[SIZE=7] I was just curios what everyone equipted there troops with in UFO. personally i favor the 'Red Army" aproach that is i bring as many troopsas (all recruits with no armor) as i can in my interceptor and give them ALL a laser rifle and two alien grenades, then i form a defensive circle around the interceptor and sent out men from the craft 2 at a time to find the aliens until the mission is over. Variations on this theme include also giving all them men a stun rod aswell (when attacking large ufos and bases) and sometimes bringing a high ranking officer along, and just leave them in the interceptor (for moral purposes, [may or may not have any effect]). Note my men die like buggery but they are cheap (only 20 thousand) much cheaper than giving them hvy plasma rifles (which i sell, do build more bases, and interceptors and men with laser rifles).

Heh, I'm a sucker for these sort of threads, even though I know we've had one before and my opinion's always 'I use a mix of everything'.

Maybe a little more specifics are in order. I like to keep my setups flexible, so my armament varies a lot from game to game. But I have noticed certain soldier builds that often emerge in my games under one guise or another.



Pistol scout:
A soldier armed with a pistol (usually laser), a scout-tool of some sort and maybe a few small grenades. This soldier excels at being more mobile than elite grenadiers, riflemen and the heavy weapon soldiers. Generally double as grenadiers if there are spare grenades. Not the most powerful, and not one you'd want in large quantites, but these are the folks I use to 'acquire' targets for the riflemen.

Then there's the dual-pistol scout:
Same as the pistol scout, only this scout carries two pistols of varying types and less additional gear. It's usually combination of pistol + laser pistol or plasma pistol + laser pistol. The laser's your rapid-fire spray-and-pray weapon while the other acts as your more accurate precision weapon. Curiously enough, this setup is very effective in the arms of a soldier with good experience and a huge reaction score. Very effective for storming a UFO, just as long as you employ a good strategy that will not turn the soldier into a greasy smudge.

Elite grenadier:
Laser pistol, lots of high explosives and other small sized grenades. Elite soldier (read as anyone with strength approaching 70). Mix and match explosives as you please. Generally loaded into a Lightning (my specialist transport). The LZ around the Lightning is almost always a smoking crater before my main troops disembark, 20+ turns later. My one-man army. Great when used as the 'source' for a grenade-relay chain. Not too many of these, as each one uses up a fairly sizeable chunk of the item limit.


Rifle Infantry:
Your run of the mill soldier equipment set. With (insert favourite tech) rifle. Often given a mixture of scout tools, grenades, medikits, what have you. Along with the pistol scout, this is the most robust soldier role. The bread and butter of my troops.


Elite sniper:
Always given a flying suit and a plasma rifle plus whatever else that might come in handy. These fellows take advantage of height and the insane snapshot accuracy of the plasma rifle. Before long the snipers can get accuracy levels close to 100% without even kneeling. I don't have too many considering how scarce the plasma rifle clips are.


Heavy weapon expert:
Big guns. Long range explosive delivery device of your choice. Need I say more? May carry a laser pistol sidearm in pocket, or leave it in the transport. Weapons with AP and incendiary rounds also provide more flexibility and an additional indirect-attack (fire) which also doubles as a temporary light source. Heavy weapon experts are often given power suits so that they can perform short-range attacks with impunity.

Sectopod Buster:
Variant of the heavy weapon expert. Carries a small launcher and an armful of stun bombs. This soldier only has one main task. Annihilate large terror units. Doubles as an abductor when necessary. No one's generally assigned to this task at the start of a mission, unless there are more soldiers than weapons.

- NKF

I usually send about 10 soldiers, no tank except for tough missions like terror sites or larger UFOs when I want a disposable scout. My soldiers will be equipped with the best armor I currently have researched, and laser rifles up until I research heavy plasmas. I also usually bring along a couple auto cannons, 1 rocket launcher to take down obstructions, and all my soldiers have grenades and proximity grenades. Oh also a few medkits and a couple high explosives, and stun rods if I'm out to grab a navigator or sectoid leader. This is of course all before I've researched stun launchers and blaster launchers.

Edit: I hit reply just before NKF had posted so I hadn't read his post. Hey NKF I'm curious, do you always obliterate the LZ before disembarking ? Because I'm thinking I should start doing that. Most of the time tossing a couple smoke grenades then exiting works, but at times there just happens to be too many aliens surrounding the LZ and I wind up pinned down and lose soldiers.

