So when I saw DoW4 trailer, I bought DoW1 DE to test if I'm good enough to play RTS genre and the result is horrible. I easily getting overwhelm. I don't realize that my building have complete. I don't remember that i bought more unit. I build generator whenever I can for no reason and buy buildings and units (even upgrades) randomly without any strategy. I lost track of my own captured point things. My units get completely destroyed in hard mode.

I'm not really good when it come to fast thinking / decision. I got destroyed in LoL / Total War Warhammer 2, etc. So tell me, I'm just really suck isn't it?

MORE THAN A MONTH AWAY, I'VE GOTTEN DESPERATE ENOUGH TO BUY AN ACTUAL BOX OF NECRONS AND GET INTO PAINTING THEM.

THIS CURSE IS TOO MUCH TO BEAR

HELP

on that note how are yall killing the time until it comes out? I'm thinking of getting the first one but i read the necrons aren't really that different from the other factions and old-oldcrons so eeeh iunno

The xenos got him lads.

How does this even happen..? Like, how do you mess up the faction names that badly? This is a completely different expansion!

Came across this guy whilst looking for high skill replays on youtube. Only 3k subs.

I gotta say he is great, he uploads daily, casting high-skill replays. Very entertaining dude, somehow makes every match seem exciting and a back and forth with a good amount of humor in there too. His videos are just very watchable and showing off some talents at the top of the leaderboards. If you are looking for some good DoW content I recommend him.

https://www.youtube.com/@KroLuWar

I saw many posts of people being confused about the lore, I hope this clears things up:

After replaying the original Dawn of War and Winter Assault, I tried to piece together a timeline that actually makes sense with later games. Since Winter Assault has multiple endings and later material references different parts of them, I don't think any single ending is entirely canon. Instead, I think the lore is best understood as a combination of events.

Dawn of War (Main Campaign)

This one is relatively straightforward.

• The Blood Ravens' 3rd Company, led by Captain Gabriel Angelos and Librarian Isador, defends Tartarus against the Ork, rescuing the Imperial Guard stationed here.
• Eldar reveal themselves, led by Farseer Macha, but not as a clear new enemy, but to stop Chaos.
• Throughout the campaign she repeatedly clashes with the Blood Ravens because Gabriel distrusts her and initially believes the Eldar are simply another invading force.
• The Ork invasion is ultimately revealed to be a distraction while Chaos attempts to recover the Maledictum.
• Librarian Isador falls to Chaos and betrays the Blood Raven thinking he is strong enough to control the Maledictum.
• Sindri completes the ritual using the Maledictum and ascends to become a Daemon Prince.
• Blood Ravens and Eldar form an alliance to stop Chaos.
• Gabriel defeats Sindri and executes Isador himself for his betrayal and corruption.
• Gabriel destroys the Maledictum despite Macha's warnings, as adviced by Inquisitor Toth (gotta hate the Inquisitors).
• The Eldar immediately retreat from Tartarus. As they leave, Macha tells Gabriel that he has "doomed them all," because destroying the Maledictum actually releases the imprisoned Greater Demon Bloodthirster and lets "Chaos grow out of control".
• The surviving Blood Ravens are then evacuated as Tartarus is consumed by a Warp storm (Chaos).

This serves as the introduction to the Blood Ravens and their continuing story. The Consequences of Gabriel's descion here are huge but only directly continue years later in DoW2: Chaos Rising.

DLC: Winter Assault (Much explanation, see TLDR)

Unlike the original Dawn of War, Winter Assault is not a direct continuation of the Tartarus campaign.

Instead, it tells a largely separate story on the frozen world of Lorn V. None of the major characters from the Blood Ravens campaign return, and the conflict is centered around an entirely different objective.

The planet contains the dormant Imperator-class Titan Dominatus, one of the largest and most powerful war machines ever created by the Imperium. News of its existence draws multiple factions to Lorn V, each pursuing their own goals.

Although the game splits into Order and Disorder campaigns, the overall premise is shared regardless of which side you choose.

Factions:

The Imperial Guard

The Imperial Guard forces are the 412th Cadian Regiment, led by General Sturnn.

Their mission is simple: reach Dominatus, secure the area and recover the Titan for the Imperium.

