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Hi all,

I love this game but have been having some trouble after about month 2, when things really start heating up. I usually have one main base and 2 other 'air' bases of just radar and interceptors. I like to play with 2 shotguns, 1 sniper, 1 rocket guy, 1 shield, and either 2 lmgs and 1 rifle or 2 rifles and one lmg. I generally have wolf armor for everyone but the sniper and rocket guy and am working on laser weapons when I first have to fight a landing ship or terror site. Its at that point that I usually take massive casualties. In fact the only reason there were survivors last mission was because they sprinted back to the charlie leaving the wounded and killed behind. So I guess what Im asking is how do people prepare and fight the tougher battles. Especially the reaper which destroyed me last game.

Also I dont have a ton of time to play so I stick to the latest stable version thats on steam.

thanks!

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For me i just use the m16 rifles for all troops. Build a second lab and more living space then a second workshop. Increase my radar range. And have 4 fighters at my first base. Hire spare soldiers and rotate the rookies with higher level and xp. So i have a good range of troops incase of casualties. Plus as i add bases around the globe i can transfer them to defend them bases incase of base attack so a good spread of soldiers. Adding garage and tanks help too.

Right now i have from the EU to australia radar covered. Both bases have a large fighter base and a good mix of troops defending them. Both with transport craft. All wolf armour, i have corsair craft at my main base and second 6 normal craft. All sporting plasma weapons and the better explosives

currently building my first new transport craft.

Tip smoke grenades are very very important.

My flight engagments are a mix of auto resolve and manual combat depending on what i am fighting.

But my ground combats are a system of unload defend landing zone then attack craft or mop up if its a terror site.

Taking a load of smoke grenades works very well for pulling the enemy in close for a higher kill chance while my troops take cover then if the enemy cluster i use grenades.

Once done i assault the craft, smoke the entrance then stun anything inside to reduce craft damage, unless its a robot based threat then i just blast my way through while hidden in smoke.

But having two transport craft is good because then i can recover more material. And better reports.

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The reaper is a tricky beast but easy to kill once you know how.

Trick is to time it that when he is close to your troops its your turn.

A few grenades will kill it fast. 3 basic or 2 advanced grenades.

If i come across a reaper i will leg it back towards my craft and create a line of troops and let it come to me.

Cluster your troops close to each other something like 1-2 squares apart. But watch for grenade throwing type troops.

If it ends up about 10 squares away then i use grenades. If it ends up 2-3 squares then i surround it with troops and full auto at point blank range dropping it.

Now if its a reaper zombie then i get close with all my troops and drop the zombie and then reaper. But only engage at the start of my turn.

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  • 1 month later...

The balance is going to change massively from V20 Stable in the new V21 Stable version later this week, fortunately / unfortunately :)
Oh God you are going to castrate my grenadiers now too after collecting my veteran m60 squad's gonads with the relative tu thing? Great...
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Oh God you are going to castrate my grenadiers now too after collecting my veteran m60 squad's gonads with the relative tu thing? Great...
Don't worry, it favors the Xenonauts more than aliens IMO. I think if you haven't been playing the experimentals you'll be real happy with v21 vs. v20. Edited by StellarRat
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The balance is going to change massively from V20 Stable in the new V21 Stable version later this week, fortunately / unfortunately :)

I'm sure this has prob been covered before, but can somebody please tell me how to disable auto updates from Steam? I've gotten a good ways into my v20 game, and don't want to lose it....

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Your #1 problem: 3 bases. 2 in the first few months is key. You just can't properly support 3 bases that early on, and you're constantly playing catch-up when you do. You don't need to spend all your money at once.

Also, key to survival of ground units: shields. Keep your snipers/LMGs back 15 or more tiles from UFO entrance. Use the shields for the initial opening, then retreat them along the sides and snipe/shoot everything inside from far enough away that they can't really return fire. Then use shields to open doors and do most of the heavy lifting.

It's also key to use rookies as shields, and to choose rookies with at least ~58 strength to make it work. Once the rookie shields shoot up the aliens inside somewhere and trigger reaction shots, you can move them out of the way for your better, non-shield troops to shoot without concern for reaction fire, then just close the door or move the shields back in front before ending the turn.

