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It's XCOM! :D *mild spoilers*


Hobbes

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I just took a break from my first game (Normal, Ironman difficulty) and it's a bit different but fracking awesome grin.gif

 

First drop into a terror site - at start Floaters are banging and killing inside a building so I wipe them out but they take out my SHIV in the process. So I'm completely nervous and waiting for the Chryssalids to appear and since the SHIV is gone I decide to send myself and the rest of my squad to the roof of that building to shoot the buggers from above since they couldn't climb.

 

Never do that.

 

I started hearing the aliens (the terror site sound effects are scary as hell already). And I started realizing that they were moving in my direction but that I couldn't see and fire at them since they were on the building's ground floor.

 

Well... at that moment I realized that I was screwed and considered pulling back to the Skyranger but going below sounded like suicide since I didn't knew where they were exactly. I couldn't decide what to do so I just hit the Overwatch button for all my squad.

 

And it saved their collective asses. The aliens start moving and all of a sudden I see a Chryssalid dashing out of the building and jumping(!!!!!) to the roof and I realize that it's game over.

 

The glam cam kicks in and I see this Chryssalid leaping on the air and then stop still as two of my soldiers reaction fire and the Heavy manages to nail it down - and the body falls down to the ground afterwards. I'm still with my jaw dropped when a second one leaps to the roof from the other side and is running towards me (I have a soldier with my name) s it also gets nailed down by reaction fire from the rest of the squad.

 

And I manage to finish the Terror Site afterwards without any further losses. Amazing. That was one of the best XCOM moments ever for me smile.png

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I should have set my game to ironman as I've not reloaded yet smile.png

 

Ironman made me realize I was save/loading too much on the original game. I lost my Field Medic captain halfway and I had to do a ton of missions without a medic. My Colonel girlfriend barely survived one UFO assault with 1 HP left. My Major Heavy bought it two missions ago (along with Holo-Targetting and all those nice perks). It can really hurt but spending half a mission trying to keep her alive, have no further casualties and secure the UFO was fun :)

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2nd Normal game. Everything goes smoothly, I get Carapace Armor and Light Plasma Rifles. Sectoids, Thin Men and Chryssalids are sitting ducks and 0 KIAs for months but then I get ambushed by 1 Cyberdisc, 5 Mutons and 1 Bezerker... what a nightmare! It wasn't a complete disaster because the leader managed to get back to the Skyranger,

 

I start going 'reload! reload!' but then I remember it's ironman - I'm starting to hate this game! wink.png

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Oh yeah, I've not had Mutons yet. No wonder I'm finding it easy!

 

Had similar situations with critically wounded unconscious men and people on one hit point - there was something I really could have done with stunning in an alien base mission, but since one of my men was bleeding out I just used my sniper who has a ridiculously high chance to hit everything to take it out and end the mission quicker.

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My first terror mission both my only assault guys got zombified in the second turn :-/ took me ages for the game to level up some rookies as assault class, I feel a patch is needed on that one.

 

Finished that mission with my 3 remaining squad members taking down 12 aliens to save the day. Can't wait to get stuck back into it

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I've learned to stay well back with Chrusalids and try to send one person in as a scout with others covering from a safer distance (my tactic from the original occasionally).

 

Only problem is that if you don't deal with a cluster of 3 Chrysaids right away you're in a world of hurt - I'd feel happier if I was still fielding 2 awesome snipers but one bought it when a Floater flanked him so now I've only got one good sniper to quickly reduce the Chrysalid numbers.

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Yeah jumped me before I was ready and I still only had shotguns two. One of the guys missing both his rapid fire shots didn't help!

 

I also had one UFO mission that went on for ages as a sectoid was hiding on the roof and I couldn't line up a shot on him. Frustrating, took half a hour to find the one square on the map that I could fire at him from.

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Went for classic.

 

He he he, got massacred in the intro mission the first time. Sectoids were really trying but were unable to miss anything. Two of the soldiers got killed with the first shot fired at them, both remaining two freaked out. The rest was even worse.

 

Restarted and got a mucho better result, now I head on into the unknown.

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OK now I'm speechless.

