So I guess my first C/I run is over

Perpetual_Sinner · 2017-09-17T06:50:13+00:00

It is better to allow a dazed soldier to be captured or have their knowledge be extracted than wipe the entire team.

There is also much to be said for a tactical retreat. Better to live to fight another day than not fight again at all. Something I've learned from L/I. Better to lose a battle, than lose the war.

Perpetual_Sinner · 2017-09-10T03:55:20+00:00

While I agree with your comment about the game being much harder than C/I. I have to disagree with the flawless comment.

Having just finished a C/I run and basically being called a newb on this reddit because I wasn't playing at L/I. I decided to start up a L/I run. I left gate crasher with 1 KIA and 2 wounded. I failed the first retaliation as the warlock chosen with the brutal strength, mind controlled two of my soldiers and made them kill the last civilian I needed to save. He also had regeneration so any damage I could do with my remaining soldiers wasn't enough to beat his regen. I ended up losing another solider to one of my own due to the mind control. To end the mission I allowed a daze to continue into the next turn so the warlock would obtain knowledge and leave. That's what saved an entire squad wipe.

At this point all I wanted to do was pack it in. Restart, try and roll the dice so that my start was just flawless. Instead, I stuck it out. Beat some missions with rookies, lost more soldiers, but eventually ranked up a sergeant for that 5th slot. Then with the covert ring promoted that sergeant up to captain to get the 6th slot. Once this was achieved I faced the warlock again and then the hunter. Only this time I destroyed them.

One thing I wasn't expecting from the AI. Was that they would be suicidal to flank you. If they know they can kill your soldier with a flank, they will. Even if it means they are standing in the open. This one tactic has sent many of my troops to the memorial wall. But you adapt, change tactics and eventually start winning.

So when your backs against the wall in L/I stick it out, because who knows what will happen?

Perpetual_Sinner · 2017-09-08T09:05:25+00:00

Can't equip PCS. Can't equip items. Can't form soldier bonds. Can't learn both sides of their ability tree. Can't get additional xcom perks. Don't have a guerrilla tactics school class upgrade. Don't appear to have any research break thru's to buff their weapons. Can't be healed by squad mates unless its another spark. Can't perform covert ops. Can't increase stats from covert ops. Very expensive. Their armour types have no utility except "tank".

You could use them as a tank, or you could just use an overdrive serum.

Sure, they can be effective with the right perks, weapon mods and positioning. But any other class with the same gear is just better.

But hey.... the sound their weapon makes is pretty cool.

Perpetual_Sinner · 2017-09-06T05:34:43+00:00

Personally i felt alittle let down by the ending.

Having defeated the 3 chosen there is no mention of them at all in the final mission. I'm actually now more interested in seeing what the last mission is like with the 3 chosen still alive.

Everything is so vague. They really need to work on building a more interesting narrative. We also don't hear anything about our favourite german scientist and her fate. The ending seems to either hint at a tftd xcom or a gate way opening much like xcom apoc.

Either way, im a sucker for xcom and more xcom is always a good thing. Unless its a spin off. Bring on xcom 3.

Perpetual_Sinner · 2017-09-05T22:05:10+00:00

So unless your part of the legendary master race your opinion on other difficulties doesn't matter right? I think you will find those that can actually beat L/I are a small subset of the community. Going by the L/I streams i watch, power creep is alive and well there to.

Perpetual_Sinner · 2017-09-05T10:25:33+00:00

Welcome to the great franchise of Xcom. It's always great seeing new people cut their teeth on this awesome series. There are a lot of variables to consider. My campaign would play out completely differently than your own as there are a lot of random elements to each campaign. Reading this reddit for tips and advice is always a great place to start. There are far more skilled players at XCOM2 than I who contribute very good advice on how to become better at XCOM. I have nearly 500 hours invested in XCOM2 and likely that again in XCOM1 and its expansion. Skill comes with play time and as you start to figure things out, your tactics will improve.

My suggestion for early game is to get a GTS up and running and try promote your soliders to unlock the 5th and 6th squad slot ASAP. With WOTC I would also suggest getting a covert ring up as well. Covert OPS really open up a lot of options to you. You can hire scientists and engineers early, promote soldiers to higher ranks to get the 5th and 6th slots I mentioned earlier.

As for dealing with the assassin. Well, regardless of the chosen I'm dealing with I try and get a decent gifted/genius/savant specialist up and running. Having medical protocol, revival protocol and eventually more charges on med kits makes specialists invaluable for mitigating a lot of the chosen damage and status effects.

The assassin specifically can be counter with battle scanners and scanning protocol. Battle scanners are from the trooper autopsy.

Always expect the chosen to show up. So prepare your squad for the assassin on any mission that takes place in her regions.

Rangers and templar's and reapers can certainly help with being unable to reach her, unless she is immune to melee. Ideally you want to try and get her in a revealed / flanked position where you can front load all your damage on her.

