Dawn of War deployment

[ExarPucc]

I was thinking about this the other day.

 

9 times out of 10, given the option, a daemon player will want to go second. However, I was thinking about DoW deployment. If you go first, you have two possible outcomes.

 

1) You'll outnumber your opponent on turn 1 but are still susceptible to incoming fire from their first wave.

 

2) They won't deploy anything, and you get 1-2 turns of deployment to get setup and setup assaults. Granted if they have walkers/tanks walking on they'll get off a few shots on you. Also, if you're within rapidfire range, it's also a potential hazard.

 

But on turn one, they're making checks to see if they even get to see you. It gives us an advantage for a turn while staying outside of shooting, but close enough to make those crucial early turn assaults.

 

What do you guys think?

[Vassakov]

I think with DoW it's still easier to let them go first. That way they should have pretty much everything on the field and normal Daemon tactics can resume. If you go first, you might be able to hit a target or two of opportunity, but you could find their counter costs you dearly when they return.

 

However, like most deployment tactics, there will be an element of who is the opponent and what is their list?

 

For example; if I was playing my Wolves Tournuament list v you at 1500pts DoW I would probably deploy two of my GH Razorback squads in the tanks and my Venerable Dreadnought in a "hill" formation. Daemons would find that sort of armour tricky to crack with just shooting (unless you're Tzeentchian) and at my turn I'd bring on the rest of my tanks within a 24" kill area and pump you full of Demo Cannon and Bolter rounds.

 

So it really depends on the exact circumstances in my view.

[Raptor1313]

Depends on the exact circumstances, but if we go second?

 

It's actually WORSE than normal.

 

Normally, the enemy will probably do something like castle, or maybe think about leaving his whole army in reserve.

 

On Dawn of War? He can leave everything in reserve, let us deploy, and react to our deployment. At this point, it's time to think about clustering up in an area (...which is only so-so, given deep-strike deployment) and minimizing the angles they can hit us from. Otherwise, we get spread out, and not much in the army is durable enough to take much fire.

 

Basically, Dawn of War means that we lose the initiative. We have to deep-strike in; the enemy leaves everything in reserve and reacts to us. Our whole deep-strike deployment advantage is nullified if we go first.

If we go second? Business as usual, except we know the enemy's moving in from his board edge.

[Castigator]

For example; if I was playing my Wolves Tournuament list v you at 1500pts DoW I would probably deploy two of my GH Razorback squads in the tanks and my Venerable Dreadnought in a "hill" formation.

 

Err....you could only deploy one GH Razorback squad not two. It's up to two units from the Troops selection. The Razorback counts as a separate unit.

 

DoW can be a tricky deployment for Daemons.

I've found that Icons come in handy when forced into going first. They allow you to concentrate your army much easier and with careful planning you can set up a shield with the tougher parts of your army for your more vulnerable units (Daemonettes, Bloodletters, Seekers etc.) so that they get a cover save from small arms fire.

As has already been mentioned it depends on the army and the mission, but I find it better to be very aggressive and move close to the opponents deployment zone (centrally) so that once I've weathered the initial storm of fire I'm in a position to assault the next turn, to quickly make up for the lost two turns.

[antique_nova]

dow deployments gives your opponent less defensive positions, as yhey dont have a side of the board against their backs anymore and you can literally bunch them up in the middle surround them and them butcher them at your leisure, breath of chaos would be perfect for this :).

thanks

antique_nova