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Dawn of War I GOTY - A New Player's / **++heresy redacted++**'s Guide to Play Good in Skirmish with Every Race
Akfiz
Welcome to Dawn of War I Game of the Year Edition - A New Player's / ++heresy redacted++'s Guide to Play Good in Skirmish with Every Race.
This guide will take you from a ++heresy redacted++ level, someone who has just completed the in-game tutorial with 1 race and doesn't know anything else about the game.
FIRST THINGS FIRST
Warhammer 40.000: Dawn of War is a pretty unique strategy game compared to the others. You have 4 competly different races to choose from: Space Marines, Orks, Eldar and Chaos. Two types of resources called requisition and power, while it may seem simple it's easy to run out of either kind within a matter of seconds. You cannot play a defensive game only, the only way to really win at Dawn of War is to be on the offensive. Dawn of War is not a game that you can learn in a day, while you may be able to finish the campaign and win a standard skirmish on easy with no problems, the very hard mode and the multiplayer will stump you. It's an extremely complicated game and with this guide I will make things easier to understand offering tactics, build orders, explainations and more.
This guide is dedicated to everyone who's looking to learn to play with a new race, from new players to already experienced players, but mostly written from the new player's perspective. To understand this guide, all you are required to is to have played the race you want to learn's in-game tutorial. In this guide I've mostly used general names such as "Troop structure" or "Armory structure" instead of each building's dedicated name. There's one thing to see how the race works because you actually have played it at least once and then read a guide about it online, and completly another thing to read a guide about it online and only after that try the race for the first time. In the former case, you will have a better idea on how the guide applies to the race because you've already experienced it before, you get a visual perspective. So I recommend playing each race at least once first, so that you get familiar with it, then come back to this guide and follow it as you play a skirmish game.
ABOUT THE RESOURCES
First thing you need to learn about are the resources because you have to know how to manage them. The first resource in the game is requisition. In skirmish games you start with 1000 Requisition and your HQ building generates a decent amount. Everything costs some amount of requisition so this is a little bit more important than power. You can increase the rate at which you gain requisition by capturing strategic points, critical locations, relics, building listening posts on either strategic points or relics, and then by researching upgrades at these posts. Capture strategic points before you capture relics because they are faster to capture, capture relics before critical locations because you can put listening posts on them, and they unlock your super-unit (aka relic unit, we'll talk about them in tier 3).
The second resource is Power that isn't generated automatically. You need to create generators to bring this one in. In a skirmish game you only start with 100 power, and pretty much everything critical you need to start with will cost at least 50-75. Generators aren't exactly cheap at the start either and they provide little amount of power until you get to upgrade them, so you will need to build several. You can increase the power generated by researching at constructed generators.
Whatever you do in the game, make sure that you capture more than two stragegic points, in fact you should all be holding the same amount of strategic points. If you are on a team game share with you teammates. If it's a free for all take every strategic point as you come by. Also, put your listening post on them and upgrade them, this is vital for your survival in the game.
Unlike other games, it isn't absolutely critical that you supply defensive units to protect your resourcing operation, supplying any troops to them is a waste of their use and can often make the difference in a battle. If you're smart, you'll upgraded all of your listening posts to at least the first defensive upgrade, providing some light defense for your base. They're only ever effective against infantry, but the second level upgrade offers some pretty heavy punch, as well as increasing their ability to survive enemy fire. Just remember when you are being invaded that no matter what level upgrades you have, generators and listening posts are extremely popular targets.
THE SKIRMISH START (TIER 1): PART 1
You start off with your HQ (Stronghold, Settlement, Webway Assembly) and 1 builder (Servitor, Gretchin, Bonesinger, Heretic).
Orks also start with 1 Slugga Boys squad because they are Orks, Orks need numbers.
