Warhammer 40.000: Dawn of War is a pretty unique strategy game compared to the others.
- You have 9 completely different races to choose from: Space Marines, Orks, Eldar, Chaos, Imperial Guards, Tau, Necrons, Dark Eldar, Sisters of Battle
- Two types of resources: Requisition, Power. With 4 notable exceptions: Orks also have Population Cap too, Necrons have only Power, Dark Eldar has Soul Essence too, Sisters of Battle have Faith too.
While it may seem simple it's easy to run out of either kind within a matter of seconds.

You cannot play a defensive game only, the only way to really win at Dawn of War is to be on the offensive. Dawn of War is not a game that you can learn in a day, while you may be able to finish the campaign and win a standard skirmish on easy with no problems, the very hard mode and the multiplayer will stump you. It's an extremely complicated game and with this guide I will make things easier to understand offering tactics, build orders, explanations and more.

This guide is dedicated to everyone who's looking to learn to play with a new race, from new players to already experienced players, but mostly written from the new player's perspective.

To understand this guide, all you are required to, is to have played the in-game tutorial of the race you want to learn. In this guide I've mostly used general names such as "Troop structure" or "Armory structure" instead of each building's dedicated name, as they are different for every race.

There's one thing see how the race works because you actually have played it at least once and then read a guide about it online, and another thing to read a guide about it online and only after that try the race for the first time. In the former case, you will have a better idea on how the guide applies to the race because you've already experienced it before, you get a visual perspective. Also, I recommend using SHIFT+TAB in-game and follow this guide as you play a skirmish game.

First thing you need to learn about are the resources because you have to know how to manage them.

The first resource in the game is requisition. In skirmish games you start with 1000 Requisition and your HQ building generates a decent amount. Everything costs some amount of requisition so this is a little bit more important than power. You can increase the rate at which you gain requisition by capturing strategic points, critical locations, relics, building listening posts on either strategic points or relics, and then by researching upgrades at these posts. Capture strategic points before you capture relics because they are faster to capture, capture relics before critical locations because you can put listening posts on them, and they unlock your super-unit (aka relic unit, we'll talk about them in tier 3).

The second resource is Power that isn't generated automatically. You need to create generators to bring this one in. In a skirmish game you only start with 100 power, and pretty much everything critical you need to start with will cost at least 50-75. Generators aren't exactly cheap at the start either and they provide little amount of power until you get to upgrade them, so you will need to build several. You can increase the power generated by researching at constructed generators.

Whatever you do in the game, make sure that you capture more than two stragegic points, in fact you should all be holding the same amount of strategic points. If you are on a team game share with you teammates. If it's a free for all take every strategic point as you come by. Also, put your listening post on them and upgrade them, this is vital for your survival in the game.

Unlike other games, it isn't absolutely critical that you supply defensive units to protect your resourcing operation, supplying any troops to them is a waste of their use and can often make the difference in a battle. If you're smart, you'll upgraded all of your listening posts to at least the first defensive upgrade, providing some light defense for your base. They're only ever effective against infantry, but the second level upgrade offers some pretty heavy punch, as well as increasing their ability to survive enemy fire. Just remember when you are being invaded that no matter what level upgrades you have, generators and listening posts are extremely popular targets.

SPACE MARINES - Balance, Counter, Air Drop Army.

Firepower and counter focused. Powerful in tier 3. Versatille infantry. Average in most stats but without great weaknesses like other races. It is a race focused on countering the enemy units rather than having something unbeatable from the start themselves.

The scouts can be game-breaking when upgrated with sniper and infiltrations if they remain undetected. The Assault Space Marines are weak compared to other alternatives. Grey Knights are very powerful in melee and especially powerful against Chaos daemons.

After you reach Tier 3 make Orbital Relay and simply reinforce your army with air dropping Space Marines and Dreadnought.

Strong units: Sniper Scouts, Grey Knights, Terminators, Predator, Commanders, "Orbital Bombardment", Orbital Relay.

"We shall know no fear!" / "I command the name of the Emperor!"
"My faith is my shield!" / "Faith is purest when it is unquestioning!"

ORKS - Numbers, Melee, Charge Army.

Mass numbers and charge melee. You often win the game while losing more troops than the enemy. Your main strengths stands in the huge numbers of your infantry rather than in vehicles, so unlike many factions, your infantry will dominate the game rather than the vehicles, but don't neglect vehicles because of this.

Your secondary commander, Big Mek, has detection and teleportation, with this he can secure your army from infiltrators and easly harass the enemy early game. The Orks and Space Marines are the only races with a doctor, and your doctor, the Mad Doc has a "Fightin' Juice" ability that makes the selected squad unable to die for 20 seconds.

In order to advance in technology and increase your population cap, you need to build a special building called a Waaagh! Banner, your turret tower, although it's rather weak but you can build many. The drawback is that Orks can be knocked back in their population cap if their Waaagh! Banners are destroyed.

Get Nobz Squad in tier 2 and Flash Gitz in tier 3.

Strong units: Nobz Squad, Flash Gitz, Mad Doc "Fightin' Juice" ablity, War Trak, Killa Kan, Looted Tank.

"Orkz is made for fighin', and winnin'!" / "WAAAAAGH!"
"I have the power of Gork, and Mork!" / "It now belongs to da Orks!"

ELDAR - Speed, Mobility, Flanking Army.

Best on speed and mobility with a rock-paper-scissors Army. Micro intensive army, with the right use of abilities winning the game rather than superior firepower. Make hard use of "Fleet of Foot" ability to greatly increase the speed of your units and hit and run real critical enemy locations (not those on the map), then retreat and keep harassing the enemy this way, or flank him and attack his base while his army is in the middle of the map.

Guardians are good against light infantry such as Guardsmen or Cultists, Dark Reaper are good against heavy infantry such as Space Marines or Orks, Rangers are infiltrated snipers good for breaking morale and Banshee are your melee troops. Fire Dragons are powerful against vehicles and Warp Spiders have high damage and can teleport.

Strong units: "Fleet of Foot" Ability, Warp Spiders, Fire Dragons, Brightlance Grav Platform, Fire Prism.

"The mists of space and time retreat from my mind." / "As I dream, so shall it be!"
"We are shaped by fate, just as we shape it." / "The Craftworld sings to me and I respond in kind."

CHAOS - Firepower, Damage, Hitpoints Army.

High firepower and damage focused with plenty of health. Chaos units relatively cheap and quick to produce. They have very few troop selections. Some units don't have morale so you don't have to worry about that.

Later in the game you get to make Bloodthirster and Daemon Prince who are powerful relic units. The Raptor Squad is weak compared to other alternatives. Horror Squads are powerful against vehicles and Khrone Berserkers powerful melee against infantry. Possesed Squads are more powerful melee units than Khrone Berserkers for when you get tier 3.

Your standard infantry Chaos Space Marines can become infiltrated in late game and cause problems for races with difficulty in getting or keeping detectors. The Defiler is a good all-rounded battle vehicle and Chaos Predator is slightly weaker than its Space Marine Predator counterpart but still good.

Strong units: Horror Squads, Possessed Squads, Chaos Predator, Bloodthirster and Daemon Prince.

"For the dark gods!" / "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!"
"Chaos, is the only true answer!" / "Our deaths will be MAGNIFICENT!"
"Yes, YES! We will work faster!" / "Do you hear the voices, too?"
"We will serve you...and in return...grant us the power of the Dark Gods!"

IMPERIAL GUARDS - Numbers, Cheap, Range Army.

Numbers, numbers, numbers, you can put up more infantry than your enemy ever hopes to achieve, because your army is very cheap (low price). The basic Guardsman is very weak when compared with most basic infantry units in the game, if not all. But by the time the enemy makes 10 Space Marines you will have 30 Guardsmen.

Support them with command leaders, upgraded abilities, elite troops and powerful vehicles and the poor Guardsmen can turn from the weakest to the strongest units out there. From 100 starting morale you can end up with 550, and if you use the Commissar's "Execute Ability" with morale immunity and double rate of fire for 10 seconds, for all infantry units, not only the attached squad, with a cooldown of 10 seconds you can spam this ability.

The Priests gives extra morale, health and damage as passive stats, "Fanaticism" instantly restores the squads morale and makes them immune to further morale damage for 10 seconds.

The Sentinels are good anti-vehicles, the Hellhounds are good anti-infantry and like the Imperial Guard's infantry they are relatively cheap and they work best in packs. Leman Russ tier 3 tanks are good but your relic unit "The Baneblade" is the best assault vehicle in the game, surpassing even the Necron Restored Monolith.

Strong units: Kasrkin Squad, Ogryn Squad, Heavy Weapons Team, Leman Russ, the Baneblade.

"The hand of the Emperor guides all!" / "Nothing will get through our field of fire!"
"By the Emperor, it shall be done!" / "For every one of us who falls, ten more will take his place!"

TAU - Powerful and Long Range, Weak Melee, Frontline Army.

Powerful and long range frontline focused army. The tactic with the Tau is usually to make a powerful range army so that the enemy will either have to attack you or retreat, and then follow him or retreat and keep harassing him with your powerful long range frontline army.

The Tau however is not only that, it's a very good early rush army, with the Vespids being very powerful early game. The Scouts can also be powerful infiltrators with fully upgraded. Tau has a diverse army with the largest number of units to pick from.

Fire Warriors have truly powerful range yet also very weak melee, Kroots are decent melee, Tau has the largest amount of infiltrated units and better than average mobility due to having jetpacks and some units are faster than the average unit.

In tier 3 you have 2 paths: The "Kauyon" patient hunter that gives you some good melee units to put between the enemy and your powerful ranged units, while "Mont'ka" killing blow gives you extra powerful range units such as XV8 Crisis Suits and Hammerhead Gunships.

Strong units: Vespid, Fire Warrior, Pathfinder Team, Skyray Missile Gunship, XV8 Crisis Battlesuit, Hammerhead, Krootox.

"Like Tau, we shall prosper!" / "Don’t let the prey get away!"
"For the Greater Good!" / "The technology of Tau makes us strong!"

NECRONS - High Endurace, Slow Speed, Great Damage Army.

The Necrons are basically like a zombie ranged army. They slowly wake up and as the tier goes from tier 1 to tier 3 they get stronger and stronger. Their main inconvenience isn't the lack of resources but the lack of speed. Their buildings take long to build, and their units take long to move. To make up for this, use the teleporting ability of the Necron Warrior to teleport next to friendly buildings, including listening posts.

The Necron Lord is a central element of the necron army, having many abilities that can make or break a battle. The necrons in general are very hard to kill, having high endurance, a lot of health, and upgraded Necron Warriors do some of the best range damage of any tier 1 Infantry with the exception of the Tau Fire Warrior, but they are very slow in movement.

Wraths are good for harassing, Pariahs are the only units that permanently decrease the maximum health of a unit and Destroyers with anti-infantry and anti-vehicle versions are their version of vehicles.

Strong units: Necron Lord, Necron Warrior, Wraths, Destroyer, Heavy Destroyer, Pariahs.

(They are pretty quiet)

DARK ELDAR - Speed, Damage, Raid Army.

Dark Eldar are basically glass cannons, very powerful but also very vulnerable. Their units generally deal high damage but at the same time have low health. They have the best mobility in the game. While the Eldar has the powerful "Fleet of Foot" ability and Tau is genearly faster than an average army, the majority of Dark Eldar units have a basic speed of 20 where are most other units have a basic speed of 16, and unlike Eldar's "Fleet of Foot" they don't lose accuracy as compensation for this high speed.

They are very good at early rush and harrassment, their scouts, the Mandrake are very powerful for a scout unit, can infiltrate and also have excellent building damage, then there are the powerful Hellions that are also jump troops and can further help this early rush. You can skip the Hall of Blood and go instantly for the Dark Foundry to get Hellions.

