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It's obviously MECs; bonus mobility from the fist and later on the servomotors project plus high survivability divorced from cover. So good.
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Jan 9, 2014 07:22
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AirborneNinja posted:
Mimetic skin + Low profile means any half-cover cloaks you. My snapshot sniper was easily my best scout on my last impossible run, since MECS require a ghost grenade and supports/assault require full cover to cloak. I would run my sniper to cloak close to the enemy, start the attack with my other troops, then flank/ITZ massacre everyone with my sniper, who was already up close to the enemies and easily in position to flank. This also works great for EXALT missions since you can basically run your sniper from one beacon to the next and finish the mission in like 2 turns. Scouting isn't so much about max-movement to me, it's about being able to see the enemy before they see you, and get to meld without revealing yourself. I just figured, "if my sniper is going to be scouting and engagement range, why not just go snapshot instead?" and it worked out great. I also hate wasting meld on my supports, since I usually get a MEC running asap too, which makes rationing meld difficult. I like putting it on snipers, assaults, and heavies first, since it makes it easy to position them for flanking or rockets. And supports really don't need that. I've actually kind of stopped using supports in general, and going for just pure offense with a medkit or two. Meow Tse-tung fucked around with this message at 07:45 on Jan 9, 2014 |
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Jan 9, 2014 07:24
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What.
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Do you guys make soldiers based on yourself? I've only gotten a couple of soldiers from Canada, so I always make one of them me... they always die within the first two missions.  I made one based on my wife as well, but she got eaten by an alien bug and then turned into a zombie and I had to kill my zombie wife.
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Jan 9, 2014 08:21
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Koth posted:
This is why we play X-COM, man. This is the reason right here.
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Jan 9, 2014 08:24
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Usually my first A-Team (or classes that stay at a long range  ) get named after friends and family, with 'lesser' soldiers getting named after coworkers though I don't save scum to maintain them beyond that. I always name a Rookie after myself - in my continuity the base commander is a bitter, drunken wreck of a woman with a stash of whiskey under her desk - but then typically end up dead after a mission or two because oh god they're an assault and I still can't use them properly. One of my friends, Emma 'Eniko', will always end up as a sniper with some sort of Mary Sue-esque kill ratio and psychic powers. It's kind of hilarious.
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Jan 9, 2014 08:28
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Koth posted:Do you guys make soldiers based on yourself? I've only gotten a couple of soldiers from Canada, so I always make one of them me... they always die within the first two missions. I don't like customizing much, because I want it to feel like my guys are people that I found and recruited who have their own lives, that are now in my hands. I wish the random generator gave them hats and facial hair for that reason. I give MECs and guys with titan armor helmets, because otherwise they look silly, and I change the armor tint to something suitable to their role. Psychic soldiers get purple armor and the spooky skull helmet.
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Jan 9, 2014 08:30
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Pink MECs with berets all day every day.
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Jan 9, 2014 08:34
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The only guy I've given a helmet was a dude who ate enough plasma to get knocked out twice on the same mission. Combined with the black with thin white lines scheme I was putting on the MECs it only made sense to give the guy with no face the helmet with the ghostly skull. My Americans all get special forces tacticool ball caps and headphones though.
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Jan 9, 2014 08:48
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Koth posted:Do you guys make soldiers based on yourself? I've only gotten a couple of soldiers from Canada, so I always make one of them me... they always die within the first two missions. I've never done this, nor have I considered it. I would call you weird, but I will probably start doing it now and I hate you.
