Let's Play: Dawn of War - Dark Crusade

Map: Bloody Hell
Space Marines vs. Necrons

So this game isn’t completely ideal for demonstrating why Necrons inspire existential terror in me, but it does demonstrate the necessity of stomping them early and often if you want to win.


These are the Necrons. The AI pumped out one squad of Necron Warriors early, and then left them sitting around, which is kind of a dubious decision. Most generally accepted Necron build orders start with a second squad of Builder Scarabs before seguing into Necron Warriors and the Necron lord.

Note that a 3-man squad of Necron Warriors is technically free (i.e. cost 0 power, since Necrons don’t use Requisition), but has a significant opportunity cost in the time it takes to build. (Builder Scarabs, which the Necrons use to capture strategic points as well as build, are also free.) All Necron units are built from their headquarters structure (the Monolith), so if you want to beat the Necrons, you essentially have to rush their army, take it out, and then squat on their doorstep, killing every new unit they produce. This is easier said than done, for a couple of reasons which will soon become apparent.


Here we see the Builder Scarabs building a gauss turret next to their power generator. Again, this is something that should probably have been saved until after the AI’s economy was up and running, though it could be argued that the AI is preparing for the rush that’s necessary to beat the Necrons.


Here we see the first encounter between my tactical squad and the AI’s two squads of Necron Warriors. The Necrons, instead of standing and fighting (a battle they would probably have won) instead chose to retreat towards their base. I’m not sure what prompted this, actually, other than a desire to minimize their supply lines, but it allowed my Tac Squad to whittle down the health of their squads as it pursued them (Necrons can’t fire while moving, while Space Marines can).


And here we see my Tactical Squad rushing in where angels fear to tread. The Necrons, having been pushed back to the doorstep of their base, finally turned around and started shooting at me. I had to retreat shortly thereafter.


From this picture, it looks almost like the AI is playing reasonably.


Unfortunately, it’s not. The second Necron squad here ought to have coordinated its attack with the first one, and the Necron Lord who’s just hanging out ought to teleport over and attack my troops. This is the first of several major errors on the part of the AI that helped give me the game, as the fact that I was concentrating fire while it wasn’t was decisive in this engagement.


Point in case.


Instead of learning its lesson, the AI continued to stream individual squads of Necron Warriors into the guns of my men for the next few minutes. Note the bolter turret behind my Tac squads here. Building forward emplacements of this sort tends to be critical if you want to defeat Necrons with Space Marines, as you’ll see in a bit.


Having taken out the obelisk capping one of the strategic points next to the Necron base (and reducing the Necrons’ build speeds as a result), my scout marine squad moves to capture it while my tac squads concentrate fire on the Necrons’ generators. While the AI was playing like a moron, I didn’t know that at the time, and every little bit helps against the Necrons.


Here, I’ve built another bolter turret, just in time for the Necrons to deploy a squad of Flayed Ones. Flayed Ones are bad news against infantry, because they radiate a fear aura that deals constant morale damage. I’m pretty sure the only thing that saved me here was the fact that the AI didn’t deploy them until after my bolter turret went up... which was stupid, because they were just sitting around inside the monolith for a minute before this picture was taken, and turrets - like vehicles - don't take morale damage.

Oh, and the Necron Lord I’m shooting at (in the upper left corner of the screen)? Hasn’t done anything besides standing around since he was built.

It’s a little hard to see here, but both of the Tactical Squads next to the Necron Lord? Have had their morale broken by the Flayed Ones’ fear aura.

Flayed Ones suck.


Thankfully, despite crushing the morale of all my Tactical Squads, my bolter turret kept the Flayed Ones in check long enough for my Force Commander to show up and cut them to pieces.


Of course, the AI wasn’t done yet. This charmer here is a Wrath, and the fact that he’s translucent means that he’s ‘phased out’ and invulnerable to damage. While they can’t capture strategic points, Wraiths can return them to neutral, and they dish out a ridiculous amount of melee damage. Only the sheer volume of firepower I could dish out at this point allowed me to take out the AI’s wraiths before they could decap any of the strategic points I'd taken.


Here we see the Necron Lord finally attacking one of my structures. Typically, he starts doing this far, far earlier in the game, when it could actually make a difference.


In about a minute, it’ll all be over.


...despite some of the Necrons’ units getting back up, including this wraith. This is one of the charming things about playing against the Necrons – you never know when they’re actually going to stay dead. I have to assume that this mechanic was added to compensate for the fact that they only ever get one build queue (as well as to emulate how they work in the tabletop game).


Thankfully, the AI’s many blunders and my ruthless exploitation of them mean that the occasional unit rising from its grave makes no difference at all.

I should point out that this is not a typical game vs. the Necrons, as the AI is usually much smarter than this, and thus tends to ruin you with coordinated Necron Lord/Necron Warrior/Flayed One attacks. And that's assuming that they don't hit you with Tomb Spyders, which restore dead troops once they're out of combat.

Also, if the Necrons tech up all the way, the final stage of the Monolith levitates, moves and starts shooting gauss beams.

You'll typically never see that happen in 1v1 Skirmish, though, because as always, the game is over before then.

So. I've got a very educational game where I lose against an Insane AI playing Eldar in the can (I'm not kidding - I learned a lot from watching the replay), and I'll be writing that one up once I can muster the energy to grab all the screenshots it will require. I also haven't played as Tau yet, and Nunix's request for unit descriptions implied a thoroughness that I haven't yet achieved.

I guess what I'm asking here is, when do we know that this Let's Play is complete? Do we want me to play at least one game as each faction? (I still haven't played as Guard, Eldar, Tau, or Necrons.) Do we want to have at least one game with each faction in it, along with my unit breakdowns for each faction?

What say you, Talking Tyrants?

Yes. The myriad combinations of armies sounds like something that would invite burnout, and I think seeing the game from each army's perspective would be illuminating.

