Dawn of War (all) : Rise and Fall of the Blood Raven

[Gaius Marius]

Hello people. After, finally putting my hands on a fully functionnable computer to play, I fired up Dawn of War 2 with the clear intent on finishing the bloody campaign.

First time I played this game was with the Primarch difficulty. Let's just say I abused Cyrus in that game, and I finally got tired/bored of uber difficulty halfway through the final Array mission.

An experience I wouldn't care to repeat (soon), so I fired a game with one sole objective: having fun. Sarge difficulty. But no Cyrus, cause I'm dead tired of slow shenanigans. I am a bloody Space marines, not a Vindicare Inquisitor, bloody Cadia!

So far, so fun. I played a different gamepath this time, and went to defend Angel Forge relatively early. Let's just say I didn't expected to get that piece of hardware. HARDware.

I equipped my FC with it, went with Shield & Hammer, and took 2x ribbons of -20% damage, making this guy tougher than a tank. He can stand toe to toe with a Carnifex (that the name of the walker-level Tyrannids?).

Otherwise, just ye classic mix of Tactical Marines, Devastator Marines and Assault marines. I don't wanna give HARDware to Thaddeus, for I love him jump ability too much. (why can't you do jumps in HARDware?!?) so now I agonize over wether giving the next HARDware I find to Tarkus or Avistus.

Oh, I finised the 3 main objectives, and my current mission is "hold the sector for 2 days". (Also known as: we give you sidequests but not ennough time to do them all, grrrr). I haven't met the Ork Warboss yet. I was expecting him to appear eventually, seeing the buildup made about him. Should I expect him soon?

Anyway. After this, it's Chaos Rising, and then Retribution!!! Yahoooo!

[Brother Oni]

I don't wanna give HARDware to Thaddeus, for I love him jump ability too much. (why can't you do jumps in HARDware?!?) so now I agonize over wether giving the next HARDware I find to Tarkus or Avistus.


If you give terminator armour to Thaddeus, he gets assault teleports, which has most of the stunning effects of assault jumps, but has the survivability of terminator to make up.
Tarkus does quite well in terminator armour, but Avitus usually does better in standard power armour due to a better weapon selection.

[Gaius Marius]

I hear you well (and wanted to keep the existence of Termy Armor unspoiled..) but i though that with the assault cannon, Avistus just wouldn't care much for weapon diversity? :smallbiggrin:

I'll probably go with Tarkus. Would be nice if I could combine Heavy Flqmer and Storm Bolter...

[Brother Oni]

I hear you well (and wanted to keep the existence of Termy Armor unspoiled..) but i though that with the assault cannon, Avistus just wouldn't care much for weapon diversity? :smallbiggrin:

I'll probably go with Tarkus. Would be nice if I could combine Heavy Flqmer and Storm Bolter...

If you're a 40K fan, then you'd already know of the existence of terminator armour.

If you're not, then it won't mean anything to you until you find a set.

Besides the game is over 2 years old - do you really think anything it has is going to be a surprised? :smallconfused:

The Assault cannon is great for anti-infantry, not so good for anti-armour, so you only have the FC with a Thunderhammer on that duty, unless you keep Thaddeus in power armour and give him meltabombs.

That said, on sergeant difficulty, there's not much you have to worry about, so use whatever you like. :smallbiggrin:

[Gaius Marius]

Hey! Did you accused me of being a pansy for playing on Sarge?

'cause I am :smallwink:

I think I'll need more anti-masses clearup than anti-armor capacities. Thaddeus has the meltabombs.

Tarsus just is general all-around support. He's a goodfela.

[TheSummoner]

Ok... So I've been playing through the first Dawn of War and its expansions... Already beat vanilla, did all of the missions and got all four endings of Winter Assault, beat Dark Crusade with both Tau and Necrons because there was no way I was going to do it with all 7 armies and I figured I should atleast play the two new ones (and look up the cutscenes for the rest on Youtube), and I've just started Soulstorm (and plan to struggle through it despite the horrible voice acting...)

