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TABLE OF CONTENTS
- INTERFACE
- Options
- The cathedral bridge
- The combat screen
- UNITS AND CHARACTERS
- Character statistics
- Descriptions and opinions on your troops
- WEAPONS AND EQUIPMENT
- Weapon descriptions
- Grenades and other equipment
- MARINE HONOURS
- PSYKER POWERS
- Descriptions and opinions on psyker powers
- ENEMIES
- Descriptions and opinions on Chaos
- TACTICS AND TIPS
INTERFACE
The first screen you'll see is a main screen with the Warhammer 40k title on it.
By the way, in case you haven't noticed already, hot text on all the tabs and
buttons in this game can be seen if you just let the cursor hover over the area.
Let's explore the "options" tab a little.
Keyboard settings - Keyboard settings let you adjust the various keyboard
command, naturally. Have a look at this screen and familiarise yourself with the
shortcuts, as they can save a lot of mousework throughout the game.
Show paths - Very useful; maps out the route your marines will take from point A
to B. Sometimes you'll notice they walk through fire or other hazards, in which
case you can then plan another route. Keep this on.
Point saving - This interrupts your troops from their movement path when they
reach an action point (AP) level required to fire off one shot with their
selected weapon. This is useful for beginners because it allows you to plan for
overwatch, and gives you a couple of spare points for little things like
kneeling or changing direction. You can still override the interruption by
clicking to restart movement. Experienced players who know exactly what they
want to do and the AP needed to do it will probably find point-saving an
annoyance. Your call, though.
Grid - Creates a grid overlay on the map. Don't really see the need for this,
plus it makes the map look cluttered.
Autocut - The map is layered with up to seven height levels. If this option is
on, your character will only be able to view terrain and features at his height
level or below. You can still manually adjust the visible height level by
pressing keys 1-7 on the keyboard. Well, why should you leave this on? Because
if not, you might have difficulty seeing characters who will be blocked by high
terrain/buildings. I find it useful to keep this on and manually change height
levels if I need to take a detailed look at the map.
Play movies - If you say so! :)
Unit animation - For those with slow computers, you know what to do.
Music - I turned this off after the first few games because although it's
appropriately spooky sounding, it's distraction. And repetitive, too.
Voices - Some hate 'em. I don't, I think it gives character to the units.
The two sliders are for speed of unit animation (which is unslidable if
animation is off), and speed of other stuff like flames and smoke. Choose your
music and voice volume from the next two sliders, and your screen resolution
too.
Note on Level of Difficulty - upping the level affects enemy smarts, enemy
skills, and chances of reinforcements. Mighty Hero is the same as Hero, except
you have only one automatic save when the turn ends, a character is killed, or
you exit the game.
The Cathedral bridge
Once you've set up a game, you will appear in the cathedral bridge of your
ship.
Always go to Mission Briefing to obtain your mission objectives, and to open up
the squad config door. You can access an options screen from the bridge too.
Choose and configure squads
Alright. You can choose a number of squads, depending on the mission at hand.
Select and deselect squads by clicking on their representative icon. Do the same
for characters by clicking on them too. Clicking on their name allows you to
edit it. You can rearrange squad members by dragging and dropping. However, only
characters with a "Crux Terminatus" award can be dropped into Terminator armour.
Read the section on units and characters to see how you should choose your men.
Once you've selected your squads, go through the right door to equip them.
There, each character will have a list of available equipment displayed once
he's selected. There is the weapons & ammo tab, the misc equipment tab, and the
grenades tab. Clicking on equipment will add it to your man's inventory, and
clicking equipment already in the inventory will send it back to the armoury.
Again, read the weapons and equipment section to see what you should choose. The
little book at the bottom of the screen calls up the in-game encyclopaedia,
which you really should read to get a working knowledge of the game - it's worth
it for a quick reference on weapon stats especially. You can go back to the
cathedral bridge through the right door ... if your psyker Librarian is allowed
to choose a new spell, he will be allowed to do so at this point. Choose
carefully because although you can return to reselect and reconfigure your
squads, the psyker powers will be unchangeable.
Choose and configure vehicles
This door can be opened only if you are authorised to use vehicle for your
mission. The only vehicle you can configure is the Rhino troop carrier - just
drag and drop up two 2 squads of normal marines or 1 squad of terminators
inside. They can mount and dismount vehicles in combat if needed. They can also
fire out the sides. They will be protected from enemy fire too, but if the
vehicle goes, so do your men.
The combat screen
The top of the screen is obviously a pictorial representation of the units and
terrain.
If a movement button is selected, the cursor shows green when over a friendly
unit, and changes to a red targeting cursor when placed over an enemy. To move,
simply place the green cursor and left-click. If you can move to that terrain,
the cursor will indicate a double triangle. If you are trying to select a spot
that is impassable, the cursor will show a green box with a cross to tell you.
If Show Paths is selected, the route will be displayed and you can confirm by
left-clicking one more time.
When the cursor moves over an enemy, or the direct fire button is selected, the
red targeting cursor appears. Three numbers will be shown. The top is the
percentage chance to hit. I'm not sure about the second (any help guys?) but I
think it's some sort of modifier for cover. The third indicates range. If
everything is OK, the top right of the cursor will show an eye icon and a target
icon. If you get an eye icon with a cross, it means that your line of sight
(LOS) to the target is blocked, or you aren't facing the right way. If there is
a blockage, you can't hit the target. If you are facing the wrong way, clicking
on the target will make your character face the target and fire, but he will use
some APs for the direction change. Sometimes you will get a scanner icon with a
cross in the top right corner. This means that you are out of range and must
move closer.
Lets see what the rest of the screen is about.
The top left of the info screen (which is the bottom half of the whole screen)
is the visible enemies gauge. Every enemy your man can spot is indicated.
Berserkers are the Khorne icon (the one that looks like an "X"), Terminators
(which I will abbreviate to termies) are the skulls, Chaos Space Marines (CSMs)
are the empty circle, and daemons and HQ characters are the filled circle.
Clicking on any icon will move the screen to the appropriate enemy.
Immediately below that is your selected man's stats. There is his unit
designation, his portrait, his name, his APs, armour and HP. Click on the
marine's portrait to center the screen on him. To the right of those stats is
the current visible height level. Some areas of the game screen will be blacked
out. You can make these areas visible by adjusting the height level from this
bar or through the keyboard. The blue squares to the right of this bar allow you
to change the map size from close-up to faraway pan.
The top middle of the info screen has little icons representing your squads.
Clicking on an icon will move the screen to the leader of that squad.
Under that row is a lot of buttons. The first allows you to access game options
and the save/load screen. The next calls up a (useless) mini-map. The next
refreshes your mission briefing in case you forgot what you were supposed to do
:p
The next button is the important inventory button. When you call up an inventory
screen, you can use items such as medkits and scanners, drop items, throw items
to other marines, and view the encyclopaedia. Clicking on a grenade allows you
to throw a grenade offensively too (ie the grenade blows up instead of just
lying there). After selecting throw grenade, you will notice neither your
ballistic weapon or melee weapon is now selected. Instead, you get a target
cursor. You can throw grenades anywhere within range and LOS - not necessarily
at an enemy.
To quit throwing, just click on one of your normal weapons or a movement button.
The next button will move the screen to the next marine in your squad. The
button after that will move the screen to the next visible enemy in your list.
Use these buttons if you're not sure where to locate certain marines.
The three boxes under the row of buttons are your ammo gauge and weapon
indicators respectively. Remember that after a round of hand-to-hand (HTH)
combat, the selected weapon is automatically your melee weapon. You have to
manually select your ballistic weapon if you want to use that.
The top right row starts with the aimed shot button. Don't use this at all -
doesn't seem to affect the to hit percentage in any way - maybe it increases
chances to damage?
Then the direct fire button. Learn how to use this. Especially for area effect
weapons, the best spot to fire may not be at a particular enemy, but an empty
cell. Or you might might want to use a terminator HTH weapon such as a chainfist
to attack an obstacle. This is the button to force the cursor to change to the
targeting cursor.
The walk button is in my opinion, useless. No marine should walk if he can run.
Just be careful because termies can only walk. So when moving a marine after
moving a termie, reset the button back to the run button. There's also a
crouch/uncrouch button.
If you have selected a marine with a special skill eg librarian, there will be a
special button to use this skill. If the skill is unusable, the button is
blanked out. To heal marines, your apothecary has to be adjacent to and facing
his intended marine before the button is available. For librarians, their
special button also comes with a little number indicating the number of force
points available to them this round - up to 6.
The retrieve button can be used to open crates with the imperial marking. You
must be facing and adjacent to the crate. Pressing this button when you are nex
to and facing a friend (whether alive or dead) allows you to exchange equipment
from inventory. Remember tht you must have free slots or you'll be wasting your
time. It also costs 4 AP for every exchange you make.
Pull switch and open door - you can use these, right?
Then there's the overwatch button. Your character will use any leftover points
to fire his primary ballistic weapon in the enemy's turn. Your marine will fire
at the first enemy that appears. See the tactics section on how to use
overwatch.
Formation movement has 2 sorts - the top option makes all your marines face
forward, and the bottom option will automatically arrange your marines with some
of them facing the sides and back to prevent sneak attacks. You can click and
hold the left mouse button to select more than one marine, or use SHIFT click
for more precision.
The next button allows you to get marines out of vehicles like Rhinos ... to
select a marine in a vehicle, use the Marine Icons and the Next Marine buttons,
and then click on the vehicle button to get them out. And of course there's the
end turn buttton.
UNITS AND CHARACTERS
Every one of your men is rated for certain abilities, the higher the better.
Action points (AP) - Gotta have lots. I think anyone with less than 54 is sort
of sucky (at the highest experience level).
Health (HP) - Zero and you're an ex-space marine.
Armour - Absorbs damage from hits that can't penetrate. Always 40 for normal
armour, 110 for Terminators. Wow.
Ballistic skill (BS)- Determines to-hit for ranged weapons. Affected by range,
weapon, cover and smoke.
Weapons skill (WS) - To-hit for HTH weapons. Affected by weapon type.
Strength - Determines how far you can throw stuff. This score is used for HTH if
higher than WS.
Toughness - Affects how much damage you take if armour doesn't cover you.
Initiative - Who strikes first in HTH.
Attacks - The number of unmodified HTH attacks in one round of HTH combat.
Leadership - Sometimes units have to take a break test to see if they run ...
like when a unit is decimated, or a Greater Daemon gets too close. Your guy has
to make a roll against his LD score. If he's within five cells of his squad, the
highest Ld score is used for all.
Enemies Killed - Shows 'em who's a bad mutha.
Missions - Bragging rights?
Experience points (XP) - How much your character has currently got. Every
character starts at at level 1 in a campaign game ... by accumulating more XP,
he raises level and his stats increase. I don't propose to talk much about XP in
this FAQ because it really has no bearing on a random scenario. Rest assured
that if I do write a walkthru for the campaign, though, I will put in a section
about gaining XP etc.
HQ
The HQ squad is the row of guys at the bottom of the character selection screen.
Some members may only be selectable once you complete a certain number of
missions. HQ member are represented by a golden eagle.
The Captain
Cpt Kruger - your erstwhile leader. He isn't available to you until the last
mission, but that's no big deal. I find him kinda annoying, especially during
the cut scenes. I mean, I know the Imperium of Man is a self-righteous sort of
organisation by definition, but this guy really sounds like he's got a big stick
up his bum. He looks dumb too, with the broom bristles on the top of his helmet.
Abilities wise, I have little idea why he happens to be your top commander. His
stats can't even match up to a regular trooper - even in leadership *koff koff*.
He's only average in HTH, and his power sword doesn't really have a great deal
of armour penetration or damage. Even if he strikes first, he'll take his time
to actually finish off a well-armoured opponent. His ballistic skill is not bad,
which means he'll hit what he wants to. Again though, he's limited by his
compulsory plasma pistol - the plasma pistol's distinct lack of capability has
been covered already, so I won't bother here. In conclusion, since he doesn't
have any special skills, he's just another pack mule for the last mission. Try
and keep him at the back because like all HQ characters, he seems to take damage
easily and it is kind of embarrassing to have your captain bumped off in the
last mission, even if he is a whining pansy.
The Chaplain
This guy is supposed to provide spiritual guidance to the rest of his battle
brothers. That doesn't mean squat in Chaos Gate though. Again, just a pack mule
unless he's expressly required. However, his armour looks a lot cooler than
Kruger's, plus his Crozius Arcanium is quite a kickass HTH weapon. He should
have little trouble defending himself against berserkers, unless they always
strike first.
The Apothecary (medic)
Ahhh ... an alright choice provided you keep him away from the fighting - he
soaks damage like a sponge. Moreover, he has no HTH weapon - he uses his teeny
bolt pistol if engaged in close combat. So again - keep him out of trouble. If
he has to be around, you can load him up with an assortment of grenades (and
medkits, if you like playing in character). The medic has the ability to heal
hit points in combat. Every one AP of his translates into one HP in healing.
Bear in mind that he is the only dude who can restore Termie HP, since they
can't use medkits. You have to balance the need to keep him in a position to
heal Termies, who are frontliners, and the need to protect his wimpy ass though.
Remember also that when he uses his healing ability, all available APs are used
up. He will also rise up if previously crouching, and have no APs left to squat
again, so be sure he's behind cover. You have two apothecaries to choose from,
so pick the one with higher APs. His combat skills don't really matter.
The Techmarine
The techmarine is the equivalent of a machine priest in Warhammer 40k. His
special skill is only expressly required in certain missions, and unusable
otherwise - another grenade carryboy for you, if you choose to bring him along.
