Which DLC's to buy?

[Carl Marsarlis]

I just bought the main game during the sale, and I was wondering if any of the DLC's were "must haves". I can't afford to buy the lot, but can swing the cash for a couple if they're highly recommended. Thanks

[TemplarGR]

Nothing is really a must have. Faction DLCs add new factions to play, and unit packs add some new units. Gameplay is the same, they just add more variety. So it is fine if you stick to the base game right now, and in the future look into the DLCs in detail and figure out which interest you the most for yourself. If you prefer to stick with the 4 base factions for now, stick to unit packs, they are both cheaper than faction DLCs and they benefit all 4 base factions. Reason being that DLC factions do not benefit from all unit packs, unit packs add units only if the faction was released by the time that specific unit pack got released, so for example the most recent faction, Sisters of Battle, do not get any units from any unit pack. On the other hand they are complete, they do not need any unit pack either to have them complete.

For the base factions, the unit packs i personally prefer are the Assault pack, the Reinforcement pack, and the Specialist pack. But it is just a preference. I think those unit packs would enrich playing factions like the Space Marines better.

[glythe]

I think you should think about which factions you like to play most. Get DLC for units you want to unlock for that faction.

As an example let's say you really love space marines.
1. Get the specialist pack to get devastator centurions which are a t8 infantry unit that fight like a t10 unit. The same dlc also gives you wraiths for the necrons -t6).
2. Get the reinforcement pack to get the land raider for space marines (t9).
3. If you like playing guard get the assault pack (this give them an APC the chimera and without this dlc they kind of suffer a lot). This same DLC gives Chaos their land Raider (t9 unit). The Space Marines get an APC in this DLC as well - the Razorback. Both Space Marines/ Guard greatly benefit by having an APC that heals units inside it every turn.



It's nice to have a few extra factions to play against.

1. Do not Buy Eldar- they are the worst faction in the game due to how the gate system works. They have fragile units with high mobility.
2. Tau are kinda strange with how their cities work. Overall they spam lots of weak units until they get battlesuits.
3. Tyranids are strong but mostly melee units and have a weak start.
4. Chaos is a strong enemy to play against and they are fun to play (they can make two cities on game start).


Don't buy the lord of skulls DLC. it's a waste as it adds one big unit to fight after X number of turns into a game.

[Nemerra]

That is very helpful information. Thanks!

[GreenBeanN1]

Originally posted by glythe:

Don't buy the lord of skulls DLC. it's a waste as it adds one big unit to fight after X number of turns into a game.

You can make very cool mods with it. For the money you can't make that model yourself (even if it is not on sale). I am having great fun with the LOS (or whatever it is called after modding it).

For me a golden rule would be: if you buy a faction, also buy the previous unit packs. Otherwise some faction may lack some cool units or could even be underpowered.

[Grotzel]

Originally posted by glythe:

1. Do not Buy Eldar- they are the worst faction in the game due to how the gate system works. They have fragile units with high mobility.
(...)
Don't buy the lord of skulls DLC. it's a waste as it adds one big unit to fight after X number of turns into a game.

Also you gave some good advice, I'd personally ... kind of ... disagree with these two points.
Granted, the Lord of Skulls isn't exactly the most necessary DLC and quite controversial ... however, I like the little touch of Chaos it can bring.

The Eldar are fun and can get very strong ... although you indeed have to be careful with their fragile units at the beginning of a match. While they might not be the best faction to learn the game with and are often one of the weaker AI factions, I like their unique playstyle and would actually say that they are my fourth most favourite faction. Place 1 and 2 are shared by Orks and Imperial Guard ... and the silver medal goes to the glorious (though still very expensive) Sisters of Battle.

[Noodlesocks]

Depending on budget, I'd say grab a bunch of unit pack DLC since they're on offer and whatever faction DLC you think looks or sounds cool.

Unit packs add a little something to all the factions that were released before it so for the base factions, you're getting 5 new units per faction plus all the units they add to the DLC factions when you eventually buy them.

[Grotzel]

After giving it a little more thought .... recommending faction dlcs can be a bit tricky regarding how suitable they are for new players.

I agree with Glythe that Tyranids (fewer kinds of resources to worry about)... and particularly Chaos are probably good candidates. Particularly Chaos is a pretty straightforward faction. Then again both have their peculiarities and very weird units.

Tau can be nice for beginners because they allow you to scout easier with drones (and convert several neutrals). So theoretically very rookie friendly. City Management and unit strategy can be a little fiddly though. And I can't tell half of those bloody suit types apart!

