-Loki-Don't pee in my mouth and tell me it's raining.Registered Userregular
edited December 2010
Hmm. I though the Swarmlord would just be a singleplayer variant of the Hive Tyrant. Would have been cool to see a Trygon or a Heirodule for Tyranids at T3 instead.
It's for the better really, any vehicle they give to eldar will be piece of shit anyways. Fire dragons instead of platforms would be nice to at least fight against the other heavy tanks. edit: oh wait, there's still wraith guard. How come I always forget about the wraiths whenever I don't play for a while and then spam the button.
They're going the superheavy route for Guard, they could have for Eldar.
Also, was there ever something said about the multiplayer visual rank unlocks?
Likely not, unless they allow us to 'import from gamertag' on the website or some hassle. They have the stats but they'd have to be able to confirm someone as being logged in from a gamertag and steam account. I'm guessing complete wipe unlesssssssss they can recognize SteamID in one of the original games and transfer it like that after an update. Would be sweet if they already kept steam profile data along with the gamertag and stats but it sounds unlikely. They can still do it!
They're going the superheavy route for Guard, they could have for Eldar.
Does it have paper mache armor instead of just paper?
probably still rolls on invisible broken sherman treads
The armour is tough for a grav tank, it's got what games workshop call 'structure points', which means it takes way more firepower to take it down, and holofields that make shots, well, miss. It would be pretty fucking tough to take down. Also, it's main guns are titan scale guns.
Also, was there ever something said about the multiplayer visual rank unlocks?
Likely not, unless they allow us to 'import from gamertag' on the website or some hassle. They have the stats but they'd have to be able to confirm someone as being logged in from a gamertag and steam account. I'm guessing complete wipe unlesssssssss they can recognize SteamID in one of the original games and transfer it like that after an update. Would be sweet if they already kept steam profile data along with the gamertag and stats but it sounds unlikely. They can still do it!
Well, the game did start syncing with the steam cloud a while back. What it's syncing I have no idea, but it tries anyway...
altid on
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BethrynUnhappiness is MandatoryRegistered Userregular
The swarmlord is a slightly meh choice because it looks like the hive tyrant
That's what I thought. The other races get proper new units, the Swarmlord is a slightly modified Hive Tyrant.
There are some rumblings on relicNews that the animators have been shifted over to Other Projects, so making a completely new Tyranid model (which would require a lot of skeleton/key-frame/animation work) is unlikely.
Dunno if Croak can confirm/deny that or not.
Also, I really liked the presence of the optional stealth mission, since it had about four choices inherent in it, which was really good. If you're going to put story into an RTS, making it nonlinear in places is cool.
Apparently this is from the official forums. Haven't found the original source, just a re-quote on Relic news.
Hey friends,
I'm a designer on Retribution, and I'm going to go ahead and get myself in trouble by posting a few comments.
- The campaign missions in Retribution are not based on skirmish or AI battles. Each mission is based on unique events and encounters.
- If you watched some "leaked footage" of Retribution, you were looking at a work in progress. Since that video was captured, many improvements and bug fixes have gone into the game.
- Nothing about the multiplayer experience has been radically changed in Retribution. The folks in charge of multiplayer did a great job of fixing problems and adding complementary new features without rewriting the game's core mechanics. You won't have to re-learn the game when Retribution ships. And, from my (incredibly biased) point of view, you'll be confronted with a cleverly designed and competitive new faction (not OP or UP, imo).
I read these forums and the GR forums a lot, and I really love seeing fan reactions. I am entertained, humbled and enlightened by Dawn of War's committed fanbase. Thanks for keeping us honest, and for keeping me excited about my job.
Sacha
I'm going to go ahead and take that "not OP or UP" comment with a bowl-full-and-one-pinch of salt. Not to dismiss the dude or call him a liar or anything, but there's no way they can test for all combinations and issues in a game with this many sides and variations. The really nutty stuff usually has to be found out in the wild.
Heh, was wondering when that "leaked footage" would hit here :P
Something I've not had a chance to mention here: The mention of Basilisks is inaccurate, the article does not mention Basilisks at all - merely that Guard has has the strongest artillery. There is nothing that suggests that the Basilisk is an in game unit.
We've also generally sussed out a few things from the video:
The two cannons on the Baneblade need to be fired manually - they are ability based, and cost power to fire.
