Dawn of War II - Walkthrough - Day 9 extra deployment 2 - The Mantis Killer

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The current missions are:

• Calderis (3 foundries) - Hand of the Hive Mind, Greenskin Weaponsmith
• Typhon (1 foundry) - Defend the Array
• Meridian (2 foundries) - Angel Gate, The Mantis Killer (5 days left)

Completing Indranel of the Ulthwé added the mission Angel Gate, but that mission gives us no strategic points.

• There are two Automated Foundries on the Angel Gate map, but the one near your drop pod insertion point cannot be captured, and capturing the other one does not award any Foundries (possibly because we already have 6 across the three planets): No Generators are deployed, and there was no change-of-ownership message after the mission.
• The reward for this mission would be our first Plasma Cannon, which is superior to the missile launcher as it appears to not destroy intervening cover, but our unique missile launcher Unerring Thunderbolt has good accuracy and is so far a good enough weapon.

So for now, we are delaying the completion of Angel Gate.

Of the remaining missions, Mantis Killer gives a strategic asset and reduces the Tyranid Infestation on Meridian, so we chose to finish Day 9 with that mission.

Mission 17 The Mantis Killer

• Day 9 Extra Deployment 2/2. Fury 5, Resilience 5, Speed 1 (42 minutes).
• Infestation Calderis 4, Typhon 4, Meridian 11 (9 after mission).
• Although this mission is not marked as a Prime Gene Sample, it counted toward the three missions you need to do for the Bio-Toxin goal. It is not clear whether this is a glitch or not.
• The only tricky units here are Hive Nodes, which are annoying to take out without Detonation Charge Packs since they can survive multiple grenades.
• There is a single Carnifex, which might be the first one you have encountered in the campaign.
• Although it is the vehicle equivalent for the Tyranids, it is not counted as a vehicle for Melta-Bombs or Missile Launchers.
• Lictor boss:
• The boss can be killed solo by Cyrus and High-Powered Shots if you have enough supplies, and it is not really any much faster than if you involve your whole team in hit and run attacks. Since time is not a factor because we cannot earn extra deployments anyway, we just took our time and protected our 5/5 Resilience stars.
• If you can drop a few turrets, that really helps as it runs around erratically but finally settles on targeting squadmembers. Retreat them when in doubt and kill it by attrition with turrets.
• Its special attacks are easy to avoid except the leap, which does not have a fixed distance unlike the first Tyranid Warrior boss. It runs fast and can kill pretty much any squad member with a single attack except the Force Commander. Melee is suicidal here on Primarch difficulty.
• The Flesh Hooks attack is basically an instant kill, even on the Force Commander. This is the attack where you are warned to move in close and disrupt its aim. It is probably better to simply run out of range.
• Like the Lord of Wraiths mission on the same map, reinforcements will spawn twice in the same area.
• If there are no visible squads (e.g., Only Cyrus infiltrated), reinforcements will be called in.
• The reinforcements include Spore Mines which will automatically detonate if you have a Remote Detonater planted, and in turn this detonates the Remote Detonator, wiping out all the reinforcements as soon as they appear.