Dawn Of War 2: A Starter's Guide

Strategy and L2P topics.
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Dawn Of War 2: A Starter's Guide

Postby BaptismByLoli » Fri 09 May, 2014 11:44 am

Something I made a while back for this group. Since there's a thread here dedicated to post about strategies, I may as well post it here too.

This only focuses on understanding the core basics of the game. If you really want to see some in-depth details, just look at Codex's thread

Also, the 'Reviving' section here may seem sloppy cause tbh, I was annoyed when I was writing that and only wanted to get the point across. Have been too lazy to edit it since.

Introduction
------------------------
The, 'How To' thread will be a series of posts that I'll be making in the future to help players understand the core part of DoW2 Elite. In this thread, players will learn the very basic of DoW2 Elite that all players should be familiar with. If I missed anything, please feel free to leave a comment on it. And if you have a valid arguement regarding this 'How To', don't be afraid to raise the issue for the purpose of this group is to help players improve.
*Note
Resources are represented as Requisition/Power

Table Of Content
----------------------
Economy
Weapon Family
Micro vs Macro
Retreating
Splash Damage
Bleed
Concede
Reviving
End Note
Acknowledgement
----------------------

The Basics

  • Economy
    Requsition
    - Easily, the most used resource in game. Requistion is used for doing almost everything in this game to make your army stronger, be it purchasing/reinforcing/upgrading units or to buy power
    Power
    - THIS RESOURCE WINS YOU THE GAME. Okay maybe that's an exaggeration but in all honesty, power is used to upgrade units and allow them to fulfill specific roles, to tech up and more importantly, to purchase STRONGER units
    Upkeep
    - Easily one of the most overlooked aspects of the game by many new players. Upkeep only applies to you once your population exceeds 30/100 "What's so overlooked about this? You just capture points to increase your resource income dummy ^^!" Well, did you know each unit in-game has an upkeep?
    What is an upkeep you say? Upkeep is basically how much requisition it is taking from your requisition income ONLY in order for you to field those units. Upkeeps are unit specific, that is to say that each unit has their own upkeep cost. For example, Tactical Marines have an upkeep of 12.75 while a Scout Squad only has an upkeep of 7.65 per model(needs confirmation) etc. Upkeep thankfully only drains your requisition income and the more powerful a unit, the higher the upkeep. Therefore, ONLY field units you need and not for the lulz or risk having a Req income of +150/min compared to your enemies +250/min
    Increasing your income
    - Points/Node are the only way to increase your Req/Power income. There are two types of points in DoW2 Elite called Natural Points and Contested Points.
    Natural Points are Requisition/Power Points/Node which are extremely close to your team. If the enemy keeps on capturing and holding onto to this, you're in deep trouble.
    Contested Points are points which are usually in the middle of the map and is where the action usually happens. Unless your is team is holding the middle well, NEVER build your power generators here.

    Each point is special in its own way. For example, a requisition points matures over time. while a power point can have its income increased. A requisition point produces more Req/min the longer you hold on to it before capping at a certain income. In a 3v3, this cap is usually at +15 Req. However, when decapped by an enemy unit and recapped, it only produces +5 Req and needs time to mature again.

    Power Points however never mature. Instead, its income can be increased by spending Requisition points in it. First, it needs to be activated which cost 125/0. When activated, enemy teams will be unable to capture the point unless they destroy the activated power node which takes time. Time for you to defend the power node. Then, once activated, by spending 100/0 to purchase a generator, players will dramatically increase their power income from (in a 3v3) +2 power when unactivated, +4 when activated, and +5 for each generator placed (up to 3) up for a total of +19. Thus, for 425/0 players will bring a power income of +2 to +19. An activated power node with 3 generators is usually called a, 'Gen farm'. As it cost 425/0 to create a Gen farm, it can be seen why most players highly advice destroying the enemies Gen farm at every possible moment.

  • Weapon Family
    All weapons in DoW has a base DPS.(Damage per Second). This means how much damage the weapon deals to an enemy target at a mean rate of every second A weapon's DPS in based of
    1)Base Damage/Hit
    2)Damage type
    3)Weapon Accuracy

    - Base Damage/Hit
    All weapons begins with this set damage upon hitting an enemy target. However, upon hitting a target, the base damage will then be multiplied by its damage type.

