Getting clobbered in the air during late game. Am I screwed?

[Xenu2112]

First post here... absolutely loving the game so far.

Im looking for some advice. This is my first playthrough and I thought I had been doing reasonably well, but now the skies are swarming with UFOs and I can't even begin to contain it!

It's mid-June, I have 4 bases with at least 4 planes each. Still have Condors for about 1\2 my planes with at least 1 Foxtrot at each base plus as many Corsairs as I've been able to crank out (4 now, I think). I guess I should have prioritized my air force research more, but I honestly did it as fast as I could. I'm about 3/4 of the way through production of my first 2 Marauders.

I've done 6 terror missions, 4 or 5 alien bases, I have plasma & Buzzard armor, I'm just starting to research Mag weaponry, and overall my ground-based game has seemed to be going great. On the globe, though, since around April, Battleships, Cruisers and Carriers are absolutely swarming me and I just can't keep up. For every UFO I take out, four get away, and I still haven't been able to down a Battleship. Now it's starting to seriously affect my funding and my global relations.

Am I close enough to the endgame that I can still power through it, or am I pretty screwed at this point? I'm currently in the middle of an alien base mission where I hope to catch a Praetor (insert Chris Hanson joke here). How far away am I and what should I prioritize from here on?

[skaianDestiny]

It's mid-June, I have 4 bases with at least 4 planes each. Still have Condors for about 1\2 my planes with at least 1 Foxtrot at each base plus as many Corsairs as I've been able to crank out (4 now, I think). I guess I should have prioritized my air force research more, but I honestly did it as fast as I could. I'm about 3/4 of the way through production of my first 2 Marauders.

There's your problem. By the time you get Corsairs, Condors are obsolete. Condors fulfill the role of air superiority against fighters and minor alien craft, and the Corsairs are their replacement. You also have made the mistake of not having 2-3 Foxtrots per base. Foxtrots will be your alien capital ship killers until the Marauders appear, and then you can replace everything you have with Marauders. As long as you keep up the explosives research, 2 Foxtrots are enough to take down any alien craft that's not a fighter or has escorts.

You should be able to bounce back considering how cheap Foxtrots are, just sell all your Condors and replace them with Foxtrots. You'll be downing Battleships in no time.

Edited July 14, 2014 by skaianDestiny

[Xenu2112]

Great, gonna do that right away. Thanks for the reply! My explosives research is up to date (I'm pretty sure). I made some dumb mistakes in base placement (ended up having bases in both North and South America when I should have just put one in Central America with extra radar) and I was too focused on outfitting my squad at the expense of my air force, but now I know. And knowing is half the batt...well, you know

[Dranak]

You are way behind in the air. At that stage of the game, you should be on/aiming for pretty much pure Marauders. Condors are pretty much worthless and I would recommend basically not buying any ever.

[Kiel]

Sometimes I think one could beat the game with only Condors/Foxtrots if there was some kind of thruster update.

[dpelectric]

What Dranak said. You should've had numerous Marauders some time ago. Foxtrots and Corsairs are both 1000kmh slower than battleships.

[Dranak]

Sometimes I think one could beat the game with only Condors/Foxtrots if there was some kind of thruster update.

It was doable back when capital ships were slower.

[Xenu2112]

Well I reloaded from an earlier save near the end of March, and started ramping up my air force. Now I'm (mostly) in control of the skies! It's early July, I have 3-4 Marauders at each base and I've managed to catch up on my weapons/armor research, too. So I'm back and in much better shape than before. Thanks for the tips, everyone!