Fishfins

I usually have one Heavy per squad. Mine tend to get fairly abysmal hit chances, but Halo Targeting is a godsend if I run into a sectopod, berserker or aliens cowering behind cover. Rockets are handy for clearing away pesky drones or softening up cryssies. Had a lot of fun giving one of my Heavies a heavy plasma, ghost armor and Bullet Swarm. Cloak him up, send him sprinting right next to an alien, then when the turn ends he has this unfair double-whammy that can cripple a sectopod.

The 'percent to hit' system sometimes makes me groan; get up to hugging distance with a cryssalid, 94% chance of hit, miss, sniper with 70% chance of hit misses too, spout verbal abuse at computer. It used to bug me. But it does work both ways; had lucky moments where mutons across the map were blasted with alloy cannons, had another awesome moment today where my best sniper was saved from two cryssalids by newbie supports both scoring hits that only had a 20% chance. When I crunched the numbers, I couldn't believe it. Hooray for random numbers!

Quiet, you clowns! This is VERY serious stuff! It's essential we keep our plant fertilisers under lockdown, lest some budding young terrorist steal some as a cost-effective alternative to using money.

That's what I really like about the X-Com games. You get random, unique soldiers with different names (admittedly, quite a lot of siblings end up serving together) and watch them get more experienced, receive promotions, play hero and survive close calls. I really do feel regret when one of my veterans dies. RIP Captain Mikhailov Mobile Infantry Squad 3 Killed by a Sectoid sniper, December 2000, North Africa

Z-Com

I just got a great Floater Alien Base mission. One Floater tried to kill me with a Blaster Launcher, but he ended up hitting a nearby Reaper, blowing a cluster of Floaters in the process. Another one took a shot, hitting a wall and cutting an easy way to the Command center. I only lost one guy, who was stunned (lucky shot) and accidently blown up with an Auto Cannon.

Kermit the Frog

I only ever use Flying to enter 'Suspected Centers of Alien acTivity' (or SCAT, for short). While kneeling helps, there's less cover in the air. Fortunately, Floaters are even worse at this. Spot one floating around, and it's Black Hawk Down all over again. Just spot one, and BLAM! A single rifle bullet from across the map into the air will send the leatherface dropping like a sack. -- They're annoying snipers though. Once a mere recovery of a Small Scout ended up being an accurate reinactment of Full Metal Jacket. Lost two rookies to a single Floater sniper, spotted his barn, fired dozens of shots at the barn, lost another rookie that tried to get close and ended up sending a soldier through a hole I made in the side and shot him in the back.

Coffee Cup

Another fine example of amateurs putting the big professional developers to shame. Better graphics than Doom 3 in my opinion. I hope a publisher gives them a chance (I'm a sucker for eye candy).

Rocks

Curses! You've beaten me! I'm still trying to import new textures for the floors... unless it's perfectly ok for a Battleship to look like it's rusted over and covered in mud.

Can't figure out how to get a gravity chamber on, and I'm worried that teleporters will encourage frag-camping. Looks like water chambers will have to do. The battleship would make a good deathmatch map.

I'd like to try crafting a Battleship map for Quake 2... I just don't know how to deal with the hoverlifts. I was thinking of a giant water collumn or a series of teleport pads... anyone have any ideas?

I've hardly used power armor in my game - elerium is just too expensive too expensive considering I've seen some of my guys die in one hit while wearing them. Personal armor only became compulsory for every soldier several months in the game. My usual method to counteract unusually high death rates is to have each soldier complete 10 missions, then give them an easy posting - training the PSI troops in regular combat, guarding Interceptor Bases and eventually a Cydonia trip if they're Psionic enough. I've got a couple of those crowded Medium Scout scenarios. Assaulting them with grenades is effective, but there will always be X-Com deaths. Grenades should be compulsory, m'yes. Terror Missions are horrible! I researched Laser Pistols as early as possible (since I could never get Laser Rifles in time), barely won the first Terror Mission then made dang sure to shoot down every Terror Ship. Base defense is fun if you can arrange the map in a linear fashion, although it does have a bug that prevents rooms branching off from having a door. Mutons and Floaters get slaughtered, though I'll happily do anything to stop Sectoids or Ethereals from landing.