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00 Warhammer 40 000: Dawn of War  00
00                                00
00 Space Marine Combat Guide      00
00                                00
00 Version 0.84                   00
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Serve the Emperor today as you may die tomorrow.

Copyright 2006 SM_pwnerer (A.K.A DeadGeorge987)

Date Started: January 21 2006

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Table of Contents:0
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Sec.0.1: Version History [HSTY]
Sec.1.0: Introduction [INTRO]
Sec.1.1: Space Marines overview [OVRW]
Sec.2.0: Infantry Breakdown [INF]
Sec.2.1: Vehicle Breakdown [VECH]
Sec.3.0: Build orders [BO]
Sec.3.0.5: Hybrid Build Orders [HBO]
Sec.3.1: Beginning Tactics [BTA]
Sec.3.2: The perfect hotkey set up [HS]
Sec.3.2.5: Basic combat tactics [BCT]
Sec.3.3: Upgrades management [UMNN]
Sec.3.4: Economics tips [ETETET]
Sec.4.0: Introduction: strategy versus other races [INTRO2]
Sec.4.1: Space Marines versus Chaos [VCHA]
Sec.4.2: Space Marines versus Orks [VORK]
Sec.4.3: Space Marines versus Eldar [VELD]
Sec.4.4: Space Marines versus Space Marines [VSM]
Sec.5.0: Multi-player and map specific strategies [MMSS] **
Sec.5.1: 2-player maps [2PM]
Sec.5.1.1: General teamplay strategy [GTS]
Sec.5.2: 4-player maps [4PM]
Sec.5.2.5: 6 plus-player general strategy [6GS]
Sec.5.3: 6-player maps [6PM]
Sec.5.4: 8-player maps [8PM]
Sec.5.4.4: Free for all strategy [FFAS] ***
Sec.5.5: Odd numbered maps [ONM] ***
Sec.6.0: Miscellaneous Facts [MISCF]
Sec.6.5: Legal information [LLLLL]
Sec.7.0: Ending, includes credits [EC]
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See miscellaneous for instructions on e-mailing me.





* Tip: Use CTRL+F and type in the short cut in square brackets to quickly
access whatever section of the guide you want to fast forward to. Although I
recommend extensively reading every section, by all means feel free to fast-
forward to whatever section you want to jump to.

** This is a very large section, so please, feel free to use the control-F
fuction if you're looking for something particular. Again, this is an
important part, so I recommend reading it all, as it will cover every current
multi-player map (not modifications).

*** Three stars indicate this version has not been started or is only
partially complete. Don't worry, it's version 0.81, meaning you're getting
whatever percent of a full guide, (above 80) with lots and lots of
information.

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Sec.0.1: Version History [HSTY]0
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Version history will be listed starting at the oldest version.

Version 0.8:
This version forms the bulk of my FAQ, and will include all major strategies
versus each race, as well as a build orders section to help for multi-player.
The unit breakdowns do not get into exact statistics for every unit, but they
still provide the important essential information anyone would want. I
recommend looking on Relic's site if you want exact statistics.
Some of the multi-player strategies and map strategies have been
completed (see below).
I expect to develop and update the FAQ at least a few more times before
summer. Then during summer, I have a lot of free time on my hands so I can
play more multi-player and compile more strategies.

Version 0.81:
My first update, this one is very minor. The most noticable (and important)
difference here is that I modified the Delayed Teching build. This new variant
of Delayed Teching should fair better against the Eldar, and will do better
than before against Chaos in Tier 2.
The other small changes are the spelling/grammar fixes I was able to find. Of
course, don't expect these to go away all at once; they'll go eventually. For
example, I fixed the word Dreadnought which I had spelt Dreadnaught in my
first version.
I can't decide if the next update will be minor or major. Most likely minor,
with me revising some important sections. Whenever the next major update does
finally come, expect it to have Free for all (FFA) and team FFA, which have
recently become more and more popular.

Version 0.82:
This is my second update so far. I'm still working on organizing more sections
as well as re-writing some parts (and adding some parts). Nothing major,
just some re-enforcement on what's already been done. I’ve added some
sections documenting information I sort of took for granted that the reader
would know...Sorry about that!
Also, I've been having some serious trouble updating this FAQ and altering it.
See, previously, it was on Microsoft Word, but I quickly put it on NotePad to
allow it to be submitted. Even since I've been really having a tough time
updating in NotePad, so I'll also accept any tips via e-mail on this.
That being said, I'm very sorry if at times to formatting seems awkward or
a letter or something is cut off. Just make the best of it and leave it
to me to fix it at a later date.

Version 0.84:
Some more fixes, mainly in the form of build order tips. I have made the
regular build extremely efficient with some additional tips, and using it,
I find killing insane computers even easier than before. However, it
definitely takes some practise and thought.
Again, just little things here and there you'll come to appreciate me for
updating. Still, none of the big changes are present (wait till summer), but
these changes are useful nonetheless.

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Sec.1.0: Introduction [INTRO]0
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Well, first of all, welcome to Dawn of War. Better yet, welcome to your Space
Marine combat guide, where you will learn everything you need to know to
conquer the insane AI as well as conquer your opponents online.
But why use this guide? There already are Space Marine guides. Well, having
personally read through most Dawn of War guides available on the net, I can
tell you that they fail to talk about the common multi-player game in depth.
Also, I see way too much talk about Tier 3, and nothing else. Yes, it's fun
and nice to talk about tanks and dreadnoughts, but what if you don't make it
that far? What if your build order crumbles under the enemy's harassment? I
seldom see a guide talk about defending harassment. And so far, I HAVE ONLY
TWICE seen Dawn of War guides talk about an opening build order in depth. All
I see is "Capture points with your scouts, get some listening posts and
plasma generators and defense and then tech up."
Well that's not helpful! How many scout squads? What do you get for defense?
How do I know I'm safe to tech up? Should I re-enforce squads early on?
These questions, and other questions writers tend to dodge are all answered
in here. Better yet, I explain the rationale behind these decisions, to help
you understand why, which I feel is very important when becoming a strategy
game player.
I can tell you right now that you will get everything you could possibly want
from this guide (except for exact statistics, but I plan to add statistics to
the miscellaneous section in due time).

Micromanagement (aka micro) involves making your units as effective as
possible. For example, taking a missile launcher sqaud and making them fight
melee units is horrible micro, because they will not be effective, and will
most likely die. However, using your assault marines for melee and your
missile sqauds to kill vehicles is good micro. Micro gets a lot more complex,
but for now common sense should give you a fairly good idea of how to
properly micro.
Macromanagement (aka macro) involves running your economy, long term
planning, and managing huge armies (while micro focusses on smaller forces).
Planning out your build orders and your Tier by Tier strategy can be
considered macro. If you have 80 Space Marines on screen as well as a bunch
of dreadnoughts and tanks, co-ordinating them all to attack an enemy position
can be considered macro.

Like every other RTS, Dawn of War features both of these skills, although I
personally see more emphasis being needed for micro.

I do assume you guys have at least played the tutorial, the campaign, or at
least a few skirmishes. I'm here to make you guys better, not teach you the
basics. I also assume a general knowledge of the tech tree.

Hotkeying units is done by selecting a unit/group of units, and holding ctrl
and pressing a number (1-9,0). From now on, whenever you press this number to
select the unit that you assigned it to. When you double tap the number, it
centres in on the unit hotkeyed. It will stay like this unless you re-assign
the hotkey.
I cannot stress enough how important it is to know this.

On a final note, I cover standard games, not quick start. Quick start games
are generally for novices who choose not to learn the concept of planning and
macromanagement.

I sincerely hope you enjoy this guide, and I am positive that if you practice
and apply what you have learned from here, you will become a much better
player.



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Sec.1.1: Space Marine overview [OVRW]0
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So why would one want to use and specialize with the Space Marines? Well,
the Space Marines have a number of advantages other races don't. However,
they are also weaker in some aspects, but as you read on you will soon learn
how to overcome the Space Marine's weaknesses.

Advantages:
-Space Marines are the kings of versatility. The basic Space Marine
squad is extremely effective at start, and remains effective throughout
the game as it can be upgraded to counter any threat.
-The Space Marine commander units have arguably the best Commander units in
the game. Not only can they be upgraded to be extremely powerful in combat,
but also they can be upgraded with abilities to give their fellow units
immortality for a short time (word of the emperor).
-Space Marines also have the most powerful walker vehicles in the game (and
by that I am referring to the two dreadnought variations).
-Space Marine buildings are stronger than average, compared to other races.
While now this may seem useless, remember that in some scenarios it will be a
race to finish off the opponent's buildings, with both of you attacking at
once. And I don't know about you, but in that situation I would rather have
the ~6500 health HQ than the Ork ~3000 Settlement.
-Space Marines may lack a super unit, but with some careful planning and
strategy (which you will learn) they can have the most powerful tier 3 of all
the races.

Disadvantages:
-The Space Marine tech tree can be conflicting, especially when you reach
Tier 2 and beyond. The choices will be difficult, yes, but I will train and
teach you to make the right choices in the right scenarios.
-Space Marine's have the worst melee/jump pack squad compared to the other
races. Chaos Raptors can be upgraded with weapons and have a bigger squad
cap. Orks deal more damage and have a bigger squad cap. And the specialized
Eldar melee units are more than a match for Assault Marines. This lack of
good, cost effective melee power can make Tier 1 a lot harder than it has to
be.
-Space Marines are the only race without a build order for every scenario. In
different scenarios the Marines must adapt and build differently. This can
make getting the hang of a build hard, because what works against some fails
against others.
-The Space Marines have no uber-unit. By uber-unit I mean the Squiggoth,
Avatar, or Bloodthirster. By definition, uber-units are each race's one
special unit that can be created only with a relic in control. Uber-units can
devastate entire armies if the enemy is not prepared. Instead, with the
assistance of a captured relic Space Marines gain access to several
moderately powerful units.
-Space Marines have one of the weakest tier 1s. Sometimes they can be stuck
with 3 sqauds of faithful Space Marines, which is killer. Space Marines are a
race that get better as they climb the tech tree.

There it is, my extremely basic (yet informative) rundown of Space Marine
strengths and weaknesses.

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Sec.2.0: Infantry Breakdown [INF]0
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As you can probably already start to tell, I am not a man of specifics. I
prefer getting right down to the point, telling you the important information
that will be essential to winning. Enjoy this unit listings (expect it to get
more complex in future updates).

Servitor
75 Req. 0 Power 1 supply
Class: Builder unit (weak) =250 health

The servitor is what gets your economy and base rolling. As a general rule I
recommend at least 2 of these (more in-depth info in build orders section).
Not much to be said really. They're quite strong compared to other race's
building units, but still they are weak at 300 health so watch out, and take
careful measures to avoid these things dying early on.

Scout Marine Squad
90 Req. 0 Power 1 supply
6-8 melee 11-13 ranged
Class: Light-Medium infantry =250 health each

These are you scout units, always available from your HQ and always a
necessity because early on they will be your strategy point takers. Again,
more in-depth info on the numbers needed in the build orders section.
To be honest, I do not know if scouts qualify as light or medium infantry.
All I know is that they are fairly weak, have 250 health, but better armour
than a servitor by the looks of it.
Scouts can also be upgraded with a couple of morale breaking weapons, but for
now forget about Scout weapon upgrades, as they'll only be useful in more
advanced strategies, which will be taught later.
For now, just know that they are scouts and later once you get more advanced
will be used to harass.

*By the way, against opponents like Eldar who have mainly light infantry,
scouts can be used to compliment the main force for a cheap price (see versus
Eldar section).

Space Marine Squad: (Tier 1)
190 Req. 0 Power 2 supply
25-31 melee 22-27 ranged
Class: heavy infantry =300 health each

Here is your main fighting force. WHAT? They only have 300 Health each, deal
less damage than other race's main fighters, and cost a lot! Well, here's
what you have to know:
-They are heavy infantry and come with heavy armour
-The damage of the regular bolters (default non-heavy weapon gun) can be
upgraded via target finders. In the end it can do 31-37 damage.
-Sergeants can be added (squad leaders) but these squad leaders are far
superior than other squad leaders for one reason: rally. By clicking rally
(or even better pressing Y), the sergeant can bring the squad's morale to
full morale!
-The health of average Space Marines (300) can be upgraded to 433 via Bionics
war gear.
-Sergeants ranged attacks AND melee attacks can make him extremely effective
against heavy infantry, even more powerful than a Nob leader. First, he can
be given a plasma gun, which is absolute ownage versus heavy infantry, for
ranged that is. Second, he can be given a power sword and power fists which
bypass armour! Now if the sergeant has a sword that can bypass armour, then
he's going to be extremely effective in melee.
-Space Marines can be upgraded with 4 different types of heavy weapons, which
can make them able to dispatch any threat they may encounter.

**Space Marine heavy weapons:** (all of which are ranged)

-Flamer: Arms one sqaud member with a short-ranged flame thrower effective at
breaking morale. Does only 7-8 damage to health, but drains morale fast. Best
used in conjuction with melee.
-Heavy bolter: Arms one sqaud member with the upgraded version of the regular
marine bolter. The space marine using this gun must be stationary, and cannot
move and shoot. It does 70-93 damage and is most effective against
light/regular infantry.
-Plasma gun: Arms one sqaud member with a plasma gun, which can be fired on
the run and is effective against heavy infantry instead of light infantry.
Does 69-84 damage.
-Missile launcher: Arms one sqaud member with a powerful missile launcher
effective against vehicles and buildings, but worthless against infantry.
They can knock around commanders though, so keep that in mind. 80-97 damage.

All of these heavy weapons are better than the 22-27 damage of the regular
starting bolter, so give your guys heavy weapons. Just not flamers; only some
early rush tactics require those.
For your information, target finders increases the damage of the regular
bolter (making it higher than 22-27) AND heavy weapons.

So, a little heavy weapons quiz...
If you are facing Orks who have mainly masses of regular infantry then you
should use...Heavy bolters.
If you are facing Orks who decide to use heavy infantry like Nobz, then you
should use...Plasma guns.
If you are facing vehicles...Then you should keep a sqaud or 2 with missiles.
If you are in doubt between using heavy bolters or plasma, then stick with
the plasma, because the movement and shooting opens up a lot of
possibilities.

So basically the Space Marine is very versatile and effective, but a tad weak
in tier 1 without all of his useful upgrades. Something I see players do a
lot (and I can even criticize myself a little bit here) is that they (and me)
underestimate the melee strength of a Space Marine squad, especially with an
upgraded sergeant.
Bottom line: Space Marines are your main force. They are versatile and can be
upgraded to counter any threat later on. At the beginning they are a tad
weak, but with good tactics this can be overcome.

Assault Marine Squad: (Tier 1)
260 Req. 0 Power 2 supply
38-47 melee 12-15 ranged
Class: heavy infantry =360 health each

Here we have the Space Marine jump pack melee unit equivalent to other races.
As I stated above, they are weaker than their counterparts from other races,
but I recommend getting at least one squad of these guys anyway, because with
an upgraded sergeant they are a force to be reckoned with. Don't get these
guys before Tier 2 though. Yes, there are some build orders, which warrant
getting these guys early, but generally it's not a good idea.
Assault marines do not get some of the luxury Space Marines do. They cannot
be upgraded with heavy weapons, and thus are not as versatile. However, they
have heavier armour, and more health than average Space Marines.
The tactic you should all use when employing these guys is this: if you find
an enemy squad that is meant for ranged combat, use the jump packs (J) to
jump them in and disrupt the enemy ranged units. Ranged units, such as the
Eldar ranger, are usually very strong at ranged but they lack close combat
ability and armour, so naturally they will die quite easily.
Bottom line: with jump packs, these guys can be used to surprise and disrupt
enemy ranged attackers, which can really help in the thick of battle.
Remember, these units are used for support, not for a main army.

Force Commander: (Tier 1)
260 Req. 85 Power 0 supply
126-154 melee 56-65 ranged 1500 health

No matter what, the Force Commander will be the first unit to leave from your
Barracks*. Although a bit pricey, he is extremely powerful, and will help to
combat enemy commanders. Like your Space Marines, he can be upgraded with
more advanced gear and weaponry to make him more effective against heavy
infantry.
The Force Commander can be upgraded with abilities such as Battlecry, which
increases the attakcs of surrounding friendly units by 40%. Also, at Tier 3,
when fully teched up, the Force Commander uses the Orbital Relay to do an
Orbital Bombardment, which is like a miniature air strike, killing/damaging
eveything in a specific radius. It is effective against all unit types.
Bottom line: The Force Commander will be your first unit created, does huge
damage, has high health, and adds huge morale to squads when attached. He
will be used to counter enemy commanders. He can beat every other beginning
commander except the Chaos Lord, so take care when engaging Chaos Lord (more
in versus Chaos section).
*Some exceptions apply where the Force Commander will not be used first. See
build orders section.

Apothecary: (Tier 2)
45 Req. 15 Power 0 supply
25-31 melee 0 ranged 200 health

The Apothecary is relatively frail, and only has melee capabilities. So what
is he good for? Well, when attached to squads THE APATHECARY ACTS LIKE A
MEDIC, increasing the regeneration rate of squads! Note that he can only be
attached to some types of squads (don't worry he can be attached to Space
Marines, but not Assault Marines).
As soon as your sacred artifact comes out, you want to pump out four of these
guys, because 4 are the limit.
Bottom line: As soon as your Artifact comes in, pump these guys out and
attach them ASAP as they're very cheap and can prolong the life of your Space
Marine squads considerably, when attached.

Librarian: (Tier 2)
245 Req. 80 Power 0 supply
62-87 melee 45-54 ranged 1400 health

As you can see, the Librarian is not as powerful as your other Commander
unit, the Force Commander. However, Librarians are very useful because of
their abilities (particularly word of the emperor or WotE). Like the Force
Commander, Librarians boost morale when attached to sqauds.
Bottom line: This commander unit is a good buy once he is upgraded with word
of the emperor. He is decent in combat but loses to most other commander
units one on one, so avoid that situation.

*Watch out with WotE. Even though your units wont die, their sqauds can still
break and their health can reach 1. That being said, don't think you can beat
a much superior force just because of WotE.

Terminators: (Tier 3, captured Relic)
340 Req. 100 Power 4 supply
68-84 melee 45-55 ranged
Class: heavy (high) infantry =565 health each

Think Space Marines, but slow, extremely powerful, and upgradable with a
weapon that can cause 200+ damage to infantry. Although less versatile and
upgradable, Terminators are extremely powerful versus enemy infantry.
However, these Terminators are meant for ranged combat and do as well in
melee - but then again that's why we have assault Terminators.
Bottom line: Although useful late game, you're better off going for assault
Terminators are they are stronger

Assault Terminators: (Tier 3, captured Relic)
340 Req. 100 Power 4 supply
55-67 melee 00-00 ranged
Class: heavy (high) infantry =565 health each

What? How can these guys be better if they seem inferior in every way? Well,
these assault units specialize in melee, even if it seems they do less damage
in melee. They will be more accurate than regular terminators in melee, and
better yet, will be more effective against every unit type since they
specialize in melee. That, and they're armour seems to be more powerful.
Bottom line: While the regular Terminator's usefulness was questionable, the
Assault Terminator's usefulness is undisputable. Go for these types of
Terminators, with the only exception being against Orks (see race versus race
strategy guides).

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Sec.2.1: Vehicle Breakdown [VECH]0
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Space Marines have arguably the best vehicles in the game, considering they
have no uber-unit. If fact, an uber-unit is not needed when you combine the
sheer strength of upgraded infantry with the powerful vehicles the Marines
have.

Rhino Transport: Tier 2
75 Req. 70 Power 1 vehicle supply
No weapons available; 500 health

The Rhino transport is suppose to move your infantry so they can get through
tough places. However, the Rhino has absolutely no use at all since it is so
incredibly weak. Just don't buy this unit, spend your limited vehicle cap on
something more useful.
Bottom Line: Even with features like Smoke Grenades, the Rhino is utterly
useless. A waste of resources, and more importantly, squad cap.
0.84 update: after experimenting with the Rhino, I find that a rhino APC
(armoured personnel carrier) carrying a missile sqaud makes for some great
harassment, even on the smaller maps. Simply unload the missile sqaud away
from a listening post, destroy it, get in the rhino, and run! These hit-and-
runs are underrated as a whole, and especially useful on 8-player maps.

Land Speeder: Tier 2
150 Req. 130 Power 2 supply
00-00 melee 157-188 ranged 2 supply 1050 health

Now here's a useful unit. Cheap, cost effective, and relatively easy to get,
land speeders can cut infantry in half, outrange most infantry, and have a
jump pack, which works similarly to the assault marines! Now here's a useful
Tier 2 unit. I usually open up with this unit versus most opponents, and it
works very well.
Bottom line: This is a very useful (but fragile) vehicle. It can shred
infantry up while taking minimum damage to itself if used and microed
correctly. Definitely get a few of these early on, but remember in Tier 3
they're useless.

Dreadnought: Tier 2
170 Req. 350 Power 2 supply
324-396 melee 200 ranged 3880 health

Here is another extremely strong unit you can open up with: the dreadnought.
Meant mainly for melee, the dreadnought can be further equipped with anti
infantry and anti vehicle ranged weaponry. However, DON'T GIVE THE
DREADNOUGHT ANOTHER WEAPON! Why? BECAUSE GIVING THE DREADNOUGHT AN EXTRA
WEAPON WILL CUT ITS MELEE DAMAGE IN HALF! And to be honest, there's no need,
it's melee is strong enough to kill anything in Tier 2, and almost anything
in Tier 3.
The Dreadnought is a monster, and if he comes out early you may be able to
cripple the opponent or win. However, make sure he is not your only unit.
Always have infantry to accompany him (as well as your force commander
hopefully). Some good economic planning is needed in Tier 1 to have the
plasma to create one of these guys. So what I recommend is this: when you
reach Tier 2 and are building a machine cult, also get the plasma rate
upgrade from a generator. Although this delays the Sacred Artifact, it's the
only way to get a good dreadnought build.
Something I've noticed is that the Dreadnought seems to do more than 400
damage when he is in good condition. My assumption is that he has an extra
close combat weapon that he may lose as he gets damaged. For now just keep in
mind that he's a little but stronger than it seems.
Bottom line: the dreadnought is a walking behemoth with close to 4000 health
and a devastating melee attack. Don't make the mistake of neglecting infantry
for dreadnoughts though. If you want one, just make sure you have a
reasonable amount of infantry.

Hellfire Dreadnought: Tier 2
120 Req. 275 Power 2 supply
00-00 melee 155-189 ranged 2005 health

Basically, it's a dreadnought but:
-Forgoes melee combat for more ranged variety
-Comes with the land speeder's anti infantry gun, but also comes with a
standard missile launcher. Can use both simultaneously.
-^Because of this, it can be effective against all unit types
-Not as durable as regular Dreadnought
This unit is my favorite choice because you don't have to go to much extra
trouble to delay your Sacred Artifact teching or your infantry army. This
unit also helps compliment most strategies, and as great range.
Bottom line: This unit is extremely versatile to start, and can be upgraded
at Tier 3 with a lascannon to make it extremely good against buildings and
vehicles (although it already somewhat is). Go for this unit once that
Machine Cult finishes, if you can afford it.

Whirlwind Tank: Tier 2
145 Req. 380 Power 2 supply
00-00 melee 27-33 damage 1000 health

This section has been modified since version 0.82.
Basically someone on the forum asked for a miniature guide on the whirlwind,
and I gave what I could. I thought it was such a good synopsis that I'd
copy and paste it right here:

Basics:
-The Whirlwind is artillery, meaning it shoots very far, very slow, and
knocks around infantry, and is effective against morale.
-Not so effective against enemy vehicles, but effective against infantry
morale. Can also attack enemy fixed defensive emplacements from afar
(though somewhat slowly).

To use:
-Once you know what you want the whirlwind to do, make sure it is in F1
stance (press F1). Otherwise, it may not fire (like in level 4).
-Press "G". This is its ground attack. Similar to pressing "A" for attack
for standard units. Pressing G brings up a pointer. The whirlwind will
bombard any where you click. If the whirlwind is not far enough, it will
move close enough automatically (though take care, whirlwinds can be stupid).
-When you press G and get the whirlwind bombarding the area, it will not
stop unless you give it another order (such as bombard another area, move,
ect).
-Whirlwinds can bombard what they see or fog of war (what they can't see),
but take care when bombarding fog of war areas (see tips).

