Blood Ravens | Retribution | Multiplayer Characters | Dawn of War III
This page is for characters who appear in the multiplayer mode of Dawn of War II.
The Space Marines are a generalist, Jack of All Stats faction. Due to much of their units being heavy infantry, they are quite durable, but due to their early game expense, they will almost always be outnumbered, which has the side effect of reducing their bleed. However, once they reach the late game and can deploy powerful units such as Terminators and the Land Raider Redeemer, the Space Marines become truly devastating.
Global abilities shared by all the Space Marine heroes are the Drop Pod, which sends a drop pod to the battlefield from an orbiting battle barge to reinforce all squads in the landing area and provide a constant reinforcement point around the pod, Terminator call-in, which teleports a squad of ranged Terminators to the battlefield, and the Orbital Bombardment, which calls down an strike from an orbiting battle barge in the form of three beams which levitate and damage all units caught in their radius before exploding, dealing massive damage and throwing aside those units.
Force Commander
A tanky, melee-oriented hero, the Force Commander is focused around fighting in the front line. His starting skill, Battle Cry, makes all of his melee attacks special attacks to knock down enemy units, and buffs the damage of allied units in a radius for each hit. His wargear increases his ability to support his units, his ability to move around the battlefield, and his prowess in close combat.
His unique global abilities are For the Emperor, a short damage buff to a target unit, and the Assault Terminator call-in, which teleports a squad of Assault Terminators to the battlefield.
- Badass Cape: Depending on his equips he will have one.
- Battle Cry: His starting ability, which makes his melee attacks more dangerous and inspires his allies to do more damage. He can improve it by buying the Power Sword wargear.
- Beehive Barrier: The Iron Halo wargear gives him one which causes received damage to drain his energy instead while active.
- BFG: If you give him Terminator armor, he can use an assault cannon.
- Elite Mooks: Can call in a squad of Assault Terminators, the strongest melee squad in the game.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: His default weapon and two of his weapon wargears give him a sword.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: His Chainsword and Storm Shield wargear, which gives him the Defend ability, giving himself and allies resistance to ranged damage and suppression.
- Nerf: Not to the Force Commander himself, but to his Assault Terminators. Despite losing health when they trade off the Storm Shield and Thunder Hammer for Lightning Claws, the added damage, attack speed, and aura of effect on top of their natural resilience, even with the lower HP, they made short work of almost any infantry that got near them unless they got swamped by sheer numbers in a team game. As such, they were eventually patched to no longer gain levels, because level Assault Terminators were almost as deadly as level 4 Nobs.
- Old Soldier: He has four service studs in his forehead; that means he has been active for about four hundred years of war, and is still able to smite the Emperor's foes.
- Power Fist: One of his melee wargear options. It gives him the Flesh over Steel ability, which stuns vehicles.
- Sprint Shoes: The Armor of Alacrity wargear lets him move faster by default, and also grants the Sprint ability, letting him move even faster.
- Sword and Gun: He starts wielding a chainsword and bolt pistol, and one of his wargear options is a power sword and plasma pistol.
- Teleporters and Transporters: One of his accessory wargear options is a teleporter pack, which gives him a short-ranged teleport ability.
- Wolverine Claws: Using Terminator armor gives him the option to equip Lightning Claws.
Apothecary
The Apothecary is a specialist Astartes officer who is afforded advanced biomedical training and is charged with recovering the gene-seed of his fallen battle brothers and also tending to the wounded and maimed when necessary. Like the Force Commander, the Apothecary is a melee-oriented hero, but his focus is also on supporting his allied troops due to his passive health regeneration aura and his Heal ability, which restores health to a target allied unit. While not as directly powerful as the Force Commander, the Apothecary can more easily conserve his units due to his healing abilities, giving an economic advantage. His wargear increase his ability to heal, his melee strength, and his ability to control enemy units.
His unique global abilities are Larraman's Blessing, which revives all allied heroes for free, and Angels of Death, which gives all of his infantry a massive damage resistance for its duration.
- Adaptational Badass: The Apothecary in the tabletop is a simple squad attachment to help the squad survive longer. The Apothecary of Dawn of War II is brought up to the level of other commanders in game to become a powerful support commander and formidable melee fighter.
- Blown Across the Room: The Purification Rites wargear adds this to his Heal ability: when he uses it, enemies near the healed unit are knocked back.
- Combat Medic: His man draw is the ability to heal friendly units, but he's a formidable fighter as well.
- Healing Factor: The Sanguine Chainsword wargear lets him heal himself with each attack he makes.
- Healing Hands: One of the Apothecary's signature abilities. He starts with a passive aura which increases the health regeneration of allied units, and an ability which heals a target. With the Armor of the Apothecarion wargear, he gains the Advanced Healing ability, which constantly heals all allies in a radius while active at the cost of energy.
- Sword and Gun: Like the Force Commander, he begins with a chainsword and bolt pistol, and retains this with the Sanguine Chainsword wargear.
- Universal Poison: The Purification Vials wargear gives him grenades filled with this, letting him poison enemy squads with damage over time.
Techmarine
As fully initiated members of the Adeptus Mechanicus as well as fully-trained battle-brothers of their Chapter, Techmarines serve as engineers and technicians and are charged with maintaining the numerous weapons, armor and vehicles which his fellow battle brothers will use in battle. The third Space Marine hero, the Techmarine is the only one focused on ranged combat. Aside from this, he also has the ability to repair vehicles and structures, and to build both heavy bolter turrets and an orbital relay beacon, the latter of which acting like a base in the field. His wargears allow him to specialise against certain enemies, become more durable, and counter enemy vehicles.