Good LP, by the way. I've always wanted to see how DoW played, and hey: it's pretty cool.

I'd say you play at least one game as each faction, preferably with as good a faction/unit breakdown as you can provide. I'm really taking this LP as an educational experience in a way most aren't, and quite enjoying it.

Does Dark Crusade include dark eldar, or is that the next one (Soulstorm?). 'cause I love me some dark lances...

This thread has inspired me, though I'm not sure if it's to try out my rommate's copy of the game, or set back at yet another futile painting run on the 5000 pts. of dark eldar sitting on the bookshelf next to me...

The Dark Eldar are in Soulstorm. The popular consensus is that Soulstorm is poorly tuned, and Iron Lore (who made the expansion for Relic) went under early this year.

It's been kind of a long day, so I'm going to punt on capturing and uploading images of my savage defeat at the hands of the Eldar until tomorrow. Instead, you'll be getting a unit breakdown for another of the core (non-expansion) factions in a little bit.

So I was going to do a rundown on the Eldar, before a quick glance at the Relic wiki made it clear to me that I had no bloody clue about how the Eldar really worked. So you get Chaos instead, as most of their low-end units are close enough to Space Marines that I'm unlikely to make any terribly egregious errors.

Also, I've added the in-game unit icons to this post and my earlier Space Marine unit breakdown, so you'll have a slightly better idea of what units look like while I yammer on about them.


Heretic
This creepy fellow here with the giant fishhook stuck through his head is Chaos' builder unit. Heretics are less efficient than most other builders by default, but you can use the Forced Labor ability to make them build super-fast at the price of their health, which decreases precipitously.


Cultist Squad
Cultists are like the Scout Marine Squad, except there are more of them to start with (4), you can collect more of them (10), and they totally, utterly, suck at everything other than capturing strategic points and dying in the name of the Ruinous Powers. Oh, and they take up as many CP as a Chaos Marine squad.

Aside from acting as meat shields for your real units, if you buy two upgrades, Cultists can infiltrate (i.e. be stealthy) and detect stealth, which gives them some mid-to-late game use as scouts. Also, you can reinforce them with an Aspiring Champion, which is mostly useful because you can then maneuver them behind your enemy's base before transforming the Champion into a Bloodthirster... but if you have to money to pull those kinds of shennanigans, why haven't you won already?


Chaos Space Marine
Like Space Marines, but with 15 less health each and with horns on their helmets! Oh, and a higher squad cap (10 vs. 8), less heavy weapons options (no flamers or missile launchers), and a more aggressive squad leader (the Aspiring Champion). Instead of rallying broken squads, the Aspiring Champion has the Berserk Fury ability, which boosts the squad's damage output a lot, increases damage sustained (a little), and reduces morale damage taken (by 50%) for 10 seconds. Obviously, Chaos favors the aggressive approach.


Raptors
Like Assault Marines, but easier to produce, and with a lot less morale (300 vs. 450). Oh, and instead of having two jumps worth of fuel in their jump pack before needing to recharge, they only have one. By the numbers, Raptors just aren't as good as Assault Marines. Which is why they cost 2 CP to the Assault Marines' 3.

That said, the fact that you don't have to build the (Chaos) Armory before producing them makes them perfect for maps like Absolute Zero. Plus, as Chaos is wont to do, they deal more damage with their chainswords than Assault Marines do, at least before the Assault Marines are upgraded. If you reinforce them with an Aspiring Champion, you can really do some damage. Oh, and you can buy them Flamers, as well as an upgrade that gives them a temporary speed boost. Yawn.


Khorne Berzerkers
Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!

If the Raptor squad didn't deal enough melee damage for you, Khorne has the answer. The Khorne Berzerkers are immune to morale damage, deal a hideous amount of melee damage, and only cost slightly more Power (that is to say, any) than a Chaos Marine squad. You have to have upgraded to a Desecrated Fortress and constructed a Sacrificial Circle to build these guys, but if you can spare the 3 CP they cost, they're a pretty good deal.

Oh, and if you upgrade to Tier 3, you can buy an ability for them that lets them deal some sickening amount of morale damage to nearby infantry units and make them run away. Which would be more exciting if that last sentence didn't include the clause 'upgrade to Tier 3'.


Horror Squad
Horrors are giant gaping demonic mouths that have arms and legs attached. Which is pretty horrific! Also, they kill vehicles good, and are useless against anything that is not a vehicle. Oh, and you can deploy them to the field by teleportation! And you need a Sacrificial Circle to build them.

I believe that more or less covers Horrors.


Chaos Lord
The Force Commander, but evil. Oh, and he's cheaper and deals more damage, but doesn't upgrade as well. The Relic Wiki claims that he's better than the Force Commander early-game, but I'm skeptical, as Commanders tend to be useful in direct proportion to how hard they are to kill. (The Tau Commander is an exception.) His Tainted Auspex power is pretty keen, though, as it lets you place an object that detects stealth and lets you keep the shroud cleared in that area of the map.

You'll clearly want to build a Chaos Lord - at least in the absence of some weird exploitative build order like my Raptor rush - but he's nothing to write home about.


Chaos Sorcerer
In the hands of a player who can micro-manage their units and use powers deftly, the Chaos Sorcerer is great - he can teleport, lock down opposing units, and otherwise cause havoc, making him worth buying the instant you have a Desecrated Fortress. I am not that player, and I deem the Chaos Sorcerer too fiddly to be useful. YMMV.

Chaos Rhino
If this unit was actually a demonic rhinoceros, it would probably be more useful. As it is, you can get tricky with the smoke screen upgrade (which halves ranged damage in the affected area) and Khorne Berzerkers (which deal, uh, melee damage), but most of the time you're probably better off spending your money on combat units instead of trying to be clever.