NOTE: This is a basic build order, not the only build order that ever exists. It doesn't mean that there aren't build orders that are good or even better, there are even dedicated build orders for maps and matchups. Down of War isn't a game with 1 recipe of victory, but a game with various strategies where the best course of action depends on how the enemy is playing. However, it's a good starting point, and as long as you do everything else right, these build orders are good enough to win against every Insane CPU, keep your ground or win in multiplayer, and have a huge start advantage over new players who make huge starting mistakes (starting the game with making lots of builders, not making scouts) to the point where you can just "play" with them not to mention that during the rest of the game, you’ll be able to build the right things such as vehicle building at the right time.
Step 1: Start Building Barracks
- The the first thing you should do with every race, is build your troop building (Barracks, Da Boyz Hut, Aspect Portal, Temple).
- With Orks don't foget to always fully reinforce your builders, the Gretchins, as soon as you can, it costs nothing.
Step 2: HQ queuing up scouts and builder (Order and numbers depend on the race)
- When you play Space Marines or Chaos have your HQ building queue up: Scout, Builder, Scout.
- When you play Orks queue up: Builder > Basic Infantry (Slugga Boys Squad are not scouts, they serve as Orks' main fighting force)
- When you play Eldar queue up: Builder > Scout > Scout.
These differences may seem like nothing but they are important for a quick start.
Step 3: Complete the Troop Building, Start Capturing Points, and other stuff based on the race
Have the 1st scout (or Orks' 1st Basic Infantry) capture strategic points, the new builder join the one building the troop buildng and and the 2nd scout also capture strategic points. Keep in mind that assigning more than two builders to a job doesn't make it go any faster.
- When playing Space Marines or Chaos, after the troop building is complete have the builders build listening posts on captured strategic points. That's it, nothing special for you in this section. Barracks + Listening Posts.
When playing Orks after the troop structure is complete, have 1 builder build 1 Waaagh! Banner and the other build listening posts on captured strategic points. After the Waaagh! Banner is complete, have the builder in the base build 1 generator, you should be able to build them in immediate succession, then stop with this line and focus on listening posts next to your base until you get enough resources, and as soon as you get enough resources and have no problems with the army, build the armory building (Pile'O'Guns), and then another generator.
Barracks> Waaagh!> Generator> ...(take a break)...> Armory> Generator + Listening Posts.When playing Eldar, after the troop structure is complete have your builders build a generator next to the troop structure, by the time the generator is complete one strategic point should be almost complete, have 1 builder build a listening post on it and the other builder build another generator. Eldar need early power more than other races.
Barracks > Generator > Geneartor + Listening Posts.
Your troop structure should be right next to your HQ, you'll need a quick start if you want to keep up with the other player or players. You can also click on your troop structure then right click anywhere on the map to set up a rally point, that way your new depolyed troops will automatically move right there, you can also do this for your HQ building. The other buildings can be built anywhere you like. Except for mines, turrets, Ork Waaagh! Banners and Eldar Webway Gates, typically the best place is near your HQ, where your enemy cannot access them simply by capturing a strategic point.
Step 4: As soon as your Troop Building is complete: start queuing up your Commander (aka Hero)
(Force Commander, Big Mek, Farseer, Chaos Lord) and one basic infantry squad.
You don't have to queue them up in a certain way (except for Orks, they can't build their Basic Infantry as soon as the barracks are complete right before Big Mek because at that time they won't have enough Ork Resource, the Ork's 3rd resource), sometimes building the Basic Infantry first can be useful, for rushes on small maps for example, killing the scouts or whatever, there are various tactics, or even not queueing up the Hero at all, but 2 Basic Infantry squads is a good plan in certain games. This Hero then Basic Infantry is the general build that is not great or terrible depending on the map, matchup and skill, but simply always good, always reliable, always solid. The fights are not just army A shoots army B, it's also how you fight, which units attack which, in melee or in range, in cover (we'll talk about it later) or not in cover, broken or not broken, etc, that makes a difference.
With Space Marines or Chaos you have Tactical Space Marines or Chaos Space Marines as your Basic Infantry. (Chaos has 2 more units that are possible to create at this stage of the game, the Horror and Possesed Squads from the Sacrificial Circle which can be built right now, however this course of action is not recommended since is not that effective, for experienced players - possesed rush was nerfed patches ago, now it's anything but efficient).
