha costs 285req/440power! That's not even taking into account how much
you'll spend on Waaagh banners just to get enough Ork pop to build Kans.
Of course, it turns out differently once the Dreadnought loses its right CCW. A
Killa Kan can easily take down a Dreadnought upgraded with a special weapon,
even if it's a lascannon. The lascannon does very little damage to the Kan, for
some reason.
I think it's safe to say the Dreadnought is the best walker unit when it comes
to melee. The Killa Kan was the only other contender for that position (the
Defiler and Wraithlord drop dead against either the Kan or Dread), and now
tests show even the Kan can't reliably kill the Dreadnought.
Of course, these tests do not take into account any other units that may be in
a real battle. Ork anti-vehicle infantry is quite effective, and vehicles fall
quickly to a Tankbusta squad with 6 rokkit launchas. Also, there's often a few
dozen Orks between the Dreadnought and the Kan in most combat situations, so
the Kan might be able to get a few more rokkit shots in before grappling with
the Dreadnought. Still, the fact that the Dreadnought can destroy the Kan so
easily is unsettling.
The damage values in the ingame tooltips are misleading, so in a future
revision I'll be providing a list of damage values for most Space Marine
weapons against the different types of armor. I'm still trying to figure out
how to use the base damage and armor penetration values together to come up
with the damage a certain weapon does to a particular type of armor.
In the meantime, visit Aetherfox over at http://dowstats.relicnews.com. It's
not quite complete, but he has weapon stats for all four races.
Anyway, for now, here's a list of the armor types and the units that use them.
Note: All squad leaders have the same type of armor as their host squad,
exceptions being the Aspiring Champion, Warlock and Nob Leader, who are
all classified as infantry_heavy_med.
I'll put some more detailed information here later. Until then, just remember
that flamers hurt morale, heavy bolters kill light infantry, plasma fries heavy
infantry, and missile launchers blow vehicles up and bounce heroes around.
===============================================================================
9. Final Notes
===============================================================================
Well, that's it. If you have any comments, suggestions, or additions, please
send them to me at prankoysjjc[at]ispx.com.ph.
===============================================================================
10. Credits and Acknowledgements
===============================================================================
Any comments, suggestions, questions, or additions? Send them to
prankoysjjc[at]ispx.com.ph.
Many thanks to:
CJayC for hosting this guide on his site.
My friend, Victor, for charging two squads of fully upgraded possessed marines
into my base and therefore driving me to build a tons of sniper and plasma
squads whenever I face Chaos.
My friend, AC, for reading this thing over before I submitted it.
Relic, for making another great game and achieving something that hasn't been
done since Electronic Arts came out with Space Hulk in 1993: creating a decent
game based on the Warhammer 40k universe.
Relic again, for releasing the mod tools with which I gathered most of the
statistical data in this FAQ.
DukeRustfield and PrisonerofIce for that great replay that shows how the Killa
Kan fares against the Dreadnought.
Perp and Drasius from the Relic Forums (http://forums.relicnews.com) for their
awesome beginner's guides which helped me get off the ground as a Space Marine
player. Check them out. They're a little out of date, but still useful.
Vertigo from the Relic Forums for his list of units that can detect cloaked
units.
Aetherfox for his DoWStats site, which is a gold mine of DoW unit and ability
information.
You, for reading this guide.
===============================================================================
11. Legal Information
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