    - Damage Type
    Each weapon belongs to 1 of many Damage Type. Each damage type has its own unqiue multiplier to be applied upon a successful hit. The full list however can be seen here. As an example,
    Tactical Marine has a bolter which belongs to the, 'Bolter' Weapon family. This weapon family deals a, 'piercing' damage type. The Bolters base damage is 25. When hitting an enemy target with heavy infantry armour, a multiplier of 0.67 is added. Thus, the final damage, assuming that the target is not in cover/garrison would equal to (25 x 0.67) 16.75/hit. This is later multiplied by the bolters reload duration (3 seconds) and reload frequency (6-8 shots fired), burst duration (2 seconds) and the weapon cooldown (1 second) after every burst made. All this multiplied will finally give the weapons final DPS of 9.77 to Heavy Infantry

    - Weapon Accuracy
    Weapon accuracy is based of three factors.
    1) Cover
    2) Damage Type & Target Size
    3) Movement
    Cover not only decreases incoming damage but also, the accuracy of incoming projectiles (excluding explosive and flame based damage) The amount reduced however depends on the cover type with garrison reducing the most and light cover reducing the least amount.

    All damage type in DoW2 has a base accuracy depending on the target size. There are 5 sizes in DoW2.
    Tiny
    Small
    Medium
    Large
    Huge
    In practice, The smaller a target is, the lesser the accuracy will be. However, some weapons, mostly Anti-Vehicle weapons that are Slow Firing, Single Shot such as Lascannon or Rocket Launchers have an accuracy penalty on Large< units while Fast Firing, Multiple shots weapons like Heavy bolter has only an accuracy penalty on Tiny Units.

    Most if not all infantry based weapons suffer an accuracy penalty when they being fired whilst the shooter is moving. Exceptions to this however include walker-vehicle based range weapons such as a Wraithlords with shoulder-mounted Brightlance or a Melta-Gun Dreadnought which still have 100% accuracy even while being fired on the move.

  • Micro Vs Macro
    What is the difference between macro and micro? And why is it so important to be good in both micro/macro-ing your army?

    The Difference
    - Macro
    Is the management of basically, all the simple generic stuff such as using your GLOBAL ABILITIES, moving your army, capturing points, assisting an ally, not floating resources or attacking an opposing army.

    - Micro
    Is the management of the smallest detail in your army such as using cover in a huge battle, using your units abilities, Shift clicking your vehicles so as to not expose their rear armour or kiting melee units.

    Why master Macro&Micro?
    - Both macro and micro are an important aspect in EVERY SINGLE RTS GAME. If you can't master this then you are never going to improve.

    Good macromanagement can help you control the map and have an economical and/or technological advantage over your enemy.
    Poor macromanagement will leave you out-teched with no requisition point, no power node, and having 1000/30 resources cause you failed to purchase power generators.

    Good micromanagement can help you win battles, wipe out enemy units and preserve/save dangerously low hp/fragile units such as Single-Model Tactical Marines, Fire Prism etc
    Poor micromanagement will make you lose battles, lose isolated units and make you retreat 3 Dire Avenger squad and 2 Weapon Platform just because 1 Dire Avenger squad was at low health.

    What to work on?
    - Though most people are good in both areas, new players (me included) tend to slowly but surely forget to micro their units as the battles get larger and the framerate goes to the toilet. Micro is arguably more important than Macro as these abilites can change the tide of a battle that you may be losing and give you all the advantages you can get. Examples include Banshee's 'Fleet of Foot' which greatly increases their speed and reduces oncoming range damage or a Warp Spiders haywire grenade which slows and disables a vehicle's weapon.

  • Retreating
    If you do not work on this. You will never win a single game. Ever. 'X' and 'Alt+X' are your best friend in DoW2

    What does retreating do?
    - By retreating your units, players will lose complete control of that unit until they have reached their base. One expection to this is the Imperial Guard Commisar who can execute a guardsmen to cancel retreat (useful for escaping from enemy AoE damage).

    Who can retreat?
    - All Commanders and Unit EXCEPT for (Super Heavy Infantry) Terminator-based units such as Paladins, Assault Terminators etc & Vehicles

    When retreating
    - Retreating units will gradually have their Movement Speed increased after a few seconds worth of delay
    - Will break suppression/snare/stun immediately.
    - Will receive only 20% range damage.
    - Will receive 90% explosive damage such as Grenades, Plasma Grenades, Grenade launcher
    - Will receive 130% melee damage.
    - Will gain immunity to weapon knockback. (Grenades, Special Attacks, Manticore)
    - Will NOT gain immunity to ability knockback. (Plasma Cannon Shot, Singularity, Nukes)
    - Will still be affected by domino knockback. (Getting hit by another model who was knocked back and just so happened to collide with retreating model.)