In the video, we've been able to analyse the globals we see near the end. Can't be 100% clear, since this is (a) work in progress, and (b) this was analyzed from fuzzy imagery, but we're rather certain it's accurate :P
Note that in the top right corner of each global icon, is a white symbol. For every global but the 3rd, the icon is that of a Valkyrie - the 3rd one is a siege icon. Valkyrie icons seem to suggest a global that is airdropped by Valkyries.
First global is 100% clear, since we read the text off the video.
Bunker Drop: The IG player drops a bunker via air drop. Infantry gan garrison into the bunker. The bunker gan be upgraded to a medical or repair bunker, and can be booby trapped to dissuade enemies from using them.
[note, this may be a commander specific global - since we know IG can drop turrets as well]
The second global, is most likely the Leman Russ air drop, seen at the end of the "leaked video". A T2 global - meaning that IG are the fastest race in getting tanks to the field. (initially it was assumed this global was a basilisk artillery call in, but upon closer inspection, the image resembles a Leman Russ, and not a basilisk, and the Valkyrie icon supports this).
The third global, based on the white siege icon, is most likely an artillery call in. Also, explosions are a clue :P
The fourth global, is the Baneblade call in.
The fifth global, is obviously the nuke. The fact that it has a Valkyrie icon, is what makes it interesting.... no idea what to think about that :P
HonkHonk is this poster.Registered User, __BANNED USERSregular
edited December 2010
I bought this during the steam sale, played through the Dawn of War 2 campaign already.
Then I imported my characters to the Chaos Rising campaign. And holy shit how fucking terribly hard is the expansion?
All my dudes suddenly suck compared to the enemies who seem to have kept their strength.
The second mission in the Chaos Rising campaign was the first mission I lost. I really don't like this expansion so far. If I see another wraithguard again I might puke.
The Chaos Rising does take some getting used to, I remember failing the second mission against the Wrathguard a number of times while I built up some levels and equipment, but once I got past it, it was an amazing campaign up until the very final mission, which I kinda screwed myself out of
I bought this during the steam sale, played through the Dawn of War 2 campaign already.
Then I imported my characters to the Chaos Rising campaign. And holy shit how fucking terribly hard is the expansion?
All my dudes suddenly suck compared to the enemies who seem to have kept their strength.
The second mission in the Chaos Rising campaign was the first mission I lost. I really don't like this expansion so far. If I see another wraithguard again I might puke.
The Wraithguard are kinda hard, but if you just jump packs and grenades on them, they should fall fairly quickly. You should also be throwing grenades at the warlock leading them, since it'll stun the wraithguard for a minute or two.
To be fair he probably has the best exposition for that mission.
Although personally I didn't feel as if difficulty ramped up any in CR. Maybe it's a side effect of playing multiplayer in-between, but I thought it was pretty much about the same in difficulty as regular DoW2. With Wraithguard, as others have said, engage them in melee and take out their leading Warlock if you can. IIRC they can't be suppressed in the singleplayer (they can't in multiplayer), so Tarkus / Thaddeus / Jonah might seem to be the best there, or maybe Cyrus if you want to stealth det-pack them.
To be fair he probably has the best exposition for that mission.
Although personally I didn't feel as if difficulty ramped up any in CR. Maybe it's a side effect of playing multiplayer in-between, but I thought it was pretty much about the same in difficulty as regular DoW2. With Wraithguard, as others have said, engage them in melee and take out their leading Warlock if you can. IIRC they can't be suppressed in the singleplayer (they can't in multiplayer), so Tarkus / Thaddeus / Jonah might seem to be the best there, or maybe Cyrus if you want to stealth det-pack them.
They can't be supressed, but you can totally knock them down, and they take forever to get back up
So you guys think Retribution is the final expansion for DoW II? Or does Relic have it in them for one more before shifting over completely to DoW III?
I just hope that they allow matchmaking for campaign co-op this time. Co-op should be a means of getting people onto your friends list. My GFWL friends list was nearly empty at the time apart from people I'd added from these forums for multiplayer DoW2, and maybe one or two from back when I played Gears.
Although I suppose it's less of an issue this time since my Steam friends list actually is populated. But there was never really any point to filling out my GFWL friends list unless it was with other dudes that I happened to add from here.
So you guys think Retribution is the final expansion for DoW II? Or does Relic have it in them for one more before shifting over completely to DoW III?
