Long War: Phoenix Cannons

[LooksLikeDaniel]

Right now, about half of my planes have phoenix cannons. The other half has laser cannons.

It could just be me, but I feel like the phoenix cannons don't seem to be doing very much anymore. Should I replace them with lasers? For that matter, is it time to start researching gauss?

To give an idea of how far I am, the Sectoid Commander and Heavy Floater have just made their first appearances. I am seeing mechtoids almost every mission. (They're doing a bang up job of whittling down my roster, too. May need to revise standard protocol.)

[Ashardalon]

lazers can get you trough until you get firestorms
they also get upgraded once you get advanced lazers making them real good
the phoenix cannons are worse then lazers but have more ap, i think they get an upgrade with gaus too but still prefer lazers

[red255]

Chem grenades.

gauss allows you to upgrade the guns to coilguns increasing their rate of fire or something.

[LooksLikeDaniel]

Originally posted by red255:

Chem grenades.

gauss allows you to upgrade the guns to coilguns increasing their rate of fire or something.

Chem grenades have nothing to do with aerial combat, Red.

[red255]

no the chem grenades were for the mechtoids.

[LooksLikeDaniel]

Originally posted by red255:

no the chem grenades were for the mechtoids.

Oh. Lol.

[Ashardalon]

also mind fray, mechtoids are surprisingly weak vs psy
so mind fray and telekinetic field makes them close to harmless

[LooksLikeDaniel]

Originally posted by Ashardalon:

also mind fray, mechtoids are surprisingly weak vs psy
so mind fray and telekinetic field makes them close to harmless

I thought they counted as robots. Anyway, the bit about the mechtoids was a side note. The question was whether or not I should phase out phoenix cannons.

[Ashardalon]

warning not 100% sure about this
they count as robots against acid, so acid wont reduce their aim, but it will significantly reduce their armor
but they do have a head, they have a sectoid inside them
so psy powers can work on them
if your psychers have some levels you might even be able to mindfray then panick disabling them for a turn
not sure if they panick shoot tho, i think they do since they cant run for cover or hunker

only psy immume are the discs, drones and sectopods

[Fadeway]

Phoenix cannons are bad to start with. They're basically avalanches that cost money and have a touch more AP. This makes them marginally better against raiders, more usable in emergencies where you're out of fighters, and a stopgap for tech rushes that skip laser cannons. You can do the coilguns project to make them into an actual anti-fighter midgame weapon, but you may be close to better weapon so it depends.

Refer to this: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sv4yvrQiAsVG_A-cVbOp57YRXO1NhyjqkPrLWLXOsTw/edit#gid=0