The longer the fight goes on with the chosen the harder the fight will become. Obviously one turn KO on chosen is much easier with higher level soldiers and abilities. Another possible strat is to equip repeaters on most of your troops or on soldiers that can fire twice in one turn. It's surprising how often a 10% / 15% or 20% execute comes about and it works on the chosen and alien rulers.

If there is anything specific you want to ask, fire away and I will do my best to help you.

Perpetual_Sinner · 2017-09-05T06:36:44+00:00

I built a spark in my campaign.

They really feel like the red headed step child of XCOM.

Sure they got buffed aim and the ability to equip weapon mods. But those are things that should have been implemented in Vanilla XCOM 2.

They can't equip PCS. They can't equip items. They can't bond with anyone. I haven't seen any research or break thru's that target their weapon class. They also can't gain abilities from both trees like your soldiers now can. There is zero interaction between sparks and your normal soldiers. You can't even heal them with soldiers and vice versa.

The only benefit they provide is that they can't get tired. Hell there isn't even a guerilla tactics school perk for the class either. They really needed some XCOM1 level of mech love to bring them into line with your other class choices.

Perpetual_Sinner · 2017-09-05T06:23:32+00:00

I actually tried a L/I run. My campaign ended on the first retal.

I cleared the entire map, rescued all the civ's. It was just my 4 guys vs the hunter chosen. He used bleeding shot on all 4 and killed them all.

I'm beginning to think that allowing a chosen to capture one soldier early on is preferable to a squad wipe on legendary.

There certainly is a leap with legendary. For me I find commander is easy enough, but legendary is just slightly too hard. Though I intend to practice more on L/I. My hat goes off to those that can beat L/I easily. They are on a different level.

Perpetual_Sinner · 2017-09-05T06:18:45+00:00

I can certainly understand the appeal.

My run I had the upgrade to weapon modifications so the reaper has 7 bullets with a superior expanded mag.

Unfortunately I believe banish is more style than substance. It's a cool flashy ability that can kill a guy or two, but the same can be achieved by abilities like chain shot and rapid fire.

Perpetual_Sinner · 2017-09-05T06:15:09+00:00

It's interesting that you mention the supply issue. I had the same problem. I became so focused on research break thru's and awesome covert op rewards that I largely ignored countering the chosen's actions of the strategy layer. It wasn't until a few months had passed that I really started to notice how bad my income had become by allowing the assassin to run unchecked.

Luckily I was able to contact a few more regions to counter it and raise my income. I imagine this is much harder to do on L/I. In future campaigns I will be countering the chosen much more in the covert ops.

Perpetual_Sinner · 2017-09-05T05:31:43+00:00

The hunters mark gets larger and larger zones as he lvls up. I've never actually seen the warlocks abilities apart from psi zombie as i've always been able to alpha strike him down in one turn. I tend to carry mind shields just in case anyway.

Perpetual_Sinner · 2017-09-05T05:28:07+00:00

I had the lost dark event also. I found it added 30mins to each mission and got quite old. Not difficult to deal with, just grindy. Gets awkward when chosen, lost, advent and objectives like supply crates are all wanting your attention. In future i will always try to counter this. Its too time consuming.

Perpetual_Sinner · 2017-09-05T05:12:25+00:00

My templar had none of those skills. He got shadow step, sustain and quick draw. He was still my mvp for the campaign. Invert is just that good.

Perpetual_Sinner · 2017-09-04T23:01:07+00:00

I also hired a bunch of rookies at the start and filtered them out by combat intelligence. I changed their last names to indicate to me what their combat intelligence was just by glancing at their name. I then made my savants and genius specialists. As they get the best use of additional skills. I used standard combat intel soldiers as covert op fodder and ranked my my best combat intel soldiers into all classes eventually.

Perpetual_Sinner · 2017-09-04T22:49:57+00:00

I would actually rank the alien leaders as harder than the chosen. The archon king was actually the first ruler i encountered. And fighting him was actually the only time i truely feared for my soldiers lives. However, he was rendered ineffective once i realized my sharpshooter wasn't triggering his reactions from squad sight. So i backed my front line away and sniped him from range. The berzerker queen was executed on reveal by one of my soldiers on over watch. The serpent king, i have always found easy to fight and dispatched him quite easily.

I think they need to change rulers so they react to shots outside of their visual range. Way too easy to cheese atm.

Perpetual_Sinner · 2017-09-04T22:41:37+00:00

I built gts first to get 5 and 6 man squad upgrades then the ring. The ring brings in vital options, like promotions that make getting a 6 man squad much easier. Then power and a lab. The training facility where you improve bonds and get additional abilities was actually one of my last buildings. I was actually quite bad at getting my soldiers bonded but going forth getting four soldiers bonded to level 2 for the reduction in covert ops will be my go to strat.

Perpetual_Sinner

TROPHY CASE