It depends on what else they're working on really. The only other confirmed projects are CoH:Online (no idea how that's going) and Space Marine. I'd guess that there will be another, non-40k game announced before DoW3 which would leave a gap for another expansion - then again it really just depends on how many teams Relic have and what they're working on.
Additionally it seems to identify the Lord General as having a Command Squad, and also seems to suggest he's the range specialist. The Inquisitor is apparently a melee fighter with psychic capabilities (sounds Warlock-esque) and the Lord Commisar sounds similar to the Kommando Nob (at least in the campaign).
Hey so i have been playing dow1 for a long time and partly due to deployment boredom and partly due to reading how awesome the game is from you guys I went out and bought the gold edition of dow2. Now heres my question, I've only played a little bit of the campaign then went into an off-line skirmish just to teach myself the game, and um, I'm completely lost. I was playing with chaos and could figure out for the life of me what was the builder unit. I looked all over the main menu for a tutorial but did not see one. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
pawa24 on
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Casually HardcoreOnce an Asshole. Trying to be better.Registered Userregular
edited January 2011
For reals?!
There is no builder units in DoW2. The most you'll ever build are generators.
Hey so i have been playing dow1 for a long time and partly due to deployment boredom and partly due to reading how awesome the game is from you guys I went out and bought the gold edition of dow2. Now heres my question, I've only played a little bit of the campaign then went into an off-line skirmish just to teach myself the game, and um, I'm completely lost. I was playing with chaos and could figure out for the life of me what was the builder unit. I looked all over the main menu for a tutorial but did not see one. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
Ok, quite a few things changed. First of all: the size of the battlefield is smaller, you will control less units than before but the individual abilities of the units are more important. Lethality is higher so you need to react faster as well. A shift from strategic to tactical play.
There's no builder unit. All units come from the HQ, and generators can be built if you secure a generator point and build a node. You can take over generators from the enemy by destroying their node and capturing it (although in general in MP you will destroy gens on opponents' sides unless you can hold it).
Also keep in mind bases are guarded by 2 turrets, which prevents early base rape. Basically you'll want to kill their doods, preserve your own, keep pressure on capturing points etc. Don't have your hero chase the retreating enemy back to their base.
Oh I forgot, retreat is X by default I believe. Your units become more susceptible to melee damage but take considerable less ranged dmg and run back to base where they heal a bit and can be reinforced (usually half the cost of otherwise the new unit in a new squad would be).
Ya, slowly figuring this game out again. This game almost doesnt even feel like an RTS anymore. Not that im complaining. I actually like the new style but I think I'm still gonna find myself playing dow1 as well.
Hey so i have been playing dow1 for a long time and partly due to deployment boredom and partly due to reading how awesome the game is from you guys I went out and bought the gold edition of dow2. Now heres my question, I've only played a little bit of the campaign then went into an off-line skirmish just to teach myself the game, and um, I'm completely lost. I was playing with chaos and could figure out for the life of me what was the builder unit. I looked all over the main menu for a tutorial but did not see one. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
Alegis covers several of the basics, I'll just add to what he says.
DoW2 is about map control - there is absolutely no base management, outside of upgrading your HQ. The entire idea is to have the player spend his entire time focused on the map, and as little time as possible over his HQ.
Power
Power is handled differently.
Instead of building power generators by your HQ, power points act like the strategic locations in DoW1. You capture the point, you start getting power. You can then upgrade the point, to make it harder for the enemy to take, and to increase its power output (unlike DoW2, you don't need a builder unit to upgrade the point, the upgrade is available on the point, once you take it). Once the node has been upgraded, you can then build up to three generators around it, which increase ones power output considerably.
Note, even though an ally has taken a point, another ally can upgrade it, and any combination of allies can build one or more power generators.
Power nodes, and the generators around them, are the focus of economy harass in DoW2. Naturally, destroying, or at least harassing your enemies "power farms" limits their ability to tech up.
There are two other capturable nodes: Requisition nodes, and Victory Points. Requisition points, natrually, boost your requisition income when taken.
Victory Points
Victory points are the victory condition in DoW2. You may notice as you play, at the top center of the game screen, are two numbers: 500 ~ 500, if you using the default. These are tickets. The blue number is how many tickets you have, the red is how many the enemy has.
When you take a victory point, your enemy slowly looses their tickets. The more points you hold, the faster they will loose tickets. If both you and an enemy hold the same amount of victory points, no one looses tickets.