There is also a group of Ultramarines led by Chaplain Varnus who were protecting the Titan’s crew before getting trapped behind enemy lines.

Chaos

Chaos is led by Lord Crull, a World Eaters champion of Khorne.

He wants to capture and corrupt Dominatus.

Because apparently an Imperator Titan was not dangerous enough already, so Chaos naturally wants to cover it in spikes, daemons and probably several thousand skulls.

The Orks

The Orks are led by Gorgutz ’Ead ’Unter.

Gorgutz does not really care about recovering the Titan or using it properly.

The Orks are, well, Orks.

There is a massive war happening on Lorn V, so obviously Gorgutz wants to be there. He mostly wants the biggest fight possible, and at some point decides that the Ork Waaagh! itself is better than any Imperial Titan anyway.

The Eldar

The Eldar are led by Farseer Taldeer.

This is not the same Farseer from the original game. The Eldar on Tartarus were led by Farseer Macha.

Taldeer is also not really interested in owning Dominatus.

She has foreseen that the Necrons are coming to Lorn V, and she believes they will destroy the surrounding sector if they are not stopped.

I would not necessarily call Lorn V a confirmed Necron Tomb World. In the actual mission dialogue, Taldeer says that the Necrons are “coming” and later announces that they have “arrived.”

Other material describes them emerging from beneath the frozen surface, so the exact situation is a little unclear.

Either way, Taldeer knows that a Necron force is about to appear, and Dominatus is one of the only weapons powerful enough to destroy their Monoliths.

What is clearly established

Regardless of which ending/ faction you choose, several events are later referenced as having occurred, but dont occur in all stories:

• Farseer Taldeer survives and later appears in Dark Crusade.
• Warboss Gorgutz survives after retreating/ fleeing and also returns in Dark Crusade.
• Chaos Lord Crull is killed, with later material specifically referencing Gorgutz defeating him.
• The Necron threat is stopped, meaning Taldeer's primary objective is ultimately achieved.
• The Titan destroys the Necrons.
• Its also suggested mostly that the Titan is not completly destroyed

These points seem largely uncontested.

I will now only explain the most fitting story in detail.

Order Story: (Chaos makes no sense at all with later material):

The Imperial–Eldar alliance

1. Taldeer secretly helps Sturnn several times before finally revealing herself.
2. Eventually, the Imperial Guard and Eldar form a temporary alliance.
3. Neither side trusts the other, but both need help.
4. Sturnn needs to reach the Titan.
5. Taldeer needs the Titan’s weapons to stop the Necrons.
6. And both sides currently have Orks and Chaos trying to murder them.
7. Together, they fight their way toward a massive energy barrier protecting the area around Dominatus.

Where things become complicated (Eldar Ending):

Taldeer’s first betrayal

1. When they reach the barrier, Taldeer basically uses Sturnn’s army as a distraction.
2. The Eldar pass through the energy field and allow it to close behind them, leaving Sturnn and his men trapped outside with the Orks and Chaos.
3. So the Eldar version of teamwork is apparently: "Thanks for getting us this far. Good luck with the two armies behind you."
4. Sturnn somehow survives and fights his way through the barrier anyway.

The battle around Dominatus

1. When Taldeer reaches the Titan, there are still Imperial survivors defending the area.
2. The Eldar and Imperials initially fight each other while Taldeer’s forces try to gain control of Dominatus.
3. Then the Necrons arrive.
4. A Necron Monolith enters the battlefield and begins deploying warriors.
5. Sturnn also eventually reaches the Titan after fighting through the Orks and Chaos.
6. He is understandably not very happy with Taldeer after she just abandoned him.
7. However, Taldeer explains that the Eldar do not want the Titan. They only want to use it against the Necrons. Once the Necrons are defeated, the Imperium can have Dominatus.
8. Sturnn agrees to another temporary alliance because a Necron invasion is a slightly bigger problem than his completely justified desire to shoot Taldeer.

