Congratulations recruit! You have been selected for Space Marine training!
First you will want to know about how the resource system works, there are 2 resources for the Space Marines; Requisition and Power.
Requisition (known as req from now on) is used to acquire everything from new Squads, buildings, vehicles, unit and weapon upgrades and heroes.
Req is gathered by holding strategic points, critical points and relics. You can further build listening posts on strategic points and relics to both protect them from enemy capture as well as produce more req. Simply have a scout, Space marine, assault marine or terminator squad capture the point by right clicking on it, then waiting until the flag has been fully raised. You will receive a message indicating the point has been captured once this has been done.
You may also research upgrades to increase the rate of req at a listening post once you reach tier 2, and once again once you reach tier 3.
Note that the capturing squad can not move or return fire while capturing a point, so it is wise to keep an eye on them and protect them if you can. If you leave a point before it is fully captured, it will reset and you will have to start again from the beginning.
Each captured point will give you +6 req(+6 req every 10 seconds)
Power is used for most things, like heavy weapons, research, vehicles, heroes as well as some of the more advanced buildings. Power is supplied by power generators which can be built anywhere within your Building radius (explained later). You can have a maximum of 6 power generators per stronghold (or upgraded stronghold). Each power generator provides +10 power (+10 power every 10 seconds). If you find a slag deposit, you may place a thermo-plasma generator
onto of it, giving +40 power. These will not count towards the 6 power generators per stronghold limit.
You may research an upgrade to increase the power rate once you reach tier 2, and another to further increase it once you reach tier 3. This research is conducted at a power generator (not thermo-plasma).
You start with 10 infantry population cap and 0 vehicle population cap (ipop and vpop from now on). You can spend money to research a 3 pop increase to either cap at the stronghold, up to a maximum of 20 ipop and 20 vpop. Sergeants add 2 maximum pop can to your current amount, so it is better to buy more sergeants than research the ipop. You get a 2 vpop allowance per Machine cult, there is no
other way to get more, other than building more Machine cults or researching the vpop cap at the stronghold.
*Special note
You may also choose to sell any of your buildings if you don't want them anymore. You will recover 50% of their build cost if you sell them(delete). This can form the basis or the Chaos 3 minute PCM rush, covered in the basic strategy section. If you need to put a turret down to help with your base defense against a rush, you can just delete it later to recover some req and power.
Now, time for you to learn about your buildings and the units they can produce.
Tier 1
This is the starting tech level, where you will hone your skills before movingon recruit.
Stronghold:
This is your main HQ and the first building you get. It is always free, but you can build another later in the game should you have sufficient resources. It projects a zone of control around it, meaning you can build other buildings
around it.
The stronghold always provides you with +20 requisition.
You can build units from here(servitor and scout) as well as conduct research(pop cap) and upgrades.
Tier 2 requires a Chapel-barracks and an armoury, tier 3 requires tier 2 and a Sacred Artifact and a Machine Cult.
Servitors
These are the builder units of your army, they are essential for both building your buildings as well as repairing buildings and vehicles when they get damaged. New buildings will become available once you go up the tech tree. Servitors are not armed(they can't fight back), but have a moderate amount of armour, so the can survive a few hits, though they will die quickly if they are focused on.
Servitor can not only cue movement orders, but build and repair orders as well. Simply select the servitor, then select what you wish to build, hold shift and select where you want to build it. You may then either build another of the same
type by simply selecting where you wish the new one to go, or select another type of building, hold the shift key again and chose where you wish it to be built.
The structure will be dropped into position, but the servitor will build them in the order you specified. Repairs are conducted in the same manner. Select the servitor and right click on the units/structures you want repaired while holding
down the shift key. If a unit or building is destroyed before the servitor gets there, they will continue on with the next item in the queued list.
Scouts
Scouts are an invaluable part of your army, they can serv many roles, but the most important one is often capturing points on the map(known as capping from now on). Scouts move quickly and ignore any speed reductions due to terrain, and can also lean the infiltrate ability, which makes them invisible to enemy units except for commanders(list of units later on). Infiltration is researched at the Stronghold.
*A quick note of having scouts cap points.
Time is a resource, use it well!
Set the rally point of your scouts as the come out of the stronghold as the nearest strategic point. Once they are ready, they will move to the point and immediately start capturing it with no further directions from you.
You can then further instruct them to go on and capture other points when they are done with their current orders by using the shift key. Select the squad and hold the shift key, then right click on the next point you wish them to capture.
They will continue capping their current point, and as soon as they are done, they will move to the next point and begin capping that one.
There is no limit to the amount of squads you can set orders for, and no limit on the amount of orders.
A scout squad is often used to harass then enemy as well as finding out what race the other team is. Infiltration is useful here since they will not know what race you are, but you will know their race.
Scouts can be upgraded with 3 types of heavy weapons(max of 2 heavy weapons per squad), Flamer, Sniper Rifle and Plasma gun. Scouts come with standard bolters and knives. You must have an armoury to give your Scout squads heavy weapons.
