Superhuman Tragedy

[derrickec]

Loaded up X-Com again after many years and discovered (once again) how addicting it could be. I was playing through on Beginner and ReLoading during battles, when I realized how easy and lame it was. So, I decided to go all out. Downloaded XcomUtil, set "Reasearch helped by captured aliens" to 'on,' and started a game of Superhuman, intending to never save except when I needed to take a break.

 

After 5 or 6 relatively successful missions (including two Terror ones), I spotted a 'Very Large' UFO sitting on the ground. Now, in Beginner this would have given me no pause, and being the cocky X-Com player that I am, I decided to throw in my squad of newbies and rack up the kills for max experience.

 

Whoops.

 

I thought I would share my tragedy with you all.

 

After deploying a smoke grenade, I took a few potshots at some Snakemen I could see from the Skyranger. Using my newly manufactured Laser Rifles, I hit one with two shots, dead center. It didn't even phase him, and pissed him off enough to where he shot my two frontrunners in the ship, including one of my best officers. Oh well, that's the price for not re-loading.

 

I figured the Snakeman's resilience to my laser blast was a fluke and decided to disembark the rest of my troops. I deployed 4 around the struts of my landing craft, and shot at that nasty Snakeman again. My piss-poor rookies missed him everytime, and so I ended my turn and waited with fingers crossed for the return fire sure to follow. However, that was the least of my worries.

 

Breaking X-Com rule number one, I had failed to scan the entire area around my ship to make sure there weren't any baddies hiding underneath it. Out of nowhere, a Chryssalid comes striding in and approaches one of my men. "Oh yeah, I remember those guys" I thought to myself. Remember, it had been years since I had played. "Huh... I can't remember what they do exactly." Well, I found out real quick as one of them worked his mojo magic on my unsuspecting rookie, turning him into a drooling orange zombie.

 

This made me quite angry.

 

Angry enough that I did everything I could to kill the sucker on my next turn. I moved every soldier I could out of the ship and around the Chryssalid, intending to blast it into the E.T.-hereafter. The first Chryssalid took 7 laser shots before it died. 7! And, much to my dismay, when I shot my former-soldier-turned-walking-undead, I rediscovered that it too turned into a Chryssalid. However, I had clogged the area so much with my soldiers that I couldn't get anyone else into place to shoot it. So, at the end of this turn, I had 9 X-Com operatives with exhausted TU's in and around the loading platform of my Skyranger, tightly grouped together, with a Chryssalid smack dab in the center of them. Crap. I clicked 'End Turn' and waited for the worst.

 

The worst was much worse that I thought it would be.

 

Flying across the screen comes this small, purple sphere. "What is that?", I thought for one second before it hit the landing platform and erupted in the biggest explosion I had seen so far. When I started my turn I expected to be greeted with a few dead corpses, but I also expected a few of my soldiers to have survived (what I thought was) the normal grenade blast.

 

Instead, what I saw was a massive, burning, ring of fire. The mission was on jungle terrain, and 'jungle terrain' apparently translates into 'highly flammable' terrain. I couldn't even see the corpses of my fallen men. All of my best soldiers, gone in one fell swoop. It was then that I remembered what Blaster Bombs were. On top of that, the last officer I had left, the only one with any experience to his name, who I had affectionately named Bullseye for his sharpshooting skills, panicked and ran screaming out into the flaming carnage! The two rookies left in the ship went beserk and narrowly missed shooting one another. My only consolation in all of this was that the Chryssalid had been taken out as well (backstabbing buggers, those Snakemen), and it wasn't much of one.

 

I ended my turn again and hoped Bullseye would stay calm and not catch on fire long enough to put him back on the plane and abort the mission. That was not to be, as those Snakemen b*stards decided to add insult to injury and snipe my sniveling officer from the shadows.

 

I aborted the mission and returned to my base a significantly less cocky X-Com commander.

 

Any other Superhuman tragedies people want to share?

[JellyfishGreen]

Thanks for sharing. I won't go into details on my Snakeman terror mission but I'll throw in the following amusing points:

1. Survivors: 2

2. Chrysallids are hard to see in the dark...

3. ...especially when you've scorched all the earth and blown the streetlights up.

4. Flying suits keep you safe from chrysallids...

5. ...except when shot full of holes. "Lead Balloon" was never more apt.

