Last night the defenders of Earth suffered setback after setback. I saved before a routine mission, and in the process of performing it the first time; my heavy and sniper took wounds and were out of commission by the time an extraction mission popped up. The extraction mission cost me my assault when a thin man was deployed above her, and I would have chalked it up to a loss, but both rooks promoted to supports.
So I reloaded the aforementioned save. Made it through the mission, but this time the assault took damages and was out of commission when an abduction mission came up. It was going fine until some wyrm looking invisible assholes showed up. One of them fixated itself on my heavy's face. It was removed very quickly, but the floater crit him for 9 damage. And that was that. Again, I would have chalked him up as a loss, but the rookie promoted to assault.
That would be a sectopod. I don't know if it's different in long war, but in Enemy within, they take a flat 50% less damage from EVERY ATTACK.
So unless that has changed, fuck long war because fuck that noise.
well a big part of long war is abandoning missions you can't obviously do without a total wipe.
Yes, but that's kinda a dick move. I don't mind getting unlucky and losing because of overwhelming odds. I DO mind losing because the game has decided the mission is literally unwinnable.
That would be a sectopod. I don't know if it's different in long war, but in Enemy within, they take a flat 50% less damage from EVERY ATTACK.
So unless that has changed, fuck long war because fuck that noise.
well a big part of long war is abandoning missions you can't obviously do without a total wipe.
Yes, but that's kinda a dick move. I don't mind getting unlucky and losing because of overwhelming odds. I DO mind losing because the game has decided the mission is literally unwinnable.
there are some hiccups sure, like going into a minimum panic abduction and finding 3 berserkers and mechtoid. but from what i've played if you go into a high panic swarm or assaulting the huge ship that just landed you are just asking for bullshit.
I am tired of XCOM:EW (no, Long War doesn't appeal to me at all; I have the game on Xbox360 anyway), but I still want to play something similar. Here are my requirements:
I have heard about a game called Silent Storm (and a sequel). Thoughts? I never played Jagged Alliance back in the day; I'm not sure I have patience for the old-style interfaces anymore. Ideally, I'd like a gang/squad-warfare style game like the tabletop Necromunda, with customizable gangs & scenario-campaigns.
Jagged Alliance 2 with the 1.13 fan mod is fantastic. More real guns and accessories than you can shake a stick at, permadeath for all of the mercenaries (who are all voiced and have goofy personalities), and a fun, 90's action movie-esque plotline. No random maps/missions or soldiers tho.
Silent Storm is pretty cool too. Some of the best set-piece destruction around (you can tear building in half with explosives if you really try, even reduce them to rubble), random missions (tho the maps aren't generated randomly), and a large roster of soldiers all with personalities and full (bad) voice acting. The story is kinda meh; typical WW2 stuff mostly, tho you do get to play both sides with different rosters to choose from.
I really liked Silent Storm a lot. You could completely destroy buildings and they would collapse spectacularly a la XCOM Apocalypse, which made some missions really exciting.
I am tired of XCOM:EW (no, Long War doesn't appeal to me at all; I have the game on Xbox360 anyway), but I still want to play something similar. Here are my requirements:
I have heard about a game called Silent Storm (and a sequel). Thoughts? I never played Jagged Alliance back in the day; I'm not sure I have patience for the old-style interfaces anymore. Ideally, I'd like a gang/squad-warfare style game like the tabletop Necromunda, with customizable gangs & scenario-campaigns.
I am tired of XCOM:EW (no, Long War doesn't appeal to me at all; I have the game on Xbox360 anyway), but I still want to play something similar. Here are my requirements:
I have heard about a game called Silent Storm (and a sequel). Thoughts? I never played Jagged Alliance back in the day; I'm not sure I have patience for the old-style interfaces anymore. Ideally, I'd like a gang/squad-warfare style game like the tabletop Necromunda, with customizable gangs & scenario-campaigns.
Halp?
Xenonauts. /thread
Xenonauts seems like the metagame is kinda bullshit, from what I've seen on its thread. Like maybe it's not in its final version yet. Haven't checked for awhile, though. I do like that they have tactical air battles.
