Dow2 Learn to War: Basic guide to Units and their stats and some useful tips

This guide will tell you what the armour stats, damage types, and other stuff about your units to help you better optimise your army.

Unit Armor

Relic has done a terrible job of telling people what units do what and there weapons stats so heres a guide about that stuff.

This guide will explain: armor types, damage types, and a little bit on accuarcy and which units has these things so you can optimize your army against your enemy.

First up is armor

infantry - the most basic and common armor it has no real adavantages except it takes less damage (70%)from plasma weaponry

heavy infantry - takes reduced damage from the most common ranged attack piercing (70%) but has some weaknesses (more later)

super-heavy infantry - takes even less damage against piercing (30%!) and reduced damage from melee damage (70%) has the same weaknesses as heavy infantry

vehicle - practically immune to most damage types only vulnerable to heavy melee, melta, and missile (see damage typs of this guide for details) I won't talk about this armor much or even list it since it's very straight forward.

building - not really important I will only talk about this armor a few times.

commander armor - very esoteric armor type with weird rules not used by any unit except your commander; I won't talk about this at all since no one builds their army around damaging just one unit.

Space marines

infantry armor units

• scouts

super heavy infantry

• terminators
  
• assault terminators

heavy infantry

• everything else

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Orks
infantry

• every unit except Nobz squad

Heavy infantry

• Nobz Squad

Super heavy infantry
-
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Eldar
infantry

• every unit not in the other lists

heavy infantry

• wraithguard

Super-heavy infantry

• Avatar of Khaine

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Tyranids
infantry

• everything that is not listed in the other armor types

heavy infantry

• warrior brood
  
• venom warrior brood

super heavy infantry

• Tyrant guard

vehicle (exception because Tyranids are weird)

• Carnifex
  
• Swarmlord
  
• Tyrant guard - when its shieldwall ability is activated

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Chaos Space Marines
infantry

• heretics
  
• bloodletters
  
• plague marines (strange as it is this is correct)

heavy infantry

• Chaos Space Marines
  
• Chaos Havocs
  
• Noise Marines
  
• All aspiring champions (including the one that heretics get)

Super-heavy infantry

• Great unclean one

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Imperial Guard[/u]
Infantry

• everything that isn't listed in the other armour types

heavy infantry

• sentinel

super-heavy infantry

• Ogryn

DAMAGE TYPES: MELEE

melee damage - this is what almost every unit has does heavily reduced damage against vehicles and 100% damage to every infantry type except super-heavy which only take 70% damage.

power melee - This damage type does 130% against heavy infantry and super heavy infantry and 15% damage against vehicles

heavy melee - does 100% damage against every infantry type and building and 50% damage to vehicles (this is pretty good considering the low cooldown compared to missiles which take forever to reload)

any and all ranged units (space marines, scout, guardians etc...) should be assumed to have only melee type damage unless stated otherwise.

Space Marines

melee

• assault marines

power melee

• assault marine sargeant
  
• force commander with power sword
  
• force commander with thunder hammer
  
• apothecary with power axe
  
• assault terminators with lightning claws
  
• librarian

heavy melee

• Force Commander with power fist
  
• terminators
  
• assault terminators
  - regular terminators are good against vehicles (heavy melee)
  lighting claws do really good against infantry (power melee) and not as
  well against vehicles be sure to know what you want.
  
• dreadnaught

Orks

melee

• slugga boyz
  
• stikkbommaz

power melee

• slugga boyz
  - when upgraded with the burnaz upgrade the two orks that have the burnaz will have power melee everyone else will still have melee only
  
• slugga boyz Nob
  
• stormboyz
  
• stormboyz Nob
  
• warboss with bang bang hammer

heavy melee

• Nobz Squad
  
• Deff Dred

Eldar

melee
-
power melee

• Banshees
  
• Seer council
  
• autarch with or without spear upgrade

heavy melee

• Farseer with Singing spear
  
• wraithlord
  
• Banshee Exarch with aspect of the Banshee upgrade
  
• warpspider Exarch with the aspect of the spider upgrade
  
• Warpspider Exarch commander with power blades upgrade
  
• Avatar of Khaine

Tyranids

melee

• hormagaunts
  
• warrior brood
  
• raveners with the devourer upgrade (switches them from melee to range)

power melee

• raveners
  
• genestealers
  
• lictor commander with Scything talons
  
• lictor commander with feeder tendrils
  
• lictor commander with corrosive claws

heavy melee

• Tyrant Guard
  
• Hive Tyrant with Crushing claws
  
• Genestealers with rending claws
  - rending claws do LESS damage to heavy and super-heavy infantry than regular genestealers since they lose the 130% damage that power melee provide; only get rending claws if you need the genestealers to destroy a vehicle.
  
