Rookies: How do you treat them?

[Jh316]

I pretty much stick them with laser weapons and light armor and send them up as scouts, that way if they go berserk or get MC'ed, they won't be able to hurt my men much. If they live and make a few kills, good for them, they get actual protection and a weapon that does something.

[Solfius]

theres nothing wrong with lasers!! I only use laser rifles and have no problems what-so-ever!

[Jh316]

Well, yes, but I mean the pistols. Never had much success with them, but I always keep a couple laying around for Rookies that havn't undergone Psi-evaluation yet, or have low Bravery.

[Solfius]

Ah i see now

[The Veteran]

Snikers don't be a biggot...

[usmarox]

I treat them like pieces of meat......and then, if they're hard enough to survive fighting naked with a handgun, then they'll be taken seriously.

 

(As an aside, one of my friends does it like this too. There was one guy called Jungo Tanida who survived, made it to Colonel and went to Cydonia. Welcom to the wonderful Darwinian world of combat selection =).

[NCC-1701-F]

hey, i had the same guy, he was sacked though, great soldier, but no psi strangth, can't use a fighting man when he shoots you

[Asmodai]

w00t! Another bootcamp vote! The way I see it, n00bs aren't nearly as valuable as the xperienced agents, but nontheless, they are needed to replace and strengthen your force. Using n00bs as cannon fodder is fine to protect your xperienced agents, but how do you get more of those xperienced agent? Simply by keeping n00bs alive!

[iggy]

I put the rooks in psionic training and see who does the best in it. The awesome psykers or shooters(before I touch them) become part of the 'active' team that actually 'perform' the missions.

[Orac]

I tend to treat my rookies as one of the guys. Once my soldiers get to be captain or higher though, I tend to use them more as rear echelon troops. I pretty much send all my rookies, squaddies, and sergeants out together. However, if I see a situation where risk is high (like entering a UFO door), I tend to send in the rookies first. I figure it's a good chance for them to get some good experience (though I'll generally try to back them with a more experienced soldier if possible). If they live they get to shoot up alot of aliens, if they die, well then I guess they're a hero.

 

That no pain no gain aspect is what it's all about. Losing rookies is a smaller loss and by giving them the riskier roles they catch up to the rest of the squad faster. It's those risky situations they get the opportunity for many kills which brings them up in stats faster. To me, it seems inevadable the rookies get the riskier roles since you're going to take casualties one way or the other sooner or later. Pushing the rookies hard helps them become better replacements faster, and/or suffer less set backs in the campagn. War is hell.

 

LOL, it feels like I'm almost trying to justify my command decisions to myself. :angel:

 

I'd hate to be a general in real life.

 

"Private first class Gunkel, we've got a situation on our hands. The odds of survival are low, but this is a great opportunity to show what you're made of soldier. That's why I chose to volunteer you for the job at hand, because I knew you were the man for the job and wouldn't let us down. All you gotta do is climb up that hill and enter that weird looking space ship and shoot anything that moves. Gunkel... Gunkel.... Oh, I guess it's normal to have a few butterflies. I remember when I was a private first class. Oh the stories. Anyway, we've got a mission to accomplish. Get going boy, get going... No time to waste... chop chop."

[Asmodai]

Rookies are crap. That's why in the beginning of the game u lose half ur squad every mission till u get armor.

[BioHazard]

I usually lose 1 or 2 agents in the field (flying armor, 1 blasta launcher soldier, best tank and heavy plasmas) and the new guys on the squad are simply chosen from the top down. I did have a situation once, my top team was gone and those anoying ethereals decided to come along, stupid gits, even a laser rifle in the chest ends their miserable life.

[Fox]

I tend to have a million rookies all the time, because you need a ton of guys to get others up in rank.

 

The only way I treat them differently is armor distribution. I maintain this rule at all times:

 

Rookie - No armor

Squaddie - No armor/Personal Armor

Sergeant - Personal Armor

Captain - Power Suit

Colonel- Power Suit/Flying Suit

Commander - Flying Suit

 

Towards the end of the game I typically have around 500 soldiers, so it's easy to have 13 Colonels, 1 Commander in addition to 3 Hovertank Plasmas and 1 Hovertank/Fusion all in flying suits for Cydonia.

