[DC] Thur'Abis Catacombs (Necron Stronghold)

[geekman]

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.

I just tried that earlier today, but I still couldn't plant the bomb. I suppose it's conceivable that Essence of the Nightbringer wore-off by the time I got Kais right to the spot, though.

[sneaky]

ok, I've actually manage to clear the map of enemy but I don't think I placed the bomb in the right place or maybe I don't know what to do with the Captain so he'll survive. Anyone?

[Imperial Dane]

So your problem is you aren't fast enough ? Because there is only one place to place the bomb, but i would advice using the tunnels to your advantage, that or a transport.

[Melissia]

For me, after clearing the way to the bomb spot, I shoved Gorgutz into a wartrukk, turned it on turbo and let it fly.

It was back in my base in a couple minutes at most, and nothing in the way could destroy it fast enough.

[jpsc949]

If your space marine you've got it easy, put your commander in the Land Raider and bring him back to your base. All you need to do is take the relic for that, you can ignore everything else including the mono graveyard because nothing can kill the LR quick enough to stop you winning.

[Joe Bob Joe]

I have problems with chaos my defiler (3300 health) was destroyed in the first....five minutes my turrets are getting slaughtered by whatever the AV nec infantry are.......what should i do?????? Its the last stronghold on map, so i really need to beat it.

[Joe Bob Joe]

Well, i beat the level, after beacon of unlife it geats pretty easy. I used in total around 50 marines, 2 bloodthirsters, 2 chaos predators, Eliphas and honor guard. Used infantry to explore around beacon of unlife, then predators conquered all. Just had to use alot of heretics to repair. the nec lord gets owned by predators w/ chaos projectiles.....well, pretty much anything gets owned by predators..........

[jpsc949]

Yeah its the initial beacon that is the hardest. Without waiting until t3 or without a decent honor guard it can be tough to beat.

[driftwood]

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.

Today I played as IG and used basilisk ES rounds and scanner sweeps to kill the NL because I didn't want to deal with NB. The bomb icon was there as normal and I was able to end the mission as normal (well normal apart from having built a base right outside the target area to tunnel my cs back home from).

Killing the NL doesn't seem to be the origin of the no bomb icon bug.

[Imperial Dane]

I've never had that problem so i would have to agree..

[driftwood]

curious update on the no bomb icon bug. I reloaded from a save right before entering the last room and after I had remotely killed the NL and there was no bomb icon greyed out or otherwise. It was just gone. However when I walked across the red target circle with my CS the bomb icon immediately appeared and when I walked off of the target circle (without placing the bomb) the bomb icon was greyed out as normal.

If you don't see any bomb icon when you select your commander try walking your commander over the target circle to fix it.

[Joe Bob Joe]

another way to fix the bug: attach him to a squad and then detach the commander. When you do this dont select the commander in the group, and the squad should have the place bomb icon. (this was for SM) and im pretty sure that the bug happens for SM when you get the orbital relay because OB icon replaces bomb icon.

[Deathguy3]

The Imperial Guard's commander has a Human shield... His Priests,Pyskers ect.
I like to explore the map, while killing the beacons

[4uk4ata]

I've did it on medium with the tau with little trouble - then again, I wait until nearly the end before I go after strongholds. I used a large honor guard, of course - 2 tactical suits, main force of FWs and FW elites, Kauyon command with krootox strikers and carnies/hounds from my honor guard. I don't have the latest patches (which I've been told weaken Tau somewhat), but I was able to wipe the map with little trouble.

In retrospect, I could have spared myself a lot of trouble with invis field and jetpack, but wanted more firepower so I still don't have JP for my TC. Didn't matter all that much, though - massed Tau firepower works wonders. The only time where it looked like I can have problems was when I was going off the ramp when attacking the monolith in the lower left part of the map - my army started going in different directions.

[Salazaar]

I was having trouble getting the bomb icon (with Chaos) until I moved all my command units (i.e. my commander, my bloodthirster and my sourcerer) over the red flashing bit. I also had to have all of them at the exit to finish the mission.

[Myr]

Watch out imperial guard players; The beacon of the Void Dragon (bottom right hand corner of the map, should be the 3rd or 4th beacon you come across depending on which way you go -- you can skip it, but as IG I recommend this beacon bites the dust) will posses your Vehicles.