Scourge are jetpack units that can beat most tier 2 units. Warrior Squads have high damage but low health as such they are very bad against units with high health such as Necron Warriors, unless you keep them outside damage, but they are good against light infantry units and for hit-and-run tactics. Wych Squads are melee infantry and Warp Beast Pack are their tier 3 upgrade.

Dark Eldar are able to use some abilities anywhere on the map using the "Soul Power" resource. One Tortured Slave harvesting Soul Essence from a Slave Chamber with Torture Pit add-on is imperative. Reaver Jetbikes are also good for a powerful early game after you make Hellions. Talos is a good vehicle with a huge melee attack, even higher than Tau Krootox. Raven is decent against infantry and moderate against vehicles but cheap. Ravager is the main anti-vehicles vehicle.

Strong units: Mandrake (for its class), Hellions, Scourge, Reaver Jetbikes, Talos, Ravager.

"I thirst for violence." / "The earth does not deserve to touch my feet."
"Death is my meat, terror my wine." / "I'm he-ere! Where are my victims?"

SISTERS OF BATTLE - Fire, Faith, Zealot Army.

Have a lot of fire weapons and uses faith abilities a lot. The Sisters of Battle are weaker than avearge in most of their units and most of their stats, but they have fire and a resource called "Faith" with which they can use powerful abilities that can turn the tides of a battle. After you build a listening post on a strategic point, you can research the Holy Icon add-on that will increase the maximum faith by 20 among other passive upgrades for the listening post.

The cost of Holy Icons increases with each previus Holy Icon built, with a maxium of 5 Holy Icons you will have a maxium faith of 100. Try to keep at least 3 Holy Icons on relatively safe listening posts and 2 Holy Icons on the frontline to gain their benefits.

You have a default faith generation of +1.0, meaning 1 faith every 10 seconds. The Canoness gives +1.75, Seraphim squad who are anti-infantry tier 1.5 units give +0.25 per unit, Celestian squad who are anti-vehicle tier 2 units give +0.25 per unit, sergeants for Battle Sisters, Seraphims and Celestians also further increase faith generation, researches Wargear: Chaplet Ecclesiasticus and Heart of Worship give further faith and Living Saint gives +1.0.

Fire is good against infantry and deals high morale damage, inferno pistols are a must. The Missionary is an useful scout as it can later be attched to an infantry squad and has faith abilities.

The Canoness and Confessor also have faith abilities. Death-Cult Assassins are powerful melee tier 2.5 units. Sister Repentia are the ideal squad for the Canoness and Confessor to attach to.

Immolator is the standard and all-purpose tank of the Sisters of Battle, by default devastating anti-infantry and with the upgrade anti-vehicle but loses the anti-infantry damage, but it has a short range. The Exorcist is the best artillery in the game for 2 simple reasons: it has no friendly fire and it only disrupts enemy forces.

Then the Sisters of Battle reach tier 4, the Penitent Engine is one of the best battle vechicles in the game, good anti-vehicle and devastating anti-infantry, evenly matched with a Krootox, wins if upgraded but loses if they are both upgraded.

Strong units: Missionary, Seraphim, Celestian, Canoness, Confessor, Immolator, Penitent Engine.

"Sisters, fight by my side!" / "To the Emperor, my life; to Him, my death!"
"Death to the impure!" / "From the lightning, and the tempest, Emperor deliver us!"

You start off with your HQ (Stronghold, Settlement, Webway Assembly) and 1 builder (Servitor, Gretchin, Bonesinger, Heretic).

• Orks also start with 1 Slugga Boys squad because they are Orks, Orks need numbers.

NOTE: This is a basic build order, not the only build order that ever exists. However, it's a good starting point, and as long as you do everything else right, these build orders are good enough to win against every Insane CPU, keep your ground or win in multiplayer, and have a huge start advantage over new players who make huge starting mistakes.

Step 1: Start Building Barracks

The the first thing you should do with every race, is build your troop building (Barracks, Da Boyz Hut, Aspect Portal, Temple, etc).

• With Orks don't forget to always fully reinforce your builders, the Gretchins, as soon as you can, it costs nothing.

• When you play Space Marines or Chaos have your HQ building queue up one scout, then one builder unit, and then one more scout. Scout > Builder > Scout
  
• When you play Orks queue up only one builder first, then one basic infantry (Slugga Boys Squad are not scouts, they serve as Orks' main fighting force) because you already have a basic infantry squad from the start. Builder > Basic Infantry
  
• When you play Eldar queue up one builder first, then two scout squads. Builder > Scout > Scout

These differences may seem like nothing but they are important for a quick start.

Have then the 1st scout (or Orks' 1st Basic Infantry) capture strategic points, the new builder join the one building the troop buildng and and the 2nd scout also capture strategic points. Keep in mind that assigning more than two builders to a job doesn't make it go any faster.

• When playing Space Marines or Chaos, after the troop building is complete have the builders build listening posts on captured strategic points. That's it, nothing special for you in this section. Barracks + Listening Posts.
  
• When playing Orks after the troop structure is complete, have 1 builder build 1 Waaagh! Banner and the other build listening posts on captured strategic points. After the Waaagh! Banner is complete, have the builder in the base build 1 generator, you should be able to build them in immediate succession, then stop with this line and focus on listening posts next to your base until you get enough resources, and as soon as you get enough resources and have no problems with the army, build the armory building (Pile'O'Guns), and then another generator.
  Barracks> Waaagh!> Generator> ...(take a break)...> Armory> Generator + Listening Posts.
  
• When playing Eldar, after the troop structure is complete have your builders build a generator next to the troop structure, by the time the generator is complete one strategic point should be almost complete, have 1 builder build a listening post on it and the other builder build another generator. Eldar need early power more than other races.
  Barracks > Generator > Geneartor + Listening Posts.

Your troop structure should be right next to your HQ, you'll need a quick start if you want to keep up with the other player or players. You can also click on your troop structure then right click anywhere on the map to set up a rally point, that way your new depolyed troops will automatically move right there, you can also do this for your HQ building. The other buildings can be built anywhere you like. Except for mines, turrets, Ork Waaagh! Banners and Eldar Webway Gates, typically the best place is near your HQ, where your enemy cannot access them simply by capturing a strategic point.

As soon as your Troop Building is complete: start queuing up your Commander (aka Hero: Force Commander, Big Mek, Farseer, Chaos Lord) and one basic infantry squad.

You don't have to queue them up in a certain way (except for Orks, they can't build their Basic Infantry as soon as the barracks are complete right before Big Mek because at that time they won't have enough Ork Resource, the Ork's 3rd resource), sometimes building the Basic Infantry first can be useful, for rushes on small maps for example, killing the scouts or whatever, there are various tactics, or even not queueing up the Hero at all, but 2 Basic Infantry squads is a good plan in certain games. This Hero then Basic Infantry is the general build that is not great or terrible depending on the map, matchup and skill, but simply always good, always reliable, always solid. The fights are not just army A shoots army B, it's also how you fight, which units attack which, in melee or in range, in cover (we'll talk about it later) or not in cover, broken or not broken, etc, that makes a difference.

• With Space Marines or Chaos you have Tactical Space Marines or Chaos Space Marines as your Basic Infantry. (Chaos has 2 more units that are possible to create at this stage of the game, the Horror and Possesed Squads from the Sacrificial Circle which can be built right now, however this course of action is not recommended since is not that effective, for experienced players - possesed rush was nerfed patches ago, now it's anything but efficient).
  Force Commander > Tactical Space Marines / Chaos Lord > Chaos Space Marines
  
• With Orks you have Slugga Boys for melee damage and Shoota Boys range damage. Shoota Boys are not as powerful as other races' range troops (except for scouts) and should only be used as support for the Slugga Boys or other more powerful melee troops.
  Big Mek > Slugga/Shoota Boys
  
• Eldar are a little bit different here, they have a very rock, paper and scissors army, if you fight against light infantry get Warp Spiders, if you fight against heavy infantry get Dark Reapers, if you need melee damage get Howling Banshee, if you need morale damage then get Rangers. However, in this stage of the game, don't start with Howling Banshee or Rangers. Alone and unupgraded, Howling Banshee are outmatched by other races, you need them upgraded and used in conjunction with other Eldar troops to have them at full strength. Rangers are also more of a support squad; they do high morale damage (we'll talk later) but very little phisical damage.
  Farseer > Warp Spiders/Dark Reapers

Keep in mind that you'll need Power for your Hero. Generally you'll be queuing up your Hero before before a listening post is complete, but if this doesn't happen, don't upgrade your listening post yet because it also costs power and you need that power for your Hero, you don't get any additional power until you get your first generator up and running.

After your scouts has captured their first strategic points, have them begin immediately capturing the next strategic points, then put listening posts on them too and have your squads capture the next strategic points. When you have more troops nearby, have the weakest squad capture the point.

If the enemy attacks you during the moment you're capturing a point, never waste troops on keeping the capturing process on, always leave the cap and fight back with those troops unless the capturing is going to be complete in 1 or 2 seconds, or the enemy troops are way inferior and can be matched by your non-capturing units in no time. Because even if you keep your weakest squad capture the point, besides losing potential firepower, the enemy can decap the point anytime anyway by clicking on it with one of his squads too. It's generally better to have more firepower and win, than have less firepower and win with more casualties or risk getting killed. If you lose, the point will be captured by the enemy anyway, so it's best to keep more firepower. But if even with the capturing squad joining you can’t stand a chance, retreat and strenghten your army rather than losing all your troops there.

Have the troop building queue up for one or two squad of troops. At this stage in the game, the commander (Force Commander, Big Mek, Farseer, Chaos Lord) and two or three squad of troops should be enough to get you through the first few minutes while you work on the economy, which basically means you capture strategic points, build listening posts and don't waste your resources for nothing. Make sure to occasionally put an extra trooper in the squad. Don't bother upgrading the scouts; once you get a few strategic points and any relics/critical locations in the area they serve little further purpose which will be explained later.

• With Orks make sure you also build Waaagh! banners to increase your population limit, ork population is counted by each individual ork rather by numbers of squads, you also need Waaagh! banners for the 3rd red ork resource to tech up.

When your economy & army is stable start building 2 generators and an armory building (Armory, Pile'O'Guns, Soul Shrine, Chaos Armory).

• If you're Eldar build only the armory, you already have generators.
  
• If you're Ork skip this paragraph because you already have your armory and 2 generators.

When the armory building is complete, select your first upgrade. The armory should be in the back, where it is protected. Once this is gone, you cannot upgrade your troops, or build most buildings and troops. If it is destroyed, and you build another one, at least you won't have to do all that research again. As you get the resources, select the other upgrades you have available too if they serve you a purpose on the battlefield. Now that you have generators, feel free to upgrade listening posts.

Although this varies from strategy to strategy, a general all purpose order of upgrades is as such:

• With Space Marines or Chaos start with the damage upgrade (Target Finders), the next one is the weapons upgrade (Heavy Weapon Increase), this lets you carry four instead of two heavy weapons, handy upgrade to have around, and the next one is the health upgrade (Bionics).
  Damage > Weapons > Armor
  
• With Orks the first upgrade should be the armor upgrade ('Eavy Boy Armour) , and then choppy or blastier (More Choppy Research or Blastier), depending on whether you are focusing on a more melee or ranged army. It's usually a good idea to get both eventually, but which one you go for first will be dependent on what strategy you are using.
  Armor > Melee Damage / Range Damage
  
• With Eldar as with Space Marines and Chaos, start with damage upgrade (Improved Optics), and the next one should be the armour upgrade (Reinforced Armour).
  Damage > Armor

Remember that this varies from strategy to strategy and this is only a general all purpose order of upgrades, also, these aren't the only upgrades available.

