Chaos Gate GameFAQ update 25JAN2002
Game Credits:
SSI (part of ubi-soft these days)
Random Games (ditto The Learning Co./Broderbund)
[NOTE: The author is in no way associated with any of the above companies
or Games Workshop. Most of the terms used in this document are trademarks
copyrighted to Games Workshop. The opinions expressed are those of the
author and no-one else. I bear sole responsibility. Email:
[email protected] This document copyright 2002 P. Lans, USN]


Many thanks to Mr. Keeleslie for his humorous and informative FAQ.

Resources you should be aware of if you are interested in Science Fiction,
Chaos Gate and Games Workshop WH40K products:

_Deathwing_, a truly magnificient novel recently back in print available
from amazon.com, published under the Black Library section of Games
Workshop (see GW's website for other offerings, I recommend reading some
stuff on the Inquisitors for background/atmosphere)

The Portal, a website on geocities dedicated to Chaos Gate/Rites of War
with the only collection of missions that I have ever seen for download. I
do not know if the original chaos gate website had downloads as it has
been downsized since Broderbund/Ubisoft/TheLearningCo took over SSI/Random
Games. Hard to find this gem but a search on yahoo for portal or chaos
gate should do it.

_Blood Quest_, an upcoming completely-CGI movie from some boys in the UK
who are dedicated to really bringing our heroes to life. It will not hit
the big screens but looks at least as good as Final Fantasy: The Spirits
Within did, prob on about one hundredth of the budget that production had.
Links to their site with animations and CAD/CAM-looking images are on the
GW website.

Portent.net seems to be the generally accepted BMOC as far as GW-related
news are concerned. Even has a separate section for rumours.

WARHAMMER 40,000 rulebook, is actually for the tabletop game but has
exquisite reading in it and a lot of cool stuff that people have wasted
millions of man-hours putting together just 'cause it's so cool.

SPACE MARINES sort-of separate source/army/background book(let) which I
will be purchasing shortly so I can get everything right for my upcoming
short story.


Fol to be considered for advanced users of CG and tactical nuts only, who
would prob be the only jacks still coming back to this oldie from 1998.

INTRO

Too bad if you're running Windows XP on a laptop.

Why is CG better than MW4 and most other tactical sci-fi games?
1. If you end up losing someone it really counts.
2. Atmosphere.
3. Seamless integration of background material, campaign, sounds, music
etc.
4. Space Marines are the original cool space dudes.
5. Solid tactics are rewarded. Ambushes are rewarded. Thinking is rewarded.
Charging in with guns blazing never works on the realistic settings. This
is a thinking man's game.
6. After getting halfway through the campaign on the Mighty Hero setting
you end up really caring about your guys. Rename them from the start to
all your friends/colleagues' names and you'll really feel it.

ISSUES with respect to the previous FAQ:

Walking along slowly increases to-hit probability, possibly both ways.

The second (middle) number on your red target reticule is the AP cost of
your next shot at this target.

Melta Bombs are extremely useful in the right circumstances.

Antiplant Grenades have limited usefulness, but can provide an essential
element in opening FOF on people coming at you in swamp/jungle areas. SOP
use is to leave hvy bolter-equipped marine kneeling on overwatch, have the
other guys throw two Antiplants in an arc in front of him.

Plasma pistols vs. Hand flamers - judge for yourself.
I maintain that both have their place, the chief problem with the Hand
flamers being their lousy range, somewhat compensated for in the Special
Weapon version. Plasma pistols have good armor penetration but also an
ammunition problem.

Plasma Gun vs. Hvy Bolter vs. Hvy Plasma Gun
Dev. squads cannot carry the regular plasma gun which is an excellent
anti-CSM weapon at regular bolter ranges. Reason being of course its
higher Armor Penetration rating. Definite ammo problem here, so if you
take it, have boys in same platoon carry extra ammo for it.
Hvy Bolter has crucial long range and continuous fire capability but lousy
armor penetration. Needs lots of APs to be sure of taking down a CSM. In
general it is preferable to the Plasma Gun, at least until you have the
one Veteran with high AP/BS so he can guarantee hits with each shot of the
Plasma Gun, at which point the high armor penetration rating makes the
armor superior at regular bolter range on armored foes, esp. enemy termies
and CSMs.
Hvy Plasma Gun can be counterproductive if, like me, you occasionally
forget that you put everyone on overwatch and have bad guys get real close
before the guy with the big heavy gun fires. Oops. There went my Mighty
Hero Librarian. Darn.

