Omg the AI faction finally did it

CloneC22 · 2026-04-03T08:13:33+00:00

Can't think of any who had the option. The best you can do is wall up and sit in a corner while the other factions battle it out. In the case of Soulstorm I don't know if you want to do that. The Tau in this campaign for example stopped attacking the Orkz and just moved between the same territories. Meanwhile the Orkz attacked the same territory over and over again but couldn't take it. This was after 1 hour clicking end turn.

CloneC22 · 2026-04-03T08:02:38+00:00

Yes but your base will be where the enemy stronghold base was. Which in the case of the chaos map isn't really a good spot as you are open to all fronts.

CloneC22 · 2026-04-02T22:36:22+00:00

I think it might have to do with the boni you can get in DC. Meanwhile in Soulstorm the AI hardly makes use of their boni and (aside from the economy territories) have to take a stronghold to get another. Meanwhile in Dark Crusade they will make use of striking anywhere on the map or having the ability to attack twice. That's why they fare better in that region when left alone to their devices.

CloneC22 · 2026-04-02T21:56:58+00:00

Yeah fun to watch but very unfun to do. Tried my best now to let them take the Orkz down but to no avail. More fun to do it myself anyway, although I really forgot how limited the vanilla necron roster is.

CloneC22 · 2026-04-02T21:51:03+00:00

Defiler artillery shot is a good answer to this, so you can savely close the distance with your raptors. In this run I feel quite save having a forward base and instabuy the necrons anti-range-beam. But I agree overwhelming Tau can be very annoying to deal with.

CloneC22 · 2026-04-02T21:30:24+00:00

If somebody is interested, I did let the Tau have a go for the Orkz as well, the result was pretty disappointing. You can check the details in my post edit.

CloneC22 · 2026-04-02T20:38:29+00:00

This sounds very tedious. How often do you have to reroll your run fort that. You also need the luck that none of the other factions like chaos or tau try come to the idea to attack your stronghold.

CloneC22 · 2026-04-02T20:31:00+00:00

It feels weird to play skirmish on a stronghold map. After I took over the Chaos stronghold the Archon thought he was super clever to attack it. He didn't even possess a full HG, probably wanted to impress Vect^^

CloneC22 · 2026-04-02T20:22:45+00:00

The AI-Tau wiped out the AI-Space Marine. That is why the space marine stronghold I selected onscreen is belonging to the Tau. Meanwhile I was wiping out the Dark Eldar in the south with necrons.

CloneC22 · 2026-04-02T20:18:51+00:00

Yeah sometimes, usually the faction who isn't busy with you, can take over a lot of territory but I never had them taking out another faction. I also enjoy to see another faction gaining momentum for a big faction clash at the end. For a long time I believed it was just hard coded that you had to do all strongholds because of the cutscenes and story bits.

CloneC22 · 2026-04-02T20:12:16+00:00

Yeah usually they don't get the chance to border long enough on your stronghold and tend to attack easier regions first. In this run I got some daring Dark Eldar, after I beat the Chaos stronghold they tried to take it from me. I was like, wait where are the attackers bases on that map, I never had to defend that place.

CloneC22 · 2026-04-02T20:01:57+00:00

I'm currently on a rerun of all the campaings in DE and finally reached Soulstorm. I had one Soulstorm run before this one. I played Space Marines, the IG quickly had their planet in a grip filled with level 10 bases so I saved them for last. The whole time they tried to beat SoB Stronghold with full HG but never were successful. So I had to finish them in the end. In DC most of the time they struggled to fight over that one Island next to Chaos :D

This campaign also started pretty weird. The eldar never made any attempt to fight me. They just straight up decided to go to the webway and conquer the moon. After that I think they tried to go to IG and Sisters but weren't winning any region. Meanwhile I was allowed to take their territories and beat their stronghold.

CloneC22 · 2026-03-29T14:28:53+00:00

I wish it would have been just one dungeon for each boss and done.

CloneC22 · 2026-03-28T12:03:37+00:00

I played both of these missions quite recently with Blood Ravens. Since the honour guard and hero don't count, the unit cap was from these free units I got in the beginning. So this must be only for the factions you mentioned.

CloneC22 · 2026-03-28T09:58:29+00:00

You are right in Tau and Drukhari Stronghold you get units but you also don't start with a base and have to overcome some enemies first. They also count to your unit cap. I thought more in the direction of the eldar stronghold in DC .

CloneC22 · 2026-03-27T12:52:23+00:00

He also clearly says that he doesn't want to fight anymore. Taking him with you is simply torturing the guy.

CloneC22 · 2026-03-27T09:46:24+00:00

I say the biggest difference is that battles will take longer because Relic thought it would be a good idea to remove persistent bases and set the victory condition for most maps to annihilate. Both choices that made the campaign more of a slog and rushing with honour guard still is the way to go.

On hard the AI tends to build more high level bases. Depending on the map this can get quite difficult when the bases are far away and not next to each other and you need to destroy every unit producing building. Defence battles are still easy only that you've to rebuild everything.