His unique globals are Blessing of the Omnissiah, which repairs all allied vehicles, and the Venerable Dreadnought, deploying his unique Venerable Dreadnought to the field by drop pod.
- Adaptational Badass: The Techmarine of the tabletop is just a mechanic to repair vehicles during a match. The Techmarine of this game is that as well as the strongest ranged fighter of the Space Marine commanders.
- Badass Bookworm: Naturally, as a Space Marine technician.
- BFG: His Plasma Gun and Melta Gun.
- Herd-Hitting Attack: The purpose of the Bionic upgrade is to improve his health and allow him to do the Powerful Sweep ability, which hits all targets in a radius around the Techmarine. It's essentially a deterrent to melee squads, as opposed to an actual melee weapon.
- Long-Range Fighter: Is one of the few commanders who gets no melee weapons (outside of Powerful Sweep), relying on his guns and abilities for damage.
- Magic Tool: His bionic arm can repair any vehicle or structure or construct a turret or relay beacon with just some sparks.
- Plasma Cannon: His Plasma Gun wargear, which specializes him to do more damage to heavy infantry.
- Sentry Gun: One of his tactics is constructing these to defend vital areas such as victory points.
- Stone Wall: His playstyle is the most defensive of the Space Marine commanders. Aside from fixing vehicles, his abilities allow him to place teleporter relay beacons that can reinforce allied squads in the field, and deploy a tarantula turret, a very durable static defense.
- Teleporters and Transporters: The orbital relay beacon allows reinforcements to be deployed from orbit into the field via teleport.
The Evil Counterpart to the Space Marines, the Chaos Space Marines feature several direct comparison units, but are differentiated by their use of Heretics as a basic unit. Their units are cheaper and weaker than their counterparts, but they can compensate through Heretic worship, invoking the power of a Chaos God to help their forces in the field. In addition, their roster includes Daemon units which gain additional benefits from worship.
The only global shared by the Chaos heroes is the faction's nuke, Empyreal Abyss, which rips open a hole between reality and the Warp. Units within the abyss take constant damage, with the damage increasing the closer they are to its center, in addition, the abyss periodically shoots out chains which drag units in.
Chaos Lord
Chaos Lords are the leaders of the various Chaos forces, often fallen Astartes and either the most blessed by the dark Gods or more simply the most powerful or charismatic individuals in the warband. A heavily-armored, fearsome melee hero, the Chaos Lord is a direct counterpart to the Force Commander. However, while the Force Commander focuses both on breaking the line and supporting his men, the Chaos Lord's focus is on turning himself into an unstoppable combat monster who is also very, very hard to take down. His starting ability is Kill the Weak!, which knocks back all enemy units in direct contact and heals the Chaos Lord for each unit hit. His wargear increases his melee prowess and his durability, as well as disrupting enemy units.
His Heretic worship is to Khorne, increasing the speed of units affected, while his shrines periodically spawn Bloodletter units which linger until their energy is entirely drained while increasing the damage of allied units around them. His globals are Malignant Blindness, which decreases the sight range of enemy units to almost nothing, Bloodlust, which causes his units to inspire each other as they deliver melee attacks, and Blood Sacrifice, which sacrifices an allied troop to summon a squad of Bloodletters.
- Armor Is Useless: Sort of. He wears Terminator armor by default, but it offers no additional damage resistance compared to any other commander. He does have more HP than most commanders and cannot be knocked back or suppressed though, but his armor upgrades also have a lot less health than other melee commanders. To put some perspective: the loyalist rank and file (not a hero) Assault Terminator squad can withstand 4500 points of piercing (the most regular ranged) damage before totally dying. The Chaos Lord goes down after 1250 damage, and that's with him being at maximum experience level. This all for balance reasons, since your hero will fight from the very beginning of the game (and can be ordered to quickly retreat) and Assault Terminators are among the toughest and the most expensive late game infantry units (and can't be ordered to quickly retreat).
- Badass Boast: He practically speaks in these.
- Badass Cape: Sports a damn awesome one, and at level 60 it becomes made of skinned faces.
- Balance Buff: His Blood Maul got one. It had the same base damage as the Lightning Claws, but lower damage in practice thanks to the Lightning Claws higher attack rate, which also gave them better synergy with the Chaos Lord's wargear, which have abilities triggered when he hits an enemy. The only advantage the Blood Maul had was a better ability, hardly useful in practice. The Blood Maul later got a damage boost against vehicles, so there would at least be some reason to take it.
- Beehive Barrier: The Dark Halo, an Evil Counterpart to the Force Commander's Iron Halo which does the same thing.
- Close-Range Combatant: While he's the melee commander, he stands out even those since his wargear abilites are designed around enhancing his melee prowess and both of his melee weapon upgrades take away his gun.
- The Dreaded: His Daemonic Visage wargear makes him so dreaded that he weakens enemy units' damage with his mere presence.
- Healing Factor: Kill the Weak! by default, and the Drain Life ability granted by the Mantle of Hate lets him absorb health from an enemy unit. The Icon of Khorne heals him whenever he makes a melee attack.
- Mighty Glacier: The Chaos Lord is one of the slowest heroes, but once he gets into combat, he is extremely hard to put down and deals out a terrible amount of damage. His Cultists can turn him into a Lightning Bruiser as long as he's in range of their worship. The Chaos Lord can reliably beat every single hero in the game in a one-on-one fight with the right wargear. However, the game isn't about duels.
- Playing with Fire: His combi-flamer's Immolate coats an area in flames, while the Let the Galaxy Burn! ability granted by the Armor of the Inferno lets him unleash a volley of fireballs.