    How to retreat
    - NEVER drag a box around the units you want to retreat unless said units are isolated. This is to prevent you from accidently selecting and retreating a nearby Full HP unit by accident and make him run all the way back to HQ. Instead, look at the top right of your screen and see which number hotkey they are assigned to, (can be modified by selecting a unit and pressing Ctrl + number) press it and then MASH the X button until it flies of your keyboard. Why? Because if its not 'Lag' its the System that does not register the retreat button when you first order it. If you find yourself in a very BAD situation such as being outnumbered and outgunned, press, 'Alt+X' to retreat your entire army.

    When to retreat
    - 'Pff!! Retreat when your units are at low health of course!' Sadly, thats not the case. Dont forget that retreating units still take 100% explosive damage (grenades) and 130% melee damage. So before you even press that retreat button, look behind your army and what do you see? If you see melee units or units able to throw nades such as Scouts or Dire Avengers, DELAY THAT RETREAT and instead, try your best to position them away from those melee/explosive units so as to create a new retreat path for your units and preserve them.

  • Splash Damage
    What is splash damage?
    - Some weapons deal splash damage. This is to say that these weapons affects MORE than 1 model as long as they are nearby of each other and this even nearby squads can be affected by the splash damage. More models being hit = more damage being handed out to the squad.

    How effective is splash damage?
    - Most splash damage weapons tend to be good against Quantity based units such as Slugga/Shoota Boyz, Imperial Guardsmen as we can easily hit 4/5 models etc.

    However come T2 and units such as Zoanthropes comes out. This is significant as Zoanthrope does psychic spash damage which hurts Quality units more such as Tactical Marines and Chaos Space Marines etc as psychic damage deals more pain to (S)HI targets such as them.

    Examples Of Splash Damage Weapons/Units
    - Flamers
    - Lightning Claw Terminators
    - Bile Spewer
    - WraithGuard
    - Melee Dreadnought
    - Melee Wraithlord

  • Bleed
    What is bleed
    - Some players might be thinking,' Hmm, this guy only has half health tac marines with 3 models. Why does he retreat?' The answer is simple. Why lose 75 if not more Requisition to reinforce them when he can just bring them back to base and let them heal to full HP?
    '75 Requisition? HAH! That's so little!' Well, a Devastator Marine cost 250 Requisitition. Losing 2 Tactical Marine Model means 150 Requisition spent on reinforcing them. To tier up you need 300 Requisition. This is what a bleed means. Wasting Requisition over and over again reinforcing your units due to poor micro and combat odds.

    How to Prevent bleed?
    - Simple. Retreat full model, half hp units etc rather then letting them die needlessly. Always take note of a units HP to Model Ratio.

  • Concede
    What is concede?
    - Concede is basically giving up and letting the enemy team win. This can be done by pressing 'Escape' and hitting, 'Concede Game'

    Why concede?
    - Because you're wasting the time of your teammates and opponents.

    When to concede?
    - Concede when 1 or more of the following criteria have been met
    - Most of your team members have lost Majority/All of their army
    - You have no power
    - A player leaves the game early
    - After numerous attempts, even with teammates, you are unable to capture either the contested or the enemy VP's
    - The enemy owns all your natural Requisition Point, Power Node and/or Victory Point etc for a very long time and you are unable to recap it

  • Reviving
    What is Reviving?
    - Reviving is basically tickling a downed Hero back to life and saving your teammate at the very least 250/0 to buy him/her/it back to life. The higher your commanders level, the higher the initial buy back cost.

    Why Revive?
    - For starters, reviving a downed Hero saves your teammate resources and helps in preventing a major bleed on his/her economy. In addition to this, you also gain around 75% of your current total Experience Points which help you to easily Level Up your Hero to gain improved health, energy, melee skill , melee damage(?) and range damage.

    When to revive?
    - Revive a friendly hero after every successful push but make sure to keep your eyes on your hero so you don't end up losing them. In addition, try to revive them as well during a lull in the fighting. NEVER try to revive a friendly hero who is close to the enemies base unless you have achieved amazing map control and are holding on to it.