Also bring additional shields for each mission, and drop them in the dropship on the first turn. You can run back for them later, which is a bit tedious but essential for maintaining your soldiers. Note the same can be done for ammo. It's nice to have a high strenght/high TU guy to do gear runs in the late combat period when you're depleted. Just remember to gear up your guys with lots of extras of each for when they're needed. Then they can carry a lighter loadout at the start, with more nades.

Shields should always be your spearhead/breach/frontline troops, used either to cover more valuable troops, to initially scout an area or find aliens, or to draw alien fire. Then they have a supportive base of fire some tiles back behind cover.

Note that nades, especially stun grenades, are great. They have a wide area of coverage, so it's not so important you have high accuracy with them, and they usually work with just one. Only drawback is you need to make sure they'll land at least 5 tiles away. They also can work as a temporary area shield for your flanks, since a lot of aliens will be knocked out when they move through the tiles.

For a big ship, my loadouts are:

3x shields (plus backup shields on dropship)

2x rifles

1x assault

1x sniper

1x LMG

For terror missions:

4x shields

1x rifles

1x sniper

1x LMG

1x assault

For base assaults:

4x shields

2x assault

2x rifles

For other smaller ships:

2x shields

1x assault

2x rifles

2x snipers

1x LMG

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I'm sure this has prob been covered before, but can somebody please tell me how to disable auto updates from Steam? I've gotten a good ways into my v20 game, and don't want to lose it....
It's in the menu when you right click on the game and select properties. Look through there.
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Your #1 problem: 3 bases. 2 in the first few months is key. You just can't properly support 3 bases that early on, and you're constantly playing catch-up when you do. You don't need to spend all your money at once.

I'm surprised you think this is so. What I often do is start with a main base between middle east and india. Then at day 1 build one in Mexico right away. In october I build a third in Phillipines. I found that these locations can keep all cities of the world in foxtrot range when in month 3 a bomber might start a terror site in a remote place.

I then focus building foxtrots until I got 2 in each. With this coverage, I often get funding to stay going up. The air bases have only radar and 3 hangars, later also living space and battery for defenders when landing ships start appearing. Each costs about 700-800k to maintain finally at which point I have 3M+ funding. Since funding prioritizes heavily the downing of Ufos over ground assaulting them, I prioritize it first.

For GC, I don't use shotguns at all since I often get wolf armor for everyone later. I instead rely on more snipers for ufo assault, more MG for base attack. Clearing the landscape is about placing snipers well, then scouting with shield guys. With the nerfed cover, good snipers have no difficulty in killing enemies behind cover.

For ufo breaching, more often than not I have 3 guys with shield with laser pistols clear the first room in ufos by entering, shooting and leaving until all aliens die, an atrition fight really and I have advantage because enemies don't leave the ufo and when you run out you can just close the door and replenish. If your guys get wounded, replace them with fresh ones giving the shield to the new one.

For base assault, I keep posting about how the aliens can't open a door if you block it with 3 men completely. And with the new 10 round burst, MG is the choice there. Open the door into a room with a shield, shoot a few rounds to draw the reaction fire, then MG them down. It even eats through cover in not much time.

Also bring additional shields for each mission, and drop them in the dropship on the first turn. You can run back for them later, which is a bit tedious but essential for maintaining your soldiers. Note the same can be done for ammo. It's nice to have a high strenght/high TU guy to do gear runs in the late combat period when you're depleted. Just remember to gear up your guys with lots of extras of each for when they're needed. Then they can carry a lighter loadout at the start, with more nades.

Agreed. Not really necessary for smaller ships but critical for base attack and defense. Everyone should carry shields in the backpack into the mission, then drop them in the entry room at a base. Command room aliens are stronger but they don't move at all so they fall easily to grenades, especially stun if non-robot. Smoke is also very useful. If your guys lose the cover or get wounded, you can smoke them for retreat, or smoke the ufo for taking aliens one by one. They still sometimes see through it though in the latest build so be careful still.

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I'm a newbie to the game, so my observations may be of questionable relevance. But it sounds like you are giving your soldiers wolf armor while still fighting with ballistic weapons? Wouldn't your squad be more balanced offensively and defensively if you gave them just jackal armor but also some laser weapons?

