[DC] Thur'Abis Catacombs (Necron Stronghold)

[Akranadas]

Thur'Abis Catacombs (Necron Stronghold)

[FalseMyrmidon]

Make sure you investigate all of the Necron energy sources before planting the bomb. If you don't you'll get your ass handed to you on the way out.

[anonymousMarine]

Did i mention that i got murdered as IG even with a buttload of honour guard? lol

[Makille]

1: Make sure you have an honor guard that is capable of dealing AV damage. 1-3 (Seems random) Tomb Spyders will pop up in your base about 2 mins into the mission.

2: Investigate all of the energy sources! You will get murdered if you do not do this on the way out.

3: Make forward bases. Replacing you dead troops is a major priority, especially against the two monoliths near the end of the mission.

4: When playing as Chaos, I have heard there is a bug that with the Bloodthirster out, Chaos cannot win the mission by sending the lord away. Unconfirmed, but good to know if true.

[konfeta]

Scimitark got it right on the first 3 three points.

However, remember, the thing about the 2 enemy monoliths guarding the base, is that Monoliths actually suck. Yes, your entire army should have no problems wiping them out without losing a single squad no matter what race you are as long as you have some decent AV damage.

Upon fighting the Nightbringer, just move back and wait till it subsides. Move in, rape Necron Lord, plant bomb, run to the nearest tunnel with or without help from a Transport, bypass most of the map, win.


*Special Note on playing as Tau.

This was a funny one, I didn't build a single vehicles for offense this game. I just moved forward with my Commander, Ethereal, a Pathfinder Squad, HG Firewarriors, and Elite Firewarriors that I kept on spawning with my Ethereal. Once my infantry pop-cap was maxed out, every enemy Necron encountered had an average life expectancy of 1 second. Monoliths? Under Mark Target, each one went down in about 10 seconds.

[BrianGeneral]

[As Tau]
1. Just to make sure that you've 2ndLP on every points you capped, especially when you saw a tunnel nearby. Some Crons may pop out from there and if you have a 2nd LP there and a Drone nearby, expect the Crons die fast.
2. Investigate all energy sources. You won't hurt if you do so, though I don't know if you'll hurt if you don't.
3. Dealing with the Obelisks:
Unlife: Take up Long-ranged units like Sky Ray and Hammerhead with proper FWs as cover and it'll go down in no time. You can also want to use Sky Ray's Missiles to take down hordes of Crons in order to buy some time.
Deciver: Don't bother to go up there. Just take some Sky Ray and bombard the place with Barrages. Or if you don't take down the tower, the Crons around will die as well, then you can send up units at pleasure------look out of those Turrets though.
Chronometry: Mass up units and blast it. It seems that it can only affect a unit or two in one time.
Void Dragon: Avoid Vehicles. Stealthsuits/Vespids will like to chop it up nicely.
4. The Necron Lord may turn into Nightbringer along with some Monoliths before. Dance around with the NB and blast him once it vanishes. With Monoliths, well, good luck with that.
5. Prepare a Devilfish for your Commander. Transport him to the place, plant the bomb, then aboard the Devilfish and run like hell. Remember to leave it once it arrives at the points!

Other races' ones may look pretty much the same.

[Cacto]

As Space Marines:

The hardest part will be the first few minutes, when the three tomb spiders wake up and attack from inside your base. The attacks on you from then on are weak - single squads and the occasional destroyer - and nothing to be too concerned about.

Things to do:

You want to destroy at least three of the energy sources - the one in the bottom left that possesses your vehicles is not such a big deal - you really don't need any vehicles to finish this, although a rhino to carry your commander to tunnel openings can be useful as the map is quite big.

You should capture the tunnel openings. Key ones to get is the one directly north and the one near the bomb site. When you hold both it's simply a matter of running your commander into the tunnels and then reemerging a 30-sec sprint from your base.

You should annihilate any enemy base that threatens your commanders run-path. Anything else is unnecessary if your lines still hold.

Drop pod dreadnaughts make short work of energy sources, so scout them out and dump a few dreads on them. It removes the need to bugger around with a full offensive army and lets you focus on defence. Of course this doesn't work on the Void Dragon energy source in the bottom left, but you don't need to kill that.

Assault terminators make the Nightbringer ineffectual. So long as a squad of ATs is attacking him he won't get a single hit in. Same goes for any other strong melee individual of course, but it's worth keeping in mind here.

[derm3]

You should destroy all the energy sources just to be sure. When i took the shortest path to the bomb site, the awakened monoliths teleported into my base, and the mission didn't end even though my commander was standing at the exit.

And don't forget that your commander has to survive. Pariahs and Destroyers will go for him all the time, and many Destroyers will spawn when you drop the bomb.