Force Commander > Tactical Space Marines / Chaos Lord > Chaos Space MarinesWith Orks you have Slugga Boys for melee damage and Shoota Boys range damage. Shoota Boys are not as powerful as other races' range troops (except for scouts) and should only be used as support for the Slugga Boys or other more powerful melee troops.
Big Mek > Slugga/Shoota BoysEldar are a little bit different here, they have a very rock, paper and scissors army, if you fight against light infantry get Warp Spiders, if you fight against heavy infantry get Dark Reapers, if you need melee damage get Howling Banshee, if you need morale damage then get Rangers. However, in this stage of the game, don't start with Howling Banshee or Rangers. Alone and unupgraded, Howling Banshee are outmatched by other races, you need them upgraded and used in conjunction with other Eldar troops to have them at full strength. Rangers are also more of a support squad; they do high morale damage (we'll talk later) but very little phisical damage.
Farseer > Warp Spiders/Dark Reapers
Keep in mind that you'll need Power for your Hero. Generally you'll be queuing up your Hero before before a listening post is complete, but if this doesn't happen, don't upgrade your listening post yet because it also costs power and you need that power for your Hero, you don't get any additional power until you get your first generator up and running.
The Skirmish Start (Tier 1) Part 1 Includes: What you start with, what you do first, what you queue up from HQ first, what you queue up from barracks when built, what you spent your early power on, what kind of Basic Infantry you have, where to build your buildings, building listening posts.
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Akfiz
Part 2:
THE SKIRMISH START (TIER 1): PART 2
Step 5: After your scouts has captured their first strategic points, have them begin immediately capturing the next strategic points, then put listening posts on them too and have your squads capture the next strategic points.
When you have more troops nearby, have the weakest squad capture the point.
If the enemy attacks you during the moment you're capturing a point, never waste troops on keeping the capturing process on, always leave the cap and fight back with those troops unless the capturing is going to be complete in 1 or 2 seconds, or the enemy troops are way inferior and can be matched by your non-capturing units in no time. Because even if you keep your weakest squad capture the point, besides losing potential firepower, the enemy can decap the point anytime anyway by clicking on it with one of his squads too. It's generally better to have more firepower and win, than have less firepower and win with more casualties or risk getting killed. If you lose, the point will be captured by the enemy anyway, so it's best to keep more firepower. But if even with the capturing squad joining you can’t stand a chance, retreat and strenghten your army rather than losing all your troops there.
Step 6: Have the troop building queue up for one or two squad of troops.
At this stage in the game, the commander (Force Commander, Big Mek, Farseer, Chaos Lord) and two or three squad of troops should be enough to get you through the first few minutes while you work on the economy, which basically means you capture strategic points, build listening posts and don't waste your resources for nothing. Make sure to occasionally put an extra trooper in the squad. Don't bother upgrading the scouts; once you get a few strategic points and any relics/critical locations in the area they serve little further purpose which will be explained later.
With Orks make sure you also build Waaagh! banners to increase your population limit, ork population is counted by each individual ork rather by numbers of squads, you also need Waaagh! banners for the 3rd red ork resource to tech up.
Step 7: When your economy & army is stable start building 2 generators and an armory building (Armory, Pile'O'Guns, Soul Shrine, Chaos Armory).
When the armory building is complete, select your first upgrade. The armory should be in the back, where it is protected. Once this is gone, you cannot upgrade your troops, or build most buildings and troops. If it is destroyed, and you build another one, at least you won't have to do all that research again. As you get the resources, select the other upgrades you have available too if they serve you a purpose on the battlefield. Now that you have generators, feel free to upgrade listening posts.
Although this varies from strategy to strategy, a general all purpose order of upgrades is as such:
With Space Marines or Chaos start with the damage upgrade (Target Finders), the next one is the weapons upgrade (Heavy Weapon Increase), this lets you carry four instead of two heavy weapons, handy upgrade to have around, and the next one is the health upgrade (Bionics).
