WARHAMMER 40,000 : CHAOS GATE FAQ ver 1.02 dated 26 Jan 2001
[written for ver 1.0 of the game]
REVISION HISTORY
v 1.0 on 4th Mar 2000 - That's it! The whole thing is out! It's done!
v 1.01 on 5th Mar 2000 - Or so I thought. The shame ... inadvertantly left out
some special grenades in the Grenades & Equipment section. So, I've quickly
corrected that omission. *hits head* Remind me to proofread better before I
submit ... also added Random Games to the credits list in case they complain or
sumthin'.
v 1.02 on 26 Jan 2001 - Wow! long time, huh. Helped quite a few people out by
email; and was also forwarded some tips from Barnabas Soon last night. I've put
them in their own section at the end, together with comments of mine.
v1.03 on 11 Sep 2001 - Well, I'm no longer updating this FAQ, but Barnabas has
kindly mailed some tips which he finds useful, so I've added them with the
usual comments here and there. Thanks Barnabas!
v1.04 on 17 Dec 2001 - Wow, people out there still playing this game! Added a
tip from Adm Making on levelling up your wussy Techmarine. Thanks Adam!
The latest version of this FAQ can always be found at www.gamefaqs.com!
INTRODUCTION
Warhammer 40k: Chaos Gate is a great turn-based strategy game set in the (what
else?) Warhammer 40k universe created by Games Workshop. For those of you who
don't know, 40k is actually a tabletop wargame in which you collect and paint
miniatures and later pit them in simulated battles against other hordes of
miniatures ... a cool but expensive and sorta time-consuming hobby. While Chaos
Gate doesn't fully recreate the tabletop experience, it is a pretty functional
interpretation of things, adapted to a PC strategy game format. I was looking
for a FAQ when I first started playing the game but I couldn't find anything on
GameFAQS. Well, Ive since beaten the game several times over on Mighty Hero
setting, so when I looked through the GameFAQS request board and saw one for
Chaos Gate ... well ... let's have a go, then!
The fluff story goes something like this: In the 41st millenium, mankind has
spread through the far reaches of the galaxy. To keep order, the Imperium of
Man, a techno-gothic empire ruled over by a psychic Emperor, has emerged. To
cut a long story short, the Emperor created tribes of augmented humans who were
divided into legions to do his bidding. However, nearly half of his superhuman
warriors were eventually corrupted by the powers of chaos, and tried to bring
down the Imperium in what became known as the Horus Heresy. For a much more
detailed storyline, just visit any of the numerous 40k sites your search engine
will throw at you if you bother to look :)
Chaos Gate pits a force of Ultramarines, a chapter of space marines loyal to
the Emperor, against the Word Bearers, who are part of the traitor legions. The
whole plot of the game, spread over thirteen missions, involves you tracking
down the nasty Chaos Lord Zymran and his warp gate so you can shut his
operation down and give him a good ass-kicking in the process.
This is the first FAQ I've ever written, and it aims to be a guide primarily
for getting familiar with the game, as well as profiling the characters and
equipment. The strategies and tips are applicable whether you are playing the
campaigns or random scenarios, but this guide is aimed more at the latter -
I'll do a walkthru of the campaign when I have the time, I suppose. All the
opinions held in this FAQ are culled from my own experience of the game ...
they may not necessarily be the "best" strategies or the most correct opinions
etc, so if something else works for you, then great! Perhaps you can share your
views in a FAQ of your very own :)
Also! A little copyright disclaimer thingie:
This FAQ is meant for private and personal use. Please don't make any money
money out of this - which means no selling it to anyone, or incorporating this
FAQ in any publication or compilation for profit. If you post this at a
website, please just give me credit as the author. If this FAQ is reproduced in
any form, include it in it's entirety - don't edit. The Warhammer 40k concept
and all its related material and terms are property of Games Workshop, not me
(as if). I reserve all rights to this unpublished work.
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
- NEW! TIPS FROM BARNABAS SOON
- CREDITS AND OTHER INFO
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.
TIPS FROM BARNABAS SOON (humanarchives@hotmail.com)
1) If you need to level up a Librarian quickly without endangering him ensure
he has a spell like scan or quickening then when it asks if you want to end the
mission select no and keep casting this as many times as you like. For each
successful cast you get experince points as you may or may not realise so you
get build up quite a number if you are patient.
Me : This is true. You'll only need to use this tip in campaign games though,
when experience matters. Remember also that you can only keep one spell going
at a time. So let's say you have 3 force points and want to cast a Hellfire.
That's 1 point to waste on a Scan, right? Cast the Scan first, then the
Hellfire - or else the Scan will cancel out any previously casted spell.
Anyhow, just a gripe - a Librarian who wipes out like 9 Terminators with Vortex
only gets experience for casting the spell. Say Whaaat?!
