Imminent Crisis Campaign, Expert Difficulty

A guide showing how to beat the Imminent Crisis campaign on Expert difficulty.

General Advice

Pressing Esc during cut scenes outside the map will skip them. Useful if you have to restart a map. Though I suggest saving after the in-game cut scene is done as well.

You can pause the game at any time using the Pause Break button or by clicking pause below the minimap. Use this to keep up with the AI. Playing without pausing is much harder since you will lose time trying to micro all the workers and units at the same time. Though if you wish a further challenge no pauses add a lot of difficulty.

The game auto saves every minute. If something surprises, 3 minutes is often enough to be able to handle it instead of being forced to restart the entire map.
Expand. More resources mean more units and defences, thus a higher chance of taking the next fight. Very few maps stop you from quickly expanding at the start.

Kepler – Forging a Hero

Just follow the targeted route with your Hermes scout and move onto the high ground at the end to get bombers to activate. Avoid all but the single contact you must move past in range.

Rigel – The Nature of Power

Make sure to keep your Hermes far back. Send Brutes in before your Archer and just attack move towards the objective. Speed up time below minimap during the capture of the power station to speed the mission up some.

Cygnus – The Mystery of the Splinters

Follow the instructions. Just build a lot of units and attack move them. I would suggest bundling them up into larger groups before going in. Else they will trade poorly and the map take longer to win.

Deneb – A New Enemy

Build the two extractors and another engineer, then a factory.

While that is building use the initial Zeus to start capturing the points nearby. Spam units from initial factory and send out small groups to capture resource points. Something like a mix of 2 Brutes, 3 Archers and 1 medic on repeat.

Build another engineer that starts an Armory, the two initial ones following your army around to build after capturing points. In the Armory build Nemesis units and rally them upwards to the top right where an ambush spot will be shown.

After building the Armory set the third engineer to build quantum relays the rest of the map. Doing logistics and some damage upgrades.

Once your engineer has taken the points at the top right ambush point build another Armory there and start building Artemis to station on the high ground. Keep the rest of the units after the high ground and pummel the Overmind when it comes there.

Calethaon – Capture and Hold

Use your three units in the base to cap the points around you, move 1 Artemis each next to the ones already on high ground. Build a factory and take all the metal points on high ground plus the radioactive in the back. While doing that make sure your second engineer finishes.

Start a repeating order of 3 Brutes, 3 Archers and 1 Medic from factory. Send it just below high ground in mid to fight the first wave.

Keep all Artemis on high grounds near attack paths for the rest of the game.
Build up a few Smarty turrets in mid and then take the metal there.

With secondary engineer build up an Armory so your turrets can be upgraded.
Once Armory is done set repeat build on 1 Zeus and 1 Athena for the rest of the game. Once mid is slightly built up go and take left side metal with a few Smarty turrets to protect it.

Upgrade smarty turrets as resources allow and balance units between mid and left. Ignore radioactives on right side after initial point capture. The 2 Artemis from beginning on the high ground near that path plus Barrager turret in base can handle it.

Once you get repair bay plop 1-2 down on each side. Now just wait the map out and throw all units into the dreadnaught when it arrives in mid near end. Even if it doesn’t die you just need to delay it for point victory.

Yorkshire – Claim Jumpers & Splinters

Start by sending out your three Sentries to take one point each. After that keep going west with them, capping points as they go.

The engineers build up the economy and a Factory. From the factory do 2 Brute, 3 Archer, 1 Medic and 1 Atlas on repeat for rest of map.

Build 2 more Engineers for the future and rally them out.

Build an Armory (Zeus + Athena) out on the map with one of the Engineers while keeping the factory units expanding upwards towards your ally taking all the points on the way. The Engineers back in your base build a few Quantum Relays and then a power regulator so your defences can have Repair Bays. After that keep building Quantum Relays with them until end of map.

As you get to your ally build static defence.

As you get to the bottom left corner build static defence.

Once that is up build another Armory and Factory (same builds) to be able to hold everything.
Build more Engineers and start adding Amplifiers to the good spots.

Use your army to try to kill the middle left enemy to free up your left side and get more resources.
Once that is done you can just keep upgrading your economy, building more Quantum Relays and killing the enemies as you go along. If you wish build a few more engineers and add on the rest of the tech buildings.

As your economy improves add a few more Armories and build Heras from them to kill the bases. If you have extra metal build more factories.

Group up into large armies. Attack. Repeat until map is won.

Extra Map 01 – Roceda – Turinium Madness

For this map follow the same thinking as for previous maps. Take resource spots with starting units. Make sure you have 2-3 engineers building resources, static defence and Quantum Relays.

Take the spots until the hill to the left then take everything straight down from your base. Make sure not to lose too many units by making armies big enough they don’t just die trying to cap a point. You still need to expand quickly though so you are forced to take some risks. Using the initial Pan air scout can allow you to see what you can fight or not until you hit the well defended west side.

The enemy will attack you from the west, make sure to have static defence there and back it up with your army by making your units rally to your defence while you wait for armies to build up.

