Snipers

[Triceron]

SM have scouts, Eldar have Rangers, but what are the snipers for the Orcs and Chaos? Do they have snipers at all?

[Sanguinius_nz]

Orks and Chaos do not have snipers, they have infiltration units surch as ork kommandos and chaos veterans but they do not have sniper rifle weapons.

Try to think of it in the light of a sniper rifle is far to subtle a weapon for orks its silent and long ranged neither suited to them. As for chaos they are all about ripping the enemy apart in the most greusome manner they want to taste the fear they generate and they cant do that from a distance.

[Triceron]

So... That means SM and Eldar can lower troop morale with snipers while Orks and Chaos don't have any themselves. Is this going to be justified somehow? Is that the role of the burna boyz?

[Mirage Knight]

I noticed something rather interesting in the Morale demo - about 32 seconds into the video you see TWO SM scouts run into view, the sniper and what looks like a spotter to his left, holding what appears to be a large rangefinder. It seems the two act in unison, with the spotter revealing terrain and helping identify targets for the sniper. Maybe the spotter can also reveal concealed units and/or give increased accuracy and paint targets for long range artillery strikes??

[Eisenhorn]

i assume u mean a auspex??? its the only thing SM have that maches youre description Mirage Knight.... if thats the case i pressume u can spot hidden enemies and probably have longer range field, at least in terain... Triceron, i think ewry team in this game is somewhat balanced in diferent ways, just like the table top game...

[davidbowie]

Orks can have sniper rifles, but i dont think that lootas will be in the game.

[Jono]

A sniper rifle is just a means of breaking morale from a distance and it looks to me as though the Ork unit for acheiving this will be the Looted Russ (no idea what would do this for chaos, Defiler maybe?). I assume that ordinance will have a similar pinning effect as a sniper rifle on the table top.

If this is correct the scout probably isn't as far up the tech tree as a Russ but things like thins don't need to be ballenced exactly.

[Someguy]

Orkz will have flamethrowers that will break morale.

[Jono]

I was thinking more of ranged units, because Orks and Chaos will have lots of units which will effect morale in close quarters.

[Someguy]

the Looted Russ would do for the Orkz. Chaos have predators for long range blasting.

[speerross]

Maybe the spotter can also reveal concealed units and/or give increased accuracy and paint targets for long range artillery strikes??#

Or Orbital Bobardments...

It would be cool if you could purchase an orbital; bombardment then use one of these sniper/spotter teams to launch it. Not a mega all killing bombardment just something that would take a unit or two

[GreatSamaman]

Actually, one of the Force Commander's special powers is the ability to call down an orbital strike. It's in the DoW E3 videos. However, back on topic, one thing about most RTS' nowadays, is that every opposing force has a unit to match his enemies. What's great about the 40k universe and DoW, however, is that each race has a distinct feel/style of play to it, so that this RTS "rule" doesn't apply. Your team may not have something that the others do (in this case snipers) but you probably have something just as good that the enemy lacks as well. You play to your strengths, and utilize your advantages. Rather than fight fire with fire, fight fire with your snazy bucket of water. :D

[Shakrith]

Well, Chaos' infiltrators are cultists, and they really run up in a mass and kill, as chaos is very sneaky but don't really take it to sniping, and orks have pathetic aim and only use loud guns.

[ionfish]

Triceron, I think your complaint is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how game balance works in 40k and hence in Dawn of War. Different armies, while they may appear to have similar or equivalent units, are fundamentally different organisations.

Things are balanced not by everyone having a sniper unit, a shooty unit, an assault unit, a tank etc. but through the whole army being balanced versus any other in some way. For example, Eldar are very fast and powerful, but their units are fragile. Marines are very survivable, but there aren't that many of them. Orks are individually not terribly effective, but you get loads of them.

To complain that, say, the Orks don't get a unit as individually powerful as a Greater Daemon, or that Chaos Space Marines don't get snipers, is at heart a foolish mistake to make. They aren't the same armies; they fight differently, and have different units. In order to win one must maximise their strengths and minimise their weaknesses, but the strengths and weaknesses of the various armies are different. That's what makes it so fun. :)

[Russian Ninja]

If you want an example of this then take the Burna Boyz. The Orks may not get Snipers, but their Burna Boyz can both flame a unit at range to whittle down their morale as well as use them as a cutting torch up close. Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines can only flame at a distance and Eldar, with the exception of the Wraithlord, don't have any flamers at all.

[The Collector]

Although it is possible that since CSM were SM that they would have sniper rifles. Using sniper rifles would be consistent with the Alpha Legion modus operandi. It's possible they'd appear, but not necessary.

[Chaos Lord]

id have though CSM's moral destroyer would have been the deamons or something
upon seeing such a big thing i expect some moral would be lost...

[BrotherGlacius]

***** Here's an example of game balance:

Marines have snipers to break morale.

Orks have grots to run up first and absorb fire.

Which is better? Neither army can do what the other one can, but they have their own abilities that are useful.

As a future ork player, I can tell you now that grots will be high on my list for units....I'll be running those buggers everywhere to draw first attention from an enemy squad. While they are blasting away that cheap unit, my boyz will get closer and closer untouched.

***** Brother G.

[Civik]

Also, though this is more toward the TT game, when orks are in big mobz, they can be extremely hard to break. Whereas an eldar squad will be much smaller.

One thing that I thought strange was the teleporting of re-inforcements for the marines in there... it just looked kinda weird I guess.

[gnomes]

bs chaos don't have snipers. in neocropilis larkin (master sniper of the tanith 1st and only) engged in a sniper dule with a bunch of zorician (the dinazins of fererzorica hive which fell under the diobolicle influance of heritor aastotle and atacked whith all it's populace agianst oposeing hives) snipers, and on hendor a blood pact sniper called saul assined by enork innokenti (along with nine others) to knock of siant sabbat (larkin killed him 2)
and for those of u who don't have the foggyest idear on what im talki9n about shame on u

[ionfish]

I think the reason we don't have the foggiest about what you're on about is that you don't appear to be able to spell or use punctuation. Maybe if you did we'd be better able to understand you.

[gnomes]

read dan abnett's gaunts ghosts and all will be revealed

[Cailet]

Here is a rough translation of gnomes first post

Chaos can have snipers in the fluff. Hlaine Larkin (Gaunts Ghosts) has had a number of sniper battles with chaos cultists from the Blood Pact (in Sabbat Martyr when they tried to kill saint Sabbat) and Zoicans (in Necropolis)

Has it occured to people that cultists may have some kind of sniper gear or that Chaos as a whole reduces morale because it is freaky and wrong looking.

Anyway like BrotherGlacius says the armies balance in different ways, they are not just different skins on the same army.