Missile Launcher
Simply indispensable on open ground. Don't forget to take min. one rack
Smoke to play safe. Make sure to save his shots for enemy Hvy weapons
carriers, and if you cannot be sure to take out a hvy weapons CSM with
first or second shot put smoke on him continuously or Krak! goes one of
your blue boxes with legs. High AP character a must at later missions to
enable multiple shots in a single turn.

Lascannon
Not as versatile as MLs but point destructive. Try it out on a unsuspecting
CSM on the other side of the map. Splurt.

Multimelta
Quite useful inside cathedrals, fortresses and the like. Short range but
good on hvy targets that need to go out in a hurry, e.g. C-Terms with
A/Cs.

Flamers/Hvy Flamers
Hvy Bolters work better in most missions, one of the Termies can take the
Hvy one instead of the nyuk-nyuk stupid storm bolter. Use storm
bolter-equipped Termies to soak up damage and guarantee that cultists/CSM
won't get close enough to throw grenades.


INTRO TO ADVANCED TACTICS
Crouch a lot.
Try not to move very much and fire in the same turn. Advance slowly,
ensuring that single enemy troops have several of yours in a good firing
position on them as soon as they move towards you.
Consider a concave formation with the focus being on the area where you
expect the guys in red to show up.
Consider _walking_ your troops forward a little at a time in line abreast
if nothing much is happening. Make sure all troops have min. 30 APs left
for overwatch at the end of your turn if doing this, ensuring three
reasonably good bolter shots.
Watch which way your boy on overwatch faces.
Fire continuous-fire weapons once at low percentage-hit chance then switch
to Aimed shots for the rest of your firings.
It is absolutely vital that you take out enemy Hvy Weapons first.
Inexperienced assault troops bite donkey in HTH combat but can jump in,
drop a Melta Bomb and jump out for deadly effect. Again and again or
better yet following each other in the same turn.
Inexperienced non-Termies better stay out of HTH unless with cultists only,
no matter how much the odds are with you.
If you lost one single guy on that extra mission you accepted, then it was
a total waste of manpower and time. You cannot afford to lose people on
things like hurrying along, advancing too quickly, walking past corners
without checking a scanner etc. You will lose enough people from
legitimate combat without having to worry about stupid mistakes costing
you aggregate experience or worse, Veterans/Heroes/Mighty Heroes.
The AI that controls your boys' route-choosing is fundamentally
inefficient. In sticky situations it pays off Xmas-bonus-well to
double-check for things like extraneous quarter-face turns and the way it
calculates its way around objects. Try several options, midpoints and
endpoints before committing.
Advancing with Smoke may be tedious but saves lives.

Corners:Throw Smoke after scanning, then either line up and sit and wait in
overwatch until the smoke goes away or move in using anti-overwatch
grenades/HTH.

Room-clearing:
Smoke. Enough said.

Doors:
Line up on opposite side with as good an arsenal as you can muster,
preferably at longest range.
Have one guy open door with switch/melta bomb and get the hell out of the
way, let your stationary units take care of business in overwatch. Alternative
is smoke, open the door, smoke again and HTH with T-Hammer and
Storm Shield-type units.

Do not rely on overwatch to the exclusion of taking good shots that happen
to present themselves. Play the percentages. Use the
one-regular-shot/several-aimed-shots combination. Check percentages for
both before firing at all. One shot that actually hits is usually more
useful than two shots that aren't 100% (judgement calls in order here).

Play to win. (duh?)
By this I mean that you should and must play like a Chess Grandmaster who
has just won one single pawn from his opponent. If subsequent to that he
plays solid technical chess with tactics that he is certain of, then he
will (and must) win in the end, but if you try to press your advantage
quickly with tactics you are not absolutely positively sure of, well
then... bite the wiener with relish.
Being flashy and cool may have its place in gaming, but certainly not in a
legitimate tactical simulation. "Everybody makes it home" is an easy rule
to remember. If they don't you screwed up. FYI it's like that in
real-world ops too. If you have won just one small little advantage then
you must end up on top if you play solidly, alt. your tactics are
questionable. BTW Alekhine's Defence rocks.

When in deep doo-doo consider taking all high-percentage shots that present
themselves and then covering yourself in smoke.

When in deep doo-doo consider retreating and taking on the enemy piecemeal
so you can concentrate fire. This is also done in the real world.