Tips on using:
-While not damaging friendly units, friendly fire CAN result in broken up
infantry for you as well, so take care when sieging the enemy.
-The whirlwind is very expensive, even more so than a dreadnought. Generally
if you're going to be fielding an army using whirlwinds, than I recommend
having at least 4 plasma generators to support you economically.
-The whirlwind is also very frail, so be sure to protect it with something
all the time. Whirlwinds are always key targets for enemies, and a popular
tactic is to jump/teleport units near the whirlwind for a hit and run
tactic, so be aware that the whirlwind could be attacked anytime. A good
ole' Space Marine sqaud accompanying a whirlwind works well, or you could
even keep it with your main forces.
-And finally, beware when bombing fog of war areas. The whirlwind suffers
a harsh accuracy penalty from not being able to see things, so its
effectiveness against fixed emplacements is reduced greatly. However, since
a sqaud of infantry is typically spread out, the accuracy penalty does not
apply as much to infantry.

There, everything you'll need to know about the whirlwind.


Predator Tank: Tier 3
190 Req. 455 Power 3 supply
00-00 melee 138-169 ranged 4820 health

Now here's a real conventional tank. I say conventional because your going to
use it what a tank's for: heavy combat. This thing has very thick armour and
a lot of health, making all anti-infantry guns completely useless. The damage
rating listed above is only the damage for the main cannon, which acts like a
miniature and accurate artillery cannon, except with less range. There are 2
heavy bolters attached also: one on the left and one on the right.
So basically against infantry it will do the damage of 2 heavy bolters
(around 180) and against buildings/vehicles it will do the damage listed
above. This doesn't mean the cannon can't be used for knocking infantry
around.
Also, you can upgrade the 3 weapons to different lascannons. As you know from
above, lascannons are powerful against vehicles and buildings. Remember, you
can choose to upgrade either of the 3 heavy weapons (main cannon and 2 heavy
bolters on sides) into lascannons. That means you can upgrade the main cannon
to a lascannon, while keeping the two heavy bolters for anti-infantry! This
is a popular tactic, and I recommend it.
The main lascannon does 225-275 damage, and the two side ones do 83-101
damage. Now you're probably wondering: what about a predator with full
lascannons upgrades? Well, it will do 391-477 damage, be able to kill any
other vehicle (except the Squiggoth) and will cost an arm and a leg at 370
Requisition and 915 power. Don't go for a fully upgraded Predator, get other
units instead.
Bottom line: this is an extremely useful Tier 3 unit, and doesn't even need a
lascannon upgrade to be effective. I recommend only adding the main
lascannon, but even that isn't necessary as it dominates everything anyway.
Definitely the unit you want at Tier 3 unless you have a Relic...

Land Raider: Tier 3 (captured Relic required)
470 Req. 555 Power 5 supply
00-00 melee 256-311 ranged damage 4990 health

(The damage includes all weapons: 1 heavy bolter and 2 lascannons)
Again, I typically see a lot of people wonder about the usefulness of this
unit. It seems not much better than a Predator, and more expensive. However,
this tank is huge, has some of the toughest armour in the game (even better
than Predator's) and is a big bullet magnet. It's weapons include 2
lascannons making it extremely powerful against vehicles and buildings. It
also has a heavy bolter to kill infantry.
To make this thing even tougher, it can use the machine spirit ability, which
makes its armour 20% tougher. Wow.
Bottom line: if you can choose between this and a Predator, get this because
it requires no upgrades to make it extremely effective. Don't worry about
costs at Tier 3, everything comes in very fast if you took the time to get
Req. and Power rate upgrades at some point.

000000000000000000000000000
Sec.3.0: Build Orders [BO]0
000000000000000000000000000

This is my absolute favorite topic to talk about, because:
1) It's very important to know what to build and when. Build orders are part
of every RTS and Dawn of War is no exception.
2) Build orders are very fun to experiment with until you get one you like.
However, Space Marines have it hard versus other races, because they must
utilize different build orders in different scenarios, while other races can
comfortably use a very similar one every time.
Since I will be discussing a lot of different build orders, I will give them
names. These names are by no means official (or even unofficial) names, but
simply reference points for this particular guides.
I assume some very basic knowledge, such as send scouts to capture control
points/relics/critical locations, though I recommend getting a few strategy
points first.

Some important points to keep in mind while reading about build orders:
-The build orders are structured for 8 strategy point maps (4 per player).
-A good time to put a listening post on the relic (which is not talked about
much) is when you're building that fourth listening post.
-If there are LESS than 4 strategy points for you, then build 2 or 3 listening
posts (as many possible) and skip the step of "build 4th listening post".
-If there are MORE than 4 strategy points for you, then follow the build up
until tier 2, then start running servitors around to place listening posts on
whatever excess posts you've captured.

Regular Build:
-First Servitor builds Chapel-Barracks.
-2 scout marine squads and one more servitor are queued up.
-Build Force Commander as soon as barracks finishes (should be at 4/10)
-Get the 2 Servitors to build a listening post. Get one servitor to build a
plasma generator, but leave it and help with the listening post. It will be
built later or inbetween waiting times. Just make sure you don't build this
plasma generator until you have 2 listening posts. Don't worry, it's fine
sitting there for now.
-As soon as the Force Commander finishes, build a Space Marine squad. Do not
queue up this squad behind the Force Commander, simply make it when he
finishes.
-Build a second listening post. Also, get a second Marine squad when it
completes. If your timing is good, and you're using both Servitors, then the
second marine squad will come right after the first. At this point you should
be at 8/10, with 2 marine squads, 2 scout squads, 2 servitors, and one Force
Commander.
-Before getting the third squad, build an additional 2 listening posts. So
basically don't get the third marine squad until you have 4 listening posts
already built/underway.
-At 10/10 with the third squad, build an armory with one servitor and a
second plasma generator with the other. This is also a good time to fortify
a listening post.
-As soon as the armory finishes, you are ready to hit Tier 2.

Build orders in Dawn of War seem hard to learn, but believe me they're not.
Just practise this against an easy comp until your timing is really good. It
takes (for the average player) 2 or 3 tries to learn a build order, but once
you get it it's like riding a bike: you never forget.
The Tier 1 aspect of this build can be quite weak, and should be played
defensively. With this build, you can fortify a listening post or even build
a heavy bolter turret while waiting for Tier 2 to hit. Although tempting, do
not upgrade any Space Marines to heavy bolters. Instead, get the target
finders lvl 1 upgrade.
When Tier 2 hits, get the sacred artifact and arm all 3 of your Space Marine
squads with plasma. Also, build a 4 th Space Marine sqaud: this one will be
upgraded with missile launchers.
Now, before the machine cult you want the following: 4 apothecaries, the
Librarian with WotE, and commander veterancy upgrade (note that all of these
come from the artifact). Also, all 4 sqauds should be re-enforced to full
strength, and you should reseacrh heavy weapons increase: 4 plasma/4 missiles
is a lot more effective than 2, especially when your target finders upgrades
make them stronger. Keep getting armory upgrades at your discretion.
Now, with all of that purchased, you will want to build the machine cult.
From the machine cult you will want a hellfire and maybe a landspeeder (or a
second hellfire). Either way you're getting 1 or 2 vehicles, and not a regular
dreadnought. Remember, vehicle cap increase will be needed.
Now, will your 2 vehicles and all of that, you can safely proceed to Tier 3.
Be sure to continue building plasma generators as you'll need a lot. A relic
is recommended for this build as Terminators will be used in T3 to fill out
the empty sqaud spots. Predators also compliment this build very well.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ok, as of version 0.84, I am recommending players use these tips: (this is a
rundown of everything, not that other stuff I've written is obsolete, just
that I think this'll be easier to understand and more organized. Furthermore,
learning these tips are going to require knowledge of everything else, so for
now you might want to come back to this update when you feel you're ready to
handle all of this information).
-Follow the regular build, don't forget to re-enforce a bit while waiting for
the armory, and re-enforce all the way while waiting for tier 2. Also, get
a 2nd plasma generator while waiting for tier 2 (as well as a second fortify).
-So at the completion of Tier 2, have 3 sqauds at 8/8, 2 plasma generators,
and 2 fortifies.
-The rules to keep going are as follows:
*Always go artifact before machine cult.
*When the artifact comes, get a 4th SM sqaud and give them missiles.
*With 2 plasma generators at Tier 2 (and 2 fortifies), get an extra plasma
generator when the artifact comes, and extra one when the machine cult comes,
and as many as possible when you're waiting for tier 3.
*Also, whenever you get another plasma generator, get a fortification. This
balances out your economy getting you more plasma and requisition as you can
afford it.
-^I've tested the above economic system vigorously, and it works extremely
well.
-As always, with artifact, go for apothecaries, and usually librarian + wote
-Also, I tend to get a second missile sqaud after the artifact/before the
machine cult.
-Then go machine cult, and get WHIRLWINDS. Yes I know I've been recommending
hellfires, but whirlwinds absolutely rip apart the Orks, which seemed to be
this build's main weakness. Get 3 whirlwinds (vehicle increase needed). Your
economy can handle it, don't worry, I've checked.
-And finally, keeping every economic tip in mind, Tier 3 is ready for you.
Go for an orbital right off the back, for terminators and deepstriked
dreadnoughts.
-Final finally, one last economic tip is this: get requisition/power rate
increases AS NEEDED. Yes, use your best judgement (developed with practise).

That is my simple rundown. My general combat doctrine? Stay defensive, don't
worry, this economic plan is great, as is the Tier 3. Obviously, if the enemy
captures a bunch of criticals, go take them back, keeping all of your forces
in an organized group, using whirlwinds and whatnot as support. If my
opponent is not providing me with any weaknesses, then I'll usually have to
wait until Tier 3 to finish them. As always, I can cheaply produce scouts
with infiltration for information.

/END 0.84 update
------------------------------------------------------------------------------


So why is this so good? Because it's generally safe, and aims for a really
strong Tier 2, as well as an early Tier 3: Will this build you will be safe
AND reach Tier 3 by the 15 minute mark (or less)! Early assault Terminators
are just too cool, as well as predators backing up your Forces. Further more,
I recommend putting 3 dreadnoughts into the orbital relay, because this will
allow the dreadnought to be deepstriked into the midst of a battle, where his
melee can see good use.
Bottom line: this build is excellent but the Tier 2 can be tricky due to the
degree of units (which will be rather low). Please refer to the tactics
section to learn how you can make the most of your small numbers.

Delayed Teching:
-Build the Chapel Barracks.
-Queue up 2 scouts and an extra servtior.
-Force Commander when barracks is done.
-Listening post 1.
-Build the Space Marine sqaud 1.
-Now, build your second Space Marine sqaud
- Now build plasma generator, and servitor number 3, and listening post 2.
-Build listening post number 3. Also, fortify 1 of your listening posts ASAP.
-Listening post number 4 should be built now. This is also a good time to
build a 5th listening post, should you have an extra or relic.
-SQAUD CAP INCREASE.
-Get your second plasma generator.
-Checklist so far: 9/15, 4 listening posts, 1 fortified, 2 plasma generators
(one underway of course), 2 Space Marine sqauds, Force Commander, 2 scouts,
and 3 servitors.
-Fortify a second listening post.
-Now, get the following (as simultaneously as possible): Armory, Plasma
generator number 3, and your third fortification on a listening post.
-Then, Space Marine sqaud 3
-Space Marine squad 4, with a fourth fortification.
-SQAUD CAP INCREASE 2. Now you will be at 13/20 when that's done. Also, when
getting this Squad Cap increase, get Plasma Generator 4.
-Go TIER 2.


Delayed Teching is easily the most complex of all the builds, and to be
honest there's no easy way to learn it right away (like the others). Instead,
what I recommend is writing it on a piece of paper and consulting it while
you play. If you're not prepared to do that, then you're not prepared to
learn a very useful build order you will absolutely need on larger maps. I
find that after a good 5 (usually less) attempts, this build starts to sink
in and become easy to remember.

Other early considerations:
-Get your upgrades in this order: target finders, heavy weapons, bionics.
Against Eldar who go heavily for infantry, I tend to go more towards bionics
first. Either way, get the 3 early upgrades one after another.
-DO NOT give your men heavy bolters until you've already started tier 2. When
T2 is purchased, then go for some heavy bolters and a few re-enforcements.
-Also while waiting for tier 2, pump out some sqauds. You will be at 13/20
withsome additional room. This is a good time for assault sqauds.

Now, at Tier 2...
-You will have: 4/5 listening posts (all fortified), 4 plasma generators, a
sqaud cap out of 20 (hopefully near 20), Force Commander, 3 servitors, 2
scouts. Just a quick simple checklist.
-Machine cult and artifact should come simultaneously. When the machine cult
is done, I recommend whirlwinds/speeders, though this is very general. Some
situations call for hellfires or even regular dreadnoughts.
-When the machine cult/artifact are underway, get some sergeants and continue
to re-enforce and give heavy weapons to sqauds.

This build I like, because it is very safe and aims for a superior Tier 3, as
apposed to a superior Tier 2. However, the Tier 2 can still be very powerful.
As always, re-enforce each squad a bit while waiting for the Monastary add-
on. Better yet, also purchase some sqauds: your cap is out of 20.

The build aims for the player having a lot of numbers of space marines, which
is good because space marines already out match other races in base unit
quality. With this build, you can even match them for quantity, with your
sqauds.
Another strong point in this build is that you can successfully split your
forces, which is very important on a lot of maps. However, try not to split
too much until Tier 2.
Speaking of tier 2, you will have enough resources to get the machine cult
and sacred artifact simultaneously. Also, go for sergeants and one missile
sqaud. The other sqauds can have heavy bolters (from tier 1). If you want,
you can add some plasma guns to your anti-infantry sqauds. Although these
will combine with heavy bolter sqauds, the balance can actually really work
out well, especially versus Eldar/Orks who tend to use a combination of heavy
and light infantry. Just remember: missile sqauds stay as missile sqauds,
nothing else.

* After some extensive study of replays, I have found that it is OK to
combine heavy bolters with missiles, because both have similar range and are
used while stationary. So it's ok to get everyone to have 2/4 heavy bolters
and then add on missile launchers. Although for army management, it's very
preferable to have seperate missile sqauds. However, some situations can
become much more desperate.

With the machine cult, get a whirlwind and a land speeder or 2. With the
artifact, get apothecaries, the librarian, word of the emperor, and commander
veteran upgrade.
You may be wondering: with this late tech, what if they pump out a vehicle
before you can get one yourself? Well, in most cases this isn't so bad
because of the sheer force of your infantry army. With target finders, they
will have enough power to blast most early vehicles. What about a
dreadnought? Well, that's going to be a lot harder, but remember if the enemy
is getting an early dreadnought on you, he's going to have no infantry
(comparitively). Most powerful, threatening units (like the dread) can be
danced easily, because they're slow and meant for melee (for dancing, see
basic combat tactics, previous section).
The exception to this is chaos: chaos can effectively mass infantry to
somewhat match yours, while getting an early predator tank. If you only have
your sqauds and your force commander, then the situation is not going well.
Hopefully you'll at least have wote by the time they get a predator. This
will usually happen, and if they get a predator any earlier it means they
wont have infantry to match yours.
Don't get any dreads until Tier 3 when you can deepstrike them. Instead, go
speeders and whirlwinds.

Note: a strategy that has been working very well for me lately is this: get
the whirlwind out first from the machine cult and start pushing on one of the
flanks towards the enemy. It works really well when the whirlwind is
protected by your sqauds, especially when they're upgraded.

The main key here is to stay offensive. If the enemy has a captured point a
bit out of the way, get your heavy bolter sqauds down there to take it out
and upcapture it. Since your teching is delayed, your best bet is to delay
there's, which means cutting off resources, which means staying offensive.
Just killing there units can help: they will likely rebuild them.

Why am I writing so much about this build? Because although it takes some
time to learn, it can be very useful and successful when applied correctly.
But all in all, this build still remains strong in Tier 2. With commander
veteran upgrade and WotE, any big collisions shouldn't be too hard with a bit
of micro. So why not use this build every time? Because Chaos has really good
counters to it, which takes too much time to explain now, so it will be
explained later in the versus Chaos section.

4-scout Build

-Build a Chapel-Barracks.
-Queue up 4 scout sqauds and an extra servitor.
-Get the Force Commander ASAP.
-Build 4 or 5 (however many available) listening posts with the servitors on
your captured points. Make sure both servitors help create the same one. At
the same time, re-enforce your scouts somewhat
-Now at 6/10 with 4/5 listening posts, get you're 2 Space Marine sqauds. Re-
enforce them as much as possible.
-Before your amory, get 3 or 4 plasma generators. THEN go for the armory.
-Proceed to Tier 2.

*It's alright to throw in some heavy bolter turrets into this build for added
defense, if needed.

The whole point of this build is to harass with the scout squads, which will
be re-enforced a little bit. You will un-capture the enemy strategy points,
then run. This is called harassment. It can work really well if you can
manage your build order simultaneously.
At Tier 2, I recommend getting a sacred artifact (much like regular build)
and then focus on infantry. Build your forces, upgrade them, and refer to the
delayed teching text, because it features all of the tips for upgrading and
building up a Tier 2 infantry force.
With successful harassment, they will be delayed, maybe even crippled. Your
forces will be built up much like in delayed teching, and eventually you will
run them over with a superior force.
Some people can harass very well, and if the enemy looks weak after some
harassment, then they will send in their Force Commander and Marine squads to
finish them off! However, this requires really good harassment on your part,
as well as poor defensive abilities from the opponent.


Plasma Build

-Queue up as 2 scouts and another servitor, and another 2 scouts.
-With the first scout, build a plasma generator. When that is done, build
another plasma generator with the same servitor (or if there's a slag </pre><pre id="faqspan-2">
deposit, get a thermo generator instead of 2 regular ones).
-As always, capture strategy points, especially the two closest to your base.
Build listening posts on the two closest to your base.
-Now you should have 2 plasma generators, 2 servitors, and 4 scout sqauds.
-Reseatch infiltration for scouts at your HQ.
-Fortify the two listening posts. Fortifying listening posts gives them heavy
bolter turrets which I estimate do roughly the same damage of marine heavy
bolters (around 70-90 to infantry). The difference? The listening posts is a
powerful 2000+ health object with a heavy bolter, not a 300 health infantry.
-Get your third and fourth listening posts. Foritfy these as well.
-Now with 4 listening posts (all fortified) build a Chapel-Barracks with both
the servitors, to make it go faster.
-Build your Force commander, and then an armory as soon as you can afford it.
-No matter what, make sure you are at 6/10. Rebuild Scouts if necessary.
Also, build a marine squad after the Force Commander.
-Advance to Tier 2. You will be upgrading at 8/10, and starting the Tier 2
upgrade at the 5 minute mark! This is relatively early compared to other
builds.


With the early Tier 2, fortified position, scout squads and Force Commander
to back everything up, you can see that this build is defensive. It also sets
you up very well economically. You will be able to buy the Machine cult, and
this time, pump out dreadnoughts first. Don't forget to continue making
plasma generators as needed.
This is the only build I'd say where you don't need to upgrade Marine squads
and worry about them as a main force. Instead, you will be getting vehicles
will all the plasma, and then you'll get Terminators for your infantry cap.
This build is a modification of the somewhat popular 4 scout build, and can
work very well on the right types of maps - big team games. I recommend at
least giving this build a try, for you may like it.
I do not recommend it one vs. one for novices, or even for most intermediate
players, but with practise can be made great. Also note that this build is
extremely hard to pull off against Orks.


************
Improvising*
************

Sometimes the build orders don't go smoothly, because something dies. In
general, the biggest problem beginners have in build orders are the
commanders: what if they die? Well, in the regular build, plasma build, and
delayed teching build, you will have the plasma required to rebuild the Force
Commander. But either way, using proper focus fire techniques as well as
dancing (explained extinsively in the following sections) your Force
Commander shouldn't die.
Generally a good rule is this: if something dies before Tier 2, rebuild it.
The four-scout build is a bit trickier: if the Force Commander does die, he
wont be re-built for a while which really is bad. However, the 4-scout build
is designed to have enough backup to help the Force Commander from dying.
Another common problem which cannot easily be resolved is the lack of multi-
tasking. Just because you're busy harassing or engaging the enemy doesn't
mean that you're off the hook for managing your base: you must do both, as
any RTS player must.
Extensive practise must be done to imprint the build orders into your head.
Skirmish mode was made for a reason, and dawn of war as excellent AI, whether
you want a challenge or just a dormant enemy. Both can help you practise your
build orders.



That just about covers all of the basic build orders I would like to mention.
In fact, I think it covers more or less the important basics I want you to
know. With this knowledge in mind, understanding the rest of the guide will
be MUCH easier.

0000000000000000000000000000000000000
Sec.3.0.5: Hybrid Build Orders [HBO]0
0000000000000000000000000000000000000

A new section, this one deals with builds "in the making". These are not
regular ones like the above section, so beware when using them, as they
might not be reliable...yet.
If you've learned the regular ones, maybe your best practising them first
and coming back to this section later.

Heavy Weapons Mass:
-Follow the Regular Build up until you've purchased Tier 2.
-You will have 10/10 (4 or so Listening Posts, 2 Generators, 3 Space Marine
sqauds [somewhat re-enforced], 2 Scouts, and Force Commander)
-Now, while waiting for Tier 2, purchase 2 more plasma generators with your
servitors, for a total of 4 plasma generators.
-Fortify everything also, while waiting for Tier 2. You'll need the added
protection and requisition bonuses.
-When Tier 2 hits, do the following:
*Add sergeants to exsiting squads
*Give all 3 Squads Plasma Guns
*Get a sqaud cap increase
*Get a requisition rate increase (you'll have enough plasma)
-Fill out your new sqaud cap, and arm them with missiles (this should
translate into an additional 2 sqauds being built and receiving missiles).
-Get another sqaud cap increase.
-Again, get more Space Marine sqauds until you're cap is full. You should
go for a variety of plasma and missiles, for a quick kill on the enemy.

Assuming you've gotten your upgrades (PLEASE see upgrade management section
for this build, very important) then you'll have an awesome fighting force
which'll only have one main weakness: artillery. If artillery comes
knocking on your door though, you'll likely have enough forces to send it to
quickly take it out.
This build order I'm really starting to like against the Orks, because you
can take them out quick enough in Tier 2 when their advanatages run thin.
Even against Eldar this can work well, but still beware of early
platform/prism spamming.
Against Chaos...This build is amazing once you've mastered some of the finer
concepts of micromangement. And of course, it is therefore good against Space
Marines, assuming you can shake off any early scout rushes.

Space Marine Mass:
-Build the Chapel Barracks and queue up 2 scouts and an extra servitor.
-When done the Chapel Barracks, go for the Force Commander and 2 listening
posts ASAP (as soon as possible).
-Build 2 Space Marine sqauds one after another after the Force Commander
and 2 listening posts.
-Build another 2 listening posts.
-Build Space Marine squad 3.
-SQUAD CAP INCREASE.
-Continue building Space Marine sqauds until you need another...
-SQAUD CAP INCREASE.
-Get your maximum out of 20 and start re-enforcing.

With this build, you basically mass a bunch of unupgraded men for a nice and
early tier 1.5/2 attack which is usually devastating to the enemy. Of course,
make sure to review micromangement (tactics section).
And something to add is that you should probably send in 2 sqauds to melee
for distraction (while the other 6 or so shoot).
Very dangerous build for both opponents, as it's clearly a do-or-die build.
Even the 4-scout build is more flexible than this. Just remember to deploy
some caution of your surroundings when attacking.



Expect me to add (or change) this list in future updates as I'm always
testing out new build orders.


000000000000000000000000000000000
Sec.3.1: Beginning Tactics [BTA]0
000000000000000000000000000000000

Most of the tips I will give here are simply little things, but I still
recommend advanced players skim through this as there may be some important
information.
The tips are really quite simple, but I will say them anyway, for the point
of them sticking out in the beginner's mind.
I consider a beginner somebody who can't (or can barely) beat a hard
computer. Yes, these seem like high requirements, but believe me they're not.
There's no shame in being a beginner. In fact, it's probably a lot better to
be a beginner now then it was a year ago. I believe this because now more
strategies are being invented, as are new methods of training and teching. So
don't worry beginners, and be honest about it.