His pwer axe is alright in HTH, and he'll be able to take care of himself
against berserkers and demons.
The Librarian
This guy is the most useful combat member of the HQ team. Bring him along the
moment you can, and let him kill stuff so he can raise to his max level ASAP in
the campaign. His force axe will chop up close combat troops, and his selection
of spells will aid you immeasurably. His only drawback is his weakness to
damage, and the fact that the AI always marks him out for death if it can.
Always end his turn crouched, 'K? You have 4 Librarians to choose from, so APs
and weapon skill should be the priorities.
Tactical squad
The Tac squad is the basic marine organisational unit. It's a five man squad,
with one special or heavy weapon allowed. Because of their wimpy combat knives,
don't let these guys go HTH. Keep them as a "shooty" squad, for throwing all
manner of useful grenades, and for shielding your more important troops, if
necessary. Their regular power armour can soak up a surprising amount of bolter
fire. Whether you arm them with a special or heavy weapon really depends on the
sort of mission you undertake. Tac squaddies are represented by an upwards
pointing arrow.
Devastator squad
Your heavy support squad - two men out of five are allowed to carry heavy
weapons (not special weapons). Again their combat knives aren't up to close
combat. Use the non-heavy weapon carriers just as you would a regular tac
squaddie. Devastator squad members are represented by an upturned chevron.
Assault squad
Now we're smokin'! These guys are great. Five marines, all equipped with jump
packs that allow them to cover up to 24 cells for a mere 10 APs, and close
combat special weapons. And that is the point - get them stuck in as soon as you
safely can. Of course flying them in with no support and no smoke is asking for
it, but once you learn to use them they are possibly even more valuable than
Terminators because of their mobility. Give as many of them hand flamers as you
can. Why? Well, bolt pistols are super weak. Plasma pistols are not much better,
and they eat up ammo like crazy. Those plasma ammo slots are much better spent
on grenades. But the hand flamer has the distinct advantage of being able to set
an enemy alight in one shot. This is great for assault squaddies because most of
the time they will be right in the thick of things. Setting dudes on fire is a
sure way to reduce the odds against you in the enemy phase - this and a couple
of smoke grenades normally ensures you stay alive long enough to wade in and
massacre the enemy with your HTH weapons. And believe you me, the power fists
and axes really add up - especially if you gang on the baddies. You can't use a
jump pack if your marine is indoors or right under a tree or something, so keep
his head clear. Jump packs carry enough fuel for 120 cells of jumping. Assault
squad members are represented by crossed arrows.
Terminator squad
Terminators are equipped with special armour that makes them more like walking
tanks. Your squad of five can be equipped with two terminator heavy weapons, and
a selection of other Termie gear. Bear in mind certain limitations though.
Termies cannot carry anything - no grenades, no medkits, no extra ammo, no candy
bars. (??? Strange system ... I mean they have hands, right? Just strap stuff on
their armour like every other space marine, whydontcha) Also, Termies cannot run
(and as White Dwarf sez, they are poor at pole vaulting and rope skipping too
:p); that means they eat up more APs for movement than a regular marine.
However, their armour is plenty thick, and they soak up the hits well. Moreover
if you are playing to cream the opposition, the Assault cannon and Heavy flamer
are indispensable weapons. Terminators equipped with close combat weapons such
as the thunder hammer can take out squads of berserkers all by themselves and
still have energy left over to compose religious poetry. Putting them in front
is alright, but remember that their size and the fact that they can't crouch
will block line of sight for your other troops. They are represented by an
Ultramarine "U".
WEAPONS AND EQUIPMENT
Weapons
Detailed stats of the weapons can easily be found by looking through the
encyclopaedia. What I've done is to give, as always, my own opinion on how
effective they actually are in game combat, and how I think they should be used.
Weapons are rated for the following:
Strength - Weapon damage modifier.
Range - You know, I know.
Blast radius - Range of area effect, if any.
Damage potential - Maximum damage a weapon can inflict on HP or armour
Bolt pistol - The default weapon for your assault squad and most of your HQ. It
really sucks, change out if you can. It's really only good for blowing away
cultists and small furry mammals.
Plasma pistol- I'm going to take a bit of time here to rant about plasma weapons
in this game. Well, they suck big jobbies. OK, so you get sustained fire with
them. They also happen to have the smallest ammo mags available of all weapons -
so to take advantage of sustained fire, you're going to have to bring along a
lot of ammo. This wouldn't be so bad if they were kickass weapons, but as it is,
they are most definitely not. Anyhow, the plasma pistol is what you give your
assault squad if you run out of hand flamers. Don't even bother with much ammo,
since an assault squaddie is better off just chopping someone up anyway.
Actually, even if you stuck with the bolt pistol it wouldn't make a great
difference. Bah.
Hand flamer - Yaaaay! The weapon of choice for assault marines. Set your
opponents alight before they can gang up on you the next turn! One shot is all
it will take to render a heavy weapon CSM useless, and there's more than a fair
chance of that happening.
Bolter - Default weapon for Tac squad and Devastators. Lousy. Takes forever to
crack armoured marines. It has decent range, but really not effective for the AP
cost. Use this to finish off weakened foes or just to annoy them.
Plasma gun - Better than a bolter, but suffers from a great ammo hunger. A
flamer or meltagun is normally a better choice, unless you really need that bit
of extra range. Only for Tac Squad.
Flamer - Terror in enclosed spaces! Purify their souls! You see any bunched up
marines nearby and ... toast. Just be careful not to flame your own guys, or
block a passageway you need yourself. Suffers from crap range, so try and think
of mission requirements. Only for Tac Squad.
Meltagun - Yaaaaay! Again if you don't need the range, this is a great special
weapon. It sizzles the armour right off your enemies, and all at a decent AP
cost. You don't need to kill enemies outright ... just melt their armour and let
the bolters rip. Just a note - killing someone with a melta weapon means there
are no remains ... which means that enterprising CSMs can't run over to the dead
body and grab the weapon, which they sometimes do if the weapon is juicy enuff.
Only for Tac Squad.
Heavy bolter - Hmmm, not too bad. Great against unarmoured dudes in big pack (ie
cultists), since it penetrates better than a bolter and has sustained fire. It
works pretty well against armoured foes too; the drawback here is that the
sustained fire does eat the ammo. This is a flexible choice that provides a
balance between range and power. For Tac or Devastator squads.
Missile launcher - Flexible long ranged weapon. Can blast entrenched Chaos dudes
from all the way across the map. You can bring a selection of missiles depending
on the mission. And, a marine with 60 AP can fire twice a turn and still have AP
to spare! Doesn't require 30 APs a shot like the encyclopaedia sez. For Tac or
Devastator squads.
Krak : No area effect, but good to take out enemy heavy weapons and vehicles.
Plasma : Area effect, but crap armour penetration.
Melta : Area effect, and well worth their weight. Preferable over plasma any
day. Great for busting enemies before they break formation.
Frag : Blah. Don't bother.
Blind :Useful in the right circumstances. Can block line of sight for faraway
enemy heavy
weapon emplacements.
Antiplant : Whaa-? Don't bother either, just wait for them to get out of cover.
Multimelta - Ahahaha, turn those chaos traitors to puddles of slag. Area effect,
and if it doesn't kill 'em, it'll surely leave 'em freezing in their chaos
underoos. But it is notoriously short ranged, plus it takes 30 AP to fire.
Still, a great choice for indoor fights and against squads of armoured
terminators. For Tac or Devastator squads.
Lascannon - Tankbuster, for those evil enemy vehicles. Give this to someone with
a high ballistic skill, 'cos you don't want to miss a shot. It's good for frying
away armour on troops too, but kind of a waste. Has great range, though. For Tac
or Devastator squads.
Heavy Plasma Gun - This has two modes, max and low power. At max, it has an area
effect of 1 cell, great range and good armour penetration and damage. At low
power, the area effect is still there but armour penetration and damage is
greatly reduced. The problem is you have to wait two turns before the gun
charges to max. You waste a turn, and you waste a shot too if there's nothing
worth firing at in the charged turn. I don't recommend this weapon although itis
the best of the plasma weapons in this game. It's not good at what it's supposed
to do, which is kill lottsa dudes. For Tac or Devastator squads.
Serpent's Breath Flamer - Slightly more powerful than a flamer. The book says it
has greater range, but that's not so. It's slightly more powerful than normal,
though. Tac squad only.
Star Thrower Plasma Gun - Better penetration and damage than normal, but the
same other drawbacks. Tac squad only.
Mastercrafted anything - Adds longer range to the weapon, and has a slight to-
hit increase as well.
Nova Storm Plasma pistol - This is more powerful than normal, but doesn't have
the increased range the encyclopaedia boasts of. Assaut squad only.
Purifier Hand Flamer - Slightly more powerful than normal, but isn't double the
range of a hand flamer. It does fire 2 cells farther, though. Assault squad
only.
Storm Bolter - Whatever. Twin-linked bolters with sustained fire. Better than
bolters alone, but not by much. The default weapon for your Terminator squad, so
not much choice there. Termies only.
Assault cannon - This rocks! Only a Terminator can carry it, but, woohoo!
Sustained fire and a good armour penetration, plus killer damage. It'll take out
anything you want it to, even daemons and vehicles. Termies only.
Heavy Flamer - The other half of the dynamic duo. This fella has poor range,
like all flame weapons, but a high AP termie can blast around three or four
shots of area effect flames that'll psitively raze the baddies to the ground.
They'll all be running around screaming pathetically as they burn, or they'll be
stuck in a sea of fire wondering what happened. Use liberally for maximum fun.
Seriously, there's nothing like knowing where the enemy is going to appear,
flaming the whole area, and watching them all catch fire as they teleport in.
Termies only.
OK, that's about that for shooty stuff. Now let's take a look at the hand-to-
hand (HTH) items.
Combat knife - Default for Tac and devastator squads. You got no choice here.
Anyhow, it's a lousy weapon and you're in a bit of a desperate do if you're down
to using this. It can slice up blue horrors, cultists, and very weakened
marines.
Chainsword - The worst of all the special HTH weapons, switch out ASAP. Default
weapon for your assault squad.
Power sword - Nothing much, only slightly better than the chainsword. For
assault squad.
Power axe - Slightly better armour penetration than the power sword. For assault
squad.
Power fist - Good penetration, the best of the normal assault squad HTH weapons.
For Assault squad and termies.
Force axe - Ahhhh ... good. Good penetration and damage. The reason why your
Librarian can hold off berserkers and daemons who come at him. Too bad it's
Librarians only.
Crozius Arcanium - Same as the Force axe, and only for your Chaplain.
Vindicator Chainsword - Less penetration than a power fist, but more damage
potential. BUt I prefer penetration over damage. Assault squad only.
Juggernaut Power Fist - Mmmmmm ... good for cracking armour and squishing foes.
Best of the assault special HTH weapons in combat terms. Can even beat on
vehicles in a pinch. Assault squad only.
Reaper Power Axe - OK, in a campaign you'll find two. Although they're not
powerful, they give the wielder 20 more APs. That's 20 whole APs for any
purpose. Take this, man. Assault squad only.
Conciliator Power Sword - Cheh, just a power sword that makes sure you'll always
strike first by upping your Ini score. Not useful. Assault squad only.
Liberator Power Axe - Can't quite crack armour like a power fist, but kills
enemies pretty quick. Not too shabby a choice. Assault squad only.
Righteous Fury Power Sword - Again, just a power sword. At least you get two
free attacks, but the weakness of the weapon makes me shake my head. Assault
squad only.
Chainfist - Upgrade your Termies from power fists to this if you can. Even more
powerful than the Juggernaut carried by an assault marine. Will hold its own in
HTH. Can be used to rip apart obstacles and doors. Termies only.
Lightning Claws - Oops. Choosing these will give you only HTH capability. And
unless the stats in the encyclopaedia are wrong, it's just not as good as the
thunder hammer. So don't pick this. Termies only.
Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield - For the discerning HTH terminator. Only HTH
capability, but it will take out anything it comes into contact with. If you are
really daring, It can even beat up on vehicles and cause a real pounding. Equip
your non-heavy termies with this if you can swing the lack of a ranged weapon.
Can be used to bash down doors and other obstacles. Termies only.
Grenades and other Equipment
Grenades are your friends. Absolutely essential for the serious space marine. In
a random game, load up on offensive grenades in favour of ammo. You need a
better balance if you're playing the scripted campaign, but my opinions of the
grenades don't change.
Krak - Main offensive grenade. No blast radius, but works good to split open
armoured marines for weaker fire. Don't waste these on cultists. Stock up on
these for random scenarios, especially.
Blind - Very important in the campaign, less so in random scenarios. For
scenarios, just 1 per marine should be enough. The number you should carry in a
campaign mission varies. Smoke covers you from long range fire, but also means
you can't target them either. Smoke is most effective on flat ground - the
effect is severely lessened when thrown on slopes. Don't always count on just
one grenade to cover everything ... the smoke cloud varies in size, and can
sometimes be quite small.
Plasma- Area effect, but weak armour penetration. Not really worth the space.
Frag - Area effect. Only effective for damage against cultists. Frag grenades
are primarily used to knock enemies out of overwatch. Get in a position where
you can throw one round a corner, and hope the area effect catches any unseen
enemies. Useful only in campaign games, and even then I don't really use them
... I'm lazy so I just soak up the overwatch fire.
Antiplant - Yucks, what a waste of space. The AI isn't that bright about using
cover anyhow, so don't bring these, even in jungle/swamp environments.
