Ehhh... Lobstermen...

[Fox]

Ok... question: If your entire squad gets jacked up on a shipping route, its not being a reloading bastard if you reload and try again right? I mean, It's only the third month in TFTD and they sent me a Lobsterman shipping route terror site. I don't even have any sonic weapons researched!!! I have the gauss series done, sonic pulsers and plastic armor, but I was just working on Thermal Shok launcher. That's my mainstay against Lobstermen.

 

What the hell should I do? Ignore the terror site? I mean, there is like no way I could win this. I didn't even get to the second part. I think there was one Lobstermen left when I lost my last guy.

 

Vet, this one would be a good one for you to try. I mean, this just plain sucks.

[NKF]

There's nothing wrong with conceding the battle to the aliens every once in a while -- just don't let it happen too often. Since you're going up against a foe that's far too strong for you at the moment, it would be prudent to avoid them.

 

However, do not let the terror site go unattended. Go there, do what you can around the landing area and dust off. Leaving it alone is a lot worse than evacuating.

 

If all else fails, arm everyone with thermal tazers. It'll be murder to even get up to them, but once they're down, even a magna blast will do them in. I've never really made any attempt to use gas cannon phosphor shells against lobstermen before... but I wonder if it would be an idea? If anything it would be incredibly slow.

 

- NKF

[Fox]

Are lobstermen weak against phosphorous? Because I have 6 of my guys armed with gas cannons, 6 with gauss rifles, and 2 with heavy gauss. The gas cannoners have 2 packs of HE and 1 pack of phosphorous each. Maybe I'll try it.

[NCC-1701-F]

These are those rare and sentimental terror sites that i love. They take hours, you hardly ever win, and never with a 2 parter. Go to the terror site, play it, fight hard, when it looks really bad, conduct an orderly withdrawl back to the triton... You'll hate it, it'll suck, you'll have lost alot of good men for very little, so A. have your troops pick up the equipment and stuff off the dead lobster men (bring back to the triton, i think you keep it that way, not sure though), or just keep the terror site TARGETED by ANY craft until you get sonic weapons ready, it'll still be there as long as its always targeted hard to do for months though.........

[NKF]

Just remember that phosphor shells aren't as directly effective as HE shells. In fact, they're practically useless when used underwater. They are a lot more effective on land.

 

Try burning a lobsterman and hide, then wait a few turns and see what sort of results you get. I managed to pull it off brilliantly in UFO a few times by burning a few sectoids that I couldn't see hiding behind a hedge. In TFTD I've also used fire to kill off any snipers in that large building with all those boxes in port terror missions. But I don't know if it'll work for lobstermen.

 

- NKF

[Fox]

Yeah... lobstermen are definetely NOT affected by fire. They just smile and prance around in it. Then they kill my guys. I just gave up and started a new game, taking it a bit slower. I tend to get too big fo muh britches and start doing stuff I shouldn't be doing at that time.

[doctor who]

Theres nothing wrong with saving and re-loading!!!

 

Saving at the start of a turn is common sense, and using that method, I have 20 soldiers each with 80 time units, 60-70 health, 80-100 firing accuracy and 5 MC specialists with an MC skill of 100+!! And its only August 2040!! Just letting all of your soldiers die is a bit sad and a waste of time playing it in my opinion.

 

[BladeFireLight]

Reloading is a waste of time. you lear nothing.

 

You have to treat x-com like a board game. If you play chess. you oponent will not let you take back a turn.

 

the best chess player are not only ones who win the most.. they are also the ones who lost the most.

 

Loose and Learn. you become a better player.

 

Wen I'm fased with a loosing a mission. I try to play it out. then pull back.

 

some time you get supprized and pull some amazing thing's off.

 

My first ever lobser mission was 10men to 1 lobster. it was x-com 1 lobster 7 when I took it down.

 

What i learned made it accepible losses.

 

-Blade FireLight

[NKF]

Everyone an ubersoldier? I must be jaded after all these years, but where's the fun in that?

 

Personally, I prefer to save in the Geoscape before the mission's even started, but let's not get into that save-reload morality debate again.

 

The only thing I'd really like to point out is that even with save-reload immortality, you aren't going to get very far against the lobstermen if you cannot kill them.

 

- NKF

[Ki-tat Chung]

i wonder who would win? muton vs lobsterman? i recon lobbieman. and imagine all the meat you could get!?!?!?!? man, it could be a big market!