- Punched Across the Room: If you're fighting a Chaos Lord in melee, expect to see your troops go flying. Not only does his default Kill the Weak! do it, but the Blood Maul's Sweeping Doom and the Destructive Strike from his Lightning Claws hurl enemies away as well.
- Shout-Out: His Let the Galaxy Burn! ability is named after a famous quote from Horus.
- Sword and Gun: The Chaos Lords begins with a daemon sword and a combi-bolter, and retains this armament with his Combi-Flamer wargear.
- Useless Useful Spell: Malignant Blindness sounds pretty useful on paper, but as a catch, units affected by it who get hit with ranged attacks will still able to see where the attack is coming from if it was within their normal line of sight.
- Wolverine Claws: His Lightning Claws wargear.
Plague Champion
A hero dedicated to the Chaos God Nurgle, the Plague Champion's focus is on durability. He's something of a combination between the Techmarine and the Apothecary, possessing the repair and construction abilities of the former, and the healing focus and durability of the latter. Like the Techmarine, he can construct turrets, but his wargear options focus more on melee.
The Plague Champion's Heretics worship Nurgle, increasing the health regeneration of allied units, and their shrines heal allies and suppress enemies within range at regular intervals. These intervals become more frequent when the shrine is worshipped, along with allowing squads nearby to reinforce in the field. His unique globals are Touch of Nurgle, which causes the target squad's members to explode on death, dealing damage and knockback to enemies while healing allies, Plague of Undeath, which resurrects enemy casualties as zombies who fight for the Plague Champion, and Noxious Cloud, which spawns a controllable cloud of decay which damages everything within.
- Healing Factor: Aside from his Heretic worship, the Mucus Discharge gives him the Breath of Nurgle ability, healing nearby allies.
- Mighty Glacier: The Plague Champion is the slowest hero, bar none. He does gain a benefit from this in the form of being able to fire at normal speed when suppressed.
- Punched Across the Room: The Pestilent Strike ability from his Plague Fist hurls away enemy units.
- Sword and Gun: His Plague Sword wargear outfits him with the sword and a plasma pistol.
- Universal Poison: His Blight Grenades, which are effectively the Apothecary's Purification Vials.
- Walking Wasteland: With the Icon of Nurgle, he constantly deals damage to nearby enemy units.
Chaos Sorcerer
A dark psyker dedicated to Tzeench, the Sorcerer's focus is on messing with the enemy. While he can deal direct damage, such as with his starting ability, he can also teleport enemy units, lock them in place, and even take control of them depending on his wargear. His starting ability is Doombolt, which unleashes a volley of dark energy bolts which inflict damage to enemy units that they impact with. His wargear primarily gives him new abilities with which to disrupt the enemy.
His Heretic worship infiltrates nearby allies, while his shrines periodically shoot Doombolts at nearby enemies and grant a defensive bonus to nearby allies. His unique globals are Dark Flames, which creates a line of infernal fire to damage enemies caught within, Mass Warp, which teleports all allies to the Sorcerer, and Daemonic Summoning, opening a portal which allows his units to reinforce while also bringing forth temporary Bloodletters to attack the enemy.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: The Subjugate power granted by the Tome of Subjugation lets him take control of an enemy unit for a short time.
- Magic Knight: Is forces on his sorcery, but he's still a Space Marine is not a Squishy Wizard by any stretch of the imagination.
- Playing with Fire: His Coruscating Flame and Warpfire abilities.
- Sword and Gun: His default weapon and one of his upgrades are swords.
- Teleporters and Transporters: His Warp ability from the Vestments of the Warp lets him teleport, while the Warp Rift from the Sigil of the Rift lets him teleport other units.
A highly specialized and fragile faction, the Eldar initially seem weak at first glance and are very beginner-unfriendly due to the great amount of micro needed for their abilities. However, a player who masters them can reap great benefits, chaining together units to devastate the opposing army. They also possess some of the greatest mobility in the game, with most units having the Fleet of Foot ability, and their Webway Gates giving them the ability to quickly get units out onto the field.
Globals shared by all three Eldar heroes are Webway Gate, which creates a gateway into the Webway, with Eldar units being able to teleport to any gate from any other gate, Autarch, which drops an Autarch to the battlefield in a hail of plasma grenades, and the 'Eldritch Storm'', which summons a powerful psychic storm to devastate all caught within its radius.
Warlock
Warlocks are Eldar psykers and Seers who once walked the Path of the Warrior as an Aspect Warrior and now use their training in both fields to devastate the enemy with destructive psychic powers, and may also be found guiding Eldar warhosts. A fast melee hero, the Warlock's focus is on frontline combat. While more fragile than most, he is also faster and when upgraded, hits very hard. His starting ability is Destructor, a blast of psychic energy which damages a target enemy. His upgrades grant him more powerful offensive spells and increase his survivability.
The Warlock's unique globals are Swift Movement, increasing the speed of allied units, and Distort Field, reducing the ranged damage taken by a target squad.
- Black Mage: All of his spells are geared towards attack and blowing up his enemies, with only one or two support spells available.
- Blown Across the Room: His Warp Throw lets him do this at range. All melee weapons special attacks send opponents flying, but the Merciless Witchblade is notable because of sheer distance of the throw.
- Boisterous Weakling: While he can hold his own in a fight with normal goons and will slaughter squads if properly kitted out, in hero-on-hero action, however, he is quite deep down the list.note And yet he suggests that he can take on the Chaos Lord or Lictor Alpha, both of which is usually nigh impossible if either of those have good health and their wargear."Let us duel then, Lord of Fools."
- Death Seeker: Every time he is killed you will hear "At last..."
- Flaming Sword: The Immolator gives him one.