The goal in DoW2 multiplayer, is to reduce your enemy's tickets to zero.
In other words, victory in DoW2 is based on map control, rather than destroying bases.
Unit value
Units in DoW2 are much more valuable, than in DoW1. As such, they are also much harder to get, price wise. This means that it hurts a lot to loose a full squad, no units are throw away. This means that unit preservation is much more important than in DoW1, especially considering how much more lethal and punishing DoW2 is, compared to DoW1.
It's always cheaper to buy reinforcements for a squad (which can only be done if your squad is near your HQ, or due to an ability or unit that specifically allows it), than to buy a new one.
The Retreat function
All infantry units, with the odd exception, have the ability to retreat. Giving squads this order makes them immediately flee from battle, and head directly back to your HQ. As they run, they will gradually pick up speed, as such, retreating is the quickest way of getting units out of battle. Note, that you can not give any orders to a retreating squad, until they have reached your HQ.
The use of retreating, is simple preservation of a squad. If a squad is about to be killed, or is in a situation in which they are in severe danger, retreating is the quickest, and safest way to take them out of that danger. Though you preserve your units, retreating them does give up land to your enemy (which is important, since DoW2 is about map control), as well as giving your enemy more breathing room.
As already stated, retreating units to take extra damage from melee attacks, so one has to time the retreat carefully.
Issuing a retreat command breaks any negative status effects that the squad may be suffering from.
Suppression
Infantry units, unless stated otherwise, are vulnerable to suppression. When a unit is suppressed, they move slower, and attack/fire at a much slower rate. In other words, suppressed units lose most of their capability. Additionally, weapons that deal suppression, will continue to damage the squad while they are under suppression.
Suppression, due to the disabilities it inflicts, is an effective counter to infantry.
The most immediate and common source of suppression can be provided by Heavy Weapon teams, such as Chaos Havocs, Space Marine Devastators, and so on. All heavy weapons teams are "platforms", which shall be discussed below:
Weapon platforms
Platforms are squads with heavy weapons, that can't fire at enemies by default. Rather, they need to "set up", which takes some time. Additionally, they can only fire within a specific cone of fire - visible when the quad is selected, and is deployed. If the squad is not deployed, select the squad, choose where you want them to set up, press and hold right click on that location. Their cone of fire will appear, and you can rotate it as long as you hold right-click down. Release right-click, and the squad will set up in that direction.
Importantly, platforms are countered by "jump troops", who can jump over the cone of fire, and engage the platform in melee.
other important things to note:
*Unlike DoW1, there are no upgrades that affect all units of a certain type permanently. Rather, all unit upgrades, are on the unit itself, and are applied individually, as upgrades to that squad specifically.
*DoW2 is an extremely aggressive game, you move your units out into the map to take points immediately, and combative encounters with the enemy can begin within one or two minutes.
Maybe the best way to learn is to see these things put into practice, I'll link you to some replays.
So, I was foolish enough to try this in MP again, 3v3 playing as eldar. It was going alright (thanks to checking TS rating and dropping out before the game started if it was terrible) but eventually I came up against a shoota mob and had literally no idea what to do.
I'd tried 3x guardians, with a farseer, but they'd just vanish in seconds before being able to do much. When they did get a chance to throw a nade, it was so blatently obvious that he'd just move a bit and keep going. Worse still, he was using a warboss and with his starting slugga squad made it nigh impossible to gain any ground atall. I moved onto trying a shuri plat for supression, but that didn't really seem to achieve much and by the time I could actually afford it he was already on his way to T2. Wraithguard had a bit of an impact, but again couldn't keep up with the sheer amount of damage a shootamob (3x shootas at least) could put out. The only trick that worked outside of that was to hide behind shields, but then you're straight into a defensive position.
Not sure. Personally I roll with Banshees for my first squad and apparently that's the less preferred choice in the community, so YMMV.
If possible I'd suggest ignoring the Warboss as much as possible and focussing on the squads, that's pretty much what he's going to do with his commander. If you're going double guardian at the start then you can comfortably outgun his single Shoota squad (assuming he's not in cover whilst you're not) even whilst backing up when his commander / Sluggas approach. It goes without saying that you prioritise nearest units first, and if he starts charging with Sluggas they're going to get cut up pretty badly on approach.