-As a beginner, learn one build order you like (try them all out) and stick
with it. Although I recommend different builds for different scenarios the
fact still remains that beginners are better off learning bit by bit, and
becoming comfortable with what they know.

-Specialize your Space Marine sqauds. Again, this is to make army control
easier, as well as army set-up. If you're smart and keep your missile squads
to the rear of your forces then you'll still be able to use them (because of
their range) with a minimized window of opprotunity for them to die. Note
that a smart opponent will attempt to drop melee units (like assault marines)
in to kill the anti-vehicle squads though...

-If you have sergeants, rally the sqauds by pressing Y. Poof, morale full
again. Useful if sqauds are breaking/near breaking.

-Try to refrain from building Dreadnoughts early on. Yes, it may be fun in
practise against a defenseless comp, but what if you face a human? Your
simply build dreadnought strat will die, and you will look like a fool.
Worse, you'll be wasting good practise time on an anti-comp strat.
Dreadnoughts are a wonderful thing, don't get me wrong. But going for them
early Tier 2 is a bad strat against humans.

-Make good use of the [Home] botton on the right. It instantly selects (and
takes you to) your HQ, which I found useful. See, I only figured this out a
few weeks ago (wasn't learned in tutorial) and since I feel my multi-taking
has gotten slightly better.

-Also relating to the above tip, make good use of the keyboard. At my level,
I personally do everything possible with the keyboard: select, attack, build,
rally, throw grenade. I even do word of the emperor with the keyboard (by
pressing W). In the long run learning to make use of the keyboard will make
for easier micro, macro, and multi-tasking.

-And now a micro related tip: make use of cover. Now, this is easy. Click on
the cover, the units move there. But now what if they move out? Well, you
have to set the right stance, so they wont move. This stance is hold area
stance (I think that's the technical name), which is achieved by pressing F2.
To be honest, I couldn't care less if I got the name wrong. If you've
memorized the F stances hotkeys, then micro will be easier.

-If your people are in F2 stance, watch out for melee! Their accuracy drops
substantially if F2 stance is engaged in melee. Quickly press F1 to switch
back, for more combat effectiveness.

-Sometimes you have the option of shooting or meleeing. If you happen to be
facing the Eldar (or other ranged-type units) then take the unit and press Z
(for melee) and click on the enemy. This method I find easier then changing
the stances around. This way you wont have to worry about changing the
stances back.

-If your enemy is in cover, don't shoot hit, melee him. Melee is not
effective by positively contributing cover, but ranged is a lot weaker.
Remember, when an enemy is using cover, retreat or melee, but never shoot.

-For more advanced control of units, assign them ctrl+(numbers 1-9, 0) so you
can access them easily. For example, if the Librarian is ctrl+1, then
pressing one selects him. Double tapping 1 will centre on him, so he is in
your screen. Pressing 1 then pressing W puts on Word of the Emperor :).
Congradulations, you've used a commander ability really quickly without using
the mouse!

-As mentioned before, DO NOT GIVE A DREADNOUGHT A WEAPON! The melee damage is
cut in half. In fact, I don't even give the hellfire a weapon. Without a
weapon the hellfire is already well equipped to face infantry or vehicles.

-The most important upgrades are easily target finders and bionics. Every
Marine in the squad receives a global update making him shoot more accurately
or have more health. Heavy weapons increase is only important when you are at
Tier 2/3, but in most cases I don't get it until Tier 2 anyways. However,
I've heard of some good strategies revolving around heavy weapons increases
early on...

-Try to have one sqaud of assault marines. Yes, they're inferior to other
race's designated melee squads, but their main use is re-taking critical
locations in the last 30 seconds by jumping in quickly.

-Invent your own type of builds, or modify existing ones. I have no idea what
style of playing will work for you. If you feel to re-enforce at a time not
included in the build, then do it if you feel it's for the best. Remember,
build orders are quite general, and often many variables influence them, so
improvisation is a good tool to have. Simply practising can develop this
important skill.

-While health is the most important factor, morale is key as well. If a squad
is broken, you can press Y to rally it. If you can't rally or don't have a
sergeant, retreat it from the front and let another squad take its place.
Simply micro techniques like this make your units very efficient.

-If your Force Commander dies, rebuild it before Tier 2. This may require
another plasma generator. Hopefully if your Force Commander dies, their
commander will die as well. If your Force Commander dies and theirs still has
half its health...Click menu, then click quit game.
Careful measures should be taken to ensure the longevity of the Force
Commander.

-And here I have one more example of why learning the hotkeys and using the
keyboard is better. Did you know that using the mouse, building a chapel-
barracks and queueing up 2 scouts and a servitor can take 2 seconds? Well,
with the keyboard, it can happen within half a second. This is what would be
done: B,C with selected servitor, click. Press Home, press M,M,S, for 2
scouts and a servitor to be queued up. See the difference? Definitely helps.

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Sec.3.2: The perfect hotkey set up [HS]0
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The key to good management, be it micromanagement or macromanagement, lies in
your ability to assign ctrl+(number) hotkeys. By hotkeying everything key and
practising the hotkey set up, you stand to have a much better chance winning,
because of how much easier army and base management will be. The following is
one of the most important parts of the guide, because without a thorough
understanding of this, playing human opponents or even strong AI will be
impossible.

1: I assign number 1 to my Force Commander. He is very important, in Tier 1
especially, so I thought the most importany key should be assigned to him.
Even in Tier 3 he remains important, so I keep him on 1. In Tier 3 he has
Orbital Bombardment, which is like a mini air strike which damages/kills
everything in a radius. He also has battlecry, which great increases combat
effectiveness of nearby units.

2: I assign number 2 to my anti-infantry Space Marine squads. So basically,
my sqauds equipped with heavy bolters or plasmas will be assigned number 2.
Generally I keep these guys by the front line.

3: Number 3 I use for my anti-vehicle or anti-building Space Marines squads,
i.e the squads upgraded with missile launchers. Keep these guys towards the
rear, behind the hotkey 2 force. This way the chances of them dying are
minimized. Also watch out of jump units flying in to kill your anti-vehicle
sqauds.

4: I use number 4 for my Librarian. I keep him towards the front or in the
middle: whatever I feel will let his word of the emperor affect the most of
my units possible. So keep this guy near your main forces.

5: I assign 5 to my Jump units, any of them. That means I could include a
land speeder and an assault sqaud as 5. Why? Because they both jump in, and
they both are anti-infantry. At least this way I can save other hotkeys. I
keep these guys to the rear of my forces so I can surprise the enemy if he
should attack. Another benefit of these guys being at the back is that they
can combat any enemies jumping in to take out my missile sqauds.

6: Hotkey 6 is rarely used early on, but in Tier 2/3 I will assign any extra
assault vehicles (such as dreadnoughts, hellfires, predators and land
raiders) number 6. This is because most assault vehicles will serve the same
purpose of charging in with my main forces. Generally I like to have these
assault vehicles come in on a flank, if possible. If not possible, then
usually I like having these units at the front, eating up damage with their
heavy armour. And if the enemy has missile sqauds...I can press 5,J (jump)
and jump in my anti-infantry jumpers to mop of their missiles!
I do not hotkey whirlwinds. Instead I position them accoringly to where the
can hit the enemy forces while staying out of the action. I try and make a
mental note on where I place them.

7,8,9,0 are building hotkeys.

0: My Chapel-Barracks is always 0. It produces the bulk of my force, so
naturally I will give it an easy to remember hotkey. I can press 0,S for a
Space Marine squad, AND I can set a rally point by right clicking. All this
and I can still focus where I need to (i.e a battle).
Don't forget deepstrike hotkey is E. You'll want to know that once you start
making Terminators.

9: Number 9 I give to my machine cult, even if I get a sacred artifact first.
I can do very similar things like what I do to the Chapel-Barracks. For
example, I can press 9,H for a Hellfire dreadnought. I can then right click a
rally point. All this and I can still focus on whatever I need to.

8: Number 8 is my sacred artifact, no matter what. Again, for reasons listed
above I give it a hotkey. 8,A makes an apothecary, and right clicking sets a
rally point.

7: Number 7 is my Orbital Relay. I much prefer making a dreadnought from the
Orbital Relay, and in most games I wont make one from my machine cult. Here's
why: from the Orbital Relay, I can deepstrike it anywhere I see on the map,
anywhere where its melee attack can be used to its full potential.
Deepstriking dreadnoughts onto the front line is much more preferable then
getting them from the machine cult and walking them around.
If I press 7,D, I make a dreadnought. When it's done, I can press 7,E to
deepstrike it anywhere I can see (usually to the front lines). This is a very
useful tactic.


Why did I right all that? Because I am stressing army efficiency throughout
the guide, and what better way to teach you then to tell you what works for
me?
If you feel you want to make some modifications, then go ahead. Just
remember:
-A hotkey setup has to be easy to remember.
-Every hotkey in the setup must be for something specific, not something
general. Don't hotkey all your Space Marines, hotkey the anti-infantry ones,
and the anti-vehicle ones.

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Sec.3.2.5: Basic combat tactics [BCT]0
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A.K.A, micromanagement.

Now you need to learn some of the finer points of micromanagement before you
can proceed to learn the race versus race strategies. To start, you need to
know the strengths of the enemy unit. Usually, this is very easy: quickly
click on them and and check out their statistics.
If they heavily favour melee, (for example, Howling Banshees, who have around
50-70 melee damage and only around 10 ranged), then you want anti-melee
tactics.
If they favour ranged attacks (for example, Dark Reapers, with around 35
ranged damage and around 15 melee) then you want anti-ranged tactics.
But what if they are mixed, and favour either? For example, Chaos Space
Marines have 25-31 melee and 22-27 ranged, exactly like your Space Marines.
Well, think of it this way: you have versatile units, and what do you do with
them?
The answer should be a combination of both, so generally you will want to use
any general tactics I list. Also, you could use some anti-melee/anti-ranged
tactics depending on what they decide to do.

Here's something important to remember about stances: F6 means melee, and F7
means ranged. F1 means aggressive (follow enemy a bit) and F2 means hold area
(meaning not moving, but holding ground). So it can be said that F7 and F2
work well together for ranged, while F1 and F6 work well for melee.

GENERAL COMBAT TACTICS:

-Focus fire. Focus fire is the act of concentrating firepower on a particular
threat, and then moving to a new one. No matter what, try to focus fire,
because it's more efficient and kills enemy units much faster.

-Aside from knowing the enemy unit's strengths, be familiar with your's, as
well. For example, using Assault Space Marines for ranged attacks is quite
stupid, really. See the unit's section for more statistics on Space Marine
unit's strength.

-Consider morale, as well: your goal is always to minimize morale damage to
your units. When fighting the enemy, try not to put units prone to morale
damage at the front. For example, having vehicles (which are impervious to
morale damage) on the front lines is a good idea, althoug you wont always
have dreadnoughts.
So, try to put sqauds with high morale on the front lines. For example,
sqauds with sergeants have higher morale than sqauds without, so keep them up
front.
Another way to minimize morale damage is this: when your sqauds at the front
lines break (and you can't rally them) then retreat them to the back of your
army. This lets another sqaud with high morale take their place; it also
preserves your broken sqaud, so it can regain morale and later rejoin the
fight.

-Targeting enemy morale isn't very easy for Space Marines. You could use
flamers, but that would mean not having other heavy weapons. If you really
want to do some morale damage, wait until later on, until you get artillery
tanks knocking around the enemy. Otherwise, I recommend arming your scouts
with sniper rifles/flamers: both are cheap, and attack morale. By only arming
your scouts with morale damaging weapons, you can give your Space Marines the
real heavy weapons.

-And finally, flanking. Flanking is the difference between hitting the enemy
sqaud by sqaud and hitting the enemy with more sqauds at once. Flanking
(attacking with multiple things at once) is far more efficient and preferable
than 1 by 1 attacking. To flank, spread out your units so they all can see
the enemy directly. In other words, don't put a bunch of units behind
eachother, spread them out.

ANTI-MELEE TACTICS:

-The most important anti-melee technique: dancing. In Dawn of War, dancing
involves finding the units the enemy is meleeing, and making them run away,
while your other units hit them.
For example, if slugga boy squads are meleeing your scouts, make them run
around while your Space Marines hit them with their bolters.
The dancing technique works on all melee units: just make sure you know which
sqauds are being hit (so you can make them run). Also be sure you have units
ready to attack the enemy meleeers while they're dancing after your scouts.
Dancing does 2 important things:
1) Prevent the enemy from inflicting damage on you (or drastically preventing
damage), and:
2) It can confuse the enemy, and maybe cause him to panic, because he wont be
able to do much against this strategy (see next tip).

-Ok, so you're dancing with your scouts, but what if the sluggas start
meleeing your Space Marines? Well, keep dancing! Move around with the Space
Marines, and now get the SCOUTS to target the enemy! When the enemy is weak
enough, you can stop dancing and finish them off.

-If the enemy has more than one melee sqaud, then dance with more than one
sqaud, while getting something else to hit the enemy. Also, when they switch
targets, then start dancing with whatever they're going for.
However, this has some disadvanatages: doing this battle is a lot easier for
him than for you, so you might lose valuable time, or forget to build
something. Multitasking is key, because even if you win that little fight
what happens when you've forgot to reach tier 2?

ANTI-RANGED TACTICS:

-In a ranged battle, the best way to tip the balance in your favour is to
send in something to melee (and thus disrupt) them.
For example, your in a Space Marine versus Space Marine fight. To tip the
balance in your favour you could send the scouts in to melee the enemy. Now,
retreat the Space Marines. With your Space Marines retreated, the scouts and
enemy Space Marines are in melee. Get your Space Marines to target there's
now, but also dance with your scouts! Although a complex example, it's stuff
like this that gets you the upperhand in ranged on ranged battles.

-As mentioned before, cover is very important in these battles. If they have
superior cover on you, then simply restreat and let your morale and health
recharge. If you have superior cover (or have them trapped in negative cover)
then press on after them. Don't let them retreat unless they get additional
re-enforcements (or retreat back to a turret).

-Having a sqaud of assault marines is a good mid-game tactic to disrupt the
enemy, because it's a lot easier then the transfer technique in the first
point. Assault Marines are also a good way to get the enemy out of cover (as
is artillery).



And there you have it, some essential stuff you should review and practise in
a skirmish mode. I go over some of these tactics in the race strategy
sections, just incase some people didn't read this. This is an important
section, for it gives you the foundation of the micromanagement required to
be succesfull in Dawn of War.


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Sec.3.3: Upgrades management [UMNN]0
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By definition, upgrades are enhancements which better the quality of your
troops. I know, you're probably thinking: why buy more upgrades when I could
just buy more Space Marines?
Thisis because Space Marines become inferior to other units(even with numbers)
if their quality is not bettered.

When you get the armory, you have a wide option of upgrades to choose from.
Thec hoices can be tough, as can figuring out the timing. Luckily for you, I'm
here to give you both!

Upgrades Timing:

This is actually a lot easier than most think. See basically, with upgrade
timing, you get each upgrade one after another, as soon as the armory comes
in!
Upgrades are cheap, and they usually benefit a large variety of troops, so
whynot get them one after another?
Basically just get the upgrades one after another, but don't queue up
multiple upgrades. This means you have to pay attention.

Upgrades Order:

Although this could vary from strategy to strategy, I'll give you a general,
all purpose order of upgrades:

Target Finders level 1: Nothing better than starting out your guys to be
stronger.

Heavy Weapons Increase: Why not arm your guys with more weapons to multiply
the effect of target finders?

Bionics level 1: Now you're going to want to make your guys more durable,
because as the enemy advances in tech tree, they'll be finding more ways to
close the distance your heavy weapons pose.

Personally I tend to get the plasma gun upgrades for all Sergeants, Force
Commander, and Librarian. This upgrade is incredibly cheap (60/35 or something
like that) and now your leaders are fully equipped to out-do the other leaders
in combat. Remember,Ork Nobs don't get plasma, so at a range your sergeants
with decimate them.

After that, I will usually continue with the lvl 2 target finders/bionics
upgrades, to make my guys even more powerful/durable.

These are just the first few. The others are up to you based on whatever you
feelis the right thing to do. Luckily, you can't go wrong with upgrades:
they're all cheap,and useful in the end.

Just remember: one after another, once the armory comes in.

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Sec.3.4: Economics tips [ETETET]0
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Running an economy can be hard, because very often there are a lot of choices.
Although the build orders aim to set you up with a very good and easy to
manage economy, sometimes doing something different can work out quite well.
In this section I will go through the build orders I've taught you, and tell
you economically what's up.

Regular Build:
Personally I find this build order very tight for resources, but luckily it
tends to work out very well up until later Tier 2. Remember how you finish
with 2 generators on the way to Tier 2? Well, this will get you your artifact
and machine cult stuff, but in Tier 3 you'll be sunk with the power
defficiency.Even in Tier 2 there can be a power shortage, so here's my
suggestion:
-Get a third generator while waiting for Tier 2.
-Get a fourth generator while building the artifact.
-Get a fifth generator while building the Machine Cult.
This is a sure method to get you your power. However, what about requisition?
That's the beautiful thing: if you follow the 3 pointers I've given above,
you'll have enough excess power to get a Requisition rate increase from the
listening post. Do this when the Artifact is coming in.

Delayed Teching:
Delayed teching is actually a really good build order economically. The only
problem is the excess of power (and usual shortage of requisition) in tier
1.5/2.
To solve this, get the increase requisition rate upgrade from the listening
post as soon as Tier 2 hits.
Other than that, the 4 generators will hold fine until Tier 3, when you may
want to look into getting an additional 2 (for the total of 6) and/or a
thermogenerator. See, in tier 3, requisition seems to always build up. Don't
forget the power rate increases in Tier 3 either!

4-scout build:
This build order does not work very well for teching, but it gets you units
fast for harassment. The amount you delay your opponent with your harassment
should be enough to buy you time for your own delayed teching.
Usually they'll be enough power (after 4 gens in tier 1.5) to go machine cult
and dreadnoughts right away. Plasma guns only cost 10 power a pop, so don't
worry about that.
Requisition is generally fine, as long as you harass the enemy's supply while
constantly checking up on your own: if you don't check your own constantly
then you'll be wasting time as it builds up.
Although technically not good economically, the key to make this work is that
your opponent wont do very well either with you hindering him.

Plasma Build:
The major need is always requisition, in every tier. You can limit your
requisition
troubles by...
-Always fortifying your posts at some time (especially early on as you'll need
them for defense)
-Research Requisition rate increase (which you'll have enough power to do)
Very simple really: just remember these, and you should do fine. Also, when at
the later stages of the game, try to purchase power-orientated units (like
dreadnoughts).
If requisition starts building up instead of power...Then build more
generators and get a power rate increase!

That covers everything I wanted to say about economics. Although this is very
basic,it should help for now. Later I plan to update this section giving
economic tips when THEY harass.

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Sec.4.0: Introduction: Strategy versus other races [INTRO2]0
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All of my testing was done on a combination of harder and insane computers
and human opponents. The testing helped lead me to my conclusions and
strategies I've formed against each race.

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Sec.4.1: Space Marines versus Chaos [VCHA]0
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Chaos is like a clone of Space Marines, thowing away some of strengths while
gaining others.
The first point I would like to talk about is that Chaos Space Marines are
very similar to regular ones, gaining the same upgrades, heavy weapons, and
sergeant upgrades. The only difference is that they're morale drains a tiny
bit faster than yours, and some of their heavy weapons are a pinch stronger.
However, they make up for this by having a larger sqaud cap. So overall I
would say Chaos has the advantage, just because of the late game
possibilities with massed units.
Aside from that, early game this advantage doesn't show. Their Chaos Lord is
slightly stronger than your Force Commander, so avoid one versus one battles.
Don't worry, even with the regular build order you can stand to come out on
top, with the Marine squads backing up the Force Commander. If you get
desperate, use scouts to help. The FC needs all the help he can get against
the Chaos Lord.
Tier 1 is advantageous for Space Marines, with the advantages stated above.
The Chaos have a second barracks where they can requisition demons, but your
Force Commander is effective against demons. Infact, only Possesed Marines
pose the real threat to your infantry. Horrors are countered quite easily and
can't be re-enforced, but mid game they can be bothersome to your vehicles
(even the hellfire).
Tier 1, usually the Chaos wont go for the sarcrificial circle (which is their
demon barracks) but if they do you'll be fine. Your force commander will help
fend off the demons, while your slightly superior marines will help save the
day. Since Chaos morale breaks easier, I usually upgrade frag grenades (very
cheap, gives sqauds greandes, effective against morale).
The only other Tier 1 tip I can think of is this: don't go for heavy bolters,
wait until Tier 2 so you can get plasma. Plasma chews up heavy infantry like
Chaos Space Marines. Beware this is a 2-way street though: they'll likely
do the same. And if they do, only your use of tactics will pull you through
(which there is an extensive section on, see table of contents).
Tier 2 is very hard against Chaos, cause by now they will have demons and
their vehicles rolling out, which could include a preadator tank nearly
identical to yours! Yes, Chaos can get a predator at Tier 2, which is why I
must stress the hellfire being your first built machine. One popular
combination Tier 2 is to have massed out Chaos Marines (which only cause
req.) and a predator, which costs heavily on power. It's a very effective
combination, so watch out.
Your guys should be armed with plasma mainly, but you need at least one
missile squad, and now a days I'm finding even more is necessary versus the
early predator. But if you get two missile sqauds, how will you hold off the
infantry? This is a dilemma I'm currently in the process of solving. See with
2 missile squads you might only have 2 plasma squads, which is really bad. So
far my solution is to upgrade Target Finders are Bionics a lot faster than
you regularly would, maybe even get level 2 for both upgrades. Sergeants with
plasma pistols is very important also.
As of version 0.82, I have yet another, more effective solution to this. See
the hybrid build orders section, particularly the Heavy Weapons Mass build.
Even with WotE this can be hard to defend against. The mass Chaos will break
your sqauds easily. Also, get a hellfire, incase I haven't said it already,
because in Tier 2 it's your best bet against the Predator.
If you manage to get through the Chaos tier 2, then you will rein supreme
once again in Tier 3. Don't go for predators, it's a bit of a waste when you
could be getting other things. Go for an early Orbital relay, while getting
some more hellfires (of course, economically, be sure to improvise and build
more generators). I only recommend getting regular dreadnoughts from the
orbital relay, so they can be deepstriked and thus put that awesome melee to
good use.
Terminators of both kind are simply amazing against Chaos, especially if they
are still using their regular Chaos marines. Even fully upgraded, their Chaos
marines are no match for your regular ones, especially with WotE.

Now, what build will get this done well? Delayed teching is not to my liking
here. The early predator with massed Chaos marines is a very deadly
combination and teching is required asap. Even with WotE, the predator/marine
combination is fatal to 4/5 squads.
I've been having a lot of luck with the regular build. 4-scout builds are
absolutely amazing on the right type of map (a small map) because the
harassment can kill of the heretics which will be hurt from forced labour.
Couple that with your already existing Tier 1 advantages, and you could have
a very dead Chaos opponent. I mean, with the 4-scout build if you can kill
their Chaos Lord first (which usually happens with support from scouts and
marines) then the game will be yours. Remember, when harassing Chaos, take
their strategy points that haven't been fortified then run and kill their
heretics.
On the way to Tier 2 with a 4-scout build, be sure to get like 4 plasma
generators so you can go early machine cult and finish your crippled opponent
(remember, you have to cross into their territory and harass).
If you're harassment went well (dead heretics, lost strategy points, ect)
then they'll be delayed enough for this plasma to dreadnought build to work.
All in all, versus Chaos I recommend the 4-scout build. On any 1v1 map
harassment can work well with a bit of micro (and re-enforcing scouts at the
right time). On a larger map you can't count on harassment, but you can count
on the fact that you will get more Req. with your 4 scouts running around
capturing points. Remember, most Chaos opponents only go for 2 cultists
sqauds (which are their equivilent to scouts. They come in 4 and are weaker
then scouts healthwise). Don't be afraid to engage scouts with cultists: as
long as you re-enforce to 4, scouts easily beat cultists.

There is the odd chance that you will face a bloodthirster demon, the Chaos
uber unit. If you have your main forces, a few vehicles, and an upgraded
Force Commander and Librarian, then this abomination will go down quite
quickly. Of course, backed up by predators and massed Chaos marines, you
better have some dreadnoughts and Terminators to deep-strike, so you can hold
them back.