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Jan 9, 2014 08:50
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Koth posted:Do you guys make soldiers based on yourself? I usually do gimmick squads. My last one was Team: THANKSOBAMA. After all, who hates illegal aliens more than Joe "Sheriff" Arpaio, Ann "The Man" Coulter, Rush "Screamin" Limbaugh, Glenn "Questions" Beck, George "ZimZam" Zimmerman, and team leader: Mecha-Palin. Get out of our America! Hannity and another handful of pundits died early. Meow Tse-tung fucked around with this message at 09:04 on Jan 9, 2014 |
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Jan 9, 2014 08:53
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Koth posted:Do you guys make soldiers based on yourself? I've only gotten a couple of soldiers from Canada, so I always make one of them me... they always die within the first two missions. I generally make gimmicked soldiers, like a Wheel of Time squad. Sniper Mat Cauthon seemed to get every critical hit in the world, it was uncanny. Every time I've named a soldier after someone I know they have died in painful ways, so I consider that to be a curse now. The only thing I do every single playthrough is find the rookie with the worst stats then name him "Captain Bait." Last ironman classic I did, Captain Bait actually made it to endgame despite having atrocious stats and me constantly sending the poor bastard as a scout with no protection.
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Jan 9, 2014 08:59
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Heartbreak is naming them after your pets. Bonus points for an already dead pet and you have to watch it die again.
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Jan 9, 2014 09:01
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Meow Tse-tung posted:I usually do gimmick squads. My last one was Team: THANKSOBAMA. After all, who hates illegal aliens more than Joe "Sheriff" Arpaio, Ann "The Man" Coulter, Rush "Screamin" Limbaugh, Glenn "Questions" Beck, George "ZimZam" Zimmerman, and team leader: Mecha-Palin. Get out of our America! House Rules: Never buy the medbay upgrade, and everyone has to bring their own medkit. Also can't buy the "new guy" upgrade. They should pull themselves up by their rookiestraps, no hand out promotions. 
Chexoid fucked around with this message at 09:11 on Jan 9, 2014 |
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Jan 9, 2014 09:04
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Speaking of Squad Sight is there something I'm missing as far as actually making use of it? I just picked up EU during the holiday sale on steam and tagged it with my first sniper, but in ~10 hours of play so far, I haven't ever been able to fire on something that my sniper didn't already have in his field of vision as far as I'm aware.
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Jan 9, 2014 09:17
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Hauki posted:Speaking of Squad Sight is there something I'm missing as far as actually making use of it? I just picked up EU during the holiday sale on steam and tagged it with my first sniper, but in ~10 hours of play so far, I haven't ever been able to fire on something that my sniper didn't already have in his field of vision as far as I'm aware. You need to have a clear line of sight to the enemy, so if something is in the way you won't be able to use it. Otherwise, the range should be infinite. It basically increases sniper rifle range, but they still need to be able to see it.
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Jan 9, 2014 09:27
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Also, Squadsight targets have a little crosshair over their icon when highlighted with the sniper. I completely missed that the first time around and didn't realise Squadsight was doing anything. 
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Jan 9, 2014 09:29
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poptart_fairy posted:Also, Squadsight targets have a little crosshair over their icon when highlighted with the sniper. I completely missed that the first time around and didn't realise Squadsight was doing anything.
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Jan 9, 2014 09:35
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Ahahaha, that's the exact same problem I had then. Yeah, it's just letting you know it's an SS target and can only be critically hit via headshot.
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Jan 9, 2014 09:49
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Dear enlightened members of the XCOM thread, I've been playing XCOM:EW on Classic Ironman for a while now, but unfortunately I have reached the point where the game is just far too easy. So, naturally, I made the jump to Impossible difficulty. And man is that poo poo brutal. Lost 1 man in the first mission, second mission was an UFO. Lost another one. I now have a Sniper, an Assault and a Support. NO Heavies yet and I have a terrible feeling about this. What are your recommendations for a newbie trying Impossible for the first time? Good news is that the game is tense again! Bad news is that I am probably exhaling too hard when a Sectoid misses a shot against one of my soldiers hunking down at full cover.
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Jan 9, 2014 11:46
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You could always try the Implassic Mod. It has the same amount of enemies as Impossible with the difficulty modifiers of Classic. Besides being a bit more forgiving, it's also arguably more fun than jumping straight into Impossible.
