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Why are they worth it? I am about to reach deep down into the ugly pile of over-looked and underrated tactics. You are playing Dawn of War, so this means you start out playing with the Night Fighting rules.

Lets say you have a Rhino and a Lascannon Predator, and you're being threatened by some Land Raider right in front of you. Drive your Rhino up 6 inches, and shoot your Storm Bolter at it. Since most DoW games start with everything up to 18" of each other lets say that starting out, the LR, will most likely be 18" away. So now your Rhino is 12" away. Shoot at the Land Raider. In Night Fighting, you need to roll to see if whatever you're firing can see whatever it's firing at. You roll 2d6 and multiply the result by 3. This means that to see the Land Raider, the lowest result you can get for this to be succesful is 4. Pretty likely to happen with 2 dice. Of course, don't actually expect to do any damage with a Storm Bolter, but if you succeed, your Searchlights are now pointed at the Land Raider. So now your Lascannon Predator can shoot 3 S9 hits (and you get to re-roll one of them) at the LR. You can actually do quite a bit of damage, considering it's very possible you will have more than one thing that is good at taking out a Land Raider (like another Lascannon Predator, etc.).

And, since most people never use Searchlights, and never bother learning about how they work, the guy with the Land Raider most likely won't even be expecting this.

I often do that with chimeras. I'd like to remind folks that this tactic has limited success with ground pounding IG forces, as orders must be used before vehicle fire.

ZacktheChaosChild wrote:Why are they worth it? I am about to reach deep down into the ugly pile of over-looked and underrated tactics. You are playing Dawn of War, so this means you start out playing with the Night Fighting rules.

Lets say you have a Rhino and a Lascannon Predator, and you're being threatened by some Land Raider right in front of you. Drive your Rhino up 6 inches, and shoot your Storm Bolter at it. Since most DoW games start with everything up to 18" of each other lets say that starting out, the LR, will most likely be 18" away. So now your Rhino is 12" away. Shoot at the Land Raider. In Night Fighting, you need to roll to see if whatever you're firing can see whatever it's firing at. You roll 2d6 and multiply the result by 3. This means that to see the Land Raider, the lowest result you can get for this to be succesful is 4. Pretty likely to happen with 2 dice. Of course, don't actually expect to do any damage with a Storm Bolter, but if you succeed, your Searchlights are now pointed at the Land Raider. So now your Lascannon Predator can shoot 3 S9 hits (and you get to re-roll one of them) at the LR. You can actually do quite a bit of damage, considering it's very possible you will have more than one thing that is good at taking out a Land Raider (like another Lascannon Predator, etc.).

And, since most people never use Searchlights, and never bother learning about how they work, the guy with the Land Raider most likely won't even be expecting this.

There are a couple of problems with this idea.

First is that rhinos come with storm bolters standard, so you don't need to purchase an extra to do it.

The second is that all of your non-troops units will have moved on the table during the night-fighting turn, this means that your triple-lascannon predators will only be able to fire one lascannon, decreasing your odds significantly.

The third is that any tactic that relies on your opponent playing poorly is not a good tactic.

While you are correct, willdstyle, it's easier to win when you remember to capitalize on the basics.

Valhallan42nd wrote:While you are correct, willdstyle, it's easier to win when you remember to capitalize on the basics.

When I face someone who doesn't know the basics I see it as an opportunity to teach them. Beating people who don't know the foundation of the game well enough isn't any fun for me.

Nice one Zack, I never see enough players do this!

Beating people (for the sake of it) who don't know the foundation of the game well enough isn't any useful for anyone.

Agreed, but with my own spin on it . With respect to just beating them and not pointing out the error in hopes of

willydstyle wrote:

ZacktheChaosChild wrote:Why are they worth it? I am about to reach deep down into the ugly pile of over-looked and underrated tactics. You are playing Dawn of War, so this means you start out playing with the Night Fighting rules.