Later on, a single Shuriken platform probably won't be enough to hold off 3 squads of Shoota's when he's got his Warboss charging in and hacking it up. You could possibly go with a dual-shuriken build but that's very limiting and easily circumvented once he gets Stormboyz. If you're going single Shuriken platform then you want to tie up his melee squad / Warboss with either your farseer or Banshee's or whatever.
Personally I usually play Warp Spider so I'm not sure about what the best options are for Farseer. Start of the game I tend to scout ahead with him and take pot shots at squads before the rest of my units arrive, if he's not paying enough attention it's very easy for his squishy Ork squad to lose a couple of models, at which point they're usually going to have to withdraw once the squads come in and start focussing on them. Farseer might be able to use FoF for similar effect but you'd be placing her in pretty big danger alone and unsupported.
If he goes 3x Shoota, then he wont be getting Stormboyz. However, the Warboss has Angry Bitz that I believe allow him to charge and create cover. And with Shoota 100% accuracy on the move, they can just stay right behind him.
Shields will allow you to win an extended shoot out, but again the Warboss can charge up to you, or the Shoota can Aim Wotz Dat and suppress you while the Warboss / Sluggas get into melee range.
Farseer in general is a very power heavy build, where you want upgraded Banshees and the Spirit Stones as quickly as possible, then upgrade to the Doomblade &/ Fortune or Rune Armor.
T2 vs Orks you would want to go with as many Warp Spider squads as you can, because they will melt them much easier, and the Orks wont have many if any counters to it.
Yeah, angry bits is a pain when he goes that route, it's often shut down my attemps of using a Shuriken platform to control things.
What about Ghosthelm? The suppression + damage ought to in theory keep control of the Warboss and allow you to focus him if you need to.
Warp Spiders are awesome against squishy infantry, but don't invest too heavily in them, because you want resources for some sort of AV, like Wraithguard. Especially once things hit T3, because he'll be trying to swap up for Nob Squads.
Warp Spiders have the Haywire grenades to deal with AV, or at least close enough to let a nice cheap BL Platform finish it off.
Wraithguard are extremely vulnerable to melee heavy armies, which Warboss & Nob Squads will very much be, and you really cant protect them by relying on suppression because the Warboss or Nob Squads can both break it, additionally Stikkbombas, Stormboyz, or Weirdboy are all deadly to Wraithguard.
The Warp Spiders will have excellent harass, but if you arent good and jumping in and out again, you are going to be facing an expensive lesson.
I love warpspiders. But I would never go with more than 2 squads as even with good jumping, an unluckly jump or lack of energy can quickly mean they get mangled or killed.
Good tactic for armor is to jump behind the tank and then haywire it, and bright lance away. Not sure, but I think that the exarch for the warpspiders had power claws so force meleeing a disabled vehicle also did extra damage. Only do this if the warpspiders are completely exposed.
Posts
http://community.dawnofwar2.com/blog-post/multiplayer-unit-profile-tyranid-swarmlord
They're going the superheavy route for Guard, they could have for Eldar.
Likely not, unless they allow us to 'import from gamertag' on the website or some hassle. They have the stats but they'd have to be able to confirm someone as being logged in from a gamertag and steam account. I'm guessing complete wipe unlesssssssss they can recognize SteamID in one of the original games and transfer it like that after an update. Would be sweet if they already kept steam profile data along with the gamertag and stats but it sounds unlikely. They can still do it!
I'm more interested in see the new abilities of the IG commanders. Hopefully they're awesomesauce.
Does it have paper mache armor instead of just paper?
probably still rolls on invisible broken sherman treads
The armour is tough for a grav tank, it's got what games workshop call 'structure points', which means it takes way more firepower to take it down, and holofields that make shots, well, miss. It would be pretty fucking tough to take down. Also, it's main guns are titan scale guns.
That's what I thought. The other races get proper new units, the Swarmlord is a slightly modified Hive Tyrant.
Well, the game did start syncing with the steam cloud a while back. What it's syncing I have no idea, but it tries anyway...
Dunno if Croak can confirm/deny that or not.
Also, I really liked the presence of the optional stealth mission, since it had about four choices inherent in it, which was really good. If you're going to put story into an RTS, making it nonlinear in places is cool.
Also, it looks like the PA Ventrilo server has changed and is no longer the DarkStarLLC server, in case anyone else is really out of date like me.