 

Went out on a mission to retrieve an Abductor. First the aliens try to ambush my squad with a Cyberdisk and 3 Mutons, almost killing two soldiers but I pull back and kill the disk and 2 of the Mutons. The 3rd one goes missing but I decide to secure the loading dock of the UFO first and storm the craft before hunting him.

 

I place all my soldiers by the large doors and I'm about to jump in when the missing Muton decides to show up. In case there's more of them I pull back immediately to deal with the threat since he's flanking all my soldiers positions.

 

But then the Muton disappears away again and I start having this creepy feeling on my stomach. Suddenly the large door on the UFO bay opens and 3 Chryssalids show up on the middle of my squad.

 

Awesome.

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Started my first game on Classic Ironman. It was going pretty well (losing a rookie every mission)... Then I met the mutons. It seems the AI knows when to use granades :( Mutons wiped the floor with my under prepared team and I lost the game months later. I will never forget the sound the Mutons produce!

 

Now I'm on my second game, also Classic Ironman. Going a bit better, I rushed my research to Laser weapons and Armor upgrades (playing it like original). Met the mutons again, thankfully the sound gave them away as soon as I landed on a mission so I had my squad spread out.

I just finished a terror mission no only without casualties but also without getting hit. Chrysallids had no chance!

So far the tactical portion is going fine but I'm one country away from Council disbanding :( Had a rough start and a lot of countries gave up quickly...

 

P.S. I have a love/hate relationship with the game. There are so many things wrong with XCOM yet I can't stop playing it.

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OK now I'm speechless.

 

Went out on a mission to retrieve an Abductor. First the aliens try to ambush my squad with a Cyberdisk and 3 Mutons, almost killing two soldiers but I pull back and kill the disk and 2 of the Mutons. The 3rd one goes missing but I decide to secure the loading dock of the UFO first and storm the craft before hunting him.

 

I place all my soldiers by the large doors and I'm about to jump in when the missing Muton decides to show up. In case there's more of them I pull back immediately to deal with the threat since he's flanking all my soldiers positions.

 

But then the Muton disappears away again and I start having this creepy feeling on my stomach. Suddenly the large door on the UFO bay opens and 3 Chryssalids show up on the middle of my squad.

 

Awesome.

 

PS - The rearguard Sniper at the UFO bay sees the 3rd Muton reappear after I've taken the UFO bridge. I start sending all my soldiers back and the Muton found some friends after running away at the initial encounter because now there's two of them and a Bezerker!

 

It's crazy the amount of random stuff the game throws at you.

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Aaaand I lost another game on C/IM. Even on the same date as my 1st game.

I was on a wound free streak for a month but at the end of month Council disband cinematic triggered. It seems I'm better in tactical portion of the game than strategic. Rushing for Carapace Armor and Laser Rifles appears as a good bet on C/IM but I should invest in satellites more and manage terror levels better.

How are things going with you people?

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My main problem with the game is that it's basically impossible to manage the terror levels across the globe. You only get missions when the game decides to give them to you and even then you can only satisfy one party while pissing off two more...

 

It's clearly not possible to keep everyone happy in any one game so I'd suggest abandonning 1 continent entirely on a C/IM game. You can lose up to 8 countries backing right? That's half of the entire council you can lose. Sooo...

 

Just checked the map in the situation room and Asia has 4 countries as does Europe. Make THESE continents your primary concern ALL THE TIME and you can't lose. 3 satellites in each continent and you'll have full coverage over all 8 of those countries. South America should ALWAYS be the least of your concern as it only has 2 countries in it so not worth a satellite or aircraft and if you lose both countries you're still only 1/4 of the way to losing! North America and Africa have 3 territories each so these should be secondary goals, keep them happy if possible...

 

So basically what I'm saying is this should be your strategy for a C/IM game;

Prioritise Europe and Asia - building a base in one will get you a free satellite to start off

Ignore all cries for help from South America - losing 2 members of the council won't be a problem and it's not worth the expense of satellites and aircraft

Choose your missions based on importance of country, not current panic level - If Mexico has 3 bars and Russia only 2 you should still go to Europe as a priority

 

I reckon that's a sound plan... I'd go for 3 satellites in Asia and Europe asap with 2 planes protecting each (maybe 3 on classic) for full coverage. Choose satellite location based on one of two things; highest income per country or highest state of panic at time of deployment. American satellites give much better rewards in terms of cash money so try and prioritise that over Africa but remember Europe and Asia first and foremost!

