Tec/research progression

[verdas]

Hey guys, I'm curious how people go about researching tec and equipping their squad over the course of a game. I had a play through where I stayed competitive in air power and manufactured plasma and wolf armor, but eventually hit a wall where I went broke. The next play through I opted to focus on air power while reserving cash for higher level stuff (namely, Mag weapons). I ended up with a squad full of jackal armor and lasers who could survive but were beginning to be seriously outclassed, and I still didn't have much money left.

How do you balance airpower (i.e., needing to have enough foxtrot/marauders with high level weapons to be able to take on 3x heavy fighter squads) with soldier equipment? Do you skip any levels of armor/weapons?

[Beltorn]

Which difficulty do you play? How early do you start building additional bases? How many UFOs you usually catch? Do you do each ground combat site? GCs give a serious amount of money

Edited June 27, 2014 by Beltorn

[verdas]

Normal difficulty; I have play my fair share of the original xcom, so I get the system, but I was never particularly good at it (and I always try to beat games on normal before turning it up). I build my second base within the first month, just a radar and several hangers; third base probably by the second or third month. My UFO catching rate is pretty high until the arrival of the aforementioned air-superiority flights, when I need a marauder to deal with them. I try to hit every crash site within the area of my main base, and airstrike those around my listening posts, given the time it takes to reach them.

[Beltorn]

Basically having good radar coverage and air superiority is much more important than GC equipment. This is because aliens mostly damage your funding through air raids, so the less opportunities to do that they have, the better. All UFOs come in waves, so after clearing UFOs immediately in your coverage don't be afraid to send out search squadrons to shoot them down. Each crash site is basically a cash bag for you to recover. Scout UFOs deal minor funding penalties. Starting from Corvetters you'll get bigger events like "object strafed" - these will obviously deal higher funding damage. To down a small Scout you need 1 Condor. To down a large scout - 2 Foxtrots or 1 Fox and 1 Condor. Foxtrots are usually better as they can fly further and get to the UFO faster. After Alenium explosives research you need only 1 Foxtrot to down a Large scout. 1 Foxtrot and 1 Condor can down a Covette with Alenium. 2 Foxtrots with Alenium will reliably down anything till Cruisers (except alien fighters, use Condors and Corsairs against those). To down a Cruiser with 4 torpedoes you'll need plasma explosives (Alien Reactor research acquired from Landing Ships). Then come Carriers which get you Fusion core and respectively Fusion explosives. With Fusion explosives you'll be able to down anything with 2 Marauders, Foxtrots will requre some maneuverig to do that, but they are viable while you are building up your Marauder fleet.

Tip: You don't need to airstrike last crash site, because events, like crash site will persist endlessly if there is a dropship going to it. This opens some extremely interesting exploits like a terror site which waits for monthes to be completed. Second - air superiorities start with one basic alien fighter AFAIK - so any Condor can deal with them. If it's the heavy fighters that get you - you'll need a Corsair to deal with them - it is easy in manual mode - turn on the afterburner and set a course somewhere where the aliens would have to turn to intercept you. When you'll be close to their firing range, roll to the opposite side of the aliens fighter turning -then your Corsair will easily shoot them down. Roll and use afterburn when required - to evade a missile or close distance quickly so as to get on their tail.

My playstyle - first base near Tel-Aviv (to the south-west in direction of Cairo if you zoom) - its the best starting location in game, because it covers most regions. Build order: 1 hangar, workshop, laboratory and living quarters. Order 15 more scientists and research Foxtrot ASAP. Get engineers and construct more Foxtrots till you get 3 per base. Start bulding second base immeadiately - i usually put my second base either in Northern America (to south-east of Quebec) - to cover Greenland, Iceland, most of USA, Canada and Mexico or on almost the western coast of Papua New Guinea (north to Australia) - covers Indochina and Australia. Expansion bases are built this way 2 hangars and 1 radar, than 2 more hangars asap. Add up to 2 radars when you have free funds and need coverage. Closer to the end of second month - beginning of third i build 1-2 laboratories at second base + living quarters + scientists when available - this will hugely boost your research output - there even will be times when your scientists won't have anything to research. Third base timing - middle of second month. Fourth base - somewhere between December and January. Fifth base isn't required, but i put it somewhere in Siberia to cover eastern part of Soviet union and Alaska.

Research priorities - Foxtrots, alien alloys, alien rifle/pistol -> alien plasma weapons, alien biology and stun weapons, alenium and alenium explosives ASAP when available. Then Alien alloys fabrication and wolf armor as it is more important than laser weapons, but laser weapons should come right after it. When researched - produce enough Wolf armour ASAP - by that time you'll have your interceptors - 3 Foxtrots + 1 Condor at each base. Then i manufacture laser weaponry for my squad - for me its 2 pistols, then 2 carbines or presicions and rifles last. When you'll have Heavy lasers don't forget to make a laser MG. When you'll get Corvettes - research Alien computers and Directional Thrusters then Shrike immediately. After that it's mostly free flight. I usually research Corsairs next and start replacing Condors with Corsairs as those are very good for air superiority. After that i research all alien weapons (pistols and rifles are done early to get to lasers - right after alien alloys) till i get plasma weaponry. Once again - pistols first, but then rifles and precision rifles, carbines last. Plasma MG as with all MGs is always last.

I respond to every event i can and usually down all UFOs in my radar coverage plus some outside of it, but in combat range of my planes. Every crash site till i get totally bored, don't need the money and my squad has max TUs and accuracy. High Strength is achieved by always overencumbering your soldiers by 2-3 additional grenades (any 1kg item will do, but grenades are more useful) till 100 str(38 kg weight). I never use explosives on aliens and only sometimes on cover - it is faster to flank them in my experience. My squad - 2 doormen (shields), 2 shotguns, 2 rifles, 1 sniper and 1 MG. With Shrike +1 Sniper and +1 MG. With Valkyrie +1 Carbine and +1 Rifle.

Edited June 27, 2014 by Beltorn

[Nefertari]

Beltorn that really answered a lot of questions for me. Great info. Do you still carry shotguns once you upgrade to lasers?

[Tyro3]

How do you keep sites open for months? do you send a dropship and then recall it before it gets there? not sure I am following how you achieve this.

[Beltorn]

Laser shotguns are called laser carbines - they are extremely effective as a weapon - by that virtue shotgunners are the most effective soldiers among my team. Good RoF - up to 3 shots, very high reaction bonus modifier - 1.5 - so less shots against soldiers when they are moving inside the UFO and rather high damage which is really good against all aliens except stronger androns - those can take rather a lot of shots, so be careful against robots.

On dropships and keeping sites open - i haven't really tested this, but i suspect that if you have 2 dropships, you can send them at the same site. So if you keep alternating them just before they arrive at the site, i think you can keep a site open for very long. But there could be some sort of a limit - like only one dropship can be sent at the site at one moment and all other dropships won't receive an order - this will prevent such an exploit.

One more interesting thing i discovered - you can add/remove soldiers and their equipment while the dropship is in flight. So if your soldier has just healed enough to get from med-bay into combat or you got some new items from manufacturing, you can freely change your dropship loadout, including switching soldiers between dropships. I guess guys from engineering are keeping secrets from head of research.

Edited June 28, 2014 by Beltorn

[Nhert34]

Balancing airpower and soldier equipment is crucial. Prioritize cost-effective solutions early, investing in essential tech and armor. Gradually upgrade weapons and armor as income stabilizes. Adjust strategies based on evolving threats.