Freehold DM |
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I was never good at tactics anyway.
I failed at strategies spectacularly.
this game punishes lack of tactics painfully, unlike jsrpgs, which will simply have you be unable to proceed (unless you break the game somehow) un less you think how they want. You're going to have to experiment. I wholeheartedly endorse my "for the love of god, one target at a time!" approach, it has served me well. In XCOM it revolves around having one "killer" and the rest of the team be "spotters" with heavy reliance on overwatch(and that weird ability where you shoot at people to make them scared/smoke grenades). Some might call it overwatch spamming, but it keeps people alive, even when crysalids show up.
archmagi1 |
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push your tech tree toward magnetic weapons, and it gets easier. then hp and armor get high enough that you need to make that push for the 3-4 techs needed for plasma weaponry.
with plasma, on rookie, most lightly (0-1) armored advents, chryssalids, and sectopods die in a single shot from anybody, like the good ole days when advents had 3hp! overwatching and spotting doesn't really work well with a 1 guy spots, 5 overwatch, as half the time, only 1 of the 3 guys in a mob aggros overwatch. If everybody is trained in, two guys likely will be left with an unused shot. once you get your party up to six, a 3/3 strike force seems to work pretty good, with your heavy hitters (ranger and grenadier) concentrating on the high armor/hp guys while your riflemen and sharpshooters clean up and pop the low-mid hp support guys (or just setup strategic overwatches to ice lancers).
right now, my current squad of colonels is as follows: 1x pistolero, 1x anti-robo grenadier, 1 HUGE EXPLOSIONS grenadier, Jason and his tricked out shotgun, 1x fully learned psi-ops, and 1 hacker spec. my tactics generally rely on shredding armor and cover with my high volume of explosives (bt both grenadiers, i have 5 launches, both have shredder, and superior clips), taking care of lower life goons with riflemen, then finishing off high hp guys with Jason (either 7-9 damage sword, or oft critting plasma shotgun). I try to only keep 1 group in aggro at a time, especially on maps with f'ing codex.
My general order of kills:
Top Priority: Archons, Gatekeepers, Andromedeans, Mutons (all have aoe cover busters)
Medium Priority: Codex, Lancers, Shieldbearers
Low: Everything else
HATRED: Vipers! Freakin' Vipers.
The psi-ops class is soooo good. The bubble of no control cancels out panic or mind control. Void's upgrade lets you also mindblast organics. Immune to statuses. Can vampire damage. Its a lot of time to train one up all the way, but they can participate in missions while training (and healing), so not too bad of a trade off once you can afford to build a psionic lab.
Also, the cone attacks in mid-late game are highly useful for ruining your enemy's position. A flame thrower (heavy weapon proving ground) or the grenadiers cone attack decimates cover and enemies, one better for organics (fire) and one for robos (shredder and maybe even blue rounds).
Werthead |
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Great guide here on how to improve game performance. Worth a look.
Sharoth |
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Yeow!!! That second to last mission is a Beast! I have just started the final mission. My squad consists of two Psi-ops troopers, a Sharpshooter, a Ranger, a Grenadier, and a Specialist. The non-psi troopers have mind shields on. Wish me luck.
Edit - Yes! I am a whimp. It is on rookie level and I do sometimes save scum. ~hangs my head in shame~ I guess that means that that I am scum. ~shrugs and grins~ It is still a fun game.
Freehold DM |
Yeow!!! That second to last mission is a Beast! I have just started the final mission. My squad consists of two Psi-ops troopers, a Sharpshooter, a Ranger, a Grenadier, and a Specialist. The non-psi troopers have mind shields on. Wish me luck.
Edit - Yes! I am a whimp. It is on rookie level and I do sometimes save scum. ~hangs my head in shame~ I guess that means that that I am scum. ~shrugs and grins~ It is still a fun game.
how did you beat it so fast...?
Sharoth |
Sharoth wrote:how did you beat it so fast...?Yeow!!! That second to last mission is a Beast! I have just started the final mission. My squad consists of two Psi-ops troopers, a Sharpshooter, a Ranger, a Grenadier, and a Specialist. The non-psi troopers have mind shields on. Wish me luck.
Edit - Yes! I am a whimp. It is on rookie level and I do sometimes save scum. ~hangs my head in shame~ I guess that means that that I am scum. ~shrugs and grins~ It is still a fun game.
