The Harvest (Space Whale mission)

[RosaElfe]

Did I get anything wrong?

I really do not know how to beat the mission with my Imperium fleet.

I had my Admiral on his Emperor Battleship with two dictators and a Space Marine fleet that gave me a strike cruiser and a light cruiser.

I gave all I had, used every trick at my disposal, used every Skill my Captains had, Microed everything, manouvered a lot and used celestia phaenomena. I let the orks chase me around an asteroid field and so on.

I beat maybe three or four FULL FLEETS of Ork vessels with my fleet. But I did not see an end to their reinforcements. When I though "maybe, this was it, a hard earned victory", another full fleet with several battleships enters the fray and finally, my fleet succumbed (the two light cruiser reinforcements I got would not be there to save the day...).

So I ask myself (and you): How is victory possible in this mission? Did I get some mechanic wrong?

[Warhunter]

for me i used 2 retributions and 3 overlords (had spare overlords but didnt need to bring them in) i sat in a gas cloud and launched a probe at them. ork ships that get spotted will boost will those that havent will not use their boost (through i dont remember if i detected them all in one go or if i missed and only spotted a few)

i opened up with lockon for 22.5k range hitting their escort ships (some of them pack a very nasty punch better to remove them from the field first) and then focusing on their lighter line ships (prioritize weapons since critting a few can heavily reduce their dps) and swapped to reload stance once within 15k range (would say 18k but then the ships in the back will have to wait to reenter range)

once you crit the majority of the weapons on a ship put them on a lower priority. cant do much if they have no weapons. once they get within weapon range of you i just tanked the damage and swapped my ships around when 1 takes too much damage (and with the weapon crits i have time to pull them back through if they took an engine crit its a bit riskier)

of course i have no clue if killing a space whale affects the mission at all. due to my ships have 22.5k range with lockon i did kill a few whales only because of the insane range i had

through i also did this before the improved the leadership cap for campaign. through i dont think this should affect it too much since i would be able to bring in more overlords then

also melta torpedoes are very effective vs orks. they take double damage from fire and you can really eat through their morale and cause mutinies

you can make it even easier if you have the upgrade for 25% speed buff to ships lvl3 or higher. 200 speed makes kiting them alot easier if you cant hold your ground. targetting matrix to ensure more long range shots hit (i didnt have it at the time but it really helps a bit for reload stance long range)

[Herr Kommissar]

Bring your ad mech fleets as support fleet. Sit in gas cloud, make sure your single line formation is not in the way of any whales (they do not attack you). use probe or aircraft to scout ork ships. Use your fighters to take out turrets on enemy ships, then bomber spam them. also dont forget your nova cannons, focus on individual ships and groups (if lucky) instead of randomly spam nova. The ork fleet will be cut off because some of them will crash on whales and some of them will go hunting whales instead of charging at you. Only deal with the ones coming your way, so you can salami tactic them and cut their number down little by little. Just be patient and sit there, firing your broadsides. If too many wreckage are blocking your shot, move horizontally out of the way (so you wont get in the way of those whales) and sit again. If u employ this tactic, you can kill the entire ork fleet without being overwhelmed by whales and the sheer number of ork ships, cuz you can get them one at a time with your entire fleet firing at the same enemy ship.

[Bazinga]

I sat Mcraggs honour an oberon and a retribution sideways.

Not a single ork got close