Warhammer 40k Dark Crusade

[Tekkawarrior]

Yo dudes (and dudets), I've been playing DK for the last few days and really loving it, but I'm having some problems on getting a solid way to win a skirmish, does anyone have any tips and tricks they can share to create a strong/affordable defense/offense?

My main interests are Space marines and Tau, but of course you can discuss any army you like

Cheers.

 

[The Cheezy One]

Turrets are good, but nothing compared to a couple well upgraded squads. Tau dont get turrets though. For any other race, go for turrets that knock infantry over if you can. These can support your infantry well.
for single player, concentrate on defence, and then send out small scouting squads, although with SM, a small scouting squad can take a small base! if your defences can moe or less hold themselves, then you can concentrate solely on assault
an upgraded squad can beat numbers anyday, within reason, and upgrades work on ALL units that they apply to, obviously, so its a better long term strategy. i dont play multi much, but all i can say is as SM, build at least 2 barracks, and get a whirlwind artillery gun or two.

 

[Starke]

With Marines there's two tricks to remember. First, max out your research and your squads. That means, when you requisition a squad of marines, bring them up to 8 marines as fast as possible. A couple of squads can really turn things around. Once you have all the research unlocked, I find a squad of 9 with 2 heavy bolters, a plasma gun and a missile launcher the best mix, a couple squads of this can clear most immediate problems. Finally attach a an apothecary to any squad you're using, to scout with. If you're facing Eldar or (late game) Chaos you'll need to send squads with skull probes to reveal infiltrated units. (I prefer using librarians, but that's a campaign only option.)

For heavy assault, I'll usually use four squads of marines, kitted out, as mentioned above, with a force commander, librarian and two apothecaries. This can easily dispose of major bases in the game such as the single player enemy strongholds.

The other part is Deep Strikes. Once you get fleet beacons, upgrade three squads all the way and then garrison them in the orbital relay, then you can deep strike them anywhere on the map at will.

Tau are slightly different, but Fire Warriors are an easy backbone to build off of. Again, max out your squads (I prefer with a pair of sargents once they become available, but that's personal preference).

Now, here's the critical part, your fire warriors need to be set to hold ground, otherwise you're going to be in a world of pain. Advance in teams, with one or two squads covering the one that's moving up, that way, when you do run into the enemy they'll be cut to pieces. After that, my personal taste is in battle suits, but the Kroot make a decent auxiliary force, and a squad or two of them can easily reinforce a couple squads of fire warriors very effectively.

You might notice, this does mean I tend to focus on infantry and don't spend a lot of time dealing with vehicles, and aside from Guard, that's accurate.

 

[xdgt]

Make 2 groups of scouts and send them to capture as much tactical positions as possible (also scout ahead to find the enemy base and later destroy their barracks with space marine squads) - economy is key to winning in the long run proceed to make space marines squads, increasing their numbers and getting weapons upgrades. If it takes long make dreadnoughts and kill them off.

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

Yo dudes (and dudets), I've been playing DK for the last few days and really loving it, but I'm having some problems on getting a solid way to win a skirmish, does anyone have any tips and tricks they can share to create a strong/affordable defense/offense?

My main interests are Space marines and Tau, but of course you can discuss any army you like

Cheers.

Get a land raider and two squads of terminators. The battle captain is your friend because of the orbital strike. Especially against orks, those damn gun signs can wiegh you down big time.
Also predator tanks. Awesome. give em lascanons and nothing on wheels or on wings can possible stand in your way. For the necrons (my favourite) upgraded warriors (FREE) are almost the best infantry in the game. Also the monolith. I always have three so that if one goes down i can reawaken another. As far as tau is concerned i replaced turrets with those emplaced battle suits and attack with a mixture of fire warrios and skyray gunships. The missle spam move knocks down enemies so much that the fire warriors can just rip into them with suprime fire power. if against orks kroot your way to victory.

 

[Tekkawarrior]

Turrets are good, but nothing compared to a couple well upgraded squads. Tau dont get turrets though. For any other race, go for turrets that knock infantry over if you can. These can support your infantry well.
for single player, concentrate on defence, and then send out small scouting squads, although with SM, a small scouting squad can take a small base! if your defences can moe or less hold themselves, then you can concentrate solely on assault
an upgraded squad can beat numbers anyday, within reason, and upgrades work on ALL units that they apply to, obviously, so its a better long term strategy. i dont play multi much, but all i can say is as SM, build at least 2 barracks, and get a whirlwind artillery gun or two.

