Ethereals

[Morsey]

I've finally come across these guys again at a terror site.

Usually I try and hide from them as they just take over your mind like there's no tomorrow.

I have'nt got enough Psi ability to do it back to them yet and just wondered what tactics you guys use.

I had thought of useing the blaster bombs but was a bit worried about the civilian poulation. :dontgetit:

[Slythe]

Well in any game it's important to get psi ability as quickly as possible in my opinion. Were you able to detect that the terror ship/site contained ethereals before you landed there ? One way to combat them that NKF has suggested is to arm all your men with standard old style rifles and pistols, with everyone in power armor or flying suits, that way if a soldier is taken control of and shoots your own soldiers it won't do any harm. Although, with sectopods present that's a problem. In general, when a soldier is easily taken control of after the first or second try, you'll know they're weak psionically and can be either sacked or only used on non-psi alien missions, so that eventually you'll have a psi-strong squad to tackle the greys and eths. Personally I try to avoid any ethereal missions if at all possible.

[Ice2056]

My anti-etherreal strategy consists of two steps.

Step one is to identify the most psi resistant units. The only way to do this is in combat. These units are transferred to a special team.

Step two is to use the hyperwave decoder to filter out the ethereal ships and send in my special forces.

 

Before I've researched/build a hyperwave decoder I just make the non psi resistant agents drop everything and complete the mission with a few elite units.

 

It's my experience that ethereals can see about twice as far as my own agents. Especially in the dark, so I use flares to find them. I prefer to encounter them on terror missions instead of out in the open. When they're hiding somewhere around UFO's they're almost impossible to spot because of elevated terrain.

[Hobbes]

Use as many blaster bombs as necessary and don't be shy about leveling the entire battlefield. Ignore the civilian casualties since the negative points they add to the final score are small change if you defeat the aliens.

Another good thing to take along are tanks, especially the laser ones since they can't be mind controlled by the aliens and the laser is good against the Sectopods.

If you want to prevent the aliens from using your own soldiers to wreck havoc don't give any grenades to your troopers and at the end of the turn make them drop their weapons. You won't make any reaction shots (which is might be a good thing because of the aliens' counterattack if you don't drop them). Just hide your troopers and at the beginning of the turn have them pick up their weapons again. This takes about some 10 action points (2 to drop the weapon and 8 to pick it back up) but is well worth it if you are not sure of your soldiers' psi strenght.

 

PS - Another good tactic is to use your Interceptors/Firestorms and blast the Terror Ships before they attack. You'll need the Hyperwave Decoder to know what race is onboard the UFO and once you have the entire world covered you can simply blow the incoming craft at your leisure. If you don't have plasma beams simply get three Interceptors equipped with Avalanche missiles and have them to fire at the UFO with cautious mode. DON'T let your fighters get close! When they run out of Avalanche missiles take them back to base. The weapon carried by the Terror Ship can bring down an interceptor with two shots so be careful!

[NKF]

If you do go the way of the pistol/rifle and the power armour or autocannon-HE with flying suits (oh who am I kidding, this will work with any weapon setup), one strangely excellent anti-sectopod strategy is to arm some of your more resistant soldiers with stun bombs and a small launcher.

 

It may not look like much, but stun bombs simply massacre sectopods. The Sectopod armour is good enough for them to completely ignore the stun bomb damage sometimes so be prepared to fire another salvo if necessary. More importantly, stun bombs won't kill any friendlies, but it can mess up the civilian loyalty flag if they get stunned (which is no problem, really, as it'll just set their end of mission score to 0 rather than a negative if that particular civilian gets killed).

 

Though it may sound ridiculous to be using a stun bomb against a robot, go ahead and try it. The results speak for themselves. Sectopods rarely, if ever, get back up again. The only unit in the game that appears to be truly immune to stun are your HWPs.

 

If you want to be absolutely sure, remember that any alien, when stunned, cannot protect itself from an explosive round no matter how tough it is when it is unconscious. So you could kill a superhuman sectopod with a standard issue grenade or an AC-HE shell if you wanted to.

 

Or hey, you could try using the stun rod, but you'd need to attack a sectopod four times to get the same sort of results. It's possible, but I never said it was a very bright idea.

 

- NKF

[Jman4117]

Just the task for a psi-weak rookie though

[The Demi-Godly One]

I once blew up 3/4 of a sectopod in battle when it was stunned and when it got back up it only had 3/4 left.

[NKF]

Heh, I recall knocking out a cyberdisc with a stun bomb and it didn't detonate. A few turns later 1/4th of it woke up, but it wouldn't react or do anything after that. It just stayed at the one spot.

 

Still, large terror units waking up after being stunned is rare enough.

 

- NKF

[Jman4117]

Maybe the stun bomb is electromagnetic and fries the curcuitry

Stun rod is electric so maybe stun bomb is the same.

[BladeFireLight]

Heh, I recall knocking out a cyberdisc with a stun bomb and it didn't detonate. A few turns later 1/4th of it woke up, but it wouldn't react or do anything after that. It just stayed at the one spot.

 

Still, large terror units waking up after being stunned is rare enough.

 

- NKF

I thought that was a version 1.0 bug.

[NKF]

I believe it was just a one-time only thing. I was playing UFO CEd. when it happened. Apart from that, I haven't experienced any other large terror units waking up after being stunned (in UFO anyway).

 

- NKF

[The Demi-Godly One]

For me the 3 quarters of the sectopod got up and walked away from each other, I guess they had a fight.

[Jman4117]

Ethereal missions:

Have a Skyranger with 2 laser tanks and 6 soldiers or an Avenger with 4 tanks and 10 sodiers. Use the tanks to to engage the enemy and fire blaster bombs from the safety of the transport.

Other aliens:

Tanks are not as important (maybe bring one or two for sectiods) as man power. Against aliens like Mutons and Snakemen the volume of fire is more important. A full squad of 14 or 26 men with Heavy Plasmas is nice against these.

[Hobbes]

A full squad of 14 or 26 men with Heavy Plasmas is nice against these.

26?!? That's what I call overkill. Either for your troops or for the aliens...

Might not be safe to the troops in case they are not all psi strong, not to mention grenades being tossed around or stray fire from the aliens. You'll crush them but unless you take some psi amps along you'll also get casualties.

[Jman4117]

I was talking about doing that on non psi aliens with tough amour. Not good to unload the whole squad in the first turn though. Maybe do the mission with ten men and have a rest for reserve.

[The Demi-Godly One]

Do aliens have to see you to psi-control you for the first time? I know they will "remember" your position after you've been controlled, but they can't remember what they don't know, right?

[Jman4117]

I think so. On ethereal missions (with xcom util avenger that has the door at the rear) I have not been mind controled as long as I kept the soldiers in the transport and used the tanks to fight most of the battle. I guess they can't see inside so they don't use psionics on me.

 

 

Edit: I think they can see in through windows and through corners.

[Morsey]

And I thought I knew this game well!

You guys have got some excellent strategies.

Must try the stun bomb idea though.

[The Demi-Godly One]

Using explosive weapons (Or any weapons that have a blast radius) you can take down any 4 squared creature easily, because the damage hits all four seperate sections. Multiplying the damage by 4!