NOTE: After some study and research, I've realised the Bloodthirster is
incredibly weak, as your commanders are super-effective against it. Couple
that with focus fire and it'll go down in a few seconds.

Now, if he's able to afford a bloodthirster, then there's no way you wont be
able to afford a land raider. Land Raiders will not be used to take down the
Bloodthirster, rather the land raider will be used to hold off the enemy's
main forces, and maybe take down a predator. Remember, land raiders are the
ultimate bullet magnet, and they are tough as hell to kill without a lot of
lascannons.

A bigger tier 3 Chaos threat are the Obliterators, who are like Terminators
except super-effective against everything with their morphing weapon. Luckily,
Obliterators are seldom used, but if they get into your base while you're
attacking, they can cause quite some trouble. A good solution is to quickly
buy a dreadnought (or even hellfire) through the Orbital Relay and quickly
drop it by the Obliterators.

All in all, Chaos versus Space Marines is a very even match up. You just have
to know your limitations versus Chaos, as well as when you're strong. Use the
information above to exploit a Chaos player's weakness in Tier 1 or 3, but be
wary of Tier 2.


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Sec.4.2: Space Marines versus Orks [VORK]0
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For as long as I can remember, the Orks have always been the hardest opponent
for me to beat in Dawn of War. See with the Orks, their tech tree works based
on population, so the more Orks you have the more you can tech. As you can
imagine, Orks receive huge Tier 1/early Tier 2 advantages.
That being said, players have decided to call the time that the Ork's
advantages last as the window. The Ork's window versus Space Marines is
approximately 8-12 minutes. By 12 minutes you will be at mid to late Tier 2
and the Ork's advantages will have disappeared.

So basically Orks have their chance, and believe me, they WILL take it,
because they are aware of the window as well.
Delayed Teching and other variations of delayed teching seems to be the build
order which works best. Some people even do delayed teching with 4 scouts,
just to throw the Orks off. Aside from delayed teching, 4 scout builds can
work well as well.

The beginning can be really tough if you're not careful. Since the Orks
already start off with a squad of slugga boyz (which are much like a stronger
variation of socuts coming in 4) they will be able to capture more and thus
get resources faster. Also, they can use this sqaud to launch some early
attacks with their Big Mek (which is the Ork secondary commander unit, the
one they'll get first). The Big Mek is inferior to your FC 1v1, but his
teleport and strong ranged attack can make him a good harasser.
Big Mek and a sqaud of Slugga Boyz is the usual beginning Ork attack, and
it's real easy to defend against because your Force Commander is stronger
than the Big Mek and you will usually have your first squad of Space Marines
to back up the fight.
Other early attakcs include adding shoota boyz (the rough Ork equivilent to
Space Marines, which can be upgraded as well). Shoota Boyz seem to be
INFERIOR to Space Marines at everything: shooting AND melee. However, you
must remember they'll always be more of them than you...

The build order I will recommend is Delayed Teching. This build order does
not require the heavy harassment other builds do, and can still guarantee
victory if played carefully. So most of my tips and strategies will be
concerning delayed teching builds.

Tier 1 Orks have a huge advantage, especially in Tier 1.5 (which is the
unofficial name for the time of the game near the armory). Careful
precautions must be taken, or you'll soon find that 30 Orks will swarm your 3
sqauds (which actually can happen). Luckily, with delayed teching, you will
keep building sqauds and you'll have fortified listening posts to fall back
to should you feel threatened.
When the armory comes in, be sure to start upgrading bionics/target finders.
With the fortified listening posts, requisition will come easy, and with 3
generators so will plasma.

Now, something I would like to mention is: what happens if they get a control
area countdown victory from critical locations? This situation is extremely
dangerous and hard to fend off. Why? Well, if the Orks have 2 critical
locations they can afford to split up their forces, but Space Marines cannot.
Hopefully the countdown will last well into Tier 2, giving you time to get an
assault sqaud to jump in and stop the countdown.
If they get the countdown early, things are really going to be tough. You
wont be able to make a good move early on, because their numbers dominate
you. And you move out too much, their main forces might just decide to run
into your undefended base and kill your listening posts.
Now the trick to this situation is to sort of BLUFF the opponent. What you
want to do is go one direction, make him think you pose a huge threat to that
criticla location. With any luck, he will retreat from the other critical
location. Now you quickly send one squad to quickly uncapture the critical
location he moved away from.
This is a very nifty tactic that has an excellent success rate against human
opponents, but against insane computers it's harder. It can still work, but
it's harder, and your timing must be excellent. Hotkeys really do help and
work wonders here.

If the countdown is in Tier 2, then you can simply jump in assault marines
wherever their forces are least. Otherwise, you can simply push by force with
whirlwinds.

If you have made it to Tier 2, then congradulations, you have an excellent
chance. Continue to get and upgrade Space Marine sqauds. Give existing squads
sergeants as well as some heavy weapon upgrades. You should have 1 or 2
sqauds have missiles, and the rest heavy bolters (or plasma if they have lots
of heavy infantry instead of mass infantry). As always, invest in sergeant
upgrades or those 900 health Nob leaders are really going to ruin your
battle.
Remember, from Tier 2 and on, it's an uphill battle for the Orks. Their last
chance of victory will most likely be the Killa Kan. As stated before, it is
weaker than a dreadnought. Since you've teched late, you'll have enough money
to build a dreadnought. Even without one, some missile sqauds will hold it
off. The Killa Kan's accuracy isn't great, so you don't have to worry too
much. By the way, make sure to block off the missile sqauds, and maybe
distract the Kan with some assault sqauds.
Aside from the Killa Kan, watch out for early Wartrakks. They are anti-
infantry transports with weapons similar to the land speeder. However, they
are very frail so a missile sqaud will quickly dispatch it. Even without a
missile sqaud, the combined force of your marines and the Force Commander's
melee should kill it easily.

NOTE: A new threat to Space Marines in the Ork later game is the Looted
(Leman Russ) tank. It's basically a whirlwind with over 4000 health, with
heavy bolters (big shootas) defending it. That being said, it's the ultimate
weapon's platform for the Orks (besides their squiggy).
So what do you do against this? As usual, hellfires can work well, but should
you now have vehicles just make sure you focus on it with missiles. If you
have a couple of missile sqauds (2/3) with 4 missiles each (heavy weapons
upgrade) then you should do fine. Another cool tactic is to distract the
tank with a melee sqaud. Of course, a smart opponent will make sure the
tank doesn't focus on the melee sqaud as you'd want, so don't rely on
that tactic much. Just remember to think: if you see an early Mek shop
(early vehicles) than prepare more missile sqauds.

Tier 3 is really easy. Make sure you have a relic, and make sure you reach
the maximum amount of plasma generators allowed for one HQ. You'll want that
much power, because you're going to want a predator with lascannons (at least
the main one). You'll want these because every Ork building has a turret by
default, and lascannons outrange them.
The Relic will be used to make Terminators, specifically assault Terminators.
Why? Because the Orks only have a few Tier 3 threats that could arise. I will
list them and list their counters. The counters should be part of your Tier 3
forces.

-Nob sqauds are heavy melee sqauds that can do 200 damage in melee when given
their weapons. COUNTER: Assault Terminators and Plasma sqauds. Don't worry,
you'll have both by then.
-Looted tanks are artillery cannons with 2 anti-infantry guns attached. The
anti-infantry guns are rough equivilents of heavy bolters, so watch out. They
can knock around infantry and cut them up at close range. COUNTER: Predators
with lascannons, or regular predators (although lascannons do the job
faster). Even dreadnoughts can do the job, when deepstriked. SEE NOTE 2
PARAGRAPHS ABOVE.
-Warboss. The Ork Warboss is the primary commander unit in Tier 3. He has an
ability similar to battlecry, making all nearby infantry a lot more
effective. In terms of combat ability, unupgraded he's better than a fully
upgraded Force Commander. He can stand toe-to-toe with a hellfire, and he
can decimate weaker vehicles. COUNTER: a regular dreadnought does the trick,
as well as massed focus fire on him. The Force Commander and Librarian
together can defeat him as well.

-Killa Kans: If the orks decide to continue investing in Killa Kans, then you
should continue investing in dreadnoughts, as well as missile sqauds.
Economically, you're fighting a winning battle because you need a lot of
Killa Kans to kill off the Space Marine forces in Tier 3. Lascannon predators
do the trick as well.

So basically the Ork Tier 3 has very little going for it, and a lot going
against it. So in Tier 3, still be wary of the threats listed above, but
remember overall you have it best.

The Squiggoth will likely compliment the existing Ork forces. 3 Dreadnoughts
meleeing it plus your main forces' focus fire (which should be around 5
sqauds upgraded) will kill this beast quite easily. It counts as a vehicle,
so missile squads work quite well. Lascannons are another option, whether
they're on a hellfire or a predator.

Overall, Space Marines versus Orks is a hard fought battle, until later when
the Space Marines gain the upper hand. Tier 2 is especially dangerous because
a smart economic Ork player can get to around 65 ork population by Tier 2.
Couple that with some early Wartrakks, and you've got a hard fight. But once
that fight is done, Tier 3 is a walk in the park. And remember, Delyed
Teching is the build order I recommend here.

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Sec.4.3: Space Marines versus Eldar [VELD]0
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The Eldar are a tricky opponent. They can sneak units in and out of areas via
teleports or webway gateways, which act like tunnel systems. This can be a
real hassle, particularly if your Eldar opponent likes harassing.
The build order of choice is the 4-scout build, but your Tier 1 strategy will
still differ from most. Facing the Eldar is a delicate process. If you go for
too many upgraded Space Marine squads, you face obliteration from mass
numbers. If you get too little units, the Eldar will use their specialized
units to kill the type of units you already have.

So for Tier 1, do a 4-scout build. Get the Force Commander and 2 Space Marine
squads to compliment your forces. Re-enforce every sqaud, and keep running
after the Eldar units, since they will dictate the flow of battle. Don't
venture too deep into Eldar territory or they will start making new sqauds
and trap your forces in their territory. Get an armory at the usual time in
the build order. Don't forget to fortify a few listening posts on different
flanks. Believe me, you'll need it.

When you get the armory, here's where things change. You will want to arm
every squad with plasma: including the re-enforced scout marines.
Still, even with plasma, the battle is tough so definitely make sure to get </pre><pre id="faqspan-3">
target finders. Remember, target finders increase heavy weapons damage. Also
get bionics. Before Tier 2 you should have both level 1 target finders and
bionics.
There is the odd circumstance where you will need to make a heavy bolter
turret. This is not part of any build order, but in multi-directional maps, I
am recommending a heavy bolter turret versus Eldar now. With a heavy bolter
turret, covering one of your flanks will be A LOT easier and thus make you
run around less.
But is it a good tactical choice? Yes. Because heavy bolter turrets are twin-
linked, meaning 2 heavy bolters. And as we know, that's around 180 damage to
infantry. And luckily, the Eldar uses very little heavy infantry early on,
and more light infantry. Plus, heavy bolter turrets are effective at
damaging/killing the Farseer when the Eldar attacks.

Against the early Howling Banshees (Eldar specialized melee units) make sure
you have plasma, and dance around. By dance around I mean this: find the
sqaud the banshees are attacking. Now run them around so the banshees have to
chase them. Now, while the banshees are on the run, get another squad
(preferably with plasma) to open fire on them. This technique will generally
kill most melee units, so it is important to learn. This is a micromanagement
technique, by the way.

Other than what mentioned above, Tier 1 shouldn't be horribly hard. At all
costs avoid the Force Commander dying. This isn't hard because he can beat
the farseer, and generally an Eldar opponent wont try to engage the force
commander early on. What you have to watch out for is the force commander
running in and getting himself killed by mass units. With the Force Commander
on a hotkey, this is not difficult.

Tier 2 is tricky versus Eldar, and requires careful scouting. The common
Eldar tier 2 tactic is to continue to build up infantry and maybe get in some
grav tanks, which are transports with weapons. Again, I recommend one missile
squad at Tier 2.
You should always get the artifact first. Apothecaries and WotE will be
needed and can be fatal against the Eldar in Tier 2 because of their heavy
focus on infantry. After the Librarian and WotE, proceed to a machine cult.
And by the way, make sure to build an extra Space Marine squad upon Tier 2
completion (so you have a total of 3). This third one will be your missile
squad.
So an ideal situation is Tier 2 is to have:
-Force Commander, Librarian, and WotE. Commander veteran upgrade is nice as
well.
-4 scout marine sqauds, re-enforced, armed with plasma.
-3 re-enforced Space Marine sqauds. 2 of these will have plasma while the
other one has missiles.

Believe it or not, this is an ideal force versus the Eldar, and will
generally allow for an earlier machine cult. The reason this small force is
enough is because the Eldar focus on ranged, because if the focussed on melee
they would be danced around by the scouts (and hit by the Force Commander).

In the odd event a WraithLord is built, watch out. WraithLord is like a
miniature Dreadnought, with around half the health and a similar melee
damage. Your missile squad and commander units meleeing it should do the
trick, but be careful and remember you can always dance around while the
missiles hit it.

When the Machine cult is build, go for a regular dreadnought. Yes, for once
the first thing to come from the machine cult will be a regular dreadnought.
This dreadnought will give your forces the added punch they lacked.

*By the way, for this particular build, I typically get the improved power
grid research from a plasma generator. 4-scout builds like this usually have
an excess of requisition. This upgrade will help you get that dreadnought
right away.

If the game makes it to Tier 3, I firmly believe Space Marines still have the
advantage. Fully upgraded Space Marine sqauds are too much for the Eldar
rangers, dark reapers, or even Warp Spiders. Banshees are easily countered by
plasma, commanders, and dreadnoughts. I usually go for 2 assault marines by
Tier 3, since I'll have extra requisition from building dreadnoughts.
Hopefully the 3 (or more) sqauds wil still be intact. If I have dreadnoughts,
I couldn't care less about scouts.

Eldar prisms are anti-vehicle/building, and hurt a lot to dreadnoughts or
listening posts. Again, this is another reason I recommended assault marines:
prisms are frail and a squad of assault marines will hack it to death before
long. Even better: GET MELTA BOMBS FOR ASSAULT MARINES! I think melta bombs
were made just for defeating the Eldar, because this matchup is the only one
I find melta bombs useful.

I do not investing in predators, rather I'd prefer a land raider, since
prisms are less effective against them, and they do not need to be upgraded
to be effective against anything, as they already are.

NOTE: The Eldar can have 10 Fire Prisms, rough equivilent to Predator tanks,
except with artillery. Now, I know a lot of people complain about this, and
thier complaints are well founded. My solution is to simply not let them get
the prisms. As long as you decide to move up before (or by) tier 3, then
you'll be fine. Why? Because you can build the Orbital Relay to re-enforce
your ground troops while you're covering ground with your existing forces.

In the odd chance the avatar is used, remember, it will most likely be a last
hope chance thing, or a compliment to a main force. Either way, WotE should
be activated immediately, and everything should focus fire it. Deepstriking
assault Terminators and dreadnoughts is very advisable, and effective. 3
Dreadnoughts can bring down the Avatar, with a bit of support.
If you happen to kill an avatar, your opponent will likely be defeated, as he
will have nothing left.

On the odd chance of facing 10 Fire Prisms, an Avatar, and a fully upgraded
infantry army, be prepared for hell. Dreadnoughts of all types get struck down
rather quickly, and although your infantry is superior, you still have the
prisms and avatar to deal with. If you can, target the prisms first while
building dreadnoughts via Orbital Relay.
If your infantry can kill most of the prisms before dying (an assault termie
sqaud is surprisingly effective against Eldar vehicles) then you could likely
rebuild enough to down the Avatar soon.
Aside from prioritizing the Fire Prisms, I recommend just reviewing other tier
3 tactics, such as Orbital Bombardment, Librarian abilities, and whatnot. Even
micromanagement on a small scale (see tactics section) can help a lot. Melta
bombs on assault sqauds can help as well, should you have any.

All in all, this matchup is very fun and challenging, even in Tier 3. Careful
study of the above tips and tactics is recommended. Against the Eldar,
assault marines are very useful Tier 2/3, but either way you should have 4
scout sqauds and 3 marine squads by then, upgraded with plasma. The Eldar are
very weak against melee, and generally don't invest in melee, so don't be
afraid to charge in with those upgraded sergeants in your sqauds, as they
will rip the Eldar infantry apart.

Don't worry about the ultimate Eldar mass (fire prisms + avatar + infantry)
because as long as you move out before the 30 minute mark you'll be perfectly
fine. Also, please review the brand new economics section.

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Sec.4.4: Space Marines versus Space Marines [VSM]0
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If you thought facing Eldar was a delicate process, wait until you play this
matchup...

Fortunately (or unfortunately for some) this matchup is very common because
there are a lot of Space Marine players out there, and this comprehensive
section will help you immensely.

Something important to note is that this gametype rarely makes it to Tier 3,
and often ends early.

To start, no matter what you want a 4-scout build, not a regular one, and
I'll tell you why:
-You will want to harass and decap his points.
-If his build order is not a 4-scout build, then you will easily win with
early harassment, and thus you'll kill his Force Commander easier.
-You will want to prevent all rushes, and this is what the 4-scout build
does. Similarly, if he doesn't rush then you'll want to.
-If playing offensively with a 4-scout build, him getting to Tier 2 will be
very hard.

Also, the micromanagement in this battle is tough, and you'll want to utilize
a different setup from my recommended one, maybe one which includes hotkeying
scout sqauds.
The battle at Tier 1 will mainly be between the Force commander, scout
sqauds, and Space marine sqauds, re-enforcing when possible of course. Good
use of cover is very important, as is the ability to dance around their Force
Commander when he engages for melee.
Also, be sure to focus fire whatever you want to kill, especially the Force
Commander.
Hypothetical scenario: You both have 4 scouts, 2 marines, and the force
commander, re-enforces equally (or very near equally). Now if these similar
forces engage eachother, if you focus everything on their Force Commander,
you can win and kill everything else later, since your force commander will
be alive with around 400 health or so.
The next Tier 1 tip I can give is this: don't be afraid of listening posts,
they fall fast. Even if they are fortified, the combined might of your Force
Commander and various sqauds is enough to bring it down (assuming the Force
Commander melees).

At 10/10 with every post (around 4) and relic caped with a listening post,
take the servitors and start building 2 plasma generators next to one of your
listening posts. When they are done, build an armory near the plasma
generators and fortify the nearby listening post. Then build another 2 plasma
generators. When done successfully, your fortified listening post should be
guarding your 4 generators and armory. Take note though: you may not want to
put everything important in one area, because a Force Commander with some
forces will decimate the Listening Post and plasma generators, which really
sucks.

At Tier 1.5, immediately get your target finders and bionics level 1. If you
get these before your opponent does, then consider yourself at a big
advantage. And naturally if you harass well then you will get these upgrades
faster, and the opposition may have to spend time re-capturing points or re-
building listening posts.

In the odd chance that this build order does not get you more troops or
upgrades faster then your opponent than something is wrong. This 4-scout
build I recommended for this matchup is excellent at harassment and the only
excuse for them getting a good army/upgrades faster is that either A) you
weren't harassing well enough, or B) your multi-tasking is really bad and you
forgot the armory/generators.
However, option B will only happen if you are busy harassing, which is good
anyways...

When you are at 10/10 with fully re-enforced sqauds (4 scout sqauds re-
enforced, 2 space marine squads re-enforced and the Force Commander), then
proceed to Tier 2. In the time between Tiers, this time is usually really
good for harassment. If you find yourself with extra cash then keep re-
enforcing if possible, or spend some money on fortified listening posts or
more generators.
If you manage to kill so many of his troops that he retreats, then
congradulations. You can continue to keep him pinned down.

And now, before Tier 2, I would like to list all the possible counters your
opponents might have in mind, and how they're dealt with:

-The opponent goes for early assault marines. If this is the case, either way
your Force Commander comes before the assault marines. The combined might of
scouts and the Force Commander can kill these sqauds quite easily. If he
decides to integrate them into the main force instead, then remember to be
able to dance while focus firing on them (and getting your commander to bash
them around). If they attack with assault marines AND the Force Commander,
remember to focus everything on their Force Commander first. You can simply
dance around with whatever sqaud the assault marines are trying to kill.
Remember, scouts and Space Marines can fire while on the run (although they
become less accurate).
If they double team your commander with assault marines AND their Force
Commander, then watch out. If they are all focussing on your commander and
you are all focussing on theirs, then it will be really close, so please
refer to the next tip to solve this problem:

-Inbetween Tiers (or at armory tech) give every sqaud 1 flamer (including
scouts). Flamers can take morale, and once their morale is down you have a
much greater chance of killing them from focus fire.

-Flamers can still work even if they're not using assault marines. Just make
sure you charge in for the melee when you have flamers. Melee attacks are
complimented great when a few flamers are taking down enemy morale. Note that
a sqaud in melee cannot use the flamer, so the tactic here is to have some
sqauds meleeing while others (like scouts) are shooting up the enemy with
their flamers.

-If they go 2 scouts instead of 4, then the harassment from the re-enforced
scouts will simply devastate them. Remember though: you must strike early or
else they can get 3 marine sqauds later on (as apposed to your 2) and it can
be a tough fight. The Force Commanders come out at roughly the same time for
every build (except for plasma generator builds which you wont be using
anyways) so remember when their FC comes out you can focus fire it more and
kill it easier.

-If they go for more than 4 scouts, you actually wont have that hard a time,
as expected. See by then, you'll have been spending some money re-enforcing
existing squads. The difference between 5/6 sqauds and 4 sqauds re-enforced
is very little in actual combat this early. In fact, the difference is that
they'll have less space for Space Marine sqauds later on, once you defend.
And believe me, with some focus fire and use of cover, you'll win the opening
scout battles.

That about covers it. I've given tactics on all the Tier 1 attacks/counters
to your superior 4-scout build. You should also by now have a lot of
harassment techniques in mind, as well as an offensive game plan right from
the start.

For a very quick review...
-Do a 4-scout build and harass. Get 4 scouts, Force Commander.
-Then get 4 listening posts.
-After 4 Listening posts, get 2 Space Marine sqauds (to make 10/10).
-Now get 3/4 plasma generators and an armory.
-Go Tier 2.
-Go either artifact or Machine Cult
Remember though, this build is very slow, and will only work if you harass
the enemy, like decapping points, quickly killing Listening posts (Force
Commander melee does it well), and even killing building units quickly.
This very standard 4-scout build is actually called a MIRROR when played
versus Space Marines, because a lot of people do the same. Basically the
most daring and better tactician will come out on top in mirrors.


Tier 2 is where things get tricky, because you don't necessarily want to tech
up. Rather, you'll want to have quite a bit of requisition and plasma saved
up, because you will want to ARM ALL SQAUDS WITH PLASMA GUNS and buy the
heavy weapons increase asap. Also, get target finders and bionics. You do not
need the artifact or machine cult..Yet.

With 4 plasma guns per sqaud and some upgrades (target finders, bionics)
killing the enemy's forces shouldn't be too hard, because likely they'll have
tried to tech up a little bit. Pressure will keep them from teching up, and
as long as you apply that pressure, the worst that could possibly happen is
that they will pump out a single vehicle to help out their dying forces,
which will die to your plasma and superior upgrades.
On the other hand, they could go for wote. Don't worry though: the plasma and
superior infantry forces will break their sqauds, rendering them useless even
with wote. Also note that you can retreat temporarily.
Bottom line: in either case, they will die to this build if they try to climb
the technology tree. Superior amounts of heavy weapons as well as superior
target finder upgrades will decimate their infantry if they waste resources
teching up. However, this will only work if you are aggressive!

Here's a tip for knowing when to attack: research infiltrate at some point
and just run scouts in and out, and that way you'll know when to attack them
(you'll know when they're weak).

Generally the only time you'll even tech up to the artifact is when your
opponent is using the EXACT same build as you: 4-scouts, heavy harassment,
and heavy weapons. If you are facing the same type of build as the one your
using, then eventually you'll both reach a stalement. When this stalemate has
been reached (fully re-enforced sqauds with sergeants, all plasma, target
finders and bionics upgrades) then this is a good time to get the sacred
artifact along with the librarian and wote. This could help you break the
stalemate.
Another way to break the stalemate is to get a machine cult, which isn't
exactly preferable to the artifact, unless you have A LOT of plasma (enough
to make a regular dreadnought right away) then go for the machine cult.