Damage > Weapons > Armor
With Orks the first upgrade should be the armor upgrade ('Eavy Boy Armour) , and then choppy or blastier (More Choppy Research or Blastier), depending on whether you are focusing on a more melee or ranged army. It's usually a good idea to get both eventually, but which one you go for first will be dependent on what strategy you are using.
Armor > Melee Damage / Range Damage
With Eldar as with Space Marines and Chaos, start with damage upgrade (Improved Optics), and the next one should be the armour upgrade (Reinforced Armour).
Damage > Armor
Remember that this varies from strategy to strategy and this is only a general all purpose order of upgrades, also, these aren't the only upgrades available.
Step 8: Once you get to this point, the rest of Tier 1 consists of building troops and improving your economy.
You'll want to have a commander unit and at least three or four squads of reinforced and upgraded troops, you may either want to build 2 additional generators to get those reasearches faster or aim for the Tier 2 dirrectly. You should get out of Tier 1 as soon as your economy is stabilized and you have enough resources. Tier 1 is a dangerous place. You have limited options to be worth sticking around here. By the way, if you think Chaos are just Space Marines with different skins you're wrong.
The Skirmish Start (Tier 1) Part 2 Includes: Keep capturing (aka "capping") strategic points and building listening posts, what to do when you're attacked while capturing a point, working on army and economy, building your generators and armory depending on the race, and getting to tier 2.
Akfiz
Part 3:
IF YOU HAPPEN TO FALL BEHIND: PART 1
If you happen to fall behind and risk getting killed (your troops got killed or whatever) don't build listening posts.
Defense is your main priority here, and your defense is your army. However, don't overdo it. As soon as you have enough army to keep up a good fight and survive build Listening Posts.
Make sure that you pick your fights where you have the highest chance of winning. In the first tier of the battle, before armory is built, generally when all you have is your commander and basic infantry squads (and maybe the scouts too if they haven't died):
When playing Orks, don't be afraid of losing more troops than your enemy, you got numbers at your side. Many Ork wins involve losing more troops than the opponent or the opponents.
Game Mechanic: Cover
Cover is a part of the game represented by bonuses or penalties on some specific areas of the map. Positive covers, often found in craters, give armor bonuses and increases the morale regeneration rate (shown by a shield on the top of the unit) and negative covers, often found in rivers or pools of water, give armor reduction (shown by a shield with a red no sign on the top of the unit) to anyone stepping on them. You can identify cover by simply moving your mouse over the terrain. When hovering over positive cover, your mouse cursor will have an added blue shield icon with a dashed circle around it, when hovering over negative cover, your mouse cursor will have a cross mark like on a no smoking sign, the tooltips in the bottom right of the screen can also be used to identify which type of cover the mouse cursor is over. It is important to note that cover is applied on a unit by unit basis, not to the entire squad. Part of a squad can be under cover and the rest can be exposed.
Game Mechanic: Armour and Counters
Armour and counters. Each unit has an armor type, and effectiveness against other types. For example as mentioned above, Eldar's Warp Spiders are effective against Light Infantry and Dark Reapers are effective against Heavy Infantry. There are 6 types of armor in the game: 1) Infantry (the light infantry), 2) Heavy infantry, 3) Commanders, 4) Vehicles, 5) Buildings, 6) Daemons. If you select a unit you can see its armor class displayed under its name, and the armour types that the selected unit is designed to counter are shown to the far right of its stats and/or mentioned in its description. There are sub-types of armor such as Heavy Infantry Medium, Heavy Infantry High, etc but we're not going to talk about these here. A few examples are: Builders, Scouts, Ork Slugga, Shoota Boyz and Dark Reapers are Light Infantry; Tactical Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines and Warp Spiders are Heavy Infantry. It's good to know which unit counters which unit as you play the game, if the enemy has a unit that you don't know how to deal with, look at what armor type that unit has, and what units in your army are effective against that armor type to find a counter for it.