Rad - This works goods, except you don't get very many. Rad grenades seed a
large area with harmful radiation that stays the whole scenario. Use these to
block important through routes - any enemies charging in will then have to take
sustained hits before they reach you, or waste APs going another way. Remember
not to block routes that you need to go past yourself, like bridges and stuff.
If you really need to seed a bridge, throw the grenade just past the bridge.
Chaos troops will normally run through all the irradiated cells, taking 2-3
hits. You can probably plan a route for your men that will expose them to only 1
hit max later on.
Vortex - Instant death! Plus area effect! Send 'em back to the warp. You get
very few of these, so use carefully. Best for taking out large clusters of enemy
termies. You can also exploit AI stupidity by throwing a vortex grenade at a
well-travelled spot. The grenade lingers for a turn, and the enemy will often
blindly walk into the swirl. I've killed nearly 2 squads worth of chaos
terminators in a random scenario this way, the poorly-programmed fools.
Stasis - Ah. Anyone (your men included) caught in the blast radius is cocooned
in an energy field and cannot move or perform any action. They are also
effectively out of the battle ... ranged shots and HTH doesn't seem to affect
them. Vortex grenades and spells will still wipe them out though. They can be
set on fire, but they won't break and I don't think they take damage either.
Haywire - OK, again I must confess I dunno what this is all about. It makes a
sparkle and a cute twinkly noise when it hits, but ... then what? I've thrown
this at enemy termies, but they still keep coming at me undeterred.
Meltabomb - Very powerful, but it takes AP to plant and set. It has a blast
radius so get away before it blows. You don't actually ever need this, except
maybe in the campaign - and even then, a bunch of krak grenades will accomplish
the same job.
Medipack - In a random scenario, about one is enough in case your marine gets
his nose punched in. Take two in a campaign. Healing is indeterminate ... it
seems to range between 20 -40 HP a pop.
Scanner - This calls up a simple grid display of the battlefield. It has less
renge than a scan spell and you can't distinguish enemies well. Your men are
blue dots, vehicles blue squares. Word bearers are red dots, and red squares for
vehicles. Daemons are yellow, radiation green. Not too useful, just choose Scan.
MARINE HONOURS
At the squad selection screen, you will notice some empty spaces on the right
hand. These are for honours awarded, if any.
Crux Terminatus - Any dude who kills at least 5 enemies in a scenario gets this
deaths head award. No bearing on random scenarios, but important to obtain in
the campaign for one reason - only veteran soldiers who have this honour can be
switched into termie armour.
Purity seal - This seal is awarded to any marine who goes 5 missions without
breaking.
Marksman - This is awarded to any marine who scores ten hits in a mission.
Imperial laurel - This is worth XP. Awarded to any marine who completes the
stated mission objective.
PSYKER POWERS
Your librarian gets a power for every level he's at. I must confess that I
haven't used all the powers available, because not all appear so useful. You may
well have a different opinion with regards to this section.
Hellfire - I always take this. OK range, plus area effect, plus flames that
roast and toast. Very rarely will characters cught by hellfire not burst into
flames. And cheap at 2 force points.
Lightning Arc - Not as useful as hellfire. It's got the same range, but not
reliable, plus expensive at 3 pooints. The lightning bolt will jump to the
nearest model if it kills it's first target and so on, in chain lightning way.
It doesn't discriminate between friend and foe though - if the nearest model is
your own guy, too bad. Also, the chances of it killing the first target are not
particularly high. Best used against lightly armoured or weakened foes - but
still seems like a waste.
The Gate - The first click sets up the entry gate, the second the exit gate.
It's cheap at 1 force point, but I don't really use it much. An unlimited number
of marines can use the portal until it ends.
Assail - The victim is pushed back, but takes no damage. So you have to push him
into something like flames or a vortex or whatever. Even for 1 point, it's crap.
Displacement - Hmmm. I don't normally use this unless it's for displacing a
squad into a suspicious room where they can do some ass-kicking. But, I concede
that it could be a versatile spell if you've adapted the tactics for it. OK cost
at 2 points.
Machine curse - Same range and cost as hellfire, but not as versatile. It does
affect ballistic weapons, but doesn't hurt the carrier. Just burn them, it's
better. And as for freezing vehicles in their tracks - well, there aren't a
whole lot of vehicles for you to curse.
Scan - Another must-have. For just 1 measly force point, you get to see exactly
where your enemies are and what equipment they're carrying. You can tough it out
without this spell in a random scenario, but it should really be chosen for the
campaign.
Quickening - One of the best spells there is, take all the time. For 2 points,
you can add 25 AP to a model and double their attacks! Whether you use this on
your Assault, Terminator or heavy weapons marines, you won't be disappointed.
Always cast this spell last, because the quickening effect can last for several
turns - if you cast another spell after quickening though, you cancel the
quickening effect automatically. Don't bother casting it on your own librarian
though, he'll only gain 25-20=5 APs. Make sure the intended target is within
range, and within the caster's line of sight.
Strength of mind - Fortify against psychic attack? What for? Kill the enemy
sorceror and you're done.
Smite - Expensive for the effect, I feel. Everyone in the affected area takes
damage.
Iron Arm - Wow, strength and toughness. Yeah, yeah. Super short ranged ... maybe
only HTH guys need it, but it's not very useful.
Teleportation - It seems useful, but you won't actually be using it often
because it'll cost you 20 APs to use this, and you won't have many left to cast
more spells even if you're in a good position to. Use it for escape? That's just
poor planning, why's your librarian in such a sticky situation anyhow?
Psychic Shield - Ummm, alright I guess. Protecting your librarian is important,
but I think crouching and proper placement should be adequate.
Destroy Daemon - I use this sometimes ... if it works, then you've just creamed
a daemon. But, I don't normally consider daemons a big threat so I'd rather
choose a spell that can affect any enemy.
Holocaust - Yeesh ... OK, everybody burns ... even your psyker! Pretty last
ditch, and for 3 whole force points too. Worrisome that you should be
considering such a self-destructive spell.
Your units on fire don't break, though, and can still be controlled. Every enemy
who runs into the affected area will also combust.
Scourging - Weak and girly. Waste of time.
Purge Psyker - Again, only good against psykers. Just shoot them to death and
save a spell.
Aura of Fire - Gives your psyker an edge in HTH, especially since it's only 1
point and reflects HTH attacks. A self-defence spell, but one I don't normally
choose.
Vortex - And this spell completes my essential quartet. So powerful you'll weep.
Every dang thing in the way is utterly destroyed - whole squads of Chaos troops
have been mashed by a well-aimed vortex. Make sure to clear the area in front
and to the side of your psyker of your own men though. Warning! If you haven't
downloaded the Chaos Gate patch, using this spell will sometimes quit the game
and punch you back to your desktop.
Storm of Wrath - Forces a Ldr check on affected enemy units ... but if
successful, only prevents them from advancing. I don't think the spell is worth
3 force points.
Aura of Fortitude - Same criticism as strength of mind.
So, if you're gunning to win, take Scan, Quickening, Hellfire and Vortex. You
can drop Scan in a random game and replace it with something else, that's OK.
ENEMIES
Chaos cultists
Jeez, if "coming to Chaos" means ending up like these dudes, then I'd really
rather not. They have sore throaty voices, look like power ranger puttees, wear
rags and explode in green blood. Naaaah. As opposition, they are a joke. Their
laspistol has crap armour penetration, if they even manage to hit you in the
first place. The vast majority of them are armed with frag grenades that can put
you out of overwatch, but not much else. Their leadership rating sucks too, so
if you beat up on their squad, chances are the rest will run for it. Actually
I'd prefer it if they just continued coming at me - saves the trouble of chasing
them down. On Hero setting, they take at most 2 bolter hits to kill - never seen
one that stood up to more. So even if these guys come at you in huge hordes,
take it as a chance to rack up kills and Marine Honours.
Word Bearer Chaos Space Marines (CSMs)
Whew, what a mouthful. CSMs are corrupt space marines; as such, they have the
same profile as your troops. Their armour is as least as good as, if not better,
than yours. Bolter shells splash off them like rain, so don't count on sustained
bolts to take them out. Much better to bust them up a bit with grenades first,
if you can. Because they are shooty troops, they are susceptible to close combat
against HTH assault troops. Their knife won't hurt you unless they get lucky,
which is not often. Their aim is good though, and they will lay down a hail of
fire given half the chance. This can be hazardous especially if they are armed
with more than a simple bolter. Always take out the heavy/special weapons CSMs
ASAP, or be prepared to suffer long range pounding. CSMs use all your
heavy/special weapons with the exception of the heavy plasma gun. CSMs will also
aggressively throw grenades of all normal sorts at you if they can't get a good
shot in. They tend to advance more cautiously than most of the othe troop types,
and will use overwatch tactics and cover if they can.
Khorne Berserkers
These marines have given themselves over to worshipping the Blood God Khorne ...
"Blood for the Blood God, Skulls for Khorne"! Anyhoo, they are the Chaos assault
troops. But in this game, they are far inferior to your Assault squad. Being
equipped with only close range weapons, their only option is to run in and
attack. But, although their charge distance is prodigious, they have no brains
at all. Judicious estimation will leave your troops just outside their charge -
meaning you get to slaughter them in your next turn, whilst being safe from
their attacks 'cos they've got no APs left. Berserkers, being, well, berserk,
will never take the opportunity to gang up on you even if they've got you
surrounded, so that's one less thing to worry about. Armour wise, they are
resistant to bolter fire, but krak grenades work wonders. Learn to use troops
with better HTH weapons to take them down. Berserkers are more a nuisance than
anything else; they are only a threat in large numbers that have suddenly sprung
up right next to you, or when confronting troops armned only with combat knives.
Furthermore, the only berserkers who have a decent chance of chopping you up are
the ones with power weapons - the chainsword guys are pretty weak.
Chaos Chaplain
This guy is a heretic chaplain ... if I'm not wrong only the Word Bearers still
bother with chaplains for their unholy rituals 'cos they were an especially
devout chapter before they went bad. Well, whatever. He's OK in HTH, but since
he blindly charges into anything you care to throw at him, he normally doesn't
last long. Just treat him like a berserker.
Chaos Sorcerer
A little more dangerous, because of his combat spells. He will rarely run all
the way in for HTH, preferring to cast spells and lob grenades. Try and take him
out soon, because although his spells fail a good amount of the time, a well-
placed Pink Fire of Tzeentch (cool name huh) could ruin a careful setup. His
armour's no good, anyhow.
Chaos Terminators
Aieeee! Flee before the might of Chaos! Well, OK, Chaos termies are hard but not
too terribly so. Like all power armoured foes, they are vulnerable to fire. Even
a simple hand flamer has a good chance of setting them alight. Otherwise, the
only weapons that will effectively hurt them are heavy/special weapons, special
close combat weapons, and krak grenades. Chaos Termies have the reaper
autocannon - the nasty looking three-barrelled one. Don't let that guy live too
long - once he's within range, as few as two solid shots will take out one of
your marines. Chaos termies, being of older design, also have no heavy flamer.
Instead, termies without the autocannon all have a combi weapon. Aside from a
bolter/bolter combi, there are flamer/bolters and melta/bolters. Learn which are
which, because the meltagun combi can be a real pain, and the flamer combi will
just light your guys up. They all also have old but effective HTH weapons, so no
HTH unless you use a termie yourself, or can gang up on him. Normal knife-
wielding marines will get creamed.
Lord Zymran
Ewww. Ugly and brown. He's not too tough on his own, aside from his armour which
seems slightly more effective than the average marine. His plasma pistol seems
to have a much better penetration than the regular piffle gun, so don't let him
get too many shots in. He's really nothing much, but his stupid Termie bodyguard
makes up for that.
Hellhound
This looks like a cross between a lizard and a dog. This lesser daemon is
basically a four-legged berserker - great charge distance, close range bite
attacks. Just be wary of its charge. The bite itself isn't too bad, but the
hellhound can be surprisingly resilient to krak grenades. They rarely burn and
break from flame attacks too, so fire is no good.
Bloodletter
The red daemon with the cone head and big feet. Being one of Khorne's minions,
he has only HTH attack capability. His charge isn't as lengthy as the hellhound,
but his hellblade packs a mean bite, so don't let him get close. Krak works good
on him, fire not effective for setting him alight, but alright for diverting his
path so he wastes AP.
Flamer
The daemon with the beak and the skirt. This guy is a pain because aside from
pretty good hit resistance, he also has a flame attack (normal flamer
equivalent). Take him out before he gets close enough to let go his fire. Also,
don't ever attack him HTH unless you're sure you'll kill him before he gets a
chance to fight back. He has no HTH attack, so he will end up firing off a flame
burst that most probably will set your guy alight.
Pink Horror
Loser. This dude just runs around making goofy noises and hoping to get to HTH.
No great charge range, merely average hit resistance. His "special attack" is
... hold your breath ... splitting into two blue horrors when he dies!
Blue Horror
Loser. This dude just runs around making goofy noises and hoping to get to HTH.
No great charge range, crap hit resistance. Even normal marines with knives can
kick his blue ass.
Bloodthirster
Oaaah. This is a greater daemon of Khorne. Don't play HTH, you will die
terribly. He eats Termies for breakfast that way. But sadly, for all his battle
prowess and resistance to punishment, he has no ranged attack so just keep away
and pound his brown behind. In the tabletop game, he can fly around and pick his
targets, so he's mean. Here, he seems to have kept his wings but doesn't use
them at all. Too bad for him, I guess. Oh, If you get too close, you'll have to
take a break test to see if you guy turns and runs - so don't.