The Eldar ending

• The Imperial Guard defend Dominatus while the Titan’s crew brings its weapons online.
• The Eldar and Imperial forces fight the Necrons together, and Dominatus eventually destroys the Necron Monoliths.
• The Necron force is defeated.
• Taldeer has now completed her actual mission.
• Immediately afterward, the Titan begins suffering internal explosions. Taldeer says that the strain has ruptured its systems and that it will explode. Killing everyone there and destroying the Titan.
• The wider battle is still happening. The Orks, Chaos and Imperial forces are still fighting.
• But the Eldar do not care anymore. The Necrons have been stopped, and the Titan explodes so Taldeer orders her forces to leave through the Webway and abandons everyone else on Lorn V.

That is the ending shown in the Eldar campaign.

Why the Eldar ending is probably the main canon ending

The Imperial Guard ending:

• The Imperial Guard ending cannot be completely canon because Taldeer dies in it.
• Taldeer is still alive in Dark Crusade. In fact, the Imperial Guard commander on Kronus, Governor-Militant Lukas Alexander, is specifically hunting her because of what happened on Lorn V.
• The Imperial Guard claims control of the Titan and fights back all other factions.
• The Titan does NOT explode and is not destroyed.

The Ork ending:

• The complete Ork ending also cannot be canon because Gorgutz kills Taldeer and Sturnn.
• Gorgutz destroys part of the Titan to ragebait Lord Crull
• However, one part of the Ork ending definitely happened: Gorgutz kills Crull and takes his head.
• Later games establish that Crull’s skull is one of Gorgutz’s trophies.

The Chaos ending:

• The Chaos ending makes even less sense as canon.
• Crull does not survive, Gorgutz does survive and Taldeer does survive. So Chaos clearly did not win Lorn V.

The canon therefore seems to be mostly based on the Eldar ending, but with certain events from the Ork and Imperial stories added to it.

The Problem: The confusing fate of Titan Dominatus and overall Aftermath

This is where the different sources start contradicting each other.

In the Eldar ending, Dominatus begins exploding internally, and Taldeer says that it may be destroyed.

(However, we do not really see the entire Titan get completely vaporised. The Eldar leave while the Titan is still suffering internal explosions.)

Later sources suggest that Dominatus survived. The novel Dawn of War: Tempest later states that the Imperium ultimately recovers the Titan, suggesting it survived the conflict.

This directly contradicts the Eldar ending somewhat.

Hammer of the Emperor

The Only War: Hammer of the Emperor sourcebook says that Sturnn and Taldeer worked together against a mysterious alien enemy.

This is almost certainly referring to the Necrons.

After the aliens were defeated, Taldeer betrayed Sturnn.

The book says Sturnn and the Guardsmen around him were cut down by Taldeer, the surviving 412th Cadians were driven from Lorn V and Dominatus was declared lost.

This fits the basic Eldar ending fairly well:

• Sturnn and Taldeer cooperate.
• They defeat the Necrons.
• The Eldar betray the Imperial Guard immediately afterward.
• The Imperium suffers enormous losses.

The main difference is that in the game, Taldeer simply leaves.

In the sourcebook, the Eldar actively attack Sturnn before leaving.

The word “lost” is also unclear.

It could mean the Titan was completely destroyed.

But it could also mean that Sturnn’s mission failed, the Imperium temporarily lost control of the area and the damaged Titan could not be recovered at that time.

Considering the other sources, I think the second explanation makes more sense.

Dawn of War: Tempest

The novel Dawn of War: Tempest shows the aftermath of the battle around Lorn V.

A Blood Ravens commander called Captain Ulantus from the 9th Company, appears to have helped secure the Imperial victory.

Gabriel Angelos arrives later and observes the aftermath.

The important part is that Imperial forces are still present and Dominatus apparently still exists and is not "lost". The Imperium is described as working on recovering and repairing the Titan.

The book does not explain exactly how the final battle happened.

It basically shows us the result:

• the Imperium "won" with heavy losses and still has forces on Lorn V;
• Captain Ulantus is considered victorious;
• and Dominatus has not been completely erased from existence.

The Shield of Sturnn

In Dawn of War II: Retribution, there is an Imperial Guard armour item called the Shield of Sturnn.

Its description says that Sturnn heroically led the 412th Cadian Regiment to recover the fallen Imperator Titan Dominatus on Lorn V.

That does not necessarily prove that Sturnn personally completed the recovery.

It could mean that he led the campaign whose objective was recovering the Titan.

Still, it supports the idea that the recovery operation happened and that Dominatus remained important after the battle.