Once you get to this point, the rest of Tier 1 consists of building troops and improving your economy. You'll want to have a commander unit and at least three or four squads of reinforced and upgraded troops, you may either want to build 2 additional generators to get those reasearches faster or aim for the Tier 2 dirrectly. You should get out of Tier 1 as soon as your economy is stabilized and you have enough resources. Tier 1 is a dangerous place. You have limited options to be worth sticking around here. BTW, if you think Chaos are just Space Marines with different skins you're wrong.

If you happen to fall behind and risk getting killed (your troops got killed or whatever) don't build listening posts. Defense is your main priority here, and your defense is your army. However, don't overdo it. As soon as you have enough army to keep up a good fight and survive build Listening Posts.

Make sure that you pick your fights where you have the highest chance of winning. In the first tier of the batte, before armory is built, generally when all you have is your commander and basic infantry squads (and maybe the scouts too if they haven't died):

• Don't go melee vs Orks, they will try to get melee vs you;
  
• Don't go range vs Eldar, they will try to get range vs you;
  
• With Space Marines & Chaos you should try going range to Orks and Melee to Eldar;
  
• With Chaos you should try getting melee vs Space Marines since your melee is a little higher.
  
• When playing Orks, don't be afraid of losing more troops than your enemy, you got numbers at your side. Many Ork wins involve losing more troops than the opponent or the opponents.

Cover is a part of the game represented by bonuses or penalties on some specific areas of the map. Positive covers, often found in craters, give armor bonuses and increases the morale regeneration rate (shown by a shield on the top of the unit) and negative covers, often found in rivers or pools of water, give armor reduction (shown by a shield with a red no sign on the top of the unit) to anyone stepping on them. You can identify cover by simply moving your mouse over the terrain. When hovering over positive cover, your mouse cursor will have an added blue shield icon with a dashed circle around it, when hovering over negative cover, your mouse cursor will have a cross mark like on a no smoking sign, the tooltips in the bottom right of the screen can also be used to identify which type of cover the mouse cursor is over. It is important to note that cover is applied on a unit by unit basis, not to the entire squad. Part of a squad can be under cover and the rest can be exposed.

Armour and counters. Each unit has an armor type, and effectiveness against other types. For example as mentioned above, Eldar's Warp Spiders are effective against Light Infantry and Dark Reapers are effective against Heavy Infantry. There are 6 types of armor in the game: 1) Infantry (the light infantry), 2) Heavy infantry, 3) Commanders, 4) Vehicles, 5) Buildings, 6) Daemons. If you select a unit you can see its armor class displayed under its name, and the armour types that the selected unit is designed to counter are shown to the far right of its stats and/or mentioned in its description. There are sub-types of armor such as Heavy Infantry Medium, Heavy Infantry High, etc but we're not going to talk about these here. A few examples are: Builders, Scouts, Ork Slugga, Shoota Boyz and Dark Reapers are Light Infantry; Tactical Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines and Warp Spiders are Heavy Infantry. It's good to know which unit counters which unit as you play the game, if the enemy has a unit that you don't know how to deal with, look at what armor type that unit has, and what units in your army are effective against that armor type to find a counter for it.

Morale is an important part of the game that can often make the differnce between victory or defeat. It's represented by the blue bar under the green health bar, and the blue number under the green health number when selecting a unit. Morale means the given unit's willingness to fight. Almost any infantry unit in has morale (with a hand of notable exceptions), single units have individual morale and squads have a collective morale for the whole squad, vehicles don't have morale. The amount of morale a unit has depends on the unit, but most have 300 morale. When a squad or unit with morale takes damage OR one of their memebes dies, it takes morale damage, which has nothing to do with the physical health damage, and the given damage of a unit shown on the heads up display doesn't represent the moral damage it makes, but the physical damage alone. Some weapons like Flamers, Snipers or Artillery deal higher than average morale damage. And some units like Eldar's Ranges deal low physical damage but high morale damage. When a unit or squad's morale reaches 0 then the unit or the squad becomes "broken" and a red circle appears around the broken unit or squad.

Red Circle - this means they are now panicked (aka broken) and have only 10% accuracy (even in melee) until their morale regenerates, discreasing their damage by an insane amount, but on a very small bright side, they also gain +10% speed while broken. Their morale regenerates automatically but discreases everytime they are under fire so keeping them in the battlefield zone is not a good way to restore their morale. To restore a squad morale you can either use special means such as the Space Marines Sergeants' "Rally" ability, or get the broken squad out of the firing zone and wait for their morale to regenerate automatically. Once their morale gets past 50% of their maximum morale, the squad or unit becomes "unbroken" again and the red circle disappears. It should be noted that it's not always a bad ideea to keep the broken squad in the battle zone, their damage became insignificant but their health is still the same and can effectively be used as meat shields to protect units with more damage but lower health, this is no general rule, sometimes it can be bad, whether doing this is good or bad depends on the circumstances, it's up to the player to decide.

Before continuing keep in mind that these are only raw stats and the situation may chance according to how many troops accompanying them you have or whether you're fighting near a turret or not.

• Force Commander is the second most phyiscally powerful commander, being matched only by the Chaos Lord, but his true power is shown in tier 3 when you unlock the Orbital Bombardment ability, until then, he's still a powerful melee.
  
• Big Mek has teleportation (that you can research from the troop scructure), make sure you use that to abuse the enemy, maybe teleport into their range troops, or teleport next to one of their listening posts and start attacking it, then teleport back and escape before you get killed & so on.
  
• Chaos Lord is the most powerful melee commander, don't be afraid to get 1vs1 with other races' commanders, as long as you have enough troops next to you not to make the battle underpowered.
  
• Eldar Farseer has the most numerous abilities of all commanders, use them to turn the tides of the battle, she's the weakest commander in terms of physical power, but strong enough to fight in the front lines melee vs a squad of Orks, her main strengths are her abilities though.

When the armory is built, Jetpack units (Assault Marine Squad, Storm Boys, Raptor Squad, Eldar have no such unit) are available. They are powerful melee units and should be used to counter ranged units using the element of surprise from jumping with the jetpacks right into them while your ranged squads keep dealing additional damage. You can also use them to counter Orks melee troops, however their abilities are best used when countering range units, if you have to fight Orks make sure you counter Shoota Boys before Slugga Boys.

• When playing Eldar, you don't have jetpack units, but you gain the Seer Council instead from the HQ when the armory is built, they are also powerful melee units except they don't have jetpacks, the best thing to do is to attach the Farseer to them, this way you'll get only benefits and no drawbacks, you'll increase her survivability making her more protected from enemy fire, the enemy won't be able to single target the Farseer while attached to a squad, and she's also able to use her abilities while attached to the squad.

Don't attach the Force Commanders or Chaos Lord to other troops, not right now at least, as the jetpack squads won't be able to use their jetpacks while attached to them. And don't attach melee Force Commander or Chaos Lord to ranged squads, making the commanders useless while fighting range or the rest of the squad weaker while fighting melee (except for Chaos Space Marines, they have stronger melee than their Space Marines counterparts, but as metioned before, it depends on whether the enemy has weaker range or weaker melee), unless you really need morale boost for the rest of the squad or the commander to survive.

For Orks, it's also not a good idea to attach Big Mek to jetpack squads since they won't be able to use their jetpacks while attached to them, nor to ranged units. But unlike Space Marines and Chaos, Orks have dedicated tier 1 melee troops (Slugga Boys) for which is good to attach the Big Mek to since both of them are melee and neither lose efficency out of that. You'll increase the Big Mek's survivability and the attached squad's morale thus making them harder to break. Not to mention that if you research the Big Mek's teleportation from the troops building (Da Boyz Hut) you will be able to teleport not only the Big Mek, but the whole squad he is attached to, thus granting you an edge of mobility in the battlefield to teleport right into the enemy's ranged troops, or teleport next to one of their listening posts and start attacking it, or teleport back and escape before you get killed when the situaton gets dangerous. So the Big Mek with Slugga Boys in early game is a very good choice.

Generally, when the squad is a perfect fit for the commander, it's a good idea to attach them. When the squad isn't a perfect fit, attach them only if the commander's survival is threatened and you can't retreat him, or you need morale for the attached-to squad.

(I usually attach commander to a squad that's not fit for him when he is low HP, to keep him alive and to have the squad benefit from his morale bonus. But only the kind of melee/range unfit, not too un-fit, such as denying the squad's jetpacks or teleporters, I'd rather have him go back than attached to jetpack units, because otherwise, by protecting the commander, I might deny half that squad's usefulness on the battlefield)

If you're not fighting but you could win in the eventuality of a fight, don't hesitate to attack, even an enemy destroyed squad or builder can give you an advantage, if you're fighting but can't win the fight, retreat it's better than staying there and losing all your troops, if you're already in your base then all you have left is to fight for your life. You can still get up and win, nobody plays perfect. Some of you may claim this is general knowledge, but it's not uncommon for newbies to fight with 1 Basic Infantry squad against 3 enemy Basic Infantry squads and wait for the enemy to kill all their units, or to expect victory, as long as you don't have experience in the game there's nothing you can't do.

Tier 2 starts when: Space Marines or Chaos build their first HQ add-on, Orks build Pile'O'Guns and 4 Waaagh! banners, Eldar gets a Soul Shrine up. This is where the battle acutally starts, the first thing you'll notice is that you get much better heavy weapons options for your troops. Everyone gets research options, Space Marines and Chaos get plasma guns and missles, Orks are Orks they fight melee and Eldar have their fancy weapons. The second thing and probably the most important you'll notice is that you get access to vehicles in tier 2. Space Marines get Dreadnoughts, Hellfire Dreadnoughts, Landspeeders, Rhino's, and Whirlwinds. Orks get Wartrukk, Wartrakk, Killa Kan and Looted Tank. Eldar get the Vyper, Wraithlord, and Falcon. Chaos gets Predators, Rhino's, and Defilers.

Lastly, you'll notice the new research options, you get to start upgrading things like troop accuracy and health, armor, speed of troops, and all sorts of other junk. This is the stage where you get to build up the core of your army, get your economy into overdrive, and prepare to slaughter or be slaughtered.

If you are still capturing strategic points, have a builder keep working on securing those with listening posts. If not, have him build another generator, then research the first upgrade to your requistion and the first upgrade to your power. Vehicles demand a lot of power, so make sure you have it in plenty. You'll want at least four regular generators, and if possible, a Thermo-Plasma generator (Bigga Generator for Orks) to keep a good company of armor rolling in.

The next thing that you should build is your vehicle structure (Machine Cult, Da Mek Shop, Support Portal, Machine Pit). This will give you almost everything that you need to kill an opposing army. While this is being built, select your HQ and research an upgrade to your vehicle cap, so that you can actually build more than one vehicle. If funds allow it, upgrade squad cap too if you haven't already.

Once you have the power, build a vehicle. You have a number to choose from, and you don't want to choose the wrong one. In practice, you will almost never find anyone building troop transports, since they have little armor and no firepower. Infantry aren't as slow as they'd like you to believe, or as vulnerable. If you need melee damage go for:

• Space Marine's Dreadnought (Can win one-on-one with an Eldar Wraithlord. Adding a ranged weapon removes one Dreadnought Fist. The best way to deal with this is have all Dreadnoughts start without a ranged weapon, then when they get damaged past half health, upgrade with a ranged weapon).
  
• Chaos' Defiler (Jack of all trades limited only by the tactical mind of its wielder. It's also artillery, requires no upgrades to reach full efficiency, can blast infantry away with its battle cannon, burn through a squads morale with its flamer, gun into its foes with its reaper autocannon, and tear enemies apart in close combat, but it's inferior in these aspects compared to dedicated specialists. It will lose in melee against any of the other 3 melee-dedicated vehicles mentioned above, lose in a ranged fight against many dedicated ranged vehicle, and pale in comparison to units designed specifically to serve as artillery, but it can do all these jobs with enough skill to hold the task. Its greatest strength is its ability to redeploy as the situation requires).
  
