classic thin men early game?

[00yiggdrasill00]

any tips to deal with these guys? they really clean my squads up.

[Guilliem]

Shoot them first usually works.

If you are on the early part of the game you have grenades. If not you may find snipers with Squad Sight helps, along with an Assault with the lightning strike symbol, to avoid the first shot. After that it is Armour to become immune to the acid spit. Heavies can help as well.

Do not forget the aliens can see further than you can on open ground. And they can have the ability to detect nearby enemies that are hidden.

Basically stay in cover and fan out somewhat. Then when you have tactical rigging equip a scope to everyone. And a medikit or grenade.

[Wantoomany]

You do not want to get into a situation where you just sit in cover and trade shots with them. They have exceptionally high accuracy and will win if all you are doing is an accuracy dual.

You need to motivate them to move, or leave cover. Either fall back, forcing them to move up, hopefully into your overwatch. Use explosives to destroy their cover, forcing them to relocate on their turn. Or try to flank them, a flanked enemy will always try to relocate on their turn.

Any unit still under threat of attack needs more then just high cover. It is better to hunker down a unit them it is to take a low percentage shot. It is better still to just get them out of direct line of site. Using dash to get a vulnerable unit out of the harms way is also often better then just trading shots with a Thin man.

[00yiggdrasill00]

thanks. im on my 5th run at it now and i THINK im starting to get some solutions to them. that poison is still dangerous though

[TOAN732]

They are very common on council missions, so bringing a medic on those missions could be useful.

[00yiggdrasill00]

Originally posted by Toan732:

They are very common on council missions, so bringing a medic on those missions could be useful.

my guys are getting one shot from behind heavy cover and im running out of ideas

[Traul]

At the strategy level, prioritize armor research on Classic. Your basic weapons can one-shoot everything up to chryssalids but your basic armor is not enough to survive thin men and floaters. Advanced armor also makes you more resilient to poison: you will still get the penalties for a couple of turns, but one hit of poison will usually not be enough to wound the soldier.

At the tactical level, the same principle holds for the whole game: don't let them take a turn. The whole game should be played as a succession of breaches. Get into position hidden so you don't reveal the alien until you are in position to take them down quickly. Once ready, use your first move to walk right in the middle of them if you can, then plan how to kill them all before they get a turn using any means necessary. Just think about one of those SWAT movies where the whole squad gangs up behind doors and windows before kicking everything open.

[00yiggdrasill00]

Originally posted by Traul:

At the strategy level, prioritize armor research on Classic. Your basic weapons can one-shoot everything up to chryssalids but your basic armor is not enough to survive thin men and floaters. Advanced armor also makes you more resilient to poison: you will still get the penalties for a couple of turns, but one hit of poison will usually not be enough to wound the soldier.

At the tactical level, the same principle holds for the whole game: don't let them take a turn. The whole game should be played as a succession of breaches. Get into position hidden so you don't reveal the alien until you are in position to take them down quickly. Once ready, use your first move to walk right in the middle of them if you can, then plan how to kill them all before they get a turn using any means necessary. Just think about one of those SWAT movies where the whole squad gangs up behind doors and windows before kicking everything open.

thanks for the push on armour. ive been considering it the past couple of runs (thin men still cleaning me out) but im so used to beams first ive been struggling with the call even though ive dealt with floaters well enough. thinking i might skip council missions for the first month if they pop. there just too many of them at once and the "drop from above" thing really screwed over my last run

[Buzz Killington]

if you trigger a group of Thin men and your squads tech isn't that good, you could always try overwatching the rest of your squad and pulling back the unit that makes initial contact. This way they would be triggered but have no targets, they would then advance on to you allowing the first shots to be fired by you as they move up. Also you could just rocket them if you get a heads up before you trigger them.

[♕ Adriano Duarte ♕]

I don't really like to use grenades, but sometimes its a big difference agaisnt them. Overwatch also seems to do wonders because it activates when they drop on the battlefield, so its a free shot to weaken your foes.

[Wantoomany]

Originally posted by Buzz Killington:

if you trigger a group of Thin men and your squads tech isn't that good, you could always try overwatching the rest of your squad and pulling back the unit that makes initial contact. This way they would be triggered but have no targets, they would then advance on to you allowing the first shots to be fired by you as they move up. Also you could just rocket them if you get a heads up before you trigger them.

THIS!