6. Chrysallids tend not to run up the ramp into the Skyranger.

7. You can throw a surprising amount of explosives out of the Skyranger, if you're too chicken to venture out.

8. When you're down to your last two guys, and have thrown out all the explosive stuff, and one of them cops a serious leg wound, it's time to abort the mission.

[Crafty]

Finished up games at veteran, then genius, so nowhere to go but superhuman. So far, things are going ok!

 

End of the first month, I was expecting a terror mission ... got a base assault instead. Much to my delight, the attackers were floaters! Fortunately, I'd been manufacturing laser pistols, and had enough on hand to equip most everyone on hand. Suffered some losses, but in the end, much booty was retained, and, although I wasn't using stun rods, found I had captured a live alien. Alien containment was built about two days prior.

 

Floater Commander. Yeah, he'll be chilling out for awhile.

 

Next month saw two terror missions, but one of those was floater as well. The sectoid mission was way more painful, of course, especially when I had to execute my mind-controlled best soldier. Patrick Stewart, just like the dude on Star Trek.

 

Four months in, I've built my fourth base. Technically fifth, as WestCom in the US got overrun undefended in March.

 

The main thing I'm appreciating on UFO recovery missions is not to get too attached to my guys.

 

edit: Every time I rebuild the base in the United States, it gets overrun by aliens before I can even get living quarters built. What gives?

[JellyfishGreen]

Every time I rebuild the base in the United States, it gets overrun by aliens before I can even get living quarters built. What gives?

 

Sounds like the savegame you're working from has an alien battleship (or two?) with a course already set for the USA base. As far as I know, you'd either have to go back to an earlier savegame, or just let it be captured and build another. (See Wiki re tips on abandoning bases.)

 

Well done with the Floater base defence, by the way.

[Bomb Bloke]

Perhaps it's a glitch? Aliens tend to keep attacking a base until you fend them off in a tactical mission. If a base gets taken out, and you build a new base, perhaps the aliens will keep on targeting that record in the base, um, database, and so prevent it from getting off the ground.

 

The only way around I can see would be to build a base, then have a craft patrol the area 24/7. If a battleship comes in range, shoot it down. Continue until the base has stores and living quarters, then allow the aliens to land before beating them off for good.

[Crafty]

Perhaps it's a glitch? Aliens tend to keep attacking a base until you fend them off in a tactical mission. If a base gets taken out, and you build a new base, perhaps the aliens will keep on targeting that record in the base, um, database, and so prevent it from getting off the ground.

 

The only way around I can see would be to build a base, then have a craft patrol the area 24/7. If a battleship comes in range, shoot it down. Continue until the base has stores and living quarters, then allow the aliens to land before beating them off for good.

 

Yeah, problem is that the subsequent retaliations would occur before I could even get the quarters built, let alone the hangar. Plus I had nothing that would come close to taking on a battleship. (Besides, I've yet to get any ship, even a later model, to catch a battleship en route to a base invasion. Is that even possible?) Anyway, I've scrapped the game, not because of this bug (my plan was to build up bases elsewhere and wait for the non-stop retaliations to cease in the US), but because on a base defense in Europe, I was getting killed by reaction fire from a dead floater. I took it as a sign from God saying "Restart", so I did.

 

Is it possible that the aliens went into overdrive, triggered by the freakish early capture of the floater commander?

[Zombie]

Plus I had nothing that would come close to taking on a battleship. (Besides, I've yet to get any ship, even a later model, to catch a battleship en route to a base invasion. Is that even possible?)

Sure is. You definitely need an Avenger and a Hyperwave Decoder working at the target base to catch them en route. The Avenger is necessary for it's speed and the HWD is needed to detect the Battleship far enough out so your Avenger can get in intercept range.

 

Is it possible that the aliens went into overdrive, triggered by the freakish early capture of the floater commander?

I really doubt it. Couldn't hurt to run a few trials though.

 

- Zombie

[NKF]

Can you try building several bases in the same area at the same time? I'd like to see how that works out. Variation of the decoy base strategy, see, only this involves building several identical bases in tandem until one can house troops and weapons.

 

- NKF

[Bomb Bloke]

Who said anything about catching the Battleship? The idea was to stick an interceptor (or a few of, depending on your firepower) directly on top of the base you wish to defend. Shouldn't be too hard to "catch" the alien forces when they are coming to your patroling ships.