Flamer- Is a flamethrower which does very little damage, but massive moral damage. Once a squad is at 0 morale, they are "Broken"(explained later) and will do significantly less damage to your squads. It always hits. Effective against anything with morale. No setup or reload time.
Sniper rifle- High damage, long range rifle which cause good morale damage, and is often a one hit-one kill weapon(thereby inflicting even more morale damage) against infantry, though it is still effective against heavy infantry. Good against Eldar and Orks, since they are mainly infantry based. Has a 3 second setup time, and a 9 second reload time. If your units move or are disrupted during the setup time, they will have to setup again before they can fire. You can reload while moving/disrupted.
Plasma- Good damage against infantry, very good against heavy infantry, best used against Space marine or Chaos space marine, though Eldar warpspiders, seer
council and grav platforms(like brightlances) and Orks nobz are all heavy infantry as well. No set up time, can be fired while moving, though with less accuracy. Requires tier 2.
Scout initially arrive as a 2 man squad, but can be reinforced to a maximum of 4 men. Scout squads take up 1 ipop.
Chapel-barracks:
This is where most of your infantry army will be coming from.
This is the first building built as it provides you with the troops you will need to defeat your enemies.
Space Marines
These will be the backbone of your army, learn to use them well!
The first unit to be available is the Space marine squad(sometimes referred to as a tac squad, or SM squad). They are available upon completion of the chapel-barracks. The Space Marine is the workhorse of the Space marine army,
capable of almost any role once upgraded properly.
Space marine squads can be upgraded with 4 different types of heavy weapons(max of 2 heavy weapons, can be upgraded to 4 max at armoury), Flamer, Heavy Bolter, Plasma gun and Missile launcher. Space Marines come with standard bolters and knives, and can be upgraded to have Frag grenades, which are effective against Infantry. You must have an armoury to be able to give your Space marines heavy
weapons.
Flamer- Is a flamethrower which does very little damage, but massive moral damage. Once a squad is at 0 morale, they are "Broken" and will do significantly less damage to your squads. It always hits. Effective against anything with
morale. No setup or reload time.
Heavy bolter- Longer range and higher damage and rate of fire than a normal bolter. has a 2.5 second set up time during which you must remain stationary. If you move or are disrupted, you will have to set up again before you can fire.
Very good damage against infantry, best used against Ork and Eldar, as they have mainly infantry. Also good against scouts and cultists. Spot with an infiltrated scout squad to fire beyond normal sight range.
Plasma- Good damage against infantry, very good against heavy infantry, best used against Space marine or Chaos space marine, though Eldar warpspiders, seer
council and grav platforms(like brightlances) and Orks nobz are all heavy infantry as well. No set up time, can be fired while moving, though with less accuracy. Requires tier 2.
Missile launcher- Excellent damage against buildings and vehicles, poor damage vs. infantry or heavy infantry. 2.5 second set up time, as with everything else, you can't move until the setup is done, or you will have to set up again before
you can fire. Good against heroes due to the fact that it knocks them down, allowing for you to direct more fire at them. This is the main anti vehicle of the Space marines, other than other vehicles. Long range, outranges all base
defenses(other than missile turrets). You can fire beyond a squad’s sight range by using a infiltrated scout squad as a spotter.
Space Marines initially arrive as a 4 man squad, but can be reinforced to an 8 man squad, and once at tier 2, a sergeant can be added. Sergeants increase the squads morale and have the rally ability(resets morale to 100%), which can be
used at any time, but requires it to recharge once used. This ability costs nothing. Sergeants can be upgraded via the armoury. Space marine squads take up 2 ipop.
Assault Marines
This squad excels at close combat(known as CC from now on), and has a jump pack to not only move quickly across the battle field, but to jump over obstacles and bad terrain. They are not as good at ranged combat as Space Marine squads, and cannot have weapon upgrades.
Assault marines come with bolt pistols and chainswords, and can be upgraded to have Melta bombs which are effective against buildings and vehicles. Assault marines may not have any units attached to them.
Assault Marines initially arrive as a 4 man squad, but can be reinforced to an 8 man squad, and once at tier 2, a sergeant can be added. Sergeants increase the squads morale and have the rally ability(resets morale to 100%), which can be
used at any time, but requires it to recharge once used. This ability costs nothing. Sergeants can be upgraded via the armoury. Assault marine squads take up 2 ipop.
Force Commander
This is your first hero, He can take a lot of punishment and excels at CC.
Hero's can be attached to squads to provide a damage and morale boost, though they can also be left unattached to give your squads more flexibility. The Force commander(known as FC from now on) will be a major focus of the majority of your battles, as he will be often used to counter the enemy hero.
The FC can get a damage and HP upgrade at the Sacred Artifact, as well as learn the abilities Inspiring aura which gives infantry units a damage bonus and battlecry, which is a warshout which again gives infantry a damage bonus. These
abilities are also researched at the sacred relic, which can be built once reaching tier 2. The FC can also use the Orbital bombardment ability once the orbital relay has been built, which calls down a strike on the specified are.