• Eldar's Wraithlord (Offsets the general fragility of the Eldar).
  
• Orks' have no melee dedicated vehicle in tier 2, their melee dedicated vehicle is in tier 3, but I'll write about him here for the sake of comparation with the other 3 melee dedicated vehicles, just remember: you can't get him in tier 2. Killa Kan (In melee can beat out the Eldar Wraithlord and Chaos Defiler by a slight margin, but will lose by a fair margin to a Space Marine Dreadnought, even if the latter is unupgraded, support from Tankbustaz is highly recommended).

Other vehicles are:

• Space Marine's Landspeeder (fast, mobile, cheap, anti-infantry fire, effective in large numbers, but has low health and will die quickly once your opponent gets significant anti-vehicular forces), Hellfire Dreadnought (More of a support vehicle, the anti-infantry version of the Dreadnought, deals area of effect damage unlike the simple Dreadnough, but doesn't have as much bash damge as the simple Dreadnought), Whirlwind (Great artillery unit, has good damage, fires fast, great area of effect, no friendly fire, but lacks range and takes a lot of vehicle cap).
  
• Orks have Wartrukk (A transport vehicle that is actually able to deal some damage), Wartrak (A support vehicle that's easily accessible and has great mobility, especially effective as a light anti-vehicle unit and as a infantry disruption with knockbacks unit, works well with Wartrukks that tear apart any infantry that the Wartrak does not knock over, can do friendly fire so beware how you use it).
  
• Eldar have Vyper (fast, moblie, effective in large numbers, anti-vehicles but good against buildings too, used best in hit and run roles) Falcon (All purpose ranged vehicle, fast, can jump on the map like Jetpack Units, and can transport units, the unupgraded weapon has a good anti-vehicle damage, and with the special weapon "Starcannon" upgrade the Falcon becomes anti-infantry while losing its anti-vehicle purpose, if pure firepower is required though, a Wraithlord is a better choice than the Falcon).
  
• Chaos have Chaos Predator (Fire support unit, extremely powerful and will cut down infantry with multiple bolters, while soaking up incredible amount of damage, can do a fine job against vehicles even unupgraded).

Either way, you should have a vehicle capable of some decent combat. And don't stop to 1 vehicle, build as many as you need. The most general suggestion I can make for Space Marines and Eldar is to pick the melee dedicated vehicles Dreadnought or Wraithlord, for Orks is to use the Wartrukk & Wartrak combo while looking out for the Wartrack's friendly fire, but focusing on your infantry over your vehicles, as Orks you'll play mostly an infantry game, if you need anti-vehicle get the infantry units called Tankbustaz, and for Chaos is the Chaos Predator, but the most general doesn't always mean the best, it depends on how the enemy is playing. However, until you get used to the game, just use the general.

Once you started building your vehicles, then if you haven't already, finish building some generators, then start building up what you need for the secondary commander unit.

• Space Marines need to build the Sacred Artifact to get the Librarian.
  
• Orks go about this in a different way. They start with their secondary, the Big Mek, and then get the Warboss in Tier 3.
  
• Eldar Seer Council (Unofficial in GOTY, official in DoW expansions) requires Soul Shrine built in tier 1 (Because Soul Shrine is the building that makes the difference between Eldar tier 1 and 2).
  
• Chaos need to build Sacrificial Circle to get the Chaos Sorcerer.

Make sure you get some the abilities for your commanders, they can often turn the tides of the battle.

• Space Marines have the most useful one of all, Word of the Emperor for the Librarian. Infantry units within a certain range will not die in battle until the effect wears off or the Librarian is killed. This can make or break a battle.
  
• Orks has, well, a lot, including the Big Mek's Kustom Tellyporta which is available since tier 1 and teleports him and the squad he is attached to (if attached to a squad) a short distance.
  
• Eldar's Farseer has a number of good abilities, but no one can come close to the Librarian and The Seer Council has Embolden and entanglement.
  
• Chaos has Chaos Sorcerer' Chains of Torment, which keeps an afflicted squad from doing anything and deals damage.

The buildings which give you the gifts of the secondary commander also have upgrades for the primary commander, normally these are health upgrades or an ability that slightly improves morale around him/her. These make very little difference, but under certain conditions they can help so they're good to have around. Also, for the Space Marines the Sacred Artifact provides the healer unit, the Apothecary. They take no squad cap, fight melee, and enhance the healing rate of the squad they are assigned to. The Ork Mad Doc does the same thing. The others don't have healers.

In Tier 2, you should be worried more about attacking than much else. It can take an awfully long time to get to Tier 3, so you might as well go ahead and make here your home. Try to attack as quickly as you can, the key in Dawn of War is to be both quick and to be on the offensive. You must take the fight to the enemy don't let them come to you, because when they do, it tends to hurt you more than them. Make sure that you are the one afflicting the damage, not them. That is the key.

Tier 3 starts when: Space Marines or Chaos build their second HQ add-on, Orks build their Orky Fort add-on, Eldar builds their support portal. This is the begining of the end stage of the war. Once you reach here bloodshred reaches a whole new level, you no longer need basic infantry, you need powerful squads. Some of the new abilities are just awesome as well, for example the Space Marines Force Commander. Once you hit tier 3, you can give the ability to bring down an orbital strike, it basically pounds out anything in range friendly or otherwise. Very good if you utilize the Force Commander with a drop pod. You only get one or two new buildings and units, but they are extremely powerful.

• Space Marines get Terminators, Assault Terminators, Predators, Orbital Relay (a building which allows you to drop units from the sky anywhere you have line of sight on the map) and Land Raiders (argued by many to be the SM super-unit, they have no official one).
  
• Orks get the Warboss, Killa Kan, Looted Tank, Nobs and the Squigoth (the super-unit).
  
• Eldar get vehicles and the Avatar (the super-unit).
  
• Chaos gets the Obliterators and the Bloodthirster (the super-unit).

The first thing that you should do in tier 3, is researching the final generators and listening posts add-ons. From now on, everything is going to be very expensive, you're going to need every resource you can get. This is the worst time to have economy problems since every new unit is going to be deadly compared to the tier 1 & 2 ones, you don't want your opponent to fight with tier 3 units while you have tier 2 units, so make sure you don't run out of resources.

The next thing you should do is either build your tier 3 units, or the preparator for your tier 3 units.

• With Space Marines you have both Terminators already in the barrack, Predators and Super-units on the vehicle building (for Space Marines, you are not limited to 1 super-unit, however it costs a lot, takes a lot to build and has a big vehicle cap, little likely to happen in a good skirmish fight, however, if you can get 2 of them, good for you, just make sure you keep them backwards to support your troops, they have lots of HP but they weren't made to be tanks) and an Orbital Relay building which allows you to drop units from the sky anywhere you have line of sight on the map, even in the middle of a battlefield.
  
• With Orks you get your Warboss in the HQ, the Nobs (superior melee fighters) in your barracks and the Killa Kan, Looted Tank and Squigoth (super-unit) in your vehicle building. (the way you should use this one, it's quite the opposite of the Space Marines' Land Raider, it should be your main charger, always in the front line, always the first to attack, if you can make sure he's the one taking the damage and not your other troops, he's not invulnerable but he's a living tank).
  
• With Eldar you get vehicles, out of which Fire Prism is the most powerful & the Avatar at the infantry building (you can use the Avatar 2 ways: either keep him in the base and continuously beneficiate from it's passive buffs to your buildings and army, or send him to the fight and have him battle high health single targets, he's not as effective against squads, just make sure you micromanage him durring a fight, he can die when you expect the least and you can't heal him).
  
• With Chaos you must first build Daemon Pit from which you can train Obliterators and the Bloodthirster (The most powerful super-unit, he is made for war, this thing loses health while he's not in combat, so make sure you strike often and strike hard).

Each tier adds new units to the table more powerful than the previous tier's ones, so you shouldn't stick to the old units but add new units to your army everytime you get a new tier in order not to fall behind. Remember that infantry and vehicles need each other, ranged vehicles need infantry in front of them for support from enemy fire, infantry needs vehicles for support with additional fire.

What you do now, which troops you train first and how do you use them is up to you, there are so many possible situations and possible matchups in this moment that I can't give you the best course of action for each of them, it's up to you to decide. You have the general advices, use them well.


This walkthrough was focused only on 4/9 races but similar principles apply to all 9 races through the game. Dedicated build orders for all 9 races exist further down the guide.

You start a skirmish game with:
- 1 Builder
- 1 HQ
- 1000 Requisition
- 100 Power

I'm going to refer to as:
Strategic Points = SP
Listening Posts = LP
Generators = Gen
Primary commander units = Hero (Force Commnader, Warboss, Farseer, Chaos Lord, Command Squad, etc)

Tier 1 - Early Game
- Build 1 Barrack
- HQ queue up: Scout, Builder, Scout
- Have 1st scout capture the closest SP
- Have 2nd builder join the builder building the barracks
- Have 2nd scout capture another SP.
- When the Scouts pairs have captured their first SP, have them capture the next SP
- When the barracks are complete, have your builders each build LP on different SP
- Barracks queue up: Hero and 1 Tacs (Tactical Space Marines, your main infantry)

( * You're going to need that 100 early power to build your Force Commander, so make sure you don't waste it on upgrading LPs )

- Then work on your economy, capture control posts and build listening posts on them, create 1 or 2 new Tacs squads if necessary or reinforce the ones you already have for battles, this is usually the moment for small SP fights.
- When your economy is stable, build 2 plasma Generators (Gens)
- Then, build armory
- Upgrade LPs when necessary.

- The next part of tier 1 is again improving your economy and fighting for SP. Depending on situation you may need to have a commander unit and at least 3 or 4 reinforced and upgraded CSM squads, you may either want to build 2 additional generators or get directly to tier 2.

Tier 2 - First HQ add-on researched

- Research requistion upgrade and power upgrade from LP and any Gens.
- Have your builders build 2 additional generators if you haven't already in tier 1. (4 in total)
- Build the vehicle building
- Vehicle building queue up: Dreadnought.

- Research a vehicle cap upgrade from your HQ, so you can create more than 1 vehicle.
- Build Sacred Artifact, because from there you can create your secondary commander unit.

- Chaplain is also powerful, Grey Knights after the Sacred Artifact are very powerful, and in tier 3 Terminators, Assault Terminators and Orbital Dreadnoughts.

* To increase Space Marines population, research squad/vehicle cap from HQ.

Tier 1 - Early Game
- Build 1 Barrack
- HQ queue up: Scout, Builder, Scout
- Have 1st scout capture the closest SP
- Have 2nd builder build 1 WAAAGH! banner
- Have 2nd scout capture another SP.
- When the Scouts pairs have captured their first SP, have them capture the next SP
- When the barracks are complete, have 1st builder build LP on different SP and 2nd builder build 1 Gen
- Barracks queue up: Secondary Hero and 1 Slugga/Shoota boys (As Orks, you'll get your Hero when you reach tier 3; Shoota boys if you need more range, Slugga boys if you need more melee, Storm boys if you have a lot of terrain on the map, depending on what you fight against; if not sure default to Shoota boys as you already have 2 Slugga boys)

- After the 2nd builder has build 1 Gen, have him build armory (Pile O'Gunz) and then another Gen. (total: 1 WAAAGH banner, 1 Gen, 1 Armory, 1 Gen)
- Work on your economy, create WAAAGH banners to increase Orks population, capture control posts and build listening posts on them, mass Orks if necessary, the bigger the mob, the better.
- Don't be afraid to lose more troops than the enemy with Orks, it's not a bug it's a feature, many Orks victories involve losing more troops than the enemy, this is usually the moment for small SP fights, after your economy and army are good, you may either want to build 2 additional generators or get directly to tier 2.