To be honest, I've never played an SM vs. SM match that made it to Tier 3:
either one of us harassed well enough to defeat the other with our superior
build, or we broke a stalemate in Tier 2 with wote or vehicles.
In any case, if for some reason the match gets into Tier 3, make sure to out-
upgrade him, with your Space Marine sqauds. By Tier 3 you should have wote
for sure, and hopefully enough cash to purchase a predator, maybe. Even
dreadnoughts remain good in Tier 3. If you want, purchase a third SM sqaud in
Tier 3 and upgrade it with 4 missiles, because quite frankly you could be
facing anything in Tier 3. Predators are the way to go in Tier 3, and arming
them with lascannons ensures certain death to other vehicles/walkers (even
landraiders will die to the upgraded predator). Don't worry, if this match
makes it to Tier 3 you'll have enough generators (or atleast enough
requisition to produce more).
Assault sqauds (and even deepstriking terminators) is not advisable because
of the sheer amount of plasma you stand to be facing. If anything, deepstrike
terminators outside your base to re-enforce/upgrade them, THEN put them back
inside the barracks to deepstrike.



All in all, this matchup can be very fun and easy if you use the right build
and are willing to play aggressively. Practise playing aggressively against
the computer first, should you be scared at first. I've given a lot of
pointers on playing aggressively and countering various strategies, so feel
free to re-read this section should you feel it necessary.
Should this match make it to Tier 2, go for either wote or vehicles depending
how much plasma you have. In either case, make sure to maintain upgraded
infantry.
If for some reason this match reaches the third tier, remember predators are
the way to go, as well as deep-striked dreadnoughts. Plasma generators will
be needed immensely, and a third SM squad to have missiles is advisable as
well should the match reach T3.

Remember to practise and learn this matchup extensively, as it will be very
common in your career as a Space Marine player.

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Sec.5.0: Multi-player and map specific strategies [MMSS]0
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**This section is very long, and will cover a lot of different maps and
strategies, so please feel free to use the ctrl+F feature to find anything
desired that you're looking for.

***This section will be geared more towards map-specific strategies as you
already know the build orders and the race versus race stratagies. If you are
unsure, please review those sections before proceeding to this one.

****And a final note, please don't be disappointed to find that this map by
map guide is written in a diary/journal format. I believe that the step by
step process of me learning the maps bit by bit is the best way for you to
learn, as you will probably relate to my early findings with similar
conflicts. Better yet, you will understand my thought process when I come to
a conclusion about something.

Basically this is me taking the time to go through all of the maps and
writing down some important stuff to compliment the strategies you should
already know.
This section will cover every single map which is NOT a modification.
Instead, it covers the 36 current official maps released with the Game of the
Year edition.
I do not recommend learning every single map, because for the most part only
a select handful of the maps will be popular online. Besides, some of the
maps are unbalanced for certain races, and are generally not used. I mention
all of this information, if it applies for a certain map.

The different map section are divided up like so:
-2-players maps [2PM]
-General teamplay strategy [GTS]
-4-player maps [4PM]
-6 plus-player general strategy [6GS]
-6-player maps [6PM]
-8-player maps [8PM]
-Free for all strategies [FFAS]
-Odd numbered maps [ONM]

Although this is yet another indication of my lack of organizational skills,
I have thrown in general teamplay strategies right before we start talking
about 4 player and up maps.
Similarly, I have thrown in 6 plus player team strategy which includes my
miniature guide on resource donation.

Enjoy this very long section.

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Sec.5.1: 2-player maps [2PM]0
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*******************
Battle Marshes (2)*
*******************

At first glance this map is really hard: especially against the races which
outnumber you, which is every other race...
To start, I would like to say that a delayed teching build works very well
here, because you will need the numbers to look intimidating or the enemy
will walk all over you. Another build which works well is the regular build.
The 4-scout builds are actually a lot harder than one would expect, because
although your mass numbers will overwhelm the enemy, they will likely move
out on your base! This scenario will lead to a who can kill the enemy's base
the fastest, and versus Chaos or even Ork (since every Ork building has
turrets).
Instead, you might decide to take a defensive approach, which is perfectly
alright, but special measures must be taken.
For example, in Tier 2 it might be advantageous to cover one of your sides
with a heavy bolter turret; not because it can hold off the enemy, but
because it can buy you time to retreat your main forces from the critical
location. And there's another point.
You will have to hold onto a critical location. I recommend going for the
short one, while using that turret to cover your long side. See first time I
tried doing the opposite (holding the long critical) and it was really hard
to move back and forth. However, holding the short end allows easy movement
from side to side, and once you hold it it's easy because of the abundance in
cover along the short critical location side.
But what if you cannot hold the short side? You can. Space Marines have the
strongest opening in Dawn of War, and when you apply tactics like dancing and
focus fire, your victory is sealed. (the SM vs. Eldar and SM vs. SM list
extensive details on dancing and focus fire).
So for now just hold the close critical location while fortifying the bottom
listening post (facing the long side). If have done this, then you can
officially declare youself the positional leader. And position is an
extremely important concept for Space Marines as they must make due with
their low numbers.

So using the regular build, you might be hard-pressed against a high number
enemy, like the Orks or even Eldar (and in some cases chaos!). However, a
build that works exceptionally well here is the DELAYED TECHING build order
(see build orders section). This build is generally all-purpose and can work
wonders since you (for once) will be dictating the action with your superior
numbers. In fact, with the delayed teching build, you can easily capture
either critical location or relic.
As always though, this build order will require special precautions, which I
will demonstrate wuth an example.
It's the hypothetical 1v1 game, and you decide to use the delayed teching
build against chaos. Now remember, this can be risky against chaos. The game
goes normal for tier 1: both of you take your fair share of the map and you
take the closer critical location (and your relic). You are proceeding to
tier 2 and building up your forces nicely, with 6 space marine sqauds so far.
Now, what I recommend against chaos is this: research infiltration and do
some active scouting. Naturally their commander unit (detector) will be on
the side of the critical location they captured, so go in the other way while
infiltrated.
If you just reached tier 2 and you see a machine pit making something, then
immediately arm 2 squads (instead of 1) with missile lauchers. Also, put up a
heavy bolter turret on your weaker flank as the chaos might try a 2-pronged
attack.
Thanks to active scouting (which means scouting regularly) you have saved
yourself from not having enough missiles to deal with the vehicle, and thus
probably gained the upper hand after killing their vehicle (which costed a
lot of plasma).

Tier 3 is very fun on this map, because of the deepstrike combinations the
Space Marines can use. My personal favorite: have 3 dreadnoughts queued up
inside the orbital relay. Also have a few assault terminators queued up as
well inside the barracks.
Now build an assault sqaud. Jump over the mountains to their base, and
deepstrike everything. Target the buildings, and believe me, 3 dreadnoughts
and some assault terminators are going to finish off the base very quickly,
since they all have killer melee.
More important than being able to pull off this tactic is being able to
defend it. If you are opting for holding the short critical, this will be
easier since you'll be able to quickly move different forces back and forth.
Otherwise, just put some extra turrets there to buy you some time atleast.
Most races can do this attack.


****************
Blood River (2)*
****************

Blood River is one of the most widely used 1 versus 1 maps, and for good (or
bad depending on how you look at it) reason. See, in every single possible
way and strategic aspect, Blood River is balanced and very challenging. If
fact, aside from the build orders section and race versus race strategy,
there's not much I can really say, since the map is perfectly symmetrical.

For the build you plan to use, I would recommend something fast, especially
against the Orks or Eldar who could come knocking on your door with fast
vehicles (wartrakks, prisms, grav platforms, ect). So I would recommend
regular build or 4-scout build if your harassment is good (remember you can
always work on it).
Another option is the plasma build, but only against Eldar. Remember, this is
a small map and it takes mere seconds to cross into the enemy's base through
the middle. Since the Farseer has weak melee, the listening posts will hold
her off for now (in this map most strategy points are very close to the HQ
building).
As mentioned before this map is very vehicle orientated, and a fast vehicle
with proper infantry support could mean certain death. Hellfires do excellent
on this map, as do whirlwinders (but I recommend the former over the latter).
Regular dreadnoughts are surprisingly useful as well if you have a lot of
power at Tier 2. See on most maps the dreadnought's low speed made him hard
to use. But in this map, the dreadnought could reach an enemy's listening
post in a few seconds on foot. However, the dreadnought still remains
impractical in most builds (except the delayed teching, since naturally that
build will have a lot of req. and power).

Back to the 4-scout build, it can work really well to kill the enemy in Tier
1 if they do not counter it well. Either way, the harassment has a good
chance of crippling the enemy. But remember: every other race has their
version of the 4-scout build which can really hurt yours. So should you
always 4-scout build if they can to? Not necessarily. Remember, defense is a
lot easier than offense, because of the blood river in the middle, which is
negaive cover.

This map is a true test of skill, and aside from the other tips in other
sections and the limited bit of wisdom I can offer here, all I can say is
this: good luck and stay aggressive.

***********************
Deadman's Crossing (2)*
***********************

This map is also quite symmetrical, and features both bases at a rather far
distance to start. That being said, we can assume 4-scout builds might not be
great.
On the other hand, Plasma builds can be excellent, but at the beginning go
for the thermo on the slag deposit instead of the 2 regular ones. However,
try to mix in missile sqauds, especially against Eldar. To make the Plasma
build work against Chaos or Orks, through in some heavy bolter turrets early
on. Yes, this might delay the build order a bit, but it's better safe than
sorry. But remember: key is the ability to mix in missile sqauds to your
army. Holding the front line (the 2 strategy points closest to the water) can
be hard unless you capture them quickly, so do that and throw up a turret.
Also, another beginning tactic to compliment the plasma build is this: arm
your scouts with plasma when the armory hits. It only costs 5 plasma, which
you will have plenty of.
With this type of build, Tier 2 can still be difficult. Obviously go for
dreadnoughts (with all your power) but also build some marine sqauds and
research target finders and heavy weapons increase to make the missile
launchers better. Remember: the most common counter to the plasma build is
the enemy going heavily for vehicles.
So, with a few dreadnoughts and missile sqauds (and your scouts) to hold off
at Tier 2, it is time to get to Tier 3 ASAP.
(By the way, if the enemy takes the critical location in the middle, send
forth the early dreadnought first, then follow with your scouts and Force
Commander and 1 or 2 missile squads. The key is dreadnought first to force
them back).
By Tier 3 your force comabination will mainly depend on the enemy, but either
way regular dreadnoughts are going to be a huge part of that army. If you
can, capture and secure the relic, because assault Terminators help greatly.
The Orbital relay is very important here. You will need it because:
-You will want to deepstrike dreadnoughts instead of making them walk with
their slow legs
-You will want Terminators (if you have a relic). But either way, Orbital
bombardment is just too cool from the Force Commander.

I would say the hardest part of the plasma build is incorporating infantry
into the mix, because you might be tempted into making a strictly vehicle
force, which is perfectly fine against Orks. But against the other opponents
(ESPECIALLY ELDAR) vehicle-only forces will be tough, and thus I recommend
still going for missile sqauds and word of the emperor from the librarian.
Going for infantry after the plasma build (where you're already getting
vehicles) is very hard to get used to, since you'll be used to doing it the
other way around (infantry THEN vehicles).

This map is very unique as it is single-choke and has a slag deposit. This is
the contrary to most 1v1 maps, as they tend to be the opposite. The reason I
have decided to go in-depth teaching you about the plasma build is because
this will probably be the first map where it's advisable 1v1.

Deadman's crossing, or DMC for short, is a very popular map and I recommend
you give it some practise, because a nicely done plasma build will bamboozle
an unprepared enemy, and probably give you a victory.

******************
Edemus Gamble (2)*
******************

Now this map is a bit different, because of the way the resource system is
set up: there are only 6 strategy points (meaning 3 per side). The other maps
covered have 4 per side or even 5 per side, you have a significant amount of
resources more than this map.

This small map has a quite simple layout: relics in corners for people to
capture (although there are paths leading to the relics) and a single
critical location in the middle (like deadman's crossing). This single
critical location is surrounded by negative cover though, so not too many
people can fit on the platform where the critical location is without being
in negative cover. Thus, we can assume that capturing and de-capturing the
critical location will be quite easy.

As stated before, this is a very small map and resources must be used wisely.
So, I recommend either the delayed teching or the regular build (although I
tend to prefer delayed teching because that build makes map control a lot
easier).
Remember, the critical is easy to over-take, so generally I do not waste time
early on capturing it. If they want it so bad, fine, they can have it. But
I'm going to assault that area with everything I got come to 2-minute mark.
And since you wont be in negative cover (and some of them will) you have a
great tactical advanatage.

Games will usually not go past Tier 2 and here's why:
-If you go to Tier 3 the 3 strategy points will not provide enough income to
keep up and upgraded infantry army and vehicles. Thus, people stay at Tier 2
to get cheap vehicles (like hellfires).

Back to the builds, I do not recommend the 4-scout build. Unless you plan to
do some do or die rush, there's not point: there's not even enough strategy
points for all 4 scouts to capture! Yes, you could harass with 4 scouts, but
who says you can't harass with 2 (or 3 if you want)? The map is small enough
to move quickly between yours and the enemy's territories and back in quick
time.

Incase you forget, still get a missile sqaud: just because this is a small
map doesn't mean they can't afford machines: most vehicles cost more power
than requisition anyways.
Word of the Emperor is even more lethal, because you could trigger it on the
defensive, fight off their forces, and then quickly advance to their base.
This tactic is dangerously effective and will probably be used against you if
you are playing Space Marines versus Space Marines.

On the whole, this map is not very popular at the beginning or professional
level, so don't waste too much time reviewing strategies for this map.
Instead, practise something more popular. The low strategy point setups are
seldom played, and it is believed that they take less skill on a whole.


************
Faceoff (2)*
************

Now here is a brilliant map. Although less popular than other maps, it is
still played quite a lot, and for good reason.

The actual map setup is probably what's so invigorating. Both sides start
rather close to eachother, and can go directly on foot to eachother's bases.
However, they both have to move out away from eachother to capture strategy
points, relics, and critical locations. There are 3 criticals: 1 is inbetween
the 2 starting bases, and the other 2 are in corners closer to each team. So
basically in the corner there is 1 critical location to each respective team.
Then, for the third one, there is 1 for the teams to fight over.

The build over of preference here is up to you really: just remember regular
builds are best for dealing with Chaos, and delayed teching builds are best
for dealing with Orks.
Plasma builds are an option, but you'd have to go for 2 regular plasma
generators because early on the thermo generator location is too hard to
defend. The only major problem with plasma builds here are that there are 3
critical locations instead of 1, so you may have to run across the entire map
to stop the countdown.
This is especially difficult because the plasma build generally only gets you
a force of units to use by Tier 2, and if the counter is under 3 minutes then
you're done.

Regular builds can work well against all opponents, especially Chaos. Against
Chaos, the regular dreadnought is a fabulous counter to the early predator,
especially with word of the emperor to help kill infantry. In either case, 1
missile sqaud is good, with a heavy weapon's increase.

Delayed teching I see as quite powerful for this map, and the ability to have
a larger force and divide it up a bit more really opens up your options
regarding map control. You can move between critical locations fairly
quickly.
Speaking of position, get one critical location on your side (near the
bottom) while holding the middle (or planning to decapture it in time).
Something I always end up doing is getting cocky on this map: I will have
around 30 seconds to go, and when I try to take the critical away I end up
doing it too late and losing. Remember, criticals take longer to decapture
than strategy points.
Hellfires are very useful. Regular dreadnoughts do have their uses, but they
can be complicated and hard to use if their melee sees no good use: a lot of
the time the dread will get stuck between infantry.

Something else to note is that this map has an ODD number of strategy points:
9 to be exact. Personally I'm fine holding off with 4, because most build
orders revolve around having 4 strategy points. Really, I do not think it's a
huge deal to have the extra post. If anything, the extra post will become a
liability when the going gets heavy, and armies are moving about.

In some cases, the game will get to Tier 3. Surprisingly it does not happen
all that often: usually the teams will build up armies and eventually they
will take up so much space near the main bases that they'll start a huge all-
out war in Tier 2. Luckily this isn't bad for Space Marines, as Tier 2
commonly features upgraded sqauds of Space Marines with heavy weapons
(usually plasma), some vehicles, and word of the emperor. If you have all of
these things, don't be afraid to make a stand. Just watch out for the morale
damage. Some opponents think that since the distance between bases is small,
flamers (and melee units) who drop morale will be effective. And that theory
isn't all that bad. Rally is there for a reason, and if it wasn't you'd be in
deep trouble against this strategy.

Back to Tier 3. At Tier 3, the Orbital Relay should be purchased ASAP, and if
you haven't already claimed and fortified your relic (which you should have
earlier) now's the time. Assault Terminators and Dreads are very powerful
when deepstriked, especially on a small map like this.
Or, if the action is taking place on the lower half of the map, something I
like to do is infailtrate scouts near the enemy barracks (or their race's
equivilent). Then I'll deepstrike a dread or 2 and kill it off quickly.
Although in reality this doesn't do too much since they'll already have their
main infantry forces, it does make the enemy panic since they know that those
forces cannot be re-created.
Also, if possible, hit the machine creator building. For Chaos, killing off
the Sacraficial circle or Daemon pit helps loads.
Another really nice deepstrike tactic that's effective (especially against
Chaos) is this: infiltrate scouts and put them near the enemy's relic. Now
have a dread deepstrike and kill the listening post/nearby defenses. Now
uncapture the relic with your scouts. Again, this is brutal to Chaos Tier 3.

Overall, I say that this is an important map to learn and practise, and why
not? It's very fun and rewarding after a long game, even if you lose.

****************
Fallen City (2)*
****************

Fallen city is a hard map for the Space Marines, because, again, they face
the question of whether or not to divide their forces up. See, there are two
bridges and usually you can only cover one of them. And, to top it off, next
to both bridges there are important things your opponent could quickly run in
and take away, and the run back out.
One bridge, the one closest to your starting location, features a critical
location and a strategy point near it. The other one features several other
strategy points and a relic near it. Now, I'm not going to pick favorites and
recommend which one to defend; that would be stupid. Instead, I'm going to
help you effectively cover as much as possible, keeping your loses to a
minimum.
Besides the 2 relics in the corners, this map features 2 slag deposits near
the middle for each team, and 4 critical locations: 2 per side. The even
number of criticals can make for some standoff-ish scenarios. The slag
deposits aren't used too much, because they are hard to defend in the
beginning. And besides, the only other time you could possibly have 495 Req.
will be in Tier 3. So what I'm getting at is this: don't go for the Thermo
build.
For that matter, don't attempt the plasma build either. Since the strategy
points are diversely spread apart, doing a plasma build would be fatal should
your opponent see you do this: he will simply keep harassing with his scouts
until you have only 2 strategy points. And that's certainly not going to win
the game for you.

I like the 4-scout build here, especially again Eldar/Chaos. Not so much Ork
because if you both engage in a who-can-kill-the-other-guy's-base-the-fastest
competition you may lose not because your base is weaker but because their
base has turrets which over time may cut down all your numbers.

Space Marine on Space Marine has to be the funnest matchup, because they face
the same problems you do, and since they most likely don't know how to harass
as well as you do (because you read this guide :) you can be a real nuisance
and cross into their territory early on with scouts and decap their points:
maybe even kill a servitor or 2 if you're lucky enough. Then you can kill
their force commander (and other forces) via focus fire. Remember, SM vs. SM
is usually best played with a 4-scout build.

At tier 1 be prepared to do some running back and forth between strategy
points that are uncapped. Also, re-enforcing your scouts (even if there's
only 2) can be effective to buy time as well as harass for yourself. So
basically:
-Defend your workers with the FC and SM sqauds
-At the same time, cross scouts into their territory and pick off their
workers.

What if you run into their scouts? Don't worry too much about this: scout
marines are better than cultists when in even number, and generally the other
scouts (sluggas, guardians) wont be able to kill them before they can escape.

The most obvious solution to the enemy harassing you is to harass yourself.
Do a 4-scout build and cross into their territory. If you start harassing
before they do, then you will field much better results. Should they retreat,
so can you. That will give you time to tech to tier 2 and get some plasma.
It'll also give you time to fortify some listening posts so you can go back
on the offensive without having to worry too much.

Tier 2 on this map plays out like other maps usually do: now you have the
power, and you get to dictate the action. See, at tier 2 the enemy has very
little room for error or WotE will destroy them, as will the vehicles.
Speaking of vehicles, beware when using the dread: it can get stuck on the
bridge (well, blocked by the enemy) while the bombard it with missiles. Save
regular dreads for tier 3 (orbital relay). Until then, just get hellfires or
whirlwinds (or even speeders).

Back to Tier 1, 2-scout builds (delayed teching for example) can still work,
just make sure to re-enforce the 2 sqauds a bit. Tier 1.5 is great for
delayed teching builds, because you can send one sqaud to cover the relic
easily. See, near the relic is heavy cover, and if you put a heavy bolter
sqaud in their the enemy will have a tough time getting to you, unless they
have jump-melee units.
Another reason I like getting heavy bolters early is because they can cover
the bridges very well. A heavy weapons increase will allow a sqaud to field 4
heavy bolters. Couple that with target finders, and you've got around 380
damage to infantry covering that bridge.

A popular tactic is to have 2 heavy weapons sqauds covering one bridge, while
everything else stays in the middle: ready to strike either bridge. If the
heavy weapons squads get overwhelmed by the bridge your covering, you can
retreat them while moving those main forces in the middle to help. Better
yet, those forces in the middle can quickly run to the bridge you're not
covering.
Although this defense is quite annoying because you'll be doing it often, it
really does help, and is very effective at minimizing losses.

Tier 3 is where this game get's intresting. Armies will be fully teched and
will try to cross the bridge with their superior range. Again, the main
forces in the middle tactic works well into Tier 3. With a lot of upgraded
sqauds, some hellfires, apothecaries, librarian and wote, it will actually be
hard to cross the bridge, because this type of attack force benefits from
working with one another. Crossing a bridge compresses them into little tiny
attack forces that can be slaughtered bit by bit.
My idea to cross the bridge is this: don't worry about firing, just cross the
bridge. Simply tell all your units to go to the opponent's centre. Then, when
they're all facing the enemy in a line, tell them to open fire. This way,
they cross as a line facing sideways to the enemy, and when they turn to
attack as much as possible is facing the enemy.
To compliment this, I recommend deepstriking dreadnoughts to occupy the enemy
for a bit, to give your forces some leeway to cross the bridge.


On the whole, this map is still somewhat played but it is less popular
because it's not a very dynamic map. Instead it's more simplistic, and for
that reason, somewhat frowned upon.

********************
Hellfire Canyon (2)*
********************

Hellfire canyon is the very first map I started playing skirmishes on, and
for good reason: this is a very noob-friendly map. It's small, simple, and
has one choke point to the enemy's base. Plus, it's very easy to secure your
strategy points and relics.
Furthermore, there is no need to go out and be offensive. There are an even
number of everything, so everyone gets their fair share of strategy points,
relics and critical locations. That being said, this map can provide some
very boring turtle-like games.

Often, this map can be won by a four-scout build by re-enforcing and then
rushing when your force commander comes out. This is another reason this map
is seldom played. On the whole the Tier 1 portion of the game tells you
what's going to happen: either someone wil harass and cripple (or destroy)
the enemy, or both players will sit back and turtle defensively, putting up
turrets and hiding sqauds inside of heavy cover by the choke point between
the bases.

So the 4-scout build can achieve a quick win here. I do not like delayed
teching on this map just for the reason that you do not need map control, and
that's what delayed teching is all for anyways. So don't go delayed teching:
you need to tech fast on this map, and map control isn't too important.

Regular builds are decent and will tech you up fairly qucikly, so that's a
good one. Plasma builds, again, only against the Eldar on this map. There are
no slag deposits on this map.

Tier 2 action is also quite standoff-ish, because of the turtling tactics
most use on this map. If you decide to get regular dreadnoughts on this map,
then hopefully you can kill some turrets, but watch out for massed anti-
vehicle armies (which is what most will do as they expect to play a Tier 3
game). So generally in Tier 2 continue to muster your forces and tech up.

