How to survive the urban terror mission?

[beardog]

Well, I have no idea how to deal with this nightmare. Maybe I missed something? Is there some special trick, or maybe "must-to-be-researched" technology, or else?

I failed two games. First there were sebilians with rifles (shooting three times each across all map) and dark beasts with melee attacks. The beast got shot shot from machine gun and was still able to move. It did not even noticed rifle shots; infected two sodiers in one turn.

Another time there were some blue aliens and disk robots. Maybe I could even kill some if tried to save/load each turn few times, but I'm not sure.

[Max_Caine]

Do you have any of the following:

1) Hunter scout vehicles.

2) Jackal armour.

3) Lasers.

4) Wolf armour.

And what kind of formation is your usual squad? Riflemen? Snipers? Rocket troops?

[raziel1981]

Well here's one way to take on a terror mission in hopeless circumstances - think of the civs as collateral damage in advance and use rockets without prejudice...

[beardog]

1) One hunter with machinegun; was destroyed at second or third turn. If I understand correctly, it became a real "scout" now since it can be detroyed even with plasma pistols

2) All six soldiers were in jackal armor

3) Second time one soldier got laser shotgun, and even killed one "disc" with it.

4) Never heard about wolf armor

The squad was 3 riflemen, 2 snipers, one machinegun and one hunter with machinegun. No special formation was used, just tried to keep soldiers together and place them behind some objects wherever possible. Also both times the battle happened during night time; spent a lot of action points throwing flares in all directions.

First battle happened about 5 october game time. Then I've loaded some older savefile and second time the terror event happened about 17 october. I had 10 scientists and they were working at one project at time; there were almost no breaks. By that moment I've learned "alien biology", "foxtrot", "jackal armor" and started lasers (second time they finished lasers too).

Maybe I could try to kill sebilian, take his rifle and try to use it against dark beasts, but I'm not sure.

[Max_Caine]

Ah, night-time missions. I can see why you're going to have problems. Okay, it's good that you have a hunter and you're trying to keep everyone together. Don't bother trying to save civillians, ever. You'll have enough problems trying to survive yourself!

First off, you need rocketmen if you're going to be playing at night. Rockets have several advantages in night battles.

1) They don't need to be accurate, they just need to be close enough.

2) The fires they start are as good as flares, and there are a lot more of them.

Yes, they fire less shots. That's why you should have at least 2 rocketmen. You also need lots of smoke grenades. Why? Because smoke grenades reduce the to-hit chance of any shot firing through them. This makes it more difficult for bad guys to hit you with their plasma rifles, but when you fire back with a rocket? All you have to be is close enough.

It's good that you have a Hunter. Do not charge in with this thing, it has the longest sight range out of any of your troops. It acts as your spotter. I won't spoil the name of the "beasts", but in case you haven't found out already, they can infect humans and turn them into zombies. They can take a lot of damage from ballistic rifles. Heavy weapons/shotguns only!

Edited May 26, 2013 by Max_Caine
fixed typos

[lightgemini]

First terror misión is always the real first test for any xcom like commander! The suggestions above are right on the spot, and you should really try to avoid night time,y ou can get the timing right with a bit of practice.

It may prove difficult at first but when you finally succeed in at least surviving , then you start being a rookie no more

[StellarRat]

You might be better off just refusing to go on a night terror mission. Seriously. Don't be afraid to use rockets and grenades even if you don't exactly where the enemy is located. If you watch the incoming firing you can often guess close enough to get them. I take one soldier whose sole job to carry more ammo for the rocketman. Smoke grenades, stun gas rockets and stun grenades are really good for covering an area where you THINK the enemy is firing from. I've got a lot captures this way. Also, the aliens will not enter a gas cloud willingly so, you can use it too block them from getting to you. Sometimes I even use the LMG in area fire mode. I've got a few kills that way. Another thing, make sure every troop ends their turn in cover. If you need to move someone up to spot make you have several guys covering him. If he dies and you can't return fire on the alien he spotted it's a total waste. On the whole, this is fairly tough game, I like it that way, but to win you have to very cautious. Move your guys in short hops, cover to cover. There is no turn limit so take your time.

Edited May 27, 2013 by StellarRat