As you know there are many good ships out there that can easly be made (or bought) by x-com. So i was wondering which ships do you build (or buy) and why.

(My answer) When i get the tech to build all the ships i normally stick to building retaliators. There faster to build, cheaper, and look cool. For every three retaliators that i make i make one annihilator. I like to think of retaliators are as the average ship. Fast, powerful, yet not too pricey. Annihilators on the otherhand are more of the all powerful, unstoppable, heavly armed command ships. Its just my opinion but making nothing but annihilators seems to just take away the value of this ship.

(side note: why does the annialator have two 3x4 hardpoints? there is no 3x4 gun and its just a waste of space. It seems as though it should be two 4x4s and a 2x4)

-PSY GUY-

I build Annhilators, and customly name them all (Like the Herbringer
the Killer etc) it gets hard to name after about 20.

For building, I like to build the Explorers for a couple of reasons:

- They look cool
- They're almost identical to Hawk Air warriors (Except the 3x2 equipment slots, argh! Still two small shields is plenty of protection with a bit of skillful flying.)
- They're the 3rd fastest ship in the game (Annihilators are Second, Dim. Probes are the fastest)
- They're small, so they can turn around very quickly, as compared with the retaliator or annihilator.
- They can arm one medium disrupter beam, and if anything can arm one of these babies, well, it can shoot down a battleship, and that's okay in my book. With enough of these, they go into the alien dimension and mop up the alien fleet every week until the Annihilators take over.
- Best of all, like all hybrid aircraft, no matter what you build, you'll always be getting the better deal. See, all hybrid aircraft sell at x2 their building cost, which never fluctuates, so when you sell the explorers when better ships arrive, you'll always gain more money than what you spent on building them.

I don't build very many retaliators. But if I do, they're specialised for carrying multiple plasma-multi-systems, alien rockets or maybe a few missile defense systems. Nothing special really. Mostly used for inter-city skirmishes to speed up those annoying gang air raids.

As for annihilators, the cream of the crop, once I've got a few and bolt on a few shields and disrupters, air superiority is mine. With two or more of these, I can start retiring my explorers.

- NKF

I actually don't build hideous amounts of ships.

I normally use a Biotrans for my primary team. My second team might use the Valkyrie as a transport, or a Hawk Air Warrior.

For attacking, I build a couple of Annihilators and a few more Retaliators. I don't normally build Explorers, but I may next time since NKF gives them his thumbs up.

If NKF gave the thumbs-up to mass suicide charges with a bunch of unarmored agents with lawpistols, would you rush out and do that?

lol. Probably not. But since this is a game, and he's giving me his experience, favourable towards Explorers, I'll give it a shot. That's what this forum is for, exchanging ideas, not for BSing.

If you have advice, I'd try that too. Why not? It's just a game.

Hey, if it works, it works. But what works for me may not necessarily work for you. Still, no harm in trying. If it doesn't work, then there are always alternate methods that'll suit you and your playing style.

I just like the explorers since they're the first hybrid ships you get that can prod buttock just as well as hawk-air warriors.

Of course, I wouldn't recommend armourless suicide rushes with law pistols. Probably in UFO, but not in Apocalypse.

Hang on, I keep forgetting the turn based component. Hmm, perhaps. Armourless you say? Something for me to think about after finishing my exams.


- NKF

i been playing x-com again and i found out hoverbikes are really useful in massive swarms. they got so much moveabilty that its very rare that they get hit... right now i took out a battleship with 12 hoverbikes with plasma and none of the got hit while my otherships where in the dimention.

so thats my most used ship through out the game. cheap and expendable yet they hardly get hit and by the end of the game i have around 40 of them. there also good at wasting UFO weapons at attacking a hoverbike which can dodge pretty easily while something like a hawk which is a easy target can take out the UFO without worrying about getting hit.

I just build 2 full biotrans, 1 retaliator,and 5 annhilators per base. I usually take control of the retaliator cause they look cool.

Everything except the explorer........and always more Annihilators....

I also build huge swarms of dimension probes.

i always tech directly to annhilators. 5 annhilator equipped with 1 large, 2 medium disrupter is enough to cleanse the alien dimension. After that, visit the other dimension every 3 days, cleansing every craft and return. That will give you valuable time to train the soldiers you need for the alien missions.
You see , battle is won in the cityscape, NOT battlescape

Actually, visiting the AD every 3 days seems a bit of a waste of time. Alien ships are only regenerated at the very beginning of each week. Sunday nights would be the best nights to send your clean-up team in.

Of course, once you blow up the building immediately after the 'maintenance factory', the UFOs will no longer respawn. This'll make most of your combat-oriented interdimensional aircraft redundant.

- NKF

How can i see which night is it?

The date's in the performance log (the same one that's automatically opened at the end of each week).

Top left of the screen.

- NKF

but is it show monday, tuesday etc?

ok... in the cityscape, there are some little buttons in the bottom left of the screen. one of the is a little graph with an alien on it. the one right next to it is the one you are after. as far as i know it is a little graph with an x-com logo or something like that. it brings up the performance review screen. this shows how well you are doing, how many points you have gathered this week so far, etc. it also show the date and what day it is.

or... if you notice, it tends to show it right next to your your save game, whenever you go to save/load.

That's the performance log all right, or so the popup text tells me. It's just the screen with the scores and finance statements (with estimated end-of-week cash balance).

Alternately, you could wait for the week to complete when it brings the performance log up. When you exit the screen, it'll be Monday. So you can then count off the week manually from there... Nah, just check the score screen periodically. It's a lot more elegant.

- NKF

adn the save games. i just jump straight to teh anihalators. waste of money on anything temporary. i just like almost 10 of 'em already and i can take on (prob) 3 battle ships and one mothership.

and also, i've relised that the missle def arrays are useless. they fire heaps of shots, sure. but i've tried shooting heaps of missles at my anahalator with heaps of sheilds and it got through al the time. i recon its a waste of money exept you can use manual fire and get free plasma! and its pretty powerful and fast!

Actually, building interdimensional aircraft is never a waste of money (except if you let them get blown up). See, their prices never fluctuate, and will always sell for more than what you spent on building them.

I guess I just like controlling the skies as quickly as possible with the least money spent. Then once annihilators become available, I can sell off the explorers to fill up the petty cash tin.

Also, the missile defense arrays: You were shooting a stationary target were you?

- NKF