[anonymousMarine]

Eldar is easy wuahaha

keep the Nightbringer busy with the Avatar and teleport a Bonesinger nearby and build a Webway Gate; assuming you cleared out all opposition on the way.

once bomb is planted, FoF Taldeer back into the Webway Gate (shrouded of course), and she'll be back at base in a sec

[Promythyus]

At the start, USE! TURRETS! I used 2 assault marine squads (+ Honor guard assault vet.) to jump around the map. Go to the energy sources, use melta bomb's, get out. Use some Land Speeders too, as they can jump with the assault marines, go and remove every monolith you can find, then Capture the Relic with some Dreadnoughts and 4 Tactical Squads + a Vet. Tactical Marine if you have one. Arm most of your tac squads with Heavy Bolter's and Plasma Rifles, because flamers & Missile Launchers aren't worth it in comparison. When you have the relic, Put your force commander in a land raider and some tac squads in rhinos, get some terminators ready for Deep Srtiking (not honor guard though, because they are going to DIE!), And send your Vehicles (LR & Rhino) to the bomb drop area. when you get there, deep strike your terminators, and unload the rhinos, don't bother with the essence of the nightbringer, just drop the bomb, get back in the LR and RUN!

[Nic Love]

As Space Marines
Interesting thing happened when I was taking out the energy source closest to the bomb site. It is the one that freezes your men. I used it to my advantage to gain an extra assault terminator squad and a normal terminator squad. When you get close enough, it seems to randomly freeze some of your men, and take them away from your pop cap. When it froze my termies, I just built another one. When they unfroze, I had two assault termie squads. Nothing like that extra squad to really own those monoliths at the end. Not sure if this allowed me to go over total cap, maybe someone else can confirm this, I may have went over cap with both men and machines, since when frozen, they don't count against.
I actually found this map to be really easy, I spent along time on it, but enjoyed playing it. I pretty much took control of the relic, and camped the relic with a whirlwind, predator, 3 tac squads (one with 5x plasma, one with 5x rockets, one with 5x heavy bolters) and a scout squad with 4x snipers. This was enough to control the map since most enemies try to run past this place.
I built 5 strongholds, and what I did was built 4-5 turrets around each of the openings where the necrons come out (just the ones behind my huge army at the middle, above and right). I also just laid landmines at the entrances too (lots of them!). Pretty much anything that came out was getting owned.
I only used dread's, termies, and a landraider (with my FC in) to assault the energy sources and the final place (again, had 2 assault termie squads!) Dropped the bomb, teleported out, and ran to my base.

[optimal_prism]

oK as always you will get rushed.
Leave honiour guard at abse and make some turrets.

Now you will contsantly be attacked.
Even if you kill some buildings.

Make sure you destroy the secondary objective buildings.

Sweep up the whole map before you try to plant bomb.

Especialy the bottom corner right below your base with the SP.

What happens when you dont clear out the map

You get atatcked by 4 monoliths in your base!!

ok this stronghols is pretty easy, you just get constant annoyences to the entrance of your base.

You need detector unit for once of the seconday objectives.

I find making another HQ in the nearest strategic point, useful.

Make turrets to defend your bases.

now after you clear out the secondary objective buildings. Go to plant the bomb. You will get the most resistance here and some monoliths around.
Also nightbringer.

I find having a rhino arounnd useful. But if you cleared out the map, you dont have to worry about hero getting killed. Just worry about getting him in there in time.

Rhino is good for thos, put your lord in it and drive in your base to the obkjective point.

Also DONT LEAVE YOUR HONOR GUARD UNITS IN CATACOMBS!!!!

There is a campaign bug that counts units in buildings and vehicles as dead.

So after you finish the game with your units in vehicles/buildings the game will couint them as dead and you will ahve to retrain them!!

Things to Remmber

• You will need a detector unit once.
• Be smart, listen to the pariah, and you might have to ditch some units to kill some buildings.
• Make turrets as you will get atatcked constantly
• Make more then one base
• CLEAR OUT THE MAP!! I cannot stres this enough
• Dont leave any units in the bomb area!! You mignt get fatal scar error in cutscene.
• Dont leave honour guard in vehicles/catacombs

[PikachuMarine]

Enjoyable conversation with O'Kais and Aun Shi'ores:

Ethereal: O'Kais, the Necron threaten everything that the Greater Good has attained. They must be destroyed.
Commander: Affirmative. I will plant the fusion bomb (nuke) myself.
Ethereal: This is no time for heroics, commander. I expect you to survive this battle.

Classic

If you fight with your army as one big control group of tanks and infantry, then use your men differently for this mission. The occasional infantry solider and 2 tanks at the frontline taking on a monolith is fine while the rest of your army paths up to the position, but when you plant the bomb, have your commander and maybe a fast mobile retinue go a separate route to your main force.

e.g. With Tau, jump-pack commander, crisis teams, stealthsuits and vespid work well for going through any spawns on the 8 minute escape run. Devilfish is a decent idea as well.

