The Blood Ravens had learned the value of speed and mobility through hard battlefield experience. Force Commander Boreale, who had studied under the famed Commander Angelos, sought to make his reliance on stationary, defensive structures as small as possible.
Therefore, rather than build up the Space Marines' central command, entire companies were reserved in the fleet above Kaurava II. These would be ready to deep strike with deadly speed into any territory, including the Blood Ravens' own headquarters. IF attacked by an enemy, drop pods would cover the Space Marines' stronghold in a steely and thunderous hail, swarming the Space Marines' enemies with super-soldiers and dreadnoughts.
Force Commander Boreale was sure of his plan. His greatest weapon was, after all, the superiority of the Space Marines themselves. Who could weather such a rapid and devastating defensive tactic?
The Lands of Solitude area is the Space Marines stronghold. It is one of the relatively straightforward strongholds; multiple smaller bases scattered around the map with one large primary base at the furthest location from your starting point at the north, where you have to destroy the main central building of the main base to win. You simply have to grind them down piece by piece.
One unique aspect of this map: there are Deep Strike Beacons scattered around the southern half of the map. Each of them allow for periodic Deep Strikes of infantry and even Dreadnaughts close to your base to attack, so expect to have to mount a vigorous defense right from the word go as you build up.
Stronghold Bonus: Deep Strike Probes[]
Owning this stronghold gives you access to the Space Marine's Deep Strike Probes ability, which is one of the better bonuses available.
If you go into the Reinforcement screen of your stronghold (if you are not Space Marines it is not this specific map area, it is your race's home stronghold) and click the arrows over you will find that there is a third option available: Deep Strike. A selection of troops will be available. These units cost more than they would for a regular reinforcement of a host location, but what happens is that you can call on them to show up for any standard offensive fight (in the fight prep screen, if you click the arrow over from the Honor Guard heading on the left it will move to the Deep Strike set of units). If you win the fight the used units return to the Stronghold to be used again, and it costs nothing to call a built unit into a fight. They show up next to your base at the beginning of the fight.
Unfortunately, two gaps in this ability: You cannot use Deep Strike forces on a Defensive battle or when attacking a stronghold.
Note that these are not Honor Guard units; they do consume Squad and/or Vehicle Cap as they are regular units. Also note that Infantry squads start out as if they were freshly built and therefore will need to be Reinforced up to their full number. However, these can still profoundly speed up your build-up time in a battle and are a major help in defense alongside your Honor Guard units. For a slow-building race (the Necrons in particular) this is a very vital stronghold to capture as quickly as possible.
Dialogue[]
Chaos[]
Lord Firaeveus Carron: Look, Rhinos! Rhinos! Our enemies hide in metal boxes, the cowards! The fools! We - we should take away their metal boxes!
Sisters of Battle[]
Canoness Selena Agna: Those Rhino transports are giving them the advantage of speed. If we could find the Machine Cult buildings producing them, it might slow them down.
| |||||||||||||||||||