Falling back is much better then just hiding behind full cover hoping its going to save you. (It wont) It allows you to break line of site, lure enemies into overwatch traps, You can strip cover as you fall back, ensuring that enemies lured into following you will advance along predictable paths or use predictable cover. And it allows you to flank enemies without moving into unexplored terrain. Greatly reducing the chance of triggering additional pods.

Flanked enemies or enemies exposed without cover will always seek to move to new cover allowing additional overwatch trap opportunities.

[Guilliem]

You do not really need armour or anything else. You need a good strategy. They will normally follow a pattern. Grenades and overwatch help. But having snipers set up helps more.

I am into Jan 2016 (Ironman Classic). I have no armour and am only just researching lasers. I use 3 or 4 decent snipers. Armour stops the poison spits, but they just shoot you for more damage.

Cover does make a difference. if they can not see you they can not shoot you. But they could use AoE.

I would say think about your play style and research for that style. Or perhaps change it.

I research for tactical rigging first, then the new fighter. I use a scope and a medikit mostly. Hardly ever use Heavies. I also do not use a shotgun with Assault.. I give them an assault rifle so they can shoot from distance.

But it all relies on your strategy. This is a cat and mouse game.. With lots of distractions and false leads. You do not have to research ASAP. You do not have to build the Alien Containment. You do need to shoot down UFO and attack landed UFO.. but not those shot down. You also need to complete all missions given or you may drop a country with no warning.

[00yiggdrasill00]

Originally posted by Wantoomany:

Originally posted by Buzz Killington:

if you trigger a group of Thin men and your squads tech isn't that good, you could always try overwatching the rest of your squad and pulling back the unit that makes initial contact. This way they would be triggered but have no targets, they would then advance on to you allowing the first shots to be fired by you as they move up. Also you could just rocket them if you get a heads up before you trigger them.

THIS!

Falling back is much better then just hiding behind full cover hoping its going to save you. (It wont) It allows you to break line of site, lure enemies into overwatch traps, You can strip cover as you fall back, ensuring that enemies lured into following you will advance along predictable paths or use predictable cover. And it allows you to flank enemies without moving into unexplored terrain. Greatly reducing the chance of triggering additional pods.

Flanked enemies or enemies exposed without cover will always seek to move to new cover allowing additional overwatch trap opportunities.

this is something im learning the hard way so thanks for driving it home. i have a habit of trying to shift around but triggering more pods as i go. im learning as i play just how different classic is from normal

[Traul]

Originally posted by 00yiggdrasill00:

thinking i might skip council missions for the first month if they pop. there just too many of them t once and the "drop from above" thing really screwed over my last run

What you describe sounds like Bomb Disposal. Other council missions are much easier and will only throw at most 2 aliens at a time if you creep slowly. Portent is a bit harder than a regular council mission, but by the time you get it you should have at least squad size 5 and probably improved armor too.

[Wantoomany]

Originally posted by Traul:

What you describe sounds like Bomb Disposal. Other council missions are much easier and will only throw at most 2 aliens at a time if you creep slowly.

Yeah, that bomb disposal mission on the train is a complete mess. You pretty much have to ignore every lesson the game teaches you and play it hyper aggressively. You do not have time to set up fall back ambushes. You don't even have time to clear all the hostiles as you advance.

The only way I had any success with it was to go in with a full 6 man team. Don't even do it, if you haven't got that yet. With at least 2 squad sight snipers, 2 heavies packing as many rockets as they can, and 2 assaults with run and gun. Then I just ran the assaults up the train at a full sprint, shooting anything directly in their path, ignoring everything else. The heavies job was to advance up the sides of the train drawing fire and keeping as much stuff off the backs of the assaults as possible. The snipers job was to protect both teams by removing any direct threats or obstacles. It's chaotic and messy, but all you have to do is reach the end of the train. killing aliens is totally secondary.

[00yiggdrasill00]

Originally posted by Traul:

Originally posted by 00yiggdrasill00:

thinking i might skip council missions for the first month if they pop. there just too many of them t once and the "drop from above" thing really screwed over my last run

What you describe sounds like Bomb Disposal. Other council missions are much easier and will only throw at most 2 aliens at a time if you creep slowly. Portent is a bit harder than a regular council mission, but by the time you get it you should have at least squad size 5 and probably improved armor too.

thats exactly what ive had. its ended most of my runs in one hard brick wall of thin men drop ins