Dawn of War II - Walkthrough - Day 6 - Defend the Array

(Click here for a list of all our posts on Dawn of War II.)

Mission 6 Defend the Array - Communications Array, Shrine, 15 stars

• Day 6
• Fury 5, Resilience 5, Speed 5 (6 minutes), two extra deployments
• We did this mission first because it is easy to get 15 stars and two extra deployments.
• If you are using the save-mission-in-progress mod, you cannot use it in this mission as it messes up the enemy wave spawns and the mission will never complete.
• At the very start of the mission, hit all three nearby supply crates but don't pick up anything yet. Pick up the Support Item Increase packs only when you need them. Open the crates now since since you don't actually have to move a squad over to get it, but you do need someone to damage the crate to reveal the contents. You'll need a lot of grenades for this mission.
• The ork waves spawn at one of two locations (east past the bridge and narrow pass; and somewhere southeast near some towers) and magically appear if you are there, so you could suddenly be swarmed.
• Enemy waves from the east are best handled across the bridge because they could split up and you end up fighting from two fronts on either side of the southeast tower near the Communications Array. If Avitus is inside, he could be a sitting duck against one side.
• Enemy waves from the southeast can split up and go up the western stairs, which are out of Avitus's range if he is inside the southest tower.
• Because of these potential divide-and-conquer situations, it is best to have grenades handy in case you need to do "firefighting" style defense; you can bomb one side and quickly take care of it before rushing over to the other side.
• You get 5 Rage stars automatically if you survive the mission because only the attack waves count toward the kill percentage. Unless you somehow cause the orks to flee frequently, you will also get 5 Speed stars automatically because you'll wipe everything out in about 6 minutes.
• Even on Primarch you can get 15 Stars AND the Shrine in the lower right corner, but securing the Shrine on any difficulty level generally requires a lot of luck.
• It also helps if you have the Master-Crafted Grenades so that you can have one grenade-thrower to defend your base and one to follow your Capture Squad.
• This is the ONLY grenade drop in the early game and you must be level 6 or less to get it because of the -2 to +2 item level range setting when wargear drops.
• If you still don't have it, you can console in wargear during a mission (because you cannot equip new wargear during a mission). Use "wargear\\wargear\\campaign\\playable\\race_marine\\sm_acc_frag_grenade_packveterans_grenades" to get the grenades.
• Your attention will be constantly split, so use the Pause/Break button to pause the action and check both teams frequently.
• The mission ends after the final wave of orks is killed (in approximately 6 minutes), so you must secure the Shrine prior to that. Split your forces into two teams and make sure each team has grenades. Make sure the team that will defend the Array has melee because you cannot retreat them very far. I went with (Force Commander + Avitus) for the Defense Team, and (Tarkus + Cyrus) for the Capture Team but use Thaddeus if Cyrus does not have a Sniper Rifle to suppress enemy troops (otherwise you may lose a lot of time retreating them from melee).
• Initially, move all squads toward the eastern bridge. When you are halfway down the stairs, you should get a red arrow indicating the ork wave direction. Reposition to counter, then leave your Defense Team waiting for the next arrow and advance your Capture Team toward the Shrine. Going east is probably shorter and easier. DO NOT capture ANY Teleporter Relay Beacons along the way. You need your rally point to be the Communications Array you are defending.
• At this point, you need a bit of luck because if the attack waves keep spawning where you are, you will end up fighting them all and not getting to the Shrine, You need to get your Capture Team BEHIND both enemy wave spawn sites somehow, and keep driving them to the Shrine to capture it. If you can manage this without getting caught in an attack wave spawn, you have a good chance of taking the Shrine.
• You could try running your Capture Team away from an attack wave spawn, but generally that means pursuit and getting your Capture Team caught between them and enemies ahead of them.
• If an enemy wave comes from the other direction compared to where your Defense Team is location, Retreat your Defense Team.
• They will run back to your one and only rally point, which is the Communications Array. Once there, take up defense formation. Avitus can generally be put inside the tower, but there is a chance that an enemy wave will come up the western stairs, so you need to help him set up, which means possibly melee -- hence the importance of a melee squad on defense.
• Meanwhile, move your Capture Team toward the Shrine and fight your way to secure it. Once the location is safe, use one squad to capture it. Before you fully capture it, Retreat the other squad. Since your only rally point prior to taking the Shrine will be the Communications Array, you can hopefully get back quite quickly and without babysitting their move path. After grabbing the Shrine, send the second squad back to help defend the Array.
• For the final wave, be very careful of the Loota Boyz as each carries a special weapon. There is a needs-setup slow-to-fire Rokkit Launcha (which can fire single rockets or a wide spread), a high-powered single-shot Deffgun that will do a lot of damage to a Field Generator, a powerful machine-gun like Mega-Blaster, and a dangerous Burna flamethrower. They are all best handled with grenades from behind cover, especially from behind tall cover that blocks line-of-sight. Use Cyrus to snipe them from afar if you have High-Powered Shot, or keep someone in cover slightly ahead of Avitus in the tower; this way, they draw fire and Avitus can continue to lay down suppressive fire.