[malairt]

Took me 3 attempts before I succeeded as I kept attacking before Gorgutz had decent strength; big mistake.

I had the pre-built buildings thingy so I had a BH, 4 gens and a PoG. You will be attacked straight away by 3 tomb spiders inside your base, but Gorgutz can take care of them (my Gorgutz is now a 9,000 health point monster). Use your honour guard to capture the 2 points and cap them asap - you need all the req you can get. Build 2 banners at the entrance - they will be constantly attacked but 2 banners and an upgraded LP can deal with them. I kept a grot squad to repair them in the base at all times.

Head North and hang a left to take a point. Build another couple of banners to guard the tunnel entrances and mine them as well. Continuous streams of soldiers and the tiny wee annoying things like gnats come out the tunnels. Head North again and take the slag point. Then South to take the relic, which cost me a nob squad: lots of destroyers and soldiers. I capped it and reinforced with another 4 banners and built my machine shop there to cut down the reinforcement time.

By this time your army should be up to full strength. Wander round the map killing everything you come across. After the relic I hardly lost a man.

Leave the West of the map till last - there are 2 Monoliths there and you need to have everything fully loaded and healthy. Gorgutz lost about half his health because he leads from the front and his Nob squad died remarkably quickly, but the TB's and Flash Gitz poured on the fire and they were gone in 20 or 30 secs each.

Then head North to the top left to place your bomb. The Nightbringer will appear - I kept Gorgutz out of this fight just in case, but BigMek and the 2 nob squads, plus all the supporting fire seemed to just annihilate him. 2 LLR's and 2 cans too.

At this point there's hardly any enemy activity, so I sent all the boyz home and when they were safe, planted the bomb and legged it. 2 Wraiths appeared but couldn't attack Gorgutz and keep up with him so they just followed him home. It takes about a minute to walk back and you have an 8 minute timer, so there's no need to fret. Waiting for 7 minutes is just boring, but hey.


Points to ponder

• The first few attacks on your understrength base are a pain; once you're past that, you're OK
• Keep all your troops together. No single enemy can cope with CC, rockets, bullets and whatever it is that Flash Gitz fire. Mutual support means light losses.
• Remember that the tomb spyders will wake up inside your base.
• It isn't essential to use the tunnels. I didn't bother.
• Remember to keep Gorgutz attached to a Nob squad - if he dies the game's over, so use that protection. And of course pull him out the action if the Nobs are dead.
• You don't have to achieve all the secondary objectives: one of them was defended by invisible soldiers and Destroyers. It was quite funny - all I could see was guns floating in mid-air which my guys wouldn't target. So I withdrew and they didn't follow me.
• The Ork bomb is a hoot. The cut-scene shows bits falling off it just before it explodes.
• It's a long campaign - took me 2 hours. Very enjoyable.

[Haisho]

Some general pointers.

Pre-mission :
- Get some anti-vehicle honor guard. They're not really needed, but they will make starting up a LOT easier. Especially so on Hard difficulty.
- Try and get a hold of the Increased Resources territory. You will need to tech up fast during the actual mission later on.

Initial wave :
Brace for impact the moment you gain control of your base. Depending on the difficulty you took, a number of Tomb Spyders will rise in the middle of your base. Not very pretty. Shortly after that, you'll get attacked by some deep striking Flayeds, Scarabs, Warriors, Immortals and maybe a single Pariah. A good Honour Guard will get you through this rather easily.

What to expect :
Lots and lots more attacks on your base early on. Don't be afraid to make some defenses at the start or take small losses.
The AI will start by sending Scarabs, Warriors and Flayed Ones, which won't be difficult. However, as you progress they will eventually replace Flayed Ones with Pariahs and god forbid, some Immortals/Heavy Destroyers. The Pariahs will keep on chasing your army around, while Immortals and Scarabs will strike your bases.

Primary Objectives :
- Plant the bomb. The objective area on the far side of the map, directly opposite to your base. Be warned, the map is fairly large and there are a lot of bases around.
- Keep your commander alive. Having him killed is not an option, but you can't afford just leaving him in your base if you intend to finish this quickly. If you're looking for some micro practice, then this mission is perfect for that occasion :P

