Dawn of War II - Walkthrough - Day 12 - The Secrets of Angel Forge

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The missions available are:

• Calderis (3 Foundries) - To Decapitate the Hive
• Typhon (1 Foundry) - Brood Swarm
• Meridian (2 Foundries) - Defend the Foundry (2 days left), Target: Carnifex (5 days left), The Secret of Angel Forge

Normally we try to secure two extra deployments on the very first mission of each new day. However, for various reasons we wanted to do The Secrets of Angel Forge first, even though we would need Speed 2 to get two extra deployments:

• We are guaranteed 1 extra deployment if we have Fury 5 and Resilience 5, so we can still get a second extra deployment by having a good score on the second mission of the day.
• To get just 1 extra deployment we need 11 points (because we hold six Automated Foundries; otherwise we would need 13 points). Since we have 2 Automated Foundries on Meridian, our (Fury + Resilience + Speed) stars must total only 9. We can get Fury 5 and Resilience 5 by taking our time and being careful, so 1 extra deployment is all but guaranteed.
• Tarkus is out of the party roster. We want him back in, along with his accessories, plus the Terminator armour he will bring at the end of this mission.
• Once you have finished The Secrets of Angel Forge, Terminator armour is unlocked in the game and can start to appear as mission rewards.

Mission 24 The Secrets of Angel Forge

• Day 12, Fury 5, Resilience 5, Speed 1 (49 minutes), 1 extra deployment awarded
• Infestation: Calderis 2, Typhon 0, Meridian 6.
• During this mission, Tarkus is available until you have defeated the first boss (Looted Tank). Then he is removed from your roster until the second boss (Indranel) summons three Wraithguards. At that point, a level 14 clone of Tarkus with no accessories but wearing Terminator Armour appears on the map. After the mission, Tarkus is restored to your roster.
• Angel Gate is closed at the start of the mission, but...
• You can get around this with jump packs (e.g., Thaddeus). Some Eldar are already on the map, so you could pre-clear some of the industrial side of the map. You will still probably need to search the map again later for any new Eldar placements after the Indranel cutscene, however.
• If you go to the side gates (which remain closed for the entire mission), you can lob grenades over/through them at Eldar on the other side. They cannot get in and grenade blasts won't go through the gates, so you can safely throw a grenade very close to you as long as it lands on the other side of the gate.
• There are two dangerous cutscenes:
• Shortly after destroying the Looted Tank boss, there is a cutscene where Tarkus goes into a tower and is removed from your roster. When the cutscene ends, your squads will have been rearranged in front of the Foundry and shooting at some orks. You may want to Pause the game and reorient yourself.
• After you exit the ruins side and enter the industrial side of the map, when you are almost halfway across the map, a second cutscene will start. The cutscene can start no matter where you are. It appears to depend on the distance toward the corner at which Indranel is located. This is a very long cutscene during which your move orders are not cancelled but you cannot control your squads. This can be dangerous if you are in combat.
• You can safely trigger the cutscene by sending an Infiltrated Cyrus up the main road until the cutscene starts, then pull him back.
• After the cutscene, some squads of Eldar plus one Wraithguard converge on your location.
• Looted Tank boss
• The tank will start to move toward the Automated Foundry when you have secured it. If you are still fighting orks, I recommend that you stop securing the Foundry to handle the orks first, so that you can have a clear battlefield (at least initially) to handle the tank.
• Vehicle Stun from a Power Fist does not work on the Looted Tank.
• On Primarch, its charge can one-shot kill the Force Commander or Davian Thule. Do not attempt to melee any boss or vehicle on this map on Primarch difficulty unless its health is extremely low.
• Remember that a shot from the Looted Tank (when it has targeting rings on the ground) only indicates the *direction* of the shot, and not the area of effect. Standing outside the targeting ring but being in the direction of the cannon will still get you shot, and it can one-shot kill the Force Commander on Primarch difficulty.
• Stay close to the Foundry since it provides healing. In the worst case, pull your squads around the sides or rear of the Foundry if you need respite from the tank.
• Fire Prism
• The Fire Prism will swim around a bit when first detected, but then park itself and not move, only fire its cannon. If you spot with Cyrus infiltrated and come up from behind with Avitus, you can generally get off a Missile Launcher shot to the rear before retreating out of its visual range so that it aborts its shot. Just wait for the cannon to be pointed away from Avitus before starting to move in. This works out to a pretty save hit-and-run.
• Indranel has a very long sight range an Infiltration detection range, so if you approach with Cyrus and wander into her sight range, the Fire Prism will be able to locate him via Indranel. Other than this, you can cheese the Fire Prism.
• The cutscene of Indranel and the Eldar at Angel Gate showed two Fire Prisms, but one is found destroyed near one of the side gates. Not clear why, and it may depend on whether you activated the mortars during the Angel Gate mission.
• Indranel
• Her detection range is very long. Her starting location is in a sunken area in a corner, and carefully calculated so that you cannot throw grenades at her without partially going down the stairs. The problem then is that her lightning bolts are very strong and her attack rate is fairly fast. When you come around the corner she can hit you, forcing you to retreat before getting hit a second time and going unconscious. Thule is especially vulnerable here because he moves slowly and has to turn slowly to back out.
• Strangely, she can do only very little damage to Infiltrated targets like Cyrus or a Remote Detonator placement. You can therefore cheese with Cyrus's High-Powered Shots (you will need a lot, maybe 10+) even though she can locate Cyrus; and also place remote Detonators to quickly handle her reinforcements.
• Do not throw a Detonation Charge Pack at her as that tends to make her move even further away.
• She may not move from an Artillery Strike, but an Artillery Strike does less damage to her than a High-Powered Shot.
• As in the previous encounter with her, she will disappear three times, each time replaced by Eldar reinforcements that you can blow up with a Remote Detonator.
• Banshees plus one hero banshee (Tyrea).
• Large group of Seer Council
• Three Wraithguard (at around 60% or less health; scripted to summon this even at 0% health).
• Shortly after they appear, Tarkus will appear nearby.
• A Remote Detonator at the top of the stairs can hit all three and destroy them if you let them all get close enough to the Detonator. Placing the detonator at the top of the stairs will also leave Tarkus's starting position out of the blast radius.
• When Tarkus appears, get him out quickly. On Primarch difficulty, her melee can probably kill him unless she is already at very low health and you can kill her first. Also, she is prone to throwing down an Eldritch Storm and there could be a traffic jam at the stairs if you've moved any squads in to help.