In general, just keep pushing out, taking the resources and building up more Armories as resources allow. For this map you want a few Artemis since they outrange the enemy static defence. So initial build Armory is Zeus, Athena and Artemis. The first one gotten as you push off your initial hill to ensure your army is strong enough to expand.

Around the time you even out the Tirinium score the enemy adds a few bombers to its line-up. Add Apollo cruisers to the mix you are building to handle it. One or two Constables on your front-line defences will also pay off.

Decanus – Fire from the Sky

Start by building your resources. Get a second Engineer.

Build a Pan as suggested and then set the factory to repeat Hades for the rest of the map.
Build a Power Regulator and then a Repair Bay on each side of your base.

While building that use the Incursion just as they ask you to take everything out.

Build a few more Quantum Relays with the engineers while waiting for the insertion of an engineer where resources will be needed.

Do the second Incursion to take out the air defences.

Send in the Hades to kill the Jammer.

Once possible send in the engineer and build a factory while capping the point. Build 2 Brutes, 3 Archers and 1 Medic on repeat from it.

Send your Engineer down to cap the bottom point while using your Hades and ground army to take and defend the point just above.

Take all the resources and build an Armory. Build Artemis and Athena on repeat. Use Hades to defend as the army builds up. Keep upgrading Weapon Damage and Unit Health with the Quanta remaining after the Orbital Abilities and Logistics have been used.

Once the army is big enough, attack. If it fails repeat.

If you wish, build more static defence to lower micro requirements of the Hades. You could even attack the AIs other base if you wish for the extra resources. If you defend you will sooner or later win since the AI throws its units away.

Noctus - Dreadnoughts

Start by instantly sending your Prometheus to kill the enemy dreadnought. Upgrade Weapon Damage and then start 2 Engineers.

If you are lucky your factory survived, does not matter much either way.

Send your dreadnought to the point to the left and kill the dreadnought, then move to the point below and kill that dreadnought.

Build up your resources (and if required a factory) and send a squad of Brutes and Archers to the right to capture the Radioactives. Move that squad back to base and then straight down to capture that resource point. Move your engineers to capture resource points as they can.

The next few units from the factory should capture points behind the dreadnought.

Start building units on the dreadnought, thereafter, leaving the factory empty. I suggest starting with 5 medics and then just Brutes and Archers with an occasional medic.

Move upwards with the dreadnought, following the mountain chain you started next to, keeping it on the dreadnoughts right. Send your original squad to the top left region to capture those points.
Build a few more engineers and set one to build Quantum Relays the rest of the game. Keep upgrading Weapon Attack and Unit Health when not required for Emergency Turrets to stop enemy attacks behind your lines or logistics to build more units. Using an Optimize or two for extra resources could be very worthwhile but not required.

Another to build the tech buildings you require and then around 10 constables to handle future air attacks. A third one should start an Armory so we can start building better reinforcements on the dreadnought.

The enemy likes to insert attacks behind your lines, so make sure to build 2 Swarm turrets on your resources with these new engineers.

Another engineer should be set to build amplifiers on the good resource spots and yet another to build Refineries on good spots (at least 3 resources on the spot).

Keep moving the dreadnought next to the mountain chain. Finally you will arrive in front of the opponent base, break his resource chain and keep reinforcing your army.

With an engineer near the front build a dread launch and start a Cronus for breaking enemy defence. Once the Cronus finishes, slowly move forward and siege the enemy base until it dies. Building extra factories and armories near the front as resources allow.

Extra Map 02 – Falnass – Vengeance

Start out by building another Engineer. Take 1 Metal and build a Factory. Take the rest of the metal and build another Factory. From the factories build 2 Brute, 3 Archers and add 1 medic to the rotation as you add in enough Radioactives.

The first factory rallies to the south east. Taking all resource points until the high ground when they say it will be a good defensive spot against Athena. If required, send a few units back to help against Relias since you likely have time to build up units against Athena. Then leave the units there to defend while sending a small squad to take the spot to the south west.

The second factory rallies to the south west. Fighting while taking the resources.
As soon as the factory is done start an Armory and build Zeus from it.

The factory and Armory combined should be enough to slowly push and take out the bottom left opponent. Don’t go to this final high ground until you have a decent sized army of at least 4 Zeus with supporting Factory units. The Nexus defences can take out a small army and delay you long enough that Athena becomes a threat due to you needing to go half in each direction.

Build another Engineer and build Quantum Relays with it.

Make sure to take all resource points as you take areas to be able to afford this.

Add on 1-2 more engineers to make sure you can build up resources. As you can afford it, add a second Armory on Athena’s side. Building Zeus, Athena and Apollo.

Take over the entire left side of the map. Stop sending troops to the left side but leave a strong garrison for enemy orbital attacks.

Then push into Athena and finish her with everything else. If you get stuck, add on a Dread Launcher and use a dreadnought or two to finish the game up. If this happens add on Refineries to be able to afford it.

Artorius – The Enemy’s Flank

This is the first hard map on Expert. The timings are tight and it is easy to lose the map even to small things.