• Warrior Brood with Adrenal glands
  
• Carnifex all varients
  
• lictor (unit)

Chaos Space Marines

melee

• heretics
  
• chaos space marines
  - normally I wouldn't put a ranged unit in here but CSM are pretty good melee for a range unit, might not beat an actual melee unit but still

power melee

• Chaos space marines with Mark of Khorne
  
• Chaos lord with blood Maul
  
• Chaos Lord with lightning claws
  
• Plague champion with plague sword

heavy melee

• Blood letters
  
• chaos dreadnaught all varients
  
• Great Unclean One
  
• Plague champion with plague fist

Imperial Guard

melee
-
power melee

• catachan devils
  
• Inquisator with Holy Brazier
  
• Commissar Lord Commander with Power Sword

heavy melee

• Comissar Lord with power fist
  
• Comissar Lord with Brockus Fist
  
• Ogryns

Accuarcy: Weapon Families

I'm going to keep this short, there are two things that deterrmine how much damage you'll do with a certain unit, damage types and weapon families; weapon families basically determine the accaurcy of a weapon most of this stuff is the same accaurcy wise which is why I'm keeping this short. There are some differences that are important but I'm going to roll that into damage types:Ranged down below.

DAMAGE TYPES: RANGED

This is where things get complex my lovelies, this is where the accuarcy stuff will be mentioned, and where everrything can't be truly put into three neat piles like melee could but we'll try. For range I'm going to seperate the damage types into four groups which are:

piercing: The most common range attack no advantages and only does 70% damage to heavy infantry and 30% damage to super-heavy infantry

plasma: does 150% damage to heavy infantry and super-heavy infantry, but does 70% damage against regular infantry; this type is pretty rare and the only reason I'm including it is because its too different from the others to fit them there without worry

melta: good against everything does 125% against super-heavy infantry and 75% against vehicles usually this type is limited by long cooldowns, short range, or both.

missile: technically good against everything but their accuarcy is so low against anything not large it's really only good against vehicles

In this part of the article you will see this "varient: word words" this will happen when a weapon is too different to just be put in the four groups and I sort of stuck it in one of them to keep it clean.

Space Marines

Piercing

• Scouts
  
• Scouts with shot guns
  
• Space Marines squad
  
• Space Marine Squad with flamer
  -varient: flamers do 500% damage to building armor 250% damage to units in heavy cover and 200% to units in buiuldings and 150% against units in light cover
  
• Devestators
  
• Tech Marine with all wargear except plasma and melta gun
  
• Terminators
  
• Razorback
  
• Dreadnaught with assault cannon
  
• Predator side guns
  
• landraider

Plasma

• Space marine squad with plasma gun
  Tip-The plasma upgrade will only net you about 5 extra damage against infantry units make sure to only get it once heavy and super-heavy hit the field
  
• Techmarine with plasma gun
  
• Scouts with sniper rifle -varient: sniper damage does 100% against infantry and 110% against heavy and super-heavy infantry

melta

• techmarine with melta gun
  
• plasma devestator squad
  
• dreadnaught with melta gun
  
• landraider has one melta gun
  
• predator main gun

missile

• space marine with missile launcher
  
• devestator with lascannon
  
• predator main cannon with lascannon upgrade

Orks

piercing

• shoota boys
  
• lootas
  
• Kommandos
  
• wartrukk
  
• looted tank side guns

plasma
-
melta

• weirdboy
  
• looted tank main gun

missile

• rocket boyz
  
• lootas with beamy deff gun
  
• kommando Nob with rocket launcher
  
• kommando Nob commander with rocket launcher
  

Eldar

Eldar
piercing

• guardians
  
• shuriken cannon
  
• warpspiders
  
• Wraithlord's shuriken cannon
  
• Falcon

plasma

• rangers
  -varient sniper damage does 100% against infantry and 110% against heavy and

super-heavy infantry
melta

• wraithguard
  
• fire prism
  
• D-cannon
  
• Autarch with Fusion gun

missile

• Falcon's pulse gun
  
• Wraithlord's brightlance
  
• brightlance cannon team

Tyranids

Tyranids
piercing

• Termagants
  
• Raveners with devourer upgrade

plasma

• Warrior Brood with Barbed strangler
  -varient no penalty against infantry and does 125% damage to heavy and super-heavy infantry
  
• Zoanthrope -varient no penalty against infantry armor

melta

• Carnifex with Barbed strangler

missile

• Carnifex with Venom Cannon
  
• Hive Tyrant with venom cannon
  
• Venom Warrior Brood

Chaos Space Marines

piercing

• Chaos Sorcerer with Rod of Warpfire
  - not very good range dps (17.5 damage) especially compared to its melee damage (50) but I thought I should add it.
  