Now Tier 3 is where this game is mostly played. Eventually the built up
armies get so big they just collide in one massive war in the middle, usually
started with a bit of harassment. Now, here are some very useful Tier 3
tactics that can give you the upperhand:

-If a battle breaks out in the middle and you have an orbital relay, start
bombing them back to the stone age with orbital bombardment. Use some sqauds
as bait to lure them into the area.
-On this map, you can jump an assault sqaud directly to their relic. Do this
when you can, because on this map there's nothing worse than a squiggoth
using its rampage ability to clear all your forces.
-Use that patch of heavy cover near the choke point to cram as much anti-
vehicle infantry as you can in there. Vehicles are exactly what you'll be up
against, and keeping your missile sqauds safe in cover ensures an advantage.
-Remember, the absolute cheapest and best anti-vehicle response you could
want to have are Space Marine sqauds with heavy weapons increase (with
missiles) with level 2 target finders. Target finders make heavy weapons
(including missiles) a lot stronger. Bionics aren't so important for anti-
vehicle because as long as you use your missiles superior range, you'll be
fine.
-As always, deepstriked dreadnoughts can form a wall between the enemy and
yourself. The melee of the dreads will keep them occupied while your sqauds
can hit them hard.
-An extremely effective anti-infantry tactic (especially useful versus Orks)
is this: buy an assault terminator sqaud (needs relic which will be easy to
get anyways). Now deepstrike them outside your barracks where you can re-
enforce them to full. Now attach the force commander, and make sure he has
battlecry (and hopefully all the commander upgrades). Now put this killer
squad inside your orbital relay and deepstrike them near enemy infantry while
you push forward with everything else. Use battlecry and your assault
terminators become 40 percent stronger! </pre><pre id="faqspan-4">
-Another similar tactic to above is to put the librarian and some terminators
in the orbital relay (of course re-enforce the terminators first). Now
deepstrike it all in a similar area near the enemy and cast word of the
emperor. Now you're terminators (assault or regular) will not die!


Overall, I would say this map is quite popular among beginners, and you may
end up playing it a few times. Personally I recommend getting to Tier 3 and
using your supreme Tier 3 tactics to win the day for you. Defense is
generally easy until Tier 3 because they probably wont attack and you have
heavy cover to put your sqauds in.

*********************
Meeting of Minds (2)*
*********************

In a lot of ways this map reminds me of Blood River, because you will do many
the same things as on Blood River. Not to mention the very similar setup: 3
critical locations, a relic per team.
Now, there are some differences from Blood River. For example, strategy
points are a lot more spread out, as are everything else: the map is larger
than Blood River.
Gameplay will also play quite similarly to Blood River, which is good or bad
depending how well you can move your forces about the map. See, the critical
locations and the natural small size of Space Marine armies force the player
to move his army around quite a bit.

With the similarities mentioned, there are some differences. For example,
Blood River featured a lot of negative cover to separate the middle, while
MoM (meeting of minds) features a lot of positive cover, such as light and
heavy cover.
Now we must ask ourselves: how does this affect our play, and overall
strategy? Well, for starters, movement can be a bit limited, and fixed heavy
weapons become better. Yes, this means that bunkering down in some heavy
cover with heavy bolters is more useful than plasma in a lot of cases. The
positive cover also means vehicles move even slower than they already do,
which is horrible for the dreads. Land speeders become a lot more useful,
though.

As for build orders, a lot of people like mixing things up. For example,
imagine a 3-scout build, with a 4 th scout at the end. It's a variation
suited rather well to this type of map.
Also imagine what delayed teching would be like with 4 scouts. On a map with
spread out points (like this one) it would work quite well, and provide quite
a surprise to your opponent when they see 4 scouts AND a bunch of marine
sqauds.

Tier 1 against Eldar is usually full of harassment of their end because of
fleet of foot (which makes them faster). 3 or 4 scouts usually fends off
quite well.
Against other races, the distances between bases are far so they usually wont
bother too much with harassment. If they do harass, it wont be much. Now we
come to the question: should you harass?
I personally say no, since you'll want an early lead on captured strategy
points/critical locations. However, I definitely like the idea of
infiltrating scouts at Tier 1.5 and going in for some REAL scouting.

Tier 2 is where things get intresting. Personally, by Tier 2 (or before) I
usually arm my scouts with snipers to help break morale of people in heavy
cover. Then I'll give my marines some heavy bolters/plasma.
I recommend getting the artifact and wote (with librarian) first, before
machine cult, because the distance makes even the hellfire dreadnought a
liability, since it'll be too slow to catch up to your other forces. Also go
for a third SM sqaud and arm it with missiles. Heavy weapons increase and
target finders you should already have by Tier 2.
If you do go for early Tier 2 vehicles, make it the whirlwind, since its
artillery can get dug-out infantry out of their cover. Land speeders with
jump ability work nice as well, but I still prefer whirlwinds.

Tier 3 on this map plays out like any others: dreads become useful again
since they can be deepstriked. Assault Terminators are also invaluable
because they can be deepstriked on enemies in cover. Remember: cover doesn't
affect melee. Melee works the same in or out of cover.

Infantry orientated armies (assuming there are some missile sqauds) with only
a bit of vehicle support is better than less infantry and more vehicles, just
because of the large number of upgrades you can get for infantry, as apposed
to vehicles. Plus, with more units on the field moving from critical to
critical location isn't even that bad. If you want, with a large T3 infantry
force you can even split them up a bit.

All in all, this map is very similar to Blood River, except thanks to MoM's
dynamics, infantry becomes more useful than usual, and vehicles become less
useful than usual. Units that jump should be given more priority than usual
because of their ability to disrupt ranged sqauds in heavy cover.
Furthermore, it's recommended that you experiment with different builds on
this map.
MoM is actually quite popular, so give it some practise and don't forget to
try out some modified builds.

******************
Outer Reaches (2)*
******************

Here's another fun and very popular map for 1v1 play. The main feature that
makes this map so popular is the fact that it is balanced. Bases are
relatively close, and the most action lies ahead of the bases, near the
relic. Like Blood River and MoM this map features 3 critical locations, and
thus a constant battle.
The Relic is, in my opinion, of little importance because these games rarely
make it to tier 3. Instead, there's usually a lot of harassment early on,
followed by one player taking a lead and finishing off the opponent in Tier
2. Since this map features a lot of small harassment battles, I will teach
you my anti-morale 4-scout build, which plays very effective on this map.

To start, do your regular 4-scout build. Be aggressive and get 4 strategy
points right off the back. When you've started an SM sqaud, start re-
enforcing all of your scouts, so you have 4 sqauds of 4 (and thus 16 scouts).
When the Space Marines come out, re-enforce them to 8 as well, and get the
fourth listening post.
Now, with your forces, move out towards to enemy control points. You will be
able to kill off the enemy listening posts fast with your force commander's
melee and the combined focus fire of your sqauds. Should the enemy commander
and basic units attack you, make sure to focus on their commander with
everything. Hopefully you will win the fight, even if you do suffer
casualties. Retreat to cover (or just run away and build/re-enforce more) if
worst gets to worse. The key is movement, since everything you have can shoot
on the move, should you have to retreat.
Don't forget to get a second Space Marine sqaud after you've re-enforced your
first.
With 4 listening posts, build 3 plasma generators (and fortify a point or 2).
You can do this after you've retreated (after some harassment) or,
preferabley, WHILE you're harassing. Then, get an armory. Here's where the
morale breaking part comes into play.
Right away, arm your Space Marines with flamers. Then, arm your scouts with
Snipers. The flamers are excellent on the run towards the enemy, and the
scouts can fall behind and snipe the enemy. Their sqauds will break extremely
fast, and generally when squads break, they retreat. If they don't retreat,
get in their and melee them to death.
Now, if they do retreat, you have extra time to attack enemy listening posts
and decap them! Just make sure the Force Commander is there to melee them
(don't worry he shouldn't die).
Now you'll want armory upgrades before Tier 2. Get the target finder's (to
make regular space marines stronger) and heavy weapons increase. Remember how
your sqauds have 2 flamers? Well the other 2 weapons will be plasma:
effective against heavy infantry and like flamers can be fired on the move.

Here's your checklist to Tier 2 (just make sure you have all of these before
Tier 2): 4 scout sqauds (2 snipers each), 2 Space Marine sqauds (2 flamers
each), and your force commander. You will also have 3 generators and 4
listening posts (with atleast 1 fortified).
Keep up the harassment. When the armory upgrades come through and you get to
Tier 2, you'll arm your SM sqauds with sergeants and 2 more heavy weapons
(plasma guns preferably). Now, get the artifact. Remember, it's a lot better
to be doing these things (getting artifact and additional armory upgrades)
WHILE you are on the offensive, killing off listening posts and decapping
points.
This army management can be a bit difficult, but here's a good setup for your
hotkeys:
1: This is still your Force Commander
2: Space Marine sqauds
3: Scouts
0: Barracks
8: Artifact
Basically the only difference is that scouts are given the kotkey 3 to make
army control easier.
At Tier 2, while harassing, get the librarian and some apothecaries. Heck,
get some assault marines with all the extra requisition. Don't forget Word of
the Emperor: if you're harassment hasn't been enough to force the enemy to
give up, then WotE sure will do the trick.

On the odd chance that harassment and WotE doesn't do the trick, continue to
the machine cult (get some regular dreads) and then to Tier 3. This is very
rare, because proper harassment will lead to a crippled opponent earlier on.

All in all, this map is popular, balanced, and fun. Practising the strategy
I've given above will really help out your games on this map, as most
opponents are little skilled and bad at defending from harassment.
Furthermore, this build is so good that it can beat an insane Ork comp
(although it lasts into tier 2/3). In fact, I taught it to someone who could
barely beat the harder comp and right away they were able to beat the insane
comp with a tiny bit of practise.
The key: don't be afraid to cross into the enemy's territory. Just do it.

************
Railway (2)*
************

Railway is a non-conventional map because it only features 4 startegy points!
That means 2 per team, or in other words, a very boring and lack-lustre game,
where beginnings are what make or break the game.
This map requires very careful use of your resources, so a regular build does
well. Or, if you want to be risky, you can do a 4-scout build. If you catch
the enemy early (which you will with the 4-scout build) then you can re-
enforce a sqaud and kill the enemy as they try to capture the point. However,
they may do the same, especially Eldar. And if it's eldar, that's problematic
because guardians > scouts, since guardians are a bit stronger and can be re-
enforced to have much larger sqauds.

Usually what happens is one enemy harasses the other very early on, maybe
even killing the enemy's scouts with their own. This can guarentee them the
upperhand, and they'll have more units to focus fire on the enemy's
commander, and thus win. Seldom does this match make it to Tier 2 or 3,
unless both opponents choose not to harass at all: and that simply means that
they're bad, since harassment is the most important aspect of 1v1 matches.

As mentioned before, the Eldar have an upperhand on this map, because of
guardians being scouts AND a basic combat unit. However, the farseer is weak,
and unless the Eldar has decent micro you could kill it off. If the Eldar are
smart, they'll use guardians to form a little meat shield inbetween the
farseer and force commander, while the farseer uses its abilities to weaken
the force commander.

Should you do a regular build, be sure to re-enforce your 2 scout squads at
all costs to 4 each. This should help you survive until you have some Space
Marines to back up your forces.

Overall, I can write very little about this map: it's unbalanced, it's
unpopular, and generally it's very boring.

*************
Riverbed (2)*
*************

This map is akin to maps like Blood River and MoM. There are 5 control points
an army (10 in total), and 3 critical locations to ensure a constant battle.
That's were the similarities end though. This map is a gigantic pain to play
as Space Marines, because there are 3 distinct flanks and they take a while
to walk from one to another! Further more, you cannot split up your forces
early on, so you must pick a flank.
The reason it takes so long to move from flank to flank is because this map
is set up like a maze, in a way. I say this because the forces cannot walk
directly to another flank, but they must instead walk around an annoying
system of walls and what not.
But why do you have yo move between flanks? That's because there are relics
on on side, strategy points on another, and criticals in the middle. It's
very irritating and hard to play, especially versus Ork, because even if you
don't experience Tier 1 harassment, the Orks can split their forces in Tier 2
to make defense hard.

What do I recommend? I recommend keeping your forces together and patrolling
the distict flanks, in order of importance. By that I mean if you're building
something on one flank, defend it then go to another flank.

Further more, even if you're doing a regular build, be sure to fortify a lot,
even before Tier 2.

Speaking or Tier 2, space marines still have it hard. Play defensively during
Tier 2, and maybe even get some heavy bolter turrets on the sides you feel
are weak. Now in Tier 2, keep your forces centralized so you can go for the
critical locations.
Get to Tier 3 quickly, because this is the only time the Space Marines can
claim supremacy - or atleast more supremacy than the other tiers. So what I'm
recommended is to get apothecaries, librarian, wote, and one vehicle then go
Tier 3. As for the one vehicle, you'll probably want a hellfire or land
speeder. Whirlwinds aren't too versatile and regular dreads are too slow to
be of use.

Tier 3 is better, especially once you're able to deepstrike terminators and
dreadnoughts more. However, since you'll need to do a lot of deepstriking, I
recommend going for hellfire dreadnoughts and regular terminators, to save
money (hellfires are cheaper) and to be more versatile (regular terminators
can be armed with autocannons).

Personally I wouldn't recommend too many SM sqauds at Tier 3, maybe have 5 at
most, deleting scouts and servitors not needed. You can have 12/20 at tier 3
with 5 SM sqauds and 2 servitors, which'll be all that's needed then. This
leaves room for 2 terminator sqauds.

In the end, this map is quite unpopular, and if you play it be aware that
Tier 1 and 2 will be extremely hard if you're opponent tries to harass.
Remember, don't split up your forces, do active patrolling.
Tier 3 is also tough, but with deepstrike, it's a lot easier with all the
deepstrike options. Just be sure to save squad room for terminators, and
remember to use hellfires for their versatility and lower cost. This battle
is very hard-fought, and I would recommend practising it a bit. Although
unpopular, you never know what map you'll be playing on.

*****************
Tainted Pair (2)*
*****************

Tainted Pair is another very standard map: relics, 8 or more strategy points
(12 actually) and 3 critical locations to ensure a constant fight. Also, this
map has slag deposits.

Since there are more strategy points than the average map, I would recommend
a 4-scout build, capturing your 6 points before deciding to harass. This
atleast ensures you an economic advantage.
From there, a strategy I like to do is to get a sqaud cap increase on the 4-
scout build and keep pumping out Space Marine sqauds (while getting more
listening posts). The economic advantage gained by early captures will allow
this to be possible.
Then, with your force commander, 4-scouts, and a bunch of Space Marine
sqauds, you can cause some major damage to the enemy, but make sure you do
something because if you don't harass they'll get to Tier 2 faster. If you
harass, atleast with your 6 listening posts you'll be able to get plasma
generators, armory, and tier 2 at roughly the same time (maybe even faster
than them if your harassment is good).

This strategy is good, especially if you go for their first closest strategy
point earliest. I once got it from them early and put a listening post on it.
I find that strategy can apply great pressure on them.

Now here's a tip for tier 1.5 if you're doing my recommended strategy (with
the 4-scout and sqaud cap increase). Watch out at Tier 1.5, do NOT get
flamers. Instead, get weapons which could help hold an area well enough. For
example, instead of flamers, give your space marines heavy bolters and get
them to hold the area (F2) and watch the heavy bolters shread everything.
Morale breaking weapons are not good, because you'll be in negative cover a
lot of the time, where firepower is more useful.

Something fairly underhanded I like to do is capture their closest strategy
point and fortify it, and then make a little camp by adding some heavy bolter
turrets. With previous harassment, I'll have atleast 7/12 or even 8/12,
giving me a count-down victory. At this point it doesn't matter what happens:
I'll tech faster with more resources, and if he starts teching too much, I'll
take advantage of this and move in on his remaining points.

Tier 2 or 3 will usually come later than your opponent, but if you're
applying pressure (and have a forward camp set up like last strategy) then
you're doing a good job, and chances are, even if you tech later you'll be
able to pump out a constant stream of vehicles with your superior resources.
If you both have half the map, and have both been applying equal pressure (or
no pressure) then hopefully you've armed your space marine sqauds well to
prepare for whatever threat that may come your way. 1 or 2 missile sqauds,
and the rest plasma works well, with whatever vehicle support (hellfires,
ect), and commanders (with wote) should do very well tier 2/3, and with the
builds I've been teaching throughout this guide, you'll be going for those
things anyway.
A word of advice for Tier 2/3 fights: since these fights tend to be big, make
sure you AVOID the negative cover, because if most of your infantry force
takes 10 percent more damage from ranged attacks, it'll actually affect a
lot.
Since the battle almost always happens near or around the middle for this
map, try using a small strike force as a flanking force. For example,
deepstriking something on the side could help, as could just walking a sqaud
over there prior to the battle.

All in all, I would say this map is semi-popular, so definitely practise it
quite a good bit. Constant pressure and effective use of the strategies I've
provided (achieved through practise) should ensure a victory. Don't overlook
this map, you may need to play it someday. Maybe not as much as Blood River
or MoM, but still practise this one.

*********************
Valley of Khorne (2)*
*********************

As the very last 2 player map to worry about, I can safely say that we are
home free. Like MoM and Blood River (and other popular ones) this one
features 3 critical locations to ensure constant fighting. But it's a lot
easier than any of the other ones.

This map is idiosyncratically split into 2 sides, with 4 strategy points and
a relic very close to the starting location! This means a few things:
-You will not be harassed, atleast not by a smart enemy.
-There will be no pressure on you to harass.
-Finally, a relic which you don't have to fight for with your men's lives.

So as for builds, I recommend something nice and easy that you're comfortable
with. Regular builds work well, delayed teching builds work well, and against
Eldar, even plasma builds work well. 4-scout builds obviously work, but not
well, because you wont be wasting time harassing, unless you're really risky
and don't mind the enemy teching up before you, which you don't want to have
happen.

Now, I will tell you what a game might be like on this map using a regular
build.

To start, you will capture your points and relic easily, while getting the
force commander and a few (3) Space Marine sqauds. During armory tech, these
sqauds will be re-enforced, and target finder's will be upgraded. Having 3
sqauds of 8 (24 SM in total) and 1 force commander, you will proceed to Tier
2. At this time, you will probably move out.
Hopefully you've captured you're first critical, maybe having to re-enforce
some scouts in the process. If not, then you will get it now with your force.
With one critical location in your command, Tier 2 will see you arming all 3
sqauds with plasma, then getting a sacred artifact (which increases sqaud cap
while it's being built). Then you will get a fourth sqaud and arm it with
missiles, hopefully getting heavy weapons increase from the armory (as well
apothecaries and librarian). Don't worry about getting the machine cult right
after the artifact.
Just keep building up the infantry forces, especially against the Ork. Should
the Ork attack, hopefully you'll have some cover to use, should WotE (word of
the emperor) not arrive in time.
When everything useful from the artifact has been purchased, you'll get a
machine cult, while holding onto your critical. If the timer for them winning
(having 2/3 criticals) gets within the 2 min range, then I recommend using
WotE and going in to take it away quickly. Try to do some damage to their
army while WotE is still on. Don't skip out on your armory upgrades.
Ahh, the machine cult. Should things get desperate against the Orks, retreat
and pump out some land-speeders. When you feel the amount of vehicles you
have is sufficient enough to stay alive, proceed to Tier 3. Don't be afraid
to get more Space Marine sqauds and give them plasma/missiles (depending on
what's needed).
Tier 3 will see you getting an orbital relay, getting dreads of either type
(depending what you can afford). One sqaud of assault terminators is always
nice to have, especially since they can get enemy rangers out of cover when
deepstriked (melee not affected by cover).
Hopefully you'll have practised Tier 3 strats enough to win in the end. I
have already listed a lot of Tier 3 strategies, either in the vs. race
section or in other map strategy guides.

So here is you're somewhat typical game. I left out the details, which you'll
learn through practise. Instead, I just focussed on the main stuff, such as
army distribution and simple tactics.

Another something you can do to get more resources (with your 4 points) is
upgrade power/req rates, by clicking on generators/listening posts and
pressing U. The rate will increase and help out a lot.

All in all, this map is like an easier MoM or Blood River. Not easier for
everyone, just easier for Space Marines (and maybe some Chaos strategies).
Other races prosper on other settings.
I recommend reviewing strategies that I've given for other 3-critical (or
regular) map types. This map is just like them, but easier. If you did well
on those regular maps, then congradulations, this one will see success for
you as well.
I recommend practising this quite a bit as it is popular. Everyone likes the
supposedly easier setting: little do they know that this advantage works best
for the Space Marines.

******************************
Final thoughts: 2 player maps*
******************************

Two player games are what really define a player as good, or as needs some
work. I do not recommend studying all of the maps intensely, that will take
simply too much time. Instead, I recommend practising the regular 3-critical
location maps (which I've noted for every map whether it is or not). Just go
to skirmish, and face a computer level that challenges you, NOT one you can
beat. If like me and some others you can usually beat the insane computer,
then try experimenting and using different build orders then you usually
would. This ensures you'll have a challenge. Try beating an insane Ork comp
by using a plasma build on the map Tainted Pair! I can ensure he will crush
you the first hundred times.
And for a final note on practising, don't be afraid to lose. You learn a hell
lot more losing then you do winning a game. Seriously. Don't sweat a loss,
just think why you lost and how you can improve. If you're unwilling to
challenge youself or learn from your losses, then there's absolutely no way
you can improve at one versus one matches, or RTS in general.

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Sec.5.1.1: General Teamplay Strategy [GTS]0
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

By now, I will assume that you are a decent player. I will assume you can
beat the hard computer, and that you've learned a build order or two. These
are not high requirements: I've provided a mountain of information to help
you do all of this anyways. Just keep reviewing prior sections until you meet
those expectations.
I also assume that you will be playing 2v2 and up teamgames, either against
real people or against computers on atleast hard. For your teammates, I
assume that you will be playing with humans you've never met before, just
from some game you've joined.
Does this mean you can't practise team games with computers? Of course not.
It simply means you wont be able to practise the finer skills of teamwork:
namely communication. You can always practise your skills with computers in
team games; there's absolutely nothing wrong with it, and if you're still
preparing for online play, I recommend it.

Let us commence.

- The Golden Rule of teamwork: know your teammates' races and know how they
function. Go ahead, play a skirmish against the easy comp as Eldar and learn
how they work. This is extremely important, because you'll want to know what
Tiers of the game the enemy is weak or strong, so you know when to help or
ask for help. I cannot stress enough how important this rule is. It is simply
key.

- And now some combat basics: if you're enemy is being attacked, help defend
him, even if he could probably handle himself. Help him anyway, unless you
are desperately needed elsewhere. By helping him even though he could win,
your team stands to kill the enemy faster and cut off their line of retreat,
as well as minimize your own team's casualties.

- Try to avoid doing things alone. If you want to attack, tell your team
(next tip). If you cannot communicate to them, then just help them out with
what they're doing.

- To communicate to your team, you must click the teamchat button located to
the top. Make your messages very short, but precise and informative. Also,
never type in the heat of battle. Instead, find a safe time when you're not
being attacked to type.
Now as for shortening your messages, I'm fairly sure you can figure it out
for yourselves, but I'll give an example anyways:
Instead of saying *I need help on the left flank I'm being double teamed.
You could say *help left asap.
So basically you do not need to indicate you're being double teamed, because
if you need help, then you need help, no matter how large the threat is. The
difference being one person overpowering you and 3 people overpowering you is
very small: if you need help, then you need help.

- As part of the above tip, remember, this works both ways. If they need
help, then help shall be provided by you. If you're both being attacked at
the same time, then send whatever reasonably small force you think you can
afford to send without losing yourself.

- If a teammate wants to attack somebody with him, then do it. Not until you
become a good veteran of team games should you try to co-ordinate attacks,
because too much could go wrong. Generally, people online who co-ordinate
attacks have some good experience in team games, because they are the most
common.

-Unless you and your teammate are planning something special, stick to 2
scout builds, because team games are very tier 2/3 oriented, and 4-scout
builds generally don't get you there fast.

-Team games are extremely orientated towards the later tiers (tier 3), so
expect to see more tier 3 content than anything. There is a heck lot of tier
1 content in the 2 player map strategy guides, should you need review. Tier 1
content is also located in a dozen other places in this guide (build orders,
race vs race, combat tactics, beginning tips, ect.)


As you can see, this list is extremely basic, but rest assured, I will update
this. As long as you have a grasp of this basic info, you should do fine
reading and learning the map strategies about to be presented.