Game Mechanic: Morale
Morale is an important part of the game that can often make the differnce between victory or defeat. It's represented by the blue bar under the green health bar, and the blue number under the green health number when selecting a unit. Morale means the given unit's willingness to fight. Almost any infantry unit in has morale (with a hand of notable exceptions), single units have individual morale and squads have a collective morale for the whole squad, vehicles don't have morale. The amount of morale a unit has depends on the unit, but most have 300 morale. When a squad or unit with morale takes damage OR one of their memebes dies, it takes morale damage, which has nothing to do with the physical health damage, and the given damage of a unit shown on the heads up display doesn't represent the moral damage it makes, but the physical damage alone. Some weapons like Flamers, Snipers or Artillery deal higher than average morale damage. And some units like Eldar's Ranges deal low physical damage but high morale damage. When a unit or squad's morale reaches 0 then the unit or the squad becomes "broken" and a red circle appears around the broken unit or squad.
Red Circle - this means they are now panicked (aka broken) and have only 10% accuracy (even in melee) until their morale regenerates, discreasing their damage by an insane amount, but on a very small bright side, they also gain +10% speed while broken. Their morale regenerates automatically but discreases everytime they are under fire so keeping them in the battlefield zone is not a good way to restore their morale. To restore a squad morale you can either use special means such as the Space Marines Sergeants' "Rally" ability, or get the broken squad out of the firing zone and wait for their morale to regenerate automatically. Once their morale gets past 50% of their maximum morale, the squad or unit becomes "unbroken" again and the red circle disappears. It should be noted that it's not always a bad ideea to keep the broken squad in the battle zone, their damage became insignificant but their health is still the same and can effectively be used as meat shields to protect units with more damage but lower health, this is no general rule, sometimes it can be bad, whether doing this is good or bad depends on the circumstances, it's up to the player to decide.
Before continuing keep in mind that these are only raw stats and the situation may chance according to how many troops accompanying them you have or whether you're fighting near a turret or not.
Commanders Summary:
If you happen to fall behind Part 1 Included: What to do when you fall behind and risk getting killed, information about Basic Infantry, information about Morale, information about Commanders.
Akfiz
Part 4:
IF YOU HAPPEN TO FALL BEHIND: PART 2
When the armory is built, Jetpack units (Assault Marine Squad, Storm Boys, Raptor Squad, Eldar have no such unit) are available.
They are powerful melee units and should be used to counter ranged units using the element of surprise from jumping with the jetpacks right into them while your ranged squads keep dealing additional damage. You can also use them to counter Orks melee troops, however their abilities are best used when countering range units, if you have to fight Orks make sure you counter Shoota Boys (the ones with guns) before Slugga Boys (the ones with axes).
When playing Eldar, you don't have jetpack units, but instead you gain the Seer Council instead from the HQ when the armory is built, they are also powerful melee units except they don't have jetpacks, the best thing to do is to attach the Farseer to them, this way you'll get only benefits and no drawbacks, you'll increase her survivability making her more protected from enemy fire, the enemy won't be able to single target the Farseer while attached to a squad, and she's also able to use her abilities while attached to the squad.
Attach or not attach Heroes to Squads
Don't attach the Force Commanders or Chaos Lord to other troops, not right now at least, as the jetpack squads won't be able to use their jetpacks while attached to them. And don't attach melee Force Commander or Chaos Lord to ranged squads, making the commanders useless while fighting range or the rest of the squad weaker while fighting melee (except for Chaos Space Marines, they have stronger melee than their Space Marines counterparts, but as metioned before, it depends on whether the enemy has weaker range or weaker melee), unless you really need morale boost for the rest of the squad or the commander to survive.
For Orks, it's also not a good idea to attach Big Mek to jetpack squads since they won't be able to use their jetpacks while attached to them, nor to ranged units. But unlike Space Marines and Chaos, Orks have dedicated tier 1 melee troops (Slugga Boys) for which is good to attach the Big Mek to since both of them are melee and neither lose efficency out of that. You'll increase the Big Mek's survivability and the attached squad's morale thus making them harder to break. Not to mention that if you research the Big Mek's teleportation from the troops building (Da Boyz Hut) you will be able to teleport not only the Big Mek, but the whole squad he is attached to, thus granting you an edge of mobility in the battlefield to teleport right into the enemy's ranged troops, or teleport next to one of their listening posts and start attacking it, or teleport back and escape before you get killed when the situaton gets dangerous. So the Big Mek with Slugga Boys in early game is a very good choice.
