Dawn of War Tactics

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This page is for Dawn of War Tactics. Perhaps you are interested in getting better at the game, or maybe you just want to spite a friend of yours? Well never fear, for this page is here for you, as well as any noob who wants to improve their online game, or even their game against the AI.

This is the page for the Vanilla game. For the other versions, see Ipsum Lorem.

General Strategy

Dawn of War is a different game from traditional squad based RTS games, as it is not exclusively about micromanagement as much as it is about board control, which is how you will get better gear, research, and upgrades. You should also try to minimize casualties whenever possible, choosing your battles carefully.

Ideally you do NOT want to get massive weapons and doomsday devices; you want to try and end the game early. It wastes less time, and shortens the fight. Targeting enemy Listening posts and Generators is critical to starve your enemy, and mobility of any kind will give you a substantial advantage against your opponent, especially early game.

A Brief Treatise On Requisition Points

Requisition points are divided into three types: Listening Points, Relics, and Critical Locations.

Listening Posts are the bread and butter of acquiring requisition. You can build Listening Post buildings to increase the flow of requisition, add defences that also grant more requisition flow, and depending on your faction, build units. Listening Post defences generally are strong, but will falter in the wake of vehicles or dedicated assault, so they are mostly for early game area denial and rear defence. Level 2 defences are effective and basically rape most infantry, but cannot be relied upon to hold a point on the map. Keep in mind that you may need to rebuild Listening posts from time to time, as their output will degrade over time.

Relics are similar to Listening points, except that they exist largely to call in the most powerful units. Relics and Critical locations both take longer to gain control of than Listening Posts, so ideally these should wait until you have a more stable defence line. Everything else about Listening Posts basically applies.

Critical Locations are positions that cannot be built upon or around, but the exchange is they have substantially higher req output that will not degrade over time. They are harder to build and thus more vulnerable to capture from enemy jump troops or light infantry.

Universal Buildings

Except for a few rare exceptions, every faction in the game has one of or the following buildings; turrets, HQ building, Generators, and Advanced Generators.

Turrets are a mixed bag for some players. On one hand, they are a great way to make a area nearly impossible to capture, with even noobs able to prolong battles for up to an hour by spamming them. On the other hand, they leech away valuable resources that could be used for upgrades, more troops/reinforcing a squad, or buying power generators.

HQ buildings should not be built twice in general, as you get one for free. Typically, they will allow you to build some light or basic infantry, and builders. They offer some extra requisition production, and are typically have the highest hit points of any building in your build list.

Generators are buildings that typically cost anywhere from 135-165 power, depending on the race you are playing. Generators, like Listening Posts, will degrade over time, but can be upgraded to enhance production. These are absolutely CRITICAL to building Commander units like Chaos Lords, Big Meks, etc, or buying upgrades and advanced units, especially vehicles.

Advanced Generators are buildings that you build on special locations called Slag deposits that offer better levels of Power generation compared to normal Generators. Usually they are called Thermoplasma Generators.

Factions

There are four factions in the base game: Space Marines, Chaos, Orks, and Eldar.

Marines typically hold advantage in having powerful infantry and shooting options with a few very powerful melee options.

Chaos copy the powerful infantry, then take it a step further by focusing slightly more on melee and Commander choices.

Eldar focus on being hard to play but absolutely broken if you know what you are doing.

Orks hold absolute in being the most powerful melee faction with plenty of numbers.

Eldar

Pros:

• Broken Faction, you will win if you play right
• You have par none some of the best mobility in the base game, rivaled only by later arrivals.
• Plenty of cool voice lines
• Ways to make your armor ludicrously strong.
• Leader units nearly always buff the squad, meaning they are near must takes for any early rush builds.
• Snipers that deal direct morale damage

Cons:

• Broken Faction, people hate you for a good reason
• Anti-vehicle is hard to acquire until mid-game, and god help you if that Chaos player has a Defiler.
• Your base infantry, the Guardian, can be entirely replaced by Dark Reapers, and are highly vulnerable to even getting sneezed on.
• Your Commander unit is not great at melee, so a commander rush means you have little recourse but to run and pray that you can survive

The Eldar are the quintessential glass cannons of Dawn of War. While they cannot take a hit, they can hit back hard. You also have fantastic mobility and the cheapest Listening posts in the game, at only 80 requisition a pop.

Buildings:

• Webway Assembly: Calls in Guardians and Bonesingers along with early research for your units. The most important of these is "Fleet of Foot", which grants absurd mobility to your forces. The other research options are basically worth skipping.