Optional Objectives :
- Investigate the 5 Energy Sources. Each and all of them aren't a threat early on, but eventually, you will loathe them so much if you do not handle them.
- Destroy the Beacon of Unlife. This will ressurect Necrons in its immediate vicinity. When you plant the bomb, it will activate around the whole map, meaning that every single Necron you have killed that leaves a body will rise. You almost always destroy this beacon anyway.
- Destroy the Beacon of the Deciever. This will render Necons within its immediate vicinity invisible and forces you to bring detectos. Like the Beacon of Unlife, it will affect the whole map if you don't destroy it. Not really so harmless unless you don't bring any detectors.
- Raze the Monolith Graveyard. There are a total of 4 Monoliths here, and they are pretty much dormant....until you plant the bomb. Be warned that these Monoliths are in the immediate teleporting range of your base when they awaken. Unfortunately, your escape point is also in your base. Make it a point to destroy each and every Monolith in here.
- Destroy the Beacon of the Void Dragon. This will take control of vehicles within its immediate vicinity, and affects the whole map if left untouched when planting the bomb. Not nice if you have any vehicles around, but apparently useless if you don't field any. Destroy at your own discretion.
- Destroy the Chronometron Beacon. This is by far, the worst beacon that you will ever encounter. At the start, it will only randomly freeze a certain unit in a certain radius. Like all other beacons though, this will start affecting the whole map when you plant the bomb. Not good news if it affects your commander. Always bring in at least 3-4 squads/vehicles before you attempt to take the beacon down, as there are 2 upgraded Necron Turrets guarding it.

General tips :
- Always try and get the immediate Strategic Points around your base as soon as possible. One of them guards the only entryway into your base by foot, so it is important to get that point. If possible, reinforce it with turrets. IG can do better and just use HWTs with autocannons.
- Take time to tech up. It is fine to turtle the first few minutes, but don't take forever.
- Vehicle Bays are very, very large. You have very little space for base building at the start, unfortunately. There is a single SP outside your base, south of the Beacon of Unlife. This is flanked by 2 catacomb tunnels where Necrons pour out at intervals. If you intend to use this spot as a vehicle bay, then by all means fortify the area as soon as possible.
- The vast majority of Necron infantry are counted as Heavy Infantry. Those that aren't are just Infantry that aren't too spectacular in the health spectrum. Thus, weapons like plasma will be very handy.
- Keep some AV with you at all times. Most vehicles are frail but it is best if you make short work of them as quickly as you can. That, and they'll be handy for the Monoliths later on.

[SirNick]

General Tips:

Something undocumented is that your troops will only have approximately 2/3 of their maximum health on this Stronghold. This is a serious concern, especially for your Honor Guard if you want to retain them.

One thing that I've noticed on this map is that the enemy reinforcements seem to converge on your Commander -- where your commander is, the Necrons will follow. It's kind of neat, actually.

It also means that your base will be pretty safe from attack as long as there's a couple of turrets by the front entrance.

Also, having a transport along with your commander when you plant the bomb makes things far easier on the escape -- pop in, zoom to a tunnel, pop out near your base.

You'll need an AV unit or two or three in your Honor Guard to survive the Tomb Spiders at the start of the mission. There's no two ways around it.

Racial Information comes from IG, Chaos, and Tau on Hard, and Space Marines on Normal.

Imperial Guard:

Sanctioned Psyker is absolutely necessary for the opening act for Curse of the Machine Spirits. Regimental Commisar is necessary for Execute. Tech to Tier 2 as quickly as you can and pray for Plasma.

Heavy Weapons Teams and Scanners will help scout out Gauss Turrets and let you shoot them from afar. Execute and Guardsmen mass will handle most groups of Necrons as they appear. Kasrkin Frag Grenades will do the trick too as needed.

Basilisks with Earthshaker Rounds do real nicely versus the various Beacons -- 1000-1400 damage per Round, from 80 Range away.

Inbetween Curse of the Machine Spirits, Leman Russes, and lots of Guardsmen and Heavy Weapons Teams, you can creep around and wreck shop as needed.

Chaos:

Defilers, Obliterators, Berzerkers with attached heroes win the day. Sprinkle in Infiltrated CSM as you see fit, and top with a dash of Bloodthirster.

Bring a Rhino for the end sequence. Bring several, really.

Tau:

This one's pretty difficult due to the glass cannon nature of the Tau and their inability to hunker down. Kauyon's a pretty good route to go, with Kroot Hounds and Krootox to tie things up in melee. Keep your Fire Warriors in the back and use Pathfinders to expose Gauss Turrets and melt them from afar. Stealth Suits won't do so hot with Wraiths around, but will be needed in the southeast corner with all the Destroyers.

Swarm Warriors and Paraiahs and Wraiths with melee units, and keep Flayed Ones shot up real nice.

Monoliths are a bit more difficult, but Devilfish to hide your Fire Warriors and Krootox to melee the Monoliths should work very nicely.

Space Marines:

Veteran Terminators with Assault Cannons. First Company Marines with Missile Launchers. Heroes with Spells. Force Commander with Melta Gun versus Turrets and Obelisks.