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Jan 9, 2014 12:01
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As far as snap shot goes, in all my attempted runs, I've had a massive preference for squadsight. After all, you want your snipers to actually snipe, right? Well, now, on my classic ironman run, I'm trying out snap shot/DGG snipers for use in more enclosed maps with less direct lines of sight. The theory is that when paired with a skeleton suit, they can move into position on the fly and attack with no need to wait. That where a squadsight sniper would have problems providing covering fire when needing to reposition, the snap shot sniper has little issue with it, acting more as a designated marksman. That's the theory, anyway. The reality may bite me in the rear end, but hey, nothing like experimenting in a difficulty and game mode you've never completed, right?
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Jan 9, 2014 12:04
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Rynoto posted:You could always try the Implassic Mod. It has the same amount of enemies as Impossible with the difficulty modifiers of Classic. I am KINDA feeling excited about having my anus completely destroyed by the game again, though.
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Jan 9, 2014 12:09
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Doesn't count if you consent to switching on Impossible! Actually speaking of which, is it theoretically possible to mod in soldier consent for amputations/genetic modification? I have this weird idea for a Social Justice mod that'd include such a thing and it amuses me. 
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Jan 9, 2014 12:16
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A thing I learned yesterday: if you have a full wipe on the first mission, the whole Xcom project gets cancelled right there.
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Jan 9, 2014 14:08
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Andre Banzai posted:Dear enlightened members of the XCOM thread, Hah, sectoids have 75 aim on impossible, so unless they're on a rooftop, hunkering down behind full cover is pretty much completely safe (1% to hit I think). Some advice based on my first couple of impossible games that managed to get past the initial 2 months: -Run it with Absolutely Critical and possibly with Not Created Equal. Those can help a lot to give you some footing, mainly guaranteed crits on a flanked/exposed alien does a lot to simplify situations. -Don't sat rush, do 1 in the first month and push an uplink and 3 more during the second, just pay close attention to which countries you can afford to lose. Plan to get a mech at the start of the second month then ignore meld for the most part (you just need 1 canister for that), and go for lasers. -Heavies are your biggest friend, they're so good in fact you could consider early alien materials for vests to protect them (+2 hp matters a lot on impossible). -My preferred techpath is Alien materials > Meld > Fragments > Lasers - You could consider Experimental warfare before the lasers depending on how many scientists you have. You can also cut the Materials if you don't like vests, but I've found 8 days extra to Lasers compared to heavies surviving a LPR shot/PP Crit to be more than a fair trade. -Savescum a bit during your first game, especially make a save before heading out to a mission, some abduction maps are near certain death without a good plan and some luck. Being able to go back and redo the mission on a different map helps a lot to alleviate some frustrations of restarting over and over. You should still expect it to take a few restarts to get going past the first month or 2 though. -Once you hit month 3-4 and lasers become available the game eases up a lot, so plan around breaking those first 2-3. Autsj fucked around with this message at 14:50 on Jan 9, 2014 |
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Jan 9, 2014 14:44
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Gestalt Intellect posted:That option just sounds lame and strategy-destroying. It's annoying enough to me when an assault rifle does 2 damage, the idea of a sniper rifle randomly doing 1 just sounds infuriating.
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Jan 9, 2014 15:30
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Speaking of squadsight I did the council mission on the dam and parking my newly minted sniper Colonel with a laser sniper on the tower at the start was almost unfair. Only almost because that's one of the maps that drops surprise Thin Men on you and there are no rules when Thin Men are involved.
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Jan 9, 2014 15:38
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I find non-squadsight snipers are actually the best scouts. Both supports and assaults have more movement, which makes it easier to set up flanks with them once the enemy is revealed and runs into their positions.