Defiler
...point in case. The Defiler is mediocre at every vehicle role (artillery, close support, vehicle/structure killing), but that means it can fill whatever role you want it to. As long as you get your Machine pit up and running before your opponent can build vehicles, your Defilers should be able to help finish them off before their supposedly superior units show up.


Chaos Predator
Like pretty much every other Chaos unit with the 'Chaos' prefix, it's exactly like the equivalent Space Marine unit, except with more spikes. You can build the Chaos Predator without teching up to Tier 3 first, though, which is a pretty huge advantage. If you've got the extra power, it's worth building Chaos Predators instead of Defilers, both because they're faster and because you can upgrade their weapons to make them even more horrific on the field of battle.

At long last, it's the show you’ve all been waiting for: Me getting my ass kicked by an Insane AI! And just to make it extra embarrassing, I’m going to lose to Space Elves.

I suppose I should be glad that Games Workshop retconned the Squats out of existence or had the Inquisition virus-bomb their planets or something. Because the only opponent more embarrassing to lose to than a space elf... would be a space dwarf.

Map: Fear
Space Marines vs. Space Elves! Uh, I mean Eldar.


Hey, look, resource cheats! The AI has already spent about 80 Power, and it still has 200 left, while a human player starts with 100 Power and about half as much Requisition. An Insane AI can afford to spam units and tech structures, if it’s so inclined.


First contact is my reinforced Tactical Squad facing off against a Guardian Squad with a Warlock leader. Eldar can reinforce their guardian squads with Warlocks right off the bat, as compared to all the other factions in the game, which either need to tech up, build their squad leaders separately (Guard), or just don’t have them (Necrons).


While my Tac squad chase off the Guardians, another Guardian Squad is murdering the Scout Marine Squad I sent to capture the two Strategic Points on the S-shaped mountain path that runs through the center of the map. I don’t think I was paying attention, because the Scout Marines go down without a fight.


My Tactical Squad pursue the remaining Guardians through the edge of my base and across the mountain to the site of my Scout Marines’ demise, where they finish them off before disrupting the second Guardian squad’s capture attempt. The arrival of some Howling Banshees (Eldar melee specialists) is trumped by the arrival of my Force Commander.


Here we see my main force assaulting an upgraded Listening Shrine. It takes me a long time to take it down, because the morale on my Tactical Squads keeps dropping for no discernable reason.


Here, as the Shrine dies, we see the reason: An infiltrated Ranger squad. Eldar Rangers are equipped with slow-firing sniper rifles that just ruin infantry, and shatter morale. And because they’re infiltrated, I can’t see them unless I build Skull Probes.


Needless to say, I retreat, regroup, and reinforce my squads with a Skull Probe so I can hunt and kill those damn sneaky Rangers.


Unfortunately, when I show up, the Rangers have wandered off. Instead, I have to face an Eldar Harlequin. Harlequins, mind you, are harmless clowns wearing masks and goofy clothing. Unless they’re space elves, of course, in which all of the above is true, and they will carve through your infantry like a hot knife through butter, knocking people down, interrupting attacks, and generally making such a nuisance of themselves that they can’t be ignored.

This one isn’t even upgraded. Much, anyway.

Meanwhile, a Howling Banshee squad is hammering away at one of my upgraded Listening Posts, reinforcing itself as its members die, proving that even on Insane, the AI in Dawn of War isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer.


Having disposed of that #$%! Harlequin, I proceed into the AI’s base and start exterminating its Bonesingers. Here you can see my Force Commander and Tactical Squad railing on a partially finished Support Portal (the Eldar Vehicle production structure). Things are looking up!

Unfortunately, this was my high-water mark. Everything went downhill from here.

Oh, look, a Farseer. That shouldn’t be too hard to deal with...


...unless it’s followed up by another filthy infantry-slaughtering Harlequin, of course...


...and only a sadist would follow that up by bringing their Howling Banshees home from their futile attempts to kill my listening post. But I’m sure nothing else can go wrong.


Okay, the AI turning all of its structures invisible is a bit of a setback. But surely I can kill those Howling Banshees before the AI pops out another unit, right?


I’m pretty sure that pumping out a continuous stream of Harlequins is supposed to be a little harder than this. Oh, right, 40% resource cheat.


So, right here? This is where I lose the game. While my units are distracted by the never-ending Harlequin cabaret, the AI sneaks out a Bonesinger and completes its Support Portal. As you’ll see in a moment, this was decisive.


Oh, and the completed Support Portal went invisible too. Just to add insult to injury and ensure that I would have no chance of stopping the AI even if I did manage to fight off the never-ending stream of knife-wielding maniacs it was sending at me.


If I hadn’t been playing versus an Insane AI, this tactical retreat might have done something other than prolong the game. Sadly...


Oh, hey, it’s a Wraithlord! ~3000 health, vehicle armor (which reduces incoming damage from bolters to almost nothing), and 540-660 melee damage. Plus flamethrowers.

Did I mention that when the AI completed its Support Portal was when I lost the game?


The smears on the ground? Space Marines. The unit with the two yellow boxes under its health bar? Farseer.

And yes, those are two Wraithlords. How very perceptive of you to notice!

These guys are Warp Spiders. In the event that two Wraithlords and a Farseer aren’t enough to stomp me flat, the AI can spam these charmers and hit my poor Space Marines for ~100 damage per shot.

For reference, Space Marine Bolters deal about ~20 damage per shot. I am fucked.


Remember when I mentioned that Wraithlords have flamethrowers? Apparently the Farseer wanted her Assault Marine steak well-done.


In the two minutes between this screenshot and the last, I’ve killed the Farseer and one Wraithlord, and have almost taken out the second one. Unfortunately, the AI can pump out new Wraithlords as quickly as my Grey Knights and Missile-armed Tac squads can kill them.


Having decided that vehicle superiority was insufficient, the AI has been spamming Warp Spiders. Those smears on the ground are the remains of my once-proud army.


The game drags on for a few minutes more, but the outcome?


Is never in doubt.

