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XCOM: enemy unknown (no not that one, not that one either) • Page 96

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  • basmans_grob 8 Jan 2013 22:36:17 76 posts
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    LeoliansBro wrote:


    Also, are alloy Shivs actually worth it? Ta!
    I'm doing CI and I think alloy SHIVs are excellent. They provide mobile cover and that 'oh well he is dead- nevermind' thing that is really needed in Ironman.

    I've just finished the first base assault and I think I might have buggered the run though up. Being Ironman it really hurts when I have messed up a battle but that really does increase the learning curve. Of the 5 missions I've fled from two of them I could have nothing about once I had landed. However I could have done before setting off, I was trying to be to clever and promote to many rookies.

    I wouldn't hold off too long in base assults. The base assult itself went well with light plasmas and skeleton armour. A previous run was just as good with plasma and titain armour. The game scales but the missions sacle up more (at least in my exp).
  • Bremenacht 8 Jan 2013 23:49:33 11,167 posts
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    LB won't be happy with that 'quote'!

    I used shivs on CI too - basic ones too. I was just happier taking risks with them than with the troops, at least until I was able to get all the training school buffs. Continued to use them on terror missions after that, in case the game pulled one of it's annoying Chrysallid tricks again.

    This post is unsuitable for those with a high rumour-sensitivity.

  • MikeP 9 Jan 2013 15:33:59 1,238 posts
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    I've had a few attempts at an abduction mission that's throwing 5 mutons and a cyberdisc at me, pretty much as soon as I move.

    I'm getting my arse handed to me. I struggle to deal with that much enemy HP, and as soon as it's their turn they're just whomping my squad. Any suggestions, other than to try to reposition as much as poss without triggering any of the groups? Feels really cheaty, doing that.
  • LeoliansBro 9 Jan 2013 15:40:06 35,095 posts
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    Anything explosive around? Cars etc that the mutons are hiding behind?

    Can you coax the cyberdisc to open up? Neat(ish) way to do this is have two forward soldiers hunkered down in cover and smoke. Cyberdisc doesn't have a hope to hit them with its primary weapon, so it will either open up, shoot and miss - wonderful, extra turn of blasting at it - or open up and throw a grenade - not so great but at least it's open. Don't try this trick if the mutons are near though - they'll throw grenades and all.

    Once open shoot the disc with your best weapon. Plasma sniper, HEAT heavy rocket, laser sniper, HEAT heavy, everything else, in that order.

    And if it's properly fubar, run away. It's only an abduction mission.

    Edited by LeoliansBro at 15:40:50 09-01-2013

    LB, you really are a massive geek.

  • MikeP 9 Jan 2013 15:51:44 1,238 posts
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    @LeoliansBro Thanks LB. Are the discs more vulnerable when they are open?

    I think I may have my squad too close together, the plasma grenades it chucks are horrible.
  • LeoliansBro 9 Jan 2013 15:57:06 35,095 posts
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    Much more vulnerable, and critical chances are near 0% when it is closed. Your first shot will make it close up again, hence you should use your best weapon first.

    Edited by LeoliansBro at 15:58:12 09-01-2013

    LB, you really are a massive geek.

  • FightingMongoose 9 Jan 2013 23:59:39 402 posts
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    When looking side on at my base, and especially when I zoom in a little, I cannot help but think it's heavily reminiscent of Shadow Complex.
  • PenguinJim 10 Jan 2013 03:30:42 3,512 posts
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    Reminded me of the antmap from Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter for some reason. :D

    Started my second playthough yesterday, to give the new patch a try (yaya, I could have just edited the .ini). Wimped out of Impossible, instead just checking most of the new boxes for a Classic repeat. I skipped Marathon as my first playthough had a turgid few hours after having researched EVERYTHING but before finding a psychic. I also skipped Absolutely Critical because I'm a pansy, but everything else is checked.

    After a few hours, I'm finding every mission... quite easy. Well, I've lost one soldier on every single map, but other than that I'm blasting my way through without much problem. :) I hadn't realised the curvage was so good on my first playthrough.

    I'll clean out some achievements (never built a shiv on my last mission!) and hopefully enjoy a few less bugs to prep for an eventual Impossible playthrough in a couple of months.

    Edit: spoke too soon on the bugs front. My only sniper is wounded without any days remaining listed. :(

    Edited by PenguinJim at 05:59:23 10-01-2013
  • Salaman 10 Jan 2013 11:07:47 16,582 posts
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    MikeP wrote:
    I've had a few attempts at an abduction mission that's throwing 5 mutons and a cyberdisc at me, pretty much as soon as I move.