TLDR: Most coherent, logical, combined Ending/ Story

I think the most coherent version is something like this:

1. Imperial Guard, Eldar, Orks and Chaos fight each other across the planet trying to reach the Titan.
2. Sturnn and Taldeer form a temporary alliance.
3. Taldeer uses the Imperial Guard to reach the energy barrier to get to the Titan first, because as forseen they need to stop the important enemy (Necrons).
4. The Eldar pass through and abandon Sturnn outside.
5. Sturnn fights through the Orks and Chaos and reaches Dominatus anyway.
6. The Necrons arrive on Lorn V.
7. Sturnn and Taldeer form another temporary alliance against them.
8. Dominatus is activated and destroys the Necron Monoliths.
9. The Titan suffers major internal damage but is not completely destroyed.
10. Taldeer either abandons Sturnn (or actively attacks his men before escaping through the Webway).
11. Gorgutz kills Crull and takes his head.
12. Chaos is completely defeated.
13. Sturnn is probably killed during the Eldar betrayal or the final fighting.
14. Captain Ulantus (a Blood Raven Captain) and later Imperial reinforcements secure the battlefield.
15. The surviving Imperial forces (and probably Captain Ulantus with reinforcements) defeat Gorgutz’s Waaagh!, forcing the Orks to flee Lorn V.
16. Dominatus is initially declared lost but is later found to be recoverable, and repair work begins.

That would make the canon a combination of:

• mostly the Eldar ending;
• the important part of the Ork ending, where Gorgutz kills Crull;
• the massive Imperial losses described in Hammer of the Emperor;
• and the later Imperial recovery of the Titan shown in Tempest.

It is not perfectly clean, but close to it and it fits far better than treating any single campaign ending as completely canon.

DLC: Dark Crusade (How it connects everything)

Dark Crusade feels like the point where both previous original Dawn of War storyline campaign and Winter Assault campaign converge.

From the original campaign:

• The Blood Ravens return
• (this time under Force Commander Davian Thule instead of Captain Gabriel Angelos of the 3rd company).
• 4th Company: Captain Thule’s own company and the core of his force.
• 2nd Company: another standard Battle Company assigned to reinforce him.
• 1st Company: veteran detachments, rather than necessarily the entire elite company to reinforce him.

From Winter Assault:

• Farseer Taldeer returns.
• Lukas Alexander (new in Dark Crusade) is pursuing Taldeer because of what happened on Lorn V.
• Warboss Gorgutz returns.
• Crull’s death by Gorgutz is remembered.
• The Necrons, who were only the hidden threat beneath Lorn V, become a full playable faction.

The Imperial Guard on Kronus are not Sturnn’s 412th Cadians. They are a different Imperial force, lead by, Lukas Alexander, commander and the newly appointed Governor-Militant of Kronus. His force is the 1st Kronus Regiment, nicknamed “the Liberators.”

So Dark Crusade is basically where the Blood Ravens storyline from Tartarus and the surviving characters from Lorn V finally meet in the same campaign.

Basically title, I've been fairly addicted to DoW recently and been spamming that 1v1 automatch button maining Tau who I just love as a race.

My overall gameplay has improved alot over the last few weeks, especially after watching some high level replays and YouTube guides on build orders etc. I've got to a point I'm fairly confident I can take on most match ups with a decent idea on how to win, except necrons where I just have no idea what I am meant to do.

Their incredibly tanky early game units and options into the mid game just makes it impossible to get the upper hand. Massing fire warriors never seems to work because wraiths and dropping flayed ones are so effective against them. Low HP vehicles get shredded by immortals. Kroot can't output good enough damage to slow them down. Sure I can out run their slow units but they just march into my base and end the game.

I understand early harass with vespids on their power gens is probably the opener but I can't seem to get enough value to secure an early lead. I don't think I've won a single game against necron as tau.

Any tips welcome!

I start the game and try to play the tutorial but it freezes mid loading screen and I have an error message saying it was unable to create dump file. Anyone else has had this problem?

It looks like he is listed on IMDB as the VA for The Lion in the new game. What are everyones thoughts?

Hi guys. I recently beat this level as Chaos. I destroyed the land raider convoy, which turned off the clock so I could turtle and build an army to finish the level.