The FC must concentrate on the area for 5 seconds, then another 7 seconds later massive strikes will blast the target area for 12 strikes over 30 seconds.
This ability causes massive damage to buildings and vehicles, but minimal damage to infantry. The FC may be attached to a Scout, Space marine or terminator squad. The FC doesn’t take up any ipop.
Terminators
Available with tier 3 and control of a relic, these troops are the finest examples of Space marines. They have extremely thick armour and they all come equipped with power fists and storm bolters. They can be upgraded with 2 heavy weapons, a choice from either heavy flamers or assault cannons. Heavy flamers are the same as normal flamers but do more damage and more morale damage. The assault cannon is the same as the others of its type. They can be teleported to any spot on the battlefield that you can see when they are ready.
They can also be equipped with teleporters(research at the orbital relay). A common tactic is to Deepstrike them into your base, reinforce them to their max squad size the put the back into the chapel-barracks ready to be deepstruck again. Terminators are very effective either at range or in CC. They are quite slow, so they can be vulnerable to hit and run, and the lack of a sergeant can make moral a problem.
Terminators arrive at a squad size of 4, but can be reinforced to a maximum size of 8. There is no Terminator sergeant. They take up 4 ipop.
Assault Terminators
These are the CC specialists companion of the terminators, they have no ranged weapons, instead having Thunderhammers and Stormshield and very heavy armour.
This gives them a defensive bonus in the form of damage reduction. They have no weapon upgrades and are just as slow as normal terminators. Their stormhammers will stun vehicles however. They also require tier 3 and control of a relic.
They can also be equipped with teleporters(research at the orbital relay). A common tactic is to Deepstrike them into your base, reinforce them to their max squad size the put the back into the chapel-barracks ready to be deepstruck again. They are quite slow, so they can be vulnerable to hit and run, and the lack of a sergeant can make moral a problem.
Assault Terminators arrive at a squad size of 4, but can be reinforced to a maximum size of 8. There is no Assault Terminator sergeant. They take up 4 ipop.
Now you know about your troops, you can learn how to use them and make them better!
Queuing units orders and waypoints
You want to move your troops with as little time spent as possible right? So give them orders step by step. Simply select a unit and hold the shift key down then tell them where you want them to go. Right click a location and they will move there as usually, but if you hold the shift button down and click another point, they will continue moving to the original location and only begin moving to the new location once they have reached their original destination.
This can be useful if you want your units to move around things like negative cover, or if they are on the way to support your allies or the rest of your army, you don't want them to move through cover(it will slow them down) if there
are no enemies near them.
As explained in the scout and servitor sections, you can even queue up capturing points and move orders with attack orders.
If you tell a unit to attack another unit, then hold shift and tell them to attack a different unit, they will fire on the enemy unit until it is destroyed and will then immediately switch fire to the next unit you selected.
Should the first unit run however, your unit will follow them in an effort to destroy them, even if they have to run past 20 bolter turrets to do it. They will not switch targets until the first unit is destroyed.
You may also cue attack orders on buildings, which is far safer as they tend not to move(Except for the Eldar). This is useful if you wish to hit and run, tell a missile squad to attack a building then cue a point behind your lines. They will run up and attack the building, then run back to your army, hopefully dragging the enemy into your well prepared and fully dug in army.
This can allow for a co-coordinated attack from multiple fronts or quick feints as well as easy recon. Keep queuing in mind when capping points, as you can tell them to catch up the rest of your troops by using queuing commands!
You may add to the queued list at any time by selecting the unit again and holding shift and issuing addition orders.
Armoury
This is where you conduct research to make your troops better, and once you have an armoury and a chapel-barracks, you can upgrade your stronghold to a monastery(tier 2).
The first upgrade is heavy weapons, which allows your Space marine squads to have 4 heavy weapons per squad rather than 2.
The second upgrade is to increase the accuracy of your Space marines(1st accuracy upgrade)
There is another accuracy upgrade once you get tier 2
The third upgrade is to increase the health of the Space marines(1st health upgrade)
There is another heath upgrade once you get tier 2
There are also upgrades for the sergeant here, one gives all sergeants as well as the FC and librarian a plasma pistol.
There are 2 other sergeant upgrades. The first gives them(not the FC or librarian) a power sword to replace the chainsword they usually have, and the second gives them a power fist to replace the power sword.
Overwatch
This is not a unit or an upgrade, but it is very important recruit!
This is a way to fill out your Squads without manually clicking on them. Overwatch can be started by Right clicking on either the add squad member button of a unit(the gold plus sign), the desired heavy weapon for a unit, or even a certain Infantry or vehicle type in the barracks, Machine cult, Sacred Artifact or Orbital relay.
Anything on overwatch will continue producing what you told it to until you either run out of resources or the Squad cap, heavy weapon cap or ipop/vpop cap is reached. If you run out of resources before the cap is reached, overwatch
will simply idle until you have enough resources, then it will begin again. If you hit the cap, i.e. max number of troops in a squad or your current vpop, Overwatch will turn off. Should you lose a squad member or similar, you can turn overwatch back on in the same fashion as before.
