Loading screen for The Thur'Abis Plateau
The Thur'Abis Plateau is a territory on Kronus and one of the locations in Dark Crusade. It is the stronghold province of the Necrons.
Description[]
In the heart of the great central desert lie the ancient ruins from which the Necrons have awoken. Indeed, below the sand and rock of the arid plateau of Thur'Abis lie the Catacombs of Kronus, their stronghold.
The Thur’Abis Plateau is an arid expanse of rock and sand, dotted with a few oases and the antediluvian ruins that hid the Necrons. Their catacombs are an underground warren of caves, ancient crypts and alien sepulchers.
Bonus[]
- +100 Planetary Requisition
- Eliminate the Necrons from the campaign
Objectives[]
Primary[]
Bomb placed by the Tau Commander
- Place the Bomb in the Necron Sanctum
- Your Commander Must Survive
- Get Your Commander to Safety
Secondary[]
- Investigate the Necron Energy Sources
- Destroy the Beacon of Unlife
- Destroy the Beacon of the Deceiver
- Destroy the Chronometry Beacon
- Destroy the Beacon of the Void Dragon
- Raze the Monolith Graveyard
Strategy[]
This walkthrough assumes Hard difficulty.
The mission is pretty simple, your main problem being attacked from several directions through the mission. This is because of the tunnels you see around the catacomb, as the Necrons can transport infantry units through those and come at you from behind. They still seem to build those units, though, so wipe out their HQ buildings and that crap will stop – the attacks don't just spawn from the ether.
So you start at the east corner with 3 inactive Tomb Spyders right where your base is. Depending on the province strength, 0–3 of these will soon activate and attack, along with Flayed Ones appearing inside your base. The severity of this initial attack scales pretty well with your Honor Guard strength, so it shouldn't be unreasonable.
When that's done, you can start building the base and gathering resources. Think where you put the buildings, because there isn't much space. All attacks will now come from the northwest, making defense simple. As soon as you think you can take a few squads of Necron Warriors and some Wraiths, push northwest to the first cavern.
Here you'll find the Beacon of Unlife, which will keep restoring nearby units that you kill. Solution – destroy the beacon. Now the Necrons stay dead. Raze the area, capture the Strategic Point and build a secondary base here. Set up a defense to kill stuff (infantry, up to Pariahs) coming from the northeast and the two tunnels right by the SP. Now you can go have a coffee and wait until you have 20,000 resources if you want.
Push on and find an unused tunnel that you can put infantry units in (to have them emerge from another tunnel, as soon as you find any). In the next cavern there is the first real Necron base that you swiftly burn down. Then atop the hill (right south of the Slag Deposit) you'll find the next beacon – the Beacon of the Deceiver. This will make nearby units invisible (infiltrated – you'll need detector units), so read on.
Now the major attacks (Immortals, Pariahs, Destroyers) should come from the south (the Relic area), where there is a major Necron base, while minor attacks (Warriors, Wraiths) can come from the direction of the Slag Deposit through transport tunnels that way. Build an adequate defense and set aside a force that can take several Gauss Turrets and a few squads of Necron Warriors. Send along a detector (or two, in case one's killed) to take that hill and destroy the beacon. There's a usable tunnel entrance here as well. Then send a small force to destroy the enemy generator from the Slag Deposit.
Now a major attack to destroy the Necron base around the Relic pyramid, which is surrounded by turrets. There will be heavier attacks from south and east, minor ones from west. Capture and fortify the Relic, build your Relic unit, build a tertiary base here. Build a generous amount of turrets and see a couple of attacks to know what you need to leave and what you can send on an offensive.
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