"GG," as the "pros" like to say online.

[Petycon]

Just one thing I noticed while playing as IG on 'Hard Difficulty':

Being a strong advocate for multiple bases in every game I play, I had my techpriests build them at every major catacombs entrance, protected by turrets and containing all the regular troop-producing buildings. This did slow things down to a crawl, so I'm not sure about the validity of this strategy, but in doing so I realized that, should I build a command center next to the bomb site, I'd be able to tunnel my CS out after nuking and effectively end the mission. As someone mentioned, this tactic is also valid with the eldar, who can build Webway Gates.

[Kalimac]

How I did it as Orks vs Necrons, Standard Difficulty

When attacking this stronghold I had tankbustaz in my Honour Guard, which was very useful when the Tomb Spyders activated in my base at the beginning of the mission.

I started building up my base and force, and pretty soon I destroyed the nearest Necron Outpost and took the SP. After a while I realized that I didn't like this map, and that I just wanted the Necrons to die. So why not kill them in a more interesting way? By then I already did have quite a large army, but instead of just cleansing the map with brute force, I decided to spam Trukks.

I upgraded the turbo boost, attatched my Warboss to a Nob squad with powerclaws, moved them into a trukk, moved a big part of my army into the other trukks, and then sent all the trukks to the bomb site. Halfway to the bomb site, I dropped off the army, except for the Warboss (don't ask me why, I just felt like doing it).

Three of the trukks (although with red health) survived all the way to the bombsite, but all of them were destroyed on the way back (there were a lot of monoliths and stuff). The warboss then ran with his nobs through the big Necron base closest to the bomb site, and managed to survive until a new trukk picked them up, and then went as fast as possible back to the base (where two monoliths were rampaging).

Meanwhile, the major part of my army were fighting in the middle of the map (I didn't want to leave the boyz idle in the base ), but I'm afraid all of them died. Only the Warboss and three nobs made it to the escape route, and my entire Honour Guard died, but it was a funny strategy!

[Me_incarnate]

On normal as tau i used 6 squads of stealthsuits with all fusion thingys(the upgrade weapon)and emp n stuff, and they basically won me the game, i used em to blow evrythin up before followin them through the tunnels with the rest of my army, i found tht the enemy has little or no scarbs and ny wraiths that do come can be killed before the following forces can do sufficent damage(and thos 6 monoliths dissapear without killing a thing) also they blow up all bases the necron have , they also allowed me to skip half the map by jumping n just capturing two of the tunnels( the one near ure base and the one near the necron base) then after the suits have blown EVERYTHING up you run into the bomb site drop it n get in the tunnel( the destroyers tht spawn cant do enough damage to kill you and the flayed ones cant catch you) I WIN

[Kerath]

I like using an infantry-heavy force in this one. That way I can avoid any annoyance surrounding the Beacon of the Void Dragon taking over my vehicles, and it also solves some of the horrible pathing dilemmas elicited by the numerous narrow passageways in this map. The one place where I find requisitioning some vehicles to be really helpful is in taking out the two awakened monoliths near the bomb site. One thing to be mindful of with Chaos: if you've permanently ascended Eliphas into a Daemon Prince, he will be unable to use the tunnel system. So, you may have to allow yourself a bit more time to escape than you do with other races.

[Darkrevenger]

Just a small note,

It seems that if you have shield drones on your commander as Tau, you will not be able to plant the bomb as the shield ability overwrites the plant bomb icon.

[plac]

Possible chaos bug? Just tried to do this mission with chaos, got all the way to the glowing red bit in the corner after wiping out all the necron and my commander has no bomb to plant! Rather frustrating as you can imagine...

Anyone else had this kind of trouble / bug?

[sabredog]

I have the same issue with SM, fight my way to the bomb site and there is no bomb to plant. so hopefully someone can help.

Is there a solution or sequence issue with this level?

If there is not, is it a documented bug at all?

A workmate has the same issue with Tau.

[Pukkun]

If you're playing Eldar then I'd suggest the following for an easy start and eventually win:

- Teleport your first Bonesinger to the area below the Strategic Point where the Tomb Spider lies.
This area has no connection to the rest of the map, so it's a perfect place to relocate your base to.
- Build a Webgate there and research shroud.
- Build a Bonesinger and build another Webgate at the far right of the area where your HQ stands.
- As soon as this Webgate is finished put all your troops inside and jump all your vehicles to the safe area below the first SP.
Don't mind the old HQ, simply build a new one in the safe area, you will need 360 req for it, so watch your expenses.

With your first HQ gone and the HQ area Webgate out of sight, the Necrons will just stand around where your HQ stood, doing nothing.