Overwatch can drain resources very quickly, so use it with care! If you wish to upgrade something but can't get enough resources, Use the pause overwatch button near the minimap. This will cause ALL overwatch commands to idle. You may restart overwatch by clicking this button again.
Overwatch is Handy as you can concentrate more on maneuvering your army, but use it wisely recruit! There is no point depleting your resources just before you will need your HQ upgrade!
Listening posts
These can be built on a captured strategic point or relic. The cost 100 req, but give 50 req back once they are finished building. They also prevent an enemy from capturing the point until they have destroyed the listening post(know as LP from now on) and give +6 req. LP's can be upgraded to have guns, and this will also give you a req increase of +6 per upgrade.
There are 2 upgrades available, the first giving it a gun, the second increasing it's HP as well as a better gun. You may also research req upgrades at a LP.
LP's also project zone's of control around them, just like a stronghold, which means you can build additional structures near them.
Skull probes
Skull probes can be built from LP's, and have one basic use, which is as an expendable scout. They degrade over time(rather quickly) so send them where you want them to go, or have them stand near an Apothecary(they will regenerate
their heath when near an apothecary). These units can also be attached to squads to increase their sight range.
Skull probes can infiltrate just like scouts, and have the ability to self destruct and stop building activity for a short period of time. This ability appears not to work on turrets or LP's.
They build very quickly and cost only 25 req, so they are very viable as quick scouts to see into your enemy’s base for short periods of time. They take no ipop.
Power generators
An essential building for the Space marines, especially if you get to tier 2, these provide you with power to make your units and structures. They cost 165 req, and give 50 power back once completed, but no req. You may also research
power upgrades here.
Thermo-plasma generator
Basically a really big power generator which can be built only on slag heaps. It gives +40 power, but the cost and placement restriction often make it unviable.
You may not conduct research from these, but they will benefit from any research that you conduct at your normal power generators.
Heavy bolter turret
These are stationary bolter emplacements. it comes with a twin linked heavy bolter. These are usually used for last ditch defense, especially against Orks. The req and power is almost always better spent on upgrading a LP, or even another squad.
You can then run your squads around the upgraded LP.
The twin linked heavy bolter can be replaced with a twin linked missile launcher for 50 req. This is useful against vehicles, but is still inferior to another squad.
Minefields
Useful to prevent units getting into your base unnoticed, as they will be revealed if they trigger the minefield. also handy for placing in cover or along the route you think an enemy might try to flank you. only commander units can see minefields(and units that have triggered them, they can see them as well).
Tier 2
Once you get tier 2(upgrade the stronghold), the Machine cult and Sacred artifact become available.
Now we get vehicles and more upgrades for our troops recruit, this is often the turning point in longer games!
Machine Cult
This is where the Space Marines build their vehicles. there is only one upgrade to research here, and that is the smokescreen for the rhino transport.
Rhino transport
This little vehicle is unarmed and lightly armoured and can transport 1 unit of Space marines. The smoke screen can be used to give any unit standing in it a 50% reduction from ranged attack damage. This is of very little use. It costs 2
vpop.
Landspeeder
A fast unit that ignores terrain speed reduction. It has a twin linked assault cannon and a twin linked stormbolter. It has relatively little armour, but is fast and can jump(like assault marines). Also quite cheap and quick to produce. Very good against Ork and Eldar(infantry), OK against Space marine and Chaos space marine. It takes 2 vpop.
Dreadnought
Ah, the much vaunted Dread, Awesome CC damage, upgradeable with either an assault cannon or twin linked lascannon (lascannon requires tier 3), loads of HP, all yours for the bargain basement price of 2 vpop.
Note that they are slow and that upgrading them will halve their CC damage. They can be deep struck once you have an orbital relay(tier 3). Requires loads of power(405!) and a relatively slow build time. Can also be built in the orbital
relay. The assault cannon is often a good choice against Eldar due to the fleet of foot. It takes 2 vpop.
Hellfire Dreadnought
A dread with an assault cannon and a missile launcher. Has no CC ability, but it's much cheaper. It's also slightly weaker(less HP). Same slow speed though.
It can upgrade the assault cannon to a twin linked lascannon(lascannon requires tier 3). Not used much except when you can't afford a normal Dread, but need more HP than a land speeder. It takes 2 vpop.
Whirlwind
Artillery tank, best accuracy on artillery after the prism(which never misses). Good range and doesn't require line of sight, but will be less accurate if you can't see your target. Massive range. Will throw infantry, causes ok damage, but HUGE morale damage. Good for blasting troops from out of cover. If your opponent turtles, this can outrange his defenses encouraging him to come out and play. It takes 2 vpop.
Predator
General purpose tank, autocannon on top and a twin linked bolters on each side. The autocannon can be replaced with a twin linked lascannon, the bolters can be replaced by lascannons. Expensive, but very tough and relatively quick. VERY expensive if upgraded to lascannons. Use unupgraded for infantry control, upgrade to lascannons for anti-vehicle duties, or you can strike a balance and mix and match.
