Dawn of War II - Walkthrough - Day 11 extra deployment 2 - Angel Gate

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The missions available are:
Calderis (3 Foundries) - To Decapitate the Hive
Typhon (1 Foundry) - No missions
Meridian (2 Foundries) - Defend the Foundry (3 days left), Angel Gate

Angel Gate is a long mission, so we are doing it at the end of Day 11, on an extra deployment where it is impossible to earn any more extra deployments.

Mission 23 Angel Gate

• Day 11 extra deployment 2/2, Fury 5, Resilience 5, Speed 1 (48 minutes)
• Infestation: Calderis 1, Typhon 0, Meridian 9.
• After this mission, Tarkus is removed from your roster (and he goes with all gear and accessories you had equipped him with) and rejoins you after The Secrets of Angel Forge.
• If you need any particular accessory, such as the Stimpack or Melta-Bomb, don't give it to Tarkus.
• The Secrets of Angel Forge have quite a few vehicles, so give the Melta-Bomb to someone else.
• The Stimpack can be somewhat substituted by a Banner on the Force Commander, which lets you use the healing Rally power.
• This is actually a very easy mission if you're not trying to rush it, but quite long and with a lot of nuances. There are no major bosses. We will deal with this map in two parts: Characteristics of the map, and a Walkthrough of recommended sequence of actions.