    I'm getting my arse handed to me. I struggle to deal with that much enemy HP, and as soon as it's their turn they're just whomping my squad. Any suggestions, other than to try to reposition as much as poss without triggering any of the groups? Feels really cheaty, doing that.
    If your sniper has a disabling shot, you can shoot the cyberdisk to take it out of the fight.
    If you get two shots in yoru sniper, you can then headshot a muton.
    Rockets are also useful. Maybe a mission to bring 2 heavies to? If they positioned themselves poorly you can get two rocket blasts on them.
  • LeoliansBro 10 Jan 2013 11:13:38 35,095 posts
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    Disabling shot will just make the Cyberdisc use its grenade, sadly.

    LB, you really are a massive geek.

  • Salaman 10 Jan 2013 11:40:43 16,582 posts
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    I've used them a few times. Archangel hovering sniper in the back. Some grunt running up and triggering a cyberdisk + 2 drones. Disable it and move people up to lay into it.

    I may have been lucky to be out of grenade range on a few of those.
  • LeoliansBro 10 Jan 2013 11:44:28 35,095 posts
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    No don't get me wrong, it's a great strategy (depending on which difficulty you play as well, the aliens will 'hesitate' before attacking with anything other than their primary weapon and sometimes elect to do nothing). Disabling shot is absolutely lovely against Sectopods.

    I always find myself taking Battle Scanner though. Yes it only lasts two turns but you can uncover a clulster of aliens without triggering their evade move and then rocket the lot of them. Bit 'gamey' but very useful and was a lifesaver (literally) on my CI runthrough.

    Edited by LeoliansBro at 11:57:15 10-01-2013

    LB, you really are a massive geek.

  • Mayhem64 10 Jan 2013 13:04:04 577 posts
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    With the ShopTo discount recently, and being a fan of the original PC game from the 90s (played that to death), I've gone and bought a copy of this. Any advice for a new player that remembers some of what he was playing almost 20 years ago? :p

    Lie with passion and be forever damned...

  • Salaman 10 Jan 2013 13:16:24 16,582 posts
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    I only used that battlescanner once so far in a terror mission. Wasn't as useful as I thought and I'm now airing some low level troops so they can move up the ranks.
    I'll have to play with it some more. Flanking an alien and triggering 1 or 2 additional groups is always annoying. Sounds handy if I could avoid it with that.

    I do play on wussy mode though to be honest.
    I forgot the options but it's basically the arcadey mode on normal difficulty. It seems to match my level of aptitute at turn based games quite well. :-)
  • Pinky_Floyd 10 Jan 2013 13:29:40 2,340 posts
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    Anyone give tips to a noob?  Game is kicking my balls :/
  • LeoliansBro 10 Jan 2013 13:29:45 35,095 posts
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    If you're getting through it on Normal, give Ironman a go. You'd be surprised how different a game it is.

    In a nutshell, I found that faced with a 50/50 decision in Ironman, I'd never go for it. The thing is, sometimes my soldiers would, damn fools having to go and be the goddam hero ;)

    LB, you really are a massive geek.

  • LeoliansBro 10 Jan 2013 13:30:09 35,095 posts
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    P_F - what is killing you?

    LB, you really are a massive geek.

  • basmans_grob 10 Jan 2013 14:16:10 76 posts
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    My 2 pennies worth –

    b]You can never go too slowly through a (non terror/bomb) map[/b]. Never reveal new ground if any of your troops have already had their go (unless they are on overwatch as triggering new alien with your squad on overwatch can work really well!). When going through doors have everybody in cover and lined up to be able to blow the hell out of anything the other side.

    If you use a sniper keep your squad still during the turn you move him up.

    Keep track of the revealed aliens and how many of them are alive. If there are revealed aliens alive and you can’t see them they will be on overwatch, therefore move your assault guys first (if they are immune to 1st overwatch shoot) or dash under cover of smoke.

    Moving across the windowed long side of a building can be a really bad idea. By default I try to go in though doors or the short side of windowed building.

    Use explosives; ignore the scientist woman complaining about it, soldiers matter more. You can blow up cover with grenades and still kill the aliens by shooting to collect the goodies.

    If you are shooting an alien with only 1 health left swap to your pistol as it enable a little more flexibility with re-loading the main guy.

    Don’t be afraid of retreating and then waiting, eg move assult up, trigger a group then fall back. Often in the next one or two turns one or two aliens will patrol into you LoS and you can pick them off with overwatch.