2) As you know the Heavy bolter is pretty good. But like most weapons miss
targets in underground bunkers. To increase the chance of hitting fire the
first shot (which takes 20 AP), then switch to aimed shot (the subsequent shots
will normally take 4 AP each), the cost of an aimed shot is now only 8 AP
instead of 40 AP if you used aimed shot for the first shot. This works for all
weapons with sustained fire like the plasma gun and the assault cannon.
Me : If you have the AP to spare, why not? Aim away!
3) To save your troops from being shot down when scouting use your toughest
troop to do the scouting. He may get shot up but if he is a high enough level
he should take no damage. As an example I had a Word Bearer right next to my
Marine firing at one of him several times and my Marine took no damage except
for one point of armour.
Me : I think this depends, really. The damage variable seems to vary greatly.
And the enemies in the later stages always seem to deal out heavy pain even
with just bolters and grenades, at least to me. I normally Scan or use
Terminators.
4) It says in the manual that running decreases accuracy which I believe is
true (although you may not agree). In any case it is best if the person with
the missile launcher or long range weapon walk to a firing position then run, I
noticed he usually misses if he runs to the position.
Me : Eh? Really? Oh! I can't say I've really noticed this, as I get an
acceptable hit rate even if I run my marines. But if you're playing Mighty Hero
level and really need to make that shot count, why not check this tip out?
5) Here's a tactic if you're desperate. Have an assult troop with quickening
on him fly to the enemy, then drop a melta-bomb set to explode at the end of
the turn then fly away. This can soften enemies with missiles up if the enemy
is hidding on a roof top surrounded by other enemies.
Me : Sounds good. You can always chuck in a blind grenade after that, and wade
in with your assault dude and chop everyone up.
6) Although it is a good idea to have turn your experienced guys into
terminators save one or two to use long range weapons like the missile launcher
and lascannon.
Me : For me, that's dependent on Ballistic skill and AP. My long-range marines
should max out on those two stats.
7) Here's a correction Berserkers do have long range weapons, I check dead
Berserkers inventories so I know. As far as I know they can carry the Chaos
equivilent weapons of an Ultra Marine Assault troop. That is hand flamers,
plasma pistols etc. They just don't use them to keep in character (bad
programmer as you mention in your guide).
Me : Uhhh ... I said they have close-range weapons. That includes the handheld
guns too, in my definition. Semantics I guess, between close-range, long-range
and hand-to-hand range. Anyway, it doesn't really matter because they rarely
use their pistols (I think I have been shot at with a plasma pistol before,
then the jerk charged me); moreover, you can't pick up inventory from dead
Chaos troops even if you search them. Or am I wrong on that? I can't remember,
aaah!
New stuff from Barnabas Soon:
A few corrections for your comments
No you can not pick up any weapons or item if they are carried by Chaos troops.
Me: Did I say that? Oh :) Err ... well, I guess!
Haywire bombs are suppose to make bolters useless amongst other things.
Me: OK, though if those grenades don't really have a good success rate, I'd
rather just kill kill kill!
If you have the latest patch to Chaos gate you do actually get experience for
killing people using the vortex. Not only that but your accuracy can go over
100%. I cast a vortex once in a random mission killing 9 enemies in one go. At
the stats screen it displayed a 900% accuracy.
And now my tips continued.
8) If and when your medic and techmarine get maxed out they can actually take
care of themselves if attacked. Don't be afraid to use them if enemies are
surrounding you. Especially the techmarine, which can be used the same way you
would use like a berserker, run and hack the enemy.
9) A good weapon is the lascannon, even though it has less range than the
Missile launcher it does more damage and still has a long range (60 ) compared
to the Melta-launcher (24), Heavy plasma gun (40) and of course the Missile
Launcher (72). Use it for sniping purposes and hurting enemy terminators. You
will probably get only one shot per turn so make it count!
10) Displacement is very good especially when you teleport terminators across,
just remember that you teleport within a 3 by 3 square from the initial point
of casting so it may be better if you have the intial point of casting as a
blank bit of ground if you can teleport more or better troops that way.
11) Also, if you teleport in the right place the enemy will not break out of
overwatch giving you the opportunity to make sure they don't by opening fire on
them.
12) A good way of "spotting" enemies is to have your assault troops fly they
will spot hidden or crounching enemies.
Me: Yah, by the end game your assault troops should be plenty able to take care
of those pesky hidden dudes too.
13) For assault troops depending on where you land you may or may not have an
enemy breaking out of overwatch, shoot them to make sure they don't. This is
where the bolt pistol, Master crafted bolt pistol, plasma pistol or Nova storm
plasma pistol might be better than the hand flamer.
14) Combining Displacement and jumping is a very good idea for AP saving.
15) The vortex can be used for tree clearing for clear shots.
A few hints for the last few levels
Try using the lascannon and the Multimelta instead of the Missile launcher .
Your assault troops are invaluable at this point of the game. Make sure you use
them properly.
