Tips on dealing with the refugee camp response?

[josephmcmullin]

I have three groups of mercenaries including most of the legendary mercs, and I have most of the map taken with a million in cash...I'm still overwhelmed by the response.

Any tips?

[sono]

Let them take over.

Fighting defensively is tough - the enemy comes up in a single group, combat starts if they see any militia, and your useless allies are scattered all over the map. Just let them take the territory.

Retaking is pretty easy - they take the same positions as the legion, so you can pick off some of them and fight them in chunks.

A single squad has a rough time in an upfront defense, but some maps are more suited for defense than others. Pantagruel's left area has good cover, a high ground and the enemy enters away from militia so you can set up, so I held that one against 3 teams in a row, but on most other maps I'd need 2 squads of mercs to fight a single enemy squad due to the immediate start of combat.

So yeah, 9 times out of 10, just let them take the territory. You can even autoresolve them if you're bored of taking the same map again.

[Capieluky]

I just let them to take all sectors, if you already fight in sector, you can autoresolve fights (easy fast way). You must fight only some sectors on ernie island (some of them can be avoided) and colonel fort. I dont like to fight colonel soldiers because of lighting response perk (i dont see logic how i can trigger this perk with stealth kill and even unaware soldier can use this perk).

[Shuri-Sama]

Originally posted by josephmcmullin:

I have three groups of mercenaries including most of the legendary mercs, and I have most of the map taken with a million in cash...I'm still overwhelmed by the response.

Any tips?

kill them all. dont see where the problem is. with ivan (+3 ap each kill) raven and barry (can move very fast with the right peaks( there shouldnt really any big problems.

had a 6 men squad last time and think finished all in around 3 rounds.

[jerome_lee]

Just hold on to Port Cacao as they spawn on the road to the mine building. Grenade launchers make very short work of them as they are all packed together then move out to retake other sectors. Cash in the militias from Emma as you conquer forts until you defeat the major.

Actually rng in my campaign had the Fleatown market held with 4 surviving militia and Fleatown slums only had 4 enemies to deal with. The fort to the east of Fleatown market on the river also held.

[[SCZ]Celestrian]

tl;dr:
just do your best!!



long version:

i´d take 4 remote charges to the the refugee camp, so you can end the fight there in 1 turn. 5 mercs should be enough. less is also no prob but the refugee camp squad is your commie-town defense squad.

commie town defense: 3 separate assault squads.
move your refugee camp squad to the left commie-town sector + pick R&R. it will be done till the military comes there.
equip grenades, nade launcher, rockets etc.
the enemy will spawn in the corner of the sector.
your spawn point is ~3 tiles away with possible LoS spawns.
deploy, immediatly grenade them. grenade them 1-3 times again or use guns, depending on how many mercs you brought.
this is also an excellent spot to use additional remote charges.
you gonna face 3 squads on 3 separate battles.
you might get shot at once per battle (i had fox there).
easiest defense.
used 6 mercs. quite overkill.


ille morrat town defense: 2 enemy assault squads gather before moving in: ~30 enemies.
you start on the hill roughly 10 tiles away from the enemy spawn.
hurry to throw a nade down. then throw more nades down.
milita will die, just throw more nades + cleanup.
used 6 mercs. was ok but there was plenty of milita left (~5-6), thus overkill.

wassergrab villa: only 1 assault squad.
you spawn is at the villa, thus immediatly run down to the pier and open with a good nade. use the next merc to put the next nade down (free-mover is a good choice).
pull your mercs back to let the militia tank.
about 6-9 enemies should be dead now.
clean up via snipers.
the first nade is critical.
used len + flay. flays low AP was a bad choice. got 1 wound (due to bleed tho).

port cacao: 3 separate assault squads.
enemy spawns on the edge of the mine on the way up to the building & down to the mining-area.
you can rush forward and open with a nade, then another one. most of the enemies will be dead now. depending on whether they move up or down, you have to gun them down fast or simply drop more nades.
the only difference i had here was that the 3rd assault wave instantly started combat, making an excellent nade impossible.
i split out and was only able to nade with steroid from the "middle line", as it reaches quite far to the enemy spawn with being able to LoS.
watch out for rocket guys.
milita isnt much help here.
mortar seems like a good idea.
used 6 mercs. strong nader throwers (nails for example) are key here.

