skirmish tips for dawn of war?

[Inhuman One]

Lately I have been playing some games with a friend in skirmish with Dawn of War.

Mostly we play together, but sometimes we do feel like playing against each other. That happened once so far, and I did beat him after barely surviving his first attack. I had the Necrons, he had the Tau.

I have played the game a bit more and have the advantage with that, but I mostly play the imperial guard in skirmish and I dont plan on buying winter assault just for that. I have dawn of war and dark crusade, he has both of those as well.

Necrons seem to work quite well for me, but I like to be able to fight with pretty much any side.

So I would love to hear both generic skirmish tips and also faction specific tips. I am sure more people than just me would be interested in that.

[hellheaven1987]

Hmmm...

Space Marine: SM is rather annoying to play since they are excellent against all races, but lacking the initiative to achieve open domination. Most time you have to see what your opponents are doing before set up a plan, which generally means you lost the resource war at beginning. I highly recommand SM to any expert though.

Eldar: No idea, don't like space elves.

Ork: No idea, don't like green skins.

To Be Continued...

[The Gallant Forty-Twa]

General tips: always make sure you have some reserves. You don't know how bad it is when an enemy charges through what was your main force and advances on your base only to realise that the only thing you can train in time are Kroot Carnivores...

[Inhuman One]

thanks for the tips so far, keep them coming though.

[Moorish guy]

Hmmm...

Space Marine: SM is rather annoying to play since they are excellent against all races, but lacking the initiative to achieve open domination. Most time you have to see what your opponents are doing before set up a plan, which generally means you lost the resource war at beginning. I highly recommand SM to any expert though.

Eldar: No idea, don't like space elves.

Ork: No idea, don't like green skins.

To Be Continued...

you have to kill the big humies quick, orks are good at fighting them early on because there units are cheap and sm players wont risk losing any of em push the advantage. Altough I do have instanses where I send my storm boys into a squad of regular SM and not be able to find them later so dont send them in alone.

[Inhuman One]

I played all factions a bit, for the Orcs I really like the big orcs with the big guns with a recruitment limit of 2. They tear everything apart at range.
The Orc population limit confuses me though, every single soldier recruited in the squad seems to take up population, and leaders take up population as well while they dont for other factions.

[20man]

I'm pretty experienced i have at least 4 stars and 250 played games on each title but the main thing to do is just harass constantly their listening posts in a 1 v 1 and try to gain dominance over these points while upgrading most of them to tier 2, this means whenever your opponent tries to gain further resources he takes heavy losses from the posts, race doesn't really matter but don't play tau in 1 v 1 (SM for example can set HQ spawn in your base and keep training scouts and your dead as you can't do anything) if you want further info let me know which race your most interested in strategies for

[Moorish guy]

I played all factions a bit, for the Orcs I really like the big orcs with the big guns with a recruitment limit of 2. They tear everything apart at range.
The Orc population limit confuses me though, every single soldier recruited in the squad seems to take up population, and leaders take up population as well while they dont for other factions.

yeah I know, while playing a game vs nids I was a mekboy I built a bunch of waagh banners and turrets but by the time I was done I could not even upgrade me squads.

[Inhuman One]

I am interested in strategies for all races, I still am not sure about each their strenghts and weaknesses even.

Regarding weaknesses, this is what I think they are:

-Spacemarines, lack a strong relic unit.
-Imperial Guard, weak infantry.
-Eldar, low hitpoints on all vehicles and soldiers.
-Necron, lacks real vehicles, no weapon upgrades and squad leaders.

I wouldnt even know what the weaknesses of the other three might be.

[H Con]

Orks - dey is weak in de biginnin of a skermiss, coz de gits an' squigs are un-Orky an' runny when de WAAAGH! is un-Orkily small. Dey's not sluggy or choppy eider, and de humies oftun slug so much at de biginnin of de skermiss that the squiggies get really runny. But you just wait till de WAAAGH! gets Orkily big! 'Den dere's NO runny Orks in de untire skermiss, see?

Tau - The Ethereal is their Achilles heel. If he dies, ALL the player's units gets a damage, morale and health loss.

Chaos - Not as tough as the Space Marines, but there are more Chaos units in a batallion. Additionally, some chaos powers may backfire completely, and their Daemon units are EXTREMELY vulnerable to certain Space Marine units.

