Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War The great big book of Orks - Version 1.0 Orks may be simple, but dey don't have to be stooped -Snord By Lee T. HaXXXor For www.gamefaqs.com Contact: hisneigeness[at]hotmail.com for inquireries WAAAAAAAGH! Welkom to da wondaful woild of Orks: the biggest, meanest, GREENEST race `uv the `ole 40th milleninium! Now all youz budding Warbosses come along an' form a soycle: you iz gonna git da know-wots on smashin' skumgrods from one `uv da craftiest, cleverest an' BIIIIIIGGEST Warbosses of the Blood Axe tribe: MURDORK STOMPINSMASH! [/orkspeak off] Hey all, I've heard many people complain about how orks had it tough: confusing technology tree, difficulty at busting armor, lackluster vehicles; the list goes on. I'm here to tell you that it doesn't need to be this way and that you can positively crush all sort of opponents with the orks. The following are a series of tips and strategies as collected by the great ork warboss Murdork Stompinsmash: graciously offered so as to help you deal with problematic situations. This is not a FAQ or a guide, it's a "book" made out of many small chapters to help out the budding ork player with various problem spots. In other words, it is offered with the understanding that you know the fundamentals about orks and Dawn of War, but there's still a little help necessary. You might not agree with all of the information, but I'm sure you'll find a nugget of wisdom or two that you'll end up appreciating. *********************************************************************** 0. Table of contents 0. Table of contents 1. Version history 2. The Ork Rush a) Orks are bigger than runtier `unz b) Getting your WAAAAAGH on c) Plenty of small mobs Vs a few big `unz d) Oy! How do I make dis fing go boom? e) Getting da boyz togedda / Hotkeys f) Wot `appens next boss? g) Dealin' wif da enemy 3. Orks as an all-infantry army a) Orks do it usin' Orks b) Nutters wif rokkits strapped to dere backs: Stormboys c) Hold on to da pin, throw da ovver part: Tankbustas d) Dealin' wiff loses e) Upgradin' your boyz 4. Setbacks and your other troops a) My boyz got krumped; wot next? b) Ey! Wut's dat Mek Shop doin' dere? c) OOooo, big and shiny! d) Hokay, wot else I got? 5. Everything about the rest a) Proppa city plannin'! b) Da rest uv da buggers c) Did'ja know? 6. Thanks 7. Copyright *********************************************************************** 1. Version history December 3rd, 2004 - Version 1.0 completed: Construction of the version of the "Great Big Book of Orks" completed and sent to gamefaqs. It is completely workable by itself, but I'm always open to new suggestions on how to better use the orks! Check the Thanks page for more details if you want to help. December 13th, 2004 - Same version: Gave permission for Bernd Wolffgramm to use this guide on his website, http://dlh.net December 19th, 2004 - Same version: Gave permission for Steven Ng to use this guide on his website, http://www.ign.com *********************************************************************** 2. The Ork Rush. a) Orks are bigger than runtier `unz. The first advantage that orks have over other races is how they start out with a fighting unit: the slugga boy. Other races have to contend with cultists or space marine scouts; units that simply don't hold a choppa next to the boys. When starting out your game, don't just take over your resource points; take your opponent's early on! The only way to play the orks is aggressively! b) Getting your WAAAAGH on The first step to winning with the orks is building a Waaagh banner. Waaagh banners determine how many orks you can bring to the party, and the number of orks you bring to the party advances your technological tree! As you start the game, you begin with 5 ork points: enough for one unit of slugga boys and another gaggle of grots. With your Waaagh banner completed, you'll have ten more ork points, or enough to make two more units of slugga boys: that's sixteen boys at your command so as to take over any resource point on the board! Quite simply: take everything that isn't built upon on the map! c) Plenty of small mobs VS a few big `unz After much evaluation, it has been found that many small units of orks were more advantageous then a few big units. Typically, many small units of slugga boys can be turned into quite the shooty army if you have the Pile o' Gunz present (four orks in a unit, three may take special weapons). Big units of orks would favor an assault-minded individual, but such units are easily targeted by the enemy and can be brought down fairly easy. That's why in nearly all cases, players depend on small units of orks as they are harder to target; and then the player accepts the losses and builds brand new units. d) Oy! How do I make dis fing go boom? After building your first or second ork tower (to capture resource points), build a generator, then a pile of gunz. The idea here is that unlike other races, orks can come up with quick and cheap anti-armor weaponry to attack enemy settlements. Shooty orks ARE an option because you start off with plenty of orks and plenty of special weapons. Orks may be lousy shots, but with enough firepower in their hands, SOMETHING has to