mine A2: 1-2 squads move here.
due to lack of mercs i didnt defend it. when taking it back, the military will shoot the miners (just like graaf). not sure if that impacts mine output at that point. stealthkilled the outrunners (with fox´s druidic magic powers), then set up the squad and cleaned house. no miner was hurt (missed tho).

defending fleatown isnt worth it, bc the mine is empty.
i think 3 enemy squads hit it.
holding forts seems useless since they only get hit with 1 squad.

one strat could be to start one squad right to wassergrab.
if you do this, you will >> 5 < enemy squads at the same time with no milita support.
havent tested it, but this is full defense for ille morrat town + fort, pierre´s fort + wassergrab. probably a brutal mess.

another strat could be to start the event with a squad in the lower mid military fort. thats 4 squads + the whole military fort. brutal mess again.

on the western side, there is no big battle spot, since the military splits in it´s forces in the open sea. also commie-town defense is too easy to skip.


i havent tested it, but IF (and that´s a big if), you´re able to drop remote charges, then skip time till the assault squad arrives, deploy and the dropped remote charge is still there and ready... well that would change everything, since most sectors would be defensible by a single merc with a remote. the only problem is that a remote control does have a max range, thus it´s tough to make it work on port cacao mine, but on every other sector it would be a 0 AP instant win.


also the military invasion triggers when you want.
the only enemy is legion A20 sending down an assault squad about once a week, thus you can gather all your mercs there, trade, train + plan your defense.
obviously while getting in position for the military A20 keeps going to send more assault squads. no problem for your ille morrat milita, but they might run out at some point.


also: wassergrab is attacked by 1 military squad, but consists of 2 sectors, thus there´s ~50% chance that no defense is needed there (if your main goal is to only keep the mine).

military invasion squads usually win a 1:1 vs milita, but are going to fail on the 2nd milita squad they encounter ... usually.


if you plan for long sniperbattles and make full your of all your milita, you go for a full split and try to defend every fort as well.
obviously the easy grenade route is quite out of question then.
the only sector this is likely to get you killed is ille morrat, because as said, it´s assaulted by 2 squads and the 1st one waits for the 2nd to arrive. 30+ enemies. 2 nading mercs are probably able to handle this tho.

[The Great Cornholio]

you're not supposed to be able to hold everything

just take back the active mines and outposts

you can autoresolve most of them

[uncle nick]

As already mentioned, you don't have to defend everything, you can take everything back afterwards at your own pace. You don't even have to win refugee camp, just leave one gumby merc there to die.

However, if you have trained veteran/promoted elite militia everywhere, they will all die; but before they die, they will help to weaken and deplete the army forces, plus there will be some loot to collect afterwards. In some sectors, you just have to walk a merc in there to recapture with no combat required.

So, if you're cashed up and with 3 squads, may as well give the mercs something to do during the SHTF invasion.

Squad 1: 3+ mercs blocking squad at D10 to delay the Biff mission. They may never get attacked during SHTF; but it's random, so you want a squad available there to deal with it.

Squad 2: 3+ mercs defending Port Cacao City. Hopefully after taking casualties at Mine, docks and junkyard, the army will be depleted by the time they reach the City. This is optional to hold City; but if you let City fall and take it back later, you still get 100% loyalty, but the Governor will forever be upset with you. Also, the docks will fall, but the Grannys will somehow survive on their own, if you recruited them all and gave them the shotgun.

Squad 3: 6 mercs at Refugee camp. It can be done in 3 or 4 turns, if you bring grenades, 40mm HE and RPG to the meeting. Since you have first move advantage (after they reposition), just use every merc to toss/shoot grenades at the enemy before they start shooting. After defeating army, need to move Squad 3 to defend the Commie Brothel if the Chimmy guy is living there, he's a bit suicidal, not sure what happens to story ending if Brothel falls and Chimmy dies. Just drop some proximity C4 at the enemy spawn area and mop up after. Alternative is to let refugee camp fall, and just use Squad 3 to defend Brothel and Chimmy.

Yeah, Nah but if you have no money and no mercs, don't bother defending against the army.

[PolecatEZ]

Port Cacao is probably the only (if temporarily) critical thing for the story to keep. Everything else can be allowed to fall and then auto-resolved back easily.

If you let Port Cacao die, then the daughter flees the country and you lose a few things, like the museum piece sales with militia placement and the very handy infinite XP loop.