I'm sure everyone has had some disastrous missions, ones that are doomed from the start. Here is one of mone.

The first was my first ever terror mission, my 14 men all poured out of the Skyranger in the first two turns ... then something landed on the ground near my men ... hmmm what's that ... oh poo ... BANG! 6 Men left alive, in the next turn I send my men towards the direction the grenade came from, zap zap evil reaction fire... 4 little x-com soldiers left. On the next turn 3 men panic, one man is brave enough to fight on, he spots the enemy and fires an auto burst at it. The alien stands there looking puzzled at how the soldier can be firing at him and yet hit the building miles away from it ... 3 times ... on the enemies turn the alien puts him out of his misery ... 3 men left alive. My turn again, 2 soldiers panic, and the other one drops dead from his wounds from the grenade at the start, two men left ... zap zap ... 1 man left ... panics some more and drop his gun, runs off in a random direction, reaction fire ... the end. I nearly cried, I'd been doing so well up to then.

... But did you load?

It might've been some time since he had saved. I know I wouldn't have the nerve to load if I had spent so much time working since my last save, only to get screwed. Most of the time that happens, I'm better off continuing my game.

Because it's so easy to lose in X-Com, I'm sure we can have plenty of spectacular failures, with or without reloading, it really doesn't matter. If you lose spectacularly, you lose spectacularly.

One of the classics is when you have a mission where you are an unstoppable force and every enemy that rears its ugly head will get cut aside. Splat! Haha!

Then, because of some very minor mistake, which would normally be inconsequential and have no effect on your performance, the balance tips into the alien's favour, and your top notch veterans are suddenly being pounded into a pulp by a bunch of lightweights.

It's nice when you're on the winning end.

- NKF

Most of my missions were either unspectacular losses or effortless victories.
By effortless I mean missions with 1-5 sectoids\floaters,or nothing-a fatal crash.
But I'm working on it...

I have here in my little notebook a Floater Terror mission that went so wrong, and like NKF-sensei said, it was just after the mission I wrote about in "Debriefings" that went so right... the dice just started bouncing the other way.

But I think we can agree the most critical phase is getting out of the Skyranger safely - because mine too was due to a floater grenading the landing ramp.

6/10 soldiers killed instantly! TANK PANICS!

Those 4, however, redeemed themselves - the two that weren't too frightened to move took out the grenader, healed the others, and kept up defence until the others recovered, and we cleared the map and continued, losing only one guy through stupidity to the last reaper.

Another Terror mission which I _did_ go back and redo was the one where two Chrysallids got into the landing gear while I was still deploying - I wrote about this elsewhere, where I learnt that a near miss with an HE pack is NOT guaranteed to kill a Chrys on Superhuman. Add to this some surprise Snakeman snipers that turned my Chrys-proof flying suits into lead balloons and stir until two squaddies are holding the last defensible position - the back doors of the Skyranger, with darkness and scorched earth and skulking Chrys all around - until one is wounded and the situation is finally ruled as "untenable" - time to pull the Skyranger out and FAE the site (from orbit). :angel: Saved this mission scenario because, really, it was a good challenge.

Damn , looks like Jellyfish realised I was talking about floaters after I slagged them off so much it is revealed that they once kicked my sorry butt

Worst mission ever (that didn't involve landing ramp nades) was a large scout (sectoid) in a rural farm area. The skyranger was parked in an area surrounded by 2 floor farm buildings. I had 10 rookies armed with laser rifles and personal armor. First guy steps off and gets shot (died). Second guy steps off and was shot from a diffrent direction. Ran a third guy off who succeded in getting off the craft unshot at. Forth guy was shot after steping off (the third guy saw the plasma bolt come from the 2nd floor of a farm building.
(TURN). Nothing happens.
3rd dude dashes in the farm building while everyone else I unload gets shot.(lost 4 that turn).
(turn) nothing happens gain.
The third dude ran up the stairs to find a sectoid with a plasma rifle. 3 laser burst brings that sniper down.
The other two try to run out but they where also picked off.
The third dude continues to go out and clear barns killing a total of 4 sectoids at windows.
I then deside to grab my equipment and alien junk and high tail it out of there. Next couple of turns my dude throws guns, bodies, junk out of windows and starts loading up the stuff on the skyranger. After i had most of the stuff loaded a sectoid pops the guy killing him. Mission failure and i lost 9 rookies and one good trooper.

It's enough to drive you to smoke grenades, isn't it?

I never use the things.

does anyone?
and in apoc too I just recognised them only helping the aliens.
maybe it's because they should cover a retreat and I never retreat
(except for single baaaaaadly wounded soldiers)

They are supposed to be used mainly for when you offload your crew, to keep them alive in that first dangerous bit.

But even on Superhuman mode, I seem to be lucky anyway.

Smoke grenades militarily are used for entrances and exits in an attempt to confuse and disorient the enemy while hiding your own forces.

The thing is... the moment you use one the enemy knows you're there... eliminating the stealth/hiding factor... and as for the other usage of confusing and disorienting the enemy for a crucial few seconds... that's only useful if used correctly.

The proper use of the smoke grenade is to have the person at the very back of the craft toss it out (since their lost TUs won't clog up the exit hatches) then immediately rush everyone off the plane in that moment of disorientation before the enemy sends all forces at the smoke cloud.