hit! (In Warhammer 40K table top parlance, this would be known as a Kuntin' Taktik: because everything counts (or kunts) in large numbers). e) Gettin' da boyz togedda / Hotkeys After receiving those four ork units, you'll want to organize them all into one neat mob. Hold Shift and left click on each of the four units until your display screen shows all of your orks. Save the results to a hotkey by holding Ctrl and any key (I usually keep it simple with 1). Start training yourself with the assault/shoot hotkeys: F1 along with F6 turns your orks into close combat choppa swinging maniacs. F2 along with F7 makes your orks stand and shoot. The amount of special weapons per slugga boy unit makes a stand and fire strategy viable, although I do suggest to always keep ONE burna amidst the first group of orks in case of an emergency. f) Wot `appens next boss? Orks are remarkably versatile. If you want to go settlement smashing, you can easily bring nine rokkit launchers to bear and still have a unit left over to take care of incoming infantry. If something goes wrong in the plan, you can switch your orks to melee mode and left click on the recruit button for each ork unit so that you can perpetually build your ork mobs and win the fight (don't forget to build extra Waaagh banners). Or better yet, run away and come back with more boys. Just understand that you DO NOT want to assault enemy settlements: choppas do very little against buildings, burnas don't cut up armor as in the table top game and even the mighty Power Klaw is underpowered! ONLY use rokkits to destroy buildings: anything else is a waste of time. g) Dealin' wif da enemy. In the early game, the most fearsome enemy to the orks is the character units: whether they are called force commander, farseer or chaos sorcerer, these guys can knock a whole bunch of orks away with a single swing! So the first thing you'll want to build would be your own character: the Big Mek. The Big Mek isn't as good as the rest of the characters, so you'll want him supported by your rokkit launcher boys: rokkits knock characters to the ground where your Big Mek can get some extra hits. The Big Mek is also surprisingly effective against enemy infantry that would target your boys and makes an effective early anti- vehicle/anti-building unit. Something else to consider building would be shoota boys. Just set your destination marker from your boys hut to the location of the battle and crank up those shoota boys (don't forget to press F2 and F7): as they walk by, make sure to equip them with two big shootas and one rokkit. This configuration makes them versatile and still efficient at killing infantry/lowering enemy moral. *********************************************************************** 3. Orks as an all-infantry army a) Orks do it using Orks! As you play with the orks, understand that you are playing an INFANTRY army, with very little room for vehicles. In effect, you'll find that vehicles often detract from your footslogging force by producing huge blasts that knocks down everyone indiscriminately. Your goal with the orks will be to start out with a few versatile units (slugga boys equipped with various special weapons) and end up with a slew of many units with dedicated purposes (tankhunters, stormboys, nob squads). Remember, the number of orks determines how high along the technological tree you can get, so build a lot of `em! b) Nutters wif rokkits strapped to dere backs: Stormboys Once you'll discover Stormboys, you'll have found your primary melee group. Unlike regular slugga or shoota boys, you can build one large mob of Stormboys and succeed in close combat because the unit predisposes itself to large numbers. First of all, it's quite easy to maneuver the large mob if you have them fly to their destination, you don't have to worry about special weapons as there are none and the large number of boys make it a nice stalling tactic for you to re- maneuver your shootier boys into position. c) Hold on to da pin, throw da ovver part: Tankbustas Tankbusta boys always start out as melee troops, but nowhere can you shoehorn as many rokkits into a unit: 6 rokkits for 8 boys! Although the unit can be upgraded to have special tankbusta bombs, I sincerely suggest equipping each of these boys with rokkits and treat them as a "shooty" unit separate from your core of other "shooty" boys. That's because no ork is better at busting up armor than the tankbustas, and although your other orks may be versatile multi-taskers, you want your tankbustas hotkeyed in the event of an emergency (then bring the rest of your rokkits to bear). I typically make my tankbusta squads 7 to 8 man strong for safety reasons, as people rightfully recognize the helmeted orks as "threats". d) Dealin' wiff loses With orks, it's important not to panic. You are micromanaging a whole lot of many different units, and thus you'll simply have to accept that one or two units must be lost so that the others may live. Also understand that although orks may seem bred for close combat, there are plenty of enemies that best the greenskins in that particular field. The good news is that if your orks are getting pounded, you will have considerable time to figure out HOW they are being pounded