XCOM : Enemy Unknown - by Firaxis Games - Thread

[Pighardia]

Lost an entire squad on a terror mission...I wouldn't mind, but I had an upgraded mech killed by one of those zombies, he just lumbered up to it and hit it a few times....some upgrade!

God I hate the panic reduction in this!...I get 3 missions to choose from, Canada, Argentina and India. I choose India, and panic is reduced only in India, but increases across the whole of South and North America!

 

[grimm]

I don't like mechs. Just gonna use the Genetics upgrades I think.

I agree, I think that not being able to use cover is too much of a disadvantage, especially in mid/late game.

Some of the late game body armour and the ability to have two accessory items makes the normal soldiers excellent anyway.

 

[Lunatic Dreyfus]

Portent.

Squad wipe each time, which kills my Ironman progress. I think next time I'll just let it slide.

 

[Verponian]

Maybe I'd got too used to my uber upgraded squad in Enemy Unknown just being able to decimate anything but this is proving really tough. Missions just come thick and fast before guys have a time to recover. In an exalt mission, just had too exalt heavies double whammy a cluster of my guys (I didn't think they were that clustered) with rockets. Lost three in one go.

Particularly annoying is the fact that one of them had just escaped a sniper double tap with a 85% hit probability.

 

[xaldub]

I'm loving this expansion - it's really freshened up the base game for me. It seems a bit harder overall, particularly at the start, when it's imperative to get those satellites up to control abductions. I lost a few rookies in the early missions to thin men & sectoids - both their aim and critical hits seem boosted.

From previews I did wonder if MECs would be too powerful, but I think Firaxis have got the balance just about right. They don't make regular troops redundant, far from it, in fact I love rocking missions with the assault class. Snipers are still the gods of death.

I possibly think regular troops with gene mods give the best value. That said, I won't be retiring my two MECs anytime soon - they are very robust ( I converted a heavy & assault class which I think give the best defensive bonii ) and haven't come close to losing either one yet.

 

[Pighardia]

I agree that it is an excellent expansion, really one of the best you could hope for, but imo it does ruin the flow of the game somewhat, with missions coming far too quickly and too much being introduced at once.

 

[xaldub]

I agree that it is an excellent expansion, really one of the best you could hope for, but imo it does ruin the flow of the game somewhat, with missions coming far too quickly and too much being introduced at once.

Agreed, the missions do come thick and fast. However, that allows your troops to gather experience/rankings more quickly which helps reduce the early difficulty somewhat.

The only thing I think is missing is a player controlled mechanism to reduce panic reduction in selected countries ( other than deploying satellites ). Keeping all the countries on board seems more difficult now, and you really do have to rush satellite production, which I'm sure was not Firaxis' strategic aim.

 

[Pighardia]

Just done the Base Assault. Was a bit hairy for a moment when a Cyberdisc did something I hadn't seen before and killed one of my men. Also had one gravely wounded. And those invisible squid things...they went invisible, and I completely forgot about them whilst I was fighting Mutons, then the reappeared and caused havoc!

It has helped with panic reduction at least!

 

[Aloreth]

Can anyone give me some advice on how to play this game? I complete UFO enemy unknown on classic ironman and loved it.

This game seems to be criminally harder than the base game. I generally can't get to the end of month two in even a reasonable condition, I find that my troops just get murdered by thinmen! In the last game that I played, a thinmen ran throughthree sets of over watch and casually critically hit my sniper in heavy cover killing him. Next turn all three of my remaining men shoot at him and all miss, he shoots back killing another trooper. I sigh and close down the game as there's just no point.

I would appreciate advice from people who are also playing on classic ironman. What path do you follow research / engineering? I generally rush sats but I don't know if I should instead be concentrating on meld upgrading my guys (also tried this but it didn't seem to help)

 

[Raumarik]

My best game so far was by doing this:

1. Choose Africa, extra cash.
2. Ensure you always have some cash, just in case a mission gives you extras you can then purchase quickly.
3. Focus on 4-5 troops, get them up ranks and get the officer training done ASAP.
4. Ensure troops end their turn in FULL cover whenever possible and never rush ahead, move as a group or when necessary two groups and always have a least one member in overwatch within each group at the end of a turn. It means slow going but you'll be far safer.
5. Early game go for a few scientists/cash, then flip to engineers after a couple of months.
6. Don't forget to upgrade your aircraft when possible (with end of month money).
7. Don't be afraid to lose a country, but ensure it's not one in a strategically important bonus continent (like Africa!) that bonus money comes in too damn handy!

I've left Ironman now as I was finding it too hard and too time consuming, want to complete the game once on another difficulty before I return

 

[dreigns]

Just done the Base Assault. Was a bit hairy for a moment when a Cyberdisc did something I hadn't seen before and killed one of my men. Also had one gravely wounded. And those invisible squid things...they went invisible, and I completely forgot about them whilst I was fighting Mutons, then the reappeared and caused havoc!

