OMG I just lost my main base! :(

[CapnKill]

Got caught with my pants down.

 

Fought a terror ship I grounded and lost all but 4 of my troops and one was injured.

 

Then before I could restaff a battleship came in and attacked!

 

I thought that my wounded soldier would fight, but he did not... So I had 1 rocket tank 2 well trained troups and a rook in fatigues.

 

The Tank went down in one freaking hit, I could've really used a little more from him.

 

One of my good troops was my Commander actually, and well, lets just say that he was under alien control for about 90% of the mission.

 

The rook and what was possibly my best soldier over all of my bases, fought valiantly but could not hold out. What upsets me most is that I think I could've pulled it off, but I made two tactical errors at the very end. When it was all said and done I took out 16 aliens, there couldn't have been many more then that, I almost think the last standing alien came into the closet and took me out

 

Anyway, lesson learned I suppose is to keep on hand more troops than you normally send out for situations such as these.

 

I still have 2 fully operational bases, I did transfer all the valuables from the main away before the Battle ship arrived, so that's good and I guess I don't have to pay the 80 scientists anymore, but still, a significant set back.

 

Now I do have a question, I did rebuild the base at roughly the same location (central europe) and before it could even get a hangar or living qtrs up the aliens took it down again. So was that becasue I put the base very close to where I had my other one, or will I have this problem as long as the base is in Europe period?

 

And do the Aliens ever forget or is Europe just offlimits for me for the rest of the game?

 

Thanks!

[Space Voyager]

I doubt that this was because of the close location, more of a fluke... Sounds like a serious problem for an ironman player. Will you try to get out of it?

[CapnKill]

I doubt that this was because of the close location, more of a fluke... Sounds like a serious problem for an ironman player. Will you try to get out of it?

 

Oh yes for sure, I'm playing this thing until I lose or win, that's the whole point

 

I still have 2 fully operational bases, and oddly enough one is a manufacturing base the other is a research base, so I should be ok and the psi facility is up and running on oen of them since I built two in parallel

 

We'll see how it goes.

[NKF]

Generally the retaliation mission for that regional zone will get cleared once the battleship has successfully landed its crew in the base, so it may indeed have been a fluke, or for some odd reason the mission wasn't cleared. This isn't a topic I've spent much time trying to understand the mechanics, but we could experiment a bit.

 

If you've got the space and cash: build your main base, then place one or more extra bases near it. Leave these empty, but start preparing your necessary facilities at the main base to at least set up a squad of defenders.

 

This probably won't guarantee that the main base will not get destroyed if it's still being targeted, but it certainly has the potential to throw of retaliation scouts and cause them to pick the wrong base to attack. The 2% instant attack triggered by a shootdowns is still there, but doesn't exactly apply to your present predicament!

 

If it turns out they're targeting that specific base slot, you could try using a different slot and leave the original as one of the temporary decoys.

 

- NKF

[Bomb Bloke]

Did a quick test, seems that losing a base defense mission does cause the aliens to forget the location of that base.

 

Aliens can find your bases in much the same way you can find theirs (by simply hovering craft nearby), so in theory a new base near a high level of alien activity will get targeted fairly quickly. I'd put it down to bad luck.

[FullAuto]

I guess I don't have to pay the 80 scientists anymore

 

"Dead relatives not to get compensation." reports The Times.

 

Always a silver lining eh?

 

What sort of base set up are you using, anyway, if you're still fully operational? A hit like that would normally leave me with 1-2 listening posts looking sheepishly at each other and going "O-kaaaay."

[Pete]

I'd usually be screwed as well as I don't share the wealth (technology and elerium) between bases very well.

[chiasaur11]

I'd usually be screwed as well as I don't share the wealth (technology and elerium) between bases very well.

 

Same.

 

I might have been able to mount a recovery in my most recent game, barely, but the good troopers and techs were all in one base.

 

Same with the armor and tanks. Yeah, rough going at best.

[FullAuto]

I might have been able to survive if I had a few million lying around, pick up new soldiers, new Skyranger, etc. But that would means lots of early rich pickings, so probably not.