- Glass Cannon: His abilities can deal a lot of damage, but he's one of the less durable heroes.
- Healing Hands: His Channelling ability lets him heal an allied unit.
- Magic Knight: Uses spells in conjunction with his melee to devastating effect.
- Playing with Fire: The Immolate ability granted by the Immolator lets him coat an area in fire.
- Shock and Awe: His basic ability, Distruptor and basic range attack.
- Lightning Can Do Anything: His basic range attack with Merciless Witchblade knocks down the foes.
- Shout-Out: One of his wargears is named Heart of Darkness.
Warp Spider Exarch
Any Eldar who walks the Path of the Warrior as an Aspect Warrior runs the risk of becoming an Exarch, an individual who has become obsessed with their vocation and stuck in that role forever more but possesses incredible skill far beyond that of any of his kin. As is the case with all Warp Spiders, the Warp Spider Exarch is a master of using stealth, rapid deployment and seek-and-destroy tactics to isolate and obliterate their prey. The third Eldar hero, the Warp Spider Exarch's focus is on maximizing the race's mobility to insane degrees. He starts with a personal teleport, letting him quickly manuveur the battlefield, and with upgrades, can teleport further and more often, or teleport allies with him. His wargear also gives him the ability to control enemies in various ways, from delivering continuous knockback to phasing units out of reality.
The Warp Spider Exarch's unique globals are Crack Shot, increasing an allied unit's ranged damage, and Spider's Brood, teleporting a squad of Warp Spiders to the battlefield.
- Blade Below the Shoulder: His melee weapon is a pair of blades attached to his gauntlets. He can make them do more damage by taking the Powerblades.
- Blown Across the Room: With his Heavy Gauge Death Spinner upgrade, he gains an ability which causes his ranged attacks to knock back enemy units.
- Combos: It's possible to build the Warp Spider Exarch to set these up by taking the Phase Armor and Anti-Grav Grenades. With this loadout, you can disable enemy units in ways they can't escape even by retreating before dropping grenades or damaging globals on them.
- Fragile Speedster: As an Eldar, he's quick on his feet and can also Teleport Spam. As soon as he gets locked down or caught out without enough energy to teleport, this spider will get squashed flat.
- Gravity Screw: His Anti-Grav Grenades wargear reverses gravity in the area where it explodes for eight seconds, causing all infantry it hits to float. On its own this is just annoying, but it can become lethal if the Warp Spider Exarch combines it with Guardian grenades, an Autarch drop or, if he really wants those units dead, the Eldritch Storm.
- Hit-and-Run Tactics: One of the Warp Spider Exarch's tactics is to harass enemies before escaping via his teleport.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: He can temporarily make himself and every unit near him invulnerable with the Phase Shift he gets from the Phase Armor. This also puts those units in stasis they cannot move or retreat out of, allowing a skilled player to use it as set-up for grenades and other abilities.
- Razor Floss: His ranged weaponry, as with all Warp Spiders, fires monofilament wire. This is referenced if he buys the Entangling Web:Announcer: The Warp Spider temple readies its best webs.
- Teleporters and Transporters: His initial ability. With upgrades, he can do so at further range and more often, or teleport allies too.
Farseer
Just as an Aspect Warrior may fall on the Path of the Warrior and become an Exarch, a Warlock may fall on the Path of the Seer and ultimately become stuck in the path as a Farseer. Farseers often use their powers of divination to guide Eldar forces to victory on the battlefield, and their fearsome psychic might also makes them formidable opponents when directly threatened. A spellcasting hero like the Warlock, the Farseer's focus is on buffing her troops rather than devastating the opposing army. With her wargears, she can do things such as increasing the damage taken by an opposing unit, reduce the damage taken by an ally, or suppress enemy units. Her starting ability is Guide, boosting the range and damage of an allied unit. Her wargears grant her more abilities to support her army and hinder the enemy.
The Farseer's unique globals are Farsight, revealing an area of the fog of war and detecting infiltrators, and Seer Council, which summons a Seer Council squad to the battlefield.
- Doomy Dooms of Doom: The Doombringer, which grants the Doom ability.
- Healing Hands: Her Spiritual Rites ability heals her nearby allies.
- Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Unless you're using the Ulthwe DLC Farseer or give her the Ghosthelm wargear, she goes bareheaded.
- Power Floats: She floats when using Psychic Storm or Levitation Field, the latter levitating everything else too.
- Praetorian Guard: Her Seer Council serve this function, as their purpose is to protect the Farseer.
- Red Mage: Her abilities both support her allies and harm her enemies.
- Smug Super: She relishes in her powers and looks down on many of her allies from other races."What luck that we are allied today, human, for your Emperor appears to have abandoned you."
- Squishy Wizard: The Farseer is excellent at buffing her troops and supporting them in battle, but she herself is a rather poor fighter. She is capable of fighting basic squads on her own, but will not last against elite melee forces or sustained fire.
- Time Master: With the Armor of Asuryan, she gains the Time Field power, letting her slow down time in an area.
- Winds of Destiny, Change!: Her Doom and Fortune abilities change probability to cause enemies to take more damage and allies to take less damage respectively.
The Tyranids are a powerful but fragile swarm-oriented faction based around the Zerg Rush, appropriate given them being an inspiration for the Trope Namer. Initially their units are dependent on numbers and will inevitably take losses in defeating the enemy, but once they reach tier III, they can unleash powerful monstrous creatures like the Carnifex. One of the faction's unique traits is its use of synapse: certain units provide synapse bonuses to allied Tyranids in range. These bonuses range from damage resistance to increased damage to health regeneration. The Tyranid faction can deal immense early pressure due to their cheap units, but if countered effectively will suffer due to the fragility of their units.