For Eldar you could make the argument that their high mobility, webgates giving glimpses into the world and the ability of the infantry - and most heroes - to attack and THEN retreat might provide some great assistance for new players despite all drawbacks.

I don't know if the Adeputs Mechanicus is particularly hard to learn or if my attempts to play them have been cursed ... they are strong, but I still struggle with them.

And the Sisters ... well on the one hand they are pretty strong right from the start - and have great healers - on the other hand their unit placement is unusually important as particularly the heroes have a number of essential support abilities.

[glythe]

Originally posted by Grotzel:

I agree with Glythe that Tyranids (fewer kinds of resources to worry about)... and particularly Chaos are probably good candidates.

The difficulty with Tyranids is figuring out what is what. You'll learn that with 1-3 games depending on how many turns it takes you to win.

The difficulty with Chaos is that you need almost every T1 tech - eventually. You don't need them on game start but you will need to back tech to T1 after you get T2 and maybe loyalty from T3 sorted out.

Chaos can unlock boons for their infantry. So you are basically getting multiple techs to keep making them better. You can get +1 armor (on top of already +1 armor tech every faction has) +17% attacks, +1 movement, once per turn one unit can fully heal on kill, +accuracy (t10),

They can also unlock Marks of the dark gods. Nurgle can give 17% damage resistance (which the sisters of battle have by default mind you).

But you also need a lot of other tech. So Chaos is strong but they need a ton of "back teching" to get marks/boons to get the most out of their infantry.


Chaos has some vehicles that heal every turn. The Venom Crawler is an exceptionally good unit as it has strong melee and good ranged (and heals when it gets a kill). You can manually have the Chaos Rhino heal for 6hp every turn. The Rhino is a non DLC unit that is the "base" vehicle for the faction so you have it without research. This allows you for example to tank Umbras with your T1 vehicle and kill them with 2-3 T1 Chaos Space Marines.

Originally posted by Grotzel:

Tau -City Management and unit strategy can be a little fiddly though.

That's why I didn't suggest getting them. Tau get loyalty penalties for any duplicate building and a loyalty bonus for any unique building. If you build under this system you get a max 15 city -that builds units very slowly.

Overall Tau spam units and are carried very hard early on by the drones. Having all those drones makes expansion easier but you flood the field with trash that will get wiped easily. The faction is carried by the battlesuits and its vehicles.

Originally posted by Grotzel:

For Eldar you could make the argument that their high mobility, webgates giving glimpses into the world and the ability of the infantry - and most heroes - to attack and THEN retreat might provide some great assistance for new players despite all drawbacks.

The drawbacks to Eldar:

1. Cities can only be built on waygates. All Enemy AI will kill the gates and you can't build them. If you miss one "bee" or Stingwing they can murder your gate in a few turns.
2. Your cities grow slowly and your units are "squishy" (low hp).
3. Mobility is great if you have higher mobility and higher range. Mostly you only have the higher movement. Against the same attack range you get attacked by overwatch then you attack then you can move. How is that really useful? If you could drain the overwatch attacks sure that would work fine. But remember that low HP problem? You might lose a unit from soaking up 2 overwatch attacks. And then you could move 2 units in to attack and then move - but that would require you to outnumber your opponent which is a completely different idea.

Originally posted by Grotzel:

I don't know if the Adeputs Mechanicus is particularly hard to learn or if my attempts to play them have been cursed ... they are strong, but I still struggle with them.

They have a lot of late game strength but suffer with early slowdown. Taking longer to do research is a really hard hitting penalty early on. Later you can get bonuses for stacking lots of the same building in a tile so you can overcome the penalty with say 4x research buildings on one tile. But honestly you really can't just make 4x research in any city early on because you will *always* need other stuff.

I have friends with this DLC but I don't have it yet. If anyone wanted to buy it for me I could give them a detailed walkthrough. :P

Originally posted by Grotzel:

And the Sisters

The sisters are an extremely straight forward faction in terms of tech unlocks. You can very easily get 2 techs in T1, T2 ,T3 and feel like you missed nothing. You only need more than 2 techs in a very few trees. Necrons and SM for the most part play the same way and this is one of the things that make them "questionably better" than some other factions.

The Sisters get an infantry healing APC at T1 without DLC and without research. This is extremely useful.

Their city builder/infantry heal unit in T3 is made by the "hero building". So compare that to the Guard who has one building for heroes and another to make tech priests. One building makes both for the sisters (but it is still two techs t1+t3). This unit is also the infantry healer for the Sisters.

So very early on you get really strong healing and your units are on par with Space Marines.

The downfall of the SoB is that they cant heal vehicles except by resting on an outpost. They also don't really have much in the way of range 3 units.