[CapnKill]

I had my main base which was mainly used for research, and obviously the most advanced as far as modules and such, but I also had 2 more bases that were also fully operational, with Hyperwave Decoders, Psi Lab in the works, 2 or 3 Hangars each... one of these bases was to become a research extension, so the lab space was completed and it also had about 80ish Scientists, and the other was to be a manufacturing base.

 

I have a 3d base that is an interceptor base in South Africa.

 

So losing my Main didn't really slow me down at all since I still have 2 other "mains" that can research and manufacture and I also transferred everything of value from the main before the Battleship arrived.

 

Shortly after losing my main the Aliens tried to infiltrate the US, this was their 2nd such attempt and once again towards the end of the month.

 

I managed to catch a battleship on the ground in that area and cleared it out. The battle was tough, lost about 6 soldiers, but managed to clear it out. I never even stepped foot inside the ship, they were more than willing to come out to me. I did dodge some bullets, a couple of blaster bombs missed my soldiers by one square and flew harmlessly off the map.

 

I also am pretty certain that they also killed about 5 or 6 of their own troops with one poorly aimed blaster bomb around the entrance to the ship.

 

This brings up a question I had... I was very shocked to find that the Chryssalid, in its original AND the zombie form, fired back at me with a ranged laser shot as part of their reaction fire... I most certainly did not expect that, so I have to assume that this is a side effect of using the UFO Extender? I don't recall a mod in there to allow for this, but perhaps I missed it.

 

If someone can clear that up for me that would be great

 

Anywho, the Battleship was not the only ship I caught on the ground in the US area, as there was also a supply ship that I managed to catch napping in the same region. I'm currently in the process of dealing with that (game saved, went on vacation for 4 or 5 days).

 

As it stands right now I have 2 main bases, one listening post and approx 10 mill in the bank after selling off the battleship loot.

 

Once I deal with this supply ship I should probably have at least $15 mill in the bank, probably more...

 

There is 1 enemy base in Australia and I have to assume one in the US at this point.

 

Surprisingly enough when the month flipped the US was still on my side, I was certain I lost it due to all the infiltration activity that I was powerless to stop at that time.

 

Also most of the research is done anyway, I just need a commander to tell me where on Mars I need to go to, but my soldiers are no where near ready for that mission. I'll need to get a PSI evaluation on everyone and start to assemble the final squad, and then train them up on their reaction fire and such.

 

My main conundrum is what to do with all this money... not a bad problem to have, but I also don't want to spend it on the wrong things. I think I'll start manufacturing an Avenger, and perhaps a couple of Firestorms, or which ever one is the alien interceptor equivalent.

 

The only tech I haven't researched yet are Blaster bombs, but I don't plan on using those...

 

Anywho, that's my recap to date, the battle continues!! Hopefully I don't make anymore stupid mistakes

 

Who am I kidding, I make stupid mistakes constantly.... Just in this supply ship mission that I have saved, I tried a grenade relay with a primed proximity mine... Ooops. Soldier A throws it to soldier B... Solsdier A missed Soldier B by one square... no problem, Soldier B can just walk over to BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!

 

I think the list of soldiers that I've killed by my own proximity grenades is probably nearing 10... unfortunately... one day I'll learn my lesson... but its pretty brutal with Iron Man mentality

[CapnKill]

Ahh ok, found this nugget in the UFO Pedia:

 

zombification without death is special, in that it does not cause units to scream or drop their weapons. No morale loss for unit death will occur, and no points for killed soldiers will be lost in this case. Armed Zombies can only use their equipment via Reaction Fire, and when killed, change to armed Chryssalids (which have the same limitation).

 

That explains what I saw...

[Bomb Bloke]

I'd consider sinking some cash into tanks, if you aren't already using them. Remember to keep a few spares in each base, too.

 

You might also try building workshops/living quarters everywhere, which'll allow you to make yet more money.

 

If you haven't already done so, have your craft patrol random areas of the world. See if you can find some more alien bases around the place.

[CapnKill]

I'd consider sinking some cash into tanks, if you aren't already using them. Remember to keep a few spares in each base, too.

 

You might also try building workshops/living quarters everywhere, which'll allow you to make yet more money.

 

If you haven't already done so, have your craft patrol random areas of the world. See if you can find some more alien bases around the place.