Barring that the only other use of smoke grenades is to flush out enemy units... toss a smoker inside a small room through a window then set up sniping positions outside the door once your victim has an urgent need to evac for air... not very useful in alien fighting though since aliens don't breath oxygen!

PS: Smoke grenades just ain't worth their weight in this game. It'd be worth more to use up the space and weight on regular grenades or prox.

The smoke grenades are a two edged blade. For one, they reduce visibility. For the other, they reduce visibility. It's not an impenetrable shield. If it was, it would imbalance the game far too much.

They do indeed reduce visibility. But they're far more useful against aliens that are at medium to long ranges. Those that are right up next to you, well, you'll obviously attract their attention.

I've found that they're very useful for deployment at a hot LZ. I find that I attract far less reaction fire than I do without the smokescreen. Sure, I still get the occasional shot when the aliens are nearby, but that's expected (and you should be checking your scanners and using high explosives/rockets to deal with the nearby aliens before deploying anyway) .

Although, I prefer to only bring one or two smoke grenades along. Having one on every soldier is not practical. I'd rather have a few more high explosives, which can double as a smoke grenade, although it cannot create a dense smoke cloud that lasts long. I'd use the first smoke grenade for deployment, and the other for use in the field - probably to set up a group of snipers.

If you move out of the smokescreen and make yourself visible, then yes, you will draw reaction fire towards you very easily. I'd recommend staying in the smokescreen for a turn to fill up your TU bar, so you utilise a higher reaction score while moving out of the cloud. Note, as long as someone else sees the alien, the soldiers in the smokescreen need not leave it. (note: wearing armour will reduce smoke inhalation)

It's like armour. Most people ignore the light armour because they think it's a waste of time and resources to build. On the contrary, having half as much armour as the power suits is far better than having none at all. The chances of survival are greater. Even though it's small, that tiny chance can mean a lot, particularly when you consider the fact that damage from weapons are random.

In Apocalypse, the smoke grenades are tactically useful for removing stun, anti-alien gas and incendiary effects. They do make it harder for all sides to see each other. But you, you have a trump card. You can just spray the area you think the shots are coming from and you'll reveal the alien regardless of the smoke.

As I said, it works both ways. Try to make it work for you and it'll serve you well.

- NKF

Shure I'm only about this game. (and apoc) In real life and other games I made the experience that they are kick-ass. But at least I seem to be unable to use them properly. (Except for killing stung gas/fire in A).

I mean hiding, sneaking and attacking silently out of the dark is the aliens part. When I come to a mission site, especially terror,the aliens have spread all over the place, have lain ambushes, they know who I am, they know where I am and are ready to punch me where it hurts. So my tactic is to have my (wo)men go around in small groups and kill them as fast as possible.

I made the experience that smoke can rise ones chance of survival for one turn, but it lowers it on a long task, as it takes longer to find the alien and make it unable to attack one.

To get back on topic: my missions went badly wrong, especially in early stages of the game, when aliens where near my dropship. I solved this with a tank. A bit more expensive than a smoke granade, but capable of multiple usage.

Sorry but that tank won't last long as your reply to at-ramp reaction fire. Once alien grenades, blaster bombs, or cyberdisks start appearring in your scenarios all it'll take is one hit to knock out the tanks, and the nades and bombs will even take out troops hiding behind said tank. At first you might not realize it since the reaction fire has to come from just the right place... but when it does...

PS: Speaking of tanks... a lil secret you might not be aware of that can help clear your LZs faster... your tank that's at the exit hatch can stay in place where it spawns on battle-open and just revolve 360 degrees using the 'face this way' method while only using up a few minor TUs in the process. This will spot 'most' aliens near the LZ even where the plane's body should block your line of sight... go figure. Anyway, the reason to do this while still in the plane instead of exiting is that it makes reaction fire of enemies useless unless it comes from in front of your exit hatch since your plane's body 'hides' your tank from the alien while still letting you see them. They'll still be there to react to your movements when you finally exit the plane of course... but at least you won't be caught by surprise out of the dark so to speak, and can exit in a manner to minimize the risk.

Sorry to be a bit off-topic, but I think that smoke grenades are very valuable, I used them primarily to secure the LZ, i usually drop one just on the 1st level of the skyranger and anther on the ramp. That proved to be very helpful when I had hot LZs (like having 5 cyberdisks on superhuman)

My tanks normally survive cyerdiscs, Alien nades and blaster bombs because the aliens don't use it the right way. If not no problem, it's replacable and normally it gives my men enough time and safety to cler the LZ. (at least on easy)
The look through windows thingy does not only work for tanks.
I normally use my men at the back of my dropship to scout out the area.
You can even look behind the cockpit by sending them on the very rear end of the dropship.
Then Blaster bombs do a good job even on the veeeery hot LZs.

But ok I wont start a holy war about smoke nades, it's everyones own decission wether to use it or not. (And don't use it! Because if you do I'll come over and punch you in the face! :devil: )

Yes, the holy war is reserved for the electro flare and whether or not it is the very basis for the fall of the alien empire.

Seriously though, everything in UFO has its place. It's just how you use it and what sort of results you gain from it that counts the most.

- NKF

No the holy war will start like this:
I think Chryssalids are lousy shit and easy to kill. :devil: