Dawn of War Codex

Questions Updated
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GK1) How do I deal with some of the early vehicle pressue I sometimes get in the form of a fast Deff Dread or a Bloodcrusher? I just feel like they do too much damage before I can intervene.


T2) With my hourms and terms, when should I get their endless swarm upgrades? Feels like the power might be better spent on other things like faster teching. I have the same issue with the Adrenal Glands for the Horms.

GK1)

I find the best counter to a quick vehicle as grey knights is the vindicare assassin. When I say a quick vehicle - note that means NOT walkers, the vindicare is very inefficient vs walkers and I wouldn't recommend using him vs them - I'm referring to transports and bloodcrushers. You see if you're against chaos you should have the canticle of absolution on your brother captain. This will help in T1 as it stops worship and doomblast, but this makes the bloodcrusher very weak as it can't be healed and will proceed to die in 3 or 4 shots afterwards. Combine that with either the interceptor (GKI) melta bomb or the purg's psycannons and that thing won't last long at all.

The deff dread is a troublesome little brute. It acts like a walker with it's HP/damage but the low initial cost makes it come out super fast. The VA alone isn't going to cut it, but he's quite a good purchase vs orks anyway since he can snipe the weirdboy and help vs looted tank rushes. If you have GKI then I recommend getting the VA+purifiers+melta bomb to promptly deal with that DD. If you have a purgation squad instead of the GKI then I would suggest getting a heavy bolter rhino, purifiers and upgraded your purgation squad to psycannons. Use your brother captain to support the purifiers when they engage the DD in melee, and wittle away at their melee support with your HB rhino/IST, but also carry your purgation in that rhino to focus down the DD too and to ensure they aren't tied up - given something trys to, you just put them back in and kite a bit. Don't forget to use mind blades on the purifiers. Counter weirdboys with the psychic lash, slugga/painboy synergies with the nemesis daemon hammer.

Tyrant guards get ripped to pieces by purifiers 1v1 and the same applies to ogryns.

In the case that your foe rushes a walker you have to options: If you pre-empt it then get a HB rhino and go gen bash with that and your IST - this stalls his walker and let's you get purifiers+melta+VA/las-rhino, or you could meet his walker with upgraded GKI or purgs + your own dreadnougth. Given that the GK dread starts off with a melta gun and that the GKI's melta nade disables enemy vehicle weaponry this will be a guaranteed kill if he can't bring any additional AV onto the field. Either way, if he does tie it up with your GKI or a teleporting bro-cap (if you got purgs instead of GKI).

T2)

There's a little trick Atlas that applies when you want to upgrade a squad so that they're still functional in T2, despite not really using them in major engagements in T1 - and therefore it not being worth spending the cash on them in T1. The trick is when you find yourself in these circumstances, for example getting adrenal glands on your hormagaunts when you're fighting against an IG (which is a match-up where clearly your hormagaunts aren't going to be important, instead they will likely just be capping), or getting a sergeant on your secondary capping scout squad, what you want to do is purchase these upgrades after you start researching T2, but before T2 itself finishes. This has a lot of boons to it. Firstly, it is economically efficient as you don't waste power on upgrades that are hardly relevant so you can prioritize them first (such as new units, wargear or toxin sacs on your termagants), secondly it means that you tech as fast as you possibly can given your build order, thirdly it plays mind games with your opponent when they see you still upgrading your units they might think you're going for a heavy t1 and they might then over invest in their own t1 upgrades, delaying their tech and allowing you to end the game with a fast T2 unit.

Of course sometimes such upgrades will be necessary early on. Imagine an opposing chaos player chooses to go dual chaos space marines, heretics and a havoc. Getting termagant toxin sacs in this scenario will help you for sure, but it shouldn't be prioritised as they only have one melee squad and termagants will bleed to csm and be shutdown by the havoc. Instead you should try and get out a ravener or a barbed strangler warrior brood as soon as possible to counter that havoc and then follow up on the csm with your hormagaunts with adrenal glands.

Regarding endless swarm I usually get it after making my first power purchase come T2. My reasoning is that the sooner I get endless swarm the better because it makes my gaunt squads much more efficient in combat ( less bleed), but at the same time I've gone T2 for a reason - usually not to buff the prowess of gaunts, but instead to get out a more useful unit such as a zoanthrope or tyrant guard, so I will get that unit out, finish my planned composition then get endless swarm. Basically endless swarm is great and you should always grab it when you can, but don't just purchase it instantly, be smart about it and think whether or not you can afford to spend that power on buffing you economy - think of it as buffing your eco, not your army - without serious repercussions.

IG6)Guardsman, Stormtroopers, Kasrkin. On paper these three units all few very similar. When do I want to go with Kasrkin over Stormtroppers? Storms over Guardsman? etc etc.

E4) I see a lot of people buying the Aspect of Strength for Banshees. Is the heavy weapon blade that worthwhile over the dual mirror swords for Fleetness? When do you want one of the particular Aspects?

T3When I play the Hive Tyrant, he comes with the same synapse T1 Warriors would provide. Would forgoing Warriors as a HT be a viable build? Especially with the more shooty Nid builds like with Venom Broods?

IG6) Guardsmen are the most economically efficient unit in a straight up shooting match in the game. And when they have all their leaders they have quite a big health pool and can be notoriously hard to kill. Stormtroopers either fill the role of sniping commanders/subcommanders and staying just out of range behind your guardmen or assassinating tanks. They aren't as suited for front line combat and can be rather squishy. Karsikin are a bit more durable than stormtroopers and with their plasma guns put out a ungodly amount of damage against HI/SHI.

E4) The heavy melee spear scales a bit better. Against marines swiftness is arguably better but against IG, orks, other elder you'll probably want strength due to the lack of heavy infantry.

You should favor the aspect of fleetness on maps where the extra mobility due to leap will provide a meaningful advandtage. However there's no telling whether you will regret the lack of (non soft) AV, plus there always is the possibility that your opponent knows the leap mechanism well enough to screw your pathing or make great grenade spikes.

The DPS difference against (super) heavy armor will rarely be decisive.