126 replies to this topic

[zowrath]

A lot of people seem to have  a problem with this later mission where you encounter Reticulans in Sky armor with Rocket Launchers, but people are posting about it on many different threads that doesn't really point to the topic.  So lets collect all experiences here and try together to find a way to take that base out. This is the story-specific mission where you have to retrieve the important data in russia.  My first try was 2 soldiers with 75m range sniper rifles, 3 soldiers with Alien Laser Rifles and 2 with Advanced Alien Laser Rifles all weapons set to aim for best range.  First of all, the aliens saw me first and fired their rockets from a greater range than my 75m sniper could see (?!), now that is some rocket. So I got wiped out, reloaded mission game and tried to disperse my soldier as the rockets where incoming kinda move, pause,move,pause to get them as far away as possible from the rockets.  And when the run the get pretty far from the rockets,but they got damaged nonetheless even seemingly 20 or so meters away from the impact.  The bloodsplatter was where the rocket hit, although my soldier was far far away at the time. Could it be a bug (?)  So I went back to a geoscape save and reconfigured with CAWS autoshotguns that do 1440 dmg on burs at 3-7 meters and just stormed the buggers, but they where too many, although those CAWS just litteraly vaporized two of the reticulans in blue sky armor so they where effective.  So a) I can't use distances since they seem to have greater range than I B) I can't make my soldiers run away from the missile impact since they hit anyway c) I can't blitz'em 'cause they're too many Reticulans in Blue Sky Armor with Rocket Launchers, the other reticulans are just a minor neusance.
I'm gonna take a coffeebreak and ponder on tactics, but feel free to post what you all tried that didn't work, partially worked or just did the whole mission.  Lets discuss tactics and weapons :-)

Z-

Oh and btw, I am playing on Hard difficulty

[Captain John Ferigad]

Hmm...i wasn personaly now at the Russian Base...but i would it do like that...agains a enemy with heavy weapons i would use A: Snipers..or B: Heavy Artelery. The best would be to carpet bomb the Area with Smoke Grenades, and after that bring in Heavy Artelery, Rocket launchers, Grenade launchers with fire and acid grenades, and to complete eradicate the whole area with grenades, rocket launchers and acid+napalm......and after there is burning earth..i would send in the front troopers with heavy MG Support, and kill the last aliens that survived, lay at the bottom and scream for mercy......

BUT WE HAVE NO MERCY! *reloading M4, pointing on a greay and fire*  :alien2:

[zowrath]

Ok, I tried your approach with smokegrenades. Was going to go for the out-of-the clouds attack, having 1 grenadier, 1 smokegrenade thrower (I only got 9 smoke grenades), 2 CAWS autoshotgon soldiers doing 1440 in shortragne dmg and 3 with flamethrowers doing a massive womping 3900 dmg each on relative close range.  At first this tactic seemed sound, I laued down one smoke grenade and went right in to the thick of it, then layed down another and was moving towards it keeping my troops in the middle of it at all times. And sure as heck one alien steps into the fog right next to me and with great pleassure i litteraly fried him doing 14580 dmg in one turn. Then, now thinking this strategy is it, suddenly all aliens could see me although the smokegrenades are still pouring out heaps of smoke. And then it is as the old story goes.... So, I go back to the drawingboard once again. Anyone else having any luck? :-)

Z.

[The.Donut]

This one took me a few goes to do. However, i learnt on this mission that grenades are your friend  
I had a full team, 2 with sniper rifles (not sure which ones) rest had alien lasers and plenty of grenades. I ran 2 grenadiers to the left of the little hut by the gate, while the rest of my team shot up the few aliens outside the base, and i used a grenade to blow the wall down. After the wall went down i just kept throwing in looooadddss of grenades and picked off the remaining aliens with the snipers  :devil:

Hi btw  

[zowrath]

I did it anyway, but no grenades. I had 1 solder with an RPG, 3 soldiers with Steygr Assault Rifles (almost same range and dmg as Alien Laser Rifles), 2 soldiers with Advanced Alien Laser Rifles and one soldier with a Sniper rifle (the 160 dmb one) and all troops loaded with medkits.
When the mission started i took my sniperguy and ran North East of how the map goes if you don't rotate it and as I suspected the rocketlaunching alies went for him. He ran back and forth dodging rockets, while the remaining group picked down the incoming aliens that ran after my sniperguy.  All aliens, even those in Blue Sky Armor, when down pretty easily infront of the Steygr Assualtrifles switching from aimed to full auto depending on the range Hard-dmg seems to be the way to go on guns.  Also, the rocketlauncher guys have limited rockets so if you can keep doging 6 or so rockets from each they'll be out of ammo and only one or two of them has a backup gun (Advanced Alien Laser Rifle).
When I got into the base I eqiupped a "runner" with medpacks, cleared the immidiate area, saved, and tried some different approaches. Finally I ran, got the mission objective and ran back and exited the base.
So, to sum up what was successful for me: Steygr Assault Rifles and a running decoy to draw the rocketlauncher fire. Some 14-odd aliens on the first level. :-)
I am so glad now, and never did I in any way find this mission ridculously impossible like some games can be.  Just try out some different weapons, and few combinations unlocks it all. Like a riddle that needs solving.
Hope this, and other peoples postings on this thread helps others out.
And, again, I was playing on Hard difficulty so others on other settings might not have such a hard time :-)

Z.