Personally I like to upgrade the autocannon to twin linked
lascannon and leave the bolters as they are. Requires tier 3. Takes 3 vpop.
Land raider
The largest of the Space marine tanks, has a twin linked lascannon on each side, and a twinlinked bolter on top(the lascannons on the Landraider do better damage against infantry for some reason). Can transport any infantry, even terminators. Has machine spirit which reduces damage taken, but slows the land raider. This ability must be manually activated and must recharge before reuse. Requires tier
3 and control of a relic. Takes 5 pop cap and lots of resources.
Sacred Artifact
This is the building to research commander upgrades and build the Librarian and apothecaries. Also required along with machine cult for tier 3.
Apothecary
The units have a healing aura which surprisingly enough heals units. It increases the regeneration rate of nearby friendly infantry. It has no ranged damage, but has decent CC damage. Not a lot of HP though. It can spot hidden units and minefields. You may only have 4 apothecaries on the field at any one time.
Apothecaries may be attached to a Scout, Space marine or terminator squad. It takes no ipop.
Librarian
The second Space marine hero, he is a "Psycher", he has powerful psychic abilities. He is competent in CC, but is mainly used for Word of the Emperor and smite.
Smite comes free when he is built, but Word of the Emperor and weaken resolve must be researched at the sacred artifact. Smite will cause minimal damage and throw infantry units. WotE makes infantry immune to death for a short period,
Weaken resolve lowers enemy morale. He can also spot hidden units an mine fields. The Librarian may be attached to a Scout, Space marine or terminator squad. He takes no ipop.
Commander upgrades 1 + 2
This increases the HP, damage and the recharge rate of their abilities of the FC and the Librarian(both upgrades increase HP, damage and rate of recharge for abilities).
The other research here is the commander abilities, Inspiring aura and battlecry for the FC, Word of the Emperor(WotE) and weaken resolve for the Librarian.
Inspiring aura gives the FC an aura which increases nearby infantry damage(this is a passive ability and is always active)
Battlecry further increases nearby infantry damage(this must be triggered and must recharge before you can use it again). This requires tier 3.
WotE, when activated will make all nearby friendly infantry immune to death(they still take normal damage, but will remain at 0 HP until WotE wears off. This last about 30 seconds. This ability must be triggered and must recharge before use again. This doesn't make the Librarian immune to death, and if he is killed, the effect will end prematurely for anyone who it was affecting.
Weaken resolve attacks the morale of an enemy unit. This spell must bet triggered and aimed at an enemy unit. This ability must recharge before it can be used again.
Tier 3
Once you get the tier 3 upgrade, called a fortress monastery, (which requires the tier 2 upgrades and a Machine Cult and Sacred Artifact) the Orbital relay, terminators, assault terminators, landraider and predators becomes available.
Orbital relay
This building allows deep striking, which is where a unit is loaded into the relay and once it has charged, the unit may be placed anywhere onto the battlefield that you can see. Tanks(predator and land raider) may not be deepstruck. Dreads and infantry(even builders) may be deepstruck. The orbital relay also allows the FC to use the orbital bombardment ability.
Dreadnoughts, Hellfire dreadnoughts and Space marine tactical squads may be produced here as well, and will be ready to be deep struck upon completion. Space marine squads are produced as per standard(4 men, no heavy weapons) at the standard cost. You may deep stike the units into your base to upgrade weapons and add personel and then load them back into the Orbital relay just as with the Chapel-Barracks.
Strategy
Morale, Cover and Broken squads
Use cover whenever possible, light cover gives a 25% reduction against ranged damage, heavy cover gives a 50% damage reduction, this can be game turning. If your enemy is in cover, try to outrange him by using infiltrated scouts and
heavy bolters or missiles, throwing grenades, using assault troops, artillery if it's available, anything to avoid the horrendous losses you will take. Units in CC will also get damage reduction almost equal to light cover.
Broken squads move 20% faster (1.2 modifier) and take an 80% accuracy penalty (.2 modifier). They do not take more damage (what people are probably noticing when they find their broken units die is they're no longer killing enemy units,
so enemy firepower stops decreasing).
3 types of cover, light heavy and negative
Heavy cover: 50% ranged damage reduction, 25% move speed reduction, double moral regen
Light cover: 25% ranged damage reduction, 10% move speed reduction, 1.5 times moral regen
Negative cover: 10% increase in ranged damage taken, 20% move speed reduction.
Units in CC have 23% ranged damage reduction, and 90% ranged moral damage reduction.
Stolen from http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=48125 Thanks Gammadion.
The rule of 10/10
Get your ipop to 10/10 as soon as possible, then worry about filling out your squads(i.e. 3 squads of 4 rather than 2 squads of 6), this gives much better flexibility as you can outmaneuver your opponent. Please see Perp's nightly
lessons learned for more fantastic info.
http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=39290
Avoid putting units on ranged stance as units using ranged weapons while being attacked in CC have their accuracy reduced to 1%.