If you don't destroy it before you plant the bomb you may find your baneblade mincing up your Gaurdsmen. Oh, and the tactic above is genius! For IG/Eldar build a Webway gate/IG building near the bombsite, then just have your commander insta-travel all the way back to your base, brilliant!

[Dot]

SM Scouts with plasma and infiltrate rape Necrons.

[Karlston]

I too had the FC missing Bomb icon (playing as Space Marines).

Turns out both the HG Relusiarch chaplain and the 'stock' Librarian had the icon, but the FC didn't. Weird...

[Acheron]

Having tried this map twice as Chaos on normal, I'd say that a strong honor guard is essential. On my first couple of tries I got soundly trashed, especially because my weakish honour guard had torubles, particulary with these tomb spyders that took forever to kill, while the Flayed Ones trashed them in turn.
But later on, with a strong honour guard, I could enjoy turtling while the guards send any approaching Necron to the scrap yrad within half a minute. As usual, if you make it rhough the initial rush, you can make it through the rest.

[Dan Ball]

I think the only true problem you should face in this mission is when the Necron Lord turns into the Nightbringer and becomes invulnerable, added to this the fact you have his troops reigning down on you too and he is chasing you.

[Pythontact]

The vehicle and chromotion beacons for me

[ImMcGyverLOL]

Uuh, yeah, so I just finished playing it with Space Marines on, like, Normal? I don't really know, I don't keep track (of course you don't, you lazy fool you!). Anyway, it was a cakewalk through and through since I took it on pretty late in the campaign allowing me to have both a large retinue and Forward Bases.

The mission starts and I get a few Necrons head on while the Tomb Spyders wake up inside my base but having two Terminators, a Rechlusiarch, Commander, two Dreadnoughts and a senior Librarian counts for a lot and the Necrons was soon scrap metal and I started capping both points (and all the while he was sweating like a schoolboy who's found a copy of "Playboy" in fear of the nasty-nasty Spyders waking up an pwning).

Enter: The Turtle. This is the ultimate turtle mission since you have limited resources, virtually no room and a nice bottleneck through which the enemy come in a steady stream (good thing you started with two turrets then Mr. Chicken). While my Honour Guard stood watch I teched enough to build heavily fortified LPs and along with five turrets it held every single attack. If I hadn't already, this mission would've granted me the 5000-kill Wargear. From there on it was a slooow tech and base-build until I had everything I wanted including two squads of Terminators and six Dreadnoughts at which point I moved out and captured the first external LP...

...and ran into the first pillar by chance. But surely you can calculate the onslaught the aforementioned Terminators and Dreadnoughts bring if backed by Gray Knights, Chaplains, Librarians and countless (more like four you dyscalcic moron) squads of Tactical Marines? I left two squads to defend my base (which in retrospect turned out to be completely unnessecary, much like this battle report) and another three in the Orbital Relay along with some Assault Terminators as a panic button. Setting up shop in the open space surrounding the SP, I left three Dreadnoughts to stand guard which I could easily spare since I'd built another three while attacking. From here I kept pushing north until the bifurcation at which point I divided my troops into two, sending one group forther north to take out the plasma generator there while the other turned south and dealt with the second pillar.

The first two pillars didn't affect me since I took them out within a blink of an eye and altogether I only ever lost one unit, a Dreadnought caught by the Pillar-of-Vehicle-pwning to the south. The forces again joined at the relic and wrought destruction on a massive scale. After securing this location the rest of the map was basically won already because there's no way around you at this point and even worse (for the Necrons that is, as you might've mentioned. Lobsterbreath), the Necrons can't move troops between them anymore. The tunnles are useless since you've got Dreadnoughts or worse guarding. Moving east with a portion of the battle group I found the Monolith Graveyard and I must confess I'm a bit surprised, aren't they supposed to do something, or just sit there and take it?

Enter a strange goof: The Force Commander may use his Orbital Bombardment here which is starnge since it's underground. "Q":Can the Imperial Guard commander use the Strafing Run? Anyway, a salvo from the orbital artillery, charge the Gray Knights and it's Non-oliths (oh har-de-har-har, jeeze...) all around.