The globals shared by all Tyranid heroes are Without Number, which spawns a small, weak squad of expendable Rippers, and their nuke, Tyrannoform, which causes a formation of seven capillary towers to erupt from the ground, dealing massive damage to any unit they hit. These towers endure, providing a synapse to all Tyranids nearby.
Hive Tyrant
A monstrous creature hero capable of crushing through obstacles, the Hive Tyrant is a powerful close combat hero who provides a basic synapse aura to nearby Tyranids. Its focus is very much on being a durable line-breaker, with abilities focusing it around tying up or disrupting the enemy's most damaging units to allow the rest of the swarm to fight safely. Its upgrades make it more durable, increase its close-quarters power, and give it more disruption options.The Hive Tyrant's unique globals are Brood Nest, which spawns a brood nest structure which heals nearby Tyranids and allows them to reinforce, and Warrior Vanguard, which calls down a Warrior squad, disrupting nearby enemies while reinforcing nearby squads.
- Beehive Barrier: The Warp Field, the Tyranid equivalent to the Iron Halo wargear.
- Breath Weapon: The Bio-Plasma upgrade lets the Hive Tyrant spit a ball of plasma at enemies.
- Brown Note: It can cause one with its Psychic Scream, reducing the damage dealt by enemy units.
- Foe-Tossing Charge: The Charge ability from the Extended Carapace is Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
- Large and in Charge: The Hive Tyrant is the largest hero in the game.
- Make Me Wanna Shout: The Seismic Roar unleashes a blast of force which hurls away nearby enemies. It also seeds the ground with Universal Poison.
- Mighty Glacier: Like the Chaos Lord, the Hive Tyrant is extremely powerful, but also extremely slow.
- Sinister Scythe: Its default weapon is a set of four Scything Talons, and one of his wargears retains this armament.
Ravener Alpha
A serpentine Tyranid hero, the Ravener Hero is less durable than the Hive Tyrant and focuses more on ranged combat and maneuverability. Its signature ability allows it to burrow, creating tunnels which Tyranids can use to quickly move around the field, and it can also construct Hive Nodes, small structures which protect nearby Tyranids from enemy ranged damage. Its upgrades increase its movement, allow it to fight in physical combat, and harm enemy units.The Ravener Alpha's globals are Catalyst, which spurs an allied unit to fight harder and do more damage at the cost of damaging itself, and Mycetic Spores, a copy of the Hive Tyrant's Warrior Vanguard which instead spawns a squad of Raveners.
- Fragile Speedster: While it's fragile in comparison to the tank-like Hive Tyrant, it can get around the field incredibly fast.
- Snake People: Has this vibe in spite of not being part human.
- Sprint Shoes: The Strengthened Sinew wargear acts as this, and also gives it the Fleet of Claw ability to move even faster.
- Tunnel King: Its whole schtick.
- Tunnel Network: One of its greatest advantages is being able to create one for its forces.
Lictor Alpha
The Lictor Alpha is a very different beast to its fellow Tyranids and even to most heroes. While many heroes want to be fighting alongside their army, it's an entirely viable tactic for the Lictor Alpha to sneak around the map infiltrated, capping points and harassing enemies with both its remarkable starting damage and its signature ability, Flesh Hook, which drags an enemy to the Lictor Alpha while damaging it. Its upgrades can either intensify this by allowing it to infiltrate more and increasing its damage and durability while it fights alone, or change its focus to support its army more directly.The Lictor Alpha's globals are Stalk, which has the dubious distinction of being one of the most useless globals in the game since all it does is reveal enemy heroes, and Spore Mines, which calls down a squad of Spore Mines.
- Glass Cannon: Properly used, the Lictor Alpha is absolutely devastating, with high damage attacks, but it cannot take much punishment in return.
- Healing Factor: Its notorious Feeder Tendrils wargear lets it heal for each blow it lands in close combat.
- I Work Alone: The Lone Hunter wargear encourages this by increasing the Lictor Alpha's damage and decreasing the damage it takes so long as it's not close to an allied unit.
- Master Poisoner: One of its other traits is its ability to cripple enemy units with various toxins, decreasing their speed and damage with Toxin Miasma, causing them to take more damage with Corrosive Claws, and dealing area of effect damage with its Toxic Cysts.
- Stealth Expert: Due to its infiltration, the Lictor Alpha acts like the Tyranid equivalent of Solid Snake.
Though not quite to the same extent of the Tyranids, the Orks are a faction relying on huge numbers of relatively weak units early on, but these units become more potent as the game progresses, and of course their increasing firepower. The Orks may lack mobility and utility, and their ranged firepower is not so great either, but conversely they tend to be superb in melee as well as mercifully cheap, and all Ork infantry possess the Waaagh! ability which boosts the combat ability of allied Ork infantry based on how many models are in proximity the unit — i.e, a large blob of 20-30 Boyz all activating Waaagh! at the same time will be formidable indeed.
The Orks get two shared globals among their heroes: Call da Boyz! acts like a bigger and better version of Waaagh!, boosting the damage and speed of all your units across the map while also auto-reinforcing the squads around your hero, and their nuke Roks is an inaccurate but very powerful strike, dropping an assortment of Roks ranging in size and destructive force from small to massive. The Orks' global resource works a bit differently from that of other factions too, gradually gaining at a steady rate but needing to spend this resource to use many regular unit abilities, the aforementioned Waaagh! ability being one of them.
