Dawn of War 2

A Ranger is an Eldar who has decided to leave their Craftworld and the Eldar Path, choosing instead to follow the Path of the Outcast in favour of seeking excitement and adventure in the open galaxy. Many never return to their Craftworld; dying alone and forgotten or falling from grace into the hands of Slaanesh. Sometimes however Rangers return to their Craftworld having sated their desire for adventure and are welcomed back.
They can often be seen seeking out threats from Chaos and visiting Exodite worlds on the galactic rim in an effort to experience life more fully. Sometimes they receive a psychic distress call from their home Craftworlds and will take their arms back to defend it.
Rangers often arm themselves with Ranger Long Rifles as this allows them to make the most of their individual approach. Another benefit of working alone is their ability to move through terrain and chose the optimum position for sniping enemy emplacements. They are also adept at hiding in undergrowth and other types of cover due to their stealthy nature. In the game Dawn of War II, Rangers are an early-game unit of snipers.

Introduction

Rangers are an often neglected and underestimated asset of the Eldar army. Many people consider Rangers to be useless or ineffective but there are many ways Rangers can not only be used to devastating effect, but can also change the tide of critical battles and prove themselves to be a valuable asset for any Eldar army. Their multitude of support abilities as well as their invaluable Detection make them a necessity in some match-ups and a valuable component in others.

Unit Statistics

With their relatively expensive cost of 300 requisition and 30 power, Rangers are considered to be expensive and ineffective compared to much cheaper units such as Guardians or Banshees. However, unlike both those units Rangers have some unique qualities that make them a worthwhile unit in any Eldar army. They deal 160 damage per shot and have a setup time of 1.5 seconds. With 150 health per member and the standard fare 100 energy they certainly do not lack capability and with the proper ability usage and some insight they can be one of the most survivable and most cost-effective units at your disposal. Unlike the forementioned Guardians and banshees, properly used Ranger squads will rarely lose a squad member.

Basic Ability Effects and Usage

Kinetic Pulse: Fires a high-impact low-damage blast of kinetic energy capable of knocking down a cluster of enemies.

Kinetic Pulse is a new addition in There is Only War patch which replaced the very popular Suppressive Fire ability that Rangers had in previous versions of the game. While Kinetic Pulse doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the flexibility and usefulness of Suppressive Fire, it is still an incredibly potent ability that can be used to devastating effect. It's also serves as a way for Rangers to deal with suppression teams, providing the much needed counter that the Eldar faction is otherwise lacking in those early tier one engagements. Some basic uses of this ability include:

• Knocking down the weapon holder in a suppression squad, forcing the squad to setup again, opening a window of opportunity for the squad to be tied up in melee.
• Knocking down the weapon holder in an upgraded Tactical Marine squad. Particularly useful against a Tactical Marine upgraded with the Missile Launcher as it buys your vehicles an extra second to escape which is always invaluable.
• Knocking down retreating heroes, allowing your Banshees to finish it off or even allowing your Ranger squad to get an extra shot in.
• Knocking back melee squads which may otherwise eliminate a retreating unit. When used right you can allow your Banshee squad to retreat almost completely unmolested by a ravaging Hormagaunt or Slugga squad.

Fleet of Foot: Grants your squad a substantial speed boost while reducing ranged damage to a measly 20% and all melee damage to 60% of it's full capabilities.

A staple of the Eldar faction, you'll be hard pressed to find an Eldar infantry unit that does not have this ability available to them. Granting a substantial speed boost this ability can be used to quickly traverse the map or escape from a dangerous situation. Also, like Guardians and Banshees, Rangers have to purchase their Pathfinder Gear upgrade in order to access this ability. However it is often counter-productive to use this ability as Rangers have a limited energy pool and they're already using it for their other abilities. This ability can still be a great asset to have though and can increase the survivability of Rangers quite substantially.



Infiltration: Become invisible. Attacking, using abilities or getting too close to enemy troops will reveal the squad.

