New comer overwhelmed :S

[Aledas]

Hi everyone , im a new comer in the warhammer 40k universe , never been much of a guy for strategy games , but after hearing a good ton of lore videos , first from fantasy and then on to 40k , i got interested and started dawn of war from the first .

Been having a blast but now i come into dark crusade , start as the eldar since they seemed cool , do the first mision on normal and then i try the panrea lowlands and get crushed by tons of enemies after 10 minuts i guess ? , so im thinking could be im slow at building ? probably , maibe normal its to hard for me ? might be xD , so far im next to space marines and tau , they both kicked my ass hard , its literally my second mission haha , anyways loving the 40k lore and wish i would have tried this games sooner !

[Dugong]

Dawn of war 1(the base game) has a campaign that introduces the mechanics well. If you have it I would recommend starting with that and then moving on to dark crusade

[Aledas]

Hi there , reading again my coment i see that i forgot to specify it , i started with dawn of war and finished the campaing , same for winter assault , then i moved to dark crusade , ill try and lower the dificulty and see if it mkes a diference , also i belive there are short cuts that im not using , i basically finished the campaings for those games then moved on .

[GuyInJeans]

Eldar is not a newbie friendly faction, I would try space marines to start.

[Aledas]

Hi there , they defenetly cant be used like i was using space marines in the first game , walking tanks basically :P , i just lowered the dificulty to easy , and beat the same stage pretty quick , probably helped that i knew where the base was and knew that i had to be quick :) ill stay in easy for a couple of playthroughs probably till i get the hang of it all , thanks for confirming what i was thinking though hehe .

[Valkurm Emperor]

having some trouble myself. playing as the Tau as thats who you play in the tutorial. getting trounced though.

[CAWAgentNiko]

i would recommend not attacking anything that is 4 and up at the very start, get some honor guard units first, i usually start attacking higher levels when i have at least 3 or 4 honor guard units "not counting builder honor guard units". i was able to take down the imperial guard by the time i got the higher unit cap bonus and 5 honor guard units as the necron

[Aledas]

Hi Dan , since i lower to easy im having a much better time , might be a hit to our ego but hell , atleast now i have a fighting chance , specially since i think im more of a defense player then ofence :P , some maps i have been forced to go quick to their base or get hammered later by what seems countless of enemies .

Sharkle on normal i had a lv 6 tau zone , or a lv 3 space marine zone , got hammered on both , but the lv 3 had only one base , had my first fight against necrons , and there was a point that death was killing my trops with a scithe , i was like wtf ? xD , im missing a campaing story like previous games , but skirmishes are fun so far :)

[Valkurm Emperor]

i can't work out how to attack anyone aftetr the first few turns. Everyone else on the map has 5+ for strengh, most 7+.
I never have enough time to set up a base before being attacked and instantly overwhelmed.

[Dugong]

Originally posted by Dan:

i can't work out how to attack anyone aftetr the first few turns. Everyone else on the map has 5+ for strengh, most 7+.
I never have enough time to set up a base before being attacked and instantly overwhelmed.

Dawn of war is different from other rts' I have played in that you have to be aggressive. Map control is how you win, capture points and build listening posts on them. More listening posts means more money, and more money means more troops to attack your foes. Capture capture capture. Claim it in the name of the emperor

[Aledas]

Hi Dan , pretty much what old said , ill add that ive been using as well turrets on my base and they do give some breathing room if enemies get close and you happend to be a bit far from base capturing .

As eldar what im doin is make my builder make 4 engines to get power , normally start allready with 1 unit of scouts , so send them straight to capture , make 2 units oof soldiers to capture more points , atach my hero to the unit of soldiers , make 2 more builders , and send 1 builder after soldiers to build listening post and light turret as soon as posible in the capture points , the 3rd builder makes the building to get some melee units in my case and they kick ass , not sure if you are playing as the tau and if the game reflects the lore videos im listening , but tau seems to be bad at melee , so if im fighting them im goin with my melee units after them like crazy , just capture and build turrets to defend the points , and slowly build your base wile you keep capturing .

Keep in mind that im playing on easy now so that helps :P

Some keys that help me so far , Shift+ build can make a chain usefull when i want to build 4 engines and not be waiting .

A+ click on map the soldiers will move to that point and atack anything on the way , can be usefull , CTRL + click on a unit can either add to the group or take out of the group , so far i know this ones , there are many more but ill get there when i leave the noob zone :P

Keep at it ! :)

[Latharion]

A few tips for new players who are struggling with rapidly increasing enemy resistance...

First, target a few of the "special" areas. The Pavonis Space Port is easy to win, and lets you move your troops anywhere on the map except enemy strongholds. This means you can then target an easy region on your next turn. The Eres Badlands is also very easy to win and gives you the best advantage in the game. That advantage is the ability to move twice in one turn. With those two advantages, you can attack twice to every AI's once. This offsets the AI's rapid increase in power. Head straight for these regions. Hit the closest one first, then head straight for the other one. After that, it's just a matter of time.

Second, always purchase Honor Guard squads before reinforcing any area. Honor Guard squads also offset the AI's advantage of rushing your base with lots of troops. Honor Guard squads are far more powerful than their lesser normal counterparts, and if they survive the battle, will still be available for more. Also if you purchase Honor Guard squads, but lose the region that gave you access to that squad, you keep the squad that was purchased. Honor Guard squads to NOT count against population limits too. With enough Honor Guard squads, you can even rush to the AI's base and remove it in the first minute or two of the game, evening the playing field by limiting the AI to only one front.

Third, take the time to build a proper base, and grab as many stratgegic points, relics, and critical points as you can. After you have built a solid infrastructure, go and wipe the AI off the map. Your infrastructure remains after the battle, meaning that when you are attacked by the AI, you will not need to rebuild anything. Just rapidly hire an army and smash the AI. You even get to include your leader and Honor Guard when the attack hits the region or any adjacent region the leader is currently in!

[Valkurm Emperor]

i think i may end uo having to put it on easy. can't attack any areas right now without an army turning up before i have built my first generator.

[Aledas]

Really good tips Latharion thanks :) , in fact doin as you say and building as much as posible in the maps before wiping out the enemie , makes defense really fast laster on ! .

Dan thats pretty much what i did , if it means i can have fun then easy it is , now things are starting to be kind of easy , maibe cause ive learned to play a bit better , plus honor guards are strong , so ill take my expirience once i finish this campaing and perhaps try in normal and put myself to the test , in the end , its all about fun and being the victor :) , good luck in your future encounters !

[Haughty Elves]

While easy mode is a good way of getting used to faction mechanics and build paths, it's unfortunately not very helpful in regards to learning the game.

See, it doubles the health and damage of all your units while shrinking the enemy's health to a mere quarter, meaning you can steam roll just about everything even with basic Guardsmen squads.

Dark Crusade can be very tough, especially for new comers, but it's well worth playing it with again once you've gotten the grasp of a factions mechanics. Might also be worth loading up a few skirmish games, too, so you can figure out how a faction works without dedicating a whole playthrough to them.