Dawn of War Codex

Are there any openings as Chaos that could be considered "standard"? As in no matter what MU you could start in this way and still react well? As a new player I find my biggest issues are early game where I don't know what to build or upgrade or when to do it. I'm not asking for a guide on it but a few tips would be most appreciated.

It depends on enemy for me. I always go for at least 1 CSM in the first place. Because 3 Heretic is risky and not durable. CSM gives you pure dps. You should go for CSM first. Now, for enemys,

Imperial Guard : Deserves 2 Heretics (including first one) so you can use grenade launchers against them. Melee Heretics can be focus fired so easly, they don't have a single chance after a few fights. Also, your CSM in the first place.

Eldar : Never go 2 CSM. It rarely works just because of Eldar players missplays. Same menu with IG.

Orks : 2 CSM and 2 Heretics are both cool against Orks. But if you go 2 CSM, you shall never loose your starting tic squad. For 2 tic build, you should have at least 1 anti-melee thing and that can be your Aspiring Champion tic squad. If you have Plague Champion, you can go for 2 grenade launchers in case of crazy dakka fight.

Space Marines : 2 CSM is good. But a big amount of Chaos players prefers to not going for a 3rd squad. They generally build genes quickly and tech fast for Havocs, Noise Marines or Raptors. 2 tic is risky against SM and needs high amounts of experince to make it work. Btw, SM can easly deal with 2 tics.

GK : 2 CSM or 2 tic are both cool vs GK. But GK can counter both of them very well. So you choices can pay off with your T1,5 units like Havocs and stuff. Havocs are a no brainer unit vs GK, as long as you can tie up Storm Troopers from their grenade launchers.

Tyranids : Same build for Orks.

Chaos : It totally depends on your experiance. The problem about mirror fights that both armys are same. So you should make it different as a solution. Go for early pressure wargears or tech fast and get better units.

As chaos lord 2tic 1csm 1havok with 1ac or combi flamer works vs anything and and everything in T1. Also fully viable with the other heroes but not quite as foolproof.

With PC 1tic 2csm is (or was) more common since it offers more syngergy with nurgle worship and PC abilties.

firatwithin wrote: Imperial Guard : Deserves 2 Heretics (including first one) so you can use grenade launchers against them. Melee Heretics can be focus fired so easly, they don't have a single chance after a few fights. Also, your CSM in the first place.
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Actually double nade launcher heretics is really easy to counter as IG. Id recommend havoks + any other t1.5 unit (depends on situation, sometimes 1 havok would be enough).

2 CSM is very good vs IG tbh. But so are grenade launchers.

I generally would not skip the third squad in favor of a quicker havoc since most factions will outcap you very hard if you do this.

Generally speaking I think that the build Toilailee mentioned is solid though I prefer. 2 heretic, CSM, Havoc, NM + Combi.

You build CSM then tics then node + one gen. Then Havoc, then NM and after that you start putting down more gens and get what upgrades you need (combi-flamer and aspiring champ are both solid upgrades in T1)

DandyFrontline wrote:Actually double nade launcher heretics is really easy to counter as IG. Id recommend havoks + any other t1.5 unit (depends on situation, sometimes 1 havok would be enough).

I actually find that the double GL tics are very hard for me to handle as IG. What are some of your strategies / builds for dealing with them? I've gotten by with a Spotter, though it was difficult and if my opponent was a little more focused on dodging the flares I don't think I'd have won.

Cyris wrote:

DandyFrontline wrote:Actually double nade launcher heretics is really easy to counter as IG. Id recommend havoks + any other t1.5 unit (depends on situation, sometimes 1 havok would be enough).

I actually find that the double GL tics are very hard for me to handle as IG. What are some of your strategies / builds for dealing with them? I've gotten by with a Spotter, though it was difficult and if my opponent was a little more focused on dodging the flares I don't think I'd have won.

Actually yea - spotters do great against GL tics. And when tics are not disabled it's not hard just to dodge those nades. You can also get an additional cats squad, so the only tics will do is bleed your opponent and give exp to your army. Also, if your enemy is stupid enough to not get the havok i just use my commi with power sword to rush on the tics with "lead by example". Also, tics cant do sh*t against sentinel, so u can go into enemy lines and stomp. At t2 upgrade senti with rocket launcher and tics will cry with bloody tears (just dont forger to use attack ground correctly) Didnt see double GL tics strategy for a long time though.

Double nades are fairly easily countered by double sents. Basically you have to follow them up with a havok or 2csm to keep sents at bay and that's a huge investment on top of 2x nade launchers.

Nades are great vs everything but sents and heroes vs IG in T1 but sents and heroes are exactly what carry IG vs chaos in T1 so it can be a bit counterproductive. Buut afaik not too many people use double sents so nades could work just fine.

Pretty solid advice in this thread.

Whether or not you want to upgrade Heretics with the aspiring champion and/or grenade launchers also depends on how heavily you'll be relying on their Worship ability - after all, worshiping heretic don't use their weapons, but the champion greatly increases their durability. If you'll be fielding Bloodletters, for instance, you'll definitely want to back them up with Worship - same goes for thing like worshiping at the Nurgle shrine (for that glorious on-field reinforcement) or using the Tzeentch cloaking field, though in the case of the latter, grenade launchers can still be useful for a sudden unexpected explosive barrage on the enemy (assuming you're using two heretics to cloak each other, of course), in addition to whatever other nasty surprises you have in store for them.