Noob tips

[Beardy_Dan]

Hello fellow Silent Stormers!

I'm a noob to Silent Storm, only played a few small missions so far. Tried to play the first axis mission on the weekend where you have to get into some allied base and find some information, supposedly after killing everyone. There's some guys already in the base creating havoc by the look of it, but they shot at me too!

The thing is I got my ass kicked 3 times trying to do the mission in different ways. My team was completely inexperienced but I'm an X-com veteran so I thought I'd do better than this!

The question is, you guys/gals have any generic playing tips to help me out whatever the mission? Should I be taking my time (did that the first game, a squad of reiforcements turned up behind me and kicked my ass) or should I rush in while it's in real time (tried that 2nd game, ended in a nasty gunfight at the front gate)?

Any tips would be greatly appreciated :roll:

[kermix]

First of all, welcome to war.

 

As a fellow X-Com vet with a decent lead in the Allied campaign, I can safely say that I was fooled too. S2 is a lot tougher, and requires a lot more critical thinking to get your crew to a safe victory.

 

I think I've rewritten this post about four times now, trying to find a straightforward list of newb tips that applies to as much as possible...

 

- When you're starting out, it's very dangerous to travel alone. Protect your squad leader with your squad, and protect your squad with allied meat-shields when you're on friendly turf.

 

- It's also very dangerous to stand behind a blind corner, or to hop out from behind one for that matter. Know when you're taking a risk.

 

- Try to keep enemies at a safe distance until you know they've spotted you - if they see you and they haven't interrupted your turn, you have a slightly better chance of advancing and/or getting a shot off.

 

- Try to keep enemies at a safe distance regardless; like Zinaida, you might forget that they shoot back, and then bad things happen.

 

- Know when you need to run away. Everyone has to learn this one.

 

- Know the weapon types, and the strengths and weaknesses of each. Rifles are for long range, SMGs and pistols are for shorter range, MGs vary, and grenades are for lobbing over walls. Once you know what each type of firearm is capable of, and can recognize them in enemy hands, you'll have a much better idea of exactly what you're up against and how to fight it.

 

- Understand scoped rifles, sniper mode, and aiming for body parts. Your snipers will love you, and even your soldiers might get a kick out of dropping a full-auto burst into the unsuspecting head of a point-blank victim.

 

- Know the strengths and weaknesses of each class, and each character on your squad for that matter. Try using snipers and medics for long range, soldiers and grenadiers for medium and short range, and engineers and scouts for (very different) nefarious schemes, where applicable. Oddly enough, the character biographies actually tend to have some good ideas as to how the characters can best be utilized.

 

- Gauze, gauze, gauze.

 

- The odds in most scenarios favor caution and precision over a heroic rush. Note that there is no "commando" class available in the game; John Rambo didn't see any action until Vietnam, and that was many many years later. Running in with guns blazing will usually just get you a lot of attention that you don't want.

 

- Know the general AP costs of weapons, and how much your opponents can typically do in a turn. An enemy who has just gone full-auto with a S/MG is a juicy target for a grenade or another full-auto burst.

 

- When you're in the dark, hide. A lot.

 

- Almost every mission is completely different. Your environment and your goals will vary with each locale and situation, so it can be a real challenge to dominate a mission without playing it through at least twice.

[Whisper]

Some things I've discovered also, that were not immediately obvious playing the game through the first time:

 

- Enemies are much more likely to interrupt your turn when you assault them from the direction they are facing. Let's say there are a couple of guys that can't see you, and you run up on them and toss a grenade at them. If you do it from a direction they're facing, they will amost certainly interrupt you and shoot you dead. On the other hand if you hit them from behind, they will be surprised (oddly enough) and won't be able to react until their next turn. The first time round I didn't actually give the AI that much credit, but I've seen this repeated a great many times now.

 

- Grenades are really, really, really good. Get your throwing skill up a bit (grenadiers are obviously best at this but scouts and soldiers are pretty good also) and throw all those piles of grenades that the enemy politely leaves laying round. They do ridiculous amounts of damage and it's common for one guy to take out 2-3 enemies in a turn with some grenades.

 

- When throwing grenades, be careful of surrounding objects that will interfere with the path of the throw (same goes for other kinds of thrown weapons as well). If you're trying to toss a grenade through a tree, it's very likely -- even though the interface shows that you have an 80% chance to hit the enemy! -- that your throw will glance off tree branches and fall short, probably hurting you instead of the enemy.

 

- To amplify what Kermix says above, hide is really powerful, especially when you see a scout get 100+ Hide and the hide-improving perks. It doesn't even have to be dark when you have a really high hide skill. This is in the late game of course, but even early on hide is very useful. Don't expect that you can walk right up to a guy and punch him in the face, but you can creep up from *behind* fairly regularly even in the first missions. Enemy officers will be your bane with their high alertness.

 

- The Spot skill is extremely important. Snipers are by far the best visual spotters (the extra vision perk is extremely nice once you get it), although scouts are by far the best hearing spotters. One of each in your party will go a long way towards getting the first action for your team. Even if the non-spotters can't see or hear the target, they can careful shot where they *think* it is and have a very good chance of hitting (usually critically hitting due to surprise in my experience).

 

- High-calibre weapons can shoot through almost all walls and ceilings/floors. The big MGs and larger rifles can blow through brick very easily -- this goes along with spotting hand in hand. Remember that awful movie Navy Seals with Michael Biehn and Bill Paxton? "This is God." *BAFF* *ka-thunk*

 

- Ambushes work reasonably well on Easy and Normal difficulties (not so well on Hard because the enemies rarely move out of what they consider a safe area, which paradoxically makes them easier to kill, but whatever). Set up around a corner from where you've heard some enemies, hide, and wait. Maybe make a little noise (have a guy un-hide and run a step or two) and watch the bad guys run right into your ambush. Hours of fun for the whole family!