    Plan for the building works carefully. Start building sats early as they take 20 days, and only launch them just before the council or when needed to prevent countries pancaking.
  • LeoliansBro 10 Jan 2013 14:18:33 35,095 posts
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    NEVER go in through the front door.

    On Classic, I can't emphasise this enough. Either round the back, in through the roof or blow it up and stand there guns akimbo like that shot at the end of the Avengers.

    LB, you really are a massive geek.

  • Salaman 10 Jan 2013 15:13:12 16,582 posts
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    I think I break just about all the advice you give. Which explains the need to play on normal in order to survive probably. :-)
    My excuse is that I never play these types of games though.
  • LeoliansBro 10 Jan 2013 15:15:14 35,095 posts
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    Hell, if it's working for you don't assume I've got the keys to unlocking this game. I really don't :)

    LB, you really are a massive geek.

  • Mr_Sleep 10 Jan 2013 15:34:24 13,553 posts
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    With regards advice that isn't specific to the tactical part, definitely go for satellites - as has been mentioned - and try to get engineers wherever possible, the extra credits it gleans are well worth it.

    I reinstalled the game and have started on a marathon normal ironman game. with options selected such as random squaddies, nice addition to the game I say. On the subject of marathon, it's hilarious that the first research takes 24 days, I managed to forget that I never use the nano-fibre vest and I meant to go for S.C.O.P.E, makes that research time mean I have probably already fucked it up a bit.

    Edited by Mr_Sleep at 15:36:48 10-01-2013
  • LeoliansBro 10 Jan 2013 16:00:25 35,095 posts
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    LeoliansBro wrote:
    Disabling shot will just make the Cyberdisc use its grenade, sadly.
    Owe you an apology Salaman - apparently a Disabling Shot will prevent a Cyberdisc from firing at all.

    LB, you really are a massive geek.

  • MikeP 10 Jan 2013 16:05:28 1,238 posts
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    LeoliansBro wrote:
    LeoliansBro wrote:
    Disabling shot will just make the Cyberdisc use its grenade, sadly.
    Owe you an apology Salaman - apparently a Disabling Shot will prevent a Cyberdisc from firing at all.
    And this is the sort of thing that makes me glad I'm a member of the EG community.

    Helpful advice, reasoned discussion, and a prompt for me to use that new skill on my sniper that I'd forgotten about.

    Seriously, wtf is wrong with you guys? :D
  • AaronTurner 10 Jan 2013 16:13:23 6,880 posts
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    I go through the front door all the time, one either side, stick a sniper opposite on overwatch and open up, POW!
  • LeoliansBro 10 Jan 2013 16:27:30 35,095 posts
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    They tend to run away from where they've seen you, BUT they also have a strong desire to run away from your deployment zone as well (it seems they have several standard paths built in). If you've people standing out the back door waiting and then trigger them from the front, it's a turkey shoot.

    If you've people standing out the front door and then trigger them from the back, it's a confused turkey shoot.

    LB, you really are a massive geek.

  • Pinky_Floyd 10 Jan 2013 18:14:04 2,340 posts
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    Good tips :)

    Think its the mechanics that are beating me.  Need engineers to build new armour and satellite stations.  Never know whether to take a first aid kit or grens. Generally just shit at the game :)
  • FightingMongoose 10 Jan 2013 20:33:51 402 posts
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    After receiving this game for Christmas and beginning to play it over the last week, I've read this entire thread from the point of release of the game to the latest post during the last few days. Thoroughly enjoyed reading everybody's tips and tricks, and personal accounts of horrifying failures and unfathomable highs.

    Great work everybody.
  • Bremenacht 10 Jan 2013 21:11:52 11,167 posts
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    Wow! That's a lot of reading.

    I don't know who to describe this, but for terror missions I try to keep a compact squad rather than a spread-out squad so as to lessen the possibility of triggering those encounter events. Blowing a hole in the side of a people can result in that wretched domino-effect where a series of encounter events is triggered (perhaps by noise), causing too many aliens to become active at the same time.

    Dormant (unencountered, undisturbed) aliens appear to do very little on terror missions, so if you wake a load of them up, it'll result in many more dead civilians AND/OR many more dead squad members if the fuckers decide to go for you, and you've not got top armour and weapons.

    My CI style of play simply revolves around moving your snipers into ideal cover positions and have the rest of your squad protecting them. Only when they're safe and static do I utilise whatever skills or specialisations (or grenades..) other squad members may have, and even then it's only in the knowledge that if they fail, the snipers probably won't.

    This post is unsuitable for those with a high rumour-sensitivity.

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