Alien bases

[Ante79]

Hi.
I just scouted an alien base in Australia. I decided to try take it down but it's not going so well. Veteran difficulty.
I'm couple of months in the game. Using laser rifles and heavy lasers, some have personal armor.
Lots of mind control and lost half of squad. Any tips for assaulting bases? Is it better to wait to attack the base and save it for later?

Any tips appreciated.

[Nokim]

as a rule i typically wait until i have plasma weapons before i start taking down bases, lasers and bullets just dont tend to cut it, but as long as you have plasma pistols or better I do just fine against just about anything.I usually dont even bother with personal armor until i can mass produce the best stuff.
as for attacking a base just like anything else, i always spread out my soldiers as much as possible and have them go in groups of 2 or 3 without bunching them up just in case one gets mcd or an alien decides to toss a granade for laughts.

[Ante79]

Cheers mate for both your replies, very helpful :)

One more question, the thing I got most problem with is the mindcontrol. When a couple of soldiers is down, panic, berserk etc starts.

What bravery should I aim for? I started sacking soldiers with below 30. Too bad soldiers can't improve in the stat.

[duanevp]

Автор сообщения: Ante79

What bravery should I aim for? I started sacking soldiers with below 30.

Below 30 is a workable threshold but personally I tend to sack anyone with 30 or less. You'll spend more money getting your roster filled up but often money is not the real problem - it's pancked soldiers getting ganked or taking out their friends as they go berserk.

Too bad soldiers can't improve in the stat.

They can but for the really low bravery ones they'll just never encounter the circumstances that will enable it enough times to manage it. Something like they have to be panicked and then SUCCEED at a recovery check (you can read up on improving stats on the wiki). In any event the practical upshot is that it won't happen, but it's theoretically possible. Yet if their bravery is high enough they aren't going to panic in the first place - which is what you want.

Having officers on a mission with your rookies is both good and bad. Good because officers help them avoid panic better. Bad because when the officers get killed the hit to morale is much worse and panic is then MORE likely. That's what tends to start the snowball. Someone killed and morale drops so someone panics and shoots Captain Tightpants. Then morale REALLY drops and everyone starts to panic - which leads to more deaths and more panic.

[Nokim]

honestly iv found worring about stats is a bit of a waste of time.the only time i sack soldiers due to stats is once i start doing psy trainning i will sack anybody who doesnt get atleast 80points strenght in psy. other than that i find the other stats seems a bit useless.

mostly because the ones needed will go up very fast if you just know how to play and do a lot of ass kicking. I dont think loosing 0-3 soldiers per mission is much of a loss. once you get spy that drops to 0 soldiers ever lost.

[trottola1998]

You can try to use plasma rifle and flying suit (if you have unlocked that) or else too many explosives and granades and also the small launcher with the stun bomb...

[Ante79]

Ok thanks for all the tips, will wait until I'm better equipped :)

Last game I was doing kinda good. My hyperwave decoder was almost finished to be built. Had 3 bases. Economy was good and I had good research. Then aliens attacked my main base for the second time. sigh. Unfortunately I had only about 6 soldiers. No chance, they finished off with blaster launcher. This was May month.

Not sure what I do wrong, should I always have tons of soldiers in the base? It's kinda expensive maintance cost huh.

What month at latest should I have researched plasma weapons and powersuit? Is May or June too late?

And how can my base be attacked twice so early? First base attack was only few months in the game. It's only on Experienced difficulty. Kinda odd.

It's often these base attacks that makes game over.

[Empiro]

A bit late to the game, but here is some advice:

Assaulting a base depends on the residents. Floaters are pretty easy even with laser + personal armor. Muton a bit tougher unless you have plasma. Snakemen are dangerous because of Chrysalids. Both Sectoids and Ethereals are dangerous due to psionics.

It sounds like you drew a Sectoid base. Don't attack it unless you bring some high PSI defense folks. Equipment doesn't matter too much, since lasers kill Sectoids just fine, and might actually be good if your guys start getting mind controlled. The aliens tend to target the same soldiers with psionics, so note which ones they are and disarm them (keep them close to the rest of your soldiers though -- aliens also choose targets based on distance). They can still help by operating med kits, setting up proximity mine traps, and using motion scanners.

I usually don't care about bravery at all. It barely protects against psionic panic, and it's useless against mind control. To prevent panic from deaths, don't take too many high ranking officers on any mission. Instead, take just one, and move the other officers to your other bases. Keep the officer at the start point and don't move him or her. They can still help in battle if they have psionics or operate a mind probe.