----------------------

End Note

This is pretty much all I can think of that all new players, both Elite and Retail, needs to know. If you think that there are more stuff that needs to be addressed here for Newbies to understand, or you disagree with some parts, feel free to leave a comment and I'll start working on it.

---------------------

Acknowledgement

- All statistics and information taken from
The Dawn Of War Elite Codex
Dawn Of War Retail Wiki
- Special thanks to Wise Windu, Lulgrim and everyone in the DoW2 Elite forums for their part in the creation of the Elite codex and making this possible
- Caeltos for founding the Elite mod. And also, Gay Knights
Last edited by BaptismByLoli on Tue 20 May, 2014 5:01 am, edited 5 times in total.
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Re: Dawn Of War 2: A Starter's Guide

Postby Aertes » Fri 09 May, 2014 12:01 pm

Nice explanation of basic notions, specially when one doesn't speak English and didn't understand some of the therms. Thank you for this work.
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Re: Dawn Of War 2: A Starter's Guide

Postby Atlas » Fri 09 May, 2014 6:00 pm

Always good to have these kinds of things. Ty for posting.
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Re: Dawn Of War 2: A Starter's Guide

Postby Nurland » Sat 17 May, 2014 9:17 am

Grenades don't do full damage on retreat anymore. They do 90%.
You start paying upkeep when your total pop exceeds 30.
I always thiught the buy back cost was affected buy the hero lvls and not overall pop. I might be wrong here.
Oh and the Terminator weapons are called Lightning Claws, not Power Claws.
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Re: Dawn Of War 2: A Starter's Guide

Postby Black Relic » Sat 17 May, 2014 10:10 am

Retreating units also don't have immunity to domino knockback. Doesn't happen often but can still help in wiping a squad if lucky.
"...With every strike of his sword, with every word of his speech, does he reaffirm the ideals of our honored master..." -From the Teachings of Roboute Guilliman as laid down in the Apocrypha of Skaros. Space Marines Codex pg. 54
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Re: Dawn Of War 2: A Starter's Guide

Postby BaptismByLoli » Sat 17 May, 2014 11:39 am

Nurland wrote:Grenades don't do full damage on retreat anymore. They do 90%.
You start paying upkeep when your total pop exceeds 30.
Oh and the Terminator weapons are called Lightning Claws, not Power Claws.

Fixed

Nurland wrote:I always thiught the buy back cost was affected buy the hero lvls and not overall pop. I might be wrong here.

Did some test, you're right.

Black Relic wrote:Retreating units also don't have immunity to domino knockback

Elaborate?
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Re: Dawn Of War 2: A Starter's Guide

Postby Dark Riku » Sat 17 May, 2014 11:42 am

There is nothing to elaborate :D Units that are retreating can still be knocked back by domino. (you know, other models falling over, knocking them back in retreat :p)
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Re: Dawn Of War 2: A Starter's Guide

Postby BaptismByLoli » Sat 17 May, 2014 12:14 pm

Dark Riku wrote:There is nothing to elaborate :D Units that are retreating can still be knocked back by domino. (you know, other models falling over, knocking them back in retreat :p)

Oh. Easy to enough to put that in then
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Re: Dawn Of War 2: A Starter's Guide

Postby Dark Riku » Sun 18 May, 2014 1:05 pm

Sorry for not reading the whole thing but I've read the retreat part now and you receive an 80% damage reduction, not 70% against ranged damage.
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Re: Dawn Of War 2: A Starter's Guide

Postby Nurland » Sun 18 May, 2014 2:34 pm

Just a thing about the splash section. The damage types of the T2 and onwards splash/AoE weapons and attacks tend to do extra damage against (S)HI making the effective against most low model count high hp targets like Tacs, CSM and Warriors.
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Re: Dawn Of War 2: A Starter's Guide

Postby BaptismByLoli » Sun 18 May, 2014 3:33 pm

Nurland wrote:Just a thing about the splash section. The damage types of the T2 and onwards splash/AoE weapons and attacks tend to do extra damage against (S)HI making the effective against most low model count high hp targets like Tacs, CSM and Warriors.

Dark Riku wrote:you receive an 80% damage reduction, not 70% against ranged damage.