I am 1/4 the way through the last mission. I could have been done earlier, but I had forgotten to train my psi-ops troopers.
Sharoth |
And then AFTER I got the Psi-Ops troopers started, I got involved in other stuff, so I held off on the last two missions until I had done everything else. I will be doing a write up sometime this weekend giving my thoughts and what I have learned.
Edit - Just Like XCOM - EU / EW, you CAN rush the end mission(s), but it is not required.
archmagi1 |
Just beat the game last night. The finale fight is a beast, with 3-7 enemies porting in each round. My crew managed to have all survivors, but two critical wounded. And I totally went suicide to be able kill the last avatar to win the mission. The ending was great and totally set up for a classic series sequel /expansion.
My final verdict: 4/5. Points off for graphics issues and enemies getting buggy line of sight that the party doesn't share (shooting through ceilings and walls without issue).
Rookie difficulty, save scummed the hell out of it.
Sharoth |
Oh SNAP!!! That was an amazing ending and the perfect setup for an eventual sequel. It was a tough mission, but everyone of my core group survived expect for Muton # 283,472 a.k.a. George and Archon # 73,149 a.k.a. Wings. Both of them gave their lives so others could live. The ranger did get nailed and was bleeding out, but our specialist got to him in time.
Madeleine "Nightmare" Girard (Psi-Ops)
Esteban "Steel" Torres (Ranger)
Dolly "Raven" Gibson (Psi-Ops)
Brendan "Red" McGregor (Supposrt)
Alessandra "Alpha" Ferrari (Sharpshooter)
Tomasz "Thunder" Zielinski (Grenadier)
The Commander's Avatar
Muton # 283,472 a.k.a. George
Archon # 73,149 a.k.a. Wings
What a team!
I played on Rookie level, but that is because I am not that good at most games. HAving said that, I still had a blast!
archmagi1 |
So I was browsing workshop mods to install when I get over my 30 hours in one week xcom fatigue. Right now, I'm leaning toward the following additions:
Leader Class from Long War Studios
Extra Expanded Squad from GTS (gives 2 more unlocks)
Evac All
I'm wishing that someone would mod in another sword tier that would 1-hit a late game 10hp enemy.
---
Also, I just remembered something. Probably a bug, but when I was in final mission, I had Jason guarding one of the porters as I was working on the avatars. 3 Mutons popped in, Bladestorm proc'd, Counter attack proc'd. Jason was down to only a few hp left from Mutons appearing and moving to cover. It was annoying, to say the least.
Tacticslion |
Anybody else wish Pathfinder had a game just like this?
As much as I like PF as a PnP even more, I actually really wish 4E D&D had a game exactly like this (or, at least, like X-Com: EU/EW, as I've not yet played X-C2).
As a gaming system, it was more or less made for this kind of turn-based mechanical grid system. But alas...
Drejk |
Hmmmm...
XCOM Bad Ending - and thus a canonical start to XCOM 2...
Sharoth |
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Note to self. If the game starts to act really weird i.e. World Map screen going to the left or the Avenger map going to the lower right hand corner, check to make sure that the cats have NOT knocked over the X-BOX controller first before thinking about uninstalling and then reinstalling the game. Lucky for me, I figured out what was wrong with it before doing that. I just unplugged the controller and the trouble cleared. Does anyone want some attention deprived cats? I will sell them to you real cheap. j / k.
Drejk |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Note to self. If the game starts to act really weird i.e. World Map screen going to the left or the Avenger map going to the lower right hand corner, check to make sure that the cats have NOT knocked over the X-BOX controller first before thinking about uninstalling and then reinstalling the game. Lucky for me, I figured out what was wrong with it before doing that. I just unplugged the controller and the trouble cleared. Does anyone want some attention deprived cats? I will sell them to you real cheap. j / k.
Your alien cat overlords are just preparing your imminent doom against their minions...
Drejk |
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Finished.
Regular mind control is good... I can sacrifice controlled unit and then get a new one unlike the once-per mission dominate.
It also involves an interesting but almost completely wasted mechanical idea - buying buffs for mission with intel. It should be available earlier for multiple missions, with greater number of options tailored to each mission.
Also, there is still a chance for descendants of human/sectoid hybrids being productive members of human civilization in the next game.