"No Reloads" Sucks.

[Snikers]

Alright, say what everyone was talking about with Iron Man, and I decided I would start up a game where I would

not reload at all, except when I have to quit the game and come back. The only thing was that I figured I would

be not reloading on the plane of REALITY.

So, I start up a game, set it to "Veteran", make a log of my characters, save the file in case I run into a bug that crashes the game and head out to the first crashed UFO I get.

Well, my first troops file out of the Skyranger. Oh look, a sectoid. I think I'll get the troops out of its line of sight

to pump some lead into it. Miss, miss, missity miss miss. Okay, I'll get the guy that sees the alien to shoot. Miss.

Okay, I'll move out of sight and see what I can do next turn.

This goes on for a few turns until said Sectoid wanders into close range, as in about a lawn away from my brave

men and women. I decided to go on the rampage and drop *everyone* out of the Skyranger - something I would have

done, but this is STILL NEXT TO THE SKYRANGER'S LEGS. Out comes Olga. Miss miss. Out comes Uta. More miss.

By now the Skyranger is empty but for my second artillery guy. He comes out with a Heavy Cannon full of HE. by

this time the Sectoid has taken two 6.7 rifle rounds (a pretty nasty caliber if you ask me) and and an AutoCannon

AP round and is still perky as day, so upon moving this guy out I figure he *better* kill something. And he does,

oh, HOW HE DOES. Artillery fires, BOOM! Half of my squad is cinders! These were on the other side of the ramp

and weren't even in the line of fire, I'm talking 45 degrees out of the LOF here! In fact the shot was SO impossible

the only explanation is that one of the grunts jokingly turned on the world's most powerful electromagnet at the

moment the guy fired so the shell turned in mid-air to hit the squad. So, during the alien's next turn, the little

Sectoid that could fires a shot into the back of one of my troop's head! I come to the conclusion that I don't deserve

this and reload.

Of course even on the next run, which I did keep, Olga gets hit by an alien she didn't see that was three tiles in

front of her, and another of my troops got iced by an alien that was apparently in the middle of a clearing my other

squad had cleared two turns earlier.

 

Okay, why did I just post that. Alright everyone, I know it, I'm an idiot, I should never have reloaded in the first

place, I'm unworthy to call myself a player and I should be shot for gross incomptence at everything. I just needed to

let this out, delete it whenever you feel like it.

[NKF]

It's hard to just jump right into a game with ironman rules. Start up on an easier setting and practice a bit until you get the hang of it.

 

The best way I've found to practice for no-save-reload rules (even experienced players need a brief refresher course from time to time.) is to wait for a good mission to turn up then save just before launching the Skyranger. Then play the mission in one sitting without even thinking about using the save function in options menu.

 

Play the mission over and over again and don't worry if you win, lose or retreat. In fact, don't worry if your pet soldiers bite the dust, just keep on going. If you find yourself constantly being beaten, then perhaps it's time to revise your strategy and trying something different for a change.

 

The reason for saving just before launching the Skyranger is so that you have access to your stores just in case you want to try different weapon sets, and so that the tactical map will always be a new one.

 

Oh and by the way, when actually playing a game in ironman mode, do make frequent saves out of tactical combat just in case the game crashes unexpectedly. It's one thing to have a strict save-reload policy, it's another to lose several hours of effort through no fault of your own.

 

- NKF

[BladeFireLight]

NKF your right on the money with this... I have not played in 6 months and started a game ironman this week. my first mission cost me all but 3 men... lost most of them just thinking.. ok that alien has run out of reaction time units.. DOH!

[The Veteran]

The way I found easiest with both UFO and TFTD was this... I started with normal games but as best as I could didn't reload. If I'm not happy with myself the first time I finish I do it again. When you don't need to reload anymore start another game on beginner. Keep it Ironman and play through every kind of mission (but not necessarily until game completion) until you can do everything with minimal or no casualties.

Then I went straight onto the hardest one. And took it reeaally slowly... We're talking realtime days here! And this is on the most outdated system you can imagine... Moslo would have stopped it completely!

It works though. Think about each turn... Not each person. Be tactical, but stay decisive. That's what got me through... Eventually

 

And if your guy decides to turn around when he's shooting a HE rocket... I'd think a reload would be fair. After all, they've been in training long enough not to do that... Unless their name is MadCap