Could someone please tell me which endings are canon? I really hate the fact that there are multiple, mutually exclusive endings. I'm the kind of guy who likes to play through a concrete story and know what happened, not be left to pick one of several endings and be no more accurate than some random person telling me that my preferred ending is wrong...

[ShadowFighter15]

Could someone please tell me which endings are canon? I really hate the fact that there are multiple, mutually exclusive endings. I'm the kind of guy who likes to play through a concrete story and know what happened, not be left to pick one of several endings and be no more accurate than some random person telling me that my preferred ending is wrong...

I don't know exactly which endings are canonical, but I do know that:
General Sturnn died on Lorn V as well as Lord Crull, both killed by Warboss Gorgutz (some of the post-mission messages for the Ork stronghold mission mention their heads being found in Gorgutz's collection). In Dark Crusade, I think the Blood Ravens ending was the true one.

Soulstorm's canonical ending hasn't been stated outright, but what comments about the campaign in DoW2 imply that the Space Marine campaign failed. All Cyrus had to say on the matter was that the "Kaurava campaign was a huge mistake, I will say no more on this." or something along those lines - which was probably a bit of a Take That from Relic since they didn't make Soulstorm, they out-sourced it to the guys who made Titan Quest while they focussed on DoW2.

Captain Boreale (the Force Commander in Soulstorm) did die in the campaign as well as his entire company.

EDIT: Some revisions after looking around on Lexicanum:
Sturnn wasn't killed by Gorgutz, but Crull was. Gorgutz was defeated by Sturnn's forces and lost on both Kronus and Kaurava II.

The Blood Ravens were the true victors on Kronus, though Davian Thule lost his eye while battling the Necron Lord. I believe the Imperial Guard were the overall victors in Soulstorm, but I may be wrong.

[TheSummoner]

That would make the Ork campaign canon for Winter Assault then... I had already ruled out Chaos since Gorgutz survives to appear in Dark Crusade and Soulstorm and the Chaos campaign is the only one where he explicitly dies... But Sturnn survives both the Imperial Guard and Eldar campaigns. If canon says that Gorgutz lives and Sturnn dies then it has to be Orks.

[ShadowFighter15]

Posted a spoiler with some revisions after looking around on Lexicanum. That being said, I don't know how much of what I posted is true since it's hard to find info on this (there was a site listing some info like this but I can't remember where, might've been TV Tropes).

[Gaius Marius]

That would make the Ork campaign canon for Winter Assault then... I had already ruled out Chaos since Gorgutz survives to appear in Dark Crusade and Soulstorm and the Chaos campaign is the only one where he explicitly dies... But Sturnn survives both the Imperial Guard and Eldar campaigns. If canon says that Gorgutz lives and Sturnn dies then it has to be Orks.

No, canon Winter Assault ending is the Eldar one, 'cause the Farseer is the same one than in Dark Crusade, and the Eldar's ending is the only one where she survives.

Is it me, or Relic really are becoming good with this storytelling stuff?

[TheSummoner]

No, canon Winter Assault ending is the Eldar one, 'cause the Farseer is the same one than in Dark Crusade, and the Eldar's ending is the only one where she survives.

Is it me, or Relic really are becoming good with this storytelling stuff?

Ok, if the Eldar campaign is canon, then what about Sturnn? Is he still alive then or not? Cuz theres not a single campaign where he dies but the farseer whose name escapes me survives.

[Gaius Marius]

Maybe he got killed after the end of Dark Crusades? the Eldars are **** like that sometimes. Never trust them freakin' xenos

[ShadowFighter15]

Maybe he got killed after the end of Dark Crusades? the Eldars are **** like that sometimes. Never trust them freakin' xenos

Would've been sometime after Winter Assault because it was a different IG General in Dark Crusade - Lukas Alexander.

And I have no idea what's happened to Sturnn, I haven't been able to find anything so far.