Try to finish off any squads you engage, if you let them run, they will come back at an inopportune moment.
If one of your squads breaks, run it away and put it in the best cover you can find, as soon as they are right again, bring them back into the fight.
Build orders
There are 2 common SM build orders:
2 scout, 3 Space marine and FC
Cue Scout, Scout, Servitor
1st servitor build barracks
scouts cap nearest points,
2nd servitor helps with barracks build.
MS
Both servitors LP nearest point
FC
Keep capping point with scouts and build your LPs
MS
MS
Power generator
Armory
Either fill out squad numbers or go HQ upgrade for tier 2, depending on
situation and enemy.
This gives more HP but requires more req, and you cap your points slower then he does, but you will have a firepower advantage with the extra marine squad, as well as the versatility to go an assault squad instead of the 3rd marine squad.
or the 4 scout, 2 Space Marine and FC
Scout, scout, scout, serv, scout
Scouts cap points(or harass if that's your thing)
1st Servitor build barracks
2nd servitor comes out as barracks is done, both serv's then LP the nearest
point, and continue
FC
MS
MS
Power gen
Armoury
Either fill out squad numbers or go HQ upgrade for tier 2, depending on situation and enemy.
This is the one that I favour, you can get your points capped nice and quick and have something to effectively tie up enemy troops in CC with, as well as some nice Snipers when you get that armoury and a good supply of FC body guards.
Either way, put your FC in a scout squad and set the to assault and attack stances, then have your marine squads and scout squads stay back. Once you engage the enemy, have your squads fire at the other squads as they will
probably attack your squad with the FC in it. Since they only have a 1/5 chance of hitting your FC, you will almost always come out on top, and reinforce the scout squad with the FC if some die.
If they are good, they will try to tie your marines up in CC to stop them firing, this is where your maneuvering skills(dancing) comes into play. There is no real way to learn dancing other than practice and watching replays.
Commander units
This is a list of the unit who will see through infiltration, remember, this can work both ways, your command units will be able to see enemy infiltrated units.
Thanks Vertigo.(this list stolen from
http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?p=670829 )
Space Marines:
Force Commander
Librarian
Apothecary
Orks:
Warboss
Big Mek
Bad Dok
Eldar:
Farseer
Seer Council
Chaos:
Chaos Sorc
Chaos Lord
A listing of all of Vertigo's by the numbers threads and what they contain
http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=48290
Very useful for an explanation of why something works against a certain enemy.
Thanks again Vertigo, you are my numbers hero.
Basics against other races
Vs Space Marine
You probably have a good idea what unit's he has by now, so this is often about taking a good position and good micromanagement(micro from now on) of your troops. If you can surprise him somehow, you can often get the upper hand
quickly.
Things probably won't be decided after the first showdown, so if you won it, keep the pressure on, harass him into his base, but don't take to many losses. If you are starting to lose unit integrity from the long chase, stop and consolidate your position. There is no use giving up your advantage by throwing units at him piecemeal.
Tech to tier 2 for plasma to use against his marines, and missiles to use against buildings, hang around near his base, take the critical points with your scouts. If you lost some scouts(or even a SM squad, try to replace them with an
assault marine squad, their superior maneuverability and CC will almost always give you an edge over standard SM squads.
Make sure to get the frag grenades, their damage might seem paltry, but it helps, especially when he needs to set those Heavy bolters up again.
If you've lost, run away at an angle so you can at least fire back at him, retreat one squad while another squad covers you, that way you'll have more time to rebuild our forces and you might even turn the tables(his squads are all moving, either giving them an accuracy penalty or making it so they can't fire, while your are moving away and 1 squad is standing still, firing at full efficiency). This is know as a tactical withdrawal(called bounding overwatch if you are advancing), and usually lets your troops retreat in good order.
Once again, tech to plasma, and if you can spare it, send a scout to check if he has any points not LP'ed. This can either turn into an all out infantry war, or a tech to dreads, either way, surprise and good micro will usually win the day.
Consider going landspeeders with missile squads, you should be able to attack earlier than him, maybe even before he has a dread(which is what the missiles are for, just in case).
In either case, try to take his barracks or power generators out first if you get a chance to touch his base, and watch out for a sneaky servitor running away to continue the fight elsewhere if he still has a force out and about and you're
in or near his base.
Vs Chaos
Basically the same as space marine, but I would suggest flamers here followed by plasma, chaos regroups at 150 morale, SM regroups at 50. That -80% to accuracy
is gonna hurt, and you can easily negate their numerical superiority.
Your scouts should be able to own their cultists until the cultist get grenade launchers, when they do, I would suggest you move your scouts to the rear, and try and lead the cultists on a merry chase until your marine squads have dealt
with their treacherous brethren and can lend a hand.
It is important to note that the Chaos lord is stronger than the FC here, so attaching him to a scout squad is vital if the FC is to survive.
