Dawn of War Codex

Only recently have I decided to get back into DoW2 as part of my desire to get better at RTS'. Played a bit in retail, got disappointed and downloaded Elite. Quite frankly, I'm impressed with the vast improvements made to the game! But one thing makes me scratch my head: OM.

This will mainly be from the perspective of a Chaos player, preferably PC.

The Imperial Stormtroopers are straightforward for me. Just a T1 version of the IG T2 unit. Melee or ranged superiority and blammo! Free red and unit exp!

Strike Squad. Now the confusion begins! They have great burst as their bolters do not splash to other units, which works very well with AoE for shredding models. I could live with that if their melee wasn't actually good. Tying them up with Tics doesn't feel as rewarding as they shred through them rather quickly and they seem to out-perform Tzeentch CSM. I know use units in in jolly cooperation and combine melee and ranged pressure, but the early engagements are quite painful.

I know Ops are real powerhouse, but haven't seen too much use.

OM Rhino. Oh boy. This was crazy. I went a light T1 and rushed out a Bloodcrusher and it ran into this monstrosity and I lost it quite quickly. It seems quite odd for a transport to offer such hefty AV for what it's supposed to do. Tried to counter with Plague Marines, got tied up by Strike. Tried setting up a Las Havoc, ran away to another spot on the map. It made an already downhill game turn into a nightmarish plunge into the abyss of defeat.

Honestly, I didn't see much beyond that as I saw the defeat screen pretty quickly. I'm still fresh to Elite, so my understanding of many things are still lacking. Though I'm curious to see any solutions to deal with the OM powerhouse.

ranged superiority is a good place to start. In particular OM struggles to deal with double havocs, especially once you pick up the autocannon upgrade in T2. Strike Squad will outperform basic CSM but with either mark they should have the advantage.

Rhino is really powerful right now and Chaos struggles to deal with transports in general due to their mobility and high dps. Try to take advantage of OM's lack of pushing power and zone out the rhino with your autocannon havocs. Also make sure you keep your havocs near your gen farm in T1 to prevent purgation bashes. If he gets ops you can get the aspiring champion on your heretics and keep them near your havocs. Noise marines are also quite good in the matchup against everything but the bother captain himself.

Crusher can be really good vs OM if you support it with worship well but you have to be aware if he gets a rhino and protect it ASAP with your autocannon havocs.

Crewfinity wrote:ranged superiority is a good place to start. In particular OM struggles to deal with double havocs, especially once you pick up the autocannon upgrade in T2. Strike Squad will outperform basic CSM but with either mark they should have the advantage.

Rhino is really powerful right now and Chaos struggles to deal with transports in general due to their mobility and high dps. Try to take advantage of OM's lack of pushing power and zone out the rhino with your autocannon havocs. Also make sure you keep your havocs near your gen farm in T1 to prevent purgation bashes. If he gets ops you can get the aspiring champion on your heretics and keep them near your havocs. Noise marines are also quite good in the matchup against everything but the bother captain himself.

Crusher can be really good vs OM if you support it with worship well but you have to be aware if he gets a rhino and protect it ASAP with your autocannon havocs.

Much appreciated on the feedback. I had been reading the forums and seeing the OM Rhino being brought up a lot on its effectiveness. My first time seeing it was a bit jarring to say the least. I'll be sure to keep the double havocs in mind. I've learned to deal with the Brother Captain through kiting, but everything else just seemed to be misstep after misstep in handling.

one thing to keep in mind is while the Las Rhino is absolutely punishing to any vehicle that approaches, its really quite shit at chasing. If there is any other unit closer to it than its target vehicle, odds are it will misfire. So you just have to play cautiously and a lot of its impact will be reduced. against chaos the bolter rhino is much better in my opinion anyway.

Plague marines (especially double plague marines) are also quite good at countering most of the OM roster