Finally playing DoW 2! Questions and stuff.

[YurdleTheTurtle]

Hey.

Some long time members may remember that I was disappointed because my crappy 6 year old computer would be unable to play DoW 2, or a lot of games in fact.

I recently got my new laptop and have been enjoying SC2 immensely. Very recently I installed DoW 2 and been playing through the early campaign.

I only have one question right now but once I enter the multiplayer scene I'm sure I'll have plenty more.

I have the Steam version of DoW 2. If I buy Chaos Rising through retail, how will these games work? Do I still run the game through Steam or through a normal launcher? Any incidents or problems I should be aware of?

More questions!

- Is there a hotkey for retreat? In the campaign apparently there isn't any. I tried "T" just like in CoH.

[Imperial Honour]

Its practically the same as if you bought Chaos Rising via the Steam Store, except you have the DVD to install CR from instead of having to download it. Being a Steam game it works just like Dawn of War 2, but with Chaos Rising stuff included.

[klaymen_sk]

- Is there a hotkey for retreat? In the campaign apparently there isn't any. I tried "T" just like in CoH.

The "X" key.

[YurdleTheTurtle]

Alright I'm thinking of trying out skirmishes now. If anyone could post some basic advice, strategies, and other things to look out for, it would be great.

For example, I have no idea what strategies and stuff people do. I could use some warnings on things new players fall for and what-not.

Sorry if they're not specific, but I probably will be jumping into online play soon. I'm hoping to play as Random all the time, as I do in SC2, depending on how complicated it is to learn each race.

[2marston]

The most basic advice I can offer is retreat before you lose squads, and use cover where you can. Also make sure you have power at all times.

[WNxBizzie]

View the "Multiplayer Strategies" forum and you'll pick up a few tips.


Some things you should know:

Don't lose squads - that's practically a game loser if you do that, as it costs far too much to re-train them.
Don't let a Heavy Weapons team set up without support(eg. a Scout Squad with Shotguns to keep jump troops off them).

That's all I can give you, if you want to know stuff don't hesitate to ask but you need to put it in context like "How do I counter 2x ASMs as Chaos" etc. etc.

[Malachi]

Read this (http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=218492) .

[YurdleTheTurtle]

Thanks for that link, helped a lot.

Another question....Is the service normally laggy? I've played some Last Stand games and all of them resulted in horrible delay. I looked at the custom games list and everyone has over 100 ping.

Is it just me or is it the game's servers/whatever?

[ThunderHost]

you can play comfortably, in my experience, with a lag around 250. I seldom see pings below a hundred..

Theres a community forum on steam called L2P if you'd like the basics apart from Octopu's excellent guide.
And feel free to PM me if you'd like someone to spar with(I mainly play 2v2/3v3 but can do decently in 1v1 as well)

[Belisarios]

Some more basic stuff:

1.) Always pay attention on the map control. You shall not lose it otherwise even a battle which is running good for you can easily turn into a crushing defeat. Use cheap units especially at the beginning to gain map control.

2.) Always pay attention on your power nodes. Good opponents will try to destroy your generators - watch out. Always make sure to have enough power nodes - without power you will lose for sure. Don't buy too much nodes at once, otherwise your enemy could overwhelm you.

3.) Don't spent too much power in T1 since it could be that your enemy is going T2 and that he puts out things like Deff Dread or Razorback which are hardly counterable with T1.

[YurdleTheTurtle]

-Are the sounds bugged in Last Stand? The units never say any lines for selecting or moving, but they'll say stuff when told to attack or use an ability. Even then, they only have one line for each command, so it sounds weird.

Also I can't select other units, only my own hero. Is this intended in Last Stand?

-Does the Farseer in multiplayer say anything besides "Our kin watch from above" when selected? Every other unit has multiple select dialogue except her.

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I'm going to stop creeping around and jump right into the pool soon. I'll probably just play as Random. I prefer 1v1 but did they base the game around 3v3? If so maybe I should play those first?

[Octopus Rex]

Play 3v3, it's a much gentler curve and far less demoralising when you're in a bad run. 1v1 is quite different and requires a lot more multitasking, especially ninja-capping, but 3v3 allows you concentrate and hunting pack a lot more and learn the counters and offences. Also, you'll encounter more races quickly with 3v3 too and make it to late tiers more often also, meaning you know your troops quicker.

[YurdleTheTurtle]

Still hoping for answers to those possible sound bugs.

More questions: Is there a good commentator on Youtube for DoW 2? Basically someone like HDStarcraft. I'm having difficult finding someone since the game is not as popular + searches result in a lot of old videos.

Edit: Played some 3v3 ranked. All of them ended up with my side losing. The gameplay is incredibly fast paced and if you don't keep up, you're dead. It's weird because in some ways, it's way faster than Starcraft 2.

It's cool, but pretty damn hard. I don't know what's going on most of the time and we always get steam rolled.

[Malachi]

A commentator as in live casting like in sports? Check here (http://dow2live.com/) .

Also, I'm not sure as I learned while playing against an equally nooby friend, but I don't think I agree with Octo here. 3v3 is far too chaotic to actually single out the reasons of things happening etc. for a new player, IMO. I'd recommend a sparring partner in 1v1 for practice.