Me: True, very true. But if you care about keeping them alive at the end of the
last mission, try and give em a little support.
Bunkers are bad news because your accuracy is halved (50%). Try using Assault
troops to clear them.
Choose terminators, Devastator and Assault squads. Choose the special
characters which have their stats maxed out. Make sure they are otherwise if
the enemy pulls a sneak attack on you you'll be in trouble.
When you hear the "teleporting" sound be careful. Keep a tight formation or you
may be in deep trouble when they teleport in.
Have your terminators in vehicles, that way they can travel more. Being in a
vehicle severely limits their sight, try dropping them out of them and firing,
then returning in.
Me: Hmmm? Seems more trouble than it's worth to bring a Rhino; I'm lazy, so
unloding and loading frustrates me no end :p
Make sure you have a relatively accurate shot (check the accuracy percentage,
the left number when you have the cursor over an enemy). If it is 60% or less
consider using an aimed shot or moving somewhere else for a better shot.
Use my "accurate shot trick" for repeat fire weapons to get the most damage and
hits.
Choose your weapons carefully, make sure to equip your Force Axes and
Powerfists for your Assault squads.
On the last level bring all your best grenades, no sense in holding back now.
Once you have over run the building send your Devastator squads heavy weapons,
Terminator with the Assault cannon and librarian up to the roof and start your
sniping. Let them come to you. Alternatively try placing them on the second
level.
Me: This is a good tip; this is the way I normally deploy my heavy weapons
troops in the last mission. The AI is really dumb; they'll keep moving closer
each turn for you to cream them.
In the last level, try Displacing a squad of Assault troops and your Terminator
with the Assault cannon to the second level of Zymran's initial building.
Clearing the second floor is important because the have all the good weapons on
it like Meltaguns and flamers.
You will need the Assault cannon terminator because there will be two
terminators stationed there and your Assault troops probably won't be able to
handle them. Once there have your Assault troopers kill the troops with good
weapons and take the terminators out with the Assault cannon. If you can't try
flaming one of them and kill the other.
Also the top level of Marines have only Bolters and grenades while the ones at
the lower level don't step out of the building. Be careful though, the
terminators and Marines from the first level will go to the second level to
help out.
Watch out for long range fire from enemies stationed outside the building.
Techmarine tip from Adam Making
A point of interest. In your page of info that you wrote about Chaos Gate(which
contained a lot of useful tips), you mentioned that giving a psyker a
non-offensive spell like Quickening allows him to build up experience in
increments of 30 each time he casts the spell even after the mission is
completed. I had already found this one out using Teleport, BUT did you know
that you can do a similar trick with your techmarine? On certain missions, the
ultimate goal will be for the techie to access a computer and perform his
manipulations - in the Chaos chapel he wants to shut down a warpgate, and in
the mission I got stuck on, he wants to find info about Zymran and the marine
captured in mission 3. The full process will often require the expenditure of
more action points than he has even at full, so he just does as much as he can
in the current turn, and then contiunues in the next turn until finished.
However, each time you ask him to access the computer, he earns 30 XP for a
successful manipulation, regardless of how much progress he makes, how much
work he still has to do, and how many APs he has left or has used up in that
process(this includes 0 in all cases, with the exception of how much work he
still has to do, with me?). So, if you run all his APs down on the first
manipulation, DON'T end the turn, then just keep clicking on the tech icon, he
keeps working and earns 30 XP every time you press on the icon. You can get him
from absolute rookie marine to Mighty Hero with just 60 clicks on the button,
and this takes no time at all - probably one click per second! So in one
minute, he's gone from beginner to Mighty Hero. Neat huh? Then you just end the
turn as normal, finish the job, and return to the ship to gloat in his new
status.
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.
CREDITS & OTHER INFO
Well, there's God Himself, for his unflagging support even when I figured he
didn't exist!
I'd like to credit my girlfriend for something too, but since I don't have one
... humph :(
Update 11 Sep 2001! Got that girlfriend! Mwahahahahaha!
SSI and Random Games for making the game.
GameFAQs for bein there with all that great game help!
Ummm ... I also read the manual and readme.txt file that came with the game.
Games workshop for making up the cool Warhammer universe, but their stuff is
awful expensive :(
If anyone wants to reach me, my address is keeleslie@hotmail.com. I welcome all
comments and suggestions, but I also have to say that I've more or less moved
on from Chaos Gate, so I don't think I'll update this FAQ frequently. Still,
any additional factual information on the game or its control system would be
appreciated. If anyone has some super duper useful tactic that he/she wants to
share, then send it in by all means - I'll surely give credit for any stuff you
guys contribute. But please don't mail me concerning my own tactics, or if you
disagree with my opinions and insist that yours are much better ... not because
I don't care, but like I said, Ive moved on from Chaos Gate and I'm not really
going to change the way I play. Well, take care everybody and God Bless!