--

As decisive and one-sided as the endgame was, I think I actually could have won this one if I’d played slightly differently and done better at force projection. There was a 2-3 minute period in the mid-game where the AI was only holding me off by spamming Harlequins and Farseers, which weren’t doing that much damage before my army killed them and got back to smashing the Support Portal.

If instead of sending my Assault Marine squad to capture the Critical Location in the west, I’d brought them in to off the Howling Banshees, I suspect that I could’ve killed the Bonesinger that finished the Support Portal, even if I’d lost a couple of squad members to the Harlequin while doing so. Without the Support Portal, the AI would’ve had to keep on spamming infantry, which would’ve been manageable if I’d built a forward production structure.

Note that I don’t think I would have won the game even if I’d realized exactly what was going on – my micromanagement skills are not that great at the best of times, and I was starved for cash throughout, so it’s quite possible that trying to build a forward production structure would’ve bankrupted me just as I needed to reinforce a dying unit. But it certainly felt as if the game was actually close for a while there, which prompted me to play against another Insane AI, this time as the Tau. The Tau are much less fair than the Space Marines, I reasoned. How could I possibly lose?

The AI spammed Guardian squads, reinforced them to full capacity, and killed me in 5 minutes. Apparently the only reason I had a chance in the Space Marine game was because the AI dumped most of its early resource advantage into teching up.

So, yeah; that was pretty humbling. Next time, I play as Tau. And win.

The Tau are basically an anime-derived race with tons of mechs (which look surprisingly boxy and silly as miniatures in the tabletop game) and high-tech battle suits, who unlike pretty much everyone else in the Warhammer 40K universe, are actually semi-altruistic. Their society is built around the ideal of serving the Greater Good, which, given that this is still Warhammer, can usually be achieved by blowing some poor sap's face off with a plasma round.


Earth Caste Builder
Oh, look, it’s the Servitor. Except less creepy, and it flies.

*yawn* Next.


XV15 Stealth Team
Tau default infantry. A squad starts with one member, and is infiltrated by default. Against most factions, this is awesome. Eldar and Chaos are the exception, since they get stealth detectors easily and early. Also, if you buy the Jump Packs upgrade, you can jump your stealth teams from one strategic point up and down cliffs to the next, which means that you'll typically get to resource points before your opponents, which they won't be able to do anything about, because they can't see you.

I probably shouldn’t have to say this, but stealth teams are awesome.


Vespid Stingwing Strain
Vespids build from the Cadre Headquarters (the Tau HQ building, which unlike the HQ of other factions, never gets upgraded), and can’t capture strategic points. You might think that this would make them suck, but you would be wrong.

Vespids are awesome for two reasons. The first is that they, like the Stealth Team and the Tau Commander, benefit from the jump packs upgrade, giving them significant mobility. The second is that they have the Destabilization ability, which deals 200 damage to buildings over 10 seconds and makes them take 50% more damage for those 10 seconds. This makes Vespids great units for early and mid-game harassment, as well as great supporting units for a final push into the enemy’s base. Oh, and their melee attack is great vs. buildings, making them ideal for taking down enemy listening posts.


Fire Warrior Team
Fire warriors are the backbone of the Tau’s combat forces. They’re complete rubbish in melee combat, but if you can get them set up and firing while your other units (typically Kroot Carnivores) keep the enemy pinned down, they’ll tear anyone else’s standard infantry units apart. Also, the huge range on their weapons means that as long as you have someone else spotting for them, they’re going to get off a bunch of attacks on anyone foolish enough to try to close with them. Just don’t let them get stuck in melee.


Kroot Carnivores
Unless you’re taking on a particularly fragile faction, like the Eldar, Kroot are basically just meat shields for your Fire Warriors. They do very well at that job, though, so you always want a squad or two of Kroot around to soak up hits and tie down opposing melee units.

As an aside, it's kind of horrible that the Kroot's usual contribution to the Greater Good is to die so their Tau masters can live. I'm sure there's some kind of parallel to colonialism in there if you look for it.


Pathfinder Team
I should probably use Pathfinder teams more than I do, but they’re kind of fiddly, and by now you should be aware of my opinion on fiddly units. They detect stealth, have a really long vision range, and can mark targets so other ranged units will do more damage to them. Probably great if used right, but with the Tau, I tend to prefer brute force to finesse.


XV88 Broadside Battlesuit
Aw, yeah. Broadside Battlesuits are slow, lumbering engines of destruction. They don’t take morale damage, and when you deploy them, they rip vehicles and buildings to shreds with their rail guns. Oh, and they aren’t vehicles, so you don’t have to build a Vehicle Beacon to build them. If only they weren’t so darn expensive and slow to build, I’d get to use them more often.


Tau Commander
The Tau Commander is probably the single best argument for Tau being overpowered. If you buy the Jump packs upgrade, he becomes highly maneuverable, and with the Flamer upgrade, he can single-handedly break and kill enemy infantry squads if you take the time to move him into Flamer range. Yes, you have to micro him, and yes, I don’t usually like micro-intensive units. The thing is, the Tau Commander really is that good. The only drawback to him is that every upgrade except the jump jets is unit-specific, so the Flamer and any other weapons you buy for him (he can get missile packs and two primary weapon upgrades) will be lost if he dies. Which he shouldn't, unless things go terribly wrong.

Oh, and the Tau Commander can’t attach himself to units. Which is good, since doing that would be a grotesque waste.

...which is why every Tau vehicle portrait looks exactly the same.


Devilfish Troop Carrier
Hey, look, a troop transport with a purpose! Which, in this case, is being a stealthed vehicle with decent guns. Also, I suppose you can use the Devilfish to reposition your Fire Warriors when people get close to them if you’re not willing to use Kroot to hold the line.

I don’t really use the Devilfish very much, but the fact that it’s infiltrated by default suggests that it might actually be good, unlike the rest of the game’s troop transports.


