Long War: How to beat UFO's early on?

[Gryphonheart]

Hey everyone.

I just started playing Long War a week ago and I like it a lot, despite making the game really difficult. However, it seems as if the air combat got really nerfed in this mod since I cant destroy any small or menium sized UFO's and all of my Ravens get 10+ days until repairs are done :c

I would like some tips, if possible, on how to deal with this. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[♠.brT]

get laser canons for your interceptors, until then, use avalance missiles against small ufos, stingrays for the medium ones. Don't even try to bring down a large UFO in the early game. Try to have max number of inteceptor asap. (or at least 4 per continent)

[Synavix]

I wouldn't even go after medium size UFOs right at the start unless you have 5 or 6 Ravens available. Also take note of what type they are, and whether they're flying low/NOE (likely to land regardless of if you try to take them on) or high (likely to try shooting down a satellite, if it's the right type). Most UFOs will take at least 2 Ravens to shoot down until you get laser weapons and a few kills. Don't over-commit though. You're going to have to let a lot get away, but if you do some damage to them you can make them abort their mission. If you try to shoot down every UFO, not only will you run out of available Ravens, but you'll also run out of non-fatigued soldiers. Prioritize which you go after. Also try to "stack" kills on Ravens when you can. It's a lot better two have 2 Ravens with 5 kills each than to have 6 Ravens with 1 or 2 kills each.

Unlike Vanilla, you won't want to expand to another continent right away. Wait until you can get at least 8-10 Ravens total before taking a second continent, and if you don't start in North America you'll want to go there second or third, otherwise it gets way too costly.

[The Coal Man]

What research do you get to get interceptor weapons? So far ive only found boosts and im pretty far in.

[Gryphonheart]

I usually start in Africa or Asia and yeah, I've been trying to get stacks of kills and atm only have the 4 initial ravens, 2 of them with 2 kills each iirc, but my Ravens take a lot of time to recover from the damage :(

Thanks a lot for the answers so far :)

[Shining Hector]

You can have laser cannons by the second month if you really push it. Personally, I'd go that route rather than buying a bunch of weak interceptors and hoping for the best. Your starting 4 interceptors with laser cannons are better than 12 interceptors with missiles, and a whole lot cheaper.

Research xenobiology first so that you get council missions to trade sectoid corpses for vital scientists ASAP, then go straight to alien weaponry, beam lasers, advanced beam lasers. Build laser cannons first, then build laser weapons for your troops with whatever's left over. You still need upgrades to take down the bigger ships, but every small and medium ship should be doable at that point.

[damesh2]

İlk olarak Shining Hector tarafından gönderildi:

You can have laser cannons by the second month if you really push it. Personally, I'd go that route rather than buying a bunch of weak interceptors and hoping for the best. Your starting 4 interceptors with laser cannons are better than 12 interceptors with missiles, and a whole lot cheaper.

Research xenobiology first so that you get council missions to trade sectoid corpses for vital scientists ASAP, then go straight to alien weaponry, beam lasers, advanced beam lasers. Build laser cannons first, then build laser weapons for your troops with whatever's left over. You still need upgrades to take down the bigger ships, but every small and medium ship should be doable at that point.

There is no way you will get xenobiology, alien weaponry, beam lasers and advanced beam lasers researched and time to build laser cannons then fit them on interceptor in two months. Takes about a week to build one and another week to fit it onto an interceptor, that's two weeks right there, so you're saying you can do all that research in about 6 weeks? Find it hard to believe without tweaking files.

Then there is the issue of having enough credit to build interceptors and weapons with all the other stuff you'll need.

[red255]

Its I think August, and I got a bunch of lasers.

apparently if you click RENAME on your interceptors they get the prefix F.O. and then level up thru the ranks with kills. so you should have done that early when the kills were easy.

But there are foundry projects to help your interceptors, and you really only need to bring down Fighters, scouts, raiders, and the other large scout ship. everything else you should not be attempting to kill. as it will either land or not. and is just not worth the aggravation except maybe a battlecruiser to both stop a terror mission and to acquire fusion cores for fusion lances. but yeah I have been BROKE, because the damn aliens keep shooting down my sats.

and well you know tons of stuff to buy. Barely maintaining 5 sats. I feel like I'm doing well but the game is grading me D and giving me 9 meld a container.

[Shining Hector]

İlk olarak damesh2 tarafından gönderildi:

There is no way you will get xenobiology, alien weaponry, beam lasers and advanced beam lasers researched and time to build laser cannons then fit them on interceptor in two months. Takes about a week to build one and another week to fit it onto an interceptor, that's two weeks right there, so you're saying you can do all that research in about 6 weeks? Find it hard to believe without tweaking files.

Then there is the issue of having enough credit to build interceptors and weapons with all the other stuff you'll need.

I just meant to get the tech, yeah building and equipping them will probably push into the third month if you want to be pedantic. The expense isn't that much, though, $120 without NA bonus, $84 with. That's less than your starting cash to get all 4 starting interceptors equipped, everything else you earned in the meantime can go to other projects. There's really nothing that helps you out more early on than laser cannons.