 

Your intercept craft have their own radar, so I doubt nearby ground systems are required. I didn't mention this before, as I thought it obvious, but the ships you send come from one of your already functional bases.

 

Though NKF's idea is probably a lot better. Build two bases, let the aliens wipe one out, and complete the other.

 

But if you've already started over... Nevermind.

[Zombie]

Who said anything about catching the Battleship? The idea was to stick an interceptor (or a few of, depending on your firepower) directly on top of the base you wish to defend. Shouldn't be too hard to "catch" the alien forces when they are coming to your patroling ships.

Crafty mentioned catching the Battleship.

 

So you think you can stick some patrolling Interceptors/Lightning/Firestorms over the target base and be able to shoot the Battleship down en route? Go ahead and be my guest, but those craft are not fast enough to get into intercept range in the first place. An Avenger is the only craft capable of this feat, and even then the Battleship has to be a fair distance away from the base.

 

Here's the deal: when you send a craft to intercept a UFO, your craft has to fly out to the target. If the UFO is going at a slow rate of speed, your craft can probably get into automatic intercept range. However, Battleships heading directly to an X-COM base are always going their max velocity (5000 knots) and never slow down. An Avenger going at a full-bore 5400 knots first gets right on top of a Battleship. Then it makes a 180 degree turn and pursues the Battleship until it gets into intercept range. Effectively, this renders your Avenger a 400 knot catch-up craft. It takes a little time to catch the Battleship from behind, so detecting it far enough out is a huge tactical advantage. Craft radar suck and are not 100% effective, so you need a Hyperwave to at least guarantee detection (but not intercept) success.

 

That's just for one Avenger. Sending multiple Avengers to do a simultaneous attack requires more time (and therefore more distance) as you cannot select multiple craft at once. Each one has to get into intercept range by catching up to the Battleship. That time difference adds up and can be very significant, preventing you from getting all your craft into range. Sure, sometimes you can get two craft into intercept range at the exact same time but this is rare.

 

Though NKF's idea is probably a lot better. Build two bases, let the aliens wipe one out, and complete the other.

Say you have 2 bases. Base A is the base the aliens are trying to attack. Base B is a "decoy" base meant to sway the aliens to attack it instead. Problem is, the aliens attacking Base A don't know the existence of Base B. Another alien group needs to come by and detect Base B for it to start to receive retaliation missions. The aliens attacking Base A never switch missions until the objective is complete or you successfully ward them off. So much for the decoy idea.

 

The role a secondary base nearby plays in a base-defense emergency is limited. First you have to get the darn thing built in time. The min time necessary is 10 days for a warehouse base or 16 days if you want to house personnel. This means you need to have sufficient warning and funds 16 days before the attack starts. On Superhuman, it is exceedingly difficult to have both early on.

 

- Zombie

[NKF]

Let me clarify a little. True, a decoy base would definitely not work if the base has already been found. The decoy base only works if your base is not currently targeted, but you know the aliens are searching for your base.

 

What I meant was more in for the scenario where you are continuously reconstructing a base in the same area only to have it destroyed before it's even functional, over and over again.

 

So if you find this happening, the idea is to construct two or more mini-bases at the same time. Both minimal, consisting of the lift, stores and quarters. Once you can house troops and weapons in the base and destroy the oncoming battleship, only then do you add the other modules and decomission the tandem base.

 

This whole idea gets shot down IF the aliens continue to remember the base at a particular base slot as opposed to a base in a particular region.

 

A similar but less related idea would be to waste two base slots to make two minimal function bases in the same area - e.g. a spread-out base. Say, rather than a single radar/intercept outpost, we have an intercept outpost, and a radar outpost. One gets destroyed, at least the other will still be up. Or for splitting up a larger primary base. Say your main base. Have only 1 hangar in the main base assault/research base for the Skyranger, and the neighbour base houses the interceptors.

 

Yes, it's a waste of a base slot, but it can work if you've got good coverage already, or if you're playing a challenge where you can only build in 1 region (like Hawaii).

 

- NKF

[Zombie]

Oh, I get it now. Thanks for the explanation NKF!

 

Seriously, I never have problems with the scenario where the aliens would destroy a new base before a Living Quarters is in operation. In preparation for the new base, I stockpile some vital weapons and equipment elsewhere. I also try to have a set of soldiers in a nearby base on standby so they can be transferred as soon as the LQ's are built. HWP's aren't bad either. Since purchasing personnel takes 3 days and a new tank takes 4, having these on-hand is a real time saver as the transfer time will only be between 6-16 hours.