MWO: Adamski
I'm going to go ahead and take that "not OP or UP" comment with a bowl-full-and-one-pinch of salt. Not to dismiss the dude or call him a liar or anything, but there's no way they can test for all combinations and issues in a game with this many sides and variations. The really nutty stuff usually has to be found out in the wild.
That said, IG, go tanks!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84ZbXK1xY_4
Something I've not had a chance to mention here: The mention of Basilisks is inaccurate, the article does not mention Basilisks at all - merely that Guard has has the strongest artillery. There is nothing that suggests that the Basilisk is an in game unit.
We've also generally sussed out a few things from the video:
The two cannons on the Baneblade need to be fired manually - they are ability based, and cost power to fire.
In the video, we've been able to analyse the globals we see near the end. Can't be 100% clear, since this is (a) work in progress, and (b) this was analyzed from fuzzy imagery, but we're rather certain it's accurate :P
Note that in the top right corner of each global icon, is a white symbol. For every global but the 3rd, the icon is that of a Valkyrie - the 3rd one is a siege icon. Valkyrie icons seem to suggest a global that is airdropped by Valkyries.
First global is 100% clear, since we read the text off the video.
Bunker Drop: The IG player drops a bunker via air drop. Infantry gan garrison into the bunker. The bunker gan be upgraded to a medical or repair bunker, and can be booby trapped to dissuade enemies from using them.
[note, this may be a commander specific global - since we know IG can drop turrets as well]
The second global, is most likely the Leman Russ air drop, seen at the end of the "leaked video". A T2 global - meaning that IG are the fastest race in getting tanks to the field. (initially it was assumed this global was a basilisk artillery call in, but upon closer inspection, the image resembles a Leman Russ, and not a basilisk, and the Valkyrie icon supports this).
The third global, based on the white siege icon, is most likely an artillery call in. Also, explosions are a clue :P
The fourth global, is the Baneblade call in.
The fifth global, is obviously the nuke. The fact that it has a Valkyrie icon, is what makes it interesting.... no idea what to think about that :P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIUJ9PFhE80
Then I imported my characters to the Chaos Rising campaign. And holy shit how fucking terribly hard is the expansion?
All my dudes suddenly suck compared to the enemies who seem to have kept their strength.
The second mission in the Chaos Rising campaign was the first mission I lost. I really don't like this expansion so far. If I see another wraithguard again I might puke.
MWO: Adamski
The Wraithguard are kinda hard, but if you just jump packs and grenades on them, they should fall fairly quickly. You should also be throwing grenades at the warlock leading them, since it'll stun the wraithguard for a minute or two.
To be fair he probably has the best exposition for that mission.
Although personally I didn't feel as if difficulty ramped up any in CR. Maybe it's a side effect of playing multiplayer in-between, but I thought it was pretty much about the same in difficulty as regular DoW2. With Wraithguard, as others have said, engage them in melee and take out their leading Warlock if you can. IIRC they can't be suppressed in the singleplayer (they can't in multiplayer), so Tarkus / Thaddeus / Jonah might seem to be the best there, or maybe Cyrus if you want to stealth det-pack them.
They can't be supressed, but you can totally knock them down, and they take forever to get back up
Steam Profile
Although I suppose it's less of an issue this time since my Steam friends list actually is populated. But there was never really any point to filling out my GFWL friends list unless it was with other dudes that I happened to add from here.
It depends on what else they're working on really. The only other confirmed projects are CoH:Online (no idea how that's going) and Space Marine. I'd guess that there will be another, non-40k game announced before DoW3 which would leave a gap for another expansion - then again it really just depends on how many teams Relic have and what they're working on.
My hunch: we'll see one more after retribution.
I never asked for this!
http://community.dawnofwar2.com/forums/topic/44471
Additionally it seems to identify the Lord General as having a Command Squad, and also seems to suggest he's the range specialist. The Inquisitor is apparently a melee fighter with psychic capabilities (sounds Warlock-esque) and the Lord Commisar sounds similar to the Kommando Nob (at least in the campaign).
There is no builder units in DoW2. The most you'll ever build are generators.
Ok, quite a few things changed. First of all: the size of the battlefield is smaller, you will control less units than before but the individual abilities of the units are more important. Lethality is higher so you need to react faster as well. A shift from strategic to tactical play.
