[V21 Stable Candidate] Late Feb and No Plasma Tech

[SandytheSlinger]

Hi Guys,

I'm not sure if this is a bug, or if I've missed something, but here I am in late February, and no Plasma Tech of any kind. I have Lasers, Shrike, Corsair and Wolf, but nothing to Research, and I'm getting hammered.

I'd be glad to ship you a Saved Game, but I'm not sure what you'd like.

How can I help you?

Sandy

p.s This game is getting really good.

S

[Beltorn]

What UFOs do you get? You should already have Cruisers on normal by that time and plasma explosives come from alien reactors from landing ships.

In march i got carriers and these have fusion cores. Also which difficulty and how many bases and interceptors?

[SandytheSlinger]

UFO's: Up to One Large with two small escorts. But I can't come close to taking them down.

I believe I have shot down Landingships, and defeated them, but they are only Medium class as I remember.

I have three bases. Each base has a Foxtrot with two Condors. One base has an extra Corsair.

All this is on Normal.

I sneaked ahead and did see Massive ships, but I suspect I'll need a lot more tech to take them down.

Sandy

[Beltorn]

Medium class doesn't mean much by itself, it the specific part of a landing ship that you need. Try allowing it to land and then raid it with dropship. If you have already raided alien bases, i think you could have picked up an alien reactor there, but not absolutely sure.

Also a second important research from Landing ships is alien alloy hardening. Do you have it?

Also i think you have too small an airforce. I kept 3 foxtrots at each base and 2 Condors or either 1 corsair or 1 marauder (both are capable of defeating 2 heavy fighters singlehandedly). Didn't have much problems with money, but i attacked and then cleaned-up every UFO i brought down except 2 (had terror mission on one and too far away to fly with Chinook with the other.).

So my recommendations:

Load at the time Landing ships appear

Try to wait while it lands and then raid it - and you will get your tech.

If you don't want to reload that far try another way - At your bases keep 2-3 Mig-32s. I think 3 of them can bring down a Cruiser with Alenium torpedoes, because it takes 3 Migs with plasma torpedoes to bring down a Carrier. Try to reload a couple of times to get a singular (unescorted) ship. Each cruiser (large ship) has alien reactors.

[SandytheSlinger]

Yo Beltorn,

I do not have Alloy Hardening. I think that gets you Improved Battle Shields, and I don't have those.

Thanks for the tips. Your suggestions bring another phase of plotting to the game: when to ditch Condors and build Foxtrots. I'll try to catch the bastards on the ground.

I have done a number of alien bases. I'm surprised that I didn't get an Alien Reactor with one of them.

I appreciate the analysis.

Slinger

[StellarRat]

Yo Beltorn,

I do not have Alloy Hardening. I think that gets you Improved Battle Shields, and I don't have those.

Thanks for the tips. Your suggestions bring another phase of plotting to the game: when to ditch Condors and build Foxtrots. I'll try to catch the bastards on the ground.

I have done a number of alien bases. I'm surprised that I didn't get an Alien Reactor with one of them.

I appreciate the analysis.

Slinger

If you have Alenium Explosives you shouldn't have any problems shooting down landing ships with two Foxtrots. Just stay clear of the frontal arc.

[Beltorn]

Yo Beltorn,

I do not have Alloy Hardening. I think that gets you Improved Battle Shields, and I don't have those.

Thanks for the tips. Your suggestions bring another phase of plotting to the game: when to ditch Condors and build Foxtrots. I'll try to catch the bastards on the ground.

I have done a number of alien bases. I'm surprised that I didn't get an Alien Reactor with one of them.

I appreciate the analysis.

Slinger

On normal there aren't really any troublesome moments at all, even hard currently is easy to play.

Hope this helps:

I have been playing 21.6 intensely and i found that you can actually bring down a cruiser with heavy fighter escorts using 2 Condors on normal, but you need plasma missiles and plasma cannons for this. You deal with fighters with cannons and then target the cruiser with missiles. It is very likely that you will lose at least 1 Condor - they are a bit too slow and have low HP, but it is possible. If you use 3 Condors, with good management you won't lose even 1 plane and you won't need plasma cannons. With 2 Condors and Foxtrot you won't even have any headache about bringing it down.

Point is Condors aren't really that weak, after all their damage increases with each upgrade to either missiles or cannons, but they become too fragile and too slow to be comfortable to use. I would suggest dropping Condors around January. By that time you can safely have a couple of Corsairs. Their twin cannons are really good against escorts and they have the same speed as Foxtrots, so they work in a team perfectly.

I think that around March you should start upgrading Foxtrots to Marauders in full, i.e. at least a pair of workshops at one base constantly busy replacing each Foxtrot with a Marauder.

I know that there is also a Fury - but that's a super Foxtrot with 2 uber-missiles, which can destroy anything, so they aren't really interesting.

I currently play on hard after game updated to Stable Candidate:

3 bases: one in Middle East or Greece, One in USA- actually slightly above the Great Lakes and one in northern Australia or on Philipines near their capital. Basically i built second base at the start of october and it got fully online roughly in the middle of month and third base either in the end of October if i have more than 500k to start-up com-centre or right at the start of November.

Base 2 and 3 layouts: 2 hangars at top immediately, radar, one storeroom + whatever else required like a second workshop at base 2 or additional laboratory at base 3, jut don't forget to build living quarters then. When hangars and storeroom are complete i build 2 more hangars and another radar array. I order 1 condor for base 2 and when the workshop is complete i start building Foxtrots for base 2 (workshops at home base are usually busy with laser weapons or Wolf armour for my assault squad). Overall at the end of October i have 2 Condors, 3 Foxtrots and starting Dropship at Base 1 and 1 Condor, 3 Foxtrots at Base 2.

By the end of November i plan to have at base 1: 1 Condor, 3 Foxtrots and 1 Corsair. At base 2: 1 Condor, 3 Foxtrots and building Shrike. At base 3: 1 Condor (moved from Base 1) and 3 Foxtrots. If i have enough money, resources and workshop time i plan to completely have Condors replaced with Corsairs.

Edited March 18, 2014 by Beltorn