Depends on what gaming style I want to use:

* Reckless approach 14 guys in t-shirts with Autocannon 2HE 1 AP
* Use all equipment have speciallists.

1 rocket tank
1 guy with a blaster or rocket launcher. Has laser pistol for close in fighting
9 guys with laser rifle/heavy plasma, 3 proxy nades, 1 standard/alien nade, high explosives if they can carry them

I use personal armor and medikits if I have them and power armor after they prove their psy worthiness.

Slythe1: Well, I don't exactly intend to destroy the landing zone. It's just that repeated use of high explosives, rockets, alien grenades and proximity mines tends to take its toll on the landscape.

But yes, it is often a good idea to take your time when disembarking and do use grenades and rockets to hit enemies that may be approaching the ramp via your blind-spots - this is especially true for the Skyranger and Avenger as your visibility while travelling down the ramp tends to be very limited.

One thing I like to do is wait a few turns and use a motion scanner to check the immediate area for any movement. If there's any near the ramp, then it's an excellent opportunity to fire a rocket or toss a grenade and maim, if not kill, the intruder. The added benefit is that the aliens will have moved about a bit by now, lowering their already high reaction score a bit, giving you a slightly better chance of disembarking without drawing immediate reaction shots from nearby enemies.

Hey, I've actually been able to wipe out entire battleship crews without leaving the general vicinity of my Lightning, and this is without flying suits. This is made possible because the aliens seem have tendancy to wander towards your ship (well, your soldiers). This is true for all the aliens that aren't rooted to a specific spot inside the UFO. There doesn't appear to be any 'campers' in battleships. At one time I waited for a number of turns before stepping outside, only to find a huge gathering waiting outside. You can imagine my joy as I used up one of my $1, 500 investments to take care of them. Note, however, that I did not net myself very much loot by doing this. This was not my intention, however, as I was already pretty self sufficient by then.

Of course, waiting in the craft and clearing the LZ is a very big gamble. But hey, everything you do has in this game has its risks. Instant wipeouts via grenades or blaster bombs are one. Then in terror sites, civilians get in the way. Then there's always the chance that a live grenade will fall short and land on the equipment pile. I really hate when this happens when there's a bunch of identical grenades on the heap.

Man, I missed doing these 3 page answers... But I digress. Back to the original topic.

- NKF

I recently ran into a rare but very nasty situation. I land with a skyranger, first turn drop a smoke grenade in the skyranger and also toss a high explosives at the bottom of the ramp. Seems fullproof enough. The smoke grenade goes off, the high explosive makes a satisfying boom in the area....on the alien's first turn a sectoid walks up to the ramp sees my soldiers shoots and kills one. Completely unavoidable, and very frustrating.

The smoke grenade trick down the ramp is a good one, but often times I get lazy and just don't feel like it. Usually I just send a flying suit sniper (Plasma Rifle) outside just enough, move him up to the roof of the 'Ranger/Avenger. From there you can usually see a good portion of the battlescape and identify your primary threats (which buildings you should nuke, what bugs to take out first, etc.) Granted, this guy can be prone to opportunity fire by aliens a little bit, but it is usually rare because he does not go outside far at all.

I usually use smoke grenades as long as I have them, but then I usually forget to buy them once I'm out. And typically I don't pay attention to the "Not enough equipment to re-equip craft" notification, although I should.

As far as equipping my squad, I follow NKF's ways almost exactly. I rarely ever equip Heavy Plasmas, as I feel they are overkill (unless when confronted with Mutons) and much more useful in monetary form (I sell almost all of them). Plasma Rifles are highly effective as NKF mentioned, and I usually spend quite a bit of time making the clips for them, as you run out. If you have trouble with Plasma Rifle clips, always remember to unload your weapon near the end of a mission, that way you can keep the half-expended clip and not sacrifice it to oblivion.

Well, Fox, you see, sometimes it's enough to move your soldier only one step on the ramp and you will trigger the reaction fire with possible unpleasnt results for your sniper. Flying suit provides some protection but nevertheless it is a big risk. What I like in TFTD, is that Triton has a door. Besides, you can open it without moving away, so you can scout the territory near the exit without the risk being shot.

I mentioned that. Like I said, the chances are slim, and I believe the benefits of the sniper on top early in the mission warrant taking such chances. If you combine it with the smoke grenade trick, it is fool-proof.