[Fullborg]

I tend to follow the bootcamp approach mixed with one of the guys.

 

To train rookies up, since I have adapted my tactics to an 8 man squad, supported with 0-2 HWPs. To smaller UFO crashes or recoveries, I send 1 vet, 7 newbies. To the medium stuff, gain a vet, lose the noob. And so on...

 

In landed battleship assaults (my personal favourite), two screened rookies, similarly equipped to the 6 vets, are sent in to break stuff.

 

By screened, I mean:

Firing Acc > 50

Bravery >= 50

Psi Strength >=50

Strength > 40

Reactions > 50

 

Usually, out of every hundred rookies I hire, ten pass all the requirements bar psi strength, and only about two or three out of those 10 pass the psi strength requirement.

 

Of course, by the time I have psi labs and the requirement for such good rookies, XCOM Ltd has long since been turning a 7 digit monthly profit.

 

Earlier in the game, I screen all rookies to the following standards:

FA > 50

Bravery >=50

Strength > 30

Reactions > 40

[Munkeylord]

shit, anybody that can carry a damn weapon and run from cover to cover is just as equal as the commander next to him. rank or skill has no meaning over combat tactics. fire and cover, leap frog, whatever gets the "group" from one end of the field to the other with minimal casualties is all that matters. rank or not.

[Ki-tat Chung]

i have a mix of all except for bomberman. and ML, rookies have so litle TU that if i put a heavy plas on him, he can only walk 5 paces!

[NKF]

But, according to the data files, the heavy plasma is just as heavy as the standard X-Com rifle. Your rookies shouldn't be encumbered at all.

 

- NKF

[Ki-tat Chung]

u sure?

[NKF]

I'm positive.

 

The rifle and the heavy plasma are also the same weight as the laser rifle, the heavy and incendiary rocket and even the psi-amp.

 

- NKF

[bevan]

well i strap a high explosive or 2 to the crappy rookies chest and give them a laser pistol and make em run at the enemy while the vets stay in the ship mind controlling and the better rookies play sniper

[Rattler]

I weed out the weak. Those that suck at aiming or panic easily or get MCed easily(not sure if panic and MCed fall under the same thing) are cut. End of story.

 

But if they make it, and if I start liking them then they're one of the guys.

My main squad is tipically made up of the best of the best. All are Captians and up. All have fantastic aim and almost all are have very high psy strength/skill. Every other squad is of lower ranks with 2 people that were just barly cut from the main squad(mainly due to room in skyranger/avenger) lead the squad to make sure everything goes according to plan.

[NKF]

Panicking easily is a function of your bravery stat. The better bravery you have, the less morale drain you have whenever something bad happens to one of your troops. Poor bravery does not mean the soldier has poor psi-strength. If the soldier panicks, the soldier gets a chance to boost the bravery stat by 10 points by the end of the mission. But if the soldier has poor psi-strength, high bravery isn't going to help you against the psionic panic attacks.

 

As for seiving soldiers: I always say to myself -- poor stats can be trained. Psi strength cannot. Besides, if your soldier cannot perform something very well, then the soldier may be more suited to a slightly different combat role.

 

- NKF

[BreakMage]

So, I could technically get a Psi-Amp and panic my own units to boost their bravery stat?

[NKF]

If you could target your own non-mind-controlled units with the psi-amps, then I guess it's theoretically possible. Otherwise it isn't. You could disarm an ethereal or a sectoid leader/commander and stick it in a room with a few unarmed soldiers and leave them alone for a while. But if their psionic skill just cannot match your psi-strength -- well, your soldier's too good to panic.

 

But then again -- if you play well, low bravery stats becomes less of a problem. High ranking officers also help reduce morale loss.

 

- NKF

[Hankosha]

simple: rookies get lots of grenades. and only grenades.(walking bomb.)