Skyray Missile Gunship
The Skyray is great versus vehicles, infantry, and structures, as long as you can keep it out of combat. Its missiles aren’t super-accurate, but it can pump out a lot of damage, and will throw infantry all over the place, so it’s well worth using if the game goes that long. Their Missile Barrage ability is typically the second thing I research at the Path to Enlightenment, after Advanced Pulse Rifles (which buffs the damage output on Fire Warriors).


Drone Harbinger
To make the Drone Harbinger work, you really have to build up a different kind of economy than the kind I prefer. For 30 Power, you can pump out a Gun Drone with a 40 second lifespan that deals as much damage as the Harbinger itself. This means that to use the Harbinger effectively, you need a truly silly number of power plants, or else huge reserves of Power.

I’m not saying that it wouldn’t be effective, but I’d honestly rather build my economy around Requisition and overwhelm the enemy with Fire Warriors, Battlesuits, and Skyray Missile Gunships.

All in all, Tau are a tad micromanagement heavy, but the advantages of their specialized units outweigh the disadvantages. The fact that all of their units are expensive is an insufficient compensation for the edge that having an infiltrated default infantry unit provides them.

I got a lot of use out of devilfish when I played. They're insanely cheap, so while they dropped pretty quickly to anything that could target them, they were worth it.

And yeah, I really wish broadsides were more useful.

I'll have to try out the devilfish sometime, then. I tend to rush straight to Skyrays, so I'm not even sure if I've ever produced one.

This brings back memories of Fire Warrior for PS2 (a deeply flawed but really enjoyable game.)

FOR THE GREATER GOOD!

I rather like the boxy look. It reminds me of ancient Chinese soldiers (which was one of the sources for the look, apparently).

It should be noted, however, that the source material implies that not everything in the T'au empire is as it seems. The Ethereals (which you don't mention, though I can't blame you) control the society, and they seem to have some sort of control over the T'au. It adds some of the requisite 40k darkness to the race, anyway.

Clarify? I'm really into Qin Dynasty & Three Kingdoms-era Chinese history (and not just as filtered through the Dynasty Warriors/Tactics games), and I'm having a hard time seeing the resemblance. I'm not saying it's not there, mind you.

Heh, yeah, there was something on the 40K site that implied that the Imperium theorized that the Ethereals might be controlling the other castes via pheromones or some other method of mass social/mind control. More or less what you'd expect from the Imperium's analysts, of course, but not something to dismiss out of hand.

As for Ethereals in-game, I think the only time I've ever seen one was in a cut-scene when I attacked the Tau capital in the Dark Crusade campaign. About 30 seconds after that, twenty gazillion Fire Warriors and Broadside Battlesuits descended on my base and blew it to smithereens.

There's a reason I'm not trying to play through that campaign.

Map: Quest’s Triumph
Tau vs. Eldar (Very Hard)

I played vs. an AI with a 20% resource cheat on this one, just because I could. Also, Quest’s Triumph is one of my favorite maps, although it’s probably not all that fair – there’s only one way into each player’s base, barring jump troops, which means that it’s easy to defend your base and just as easy to lock a player in their starting area.

I start with a Stealthsuit x2, Earth Caste Builder, Jump Packs build order, and have my builders create a Tau Barracks. While the Barracks builds a Tau Commander, I shift the builders over to a power generator.


Here we see my first Stealthsuit using his jump pack to leap downhill to the next strategic point. The combination of jump packs and automatic infiltration makes Stealthsuits absolutely ridiculous in the early game.


Unfortunately, I’m playing vs. Eldar, and the AI’s resource cheats mean that it can afford to spam Warlock officers into all of its Guardian Squads. Here we see a Warlock-equipped squad shooting the snot out of my stealthsuit.


Thankfully, my Tau Commander shows up to distract the Eldar just as my Stealthsuit is about to eat it, and I take the strategic point. The AI is really bad at prioritizing targets in this kind of situation, which is probably for the best - it'd probably be impossible for anyone to beat an Insane AI if it killed off your capture units more consistently (instead of just impossible for me).


Once I’ve taken all of the strategic points on my starting plateau, I jump my second stealthsuit down the cliff. I should have taken the strategic point at the cliff’s foot, but I didn’t quite click in the right place and was busy micromanaging my Tau Commander, so instead my stealthsuit sat on his ass for a couple of minutes.


Meanwhile, my Tau Commander was holding off two Guardian Squads, which took quite a chunk out of his health. The nearer of my two stealthsuits came over to help, and ate it for his trouble. (He was supposed to be capturing the Imperial Relic, but he wasn’t on Hold Ground stance, so he hared off and got himself killed.) Even with the Flamer upgrade, I had to jump my Commander out of danger.


Of course, the tactical retreat allowed him to link up with a squad of Fire Warriors, and soon enough he was back in the thick of it again, shattering the enemy’s morale while the Fire Warriors cleaned house.


My second stealthsuit had finally captured the strategic point at the bottom of the cliff, so I sent him to capture the critical location in the center of the map. I saw a Guardian squad moving as if it too was headed for the critical location, so I sent my Commander and Fire Warriors in to distract them. The distraction worked a little too well, as I caught the attention of one more Guardian Squad than I’d bargained for.


Things weren’t going so well at first, as the concentrated fire took down 3 of my Fire Warriors, but then I moved my Tau Commander into a position where he could train his Flamer on both Guardian Squads, and soon the tables were turned. Broken and bleeding, the Eldar ran for their lives.


This is a shot of the critical location up the hill from the Imperial Relic that was in the corner of the last picture. The Eldar have 3 Guardian Squads here, one of them fully reinforced, but unless they all counterattack at once, the position that my Tau Commander and the two Fire Warrior Teams have taken up means that the Guardians will get butchered before they even get into range. The sparkly blue explosions near the top of the screen are my troops firing on the Eldar listening post.