[TheSummoner]

Well... Just because Sturnn wasn't in Dark Crusade doesn't mean he died in Winter Assault. Still... You think there'd be something conclusive...

[Gaius Marius]

Omg!! I tried Last Stand all evening yesterday! This is so awesome!!

I love to play the necromancer in Diablo II, I love to play all games Overlord. I am sure I would love Pikmin.. Guess what hero I play?

I dominated kills with Hive Tyrant, even teamed with players 14 levels higher than I. I reached lvl 4. And I also tried the Lord General, which is pure awesome. With a sniper rifle, I teamed with 2 other Flamer-equipped Lord Generals and we held strong until wave 12. I was still 5th level at the time.

Yhea, I am a minion lover. I wonder how a Lord General/Hive Tyrant mix fares.

[Malek]

I don't wanna give HARDware to Thaddeus, for I love him jump ability too much. (why can't you do jumps in HARDware?!?) so now I agonize over wether giving the next HARDware I find to Tarkus or Avistus.

Because HARDware is bulky, heavy and not built for agility... which is the main reason why marines use power armor as their main choice, instead of dressing everybody in termie armor (well that and TA's rarity but that is sort of result of the fact that PA was used more). On the other hand Thaddeus gets teleport ability while in TA - both long range "on command" and short range automatic ones when he attacks.

Regarding TA and Avitus - I have to disagree about Avitus being bad for TA. Yeah, sure weapon options are fun and all, but once I put him in TA and found him an assault cannon he was shredding everything that went into his field of fire to ribbons (I heard some people have had problems with Avitus' AI in TA, but myself I never experienced it).

Regarding Chaos Rising - feel warned that it is much, much shorter than vanilla, and also much more plot driven (nearly no optional missions in here). I heard campaigns in Retribution are short also, but I don't have that one myself so I can't speak for sure.

As for Last Stand - yes, it is fun, very much so :smallbiggrin:

[Ailurus]

I'll definitely agree on the higher difficulties being more annoying than they are worth, especially in the DoW2 vanilla campaign (bloody ****** seer councils!)

Regarding the 'hold the sector' missions: Yes, you really can't finish all of them, but it is quite possible to get all the loot in game (so long as you can consistently get 2 extra deployments/day) - after a certain point, the game just runs out of green or better loot to give you, so missions pop up which don't have any real reward for completing them.

Also note that while you can import your game into Chaos Rising, your gear on hand will get shafted hard (it will give you starting gear, but its all early-to-mid teens level gear, not the level 20ish gear you're almost certainly rocking in the last mission). As far as I can tell, if you want to use items in CR make sure its equipped during the final mission (the only major exception being the HARDware which you won't be able to use for the first few missions in CR ) You'll get better gear soon enough, but not for everything (for example, I don't recall ever seeing a new jump pack in chaos rising, though terminator teleporters abound)

As for canonical endings

For Winter Assault, if I recall correctly one of the DoW books says that Sturnn did recover the titan, and Taldeer was wounded but survived. So I assume that would be the canon ending is IG wins, but a few of the Eldar survive getting trapped outside.

Dark Crusade, the Blood Ravens did take out the necrons (and thule lost his eye there). They also are confirmed in DoW2 to have taken out the Imperial Guard and Chaos for sure, so its quite likely they did take over everything.

Soulstorm, its more than implied that the Space Marines lost in Kaurava. In Chaos Rising if Cyrus is the traitor he says "Kaurava wasn't a reversal - it was a slaughter! A slaughter caused by the incompetence of Indrick Boreale!" I think at some point in DoW2 Tarkus also says that Kaurava left the chapter badly undermanned, and if they lose the recruiting worlds to the Nids the chapter is essentially extinct. I don't know who is the canon winner, but the opinion I've seen the most is that IG won (not sure why though).

Canon ending for Chaos Rising Retribution says the traitor is Avitus. Cyrus and Tarkus are both confirmed to have survived, as has Thule (though, you get to kill him if you play Chaos). Martellus survived too, and is upgraded from 'guy in the background' to 'full squad member'. Jonah isn't on your team anymore, but shows up during the battle with Kyras. Thaddeus and the FC don't directly appear at all, though.