[YurdleTheTurtle]

Yeah, I found a partner but don't remember his RelicNews forum name (Shaitan on Steam). At any rate, we played some 2vs2 and it's definitely easier to tell what the heck is going on. We got matched up against some new players though so our wins were way too easy and I didn't learn much besides getting familiar with gameplay. I suppose it was a good confidence booster.

Looking back, in my 3v3 games it was so damn hard to tell what was going on. I think I'll stick to 2v2 or less for now.

[Shaitan]

Yeah, those were pretty easy games, we basically rolled them, but at least you're familiarising yourself more with game against people. 2v2s might be better, at least for now, cause it's easier to concentrate on what's going on and you can more readily recognize why you lost, at least I think so. Also it helps that I've not played any 2v2s since the stats wipe so you're not going to get thrown up against high ts players, that way the difficulty can go up incrementally rather then starting on a higher level, which I suspect is what happened in your 3v3 games.

[YurdleTheTurtle]

Damn this game is frustrating. There are no other new players out there besides those two matches. I tried some more random games and it's ridiculous. Every player out there is an expert and I can't do anything to stop the steam rolls.

Going to need some more partners than just Shaitan (who obviously is not always available) if I want to get into DoW 2. Again, this is pretty damn frustrating.

Edit: Another question: Where can I found out how much experience is required for each level? Dow Codex does not list them, unless I'm missing it.

[2marston]

Noticed you added me Yurdle. If I see you online I will teach you a few things if you like. Then maybe we can try some games. I don't make a habit of play games with people far below my TS, but I make exceptions to help people out. :P Trained a guy called Hangf1re a bit and within a week we beat a team of TS ~30 on 3v3. Hang had literally got about 20 games experience and these guys had up to and over 1000 games. Basically, its a steep learning curve, but with a little bit of help (I had help too when I was new) you can overcome it very quickly and be rolling in the TS 20's in no time. I suggest you work on unit movement and capping in 1v1 a little bit before team games, it helps you get a feel for how the game plays. Then you can start thinking about the bigger scale team games where you have to help each other out and work together. Out of interest what race do you like most? It will help you a lot to learn how to play with 1 race, then quite early progress through each of the races to learn their units, counters, strengths and weaknesses. It's what I did.

[YurdleTheTurtle]

I'll gladly take all the help I can get, thanks!

Recently played some more 2vs2 with Shaitan, and we had some great matches. The opponents were just about our level and made for some exciting battles. I think Shaitan is my lucky charm, that or we played at the right time (When there's more players). Every time I've played at night without Shaitan it's been nothing but steam rolls against me.

2v2 matches are interesting though, in that they're mostly 2 1v1 battles in a single map. It's not until much later that players band together to take over points. The biggest thing is the revive mechanic though, as l recently realized its way cheaper to lose a commander than it is to lose a squad. I'm too used to keeping heroes alive at all costs.

As for race, I normally prefer going Random but since DoW 2 is much more complicated, I decided to go with Farseer/Eldar for the time being. Eldar in general appeal to me, and the Farseer seems like a pretty cool commander.

Another question: Is there a Chaos aura/ability or something that allows them to fire while suppressed? I know the Plague Champion and Plague Marines by themselves can do this, but I was wondering why in one game, I was still being shot at by suppressed units that are not the above two.

[Shaitan]

Those were some good matches today, those guys were about ts 20 or so, so I think it was just enough to give us a hard game. I saved the replays in case you might wanna watch them to see what you did and what not.

I think our TS hasnt had enough games to reach a proper level but the way we're playing now I'm guessing we belong somewhere in the low 20's. We are getting better though!

[Demonic Spoon]

Another question: Is there a Chaos aura/ability or something that allows them to fire while suppressed? I know the Plague Champion and Plague Marines by themselves can do this, but I was wondering why in one game, I was still being shot at by suppressed units that are not the above two.

Nope. All units can fire while suppressed, they just have the cooldown lengthened by 20x. So, after being suppressed they will generally fire one volley and then do nothing for the rest of the fight.


I wouldn't mind playing with you folks, by the way. I am DemonicSpoon on Steam, and I play Farseer a lot as well.

[PearlChoco]

I've recently started playing DoW2 too and want to try some MP games soon. So far it's all a bit overwhelming, so many abilities, so many choices.

Is there a race which is definitely easier to play for a noob? Chaos seems like a fun race, or are they hard to master for a beginner?

I'm PearlChoco on Steam, feel free to contact me for a (noob :) ) game!

[2marston]

Pearl, get on the L2P group. There are people that will answer all your questions there. Its a steam group, shouldn't be hard to find. L2P:dawn of war 2 is the group name. Just join and get in the group chat. From there you can also get a mentor who can directly help you out if you need more than just questions answered. Until then, I would suggest space marines as the most forgiving race, but they are also one of the harder races to master, so there really is no 'noob' race. Just don't play eldar first would be my guess, they're tricksy.

[ThunderHost]

+1 to 2marstons reply.

Just don't expect a mentor to just drop in, imo there aren't that many to go around. But the site is excellent.

[PearlChoco]

Thanks, will do that!
Guess for now I'll keep trying Chaos Marines, they're pretty cool.