Halo Wars Mission 14 Reactor

This is Part 14 of our complete Halo Wars Walkthrough, featuring Halo Wars Mission 14 Reactor.

Mission 14: Reactor
- - YouTube: Halo Wars Walkthrough - Reactor Part 1 HD (Time: 5:01)
1. In this mission you'll be escorting the large FTL Core.
2. Black Box Location: The box is very close to your base. It's on a ridge just West of the first hill you climb. Use a hornet to pick it up.
3. Start by building 2 supply pads.
4. Next build a reactor. Upgrade your supply pads once it's finished.
5. Take your army and gather the nearby supply crates.
6. Upgrade your main station into a fortress.
7. Once the fortress is done, build: a second reactor, an air pad, another supply pad, and a field armory.
8. You'll need an elephant in order to pull the core. Train one at your fortress.
9. Take your elephant and direct him to the core. Now you can move it.
  - YouTube: Halo Wars Walkthrough - Reactor Part 2 HD (Time: 5:00)
10. Create turrets in all of the sockets around your base. They will provide an adequate defense.
11. Start training hornets. They will be your main force in this mission. Go ahead and send all 3 your spartans into a hornet to improve their combat effectiveness.
12. Train at least 5 hornets. Then research the wingman upgrade for them. You should keep training more hornets, but you have enough troops to leave your base.
13. Move your army up the hill. You'll only encounter infantry, so there isn't much to worry about yet.
14. TIP: If the elephant pulling the core gets destroyed, the core rolls back down the hill. Make sure you protect it so that you don't have to start all over again.
15. Upgrade your other reactor. You should now have 4 total power.
16. Research the chaff pod upgrade for your hornets. Save up 900 supplies and get it.
17. At the top of the hill is a covenant base.
  - YouTube: Halo Wars Walkthrough - Reactor Part 3 HD (Time: 5:01)
18. Kill the troops here first. There are only infantry, so they aren't much of a problem.
19. Next go around the covenant base and destroy all 4 towers.
20. With the towers down, attack the main base.
21. Just keep attacking the main covenant structure. After a bit, some enemy vampires enter the battle. These covenant ships are usually good as anti-air, but the computer won't use them very effectively. So don't worry about them countering your hornets.
22. Optional Objective: Kill 20 Vampires
23. This is the objective that leads to the skull. You'll kill this many just trying to get through the mission. So just proceed through the mission as normal.
24. Once the covenant base is destroyed, you have a choice to make.
25. There is an optional achievement for not creating a second base. This makes the mission harder though. If you don't care, create another base and build some supply pads. The only difference is that you'll get supplies quicker with a second base. And you can more quickly train another elephant if the one pulling the core gets destroyed. As long as you are healing your elephant regularly, you won't need a second base.
  - YouTube: Halo Wars Walkthrough - Reactor Part 4 HD (Time: 5:01)
26. Open your commander powers and heal. Enemies purposely attack your elephant first, so make sure it's not dying.
27. Train a vulture back at your base. It will be a good supplement to your army. Make sure you upgrade it's mega barrage as well.
28. At your field armory, research the reinforcements upgrade. This will give you some extra population space.
29. With your extended population limit, train another vulture. Then train hornets to fill any extra population space you might have.
30. Time to keep moving.
31. Take your army East to find another hill. Climb it.
32. At the top is a flood base. It doesn't have much defense, so take it out. Just be careful of the covenant. Sometimes they will send vehicles from behind to attack the core.
33. Heal your elephant. It's extremely important that it's at full health before each hill.
34. The next hill is directly North.
  - YouTube: Halo Wars Walkthrough - Reactor Part 5 HD (Time: 5:01)
35. Climb the hill to the top. Here you'll find another covenant base.
36. Use the same strategy that you used against the previous covenant base. Attack the nearby infantry and vehicles first. Then destroy the cannons and turrets.
37. Once the army is down, concentrate on the main hall of the covenant base.
38. If you're going for the special achievement, don't build a base here either.
39. TIP: If you're skipping the achievement, do build a base. If your elephant gets destroyed, you can train another one here instead of way back at the beginning of the mission. But if you're healing regularly, you're elephant isn't going to die.
40. Heal your elephant again. Always make sure that it's at full health after a battle.
41. Move your army East to find some vampires and towers. Destroy them. You should be getting close to having killed 20 vampires by now.
  - YouTube: Halo Wars Walkthrough - Reactor Part 6 HD (Time: 3:41)
42. Keep going East to find the final hill.
43. At the top is another covenant base. This base actually has less defense than the previous one.
44. Kill the handful of units guarding the base. Then go for the main base itself. Compared to the previous bases, this one is hardly guarded.
45. The Apex Base Site is just to the South-East. But you may not want to finish the mission yet. If you haven't killed 20 vampires and gotten the skull, just wait around. Eventually more vampires attack you. Just keep waiting until you've killed 20.
46. SECRET: Once you've killed 20 vampires, the skull appears directly East of the second covenant base. That's right down the final hill you climbed. Take a hornet there to collect the Bountiful Harvest Skull.
47. With the skull collected, it's time to finish the mission.
48. Simply bring the core near the base site and you'll win the mission. If you chose not to create any additional bases, you'll also get the achievement: Didn't Get to Second Base.