Lord of Change
This is the big bird Daemon, favoured of Tzeentch. I have tried him out in HTH
and he is also quite fearsome. He has some combat spells also. The sad thing is,
he's done in by poor programming. The only time you meet him, he just stands
there and lets you attack him without retaliating. He'll only wake up if you get
right up close to him, and why would you want to do that?
TACTICS AND TIPS
These here are general tips/tactics for use with random scenarios. They will
work with the scripted missions also, but I'm consodering writing a more
detailed walkthru that will provide specific details on how to beat those
missions. You can determine the nature of the random scenario from the scenario
generator, so play around with those options. Most are pretty self explanatory;
the "level of Ultra skill" merely refers to how high up the experience ladder
your marines start out.
1. Choose your squads wisely! You can drag and drop marines at the character
select screen. Switch out losers with fewer APs for more industrious dudes. Take
note also of things like ballistic skill and weapons skill. You don't need high
BS for assault marines, and you don't need high WS for shooty marines. Give the
marines with the highest APs the heavy weapons - depending on the weapon, a high
AP marine can get off 2 shots of a heavy weapon in one turn. There's also no
real need to take most HQ characters unless you think you need the grenades.
Some say the more marines the merrier, but I find it a hassle to keep having to
mind deadweight.
2. Equip well! After choosing your weapons, let's consider ammo. The way I play
(more grenade intensive), I don't shoot if I can throw. I give bolter marines
only 2 magazines (the one they start with and one extra). I don't take any
plasma weapons because you will need at least three or more refills - not worth
the space. I give missile launchers a total of 4 fills, or sometimes even 3.
Heavy bolters need all 5 ammo mags, trust me. Multi meltas get only 2 mags max,
because wach mag holds quite a bit. Same for Lascannons. I generally don't give
flamers more than 2 mags, but I allow for up to 3 if it's a meltagun. Of course,
this is all up to style ... and if you intend not to bring along certain squads
or limit your number of squads, you might have to factor in more ammo. Note this
advice is for random scenarios, OK?
Once you've settled ammo, pack it in with grenades. See the equipment section
for my opinion on grenades. Generally, the most useful are krak, blind, and rad.
If you're playing random game, then you'll have 3 vortex grenades from the
start. These are absolute death, so bring them and throw wisely. Other special
grenades like the stasis grenade can be fun too, but krak is safest for damage.
Don't bother with too many medkits - two is more than enough, and one will
normally suffice. A scanner is also quite pointless because I don't like the dot
display - I find it not as informative as I would have preferred.
3. After equipping, save your game. Should you realise that your weapon
selection for the scenario is not ideal, you can re-equip should you want to
start over.
4. Send expendable marines to scout out the enemy. It's important to know where
they're coming from and what they're packing. The scan spell is especially
useful here. Pull your scout back to a defensible position once you roughly know
where the enemy is coming from.
5. Don't forget to always select the run button for your normal marines. Running
saves a lot of APs as compared to walking, and there's no other difference. I
remind you of this because the interface will always reset to walk after you
move a termie - they can't run, remember?
6. The high ground is good, but getting it can be a pain. Chaos will blast you
the minute you appear. You might like to send up a scout first, see if he gets
shot at. If so, you can throw some smoke to cover the high ground and then
proceed to move the rest of your guys there.
7. Don't cluster about when the enemy draws nearer. It's a good way to get hit
by area effect weapons. But don't spread out so much that your men are put into
places with no cover, or poor firing angle.
8. Learn how to use overwatch, and when. If I have a clear attack at an enemy in
my turn, I won't save anything for overwatch - might as well get rid of him now
before he even gets a turn. Plus, I get to choose how I want to attack (which
means grenades over bolter fire for me).
Three or four bolter shots in overwatch isn't worth a good grenade. Use
overwatch when you really don't know what to do with leftover APs and don't want
to waste them. Weapons with area effect are not too suited for overwatch - your
man will fire at the first single enemy he sees, wasting the area effect, or
worse, blasting a friend. Be careful too of blocking your own fire - characters
at the back on overwatch might sometimes fire into friendly ranks if they are
blocking. Remember that frag grenades will knock you out of overwatch, and the
enemy is very fond of tossing frags about.
9. You can afford to wait a turn at the start, not really doing much besides
scouting. The AI will reveal its positions to you in the next turn and charge
all the berserkers and HTH troops who will normally still be unable to reach
you. This gives you time to formulate a better strategy. Generally also, let the
Chaos troops come to you and not the other way around - the AI is stupid that
way. Don't waste APs on movement when they'll happily run within range.
10. Deliver the so-called "beat down". When entering HTH, surround the
unfortunate victim. Select all the HTH weapons by clicking on them. Then, hold
down SHIFT and click on you surrounding men. You should now have selected more
than one of your marines at the same time. Move the cursor over the victim and
you should see the HTH combat sign above each of your marines. If not, you might
have forgotten to select that marine's HTH weapon. Then click on your victim.
Each subsequent marine after the first should now get an extra HTH attack -
guaranteed to whup ass.
11. Soften armoured troops with grenades. Here I go again, extolling the virtues
of the grenade. But trust me, it makes a world of difference. Many times, 3 or 4
krak grenades is enough to kill a regular armoured marine. 20+ bolter shots
might barely wound him. Meltaguns and lascannons also do wonders for removing
pesky armour, leaving their soft white underbellies open for your smaller fire.
12. When they're clustered together, let them have it with area weapons. Missile
launchers with melta missiles can hit enemy formations even before they've
started to disperse. Multimeltas make short work out of berserkers who have
foolishly charged into your position.
13. Control choke points with fire and radiation. Enemies will be forced to take
damage if they plow through flames or cells contaminated by your rad grenades.
Even if they don't walk through the affected area, they'll have to waste APs
going around. Note about flame - the area effect can be broken if you fire on
large slopes, so try and catch Chaos on flat ground.
14. Learn to crouch and take cover. Ending your turn crouched or in cover makes
sure some enemies won't be able to spot you, and really reduces chances of
taking damage from those who do attack you from a distance. Be aware also that
certain cover can be destroyed - especially those dinky barrels. They behave
like frag grenades if they blow. Termie Close combat weapons can also be used to
destroy locked doors and other cover - use the direct fire button.
15. Yup, the direct fire button. This is useful for area effect weapons. Instead
of aiming at a particular enemy, you can use this button to aim for a central
spot that will catch the most number of enemies. Use this button also to aim
area effect grenades.
16. Factor in the hidden points cost of direction change. Always leave a few
points spare ... it's irritating to have 30 APs left to fire a multimelta, but
then spend an AP turning to face the enemy squad - whoops, no more multimelta
shot. In the same vein, take note that turning to face an enemy for HTH doesn't
take any points at all, So with just 10 APs, you can still attack an enemy right
behind you in HTH.
17. Use your assault squad to good effect. These guys should all have more than
56 APs each, so fly them in, flame a few dudes or chop them up, then either fly
them out or throw smoke or run to cover. First to suffer should be any CSM with
a heavy weapon, so the rest of your men can move around unimpeded. The 2 reaper
power axes are invaluable here, because they give the wielder an extra 20 APs.
If that marine also happens to be under a Quicken spell ... well ...
18. Stop squads of berserkers with a Termie equipped with either a chainfist or
thunder hammer. The berserkers, when charging in, tend to go for important HQ
characters (who still normally have more potent HTH weapons so it's not too
bad). But if a tasty HTH equipped termie is nearby, it's an even toss-up as to
who the berserkers will spring for. And if they run into the termie, they're not
long for the world. Blood for the blood god!
19. If you're outgunned, throw a lot of smoke. This will block line of sight and
save you some grief. But remember that smoke hides your enemies too. If there's
some space in between you and the chaos squads, throw the smoke further from
you. This gives you more unsmoked ground to move about in, and allows you to
blast away at any troops emerging from the smoke while allowing a bit of
reaction room. If you are caught in smoke, a way to identify a suspected enemy
position is this: just click on the suspected cell and see if the PC allows you
to move there. If not, there's probably a hidden unit waiting. If you need to
attack it, you have to walk adjacent to the cell and use HTH, or else use direct
fire, which is less reliable. If you know a massed unit of longe range heavy
weapons is on a vantage point waiting to let you have it, send a spotter to
scope them out, then send a blind missile right into their midst. This forces
them to move off their vantage point to get a clear shot, or at least makes them
stay put and not bother your men as they move out.
20. Move in close to CSMs if you can, or throw smoke near them. Often, instead
of blasting at you, they'll start throwing frag grenades instead, which are less
dangerous. If you get right next to them, they won't fire at you either, but use
their crap combat knife.
21. Your assault cannon termie is your friend. Unleash him on heavy armour, like
enemy termies. 2 or 3 shots will whack a regular marine and about 5 will send a
chaos terminator back to the Eye of Terror. Don't bother with upgrading his
power fist 'cos his cannon will clear anyone before they even get close. Putting
him on overwatch is sometimes a useful tactic, if you know where the enemy will
come from - bear in mind that his sustained fire is reset if he changes
direction. Likewise, the heavy flamer termie will be responsible for torching a
goodly number of foes and making important places impassable to the enemy. He,
however, should be given a chainfist to stave off the hordes of berserkers who
realise the worth of his heavy flamer and try to take him out.
22. Anything is better than bolter fire. Storm bolter fire, which one might
think should be double the worth since it's 2 bolters, is also crap. Use bolter
fire only when the enemy is too far for more powerful alternatives - just to
give those chaos guys something to think about.
23. Make sure your men are facing outwards and the general directions of the
clockface when in strange areas. No dirty chaos bugger is going to sneak up on
your marines that way :)
24. Make full use of your Librarian. Although he's a bit of a baby, make sure he
does have some form of line of sight to the enemy because many of his combat
spells need LOS. Just make sure he gets to cover after he casts. Let him handle
the occasional berserker or daemon himself in HTH, he's OK that way. It's long
ranged fire he's susceptible to.
25. How do you clear suspicious rooms? Well, this is my method. Cast a Scan
spell first, to determine just who exactly might be waiting for you behind the
door. If there are CSMs near, but not in a position to fire on overwatch the
minute the door opens, then have one or two regular marines lob frag grenades at
the CSMs when the door opens. After knocking them out of possible overwatch,
your special/heavy weapons marines and Terminators can then charge the room. If
there are CSMs on overwatch right behind the door, check the weapons they use.
If it's just bolters, you can put Termies right in front to block the largely
ineffectual bolter fire, and then cream the CSMs with HTH. Move your termies
into the room, and the rest of your men can mop up. If the enemy is packing
heavy heat and you don't want to expose your valuable terminators, you can still
put them right in front, but crack open some smoke to cover everyone. The CSMs
won't open fire on overwatch when the door opens 'cos they can't se anyone. But
you know where they are, and will probably be in position to open some HTH
whupass on them.
What if you didn't cast a scan spell? Well, this is what I'd do. Put two regular
marines in front of the door. Keep your special/heavy marines behind them, but
allow a one or two cell space in case some enemy pops up with are effect
overwatch. Your Termies should be on hand also. Open the door. Right - anyone
there? If they're waiting, they've probably shot off some rounds at your
blocking marines. Return that fire, but remember to leave 2 APs so your front
marines can crouch, leaving your heavy weapons marines with clear shots at
remaining enemies. Then place your heavy weapons men and your termies on
overwatch so any remaining APs can be spent on thumping CSMs who might expose
themselves to the door in their upcoming turn.
If you're feeling aggressive, just use your initial two marines to charge the
room once the door opens, immediate enemy or no. Have them lob frag to clear
overwatch, or simply run in and tough it out. This exposes all the possible
enemy to your sight and lets you plan how to advance the rest of your force in
order to clear the room. If you've miscalculated and the room opposition is
overwhelming, not something you can clear in the rest of your turn, then just
throw smoke to cover your troops. Of course, this tactic only applies if you can
use you first marines to run in - sometimes their way might be blocked with
CSMs.
What I'd like to see in future games!
Well, 3D support, for one. And better looking 3D modelled sprites. It would be
great to have a free floating camera too, that we could rotate about the
battlefield. Also, I'd like an auto zoom function everytime a character does
something - y'know, zoom in, watch him fire, then return to the normal "I want
to see the whole map" screen. I want better firing, hand-to-hand, injury and
death animations please! The game could also do with more varied backgrounds and
maps. The in game cut scenes aren't as enlivening as they could have been,
more's the pity. Despite what some people think, I enjoyed the cheesy quotes and
really wouldn't mind some more!
Oh, would it be too much to ask for a replay function, or some sort of autolog
whereby the computer could generate some sort of battle report later? The battle
replay would just be neat to see the way events unfolded, like a mini Warhammer
40k movie.
I'd really enjoy a game like Chaos Gate from the chaos side too. I mean, I don't
see why we can't play the baddies except in multiplayer mode. Wouldn't it be
cool to be in control of say, Warmaster Abaddon and lead a Black Crusade out of
the warp? They could allow us elites like the old favourite Berserkers, maybe
Plagumarines, and all the nice new units like Raptors, Obliterators and stuff,
and we could go on a world-chomping rampage through units of pitiful Imperial
Guard and Space Marines (from some other chapter from the typical Ultramarines
who seem overrepresented as it is - maybe Imperial Fists, I'm partial to their
bright yellow colour!).
Whatever comes out, I wish they'd stick to the tried and tested turn-based AP
system ... maybe I'm just not very advanced, but I can't get the hang of RTS ...
I'm too slow, *sniff*. I want the time to think through my moves without the
evils of time pressure crunching on my limited brain. And I want the time to
zoom in my troops and admire them from various angles before letting them run
loose over the enemy - I think surveying the battlefield is half the fun of this
sort of game.
- INTERFACE
- Options
- The cathedral bridge
- The combat screen
- UNITS AND CHARACTERS
- Character statistics
- Descriptions and opinions on your troops
- WEAPONS AND EQUIPMENT
- Weapon descriptions
- Grenades and other equipment
- MARINE HONOURS
- PSYKER POWERS
- Descriptions and opinions on psyker powers
- ENEMIES
- Descriptions and opinions on Chaos
- TACTICS AND TIPS
INTERFACE
The first screen you'll see is a main screen with the Warhammer 40k title on it.
By the way, in case you haven't noticed already, hot text on all the tabs and
buttons in this game can be seen if you just let the cursor hover over the area.
Let's explore the "options" tab a little.
Keyboard settings - Keyboard settings let you adjust the various keyboard
command, naturally. Have a look at this screen and familiarise yourself with the
shortcuts, as they can save a lot of mousework throughout the game.
Show paths - Very useful; maps out the route your marines will take from point A
to B. Sometimes you'll notice they walk through fire or other hazards, in which
case you can then plan another route. Keep this on.
Point saving - This interrupts your troops from their movement path when they
reach an action point (AP) level required to fire off one shot with their
selected weapon. This is useful for beginners because it allows you to plan for
overwatch, and gives you a couple of spare points for little things like
kneeling or changing direction. You can still override the interruption by
clicking to restart movement. Experienced players who know exactly what they
want to do and the AP needed to do it will probably find point-saving an
annoyance. Your call, though.
Grid - Creates a grid overlay on the map. Don't really see the need for this,
plus it makes the map look cluttered.
Autocut - The map is layered with up to seven height levels. If this option is
on, your character will only be able to view terrain and features at his height
level or below. You can still manually adjust the visible height level by
pressing keys 1-7 on the keyboard. Well, why should you leave this on? Because
if not, you might have difficulty seeing characters who will be blocked by high
terrain/buildings. I find it useful to keep this on and manually change height
levels if I need to take a detailed look at the map.
Play movies - If you say so! :)
Unit animation - For those with slow computers, you know what to do.
Music - I turned this off after the first few games because although it's
appropriately spooky sounding, it's distraction. And repetitive, too.
Voices - Some hate 'em. I don't, I think it gives character to the units.
The two sliders are for speed of unit animation (which is unslidable if
animation is off), and speed of other stuff like flames and smoke. Choose your
music and voice volume from the next two sliders, and your screen resolution
too.
Note on Level of Difficulty - upping the level affects enemy smarts, enemy
skills, and chances of reinforcements. Mighty Hero is the same as Hero, except
you have only one automatic save when the turn ends, a character is killed, or
you exit the game.
The Cathedral bridge
Once you've set up a game, you will appear in the cathedral bridge of your
ship.
Always go to Mission Briefing to obtain your mission objectives, and to open up
the squad config door. You can access an options screen from the bridge too.
Choose and configure squads
Alright. You can choose a number of squads, depending on the mission at hand.
Select and deselect squads by clicking on their representative icon. Do the same
for characters by clicking on them too. Clicking on their name allows you to
edit it. You can rearrange squad members by dragging and dropping. However, only
characters with a "Crux Terminatus" award can be dropped into Terminator armour.
Read the section on units and characters to see how you should choose your men.
Once you've selected your squads, go through the right door to equip them.
There, each character will have a list of available equipment displayed once
he's selected. There is the weapons & ammo tab, the misc equipment tab, and the
grenades tab. Clicking on equipment will add it to your man's inventory, and
clicking equipment already in the inventory will send it back to the armoury.
Again, read the weapons and equipment section to see what you should choose. The
little book at the bottom of the screen calls up the in-game encyclopaedia,
which you really should read to get a working knowledge of the game - it's worth
it for a quick reference on weapon stats especially. You can go back to the
cathedral bridge through the right door ... if your psyker Librarian is allowed
to choose a new spell, he will be allowed to do so at this point. Choose
carefully because although you can return to reselect and reconfigure your
squads, the psyker powers will be unchangeable.
Choose and configure vehicles
This door can be opened only if you are authorised to use vehicle for your
mission. The only vehicle you can configure is the Rhino troop carrier - just
drag and drop up two 2 squads of normal marines or 1 squad of terminators
inside. They can mount and dismount vehicles in combat if needed. They can also
fire out the sides. They will be protected from enemy fire too, but if the
vehicle goes, so do your men.
The combat screen
The top of the screen is obviously a pictorial representation of the units and
terrain.
If a movement button is selected, the cursor shows green when over a friendly
unit, and changes to a red targeting cursor when placed over an enemy. To move,
simply place the green cursor and left-click. If you can move to that terrain,
the cursor will indicate a double triangle. If you are trying to select a spot
that is impassable, the cursor will show a green box with a cross to tell you.
If Show Paths is selected, the route will be displayed and you can confirm by
left-clicking one more time.
When the cursor moves over an enemy, or the direct fire button is selected, the
red targeting cursor appears. Three numbers will be shown. The top is the
percentage chance to hit. I'm not sure about the second (any help guys?) but I
think it's some sort of modifier for cover. The third indicates range. If
everything is OK, the top right of the cursor will show an eye icon and a target
icon. If you get an eye icon with a cross, it means that your line of sight
(LOS) to the target is blocked, or you aren't facing the right way. If there is
a blockage, you can't hit the target. If you are facing the wrong way, clicking
on the target will make your character face the target and fire, but he will use
some APs for the direction change. Sometimes you will get a scanner icon with a
cross in the top right corner. This means that you are out of range and must
move closer.
Lets see what the rest of the screen is about.
The top left of the info screen (which is the bottom half of the whole screen)
is the visible enemies gauge. Every enemy your man can spot is indicated.
Berserkers are the Khorne icon (the one that looks like an "X"), Terminators
(which I will abbreviate to termies) are the skulls, Chaos Space Marines (CSMs)
are the empty circle, and daemons and HQ characters are the filled circle.
Clicking on any icon will move the screen to the appropriate enemy.
Immediately below that is your selected man's stats. There is his unit
designation, his portrait, his name, his APs, armour and HP. Click on the
marine's portrait to center the screen on him. To the right of those stats is
the current visible height level. Some areas of the game screen will be blacked
out. You can make these areas visible by adjusting the height level from this
bar or through the keyboard. The blue squares to the right of this bar allow you
to change the map size from close-up to faraway pan.
The top middle of the info screen has little icons representing your squads.
Clicking on an icon will move the screen to the leader of that squad.
Under that row is a lot of buttons. The first allows you to access game options
and the save/load screen. The next calls up a (useless) mini-map. The next
refreshes your mission briefing in case you forgot what you were supposed to do
:p
The next button is the important inventory button. When you call up an inventory
screen, you can use items such as medkits and scanners, drop items, throw items
to other marines, and view the encyclopaedia. Clicking on a grenade allows you
to throw a grenade offensively too (ie the grenade blows up instead of just
lying there). After selecting throw grenade, you will notice neither your
ballistic weapon or melee weapon is now selected. Instead, you get a target
cursor. You can throw grenades anywhere within range and LOS - not necessarily
at an enemy.
To quit throwing, just click on one of your normal weapons or a movement button.
The next button will move the screen to the next marine in your squad. The
button after that will move the screen to the next visible enemy in your list.
Use these buttons if you're not sure where to locate certain marines.
The three boxes under the row of buttons are your ammo gauge and weapon
indicators respectively. Remember that after a round of hand-to-hand (HTH)
combat, the selected weapon is automatically your melee weapon. You have to
manually select your ballistic weapon if you want to use that.
The top right row starts with the aimed shot button. Don't use this at all -
doesn't seem to affect the to hit percentage in any way - maybe it increases
chances to damage?
Then the direct fire button. Learn how to use this. Especially for area effect
weapons, the best spot to fire may not be at a particular enemy, but an empty
cell. Or you might might want to use a terminator HTH weapon such as a chainfist
to attack an obstacle. This is the button to force the cursor to change to the
targeting cursor.
The walk button is in my opinion, useless. No marine should walk if he can run.
Just be careful because termies can only walk. So when moving a marine after
moving a termie, reset the button back to the run button. There's also a
crouch/uncrouch button.
If you have selected a marine with a special skill eg librarian, there will be a
special button to use this skill. If the skill is unusable, the button is
blanked out. To heal marines, your apothecary has to be adjacent to and facing
his intended marine before the button is available. For librarians, their
special button also comes with a little number indicating the number of force
points available to them this round - up to 6.
The retrieve button can be used to open crates with the imperial marking. You
must be facing and adjacent to the crate. Pressing this button when you are nex
to and facing a friend (whether alive or dead) allows you to exchange equipment
from inventory. Remember tht you must have free slots or you'll be wasting your
time. It also costs 4 AP for every exchange you make.
Pull switch and open door - you can use these, right?
Then there's the overwatch button. Your character will use any leftover points
to fire his primary ballistic weapon in the enemy's turn. Your marine will fire
at the first enemy that appears. See the tactics section on how to use
overwatch.
Formation movement has 2 sorts - the top option makes all your marines face
forward, and the bottom option will automatically arrange your marines with some
of them facing the sides and back to prevent sneak attacks. You can click and
hold the left mouse button to select more than one marine, or use SHIFT click
for more precision.
The next button allows you to get marines out of vehicles like Rhinos ... to
select a marine in a vehicle, use the Marine Icons and the Next Marine buttons,
and then click on the vehicle button to get them out. And of course there's the
end turn buttton.
UNITS AND CHARACTERS
Every one of your men is rated for certain abilities, the higher the better.
Action points (AP) - Gotta have lots. I think anyone with less than 54 is sort
of sucky (at the highest experience level).
Health (HP) - Zero and you're an ex-space marine.
Armour - Absorbs damage from hits that can't penetrate. Always 40 for normal
armour, 110 for Terminators. Wow.
Ballistic skill (BS)- Determines to-hit for ranged weapons. Affected by range,
weapon, cover and smoke.
Weapons skill (WS) - To-hit for HTH weapons. Affected by weapon type.
Strength - Determines how far you can throw stuff. This score is used for HTH if
higher than WS.
Toughness - Affects how much damage you take if armour doesn't cover you.
Initiative - Who strikes first in HTH.
Attacks - The number of unmodified HTH attacks in one round of HTH combat.
Leadership - Sometimes units have to take a break test to see if they run ...
like when a unit is decimated, or a Greater Daemon gets too close. Your guy has
to make a roll against his LD score. If he's within five cells of his squad, the
highest Ld score is used for all.
Enemies Killed - Shows 'em who's a bad mutha.
Missions - Bragging rights?
Experience points (XP) - How much your character has currently got. Every
character starts at at level 1 in a campaign game ... by accumulating more XP,
he raises level and his stats increase. I don't propose to talk much about XP in
this FAQ because it really has no bearing on a random scenario. Rest assured
that if I do write a walkthru for the campaign, though, I will put in a section
about gaining XP etc.
HQ
The HQ squad is the row of guys at the bottom of the character selection screen.
Some members may only be selectable once you complete a certain number of
missions. HQ member are represented by a golden eagle.
The Captain
Cpt Kruger - your erstwhile leader. He isn't available to you until the last
mission, but that's no big deal. I find him kinda annoying, especially during
the cut scenes. I mean, I know the Imperium of Man is a self-righteous sort of
organisation by definition, but this guy really sounds like he's got a big stick
up his bum. He looks dumb too, with the broom bristles on the top of his helmet.
Abilities wise, I have little idea why he happens to be your top commander. His
stats can't even match up to a regular trooper - even in leadership *koff koff*.
He's only average in HTH, and his power sword doesn't really have a great deal
of armour penetration or damage. Even if he strikes first, he'll take his time
to actually finish off a well-armoured opponent. His ballistic skill is not bad,
which means he'll hit what he wants to. Again though, he's limited by his
compulsory plasma pistol - the plasma pistol's distinct lack of capability has
been covered already, so I won't bother here. In conclusion, since he doesn't
have any special skills, he's just another pack mule for the last mission. Try
and keep him at the back because like all HQ characters, he seems to take damage
easily and it is kind of embarrassing to have your captain bumped off in the
last mission, even if he is a whining pansy.
The Chaplain
This guy is supposed to provide spiritual guidance to the rest of his battle
brothers. That doesn't mean squat in Chaos Gate though. Again, just a pack mule
unless he's expressly required. However, his armour looks a lot cooler than
Kruger's, plus his Crozius Arcanium is quite a kickass HTH weapon. He should
have little trouble defending himself against berserkers, unless they always
strike first.
The Apothecary (medic)
Ahhh ... an alright choice provided you keep him away from the fighting - he
soaks damage like a sponge. Moreover, he has no HTH weapon - he uses his teeny
bolt pistol if engaged in close combat. So again - keep him out of trouble. If
he has to be around, you can load him up with an assortment of grenades (and
medkits, if you like playing in character). The medic has the ability to heal
hit points in combat. Every one AP of his translates into one HP in healing.
Bear in mind that he is the only dude who can restore Termie HP, since they
can't use medkits. You have to balance the need to keep him in a position to
heal Termies, who are frontliners, and the need to protect his wimpy ass though.
Remember also that when he uses his healing ability, all available APs are used
up. He will also rise up if previously crouching, and have no APs left to squat
again, so be sure he's behind cover. You have two apothecaries to choose from,
so pick the one with higher APs. His combat skills don't really matter.
The Techmarine
The techmarine is the equivalent of a machine priest in Warhammer 40k. His
special skill is only expressly required in certain missions, and unusable
otherwise - another grenade carryboy for you, if you choose to bring him along.
His pwer axe is alright in HTH, and he'll be able to take care of himself
against berserkers and demons.
The Librarian
This guy is the most useful combat member of the HQ team. Bring him along the
moment you can, and let him kill stuff so he can raise to his max level ASAP in
the campaign. His force axe will chop up close combat troops, and his selection
of spells will aid you immeasurably. His only drawback is his weakness to
damage, and the fact that the AI always marks him out for death if it can.
Always end his turn crouched, 'K? You have 4 Librarians to choose from, so APs
and weapon skill should be the priorities.
Tactical squad
The Tac squad is the basic marine organisational unit. It's a five man squad,
with one special or heavy weapon allowed. Because of their wimpy combat knives,
don't let these guys go HTH. Keep them as a "shooty" squad, for throwing all
manner of useful grenades, and for shielding your more important troops, if
necessary. Their regular power armour can soak up a surprising amount of bolter
fire. Whether you arm them with a special or heavy weapon really depends on the
sort of mission you undertake. Tac squaddies are represented by an upwards
pointing arrow.
Devastator squad
Your heavy support squad - two men out of five are allowed to carry heavy
weapons (not special weapons). Again their combat knives aren't up to close
combat. Use the non-heavy weapon carriers just as you would a regular tac
squaddie. Devastator squad members are represented by an upturned chevron.
Assault squad
Now we're smokin'! These guys are great. Five marines, all equipped with jump
packs that allow them to cover up to 24 cells for a mere 10 APs, and close
combat special weapons. And that is the point - get them stuck in as soon as you
safely can. Of course flying them in with no support and no smoke is asking for
it, but once you learn to use them they are possibly even more valuable than
Terminators because of their mobility. Give as many of them hand flamers as you
can. Why? Well, bolt pistols are super weak. Plasma pistols are not much better,
and they eat up ammo like crazy. Those plasma ammo slots are much better spent
on grenades. But the hand flamer has the distinct advantage of being able to set
an enemy alight in one shot. This is great for assault squaddies because most of
the time they will be right in the thick of things. Setting dudes on fire is a
sure way to reduce the odds against you in the enemy phase - this and a couple
of smoke grenades normally ensures you stay alive long enough to wade in and
massacre the enemy with your HTH weapons. And believe you me, the power fists
and axes really add up - especially if you gang on the baddies. You can't use a
jump pack if your marine is indoors or right under a tree or something, so keep
his head clear. Jump packs carry enough fuel for 120 cells of jumping. Assault
squad members are represented by crossed arrows.
Terminator squad
Terminators are equipped with special armour that makes them more like walking
tanks. Your squad of five can be equipped with two terminator heavy weapons, and
a selection of other Termie gear. Bear in mind certain limitations though.
Termies cannot carry anything - no grenades, no medkits, no extra ammo, no candy
bars. (??? Strange system ... I mean they have hands, right? Just strap stuff on
their armour like every other space marine, whydontcha) Also, Termies cannot run
(and as White Dwarf sez, they are poor at pole vaulting and rope skipping too
:p); that means they eat up more APs for movement than a regular marine.
However, their armour is plenty thick, and they soak up the hits well. Moreover
if you are playing to cream the opposition, the Assault cannon and Heavy flamer
are indispensable weapons. Terminators equipped with close combat weapons such
as the thunder hammer can take out squads of berserkers all by themselves and
still have energy left over to compose religious poetry. Putting them in front
is alright, but remember that their size and the fact that they can't crouch
will block line of sight for your other troops. They are represented by an
Ultramarine "U".
WEAPONS AND EQUIPMENT
Weapons
Detailed stats of the weapons can easily be found by looking through the
encyclopaedia. What I've done is to give, as always, my own opinion on how
effective they actually are in game combat, and how I think they should be used.
Weapons are rated for the following:
Strength - Weapon damage modifier.
Range - You know, I know.
Blast radius - Range of area effect, if any.
Damage potential - Maximum damage a weapon can inflict on HP or armour
Bolt pistol - The default weapon for your assault squad and most of your HQ. It
really sucks, change out if you can. It's really only good for blowing away
cultists and small furry mammals.
Plasma pistol- I'm going to take a bit of time here to rant about plasma weapons
in this game. Well, they suck big jobbies. OK, so you get sustained fire with
them. They also happen to have the smallest ammo mags available of all weapons -
so to take advantage of sustained fire, you're going to have to bring along a
lot of ammo. This wouldn't be so bad if they were kickass weapons, but as it is,
they are most definitely not. Anyhow, the plasma pistol is what you give your
assault squad if you run out of hand flamers. Don't even bother with much ammo,
since an assault squaddie is better off just chopping someone up anyway.
Actually, even if you stuck with the bolt pistol it wouldn't make a great
difference. Bah.
Hand flamer - Yaaaay! The weapon of choice for assault marines. Set your
opponents alight before they can gang up on you the next turn! One shot is all
it will take to render a heavy weapon CSM useless, and there's more than a fair
chance of that happening.
Bolter - Default weapon for Tac squad and Devastators. Lousy. Takes forever to
crack armoured marines. It has decent range, but really not effective for the AP
cost. Use this to finish off weakened foes or just to annoy them.
Plasma gun - Better than a bolter, but suffers from a great ammo hunger. A
flamer or meltagun is normally a better choice, unless you really need that bit
of extra range. Only for Tac Squad.
Flamer - Terror in enclosed spaces! Purify their souls! You see any bunched up
marines nearby and ... toast. Just be careful not to flame your own guys, or
block a passageway you need yourself. Suffers from crap range, so try and think
of mission requirements. Only for Tac Squad.
Meltagun - Yaaaaay! Again if you don't need the range, this is a great special
weapon. It sizzles the armour right off your enemies, and all at a decent AP
cost. You don't need to kill enemies outright ... just melt their armour and let
the bolters rip. Just a note - killing someone with a melta weapon means there
are no remains ... which means that enterprising CSMs can't run over to the dead
body and grab the weapon, which they sometimes do if the weapon is juicy enuff.
Only for Tac Squad.
Heavy bolter - Hmmm, not too bad. Great against unarmoured dudes in big pack (ie
cultists), since it penetrates better than a bolter and has sustained fire. It
works pretty well against armoured foes too; the drawback here is that the
sustained fire does eat the ammo. This is a flexible choice that provides a
balance between range and power. For Tac or Devastator squads.
Missile launcher - Flexible long ranged weapon. Can blast entrenched Chaos dudes
from all the way across the map. You can bring a selection of missiles depending
on the mission. And, a marine with 60 AP can fire twice a turn and still have AP
to spare! Doesn't require 30 APs a shot like the encyclopaedia sez. For Tac or
Devastator squads.
Krak : No area effect, but good to take out enemy heavy weapons and vehicles.
Plasma : Area effect, but crap armour penetration.
Melta : Area effect, and well worth their weight. Preferable over plasma any
day. Great for busting enemies before they break formation.
Frag : Blah. Don't bother.
Blind :Useful in the right circumstances. Can block line of sight for faraway
enemy heavy
weapon emplacements.
Antiplant : Whaa-? Don't bother either, just wait for them to get out of cover.
Multimelta - Ahahaha, turn those chaos traitors to puddles of slag. Area effect,
and if it doesn't kill 'em, it'll surely leave 'em freezing in their chaos
underoos. But it is notoriously short ranged, plus it takes 30 AP to fire.
Still, a great choice for indoor fights and against squads of armoured
terminators. For Tac or Devastator squads.
Lascannon - Tankbuster, for those evil enemy vehicles. Give this to someone with
a high ballistic skill, 'cos you don't want to miss a shot. It's good for frying
away armour on troops too, but kind of a waste. Has great range, though. For Tac
or Devastator squads.
Heavy Plasma Gun - This has two modes, max and low power. At max, it has an area
effect of 1 cell, great range and good armour penetration and damage. At low
power, the area effect is still there but armour penetration and damage is
greatly reduced. The problem is you have to wait two turns before the gun
charges to max. You waste a turn, and you waste a shot too if there's nothing
worth firing at in the charged turn. I don't recommend this weapon although itis
the best of the plasma weapons in this game. It's not good at what it's supposed
to do, which is kill lottsa dudes. For Tac or Devastator squads.
Serpent's Breath Flamer - Slightly more powerful than a flamer. The book says it
has greater range, but that's not so. It's slightly more powerful than normal,
though. Tac squad only.
Star Thrower Plasma Gun - Better penetration and damage than normal, but the
same other drawbacks. Tac squad only.
Mastercrafted anything - Adds longer range to the weapon, and has a slight to-
hit increase as well.
Nova Storm Plasma pistol - This is more powerful than normal, but doesn't have
the increased range the encyclopaedia boasts of. Assaut squad only.
Purifier Hand Flamer - Slightly more powerful than normal, but isn't double the
range of a hand flamer. It does fire 2 cells farther, though. Assault squad
only.
Storm Bolter - Whatever. Twin-linked bolters with sustained fire. Better than
bolters alone, but not by much. The default weapon for your Terminator squad, so
not much choice there. Termies only.
Assault cannon - This rocks! Only a Terminator can carry it, but, woohoo!
Sustained fire and a good armour penetration, plus killer damage. It'll take out
anything you want it to, even daemons and vehicles. Termies only.
Heavy Flamer - The other half of the dynamic duo. This fella has poor range,
like all flame weapons, but a high AP termie can blast around three or four
shots of area effect flames that'll psitively raze the baddies to the ground.
They'll all be running around screaming pathetically as they burn, or they'll be
stuck in a sea of fire wondering what happened. Use liberally for maximum fun.
Seriously, there's nothing like knowing where the enemy is going to appear,
flaming the whole area, and watching them all catch fire as they teleport in.
Termies only.
OK, that's about that for shooty stuff. Now let's take a look at the hand-to-
hand (HTH) items.
Combat knife - Default for Tac and devastator squads. You got no choice here.
Anyhow, it's a lousy weapon and you're in a bit of a desperate do if you're down
to using this. It can slice up blue horrors, cultists, and very weakened
marines.
Chainsword - The worst of all the special HTH weapons, switch out ASAP. Default
weapon for your assault squad.
Power sword - Nothing much, only slightly better than the chainsword. For
assault squad.
Power axe - Slightly better armour penetration than the power sword. For assault
squad.
Power fist - Good penetration, the best of the normal assault squad HTH weapons.
For Assault squad and termies.
Force axe - Ahhhh ... good. Good penetration and damage. The reason why your
Librarian can hold off berserkers and daemons who come at him. Too bad it's
Librarians only.
Crozius Arcanium - Same as the Force axe, and only for your Chaplain.
Vindicator Chainsword - Less penetration than a power fist, but more damage
potential. BUt I prefer penetration over damage. Assault squad only.
Juggernaut Power Fist - Mmmmmm ... good for cracking armour and squishing foes.
Best of the assault special HTH weapons in combat terms. Can even beat on
vehicles in a pinch. Assault squad only.
Reaper Power Axe - OK, in a campaign you'll find two. Although they're not
powerful, they give the wielder 20 more APs. That's 20 whole APs for any
purpose. Take this, man. Assault squad only.
Conciliator Power Sword - Cheh, just a power sword that makes sure you'll always
strike first by upping your Ini score. Not useful. Assault squad only.
Liberator Power Axe - Can't quite crack armour like a power fist, but kills
enemies pretty quick. Not too shabby a choice. Assault squad only.
Righteous Fury Power Sword - Again, just a power sword. At least you get two
free attacks, but the weakness of the weapon makes me shake my head. Assault
squad only.
Chainfist - Upgrade your Termies from power fists to this if you can. Even more
powerful than the Juggernaut carried by an assault marine. Will hold its own in
HTH. Can be used to rip apart obstacles and doors. Termies only.
Lightning Claws - Oops. Choosing these will give you only HTH capability. And
unless the stats in the encyclopaedia are wrong, it's just not as good as the
thunder hammer. So don't pick this. Termies only.
Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield - For the discerning HTH terminator. Only HTH
capability, but it will take out anything it comes into contact with. If you are
really daring, It can even beat up on vehicles and cause a real pounding. Equip
your non-heavy termies with this if you can swing the lack of a ranged weapon.
Can be used to bash down doors and other obstacles. Termies only.
Grenades and other Equipment
Grenades are your friends. Absolutely essential for the serious space marine. In
a random game, load up on offensive grenades in favour of ammo. You need a
better balance if you're playing the scripted campaign, but my opinions of the
grenades don't change.
Krak - Main offensive grenade. No blast radius, but works good to split open
armoured marines for weaker fire. Don't waste these on cultists. Stock up on
these for random scenarios, especially.
Blind - Very important in the campaign, less so in random scenarios. For
scenarios, just 1 per marine should be enough. The number you should carry in a
campaign mission varies. Smoke covers you from long range fire, but also means
you can't target them either. Smoke is most effective on flat ground - the
effect is severely lessened when thrown on slopes. Don't always count on just
one grenade to cover everything ... the smoke cloud varies in size, and can
sometimes be quite small.
Plasma- Area effect, but weak armour penetration. Not really worth the space.
Frag - Area effect. Only effective for damage against cultists. Frag grenades
are primarily used to knock enemies out of overwatch. Get in a position where
you can throw one round a corner, and hope the area effect catches any unseen
enemies. Useful only in campaign games, and even then I don't really use them
... I'm lazy so I just soak up the overwatch fire.
Antiplant - Yucks, what a waste of space. The AI isn't that bright about using
cover anyhow, so don't bring these, even in jungle/swamp environments.