Now, for someone else to take the Soulstorm factions.

[The Gallant Forty-Twa]

Eldar definitely suffer from fragile units, but are deadly in the hands of a skilled player.

Chaos suffer from the fact they are like Space Marines but weaker. Their space marines aren't as good and aren't as versatile. That said, they have access to some cool Daemons and artillery (Defiler). And they can also field a Daemon Prince and a Bloodthirster at once so...

Space Marines... its hard to really find a weakness with them as Tactical Squads can handle pretty much anything... As you said, compared to a Baneblade, for example, their Relic unit is pretty poor.

Imperial Guard definitely suffer from weak Guardsmen. But remember, they're cheap and come in huge numbers.

Necrons suffer from the slowness of their infantry and the lack of range which means any ranged army can outshoot them.

Tau absolutely suck in close combat. Kroot help this, but they still suck overall. Even their basic troops are expensive thus making them incredibly weak and easily crushed in early game. As said, their Ethereals are shite but at least they can spam some sweet Fire Warrior bodyguards.

Orks... hmmm, I can't find any specific weaknesses other than if you're a ranged army you can kill them easily as they're just gagging for your bullets. Although, the ing mortar buggy things they have are so ing irritating. Always knocking all my men out of their positions... Orks rely on numbers though over skill which can be a weakness as they can just not be tough enough for an army of equal size from a Space Marine army for example. On Tactical Squad with like 4 Heavy Bolters can easily hold off any number of Ork Boyz.

Anyways that's what I can think of. Each army has its own weaknesses, its a case of working around them.

[H Con]

I generally don't use the Land Raider as Space Marines. I don't really get the point with unit transports. I never use them.

Oh, and translating my analysis of the Orks' weakness into proper English: They are easily beaten in the beginning of the game, as their morale largely depends of the size of their army.

[The Gallant Forty-Twa]

I generally don't use the Land Raider as Space Marines. I don't really get the point with unit transports. I never use them.

Same. The Land Raider is though one of the only ones I do occasionally use due to the fact its also classed as a 'super heavy tank' (even though Codex-wise it isn't).

The only other one I use is the Devilfish cause its stealth is perfect for dropping off Pathfinders across the map without attracting attention from things that can kill you.

[hellheaven1987]

you have to kill the big humies quick, orks are good at fighting them early on because there units are cheap and sm players wont risk losing any of em push the advantage. Altough I do have instanses where I send my storm boys into a squad of regular SM and not be able to find them later so dont send them in alone.

That is what Heavy Bolter uses for - against suicid Ork hordes.

Regarding weaknesses, this is what I think they are:

-Spacemarines, lack a strong relic unit.
-Imperial Guard, weak infantry.
-Eldar, low hitpoints on all vehicles and soldiers.
-Necron, lacks real vehicles, no weapon upgrades and squad leaders.

Space Marines - no, Land Raider is probably the top three super weapon in DoW. Thanks to its dual-plama cannons it can actually win a 1v1 duel against Baneblade, and its Stormbolter can tear through enemy infantries like eating cake. The only two super weapons that can beat Land Raider in 1v1 is Blood Thirster and Ork's super weapon.

Imperial Guards - ohhhh, I would like to see you say that when Autocannon and three Priests (each has 125 damage) tear your butt.

Eldar: Another wrong observation. Eldar's units, in full upgrade, are so damned strong that their medicore HP actually is not a problem. What Eldar really sucks is their whole upgrade is damned expensive, probably twice amount of resources than any other factions (and twice amount of time).

Necron: Wrong, Necron's vehicles are probably the best - a lot of HP, a lot of damage, and have highest speed for all vehicles. Necron also does not need weapon upgrade (they do, however, have two general upgrades that greatly boost all its infantries), since their weapons are quite effective deal both infantries and vehicles. Necron's infantries strategy is probably the simplest - mass Necron Warriors with Immortals backup, and that formation would destroy pretty much everything head-on-head. However, the problem of Necron is they walk so damned slow and their weapons are so short range that most factions can simply adopt hit-and-run to avoid Necron even touch them. Perhaps among all factions Ork is the only one that would have some troubles to fight Necron since their range attack strategy is quite weak.

