Am I suppose to lose Soldiers?

[Lazer Blazer]

I'm on Classic and Thin Men and Chryssalids are one shotting me 4 missions in. Not to mention my men miss much more than I'd like them too. I'm not use to Xcom, is losing Soldiers a part of the game, or am I just that bad?

[Amanoob105]

Yes, you will loose people. To repeat the old quote "that's xcom baby!".

Misses can be countered. With the exception of sniper rifles all guns have a better chance to hit up close. Sniper rifles are the other way around, if your sniper is within 7 spaces (the grid) of the enemy you may have more chance to hit with the pistol. Shotguns get much worse outside of 7 spaces so for longer range shots with them you also might have more luck with a pistol.

If you can take out the enemys cover that will also help or if you can flank them that will also help. Both of these will up your chance of getting a crit for more damage.
High ground can help with landing hits. Just don't do so at the cost of being in cover.

As to not dying (as much), look for the high cover (full shield). Half cover is a -20% to hit the one behind it, yours or the enemy, while full cover is -40%.

I also find it helps to get laser rifles and pistols as soon as you can as those are the two guns that can't keep up with the other default weapons (I also tend to find that a laser rifle with often outperform a default shotgun for damage if there's one spare for the assault).

Lastly. Early game, squadsight snipers save lives.

[Rabbit CoCo]

Originally posted by Sir Losly:

I'm on Classic. I'm not use to Xcom, is losing Soldiers a part of the game, or am I just that bad?

Playing under classic difficulty even you're not use to the game !!
Classic is not easy treat losing soldiers as a valuable experience. The more we play the more we learn.
*** Hints for battle :
---Our hitting chance is believed to be lower than what it show.
---Stay close (but not too close), stay under cover, don't walk too fast.
---Plan your tactic before the move. Always have plan B !!!!
---Check carefully how many and what kind of enemies you're going to encounter if there is information.
Good luck bro. and happy gaming.

[Lazer Blazer]

Thanks guys! Did my first run on Enemy Unknown, getting crushed in Enemies Within haha

[=CAW=aldarions-lament]

Lol i play in cinematic mode buddy.... on easy

[=CAW=aldarions-lament]

Classic mode is brutal and yes your guys are supposed to die. Classic long war (Mod) you are supposed to lose (after the mother of all fights). Which is why XCOM 2's Cannon is that humanity loses.

[Scifiwriterguy]

Classic is evocative of the original XCOM which is practically legend for being unforgiving. It's not for nothing that a very, very long-running joke is "Only lost four troopers - good op!" The original X-COM was a meat grinder, and Classic difficulty in XCOM brings back that experience.

Consider downshifting your difficulty until you're used to things. :)

As for the other part of the original post, yes, your soldiers will miss a lot. Even the hit percentage isn't entirely reliable as there's a lot of background math that affects the hit probability after it calculates and displays the odds to you. So while it may say 95%, it could well be considerably lower when the attack is resolved. This isn't a mistake; despite what movies may lead us to believe, the accuracy rate of soldiers in combat is generally pretty abysmal - around 20% at best. (Snipers and marksmen are often better, but they operate quite differently.) So your XCOM troops firing like blind men isn't unrealistic - it's painfully realistic.

Best advice on any difficulty? Fight smart. This isn't Independence Day or some other popcorn flick. This is chess with guns. Plan, organize, act. Think of the moves you're about to make and what your backup is when they go wrong. The smarter you fight, the better your odds of getting your troops back alive. Or at least repairable.

[red255]

the challenge of a game should be to the point where you fight hard and barely win.

otherwise you wouldn't be having fun.

losing soldiers while not advantageous isn't really that bad especially if your highest ranking soldiers survive long enough to be able to purchase squad size improvements

but yeah hang on until your soldiers get decent weapons and armor and you'll stop losing as many soldiers.

[Lazer Blazer]

Its lighten up a bit as the games gone on. Seems the first portion is just ridiculous.

[Amanoob105]

Originally posted by Sir Losly:

Its lighten up a bit as the games gone on. Seems the first portion is just ridiculous.

That or you're just getting better at it.

[|H|H| Fr3ddi3]

losing troops to either enemy type is to be expected for new players.

Subsequent playthroughs and experience should have you learn how to avoid getting hit at all, let alone taking casualties.

[red255]

https://www.google.com/search?q=casualties&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1
a person killed or injured in a war or accident.

News media or whatever like to use casualties as fatalities but getting injured is a casualty.

don't let news media make you stupid.

[|H|H| Fr3ddi3]

Firstly, Semantics.

Secondly, I used the word precisely because it means wounded or killed. Ironically because I wanted to keep the post short and sweet, need not have bothered after all.

Thanks for calling me stupid though.

[Chard]

It IS possible to have 0 deaths on Classic Ironman, I've done it once after many attempts (it was a personal challenge) and I'm not going to lie it also took a bit of luck. When I did it it was one of the few screenshots I've ever taken of a game.

If you make it through the early months at some point things just start snowballing. Because you aren't losing soldiers, you have better more powerful soldiers, because you have better soldiers you will have an easier time keeping everybody alive. It becomes a positive feedback loop, the real trick is surviving months two and three without losing anybody. Thin Men are DEVESTATING in month 1/2.

So in short it is POSSIBLE, it's just not at all easy, nor is it really intended. This game expects you to lose people (it's why there's perma-death) and if you have some losses you can certainly recover from them.

https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198045532751/screenshots/?appid=200510&sort=newestfirst&browsefilter=myfiles&view=imagewall

[WoundedRonin]

I'm too much of a perfectionist. I feel like I have to complete a game perfectly, i.e. no deaths. It's making this game stress me out, lol.

[Chard]

If your goal is perfection, there's no shame in playing on a lower difficulty. If you're going for no deaths it will still be a challenge after all as the game wasn't meant for it.