Rad - This works goods, except you don't get very many. Rad grenades seed a
large area with harmful radiation that stays the whole scenario. Use these to
block important through routes - any enemies charging in will then have to take
sustained hits before they reach you, or waste APs going another way. Remember
not to block routes that you need to go past yourself, like bridges and stuff.
If you really need to seed a bridge, throw the grenade just past the bridge.
Chaos troops will normally run through all the irradiated cells, taking 2-3
hits. You can probably plan a route for your men that will expose them to only 1
hit max later on.
Vortex - Instant death! Plus area effect! Send 'em back to the warp. You get
very few of these, so use carefully. Best for taking out large clusters of enemy
termies. You can also exploit AI stupidity by throwing a vortex grenade at a
well-travelled spot. The grenade lingers for a turn, and the enemy will often
blindly walk into the swirl. I've killed nearly 2 squads worth of chaos
terminators in a random scenario this way, the poorly-programmed fools.
Stasis - Ah. Anyone (your men included) caught in the blast radius is cocooned
in an energy field and cannot move or perform any action. They are also
effectively out of the battle ... ranged shots and HTH doesn't seem to affect
them. Vortex grenades and spells will still wipe them out though. They can be
set on fire, but they won't break and I don't think they take damage either.
Haywire - OK, again I must confess I dunno what this is all about. It makes a
sparkle and a cute twinkly noise when it hits, but ... then what? I've thrown
this at enemy termies, but they still keep coming at me undeterred.
Meltabomb - Very powerful, but it takes AP to plant and set. It has a blast
radius so get away before it blows. You don't actually ever need this, except
maybe in the campaign - and even then, a bunch of krak grenades will accomplish
the same job.
Medipack - In a random scenario, about one is enough in case your marine gets
his nose punched in. Take two in a campaign. Healing is indeterminate ... it
seems to range between 20 -40 HP a pop.
Scanner - This calls up a simple grid display of the battlefield. It has less
renge than a scan spell and you can't distinguish enemies well. Your men are
blue dots, vehicles blue squares. Word bearers are red dots, and red squares for
vehicles. Daemons are yellow, radiation green. Not too useful, just choose Scan.
MARINE HONOURS
At the squad selection screen, you will notice some empty spaces on the right
hand. These are for honours awarded, if any.
Crux Terminatus - Any dude who kills at least 5 enemies in a scenario gets this
deaths head award. No bearing on random scenarios, but important to obtain in
the campaign for one reason - only veteran soldiers who have this honour can be
switched into termie armour.
Purity seal - This seal is awarded to any marine who goes 5 missions without
breaking.
Marksman - This is awarded to any marine who scores ten hits in a mission.
Imperial laurel - This is worth XP. Awarded to any marine who completes the
stated mission objective.
PSYKER POWERS
Your librarian gets a power for every level he's at. I must confess that I
haven't used all the powers available, because not all appear so useful. You may
well have a different opinion with regards to this section.
Hellfire - I always take this. OK range, plus area effect, plus flames that
roast and toast. Very rarely will characters cught by hellfire not burst into
flames. And cheap at 2 force points.
Lightning Arc - Not as useful as hellfire. It's got the same range, but not
reliable, plus expensive at 3 pooints. The lightning bolt will jump to the
nearest model if it kills it's first target and so on, in chain lightning way.
It doesn't discriminate between friend and foe though - if the nearest model is
your own guy, too bad. Also, the chances of it killing the first target are not
particularly high. Best used against lightly armoured or weakened foes - but
still seems like a waste.
The Gate - The first click sets up the entry gate, the second the exit gate.
It's cheap at 1 force point, but I don't really use it much. An unlimited number
of marines can use the portal until it ends.
Assail - The victim is pushed back, but takes no damage. So you have to push him
into something like flames or a vortex or whatever. Even for 1 point, it's crap.
Displacement - Hmmm. I don't normally use this unless it's for displacing a
squad into a suspicious room where they can do some ass-kicking. But, I concede
that it could be a versatile spell if you've adapted the tactics for it. OK cost
at 2 points.
Machine curse - Same range and cost as hellfire, but not as versatile. It does
affect ballistic weapons, but doesn't hurt the carrier. Just burn them, it's
better. And as for freezing vehicles in their tracks - well, there aren't a
whole lot of vehicles for you to curse.
Scan - Another must-have. For just 1 measly force point, you get to see exactly
where your enemies are and what equipment they're carrying. You can tough it out
without this spell in a random scenario, but it should really be chosen for the
campaign.
Quickening - One of the best spells there is, take all the time. For 2 points,
you can add 25 AP to a model and double their attacks! Whether you use this on
your Assault, Terminator or heavy weapons marines, you won't be disappointed.
Always cast this spell last, because the quickening effect can last for several
turns - if you cast another spell after quickening though, you cancel the
quickening effect automatically. Don't bother casting it on your own librarian
though, he'll only gain 25-20=5 APs. Make sure the intended target is within
range, and within the caster's line of sight.
Strength of mind - Fortify against psychic attack? What for? Kill the enemy
sorceror and you're done.
Smite - Expensive for the effect, I feel. Everyone in the affected area takes
damage.
Iron Arm - Wow, strength and toughness. Yeah, yeah. Super short ranged ... maybe
only HTH guys need it, but it's not very useful.
Teleportation - It seems useful, but you won't actually be using it often
because it'll cost you 20 APs to use this, and you won't have many left to cast
more spells even if you're in a good position to. Use it for escape? That's just
poor planning, why's your librarian in such a sticky situation anyhow?
Psychic Shield - Ummm, alright I guess. Protecting your librarian is important,
but I think crouching and proper placement should be adequate.
Destroy Daemon - I use this sometimes ... if it works, then you've just creamed
a daemon. But, I don't normally consider daemons a big threat so I'd rather
choose a spell that can affect any enemy.
Holocaust - Yeesh ... OK, everybody burns ... even your psyker! Pretty last
ditch, and for 3 whole force points too. Worrisome that you should be
considering such a self-destructive spell.
Your units on fire don't break, though, and can still be controlled. Every enemy
who runs into the affected area will also combust.
Scourging - Weak and girly. Waste of time.
Purge Psyker - Again, only good against psykers. Just shoot them to death and
save a spell.
Aura of Fire - Gives your psyker an edge in HTH, especially since it's only 1
point and reflects HTH attacks. A self-defence spell, but one I don't normally
choose.
Vortex - And this spell completes my essential quartet. So powerful you'll weep.
Every dang thing in the way is utterly destroyed - whole squads of Chaos troops
have been mashed by a well-aimed vortex. Make sure to clear the area in front
and to the side of your psyker of your own men though. Warning! If you haven't
downloaded the Chaos Gate patch, using this spell will sometimes quit the game
and punch you back to your desktop.
Storm of Wrath - Forces a Ldr check on affected enemy units ... but if
successful, only prevents them from advancing. I don't think the spell is worth
3 force points.
Aura of Fortitude - Same criticism as strength of mind.
So, if you're gunning to win, take Scan, Quickening, Hellfire and Vortex. You
can drop Scan in a random game and replace it with something else, that's OK.
ENEMIES
Chaos cultists
Jeez, if "coming to Chaos" means ending up like these dudes, then I'd really
rather not. They have sore throaty voices, look like power ranger puttees, wear
rags and explode in green blood. Naaaah. As opposition, they are a joke. Their
laspistol has crap armour penetration, if they even manage to hit you in the
first place. The vast majority of them are armed with frag grenades that can put
you out of overwatch, but not much else. Their leadership rating sucks too, so
if you beat up on their squad, chances are the rest will run for it. Actually
I'd prefer it if they just continued coming at me - saves the trouble of chasing
them down. On Hero setting, they take at most 2 bolter hits to kill - never seen
one that stood up to more. So even if these guys come at you in huge hordes,
take it as a chance to rack up kills and Marine Honours.
Word Bearer Chaos Space Marines (CSMs)
Whew, what a mouthful. CSMs are corrupt space marines; as such, they have the
same profile as your troops. Their armour is as least as good as, if not better,
than yours. Bolter shells splash off them like rain, so don't count on sustained
bolts to take them out. Much better to bust them up a bit with grenades first,
if you can. Because they are shooty troops, they are susceptible to close combat
against HTH assault troops. Their knife won't hurt you unless they get lucky,
which is not often. Their aim is good though, and they will lay down a hail of
fire given half the chance. This can be hazardous especially if they are armed
with more than a simple bolter. Always take out the heavy/special weapons CSMs
ASAP, or be prepared to suffer long range pounding. CSMs use all your
heavy/special weapons with the exception of the heavy plasma gun. CSMs will also
aggressively throw grenades of all normal sorts at you if they can't get a good
shot in. They tend to advance more cautiously than most of the othe troop types,
and will use overwatch tactics and cover if they can.
Khorne Berserkers
These marines have given themselves over to worshipping the Blood God Khorne ...
"Blood for the Blood God, Skulls for Khorne"! Anyhoo, they are the Chaos assault
troops. But in this game, they are far inferior to your Assault squad. Being
equipped with only close range weapons, their only option is to run in and
attack. But, although their charge distance is prodigious, they have no brains
at all. Judicious estimation will leave your troops just outside their charge -
meaning you get to slaughter them in your next turn, whilst being safe from
their attacks 'cos they've got no APs left. Berserkers, being, well, berserk,
will never take the opportunity to gang up on you even if they've got you
surrounded, so that's one less thing to worry about. Armour wise, they are
resistant to bolter fire, but krak grenades work wonders. Learn to use troops
with better HTH weapons to take them down. Berserkers are more a nuisance than
anything else; they are only a threat in large numbers that have suddenly sprung
up right next to you, or when confronting troops armned only with combat knives.
Furthermore, the only berserkers who have a decent chance of chopping you up are
the ones with power weapons - the chainsword guys are pretty weak.
Chaos Chaplain
This guy is a heretic chaplain ... if I'm not wrong only the Word Bearers still
bother with chaplains for their unholy rituals 'cos they were an especially
devout chapter before they went bad. Well, whatever. He's OK in HTH, but since
he blindly charges into anything you care to throw at him, he normally doesn't
last long. Just treat him like a berserker.
Chaos Sorcerer
A little more dangerous, because of his combat spells. He will rarely run all
the way in for HTH, preferring to cast spells and lob grenades. Try and take him
out soon, because although his spells fail a good amount of the time, a well-
placed Pink Fire of Tzeentch (cool name huh) could ruin a careful setup. His
armour's no good, anyhow.
Chaos Terminators
Aieeee! Flee before the might of Chaos! Well, OK, Chaos termies are hard but not
too terribly so. Like all power armoured foes, they are vulnerable to fire. Even
a simple hand flamer has a good chance of setting them alight. Otherwise, the
only weapons that will effectively hurt them are heavy/special weapons, special
close combat weapons, and krak grenades. Chaos Termies have the reaper
autocannon - the nasty looking three-barrelled one. Don't let that guy live too
long - once he's within range, as few as two solid shots will take out one of
your marines. Chaos termies, being of older design, also have no heavy flamer.
Instead, termies without the autocannon all have a combi weapon. Aside from a
bolter/bolter combi, there are flamer/bolters and melta/bolters. Learn which are
which, because the meltagun combi can be a real pain, and the flamer combi will
just light your guys up. They all also have old but effective HTH weapons, so no
HTH unless you use a termie yourself, or can gang up on him. Normal knife-
wielding marines will get creamed.
Lord Zymran
Ewww. Ugly and brown. He's not too tough on his own, aside from his armour which
seems slightly more effective than the average marine. His plasma pistol seems
to have a much better penetration than the regular piffle gun, so don't let him
get too many shots in. He's really nothing much, but his stupid Termie bodyguard
makes up for that.
Hellhound
This looks like a cross between a lizard and a dog. This lesser daemon is
basically a four-legged berserker - great charge distance, close range bite
attacks. Just be wary of its charge. The bite itself isn't too bad, but the
hellhound can be surprisingly resilient to krak grenades. They rarely burn and
break from flame attacks too, so fire is no good.
Bloodletter
The red daemon with the cone head and big feet. Being one of Khorne's minions,
he has only HTH attack capability. His charge isn't as lengthy as the hellhound,
but his hellblade packs a mean bite, so don't let him get close. Krak works good
on him, fire not effective for setting him alight, but alright for diverting his
path so he wastes AP.
Flamer
The daemon with the beak and the skirt. This guy is a pain because aside from
pretty good hit resistance, he also has a flame attack (normal flamer
equivalent). Take him out before he gets close enough to let go his fire. Also,
don't ever attack him HTH unless you're sure you'll kill him before he gets a
chance to fight back. He has no HTH attack, so he will end up firing off a flame
burst that most probably will set your guy alight.
Pink Horror
Loser. This dude just runs around making goofy noises and hoping to get to HTH.
No great charge range, merely average hit resistance. His "special attack" is
... hold your breath ... splitting into two blue horrors when he dies!
Blue Horror
Loser. This dude just runs around making goofy noises and hoping to get to HTH.
No great charge range, crap hit resistance. Even normal marines with knives can
kick his blue ass.
Bloodthirster
Oaaah. This is a greater daemon of Khorne. Don't play HTH, you will die
terribly. He eats Termies for breakfast that way. But sadly, for all his battle
prowess and resistance to punishment, he has no ranged attack so just keep away
and pound his brown behind. In the tabletop game, he can fly around and pick his
targets, so he's mean. Here, he seems to have kept his wings but doesn't use
them at all. Too bad for him, I guess. Oh, If you get too close, you'll have to
take a break test to see if you guy turns and runs - so don't.
