Fifth game of Normal Ironman (still haven't gone to the final mission.

 

I finally decide to attack the Alien Base after building up an elite force (I have 11 Colonels right now) but wanting to avoid having to face a Sectopod.

 

Everything goes by the book until I reach the large chamber right before the command room that has all those pillars on the central part. I secure one end and move my Assault Colonel up and he spots a Sectopod at the other end but after backing up the thing doesn't move after the Colonel.

 

The rest of the squad starts moving but since they'll be on the open (no Squad Sight) fighting that thing I decide to improvise (read: dashing) and send the Assault with his Alloy Cannon to get personal with the Sectopod.

 

The Sectopod fires its Cannon on Overwatch at the Assault. Misses due to Lightning Reflexes and the Colonel finds itself facing the beast, 4 Drones and 2 Floaters. He fires 2 Alloy shots with Rapid Fire, hits both and... the thing is still alive and I say: bye bye Assault.

 

End turn and it fires its Cannon, leaving the Assault with 1 HP. Floater fires and hits but doesn't kill him (becomes critical). My 2nd Assault dashes, gets hit by the reaction fire but finally kills the Sectopod with 2 shots and afterwards the rest of the squad mops up the aliens allowing for the Medic to save the Assault Colonel on the last minute and a clean (no KIA) mission.

 

Amazing.

Just be glad there was just one sectopod

Well done Hobbes! Sometimes we need luck just as much as skill eh Have you done the alien base on normal Silencer? I thought I had 2 sectopods but maybe I'm thinking of the battleships instead? I imagine there are more on classic so don't know if you'll know

Have you done the alien base on normal Silencer

 

No I only played on Classic and I was there before I even had Sectopods. That was 4th or 5th month and only had to deal with Cyberdisc.

hmm may be I didn't have sectopods in my game either then... Must've been battleship but I really don't remember

Probably because I had battleship in October.

Probably because I had battleship in October.

 

I only saw the Battleship on this game once but I decided to shoot it down and not assault - apparently it's a rare sight since I never saw it again, so if you want Blaster Launchers you need to take it.

 

One thing I learned is that you should get the alien base ASAP - you don't want to be facing a Sectopod at the beginning on those narrow corridors, it's bloody murder when they use that explosive weapon on the choke points like doors with your squad covering behind the walls.

Really? Dang that may be a problem for me then as I'm playing through my easy game right up to end game tech before even interrogating an alien!!! Best foes so far are cyberdiscs, Berserkers and Heavy floaters so I've met 10 of the 14 races I think. Just commanders, ethereals, 'pods and Elites to go now and got all the big missions ahead of me! I figured it won't matter as the commanders, ethereals and elites are all triggered by the linear storyline missions and so presumably ca't turn up early. It's great taking down these large UFOs and only facing outsiders in the cockpits!!!

 

Didn't really think about sectopods but I have a couple squads of colonels now so should be ok I think. Lost a captain in a run of the mill muton abduction today, second casualty of the whole game. Guess I pushed too far forward, uncovered 3 mutons (not a problem) but then my last move found 2 more, one of which was a berserker! Poor guy nearly made it but he got pretty badly ganged up on so we lost him the same turn

Really? Dang that may be a problem for me then as I'm playing through my easy game right up to end game tech before even interrogating an alien!!! Best foes so far are cyberdiscs, Berserkers and Heavy floaters so I've met 10 of the 14 races I think. Just commanders, ethereals, 'pods and Elites to go now and got all the big missions ahead of me! I figured it won't matter as the commanders, ethereals and elites are all triggered by the linear storyline missions and so presumably ca't turn up early. It's great taking down these large UFOs and only facing outsiders in the cockpits!!!

 

Didn't really think about sectopods but I have a couple squads of colonels now so should be ok I think. Lost a captain in a run of the mill muton abduction today, second casualty of the whole game. Guess I pushed too far forward, uncovered 3 mutons (not a problem) but then my last move found 2 more, one of which was a berserker! Poor guy nearly made it but he got pretty badly ganged up on so we lost him the same turn

 

Sectoid Commanders and Ethereals replace Outsiders after the Base and Overseer missions but you'll get Muton Elites and Sectopods regardless if you made those missions or not. I decided to go to the base the moment I faced a Muton Elite during a UFO crash site and I've seen a Sectopod on a Supply Ship (my first one - it scared the hell out of me!) also before the base mission.

 

The game can really surprise you because of the randomness of the alien's starting positions and their patrols (or 'teleports'). On the game before this one I had a routine mission with a veteran squad that quickly turned into a nightmare when 6 Mutons and 1 Cyberdisk revealed themselves on the 2nd turn and proceeded to kill my entire squad.