Of course I love maxing out my squads, a massive squad of SM can really chew through anything, I am not really into building turrets, but I should invest in a couple here and there to delay attacks.

With Marines there's two tricks to remember. First, max out your research and your squads. That means, when you requisition a squad of marines, bring them up to 8 marines as fast as possible. A couple of squads can really turn things around. Once you have all the research unlocked, I find a squad of 9 with 2 heavy bolters, a plasma gun and a missile launcher the best mix, a couple squads of this can clear most immediate problems...cut out because post is too big

Wow thanks for that, I'll try to put all what you said in practice, even though my micro management sucks bowel movement.

Make 2 groups of scouts and send them to capture as much tactical positions as possible (also scout ahead to find the enemy base and later destroy their barracks with space marine squads) - economy is key to winning in the long run proceed to make space marines squads, increasing their numbers and getting weapons upgrades. If it takes long make dreadnoughts and kill them off.

Been reading a lot about scouts, seems like I do need to invest in them as well (I BARELY use scouts)

 

[Tekkawarrior]

upgraded warriors (FREE)

Free O_O?? I'm really gonna have to try that shit out

And cheers for the vs Ork tips, my cousin plays Orks and he pretty much gives me a hard time, I'll see how he holds out after all these tips

 

[Tharwen]

Look up some simple guides about major mistakes you should avoid, then practice against human opponents. Practice (at almost anything) is the only real way to get good at it.

Unless you live in the Matrix, and I doubt that's true.

 

[Tekkawarrior]

I will keep it simple.
Eldar = Win!

I hate Eldar but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and try them out like you said.

 

[xdgt]

Been reading a lot about scouts, seems like I do need to invest in them as well (I BARELY use scouts)

Basically, they are cheap and fast to produce on early stages and can capture tactical positions (not to mention stealth detection) so making atleast one squad is pretty crucial, two is better (depending on how big is the map), they might not play a huge role in the latter stages of the game but in the begining playing without them is about as efficient as cutting of your fingers and bashing the keyboard frantically.

 

[Tekkawarrior]

Look up some simple guides about major mistakes you should avoid, then practice against human opponents. Practice (at almost anything) is the only real way to get good at it.

Unless you live in the Matrix, and I doubt that's true.

I live at 23 Matrix-avenue, but that's not gonna stop me from practicing, I just got a thought as well, I should set up a spectator game or sthn with hard armies, see how they go about their business and try to mimic it a little bit.

What about keeping captured points? I find that after I capture a point and move on to another, the enemy is always rushing for it, and I end up on a cat and mouse chase which kills time for more important things to do.

 

[Tekkawarrior]

Double post, sorry

 

[JS ibanez]

This isnt a winning strategy. But its an easy way to be formidable.

With tau build fire warriors and max out on their range and damage. When you come to choosing a path. choose the close combat one as that lets you further increase your firewarriors range. At this point your FW's can fire beyond their line of sight. so a squad of pathfinders helps. So at this point they do some crazy insane damage and the enemy cant even see you shooting at them so unless told to, they dont respond

if you going against orks have at least one missile gunship around. Its missile barrage is fantastic for disrupting lots of infantry and it goes for a few seconds i believe which is more than enough for your FW's to pelt them. so fire a barrage between your guys and theirs as a deterrent.

This worked well for me in soulstorm. not sure about dark crusade. but massed FW's could take down almost anything in short order. spread them out to avoid getting meleed all in one go.

I think this army is better as a supporting army in a team game. Then again I hardly ever play as tau when im playing solo.


PS. scouts are great when infiltrated with plasma guns

also if you like free stuff check out orks as they get free slugga boyz when theyve upgraded enough. great for occupying an entire army for no cost. just build lots of boyz huts. right click the slugga boy image to set them onverwatch. add water and you have insta-army. it wont win fights. but it will prolongue them and occupy your opponent without paying for it

 

[xdgt]

What about keeping captured points? I find that after I capture a point and move on to another, the enemy is always rushing for it, and I end up on a cat and mouse chase which kills time for more important things to do.