so that you may run away and think up an appropriate counter strategy. For the record, my personal counter strategy for whatever ails me is to come back with more rokkits. Rokkits usually solve most if not all of my problems. Seriously: when attacked left-click "recruit" and add some flamers. If any unit starts getting dangerous low on orks, have them run away and build big shootas or rokkits to turn the unit into a shooty one with low ork count. e) Upgradin' your boyz The Pile o' Gunz is a central structure in the ork hierarchy as it allows the user to equip his troops with the special weapons that make or break the ork army. It is also the structure by which you upgrade your boys's armor, strength of choppa and most everything else for that matter. Also of importance would be the Boys Hut, which allows you to upgrade your Big Mek to the fullest of his capabilities. You should partake in upgrades periodically: your first priority needs to be your boys, the second being your upgrades. When you've just created your second tier troops (such as Tankbustas and Stormboys) consider for the moment if you couldn't invest in a few upgrades: do you NEED to build up those Stormboys right away? So for the benefit of those who want to know my rank of upgrades, `Eavy Armor is always first on my list with Bigger Boom a close second. After those two, you can decide for yourself. From the Boys Hut, you want to see if you've got a ready mob of Stormboys first. If so, go with the kustom force field and tankbuster kit. Otherwise, use the teleporter. The rest of the upgrades available from the Boys Hut aren't as important. *********************************************************************** 4. Setbacks and your other troops a) My boys got krumped; wot next? The plan is usually the first casualty of war, but the versatility of the ork race shines again with plenty of vehicles and units that can help regain a victory from the brink of defeat. In these chapters, we discuss the rest of the ork troops and how they work alongside troops that might've ran away before they got slaughtered. Luckily, as you lose ork troops, you regain the ork points that were invested in them. Secondly, you don't lose anything developed by the technology tree if you lose your boys. Thirdly, this part of the strategy assumes you've reached the third tier of the ork technological tree and that you have plenty of resources available for a comeback (you should have a Mek Shop and upgraded your Settlement to a Fortress). Fourth, we're assuming your base isn't torched by the enemy yet. No seriously: defense before offence. b) Ey! Wut's dat Mek Shop doin' dere? If you're like me, you've pretty much ignored your Mek Shop while going on your offensive. No wonder: it costs a lot of points, needs to be used in conjunction with the Fortress for best results and usually churns out wartrukks (useless in my opinion) and wartrakks at the early stage (which takes two levels of upgrades to receive the stikkbomb chukka, which is a short range explosive which knocks down friend and foe alike). Now that you have lost most of your boys, maybe wartrakks with stikkbomb chukkas aren't such a bad idea: they're great at disrupting enemy fire if you've dedicated yourself to a strictly shooty army and if they can shoot over your own troops. Possessed space marine rush? Just bomb those bastards off their feet! Lots of shooty space marine coming your way? Destroy their careful formation with a few well placed explosives and let the boys do the rest. c) OOooo, big and shiny! Killa Kans, Looted Tanks and Squiggoths form the rest of the vehicles: the tier three of machines. Now let's start with the tanks: I don't like them. Much more expensive then wartrakks, they have about the same artillery for more hit points. They can shoot farther then any other unit, but you'll need to use gretchins in hiding to get the full effect of this long range battle cannon. Lots of trouble for a cannon that misses a lot. As a Blood Axe player, I feel quite betrayed by the unit. Killa Kans are quite the improvement, serving quite well to spearhead an offensive effort with deadly melee power that destroys buildings. Killa Kans only fear one thing: anti-armor fire, so it gives you time to figure out what unit you absolutely have to destroy. Squiggoths are another matter entirely. They rule no matter what situation you're in: build one as fast as you can! If they are accessible than build them, but beware as it takes a WHOLE lot of time to crank out of the factory. Squiggoths are the epitome of ork versatility: they can carry troops, shoot an anti-armor beam from their back and stomp just about anything at melee range. Use rampage repeatedly for best results! d) Hokay, wot else I got? The first things you should rebuild would be stormboys and tankbustas: one's a great melee mob, the other gives you tons of rokkits. The Nob Squad is a unit which I don't usually use, but it's quite deadly when they're properly upgraded: taking down dreadnoughts, loads of possessed space marines and just about anything else if you've got the power klaws available. Another unit that should be left maxed out with the "recruit" button left clicked: just make sure you got the ork points