Done and Done
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Re: Dawn Of War 2: A Starter's Guide

Postby Arbit » Tue 20 May, 2014 12:03 am

Good stuff! I wish I had had something like this back when I started. I especially like the description of how damage is calculated.
My 1v1 map - Imperial Plaza. Revisions are in progress so please check it out and give feedback!
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Re: Dawn Of War 2: A Starter's Guide

Postby BaptismByLoli » Tue 20 May, 2014 12:27 am

Arbit wrote:Good stuff! I wish I had had something like this back when I started. I especially like the description of how damage is calculated.


Not really, Wise Windu once posted a more detailed analysis of how damage is calculated :p
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Re: Dawn Of War 2: A Starter's Guide

Postby Arbit » Tue 20 May, 2014 1:13 am

For a starter guide, I think what you have is about the level of detail necessary. If I'm thinking of the same thread, Windu was referencing the actual code, which is over the head of a lot of people.

Oh, you might want to add Caeltos to the thanks section too, since he designs the mod and all. ;)
My 1v1 map - Imperial Plaza. Revisions are in progress so please check it out and give feedback!
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Re: Dawn Of War 2: A Starter's Guide

Postby BaptismByLoli » Tue 20 May, 2014 4:59 am

Arbit wrote:Oh, you might want to add Caeltos to the thanks section too, since he designs the mod and all. ;)


Sure
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Re: Dawn Of War 2: A Starter's Guide

Postby krooza nob boss » Sat 31 May, 2014 12:29 pm

I think an important lacking part for this beginner guide is the one corcerning the use of ability. I mean, when is the moment to throw a grenade? Is it a good idea to buff my sodiers? Isn't a waste to use a nuke to protect a gen farm? Is there a way i can more fastly launch a global?
Besides, how can i get red points? I've seen lot of matches, but i've never figured out how you get them. All i know is they are used for nukes (may be also other globals?)
Should have also mentioned, in my opinion, the general role of each hero class and the leveling sistem of your troops...
Just saying, nice job anyway!
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Re: Dawn Of War 2: A Starter's Guide

Postby Wise Windu » Sat 31 May, 2014 12:52 pm

Discreet wrote:This only focuses on understanding the core basics of the game. If you really want to see some in-depth details, just look at Codex's thread


It's meant to give a general understanding. There will be some things that aren't there, because covering everything in the game would be incredibly difficult and time consuming ;) . Probably the best way to get a feel for ability use is to ask other players, learn from casts or just learn from experience.

krooza nob boss wrote:Besides, how can i get red points? I've seen lot of matches, but i've never figured out how you get them. All i know is they are used for nukes (may be also other globals?)


http://www.dawnofwar.info/index.php?pag ... ary#global

There's more stuff on that page regarding the game as well, including leveling, although not pertaining to strategy or ability use. There are two links to things in my signature. :D
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Re: Dawn Of War 2: A Starter's Guide

Postby BaptismByLoli » Sat 31 May, 2014 2:14 pm

Wise Windu wrote:It's meant to give a general understanding. There will be some things that aren't there, because covering everything in the game would be incredibly difficult and time consuming ;) . Probably the best way to get a feel for ability use is to ask other players, learn from casts or just learn from experience.


Wait, are you referring to my statement or to Codex's thread? Cause idk which part you want me to edit :P
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Re: Dawn Of War 2: A Starter's Guide

Postby BaptismByLoli » Sat 31 May, 2014 2:17 pm

krooza nob boss wrote:Should have also mentioned, in my opinion, the general role of each hero class and the leveling sistem of your troops...


Codexalready has all the needed leveling system. :P

As for general role of each hero class, I think that may be a bit too long to write about and UI already tells you the basic role of each Commander (Techmarine - Defense, Farseer - Support etc) ^^
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Re: Dawn Of War 2: A Starter's Guide

Postby Wise Windu » Sat 31 May, 2014 2:24 pm

Discreet wrote:
Wise Windu wrote:It's meant to give a general understanding. There will be some things that aren't there, because covering everything in the game would be incredibly difficult and time consuming ;) . Probably the best way to get a feel for ability use is to ask other players, learn from casts or just learn from experience.


Wait, are you referring to my statement or to Codex's thread? Cause idk which part you want me to edit :P


I didn't want you to edit anything. I was just making it clear that it isn't meant to cover every possible aspect of the game. It's really good as it is :D
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Re: Dawn Of War 2: A Starter's Guide

Postby krooza nob boss » Sat 31 May, 2014 8:08 pm

Ok thanks!

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