Retribution also implies that the canon route was one of the purer ones - not only is most of the squad present (so probably no crusade or executions going on), but Diomedes was spared on Calderis. And you can find a hammer as a loot drop which was used by the FC - doubt they'd be using his hammer to fight a demon if he turned out to be a heretic.



For Relic and storytelling, DoW2 was solid, and CR was pretty darn good IMO, but Retribution is a bit of a step backwards (not that its bad, but there's just minimal differences between one faction and another). I really love what they've done with in-character chatter across all three games, though. I've done the vanilla DoW campaign 3-4 times now, and I'm still running into new post-mission conversations between the squads. And in Retribution some of the things people say to each other I just find amusing

such as the orks first reaction upon reaching the Judgement of Carrion being "how do we steal it?", and the friction among the Guard heroes - even in the Guard ending cinematic
Merrick: *mumbles* "which is why I didn't shoot you for incompetence"
Castor: "What was that?"
Merrick: "I said I was ... shocked by your ... competence, sir"
Castor: "Ah, that's what I thought you said. Carry on Sergeant Major, carry on"

[TheSummoner]

Ok... So as I've comitted myself to playing the new races in Soulstorm (as I did in Dark Crusade), I've started with the Sisters of Battle. Suckily enough, that meant the nearest enemy stronghold was Imperial Guard... Which took so many tries I almost wanted to just stop... Difficult not in a fun, challenging way, but in a poorly balanced, what the hell were the developers thinking sort of way...

Pretty much had to rush to get through it... Take out the two bases that 1) send out invisible enemies to drop 1 hit kill nukes with a large blast radius on your guys and 2) send a constant stream of annoying enemy attacks before they could do anything... With a second, smaller group in place to kill the convoy units.

Tomorrow I'll be trying to take out the SPEHSS MAHREENS (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeCfod1XT7E). Hopefully it won't be as... annoying.

[Kane]

Got #2 and expansions over the winter break, and beat the original and Retribution as the Lord General. I had originally intended to go straight from the OC on to Chaos Rising, but it crashed after the third hideously long and annoying mission, and it hadn't saved. My conclusion was "Nope.".

That said, I'm annoyed by a few things, beyond the save-eating propensities that are making me hate Games for Windows Live. (Oh, it ate my completed OC saves, too, now that I'm back for the summer.) A, it usually starts off tolerable, but after several hours of play, it starts lagging... significantly. This obviously makes things a bit bothersome.

B, there seems no explanation of Last Stand whatsoever (though I guess by the time I'd heard plenty online,) and no way to test/practice by myself. Annoying because I ended up trying it online, and got my level one Lord General paired up with a level twenty six space marine and a level twenty four hive tyrant. They almost immediately quit on me. Was not fun.

C, seeing as I'm playing through the OC a second time, [eaten saves, and all that,] I thought I'd crank it up to 'Captain' difficulty. (Between Primarch and Sergeant.) It isn't what I'd hoped. It's a bit more annoying, and not quite as much fun- Not as bad as playing Opposing Force on Hard, (Which went from wonderful fun to just 'work',) but still a tad obnoxious. If there's a way to change in-progress game difficulty, I'd appreciate being filled in on it.


Beyond those few qualms, though, Relic seems to have found the perfect balance between leveling up, acquiring gear, and coherent mission-based RTS gameplay that leaves me playing level after level, laggy or not. If only Retribution wasn't quite as short or same across all the campaigns.

[Ailurus]

Ok... So as I've comitted myself to playing the new races in Soulstorm (as I did in Dark Crusade), I've started with the Sisters of Battle.