Now teleport a Bonesinger below the safe area, it's a Monolith Graveyard, build a Gate at the outermost right edge of the Graveyard area so the Wraiths don't spot you.
You should have no troubles clearing the Graveyard using hit and run strategies.

The rest is easy sailing, your base and Farseer are safe giving you all the time you want to do all the secondary objectives.

If you're still having trouble, you can exploit one of the Necron Beacons to build Units/Vehicles even when their max cap is reached.
The beacon is called Chronometrian(sp) Beacon and it will randomly freeze your units, temporarily turning them into passive allies.
You can use this timespan to build more units of the same type as the frozen units.
Imagine having two Fire Prisms, one is being frozen, now build a new one.
This will bypass your vehicle cap and the max number of active units of that type.
This means you'd end up with three Prisms or four Warpspider squads.

Once you destroyed all the beacons it's time to plant the bomb.
Simply teleport two Bonesingers onto the bombsite where the Nightbringer is waiting.
Dance* the Nightbringer with one Bonesinger while the other builds a Webgate.
*Make him move, the fire on the move penalty will give him a hard time killing your Bonesinger. =P
Put both Singers in the Gate as soon it's finished.

Now pop out Taldeer, plant the bomb, re-enter the Gate and finally exit at the upper right corner of the map to finish the Stronghold.

I did this on hard, with minimal Honourguard, because the first time I played the campaign the Necrons got sacked by Orkz, so I just rushed there this time.

I admit that this guide is not the most honourable way, but it got the job done.

[Psycho-Warrior]

I'm playing as Tau, and I can't seem to find that goddamn explosion icon anywhere. I've cleared the whole catacomb already and done every possible sidequest. How do I trigger the explosion? I have my commander selected but I see no explosion icon.

[Grov]

You have drones attached to your TC. Theres a bug, there is no icon if you have the drones. You'll need to restart, or kill of 2 drones somehow.

[Ifitmovesnukeit]

Ethereal Air Strike might do the trick... just make sure you save beforehand.

[Psycho-Warrior]

Hmm, I somehow knew that this might be a bug, and I guess I was right.

I'll try the air strike then, I just hope the commander can survive the blast :P

[malairt]

I've just tried to finish it as Chaos. Everything dead, bomb planted, everybody back in my base, countdown to zero only to be told I'd failed to complete the mission! Eeek.

Does the commander have to be on the glowing red circle in the corner of my base? Does everybody have to be out of the catacombs? (I'd left 2 Heretics by accident). Any thoughts welcome.

[Ifitmovesnukeit]

Does the commander have to be on the glowing red circle in the corner of my base?

Yes.

[Firepike]

i finished it with eldar.......it was my last stronghold and the first time i tried it i got absolutely smashed......before i retried it i took over the territories that gave me the 2 vypers and the wraithlord in my honor guard........the only 2 honor guard units i didn't have were teh 2 banshee exarchs.

when the game starts pause and assign control groups with ur warp spiders, vypers wraithlord and fire dragons in one and the rest in another. when the tomb spyders pop up get the AV group to focus the tomb spyders and use the haywires that come with the spider exarchs. after that initial battle i lost only one bike and the rest of my honor guard survive.

just make sure u build an aspect portal and train up dark reapers while the battle is raging.....i find they rock necrons easily. a tower or two also helps. after that just crawl thru the map finding all the power sources.

i built a 2nd base right near the relic. when u plant the bomb i didn't bring a bonesinger to build a webway i just attached him to a sqaud and fleet footed back to my relic base tehn webwayed from there.

end of mission

[Wraithguard Fan]

This is the most fun of all the stronghold attacks.

Spcae Marines

Just use(For me):

Davian(Don't worry, he doesn't die that easily)
Chaplain(Good if you have the Reclusiarch)
Old Librarian(AKA Episoltary Enteas)
Librarian
Grey Knight
Space Marine Honour Guard with plasma gun and apothecary
Assault Marine Honour guard

Here are the Energy sources: (Their signals don't spread that fast)

Beacon of Unlife-Stupid piece of shit, not dangerous at all, didn''t see and Necrons in the green pulse ressurect

Beacon of the Deceiver-Don't really need to worry since you have 2 Librarians. And as long as you upgraded you Listening Posts to Level 3, no Infiltrators will worry you.

Beacon of the Void Dragon-Before assaulting the final part where you need Playboy(Davain Thule) to plant the bomb, destroy it so that your vehicles won't turn against you.

Beacon of the Chronometron-Most annoying necron beacon, not only will units be rendered uncontrollable for as while, there is also a damned monolith firing its damned particle whip...

Monolith graveyard-To hell with the Energy Cores. Destroy the Monoliths first.



Make sure you discover the webway gate like Catacomb Entrances so that you can have a quick way out with the playboy and those good enough to follow him. Leave the Grey Knights and Dreadnoughts to stall the huge amount of flayed ones while the other commanders can help take out any following Necrons.