Infiltration is an incredibly potent ability, allowing your Ranger squad to become completely invisible and benefit from some substantial ranged damage reduction when not detected by a detector unit. (designated by the little eye above their unit icon) Using infiltration you can accomplish a few key task that would otherwise be impossible. With infiltration, you can easily use your Rangers to scout. This is invaluable when using a unit such as the Fire Prism, whose vision range is significantly smaller than it's maximum firing range. Even in the early stages of the game Rangers can be used to pick apart flaws in an enemies position and provide information that can be used to plan your own attack. Not only that but by using infiltration Rangers can take potshots at the enemy without being spotted and this will allow you to deal casualties to the enemy while being almost unassailable. Unfortunately due to the limited energy of the Ranger squad, infiltration is best used in short bursts and long-term usage is inadvisable.



Holo-field: Camouflages units in a designated area for a short period of time.

The Holo-field ability is by far the most potent and scalable of all of the Ranger's abilities. It's one of the most versatile and most under-used abilities in the game. It even works on vehicles, but remember that your enemy will also be cloaked upon entering the field, so be sure to keep your Rangers nearby to detect them and negate any damage reduction bonuses they might otherwise receive. Some of the most common uses are:

• Providing a huge ranged damage reduction bonus to all of your units.
• Allows you to setup ambushes and hide your exact numbers from the enemy.
• Allow your vehicles to escape from anti-vehicle units.
• Concealing the approach of your units, allowing melee units to get within range taken significantly less ranged fire than they normally would.

Rangers in Combat

Many people severely under-estimate the capabilities of a Ranger squad in combat. With their Long Rifle they will instantly kill a member of most basic infantry squads and severely injure a single member in a durable squad like Tactical Marines or Warrior Broods. Unlike normal ranged fire, Rangers do 100% of their damage against Heavy Infantry, making them a reliable and effective way of dealing damage to a Tactical Marine squad. While visually they don't seem to have a large effect, Rangers have very long range and will wittle down a squad from across the map. This is invaluable in a ranged firefight as it allows your Guardians to win against otherwise overwhelming odds and it is quite useful at decreasing the effectiveness of those very durable, high health per member squads. It is inadvisable however to use Rangers against units with higher squad counts such as Hormagaunts, as the Rangers do something known as “overkill” which means they're doing significantly more damage than is required to kill the unit. It is a very ineffective use and you're much better served targeting more durable units such as Warriors.

In addition, Rangers are adept at melee combat and actually come equipped with power swords. While they'll be massacred by any competent melee unit, they will beat vanilla Scouts in melee combat and if they snipe one of the squad members first they will beat even a Scout with a Sergeant. This makes them the perfect, cost-effective counter to scouts.

Advanced Ability Usage

Holo-Shees: Holo-Shees is the name of a strategy designed to punish Tactical marine blobs and really any sort of ranged heavy army such as masses of Guardians, Shootas or upgraded Ravener Broods.

Build Order: Banshee → Power Node + Two Generators → Ranger → Pathfinder → Ranger → Pathfinder --> Banshee → Tier Two

The main strategy behind Holo-Shees is to use the Holo-field ability on the Ranger to allow your Banshees to close within melee range and annhilate any ranged units they may find. Early on you'll be able to deal with scouts and tac marines quite effectively and by the time you and your opponent reach tier two you'll be in a position to deal with all but the largest Tac marine blobs.



As you can see in the picture, there are three main steps to successfully using Holo-shees. The first step is to purchase holo-field and make sure it's ready to use. The second step is to lay down your holo-field between your banshee squad and your target. And the third step is to move your banshee squad through the holo-field and engage the target. Easy right?

Well as you progress through the game, things get more complicated. Your mid-game approach will involve significantly more squads on both sides and so you'll have to start the cloaking field further away from your opponent for maximum effectiveness.