Map Characteristics

• There is an irritating amount of melee on this map. It is basically melee Tyranids versus Ork shooters and they chew through each other very slowly, so if you're not worried about Fury stars, you can sort of let them fight each other and just secure the Generators.
• Having one melee team is useful but it's possible to survive this without (and without Davian Thule, if somehow you still don't have him in your roster).
• Tarkus's Taunt skill, if you have it, really shines here to let your other squads keep shooting.
• Tyranid activity is extremely busy in the early phase so watch out for Tyranids coming up behind. This is probably because they are moving to Ork positions, and as they die, new ones respawn constantly. Once the orks are cleared from the map, things quiet down a lot.
• Your own area effect weapons can destroy allied turrets whether they have been activated yet or not. A Flamer or Missile Launcher will not hurt allied infantry, but will harm turrets that are not yet activated. The Plasma Cannon hurts everyone, including your own squad members. If you have no help at the Gatehouse, then Avitus with this inside a building is a viable choice. Otherwise the Missile Launcher is probably a good tradeoff, especially if you can get lots of Accuracy improving gear (there is only one vehicle, an Ork Wartrukk, on the map).
• Raveners
• Groups of three. You will be warned about "movement in the ducts below", so this won't happen in the northeastern ruins since there are no ducts there.
• They appear no matter where you move to when you get the warning. Just stop and wait. If you are moving, they might burst up under you.
• If you are in a building, they do massive damage when they emerge and they also destroy the building. On Primarch Difficulty, this will incapacitate any squad garrisoned.
• There are three encounters, along the three main routes on the industrial side of the map.
• Teleport Relay Beacons
• Do not secure all of them. The critical one is the one in the middle of the main road. When you defend the Gatehouse, that is the one you want to be closest to since the Imperial Guard won't go that far away from the Gatehouse (thus staying behind to tie up enemies pursuing you) and Imperial Guard replacements come up that road and can give you cover while you regroup.
• The ones to the left and right might be too close to the Gatehouse if you are running from Carnifexes or if you lose control of the situation and get swarmed.
• Do not secure the one in the middle of the ruins side of the map. If you are at the Gatehouse and accidentally closer to that one when you need to retreat, you might run for it, right through a mess of Tyranids that spawn from that location, as well as through the friendly fire from allied mortar barrages that systematically bombard a region between the Gatehouse and that Teleport Relay Beacon.
• Imperial Guardsmen (6 units)
• A squadmember will mention the guardsmen when you are in range of an encounter. Pause the game and look for them immediately. They will typically be fighting a single Tyranid Warrior (melee) or Orc StormBoyz.
• The fastest way to help them against Tyranid Warriors is probably Cyrus and a High Powered Shot. On Primarch, they don't last long. They will flee when you get close enough to them, but on Primarch difficulty, they could be dead long before.
• At some locations, they will not begin engaged. Quickly get to them to start them fleeing and confirm the rescue.
• Locations:
• Northeast of starting location, near the Teleport Relay Beacon near the centre of the map. This encounter activates at the start of the mission so if you don't start moving there right away, they will all likely be dead.
• Western edge of map, around the middle, to the west of the generator and south of the Teleport Relay Beacon. If you approach from the south, they are not fighting anyone (?).
• North-north-west, on the upper platform, near the spotlight and in the middle between two generators. There are orcs entrenched on the ground level below and the Guardsmen will run right through them, something they may or may not survive.
• Angel Forge Gate, west side, at stairs on ground level.
• Angel Forge Gate, east side, on upper level, near spotlight close to the gate.
• Slightly to the right of the middle of the map, near Angel Gate, on the upper level, very near the Teleport Relay Beacon.
• You do not have to escort the guards until they are off-map, although Tyranids will probably kill them en route to their escape off-map on Primarch Difficulty.
• If you do want to escort them, you could of course. In this case, if they are ahead and pursued by Tyranids, and in that same direction is a rally point (such as a Teleport Relay Beacon), you can call a Retreat on your squads. They will race for the beacon as normal. Your squads will fire their weapons at enemies if possible, so if Tyranids pursuing retreating Guardsmen are in the line of retreat of your squads, you can shoot at them as well as catch up to them.
• The more you rescue, the more squads of Imperial Guard can assemble at the Gatehouse to support you later.
• The Guardsmen are marked as allies, so Stimpacks and the Rally ability from a Battle Standard will also affect them.
• Generators
• When you are close to one or start activating one, typically orks will appear nearby.
• When you have activated three, several things happen:
• Tyranids stop spawning all over the map and instead spawn from the Teleport Relay Beacon in the ruins side of the map. It is the one closest to the gatehouse, so they basically just spawn and charge straight down.
• Also, a force of Tyranids will generally have gathered (or they just appear -- not sure) near your drop pod and can interfere with Imperial Guard going up to the Gatehouse.
• For each squad of Imperial Guard you have rescued, one squad will start moving up to the Gatehouse from your drop pod rally point, straight up via the main road. The more you rescue, the more can assemble at the Gatehouse.
• They will stop to fight so if only a few or none make it to the Gatehouse, Tyranids will destroy all the turrets there. On Primarch Difficulty, even six squads of Imperial Guard might not be enough to hold the Gatehouse against the initial Tyranid onslaught and you may lose all Guardsmen and turrets there if you don't support them. It is therefore important that after you secure a third generator, you start clearing everything from the Gatehouse down to your drop pod, then anywhere else they are left on the map.
• There are unlimited respawns of Imperial Guard, but a time delay as they need to run up the road. It is important to clear the road and cover their approach so they can assemble in large numbers. On Primarch difficulty, small numbers of Imperial Guard just get chewed up as quickly as they come.
• At 5 and 6 Generators active, Mortar Batteries (rocket launchers) will come active.
• They systematically bombard a region behind the gate, unless there are enemies closer than that (e.g., on the terraces).
• Be careful of friendly fire from the rockets.
• Tyranid Attack Waves
• These are the reinforcements that come once you have 3+ generators activated. Each wave has a random number of units, and are typically of two alternating types:
• Small waves of maybe 1-2 squads of Hormagaunts and 1-2 heavy infantry.
• Large waves of maybe twice that size, plus Spore Mines.
• Hormagaunts are quick to leap, so camping the spawn point is not really recommended since you'll just get tangled up in melee almost immediately and cause a chaotic mess.
• If a wave comes down without heavy infantry, expect a Zoanthrope to follow because they are slower.
• If you have Cyrus positioned at the spawn point to use Remote Detonators, and are low on supplies (there are over 20 resupply crates on the map), you can let the small waves go and handle them at the gatehouse. They might stop to attack the Remote Detonator, so you will probably need to just not set the detonator until the small wave leaves the area. Often killing the heavy infantry synapse creature (e.g., With High Powered Shot and Advanced Infiltrate) will cause the Hormagaunts to move on down to the Gatehouse).
• Bigger waves include Spore Mines. On Primarch Difficulty, they should explode and destroy the Remote Detonator device immediately, causing it to explode and kill the entire wave without your intervention, assuming you have placed it close enough.
• Plant detonators slightly south because the Tyranid attack forces that spawn moves immediately. If you hit Pause too slowly, you might miss out on catching most/all of them inside the blast radius.
• The big waves lean toward the left when they move down the road, so set your Remote Detonator charge slightly to the left (i.e., southeast of the Teleport Relay Beacon there), and if you are garrisoning the gatehouse area, put your main ranged squad (Avitus, probably) in the building on the left (north side).
• It is not clear if these waves ever stop, but we used over 20 Remote Detonators and they were still spawning by the time we had destroyed all three spore drops and secured Angel Gatehouse with just the Force Commander.
• Holding the Gatehouse
• The priority needs to be clearing a path for Imperial Guardsmen (see above). If you can spare it, put Avitus in one of the buildings flanking the Gatehouse to add supporting fire. These buildings pretty much never come under attack unless there is nothing left for the Tyranids to attack. Periodically check on Avitus to turn on his Focus Fire.
• You can also put Cyrus in one of the buildings and have him snipe synapse Tyranids (the Heavy Infantry, like Zoanthropes and Tyranid Warriors) to help the Imperial Guard.
• You can also position Cyrus and use the Remote Detonator at the Teleport Relay Beacon Tyranid spawn point in the ruins side of the map to intercept the Tyranid waves even before they swarm to the Gatehouse.
• The only risk is if Spore Mines spawn while he is laying the Detonator or if he isn't clear of the Detonator yet. Try to get in there as soon as a wave has left or been destroyed.
• Some Heavy Infantry (Zoanthropes or assorted Tyranid Warriors) may spawn there and hang around. Leave them alone until you want to detonate.
• It seems that the Tyranid waves do eventually die down.
• Spore Drop Reinforcements
• When you have at least 3 Generators running, an objective message will appear above the Angel Gate Gatehouse. Don't click the Gatehouse until you are ready. If you do, Tyranids will start dropping around it in groups of three spores, starting with Tyranid Warriors but eventually upgrading to Carnifexes, or possibly Carnifexes with Venom Cannons. Crossing the gate into the ruins also seems to trigger the spore drops. Ideally you will already have cleared the ruins first (optional) before activating 3+ Generators.
• There are only 3 waves of spore drops:
• Wave 1 - 3x Tyranid Warrior
• Wave 2 - 2x Tyranid Warrior, 2x Carnifex
• Wave 3 - 2x Tyranid Warrior, 1x Carnifex, 1x Carnifex with Venom Cannon
• When the Carnifexes come, lead them away and handle them elsewhere. This is critical.
• The Guardsmen will stay to secure the gatehouse, which they can do with some help (Avitus, maybe), leaving you free to lead the Carnifexes into turret nests and to grenade them without killing Guardsmen. If you do not, while you are slowly killing the Carnifex while trying not to blow up allied infantry and turrets, more Tyranid reinforcements keep coming, making an overwhelming mess. So instead, divide and conquer.
• No spores will drop while at least one of the creatures from a spore drop is alive. So until you kill the Carnifexes, the gatehouse will only see Tyranid reinforcements.
• The best case is for the Carnifexes to chase Tarkus around the map. If you can spare a second squad, send them along for support. Once you are far enough away from the gatehouse, split your squads. One attacks and throws grenades while the other flees.
• If you are baiting with only one squad, lead the Carnifexes to turrets. Also, when they run ahead of the Carnifex enough, throw a grenade between it and your squad, then keep running. If you lead your throw well, the Carnifex will walk right into where the grenade lands.
• If you use a mid-mission save mod, there are some glitches involving a reload, but the mission will work fine:
• Any guardsmen that were considered rescued, but which haven't retreated off-map, hold their position.
• When you reload, a no-clipping (you can fire and walk through it) version of Angel Gate will be in position, so it looks like the gate is closed.
• Any spawned Tyranids are cleared from the map, and they begin respawning from the ruins side of Angel Gate, at the central Teleport Relay Beacon there.
• Ideally you will have rescued all the guardsmen, seen them leave the map, and reactivated the Generators before you save and reload. Once you secure the gate from the initial rush of Tyranids, reloading a game should give you results similar to having continued without pause.