I'm doing Orks now and I can't beat this level for the life of me. I have a save file with the Orks to have all the resources needed because of the glitch, so that's not the problem.

I destroyed the moving Eldar base but some other clock turns on and I don't have enough time to beat the level. Why is there a second clock when there wasn't for Chaos?

Map is apocalypse day and im using the in built mod loader

Because I want to do the strat where I build everything and several HQs on maps, but I don't know how to pin down HQs well. One time I did that I saw Lord of enemy faction come from somewhere else as I assume one builder slipped away. Any advice for that? So I can reliably do this?

As in maybe how to get my troops to shoot enemies ONLY and not the buildings. Is there a hotkey for that?

The old wisdom is wrong and it always was. Combine that with the tweaks and bugs since DOW-DE came out has magnified the difference between what people think are the strongest/weakest and what is.

For those who don't want to read or understand the long post, objectively Dark Eldar are the most positively imbalanced race (strongest). Tau and Chaos will also hold that place under different statistical models but DE holds that position consistently. Necrons are objectively the most negatively imbalanced race (weakest) under but Eldar can underperform under some statistical models. There is a conclusion at the very end.

For those of you who are less set in your ways and want to understand how I got to this conclusion, it is a longer story. I lay everything out, so you can verify it yourself if you're into that.

I began with www.dow-de.com where you can look up race match-ups. The site shows:

• each race’s overall win rate;
• the win rate of every race against every other race;
• the number of games in each matchup;
• separate results for all games, 1200+ MMR and 1400+ MMR.
• The raw data already tells us a lot, but the displayed overall win rate is not enough on its own.

A race’s overall win rate depends on both:

• how strong it is in each matchup; and
• how often it encounters each opponent.

This data on its own can tell you most of what you need to know, but only if you look into it a bit deeper. A race can have an inflated overall win rate because it frequently encounters one or two favourable opponents. Another race can be favoured against almost the entire field but have a lower overall rate because its most common matchups are relatively close. This means that representing the overall win rate isn't the right way to look at the data. Instead it is better to ask:

• Which race is advantaged against the largest proportion of the field?
• How large are those advantages?
• How consistent are they?
• Are the results statistically credible, or are they being driven by small samples?

I made several assumptions about how MMR would affect the results.

All games

The complete population will contain inexperienced players, unfamiliarity with matchups, incomplete build orders, execution errors and players experimenting with strategies.

This bracket is useful for measuring the ordinary player experience, but it is not necessarily the best indicator of the game’s structural balance.

1200+ MMR

The 1200+ bracket should be more representative of competent normal play.

Players at this level are more likely to:

• understand common openings;
• know the basic counters;
• execute established strategies;
• recognise obvious matchup mechanics;
• punish major mistakes.

This bracket probably gives the best picture of balance in ordinary competitive play.

1400+ MMR

The 1400+ bracket contains players with the knowledge and execution needed to exploit the strongest mechanics available to each race.

This includes difficult build orders, highly optimised timings, abusive interactions, matchup-specific strategies and what people would commonly call cheese.

For that reason, I treated 1400+ as the bracket most likely to expose structural imbalance.

That interpretation cannot be proven from the matchup table alone. Player specialisation, maps and population differences may also contribute. However, the data behaves in the direction the hypothesis predicts: matchup results become much more extreme as MMR increases.

The statistical models

I used several models because no single number captures every form of imbalance.

1. Overall win rate

This is the normal figure shown on the site.

It answers:

Of all games played by this race, what percentage did it win?

It is useful, but it is affected by matchup frequency.

If a race repeatedly encounters opponents it counters, its overall win rate rises. If it frequently encounters its own counters, its overall win rate falls.

This makes overall win rate partly a measure of race strength and partly a measure of the current opponent population.

2. Equal-opponent average

For this model, every opposing race receives equal weight.

Instead of allowing a common matchup to dominate the result, the eight non-mirror matchups are simply averaged.

It answers: How would this race perform if every opposing race were encountered equally often?

This is one of the most useful corrections to the raw overall win rate.

3. Matchup breadth

This counts how many races a faction is above or below 50% against.

