Some Newbe SM questions. Thread - Ultimate Apocalypse Mod (DOW SS) for Dawn of War

I just started playing UA and I loving it so far. I am just kind of confused about some of their units and upgrades and I have not been able to find any sort of unit / upgrade guide so far so maybe some more experienced SM players can help me out.

Heavy weapons choices:

1: What is the difference between the Plasma Cannon and the Las Cannon? Their tool tips are almost identical, long range, good aim, anti armor. Is the Plasma just a tech higher but it has AoE damage?

Plasma guns vs flamers: I know in vanilla DoW they worked out about the same damage wise due to flamer hitting multiable units at once thus making plasma a “meh” weapon, has the mod fixed this issue?

Powershields: The tool tip counts it as a weapon, but do they also up the defense of a unit using them?

Units:

Stern guard and Vanguard marines: How do they stack up vs their dedicated counter parts of assault marines / devastators? How and when do you guys like to use them and with what upgrades?

Buildable Apothecaries / Standard bearers: Is there any difference in the ones you build out of the building vs the ones build out of the unit upgrade tab? Does stacking more than one help? Or if you upgraded a squad with a medic you should then attach a standard bearer to get both buffs?

Heroes: I read in the mod decryption SM has a choice of two force commanders. I have only ever seen one in the barracks menu, and I being blind / stupid?

All of the different land raider variants: Again many of their tool tips are almost identical, how can you tell what version is good at what if they both say they are good vs armor or something?

If there is some sort of unit / upgrade guide I overlooked I would be thankful for a link. Thank you to anyone who takes the time to help me out.

I don't really play Space Marines, but some of these questions I can answer.

Plasma Guns vs. Flamers; it seems as though they function the same as they used to.

Buildable Apothecaries and Standard Bearers are exactly the same from the building or from the unit itself, and the effects do stack but I find it more useful to have one of each.

Heroes: if I recall correctly, you can build one from the barracks and one from the headquarters; I don't think they're both called "Force Commander" though.

Land Raider variants: the tool tips can defintely use some work on this. Typically, the more expensive one is the better one, though that doesn't exactly tell you which one does what better.

Unit/Upgrade guide; not really a guide per se, but here's the Space Marine page on the Ultimate Apocalypse wiki, and there's also an older video on Lord Cylarne's channel regarding this. The video series seems to be on hold at the moment, however, and only two videos appear to be done (Servitors and Land Raiders). You could also try hopping on the UA Discord server and asking around.

Thanks for the reply, Wiki helped a little bit, since it seems a new update is coming soon I will wait till after that and see if more info gets published before bugging Cylarne.

Heroes: Selection available changes based off your doctrine. Pick a doctrine from the Barracks. '

Plasma: More damage, single unit, good vs low model units. Flamer, many units, low damage. Good against spammed unit/melee units.

Land raiders trial and error. Basically:

• Bolters - Effective vs infantry.
• Las cannons/laser weapons - anti vehicle.
• Flamer - Anti Infantry/building.

Stern guard and Vanguard marines: More weapons available, weapons are generally stronger (even the same weapon type), a lot more hp per model, better VOICE OVER! >B)

What is the difference between the Plasma Cannon and the Las Cannon?

Plasma cannon: Splash damage, god vs stacked units, HEAVY INFANTRY, Necrons (and generators that are too close xD )

Las Cannon: Single Target, HIGH damage, best vs vehicles, building, single units. Don't think its good vs voidshields

Plasma Cannons have a knockback area effect as compared to lascannons too, but I feel like they fire a bit more slowly. Still, vs massed infantry, kinda uber, especially if you have it on a devastator squad that's been reinforced by a transport vehicle - 4 plasma cannons + 8 Hvy bolters = 1 or 2 huge booms + 1 billion bullets. Also, does alright vs vehicles.

Plasma Guns also seem to do a bit better against light vehicles and heavy infantry, in terms of raw damage, so if your goal is to set up a kill zone, sure, a bunch of plasma guns can work, but find 1 squad with flamers with another squad as melee backups, are just more effective overall - once you get melta bombs, that extra x% damage vs vehicles that the regular plasma guns give you isn't worth losing that massive morale damage the flamers give you, or the wheat cleaving power of hvy bolters can give you.

Sternguard aren't really more powerful than devastators, but they have better hp and morale- if using transports to boost squad sizes as previously mentioned, devastators actually do more dps, as every squad member already has a hvy bolter, while sternguard regulars are just toting regular bolters it seems. But where sternguards shine is when you need to field versatile heavy weapon tems quickly; their squad leaders provide all the bonuses, without needing to glue extra apothecaries on from your sanctuaries, or skull probes from your listening posts.

Vanguards, on the other hand, are really excellent melee units (lightning claws supposedly are great for infantry, but they seem to cleave through armor equally) that shine whether reinforced or not by transports: between the gladiator team and vanguards, its a close match for melee efficiency, and compared to assault marines, Vanguards are less mobile, but do much more damage vs everything, and you can negate some of their slow mobilty by air dropping them from a beacon into your enemies' bases - they'll chop everything to bits 10x faster than assault marines will, and have better health and morale to boot.\

Also note that yes, the apothecaries regen boost seems to stack, as do standard bearers. I tend to stick apothecaries on most squads rather than standard bearers, even if they've already got one, but that's inadvisable vs certain morale killing enemies like dark eldars. do the reverse in those cases.

What kind of hero you can make depends on what Chapter tactics you choose from the barracks, unless youve already fielded the force commander.

Land raiders- Agree

Forgot to mention, bug, or feature? ... seems like using troop transports' reinforcement ability on terminator squads only works if you have a standard bearer or apothecary glued onto the squad (which I always attach anyways) and you target the ability on them, rather than the terminators - doesn't work on apothecaries or standard guys that you build into the squad, nor other commander units. *shrug*

Edited by: Aemesh

Bug. Elite squads are not supposed to be affected by the transport rule.