Warboss
The Ork Warboss is often the largest and strongest Ork, and hence, the one in charge. The Warboss is a fairly straightforward melee hero with excellent durability and melee power, with some limited ranged potential and support options. The Warboss is also capable of crushing through obstacles, and disrupting squads and weapons teams with his Stomp ability. In the first few minutes of the match, the Warboss is able to deal with most squads easily and scare them off capping points, but his upgrades increases his already impressive damage output and HP even more, making him a real menace.
The Warboss' globals are "'Ard Boyz" which cuts the melee damage taken by a squad in half, and "Use Yer Choppas!" which drastically increases a squad's melee damage, melee skill and gives them a chance to use a special attack.
- Balance Buff: The ability granted by the Angry Bitz "Now I'm Angry" used to require the Warboss to take damage to charge it and didn't see much use as a result. Later it was changed to simply use energy, making it a viable tool to approach a fight.
- Battle Trophy: A possible upgrade is the Trophy Rack. It frightens all enemies within a small radius around the Warboss and lowers the damage they deal.
- Berserk Button: While most of the things he fights makes him laugh or call them weak, the Boss really hates Eldar and will let you know it.Warboss: I! HATE! ELDAR!
- A literal example with the Angry Bitz wargear, since the associated ability "Now I'm Angry" sends him into a rampage at the click of a button.
- BFG: Either of his guns are huge.
- Bring It: His default response to being ordered to attack things is some variation of this trope.
- Cyborg: One of his upgrades turns him into this, upgrading his Stomp's radius, making it stun infantry hit by it, and giving him a small HP boost.
- Dumb Muscle: On first impression, the Boss doesn't seem very smart. He makes up for it with a low cunning.
- Even Evil Has Standards: His response to seeing an enemy Mekboy is to comment that it's just sad the enemy Orks have a Mek for a boss.
- Foe-Tossing Charge: The Angry Bitz allows him to do this, causing the Boss to charge at a targeted location while knocking foes back. It also improves his attack power and health regeneration for a short time.
- Ground Pound: His upgraded Big Stomp does explosive damage and knocks squads back, leaving them stunned for several seconds.
- Large and in Charge: The Warboss is the boss since he is easily the biggest, strongest Ork around. This is reinforced by him treating a chain-axe and double-barreled shoota as a one-handed axe and pistol respectively, while the (comparatively) smaller Nobs have to use either weapon with both hands.
- Mighty Glacier: He's slow, lumbering, and attacks at a noticeably slower rate than other melee commanders. Each of his attacks hits much harder in exchange for speed and he can't actually miss once he starts an attack (unless he's thrown off his feet through knockback), and his armor options all allow him to survive long enough to put that strength to good use.
- More Dakka: His Enhanced Kustom Shoota lets him use the "Shoot 'Em Gud" ability to spray a squad with bullets, dealing heavy damage and knocking them back. Always useful for preventing an enemy from capping a point.
- No True Scotsman: His response to enemy Orks is declaring them un-Orky in some way, or mocking the other Hero for not being Orky enough.
- Power Fist: One of his weapon options is the Ork equivalent, the Power Klaw. It's arguably his best melee weapon as it deals tremendous damage to both infantry and vehicles.
- Screw You, Elves!: His hatred of Eldar boils down to their tendency to think they're better than Orkz.
- Spikes of Villainy: His Spiky Armour. It does damage to melee attackers, as well as increasing his health and health regeneration.
- Stone Wall: The 'Eavy Armour gives him a solid 900 HP increase with no other perks, making him generally difficult to wear down.
- This Cannot Be!: Most of his dying quotes have some measure of disbelief to them, as if he never considered he'd actually be killed.
- Worthy Opponent: The Boss veers between this and egotistical boasting in regards to the Space Marines, as they actually put up something of a fight.
Kommando Nob
An unlikely leader for an Ork mob, Kommandos are Orks who have learned to employ "kunnin'", specializing in stealth, ambush, assassination and demolition over raw combat prowess. Because Orks lack the aiming ability for one-shot, long-range sniping techniques and Kommandos tend to be physically weaker in melee than their other kin, the Kommando Nob's weapon of choice is a variety of bombs, grenades and rockets. The Kommando Nob can by default Infiltrate, and throw Stunbombs which leave infantry stunned for several precious seconds. His upgrades focus on granting him with a number of different weapons and skills, allowing him to tackle any challenge.
Not only is he a stealth expert, but he can pass on this knowledge to his Boyz with his global ability "Hide Da Boyz", allowing any target squad to infiltrate for 40 seconds. He can also use "Kommandos Iz Da Sneakiest" to spawn a Kommando squad at the target location — this is the only Ork hero who will allow you to spawn this versatile ranged squad in Tier 2, so it's a fairly decent ability.
- Booby Trap: One of his upgrades. It lets him plant a manually-triggered bomb at any point. Plant two or three of these on a victory point and any of the enemy's unsuspecting units or their hero'll get a nasty surprise if they move in to capture it!
- Crazy-Prepared: His Extra Equipment upgrade gives him backup ammo and supplies, increasing his HP, health regeneration and energy.
- Demolitions Expert: Most of his weapons involve some kind of explosive, rounding off the Ork hero trifecta of smashy, shooty, and explodey. For an Ork, he's fairly disciplined to boot.
- Devious Daggers: He's the only Ork with any sense of stealth, and his Assashun's Knife increases his melee damage and lets him use a special attack, "Assassinate", which deals a huge amount of damage to a unit and decreases their speed and damage if they survive. This makes him a premier hero hunter.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Like the Warboss he expresses disgust seeing a Mekboy leading an Ork army, saying the Mek is just as likely to blow up himself as he is the enemy... even though his Kaboom ability blows himself up on purpose, and the Mekboy has nothing that does that.