• Aspect Portal: Calls in all your main infantry, including Dark Reapers, Banshees, Rangers(limit one), the Farseer, and later on you can get the Avatar of Khaine and Warp Spiders. Also has a research to make your Snipers Cloak. Remember that in this version of the game Cloak is toggleable and thus you cannot shoot or take points while hidden.

• Soul Shrine: Allows you to build upgrade, and is the way you get more units and research options. The best to do are generally the "Fortune", "Wraithbone Reinforcement" and "Targeting Optics" research, as they offer protection and better attack to your units. Later in the game, you can double this, and even do the research for the avatar of war.

• Support Portal: Calls in vehicles. The best ones are the Falcons, Wraithlords, and Fire Prisms. Falcons can jump troops into the battle, Wraithlords can tank hits or be used in a static gunline if you upgrade them to brightlances in groups, and Fire Prims are essentially field artillery tanks.

Eldar Specific:

• Webway gate: These unlock higher troop cap, and expand building area wherever they are placed. There is almost no limit to where they can be placed, meaning it is entirely possible for you to protect a Critical location with turrets. It also allows you to get infantry across the map in a relatively short amount of time. The cost 100 requisition a pop, and have three research options: medical center add on, stealth tech, and teleportation. All these combined make them hard to beat when in a dedicated blob, and allow you to move your base at will, and stealth all your important buildings. They also offer some of your earliest and cheapest vehicles at tier 2: The Shuriken and Brightlance Platforms. Shurikens deal damage to infantry, but brightlances shred armor, allowing practically anything to wound what it shot, at the expense of not doing any damage.

Infantry:

• Guardian Squad: Equivalent to Guardsmen, they are light infantry primarily used to take objectives and harass. They have better ranged damage than scouts or Cultists. Best in the early game for rushing enemy bases, grabbing listening posts, and skirmishing. A warlock can be added for additional gun fire, and if you decide to do the research, adds a few support abilities and adds ranged protection to the squad. Can also take a light grenade, as if you ever needed one of those.

• Dark Reapers: Equivalent to Marines with Heavy Bolters, they are Heavy Infantry that can only fire while stationary. They are fantastic at chewing through Heavy Armor and even listening Post defences in high enough numbers. They can't compete with the range of Heavy Bolters, but will get the job done in the late early game to early mid game. Add an exarch to enhance squad damage.

• Howling Banshees: The Sword Ladies themselves. They are heavy infantry melee units that can run fast, and the Exarch buffs squad health and damage. Fleet of foot makes them dang near impossible to stop from entering melee, especially in the later game when they get power swords and TRIPLE armor. Great at nearly every point in the game, as their war cry ability(requires Call of War research) allows them to demoralize enemy infantry in moments. Stack with Rangers for super morale damage!

• Warp Spiders: Similar to Dark Reapers in that their amassed firepower is much like heavy bolters, but different in that they are much more useful against hordes, such as the Green Retards or Guardians. They have "Jump packs" that allow you to warp into a location without taking damage much like a Jet pack, only not because your opponent cannot shoot them until you warp in. Don't forget to buy the Upgrade that allows them to use Haywire grenades, lethal to buildings and vehicles. Did we mention that the Exarch buffs squad damage and health? They take a long time to build and then fully reinforce though, so be careful.

• Rangers: Eldar Snipers. Infiltrators that can be used to get you line of sight on a landing zone for jump troops and your grav tanks, skirmish, and push early game. Their cloak ability makes them difficult to pin down, as well as their mobility. You cannot shoot while cloaked in this version of the game, but when they do shoot, they deal substantial damage to enemy morale. Great for pairing up with some Banshees, though they will easily crumple under directed fire.

• Avatar of Khaine: Expensive in terms of the research required to reach it and the required troop cap(5), but well worth it, as it is the second most powerful Relic unit in the game. Adds to your maximum troop cap and vehicle cap, allows faster reproduction, has a fearless aura, and above all else HEALS WHILE IN COMBAT. Just be careful, as ammassed AT fire or swarms of infantry will counter it in a sloppy, but efficient way, so try to aim it at vehicles, buildings, and demon units.

Marines

Pros:

• Easy to Learn, and plenty of different strategies to use.
• Plenty of vehicles or weapons to use.
• Simple build path that is easy to recognize.
• Several Commanders and support units that can make you virtually unassailable.
• Force Commander is the second best melee commander.

Cons:

• Highly vulnerable to a skilled opponent.
• It is easy to waste money on frivolous stuff that has little actual use.
• Your Relic unit is perhaps the worst in the game.
• You are very vulnerable to early rush from Eldar, with little way to counter it.

Ipsum Lorem

Chaos

Ipsum Lorem

Orks

Ipsum Lorem