What I really want is for GW to just let someone make Necromunda, but that doesn't seem to be happening soon. Anyway, thanks for the suggestions, folks. I suppose I should eventually finish Operation: Darkness, but god damn that is a slog.
I am tired of XCOM:EW (no, Long War doesn't appeal to me at all; I have the game on Xbox360 anyway), but I still want to play something similar. Here are my requirements:
I have heard about a game called Silent Storm (and a sequel). Thoughts? I never played Jagged Alliance back in the day; I'm not sure I have patience for the old-style interfaces anymore. Ideally, I'd like a gang/squad-warfare style game like the tabletop Necromunda, with customizable gangs & scenario-campaigns.
Halp?
Jagged Alliance 2 is game I once loved, but I've tried going back to it several times & have come to the conclusion that it actually sucks donkey balls.
The developers tried to implement their super realistic ballistics model, and it just makes the game a bunch of random bullshit (I suppose like most real firefights would be). There's no visual feedback for what makes good cover, and having experimented with the game several times, my conclusion is that the answer is, "Nothing is good cover,"
I've had my mercs stand up in the open for fights and crawl around behind building facades for fights, and I've not noticed any difference in how often they get shot. I was pretty bummed after testing this out, because the game has a stance system that seems complex at first glance - until you realize it does jack shit.
This means that the game is really about sneaking around & using knives / silencers / choke holds, avoiding epic firefights altogether. Which is painfully slow, and I find to be painfully boring.
I am tired of XCOM:EW (no, Long War doesn't appeal to me at all; I have the game on Xbox360 anyway), but I still want to play something similar. Here are my requirements:
I have heard about a game called Silent Storm (and a sequel). Thoughts? I never played Jagged Alliance back in the day; I'm not sure I have patience for the old-style interfaces anymore. Ideally, I'd like a gang/squad-warfare style game like the tabletop Necromunda, with customizable gangs & scenario-campaigns.
Halp?
Valkyria Chronicles doesn't have anything procedurally-generated, but is a shitload of fun. It's turn-based combat with a first-person crosshair aiming system to allow for headshots and stuff. Characters are all preset but have various quirks to them, and it's got a class-based experience system, in that you just give experience points to, say, Scouts, and all your Scouts get a bit better. It's really anime-ish, so if that may or may not be a deciding factor for you.
I've been trying to get into long war since I reinstalled this game a few days ago. got to the third month on my first classic ironman try, got assigned the newfoundland mission and finished it, albeit with a good deal of casualties. decided to restart after that, having reasoned that at least I'm getting a better feel for how the AI in this mod reacts to what I'm doing, and now I'm about halfway through the second month in this playthrough and cruising along comfortably in terms of combat missions.
where I feel like I'm really foundering though is, well, every other aspect of the mod. I have $600 sitting around doing nothing this month because I'm two engineers short of my second sat uplink and I have no idea what sort of second and third month benchmarks I should be aiming for. do I buy tens of soldiers? do I buy two to three more interceptors (because man they get benched for weeks when they take hits, and I haven't even tried to expand outside of north america yet)? what on earth do I research - last playthrough I didn't manage to complete any of the weapons/armor/xeno paths in terms of unlocking the arc thrower or a following tier of equipment, and I just feel like I'm permanently behind the curve here. I actually feel more stressed in the xcom base as opposed to being out in the field, which is...new.
One, edit those Long War inis to turn the fighter repair time from 600 hours to 300 hours. Please, this is just a humanitarian request.
Two, you absolutely need to head straight for air lasers. It pretty much has to be your first research priority, and everything else has to come second. Once you can start winning the air war, you can start picking your ground fights.
Also, skip the newfoundland mission, it's a waste of time and effort imo.
One, edit those Long War inis to turn the fighter repair time from 600 hours to 300 hours. Please, this is just a humanitarian request.
Two, you absolutely need to head straight for air lasers. It pretty much has to be your first research priority, and everything else has to come second. Once you can start winning the air war, you can start picking your ground fights.
Also, skip the newfoundland mission, it's a waste of time and effort imo.
i keep seeing people mention the newfoundland mission like its a pain but when i did it was fucking easy and i didn't lose anyone, and this is the LW version.