- Genius Bruiser: Built like a brick house, but his quotes seem to indicate he's surprisingly cunning too, far moreso than the Warboss.
- Jack of All Stats: Statistically average in terms of melee damage, ranged damage, toughness and speed, but can be given a lot of different equipment.
- Macross Missile Massacre: His Rokkit Launcha is a perfect anti-vehicle option for late-game, and even though it's not so great at killing infantry, it does blast them around. It also doubles as a Sniper Rifle, as the "Right in me Krosshairs" ability shoots a single precise rocket.
- Shotguns Are Just Better: His Speshul Shoota is a large automatic shotgun. The damage is not really impressive, but it does come with with a 30% chance of knocking the target back. In true Kommando Nob fashion, he can load it with High Explosive Shells, guaranteeing a knockback and dealing even more damage.
- Stealth Expert: He is this trope for the Orks, and a somewhat unconventional example of this trope too. He's less of a subtle assassin and more of a very sneaky demoman. Also, his "Hide Da Boyz" global lets him turn any squad into this for a brief period.
- Suicide Attack: His Kaboom ability instantly drops a massive bomb at his feet. The resulting explosion is usually enough to severely damage any enemy squad nearby, but also leaves the Nob severely damaged, and sends the poor sod flying in a random direction to boot.
- Throw Down the Bomblet: He starts with Stunbombs as standard, and can be further equipped with the more lethal Stikkbombs.
Mekboy
The polar opposite of the Warboss, the Mekboy is a runty git responsible for maintaining all the contraptions Orks make use of. With his decent ranged firepower and plethora of support options, he's a vital part of the Ork mob. He's the most mobile of the Ork heroes, with the ability to Teleport as standard, but he's also the only Ork hero who can Repair structures and vehicles. And speaking of which, the Mekboy can lay down Waaagh! Banners, which increases the stats of all Ork units around them across the board, or Ork Turrets, perfect for holding a chokepoint or defending a key area.
His two unique globals are "More Dakka!", which increases the ranged damage of a target squad for a brief period, and the "Kult of Speed", which increases the speed of all your vehicles and increases their firing rate.
- Badass Boast: The Mek's reaction to being shot at by a heavy weapon:If I had that thing, you'd be dead already!
- Combat Medic: His "'Ave A Taste" ability instantly heals an allied infantry squad, and also restores their energy.
- Deadpan Snarker: He thinks that everyone that isn't him is a moron, and constantly grumbles about having to follow the player's orders.
- Glass Cannon: The Mekboy can really pump out the damage with his guns, but with his low HP, he can't take it back. If he gets caught in melee and can't teleport, he either has to run or get stomped.
- Large and in Charge: Averted, which is really unusual for an Ork army. He's not even a Big Mek and is a runty Ork, and Orks don't follow anyone smaller than themselves.
- Mad Scientist: His specialty is guns and vehicles, and most of his wargear is stuff that he built himself.
- More Dakka: Naturally. His specialty, with his Big Shoota, Deffgun, and global ability of the same name.
- The Mek also has a good appreciation of the other race's guns, and will either admire the weapon or tell his boyz to grab it after they kill who's holding it.
- Only in It for the Money: The Mek makes a point of calling dibs on wrecked vehicles, and generally speaks like he's a mercenary under the player's pay. He likes the fighting part of course, but that comes second to getting loot.
- Psycho Electro: Dips into this with his Electric Armor, which increases his health and lets him electrocute nearby enemies at the push of a button.
- Sophisticated as Hell: He uses pretty big words for an Ork, and then subverts it by talking like, well, an Ork.Mekboy: Ignorant Ork Sods!
- The Smart Guy: He's the Orky equivalent of the trope, and generally gives his boyz good tips for taking out vehicles and buildings; aim for the fuel tank and shooting at the foundation, respectively.
- Worthy Opponent: The only time the Mek's disdain for enemies goes down is when he's fighting another technologically-inclined Hero, like the Tech-Marine or the Imperial Guard. This might just be that these enemies have a lot of loot that the Mek wants, though.
The Imperial Guard are a highly mechanized military force which crushes the enemies of the Imperium by deploying vast amounts of manpower and war material to the battlefield. Rank and file Guardsmen are ordinary human soldiers and thus woefully outmatched by most of the superhuman opponents they tend to face in the battlefields of the 41st Millennium, but they can be surprisingly effective if deployed in large numbers and properly supported by heavier weapons platforms. Accordingly, they are some of the cheapest to maintain and replace. Speaking of which, the Imperial Guard enjoy exclusive use of some of the deadliest armored fighting vehicles in the entire galaxy, over a vast range covering nimble walkers and troop transports up to lumbering tanks and devastating artillery. Finally, the Imperial Guard is reliant on a number of capable and truly awe-inspiring individuals to lead the men to victory.
All three of the Imperial Guard heroes share two global abilities. The Imperial Guard Bunker allows the air deployment of a fixed garrisonable bunker anywhere on the map, allowing Imperial Guard infantry to defend key areas and chokepoints, and it can be further upgraded to be a medical centre, a repair facility, or it can be booby-trapped and set to self-destruct should it fall into the enemy's hands. The heroes can also call in a Rocket Run, which has two Valkyrie close air support gunships perform strafing runs in any direction, each rocket launched doing considerable damage to enemy infantry.
Inquisitor
An agent of the Imperial Inquisition, the Inquisitor is deployed to situations where Chaos influence is suspected, and destroy any corruption found by any means necessary. As the single highest-ranking authority in the entire Imperium, Inquisitors can request command of any local Imperial Guard forces at any time, and call in a number of exotic elite units only fielded in rare and extreme circumstance. Highly trained and talented individuals expected to use their own initiative, many of them are skilled combatants. The Inquisitor is an offensive melee hero with a variety of snares and stuns, providing excellent crowd control.
