I've also decided to start on my guide for how to play the game. Have a few pages done for the draft but it's not finished yet. I also have to learn how to make videos since people are too lazy to read nowadays. Maybe it'll be done Jan/Feb sometime. Anyways, will share a few paragraphs:
Hello, in this guide I will be going over how to play Dawn of War 2 multiplayer. This will be covering the Elite mod and not retail. For those who don’t know what Elite mod is it’s a modification done by the community that is better balanced, has less bugs, new units, and even a new race called the Ordo Malleus/Grey Knights. Retail balance wasn’t very well done and there were a lot of things like units or abilities under or overperforming. The balance in Elite mod is made to give longer better games as opposed to a game going well and then a single overtuned ability causing the game to end.
Anyways, this game is mainly a game of tactics. It is not the make workers all game then a-move your deathball type that is popular among other RTS’s. I’ll try and keep this guide as simple as I can for new players.
First off I want to go over the races in the game:
Space Marines: Space Marines are small in number and expensive but very durable and adaptable
Eldar: Eldar are fast and fragile with lots of abilities
Orks: Orks are fragile, slow and powerful
Chaos Space Marines: Chaos Space Marines are like Space Marines only they worship Chaos and have their units and abilities based off of that. They are better than Space Marines in holding ground though have less mobility
Imperial Guard: The Imperial Guard are regular humans. They are individually weak but are numerous and rely on ranged firepower, vehicles and artillery
Tyranids: Tyranids are comprised of weak numerous units called Gaunts and then stronger bugs that have synapse, which makes the units around them do things such as more damage, have more health, health regeneration increases, or even things like leaping
Ordo Malleus: The Order Malleus is a blend of a specific Space Marine chapter called the Grey Knights, who focus on melee combat and physic powers used to battle the forces of Chaos, and the Inquisition, who bring things such as Storm Troopers or Operatives. They are more push and melee focused version of Space Marines and have less mobility and adaptability
As for the commanders, each race has 3. You’re told what kind of playstyle each commander has and are shown the global abilities for each one. Each commander in a race uses the same army, but they will have slightly different global abilities and since the commanders are unique each one will use their army differently.
Now for the units. Each race has 3 tiers in it and it requires resources to increase to the next tier. Each tier brings with it more powerful units, upgrades and even access to more globals. This is how your army is divided and you need to make your purchase options based off of what you can afford at the time. As for what to get, every unit has a role in your army and nothing is added for the sake of it. You need to learn each units role and buy what you need.
To try and make this simple, first off separate your units by range. Short, medium and long range. Short range units are your melee units such as Sluggas. Medium range units are units like Tactical Marines. Long range units are units such as the D-Cannon. Your short range units need to get in close to be effective. Your medium range units need to keep short range units away and to close in on long range units. Long range units need to stay away from everything but will be powerful versus everything until they manage to close in.
Next I’m going to talk about armour and weapons. There are many types, often for lore or balance reasons, but I’m just going to list the main ones:
Normal infantry armour: you take damage from everything
Heavy armour: You have a resistance to regular piercing shots but take more from plasma or power weapons
Super Heavy armour: You have lots of resistance to piercing and take more damage from plasma or power weapons and take damage from Anti-Vehicle weapons or melee heavy
Vehicle: You have lots of resistance to piercing, some resistance to plasma or power weapons and take normal damage from AV weapons or melee heavy
It's how I learnt Ctrl+A selects all units on screen. Pretty useful.