[Seabee]

The only safe way to play this game as a beginner is to save your game at the start of each mission. At the beginning of each turn before doing anything. And during your turn especially before throwing a grenade or doing anything risky. At least you will not have to replay the whole mission from scratch because the game that was going quite well suddenly turns and has something incredibly stupid occur to ruin your strategy. Later on as you gain more action points you will start to enjoy the game. As a beginner playing on the easy setting it is really no fun as you are lucky to have enough action points during your turn to reload your weapon much less fight back. Just remember to Save and Save often.

[Beardy_Dan]

Thanks people, all that advice sounds quite helpfull! I aspecialy like the idea of ambushing, I'll have to give that a go. Unfortunately I've started studies at UNI again so I'll only get to play once a week or so

Just one more question:

I've restarted missions a couple of times and while the map is the same, the enemy seem to have changed postions, more or less troops, act differently, etc. Is this common? And the enemy reinforcement squad that turned up behind me, does that happen often, just in specific missions, or just a random thing?

This game rocks! :lol:

[kermix]

Certain aspects of missions and random encounter maps are randomly generated. I don't think that reinforcements is one of them though; I think that's a scripted part of at least one or two missions that I'm aware of offhand. If you're talking about the allied mission that starts with the senior officer yelling to call for support on the radio, that's scripted and there's a lot more that you can do in that mission than you might think; it might have been discussed in this forum somewhere else but I can't remember where.

 

I'd say what I did but it's spoiler-riffic, and you should get a chance to check it out yourself.

[Beardy_Dan]

Nah, I was refering to the first Axis mission (not random encounter) where there's an allied base surrounded by rock wall. There's 3 buildings in the compound, one 2 story with a hole blown out the side. You start on the road leading to the front gate (no actual gate, just an opening in the rock wall). I masterfully positioning my assault troops either side of the gate, my scout hidden just inside the compound for forward recon, and my sniper & medic positioned in cover directly in front of the gate to blitz anyone thinking of coming out the front door of the 2 story building. There are some explosions and sporatic gunfire within the 2 story building accompanied by some dialogue saying we have friends already inside.

So I've taken out the minor resistance that presents itself and I'm all ready to storm the building when a 7 or 8 man squad marches up behind me along the road. some hastily thrown grenades and several buckloads of lead pumped in their direction was only enough to kill half of them before they all opened fire on my nearby leader :?

I played that mission 3 times so far, that was the first. The next 2 times I was less carefull and probably less successful too, but that squad never did turn up again so I was just wondering if it was random or not.

I can't wait to give it another go, I think I'll try the same settup and see if I can ambush someone :twisted:

[Whisper]

I have played that mission from the Axis side a couple of times myself, as well as from the Allies side now - I don't *think* anything's randomized, nor do I think there are really any fixed missions with randomized content, but I haven't played the game through enough times to know for sure. Like Kermix said there is something that can happen in that mission (even if you're playing Axis) that is what you're seeing, the reinforcement squad.

 

It's a bit wierd, for me every time those poor bastards appear they are blown to bits by some landmines planted right where they spawn - their CO even rags on them for finding landmines to step on in the middle of a schoolgirl classroom or somesuch.

 

My advice is make a push and get over the wall, or else move up the road and past the gate/opening.

 

 

*** SPOILER ***

 

 

There's a radio on the far side of the big building, in one of the small separate buildings next to the truck. It looks like a box (has a little door icon like a box too). I believe that when Axis is playing, an Allied guy is scripted to go work the radio (if you are Allies you can go work it yourself). Maybe you or the renegades killed script boy and he never got round to calling for reinforcements?

[Beardy_Dan]

Mines! Now why didn't I think of that :twisted:

Thanks for the help guys, you've given me some great ideas that sound both fun and effective. Can't wait to come up with some of my own twisted tactics to share with you guys.

[kermix]

It's a bit wierd, for me every time those poor bastards appear they are blown to bits by some landmines planted right where they spawn - their CO even rags on them for finding landmines to step on in the middle of a schoolgirl classroom or somesuch.

 

* kinda spoiler-riffic *

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After playing that mission a few times as Allies, I had my engineer go find the mines at the beginning of the mission and chuck a grenade at them. :lol: Then I used the radio and let the (uninjured) backup help catch bullets from the spawning jerks at the front.

[GotTank]

Ahh X-Com : ) still playing at my house...

 

But Tips, First thing is my Team Hides and Crouches. Then we stop realtime so the Enemy does not get the drop on us. Always use the buddy system. Usually only half the team moves up in a turn, saving those AP's so we can drop what ever interrupts we get. Scoped Rifles are everyones friend.

 

Each Team member carries medic supplies for his/her and the medic's use. Medic carries an assortment of what he can use. Can't always fix that Wound or Crit with that, try this other item.

 

My engineer used the Advance lockpick in the field even though he did not have the skill to. It worked to advance his skills as the basic lock pick was no longer being resupplied at base.

 

Carry more that one weapon, it cost nothing to drop one and pull out the pistol and unload it at the enemy that just came around the corner.

 

Going around the corner I usally send one of the high VP meatsheilds around first in case of enemy fire.

 

Lastly and most importantly Save is your Friend and can save your life...

My engineer survived the explosion... going through the 2nd story window...Said it was only a scratch... but did not survive the landing in the street below.