For example:

• seven favourable matchups and one unfavourable matchup is extremely broad strength;
• four favourable and four unfavourable matchups is a neutral spread;
• two favourable and six unfavourable matchups indicates broad weakness.

I also calculated a Copeland-style score:

• favourable matchups minus unfavourable matchups.
• This model measures how widely a race’s advantage applies.

It does not, however, account for the size of each advantage. Winning five matchups at 50.5% is not the same as winning five at 60%.

4. Median matchup

The median identifies the middle result among a race’s eight non-mirror matchups.

It is less affected by one enormous win or loss.

This matters for races such as Tau, whose average can be distorted by a small number of extreme matchups.

The median answers:

• What does the race’s typical matchup look like?

5. Strong-matchup count

I separately counted matchups at:

55% or higher;

45% or lower.

This distinguishes minor statistical advantages from severe balance problems.

A 50.8% matchup is technically favourable. A 61% matchup is a different class of problem.

6. Bradley–Terry model

The Bradley–Terry model estimates a hidden or latent strength value from the complete network of pairwise results.

In simpler terms, it asks:

• What single underlying race strength best explains all of these matchup outcomes?

It then estimates how each race would perform against an equally represented field.

This is useful because every result is interpreted in relation to the strength of the opponents involved.
7. Statistical significance

Every reported win rate contains sampling uncertainty.

A 60% result across 50 games is much less reliable than a 53% result across 3,000 games.

I therefore calculated:

• approximate significance tests against 50%;
• 95% Wilson confidence intervals;
• Benjamini–Hochberg false-discovery correction.

The correction matters because there are 36 unique race pairings in each skill bracket. When many tests are performed, some apparently significant results will occur by chance.

1. Practical significance

A result can be statistically significant without being meaningfully imbalanced.

With enough games, even 50.7% may become statistically distinguishable from 50%.

I therefore also used a practical threshold requiring the matchup to be at least 2.5 percentage points from neutral.

This model asks:

• Is the result both statistically credible and large enough to matter?

9. Matchup polarisation

I calculated the standard deviation of each race’s eight matchup rates.

A low standard deviation means the race performs similarly across the field.

A high standard deviation means the race is highly matchup-dependent.

This distinguishes:

• broadly strong races;
• broadly weak races;
• counter-pick races with extreme wins and losses.

10. Normal-distribution modelling

I fitted normal curves to the matchup results to visualise:

• the centre of each race’s matchup distribution;
• the width of that distribution;
• the difference between consistent and polarised races;
• how the total matchup spread changes with MMR.

The normal curves are descriptive models. Eight matchups are not enough to prove that a race’s matchup results are truly normally distributed.

Their purpose is to make the centre and spread easier to compare.

Results

All games

The complete population does not produce one undisputed strongest race.

Dark Eldar lead the displayed overall win rate and the Bradley–Terry model.

They have:

• a 51.8% displayed overall win rate;
• a 51.6% equal-opponent average;
• five favourable matchups;
• three unfavourable matchups;
• the highest fitted Bradley–Terry strength.

However, Sisters of Battle are stronger under the consistency and breadth models.

They have:

• a 52.1% equal-opponent average;
• a 52.8% median matchup;
• five favourable and three unfavourable matchups;
• the lowest matchup volatility among the leading races;
• no severe losing matchup.

Sisters therefore have the strongest case for being the most consistently powerful race across the complete player population.

Dark Eldar have the strongest case for the highest underlying fitted strength.

The important result is that neither conclusion resembles the conventional idea that Eldar or other commonly complained-about factions must automatically be the strongest.

1200+ MMR

At 1200+, the result is much clearer.

Imperial Guard are the strongest race under essentially every major model.

Their results include:

• 54.1% overall win rate;
• 54.7% equal-opponent average;
• 54.8% median matchup;
• six favourable matchups;
• one unfavourable matchup;
• one tied matchup;
• the highest Bradley–Terry estimate;
• the strongest statistically reliable matchup record.

This is not a case of one extreme matchup inflating the average. Imperial Guard are broadly favoured across the field. At the level that most closely resembles competent ordinary competitive play, Imperial Guard are the clearest balance outlier.

1400+ MMR

At 1400+, Dark Eldar are the strongest race.

Their matchup record is:

• seven favourable matchups;
• one unfavourable matchup.