Tier 2 - Pile O'Gunz built

- Research requistion upgrade and power upgrade from LP and any Gens.
- Have your builders build 2 additional generators if you haven't already.
- Build the vehicle building.
- Vehicle up queue up: Wartrak for anti-vehicle and Wartruk for anti-infantry (Killa Khan is very slow and weaker than Dreadnought) Wartruck has friendly fire but it's not big 25% of the damage.
- You can also just go Nobz and go full on infantry instead, and later in Tier 3 Flash Gitz for range with Mega Armored Nobz for melee and Looted Tank for vehicle.

* To increase Ork population, build WAAAGH! banners. You start with 15 infantry population and get +10 infantry and +2 vehicles per WAAAGH banner.

Tier 1 - Early Game
- Build 1 Barrack
- HQ queue up: Builder, Scout, Scout (builder first here)
- Have 2nd builder join the builder building the barracks
- Have 1st scout capture the closest SP
- Have 2nd scout capture another SP.
- Research "Fleet of Foot Research" from HQ
- When the Scouts pairs have captured their first SP, have them capture the next SP
- When the barracks are complete, have your both builders build 1 Gen together.
- Barracks queue up: Hero and 1 Infantry unit (Rangers - morale damage, Banshee - melee damage, Guardians - light infantry damage, Dark Reapers - heavy infantry damage, if in doubt default to the powerful Dark Reapers with second highest tier 1 damage after Fire Warriors especially good vs heavy infantry, and vs light infantry units like Imperial Guard go Rangers with huge damage to light infantry units)

- When the Gen is complete, have 1st Builder build a 2nd Gen, and 2nd builder build LP on SP.
- When the 2nd Gen is complete, have the 2nd Builder build LPs too.

- Then work on your economy, capture control posts and build listening posts on them, create 1 or 2 new squads if necessary or reinforce the ones you already have, make use of Farseer's numerous abilities, she is not a combat unit but an ability spammer, this is usually the moment for small SP fights.
- Depending on situation you may need to have a commander unit and at least 3 or 4 reinforced and upgraded squads.
- When your economy is stable, build armory (Soul Shrine) because you've built 2 generators already.
- Do not ignore Fire Dragon Squad and Harlequeen. And later Warp Spiders.

Tier 2 - Soul Shrine built

- Research requistion upgrade and power upgrade from LP and any Gens.
- Have your builders build 2 additional generators if you haven't already. (4 in total)
- Build the vehicle building
- Vehicle building queue up: Falcon.
- Get "Wargear: Improved Optics" and "Wargear: Reinforced Armour" as soon as you can.

* To increase Eldar population, build Webway Gates

Tier 1 - Early Game
- Build 1 Barrack
- HQ queue up: Builder, Scout, Scout (builder first here)
- Have 2nd builder join the builder building the barracks
- Have 1st scout capture the closest SP
- Have 2nd scout capture another SP.
- When the Scouts pairs have captured their first SP, have them capture the next SP
- When the barracks are complete, have your builders each build LP on different SP
- Barracks queue up: Hero and 1 CSM (Chaos Space Marines, your main infantry)

- Then work on your economy, capture control posts and build listening posts on them, create 1 or 2 new CSM squads if necessary or reinforce the ones you already have, this is usually the moment for small SP fights.
- When your economy is stable, build 2 plasma generators
- Then, build armory
- Upgrade LPs when necessary.

- The next part of tier 1 is again improving your economy and fighting for SP. Depending on situation you may need to have a commander unit and at least 3 or 4 reinforced and upgraded CSM squads, you may either want to build 2 additional generators or get directly to tier 2.

Tier 2 - First HQ add-on researched

- Research requistion upgrade and power upgrade from LP and any Gens.
- Have your builders build 2 additional generators if you haven't already in tier 1. (4 in total)
- Build EITHER the vehicle building or Sacrificial Circle (more firepower vs dedicated anti-vehicle + powerful melee, if the enemy has numerous vehicles go Sacrificial Circle otherwise go for the vehicle building first).
- Vehicle building queue up: Chaos Predators or Hell Talon.
- Sacrificial Circle queue up: Horror for anti-vehicle, Khorne Berzerker Squad & Possesed for powerful melee.

- If you get vehicle building, research a vehicle cap upgrade from your HQ, so you can create more than 1 vehicle. Otherwise, reasearch an infantry cap upgrade for Sacrificial Circle.

- In Tier 3 you have Obliterators for range and Daemon Prince + Bloodthirster.

* To increase Chaos population, research squad/vehicle cap from HQ.

Tier 1 - Early Game
- Build 1 Barrack
- HQ queue up: Scout, Scout, Builder, Scout (extra 2nd scout)
- Have 1st scout capture the closest SP
- Have 2nd scout capture another SP.
- Have 2nd builder build 1 Gen
- Have 3rd scout capture another SP.
- When the Scouts pairs have captured their first SP, have them capture the next SP
- When the barrack/gen are complete, have your builders each build LP on different SP
- Barracks queue up: Command Squad (you already have 3 Guardsmen) and reinforce him with 1 Priest.

- While you do this, keep capturing SPs with your infantry until you meet with the enemy at probably the middle of the map (unless you're faster and capture more strategic points than him).
- When you have captured all SPs that you could capture without a fight, regroup your whole army (3 Guardsmen squads and Hero) and start harassing the enemy taking out their scouts or LPs.
- You may want to set your Hero on ranged while harassing this way. Only use him in melee if enemy heavy melee army, but remember he's not that powerful so really needs Guardsmen support.
- For Guardsmen Grenade launchers are very powerful all-purposes weapon upgrades.
- If you ever need to defend, make use of turrets, Imperial Guards have the second most powerful turrets in the game, only after Necrons. And you can garrison broken squads inside buildings.

- As soon as you have build LPs over all SPs you control, you should have your decent economy, have then your builders build 2 more Gens. (3 in total)
- Then, build armory
- When army is complete, research "Death before Dishonor".

- The next part of tier 1 is again improving your economy (if you haven't already with 3 Gens in total and LP2s) and fighting for SPs. Depedning on situation you may or may not need to have Command Squad & at least 4 or 5 reinforced and upgraded Guards squards.

Tier 2 - First HQ add-on researched

- Research requistion upgrade and power upgrade from LP and any Gens.
- HQ queue up: 1 - 2 Commissars, attach them to Guardsmen squads, and spam their "Execution" ability while in combat. (You kill 1 guardsmen, but the others that are nearby, not only in the squad where you killed the guardmen, get instant maximum morale & double fire rate for a few seconds)
- Build the vehicle building
- Vehicle building queue up: Santinel if facing good vehicles army, Hellhound if facing good infantry army, Basilisk if facing turtle defensive army.

* To increase Imperial Guards infantry population build more barraks, and to increase their vehicle's population build more vehicle building. (+6 infantry/vehicle cap per Infantry/Mechanized Command)

Tier 1 - Early Game

- Build 1 Barrack
- HQ queue up: Builder, Scout, Scout (builder first here)
- Have 2nd builder join the builder building the barracks
- Have 1st scout capture the closest SP
- Have 2nd scout capture another SP.
- Research "Jump Packs Research" from HQ to make your scouts reach SPs faster
- When the Scouts pairs have captured their first SP, have them capture the next SP
- When the barracks are complete, have your builders build 1 Gen
- Barracks queue up: Hero and 1 FW (Fire Warriors, your main infantry)

- When the generator is complete, have your both builders build LPs on SPs.
- Then work on your economy, capture control posts and build listening posts on them, create 1 or 2 new FW squads if necessary or reinforce the ones you already have, Tau Commander's flamer is a good tier 1 upgrade, make good use of the Tau Commander's "Snare Trap" ability to make enemy units lose 90% of their movement speed for 12 seconds and the shoot them with FW + Hero (but beware, each use costs 35 power), use Vespids from HQ if the enemy has infiltrated units, this is usually the moment for small SP fights.
- When your economy is stable, build 1 more plasma Generators (Gens) (in total 2)
- Then, build armory (Path to Enlightenment)

Tier 2 - Path to Enlightenment built

- Research requistion upgrade and power upgrade from LP and any Gens.
- Research "Targeting Optics" and then "Feral Leap Research"
- Build the Kroot Barracks (Kroot Shaping Center)
- Have your builders build 2 additional generators if you haven't already in tier 1. (4 in total)

- The next part of tier 2 is again improving your economy and fighting for SP. Depending on situation you may need to have Tau commander and at least 3 or 4 reinforced and upgraded squards. Kroots are Tau's main melee force, their FW have weaker melee than Imperial Guards, & with "Feral Leap" researched when on Assault Stance (default F6) Kroot Carnivores & Hound Packs will automatically leap at the enemy once in range causing damage and knocking them down.
- Build the vehicle building
- Vehicle building queue up: Skyray Missile Gunships.
- When you get to choose between Mont'ka Path or Kauyon Path for tier 3, generally pick Mont'ka against Space Marines or Imperial Guards, and Kauyon against any other race.

* To increase Tau population simply tech-up. They increase their population when the following buildings are built: Path to Enlightenment +5 infantry cap & +6 vehicle cap; Vehicle Beacon +2 vehicle cap; Mont'ka or Kauyon +5 infantry cap & +6 vehicle cap; Coalition Centre +6 vehicle cap.

Tier 1 - Game Start
- Build 1 Gen
- HQ queue up: Builder, Builder, Builder, Builder, NW, NW, Hero, NWs until full population.
- Have 2nd builder build another Gen
- Have 3rd builder build another Gen
- Have 4th builder build another Gen
- Have 5th builder build another Gen
- When 1st, 2nd, 3rd builders are done have them capture the closest SPs and build LPs
- With 4th builder build Core, with 5th builder build either turret to protect Gens or Armory or skip to last 2 gens.
- Then have 4th, 5th builders build 2 other gens (in total 7)
- Have your 1st NW either defend the area or harass the enemy, reinforce only if you're attacked.
- Have your Hero (Necron Lord) harass the enemy making use of his teleport ability.
- Have 1st, 2nd, 3rd builders keep capturing SPs and building LPs

- Besides turret, another means of defense is the LP2's "Wailing Terror" ability.
- You can keep 1 builder in your army to help detect infiltrated enemy units or decap to harass the enemy.
- You can upgrade Necron Warriors from Core, in tier 2 you can further upgrade your Necron Warriors after you built Greater Core, that also allows the production of vehicles. Both are significant health and damage upgrades, last one is range upgrade too, so they can be useful through the whole game.
- Afterwards upgrade HQ.

Tier 2 - First HQ add-on researched

- As soon as you reach tier 2, research power upgrade from any Gen.
- Make use of the rest of your army

• Immortals - powerful anti-vehicle units, good enough against infantry too.
  
• Flayed Ones - Melee, immune to morale damage, can be spawned anywhere you have field of view from the ground, including in enemy's ranged troops or near generator.
  
• Wraith - Spamming them can wreck Tau or Eldar; they also have "Phase Shift" to become invlunerable, but at the same time unable to attack.

- For Vehicles you need Greater Summoning Core and: Destroyer is anti-infantry and Tomb Spider is a powerful melee tank like a Dreadnought that can also revive fallen NWs.

- In Tier 3 you will get the Pariahs, Heavy Destroyer, Lord Destroyer.

* To increase the Necron population (as well as decrease their queue up time for everything), capture SP and build LP (called Obelisks) on them, you start with 8 infantry and 2 vehicle population and and 0% speed, and gain +3 infantry and vehicles population and +15% speed per Obelisk, upgrading them gives no further effect, you need 4 Obelisks for 60% speed, 20/20 infantry and 14/20 vehicles. 6 Obelisks for 90% speed 20/20 infantry and 20/20 vechiles, and 7 for everything.