For defense, I'm actually kind of surprised -- have you been shooting down all detected UFOs near your base? If you are, then the aliens shouldn't know where you are. The Wide Area Radar can really help, so make sure you have one of those right away, until you have the decoder finished. Also, was the skyranger out when you were attacked? I usually keep 20 soldiers at my main base (10 for skyanger, 10 for reserve and also quickly replace losses). Make sure your base is defensively laid out, and 6 can hold off many times its size.

May is fine for power suit, though earlier is always better. You really only need Heavy Plasma, though getting it late isn't too bad -- Laser Rifles are at least decent against just about anything in the game. Don't bother with Heavy Laser unless you're up against Sectopods though.

[Nokim]

Автор сообщения: Ante79

Ok thanks for all the tips, will wait until I'm better equipped :)

Last game I was doing kinda good. My hyperwave decoder was almost finished to be built. Had 3 bases. Economy was good and I had good research. Then aliens attacked my main base for the second time. sigh. Unfortunately I had only about 6 soldiers. No chance, they finished off with blaster launcher. This was May month.

sounds to me like thats yoru problem right there, you had 3 bases and have not yet mastered the art of x-com.
stick to one base..so you loose a few countrys so what..the point is make it to superhuman mode and beat the game by the time you get that far you will understand how to do things easier and better.

by the time i beat superhuman mode i figured out how to make it thru superhuman without loosing more than 2 countrys and just owning it.

I could tell you little things and break down all kinds of tricks and tactics on how to own the game like you made it, but then i would be robbing you of the fun of finding out yourself and the appreciation that comes from knowing u beat the hell out of it yourself.

what i will give you is some very general tips to think about..
1. just beat the game
2. base arrangement matters(the difference between laughing at their first attack on ur base on superhuman and crying that you have to start all over from a horrible loss)
3. soldier stats is not something to worry about
4. learn to make the most of economics

[Ante79]

Thanks for your tips, yea sectoid bases are best avoided until you are PSI prepared. Yes I think I shot down all ufos near my base and base attacks are more common on higher difficulty.

Well I finished the game on Superhuman at last, sure I used some reloads and used PSI (kinda game breaking imo) but like I said before the game is pretty random and not easy :) At the end I had control over the whole world, it was nonstop attacks on 2-3 of the bases but plasma and fusion defense destroyed the ufos every time. Funny that they never stopped with the base attacks.

[Empiro]

Yeah, once you get your own psionics, the game is all over.

There's actually a bug in the game that if the aliens never reach the your base and assault it in tactical combat, they'll keep sending battleships until they make it through. This is the reason I never bother building defenses.

The game is definitely extremely random when it comes to alien missions -- if you're lucky, aliens won't even bother attempting to infiltrate countries. On superhuman, it's actually rumored that it's completely impossible to stop an infiltration (because aliens never give up on a mission), and the best you can hope to do is delay it for a few months.

[Daddy Cum Cannon]

Here is a bit of a "so insane it's genius" Tip I heard. When fighting Psionic Aliens (Etherals/Sectoids) Don't equip weapons. Just leave them in your Inventory. Sounds like a horrible plan right? Not nessicarlly. Because when a Alien mind controls a soldier they can't access the Soldiers inventory. So you don't have to worry to much about Mind control or a soldier going berserk. The only thing you have to do is move only a few spaces at a time if possible, (Because getting weapons out of inventory can cause a bit of TU's) And try to stay in as much cover as possible. This is actully easier then you would think, all you have to do is bring Soldiers with a decent amount of TU's. Another thing to remeber when fighting a Psionic foe is, just like your soldiers aliens can panic as well. Just cut down a few of the Psionic guys buddys and he might have a few panic attacks himself. Also, a good way of survivng a base assult is going straight for the Command center. Plow a way through and remeber to bring lot's of Promixity grenades. Launch a few stun bombs in the command center then move your guys to the back wall. Put a few Promixity grenades at the door and keep mowing down aliens untill there are none left. Base defending missions can be quite tricky, but in the end it's all about base set up. Put your hangers/access lefts on one side. Put a Room connecting the Access left to the other side. So, all the Aliens will be approaching you through one narrow hallway (And if you're smart you would cover it with Promixity Grenades) And there you go. Hope some of these tips helped a bit.

[del009]

I always thought that it would be kind of cool to have a "retrain" option similar to terraria's reforges that rearranges a soldier's stats (randomly) for a price. This would give you the option to give a high-level soldier a different role, or to increase a high-ranking officer's psi defense.