The AI counterattacks, but with one squad at a time instead of sending all of them together. This carnage was the inevitable result.

At this point, I build my first Kroot squad. I usually build Kroot earlier, but the Eldar aren’t long on melee combatants other than Howling Banshees, at least at this stage in the game, and I haven’t seen any Banshees yet. Still, better safe than sorry. It’s always good to have some Kroot around when you’re playing Tau.


My Fire Warriors were doing a good job of cutting off the AI from the left side of the map, but that just meant that the right side was open. When the AI made a play for the right side, I sent my Fire Warriors after his guardians, and got pincered between two squads for my efforts. Thankfully, my Tau Commander was there to save the day.


My Kroot showing up to butcher the Guardians in close combat didn’t hurt either.


Hey, look, Vespids! Like Kroot, I usually build these guys earlier, but because I was trying to show off with the Tau Commander and cut off the AI from both the left and right sides of the map, I focused on Fire Warriors so I could cut down their Guardians. These guys will make short work of the Listening Post the Eldar rebuilt in my absence, though.


At this point I’ve got 3 fully reinforced Fire Warrior Teams, 1 fully reinforced Kroot Carnivore squad, and 1 fully reinforced Vespid Stingwing Strain, in addition to the Tau Commander. I set the Kroot to capturing the Imperial Relic that used to be capped by the listening post, and send my Fire Warriors, Vespids, and Tau Commander to kill the listening post at the foot of the ramp to the Eldar base. If I see any Howling Banshees, I can always call in the Kroot to back up my Fire Warriors.


It’s a little hard to see here, but the AI actually was building Howling Banshees, along with the squad of Rangers sitting next to the listening post. Thankfully Vespids detect stealth, so my Fire Warriors make short work of the Rangers before moving on to the Banshees. A couple of my Vespids die, but the Banshees are cut down by rifle fire before they can kill anyone else.


Once the listening post (and everyone around it) is dead, I move my army up to capture the strategic point. A guardian squad that escaped my previous sweeps tries to interrupt me, but dissolves under the concentrated fire of my army. The Eldar are locked into their base for the rest of the game.


Amusingly, the Eldar keep trying to run Bonesingers past my waiting force. I’m not sure why it expects this to work, as they dissolve into a puddle of gore pretty much the instant my Fire Warriors can see them.


Eventually, a Farseer, a Guardian squad, and some Howling Banshees show up to protest my tenancy on their doorstep. The Tau Commander informs them that our presence serves the Greater Good, and that all complaints should be addressed to his pulse rifle.


My infantry command point cap has risen to 15, which shows that I’ve completed my Path to Enlightenment (the Tau upgrade structure, which also grants access to Tier 2 units). I start researching Advanced Pulse Rifles and Feral Leap (a Kroot upgrade that makes them really good at holding off melee attackers). I also start building a Vehicle Beacon right in front of the Eldar Base. It’s for the Greater Good! I promise.

(Actually, like a lot of the things I’m doing in this game, I’m building the Vehicle Beacon here just because I can. It would’ve been really conveniently placed if the AI had put up a better fight, though.)

Here I am in the AI’s base, killing his dudes. And his barracks. And whatever else I can see, given that the AI’s cloaked its buildings and my Vespids are hanging out in the back of my army for some reason.


I could be attacking the Eldar’s HQ here, but I prefer to take out (armed) listening posts and turrets first, unless the HQ building is almost dead. If you leave turrets alone for long enough, they can break the morale of your attackers, giving the AI extra time that it doesn’t deserve.


Meanwhile, back at home, I’m building the Mont’ka Command Post. The Tau have two incompatible buildings that they build to gain access to tier 3 units – the Mont’ka and Kauyon Command Posts. Kauyon is the path of the Patient Hunter, and gives you access to advanced Kroot units, while Mont’ka is the path of the Killing Blow, and gives you access to Crisis Battlesuits and hover tanks. I’ve already won, but if things went on long enough, I’d vastly prefer hover tanks and the like to engaging in shenanigans with weird Kroot monsters.


My conveniently placed Vehicle Beacon has just kicked out my first Skyray Gunship. And I’m building a Kroot Shaping Center at the base of the AI’s ramp too, just to add insult to injury.


Depressingly, the last thing I have to kill isn’t the Eldar HQ, but a Webway Gate. Apparently those count as unit production structures? Or something?

Anyway, the Greater Good has prevailed! Which means that after exercising their right of Eminent Domain, the Tau can turn what used to be the Eldar base into a parking lot. Or a commune. Possibly even a communal parking lot!

I wish I had more info, but my source cites a White Dwarf issue as it's source to that, which I can't really get my hands on.

Also, the Tau headquarters mission is probably the most compelling reason to play as the Tau in the campaign mode. I found the Necron mission easier, and they threw the Nightbringer at you at the end.

...and the Tau HQ is still worse? Gah.

I found the Chaos and Imperial Guard headquarters missions doable (even though the Imperial Guard kept throwing Vindicare assassins at me and taking out my commanders) and I never tried the Ork or Eldar ones. But the Tau and Necron ones both annihilated me every time I tried.

I'll probably be playing as Imperial Guard next, so here's their unit rundown:


Techpriest Enginseer
Finally, an interesting builder unit! Techpriests are actually great. While the Guard is limited to having 3 of them around at a time, they’re immune to morale damage, and pack a lasgun, in exchange for being slower than other builder units. You don’t really want to throw them into combat on their own, but they can provide fire support and man the garrison weapons on Guard structures.


Imperial Guardsmen
Guardsmen are the bread and butter of a Guard army, at least in 1v1, because, well, the game should be over before you unlock upper-tier infantry like Kaskrin or Ogryns. You can build Guardsmen from both the Field Command (Guard HQ building) and the Infantry Command (Guard barracks building), so there’s pretty much no excuse not have 5+ squads of Guardsmen on the field at all times after the early game.

