**Halo Wars: Beachhead — get Anders out, then take the bases**

**Halo Wars: Beachhead — get Anders out, then take the bases** *Campaign spoilers. Halo Wars: Definitive Edition, mission 13.* Beachhead starts as an escape and turns into a much larger operation. Don't treat the opening as an invitation to explore every Flood pocket. Get Anders through the marked route and establish somewhere your army can operate from. **The landing zones** Move toward the first landing zone with the group together. When that pickup fails, follow the new objective and use the teleporter to reach the next area. Clear the enemies preventing the extraction and hold the position until Anders is safely taken out. Then move against the southern Covenant base. Use the Spartans to help take valuable enemy vehicles and concentrate on the defenders before committing to the base itself. Establish your own Firebase on the cleared site. Start income, technology and defenses immediately. Banshees can keep pressuring the position while you're preparing the next attack, so add anti-air support rather than leaving your first base to fend for itself. **Build a force that can cross the map** You need to capture and hold four base sites. That means maintaining the earlier ones while attacking the later ones. A base icon changing color once isn't enough if you promptly lose the position. Vultures offer strong mobile firepower once you can afford their technology and production. ODST support is another useful option after the appropriate upgrades. Choose an economy that supports your plan rather than spending everything on technology and arriving at the fight with almost no army. As you expand, look for the Covenant air-production structures sustaining the Banshee attacks. Removing a source of pressure can be worth more than repeatedly rebuilding the same damaged turret. Keep the main army supported while making those attacks; don't turn each new target into an isolated expedition. **Claim the abandoned Scarab** There's a Scarab trapped by Flood growths near the central part of the route, beyond the light-bridge area. Clear the tentacles and use a Spartan to take control of it. Keep it repaired and support it. It is powerful, but sending it alone into every defended position is not a promise of an effortless Legendary victory. Let it work on targets it can reach while the rest of the force removes threats and secures the next base site. **Beaming With Pride requires 25 kills with the Scarab.** Give it actual targets and let it deliver the kills. Capturing it is only the first step; enemies destroyed entirely by supporting aircraft don't become Scarab kills because the Scarab was nearby. **Finish the bases without forgetting the detours** Take the central position, then work toward the eastern and upper base sites. Ground forces need the appropriate connecting routes and teleporter; aircraft can move between positions more directly. The Scarab cannot follow the rest of the army through the teleporter, so keep it doing useful work on its side—defending or building its kill counter—rather than waiting for it to teleport. Don't assume a slow ground column will instantly arrive just because the next base is close on the minimap. Clear defending units, handle the enemy armor and establish your own position. Keep checking the bases behind you as production continues. Collect the optional items before the final capture finishes the mission. Destroy **10 Flood Bomber Forms** for **Pain Train**. Look for the floating Bomber Forms around the Flood area near the beginning of the mission. Don't remove their producing Den before reaching the required count if you still need more. After the objective is complete, return to that opening Flood valley near the first teleporter and collect the skull by the Flood-covered Forerunner structure. The black box is on high, flower-covered ground around the northeastern edge, near the later teleporter area. An aircraft is the convenient way to make the detour without dragging the ground army back through its route. **Score and difficulty** On Heroic and Legendary, avoid leaving freshly captured bases unprotected. Support the Scarab and withdraw damaged aircraft rather than buying replacements after every assault. One healthy veteran group is more useful than several disconnected batches of new units arriving separately. The Definitive Edition completion achievement is **A Means to an End**, and the gold target is **40,000 points**. Check Beaming With Pride, Pain Train and the box individually. The objective is finished when all four required bases are yours, so do the remaining pickup work before taking the last one.