 

This is the gospel according to me. I look forward to trying it out myself but first I have a Normal difficulty game to win so good luck testing it out for me ;)

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Whenever it gives me a choice of 3 countries to help, I always pick the one with the highest panic rating, even if the reward is something I'm less interested in (I always want the cash, but I'll help the country that's in the worst trouble).

 

Without spoiling anything, I've got as far as having the game's equivalent of the Hyperwave Decoder and it appears this next UFO has my first Sectopod onboard - wish me luck!

 

Still without spoiling anything, I love the research tree - it's got more things in it than the original and they've done well designing good combinations of items to give you a defence boost etc.

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Sectopods are scary-dangerous - much more so than in the original!

 

Also encountered my first Etheral - impressive upgrades to these chaps too that cost the life of an important Captain of mine in short order. Beware! It then became my mission to work out how to take him down without losing another mind-controlled soldier, as they are my best men (figured nothing less than the best was appropriate against a Sectopod and an Ethereal!).

 

Both my snipers have the ability to fire twice if they don't move on the same turn, so I take great delight in sending in a heavily-armoured trooper to flush out some of the later-game Mutons (there's a difference :() and then picking them off with the snipers.

 

The research tree has taken more interesting turns as well, although the requirement for some of the Foundry projects means I need to stockpile certain corpses rather than doing my usual of selling everything on the grey market.

 

There, I've managed not to spoil anything, but suffice to say the later game gets very interesting indeed!

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So if you've just beaten that ship Pete, what do you think about the next thing? sweat.gif

 

I did really well against the mission you're talking about though, came away without anyone even going off sick! Got one of my snipers MC'd at the end but I'd been very careful preparing for the final assault so it was a very easy job taking down the Ethereal (especially when my other sniper hit him for 15 damage or something crazy!!!) I got him back alive and am about to interrogate. I'm loving this game now, balance seems to be good and enjoyable once you have skilled troopers with good weapons. Strange that there isn't a difficulty between normal and classic to be honest but maybe it's just that I tried that setup before I was familiar with the game? Who knows, but for now... Well, Pete knows what I have to do :P

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I'm worried about the next thing! Very worried! It's what's making me think I'm not at all ready for it ;)

 

I thought I had snipers covering the Ethereal, but his positioning in that room made it so that my snipers outside were so poorly-positioned as to make them useless on the critical first turn in that room. Fortunately they mopped up the other aliens but all my guys took a beating that mission.

 

I've got all manner of cool armour now - even got the one Sid Meier is wearing in that promo video where the Sectopod tears through a wall so hopefully that should help in the fight :D

 

I do think that we might have an advantage compared to total newcomers to the series. Having played the original and similar games over the years you know roughly what to research, and the game also tells you exactly what your priorities should be - not sure whether that's a good feature or not, but I suspect it's to prevent you having to research everything in the tree just to find the right combination of research so I'm in two minds as to whether it's an improvement or not really. Certainly you should research everything anyway because of the access you get to all the technology and upgrades as a result - nothing is wasted and every corpse is valuable in this game :)

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I've not done a single autopsy until now (just Gollop'ing now :P) and now I've got round to doing them they're only taking 8 hours a piece! Not to spoil you Pete but we're only one alien away from having met the entire cast now!

 

And yes I too am unconvinced by the undeniably linear story progression. It's more like the Aftermath series than the originals in that respect certainly but at least it works. It isn't too obvious or forced that 'you must now do this to get here' but it does make me wonder what exactly would happen if we took our time a bit more before points which we now know full well are triggers. It's certainly something to consider when we gear up for the C:IM playthrough isn't it as I'd like to spend a little more time getting certain items developed next time round. Be great to have lasers earlier on in the game, they turned my snipers from good to great (then plasma from great to God!)

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I think, on the harder difficulties, south america may be more of a boon than people are thinking. That instant autopsy/interragation perk could make a huge difference when you realize those same research topics are the ones that give you the various +50% research speeds...
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