Leaving a force to guard one of the two pathways (leading, he sooner discovered, to the fifth Pillar. Got lost in his own bathroom he did) I marched a main dorce south, wiped the fourth pillar and lost a Dreadnought to friendly fire (which is an oxymoron boys and girls, not to be confused with plain moron) but generally kicking ass as (sic) I teleported some Tacticals down on the second story, wiping it but good and proceeding (unbeknownst to him bu beknownst to us and everybody else above fourth grade) to the fifth pillar where they were frozen in time and pounded by a Destroyer and saved in the last minute by the aforementioned guard force. Having joined forces again I marched them north and towards the final goal when Bang! a great big floating Monolith comes towards my forces, balsting them ever which way.

And of course, here's the great big advantage of putting your Force Commander with the Gray Knights and coupling them with two Chaplains: One Monolith downed in ten seconds flat. Realizing by use of a Skull Probe that there's a second Monolith lurking, I teleport three Tactical squads and the Assault Terminators to the relic, take the short cut and after clearing the pathway take on the second Monolith. At the same time my main strike force do wht they're best at (What? This: ?) and slaughter everything in sight.

Now that everything on the map except the auto-spawning creeps are heaps of smoking machinery I plant the bomb and...
Hey! Where in the darkes hell did you guys come from? No matter, anything dumb enough to stand between Terminators and gray Knights are awarded with quick death. The timer is set for eight minutes and I actually manage to get every single unit back to base well before the time runs anywhere near 3 minutes left.

An easy mission overall and ridiculously easy for a stronghold.

[Kaelis Ra]

I played as our favorite Imperial guard!
Here is a simple form of this:

1. Turtle until you manageto build to tier 4. Believe me, I built and re-built until I could fit all my buildings. Then I got to work.

2. Your force consists of: 1 chimera. Loaded are:
Command Squad with a psyker and Kasarkin
Kasarkin with priest
Adeptus Mechanicus Enginseer.
2 Leman Russes
1Basilisk
1 Assasin

Go forward and destroy the pillar. Easy. Continue on, and block tunnel exits with heavy weapon teams. Once you get to the second pillar, move cautiously. Use assasins to scout turrets and Earthshaker them.

Capture the relic and attach the Baneblade.

Destroy the monolith graveyard, go on and blow the F@#$ out of the chronometry. EARTHSHAKERS ARE YOUR FRIEND.

Use infantry to clear the VD beacon and such. no opposition, arty support.

Vindicare and Earthshake Monoliths.

Earthshake the necron Lord, spotting with the long range scanner. This solves that annoying Nightbringer. Use the rest of your vehicle and squad cap to block tunnels and the det site.

Once running, keep the strike group with you.

[Sarpadeon]

Race: Space Marines
Honor Guard:First Company Veteran, 2 First Company Terminators, Reclusiarch, Senior Librarian, Hellfire Dreadnaught.
Planetary Gains (relevant ones): Forward Base, Increased Manpower.
Wargear: Daemonhammer, Iron Halo, Plasma Gun, Azirah's Cincture, Champion's Gauntlets, Veteran's Pauldrons.
Regular Category of Me: Desperate Turtler.

Before I dwell further, here is a brief summary. I got a Chapel-Barracks, Armory, four plasma generators and four heavy bolter turrets brought in with me. Immediately upgarding the Stronghold to a Monastery, I concentrated my efforts on teching, since the honor guard inside instantly took care of any Tomb Spyders and Flayed Ones that might show up. Once I got all my buildings (hard to do in such a tight base space) established, I pushed immediately to T3, got all the possible upgrades to all the units I would use. Then, I built up a force. This force consisted of:

2 Predator Annhilators
2 Dreadnaughts
1 Assault Terminator Squad
1 Terminator Squad
1 Land Raider (After I captured the Relic)
Chaplain
Grey Knights (for base defense)
As many Space Marine Squads that leaves (about 8 or 9) in the cap. I concentrated Space Marine Squads into "focus" groups - each squad with a designated heavy weapon.

Now, the Chaplain, Grey Knights and three Space Marine Squads (plasma, heavy bolter and missile launcher) were left in the base for defense (yeah, I'm wary of Necrons). This is where I think I might be of help, or hope to have done something right at the very least - I organized "lines of defense". Four heavy bolter turrets were at the very entrance, the far back one being a missile launcher. Then, a few feet away from it, was the Plasma Squad, standing a bit further down than the Heavy Bolter Squad. Higher than both was the Missile Launcher squad (use the "high ground"). Behind them, right at the edge of the base was the Reclusiarch. In the middle of the base was the Chaplain and Grey Knights.

