OK, the ethereals and sectoid commanders and leaders keep mind zapping the psi-weak men I keep in reserve to operate the heavy artillery (blasters). I know that the aliens remember the positions your men are if they get a beforehand peek and can use that to mind zap soldiers who stay in one place. If I move my transport men one tile or so, do the aliens still mind zap him, provided none have gone for another look?

It depends, on the harder difficulties they automaticly know everyone's position at the begginning of batlle, in the easier ones they need to re-spot you and in the middle they just need to see you once and then they know for the rest of the battle.

Having weak Psi troops carrying blasters is a good way to have everyone killed. If soldiers have low Psi, just dump them and bring in more men and weed out those that are unsuitable.

On missions where I am going up against Ethereals or Sectoids with soldiers in tow that have low or unknown PSI Strength, I arm them either with only a Motion Scanner or a Small Launcher (Stun) and a Motion Scanner. Small launchers generally have little affect on Power Suit and Flying Suit equipped soldiers.

Maybe you could try giving the weak psi-units stun rods. The aliens do not know how to use them.

Just fire the soldiers with low psi-strength. I try to have atleast 50 psi strength for every soldier. I do the same thing for TUs and firing accuracy. I end up with a lot of good soldiers after a few missions.

50 Psi strength?

My minimum Psi strength is 70. Preference is 80+. No one under Psi strength 75 comes to Cydonia.

Be happy they don't have a High Templar's Psi STORM.

You guys are assuming that he does have the Psi Lab right? If not, how to identify the weak ones on your team?

Easy: On yr regular missions against ethereals and sectoids, see who get mind ontroled or bezerk more often. Those are the weak ones. Dump them when you can or transfer them to other bases to let them to protect the bases in case of alien base raid against you. I use to keep using them in other missions against aliens with no psi capabilities. Some of them became good officers. But in the very end of the game, there is a risk of having a colonel or a captain with no psi capabilities, but whith skills the overpass the one with psi stenght. (this happens when you use the a lot more than the soldiers in missions against high psi strengh aliens), and a bunch of Sargents and Liutennants with consitions to run to Cydonia.

In the ohter hand if you have psi lab, I stay with squaddie01. When I won Cydonia, the lowest soldier had 75 Psi strengh.

Shooting the low psi strengh decreased moral in yr team!! Freezing them is also another alternative, but just in critical situations. Use the early stages of the gam eto id the low ones so gradually your team becomes strong enpugh to face those d a m m ethereal / sectiod commanders

It isn't always a problem having a unit with good stats but not psi-defense, remember that when injured you can improve your defense against psi. (I'm pretty sure that this is a bug, especially since you can get your stats above the maximum when injured as well.)

I never weed out anyone, but then I tend to keep my troops spread well out, and unless you're at the front of the craft, you have to pick up your weapons on the way out. Hee hee

I always notice that its the rookie with the heavy weapon who gets it. In my opinion, just walk back to the sectoid/etheral and shoot it repidedly. Or throw a grenade in that direction(primed for 1 and sent with wishes for bad luck). :sly:

Hyper wave decoder!

When I see a ship with ethereals, I don't even bother sending in people, just HWPs

Blow the ethereals brains out but the sectopod can be a little tricky

There is something called XCOMUTIL.

A function within allows PSI to be shown pretty early so that you can throw those weak out.

XCOMUTIL would, though, be cheating. The only way to guess at psi-weakness, before psi-lab, is to deliberately invite psi-attack on your soldiers, and see who gets picked for psionic control. Then shoot them

NKF suggests using power suits and gunpowder pistols for this. Power suits are invulnerable to small arms fire from rebellious rookies.

You can even go so far as using the standard rifles if you want. They're only +4 points more damaging than pistols, after all. That +4 to damage will not even be felt by your power armour.

If you're feeling brave, you can even go up to autocannons and HE shells (being the weaker of the two cannons). You won't even feel any of the backsplash damage from the AC-HE shells when wearing power/flying suits, though direct hits can sometimes mean a few days in bed.

- NKF

My preference is the small launcher for Psi weak troops. They can still take out aliens, or a cluster of aliens, but the small launcher has practically no affect on power armor and flying suit troops. And if you do get a guy knocked out, no biggie. Just revive with a medikit.

Gunpower guns? X-com with flintlocks . Actually there not 100% protected from "muskets" can still hurt your troops but one turn of rifle fire won't take down a power suit trooper. The downside is your troops have a hard time killing the aliens. (Ethereals can take tons of rifle damage and keep on mind controlling). Just give everyone laser rifles and make then drop it each turn. (ET doesn't beleave in picking up weapons)

-Psy Guy-
(Dropped laser rifle before posting)

in the words of alien controlled Eric Cartman

Actually... That line is from a mid 80's looney tunes, rare episode. It's about an Owl family that has musically talented offspring, and they try to do it classical style. The main character is the defiant little owl who loves to sing jazz, and that's his chorus line. Eventually, the cartoon ends with the parent owls loving him for singing so well and they all live happily ever after.

But the point is the origin of that is from Looney Tunes, not South park. I mean, South Park has been invaded by aliens sure, but not Sectoids who've watched too many episodes of looney tunes.

actually BreakMage....if u were a fan of South Park....u would know the episode when Cartman gets abducted by aliens and is forced by the alien anal probe to sing that stupid whacky song.....i did see that owl one a long time ago though

ps...the aliens on South Park look almost exactly like sectoids....mabey just a bit taller though...