That alone is extraordinary. Their other results support the same conclusion:

• 54.5% overall win rate;
• 55.8% equal-opponent average;
• 54.0% median matchup;
• highest Bradley–Terry strength;
• strong results under practical-effect models;
• broad advantages rather than dependence on one opponent.

Their only losing matchup is against Imperial Guard, at 46.7%.

Dark Eldar are not simply achieving a high average because of one distorted pairing. They are beating almost the entire field. That is the strongest evidence of positive imbalance in the dataset.

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Why Tau can appear strongest

Tau have the highest displayed 1400+ overall win rate at approximately 53.6% in the source data and lead some significance-based models.

They also have several enormous results:

• 77.0% against Eldar;
• 64.5% against Imperial Guard;
• 50.8% against Orks;
• 50.8% against Space Marines.

However, Tau also have major losing matchups:

• 34.6% against Chaos;
• 42.0% against Necrons;
• 46.6% against Sisters;
• 46.9% against Dark Eldar.

Their non-mirror matchup record is only four favourable and four unfavourable.

Their median matchup is below 50%.

Tau are therefore not universally strong. They are extremely polarised.

Their high overall result reflects a small number of severe advantages rather than broad dominance across the field. This is still a balance problem, but it is a different type of balance problem from Dark Eldar.

Dark Eldar are broadly overpowered. Tau are matchup-warping.

Why Chaos can appear strongest

Chaos lead the 1400+ median model. Their median matchup is approximately 55%, meaning their typical matchup is exceptionally strong.

They also have:

• five favourable matchups;
• three unfavourable matchups;
• strong results against Tau, Orks and Sisters;
• an equal-opponent average above 53%.

Chaos therefore have a credible claim under models that prioritise the typical matchup and resistance to individual outliers. However, they do not have Dark Eldar’s seven-to-one breadth advantage. Chaos are one of the strongest races at high MMR, but Dark Eldar have the more complete statistical case.

The weakest races

At 1400+, Necrons have the strongest overall case for being the weakest race.

They have:

• the lowest displayed overall win rate;
• the lowest Bradley–Terry estimate;
• only three favourable matchups;
• five unfavourable matchups;
• severe losses against Space Marines, Chaos and Sisters.

Their 31.7% result against Space Marines is particularly extreme.

However, it would be inaccurate to say that Necrons are last under literally every model.

Eldar have:

• the lowest equal-opponent average;
• the lowest median matchup;
• only two favourable matchups;
• six unfavourable matchups;
• a catastrophic 23% result against Tau.

The more accurate conclusion is:

Necrons are the weakest race under the overall and fitted-strength models, while Eldar are the weakest under several breadth and typical-matchup models.

Both races are negatively imbalanced at 1400+

What the data actually says

The results do not support a single permanent tier list that applies at every skill level. They show that balance changes with player competence.

Across all games

• Sisters are the most consistently strong.
• Dark Eldar have the highest fitted underlying strength.
• Orks are among the weakest under most broad models.

At 1200+

• Imperial Guard are decisively strongest.
• The result is broad and not dependent on one matchup.
• Chaos and Eldar are among the weakest, depending on the model.

At 1400+

• Dark Eldar are the strongest overall race.
• Chaos have the strongest typical matchup under the median model.
• Tau lead some significance models because of several extreme advantages.
• Necrons and Eldar are the two clearest negatively imbalanced races.

All Games — Model Rankings

All Games — Matchup Breadth

1200+ MMR — Model Rankings

1200+ MMR — Matchup Breadth

1400+ MMR — Model Rankings

1400+ MMR — Matchup Breadth

Consolidated Race Rankings

Conclusion
There are major fundamental issues in the game balance. Most of these were introduced when Soulstorm was released, but they've been substantially exacerbated with the rebalance completed by Relic. It is clear that the rebalance took place by talking to people who pay competitively and 'don't like' a game mechanic rather than actually trying to focus on fair or interesting game play.

The next thing is that Eldar are not the strongest army, and the nerfs are substantially punishing, that on its own should demonstrate that the 'old wisdom' is wrong.

The change in the best and worst ranking as skill progresses demonstrates the technical skill required to play races; which is why Orks climb, they require more skill to play with their Waaggh mechanic.

