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Yes, the SM can progress up the track focusing on infrastructure without deviating to research units. If they don't run into too much trouble with neutrals, they should be fine.
But if they do run into trouble (and they probably will), Apothecaries and Devastators can make all the difference.
And it's usually worth researching hero units because they provide strategic effects in addition to combat power (the Captain provides lots of influence, and the Chaplain provides loyalty).
Then I either go for dreads or devastators. Devastators are so squishy I don't like to make them until I have a solid front line to hide them behind, or vehicles to carry them.
Necrons, AdMech and Orcs (no joke) are the ones with such researches.
SM are already kickstarters, so you mostly compliment the foundation of Tactical Squads right away with Units/Upgrades that compliment what the Tacticals are missing: Captain for Tanking and Inf generation, bikers for scouting and alpha strikes without counter attacks, Devastators/Melta Bombs for Anti Armor, Kraken for more Daka.... you get the point.
Almost everything is good here, and a lot will be picked up later when research time for it is 1 or 2 turns. Definitly take either armoury or reclusiam, depending on wether you want to go Hero heavy or machine heavy. I often just take both buildings. In single player save scumming makes Orbital Scan obsolete, otherwise it is very good aswell. I usually pick up the doctrine later, but the frag early can be very good for creeping aswell. Razorback is generally the weakest choice, but amoury>razorback is viable aswell.
Tier 2:
You need Dormitories, usually as your second research here. Population capping your only city is a death sentence. The first research is often Chaplain, sometimes Assault Space Marine if you play without reclusiam and delayed heroes. Chaplain is very good because of his loyalty buff. Cluster Mines is bad unless you cheese AI with it, Krak Grenade is horrible, Hammer of Wrath is pretty good but you can pick it up later if you run Assault Marines.
Tier 3:
Infantry builds want Devastators here, Mech Builds want Land Speeders. Both usually want Company Chapel afterwards, unless you level your Chaplain very quick or find many loyalty buffs from Fortresses. Librarian is your worst hero. Fortress expansion can be a very good pick depending on your starting location. I rarely pick assault doctrine, but an all out Assault Marine run can be fun.
Tier 4:
Orbital Relay needs to be rushed if you want to play a long game, it is basically your second city. Kraken Bolts and Melta Bomb are both really really good, depending on wether you face more armor or infantry, or a mixture of both. Mech builds want Predator against armor. Hunter is mostly a meme unit. Devastator Doctrine is good aswell, but I usually pick it up later, since when I run much ifnantry Melta Bombs tend to be better at anti armor at first.
Tier 5:
Extra Infantry Armour is a must rush if you run heroes or just mass infantry in general, Orbital Strike is extremily good if you don't run many heroes and have piled up influence, Mecha builds like Dreadnought, Combat Shield is kinda memey, Apothecaries come in a bit late for a healer and are hard to utilise, you usually don't need your third tile expansion asap.
Tier 6:
Bolter Drill, Signum and Thunderfire are the standouts, depending what units you run. You later want Dozer Blade if you plan to mass Predators, Close Combat Mastery is for heroes and dreads, Vindicator is not that good, but can be utilised if you need you play mech buiild and the enemy is massing medium heavy infantry.
Tier 7:
If you play mech Multi-Melta is a must rush, it makes the Landspeeder super strong. Extra vehicle armor comes right after. Landing Pads are pretty slow, but if you want to win the late game you need them. Infantry obviously takes Terminators, Orbital Deployment is game breaking when you know how to use it, Smoke Launcher can be delayed.
Tier 8:
I almost never take Improved Frag Casings. Additional heavy Bolters makes the Predator into a hyper efficient unit, if you have a few take it asap. Devastator cents are very good for an infantry run. Siege Shield makes Vindicators decent, The flesh is weak is good for infantry, I almost never use Bolster Defenses and Fortress Supreme is rarely good aswell, although you will take it eventually.
Tier 9:
Mech builds rush Machine Empathy and often win the game on the spot with it. Stormraven is your best late game unit. Teleport Homer can be used for some pretty good cheese. Rest is usually taken later as respective upgrades for whatever you are running. Land Raider feels like a win-more unit, after machine empathy your enemy should be broken, if not go into aircraft, I can't find that much use for it.
Tier 10:
If you have Stormravens already you need Hurricane Bolter. Locator Beacon has some very strong applications. Aquila Macro Cannon can be game winning aswell. Hunter-Killer-Missile feels a bit underwhelming, if you mass mechs your army of machine empathy beefed predators with extra bolters does not really need missiles. Fortress of Redemption Missile Silo I rarely use. Siege Masters makes finishing more fun.
You basically need to make a few major decisions early in the game:
Infantry or Mechs?
Heroes early or late?
Aircraft early or late?
Depending on those the given techs on each level become pretty obvious.
If you are rushing either Orbital Relay for a decent boom into lategame, Devastators to quickly deal with armor and level cities fast, or Multimelta for your first overpowered tech for a mech build you rarely if ever want to take more than 2 techs on a level, after you have your overpowered techs it is often worth to snag up low level techs in a single turn, if they compliment your build.
This is mostly for single player, I can beat around half of the factions on 1v1 tiny unfair with this, usually with the machine empathy mech build, sometimes also with immortal heroes through armor stacking or devastator spam.
Can you elaborate on that? Is that just comparatively speaking, since he doesn't provide econ buffs like the Captain and Chaplain?
