Just want to know how many soldiers the average X-Com player has so I can engage the alien menace to a greater extent without worring about the deaths of my men

Usualy around 20. So if I send out a 10 man squad on a mission I have 10 back at base in case it get's attacked. They also come in handy to replace injured and decieced soldiers.

I like to have about 25 so i have lots in case some die and i dont have to hir for a while, and if aliens attack my base, ive got a really good defence.

10. See image below:

Soldier #0 is actually on the second floor. The big white circle that he is in the center of is the range of the Motion Scanner he carries. As you can see he detects the aliens as they advance.

Soldier #1 performs reloads for soldier #2. He steps forward to open the double-wide door.

Soldier #2 is knealing and holds a rocket launcher and fires large rockets and the South-West corner of the missile defenses. This nabs the aliens early.

Soldiers #3 and #4 step forward turn and fire their AC-HE ammo at an aliens who have managed to make it to the main hallway.

Soldier #5 steps out of his hiding place to nab aliens with his AC-HE ammo who have made it somewhat down the main hall.

Soldier #6 primes grenades and tosses them to Soldier #8. Normal these are Proximity Grenade but also High-Explosives are available when needed (say to be tossed under a Cyberdisk).

Soldier #7 opens the double-wide door.

Soldier #8 takes the grenades from Soldier #6 and (after the hallway has been cleared) advances and tosses a proximity grenade to the South East corner of the Missile Defenses, or tosses a High-Explosive where needed.

Soldier #9 kneals and performs reactive firing with AC-HE ammo. He is also the last gun choosen to shoot any aliens that have still manage to advance too far.

The small white circle is the place where the AI tends to collect the aliens. Good to know when you have blaster bombs!

I have 1-8 soldiers. They are usually the ones that I get at the beggining of the game. (Of course this is if we are talking about the average difficulty)

I tend to have around 300 towards the end of the game. I don't remember if any of you have ever seen any of my saved games, but my tactic is the more people, the better off you are.

Even in later missions, I'll still lose some guys due to accidents (Blaster Launchers, nasty Ethereals etc.) so I like to keep reserves. It ends up being about 40 soldiers per base, and I fill up every base to max module capacity. Granted Stewarts base defense is great, I find it gets to the point where you are just so powerful, the aliens land in your base and you use them for target practice.

I actually had a problem I had to deal with, just a few days ago, with the 80 item limit or whatever. I usually have about 3 strike teams, and 1-2 dedicated interceptors per base, so this means I have problems with base defense, i.e., I am missing key equipment and personal because of the limit. So I actually had to start launching key craft from the base, with full compliments, so I could free up room for other stuff. Worked like a charm.

How do you get around the 255 soldier limit?

Actually, there's only space for 250 soldiers in the soldier.dat file.

For small outposts, my base garrison generally consists of 8 - 10 soldiers and a few tanks.

The main assault base has anywhere between 10 - 20 soldiers and 2 - 3 tanks at best. I usually send up to 10 soldiers at a time for standard missions, with the rest left behind as base garrison while the others are out. You never know when a battleship might sneak in while the Skyranger's out. Assault crews are rotated every so often to spread the experience evenly.


The manufacturing/storage/psi academy base has anywhere between 20 and up soldiers at a time. The number of tanks are random, as this facility produces them. At least twice as many soldiers than the number of psi-lab slots, so fresh recruits can take over after the others have their psi stats revealed. I don't really anticipate any attacks on this base, as it's passive and does no interceptions. As it houses all my elerium stores and spare alloys, this base has to be the most heavily defended.

- NKF

Well since we're being picky, around 250 then. That wasn't an exact number.

My listening posts get 10 and my strike bases get 25.

20 soldiers in my main bases (research/interogation and manufacturing), 10 in all the outpost/interception bases except for my recruitment base, which holds anywhere up to 250 soldiers at a time. I use kamikaze troops so that number is constantly changing with the purchasing and transferring of troops

I've expanded my forces. I created a second 10 mans squad to recover small UFOs. The best of them would go on to the first squad when they lost men. I created a 3rd squad to cover all UFOs in Europe, then a fourth squad in Australia. That brings it to a total of 40 men. Then I realised my need to attack alien bases and large UFOs for resources. I armed my men who had reasonable psi skills with psi amps. I was met with amazing success against snakemen, sectoids, floaters and mutons with the psi amps, so opened the Psi College of Japan. I recruited 20 men and built two psi labs. The idea was 20 men with good psi strengths would be taught in the Psi College, then taken on "field trips" where a College Skyranger would take the freshmen out to scout UFOs. Then, a HWP will drive out, find aliens and allow the students to take over their minds. When they are college graduates they will be given a free trip to Cydonia to complement the elite soldiers.

Interesting concept... imagine a squad of purely psi-people, with only psi amps. And they are so l33t that they don't even wear armor. They land in a skyranger, 6 of them, along with a plasma HWP and a fusion ball HWP(to open up holes for the elusive non-moving alien. The psi-students just sit in the 'ranger and mind control every alien they find. For the last one, simply use the soldier scroll bug and have the alien drop a nade under itself.

Actually when I first found out about psi that's how I used to finish my missions. (Except I didn't use any HWP's, my scouts would be aliens that I took over)

I love using my newfound psi tactics. Now I have little trouble assaulting terror, supply and battle ships. It is cool and fun to turn rookies into squaddies by ordering controlled aliens to let a rookie put a laser rifle in its face. Sometimes, I even allow aliens to chuck primed grenades at each other. The Psi College of Japan is a success, with men already capable of controlling mutons after only one month of training and three 90+ psi strength men ready to join the Cydonia attack. The only qualm I have with using psi tactics is that I feel guilty about not using squad tactics.

i tend to have upwards of around 200 soldiers. usually i'll have a base that is made up of aircraft hangers and have that be an assault and psi training base, little radar posts all over the world, a research/manufacture base and a general stores base where everything i collect goes and all items i buy go there and then are distributed when needed. its a bit of a task to upkeep but hey if i can keep 1000 suits of power armor there and not worry about storage i'm happy, also there are 6-10 elite soldiers at all bases that are there just incase depending upon ufo activity. i also have an armored division made up of 10-20 tanks of different variety, mostly laser though there cheaper to maintain.

I like to have around 20 soldiors, since usually i only have 2 bases, but im thinking of rethinking my strategy, since i dont do well when the nasty aliens appear like Etherials.

If you're using them for base defence, I'd suggest you go for the most expensive tanks you can afford (i.e. rocket tanks and fusion hover tanks). If you don't have any ammunition, the game gives you a free batch of rockets to defend the base.

Of course, you can never go wrong with a few laser and plasma tanks about. I mean, you never know when you'll run out of rockets.

Just a word of caution for anyone using rocket-type tanks for base defence (well, fusion ball tanks primarily):

Try to confine your shelling to the hangars and grav lift, since they are among the few base modules that cannot be destroyed by heavy explosive damage. If you must shell other modules, try to keep the explosions to the barest minimum, and make absolutely sure that you don't destroy all the furniture in the upper and lower level of any base module.

- NKF

What happens when you destroy the furniture? What happens if I blow up those cool green rods in a plasma defence room? What happens if I rig a hyperwave decoder with high explosives?

You can lose base modules if the interior is totally destroyed in a fire fight. And if modules lose their connection to the lift, I think you lose those too.