The basic steps are the same but there are some notable differences. First of all, by chaining together the Holo-fields you can travel the maximum difference with the maximum amount of coverage on your banshees. Second of all, by having your banshees attack seperate targets (and usually use War Cry for suppression) you can drastically reduce your opponents overall army strength and it is much more efficient than just focusing on one enemy at a time.


Here's a quick video demonstrating what your mid-game approach should look like. Keep in mind that this opponent was a bit too retreat happy and realistically you would require a minimum of two, possibly three banshees to effectively defeat a tactical marine blob of this magnitude.





Kinetic Bomb: Kinetic Bomb is a tactic to combine Kinetic Pulse and the standard Guardian grenade to devastating effect.

The Kinetic Bomb is one of the most challenging but most rewarding tactics available to you with Rangers. Properly executed you can easily annhilate entire squads (and it's pretty much unavoidable by the enemy) but your timing must be perfect, and it requires some practice to be able to do reliably.





Essentially, you first see a Hormagaunt squad (or any other melee squad) charging towards your guardian squad. Rather than attempting to “grenade spike” (throw the grenade in the path of the melee squad) you throw it exactly where the squad is. Then you quickly use Kinetic Pulse on your Ranger, knocking back most of the squad on top of the grenade resulting in significant, guaranteed losses.

Here's another video to demonstrate this tactic in action. Remember, this was in a lab environment and it is unlikely that you will ever face down a single squad like this in a real game. Still, if you can master this tactic then you will find dealing with melee units significantly easier.

Commander Synergy

Farseer: The Farseer is a support Commander with many abilities that can make your Rangers more effective and has the best synergy with the unit.

Not only does her extremely long vision range come in handy when trying to get the maximum range out of your Rangers, but Guide can make them shoot even further. Doom will significantly increase your Ranger's damage capabilities and using both Guide and Doom at the same time will increase your Ranger's vanilla damage from 160 to 291 damage per shot. That's a 70% increase and potentially the Ranger squad will be able to get at least two shots off before the effect dissipates! Not only that, but the 60 energy given off by the Spiritual Rites ability will really allow you to use all of your Ranger's abilities without having to worry about a lack of energy.

Useful Global Abilities: Farsight will always be useful with the Rangers due to its ability to remove the fog of war, for when you just need to squeeze out that last shot or want to abuse the maximum range of your squad.

Warp Spider Exarch(WSE): The Warp Spider Exarch is a teleporting hero with some great harassment capabilities but he's not the greatest hero to use with Rangers. While he has some useful abilities that will most certainly help your Rangers out it's certainly not enough of an impact to warrant using him over the Farseer with Rangers.

The most useful ability to use with Rangers would be the Shimmer Orb, which is an excellent ability that will block all incoming and outgoing ranged fire. While it doesn't affect vehicles, the Shimmer Orb will protect infantry units from all forms of damage except for a D-cannon Singularity and all forms of knockback except for a Tankbusta barrage. By using this immediately after or before a Holo-field you can prolong the time your units can fight in ranged combat.

Useful Global Abilities: Crackshot is useful for granting a 25% damage bonus to your Rangers. One benefit of this ability is that it last for a full 20 seconds, meaning it is possible to fire multiple shots with the Rangers. This extra damage adds up and after four shots you're essentially getting the fifth free in terms of damage.

Warlock: The Warlock is an offensive spell-casting hero, often using damage spells and brute strength in melee combat to win the day. Unfortunately the Warlock has the worst synergy with Rangers out of all of the commanders, only having a couple of Global Abilities that will ever be useful with the Rangers.

None of the Warlock's wargear abilities complement Rangers at all. It's possible to combine abilities like Kinetic Pulse and Immolate (similar to the Kinetic Bomb) but this would be nowhere near as effective as a grenade; which can be utilized by every hero.