[NCC-1701-F]

OK, i agree, not reloading is the best way, i do reload sometimes, but you might learn something from RELOADING too, but never in the mission, always before i go in. Another way of learning important things is to go back and play the same battle with certain small variatons, a different LZ, a little change in tactics here, a smoke grenade there, you get the idea.... Though the missions that you retreat on or win after HOURS AND HOURS of playing arre always the best, its a certain feeling that comes with x-com, and you really learn alot, look at what you did, where men got killed, how to fix your tactics and change them. In general i've found that fluid, very adaptable tactics work well, take at the most 4 or 5 men to a group, usually two or three. Someone dies, send out another, base your plans on the map layout, look for where you think there might be a bug and o in and kill him/it. Develop contingincy plans, if he misses his shot when he goes into the room, then what? Have another guy ready to go in the side door to the room and nail th bug. You get the idea, but don't reload so you have no losses, its pointless

 

 

P.S. the cooking lobsterman joke is mine, i'm sorry, it started like 4 or 5 months ago on the UFO comm centre forums.... the answer: best cooked in a garlic sauce with a touch of butter

[Ki-tat Chung]

https://www.x-com.co.uk/forums/style_images/1/icon13.gifhumf.https://www.x-com.co.uk/forums/style_images/1/icon13.gif

 

its best served this way:

Cantonese Lobster

Serves 4 to 6

 

2 lobster tails (about 1 pound each) (Ki-tat: In this case, prob half a tail)

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons flour

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tablespoon salted black beans, pounded and soaked in 1 tablespoon water

1 tablespoon ginger, chopped fine

1 scallion, chopped fine

1/4 pound ground pork

2 tablespoons sherry

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

1 cup chicken stock

1 tablespoon cornstarch, dissolved in 2 tablespoons water

2 scallions, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 egg, beaten

 

2 to 4 cups oil for deep-frying and stir-frying

 

Directions:

 

1. Cut each lobster tail in half. Wash thoroughly. Drain. Cut tails into pieces 1 1/2 inches in length, leaving shells on.

 

2. Sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of salt and the flour on lobster.

 

3. Mix garlic with black bean mixture in a bowl. Stir well.

 

4. Heat oil for deep-frying to smoking hot. Put in lobster pieces. Deep-fry until shells are red. Drain. Remove.

 

5. Reheat 1 tablespoon of oil in wok. Stir-fry black bean mixture 30 seconds. Remove.

 

6. Reheat 2 tablespoons of oil in wok. Stir-fry ginger and scallion until there is an aroma, about 30 seconds. Add pork. Stir-fry on high heat until color changes. Add 1 tablespoon of sherry, soy sauce, black bean mixture, and stock. Bring to boil.

 

7. Add lobster to meat mixture. Add 1 tablespoon sherry. Cover. Cook 3 minutes.

 

8. Remove lid. Bring to boil. Thicken gravy with dissolved cornstarch. Season with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add scallions. Slowly pour in beaten egg. Stir-fry about 10 seconds. Remove.

 

 

May be prepared in advance through step 6 and refrigerated, or frozen after step 8.

 

(*Note: This recipe is reprinted from Madame Wong's Long-Life Chinese Cookbook, courtesy of Sylvia Schulman).

 

 

ha! there!

[NCC-1701-F]

Bloody hell, i wish i'd seen this one (i wasn't playing when the last reply was up). I like the lobster recipie... and w/lobstermen you'll be needing to multiply the recipe by 6 or 7 (even with a half-tail)

[LTNS]

Just so you dont get stuck with the lobster men, try this. capture both a dead and live gillman(or the deep one) and research both. You'll then get the thermic lance technology. Research all the way up that untill you get heavy thermic lance. It's a hand to hand combat weapon that has a 99% chance of a one hit kill for lobster men. The 1% that wont kill is the one where you miss. If you dont do that, research the strongest explosives and weapons.

[Fox]

It's too risky to walk up to them in the first place. It's easier to research Thermal Shok, which creams Lobstermen.

[Sgt. Strike]

It's fun to walk up to lobster men and use the thermal tazer. It beats, alot of times, shooting them many times.

[Hobbes]

....and if everything else fails, a wok seems to take care of them quite well according to the recipe.

 

I can just imagine my legions of wok equipped late night TV salesmen walking into battle to face the Lobsters.

[Sgt. Strike]

I prefer surf and turf, myself. But I guess I'll settle, inr this case, for just the surf part.