She has access to three unique globals. She can request a Hellfury Strike, a special incendiary missile strike at the target location which leaves the ground burning. She can also call in a squad of Infiltrated Storm Troopers, elite infantry with fast-firing hot-shot lasguns. Finally, the Inquisitor can request a Valkyrie Bane Wolf Drop, deploying a short-range assault variant of the Chimera armed with a cannon which shoots deadly streams of highly poisonous and corrosive liquid.
- Automatic Crossbows: The Crossbow Bolt Pistol, her tier 1 weapon upgrade, is effective against infantry.
- Beehive Barrier: The Rosarius grants the Conversion Field ability, which is this trope.
- Glass Cannon: Borderline Squishy Wizard. She has a lot of good crowd control and direct damage abilities,, but her HP pool is comparatively low.
- Kill It with Fire: Her favourite tactic, between her Hellfury Strike ability and her Holy Brazier and Inferno Pistol weapon upgrades.
- Seen It All: Being an Inquisitor, you'll develop this attitude fast.
Commissar Lord
The Commissar Lord is a political officer much like the ones more commonly seen in company of Guardsmen, but of a much more senior rank. It is the duty of the Commissar Lord is to maintain the loyalty, morale and moral purity of the men over their grueling campaigns. A Commissar Lord may override or even execute a regiment's commanding officer to do so, and so the rank-and-file regard them with a mixture of awe and fear. The Commissar Lord is an exceptional melee fighter who can also empower surrounding infantry with a number of support abilities.
The Commissar Lord has three unique globals. He can call in Air Dropped Mines which will be dropped in a line and then bury themselves into the ground, exploding when an enemy moves over them. He can also inspire a target squad to fight harder as they take casualties with the Loyal To The End ability, and call in an Off Map Basilisk Flare, which provides vision and detection to an area while blinding enemy troops inside the area of effect.
- Badass Boast: Very often and invoked. What better way to inspire the men then with these?
- Bad Boss: He starts out being able to kill one of his own men with his Inspire Courage ability. The Carapace Armor lets him use this ability more often and with a cheaper energy cost. This does improve the affected squad's attack power, but the IG announcer shows that this tactic has caused his forces to be terrified of him as a result.
- Bling-Bling-BANG!: A Commissar Lord with high Army Level will start out with a gilded laspistol for his sidearm.
- Cool Sword: His standard melee weapon is a regular, unassuming ceremonial blade, but with his tier 1 upgrade, it becomes a full-fledged Power Sword, which allows him to move faster and perform special attacks.
- Death from Above: The Emperor's Wrath lets him call in a Basilisk strike, though a smaller and more localized version than the one the Lord General has.
- Determinator: The Stubbornness ability, surprisingly enough, turns him into this. He becomes stronger and receives better health regen as he's surrounded by more of his men.
- The Dreaded: His Flak Jacket upgrade grants him the Inspire Terror ability, which lets him execute enemies to break their resolve. Also, his men are clearly afraid of even bringing him wargear, saying they'll draw straws to do so.
- Eyepatch of Power: His Bionic Eye gives him extra energy and grants the Inspire Determination ability.
- Eye Scream: It's clear that something violently took his eye and most of the skin on one side of his face.
- Large Ham: The Commissar believes in putting on a very strong front, and will do so by charisma and volume."Be like General Tarsus of yore! BULLET-PROOF AND FREE OF FEAR!"
- Mighty Glacier: He's a bit slow on the move but he's tough and excellent in close combat.
- That being said, he will not have a good time when facing upgraded melee Heroes, such as the Force Commander or the Warboss, since they're much stronger than the Commissar Lord (barring a massive difference in levels in his favor).
- Power Fist: Gets the choice of two, a standard Power Fist at tier 2 or the legendary Fist of Brockus at tier 3.
- Sword Plant: One of his idle animations is to firmly stick his sword into the earth and lean on the handle.
Lord General
In most circumstances, command of several regiments falls under that of a Lord General, a veteran officer who earned his rank leading hundreds of thousands of men over a number of campaigns. The Lord General is at all times accompanied by an elite retinue whose task is to keep him safe from harm, even expending their own lives if necessary, and many of his upgrades alter the composition and equipment of this retinue. The Lord General is a defence specialist who can support his men and take control of the map through his abilities.
The Lord General can call in a Heavy Turret which comes with a Vanquisher cannon as standard and is effective against vehicles but can be upgraded to a heavy plasma cannon effective against all targets. He can also call in a Basilisk Creeping Barrage which can fire a wave of shells advancing in the direction of your choice. Finally, the Lord General has the ability to instantly deploy a Leman Russ anywhere on the map with the Valkyrie Leman Russ Drop.
- BFG: Take your pick between a Sniper Rifle, a Grenade Launcher or a Meltagun.
- Cool Sword: Can be seen holding one, but you'll rarely see him use it.
- Firing One-Handed: Thanks to his augmetic arm, the Lord General can use any of his BFG's with one hand.
- Stone Wall: He can increase the staying power of his men and has pretty high defence himself, but he's not a great combatant.
- The Medic: The Sergeant retinue, who can hand out medkits to your troops and heal them.
- Take Cover!: His Incoming! ability decreases the damage all surrounding infantry take.
- The Engineer: Fits the Combat Engineer category, as he is focused on building fortifications and holding ground. An area with a couple Heavy turrets overlooking it suddenly becomes a no-go area for enemy troops to attack.
- We Have Reserves: The Vox Operator lets him instantly reinforce his men at the front line.