Tier 1 - Early Game
- Build: 1 Vehicle Building, 1 Gen, 1 LP, 1 Armory, LPs.
- HQ queue up: Scout, Scout
- Have 1st scout capture the closest SP
- Have 2nd scout capture another SP.
- Dark Foundry done queue up: 1 Hellion Squad
- Keep capturing SPs with Scouts and build LPs on them.
- Hellions done: Attack with 1st Scouts and 1st Hellions.
- Have the 2nd Scouts keep capturing SPs.
- Have the builder keep building LPs on them.
- Build Reaver Jetbikes (up to 3 depending on situation).
- Have the builder build 1 more Gen & 1 Slave Chamber
- Upgrade LPs as needed.
- Upgrade Slave Chamber to Torture-Pit Add-on (for Soul energy, Gruesome is for defense)
- Send Builder to Harvest Soul Essence at it and Queue another builder from HQ.

- Dark Eldar buildings will start building by themselves once the builder has touched them. So all the builder has to do is touch the Dark Foundry building and them move to the Plasma Generator location right away because the Dark Foundry will continue constructing itself independently without any help from the builder anymore. This is why I can say here: 1 Vehicle Building, 1 Gen, 1 LP, 1 Armory, many LPs, 1 Gen, 1 Slave Chamber. Because you only have to click build then you can move on with the builder.

- Reinforce 1st Scouts and Hellions, try to decap and kill/destroy as many things as possible, starting with builders/cappers. (In case of infiltration problems, use 1st Soul Power or Haemonculus from HQ)
- You can have 2nd Scouts join them if too difficult.
- The Reaver Jetbikes will join them in attack, harass enemy points.
- Research "Poisoned Blades Research" for extra melee damage for Scouts and Hellions.
- Can also get Secondary Hero after Armory is built and have him join the attack, or can skip.

Tier 2 - First HQ add-on researched

- Research requistion upgrade and power upgrade from LP and any Gens.
- Build 2 more Gens (total 4) and the infantry building (Hall of Blood)
- Research "Daemonic Corruption Research" for significantly stronger Scouts.
- Build Slave Chambers.
- Queue up 3 more Jetbikes.
- Research "Reaver Targeting Module" and "Night Shields" for stronger Hellions and Jetbikes.

- Can Research "Mandrake Infiltration" from Hall of Blood if necessary if useful this game.
- Queue up Primary Hero from Hall of Blood.
- Use Scourge Squads and "Wargear: Splinter Cannons" if facing many vehicles.
- Build Wych-Cult Arena and queue up Witches.

* To increase Dark Eldar population, build Slave Chambers.

Tier 1 - Early Game
- Build 1 Barrack
- HQ queue up: Scout, Scout, Builder (builder last)
- Have 1st scout capture the closest SP
- Have 2nd scout capture another SP.
- Have 2nd builder join the builder building the barracks
- When the Scouts pairs have captured their first SP, have them capture the next SP
- When the barracks are complete, have your builders build 1 Gen
- When the Gen is complete, have your builders build LP on SP.
- Barracks queue up: 2 Battle Sister Squads.

- Then work on your economy, capture control posts and build listening posts on them, create 1 or 2 new squads if necessary or reinforce the ones you already have, this is usually the moment for small SP fights.
- Attach scouts (missionaries) to Battle Sister Squads when they have captured all strategic points, relics and critical locations what you need.
- When your economy is stable, build 2 plasma Generators (Gens) (3 in total)

- Start researching tier 2 HQ add-on.
- Queue up 2 more Battle Sisters Squads.
- Have your builders build Pristine Sanctuary.

Tier 2 - First HQ add-on researched

- Research requistion upgrade and power upgrade from LP and any Gens.
- Have your builders build 2 additional generators if you haven't already in tier 1. (3 in total)
- Research "Heavy weapon increase", "blessed armor" and "Inferno Pistol".
- Build the vehicle building (Manufactorum).
- Vehicle building queue up: 2 Rhino Transports
- Research "Act of Faith: Emperor's Touch" from HQ.
- Queue up Celestian Squad from HQ if the enemy has vehicles

* To increase Sisters of Battle population, research squad/vehicle cap from HQ.

Since the 2nd expansion Dark Crusade came out the infiltration mechanics changed. If in Dawn of War Vanilla and Winter Assault infiltrated units were unable to attack while infiltrated, this is not the case anymore for Dark Crusade and Soulstorm. This made the infiltration and detection element of the game much more important, and sometimes game-changing.

Basically you have 2 types of units: Infiltrators - that can infiltrate, and Detecors (or Spotters) that can detect infiltrated units. Once an infiltrated unit is spotted all other units can see it and shoot it, but if it gets out of the detectors' line of sight (or if the detector dies) the unit is invisible again. If the enemy has an infiltrator and is attacking you with it having a detector is imperative as an undetected infiltrator can sometimes break a battle.

In the following sections I'm going to present you all infiltrators and detectors for all races, knowledge is power battle-brother, with some notes about the whole race or the specific infiltrator/detector units as well, beware them and use them.

All turrets and listening posts are detectors for all races as well as:

Detectors: Skull Probes, Secondary Hero.
Infiltrators: Scouts, Skull Probe.

Conclusion: Powerful infiltration. Space Marines have bad detection as they have to go out of their way to get Skull Probes and the Secondary Hero is taken much later, but for infiltration Skull Probes although Scouts can be infiltrated and equipped with snipers which can be devastating in high numbers, especially if the enemy doesn't have a detector. This is the only thing that makes their infiltration decent. Otherwise, they have nothing.

Detectors: Secondary Hero, Primary Hero, Mega Armored Nobz.
Infiltrators: Tankbustats, Gretchin.

Conclusion: Powerful detection. Orks have very good early game detection with their Secondary Hero but you also don't have to worry about them infiltrating since Tankbustats and Gretchin being able to infiltrate is pretty much useless.

Detectors: Guardian Seargent, Seer Council, Harlequeen
Infiltrators: Rangers, Webway Gates.

Conclusion: Powerful on both. Getting early detectors is average, not as easy as Orks but not as Hard as Space Marines, with the Guardian Sergeants. But their infiltration is very good with Rangers dealing big morale damage from Tier 1 and Webway Gate being able to infiltrate nearby buildings from Tier 1, so you may not even be able to see their base without a detector.

Detectors: Cultist, Primary Hero's Ability, Secondary Hero
Infiltrators: Cultists, Chaos Space Marines

Conclusion: Powerful on both. Getting early detectors is the simplest so far as their Scouts are detectors. And in tier 2/3 their Cultists/Chaos Space Marines can get infiltrated. The best part about this is that it's late in game enough that you have detectors by this point, but it's still always a threat.

Detectors: Psyker, HQ's Ability
Infiltrators: Vindicare Assassin

Conclusion: The worst race in both. Psyker is a tier 2 unit and the HQ's ability range is limited the enemy can simply move away. And Vindicare Assassin is only 1 unit.

Detectors: Vespids, Pathfinders, Secondary Hero
Infiltrators: XV15 Stealth Team, Devilfish Troop Carrier, Drone Squad.

Conclusion: Very powerful on both. Vespids can be queued up as soon as the game starts and you have the Tau Barracks constructed. They are also very powerful units for tier 1 and great harassers. While their scouts XV15 Stealth Team already has infiltration in tier 1.

Detectors: Builders, Wraits, Primary Hero's Ability
Infiltrators: Primary Hero's Ability

Conclusion: Very powerful on both. With builders and wraits you have no chance as these units are very easy to get. And the Primary Hero's Ability Veil of Darkness is late game tier 3 but without a detector then you're screwed.

Detectors: 1st Soul Ability, Secondary Hero, Wych Squad
Infiltrators: Scouts

Conclusion: Very powerful on both. Dark Eldar's first spotter is actually a soul power ability not a unit. A soul power ability that can be applied to any unit you have and will grant them detection for 30 seconds. While their infiltrator is available early in the game in tier 1, making for a powerful rush or scout decap, simply put they are effective scouts.

Detectors: Missionary, Secondary Hero, Death Cult Assassin, Relic Unit
Infiltrators: Death Cult Assassin

Conclusion: Powerful detection. The Missionary can be queued up as soon as a game starts. He is also a good scout and support unit and can be attached to a squad. But they only have 1 infiltrated unit that is tier 3. The problem is that for them exclusively Listening Posts do not grant detection unless upgraded with the Faith ability, making them actually weaker than others.

Imperial Guards are a ranged army with numbers, outnumbering. Many call Imperial Guards a "turtling" race, but don't be fooled, the Imperial Guard can be vicious on the offense too. The whole premise for the Imperial Guard guard army is different from that of other races.

Your troops aren't walking big damage tanks like the elite fighters of the Space Marines or other races. Instead, they're weak, scared guys with small guns and no armor. Sounds dumb? No way. The Imperial Guards army is build around numbers and good command structure. Without good numbers and proper command, your forces are doomed to die.

Your army doesn't have the strength at it's side, however, numbers more than make up for this. Your army is very cheap (20 requisition per unit) and thus you should have no difficulties outnumbering the enemy. And when you start utilizing your officers in tier 2, your forces become a fighting machine. Not only that, but the variety of Guard commanders available and the abilities they endow upon the rank and file are a blast! By far the most significant is the Commissar's "Execute" ability but the Priest "Fanaticism" is also powerful although only affecting 1 squad.

As for the vehicles, they have some of the best vehicles in the game but just like their infantry work best in packs with officers. The Chimera transports up to three squads and allows them to shoot out the window. The Sentinel (which looks like AT-ST from Star Wars) is a great anti-vehicle and Hellhound is a great anti-infantry. The Basilisk, "basi" for friends, is the best altilerly in the game. The Leman Russ is a great all-rounded addition.

And the Baneblade is the best relic unit in the game, when used correctly, he is ranged and should be kept at a distance from the enemy. As for Imperial buildings, most of them allow units to garrison inside, which makes for an interesting new twist to base defense, with the 2nd most powerful turrets in the game. Builder units are also curiously strong in combat and fast in repair, making them perfect for fixing defenses under fire.

Key principle: NUMBERS.
1) They are weak in small numbers, but powerful in big numbers.
(Because your army is cheap, you can outnumber the enemy in most cases)

Secondary principles:
2) They have commanders that improve the squads they are attached to.
(Commisars have execution that restore morale and improve the fire-rate of all IG around them, Priests improve health and have Fanaticism that makes a squad imune, don't attach Psykers unless they're about to die or it's imperative that you keep them alive eg: enemy has infiltrators)
3) They are weak early game, but are hard to stop late game.
(A maxed IG army with comamnders attached and grande launchers is truly a force to reckon with and the baneblade... the most powerful relic unit in the game, if kept at a safe distance)
4) They are the most powerful race on defence in the game.
(Their anti-infantry turrets are the most powerful in the game [for many factions turrets have such a low damage that they are almost useless, this is not the case for IG], and they can garison troops in buildings in case of an attack [they won't do the same damage so it's not always recommended but the enemy can't directly shoot back at your units], and the Heavy Weapons Team is also badass)
5) They have the most powerful super-unit in the game: The Baneblade.
(Is a excellent long-range tank, and paired with 2 Leman Russes they become a force hard to much, just make sure they're not the ones taking the damage. And you also have a lot smaller, auxiliary but still badass vehciles. Basilik - the most powerful altilery in the game. Hellhound - powerful anti-infantry, attacks with fire and ruins morale; Santinel - powerful anti-vehicle, a pack of 3 of them can disable an enemy vehicle in no time)
6) Their army is cheaper than other races', but their buildings cost is average.
(And they also queue up faster, which means that economically you should have no problems getting more troops than the enemy and faster)
7) They have powerful range fighters but their weakness is melee fights
(Most IG units are powerful range and useless melee. IG only have 2 melee units: The Command Squad if you choose to focus it on Priests, and the Ogryns that are available only at tier 3, so for the most part if you have no melee units to bring in the middle you should always avoid engaging with melee troops, if they attack you run, when they stop chasing, fight back, there will be a time in tier 3 when you'll have so much firepower that a few melee units won't matter anymore, turrents and listenting posts, things that you can retreat to [then fight back], are your best friend for this reason)

"All Imperial Guards players I have ever met build turrets, and I can't get closer to them, so I actually lost a lot of requisition and power to build my army when Imperial Guards built generators and tech to tier 2" - JV (DoW Veteran)

"Predators are better than any other tier 3 tank or tier 2, but Baneblade with Leman Russes can outscale probably every unit in the game" - JV (DoW Veteran)

"In general the Imperial Guard have flat-out the worst infantry of all the factions and need extensive micro-management and upgrades to make them at least moderately functional, but they also have perhaps the best collection of Vehicles available." - Dark Crusade Wikia

"Quantity has a quality all its own" - Joseph Stalin, pro WW2 IG player.