It's easy enough if you know what you're doing, but it's long as hell, and most importantly: there's no loot. The only reward is panic reduction in Canada.
i keep seeing people mention the newfoundland mission like its a pain but when i did it was fucking easy and i didn't lose anyone, and this is the LW version.
Newfoundland is *way* easier in LW because of the new equipment. You can put on the lightweight armor for all your soldiers (which lets them move a ridiculous number of tiles), and bring grenadiers and rocketeers. You run your lightest, most nimble soldier (someone in lightweight armor with just a SMG, grenadier e.g.) up to the transponder while you leave everyone behind at the docks. Use a SHIV to kill the first 2-3 Chryssalids while your transponder soldier gtfo. You'll be sacrificing the SHIV with this strategy, so don't overload it with Foundry equipment, because there is a >50% chance you will lose it all when your squad evacs.
Understand that you don't need armor in Newfoundland because absolutely nothing shoots at you. Your priority is being able to move far, and fast. There is also no rush until you first spot the whale carcass.
Been playing EW for the better part of the weekend. Despite only having beaten EU on normal, I decided to try Classic Ironman. Three half-decent attempts (if you count getting up to the first terror mission as "decent"), many more attempts that went south immediately, and about fifty dead soldiers later, I think I'm going to go back to normal difficulty.
Does anyone have any essential tips for classic? Every time, I feel like I end up just too far behind in terms of technology and resources. I lose all of my experienced soldiers because they can't kill thin men and floaters without laser weapons. They can't take a hit without carapace armor. Can't afford to build facilities, especially if I try to account for adjacency. Fighters don't have the firepower to destroy larger UFOs. Can't make any progress on alien capture. Cats and dogs living together. Mass hysteria!
Emperor_Z on
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scherbchenAsgard (it is dead)Registered Userregular
research: alien biology (nets you trade offers for scientists) into alien weaponry -> beam lasers -> advanced beam
UFOs: don't go for anything above small. leave 1-2 fighters on stand-by for the glowing ones (they want to snatch your satellites, you mostly only need to hit them a couple of times to have them abort their mission). buy more fighters! seriously! send badly damaged ones to another continent for repairs when you get over your alotted 6 slots, think of them as benches for your fighters.
troops: you need a huge roster to account for the fatigue and injury time as well as for the required lvls for officer school unlocks. common benchmark seems to be 50 men. now you also have to level them. bring 2 rookies on each small crashed UFO (rule-of-thumb) and light activity abductions as long as you can (mutons+ showing up). bring a commander, some mid-lvl dudes. scouts can use shotguns. we love shotguns. we even love them once we get laser rifles. bring 2 shotguns for medium UFOs, 1 for mall ones. gunners rule as well.
expanding: don't. get 2 extra satellites up on your starting continent in the first month. work on defending those (you remembered to buy fighters, right?) your expanding air fleet will be the cornerstone of your expansion to another continent eventually (at which point you will need a third continent as a bench most likely)
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scherbchenAsgard (it is dead)Registered Userregular
oh, also remember (you probably know this already) that aliens perform missions in order to research and in order to buy troops and do more missions. eaach mission they are on that you foil (like abductions and shooting down your satellites) denies them resources. each soldier you leave behind when you retreat from a mission nets them vast research bonuses.
you can sort of monitor their resource pool by opening meld cannisters. the more meld they have the more you arte fucked (discounting a slight rise in meld as the year progresses). if you see 10+ meld cannisters in june/july... restart and foil moar!
Are we talking about the same game? 6 fighters on one continent? 50 soldiers? What the heck is a scout? Is this Long War stuff? I'm talking about unmodded EW
I'm beating my head up against Classic Ironman in Enemy Within. I managed to beat the original on that difficulty but I just keep wiping fairly early in the expansion. Is there a good Let's Play I can watch, or something similar, that will make me less bad? Has Beagle LPed the expansion?
I'm beating my head up against Classic Ironman in Enemy Within. I managed to beat the original on that difficulty but I just keep wiping fairly early in the expansion. Is there a good Let's Play I can watch, or something similar, that will make me less bad? Has Beagle LPed the expansion?