available. Nobs MUST be used alongside Mad Doks, it is simply the killer combo of doom. The Warboss works similarly to the Nob Squad in that it owns all at close quarters: again add a healer unit for max effectiveness. *********************************************************************** 5. Everything about the rest a) Proppa city plannin'! I briefly mentioned it, but here's my full build order for orks. You start off with slugga boys and gretchins: have your boys get a resource spot while the grots set up a Waaagh banner. DON'T FORGET TO LEFT-CLICK RECRUIT THE LIL' BUGGERS! Build more orks and grots. The deployment of the new orks (ork #2) will be first to come out, so have them grab another resource point. Your first batch of grots should finish building their Waaagh banner as orks #1 finish setting up their flag: so have the grots build an ork tower for resource points while the orks go bugger off towards the next resource point. Grot #2 arrives, so build a Boys Hut. Build two more units of orks while you're at it and capture stuff. Grot #1 should be finished with his ork tower, so have him build a generator. Grot #2 should finish his Boys Hut soon, so either build another ork tower or a Pile o' gunz. Just make sure to build a Pile o' Gunz soon. Get a third unit of grots to do it, but do it please. Then again, you're free to go at it from your own way now. Right now, depending on the map and what you got, your next priority should be either making more ork towers, Waaagh banners, a Big Mek or as a least priority, another generator. Have fun! b) Da rest uv da buggers Here is where I talk about the units I haven't talked about yet. For example, gretchins can be used to infiltrate if you research the capability. but it's not something I generally use. When I want to blow something up, I usually just bring my boys towards the outline of whatever building I want blown up and right-click repeatedly. Eventually, the boys stop moving and start shooting: no lagtime in heavy weapons as in space marines keeps me satisfied. The Mad Dok is something I keep until the midgame: you'll recall I emphasize a shooty style of play to take over opponents early on. After I build my second Waaagh banner, I'll maybe make a Mad Dok and hotkey him in the same position as my Big Mek (understand that I DO NOT attach the two together as a unit). Since my Big Mek is always ready for battle, I'll have my Mad Dok along for when the action arrives and attach him to the first mob unit that sees close combat action (there's always one that gets picked on by the other guy's melee troops). Initiate the Bad Medicine immediately. This works quite well with Stormboys too, with the inconspicuous mad dok waddling into battle after the Stormboys arrive in battle (remember that you can't fly off if there's a serious problem). At rest, he helps heal the Big Mek, who has the most hit points of all orks; as well as any troop around him, so it's all good. Nobs as mob leaders are a trickier deal: naturally, any unit that has that one flamer will also get the Nob upgrade, but for the rest of the small units it's not something I wholly endorse. Nobs are something I'll only buy in the heat of the moment, when I'm being assaulted and I need a heavy hitter. He is not at all essential but to be used with judgment or after being upgraded (remember that they use TWO ork points, which would serve to bring a Big Mek instead). c) Did'ja know? You can hide orks in buildings! Gameplay-wise, I don't find that so useful, but it makes for a fun sneak attack. Just make double sure that your gretchins repair your buildings rather then hide in them: that's how I found out about the whole affair. No seriously, click on the repair icon, damn thing had me puzzled and nearly cost me the game. *********************************************************************** 6. Thanks As of yet, Murdork Stompinsmash (that's me!) is the only one contributing to this great big book of Orkdom. If your warboss discovered tricks that have been instrumental in the war against all skumgrods, you can send them in at hisneigeness[at]hotmail.com and if I publish them (pending experimentation), I'll give your warboss credit here. Do not mail me to correct my spelling or for naming conventions, please. *********************************************************************** 7. Copyright This is me cut and pasting the copyright thingy from my last FAQ. Hopefully, it still works as well as it did then... This document is the sole property of Lee T. HaXXXor, AKA Neige Thirteen, AKA Christian Charit‚ Colde. This document may not be put on a site unless permission is given by the aforementioned author and his multiple aliases. Taking and redistributing this guide for monetary purposes is illegal, and will not be tolerated. Lee/Neige/Chris reserves the right to refuse this document to be on ANY site. The following are the only sites that may have this document for Dawn of War: http://www.gameFAQS.com http://dlh.net http://www.ign.com This document may not be used on private sites. Thanks for taking the time to read this Book of strategy, I hope it was of some use to you. Lee T. HaXXXor can be contacted by e-mailling: hisneigeness[at] hotmail.com - END OF DOCUMENT -