Always always always keep pref two min. one hex (yes the game is hex-based
even though the terrain is cubical) lateral _and_ diagonal patrolling
interval or an enemy psyker or grenadier will get you good. Bla bla...real
world, esp. Vietnam historically. You will feel this keenly when you open
a door with your super-concentration-of-fire right in front of the door
and all of a sudden see that lovely little animation of a CSM throwing a
grenade.

Keep damaged blue boxes a hex or two to the rear as the meanies will take
highest percentage shots always.

When certain that you will take some incoming fire be sure to spread it
out, two damaged blue boxes is better than one dead. This is done by
making sure at least two or three boys have approx. same range to bad
guys.

You will fire more and better if you stand still.

Use cover.

The first and best Psyker power is Quickening. With it your Librarian can
become a killer bunny rabbit on speed, Rambo-ing his way through
Berzerkers and CSM with impunity (until he hits on a grenade thrower in
overwatch or such like). Q-ing doesn't just give you more APs, it'll stay
with you for a while and increase your Initiative, Weapons (Melee) Skill,
Melee Attacks etc. This also can enable heavies to fire say, two missile
shots instead of one when you really need it. Incidentally you get more
experience from killing chaos dudes in HTH than with ranged weapons, so
your Accountant or Bookkeeper or whatever his name is (Aah, Librarian,
that was it...) will be sure to be swimming in numbers at the end of your
mission. That is, if you don't leave yourself with a Hvy Plasma Gun in
overwatch just as your one-man army with the axe is rushing back from his
foray pursued by a bunch of dudes in red (could this game be construed in
an anti-communist context?).
A MH assault squaddie equipped with a Reaper axe (+20 AP) and high on Q
(+25 AP) is known as THE ULTIMATE DARN HIGH-SPEED BAD BOY EVER. You'll
have so many APs you won't know what to do with them. Run from one end of
the map to the other just for fun.

A very very deadly spell is Vortex. You should be aware that three times
now I have watched several of my own hard-gained Veterans or Heroes get
slurrpeed by this vexing whirlpool of whiplash while waiting behind the
witch. You will feel mighty heroically stupid when it happens to you.

Do not use the Dev-squad bug that enables you to get a whole squad of hvy
weapons. If you read the background material on WH40K or White Dwarf or
any of the many books that have been written on and of the Space Marines
you will realise that SSI and Random Games have been faithful to an
incredible degree to the original vision of the Games Workshop crew. If
all you want to do is beat the game or one of the scenarios at The Portal,
then just set the difficulty to Novice or Easy or I Have No Sense Of
Tactics Whatsoever or whatever the lowest setting is. Oh, and BTW stop
reading this, it wasn't meant for you. It can also be argued that it would
be more unethical to use this bug if you didn't stumble upon it yourself
or spend large amounts of time trying to figure it out from unclear
directions.

Not using the ammo reload bug is somewhat more difficult to resist, but I
seem to manage these days.

The only way I have yet found to increase someone's AP without shooting at
real targets is having the Librarian throw spells after the battle is won.
Feel free to do it. You'll get tired of clicking real quick and'll move on
to the next mission.

Anyone who can take the first few missions without losing a man should be
able to beat the campaign without cheating.

If you leave Aimed Shot 'On' at the end of your turn then I believe _all_
your units in overwatch will follow these orders. Can't have some firing
Aimed Shot and some firing regularly in overwatch, thusly.

Get used to swapping weapons, checking bodies and redistributing
ammunition. It is indispensable if you ever happen to play a mission that
I set up, because you'll need every advantage you can get. More often than
not if you play the percentages right and try to get experience where it's
needed those numbers-getting boys will be using up ammo like fireworks on
4th of July.

Note on Ammo:
Have you ever known a regular Marine to run out of ammo for his bolter
during a mission? That's right, he starts off with way too much ammo. For
most missions, drop it down to just one or two (or possibly none) extra
magazines, load up on extra First Aid kits, Smoke (can we stop calling it
'Blind', please?), Krack, Plasma grenades and Melta Bombs. Or why not
extra ammo for your point man with the Plasma Gun?

Always give a scanner to the first or second man in each squad for easy
identification of who has it and quick access when you need it. One in
each squad also gives you options for who will take care of scanning when
you have injured players on your team.