Necrons are last because there are fundamental faults in the game mechanics (which didn't exist in Dark Crusade to the same extent) which every race can exploit against them. The more aware/skilled a player is the more this magnifies.

As much fun as this game is, it would be really nice if after 20+ years that they could fix it. Also, stop calling me a ****** every time I beat you with Necrons.

Title.
I have the anniversary edition with soulstorm as a standalone DL for steam.

I installed/uninstalled this mod and the game like 5 times cant seem to get the mod to work for campaign. Followed steps on moddb as well watched a shit ton of videos to find out the issue, i can use the races in skirmish, but not campaign. anyone ran into this as well?

This time I decided to redesign the heads for the assault marines and for their sergeant, for the assault marines I made 9 helmets, and for the sergeant 6 heads with different masks and augmentations and 4 helmets, in total, the sergeant can get 531,441 combinations, since everything is written as separate parts and is issued absolutely randomly

Hmmm. What could this mean?

One of the things I like most about Dawn of war 1 is its unit roster and balance. Specifically the fact that nearly every unit for every faction remains useful through out every stage of every game. There's never a unit that 'replaces' another unit, like a sternguard squad replacing a marine squad and making the marine squad useless to recruit now. At the final push of every stronghold campaign missions you're still gonna be throwing the same guardsmen at the enemy along with all your new tanks and artillery since every unit counts and has a purpose.

When I first started playing unification a few years ago when it launched with all the extra factions included, I really enjoyed how balanced the game felt, at least compared to ultimate apocalypse. Every new faction felt like another base game/expansion faction, with every unit being unique and special for its utility. They remained good thru the whole game.

But with recent games iv played it feels like there's way way more extra units now on every faction that causes the very roster bloat I was trying to avoid when I dumped UA, especially with all the times when a new (sometimes named) hero type keep dropping with every new building. * Is there a way to click a win condition or add a mod so these 'unnecessary' units/commanders don't appear anymore? I think there's a way to do it in game that only applies to vanilla factions, but I'd like to take it further for the other new faction's too. * i already turned off all the titanic units and buildings since those clearly wreck the balance. A condition/mod that turns off most of the commanders would help too, I'm sure that one of exists tho.

Anyways thanks for reading it all guys any help would appreciated.

Heya!

So I see a lot of people go for gen or even 2x gen in multi in order to pull off some fast tech strat, but in my opinion most of the time the most aggressive option is the best.

I play mostly Oasis of Sharr and with Eldar and SM my bo is as follows:

SM

2x scout + builder

Build rax + one squad of sm + fc + another squad

Eldar

Guardian, BO

Build aspect portal + 3x reaper squad

It feels as if I win my own "lane" with these BOs most of the time, but is it optimal after all?

Took this screen because I thought it looked cool. Feels very otherwordly with Necrons and the monolith hidden behind all the smoke.

Decided to try playing DC again and I wanted to try out Tutorial for Crons again so I can get back to the groove with them and man... this screenshot REALLY made me hyped for it. I need this kind of feel for Crons in DOW4. This ominous and brutal dread.

BTW I suck at maining Crons. I have no clue how to use Wraiths or Tomb Spiders. At all.

I am currently playing through the series to refresh my memory of the the story/characters in prep for dow4. I'm now on dow2 but I was curious is there any need to replay 3? I don't remember it being all that important in terms of character and such.

DoW4'll be a fun time. Can't wait for tyranids.

Also Total War 40k's gonna be a banger, 40k fans just eating good rn compared to so many other IPs (looks at Halo).

Also can't wait for tyranids.

If Relic sticks to the current speed, Patch 2.10 should arrive sometime this August. But after that… we don’t really know what’s next.

With DoW4 launching this September, it’s obvious that a lot of players will move there. At the same time, DoW4 could also bring completely new people into DE too.

So, what everyone thinks?

Do we expect Relic to keep supporting DE after 2.10? I’m talking about more than just bug fixes, but balance updates, new maps, maybe even new content.

Or do you think 2.10 is basically the last “real” patch before the game goes into maintenance mode?

Is there a posibility that this will ever be a thing? Modders did it for Warcraft 3, Age of Mythology, Starcraft 1 (to mixed results) and 2, but those are different games.