 

That's a great reminder, I was going to build some Plasma hover tanks... its time to move on from the rocket tanks

[NKF]

If you have more money than you need (you're in the reverse position you were at the start of the game), after you've invested in some hovertanks, you could waste some cash building laser tanks. Brilliant little tanks these are, as they're both highly expendable and carry the strongest ground laser weapon in the game.

 

- NKF

[CapnKill]

Disaster struck in the Supply ship mission.

 

I encountered the super alien... this was my best group of soldiers, well equipped and trained, but no match for ... the super alien

 

This bastard takes out 5 of my guys... he survives an alien grenade blast (this is a snakesman), and two plasma rifle shots to the chest. On top of that his return fire is immaculate, resulting in the deaths of 5 of my soldiers...

 

The rest battled it out, and it was down to just one X-Com soldier, he's been with me since the very beginning... Tried to wait out the last alien, but no go... went inside the ship, and it was a Cryssalid that was stuck behind some damaged floor... once it saw me, it came down and took care of business

 

Everyone dead, no loot, just tragedy.

 

Right now I've brought in new recruits, but the Aliens are running me over... another base popped up in South America, which can be a good thing since I have a base close to there and hopefully I can ambush some supply ships.

 

At the moment though a Battle Ship landed in North America and I'm going in... this is a group of about 4 vets and 8 rookies....

 

This might be it... the deciding mission... if I pull this off I can bounce back, if not I think I'm done for.

 

I'll run it tomorrow, see how it goes.

[Bomb Bloke]

... Congratulations on your 100th post! >:]

[CapnKill]

Hah, thanks, wish it was better news

[CapnKill]

So a 3d base popped up.... Etheral in North America

 

The good news is that I have a base in North America so I can shoot down or just go to the supply ships, since they are close enough, the bad news is that..well.. They're Etherals, and I have no PSI info on my troops what so ever.

 

So far I've shot down the ships but I don't do anything beyond that... do you guys do the same or do you take your chances? I find that without any PSI info on my troops its just far too risky to take these guys on.

 

Also, just to confirm, it takes 2 months to get PSI info right? About 1 month to build the PSI lab and then another month to get the first info?

 

Seems that you'd want the Psi lab to be finished just before the end of the month, so then you can get soldiers in right at the beginning of the next month, is that correct?

 

Anywho, I'm building Plasma Tanks right now, and I'm amazed at their accuracy, I used one in a Supply ship battle and it performed admirably! I should've been rolling these things off the conveyor belt long ago

[Sunflash]

Personally, I prefer explosives when it comes to my tanks. This doesn't work that great, since you only get them with explosives when the first set of tanks or the last set. Oh well! But yes, tanks can make amazing shots, for such clumsy things.

[CapnKill]

They're ok, but they do run out of ammo... but yeah, up to this point I've been a 100% rocket tank fan and they've done a good job, but their armor sucks, which is the main problem.

 

Also they destroy a lot of equipment where with a plasma or laser I can just take down the enemy without blowing other stuff up, especially in the base defense choke point scenario.

[chiasaur11]

Despite occasional bad luck, I'm a big plasma tank fan.

 

Every game I've gotten to Cydonia, at least a couple of tanks have taken point. Usually four.

 

They cost money and precious E-115, but their inherent disposability is appealing.

[ulairion]

I start making plasma tanks as soon as I'm able, but there's something great about rocket tanks. What can I say, I love turning half the battlefield to ashes.

[CapnKill]

Hahah, just finished a base defense mission vs snakemen and the funniest thing happened.

 

I have the choke point setup so there's probably at least 10 bodies in that narrow corridor and the last snakeman alive panicks.. so I figure.. well lets get some reaction fire training...

 

SO I put some laser pistol guys in position... the turn runs and he pulls out a freaking grenade adn drops it on the pile of corpses...

 

I lost sooooo much loot by getting greedy

[Space Voyager]

SO I put some laser pistol guys in position... the turn runs and he pulls out a freaking grenade adn drops it on the pile of corpses...

 

What do you mean, he pulls out a grenade? I don't think that is possible on reaction fire... Perhaps your guy shot somebody with a primed grenade?

[Bomb Bloke]

Instead of just killing the alien, he moved some of his units and then allowed it to have a turn. That's when it dropped the grenade.