As for all maps, build an Engineer and take the resources. Build Brutes and Archers. Send 1 unit in left, 1 top right and 2 bottom to take all resource spots. Thereafter rally them all top to take over that area. Stop when you hit the radioactives as third in that chain of resources.

Build another Engineer when you hit 100 metal again.

Use one of the two first Engineers to follow up towards top and build 4 Smarty turrets just in front of the radioactive you just built on (taking all but the top right metal to be in time). After all resources are built on then build another Engineer and a Power Regulator.

With the other free Engineer build 3 Sentinels next to Mac’s turrets near your base. Afterwards build 2 Repair Bays there and at the top defensive line.

After the power regulator finishes rally Factory units to your Sentinels and start building an Armory. When that finishes upgrade 1 Sentinel.

If you hold the dreadnought here the game is fully winnable. Start upgrading your economy by building Amplifiers and Refineries on the good spots. Upgrade the other Sentinels and build more defence. Also add in Sentinels and upgrade 1-2 of them top since 2 dreadnoughts will come there.
Once that is done start on the Air Factory and then the Orbital Factory. Directly start an Advanced Sky Factory and Air Marauders.

Drop a cheap Sentry force on the Turinium Generator to capture it. Then let him send in his dreadnought to capture it back. Kill it with your Marauders and then drop in engineers to fortify the spot.

Now just hold until the end of the map. Upgrading defences and economy as you go. There is no point killing the top left enemy, the enemy waves teleport in from outside the map anyway.

Extra Map 03 – Silgul – The Hunters

General notes

Even though you can’t build air doesn’t mean your opponent can’t. Around the time you are at Cruiser tech you need to add static and moving anti air. There will be armadas of Punishers flying in to bomb you.

Second note, Mac will lose his side. I suggest letting him and taking over the resources he loses. He will screen you long enough for you to get Amplifiers and Refineries going.

This is a big map with a lot of resources so Amplifiers and Refineries are a must once you stabilize. You are also going to need to build Smarty turrets on all spots since the AI will drop incursions on you otherwise.

Guide

Start with 1 Metal then Factory followed by engineer. Take resources as you go along. Normal Factory mix. Use 2-3 units to go right and left. The remainder going down. Another small split towards your bottom left ally Aphrodite to take the resources there.

You want your army to rally in the split between centre and Mac region while it builds up.
Once you have 100 Metal start your next Engineer and build 5 of them at once. Add an Armory with Zeus, Athena and Apollo building. At this point add in medic on your factory as well.

Set one Engineer to build Quantum Relays for the rest of the game. Another to start the Amplifiers on the good spots near your spawn, once those finish start building Refineries on the 5 metal and the 3 radioactive spots. The remainder of engineers is to fortify your points behind your lines or near the front. Make sure to add a few constables to defend points as well.

Add a few more Engineers as resources start getting positive and build more factories and Armories.

The AI will attack you through the centre and through Macs old position. After you manage to get the high ground between Mac and mid with a lot of turrets (including sentries and constables) then push through mid to the other high ground. Fortify that as well.

Start dreadnought production and just build up until you can finish. If you wish you can scan and then drop units in the top right to be able to build Furies to combat his air.

Remember you can build a Charon to instantly reinforce by building on your army instead of auto building on repeat. This means you can keep the factories safe in the back and keep the push going.

Drengi – Endgame

Take 2 metal and then build a factory with initial builder. As usual set Factory to 2 Brutes, 3 Archers on repeat. Add in medic when first Quantum Relay is done.

With the initial 2 armies go and capture areas. One goes right and below the base. Other goes up and to the left. The units rallying from the Factory goes to the left and takes the points while grouping up outside Athena’s base.

Add on 1 more Engineer as you finish up the 4:th metal. Build Quantum Relay for the rest of the game with it.

Add an Armory near the plateau before capturing the radioactives. Zeus, Athena and Apollo once again. Start static defences on the plateau and rally the Cruisers there. Add on 3 Engineers as well to be able to build on the left side as the other beginning Engineer is going around the base building resources.

The first Engineer that comes out does a power regulator for the Repair Bay. Then Starts on Amplifiers on the good spots. Second Engineer goes to left front and does 2 factories to push Athena. Last Engineer starts on Refineries, add on first engineer to it later on.

From this point just keep building units. At the min 10 start adding on static anti air in middle defence on the plateau.

Move over the Cruisers to the left front when it is time for a killing push around minute 14. Also add on 2 Engineers to build 2 Smarty towers per Power Generator area to stop opponent incursions.
After Athena dies just take the left side of the map until Haalee’s area, fortifying once you reach it. Then rallying all units to the middle area for Valen.

Add on a Dread Launcher and boost it with a few newly built engineers. Add on a few factories and Armories to be able to reinforce the dreadnought armies.

Push up against Valen and make sure to have at least 1 Prometheus to handle opponent dreadnought.

If you keep capturing economy and adding on a few Engineers you will probably have 5 dreadnoughts with a decent support army by the time you reach Haalee, meaning you can just attack move without any issues.