What is it that makes EW's early game harder than EU's? Since I didn't play classic on EU, I can't identify the differences
I'm beating my head up against Classic Ironman in Enemy Within. I managed to beat the original on that difficulty but I just keep wiping fairly early in the expansion. Is there a good Let's Play I can watch, or something similar, that will make me less bad? Has Beagle LPed the expansion?
No. Beagle is doing his ironman impossible on long war, which is a different beast entirely.
Now, a good bit of his reasoning behind choices and strategy ARE in the LP's thread on the something awful forums, so that might be a slight problem for you, but I can say without a doubt, he is good at the game, and gives good reasons as to the choices he makes, and what he does. I've BEATEN classic, and I have learned a lot from his videos.
I'm beating my head up against Classic Ironman in Enemy Within. I managed to beat the original on that difficulty but I just keep wiping fairly early in the expansion. Is there a good Let's Play I can watch, or something similar, that will make me less bad? Has Beagle LPed the expansion?
What is it that makes EW's early game harder than EU's? Since I didn't play classic on EU, I can't identify the differences
In Enemy Within, research times are increased, first off. Also there's the fact that there's an entirely new set of research options and a few new facilities for the base. The tactical maps aren't nessesarily harder (Though with a few changes to abilities, they can be) But more that the strategic layer throws more things at you, and makes it harder to say, rush lasers.
I'm beating my head up against Classic Ironman in Enemy Within. I managed to beat the original on that difficulty but I just keep wiping fairly early in the expansion. Is there a good Let's Play I can watch, or something similar, that will make me less bad? Has Beagle LPed the expansion?
No. Beagle is doing his ironman impossible on long war, which is a different beast entirely.
Now, a good bit of his reasoning behind choices and strategy ARE in the LP's thread on the something awful forums, so that might be a slight problem for you, but I can say without a doubt, he is good at the game, and gives good reasons as to the choices he makes, and what he does. I've BEATEN classic, and I have learned a lot from his videos.
This is perfect, thank you.
I'm not quite sure why the expansion feels harder.... possibly I just got lucky when I beat the base game. I certainly have a lot of problems with the first expansion council mission (the French convoy), but I'm also just having trouble getting a sniper with squad sight fast enough and with losing guys just a little bit too frequently.
I'm beating my head up against Classic Ironman in Enemy Within. I managed to beat the original on that difficulty but I just keep wiping fairly early in the expansion. Is there a good Let's Play I can watch, or something similar, that will make me less bad? Has Beagle LPed the expansion?
No. Beagle is doing his ironman impossible on long war, which is a different beast entirely.
Now, a good bit of his reasoning behind choices and strategy ARE in the LP's thread on the something awful forums, so that might be a slight problem for you, but I can say without a doubt, he is good at the game, and gives good reasons as to the choices he makes, and what he does. I've BEATEN classic, and I have learned a lot from his videos.
This is perfect, thank you.
I'm not quite sure why the expansion feels harder.... possibly I just got lucky when I beat the base game. I certainly have a lot of problems with the first expansion council mission (the French convoy), but I'm also just having trouble getting a sniper with squad sight fast enough and with losing guys just a little bit too frequently.
My last run was my most successful until I ran into that French convoy mission. SO. MANY. REINFORCEMENTS.
Been playing EW for the better part of the weekend. Despite only having beaten EU on normal, I decided to try Classic Ironman. Three half-decent attempts (if you count getting up to the first terror mission as "decent"), many more attempts that went south immediately, and about fifty dead soldiers later, I think I'm going to go back to normal difficulty.
Does anyone have any essential tips for classic? Every time, I feel like I end up just too far behind in terms of technology and resources. I lose all of my experienced soldiers because they can't kill thin men and floaters without laser weapons. They can't take a hit without carapace armor. Can't afford to build facilities, especially if I try to account for adjacency. Fighters don't have the firepower to destroy larger UFOs. Can't make any progress on alien capture. Cats and dogs living together. Mass hysteria!
Lasers first.
I also do Precision Lasers second, because Squadsight Snipers are able to kill at no risk.
Choose either MECs or Gene Mods to invest your Meld in, and start with one dude.