I've found great success with these guys. Objuration Mechanicum practically deletes enemy armor and cities, and once you hit level 6, Telekine Dome greatly enhances your army's durability.
Objuration Mechanicum in particular is standout, because it doesn't deal damage, it causes the enemy to lose HP. Nothing reduces it!! And 18 damage straight up every 2 turns (while also applying that self-damage debuff) really adds up.
Shockwave is useless though, I'll give you that.
It dies too fast. Gets blown out by a stiff breeze, unless you buy defensive items, and even then it is squishy enough to be blown up in a single turn, sinking all of your costly armor investments.
Also both other heroes are much better, since Captains can become near invincible through self heal and boost eco, and chaplains boost eco to a ridiculous degree.
Offensively it is not that bad, but takes too much effort to get your value from as you need to use them very defensively as to not get blown out.
After playing A LOT with the Librarian I can say he is miles better than getting a Chaplain second. Best case scenario you can afford a second captain fast and skip the Librarian to buff your influence eco and give you "infinite" influence, just THEN you go for Chaplain as your third hero. Give him full items and teleport him with dimensional key into a trader encampment close to the front line, sell the dimensional key there to get your 6th item.
What's good about the Librarian is how much stronger he is against wildlife vs Chaplain, how cheap he is as your second hero, also the combination of how irrelevant +loyalty is early on for Space Marines and how terrible the Chaplain damage is against wildlife. Chaplain is just going to set you back and kill your influence economy, not only is this going to delay when are you going to get more items (IF you can afford them) but it can disrupt your Fortress deployments.
Make sure to max Shockwave first, do not max Objuration Mechanicum first under any circumstance, as long as you use it against a multi-model units Shockwave is going to deal more damage (yes even against vehicles, and exponentially more damage if you hit multiple enemies) AND you can buff it with the Librarian Rites of War . All you need for Shockwave to become decent is Entropic Locum + Concealed weapon, the Librarian is irrelevant damage wise if you max Objuration first.
He is "squishy" compared with the other two heroes but come on, he is more tanky than most heroes in the game already and indestructible compared with your standard squishy psyker heroes. Sure you can't yolo him with levitate into the middle of an enemy army and hope he is going to fine but that's on you if you want him as a suicide bomber, is not particularly complicated to keep him alive if you are careful.
I'll have to try that strategy, I hadn't considered it. You might be right about Chaplain killing the influence economy, I hadn't thought of that. I mostly get one because then I don't need to worry about getting a Loyalty building until I'm at 18 pops, which theoretically saves on Requisitions and lets me get an army out faster...
*le shrug*
I also don't usually buy a lot of items as Space Marines (anyone but Orks, really).
I wouldn't say he's irrelevant damage wise if you get Objuration first. 18 "damage" is not a small number. That's almost (or in the range of) a Multi-Melta on the Landspeeders. It's just a Vehicles vs Infantry thing.
I think the shockwave is strong aswell, usually stronger than his anti-armor spell, but he still gets blown up too easy compared to your other two heroes.
Negative loyalty makes it so that you go under 6 production per turn on the crane.
If you need 24 production, that means that instead of 4 turns you need 5 but the thing is you'll have earned more than the 24 production you need, so the excess will be given towards your next production (assuming you don't spend a turn producing nothing, but why would you?), which in turn will put it down to 4 turns as "normal".
I don't think we play the same game.
The Librarian is a meme almost on the same level as Haruspex.
Those are not "meme" units, they are situational units that in the wrong hands are a complete waste of resources. Not a Tyranid post so long story short for them they are a cheaper (tech wise) high ap vs single target lower damage but more resilient Carfinex IF you want to make Exocrines and can make it to T7 Thresher Sythe just in time for the PvP fights.
The Librarian gives you a lot of tempo since going early heroes with SM does not really give you killing power vs wildlife otherwise. For a "damage" hero he is fairly cheap, all you need is Entropic Locum and if you rich a Concealed Weapon System, he can be a huge pain for your enemies if they are doing infantry builds.
Just by level 3 with Entropic Locum he can one shot or severely damage most T1-T3 infantry units even if they are in cover, if you want to buff his damage a Combat Stymulant does wonders for him and latter on the Chaplain buff can keep his damage decent against high tier infantry.
If you want to use him as a suicide bomber just give him the Stymulant (I guess Ultra Wideband Auspex too if you are rich and can't be bother to eat overwatch attacks with anything else), just get him at level 3 make sure you hit +3 infantry units and if he dies is not a big deal, just make sure he is not close to your units to avoid the morale hit.
I don't see why you oppose the two.
Being funny as a meme is a situational usefulness.
Not really. They need differing techs, and have specialised vehicles which mostly don't interact much with each other. You can start infantry and pivot to mech later for the stronger late game build, but usually you want to pivot to air if you do that. Building both infantry and vehicles from the start takes two different unit buildings (three if you also want heroes), and is very tech hungry. I guess it would be technically possible if you just stick to Tactical marines and research no other tech for infantry apart from stuff that benefits them? Bolter buffs benefit them too, and meltabombs might be good enough to use them as suicide bombers, even without the improved infantry armor. Using Razorbacks full of Tactical Marines to go in, unload and bomb something and then let the units die sounds pretty fun, and you can probably get more than 80 ore of value from such a suicide truck if you do it properly.
You can try it, but it will always be supoptimal to gaoing pure infantry or pure mech, especially since it will delay heroes so much, and Space Marine heroes are so great that you usually want infantry+heroes or mechs+heroes.