[DocGratis]

While I agree about the walk through on the whole, I would recommend you not get all the energy sources.
(The void dragon is annoying enough to make taking it out nearly required, but otherwise)

I usually play this one straight across the top, then down the left to relic, then into the main necron base down the left hand side of the screen. (plus or minus the void dragon)
I build up turrets and second HQ on the way (turret those tunnels). And I usually upgrade all the LPs and leave a small defense force at main base.

Plant the bomb and then march back out. I bring a transport for the Hero, but usually try to make it a unifed retreat.
I think the monliths make it fun. Plus with the mutliple bases, turrets and LPs they get at least a little slowed down...

Not the easiest way to win, but it makes then end sequence make more sense..

[kungming2]

Only your commander has to make it back to your base - at least for Eldar, I think it works for everyone else too. Perhaps it's a bug, there seems to be quite a few for this Stronghold. On this mission, once I got a Webway Gate with -12000 health, and the Necrons were just attacking it, and they just couldn't raze it, and ignored all my other units. It was absolutely hilarious.

[Lupuss]

If you're playin Tau in normal difficulty it could be extremely fun to train a Gnarloc, then watch him rape the awakened Monoliths

[InsertDumbName]

In my experiance if your using tau on this map and you have the stealth field and jet pack wargear its pretty easy. after you survive the initial attack take your entire honour gaurd have head down towards the relic in the centre. from there go to the drop off point have your guys attack the monolith while the commander runs in jetpacks to the drop point and then jet packs out. As your running back to the base only jetpack if they have a wraith nearby. i found it really not very hard even on hard...

[A. Val'Navat]

This was the first stronghold I attacked as Chaos on Normal difficulty (yes, I love them necrons, even if I'm fighting them).

You need to have a sizeable Honor Guard force when attacking this stronghold; you'll suffer a lot during the early parts of the mission if you don't have such a large initial force.

If you're lucky enough, the Tomb Spyders around your base won't awaken at all...

You must destroy all the energy sources (especially if you're using a race that isn't so good at beating the Necrons), bad stuff happens if you leave them alone. Though, I remember sending a Bloodthirster once to destroy the Chronometron Beacon -- it froze after the beacon died, which I found funny.

[DePastino]

Sorry for the OT guys, but perhaps someone could point me in the direction of a good, overall how-to thread for this game?

This is my first time playing, I just started the single player campaign for Necrons and I'm not understanding the different units relative strengths/weaknesses. On top of that, the population cap is driving me absolutely NUTS.

I used search, but I must not be typing in the right key words because I haven't found anything suitably noob-ish.

Thanks to anyone who has pity on me.

[A. Val'Navat]

You should look in the other threads in this forum; you are currently looking at the strategies for attacking the Necron stronghold, which would be of no use to you if you're playing as Necrons.

For more help concerning gameplay, look in the Strategy forums.

[dandare]

have a look here if you haven't already depastino
http://forums.relicnews.com/forumdisplay.php?f=139
good luck

[DePastino]

Thanks Dannyboy.

[Inquisitor Thor]

(I have not completed this stronghold (tried it as chaos, 2 champion things as honor guard, got thrasherd beore i even got desacrated stronghold upgrade) but am just putting tips for setting upand random stuff on it)

1) Build LOTS of turrets, especislly near the big entrance thing near your base

2)Gert loads of horde like squads (guardians, cultists, chaos marines,space marines, slugga boyz etc, etc.)

3) Always leave a defense gorce at your base when strikeing, fgrom these posts i can see there are loads of monoliths that may attack your base

4)Try to gather lots of honour guard before you attempt this, dont start this mission just becuase your near it on the campaign map, make sure your prepared for a tough fight but dont be put off by a challenge, it isnt impossible!


P.S.-The Necron Pariah is actually called Alexander Macabee, the lead explorer who discovered the catacombs, as explainedn in the necron starting clip

[AzurePhoenix]

@ everyone who's said all the Necron Energy Sources should be taken out

Amen. Especially the ones right on the path to the bomb site. It makes life a whole lot easier.


@ thread

What made my battle for this one easier was a sudden discovery of just how effective Assault Marines can be. Prior to this, I rarely used AMs, preferring instead an overuse of Tacticals backed by artillery and armor, supported by Scouts.

I actually built my second base right beside, and below, the intial site. Since I was holed up by the constant streams of Necrons, I decided to use my AMs to check out the area below my base. Good thing I did, because it was the Monolith Graveyard. A couple of Melta grenades and a 2-unit Land Speeder backup later, that particular problem was solved. When I managed to get to my first tunnel, I hurridely snuck in a Servitor and started building Base 2.