Seraphim. While they do require a lot of attention to use well, they make life so much easier for the Sisters. With krak grenades and inferno pistols, they can deal with light armor or buildings (such as the baneblade part delivery trucks - jump on top of it, throw the grenades, shoot if a bit if its not dead, jump away). Also (though its admittedly not as useful versus Guard as opposed to say Orks), they have ridiculous accuracy while moving which makes them the absolute kings of kiting. They won't win an entire battle by themselves, but with two squads running around together they are perfect raiders. Jump over to some isolated building (listening post, outskirts of a secondary base, or a SPEHSS MAHREEN beacon) blow it up, and either gun down the counterattack force (if its small) or just jump away. Repeat when cooldowns are recharged. Just make sure to get them the HP and damage upgrades.

[Malek]

B, there seems no explanation of Last Stand whatsoever (though I guess by the time I'd heard plenty online,) and no way to test/practice by myself. Annoying because I ended up trying it online, and got my level one Lord General paired up with a level twenty six space marine and a level twenty four hive tyrant. They almost immediately quit on me. Was not fun.
Well Last Stand doesn't really need much explanation. "Three players, against 20 waves of nasty" about sums it up. As for your online experience:
- Bwah? Level twenty four and twenty six, what? AFAIK there are only 20 levels in Last Stand :smalleek:
- You had bad luck with people there, really - most of the time I played people didn't seem to bothered with levels of others.
- Early on experience is quite fast. If you can get a few games to last to wave 8-10 you should cure your "level 1" problem and get to mid levels quite fast. The grind starts afterwards :smalltongue:

Edit: Oh and a tip - avoid Anvil of Khorne until you get a few levels and some experience in playing,

[Closet_Skeleton]

I got sick of Dawn of War 2 and gave up due to the boss fights. Its not what I play RTS games for and its not fun taking ten thousand hit points off some guy, gal or critter.

[Eldan]

Yeah. My boss fights, when I moved up to higher difficulty in CR usually involved my Full Endurance/Will Power Force commander (with iron halo) standing there taking endless damage and occasionally healing himself, while the other three teams (Usually Cyrus and Avitus and either Tarkus or jetpack dude) ran back and forth between the fight and the closest healing point. It got boring fast.

[Kane]

Well Last Stand doesn't really need much explanation. "Three players, against 20 waves of nasty" about sums it up. As for your online experience:
- Bwah? Level twenty four and twenty six, what? AFAIK there are only 20 levels in Last Stand :smalleek:
- You had bad luck with people there, really - most of the time I played people didn't seem to bothered with levels of others.
- Early on experience is quite fast. If you can get a few games to last to wave 8-10 you should cure your "level 1" problem and get to mid levels quite fast. The grind starts afterwards :smalltongue:

Edit: Oh and a tip - avoid Anvil of Khorne until you get a few levels and some experience in playing,

It was a while back, so I was probably remembering wrong. That said... Ah, I guess I'll try it again.


AS for truly wonderful moments, I remember when I was first using the dreadnought on a defense mission; I had no way to heal it, and due to titanic foolishness on my part, I got all my fleshy-characters killed near the beggining of wave one. And Dread did not have the stim pack.

Then, with a little micromanaging, I managed to beat the entire freakin' defense mission without healing and without anything but Dreadnought. It was... Glorious. Anyone else have particularly noteworthy experiences?

[TheSummoner]

Seraphim. While they do require a lot of attention to use well, they make life so much easier for the Sisters. With krak grenades and inferno pistols, they can deal with light armor or buildings (such as the baneblade part delivery trucks - jump on top of it, throw the grenades, shoot if a bit if its not dead, jump away). Also (though its admittedly not as useful versus Guard as opposed to say Orks), they have ridiculous accuracy while moving which makes them the absolute kings of kiting. They won't win an entire battle by themselves, but with two squads running around together they are perfect raiders. Jump over to some isolated building (listening post, outskirts of a secondary base, or a SPEHSS MAHREEN beacon) blow it up, and either gun down the counterattack force (if its small) or just jump away. Repeat when cooldowns are recharged. Just make sure to get them the HP and damage upgrades.