[OpTi]

i went a similer route to The.Donut only i decided to go in with the hevier stuff, eg SLAW, and some of those grenade launchers you see arnie using in T2 can't remember the name.

but i think the big trick is using the pause button to keep moving your soldiers as the enemy rockets come in you can avoid them if your quick enough and spaced out well. All the while your pounding the hole in the wall where the aliens are stood with as much explisives as you can cram in there.

i managed to kill all of them with only 1 person hitting the ground who i healed up after i was done dicing the last alien with an mp7!

Edit: zowrath the blue armour is weak to conventional weapons and with 3 stayers plus a sniper i'm not suprised they went down easy

[Mike]

3 Snipers
4 Assualt rifle guys
1 Heavy weapons trooper

Put all of your squad in Sun armour, do not use Heavy armour. Give everyone plenty of Medkits
Begin by skirmishing. Send your fastest 4 guys up to the road to take out the Sky armour reticulans. Run away every time they launch a missile. Retreat to the start point then go to the westernmost point of the wall. Heal up then use a grenade or the Heavy to take down the wall. Stand back and slightly to the east, so that you only have to fight one alien at a time. Keep firing and dodging. Creating a cloud of flame with Incendiaries also works quite well. Once they stop coming head through the breach and into the base.

[Paganarh]

well, that mission was a tough one.
I tried several approaches and with last configuration I managed to chop myself through.
First of all, selected out strongest soldiers and gave to ALL Heavy Armors.
hey, I know, they moved like sick ducks after that but it was working.
weapons conf was

2 advanced laser rifles (for mid range bursts)
1 reloadable rocket launcher (to create MUCH havoc when multiple aliens started to pour out from the gates)
1 sniper (who stayed at the edge of the map and tried to pick out targets)
2 plasma launchers (for INDIRECT fire- they just covered gate are with rounds)
and LOTS of medpacks
1 grenade launcher (for same as above.... indirect fire)

and with that configuration I did that mission. Was hard as hell


another problem was second level of the base. I just couldnt do a battle there thanks to those bulky Heavy Armors. So, I selected a single trooper, who was the fastest one in the group, dropped his weapons and sent him running through the corridors. Heh. well, he wasnt running if you know what i mean.... he was clumbering like a wounded penguin.

BUT i managed to get the PC without detection and then move back. There were some tense moments when my trooper was detected and got 2 rockets up his arse, but with remarkable limping skill he managed to get to end point.

that's it

[Aussie]

...Once upon a time in Stalingrad there was a secret complex which was guarded by more Reticulans than you can shake a stick at, An Xcom Commander planned a daring raid on the complex to steal some technology and hopefully not get missiled back to Cydonia or T'leth whichever took their fancy.
He tried rushing them which had about as much success as Rik Waller winning the Olympic 100mtrs sprint. undeterred he tried to out manuver them which was about as effective as trying run through a wall.

when all seemed lost he took a 2 man crack strike team, Objective get in and out as quick as possible secondary objective Borrow the info for research with a five finger discount.

I cunningly armed my men with smoke grenade in both hands and all their belts full of grenades and MP7 in backpack. started mission by smoking the entire way to the wall blew a hole it with grenades whilst member number 2 ran around in circles attracting fire. once hole in wall is established run 2 blokes through and in second area simple..(after 3rd Attempt).

second part of mission was much simpler standard close fighting and grenading all the corners before rushing rooms with MP7.

and I did not lose a bloke wheww.... what I would not give for the thermal shock launcher or a tank!!

[xv_lee]

aaaaaagh! this one did my head in!  did it tho, eventually, suprisingly with no fatalities...

i took Paganarh's advice and kitted 'em all with heavy armour, and as many medikits as they could carry, (at least 2 each).

2 x snipers
1 x grenade launcher
1 x advanced laser gun
2 x plasma gun
1 x reloadable rocket launcher


the main problem for me was the first 30 seconds. there are 4 aliens to your immediate left, 2 with rockets.  basically i tried to get my soldiers a few spaces apart from each other, then launch as many explosives as i could in the general direction where those rocket aliens would soon appear from. i killed one rocket one b4 i even saw him, and the other one as soon as he launched a rocket at me.

he died but ko'd 4 of mine. one of my survivors was a sniper... i used him to provide cover while the other 2 went on a mental healing mission... was frustrating as they kept losin conciousness but paid off.  i took the rest of the mission extremely slowly and carefully and it was fine, no real problems at all.