Don't get Carapace Armors. Get Skeleton Suits instead. They're 1 research up, -1 health (which is inconsequential), +10 defense, and +3 move.
Don't hesitate to use your grenades for kills in the early game, due to the low damage of conventional weapons. Yes, they blow up weapon fragments, but not dying is more important at this point.
Don't hesitate to retreat your soldiers if you've triggered more enemies than you can deal with. Aliens behave... somewhat realistically when they can't see you too, so double dash backwards and restart your approach if need be.
Make and use 'dem interception bonus items.
Mimetic Skin + Squadsight is a stupid powerful combo, but beware on Ironman, as Mimetic Skin makes enemies bug the fuck out and teleport all over the place.
Learn how to execute the satellite stall - gathering Engineers, building Satellites and Satellite Uplinks such that they're ready to launch at the end of the month to recapture panicked nations.
Been playing EW for the better part of the weekend. Despite only having beaten EU on normal, I decided to try Classic Ironman. Three half-decent attempts (if you count getting up to the first terror mission as "decent"), many more attempts that went south immediately, and about fifty dead soldiers later, I think I'm going to go back to normal difficulty.
Does anyone have any essential tips for classic? Every time, I feel like I end up just too far behind in terms of technology and resources. I lose all of my experienced soldiers because they can't kill thin men and floaters without laser weapons. They can't take a hit without carapace armor. Can't afford to build facilities, especially if I try to account for adjacency. Fighters don't have the firepower to destroy larger UFOs. Can't make any progress on alien capture. Cats and dogs living together. Mass hysteria!
Lasers first.
I also do Precision Lasers second, because Squadsight Snipers are able to kill at no risk.
Choose either MECs or Gene Mods to invest your Meld in, and start with one dude.
Don't get Carapace Armors. Get Skeleton Suits instead. They're 1 research up, -1 health (which is inconsequential), +10 defense, and +3 move.
Don't hesitate to use your grenades for kills in the early game, due to the low damage of conventional weapons. Yes, they blow up weapon fragments, but not dying is more important at this point.
Don't hesitate to retreat your soldiers if you've triggered more enemies than you can deal with. Aliens behave... somewhat realistically when they can't see you too, so double dash backwards and restart your approach if need be.
Make and use 'dem interception bonus items.
Mimetic Skin + Squadsight is a stupid powerful combo, but beware on Ironman, as Mimetic Skin makes enemies bug the fuck out and teleport all over the place.
Learn how to execute the satellite stall - gathering Engineers, building Satellites and Satellite Uplinks such that they're ready to launch at the end of the month to recapture panicked nations.
Thanks for the tips. What are "interception bonus items" though?
And squadsight is still the way to go? I know it was OP as fuck in EU, but I also know that snapshot got a buff and seekers are meant to assassinate squadsight snipers
The "Interception bonus items" would probably be things like aim, tracking, and dodge. those things you need to research certain corpses and use them in engineering.
And yes. Squadsight is still the way to go. It got nerfed, snapshot got buffed, seekers exist. However, it's still the best choice. Didn't get nerfed enough to be a choice, snapshot is still terrible, and seekers are honestly not a problem at all!
Posts
So unless that has changed, fuck long war because fuck that noise.
Noped right the fuck out of there.
So I reloaded the aforementioned save. Made it through the mission, but this time the assault took damages and was out of commission when an abduction mission came up. It was going fine until some wyrm looking invisible assholes showed up. One of them fixated itself on my heavy's face. It was removed very quickly, but the floater crit him for 9 damage. And that was that. Again, I would have chalked him up as a loss, but the rookie promoted to assault.
XCom is hard you guys.
But fun.
well a big part of long war is abandoning missions you can't obviously do without a total wipe.
there are some hiccups sure, like going into a minimum panic abduction and finding 3 berserkers and mechtoid. but from what i've played if you go into a high panic swarm or assaulting the huge ship that just landed you are just asking for bullshit.
