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I actually gave the Officer of the Fleet a try at Grim Open and out of 6 games he only affected the outcome 1 reserve roll vs a Demon player. Seems not worth the 30 points. Demons and reserve deepstriking armies will be less popular with Grey Knights and their warp quake being the new bandwagon.

Discounting reserving deepstriking armies which will be on the downswing because of Grey Knights and their Warp Quake, Officer of the Fleet is usually only useful when you go first so thats 50% of the time. Officer of the Fleet is usually not useful in Dawn of War since the opponent will just arrive turn 1 and pop smoke / hide behind stuff. So that makes it only useful 33% of the time.

The main application of the officer of the fleet is to prevent your opponent from reserving if you have turn 1 so you have something to shoot or the opponent reserves and comes in piecemeal. However this only happens 33% of the time due to dawn of war.

Grim Open also had a set 6 turns with roll for turn 7 which somewhat counters the disadvantage of the officer of the fleet that there is a chance that the opponent can make last turn objective grabs on turn 5 without a chance for you to retaliate. Most games are 5 turns and roll for turn 6 and 7 where the risk of opponent making last minute objective grabs coming on from reserves is very high especially vs mobile skimmer armies like Eldar or Dark Eldar.

I often see the Officer of the Fleet in lists online so I was wondering what your opinion of him was and your experiences?

He's a tricky one. Some battles he's a god send, others he's useless. I've rather take something else for the 30pts rather than waste points on something that might not be used at all.

I've never had much use for him, but the thing is, how do YOU use reserves? I use virtually none because I field a mainly artillery and tank-based army so I may only have 1 or 2 tank units in reserve and just place whatever infantry on the field that I have. I just swap the Officer out for the Master of ordnance because it's like having a super cheap artillery piece and I seem to have fair luck with misfire rolls so the extra die of scatter distance doesn't matter too much... Plus when I play against 'Nids or Orks and they don't usually reserve there's little to no use for the Officer whereas in a fight with a swarm style enemy like Orks or 'Nids almost all of my artillery is bound to hit something regardless of how much spread I have on my shots.

I take him in all comer lists. The 30 points buys an army-level strategic asset that can affect the outcome of the entire battle. Potentially staggering the arrival of the opponent so you can destroy him piecemeal plays well into the hands of a shooty army that does not reserve its heaviest hitters. His presence can affect the decision of the opponent what to reserve. What else would you buy for 30 pts that can have such impact? You cannot even buy a 10-men squad of basic infantry for that.

Comparing it with master of ordnance is strange. If you like him, why not take both?

I took an Officer of the Fleet against a deep strike Dark Eldar army He forced the enemy units to trickle in, giving my gun line enough time to destroy them.
I would take him in any tourney, he might be useless against some lists, but against any list the lives and dies on deep striking (Dark Eldar, Drop Pod Marines) he is an emperor-send.

I take an OFF in every tourney I play IG

I always have a terrible time with Reserve Mech Eldar
this guy tends to let them come in piecemeal a bit

also handy when someones trying to DS oblits
or outflank stealers or the sort

But mainly for me Eldar

Anything that disrupts your opponent's overall gameplan is gold, especially at a meager 30 points.

Even more so if you are packing alot of long ranged ordnance and going first. Makes your opponent think twice about reserving (which is a good tactic against overwhelming firepower BTW.)

He is also very useful in DoW and Planet Strike expecialy teamed with the Astopath

Thanks for the input. I haven't really played vs deepstriking armies much so my experience with the Officer of the fleet has been he doesn't have much effect.

Vs mech eldar or dark eldar in objective missions is one case where the officer of the fleet can be a liability since they can come on turn 5 and grab an objective and if the game ends there is nothing you can do about it.

You can buy an Astropath who helps with your own reserves for 30 pts, demolitions, buy 3 meltas or heavy bolters for 3 vendettas so 30 points isn't trivial.

In Dawn of War most opponents I play just come on turn 1 and smoke so officer doesn't help.

People reserve against me so often that I always take one anyway.
I take the Astropath too, since I run STs and Marbo.

If you go 1st many armies will choose to reserve everything rather than allow an IG gunline to blast them to hell on turn 1. It's a very viable option, especially for fast armies such as DE. The OOF turns a viable option into a suicidal tactic. Look at the math hammer.

Regular reserve rolls
Turn2=50% of the army should come in
Turn 3=83.3% of the army should be in
Turn 4=97.5% of the army should be in

Officer of the fleet reserve rolls
Turn 2=33.3% of the army come in
Turn 3=66.6% of the army should be in
Turn 4=88.8% of the army should be in

Net results in a 2,000 point game
Turn 2 OOF keeps 330 points in reserve. The other side has to fight 2,000 points of IG with 666 points of their army.
Turn 3 OOF keeps 334 points in reserve with a combined result of 664 points of enemy shooting or movement never happening. The other side has to fight 2,000 points of IG with 1332 points of their army after the heavy casualties they would take on turn 2.
Turn 4 OOF keeps 174 points in reserve with a combined loss of 838 points of enemy shooting/movement never happening.

Fighting IG from reserve against an OOF is a bad option, so bad that most players will instead choose to allow the IG gunline to make an alpha strike rather than come in severely piece mail.

Dawn of war is the mission where players are most likely to full reserve. Everything has to roll on from their table edge anyways. Mech IG will usually choose to roll everything onto the table on turn 1, so going 2nd is really bad resulting in the player having to deploy 1st and allowing the IG gunline to shoot 1st. It's the worst of both worlds, so going full reserve is often better than going 1st.

Spearhead is another scenario where it might be good to go full reserve rather than going 2nd and allowing the IG player to alpha strike. Units are clustered up perfectly for long ranged pies, and the IG player is clustered up on 1 side of the board. If the IG player deploys 1st chances are there will be units 24" from the other player's board edge, so rolling in from reserves starts as close to the IG deployment zone as regular deployment does.

The OOF removes tactical options from an opponent. That being said once an OOF is added to an army it's almost never used because good opponents will not reserve once an OOF is purchased. It's a deterrent to stop the other side from going into reserve.

Not to mention the people with DS and flankers.