• Plague champion
  -varient weapon leaves a damage over time effect that causes more
  
• piercing damage over time
  
• heretics with
  
• chaos space marines
  
• Havoc Squad
  
• noise marines
  -varient has flamer damage, does 500% damage to building armor 250% damage to units in heavy cover and 200% to units in buiuldings and 150% against units in light cover
  
• plague marines with out missile launcher
  -varient these guys leave a damage over time effect causing more piercing damage over 5 seconds
  
• chaos predator side guns

plasma

• heretics with grenade launchers -varient 125% against heavy and super-heavy infantry and no penalty against infantry
  
• Chaos Space Marines with Mark of Tzeentch -varient does 125% against heavy infantry no bonus or penalty against infantry or super-heavy infantry; unlike the Space Marine plasma this upgrade is always good if you want to keep your CSM ranged.

melta

• Havoc squad with Mark of Khorne
  
• noise marines with blastmaster upgrade
  
• chaos dreadnaught assault cannon
  
• chaos dreadnaught with mark of Tzeentch
  
• Chaos predator main cannon

missile

• Havoc Squad with Mark of Tzeentch
  
• Plague marine with the missile launcher
  
• Chaos predator main cannon with the Mark of Tzeentch

Imperial Guard

piercing

• Guardsman
  
• Guardsman with flamers
  -varient flamers do 500% damage to building armor 250% damage to units in heavy cover and 200% to units in buiuldings and 150% against units in light cover
  
• Sentinel
  
• Heavy weapons Squad
  
• Catachan devils
  
• stormtroopers
  
• storm troopers with assault kit
  
• Banewolf
  -varient flamers do 500% damage to building armor 250% damage to units in heavy cover and 200% to units in buiuldings and 150% against units in light cover
  
• Chimera
  
• Leman Russ side guns

plasma

• Guardsman with plasma guns
  Tip-The plasma upgrade will only net you about 5 extra damage against infantry units make sure to only get it once heavy and super-heavy hit the field

melta

• heavy weapons Squad with autocannon
  
• catachan sargeant
  
• Inquisitor with Infernal Pistol
  
• stormtroopers with melta guns
  
• manticore
  
• leman russ main cannon
  
• leman russ executionar cannon Tip- has splash damage
  
• leman russ vanguisher cannon Tip- has very long range
  
• baneblade

missile

• Heavy Weapons Squad with lascannon

GENERAL TIPS

• Retreating: retreating units take less range damage but more melee damage
  
  
• If you are going to retreat and are being attacked by melee units try to first move your units towards your base before sounding the retreat. A lot of times squads will just stand there in retreat mode taking bonus melee damage
  
  
• Space Marine terminators are considered large units, so missile damage type units (see above in Damage Type Ranged) are good against them.
  
  
• Especially in team games, always be doing something not just standing there; unless you know for sure that the enemy will be there in a few seconds.
  
  
• Units have a range and melee stance for the most part, you can use the melee stance to tie up other more dangerous range units since units fighting in close combat cannot fire their guns
  
  Example 1 - Use the Mekboy commander to engage a Space marine squad, he will not win this fight but might occupy them long enough for your shoota boyz to win the battle with minimal losses
  Example 2 - Wraithlord is low on health and just got hit with a plague marine missile slowing it down for the plague marines to keep up, use guardians to tie-up the plague marines long enough for the debuff to wear-off and get the Wraithlord to a safer area (These 2 examples are all things I have done before)
  
  
• There is this stat called melee resistance that reduces melee damage to a unit its not a very important stat to know since it's usually only on melee units (Banshees herectics etc..) but it is on three ranged unit which are Scouts, Space Marine squad, and Chaos Space Marine. This explains why Space Marine devestators melt to melee while the Tactical Squad is a bit more hardy.
  
  
• There is upkeep in this game, everytime you get a new squad or reinforce you lose potential requisition and vice-versa.
  
  
• Requisition points mature overtime the longer you hang onto one, the more req you will gain from it.

reference

If you want to check my information you can go here:

for damage types: http://dow.wikia.com/wiki/Retribution/Damage_types

for weapon families (accuarcy): http://dow.wikia.com/wiki/Retribution/Weapon_families

and the units themselves: http://dow.wikia.com/wiki/Dawn_of_War_Wiki

Feel free to criticise to help make this guide more easier to read, typos and/or wrong information

also tell me if you think I missed something Thanks for reading!

[Tailmon | UNLEASHED]

I've been looking for something like this guide for a long time, since the game doesn't teach you anything about the stats. Ty dude, this is very helpfull.

[Cevape peek]

Thank you, this is really usefull for a new player

[Tear My Soul 1]

Thanks a lot for the effort you 've put into this man. Much appreciated.

[Fork The Disemboweler]

Looks like orks are main losers among others.

[Big Chungus Khan]

Great guide, thank you

[Bones Johnson]

Actually, slugga nobz DO hurt vehicles, just not an awful lot. Had a slugga nob smacking a chimera, doing enoguh damage for it to be noticable, but not that effective.

[|]

I base it on my 1300 hours of game experience. Slugga nob and stormboy nob are not capable of hurting vehicles. While the Banshee Exarch does the job. In elite mode stormboy nob is capable of hurting vehicles. He got heavy melee there. In retail slugga boyz and storm boyz both are rapists of heavy armored units.

[superfluous box]

The website is wrong when it comes to the Slugga and Stormboyz saying they are power melee, they ARE heavy melee. You can even see some of the comments on the site call out the wrong information.

[|]

And stormboyz nob is power melee too

[Krakza]

Slugga Nob is Power Melee