Forgot about that part sorry - what you do is make all 4 servitors, send 2 immidiately after the scout groups and build turrets on top of the captured points - it benefits you, the other 2 build the base - make the a couple of the usual turret on the outskirts of your base and a couple of mine fields infront of them. Start out by building 4 or so power generators, barracks and upgrading building (forgot its name).

 

[Tharwen]

Look up some simple guides about major mistakes you should avoid, then practice against human opponents. Practice (at almost anything) is the only real way to get good at it.

Unless you live in the Matrix, and I doubt that's true.

I live at 23 Matrix-avenue, but that's not gonna stop me from practicing, I just got a thought as well, I should set up a spectator game or sthn with hard armies, see how they go about their business and try to mimic it a little bit.

What about keeping captured points? I find that after I capture a point and move on to another, the enemy is always rushing for it, and I end up on a cat and mouse chase which kills time for more important things to do.

Don't bother fighting bots. They can't teach you anything. Playing humans is the only way to get good.

 

[Tekkawarrior]

Look up some simple guides about major mistakes you should avoid, then practice against human opponents. Practice (at almost anything) is the only real way to get good at it.

Unless you live in the Matrix, and I doubt that's true.

I live at 23 Matrix-avenue, but that's not gonna stop me from practicing, I just got a thought as well, I should set up a spectator game or sthn with hard armies, see how they go about their business and try to mimic it a little bit.

What about keeping captured points? I find that after I capture a point and move on to another, the enemy is always rushing for it, and I end up on a cat and mouse chase which kills time for more important things to do.

Don't bother fighting bots. They can't teach you anything. Playing humans is the only way to get good.

Noted, I'm gonna have to pull out the old "Shameless" card and play some real matches, knowing that I'll get my ass handed to me.

 

[Ninjamedic]

Here's an easy solution: when you are about to conquer a territory, build turrets where the enemy HQ will appear when they counterattack.

Oh wait, I'm talking about the campaign.

 

[iFail69]

Space Marines: Spam marines early, you would be surprised how many marines you can get early game, then you can attack early and keep up the pressure whilst you capture stuff and make even more marines (and upgrade). Oh, and the hero unit helps a bunch while you are attacking.

works for me

 

[thenumberthirteen]

I don't know how well it works online, but when I play SM I always have a squad or two of infiltrated scouts with sniper rifles. Sure it means it takes ages for them to set up, but2 squads can effectively destroy an infantry squad in a single shot. If you have them follow behind your main assault then they can really thin out the enemys numbers.

 

[krseyffert]

The Tau.. here's my Strategy

The Set-Up
Get your Earth caste builder to build a plasma generator
while it's building, queue up a stealth team, another builder, jetpacks and 2 more builders
once the builder is finished with the generator, make it build another one.
when the stealth team is ready, send it to capture SPs around your base and fill in with ppl
send a builder to build listening posts on every SP they capture(add fortifications if it is in a dangerous place, or easy for enemies to attack)
when the 2nd builder is ready, make it build a tau barracks, use another builder to build a path to enlightenment, then a kroot barracks.

The Defence
train your commander
build 1 or 2 XV88 broadside battle suites, and entrench them at the entrance to your base(normally around a SP because of the fortification i mentioned earlier)
build 1 kroot carnivore squad and leave them in the centre of your base.

The Strike Teams
Tau
build a Mont Ka command post and research teachings of Mont Ka
build a vehicle beacon
build 2 Hammerheads
ammas as many Skyray Missile gunships as possible
ammas as many Broadsides as possible

steamroll from one side of the map to the other
(not very elegant, but it works)

Kroot
Build a Kyoun command post, research teachings of kyoun
build a coalition Centre
train a Greater Knarloc
train 2 kroot carnivore squads
train 1 kroot hound squad
train 3 kroot shapers
attach 1 shaper to each of the carnivore and hound squads you just made
build as many krootoxs as you want (i've never needed more than 5)

use these and your commander to strike the enemy


EDIT: note with the "Stirke Team" section, it's an either or situation, either Tau OR kroot