There's no builder unit. All units come from the HQ, and generators can be built if you secure a generator point and build a node. You can take over generators from the enemy by destroying their node and capturing it (although in general in MP you will destroy gens on opponents' sides unless you can hold it).
Also keep in mind bases are guarded by 2 turrets, which prevents early base rape. Basically you'll want to kill their doods, preserve your own, keep pressure on capturing points etc. Don't have your hero chase the retreating enemy back to their base.
Oh I forgot, retreat is X by default I believe. Your units become more susceptible to melee damage but take considerable less ranged dmg and run back to base where they heal a bit and can be reinforced (usually half the cost of otherwise the new unit in a new squad would be).
Alegis covers several of the basics, I'll just add to what he says.
DoW2 is about map control - there is absolutely no base management, outside of upgrading your HQ. The entire idea is to have the player spend his entire time focused on the map, and as little time as possible over his HQ.
Power
Power is handled differently.
Instead of building power generators by your HQ, power points act like the strategic locations in DoW1. You capture the point, you start getting power. You can then upgrade the point, to make it harder for the enemy to take, and to increase its power output (unlike DoW2, you don't need a builder unit to upgrade the point, the upgrade is available on the point, once you take it). Once the node has been upgraded, you can then build up to three generators around it, which increase ones power output considerably.
Note, even though an ally has taken a point, another ally can upgrade it, and any combination of allies can build one or more power generators.
Power nodes, and the generators around them, are the focus of economy harass in DoW2. Naturally, destroying, or at least harassing your enemies "power farms" limits their ability to tech up.
There are two other capturable nodes: Requisition nodes, and Victory Points. Requisition points, natrually, boost your requisition income when taken.
Victory Points
Victory points are the victory condition in DoW2. You may notice as you play, at the top center of the game screen, are two numbers: 500 ~ 500, if you using the default. These are tickets. The blue number is how many tickets you have, the red is how many the enemy has.
When you take a victory point, your enemy slowly looses their tickets. The more points you hold, the faster they will loose tickets. If both you and an enemy hold the same amount of victory points, no one looses tickets.
The goal in DoW2 multiplayer, is to reduce your enemy's tickets to zero.
In other words, victory in DoW2 is based on map control, rather than destroying bases.
Unit value
Units in DoW2 are much more valuable, than in DoW1. As such, they are also much harder to get, price wise. This means that it hurts a lot to loose a full squad, no units are throw away. This means that unit preservation is much more important than in DoW1, especially considering how much more lethal and punishing DoW2 is, compared to DoW1.
It's always cheaper to buy reinforcements for a squad (which can only be done if your squad is near your HQ, or due to an ability or unit that specifically allows it), than to buy a new one.
The Retreat function
All infantry units, with the odd exception, have the ability to retreat. Giving squads this order makes them immediately flee from battle, and head directly back to your HQ. As they run, they will gradually pick up speed, as such, retreating is the quickest way of getting units out of battle. Note, that you can not give any orders to a retreating squad, until they have reached your HQ.
The use of retreating, is simple preservation of a squad. If a squad is about to be killed, or is in a situation in which they are in severe danger, retreating is the quickest, and safest way to take them out of that danger. Though you preserve your units, retreating them does give up land to your enemy (which is important, since DoW2 is about map control), as well as giving your enemy more breathing room.
As already stated, retreating units to take extra damage from melee attacks, so one has to time the retreat carefully.
Issuing a retreat command breaks any negative status effects that the squad may be suffering from.
Suppression
Infantry units, unless stated otherwise, are vulnerable to suppression. When a unit is suppressed, they move slower, and attack/fire at a much slower rate. In other words, suppressed units lose most of their capability. Additionally, weapons that deal suppression, will continue to damage the squad while they are under suppression.
Suppression, due to the disabilities it inflicts, is an effective counter to infantry.
The most immediate and common source of suppression can be provided by Heavy Weapon teams, such as Chaos Havocs, Space Marine Devastators, and so on. All heavy weapons teams are "platforms", which shall be discussed below:
Weapon platforms
Platforms are squads with heavy weapons, that can't fire at enemies by default. Rather, they need to "set up", which takes some time. Additionally, they can only fire within a specific cone of fire - visible when the quad is selected, and is deployed. If the squad is not deployed, select the squad, choose where you want them to set up, press and hold right click on that location. Their cone of fire will appear, and you can rotate it as long as you hold right-click down. Release right-click, and the squad will set up in that direction.