I am tired of XCOM:EW (no, Long War doesn't appeal to me at all; I have the game on Xbox360 anyway), but I still want to play something similar. Here are my requirements:
1. Squad turn-based tactical
2. Guns
3. Procedurally generated missions & soldiers
4. Permadeath/injury
5. Looting & consumable supplies
6. Fun???
I have heard about a game called Silent Storm (and a sequel). Thoughts? I never played Jagged Alliance back in the day; I'm not sure I have patience for the old-style interfaces anymore. Ideally, I'd like a gang/squad-warfare style game like the tabletop Necromunda, with customizable gangs & scenario-campaigns.
Halp?
Silent Storm is pretty cool too. Some of the best set-piece destruction around (you can tear building in half with explosives if you really try, even reduce them to rubble), random missions (tho the maps aren't generated randomly), and a large roster of soldiers all with personalities and full (bad) voice acting. The story is kinda meh; typical WW2 stuff mostly, tho you do get to play both sides with different rosters to choose from.
Xenonauts. /thread
Xenonauts seems like the metagame is kinda bullshit, from what I've seen on its thread. Like maybe it's not in its final version yet. Haven't checked for awhile, though. I do like that they have tactical air battles.
What I really want is for GW to just let someone make Necromunda, but that doesn't seem to be happening soon. Anyway, thanks for the suggestions, folks. I suppose I should eventually finish Operation: Darkness, but god damn that is a slog.
I know, right? Seems like it would be such a perfect fit for a computer game.
Jagged Alliance 2 is game I once loved, but I've tried going back to it several times & have come to the conclusion that it actually sucks donkey balls.
The developers tried to implement their super realistic ballistics model, and it just makes the game a bunch of random bullshit (I suppose like most real firefights would be). There's no visual feedback for what makes good cover, and having experimented with the game several times, my conclusion is that the answer is, "Nothing is good cover,"
I've had my mercs stand up in the open for fights and crawl around behind building facades for fights, and I've not noticed any difference in how often they get shot. I was pretty bummed after testing this out, because the game has a stance system that seems complex at first glance - until you realize it does jack shit.
This means that the game is really about sneaking around & using knives / silencers / choke holds, avoiding epic firefights altogether. Which is painfully slow, and I find to be painfully boring.
Valkyria Chronicles doesn't have anything procedurally-generated, but is a shitload of fun. It's turn-based combat with a first-person crosshair aiming system to allow for headshots and stuff. Characters are all preset but have various quirks to them, and it's got a class-based experience system, in that you just give experience points to, say, Scouts, and all your Scouts get a bit better. It's really anime-ish, so if that may or may not be a deciding factor for you.
where I feel like I'm really foundering though is, well, every other aspect of the mod. I have $600 sitting around doing nothing this month because I'm two engineers short of my second sat uplink and I have no idea what sort of second and third month benchmarks I should be aiming for. do I buy tens of soldiers? do I buy two to three more interceptors (because man they get benched for weeks when they take hits, and I haven't even tried to expand outside of north america yet)? what on earth do I research - last playthrough I didn't manage to complete any of the weapons/armor/xeno paths in terms of unlocking the arc thrower or a following tier of equipment, and I just feel like I'm permanently behind the curve here. I actually feel more stressed in the xcom base as opposed to being out in the field, which is...new.
Two, you absolutely need to head straight for air lasers. It pretty much has to be your first research priority, and everything else has to come second. Once you can start winning the air war, you can start picking your ground fights.
Also, skip the newfoundland mission, it's a waste of time and effort imo.
Doing this will give your e-peen herpes.
i keep seeing people mention the newfoundland mission like its a pain but when i did it was fucking easy and i didn't lose anyone, and this is the LW version.
Understand that you don't need armor in Newfoundland because absolutely nothing shoots at you. Your priority is being able to move far, and fast. There is also no rush until you first spot the whale carcass.
Does anyone have any essential tips for classic? Every time, I feel like I end up just too far behind in terms of technology and resources. I lose all of my experienced soldiers because they can't kill thin men and floaters without laser weapons. They can't take a hit without carapace armor. Can't afford to build facilities, especially if I try to account for adjacency. Fighters don't have the firepower to destroy larger UFOs. Can't make any progress on alien capture. Cats and dogs living together. Mass hysteria!