Walkthrough

• First, clear the map.
• You can start to capture generators or get close to them in order to trigger and clear ork encounters. But don't activate any generators until you have swept the map, including the ruins if you want 5 Fury stars.
• You may need a LOT of Remote Detonators, so try to be stingy with picking up limited use item supplies (since you are limited to carrying at most 5 of each type) and instead pick them up only if you need them. Remember that you don't have to be near the item to pick it up -- just pause the game, scroll the map to it, and click on the pack.
• Capture two generators. I recommend the two farthest ones on the western side.
• Move Cyrus to the ruins side of the map and settle him in to watch the Tyranid spawn point. Set a remote detonator and just wait. This will be his task for the rest of the mission: Intercept at least the big Tyranid attack waves with the remote detonator.
• Instead of getting three Generators activated, get a total of five quickly so you have mortars right away when the Tyranid attack waves start spawning.
• Arrange your squads to get the three on the southeast side that are close together in a triangle.
• The two closest to the southeast map edges are not on spawned Tyranid routes so you can have any two squads capture it since they won't be bothered by any hostiles (once you have gone by and cleared the encounters there).
• The third one nearer the map centre is on a Tyranid route. A melee strong team can capture it alone but if you need two squads, then you will have to pull Cyrus and get him positioned later.
• Optionally you can assign one squad to each of the remaining generators and thereby get all turrets activated at the same time.
• When your squads are in position, have them all capture the generators so they come online at basically the same time.
• Once you have 5 generators active, get your squads to the Gatehouse and sweep the main road all the way down to your drop pod. While doing this, keep an eye on Cyrus's position: If you see any red dots at the spawn point, pause the game and check to see if it is a small attack wave (which you may want to handle at the Gatehouse) or a big one (in which case you really want to detonate the Remote Detonator and set another one).
• Once you have cleared the way for the Imperial Guard, go back and activate the 6th and final generator.
• Assuming that you now have the hang of destroying Tyranid attack waves either with Cyrus or at the Gatehouse, move one squad to activate the Gatehouse. When Derosa announces spores dropping in, stop capturing it. Arrange your squads to handle the incoming spore drops (see above).
• Since Cyrus is handling the Tyranid attack waves, you can bring Avitus along to help you destroy the Carnifexes with a missile launcher. This helps A LOT.
• After the third spore drop is cleared, finish capturing the Gatehouse to complete the mission.
• Since there are no more spore drops, you can put a squad ahead of the Imperial Guardsmen to tie up Tyranids as they come in. This way the Imperial Guard and any turrets remaining are free to fire.