Importantly, platforms are countered by "jump troops", who can jump over the cone of fire, and engage the platform in melee.
other important things to note:
*Unlike DoW1, there are no upgrades that affect all units of a certain type permanently. Rather, all unit upgrades, are on the unit itself, and are applied individually, as upgrades to that squad specifically.
*DoW2 is an extremely aggressive game, you move your units out into the map to take points immediately, and combative encounters with the enemy can begin within one or two minutes.
Maybe the best way to learn is to see these things put into practice, I'll link you to some replays.
http://www.gamereplays.org/dawnofwar2/replays.php?game=47&show=details&id=174785
http://www.gamereplays.org/dawnofwar2/replays.php?game=47&show=details&id=174785
http://www.gamereplays.org/dawnofwar2/replays.php?game=47&show=details&id=175099
Download them to Documents\My Games\Dawn of War 2\Playback
Watch them by launching DoW2, going to Multiplayer, and selecting Game History.
I'd tried 3x guardians, with a farseer, but they'd just vanish in seconds before being able to do much. When they did get a chance to throw a nade, it was so blatently obvious that he'd just move a bit and keep going. Worse still, he was using a warboss and with his starting slugga squad made it nigh impossible to gain any ground atall. I moved onto trying a shuri plat for supression, but that didn't really seem to achieve much and by the time I could actually afford it he was already on his way to T2. Wraithguard had a bit of an impact, but again couldn't keep up with the sheer amount of damage a shootamob (3x shootas at least) could put out. The only trick that worked outside of that was to hide behind shields, but then you're straight into a defensive position.
So, any suggestions?
If possible I'd suggest ignoring the Warboss as much as possible and focussing on the squads, that's pretty much what he's going to do with his commander. If you're going double guardian at the start then you can comfortably outgun his single Shoota squad (assuming he's not in cover whilst you're not) even whilst backing up when his commander / Sluggas approach. It goes without saying that you prioritise nearest units first, and if he starts charging with Sluggas they're going to get cut up pretty badly on approach.
Later on, a single Shuriken platform probably won't be enough to hold off 3 squads of Shoota's when he's got his Warboss charging in and hacking it up. You could possibly go with a dual-shuriken build but that's very limiting and easily circumvented once he gets Stormboyz. If you're going single Shuriken platform then you want to tie up his melee squad / Warboss with either your farseer or Banshee's or whatever.
Personally I usually play Warp Spider so I'm not sure about what the best options are for Farseer. Start of the game I tend to scout ahead with him and take pot shots at squads before the rest of my units arrive, if he's not paying enough attention it's very easy for his squishy Ork squad to lose a couple of models, at which point they're usually going to have to withdraw once the squads come in and start focussing on them. Farseer might be able to use FoF for similar effect but you'd be placing her in pretty big danger alone and unsupported.
Corp. Shephard might have better advice for you.
Shields will allow you to win an extended shoot out, but again the Warboss can charge up to you, or the Shoota can Aim Wotz Dat and suppress you while the Warboss / Sluggas get into melee range.
Farseer in general is a very power heavy build, where you want upgraded Banshees and the Spirit Stones as quickly as possible, then upgrade to the Doomblade &/ Fortune or Rune Armor.
T2 vs Orks you would want to go with as many Warp Spider squads as you can, because they will melt them much easier, and the Orks wont have many if any counters to it.
MWO: Adamski
What about Ghosthelm? The suppression + damage ought to in theory keep control of the Warboss and allow you to focus him if you need to.
Warp Spiders are awesome against squishy infantry, but don't invest too heavily in them, because you want resources for some sort of AV, like Wraithguard. Especially once things hit T3, because he'll be trying to swap up for Nob Squads.
Wraithguard are extremely vulnerable to melee heavy armies, which Warboss & Nob Squads will very much be, and you really cant protect them by relying on suppression because the Warboss or Nob Squads can both break it, additionally Stikkbombas, Stormboyz, or Weirdboy are all deadly to Wraithguard.
The Warp Spiders will have excellent harass, but if you arent good and jumping in and out again, you are going to be facing an expensive lesson.
MWO: Adamski
Good tactic for armor is to jump behind the tank and then haywire it, and bright lance away. Not sure, but I think that the exarch for the warpspiders had power claws so force meleeing a disabled vehicle also did extra damage. Only do this if the warpspiders are completely exposed.