 

- Zombie

[Crafty]

Oh, I get it now. Thanks for the explanation NKF!

 

Seriously, I never have problems with the scenario where the aliens would destroy a new base before a Living Quarters is in operation. In preparation for the new base, I stockpile some vital weapons and equipment elsewhere. I also try to have a set of soldiers in a nearby base on standby so they can be transferred as soon as the LQ's are built. HWP's aren't bad either. Since purchasing personnel takes 3 days and a new tank takes 4, having these on-hand is a real time saver as the transfer time will only be between 6-16 hours.

 

- Zombie

 

Yes, that's all well and good. Unless, of course, you're getting attacked before you can build stores, quarters, anything.

 

Here's my theory on what happened. I foolishly got the base attacks started by shooting down 3 ufos from my US base in a pretty short period of time, and neglected to put any troops on site. The first WestCom was overrun, no defense took place. BUT, when I kept trying to rebuild the base, it was pretty much in the same area, and the aliens were still sending battleships for the first retaliation. As the first retaliation doesn't officially end until there's a battle, it never ended. I figured that once the base was destroyed, they'd stop retaliating, but I guess I figured wrong.

 

Still, on the current (second) attempt at superhuman, the aliens really are on a whole different level. Every month has at least one retaliation/base assault and one terror mission. Why am I getting attacked on April 29, and then again on May 3? Not cool. I mean, it's a lot of money and weapons getting dropped off, but come on, I'd like to have some stability around here.

[Crus8r]

All this discussion has gotten me wondering what happens if a (undefended) base were overrun and destroyed WHILE troops and equipment were in transit...do they return to the base of origin, or do they just cease to exist? I'm positive this has never happened to me...but then, the 'window' of vulnerability is usually quite short...

 

Crus8r

[Zombie]

They cease to exist. It's the same basic idea of sending a craft stationed at the target base into the air when the attack begins. As soon as the base is gone, the craft disappears too. (In case anyone is interested, I gave my Avenger orders to go to a waypoint when the Battleship struck. After the base was destroyed, the Avenger disappeared, but the waypoint lingered! )

 

- Zombie

[Crafty]

Update on my superhuman follies. The second effort is going much better, now have five bases up and running, developing some pretty serious psi-types, and nearing blanket global coverage so as to avoid ethereal terror missions.

 

Except for the mission that went down last month. Flew in, thought I'd give it a go with a couple of psi amps and a full avenger crew. Unloaded my weak psi dudes to soak up plasma, and got a couple of kills out the door. Also mc'd an ethereal who was pretty close to the avenger. The alien turn... well, I'm saving some salary at least. 5 dudes got mc'd, two dudes in the avenger go berserk, and after a whole lot of friendly fire I'm flying my ass out of there with 14 of the original 26. Thank god my psi capables didn't get shot.

 

Even if I get to the point where I have a loaded avenger with high-psi soldiers (which in previous games means I'm ready for the final mission), I'm never doing an ethereal terror mission again. It's just too much pain.

[Zombie]

I would still suggest visiting the Terror Site though. Have your guys look around and try to kill a few aliens. If it starts to turn sour, abort. At least you don't get the huge -1000 point penalty for ignoring the site. The most you could lose is -480 with the abort.

 

- Zombie

[NKF]

Well, you need to be a bit more selective with the troop psi levels when going on ethereal missions. It's not a good idea to go to an ethereal mission if you don't know your psi capabilities. If you do, then you may have a chance.

 

The ideal scenario is to have a lot of heavy psi strength soldiers on board. I couldn't give you an exact number, but anywhere between 70 and 100 is ideal. For the lower end, make sure you've got a lot of psi skill to bolster your defense slightly. With this, the ethereals will not be able to use psi on you, and will be forced to fight you normally. Think of them as flying Mutons.

 

If you start with a mix of good and bad psi strengths, then you want to corral your bad psi units inside the craft, disarm them and leave them for the ethereals to waste their psi attacks on while your high psi strength (and tanks) units venture out.

 

If you don't know what your psi strengths are - land then abort. It's suicide to go any further. If you don't have the psi lab yet, you may want to take this opportunity to capture the nearest ethereal, bring it to the dropship and abort as quickly as you can - and abandoning anyone who's been mind controlled.

 

- NKF