- Always max out squad size if you don't need to spend Requistion on anything else. Attach a Priest or a Commissar to improve the squads.

- Research everything. Increasing Guardsmen's morale and health is very important.

- Get their wargear depending on what you're going up against. Heavy infantry ? Get Plasma. Light infantry ? Grenade launchers will wreck them. (If you have to fight both, take Grenade Launchers since they are also efficent against Heavy infantry)

- Numbers numbers numbers. The duty of the Guardsman is to die for the Emperor, don't be afraid to let him. They're quick to train and reinforce.

- If the red circle appears around any of your squads, use "Execute" or get them out of battle and wait for their morale to recharge.

- Want a jack of all trades Commander Squad ? Add 1 Commissar, 1 Psyker and 2 Priests. Want a pure melee Commander Squad ? Add 4 Priests.

- When you can get vehicles, get them.

- Chimeras are transport vehicles Sentinels are dedicated anti-vehicles. Hellhounds dedicated anti-infantry. Basilisk is the best altilery in the game. Leman Russ is a good all rounder.

- Use infantry as avangard to protect your vehicles. Yet also use infantry as a powerful force, not mere meat shield.

- Can get the Baneblade? Support it with infantry and vehicles and the game is won.

Commanders:

There are 3 kinds of commanders, use them attached with your infantry troops.

* You should always pick either Commissar or Priest for Guardsmen. The Psyker should only be used as the last option, he can use the abilities regardless of whether he's attached to a squad or not, and doesn't give any pasive bonuses to the attached squad such as Commissar or Priest. The only real benefit of attaching a Psyker to a squad would be giving protection to the Psyker, which at times can be useful, especially when you need lots of Psykers and you need them to survive, but if you have to pick, pick the Commissar or Priest for Guardsmen.

* You should always pick Priest for Kasrkin Squad. They can take high advantage of the Priest bonuses. The Psyker should also only be used as the last option, the only real benefit would be giving protection to the Psyker, sure the "Lightning Arc" ability can be useful for Karskins, but you can always use that while having the Psyker attached to a Guardsmen squad and a Priest to Karskins. Let the Commissars to the Guardsmen for using "Execute" on elite and expensive units isn't really ideal.

* You should always pick Priest for Ogryns. The Psyker should also only be used as last option, for the protection of Psyker, although his melee attack is not that great, sometimes he may be better alone at a distance from where he can safely use his abilities than in the front lines with Ogryns. Don't use Commissars on them, they have no morale problems, and “Execute” on them hurts you more than the opponent.

1) Commissar (200 Morale + "Execute" Ability)
* Gives the squad +200 morale
* Has "Execute"

* "Execute" abilitiy that kills one Guardsmen, instanly restores full morale, grants morale damage immunity and double rate of fire for all your nearby infantry (Not only his squad) for 10 seconds. Double fire rate = Double damage.
* Cooldown 10 seconds (yes, you red that correctly, you can spam it).

- The commissar shots Guardsmen without a special weapon and doesn't kill the sergeant. Unless there's no guardsmen without special weapons, in that case he'll shot one with a special weapon because he has no other choice.
- You generally need 1-2 Commissars to get the full effect in your army, and the 2nd one is for backup.

2) Priest (50 Morale + 33% Speed + 125 Health + 50% Damage + "Fanaticism" Ability)
* Gives the squad +50 Morale & +33% Movement Speed
* Gives each soldier +125 HP & Increases their damage by 50%
* Has "Fanaticism"
* "Fanaticism" ability that instantly restores full morale, makes them immune to morale damage and invincible (immune to health damage) for 10 seconds. (Priest's squad only)
* Cooldown 2 minutes

- You want to attach Priest to your best units, namely: Kasrkin and Ogryns, but also to the Guardsmen if you already have 1-2 Commissars for them.

3) Psyker (Damage to enemy abilities)
* Gives the squad 0 passive buffs
* Has 3 abilities: "Strip Soul", "Lightning Arc" and "Curse of the Machine Spirit"

* "Strip Soul" - 510 Damage to a single infantry unit.
* Does 150 morale self-damage.
* Cooldown 3 Minutes

* "Lightning Arc" - 400 Damage to a whole infantry squad.
* Does 150 morale self-damage.
* Cooldwon 3 Minutes

* "Curse of the Machine Spirit" - Stuns a vehicle for 15 seconds
* Cooldown 45 Seconds
* Does not disable special abilities of the targeted vehicle.

- Given what I said previously, you might get the impression that Psyker is a bad unit, not at all, just not good for attaching to units unless for survivability.
- Lightning Arc's damage scales up the more infantry in a squad and against most enemies will instantly break morale.
- Curse of the Machine Spirits is one of the most useful abilities in game, it can stun super-units including the Monolith.
- The Psyker's "Strip Soul" and "Lightning Arc" abilities do 150 morale self-damage to the Psyker or the squad he is attached to. In case you have him attached to a squad, it is best to detach him, use the ability and then attach him again. This is not the case for "Curse of the Machine Spirit".

Command Squad:

Command Squad / Requirements: Infantry Command / Cost: 100 Req, 25 Energy
HP: 435 / Morale: 450 / Armour: Commander / Squad Size: 1/3/5 / Limit: 1
Reinforce Cost: 80 Req & 40 Energy Commissar & Psyker; 90 Req & 40 Energy Priest
Reinforce Time: 20 sec General; 25 sec Commissar & Psyker; 35 sec. Priest

* 1/3/5 means that initially you start with 1 unit General Sturnn, but you can reinforce 2 more commanders to your squad. And after you research "Uncommon Valor" you can add an additional 2 more commanders to your squad until you have 5 units. If you lose General Sturnn he's simply treated as another unit and you can reinforce him again.

Assigning commanders gives you all the bonuses they would give to an individual squad if they were attached to except for Commissar's "Execute".
General -> Strafing Run (Bombardament)
Commissar -> +200 Morale
Psyker -> "Strip Soul", "Lightning Arc", "Curse of the Machine Spirit".
Priest -> +50 Morale & +33% Speed, +125 HP & +50% Damage to each member, "Fanaticism"

He is a really bad Hero when compared to other races, but necessary as you lack melee options until tier 3. You can have him as either: pure melee force or jack of all trades. For pure melee squad add 4 Priests. They have the best melee stats and add the passive bonuses. This is pretty effective for hero-busting. For the jack of all trades add a Commissar, Psyker and 2 Priests. The squad has all abilities. You can choose the right ability at the right time, it's very adaptable.

Some people don't go for Commissar since they feel that +200 morale bonus won't do much, however, next to the General, he has more health than any other squad member, has the highest building damage, and is the only one to provide a worthwhile amount of ranged damage, that +200 Morale bonus isn't bad either when you're under heavy enemy fire. Although, not picking Commissar it's still a viable choice.

From Tactica Control, aka the "armory" you can buy improvements for your units.
- The first row of improvements will be available as soon as you have Tactica Control built.
- The second row will be available when you reach tier 2. But to unlock the one in the right (called "Weapon Specialization") you need to research the one in the left (called "Satellite Targeting Resolution") first.
- The third row will be available when you reach tier 3 and reserach "Kasrkin Quarters" or "Ogryins Quarters" from barracks because those upgrades are for those units and those units alone.
- The one that is unlocked in the picture (called "Powered Bayonets") is an Ogryin research. The other 2 are for Kasrkins and will be unlocked as soon as you research "Kasrkin Quarters".
- In this picture I have tier 3 without "Satellite Targeting Resolution" or "Kasrkin Quarters" researched to give you an example.

- When Tactica Control is built, you can recruit Sergeants and add 3 heavy weapons to every squad.
- You have 5 researches for Guardsmen, 1 for Command Squad, 3 for Kasrkins and 1 for Ogryns.
- You also have a reserach for Vindicare Assassin's infiltration.

I) Tier 1

1. "Death Before Dishonor" -> Is very cheap, quick to research, and gives every Guardsman +15 HP, +100 morale and doubles their morale regeneration rate from 3 to 6. This is high priority. It’s rather inexpensive and boosts the morale of Guardsmen, which is really needed.

"Battle Armor" -> Also relatively cheap, gives +25% HP to all Guardsmen and an additional +150 HP to Guardsmen Sergeants. It's good for making them more tanky, relatively speaking as it's not much when compared to units from other races, but every bit helps.

"Uncommon Valor" -> You can now add up to 5 members in the command squad instead of 3. Is quite expensive and unnecessary early game. You can leave it until the next tech tier, when you’ll need those extra members in your Command Squad.

II) Tier 2

"Satellite Targeting Resolution" -> Extra range for Guardsmen. Is also cheap. Very good for a ranged army.

"Will of the Emperor" -> Extra HP and Morale to Guardsmen. Is also a cheap upgrade. This is as important as Death Before Dishonor.

"Weapon Specialization" -> Doubles the damage of all Grenade Launchers and increases the damage of Plasma Guns by 50%. You can now add 5 heavy weapons instead of 3 per Guardsmen squad. This is a very good upgraded that ends up dealing a lot of extra damage, do not ignore it.

III) Tier 3

"Genetic Enhancement" -> Extra movement speed for Kasrkin.
It's okay, but better to prioritize the other.

"Kasrkin Armor" -> +25% HP for Kasrkins.
Good upgrade for elite units.

"Powered Bayonets" -> +25% damage for Ogryns.
Good upgrade for elite units.

"Infiltration Research" -> Allows the Vindicare Assassin (cause you can't have more than 1) to use infiltration.

Necrons have very few upgrades:
- The Summoning Core gives you 2 upgrades of Health & Damage for the backbone of your army Necron Warriors, one in tier 1 and another in tier 2 after Greater Summoning Core is made. The second upgrade provides a much bigger health and damage boost than the first, and a range increase on top of that. And 1 upgrade of Speed and Armor for Wraiths once you got to tier 2.
- The Forbidden Archive offers you 8 abilities for your Necron Lord, but you can only pick 3.

Early passive duelist build: Phase Shifter, Lightning Field, Phylactery: tier 1, tier 1, tier 2.
Early active anti-range build: Phase Shifter, Solar Pulse, Phylactery: tier 1, tier 1 core, tier 2.
Late army break active build: Phase Shifter, Phylactery, Nightmare Shroud: tier 1, tier 2, tier 3.

