The RTSC Guide to Dawn of War
Part 9: Turrets

DoW Basics

Resourcing

Tiers

Overwatch

Infiltration

Armour

Stances

Builders

Squads

Morale

Turrets

DPS

Shortcuts

Turrets are base defences that can also Spot Infiltrated units. In Dark Crusade, turrets have been rejigged to become not only useful, but essential to your build. They're strictly a support unit, providing only assistance to an existing force or defence. There's no way in hell you can use them on their own and expect them to work - unless you spring a turret rush on an unwary opponent, or you're playing a complete beginner.

Turrets come in two forms. The base version you initially build is an anti-infantry defence. Its potent against light infantry, can bump off a few heavier marines, but for the most part, its only dangerous in the early stages of the game. Massed infantry can easily overpower turrets. However, a turret (or an LP2 for that matter) working in conjunction with your forces is another thing entirely. With the heat taken off it, a turret can, in time, do a lot of damage; but never on its own. Basic turrets are useless against vehicles, and are very quickly destroyed by any anti-vehicle units.

All Turrets have an add-on that converts them into a longer ranged, specialised anti-vehicle defence. Usually its a rocket launcher of some kind that's okay against vehicles, and can can demolish buildings (eventually), but strictly a support unit, not a standalone, front line weapon. You should never stick your Turrets directly in the line of fire - that guarantees they'll be destroyed before they can get one or two shots off. AV turrets work best in conjunction with your forces taking the heat off them. Then, their low rates of fire can last long enough to help swing the tide of battle, and often help hold the line when your own troops have no AV. AV turrets do have an ace up their sleeve: they're not a bad anti-God defence - although you'll need a lot of them and it'll take some time to bludgeon through all those points. But AV turrets hit above their weight in damaging an end-game super unit.

You are usually limited to six turrets per headquarters. You can build them anywhere you like on the map. They wear building_low armour, the weakest building armour in the game, shared with Listening Posts and Plasma Generators.

In previous versions of the game, you could only build turrets within your Zones of Control around Listening Posts, Big Power Generators and your Headquarters. There was no limit on them. As a result, turret farming became a notorious practice in team games Online. It wasn't that turret farms were overpowering; far from it (far, far from it!), they simply filled the screen with lines of turrets in the hope that they'd built some kind of defence. At best, it is a delaying action, no more. Turret farmers always lost the game for their team, blowing huge amounts of time, effort and resources into static defences while the other team had the luxury of taking the entire map unhindered. Turret framing nearly always guaranteed your team's annihilation.