It has helped with panic reduction at least!

If you got a sniper with battle scanner just drop it near ur men they normaly are camping near you and it will show them up

 

[FoxEye]

Can anyone give me some advice on how to play this game? I complete UFO enemy unknown on classic ironman and loved it.

This game seems to be criminally harder than the base game. I generally can't get to the end of month two in even a reasonable condition, I find that my troops just get murdered by thinmen! In the last game that I played, a thinmen ran throughthree sets of over watch and casually critically hit my sniper in heavy cover killing him. Next turn all three of my remaining men shoot at him and all miss, he shoots back killing another trooper. I sigh and close down the game as there's just no point.

I would appreciate advice from people who are also playing on classic ironman. What path do you follow research / engineering? I generally rush sats but I don't know if I should instead be concentrating on meld upgrading my guys (also tried this but it didn't seem to help)

There's not really much you can do against Thin Men. They always have at least 50% chance to hit regardless of cover. They always have at least 20% crit chance no matter what.

As an early-game enemy, they are the hardest foe in vanilla X:EU by far. The later enemies may be more difficult on paper, but you have the means to deal with them.

Early game vs Thin Men, it normally is a slaughter. I once had 4 units take turns to miss a Thin Man who dropped in with Overwatch. And miss they all did.

The Thin Man one-shot one-kill the first of my units. This causes another to panic, shoot (and kill) her squad mate. This makes the 4th squaddie panic too.

In the end all 4 are killed by the Thin Man, and panic each turn means I can do nothing about it. Some times the game decides it's going to screw you, and you just have to bend over.

Fun (not).

 

[Verponian]

Just playing a new level set in a fishing village in canada. It's like something out of The Thing.

Also like to point out I'm far too entertained by making a Mec Trooper and giving him the trilby as a hair piece.

 

[badcompany]

cant remember why I stopped playing this! its fantastic!

 

[mark43]

Ahh, now I remember why I both hate and loved this game. Sniper, 98% chance to hit, 100% chance to critically hit... "Missed!"

Spoiler

It can be very annoying, but on the flip side I got a kill with a 1% chance to hit earlier, not sure why I even bothered going for the shot but was glad I did.

I must say, I'm loving this expansion.

 

[Pighardia]

If you got a sniper with battle scanner just drop it near ur men they normaly are camping near you and it will show them up

My tactic so far has been to just put everyone on overwatch until they show themselves, and they usually don't last long. They don't really have much health tbh. An Interesting addition to the enemies though. I also like the mech-sectoid things as well.

Done quite few exalt missions, I also think they are a great addition, send a soldier off, then a few days later do a hacking mission or something. No kind of story has Developed so far for me though.


Question- slingshot... What does it entail exactly? because the triad guy just died in my game has it messed it up?

 

[Verponian]

Done quite few exalt missions, I also think they are a great addition, send a soldier off, then a few days later do a hacking mission or something. No kind of story has Developed so far for me though.


Question- slingshot... What does it entail exactly? because the triad guy just died in my game has it messed it up?

Another nice bonus from the exalt missions are the cool alternative weaponry you salvage. Exalt laser firearms just look so much better.

As for slingshot, as far as I can remember you got three missions. Acquiring Triad Guy, a mission disarming stuff on a train and then one set on the battleship map where you have to disarm things. The triad guy died on the battleship mission for me.

 

[elmarko]

Got really far on my class ironman, much harder but great fun - only lost two men & have my crack squad of 6 max ranks (3 standard men, 3 MEC's) - got my titan armour & the game seems to be not 'too' hard.

A few risky moments, but I find the grenade launcher mods on the MEC's are incredibly for wiping thin-men, sectoids & even harder enemies (When you can pop 3 in one turn).

About to finish off the human faction, then need to finish up my psychic abilities.

Is it just me, or are the gene mods a bit crap? (Compared to the MEC's), ergo I never have enough MELD to do any gene modding.

 

[Pighardia]

Mechs are certainly more powerful than the gene upgrades, but I found the genetic path more fun, and strangely, more natural in a way. They seem to fit in to the game seemlessly. Plus, I really didn't like the mech upgrades.... Didn't like seeing my soldiers changed like that tbh. Strange how this game can make you feel

 

[Omaeka]

Hear hear, the expansions amazing. My only real issue with it however is the new voices. There are no Chinese, Japanese, Middle Eastern, Egyptian, Portuguese, African... etc voices! Only ones from Europe like Spain and Italy.

Feels like a total cop out in that respect, especially as it was marketed with having a choice for every nationality. Honestly, I have a sniper from Saudi Arabia, what voice am I supposed to give him? Italian? Russian? Rofl. Oh an the A.I seem to cheat a lot more now aswell. Not huge complaints, but they were two issues in the base game that are still there.