Lord of Change
This is the big bird Daemon, favoured of Tzeentch. I have tried him out in HTH
and he is also quite fearsome. He has some combat spells also. The sad thing is,
he's done in by poor programming. The only time you meet him, he just stands
there and lets you attack him without retaliating. He'll only wake up if you get
right up close to him, and why would you want to do that?
TACTICS AND TIPS
These here are general tips/tactics for use with random scenarios. They will
work with the scripted missions also, but I'm consodering writing a more
detailed walkthru that will provide specific details on how to beat those
missions. You can determine the nature of the random scenario from the scenario
generator, so play around with those options. Most are pretty self explanatory;
the "level of Ultra skill" merely refers to how high up the experience ladder
your marines start out.
1. Choose your squads wisely! You can drag and drop marines at the character
select screen. Switch out losers with fewer APs for more industrious dudes. Take
note also of things like ballistic skill and weapons skill. You don't need high
BS for assault marines, and you don't need high WS for shooty marines. Give the
marines with the highest APs the heavy weapons - depending on the weapon, a high
AP marine can get off 2 shots of a heavy weapon in one turn. There's also no
real need to take most HQ characters unless you think you need the grenades.
Some say the more marines the merrier, but I find it a hassle to keep having to
mind deadweight.
2. Equip well! After choosing your weapons, let's consider ammo. The way I play
(more grenade intensive), I don't shoot if I can throw. I give bolter marines
only 2 magazines (the one they start with and one extra). I don't take any
plasma weapons because you will need at least three or more refills - not worth
the space. I give missile launchers a total of 4 fills, or sometimes even 3.
Heavy bolters need all 5 ammo mags, trust me. Multi meltas get only 2 mags max,
because wach mag holds quite a bit. Same for Lascannons. I generally don't give
flamers more than 2 mags, but I allow for up to 3 if it's a meltagun. Of course,
this is all up to style ... and if you intend not to bring along certain squads
or limit your number of squads, you might have to factor in more ammo. Note this
advice is for random scenarios, OK?
Once you've settled ammo, pack it in with grenades. See the equipment section
for my opinion on grenades. Generally, the most useful are krak, blind, and rad.
If you're playing random game, then you'll have 3 vortex grenades from the
start. These are absolute death, so bring them and throw wisely. Other special
grenades like the stasis grenade can be fun too, but krak is safest for damage.
Don't bother with too many medkits - two is more than enough, and one will
normally suffice. A scanner is also quite pointless because I don't like the dot
display - I find it not as informative as I would have preferred.
3. After equipping, save your game. Should you realise that your weapon
selection for the scenario is not ideal, you can re-equip should you want to
start over.
4. Send expendable marines to scout out the enemy. It's important to know where
they're coming from and what they're packing. The scan spell is especially
useful here. Pull your scout back to a defensible position once you roughly know
where the enemy is coming from.
5. Don't forget to always select the run button for your normal marines. Running
saves a lot of APs as compared to walking, and there's no other difference. I
remind you of this because the interface will always reset to walk after you
move a termie - they can't run, remember?
6. The high ground is good, but getting it can be a pain. Chaos will blast you
the minute you appear. You might like to send up a scout first, see if he gets
shot at. If so, you can throw some smoke to cover the high ground and then
proceed to move the rest of your guys there.
7. Don't cluster about when the enemy draws nearer. It's a good way to get hit
by area effect weapons. But don't spread out so much that your men are put into
places with no cover, or poor firing angle.
8. Learn how to use overwatch, and when. If I have a clear attack at an enemy in
my turn, I won't save anything for overwatch - might as well get rid of him now
before he even gets a turn. Plus, I get to choose how I want to attack (which
means grenades over bolter fire for me).
Three or four bolter shots in overwatch isn't worth a good grenade. Use
overwatch when you really don't know what to do with leftover APs and don't want
to waste them. Weapons with area effect are not too suited for overwatch - your
man will fire at the first single enemy he sees, wasting the area effect, or
worse, blasting a friend. Be careful too of blocking your own fire - characters
at the back on overwatch might sometimes fire into friendly ranks if they are
blocking. Remember that frag grenades will knock you out of overwatch, and the
enemy is very fond of tossing frags about.
9. You can afford to wait a turn at the start, not really doing much besides
scouting. The AI will reveal its positions to you in the next turn and charge
all the berserkers and HTH troops who will normally still be unable to reach
you. This gives you time to formulate a better strategy. Generally also, let the
Chaos troops come to you and not the other way around - the AI is stupid that
way. Don't waste APs on movement when they'll happily run within range.
10. Deliver the so-called "beat down". When entering HTH, surround the
unfortunate victim. Select all the HTH weapons by clicking on them. Then, hold
down SHIFT and click on you surrounding men. You should now have selected more
than one of your marines at the same time. Move the cursor over the victim and
you should see the HTH combat sign above each of your marines. If not, you might
have forgotten to select that marine's HTH weapon. Then click on your victim.
Each subsequent marine after the first should now get an extra HTH attack -
guaranteed to whup ass.
11. Soften armoured troops with grenades. Here I go again, extolling the virtues
of the grenade. But trust me, it makes a world of difference. Many times, 3 or 4
krak grenades is enough to kill a regular armoured marine. 20+ bolter shots
might barely wound him. Meltaguns and lascannons also do wonders for removing
pesky armour, leaving their soft white underbellies open for your smaller fire.
12. When they're clustered together, let them have it with area weapons. Missile
launchers with melta missiles can hit enemy formations even before they've
started to disperse. Multimeltas make short work out of berserkers who have
foolishly charged into your position.
13. Control choke points with fire and radiation. Enemies will be forced to take
damage if they plow through flames or cells contaminated by your rad grenades.
Even if they don't walk through the affected area, they'll have to waste APs
going around. Note about flame - the area effect can be broken if you fire on
large slopes, so try and catch Chaos on flat ground.
14. Learn to crouch and take cover. Ending your turn crouched or in cover makes
sure some enemies won't be able to spot you, and really reduces chances of
taking damage from those who do attack you from a distance. Be aware also that
certain cover can be destroyed - especially those dinky barrels. They behave
like frag grenades if they blow. Termie Close combat weapons can also be used to
destroy locked doors and other cover - use the direct fire button.
15. Yup, the direct fire button. This is useful for area effect weapons. Instead
of aiming at a particular enemy, you can use this button to aim for a central
spot that will catch the most number of enemies. Use this button also to aim
area effect grenades.
16. Factor in the hidden points cost of direction change. Always leave a few
points spare ... it's irritating to have 30 APs left to fire a multimelta, but
then spend an AP turning to face the enemy squad - whoops, no more multimelta
shot. In the same vein, take note that turning to face an enemy for HTH doesn't
take any points at all, So with just 10 APs, you can still attack an enemy right
behind you in HTH.
17. Use your assault squad to good effect. These guys should all have more than
56 APs each, so fly them in, flame a few dudes or chop them up, then either fly
them out or throw smoke or run to cover. First to suffer should be any CSM with
a heavy weapon, so the rest of your men can move around unimpeded. The 2 reaper
power axes are invaluable here, because they give the wielder an extra 20 APs.
If that marine also happens to be under a Quicken spell ... well ...
18. Stop squads of berserkers with a Termie equipped with either a chainfist or
thunder hammer. The berserkers, when charging in, tend to go for important HQ
characters (who still normally have more potent HTH weapons so it's not too
bad). But if a tasty HTH equipped termie is nearby, it's an even toss-up as to
who the berserkers will spring for. And if they run into the termie, they're not
long for the world. Blood for the blood god!
19. If you're outgunned, throw a lot of smoke. This will block line of sight and
save you some grief. But remember that smoke hides your enemies too. If there's
some space in between you and the chaos squads, throw the smoke further from
you. This gives you more unsmoked ground to move about in, and allows you to
blast away at any troops emerging from the smoke while allowing a bit of
reaction room. If you are caught in smoke, a way to identify a suspected enemy
position is this: just click on the suspected cell and see if the PC allows you
to move there. If not, there's probably a hidden unit waiting. If you need to
attack it, you have to walk adjacent to the cell and use HTH, or else use direct
fire, which is less reliable. If you know a massed unit of longe range heavy
weapons is on a vantage point waiting to let you have it, send a spotter to
scope them out, then send a blind missile right into their midst. This forces
them to move off their vantage point to get a clear shot, or at least makes them
stay put and not bother your men as they move out.
20. Move in close to CSMs if you can, or throw smoke near them. Often, instead
of blasting at you, they'll start throwing frag grenades instead, which are less
dangerous. If you get right next to them, they won't fire at you either, but use
their crap combat knife.
21. Your assault cannon termie is your friend. Unleash him on heavy armour, like
enemy termies. 2 or 3 shots will whack a regular marine and about 5 will send a
chaos terminator back to the Eye of Terror. Don't bother with upgrading his
power fist 'cos his cannon will clear anyone before they even get close. Putting
him on overwatch is sometimes a useful tactic, if you know where the enemy will
come from - bear in mind that his sustained fire is reset if he changes
direction. Likewise, the heavy flamer termie will be responsible for torching a
goodly number of foes and making important places impassable to the enemy. He,
however, should be given a chainfist to stave off the hordes of berserkers who
realise the worth of his heavy flamer and try to take him out.
22. Anything is better than bolter fire. Storm bolter fire, which one might
think should be double the worth since it's 2 bolters, is also crap. Use bolter
fire only when the enemy is too far for more powerful alternatives - just to
give those chaos guys something to think about.
23. Make sure your men are facing outwards and the general directions of the
clockface when in strange areas. No dirty chaos bugger is going to sneak up on
your marines that way :)
24. Make full use of your Librarian. Although he's a bit of a baby, make sure he
does have some form of line of sight to the enemy because many of his combat
spells need LOS. Just make sure he gets to cover after he casts. Let him handle
the occasional berserker or daemon himself in HTH, he's OK that way. It's long
ranged fire he's susceptible to.
25. How do you clear suspicious rooms? Well, this is my method. Cast a Scan
spell first, to determine just who exactly might be waiting for you behind the
door. If there are CSMs near, but not in a position to fire on overwatch the
minute the door opens, then have one or two regular marines lob frag grenades at
the CSMs when the door opens. After knocking them out of possible overwatch,
your special/heavy weapons marines and Terminators can then charge the room. If
there are CSMs on overwatch right behind the door, check the weapons they use.
If it's just bolters, you can put Termies right in front to block the largely
ineffectual bolter fire, and then cream the CSMs with HTH. Move your termies
into the room, and the rest of your men can mop up. If the enemy is packing
heavy heat and you don't want to expose your valuable terminators, you can still
put them right in front, but crack open some smoke to cover everyone. The CSMs
won't open fire on overwatch when the door opens 'cos they can't se anyone. But
you know where they are, and will probably be in position to open some HTH
whupass on them.
What if you didn't cast a scan spell? Well, this is what I'd do. Put two regular
marines in front of the door. Keep your special/heavy marines behind them, but
allow a one or two cell space in case some enemy pops up with are effect
overwatch. Your Termies should be on hand also. Open the door. Right - anyone
there? If they're waiting, they've probably shot off some rounds at your
blocking marines. Return that fire, but remember to leave 2 APs so your front
marines can crouch, leaving your heavy weapons marines with clear shots at
remaining enemies. Then place your heavy weapons men and your termies on
overwatch so any remaining APs can be spent on thumping CSMs who might expose
themselves to the door in their upcoming turn.
If you're feeling aggressive, just use your initial two marines to charge the
room once the door opens, immediate enemy or no. Have them lob frag to clear
overwatch, or simply run in and tough it out. This exposes all the possible
enemy to your sight and lets you plan how to advance the rest of your force in
order to clear the room. If you've miscalculated and the room opposition is
overwhelming, not something you can clear in the rest of your turn, then just
throw smoke to cover your troops. Of course, this tactic only applies if you can
use you first marines to run in - sometimes their way might be blocked with
CSMs.
What I'd like to see in future games!
Well, 3D support, for one. And better looking 3D modelled sprites. It would be
great to have a free floating camera too, that we could rotate about the
battlefield. Also, I'd like an auto zoom function everytime a character does
something - y'know, zoom in, watch him fire, then return to the normal "I want
to see the whole map" screen. I want better firing, hand-to-hand, injury and
death animations please! The game could also do with more varied backgrounds and
maps. The in game cut scenes aren't as enlivening as they could have been,
more's the pity. Despite what some people think, I enjoyed the cheesy quotes and
really wouldn't mind some more!
Oh, would it be too much to ask for a replay function, or some sort of autolog
whereby the computer could generate some sort of battle report later? The battle
replay would just be neat to see the way events unfolded, like a mini Warhammer
40k movie.
I'd really enjoy a game like Chaos Gate from the chaos side too. I mean, I don't
see why we can't play the baddies except in multiplayer mode. Wouldn't it be
cool to be in control of say, Warmaster Abaddon and lead a Black Crusade out of
the warp? They could allow us elites like the old favourite Berserkers, maybe
Plagumarines, and all the nice new units like Raptors, Obliterators and stuff,
and we could go on a world-chomping rampage through units of pitiful Imperial
Guard and Space Marines (from some other chapter from the typical Ultramarines
who seem overrepresented as it is - maybe Imperial Fists, I'm partial to their
bright yellow colour!).
Whatever comes out, I wish they'd stick to the tried and tested turn-based AP
system ... maybe I'm just not very advanced, but I can't get the hang of RTS ...
I'm too slow, *sniff*. I want the time to think through my moves without the
evils of time pressure crunching on my limited brain. And I want the time to
zoom in my troops and admire them from various angles before letting them run
loose over the enemy - I think surveying the battlefield is half the fun of this
sort of game.