UFOs: don't go for anything above small. leave 1-2 fighters on stand-by for the glowing ones (they want to snatch your satellites, you mostly only need to hit them a couple of times to have them abort their mission). buy more fighters! seriously! send badly damaged ones to another continent for repairs when you get over your alotted 6 slots, think of them as benches for your fighters.
troops: you need a huge roster to account for the fatigue and injury time as well as for the required lvls for officer school unlocks. common benchmark seems to be 50 men. now you also have to level them. bring 2 rookies on each small crashed UFO (rule-of-thumb) and light activity abductions as long as you can (mutons+ showing up). bring a commander, some mid-lvl dudes. scouts can use shotguns. we love shotguns. we even love them once we get laser rifles. bring 2 shotguns for medium UFOs, 1 for mall ones. gunners rule as well.
expanding: don't. get 2 extra satellites up on your starting continent in the first month. work on defending those (you remembered to buy fighters, right?) your expanding air fleet will be the cornerstone of your expansion to another continent eventually (at which point you will need a third continent as a bench most likely)
you can sort of monitor their resource pool by opening meld cannisters. the more meld they have the more you arte fucked (discounting a slight rise in meld as the year progresses). if you see 10+ meld cannisters in june/july... restart and foil moar!
actually blushing here....
I may move onto LW later, since the mechanics sound very intriguing (though a bit intimidating), but I'm currently content with EW
I'm beating my head up against Classic Ironman in Enemy Within. I managed to beat the original on that difficulty but I just keep wiping fairly early in the expansion. Is there a good Let's Play I can watch, or something similar, that will make me less bad? Has Beagle LPed the expansion?
What is it that makes EW's early game harder than EU's? Since I didn't play classic on EU, I can't identify the differences
Now, it's not finished yet, but I can fully recommend Jadestar's Definitive commander's guide to Xcom.
Now, a good bit of his reasoning behind choices and strategy ARE in the LP's thread on the something awful forums, so that might be a slight problem for you, but I can say without a doubt, he is good at the game, and gives good reasons as to the choices he makes, and what he does. I've BEATEN classic, and I have learned a lot from his videos.
In Enemy Within, research times are increased, first off. Also there's the fact that there's an entirely new set of research options and a few new facilities for the base. The tactical maps aren't nessesarily harder (Though with a few changes to abilities, they can be) But more that the strategic layer throws more things at you, and makes it harder to say, rush lasers.
This is perfect, thank you.
I'm not quite sure why the expansion feels harder.... possibly I just got lucky when I beat the base game. I certainly have a lot of problems with the first expansion council mission (the French convoy), but I'm also just having trouble getting a sniper with squad sight fast enough and with losing guys just a little bit too frequently.
My last run was my most successful until I ran into that French convoy mission. SO. MANY. REINFORCEMENTS.
Lasers first.
I also do Precision Lasers second, because Squadsight Snipers are able to kill at no risk.
Choose either MECs or Gene Mods to invest your Meld in, and start with one dude.
Don't get Carapace Armors. Get Skeleton Suits instead. They're 1 research up, -1 health (which is inconsequential), +10 defense, and +3 move.
Don't hesitate to use your grenades for kills in the early game, due to the low damage of conventional weapons. Yes, they blow up weapon fragments, but not dying is more important at this point.
Don't hesitate to retreat your soldiers if you've triggered more enemies than you can deal with. Aliens behave... somewhat realistically when they can't see you too, so double dash backwards and restart your approach if need be.
Make and use 'dem interception bonus items.
Mimetic Skin + Squadsight is a stupid powerful combo, but beware on Ironman, as Mimetic Skin makes enemies bug the fuck out and teleport all over the place.
Learn how to execute the satellite stall - gathering Engineers, building Satellites and Satellite Uplinks such that they're ready to launch at the end of the month to recapture panicked nations.
Thanks for the tips. What are "interception bonus items" though?
And squadsight is still the way to go? I know it was OP as fuck in EU, but I also know that snapshot got a buff and seekers are meant to assassinate squadsight snipers
And yes. Squadsight is still the way to go. It got nerfed, snapshot got buffed, seekers exist. However, it's still the best choice. Didn't get nerfed enough to be a choice, snapshot is still terrible, and seekers are honestly not a problem at all!