I've been having pretty good results with Celestian squads mixed in with a few of the basic infantry... I usually take 4-5 squads as my main force and a secondary force of 2-3 squads defending the base or worrying about convoys or whatever...

Also, I have defeated the SPEHSS MAHREENS. The FEWLS have FEHLED the EMPRAH. Their SIMMUL-TANEOUS devestating defensive deep strikes could not save them, nor could their METAL BAWKSES.

I think I may be having a bit too much fun with how bad the voice acting is in Soulstorm... Anyways, SPEH- I mean, Space Marines were much less annoying than Imperial Guard were... Orks are closest, so they're next. Then Tau... After that I'm not sure if I'll go Eldar/Necron or Chaos/Dark Eldar.

[Gaius Marius]

I was talking about DoW2 to my future roomate, and told him how much the playstyles were different depending if you fought the Tyranids, the Orks or the Eldars, and how it was a strong point of that game. He's a big fan of DoW1, so he said:

"Yhea, pretty much like the first Dawn of War, you had to have a different style based on your enemy for all races..."

"Dude, that's not true. I never got to adapt to anything... I played Imperial Guard!"

".... Okay, point. But it's the exception"

[Kane]

:smallbiggrin: So true.

"Bury them in artillery and armor (and bodies)." works well for every race.

[Gaius Marius]

:smallbiggrin: So true.

"Bury them in artillery and armor (and bodies)." works well for every race.

"General! It's horrible! The ennemy is striking us with a force of Dreadnoughts!"

"No fear, we have the tail-cut solution. Send in Guardsmen with Armor support!"

"General, the Dreadnoughts happen to have Sorcerer allies!"

"I know what we need. Guardmens and Armors"

"General, after the victory, our troops got attacked by long-ranged heavy firepower, probably the best Tau warmachines!"

"Hum... the only solution seems to be Guardsmen and Armors"

"General... this is our doom! A force of Ork/Tyranid Hybrids are swarming over our troops, they are countless numbers!"

"Have no fear, for I requisitionned Guardsmen and Armors to come!"

"We are saved!! Praise the Emperor!"

[TheSummoner]

Orks taken out. Tau taken out. Chaos and Dark Eldar will likely be next.

Yeah... After Imperial Guard, none of these are particularly threatening. Tau managed to overwhelm my base, but I still won the mission.

[Gaius Marius]

Been playing a part of Retribution and Chaos Rising..

I really hope they keep on that track. Relic seems to become more skilled at having entertaining and interesting storylines and missions as they go on. At the moment, I remember how boring and repetitive the main campaign mission was, compared to the mission I've played.


Seriously.. the IG is still the very same powerhouse. the Lord General with flamethrower, + 1 squad catchatan with flamethrowers, and 1 of stormtroopers = smash everything in its path.

Add an ogryn squad to escort the Inquisitor, the Sarge with heavy weapon + 2 heavy weapon squads with autocannon, and I don't have to think much doing my missions... THIS IS SO COOL!!! :smallbiggrin:

First order: finish Chaos Rising. Then dedicate myself to Retribution...

[iyaerP]

Been playing a part of Retribution and Chaos Rising..

I really hope they keep on that track. Relic seems to become more skilled at having entertaining and interesting storylines and missions as they go on. At the moment, I remember how boring and repetitive the main campaign mission was, compared to the mission I've played.


Seriously.. the IG is still the very same powerhouse. the Lord General with flamethrower, + 1 squad catchatan with flamethrowers, and 1 of stormtroopers = smash everything in its path.

Add an ogryn squad to escort the Inquisitor, the Sarge with heavy weapon + 2 heavy weapon squads with autocannon, and I don't have to think much doing my missions... THIS IS SO COOL!!! :smallbiggrin:

First order: finish Chaos Rising. Then dedicate myself to Retribution...

The Retribution campaign is a joke if you use massed guardsmen squads. It is ironically much harder if you are using space marines.