Depending on relative difficulty of the mission you will end up organizing
your squads as follows:

You are confident:
Termie with A/C - designated exp-getter
T-hvy flamer    - just a guy
regular T's     - whoever has a CT
Dev. squad      - hvy weapons to people who need the exp. Regulars
whatever.
Tac. squad      - same
Ass. squad      - if you're planning much use offensively need to be fairly
elite troops, otherwise the Melta Bomb assault trick works pretty good,
too.

You are not so confident:
Termie with A/C - high AP, high BS
T's             - bring hvy flamer only if warranted, use your medium-best
troops.
Hvy Weapons     - high AP, high BS (as in relative to the average level of
your troops).
Ass. squad      - if you're gonna bring them, better make them count, that
is, your very best.
Use your T-a/c as your magic wand and give him support. Save cool stuff
like Stasis, Rad and Vortex for the big demons or a huge concentration of
enemy Termies.

TERRAIN:

Doors, rooms and corners have already been discussed, but what about all
the other ones?

Open areas:
Get his heavy weapons and the rest is like taking candy from a kid. To get
his heavy weapons concentrate fire if within range of bolters/hvy bolters,
if that does not work try MLs, lascannons and if all else fails nail his
position with a smoke missile that will keep him quiet for the next few
turns. Just don't forget to check back once in a while to make sure you
can't see him, since he therefore can't see you. A krack missile from him
can kill one of your guys outright.

It is better to work your range advantage with a bunch of hvy bolters and
one ML than to try to get quickly within range with your bolters. The
enemy has bolters too, so you might just lose doing that, unless you can
concentrate all your bolter fire with overwhelming odds. Guys with bolters
should be loaded with smoke to cover your ML after he shoots, then the
next turn the ML guy is the second man to walk out of the smoke to let rip
with a Krack or smoke missile. He's the second man out of the smoke
because the computer AI puts people in overwatch, too...

Scouts are useful, but just be sure they can make it back before they get
spanked harder than their little blue bottoms can handle.

The most important turn of the game is the first one, which is when you
take out at least one of his heavy weapons and then get back in cover or
throw smoke on/around/in front of whoever can't make it back to cover. A
mission in which you take no chances is a good mission.

Hills:
Are good for getting LOS or LOF on opposing forces, but really you'd be
much better off waiting behind it for the evil guys to crest it, as long
as you're out of grenade throwing range, that is. Beware of having just
one guy out on the corner of a hill as he will very likely be the one
single point where all your enemies' weapons come into range first.
Nothing quite so freaky as when your computer opponent AI starts
concentrating fire on _you._ But there's no ghost in the machine here,
most of the time it's just an accident of weapons ranges, it seems.

Indoors:
Scan, throw smoke and scan again. Don't let your boys stand right next to
each other. Get in position, overwatch and wait for the smoke to clear.

Fortified positions:
Crenellated walls are a pain and take some time. Get most of your units at
the edge of their range, try to max possible high-percentage shots via
overwatch, use MLs with smoke or Krack to reduce your opponents short-term
options. An enemy Psyker behind a fortified wall is a Hellfire waiting to
happen to your carefully nurtured and well-positioned blue boys in
overwatch with heavy weapons. It is possible to fly in Assaulties to do
their thing and get out, but expect losses unless you hit very lightly
before flying out to a reasonably safe posit in the same turn. Watch APs
you have to budget for this, your guy can land a little out of position
and have to turn and run in order to do some damage. If all else fails
make sure he has a smoke cloud he can get into. Occasionally you may need
to switch missile types while the rest of your platoon stands there and
waits for your ML-trooper to finish his business, which may take up to ten
shots when you really need to finish that guy with the hvy bolter at the
other end of the map. Consider switching to Plasma missiles if your
Krackers only hit the wall in front of him.

FRIENDLY VEHICLES:
Don't use them unless you expect to take immediate casualties otherwise.
However, taking out the enemy hvy weapons is obviously more important than
wringing every last point of experience from a mission. This also helps
speed things along when you just want to get done with it. They have
absolutely no effect on the campaign other than take the heat off of your
precious band of killer commandos. "Us few, us happy few, for he who sheds
his blood with me..." ...er, never mind.