These are those 8 abilites:
1. Chronometron (tier 1; weak) -> Passive: Slows down enemy units around the Nercon Lord.
2. Phase Shifter (tier 1; powerful) -> Units around hero become immune and regenerate everything faster but cannot attack for 15 seconds.
3. Lightning Field (tier 1; powerful) -> Passive: Reflects 90% of the melee damage at the enemy.
4. Solar Pulse (tier 1 core; powerful) -> Active only: Enemy units cannot use range weapons and will be detected for 20 seconds.
5. Phylactery (tier 2; the best) -> Triple HP regeneration and reduce ranged damage by 60%.
6. Resurrection Orb (tier 2; good) -> All Necrons near Lord have a 25% chance to rise again when they die and when clicked All dead Necrons around the lord rise again.
7. Veil of Darkness (tier 3; decent) -> Passive only: Makes all ally units and buildings around the Necron Lord infiltrators, as long as the Necron Lord's health is over 50%.
8. Nightmare Shroud (tier 3; powerful) -> Active only: Instant morale broken for all nearby units with morale and all units even non-morale ones are forced to flee for 8 seconds. It's very powerful but the downside is that it only comes late game.

Phase Shifter is a perfect "get out of jail free" card, Necron Lord low HP? Use this ability and after 15 seconds he is right back up. Phylactery makes him insanely taking vs range units.

Then: Lightning Field makes him an excellent duelist with a thunder active, Solar Pulse disables enemy range, Nightmare Shroud disables enemy whole army but is only late game.

Nightbringer vs Deceiver -> Really depends. Default to Nightbringer.
- Both are immune to damage and last 1 minute.
- Deceiver: can summon a Fake Restored Monolith that draws enemy fire and deals no damage but deals very real knockback, allows you to take control of enemy units for 20 seconds, teleport meaning it's a lot easier to chase what you want to chase.
- Nightbringer: insane melee damage, regenerate HP which is useless to him but very useful for the Necron Lord when the ability wears off.

NECRON UNITS:
Builders -> Workers that capture points and repair on the battlefield and detect.
Necron Warriors -> Your backbone slow to produce and walk but are durable. If you keep them alive until mid game they will start reinforcing faster as your economy builds. Scale hard.
Necron Lord -> Tanky and can teleport. His upgrades make him terrifying.
Flayed Ones -> Deep striking tanky melee shock troops that can break enemy morale.
Wraiths -> Your first real mobile unit fast melee, good vs range or fragile units and detect.
Immortals -> Your anti-vehicle and anti-buildings specialists. Have at least 1.
Pariahs -> Your tier 3 "secondary hero" insanely tanky and can teleport good vs everything.

Destroyers -> Fast flying gunships with strong anti-infantry fire but low hp.
Tomb Spider -> A weaker Dreadnought in stats but he can actually rebuild your army.
Heavy Destroyers -> Tier 3 anti-vehicle, anti-aircraft anti-building destroyer.
Lord Destroyer -> Tier 3 literally takes control of enemy vehicles converting them to you.
Restored Monolith -> Tier 4 most powerful artillery slow but teleports.

Gauss turret after upgrade is anti-everything, compared to other faction which generally goes from anti-infanty to anti-vehicle for their turrets.

Try to remember that you can teleport your infantry units to any non-turret building once you've built the summoning core, so if an opponent is harassing your LPs you don't need to march back across the map.

Monolith is a great relic unit, probably one of the best ones. No friendly fire, very disruptive, big range, serves as mobile production for reinforcements. But it's mostly a supporting relic unit. You don't really want to dive in with it alone.

Obelisk upgrade doesn't give you any additional bonuses in terms of energy or speed boost. You do it solely for defense, LP2 gets an AoE ability that does around 170-210 damage for infantry. It can be decent assistance in early tiers, if you're sure you'll fight around a lot and have energy to spare.

Tomb Spiders are cool but a bit clunky to use. You can gather fallen bodies of Necron units, depending on how many they gather - they can spawn a freebie stack of infantry (between NW, FO and Immortals, your choice). Which is for all intents and purposes same as a normal unit you could build, not timed or anything. But Tomb Spiders cost a lot, so having them gather bodies when they could be participating in combat is kind of a waste. And usually you would rather have Destroyer. In range combat Destroyer does overall way better than Tomb Spider with Gauss, while costing a bit less. In melee it's hard to protect Tomb Spider from enemy anti-vehicle, unlike Destroyer that stays at range.

Heavy Destroyer, you don't often need it. Usually you're fine with just Immortals, make 2+ if you think there is a lot of vehicles. They hide behind NW blob, they have good range, deal great damage. A bit flimsy, but getting to them is enemy's problem. One can imagine few exceptions, like dealing with Daemon High armor is kinda tough for Necron (which a few Relic units possess, like Bloodthirster). Could consider a Heavy Destroyer then. Maybe there is a weird Guardsmen entrenched position that is super anti-infantry, has basilisks and such. But not a single anti-vehicle in sight. Could punish it with Heavy Destroyer too. In general Immortals do majority of your heavy lifting, including fighting Vehicle High late game vehicles.

Upgrading your base to Awakened Monolith and Engaged Monolith not only buffs your Necron Kord, it also buffs your Flayed Ones, giving more HP. You can build up to 3 bases as well, if you even get to that point, to increase their HP and each upgrade per base will continue to increase their HP and is not limited to 1 base.

You can actually put Flayed Ones back inside the Monolith and send them on the ground somewhere else.

Dark Eldar are the forsaken and corrupt kindred of the Eldar. Sadistic pirates of the Warhammer 40.000 universe, practicing slavery and finding joy in torture to feed their appetites, a terrible desire called the Thirst, though they are sometimes used as mercenaries by other species.

Their armies, like the Eldar, have mobility and advanced technology, but manifests in a different way. Rather than "Fleet of Foot" that needs to be turned ON/OFF making it micro-intensive, their units' base speed is faster than that of other units and they get no extra accuracy loss from that.

Though they lack in tankiness and numbers, they deal high damage and make use of quick vehicles to launch high speed attacks. They are such a rush army that even their build order has "attack" in it because the earlier the game, the more advantage you have. If you are facing Dark Eldar you can expect an early game attack.

They also have unique global Soul abilities, combined with the hit-and-run nature of the Dark Eldar's fast glass cannon army that is powerful early game but gets weaker the longer the game takes, makes their play experience unique and very exciting.

Very powerful early game, you need to always keep pressure with Mandrakes, have very good damage but big build time: Hellions, Jetbike and Secondary Hero. Even when you cannot kill the enemy army in battle you can easily harass enemy points and base. Timing push, fast tier 2, fast bikes, many options. They have many options and are all about rush.

Early game, they are all about: Mandrakes, Hellions, Jetbike and Secondary Hero. Late game, they have only a few good options: Wych Squad & Warp Beast and Primary Hero for infantry, and Raven with Ravager for vehicles, also the Relic Unit.

In tier 3 the Wych Squad is a solid option, it deals very good damage in both melee and range, has a very good witch sergeant, and "Combat Drugs" ability gives them: morale immunity, faster attack speed, faster movement speed. Warp Beasts are also good for all damage with insane tankiness and with sergeant Beast master ability negates morale issues. The wargear Splinter Cannon from Primary Hero and sergeant units is very good versus vehicles.

The Raven is an anti-air unit with a disable enemy combat ability and also good infantry and vehicle damage. The Ravager is a soild option with very good anti-vehicle and good anti-infantry damage. And Dais of Destrcution is their relic unit.

But other than that? Warriors have good damage but low health. Scurges once again low HP but Dark Eldar don't have another fast range anti-vehicle damage so they may be needed when you lack Splinter Cannon or vehicles. Hellions and Jetback were good for tier 1 and early 2 due to very big infantry damage. Rider is a bad transport with bad damage but looks cool and Talos is poor man's Dreadnought and not worth it.

Key principle: Powerful but fragile - Most Dark Eldar units are extremly powerful in terms of damage, but die like flies in terms of health.

Secondary principles:

1) Powerful Scouts - Mandrakes are strong, can infiltrate, and have excellent building damage. You'll have to use their help in the early stage of the game if you don't want to fight an uphill battle. They are good even in tier 2 but fall behind after.

2) No turrets or mines for defense - You'll have to rely on your army for defense. However, Dark Eldar is a rushing race, your main focus shouldn't be on defense. But if you need it, Slave Chambers with Gruesome Display Add-on deals area of effect damage around it, and in tier 2 the Dark Lance Listening Posts add-on can be of help, but really not much.

3) Low Health builder but able to Multitask - Weakest builder in the game in terms of health, but most useful in terms of building. After he touches a building the building will be built by itself, making you able to build several buildings and repair at the same time.

4) Few detectors and infiltrator in early game - The 1st Soul Power and the secondary hero Haemonculus that needs the lab. Mandrakes can infiltrate with a tier 1 research, and unlike the tier 1 infiltrator from Tau they deal big damage although melee.

5) Units need several buildings - Dark Foundry for bikes (Hellions) and Jetbikes to use early game, and Hall of Blood required for regular troops (Warriors) and jump troops (Scourges). These 3: Mandrakes, Hellions, Jetbikes are your early game army before getting the Secondary Hero, with Warriors and Scurges being situational.

6) Very good mobility - Dark Eldar have a fast army.

7) Access to vehicles in Tier 1 - Jetbikes from Dark Foundry have good damage and can decap too.

8) Jumping Heavy Weapons - Scourges can beat most units/vehicules/buildings and get 2 jumps. However, they have very low HP so should only be used against that. Hellions that are your main infantry early game can jump too.

9) Soul Powers - Hard to use, but you can use them, others can't, don't neglect them.

10) Rigid Build Orders - Can't switch a Build Order for another without spending tons of resources.

11) Rigid army composition - You have Mandrakes, Hellions, Jetbikes in tiers 1 and 2 and then switch to Witch, Beasts, Heroes, Raven, Ravager, Relic Unit in tier 3. Necrons and Dark Eldar have fewest amount of units in the game.

Dark Eldar have a 3rd resource called Soul Essence which they harvest from fallen bodies or Slave Chambers. Players start every game with 50 Soul Essence. This is used to cast a variety of powerful global abilities that give the Dark Eldar an edge in combat.

Tier 1 Abilities:

Piercing Vision (cost 40; cooldown 1 min) -> Grants a friendly unit detection passive ability for 30 seconds.

Screams of the Damned (cost 60; cooldown 3 min) -> Global morale damage. Halves maximum morale of all enemy units on the map for 15 seconds and then they take 40 morale damage from that halved morale. Tier 1 Guardsmen break instantly from this ability.

Tier 2 Abilities:

Rend Soul (cost 180; cooldown 3 min) -> Deals high damage over time and disables the abilities of a single unit. Target takes instantly 100 damage and 20 morale damage, after 20 seconds, it takes extra 100 damage and 20 morale damage, and from then on 10 more damage every second for 25 seconds. The unit's abilities are disabled for the duration of the ability. If you select a squad, this ability automatically targets squad leaders over regular units in the squad.

Corrosion (cost 200; cooldown 3 min) -> Significantly increases damage taken by affected enemy units or buildings in area. Affects only enemy units, they have their armor reduced by 8% and increases their taken damage by 10% for 17 seconds. Sometimes triple damage especially against buildings such as HQ. Does not affect new units that enter the cloud after it is cast.

Tier 3 Abilities:

Rekindle Rage (cost 200; cooldown 4 min) -> Refreshes all abilities on a friendly unit.

Soulstorm (cost 275; cooldown 3 min) -> Deals high damage in an area to everything except buildings, this one does friendly fire. The summoned storm lasts for 20 seconds and can be moved around by the player on the battlefield with a basic movement speed of 16 (like a regular unit). Deals damage every single second but the damage value varies depends on the target.

Thank you for reading this guide!

Here is the original info, I mainly used these old guides I made from before the Definitive Edition to write this guide:
https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=169328807
https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=517192337
https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=489025517
https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=736993545
https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=467088596
https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=610601866
https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=502392393
I hope you like it, I remember having a very important final high school exam, based on which you get to a good university or not, and 3 days before that I was writing "An in-depth Guide to Imperial Guards" instead of studying, thankfully I passed.