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Jan 9, 2014 16:00
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So I need a little strategy advice myself, for Enemy Within on Classic Ironman. I had exactly one game that lasted past the second month, and that was my first one, where I ignored meld early and went straight for beam weapons despite the increased research time. Month 2 is my wall. Thin men whittle down my veterans way too easily, and I can't do anything about it. Rushing MEC tech is okay, but they can't hit anything at range and can't move fast enough to get into melee with the thin men (who always take up sniper positions). I feel like the standard advice I've read to use squaddie heavies for the MEC augment is useless, because they can't hit anything and it deprives me of extremely valuable rockets. Also, the instant thin men show up, my MEC is either killed or wounded badly enough that I don't have him for the next time thin men show up, which is often the next mission. Using the MEC to blow away cover is very helpful, but it usually only puts my other guys up to 70-80% aim, which I miss far too many shots with. Even if I hit, I'm using conventional weapons and half the time do 2 damage, and even in high cover I'm extremely vulnerable to the return fire on the enemy turn. In terms of the geoscape, the only way I've been able to get any tech at all is to start with one satellite the first month and work towards uplink + 3 more satellites in month 2. So I'm looking for two pieces of advice. First, is my geoscape opener a good one (and if not, what would be better?), and second, what do I do about the thin men? I've been thinking about ignoring MECs and supports entirely and doubling up on heavies for the extra rockets, but I'm not sure how well that would work, given the terror mission in month 2.
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Jan 9, 2014 17:09
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What's the grenade AI like on Implassic? In my last classic game, I could easily count all the times I saw an alien or EXALT throw a grenade on one hand.
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Jan 9, 2014 17:17
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Hannibal Rex posted:What's the grenade AI like on Implassic? In my last classic game, I could easily count all the times I saw an alien or EXALT throw a grenade on one hand. Group your guys up within rocket/grenade range of each other and see what happens. I lost my covert op to an EXALT Elite Heavy doing that by accident.
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Jan 9, 2014 17:23
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Hannibal Rex posted:What's the grenade AI like on Implassic? In my last classic game, I could easily count all the times I saw an alien or EXALT throw a grenade on one hand. They're ten times as likely to throw a grenade on impossible.
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Jan 9, 2014 17:26
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Autsj posted:Hah, sectoids have 75 aim on impossible, so unless they're on a rooftop, hunkering down behind full cover is pretty much completely safe (1% to hit I think). That's great to know, thanks! quote:-Run it with Absolutely Critical and possibly with Not Created Equal. Impossible for me, I'm already running with no Second Wave options ticked... quote:-Don't sat rush, do 1 in the first month and push an uplink and 3 more during the second, just pay close attention to which countries you can afford to lose. Plan to get a mech at the start of the second month then ignore meld for the most part (you just need 1 canister for that), and go for lasers. Solid advice, thank you. I'll do that. quote:-Heavies are your biggest friend, they're so good in fact you could consider early alien materials for vests to protect them (+2 hp matters a lot on impossible). I don't have any, and yep, my worries are confirmed then. quote:-My preferred techpath is Alien materials > Meld > Fragments > Lasers - You could consider Experimental warfare before the lasers depending on how many scientists you have. You can also cut the Materials if you don't like vests, but I've found 8 days extra to Lasers compared to heavies surviving a LPR shot/PP Crit to be more than a fair trade. Uh oh, already went for Weapon Fragments! I have a bad feeling about this. quote:-Savescum a bit during your first game, especially make a save before heading out to a mission, some abduction maps are near certain death without a good plan and some luck. Being able to go back and redo the mission on a different map helps a lot to alleviate some frustrations of restarting over and over. You should still expect it to take a few restarts to get going past the first month or 2 though. Holy poo poo, I should prepare for the worst then. I'm playing Ironman! quote:-Once you hit month 3-4 and lasers become available the game eases up a lot, so plan around breaking those first 2-3. *Crossing fingers*. Well, team... get ready to die, because here we go.
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Jan 9, 2014 17:28
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BurningStone posted:Can somebody explain how they use their Snapshot snipers to me? I don't seem to be getting the idea. I understand that it's been made closer to Squadsight in EW. I can see how it combines well with In The Zone and the ghost skin upgrade. But if you've got those two already, you don't need Squadsight or Snapshot to chew through aliens (and you're probably into the easy part of the game). With the crit nerf snapshot snipers basically do about 30% more damage on average than squadsight ones, and that's not counting additional opportunities to flank and not wasting turns moving up instead of shooting. The high damage and accuracy of the sniper class makes them quite powerful, if combined with good cover, MECs to draw fire, memetic skin and so on that boost their survivability.