Generally, when the squad is a perfect fit for the commander, it's a good idea to attach them. When the squad isn't a perfect fit, attach them only if the commander's survival is threatened and you can't retreat him, or you need morale for the attached-to squad.
I usually attach commander to a squad that's not fit for him when he is low HP, to keep him alive and to have the squad benefit from his morale bonus. But only the kind of melee/range unfit, not too un-fit, such as denying the squad's jetpacks or teleporters, I'd rather have him go back than attached to jetpack units, because otherwise, by protecting the commander, I might deny half that squad's usefulness on the battlefield.
Attack or Retreat
If you happen to fall behind Part 2 Included: Information about the Jetpack Units that are available after you build the armory, information about commader attachments, when to attack or retreat.
Akfiz
Part 5:
THE MIDDLE OF THE BATTLE (TIER 2): PART 1
Now we are getting to the good stuff.
Tier 2 starts when:
This is where the battle acutally starts, the first thing you'll notice is that you get much better heavy weapons options for your troops. Everyone gets research options, Space Marines and Chaos get plasma guns and missles, Orks are Orks they fight melee and Eldar have their fancy weapons.
The second thing and probably the most important you'll notice is that you get access to vehicles in tier 2. Space Marines get Dreadnoughts, Hellfire Dreadnoughts, Landspeeders, Rhinos, and Whirlwinds. Orks get Wartrukk, Wartrakk, Killa Kan and Looted Tank. Eldar get the Vyper, Wraithlord, and Falcon. Chaos gets Predators, Rhino's, and Defilers.
Lastly, you'll notice the new research options, you get to start upgrading things like troop accuracy and health, armor, speed of troops, and all sorts of other junk. This is the stage where you get to build up the core of your army, get your economy into overdrive, and prepare to slaughter or be slaughtered.
Step 9: If you are still capturing strategic points, have a builder keep working on securing those with listening posts.
Step 10: Build another generator, then research the first upgrade to your requistion and the first upgrade to your power.
Vehicles demand a lot of power, so make sure you have it in plenty. You'll want at least 4 regular generators, and if possible, a Thermo-Plasma generator (Bigga Generator for Orks) to keep a good company of armor rolling in.
Step 11: Build is your vehicle structure (Machine Cult, Da Mek Shop, Support Portal, Machine Pit).
Vehicles are a very important part of the game, do not underestimate them. The vehicle structure give you almost everything that you need to kill an opposing army.
Step 12: While the vehicle structure is being built, select your HQ and research an upgrade to your vehicle cap, so that you can actually build more than one vehicle.
If funds allow it, upgrade squad cap too if you haven't already.
Step 13: Once you have the power, build a vehicle.
You have a number to choose from, and you don't want to choose the wrong one. In practice, you will almost never find anyone building troop transports, since they have little armor and no firepower. Infantry aren't as slow as they'd like you to believe, or as vulnerable.
If you need melee damage go for:
Other vehicles are:
Space Marines:
Orks:
Eldar:
Chaos:
Either way, you should have a vehicle capable of some decent combat. And don't stop to 1 vehicle, build as many as you need.
The most general suggestion I can make for Space Marines and Eldar is to pick the melee dedicated vehicles Dreadnought or Wraithlord, with Hellfire Dreadnought and Falcon as viable choices, for Orks is to use the Wartrukk & Wartrak combo while looking out for the Wartrack's friendly fire, but focusing on your infantry over your vehicles, as Orks you'll play mostly an infantry game, if you need anti-vehicle get the infantry units called Tankbustaz, the Killa Kan is good for when you reach tier 3, and for Chaos is the Chaos Predator or Defiler, but the most general doesn't always mean the best, it depends on how the enemy is playing. However, until you get used to the game, just use the general.
The Middle of the Battle (Tier 2) Part 1 Includes: Information about what is unlocked, requisiton & power upgrades, building additional generators and the vehicle building, information about vehicles.