00000000000000000000000000000
Sec.5.2: 4-player maps [4PM]0
00000000000000000000000000000

******************
Biffy's Peril (4)*
******************

This is a nice and standard map. The bases are relatively easy to defend, as
they are islands with negative cover (water) dividing them. Further more, the
actual starting bases are up on a hill with some walls to hide from, so if
worst comes to worst atleast defending yourself is easier.
The map setup is rather rice: 4 relics, 1 critical, 20 strategy points, and 4
slag deposits. However, thermo builds and not possible unless you have very
good co-ordination with your teammate and he can afford to spare some forces
for you. However, the thermo build can work, and here's why:
-Remember how every build has their equivilent of the 4-scout build? Well,
get your teammate to do it while you get the slag. Type it to him, if
neseccary.
-You can use the slag deposit in between you and your teammate to ensure
better defense of it.

Otherwise, I recommend doing one of the 2-scout builds. Delayed teching is
good for tier 1.5 harassment, since you'll be in close proximity to their
listening posts, and you'll have a superior number of sqauds. Just don't
forget to get the Force Commander to lead in with the melee (and also don't
forget to decap their point).

There will be 5 strategy points a player, and it will be very easy to secure
them, you you'll naturally tech up faster with more money than normal games.
That being said, I can truthfully say that your army of Space Marines wont be
useful unless they are fully upgraded by tier 3, and you have 20/20, re-
enforcing and upgrading every sqaud. Don't worry about any vehicles except
deepstriked dreads. This map is small, and with the natural large army size,
vehicles get stuck everywhere and are a hassle to deal with.

Heavy bolter turrets actually fair quite well on this map, because they can
cut off the enemy in the negative cover. This will really hurt their
infantry. Furthermore, during tier 3 you can upgrade them to missiles, if
needed.

The critical location shouldn't pose a huge problem, but mind the negative
cover. Make sure sqauds don't run in: instead let them stay still and let
their heavy weapons cover the distance.
If you can type to your teammate important messages on who to double team,
then do so. See, even if the enemy has more forces than you, you can still
claim a quick victory by targeting unit-producing buildings fast. And as soon
as they die...You win. However, don't try to do this unless you have a lot of
missile squads/anti-building units. If your main forces consist of plasma
Space Marine sqauds (which is perfectly fine) then just target their
infantry.

All in all, I'd say this map is quite popular, as well as simple and easy.
It's very nice to practise on, because of the simplicity and the sole reason
that it's balanced very well.


*******************
Mountain Trail (4)*
*******************

This map is another quite popular map to play on, because THIS MAP IS THE 4
PLAYER VERSION OF BLOOD RIVER! If you look at it closely and consider the
strategic layout, it is:

-A river which is negative cover divides the map in 2 for the teams.
-3 criticals, one per team, and one neutral in the middle.
-1 relic per person

That being said, aside from co-ordinating with your teammate, it can be
safely said that Blood River strategies can work quite well on this map. For
example, use your heavy weapon's range to trap the enemy's army in the
negative cover. Also, quick finishes work well on this map, because you can
quickly walk over with dreads and missile sqauds and finish off their HQ and
other buildings. This tactic works very well, especially when you ask your
teammate for help.

However, this 2v2 map is large, so you might consider a delayed teching build
to have extra space marine sqauds to spare for your teammate. Plus, with the
critical locations being so spread out, that's another good reason to delay
tech.

If the enemy goes for early tier 2/3, then your delayed tech wont be too
effective until you get to the point where you have 8 to 10 fully upgraded
Space Marine sqauds. If the enemy opens up with an early vehicle, retreat and
ask your teammate for backup. Heck, even retreat to his base. Meanwhile, get
your missile sqauds ready to open fire.
Remember, with delayed teching, there's nothing wrong with delaying the
artifact or machine cult for full upgrades, like heavy weapons and target
finders/bionics. Nothing can beat 3 SM sqauds with plasma and 3 with missiles
(ESPECIALLY with heavy weapon's increase).

When you eventually fight for the middle critical location, remember the
following tactics:
-Use your weapon's range to keep you out of negative cover and trap them in
it.
-Have an assault sqaud jump over the mountain into the middle to disrupt the
enemy.

Overall, I'd say this map is quite popular, and fun. Practise this with
computers if you must, just make sure it gets practised somehow.

***********
Quatra (4)*
***********

Now here's an intresting one: the first 4 player map which is unbalanced: 1
of the 4 starting positions starts horizontally while the other 3 start
vertically. Plus, this map is not arena format.

But is position 1 (the uneven one) advantageous or not? Neither, really.
Although awkwardly placed, this position is the same distance from everything
else that the others are.

Another consideration is the uneven number of stategy points (15). To claim
more than three, you will need to be aggressive, maybe even teaming up with a
teammate if you're close enough.
That being said, I suggest a 4-scout build for an early rush while your
teammate techs up quickly. Or the other way around. Just make sure you co-
ordinate with some quick typing.

The one critical location almost always makes for a late tier 1/early tier 2
engagement. This big engagement is usually life or death: whoever wins the
engagement usually gains map control and wins now, or into tier 3. See, with
the map control gained, a player can safely claim a slag deposit and get to
tier 3 quickly.

I do not recommend a regular build, because the forces to start will be too
small, and tier 1.5 will be the end of you, assuming you're opponent can
figure out what you're doing. Besides, if you do manage to get to librarian
tech with wote, your small numbers will break under the sheer numbers of 2
opponents. So for now forget about regular build orders.

So remember: either go for a strong opening with a 4-scout build, or go for a
strong middle (tier 1.5/2) with a delayed teching build.

Tier 3 isn't very common on this map, but if it happens, utilize the awesome
power of the Land Raider. Since each base features narrow choke points, you
can distract the enemy and use the land raider to fill the narrow choke
point. Everything will fire on the land raider, while the units behind your
land raider can use their heavy weapon's range to kill them off. Assault
sqauds and anything deepstrikable compliment the land raider extremely well.
They can jump in and disrupt the enemy while they're firing at the huge land
raider.

So is this map worth practising? Yes, but not too much. Although unique in
the fact that it appears unbalanced (even though it isn't), this map is still
played somewhat online.
Early game co-ordination via typed messages is an extremely important skill
for this map, since the uneven number of control points and 1 critical
location ensure an action packed match.

*******************
Saint's Square (4)*
*******************

This map is a very well balanced one, with 3 critical locations, making it a
standard map with lots of aggressive fighting over the odd number of critical
locations.

The map is split up into 8 areas of importance: 4 bases located between the
corners, and the corners themselves, having relics. The middle is important,
as well: in the middle are 3 critical locations. So basically you're fighting
for everything possible.

What build will get this done? Whatever. Close range builds like 4-scout ones
work fine because of the proximity of the bases. Regular builds work fine,
because of the powerful tier 2, and there's almost always a huge tier 2
fight, as the armies get so big they can't contain themselves anymore.

Heck, delayed teching works great as well: the powerful tier 1.5 can give you
a quick victory, especially if you double team. Even alone, delayed teching
and accomplish a lot in Tier 1.5, with harassment. You could force an enemy
off their strategy points and just leave them with an HQ and barracks. This
build can help capture you the relic and strategy point between you and your
opponent.

As I said before, Tier 2 usually sees a huge fight. Luckily there's LOTS of
heavy cover in the middle (where the fight is likely to happen). That being
said, against Eldar and Ork go for heavy bolters (and a sqaud of missiles).
Although plasma is advantageous, heavy bolters are better than plasma if you
have the heavy cover advantage on your side.
This Tier 2 fight is often very fun because you can strategically place your
heavy bolter sqauds in different cover patches and trap the enemy when he
enters the middle. Or if he's already there and YOU have to enter the middle,
then you can enter a few sqauds from your teammates' side to flank the enemy.

Remember how flanking was usually bad for the Space Marines' small numbers?
Well, not here. This map is absolutely perfect: it's small enough to split up
your forces, but not small enough to be forced into melee fights.

Tier 3 usually just comes while a team is dying, since the main battle was
usually won earlier. However, should both teams be even into Tier 3, try to
refrain from deepstriking dreads into the middle, because all the heavy cover
makes them move even slower. Assault terminators follow this rule as well.
Regular terminators can be deepstriked into cover, where their ranged
weaponry can really help. Especially the autocannons upgrade which does
double that of a heavy bolter!

So all in all, this map is quite popular so I recommend looking this over
quite a bit. This map is very well set-up because every location on the map
is important. Remember though: heavy bolter sqauds in cover work really,
really well, and there's usually some huge fight between tier 2/3, so claim
the middle early. Early game, try to grab and fortify a relic so you can get
terminators.
Aside from regular tier 3 strats, remember terminators with their cannon
upgrade are killer in heavy cover.

******************
Tainted Place (4)*
******************

This is another standard 4-player map. It features 20 strategy points, 4
relics, and 1 crtitical location. 5 strategy points and 1 relic per person
make for a very nice and fun game.

The critical location in the middle (the only one) is surrounded by negative
cover, making defending it EXTREMELY hard, even for Space Marines. You're
going to need a lot of heavy bolters early game should you want to go for a
quick take and hold victory.

This map is unique in that the deciding fight could happen anytime, and is
always affected by use of tactics. Heavy cover is located near the bases and
relics, so usually if the enemy comes at you expect them to melee. Be careful
when dancing in cover though: speed is reduced in cover.

This map is like tainted pair, but 4 players. So, obviously, every strategy
which worked there will work here as well. Rush tactics are usually used
early on to cut off the enemy's resources by pushing him back into his base.
4-scout builds actually work decently if you and your teammate can co-
ordinate a rush of some sort.

Tier 2 can be harder for the Space Marines because WotE is less effective: in
the negative cover, morale goes down faster (or recharges slower, one or the
other) and thus your sqauds will break, and wont be too useful. Instead, go
for heavy bolter sqauds and attack the centre from a variety of different
directions. Delayed teching achieves this best.

The one relic per person system often gets people to sit back and wait until
tier 3. If you have barely seen any units from an enemy (or you see an excess
of defensive structures), then consider double-teaming his TEAMMATE, not him.
With defensive structures, there's little one can do to help out his
teammate. When you kill his teammate, the enemy teching up wont be hard to
handle 2v1.

If they both go for defensive structures, then some missile sqauds (or
artillery) will do the job just fine.

Tier 3 is relatively uncommon unless an enemy is able to successfully tech up
without your team interfering. If so, don't stress too much: 3 or 4
dreadnoughts can kill any super unit (which is likely what they'll be going
for with their own relic). Obliterators are a pain en masse, because their
autocannon is extremely powerful. You best have plasma sqauds and sergeants
with plasma guns. With your own relic, you could have an assault terminator
sqaud to help counter obliterators (should any of your SM sqauds die out).

All in all, the map is more common than it's clone, tained place, because of
the relic access each player has. Practise this one quite a bit, as a lot of
games are played here. This is one of the 5 most popular 4 player maps.

*****************
Tainted Soul (4)*
*****************

This map is the clone of tainted place (and very similar to tainted pair).
The only fundamental difference is that instead of 1 critical location in the
middle and 4 relics on the side, there is 1 relic in the middle and 4
criticals on the side.

The difference doesn't change tier 1 that much; one team will outplay the
other and gain the relic early on. Usually the other team will fall back and
prepare for a later battle. Trying to re-gain the relic in the middle is
often stupid because they'll be negative cover to get there and they'll have
a fortified listening post (and humans usually build heavy bolter turrets
there).
Whatever build order you would have used on tainted place feel free to use
here. The real difference lies in Tier 2 and 3.

In tier 2, there will be no pressure to go for the criticals, because each
team will have 2 a piece. With no pressure in tier 2, we can safely assume
that most of these games will go to tier 3, where the pressure for the middle
will be tremendous, and eventually 4 fully teched up armies will go at it.
The difference? Only one of the 4 armies will have their super units (from
the relic).
The team with the relic gains a considerable advantage, because you must
remember that not only do relics give super units, but they also give extra
requisition.

What I've found is that the best way to win in tier 3 is to use a specific
set of units, which I will list. This tier 3 army setup I'm going to give you
is extremely effective against any opponent. I assume that they have control
of the relic.
-You will (obviously) have both fully upgraded commanders.
-For your infantry, you will have 16/20 Space Marine sqauds (upgraded as much
as possible and around 6 sqauds depending on scouts) and one Assault
Terminator sqaud. Be sure to deepstrike the sqaud outside the barracks and
re-enforce fully until putting it back in.
-In the orbital relay, have 3 (regular) dreadnoughts. That will leave room
for 14/20 vehicle cap, which should ALL BE SPENT ON WHIRLWINDS. The artillery
plus negative cover in the middle will mean that the enemy will lose there
morale almost instantly, and regain in slowly. Big advantage for your team.

Now to execute this battle, lead with your force commander's orbital
bombardment near the middle. This should clear out something or another.
Place the whirlwinds on the plateaus to keep them protected and give them a
nice vantage point.
Now spread out your sqauds so they ALL get to enclose on the middle. Advance
with them, and be ready to deepstrike everything you can (dreads and termies)
behind the enemy's main line of defense. Keep whirlwinds on hotkey to target
their infantry.
Aside from that, all you need to do is make sure to type to your teammate to
back you up.

The only other considerations I can think of are these: in a stand-off game,
in Tier 2 and 3 don't forget to get the requisition and power rate upgrades,
because they help immensely.

Overall, this is another popular one. Not as popular as tainted place, but
just as played, because a lot of people couldn't care less to learn the names
and the distinct differences each map has.
This map should come naturally if you've practised the tainted map series.

********************
Tartarus Center (4)*
********************

Here we have another absolutely fabulous regular map, which, in my opinion,
deserves to be played a lot more than it usually is. However, it's still
played, and thus should still be learned.

Here's the basic rundown: 16 strategy points (4 per person), 4 relics (on per
person) and 5 critical locations (2 per team and one to fight for in the
middle). The map is very interesting in that it's set up in difference lanes,
if you will.

Consider these lanes as circles inside of a large circle. The large circle is
the map. The smallest circle is where the critical location in the middle is.
The next outer circle (very close to middle) is where the 4 bases are,
meaning the bases are quite close. However, most people send there armies in
to the next outer circle, where the relics are located. From here, they can
continue to travel that outer circle and get to other people's relics (and
thus be near the enemy's base).
On the outskirts of the map (the large circle) there are the 4 critical
locations each man claims for himself.

So the questions are: what build to use, and what circle to attack by? For
the builds, Just about anything works well, as this map is extremely
flexible. However, 4-scout builds are only useful for a rush tactic.
Otherwise, stick to a 2-scout build order.

I recommend attacking with middle circle, where the relics are. That way you
can move to either of the other circles fairly easily. Since people usually
like to hang around out front, you can take away their critical locations.
You could also attack their bases from behind, which is deadly in tier 2,
especially with dreads and missile sqauds.

What about your base? I recommend building a heavy bolter turret or 2, only
to buy time for your retreat though; don't expect it to save you.

So what about your teammate? What if he doesn't pick up on your plan? If
that's the case then really it's not that bad, he'll serve as a nice
distraction. Should they double team either of you, then obviously forget
everything and help one another. Luckily if you're travelling in rings this
isn't so hard.

Tier 3 is nice for Space Marines because by then you can split up your forces
on the rings and do a lot of damage to the enemy. Hellfire dreads with
lascannon upgrade is very powerful and can roll over any enemy structures
near the relic (because they relic features a lot of open space people build
things there, like Ork Waaaagh banners). Predators work too, but they just
cost too much with lascannons. Instead stick to dreads. Go for massed Space
Marines with space for 1 terminator sqaud, and you should be good.

On the whole this map is very fun and underrated. Don't worry too much about
this one being played, rather play it for your own enjoyment.

**********************
Volcanic Reaction (4)*
**********************

This map is very interesting because there are only 2 people (1 per team)
facing eachother, while the other 2 teammates start off behind. This
fundamental difference is what makes this map the most unique of any of the
other maps (because every other map features EVERY person facing the middle
of the map).

Aside from being unique, this map is also a standard one, with constant
battles over the 3 critical locations. Relics are generally easy to hold off
(one per per person). They are quite secluded on the side.

Then, we have 2 slag deposits. They are generally centralized on the map,
although each team has one slag deposit which generally is a bit closer than
the other slag. So basically each team can secure one slag, but DO NOT
attempt a thermo build, it's suicide as defense will be very hard to comeby,
should the enemy double team you (and they will since they both face the same
direction).

Now, what about tier 1? Well, there are several things you should do
depending if you're in the front or the back. If you're in the front
position, then just keep your troops rallied by where the enemies will come.
If you're in the back, then rally your troops to the front position, by your
teammate.
In a lot of cases there is a tier 1 fight because both teams usually see this
map as an opprotunity to double team the forward position. So what I
recommend is to get an early fortification on your listening posts if you're
in the front. If you do a 4-scout build then you're find, and don't have to
take this precaution.

In tier 2, I recommend that the back position take the thermo generator and
quickly get to tier 3. While that is happening, I recommend the forward
position delay their tech to tier 3 and focus on getting and upgrading more
infantry squads. Be sure to set up heavy bolter turrets by your team's thermo
generator as it may come under attack in an attempt to attack your team's </pre><pre id="faqspan-5">
economics.
Similarly, send some missile sqauds, assault sqauds, or whatever you can to
take your enemy's thermo generator should they get one. Heck, you can even
charge forard with WotE and claim the position. But remember that the thermo
generator is going to be a big target for both teams during tier 2.

Tier 3 is extremely easy if you've been able to maintain your thermo
generator while killing theirs. If both teams have a thermo generator then
expect an even game. Now in tier 3, try not to build too many walker vehicles
from the machine cult, as they will get in the way as your infantry tries to
navigate the somewhat narrow passages. Instead, only get whirlwinds or
landspeeders from the machine cult (whirlwinds are artillery and don't need
to move with army, and land speeders are fast and can jump out the way to
avoid any hassles).
Build dreads from your orbital relay later on. Another useful alternative is
to clog up the narrow passages with the land raider, while following through
with your sqauds. This tactic works very well on narrow passage maps (like
this) because the land raider is a bullet magnet.

Overall, I would say this is one of the more popular maps for its unique and
exclusive style. People like playing maps with security, and this one appears
to provide plenty of that, with a single direction of attack and a teammate
starting from behind.


******************************
Final thoughts: 4 player maps*
******************************

2, 4, and 6 player maps are the most common types of maps, so 2 on 2 gameplay
should be reviewed. Luckily, if you excel at 1v1, then you're going to excel
here.
See, 1v1 is 100 percent skill and 0 percent teamplay.
2v2 is 75 percent skill and 25 percent teamplay. Victory still favours the
skilled without teamwork, than the unskilled with it. Some may argue this,
but here's what I say: if you are getting attacked and you're with a skilled
teammate, then he'll automatically know to come to your aid. And 2v2 really
is more about outplaying the enemy.
But now you are about to take the plunge and learn about 3v3 gameplay (which
I have a sub-section introduction for). I estimate 3v3 at being around 66.7
percent skill and 33.3 percent teamwork. The sub-section intro to 3v3 will
cover an important concept I sort of left out here: donations.

In teamplay, you can donate requisition or power to a teammate. This opens up
a whole new world of possibility. The reason I did not touch on this in 2v2
is because skill matters so much that a team playing without sharing can beat
a worse team with supreme resource sharing tactics.

By all means feel free to learn about resource donating in the next section
and apply it to your 2v2 game.

Try to practise some 2v2 here and there. The real challenge is still 1v1, but
luckily if you excel at that then you stand an excellent chance in 2v2.



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Sec.5.2.5: 6 plus-player general strategy [6GS]8
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Six player games are actually played slightly more than 4 player games, and
are more popular because generally they require more teamwork and less skill,
which personally isn't my favorite.
For example, the first time I played with some friends they were getting
mauled by the enemy, but I decided not to help them and go for the enemy
myseld. I ended up killing 2 of the enemy bases, but both my allies died, so
they ended up not wanting to play with me until I learned to play more like a
team.
Well, I learned my lesson, and now I'm going to teach you the importance of
teamwork and HOW to use teamwork effective in 6 person and above match ups.
Some of this might be a review from the 4 player general strategies, so bare
with me.
My expectations by now? Same as for the 4 player maps: I expect you to be
able to easily beat a hard computer (and you'll probably have conquered
harder with all the tips I've given you). I practise my team skirmishes on
insane, and you should to, even if you can't beat an insane comp.

-The Golden Rule, like before, is this: know your teammates' races and know
how they function. Go ahead, play a skirmish against the easy comp as Eldar
and learn how they work.
If you thought this was important in 2v2 matches, it's even more important
here. For example, if I asked you what would likely happen in a 3 orks versus
3 Space Marine game, could you answer me?
The answer is in the next little point. Play more skirmishes with different
races as teammates and you'll begin to appreciate this golden rule.

-Matchups: (long point)

Majority Ork team versus Majority Space Marine team:

In this matchup the Orks will likely know that they're screwed if this match
makes it to tier 3 (not even squiggoths can help much). That being said,
they'll likely do a rush. So here's what you need to do: You need to alert
your teammates (type) that this is what's going to happen. Tell them to get
heavy bolter turrets and fortify listening posts likely to come under seige.
Don't back down though, still hold your most outward position. Just be sure
to have extra defenses there.
Now what you need to do is make sure that every teammate is prepared to help
the others should they get double-teamed. That means you to; I've already
taught you an excellent hotkey setup to refer to.
But what if the attack doesn't come? Then you're free to tech up and punish
the Orks for there mistake. You wont be behind in teching much at all. The
only difference is that you'll have bought a heavy bolter turret or 2 (to aid
the force commander and 3 or so SM sqauds), which in cost is relatively low.
To make up for the slightly delayed teching due to turret spending, I
recommend you research both requisition and power rate upgrades.
Tier 2 versus an Ork team you should proceed regularly with a regular build
strategy: additional SM sqaud (to have missiles), apothecaries, librarian,
wote, machine cult, and a hellfire or 2.
Finally you reach tier 3, where you get access to everything: orbital
bombardment (via orbital relay), deepstriking dreads, hero upgraded
commanders, a terminator sqaud, and around 6 fully upgraded sqauds, which
will take 100 Orks. Think about it: 6x9 meaning 54 members (also meaning
around 24 heavy weapons). Couple that with apothecaries and sergeants and 100
Ork population wont do much, if you've fully upgraded target finders and
bionics.
So bascially in tier 3 you can steamroll the Orks, and with some good use of
artillery and orbital bombardment, can even hold off being double teamed for
a while (a while being a few minutes for your allies to send backup). I've
played many a game where I've been double teamed by Ork tier 3, but with 3
dreads ready to strike at their squiggoth, and artillery and orbital
bombardment, I survived.
So bascially hold out until tier 3 in this matchup, and don't worry about
purchasing a few heavy bolter turrets for tier 1 defense.

Majority Eldar team versus Majority Space Marine team:

Here it's not a good idea to try to wait until tier 3, because the Eldar,
with proper resource management, can amass 10 pire prisms! And believe me,
not much in the SM arsenal can beat the combined force of Eldar infantry and
10 fire prisms (not to mention an Avatar accompanying them). See with Fire
Prisms, they have anti-infantry guns like the Predator, but they have a laser
cannon of some sort that acts as artillery against infantry AND is super
effective against vehicles. Your predator can do this also, but you can only
have 6 predators while they can have 10 Fire Prisms!
That's not to say that tier 3 isn't possible to best the Eldar at, I'm just
saying that you'll have to do some serious harassment, maybe killing some
strategy points or thermo generators. Without thermo generators, the Fire
Prism threat is greatly decreased.
Does this mean that facing the Eldar is like facing a ticking time bomb that
explodes in your face 30 minutes into the game? Sort of. If you do not harass
at all and make all the right choices for unit selection, you're still going
to have an extremely tough time against the Eldar forces. Dreadnoughts of any
variant die too quickly against the Fire Prism. Predators are your best bet
against Eldar in team games, because in team games there will be fire prisms.
At least with Lascannon predators, you stand to meet the fire prism range.
However, I only recommend doing a predator lascannon strat late game if you
have 8 generators, a thermo generator, and both upgrades.
Back to the point, the Eldar are best taken out early, because the Space
Marine economics can often not handle that of the early Fire Prism tactics.
I've seen these things come out as early as the 14 minute mark. Always
remember when going to tier 3 to get requisition and plasma rate upgrades.
The aboslute best time to attack an Eldar is Tier 2, because you'll have your
4 upgraded sqauds, force commander, librarian, and WotE. The best they'll
have is their same tier 1 units, maybe with one vehicle. Eldar have to build
a lot before vehicles, and during tier 2 this takes out of their infantry
army a lot.
Of course, communicate that you plan to kill an Eldar in tier 2 to your team.
If you have to go alone, then you might have to retreat after the enemys help
eachother. Just be sure to do as much damage as possible. The listening
shrines and webway gates are nice and easy targets to kill before you have to
retreat. As always, be sure to mind your base while on the attack. You need
to upgrade and build more units too.

