Popinjay

I name my guys based on their function. In my last game, I had Med, Doc (scientist, not medic), Snipes, Grenadier and TANK. TANK wore the advanced heavy suit and gatling gun, and had many fun times mowing down Rets in base missions. Also great capacity and Speed, so she managed to keep up with the rest of the troops even though she carried her own spare ammo.

Hi all, I have been visiting this board for a while and it has occurred to me that no-one has started a topic to discuss their favorite weapons (and reasons for that decision). So, here it is: My favorite weapons used to be the shotgun, there is nothing quite like kicking open a door, finding the room behind crawling with mutants and firing on them point-blank. However, as I progressed through the game, I started to enjoy a good gatling gun. In one base defense mission, my main gat wielder (call-sign "Tank") found herself cutoff and alone with only her massive weapon to help her when every ret converged on her position. She managed to kill 6 rets (all using launchers and warp weapons) before sinking to the floor redlined. Luckily, my second gat wielder had finally lubered into the fray, and iced the 7th ret, ending the mission before Tank lost her final HPs. What luck, but what a fight! It was seeing Tank moving slowly forward, only pausing to blow away yet another alien that sold the ol' gat' to me. Now I don't go anywhere without one :-) Popinjay

I trained my old greys in every profession that I could. When my casualties became oppressive, I started using them anytime I couldn't field 7 human soldiers at once. This is happening to me more and more frequently as the game progresses. Luckily I haven't lost an old grey yet. This is a little wierd: One old grey is obviously scottish and the other appears to be of Indian descent. (I named the Scottish alien Sean ["I waiting to be impreshed." Connery])

Actually, I found this battle was not too hard... 2x snipers 1x medic 1x grenadier (with the 45m ranged grenade launcher) 2x assault rifle There was only one alien outside the base, who I waxed right off the bat, then I spread my men out and moved forward. After lobbing a few grenades over the wall, I blew a section of it up. (No-one had come out of the gate, and I was getting a bit bored.) Out of nowhere: 5 aliens, two with rocket launchers apparently just waiting for me to do that. Nbd, concentrate fire on the rocket-greys. When they launched their missiles, anyone targetted ran for cover. I think the secret with rockets is to spread out your targets without spreading out your firepower. The aliens only got off 2 rockets apiece. At the end of that part of the mission, everyone was injured ... the medic only just made it through alive. Use up a few medpacks and head into the base proper.

Ok, I now have (2) aliens on my team. But they cannot use items of human manufacture. Fair enough, I have way more alien bits of technology than I could ever use for my human soldiers littering my armoury. Has anyone been able to get these two fellows into a suit of armour though? They can't wear human armour and they can't wear human/alien armour. Is it possible to find them suits of alien armour in later missions? If they never get a set of armour, I'll just use them in regular missions. But if there is a chance to get armour later, I'll hold off until they have a decent chance of coming through a mission alive. Any input would be welcome. Cheers, Popinjay