Akfiz
Part 6:
THE MIDDLE OF THE BATTLE (TIER 2): PART 2
Step 14: Once you started building your vehicles, then if you haven't already, finish building some generators.
Step 15: Start building up what you need for the secondary commander unit.
Step 16: Make sure you get some the abilities for your commanders, they can often turn the tides of the battle.
The buildings which give you the gifts of the secondary commander also have upgrades for the primary commander, normally these are health upgrades or an ability that slightly improves morale around him/her. These make very little difference, but under certain conditions they can help so they're good to have around.
Also, for the Space Marines the Sacred Artifact provides the healer unit, the Apothecary. They take no squad cap, fight melee, and enhance the healing rate of the squad they are assigned to. The Ork's Mad Doc does the same thing. The others don't have healers.
In Tier 2, you should be worried more about attacking than much else. It can take an awfully long time to get to Tier 3, so you might as well go ahead and make here your home. Try to attack as quickly as you can, the key in Dawn of War is to be both quick and to be on the offensive. You must take the fight to the enemy don't let them come to you, because when they do, it tends to hurt you more than them. Make sure that you are the one afflicting the damage, not them. That is the key.
The Middle of the Battle (Tier 2) Part 2 Includes: Information about the secondary commanders, information about additional abilities, getting to tier 3.
Akfiz
Part 7:
THE END STAGE (TIER 3)
Now we're getting to the big battles.
Tier 3 starts when:
This is the begining of the end stage of the war. Once you reach here bloodshred reaches a whole new level, you no longer need basic infantry, you need powerful squads. Such as: Terminators, Assault Terminators, Nobs, upgraded Warp Spiders and Dark Reapers, Horror Squad, Possessed Squad, Obliterators. Some of the new abilities are just awesome as well, for example the Space Marines Force Commander. Once you hit tier 3, you can give the ability to bring down an orbital strike, it basically pounds out anything in range friendly or otherwise. Very good if you utilize the Force Commander with a drop pod.
You only get one or two new buildings and units, but they are extremely powerful.
Step 17: The first thing that you should do in tier 3, is researching the final generators and listening posts add-ons.
From now on, everything is going to be very expensive, you're going to need every resource you can get. This is the worst time to have economy problems since every new unit is going to be deadly compared to the tier 1 & 2 ones, you don't want your opponent to fight with tier 3 units while you have tier 2 units, so make sure you don't run out of resources.
Step 18: The next thing you should do is either build your tier 3 units, or the preparator for your tier 3 units.
Each tier adds new units to the table more powerful than the previous tier's ones, so you shouldn't stick to the old units but add new units to your army everytime you get a new tier in order not to fall behind. Remember that infantry and vehicles need each other, ranged vehicles need infantry in front of them for support from enemy fire, infantry needs vehicles for support with additional fire.
Step 19: What you do now, which troops you train first and how do you use them is up to you.
There are so many possible situations and possible matchups in this moment that I can't give you the best course of action for each of them, it's up to you to decide. You have the general advices, use them well.
These are only general courses of action and basic information, I haven't talked about everything these races are about. Don't take these builds as rigid or set in stone, if you're being attacked and the next thing on the build order is "build your vehicle building", you're obviosuly not going to build your vehicle building but reinforce your existing squads and/or create new squads or anything to enchance your defence.
Step 20: Don't forget to have fun while playing, it's a game not a job.
If you want to get better: start with a guide, learn the fundamentals, play online games for experience, watch replays of good players, watch your own games to improve upon mistakes too, observe good games vs good players in 1v1, eventually you can find an experienced player to teach you directly, etc. It's quite simple, yet it takes a very long time to become good.
The End Stage (Tier 3) Includes: Information about what is unlocked, requisiton & power upgrades, everything new is expensive, information about the new units and super-units (aka relic units), tier 3 units are more powerful than tier 2 units, vehicles and infantry need each other, queuing up tier 3 units or preparators for tier 3 units, use the general advices, don't take these builds as set in stone.
Good luck fighting in the grim darkness of the far future!