Majority Chaos team versus Majority Space Marine team:

Here the Chaos seem to have the advantage in tier 2, because of the mass
possibilities with an accompanying predator. Tier 1 you do have a slight
advantage, but I don't recommend trying to take them on because if you get
double teamed you could lose your force commander which would throw off your
entire build order.
Against Chaos, delayed teching with plasma armaments for each sqaud should
ensure you slughter their infantry, leaving only predators to handle. Chances
are good the enemy will retreat the predators, but if not, be sure to prepare
before hand and build a heavy bolter turret and upgrade it to missiles. You
can fall back to this missile turret (and your missile sqaud) which will help
immensely.
Tier 2 can also be hard if they decide to accompany their main CSM (Chaos
Space Marine) forces with possesed marines. Possesed Marine rip throw
ordinary Space Marines easily with their melee, so make sure to have sergeant
power sword upgrade and keep your commanders in the front for melee.
What if Chaos decides to go for only upgraded Chaos Space Marines? Luckily
yours are slightly better in a few statistics, so in an even numbered fight
you'd win. Plus, usually you'll have abilities to help you out, like rally.
Chaos has beserk fury ability which makes them stronger. I still feel rally
is the superior sergeant ability because when sqauds break they're useless
(or very close to it).
Against a Chaos team you can gain supremacy in Tier 3, and not have to worry
about many threats. Infantry with mostly plasma and 1 rocket sqaud does very
well, especially with hellfires with lascannon upgrades, which can really
help against predators early tier 3, should you not be able to afford to
orbital right away (and face the predator threat in tier 3).
Since in Dawn of War CSM have a the ability to almost anything regular SM can
(heavy weapon upgrades, bionics/target finder, ect.) it's important to watch
out for the tier 1 rush tactics that you might do, for example, with a 4-
scout build. As always, remember to call for support early on when needed.
Overall I'd say this match is very well balanced, with both sides having an
even game in tier 1. Then Chaos pulls ahead. And finally, if the loyal Space
Marines have survived, then they will reign supreme in tier 3, with all of
that vehicle power (artillery, deepstriked dreads, orbital bombardment, ect).




So there is my basic introduction to some race versus race matches in team
games. Majority Chaos, for example, means over 50 percent of the players are
Chaos. In a 6 person game, 2 people out of 3 on the other team using Chaos
would mean a Chaos Majority team.
But what if teams are mixed races? What if you're facing a majority Ork but
you're the only Space Marine team? With some good teamwork and communication,
you can get the enemy to fill in the gaps of your game you know aren't great,
while helping them where they aren't great. For example, an Ork-SM team works
well because Orks help SM at tier 1 while SM help Orks at tier 3.


-My resource donating guide:

As you probably know, donating in dawn of war is the act of giving resources
to your teammates. This was not touched upon in 2v2 gameplay, so feel free to
learn a thing or two from here for 2v2 gameplay. Other then that, know this:
donating opens up a whole new level of gameplay.

So, how do you donate? When in a teamgame, look at the top-right corner. You
will see a taskbar displaying menu, ect. Well, click on Dip, which means
Diplomacy. Here you have a list of everyone, and for teammates there will be
a requisition button and a power button (for each teammate). Clicking on
whichever button for whichever player puts 100 of whichever resource towards
them. Keep clicking to put more. Click cancel if you change your mind. And
finally, click send to finalize the transaction.

Giving teammates your money obviously means losing for yourself. So what you
want to effectively do is give teammates money when their race/strategy
requires it, and receive the same for yourself. Doing this requires knowing
every race reasonably well (golden rule). However, doing this with random
teammates can be near impossible, so this complimenting races/strategies
tactic isn't that useful unless you have a specialized team or clan where you
regularly practise (see miscellaneous section).

By quickly talking, though, you can set up some very effective and practical
resource sharing techniques. I will quickly give you some little pointers on
some basic resource sharing techniques you could do.

1. A player (or you) needs additional power for an early dreadnought which
could be an extremely big advantage early on. So what the player will type is
the following:
[Need 350 req and 450 power for early dreadnought] This is sure to yield some
responses, because mostly everyone knows the destructive force of an early
dread set to melee. You might not get everything you want, but still, getting
200 req from one player and 250 power from another still helps immensely.
This strategy I call the early vehicle donate strat. It can work for any race
and any vehicle, a Fire Prism even, or an early Mek shop for Orks to make a
Wartruck rush.

2. Another typical resource-sharing strategy you could use would be the early
super unit strategy. For example, you could play defensively while donating
power to an Eldar opponent so he could quickly rush to tier 3 and get the
Avatar. While doing this, I recommend a plasma build with heavy bolter
turrets for support. The plasma donated to him will get you a quick avatar,
and you wont do bad either: you'll likely end up having a deepstrike army,
maybe with 2 Orbital relays (you did do a plasma build remember). All the un-
necessary requisition can be donated to your other teammate! Meanwhile, the
enemy can waste their forces going for you.
This system I have provided (#2) works very well with plasma builds, and is
generally a lot better then not sharing at all, so if you ever want to spice
up your team games try this. However, only certain maps are safe enough for
this to work, as you will be weak at tier 1 and 2. Furthermore, this build
generally gets you no glory, even if it does win your team the match.

-And finally, know this: 6 and above people games are geared towards tier 3
play, because the distance between bases to start is often too large to make
any type of attack effective. So obviously stick with your build orders, just
take time to do more useful research when you normally would not have 1v1
(because in 1v1 you often needed the money for additional re-enforcements).

These two very basic systems I've provided you with will give you at least
some ideas for improvisation on the field.

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/SECTION CONCLUSION888888

Here I've taught you some of the important foundations for team matchups,
resource donating, and I've even reviewed a lot of the team strategies
mentinoed earlier.
That being said, there will actually be very little to say for these maps.
Instead of going indepth (like the 2 and 4 player maps) these guides are
going to be short and to the point. I no longer feel the need to discuss
indepth strategies that I've been over quite a lot in every other section
leading up to this. These guides might only be a few paragraphs in length,
but seriously, I feel that's more than fair considering what I've provided
thus far.
Without further impediment, here it is, your six player (and eight player
which will be of the same format) guides.



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Sec.5.2.5: 6 plus-player general strategy [6GS]8
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********************
Bloodshed Alley (6)*
********************

Strategy points: 22; 11 per team; very easy to secure.
Relics: 4; 2 per team; relatively easy to secure your teams' 2 relics.
Critical locations: 3; 1 per flank (left, right, center). Lies inbetween both
teams, ensuring a hard fight.
General layout: Divided into 3 flanks, middle flank baren and clear, left and
right flanks littered with heavy cover.

Notes: This map is quite popular bceause both teams start on their own ends.
Here teamwork is very important, and rush tactics are a no-no. One of the
more popular 3v3 maps out there right now.

***************
Crossroads (6)*
***************

Strategy points: 24, 12 per team; very easy to secure, except 2 strategy
points which lie directly between the 2 forces.
Relics: 6; 1 per person, moderately hard to hold down (relics are
centralized).
Critical locations: 3; 1 per flank (left, right, center). Lies inbetween both
teams, ensuring a constant fight.
General layout: a large map divided into 3 distinct flanks but the map offers
unique features such as narrow accessways to the middle for everyone, and
generally this map doesn't have much in the way of cover; negative or
positive. Just narrow entries to the map's center.

Notes: This is the second most popular 3v3 map out to date right now, because
of the same reasons as Bloodshed Alley: they'll be no rush tactics so people
feel more confortable turtling. That being said, I say you try to catch
someone off guard in tier 2 and make a nice large assault with a delayed
teching build.
Practise this one a lot, seeing as onely one map is more popular 3v3.

****************
Dread Alley (6)*
****************

Strategy points: 30, 15 per team; can be hard to secure (close quarters map).
Relics: One per team (2 in total). Very easy to secure.
Critical locations: 2, 1 per team, extremely easy to secure.
General layout: Each base starts very close to its opponent's, so rush
tactics can work. Everywhere is connected by roads. Roads are quite wide,
seeing as most are double-laned. Roads typically feature cover, so be sure to
set a squad in there on F2 mode.

Notes: Although this map gets rid of the pressure to capture criticals and
relics, it presents a new danger: elimination. Simply put, you could actually
be attacked early. No more sitting back on Crossroads, waiting 20 minutes
before moving out. Early communication is important, and it's also important
to decide who gets the Relic. My vote goes to Chaos, then Eldar, then Orks,
then Space Marines (in order of decending importance). So early communication
is very important. A 4-scout build is even advisable, for the harass/rush
possibilities.
This map is actually not popular because people like sitting back and
relaxing until tier 3 in team games. Still, mastering the design of the map
with a few quick skirmishes can help immensely.

*****************
Jungle Walls (6)*
*****************

Strategy points: 28, 14 per team; very easy to secure. The 3 teammates will
have to decide who doesn't get one of the 2 reamining strategy points. Space
Marines do fine without it, so don't worry.
Relics: 4, 2 per team. Again, remember my descending list of importance for
Relic control: Chaos, then Eldar, then Orks, then Space Marines.
Critical Locations: 3; 1 per flank. Ensures a constant battle.
General layout: The bases themselves don't provide much open space to move
about in, but the center does, making flanking techniques a nice possibility.
Also, mind the negative cover (water) when approaching a critical location.
You do not want to get there before your opponent and get trapped in negative
cover when they attack; this is what you must do to them. Active scouting
always helps.

Notes: Again, another very uncommon map even though it has the standard set
up most enjoy. I consider this map like Bloodshed Alley, only it's setup
horizontally instead of vertically, and has negative cover instead of
positive cover.
A few skirmishes and you should learn the dynamics of this map fairly easy.

*****************
Kasyr Lutien (6)*
*****************

Strategy points: 26; 13 per team very easy to secure.
Relics: 6, 1 per person, very easy to secure.
Critical Locations: 3, 1 between each flank to ensure constant action.
Slag Deposits: The first 6-player map with slags. 4; 2 per team
(sharing/communication required).
General layout: An extremely simple and standard map, with everyone one could
ask for. There are some narrow but most are wide (enough) roads. Also, cover
is littered in a lot of places.

Notes: This is, bare none, the most popular teammap, maybe even the most
popular map period. Everyone feels secure since a variety of build (including
plasma ones) could work, and nobody is going to rush early. Unfortunately,
noobs often ruin this map by playing quickstart on it, but don't worry, it's
still possible to find standard games on it.
This is the most popular team map. If you're wondering what to practise
that'll also be fun, this is the answer.

*************
Mortalis (6)*
*************
Strategy points: 24; 4 per person; exrtemely easy to secure.
Relics: 6, 1 per person, moderately easy to secure.
Critical Location: 1, in center, which everyone will fight for.
General Layout: This map is small and very symmetrical with everyone facing
the exact same direction, the middle that is. There is heavy cover by the
entrance of all bases, and by the critical location, making dug-in heavy
bolters very useful.

Notes: Everyone starts with 4 strategy points and a relic, and faces the
single critical location. Nice and easy. This map presents some rush tactic
opprotunities, but luckily everyone is close enough to help out one another,
so the best you can hope to achieve is some good harass with the 4-scout
build.
This map is fun and somewhat popular, so give it a go or 2. You'll likely
enjoy this dynamic setting, which, I might mention, benefits the Space
Marines more than anyone else.

********************
Testing Grounds (6)*
********************

Strategy points: 32, 5 per player (16 per team) with 2 that must be fought
for. Every player has 4 which are very easy to control, but the other 1 (or
2) are difficult to hold down, but well worth the effort.
Relics: 6, one per player, located on ramps near each person's base.
Moderately hard to secure; easy to capture but hard to defend (since you'll
be elsewhere).
Critical Locations: 5, all in a circle near the center, to ensure constant
carnage.
Slag Deposits: Yes, 1 per player (6 total).
General Layout: Very unique. There are 6 locations all facing the middle but
they are spread apart just enough to make most rushes unadvisable. However,
this is not s sit-back-and-relax-until-tier-3 map, either. The 5 critical
locations really force people to move. On the circumference of the map
(passing through the bases) there is a stream of negative cover water, which
you may navigate to get to the opponent's base. Towards the center (with the
critical locations) there is positive cover.

Notes: Easily my favorite map, because it clearly takes the most skill.
Anyone who knows the dynamics of Dawn of War can probably tell this easily.
The possbilties are immense: tier 1/5/2 attacks, tier 3 showdowns,
plasma/thermo builds, 6 armies running around the middle...The list goes on
and on.
A favorite tactic of mine is to jump (or deepstrike with jump) units into the
enemy's relic area, because there's no way their army will be near enough
there. I can then kill off their relic and whatever else buildings they have
there. Heck, I can even advance into their base and launch a two-pronged
attack (frontal AND from the relic)!
Unfortunately this unique map is extremely underplayed for its potential.
Just for the heck of it though, I recommend you practise this vigorously for
it provides all the essential skills for just about any 3v3 and above
matchup.




******************************
Final Thoughts: 6 player maps*
******************************

Six player maps are very popular, and naturally having this basic knowledge
I've given per map should help quite a bit. The starting part to this section
provides some building blocks on advanced teamplay concepts like donating,
communicating, and team majority race versus other teams.
With all the tactics given before the 6 people and above maps, I fell you
should be more than prepared, seeing as you'll know everything from builds
order, to combat tactics, ect. Also, as always, reviewing the 1v1 section
never hurts because if you can't take one opponent there's no hope you'll
take multiple ones.
6-player maps are very popular, as mentioned, and Kasyr Lutien is probably
one of the most played maps in Dawn of War, because of the noob friendly
setup. Also, out of every team map in Dawn of War, I seriously believe
Testing Grounds takes the most skill, and can be really fun if you get a game
going. Now let's get into the 8 player games, which are significantly less
popular than 3v3, but still 4v4 is played and incorporates very similar
dynamics to 3v3, so if you excel here you'll do well there as well.



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Sec.5.4: 8-player maps [8PM]8
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********************
Burial Grounds: (8)*
********************

Strategy points: 32; 16 per team with conflicts over middle 4. Generally each
player can easily claim their starting 4 easily, but other ones lie inbetween
enemies and can be hard to get.
Relics: 4; 2 per team, hard to secure (centralized).
Critical Locations: 2, both centralized and very close to eachother. If you
control one then likely you control the other.
Slag Deposits: 3, centralized, very hard to secure early on.
General layout: There are 2 distinct sides facing eachother, with some
positions closer to the enemy than others. Generally there's a lot of
positive cover here and there, and all the action seems to flow towards the
middle of the map.

Notes: Like usual, this map is spread into 2 distinctive sides for each team.
However, some opponents are closer to the front than others allowing rush
tactics to be a possibility. Holding the middle right from the start provides
a huge advantage (relic, you can build heavy bolter turrets, ect) so try to
communicate that to your team.
On the whole this map is semi-popular. There are more popular 4 player maps.

******************
Daturias Pits (8)*
******************

Strategy points: 32; 16 per team. Easy to secure for inner positions, but
outer positions must push outwards towards the enemy.
Relics: 4, in the corners. Each team can secure 1 but the other 2 are neutral
in the corners between the enemies.
Critical Locations: 5: 4 along sides (2 per team) and one in the map's
center.
General Layout: a very standard map with 2 sides facing eachother and a lot
of neutral objects to aim for. Two positions are close to the enemy, so be
sure if you're not one of them to re-enforce those areas. Lots of heavy cover
near the middle critical location, so generally holding it is easier than
taking it.

Notes: A more popular map. This one is nice and simple, with a circle of
starting locations. It is very important for the back positions to re-enforce
the forward ones; communicate this to your team. Also, rush tactics can work
should you be at the frontlines. At the very least you can harass the enemy
and set them backwards.
Practise this map a bit, it shows up in quite a few online games.

*****************
Doom Chamber (8)*
*****************

Strategy points: 24, 3 per person, easy to secure for the back positions but
it can be hard to catch the third one if you start up close.
Relics: 1 in the middle, very hard to secure.
Critical Locations: 3 in middle, very hard to secure.
Slag Deposits: 3 in middle, very hard to secure.
General layout: This map is split into 2 distinct sides, but like the
previous maps, there are forward and back positions, meaning re-enforcing
forward positions is essential. As usual, everything flows to the middle,
where the slags, criticals, and lone relic stands. Negative cover covers the
middle by the relic.

Notes: This map is interesting, because the Relic is what everyone wants yet
it is surrounded by negative cover, making it extra hard. What I recommend is
getting heavy weapons (heavy bolters) a bit earlier then you normally would.
This is because your weapon's range can keep you out of the middle whilst
trapping the enemy. As usual, co-ordinate to capture the middle early. If you
can fortify and put heavy bolter turrets by the relic then you stand at a
great advanatage, because the enemy still takes extra damage from your
buildings!
This map is somewhat more popular than Burial Grounds, but still seldom
played compared to other maps in Dawn of War.

**************
Lost Hope (8)*
**************

Strategy points: 30, 15 per team. Most are easy to secure, but the forward
position will have to fight hard for his fair share.
Relics: 3, all away from bases. But generally, every team can have 1 with a
neutral relic in the middle.
Critical Locations: 3, all neutral, running in a straight line down the map.
As always, hard to secure.
Slag Deposits: 2, one per team. Easy to secure for back positions.
General Layout: Very unique. Two induvidual bases start in a linear
settlement on the  top-left diagonal side of the map and the top-right
diagonal side of the map. From there, everything branches outwards, such as
relics and criticals. Units traverse the map by wide double-laned roads, with
patches of light and heavy cover here and there.

Notes: There is one forward position facing the enemy for both teams. All 3
of you behind him should re-enforce this person. You happen to be this
person, go for a 4-scout build and some harassment. If you harass enough you
may be able to double/triple/quadrouple team their forward position and play
a 4v3. Just make sure you communicate quickly to your team.
One of the more popular (and fun) 8 people maps. It really does teach you the
importance of moving out.

0.84 Update: This map in particular (which I find is becoming more popular),
should dictate the use of Rhinos. Why? Harassment. How? Easy:
-Get a missile sqaud with all 4 missiles, and sergeant.
-Load them up in Rhino.
-Unload by enemy strategy point, kill listening post, run.
-Rinse and repeat.
Another 0.84 update note: I have finally concluded that once this map gets to
tier 3, Space Marines have a clear advantage. They can deepstrike re-enforce-
ments readily, and the long-range of the whirlwind makes map control a lot
easier. So if you ever need to decide a good 4v4 map to play on as SM, make
it Lost Hope.

******************
Penal Colony: (8)*
******************

Strategy points: 15, 2 per player, 1 up for grabs between the teams. Easy to
get your 2.
Relics: 4, in the corners. 2 per team, generally.
Critical locations: 2, centralized somewhat, although one is clearly closer
to a team than the other. Moderately hard to hold on to.
Slag Deposits: 4, 2 per team. Easy to secure.
General Layout: Arena-format map with everyone facing the center. Lots of
wide roads/walkways with open space in the center. Positive patches of cover
can be found fequently.

Notes: This map is unpopular due to its 2-strategy point per person system.
That being said, this game usually ends early with superior rush tactics and
early teamwork. Rarely does this game get into tier 3, but can occasionally
go into tier 2 if, say, 2 people from both teams are eliminated early. This
map is most popular 1v1, not 4v4, because people like the idea of conquering
lots of land while not playing on a 30 point map.


********************************
Closing thoughts: 8 player maps*
********************************

Eight player maps are less common than any of the other team play games, but
they are still played. My educated guess as to why this is, is because of the
lack-lustre list of maps for 8 players. Not that these ones are bad, just
they don't entice a larger audience.
Luckily, most 8 player maps have remarkably similar concepts behind them to
master. That's not to say if you know one you know them all. Either way it is
expected of you to take upon yourself the task of skirmishing on these
various maps.






/END MAP SECTION w00t



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Sec.5.4.4: Free for all strategy [FFAS]8
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COMING SOON, SORRY.


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Sec.5.5: Odd numbered maps [ONM]8
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COMING SOON, SORRY.






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Sec.6.0: Miscellaneous Facts [MISCF]8
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Here I will generally just put anything I feel did not have a proper section
to put in, hence the name miscellaneous. It could be about gameplay, this
guide, or whatever.

- Update: As of version 0.81, the word dreadnought is now spelled correctly
in every single instance! Too bad there were over a hundred of these
instances to correct...

- Luckily, I was able to make a quick update Febuary 28th, which included
some minor fixes (see version history for more info). I still have no fan
contributions.

-WHEN TO EXPECT THE NEXT UPDATE: Things are clearing up much better than I
expected for this year (evidence of this is that I updated in Febuary when
I didn't plan to until March break).
In March expect something to happen with this guide. I may not get to FFA
and team FFA, but I'll atleast revise and add to the most important
sections.

- E-mailing me: Like most of you, I do not like spam or anything useless in
general. So, here are the instructions:

1. Entitle it: Dawn of War GFAQS guide. I will open nothing but that
regarding this guide, even if you type something a letter off. Seriously.

2. If you wish to submit tips, feeback (positive OR constructive) that's
fine. If you want hosting priviledges, you may ask that as well. Usually I'm
more than happy to let people host this, assuming the credit goes to me and
my contributers to this FAQ.

3. Make your e-mails short and straight to the point. I don't have a lot of
time on my hands, nor do you most likely.

4. And finally, some ground rules: nothing offensive, nothing personal, and
absolutely no attachments. If I detect even the slightest trace of these bad
e-mail symptoms, I will stop reading (or opening it) and delete it, and most
likely block the sender.

There you have it, simple yet (I feel) very reasonable expectations.

lldeadgeorgell[at]yahoo.com. (those are L's)


--------------
Fan Feedback:-
--------------

Ian Wafer said: Hey your guide is really good. I'm using some of the tactics
in it and they're working out really well for me. Nice work dude!

Glad I could help Ian!


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Sec.6.5: Legal information [LLLLL]8
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This guide is protected by copyright. It cannot be copied, sold, or
duplicated on another site without permission from me, the main contributer.
This applies to all sections of this guide.

And to make that as clear as humanly possible, I shall quote a section from
Gamefaqs.com, which is where this guide is currently being hosted:

..if you write a FAQ and submit it to GameFAQS, it is protected by
copyright.

I do not think I could be more clear.

Should you want to host this guide, please send an e-mail (see miscellaneous
instructions). I'm usually more than willing to comply, should me and my
contributers be given full credit.


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Sec.7.0: Ending, includes credits [EC]8
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To Relic and THQ - Thank you for making, patching, and popularizing the Dawn
of War game. I hope people buy and continue to play this game.

To me, SM_pwnerer A.K.A DeadGeorge987 - I started this long project and saw
it all through, even if it needs some updates. Congradulations to me.

To GameFAQS - I do not know much about GameFAQS, but like everything great I
discovered it by accident. I love this site, it's got one of the best set ups
any gaming site could have.

**List of Players who contributed to version 0.8**

Insinto - Commonly plays with me, and helped provide insight into Space
Marines versus Chaos strategy, as well as a few maps, to mention the least.

Aaronthepea - A fellow Space Marine player who helped me plan out the guide,
telling me what sections the common player needed most. Also contributes in
practise sessions.

Jastin - An all-around player who plays every race. My games with him helped
me form some strategies around the weaknesses of the various races. Also,
jastin helped me learn the importance and application of donating in team
games.

**0.81 Contributers**

Bennist - Similar to aaronthepea, this is another Space Marine player whom
has helped me acknowledge what the beginning players need when going online,
particularly in teamgames.

And to me, who did the written contributions here. I don't think there will
ever be anyone but me contributing to the writing of this FAQ.

**0.82 Contributers**

Ian Wafer - Thanks for the feedback man, it inspired me to make another minor
update!




If you want the most out of the Warhammer 40 000 universe, I recommend
reading the various books. They truly are a good read should you be
interested in the 40 000 universe.



/END FAQ.

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