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I'm a newbie to the game, so my observations may be of questionable relevance. But it sounds like you are giving your soldiers wolf armor while still fighting with ballistic weapons? Wouldn't your squad be more balanced offensively and defensively if you gave them just jackal armor but also some laser weapons?
It's better to get the armor first because the basic ballistic weapons are pretty good for the first couple months. Also, you have to remember that everything takes alien alloys, so you might have to choose one over the other.
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It's better to get the armor first because the basic ballistic weapons are pretty good for the first couple months. Also, you have to remember that everything takes alien alloys, so you might have to choose one over the other.

Ah, ok. Guess I've been pursuing the wrong path, then (jackal armor and lasers). Are you saying that the wiser course is to focus on wolf armor, and more or less skip laser until plasma becomes available, due to alloy limitations?

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#1 priority needs to always be AIRCRAFT. Those win or lose the game. This includes aircraft damage upgrades (alenium explosives, etc)

#2 is ARMOR. You want your men to actually survive. Better to have a force of high-accuracy, high HP, high TU, high strength men with weak guns than rookies with awesome ones (they can't use because they're too weak).

#3 is WEAPONRY. Ultimately, heavily armored men with grenades can be very effective offensively, and they still die less than weakly armored men with the best guns.

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I'm surprised you think this is so. What I often do is start with a main base between middle east and india. Then at day 1 build one in Mexico right away. In october I build a third in Phillipines. I found that these locations can keep all cities of the world in foxtrot range when in month 3 a bomber might start a terror site in a remote place.

I then focus building foxtrots until I got 2 in each. With this coverage, I often get funding to stay going up. The air bases have only radar and 3 hangars, later also living space and battery for defenders when landing ships start appearing. Each costs about 700-800k to maintain finally at which point I have 3M+ funding. Since funding prioritizes heavily the downing of Ufos over ground assaulting them, I prioritize it first.

For GC, I don't use shotguns at all since I often get wolf armor for everyone later. I instead rely on more snipers for ufo assault, more MG for base attack. Clearing the landscape is about placing snipers well, then scouting with shield guys. With the nerfed cover, good snipers have no difficulty in killing enemies behind cover.

For ufo breaching, more often than not I have 3 guys with shield with laser pistols clear the first room in ufos by entering, shooting and leaving until all aliens die, an atrition fight really and I have advantage because enemies don't leave the ufo and when you run out you can just close the door and replenish. If your guys get wounded, replace them with fresh ones giving the shield to the new one.

For base assault, I keep posting about how the aliens can't open a door if you block it with 3 men completely. And with the new 10 round burst, MG is the choice there. Open the door into a room with a shield, shoot a few rounds to draw the reaction fire, then MG them down. It even eats through cover in not much time.

Agreed. Not really necessary for smaller ships but critical for base attack and defense. Everyone should carry shields in the backpack into the mission, then drop them in the entry room at a base. Command room aliens are stronger but they don't move at all so they fall easily to grenades, especially stun if non-robot. Smoke is also very useful. If your guys lose the cover or get wounded, you can smoke them for retreat, or smoke the ufo for taking aliens one by one. They still sometimes see through it though in the latest build so be careful still.

so i have to ask do you find the troopers and battery worth it could you not just keep 2 extra condors or foxtrots for taking down that same landing ship for the same price if not cheaper?( this is what i do but i play on normal ) my bases of 2 radar 4 hangers only run 600k with 4 foxtrots ( if i remember right )

you say you do not use shotguns but then you have a list of all the reasons i use shotguns. i end up clearing out side ufos with leap froging cover or smoke for the outer areas of the crash. the breach it self is a cake walk with 4 shot gunners who can run from the door and blast faces off any thing every room. some of the bigger ships the lmg and sniper still pull work in the command room. for bases you talk about blocking doors so they don't get opened yet i sit my guys at the corners just so they walk into the reaction fire. i don't use the shield so i end up with lot of smoke as most of the other grenades i dont find useful after my captures are done.( my team is 1 sniper 1 lmg 2 shotguns per each Squad of 4 ) i am also on the experimental branch which might change perspective some what, i still find it great that your running with out a weapon i would find almost unbearable to play with out.

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