Should you get pushed back with some scouts intact, try and drew the chaos forces on a merry chase and send scouts to decap their unLP'ed points, chaos is quite slow on the req front early, and this will hurt. If you can pop a force labored heretic or 2, all the better.
Should they try a possessed rush, you simply need to keep cool and attack their base(if you are seeing the possessed at about the 3 minute mark, they have sold their HQ and barracks), all you have to do is destroy their sacrificial circle
and a power generator and its game over. You might also try to dance them around, but the horror squad will make that difficult. Go for their base, you'll get theirs before they get yours.
Vs Orks
This generally isn't fun. If you can beat off the early rush and tech to missiles, it's often game over for the orks, but getting to this stage can be difficult. You will want to upgrade a LP in your base, then lead the orks to it as you make a tactical withdrawal, always trying to thin out their numbers.
Once you get back near your base and they see the upgraded LP, they might break off, but it's not likely. If they don't, turn it into a Benny hill scetch and run your troops around the upgraded LP for their daily exercise, hopefully keeping your men out of CC while chewing up the orks, when they retreat, follow them and chase them back into their base, but don't follow. The guns that they have on every building will make it not worth it even should you take a few out.
Consolidate your position and tech to missiles, 'cause you know wartrakks are coming(granted you can be in for a nasty surprise if they aren't, but we can deal with that). Get a Machine cult up if you have the req to spare(I know it's
hard, but it's worth it) then get some landspeeders out. Yes, landspeeders, it's not a typo. Landspeeders own infantry, and can't be forced into melee like heavy bolters can and can be produced very quickly as well as gun down anything that
tries to run.
It also handily deals with the rare occasion that 'trakks don't appear but you get mobbed by more infantry than you can poke a lascannon at.
If you are having trouble with Nobz(either leaders or squads), plasma is very useful as the nobz are heavy infantry, often getting the plasma pistol upgrade can be enough to make short work of them without sacrificing an heavy weapon
spot.
The main thing here is to survive the rush and try not to get bogged down.
Vs Eldar
You should be able to hold these guys since they are pretty much the same as orks but more expensive. They will almost certainly have a squad of warpspiders(who will eat your scouts for lunch and there isn't a lot you can do about it) and a banshee squad or 2(depending on how many guardians they have). Banshees will destroy marines in CC, so you will have to figure you how to deal with that, I would suggest flamers(if you can get them) and some good micro, since Eldar don't really have a counter to this.
This is the difference between holding the field and ceding control of the criticals. You should probably win your fight against the farseer, and if she tries to dance you around, switch targets to the banshees(the warp spiders will simply 'port away). Constantly threaten the farseer so as to keep her out of the fight, if you can have some infiltrated scouts that were held back come in from the back or sides once the farseer is engaged or busy, they can cause the WS's
problems, especially if you have previously forced them to use a jump. Lock them into CC then hit overwatch on your scouts and concentrate on the main battle.
With the banshees broken, they should fleet of foot it out of there, then you can take any points left in the middle and then pump assault marines out, support them with tac squads and finish them. You will want assault squads to you can quickly tie up the Reapers that they are sure to get before they chew you're marines to bits. Melta bombs just make base disposal all that much easier.
If you didn't get flamers in time(likely) and were forced to retreat, do the same as against orks. The Eldar will likely chase you down with fleet of foot, but this reduces their accuracy, so you will take minimal damage. Run them
around an upgraded LP until they leave. Now you would normally tech to a Machine cult and vehicles right?
Wrong! The Eldar can and will have brightlance platforms out by now which will make short work of any vehicles you field(though some artillery might do alright here, you can get better results for your resources elsewhere).
Now is the time to pop out a Sacred Artifact. Get 4 apothecaries out and attach them to your squads, then get a Librarian out. WotE will be extremely useful here, especially if they have dark reapers out, if you can get inspiring aura as
well, all the better. You will want to time this well, because if you leave it too late and they get Fire Prisms out, you are going to have a very difficult time (though a heavy presence of assault marines with melta bombs will make it easier).
Try to engage all of their units in CC, as you will have a distinct advantage(assault marine beat banshees and own dark reapers, and if he is trying for Fire prisms, he will have mainly dark reapers). Remember that Assault marines can still jump when entangled, but can't move until it has worn off, if
nothing else, have them jump to a building and attack it.
Keep in mind that warpspiders, seer council and Grav platforms are all heavy infantry, and thus plasma will net you better results against them.
Teamplay
There will often be less rushing, simply because there can be twice as many units to defend against it. Therefore you can expect to get your tech quicker and will see higher tier units than in 1vs1.
Coordination leads to Victory!
You have an unbelievable amount of firepower available to crush your enemies with, use it effectively! There is no point turning it into 4 1vs1's. You need to concentrate your firepower.
Now we can consider what sort of firepower we need. If you have an Ork ally, there isn't much point specializing in CC units is there? They have already got that covered, give them some nice ranged cover fire(like heavy bolters), and then tech to anti vehicle squads and vehicles(missile squads to deal with enemy walkers, and dreads for general all purpose carnage).