 

Since I only play Ironman and I was really attached to that squad I got so depressed that I had to restart and force myself to see my soldiers more as cannon fodder rather than drinking buddies.

Uh-oh... That could be a problem as I'm on my first supply ship now and am fielding a team in Titan armour with laser/plasma weapons! A few days from now I'll have Firestorms with EMP everywhere too so this shouldn't take me too much longer

Uh? On classic, scariest thing I met in the Base was chryssalids. Not even a cyberdisk around.

 

I went pretty early, though. Third or fourth month?

Uh? On classic, scariest thing I met in the Base was chryssalids. Not even a cyberdisk around.

 

I went pretty early, though. Third or fourth month?

 

June or July is pretty good for a base attack from my experience, later than that and you'll most likely start running into the heavier stuff. The Aliens will keep escalating and to me the hardest missions are where I find myself outgunned regardless of my tactics.

Heh, the Classic difficulty makes Superhuman in the original look fair. And it was - at least as far as the damage modelling was concerned since it worked the same for both sides. Here the aliens can score instant hits and deal massive critical damage effortlessly, while my chaps have to work hard just to get a partial damage hit.

 

- NKF

What about impossible? lol

Heh, the Classic difficulty makes Superhuman in the original look fair. And it was - at least as far as the damage modelling was concerned since it worked the same for both sides. Here the aliens can score instant hits and deal massive critical damage effortlessly, while my chaps have to work hard just to get a partial damage hit.

 

- NKF

 

I still haven't started to tackle Classic because it's hard to learn the tactical engine (and tactics) while getting butchered

What about impossible? lol

What about it. It just throws you into more diffocult position. If you know how to play it is easy to play. Though it doesn't give you room for fresh air like classic do

I suspect Impossible is just less forgiving about mistakes, but I suppose that makes it more realistic (well, in terms of an alien invasion) in that your men are likely mown down with one-hit-kills a lot more.

Trouble with that is we still only have 6 soldiers with the same skills and a lower life expectancy while the enemies occur in far greater numbers

Trouble with that is we still only have 6 soldiers with the same skills and a lower life expectancy while the enemies occur in far greater numbers

 

Lower life expectancy ? Not really. Same as on classic - if aliens roll critical you feel the same - which mostly without armour is death. The only real difference is that:

 

A) There are more missions

B) 2-4 more aliens with +1 to HP - that leads to race to lasers.

C) You get +3 on panic after abduction - which leads to 2 countries withdrawing in the first month and you can't do anything about it, no matter how well you will scratch your head. You must finish the game as fast as possible because those satelites will only help you for a month. In good progress you will lose 2 continents.

 

So Impossible ain't impossible but it's not for your average gamer. I have a game on impossible and survived first month without any loses (except those 2 countries)

 

It almost shows how would real alien invasion work if humanity ain't prepared for it.

It almost shows how would real alien invasion work if humanity ain't prepared for it.

 

In other words, we're screwed

 

Prepare to be anally probed

Well a real alien invasion would probably be an extinction level event to be fair... You can certainly guarantee that all earth military would scramble to defend the planet in the event of guerilla attacks like in these games. How many thousand military aircraft are there all over the world? How many military bases full of combat ready troops? Armoured vehicles, nuclear weapons, special task forces, a covert alien invasion would be crushed before the public had even noticed it!

In that case original X-com wouldn't make sense

Absolutely right it doesn't make sense! I'm not levelling that comment at just the new game but all of them. The UFO series is particularly hard to believe as after the spores killed most of the planets population, the tattered remnants still managed to fight the invaders off easily and then go on to fight them 2 more times as well

Because in UFO Reticulans were busy enough to plant that Biomass. They didn't anticipate that humans could rally and kick their asses.

 

 

What is more even funny in Original X-Com. Prior to 01.01.1999 Japanese tried it's luck but they failed and suddenly something happens and X-Com is able to detect UFOs and Interceptor (I think based on either MIG-29 Fulcrum or F-18) are able to "catch-up" and shoot it down

The Kiryu Kai never stood a chance. They were the best Japan had rather than the best the whole world had so they had very little funding or coverage (despite arguably having more technology than the rest of the world!!!) When the funding Councils came together to form X-Com things were different so they had the best possible chance of success.

 

Regardless though you're right, the whole concept of it is laughable in every iteration of this sort of game. The thing people fail to realise about 'alien invasion' media is that we had to use all of earths resources to fight off a small part of the alien war machine and the planet is essentially half destroyed as an outcome. Take Independence Day for example, obviously they'll be back. And when they are it'll all be over for earth!