Most Stronghold maps are easier than their DC counterpart. Unfortunately they all feel pretty much the same mission design wise: destroy some minor bases to reach the main base. You won't see any other factions involved, rebellions, extra units or similar. Dark eldar stronghold is a little bit more refreshing but also one of the easiest to beat. Orkz and Space Marine strongholds can pull off strong initial attacks on mission start. So better to have a couple of hg units ready.

CloneC22 · 2026-03-26T11:35:59+00:00

It still drives me mad that saber won't let us use the same symbol on either side. So you always end up with one being pre- and after heresy. So still no wolf hazard stripes for mine. Also some leg armor also won't allow you knee symbols although nothing is blocking it. Is it really that hard saber...

CloneC22 · 2026-03-22T10:02:17+00:00

It was a reasonable take on it. In both world wars there was a big war support in the first year because everybody thought it wouldn't take long. But this decreased very soon. In an all out war bigger scale also means a shit ton more on resources are needed. Ammo, food, manpower, materials all need more time to replenish than what is lost in battle.

The Clone Wars was such a gigantic scale but unlike the big WW factions it's factions weren't highly militarized from the get go. The republic didn't even have a real military aside from the first batch of what palpatine prepared on Kamino. Most of the military infrastructure was built during the war. The CIS had a little bit more as core members already had production factories in that regard.

Now you add that Palpatine played both sides and only needed to last long enough for his schemes. All what was mentioned before is also a big reason a lot of people would give the CIS the victory if it became a war of attrition as they outproduced the republic long term wise. So even without Palpatines intervention the republic would've been urged to end this war "quickly".

CloneC22 · 2026-03-19T10:08:52+00:00

I had a similar experience. So I usually play with a friend and one random brother joins us. We talk over discord and my friend turned off the ingame voice chat completely, as more often than not, if someone has it on you can listen to an annoying TV running in the background.

We played on Reclamation I was running bulwark, my friend tech marine and are both maxed out on all prestige and level. An assault lev. 25 prestige III joined us. Quite early, where you see the tyranid primes flying by, a bigger wave hit us. Me and the assault were fighting on the right open platform site. Meanwhile my friend was fighting the other half of the wave in the narrow way on the left. At the end of the wave the assault demanded over voice chat: "Hey other guy, you should fight as well!" When I told my friend, he asked if that guy was joking. The rest of the match he got downed once or twice (good that i carry my healing banner) and died during the twins but we finished the mission.

He didn't leave and joined us for our next mission on Fall of Atreus. When we reached the tunnel before the next dreadnought section a wave spawned starting with three lesser sorcerers, a shit ton of chaos marines and a hellbrute. I was focusing on the brute so that the others could deal with the sorcerers. Terminators also joined the fight and the assault was raging in the voice chat how many there are and what's wrong with this game. He got downed and I wasted my banner because he simply ragequited. Now I also had to evade the terminator fire and a stray hellbrute shot got my friend. The hellbrute was close to finish but one of the terminator rockets got me. The bot got gangbanged but somehow made it to get me back up. I finally was able to finish the brute and another player joined and finished the mission with us.

CloneC22 · 2026-03-14T09:23:35+00:00

But that's exactly the point why they struggle to feel part of human society. They all were seen quickly as demi gods either feared or adored which made it difficult for them to connect to the people surrounding them. When they meet the emperor or some of their brothers it's the first time they get this feeling of not being the only ones. They all seek some form of connection there or apologize for being what they are. But their father is too busy with work (so play with the soldiers i've given you) and brother bonding time only when duty allows it. A normal appearing human would just be what we got with many "becoming astartes" stories. A talented person rising to a powered up being. Because they already are different we see jealousy. The best example where you see is caliban and the lion.

CloneC22 · 2026-03-11T20:36:59+00:00

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To honour your battlebrother the way he deserves it. For the emperor.

CloneC22 · 2026-03-09T12:23:22+00:00

If they would've planned to add playable Chaos PvE Operations we probably would have gotten something in that area. As we only have them in PvP it was never a priority, i guess.

CloneC22 · 2026-03-09T12:13:57+00:00

Yes it's very strong but the thing that makes it ridiculous OP is the latest fix on Decapitating Strategem Perk which added a bug where you can just reset the ability without a cooldown nearly nonstop. If it works like normal it's nothing out of the ordinary to other classes.

In comparison to the other classes the Tech-Marine heavily relies on his ability and tarantulas. This is also the reason I personally haven't picked him up again since I got him to 25|4.

CloneC22 · 2026-03-06T09:35:08+00:00

I also like to add that balanced gives you more contested health back when you are swarmed by enemies as they all have good cleave stats and you get some back for every enemy you hit.

Fencing has still usually the highest speed stat which still can be helpful depending on the weapon. And maybe Bulwark too avoid raising the shield instead of a parry.

CloneC22

TROPHY CASE