Orks - dey is weak in de biginnin of a skermiss, coz de gits an' squigs are un-Orky an' runny when de WAAAGH! is un-Orkily small. Dey's not sluggy or choppy eider, and de humies oftun slug so much at de biginnin of de skermiss that the squiggies get really runny. But you just wait till de WAAAGH! gets Orkily big! 'Den dere's NO runny Orks in de untire skermiss, see?

Tau - The Ethereal is their Achilles heel. If he dies, ALL the player's units gets a damage, morale and health loss.

Chaos - Not as tough as the Space Marines, but there are more Chaos units in a batallion. Additionally, some chaos powers may backfire completely, and their Daemon units are EXTREMELY vulnerable to certain Space Marine units.

Ork: I would love to see you say that when my Khorne Berserkers jump on you five minutes after the game starts.:

Tau: To be honest, no body really play MP that long, and no body really let Ethernel jump into battle.

Chaos: Chaos is probably the most balanced faction between melee and range combat, and not to mention their Blood Thirster + Daemon Prince combo is damned badass.

[20man]

-Spacemarines, lack a strong relic unit.

Undoubtedly best infantry and you can quickly counter anything without having to buy dedicated units (IE a tank appears you just upgrade to missile launcher)
They also have 3 of the strongest hero's in game, a combination I always use is scouts with snipers which you can get at tier 1 coupled with the force commander which is pretty UN-counterable at that stage of the game and then when I hit tier 2 i get Chaplin, librarian and Grey knights which means you have amazingly high dps as well as hp and hero armor and if you need anti tank just get one tac squad with rockets. If you do something like this make sure you always get the health and damage upgrades from the armory as they are a must.

-Imperial Guard, weak infantry.

I think you have underestimated these, lots of people like to use grenade launchers which are tier 1 and knock infantry down so you take little damage which works but i like to use mass's of them which means you can get about 4 full squads with commissars for your enemies maybe 2 squads and these will win in a ranged fight as long as you keep reinforcing them, no need to spend valuable resource on morale upgrades too as with a commissar it's 400 i think.

-Eldar, low hitpoints on all vehicles and soldiers.

One think that can be fun is having a wraithlord after 8mins 20 seconds but they can be good as long as you don't spam one infantry type; you have to use lots of the specialist units to create synergy so that they don't have to sustain fire and as with the vehicles fire prism is probably the second best tank after the hammerhead and the wraithlords might be weaker than a dreadnought but are still really good.

-Necron, lacks real vehicles, no weapon upgrades and squad leaders.

Necrons are overpowered IMO and you can beat a much better player than you with them as they have a very strong hero, cheap infantry which are good at everything and have immortals which will destroy all vehicles and structures while unreachable with such long range, the lord also has fantastic war gear (resurrection orb, veil of darkness and solar pulse) which forces your opponent to waste pop cap on resource on certain units for detection purposes etc. Finally i would say their vehicles are quite good as the destroyer lord can steal your opponents two high leveled tanks and you get heavy destroyers which in number do LOTS of damage.
Hope you can work out some strategies of these points but I would recommend space marines overall

[Moorish guy]

That is what Heavy Bolter uses for - against suicid Ork hordes.

That is what flanking if for- against unsuspecting humies.

[hellheaven1987]

That is what flanking if for- against unsuspecting humies.

That is exactly why I always prepare two fire teams for that.

[Moorish guy]

That is exactly why I always prepare two fire teams for that.

and why its imperative to call in storm boys, even if you kill them as soon as you turn around to start firing again theres a nob in your face.

[The Gallant Forty-Twa]

and why its imperative to call in storm boys, even if you kill them as soon as you turn around to start firing again theres a nob in your face.

/immaturity

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!



Seriously though, I just can't read Ork things regarding their Nob units without laughing. And "nob in your face" is just too funny for my childish sense of humour to pass up.

[hellheaven1987]

and why its imperative to call in storm boys, even if you kill them as soon as you turn around to start firing again theres a nob in your face.

Oh, mighty Nob!!! I am so scared!!! (punch Nob's face with Terminators)

General speaking, Ork is not that easy to play, since they lack powerful units in early stage and mid stage. Sure, you can call out Nob, but when you do that most players already able to call out tier 3 units if not throw out super weapon on your face.