Anyway, I brought Davian Thule right to the front lines, and pushed my way through to the first strategic point. Needles to say, I was tight on requisition, and by that effort, I accidentally came across The Beacon of Unlife. In about twenty seconds, both it and the Greater Summoning Core behind it was gone.

Infiltrated scouts captured the strategic point below, I capped it off with a listening post, etc. I left the full scout squad there, since they owned most of the 'endlessly generated' Necron that would emerge, and could warn me if I ever got a unit my base-exit bolters couldn't handle.

Then, with no specific strategy, as per my usual "tactic", I just tore my way through the hordes of Necrons in my way. As I was exploring the map with my huge force, I either stumbled onto the pillars or sought them out. They were all destroyed within seconds, before the Necron Commander had a chance to finish his speech. Needles to say, I followed the pathways, razed every single piece of Necron "settlement" I found to the ground, took out all the pillars, and took down the two restored monoliths (with relative ease, I must say).

I left my incessantly large force to deal with the Nightbringer as Davian planted bomb. Used the tunnels to escape, for good measure, and bam. "Space Marines FTW!"

Now. General tips section, by a newbie at this.

1- DO FULFILL THE "SECONDARY" OBJECTIVES. MAKE LIFE EASIER FOR YOURSELF.
2- Again, take out the pillars even if you're going to raze every single base. Take them out with twice the violence if you aren't inclined to do so - due to the massive Necron concentration, if left intact, they may make the return to the base hard for you.
3- It works to concentrate heavy weapons on your squads. Though it hardly makes much difference if you're using a large enough force, but, if you're not, it does (if you keep them organized enough to be utilized properly).
4- Leave some forces at your base in the case of awakening Tomb Spyders or Flayed Ones, or for if/when the Necrons manage to tear through your turrets.
5- While we're at it, four bolter turrets with one of them (preferably the one further than the rest) upgraded to missiles is often more than enough to keep the disgusting Necron claws from ever getting to your base (unless they deep strike, which is why you should have some forces actually IN the base, just in case... that rhymed!)

NOTE: Okay, so, I initially planned to do the same to Necrons that I had done to the IG on the meta-map; encircle them by conquering the provinces around their stronghold, thus lessening their honor guard, and then jumping in to demolish them completely. As it so happened, the Orks started to advance on the Necrons and wrenched control of two of their provinces away (I was busy demolishing Chaos Space Marines at that point). Wary of this new development, I wrenched the control of provinces directly to the east of the Necrons from both the Orks (firstly) and the Necrons themselves. Leaving one Necron province untouched, I ended the turn. The Orks attacked and were repelled, the Necron Army moved to that region, thus abandoning the stronghold. I went in and took the stronghold. And now, all I have is Orks and Tau harassing me, earning me defensive victories (as I turtle and have fully-established bases, often two, at every turn)

[serban277]

Man ...relax , it is easy. Only one thing that you should do (especially if you have very good mobility) : destroy the monolith graveyard. It is your primary threat on the way back home ( unless you are an eldar of course) destroy it before the monoliths being activated. You shouldn't have problems with something else. Oh...and one more thing ...don't try to sneak into the center of the catacombs only with a small group : you'll have your head "handed on a plate".Just kill everything on the map .

[hazzster3000]

1. You never try to ever attack the necrons base unless you have ATLEAST more if you can 5 honour gaurds.

2. Build more than 1 base trust me because in case the tomb spiders or other enemys come back next to your stronghold and you dont notice beacuse you are foucasin on killin your enemy or plantin the bomb you will lose concentration and your base will destroyed. YOU LOSE!!!

3. To try and stop your base from being destroyed build millions of heavy bolter turrets and about half with the upgrade in case they get lord destroyers or tomb spiders. BUT that doesn't mean you dont have to build a second base trust me your gunna need it!!!

4. Dont worry when they get out 2 necon monoliths they are amazinly easy to kill at max they should take out 1 sqaud max if you play it right. Whats that i hear you say how do you play it right you sen ALL YOUR MEN on them at once.

5. Relax its easy!!!

[ganjou234]

LoL All I did as Tau was spam Drones and for the Monoliths? sheesh just EMP em with stealth suits xD and watch em stand there like pieces of junk xD
And the very first energy signatures I found was the 4 monoliths sleeping xD Destroyed them with XV25 honor guards and Stealth-suits ahahahaha!
Night bringer?? Scoot'n shoot and you'll be fine.