Also, the fact that Guardsmen have their combat ability change significantly based on what commander they have attached and what upgrades their controller has purchased makes it really hard to play against the Imperial Guard and know what's going on unless you're paying close attention. One minute, you can smear any Guardsmen you encounter across the floor, and the next they're gunning down everything you throw at them, just because a tiny dude with a chainsaw attached himself to them. This is a pretty big readability problem that (at least as far as I can tell) Relic never really made any effort to address.


Heavy Weapons Team
The Heavy Weapons Team is a bit of a resource hog, as well as being a micro-heavy unit, (in that it’s all but useless until you deploy it). But as long as you can get it into a strategic position, its heavy bolter will rain down death on enemy infantry. I tend not to use them very often, as I’m not terribly good at micro and multitasking, but when you need to hold a choke point or set up a base of fire right now instead of waiting for a Techpriest to build a Heavy Bolter Turret, the Heavy Weapons Team is your best bet.


Command Squad
The Imperial Guard is different from pretty much every other faction in that their primary commander unit is actually a squad. When you build the Command Squad, it only contains the Imperial General, but you can reinforce it with up to 2 other squad members, choosing from the Guard’s list of secondary commanders: the Commissar, the Psyker, and the Priest. I tend to go General + Commissar + Priest, and build the Psyker only when I need a detector or after I’ve bought the Uncommon Valor upgrade, which increases the Squad Cap on the Command Squad to 5, but there’s a legitimate argument to be made for Psyker or all-Priest builds.

Also, the Command Squad gets the Strafing Run ability after you upgrade your Field Command to a Regimental Command, which is kind of like the Force Commander’s Orbital Bombardment, but easier to get.


Commissar
Ah, Commissars. The cheapest and most efficient of the Guard’s secondary commanders. You only get 3 of them at a time, and the Priest outclasses them in most ways, but you need them around to make your Guardsmen Squads more than easily broken cannon fodder. Commissars buff maximum squad morale by 200 and increase health regeneration. They also have a fairly good melee attack with their chainsword, and squads led by Commissars can be used to tie up ranged specialists (though not as well as squads that are led by a priest).

Also, once you’ve upgraded to a Battle Command, the Commissar can execute one of his own squad members to ‘rally’ them and nearby squads, restoring morale and boosting the maximum damage of their lasguns. Which is super effective, if appropriately creepy.

As an aside, both of my favorite 40K novel series are partially about Imperial Guard Commissars. The Gaunt's Ghosts books start out slow, but they pick up around Necropolis, and by the time you get to Traitor General, The Armour of Contempt, and Only in Death, they're on par with or superior to almost any non-gaming SF novels you could name - Only in Death could well be the best ghost story I've ever read.

Less technically superb, but still a lot of fun, are Sandy Mitchell's Ciaphas Cain books. Cain is a pastiche of George MacDonald Fraser's Harry Flashman in the 40K universe, and again, by the later books in the series, his work goes from merely serviceable to actively good. Death or Glory is really quite elegant, and the omnibus of the first three novels is a good deal for anyone who wants an amusing introduction to the 40K world.

Anyway. On with the analysis.


Psyker
Blech. Psykers are fine in the Command Squad if you don’t mind microing their abilities, but researching the ability to make more has always seemed like a waste of time to me. They can be attached to squads as leaders, but they provide no bonuses, effectively rendering the guardsmen into meat shields. Only worth it if your opponent is tossing lots of infiltrated units at you, since Psykers are the Guard’s only real stealth detectors.


Priest
Priests are the best secondary commander available to the Guard, providing major speed and damage boosts to their squad and dealing a significant amount of damage on their own with their eviscerator chainsaw/sword. While they don’t buff morale as well as the Commissar, they provide a valuable health boost, and their damage boost stacks with that generated by the Commissar’s Execute command. Assuming the game goes long enough, Priests also get the Fanaticism ability once you build a Regimental Command, which allows them to rally their squad and make it immune to damage (morale or otherwise) for 10 seconds. It’s well worth unlocking them as soon as you can spare the resources.


Chimera
Another crappy transport unit. Apparently the Chimera actually has weapons, with more weapons being activated as it carries more troops, but I’m still underwhelmed, especially as the Imperial Guard can transport troops from building to building using a tunnel network. Apparently Chimerae can be used to good effect with Ogryns, but Ogryns can’t be built until after you build a Regimental Command. Avoid, unless you’re playing on a map designed for more than 2 players.


Sentinels
Once you get past the Chimera, pretty much all the Guard’s vehicles are actually useful. Sentinels can decap (but not capture) strategic points, so they’re ideal for taking out an enemy listening post and taking away control of a point, then leaving before the enemy shows up. They’re also solid anti-vehicle units, and though they’re worse vs. vehicles than a Heavy Weapons Team with the Lascannon upgrade, they’re also a lot more flexible than a specialized anti-vehicle Heavy Weapons Team. Best used for harassment or kiting slower moving enemy vehicles like the Dreadnought and Defiler.


Hellhound
Despite my affection for the Sentinel, I tend to build Hellhounds instead. Their weapon ruins enemy morale, and is more accurate on the move than that of almost every other unit in the game. Also, if you have vehicle superiority (i.e. you can build vehicles and the other guy can’t), Hellhounds can help you keep things that way by butchering your opponents’ infantry forces and ruining their economy, since they’re almost as good versus structures as Sentinels are. They aren’t so great in the endgame, but if the game goes on that long, you should be building Leman Russ Tanks and Baneblades anyway.

Yay, the Imperial Guard. Thousands of pointy flashlight beams will incinerate you!

Fun fact: when I was playing vanilla DoW story mode and got to the mission where I was given a couple squads of guardsmen, I saw the red beams and thought they were targeting pointers. But, as I kept playing, I noticed something: I never saw what they were actually shooting. I kept zooming in to see the real bullets, but I never saw any, and I thought it was a bug.