Lets say you have a Rhino and a Lascannon Predator, and you're being threatened by some Land Raider right in front of you. Drive your Rhino up 6 inches, and shoot your Storm Bolter at it. Since most DoW games start with everything up to 18" of each other lets say that starting out, the LR, will most likely be 18" away. So now your Rhino is 12" away. Shoot at the Land Raider. In Night Fighting, you need to roll to see if whatever you're firing can see whatever it's firing at. You roll 2d6 and multiply the result by 3. This means that to see the Land Raider, the lowest result you can get for this to be succesful is 4. Pretty likely to happen with 2 dice. Of course, don't actually expect to do any damage with a Storm Bolter, but if you succeed, your Searchlights are now pointed at the Land Raider. So now your Lascannon Predator can shoot 3 S9 hits (and you get to re-roll one of them) at the LR. You can actually do quite a bit of damage, considering it's very possible you will have more than one thing that is good at taking out a Land Raider (like another Lascannon Predator, etc.).

And, since most people never use Searchlights, and never bother learning about how they work, the guy with the Land Raider most likely won't even be expecting this.

There are a couple of problems with this idea.

First is that rhinos come with storm bolters standard, so you don't need to purchase an extra to do it.

The second is that all of your non-troops units will have moved on the table during the night-fighting turn, this means that your triple-lascannon predators will only be able to fire one lascannon, decreasing your odds significantly.

The third is that any tactic that relies on your opponent playing poorly is not a good tactic.

Who says your Preds had to move? They can fire far anyway.

Didn't know that Storm Bolters came standard. I made this looking out of the old Chaos Codex.

You also don't have to relie on your opponent playing poorly. Just where you put your stuff in comparison to him.

ZacktheChaosChild wrote:

willydstyle wrote:

ZacktheChaosChild wrote:Why are they worth it? I am about to reach deep down into the ugly pile of over-looked and underrated tactics. You are playing Dawn of War, so this means you start out playing with the Night Fighting rules.

Lets say you have a Rhino and a Lascannon Predator, and you're being threatened by some Land Raider right in front of you. Drive your Rhino up 6 inches, and shoot your Storm Bolter at it. Since most DoW games start with everything up to 18" of each other lets say that starting out, the LR, will most likely be 18" away. So now your Rhino is 12" away. Shoot at the Land Raider. In Night Fighting, you need to roll to see if whatever you're firing can see whatever it's firing at. You roll 2d6 and multiply the result by 3. This means that to see the Land Raider, the lowest result you can get for this to be succesful is 4. Pretty likely to happen with 2 dice. Of course, don't actually expect to do any damage with a Storm Bolter, but if you succeed, your Searchlights are now pointed at the Land Raider. So now your Lascannon Predator can shoot 3 S9 hits (and you get to re-roll one of them) at the LR. You can actually do quite a bit of damage, considering it's very possible you will have more than one thing that is good at taking out a Land Raider (like another Lascannon Predator, etc.).

And, since most people never use Searchlights, and never bother learning about how they work, the guy with the Land Raider most likely won't even be expecting this.

There are a couple of problems with this idea.

First is that rhinos come with storm bolters standard, so you don't need to purchase an extra to do it.

The second is that all of your non-troops units will have moved on the table during the night-fighting turn, this means that your triple-lascannon predators will only be able to fire one lascannon, decreasing your odds significantly.

The third is that any tactic that relies on your opponent playing poorly is not a good tactic.

Who says your Preds had to move? They can fire far anyway.

Didn't know that Storm Bolters came standard. I made this looking out of the old Chaos Codex.

You also don't have to relie on your opponent playing poorly. Just where you put your stuff in comparison to him.

In DoW, you can only deploy up to 1 HQ and 2 troops. Everything else moves onto the table the first turn.

So either you move the Predator onto the table and fire one shot, or you don't move it onto the table and you don't fire at all.

Or you could have a HQ with command squad in a rhino, lighting up the land raider with two lascannon razors to hit it.

Just as an example...