Things I have observed

[henri5]

I would like feedback on the following observations, taking into account that so far I have never gone further than the middle of November (Beta 19.4).

1) Forget about a second base at least until December. I have tried building a second base a few times, but each time, I cannot equip it because of lack of money, so the few buildings I have built there are useless. I did manage to get a single aircraft to the new base, but neither a single Firefox or Condor can stand up to the Heavy fighters and medium alien ships that you meet in November. In addition, the second base will bankrupt you and your manufacturing will stall.

2) By November, the aliens are tough ones that shrug off laser rifles (not to mention normal rifles), grenades and machineguns, and that can one-shot your soldiers without armor. So if like me by November, you have a couple of laser rifles, 3 or 4 poor armor and maybe one wolf armor, then you are likely to be outgunned and lose one or two soldiers on each mission, not to mention the wounded ones recovering and the 3-5 base invasions that you will hopefully have survived.

3) By this time, your Firefox planes will have alenium torpedoes, but in a fight against a medium escorted by two heavy fighters, again you are faced with alien planes that are faster, shoot further, and have unlimited ammunition, so you usually lose at least one plane in a battle with an escorted medium. I thought I had found a counter by first shooting my two firefox missiles at the medium (which cannot dodge), then turning the Fox away so that the medium chases it; in the meantime, my two condors or one Condor and one Firefox hopefully destroy the two alien fighters then chase after the medium with their machineguns. However the aliens turned the tables on me by going after a Condor instead of the Firefox which is now useless being out of ammo. A single Condor cannot down a medium with machineguns, and the Condor being chased is too slow to get away and is downed. The only alternative to this I can see is to have ONLY Firefoxes, so 3 Firefoxes in this situation can destroy the two alien escorts and damage (not down) the medium alien ship. Then the idea is to go to base, rearm and come back to finish off the unescorted alien medium ship. The hair in the soup with this strategy is that there are usually alien fighters in the area, who ambush your returning and defenseless Firefoxes and down all three...

4) By mid-November I have researched the next fighters, but as mentioned above I have no money and no time to build any new fighters. The dilemma is that if you crash research aircraft and aircraft weapons (limited by some discoveries that you have to make), then you soldiers will be equipped with popguns and have no armor to speak of.

5) If anyone has survived so far beyond December I would be interested in knowing how they did it. Right now it looks like I am on a downward spiral. Maybe I should restart from where I built the second base in early November and forego a second base. Still I am not sure that this will be enough.

Edited July 23, 2013 by henri5

[thothkins]

Well, here's my first five months into 19.4. I'm reaching the end of January.

Build 1 hanger and 1 hospital. I think that's it for the main base.

Spend nothing, I mean nothing, on armour or weapons for your troops. It's crippling. No vehicles either.

Get 1 Foxtrot into the main base as soon as you can.

Build that second base. Hangers & radar (I build stores, but it seems to be odd) at the beginning of the following month.

I put in 2 Condors and a Foxtrot into both bases.

Build that third base as before Again 1 Foxtrot and 2 condors. This is at the start of month three or earlier if you can.

Now you have decent global coverage. This is important as you're now getting more points and more missions and therefore more funding.

Both troops and aircraft gain advancements through the path of getting alenium & plasma explosives. This arms the aircraft and gives you a chance. As a bonus, your troops get alenium and plasma grenades as well as missiles for the rocket launchers.

I did stray into laser gatlings for them, but I'm undecided about the amount of use they get.

I should have anticipated the glut of research when Landing Ships arrived. But I didn't so I'm a few weeks behind there. If I was playing again, I'd set up a second workshop and lab in December.

I'll leave air tactics to another thread or post, but I do pick my fights. I am cautious and I do go back for a second attempt if I have to. Especially if it looks as though my Foxtrot can't get a decent lock before the enemy turns round.

Ground tactics I can also leave for another post. I'm not losing a lot of troops at all. Lots of wounds, but that's where that medlab I build right at the start comes in so handy.

It's not like that earlier build where you would get plasma-castered from across a terror mission without warning. Not that I've done more than one terror mission. I just go for the UFO.

The terror mission I did go on had an invincible Andron in it. I was throwing grenades at it from the top of the convenience store for five turns and shooting it from two, bleeding to death, troops nearby. "Why won't it die?!"

Use breach soldiers, use grenades & rockets liberally, and always, but always, use the cover.

[henri5]

Although I have had trouble with almost everything else, I have had so far no big trouble with Androns, despite trying unsuccessfully to grenade them or stun them with gas. They do take a few shots to kill (even with laser rifles). By mid-November, I have had 4 invasions of my base and 3 or 4 terror missions (one at night), each time typically losing one soldier and one or two wounded.

I am playing on "easy" so that might explain some differences.

[xcomnaut]

V18, January. I had 1 base and 1.5mil $. 3 or 4 countries became "black". Started to build 2nd base just for fun. Command center with 8 Mag defences But I stopped to play so no idea how good this base would hold against alien attacks.

I noticed that I never build 2nd base in Xcom games unless there is too much money.

[Mytheos]

V18, January. I had 1 base and 1.5mil $. 3 or 4 countries became "black". Started to build 2nd base just for fun. Command center with 8 Mag defences But I stopped to play so no idea how good this base would hold against alien attacks.

I noticed that I never build 2nd base in Xcom games unless there is too much money.

I assume Black means you lost them?

[xcomnaut]

I assume Black means you lost them?

Yes, I lost them.