Useful Global Abilities: The Warlock's saving grace is in his cheap and useful Global Abilities. Swift Movement is great for getting those Rangers away from certain death and Distort Field is situationally useful in the rare instance you find yourself in a sniper duel. (particularly in a mirror match)

Ranger Usage in each Match-up

Space Marines: This is by far the best match-up for Ranger usage. Not only do Rangers hard counter Scouts but the sniper damage is invaluable against Tactical Marines and Holo-Shees is one of the best counters to Tac marine spam Eldar has until Tier Three. The only unit that will give you any trouble is an Assault Marine Squad, but with focus fire you should be able to drop it in no time.

General Build Order: GU-->Power Node--> 2x Generators -->Ranger → Ranger → Banshee-->Tier Two

Orks: This is another great matchup for Rangers although their effectiveness depends largely on the hero your opponent chooses and their build order. A Ranger or two is great to have against a Shoota heavy build but against a fast Slugga build you're better off with other options. Of course a Ranger squad is an absolute necessity against a Kommando Nob or a Mekboy player. Against a Kommando Nob player the detection is obviously important and against a Mekboy the Kinetic Pulse ability is the only thing you have to counter a teleporting Mekboy with a Deffgun.

General Build Order: GU-->GU-->Power Node → 2x Gens → Battlegearx3 → Ranger -->Tier Two -->Warp Spider -->Brightlance

Eldar: Being a mirror match, this match-up can go both ways. While Rangers are an excellent counter to Banshees (and very cost-effective I might add) sniper duels are not uncommon and opposing players all have plenty of abilities to lay down some serious hurt on your Rangers. Holo-Shees are useful in this matchup, particularly against early game Guardian spam. Both the Warlock and the WSE will be effective at dealing with your Rangers, with the Warlock having access to Immolate and Warpthrow while the WSE can teleport close up and slaughter them with his Improved Targeters. In addition you run the serious risk of being out-teched by your opponent if you invest too heavily into Rangers. I would only recommend getting a single Ranger in a mirror match, and using it very differently than you would use it against Orks or Space Marines. Use infiltrate often and operate as a lone unit, picking off squad members while avoiding detection. Don't forget however that you can use the holo-field ability to either reduce the ranged damage your ranged units take or provide cover for your Banshees to close in and suppress.

General Build Order: GU--> Banshee →Power Node--> 2x Gen--> Ranger → Path finder-->Tier Two

Tyrannids: This is by far the worst match-up for Rangers. Due to the low health high member count Hormagaunt squads and the abundance of detection with the always-present Warrior Broods, Rangers are just not ideal in this matchup. Unless you've mastered the Kinetic Bomb I would not recommend using them at all in this match-up unless you use them the same way you do against another Eldar and focus on picking off Warriors and Zoanthropes. With Guide, you'll take an unshielded Zoanthrope down to under ten health and take a large chunk of its energy off if it is using the shield. Killing a Warrior could be useful in the form of a synapse-bomb but it takes a minimum of two shots (using Doom + Guide) to kill a single squad member. Plus with the speed of Hormagaunts, it makes it difficult for Rangers to avoid being caught in a bad situation. Due to the ineffective nature of Rangers in this matchup, I do not recommend purchasing them. The only time you should ever get them against Tyrannids is against Lictor Alpha player. Remember to use Kinetic Pulse to keep him knocked down, especially when he has Feeder Tendrils!

General Build Order: GU → GU → Power Node → 2x Generator--> Battlegearx3 → Ranger-->Pathfinder-->Tier Two

Target Prioritization

With a unit like Rangers where they can only do damage to a single target and have a long period in between firing it's very important to know what to focus on at the start of a battle. In addition, sometimes it's important to be able to quickly use a key ability such as Kinetic Pulse in a critical time period to avoid losing the battle.



Often times you'll find yourself in a situation, like the above screenshot, where a massive clash between your opponent’s and your own forces occurs. Failing to prioritize in this situation can result in chaotic outcomes such as in the following screenshot.



There are several different variants of prioritization that you should be familiar with concerning Rangers: Squad, Timing and Precision.