[Gaius Marius]

The Retribution campaign is a joke if you use massed guardsmen squads. It is ironically much harder if you are using space marines.

Proof of the superiority of the Imperial Guard above everything else.

I never trusted these so-called superhuman "Space Marines". Too likely to fall over to the side of chaos, and since all of the Imperium is just standing drooling over them, the damage they cause when they fall is too great.

If we trusted them less with the Keys of the Imperium, maybe their falls would be less frequent, and less painful. Better trust a little a billion men than trust a lot a thousand. Glory to the Imperial Guard!!!

[Ailurus]

The Retribution campaign is a joke if you use massed guardsmen squads. It is ironically much harder if you are using space marines.

I'm starting to realize this myself. Did it w. IG using mainly heroes, and just started a VH run using IG w. no heroes outside the general. Granted, I'm only 5 missions in so far, but 4 squads of guardsmen (2 with flamers for clearing buildings, 2 with plasma) with an honor guard melta stormtrooper squad for dealing with tanks is just rolling over stuff. Only thing that's even been close to a roadblock are a couple points where you need to charge chokepoints guarded by Havoks, but LG w. Sniper Rifle takes care of them nicely, and I just have a Valkyrie land to patch up the Guardsmen.

[Gaius Marius]

Yup, the campaign was easy. Once you unlock the Leman Russ delivery service, it's almost a joke.

Although the last boss was infuriating. I finally understood the trick:

15 squads of heavy weapon, armed with Autocannons, with Merrick throwing his flare once in a while.

Dumbass Gabriel Angelos died in the fight, haha.

edit: I gotta say, the writing was fun. The characters for the Imperial Campaign were a LOT more entertaining than the Spesh Marines were for the initial campaigns. Gotta say my respect for Lord General Castor was increased tenfold when he showed he knew what was going to be Kyras's next move, and where he was located. Even the Inquisitor and Merrick were dumbstruct by his good guess.

Merrick was, too, just plain awesome. He meant well, and was wary of these strangers coming, claiming to want to help. When he called on the Inquisitor's motives, she showed him so hard, I couldn't help but cheer for her.

"Maybe I have ulterior motives. Maybe I want to capture Kyras to further my career in the Ordo Hereticus of the Inquisition. The point is, only I can stop the Exterminatus, and be grateful I have reasons to be here at all."

Ergo: don't look at the Empire's gift horse in the mouth.

[GloatingSwine]

Yup, the campaign was easy. Once you unlock the Leman Russ delivery service, it's almost a joke.

Although the last boss was infuriating. I finally understood the trick:


The Lord General's ability to make things shoot faster works on Russes.

Six Russes firing like autocannons into the boss's face whilst a Baneblade parks on the portal behind you = dead demon.

The Imperial Guard isn't called the Hammer of the Emperor for nothing. It's direct, crushingly unsubtle, and brutally effective when delivered to the face.

[Ailurus]

Although the last boss was infuriating. I finally understood the trick:

15 squads of heavy weapon, armed with Autocannons, with Merrick throwing his flare once in a while.


I tried massing heavy weapon teams (though never 15), but I found mass stormtroopers actually worked better - give them melta, and they can cut through the boss and his adds very quick. Bonus points if the inquisitor is staying home and has the ability that lets stormtroopers stun things.

Though I'll need to try tanks with the General's aura, though. I know Vanquishers can hit the boss while being out of range of any return fire (except the bloodcrushers), so theoretically a large group of them could just get parked out of range (with the general in the middle) and have it be a totally automated fight.

[Gaius Marius]

Ok. This is disappointing.

The Retribution campaign will be the same for all factions, with only dialogues changed and enemies swapped around. Damn.

Unless I picked Tyranids and I have the bad luck that it's campaign is reflecting the IG's at the beginning..?

Oh... How nice would it had been if all campaigns were original and interlocking, like I thought it'd be when I saw that ME, as the Hive Tyrant, was the one responsible for the downed Merrick at the start of the IG campaign..

But surely not. What a letdown.