Dawn of War II - Walkthrough - Day 10 extra deployment 1 - Into The Hive

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The available missions are:

• Calderis (3 Foundries) - Greenskin Weaponsmith
• Typhon (1 Foundry) - Into the Hive
• Meridian (2 Foundries) - Angel Gate

All non-plot missions were removed. Of the remaining missions, Greenskin Weaponsmith offers a Communications Array while Typhon offers a Shrine, which has higher capture priority. Angel Gate offers no strategic points. Because of this, we chose to do "Into The Hive".

Mission 19 Into The Hive

• Day 10, Fury 5, Resilience 5, Speed 3 (23 minutes). No extra deployments awarded.
• Infestation Calderis 2, Typhon 5 (2 after this mission), Meridian 9.
• There are a few Hive Nodes, so Cyrus is again invaluable here because they are extremely dangerous on Primarch difficulty. They fire so quickly that they are pretty much guaranteed to hit if you approach them, unless you go in from two directions and retreat whichever squad is fired on. Even then, they will probably get to launch maybe twice more before you can destroy them.
• There are two Raveners that can tunnel and pursue your squad to burst from the ground. Kill them quickly with a High Powered Shot from Cyrus when they appear. Otherwise they can go underground again, and each time they burst from the ground they will cause enough damage to basically wipe all squad members except squad leaders (on Primarch difficulty). Thaddeus will announce when there are no more.
• Hormagaunts can leap from the bushes with no warning, but are otherwise not particularly dangerous since there aren't that many in each ambush.
• The mission is supposed to be done in three phases: Collect the sample, and optional objective to destroy all Brood Nests, and then extraction. We will instead clear the map of Brood Nests first, then take the Shrine, then collect the sample.
• This has the added advantage of letting us crack open all the supply crates at the extraction point so that we can readily get at them or if we need more Detonation Charge Packs to handle Hive Nodes).
• Unlike Hand of the Hive Mind, the Brood Nests here spawn tyranids only when you are near, and then not immediately nor in quick succession. There is no urgency to take them out, but we did so because of our map-control doctrine. Because they do spawn tyranids slowly, this is a fairly safe map to grind for white wargear drops to recycle for XP.
• At the extraction point we will have to fight a Hive Tyrant, so by clearing the extraction zone first, we can also prepare some traps there. A single Remote Detonator won't do significant damage to the Hive Tyrant, but it will let you quickly clear any Tyranid reinforcements it calls later (imminent reinforcements are shown by green rings on the ground that are not targeted on any squad.
• The extraction point battle is very dangerous because of the cutscenes involved. You do not have any special protection while the game decides to cancel all your actions so it can pan the camera about.
• Cutscene one appears when you have at least one member close enough to the extraction point. This is so that your entire team can be blown up when the Hive Tyrant bursts from the ground. Assemble your squads to fire into the middle of the clearing and move the Force Commander to the extraction point by skirting around the perimeter of the clearing until you get the objective complete notification. Then get him out immediately.
• The second cutscene involves Davian T hule. Some time after getting the Bio-Toxin sample, you will receive word that Davian Thule is being revived. He will eventually drop-pod down in a dreadnought and becomes your fifth member. This unfortunately happens when you are in combat with the Hive Tyrant, so that your squads can be wiped during the cutscene when you are unable to control them, and Davian Thule can be the big hero to thunder in and rescue all of you. You can sort of circumvent this by keeping your squads ringed around the Hive Tyrant and no one in melee. That way, only one squad is likely to be pounded on during the cutscene.
• When Thule joined our team, our squads level 12 except for Thaddeus (level 8; was never brought along on any missions).
• Thule started at level 10. Skills were Stamina 5, Range 5, Melee 5, Will 4. +4 Skill points to be assigned. Base skills (if no points were assigned) are Stamina 3, Range 1, Melee 1, Will 0.
• A focus on ranged combat can be very chancy with Thule because the Assault Cannons that he needs are "boss" and "mission" drops. That is, the only two ways of getting one are to have it randomly drop from a boss, or have it randomly assigned as a mission reward.
• You can use the console to create gear, however.
• If you do get any Assault Cannon, it can be very powerful and useful as his special attack with it sprays a conical area, knocking units down and generally kills light infantry.
• On Primarch difficulty, Thule really needs to be deployed with someone having the Rites of Repair accessory (Thule himself cannot carry it) because Primarch difficulty dishes out damage so quickly. There is a self-repair skill, but with his skill points so distributed at the start, it will can be several levels before you can acquire it.
• Thule runs around more slowly than the rest of the squad. He destroys cover and damages himself by running into explosive barrels. He cannot be ordered to Retreat and thereby gain movement and defensive bonuses.
• Now that we have Thule, we recycled all our unused white gear with the exception of Superior Dreadnought Armour and the level 14 Relic Flamer with no level requirements.
• Before Recycling - FC 12, Tarkus 12, Avitus 12, Cyrus 12, Thaddeus 8, Thule 10
• After Recycling - FC 14, Tarkus 14, Avitus 14, Cyrus 14, Thaddeus 10, Thule 12
• If you want to farm for gear (which, in the long-term, is unnecessary even on Primarch difficulty, unless it is an assault cannon for Thule), you should not do this because gear typically drops in a (level +2) to (level -2) range, and by moving up in levels, you are excluding certain drops. Instead, do a lot of missions and level up your squad that way.
• Sometimes it seems the engine is forced to drop something so it will pick outside that level range.