[X-COM]

I did the mission last night!! I just had one guy who was super-heroic at running and packed him up with a plasma shotgun and a load of smoke grenades. With a couple of medic packs just in case.
I then chucked a few smoke grenades and legged it to the wall, blew a hole and continued to run to the base. Once in the base I loaded the shotgun and blasted a couple of greys away. Topped up my health and ran the little guy over to the files, once there I dropped everything except the files and ran back to the exit dodgy the lasers as I went.

I can't help feeling that I cheated, but I couldn't do it the normal way.

[Paganarh]

X-COM, on Oct 7 2003, 11:56 AM, said:

I can't help feeling that I cheated, but I couldn't do it the normal way.

this is not cheating, amigo, this is TACTICS!

praise the ALTAR for making this wonderful game witch we can play through using endless various squad and strategy settings!
:inlove:

[zowrath]

I wouldn't consider that cheating at all. Though I cleared out the initial topside mission, I had a guy running with his arse on fire to get the files and back on the latter downside base mission

Z.

Btw, I am more and more considering re-starting the whole game as I understand that I have done a lot of timewasting and errors on the way =)

[X-COM]

I see what you mean about re-starting, I had a bit of an accident which forced me to restart (http://www.ufoafterm...p?showtopic=477 ) but when I did it all again I breezed through the begining and understand it all now so I will be in a stronger position when those harder missions come by.  

[Sh1000]

How I did it:
6 snipers and 1 plasma shotgun
with a lot of moving around, it seemed to work.
the shotgun guy draws attention from the rocketlauncers and can outrun it easily.. and the snipers kill the aliens. and I think sky armor is not that good for hard bullets, could be mistaking tho

[EASyLIFE]

I managed to complete this "nightmare" of a mission earlier today.

Tatics?

Lot's of med kits,MP7's on burst fire,grenades,one bazooker man,a runner once inside to get the package.

I managed to kill the aliens in the starting forest purley by shooting them and using a rocket,and then healing my units.

Dodging the rocket alien at the gate,then shooting him and healing again.
Set up an ambush at either side of the choke point entrance to the base.
Sent in one unit to lure them out and then picked them off in a cross fire.

Once inside...

Killed a coupel of aliens with group burst MP7 fire.
Sent the runner to get to the package,picked it up , and then hid the runner.
With the other 6 members of the squad i secured the way back for the runner.

Run back with package = mission complete! yay \o/ go me!

Laters!

[zowrath]

I restarted the game the other day and I am looking forward to trying this mission all over again a lot sooner than before. If everything goes as it has so far it should be less aliens and easier, since it seems if you do your missions quickly and don't use a lot of days and months getting there it is easier to capture the objective

Z.

[daishiw]

first time round i lost 2 guys from the rocketlauncher ambush, then inside the base everyone ended up dying except for one dude with SLAW and heavy armour (rest had been in sun or combat armour) who had to trundle all the way to pick up the files and back.

[zowrath]

The sky armor is weak to Hard damage yeah, I used the Stayr Assault Rifle the last time around, thought this time I will have a go with the MP7 as the rate of fire in burstmode is superior. Though, the Stayr has a longer aimed range wich is good on the topside mission.  I'm on feb. 12 in my current game, got 16 bases and bordering to russia already. My first game it was like in mid-end of april.  I have noticed that if you do missions right away they are easier, i.e. fewer aliens, weaker weapons and so on.  Although the new better weapons are introduced in more or less the same pace it seems that fewer aliens in a mission got them than before.  Waiting eagerly for the russian mission now to see how it is there

Z.

[DarkCm]

After i died a few times, i discovered how to do it.

basically, open spaces are your enemy.

I did this with;

2 x mp7 users
2 x steyer aug
1 x neastead (or whatever) shotgun (does 800 or so damage)

ok. the Mp7 have better range in burst mode!!!! almost 35meters. so - but those in burts.

This is a two stage mission and you start in the open. have your all your mean kneel and get the neosted guy to run (he has to be your fastest troop) as soon as he spots a reticulan, get your men to shoot at him, while your neasted runs away from the missle.

If the R has a laser get in close and take off his face with the shotgun!

There should be around 3 - 5 wondering outside the base (ie in the forest before) once they are departed get all your men to the entrance. and wait by the left side of the door. kneel, reload.

get mr neosted to run in (a couple of tiles) to the compound and make sure the aliens see you. now go back to your group and wait. They'll come and die. (they cant get off a rocket faster then you fire an mp7)

Inside, find a nice place to hide - behind a wall. (its vital you meet the aliens as close as possible) then get neosted to run out and lure them to your trap. make sure there arent two ways to your hiding place.

I killed 18+ reticulans on this mission. i had 14 launchers.

Good luck.

Oh, and save often!!!!

Darks ARMY!