The AMs were, for me, crucial to this whole battle (which I found easier than the earlier Eldar HQ assault). I was able to bypass known strongholds of the Necrons, as well as do a quick strike-and-fade. And since I have a general idea of where structures are, I move in the Whirlwind and let the arty to its work.

For Monolith control, I use Land Raiders. But since my big, bad war machine was on defense, I decided to use my Scouts + Artillery combo to find the Monoliths and hit them without getting hit back. Sorry, but I have a healthy fear of those things. Not as much as my fear of the Avatar, but its enough to make me pause on taking a Monolith head on.

When I gained control of the Relic in the map's middle, and was proceeding downward, I used the Grey Knights + Reclusiarch and the Terminators to guard the two Necron-controlled tunnels "behind" my forces. You should have seen the piles of bodies.

I used my Land Raider to transport the Brother-Captain back to the base. Even with all my forces pulled back into the base, the ride back was quite uneventful

A long battle, but not as hard as the battle with the Eldar early on. Nor as long.

That dubious honor will go to the Chaos Marines, and its not even their HQ province. But that's a discussion for another topic.

[A. Val'Navat]

P.S.-The Necron Pariah is actually called Alexander Macabee, the lead explorer who discovered the catacombs, as explainedn in the necron starting clip

I believe that's supposed to be Thomas Macabee, if I'm not mistaken.

And yes, I have experienced what you experienced. I had to leave the stronghold and gather up because my HG wasn't large enough.

[roland]

On a side note, there's no need to get carried away with building structures on the underground Thur'Abis map as any subsequent defenses/battles will take place on the above ground Thur'Abis map. I.e. after the bomb has blasted everything underground.

[frickenmoron]

As Eldar you can clear this stronghold incredibly fast and easy, just make sure you have the seer council honor guard and that you are able to hold the base with your other honor guard easily. After you survived the initial rush, quicktech to mobilize for war and upgrade your first seer council, then build another one and get mysticism and FoF.

Clear out the beacon of unlife with your 2 councils and get into the first tunnel, teleport a bonesinger to the tunnel exit in the monolith graveyard (its visible as a black spot in the wall) and immediately pour out your guys and build a webway gate there too and cloak it, bring in whatever other guys you want to kill the 4 monoliths.


Build a falcon and upgrade its hp, after that just clear out the path to the upper wall of the bomb target area, which shouldnt be too hard for 2 seer councils. if you want to make sure you will have an easy time get 3 warp spider squads too, it shouldnt be too hard, just a matter of time.

Get the falcon there too, let your farseer with council hop in and jump over the wall, FoF to the target area and place the bomb and get back into the falcon and jump out again

Im not sure if the void dragon beacon can take over your falcon if its loaded with your leader, but you usualy can make it back to the nearest webway gate/tunnel entrance waaay before it affects you.

[wyluli1000]

I'm playing the space marines and i've cleared every thing in the maze. All the necrons are done for except where they sporadically pop out of the tunnels. My problem is that I don't have an icon for a bomb to plant it. I've got my commander in the glowing red circle but nothing happens. Am I missing something or is this a bug?


Help a space marine out peoples!

[Thanatos]

A curious strategy to the end of this mission for IG which i figured i'd share after my most recent run through on Hard. After slowly making my way through the map via extensive forward base building and generally turtling my way around to those beacons (Must kill!)
I placed my baneblade just under the archway infront of where the nightbringer was due to make an appearance.

Obviously said immortal unit would scratch the paint on my shiny relic unit so i decided to bring in a pair of bassies to the edge of the large wall surrounding the bomb sit to the north with an assassin in tow. Assassination scope and two earthshaker rounds later and the necron lord was on his back whilst my CS strolled up,planted the bomb and disappeared into the IG tunnels.

Tunnels ftw. =D

[[4q]Dreams]

on this mission i took my points and the point near the first lot of tunnels. then i tech up. got 3 bassies, kasyrkins, ogryns (on ranged) and masses of hwt and a few turrets. walked away for a few hours. came back with a few thousand kills.

easiest mission to complete also. advance your army to the relic and take it. get a baneblade and 2 leman russes and a few chimms also. take your army too the place where you need to plant the bomb. plant it, put CS in chimm and run back to your base. even with 3 activated monos attacking my base (i didnt clear the graveyard) i still got back and won easily.

[EvilSneakCSKA]

For those people who have trouble with the bomb marker not activated at the bomb site after killing all necrons. I've ran into this problem a couple of times with different races (chaos, SM, orkies), and seems that you need to plant the bomb before you kill the necron commander. If you just sit on your butt and wait until the nightbringer dissapears, kill NL and clean all the remaining tin boyz off then bomb doesn't activate. Looks like you need to run your commander past the NB in order to plant the bomb.