The opposite stands for the Eldar, don't expect them to hold the line for you while you stand at the back! Break out your assault marines while the Eldar have some dark reapers or warpspiders supporting you. If you plan on Later game
though, Holding back is what you should do, since the Eldar player will likely have Fireprisms, which will mess up any attempt at CC.
If you can quickly punch a hole in their lines and cause havoc in a base, that will put not only that player behind, but their entire team! That works the same against you however, if your team-mate is being attacked, help him!
This brings us to a very important function; The ping button.
(Perp covered this well in his Nightly lessons learned thread, so I'll just steal it, read the thread if you haven’t already.)
Become familiar with the use of the ping buttons! There are 2 ping buttons to the bottom left of your mini map. The green one activates the ping (just click the green one, then the spot on the mini map you want to ping), and the grey one
toggles the ping from "ALL PLAYERS" to "TEAMMATES ONLY".
To have your ping say "Attack here!", "Defend here!", "Gather resources here!", etc. RIGHT CLICK on the green ping button. This will cycle you through all of the ping commands.
Team communication
Voice is often far more efficient then typing, and anything that allows you to spend more time on your army is good. The two main programs which I have heard getting good reviews are Teamspeak and Ventrillo.
http://www.goteamspeak.com/news.php
http://www.ventrilo.com/download.php
This is only useful if you regularly play with the same group of people. I use Ventrillo and can say that it works very well.
Late game tactics
Surprise is a Key element to Victory!
Space Marines have possibly some of the best late game mobility with the Orbital replay. Yes, Eldar can jump and are quick, but they have a limited distance and speed. With the Orbital relay and deepstrike, you can place your units anywhere on the map almost instantly.
A tactic nicely summed up by Perp called:
The Dread Shuffle
This is a late game tactic, but I find it very enjoyable . What I do is build a mech center right next to my Orbital Relay, and waypoint the mechs so they walk right up to the OrbRelay. Both the Mech Center and the OrbRelay spam out Dreads as fast as they can so that there are 3 dreads in the Relay, and 3 dreads ready to hop into the relay.
When I make my drop with my dreads, I immediately load the next 3 in, for a quick second wave. From this point on, if I wipe out an opponent (in big Multiplayer games) I end up walking my damaged dreads back to the OrbRelay,
where my servitors are still waiting, for a quick heal and reload. This way, no matter if I am at the 20/20 mech limit, I always have fresh dreads anywhere on the map. I call this the Dread Shuffle, and prefer to be able to drop my dreads
into battle then walking them in (their so dang slow!). BTW- I usually build my OrbRelay somewhere near the center of the map, as kind of a forward base, with a mech center nearby. I hotkey the Mech Centers as 3 and 4, with the OrbRelay as 5
(1 is Servitors, 2 is barracks).
Note that you will need a line of sight for your Troops to strike into, thus an infiltrated Scout unit or Skull probe does the job nice and cheaply.
(once again stolen from Perp's nightly lessons learned)
Another common late game tactic is to attach the FC to a terminator squad and deepstrike them from the chapel-barracks into the enemy base and use Orbital bombardment. This is quite devastating, and the only real defense against it is to keep your base free of infiltrated units or lots of missile turrets(the missiles will hit the FC, knocking him down and interrupting the Orbital Bombardment). This is best used during a battle as it can distract him enough to let your infiltrated units in (there will be no units capable of seeing them around, they will be fighting), and he will be concentrating on the battle rather than his base.
On Assault marines:
Yes, the two uses of the most underused or underestimated unit in the space marine roster....
1: Butcher the enemies heavy weapons, or used as a CC screen for flamers and heavy weapons.
2: To harass and generally make a nusence of themselves in the enemy backyard. With jump packs and melta-bombs they can strike from unpredicted or undefended areas. They can take down upgraded LP's with 2 meltas or they can take them down with 1 and maybe 1-2 casulties from the post. With the speed of movement and jump ability they can do several attacks and decap several points before the enemy can react.
Also can be used to force the enemy to abort there rush to defend there base or suffer the destruction of several power generators or barracks/machine cults/pits/support portal.
With several striking from different locations you can setup a "ping pong" effect with there army as you hit them from one side then fade away when they counter-attack only to attack from the side they just left. All the while using those melta bombs to bust up juicey targets.
Assault marines also hold up well vs. orks, if they're not terribly out-numbered that is.
Though alot of this should apply to any patch, this was written as of patch 1.10.
Thanks to Firaya for the proofread, Andaius and Firaya for pointing out stuff I forgot, Perp for Nightly lessons learned(read the damn thread already people, there's good stuff in there!), Gammadion for the cover and morale numbers and Vertigo for the numbers on almost everything else, and Moe for the general kick in the arse to write this.
Special note of thanks to Ir0nClad, one of the best SM players out there that I've seen. If you can get a hold of his replays, watch them, they are always excellent.
Venerate the Immortal Emperor
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Originally Posted by Dragoncurry