Maybe you could try playing a longer game sometime soon? I don't think you've gotten to tier 3 once yet, and you've barely scratched tier 2 in most of your games. Maybe you could get a nice little 4-player free-for-all going or something. I don't know how feasible that would be with hard/very hard AI, though - I have a sneaking suspicion you'd just get tripled two minutes in.

The AIs in Dark Crusade are actually pretty good about killing each other rather than killing you - I did 4-player free for all a while back where I fought off the Eldar early, then turned around to kill the Tau, and when I went to finish off the Eldar, Chaos had already crushed them. So I can definitely do a 4-player free-for-all as either my finale or as bonus content once I've finished with one game per faction.

Did they made the HQ as good and the vehicles as cheep as they are table top? I could see some serious balance problems there... (fully ramped up Archon I'll take over anything else in the game save Necrons with phase scythes. I've cut through Wrathlords like they weren't even there, never mind the Incubi).

From what I've read, these are more or less exactly the problems people have with the Dark Eldar.

Being true to your source material isn't always a virtue.

Also, I'm not feeling so good this week, so updates may be slow. Sorry.

Map: Tranquility’s End
Imperial Guard vs. Chaos

Way back on page 1, I referenced the worst game I’d ever seen the AI play. It wasn’t this game, and it involved the AI not building a Generator for half the game while playing as Tau. (Tau need power for, um, everything. Other than Fire Warriors, Kroot, and basic buildings, that is.)

This game may actually have surpassed that game for the title of “stupidest AI behavior”. However, despite the AI’s strategic failings, the game shows Chaos making a valiant effort to come back from a losing position, as well as me shifting my strategy on the fly based on an unexpected opportunity.


Here we see the AI being a tool. Instead of going 2x Cultist, 1x Heretic, it builds Cultists, Heretic, Cultists, and then has the Heretic sitting around doing nothing while its other Heretic struggles to get its Chaos Temple built. Oh, and it built another Heretic after this picture. And what did it do for several minutes?

If you guessed “nothing”, you win a shiny wooden nickel.

As the AI spends its time sitting on its thumb, I’m going the hyper-aggressive expansion route, bypassing the Imperial Relic on my starting plateau in favor of grabbing strategic points in the center of the map and capping them. Not only does this give me slightly more income (Strategic points > Imperial Relics), but Strategic Points can be captured more quickly too, which means while the AI’s cultists are pinned down capturing its Relic, my guys are already moving towards the strategic points on its side of the map.


Here you see my Imperial General/Command Squad and my first Commissar heading over to reinforce my primary Guardsman squad. It’s slightly less than optimal strategy, but I’ve had the first squad I built on overwatch, automatically reinforcing itself until it hits the squad cap. This is because I want to make sure I win any early skirmishes over strategic points, as my original plan was to use my resource advantage to speed-tech to Tier 2 and spam Hellhounds and Sentinels for the win. This didn’t work out, as you’ll see.


Hey, the Priest for my Command Squad showed up! I always build a Priest first, because his bonuses to health and damage outweigh the Commissar’s bonus to morale in the short term.

Also, because I now know that Critical locations earn you Requisition, I’m rushing to take this one rather than trying dispute the strategic points next to the AI’s base. If I’d used the Command Squad to scout, though, I’d have realized that those were unprotected a little earlier.


The Imperial Relic on my plateau is lonely. It stays that way the whole game, which was an oversight on my part, as my Requisition dips to nearly nothing several times. Still, I was kind of busy spamming Guardsmen for most of the later half of the game.


As I push into the AI’s territory, recapturing the strategic point outside the plateau its base is built on, it hits me with a squad of Chaos Marines, which immediate run away from my Guardsmen. I’m... not actually sure why the AI does this, given that Chaos Marines > Guard. Maybe it’s trying to regroup so it can project overwhelming force? Point being, the AI withdraws from comparatively weak attacks on a regular basis, and here (as in the Marines vs. Necrons game that I showed you) the behavior has a very high long-term price.


Because I can’t cap the Critical Location in the center of the map, I send a Techpriest to build a Heavy Bolter Turret on the AI’s side of the island it’s on. I’d build the turret right next to the location, but there’s an exclusion zone around it, probably to prevent exactly that kind of shenanigans.


As my techpriest builds the turret, my primary force discovers that the AI hadn’t even captured the strategic point to the left of their base. This was more or less the point where my speed tech strategy went out the window. It’s 4 minutes into the game, and I’ve already started the countdown timer for a Control Area Victory. That’s a pretty epic failure on the AI’s part (since it means I control 75% of the map, more or less), but it almost means I can try to execute a forward turtle gambit, where I basically build up my base and defensive line right outside the AI’s plateau. I did that with Tau earlier, but there it was mostly showing off. Here, it’s my actual strategy. (Or it will be, once my push into the AI’s base is repelled.)


Just to provide some insurance in case the AI breaks my stranglehold on the map’s strategic points, I send my second guardsmen squad to the east, where they drive away the cultists who have captured that Critical Location and begin to recapture it. Not only does this get me more Requisition, but it also gives me a second victory countdown. If I play well, even if the AI techs up and uses Defiler spam to crush my forward emplacements, I should be able to hold their vehicles back long enough to win that way.


Of course, all of that is after-the-fact rationalization. At the time, I still thought I could win by just rolling into the AI’s base and killing everything.

A close encounter with two squads of Chaos Marines and an upgraded listening post persuaded me that this was excessively optimistic, and I fell back to my position at the base of the AI’s ramp to regroup.


Here we see the AI’s vain efforts to use Cultists to prevent me from building listening posts/destroy listening posts I’ve already created. Protip: It takes less time to upgrade a listening post to give it a machine gun to slaughter cultists than it does for a fully reinforced cultist squad to do a noticeable amount of damage to a listening post. And these cultist squads were below strength to begin with. Right now they’re just tying up the AI’s CP.