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Jan 9, 2014 17:29
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Che Delilas posted:So I'm looking for two pieces of advice. First, is my geoscape opener a good one (and if not, what would be better?), and second, what do I do about the thin men? I've been thinking about ignoring MECs and supports entirely and doubling up on heavies for the extra rockets, but I'm not sure how well that would work, given the terror mission in month 2. Rush SHIVs. SHIVs will let you flank Thin Men and murder them with a single shot, they can't be poisoned or strangled, and since they're out in the open they'll draw fire away from your veterans, even if said vets are in low cover. Buy 4-6 SHIVs. Bring 2 SHIVs on every mission, use them to scout ahead and grab Meld. You'll be surprised how much easier the game is with them around and they arguably scale up better than MECs! A fully upgraded Hover SHIV is a flying unit with a Heavy's plasma cannon, suppression, a close combat shot when an enemy gets within 4 squares, and permanent 2 HP/turn regeneration! But that's end game stuff, and end game is pretty easy no matter what you bring. In the early game, having a handful of disposable soldiers who can't level up and thus don't cost you a dozen mission's worth of XP when they die is exactly what you need to get through the dangerous early game months. Once you get to mid-game you can dial them back if you're of the "Always Be Training" philosophy, or you can keep them around since, as noted, they scale really well.
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Jan 9, 2014 17:35
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Those little guys can pick up MELD?!  So, Asia > Weapon Fragments > Experimental Warfare > Foundry > SHIVs for the quickest route to them, right?
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Jan 9, 2014 17:39
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Once I had a bugged Alloy SHIV that deployed with no armament. Luckily, it was a bomb-disarmament mission and I could use it to remotely defuse the power nodes.
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Jan 9, 2014 17:46
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Che Delilas posted:
Yeah your Geoscape sounds fine, it's probably the best all-round opening in EW. Things that kill Thin Men: Rockets, Squadsight snipers, LMGs+scopes, Shotgun run and gun (with a scope potentially), grenading their cover (then you can pling them with a pistol, or stacking grenades when there's several close together. There's plenty of options, it all just comes down to how you execute it. Also you could consider a flamethrower mec, it can kill Thin Men a square or 2 further away than a punchy mec (I stil prefer the rocketpunch myself). Dual heavies is really great and will work fine for the Terror mission, just don't be afraid of rocketing a civy if it gets you out of a tough spot. Andre Banzai posted:
It's gonna take a few restarts to get going I reckon, took me about 10-12 to get a really solid entry into the third month, so just take those considerations along for the future. Just don't get frustrated and you'll get there.
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Jan 9, 2014 17:49
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poptart_fairy posted:Those little guys can pick up MELD?! Yup. They can disable bombs and trigger the train beacons on Slingshot II as well. I haven't tried to hit the button in Newfoundland or rolled them into the final victory zone for the train mission, so I'm not 100% on those, but I imagine it would probably work. The things I know a SHIV can't do: Climb drain pipes, use Arc Throwers, be Psionic (and thus be the Volunteer). For all of these things one needs non-MEC humans, which involves a significant amount of the plot. But otherwise, I've been able to use SHIVs for just about everything else. poptart_fairy posted:So, Asia > Weapon Fragments > Experimental Warfare > Foundry > SHIVs for the quickest route to them, right? Indeed. Though I actually grab Meld and buy a couple of MECs first.
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Jan 9, 2014 17:51
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Autsj posted:Yeah your Geoscape sounds fine, it's probably the best all-round opening in EW. Oh trust me, I'll try to avoid them but if it's a choice between a civilian living or an alien living, that civilian burns every time. Thanks for the rest of the advice, it's as I suspected; small changes in my strategy and tactics are going to probably make big differences. Particularly going out of my way to bring the right classes for a particular mission instead of just whoever is available. jng2058 posted:Rush SHIVs. SHIVs will let you flank Thin Men and murder them with a single shot, they can't be poisoned or strangled, and since they're out in the open they'll draw fire away from your veterans, even if said vets are in low cover. Believe it or not, I've never once used a SHIV or even researched them. It never occurred to me that they might be a viable option that early. I may very well give this a try just to change things up.
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Jan 9, 2014 18:27
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