ENEMY VEHICLES:
Smoke both at ground level and one to two levels up (all vehicles are 3x3x3
boxes, as opposed to the 9x9x9 behemoth Klumps that the readme.txt file on
the CD-rom claims). MLs is no cure-all since enemy Predators have hvy
cannons, but are still your best bet. The Termie A/C can sometimes do the
trick but takes time to get in position. Assault squaddies and five or six
Meltabombs in a single turn can sometimes make things happen. That darn
Librarian cat can make miracles when he's high on Q-ing, but is likely to
expose himself to enemy overwatchers if he tries it. Don't even bother
with haywire grenades, they could possibly work on your grandma's mobile
phone but that's about all they're good for. If you've nailed an enemy
Pred way too long for it to still be alive try hitting different parts of
the 3x3x3 box. Or walk up a T-Hammer 'n Storm Shielder to it, he he.
"Knock, knock, who's there? WHACK!"

STRATEGY (as opposed to tactics, the study of the immediate)

You will take losses, therefore ideally you would have more veterans/H/MH's
than you can fit in your allotment for each separate mission.
When starting out, make certain to get just a few guys up to MH immediately
so you can keep them in reserve if things get sticky. When up deep
monkey-vomit without a paddle (cred to my h.s. probabilities teacher for
that one) just back off, have your Mighty Hero drop his bolter and ammo,
pick up his neighbor's Hvy Bolter and go to town on the commie b's.
Many people firing and hitting a target results in more aggregate
experience earned than just having your boy with the Hvy Bolter let 'er
rip.
A man at MH level has nothing further to gain than a CT, so keep him in the
background unless you need him for survival purposes.
HTH combat results in more exp. but is tons more riskier. If you're gonna
use the Librarian trick be very, very careful what you wish for, you just
might get a little too much of it.
Once you Librarian is up to MH train up a new one, no matter how much you'd
like to keep the original. What really bites is not having a good one in
reserve when you lose your MH Librarian in the mission right before the
last one. Yep, I did that one too.
For every man you bring along on a mission you should have two smoke
grenades on average, and everyone that can should carry them. Jacked
situations get unjacked real quick that way.

PRIORITIES:
1. Enemy hvy weapons.
2. Enemies too close for comfort.
3. Enemy vehicles.
4. Moving people up to Mighty Hero level.

THE VERY FIRST CAMPAIGN MISSION:
..is also one of the best missions in the game in that it forces you to
think, to plan ahead and to work with very limited and vulnerable
resources. Before even beginning make sure that out of all the people you
have available, the five guys with the most APs are in the squad for the
first mission. These guys will be your designated exp.-getters that you
farm out to your Dev-squad for hvy weapons duties in a few missions. After
they work up to it one of them will probably end up providing leadership
for your assault squad, too. Obviously these five guys must work together
and take things very slow in order to avoid embarassing deaths in the
first mission. Make darn sure to concentrate your fire, but you must
balance this requirement to lower your risk-exposure against the need to
promote one or two guys as fast as possible to Mighty Hero, which would
lead them to take point too often.

GRIPES:
Warhammer-online is gonna be just another MMRPG like Evercrack. Why not
leave that side of the business to the professionals and concentrate on
the GW core biz of wargaming? Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay was a good
system, and the world is incredibly detailed and varied, but I've been
with GW as a fan for over fifteen years now, and an Evercrack me-too was
not what I expected. You will need constant stable highspeed connex and a
very large regularly available amount of time not to mention money in
order to be a large part or get very good at it. So much for me who
actually does war stuff for a living and don't have the time or
connection.
Turn-based systems are by their very nature simpler, easier to program,
easier to modify and add to than RTS systems (but also less sexy to the
people in the marketing dept). Add Freeze-time a la Space Hulk and a lot
of easily-available-nowadays polygon graphics and there is your warhammer
the wargame in a MM wargame online. Add mods, graphics options and some
clever directing from the staff and there's your huge world-encompassing
conflict with player-designed armies/skins/banners etc. fighting it out in
true world-altering epic battles. Obviously you would not need an
incredible level of graphic detail when talking about the original
warhammer scale, as long as players can modify their own bitmaps to be
pasted onto the polygons.

That said, I'm very glad GW is still in business, and I hope they make much
money with all their ventures so I can get the stuff I want. Right now
I'll be very happy if I can just get CG to work on my XP-equipped laptop.
And maybe finish that short story.

If you haven't read Mr. Keeleslie's FAQ, do it. It is much more complete
than this is, and a much better introduction to the game, not to mention a
fun read, and an eye-opener even if you've been playing WH40K/CG for a
long time. Don't take the Gripes section too seriously. "May your soul
FEEEL the light of the Emperor!"...er, never mind.

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