Squad: Targeting a specific squad out of your opponents army and prioritizing your targets based on cost-effectiveness and immediacy.



In the above screenshot you can see a fairly typical Tyrannid tier one army. For the sake of demonstration they are facing off against an abnormal Eldar army consisting of two guardians, two rangers and a banshee squad.

Targeting the Hormagaunts with the Rangers would be pointless as, aside from perhaps using the Kinetic Bomb tactic or delaying the swarms approach with knockdown, it would be inefficient for the Rangers to target the Hormagaunts as almost half of the Ranger damage per shot would be overkill on the low health gaunts. The Hive Tyrant is a decent target although due to the unique traits he posses he cannot be knocked down with Kinetic Pulse nor will he take significant damage from the Rangers due to his high health. The best target in this scenario would be the barbed strangler Warrior brood because not only will the Rangers eliminate them efficiently but the barbed strangler is the largest threat to both the Banshee squad and the Guardians. The synapse feedback is also a valuable tool in winning a battle and can significantly weaken the nearby Hormagaunt squads.

Timing: Targeting a specific unit in a small period of time in order to change the flow of battle.

Timing prioritization is most certainly one of the hardest but important forms of prioritization. In battle there are many abilities and units that can drastically change the flow of battle and with correct timing you can orchestrate an entire battle.



In this scenario we can see a group of Banshees lead by a Warlock engaging a Farseer and several guardians with Rangers in the rear. Normally this battle would heavily favour the Farseer's forces but the Warlock has a pesky trick up his sleeve. In the very top screenshot you can see the beginnings of the Warp Throw animation on the Warlock. A quick look at the third shot at the bottom shows the outcome if he was allowed to complete his ability, the ranged units would be thrown into the waiting Banshees. However, if you spot this animation and quickly use Kinetic Pulse on the Warlock to knock him down mid animation, you can stop him from firing the ability, as seen in the middle screenshot.

It's important to know that a Warlock will still be able to reuse the ability once he gets back up, this is merely a delaying tactic but nevertheless it can have a huge effect on the outcome of the battle.



In this example, the Mekboy is set up with his deffgun in cover. Normally this would be quite an annoying obstacle for the Farseer but luckily she brought a Ranger along. Using Kinetic Pulse on the Mek would allow the Farseer to approach and tie up the Mek in melee combat where he cannot use his Deffgun. However keep in mind that the Mek will re-setup as soon as he gets back up so this is only used to open a window of opportunity.

Precision: Targeting a specific model of a squad to gain an advantage in the battle. Often Precision targeting still has an element of timing to it. The key difference from Timing prioritization is the focus on an individual model rather other than Commanders.

Precision prioritization is most useful when facing down squads with upgraded weaponry or set-up teams. Similar to the Mekboy example, you can use Kinetic Pulse to knockdown any setup team but this requires you to target the specific model in the squad.





In this screenshot the Rangers have discovered a Tactical Marine equipped with a Flamethrower. In order to buy themselves some time to escape the Rangers use Kinetic Pulse on the marine holding the Flamer, incidentally knocking down the entire squad. If this were a larger scale conflict knocking down that flamer could provide some valuable time for the squad to be tied up in melee.

Another scenario would be knocking down the Missile holding marine to stop it from getting that last shot off before your precious vehicle can escape. Similarly, this is also commonly used against all forms of platforms and one of my favourite uses of it is to knockdown the grenade throwing member of a squad before they toss the grenade, taking away control of that unit from your opponent until the grenade is thrown and buying you valuable time to escape the grenade.

Conclusion

Rangers are an incredibly versatile asset of the Eldar faction and with some clever ability usage, a great sense of timing and some quick thinking you can maximize their effectiveness and control the battlefield. Arguably one of the best support units in the game, Rangers remain useful throughout every tier and fulfill some very important roles in the battlefield such as detection, disruption and ranged damage.

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