EW Who to save or let go (Countries)

[Professor Von-Wulfen ]

Hi all, I am in the early stages of my first EW Campaign with my base in Africa. Not lost any countries yet but I'm still Five days from completing my first satellite uplink and Ten days from the completion of my first satellite.
A few countries have high panic levels and I think I may have to choose which ones to save first when the satellite is ready.
Are there any countries I should prioritize saving, and ones I could let go without endangering my end game?
Cheers

[Tamiore]

All contries are more or less equal in general, however:
- you can never get a continent bonus if you lose at least one country from that continent
- your HOME continent bonus (i.e. Africa) is an exception and is ALWAYS with you — so feel free to lose other local contries
- all other things equal, just see what each country offers for a satellite
- as long as you don't lose 8 or more countries nothing "bad" happens. At 8 it's instant game-over.

[Welsh Dragon]

Hi Captain Black,

For me it's about Continent Bonuses and Funding (and also Engineers/Scientists a bit.)

To get a continent bonus you need to have satelite coverage over every country on that continent. Lose one and that bonus becomes unobtainable for the rest of the game. The exception is the one where your base is, so in your current case you can probably afford to lose the other countries of Africa if it means keeping countries elsewhere in play.

Of the bonuses, I would say North America (cheaper aircraft,) Asia (cheaper Foundry and OTS Projects) and Africa (bonus money, which you already have) are the most useful bonuses. South America can save you time (Autopsys and Interrorgations,) and Europe money (Workshops and Labs,) but I personally find them less useful. That said it depends on what tactics you are using. If you intend to build a lot of Workshops and Labs then Europe becomes more valuable, and South America is the easiest place to earn a bonus requiring only two satelites for total coverage.

As for funding, assuming you aren't playing with Second Wave options, USA and Russia are worth the most, Mexico, India and Australia the least. Stopping the alien invasion is going to cost a lot, so keeping a steady stream of money coming in will be a factor in an eventual victory.

Finally each continent adds different combinations of Engineers/Scientists at the end of each month based on the number of countries you have with satelite coverage on that continent, so if you are short in one area or the other and aren't in the position to build a Lab or Workshop for a quick boost then that may be a factor.

I try to find a balance between all three, but it isn't always easy. But really every game is different, so it's up to you how you prioritise your limited resources. All part of the fun.

Hope that helps.

All the Best,

Welsh Dragon.

P.S. A website I find very useful for XCOM: EU/EW: http://xcom.wikia.com/wiki/XCOM_Wiki

[Professor Von-Wulfen ]

Cheers for the info guys :)
I think as this is my first playrgough I would prefer countries that are easy to manage etc.
Got my head around combat but base managment etc is all new.
On a different topic, Should I build both the Cybernetics & Genetics labs as soon as I have enough power to run them, or should one be built before the other?

[Mhblis]

Well to the cause commander

Check out some threads on how to deal with panic of Tempers advise thread. Learning how to properly manage panic in the first few months is critical.

I'll link you ufopedia when I get home if someone else has t done it by then. It has tons of useful information.

[Tamiore]

Originally posted by Captain Black:

Cheers for the info guys :)
I think as this is my first playrgough I would prefer countries that are easy to manage etc.
Got my head around combat but base managment etc is all new.
On a different topic, Should I build both the Cybernetics & Genetics labs as soon as I have enough power to run them, or should one be built before the other?

On lower difficulties you can do pretty whatever you want.
On higher ones early gen mods are pretty "meh", where early MEC's are pretty much "must have" (and, no, you will not have meld for both).
However, there is ONE gene mod (mimetic skin) that is outright broken. However, it's so "good" that I would strongly encouraged you to just ignore it in single player — otherwise it will be an instant "I win" button as soon as you figure out how to use it.

[Professor Von-Wulfen ]

[/quote]
On lower difficulties you can do pretty whatever you want.
On higher ones early gen mods are pretty "meh", where early MEC's are pretty much "must have" (and, no, you will not have meld for both).
However, there is ONE gene mod (mimetic skin) that is outright broken. However, it's so "good" that I would strongly encouraged you to just ignore it in single player — otherwise it will be an instant "I win" button as soon as you figure out how to use it. [/quote]

What do mean by "and, no, you will not have meld for both"?
Does this mean I can only have 1 Cyber Lab or 1 Gen Lab but not one of each?

[All JaWas to me!]

Genetics lab and MEC lab run on the same resource, so I tend to go for one or the other at a time. I prefer the gene lab, basically due to the way they turn autopsies into boosts for your guys, which scales up nicely, and usually matches with other things you have going on.

I've been informed that an early MEC is really really good as a tank though, which I'm currently trying out; get the heavy one, give it the punching fist and they can spend all their time destroying cover to make your ambushes more efficient, while drawing the fire of whatever stragglers are left.

If you go gene lab on the other hand, you can get invisible guys with much shorter healing times, which means that if you have some very solid high ranking guys you've built up, it's much easier to keep them alive. It also provides some of the best ways to deal with certain special abilities that will crop up later.

Basically, I would originally have said to skip the MECs and go for a foundry first, then get the gene lab once you're set up a bit, and spend a little money every month boosting up uninjured high quality soldiers just after they come out of a mission (generally you can get away with modding them for 3 days before something else happens).

You might find MECs helpful though.

[Welsh Dragon]

Originally posted by Captain Black:

What do mean by "and, no, you will not have meld for both"?
Does this mean I can only have 1 Cyber Lab or 1 Gen Lab but not one of each?

You can have both, but the Meld costs for Gen-Mods/MECs means that you can't usually afford to invest in both in the early stages. A basic MEC will set you back 40 Meld, and the cost to upgrade all the way to the most advanced MEC is 200 Meld.

All the Best,

Welsh Dragon.

[Tamiore]

I just want to stress extra hard that mimetic skin — aka "the invisible guys" — is not just "good" or "better" than some other things.
It's outright broken, because aliens literally can't do ANYTHING to force you to break invisibility once it's active, and you are still free to take pot shots at them via squadsight sniper or the like.

[Professor Von-Wulfen ]

Cheers all
A very hard choice indeed, as I have not had any experience with either Mec's or Gen mods its going to be a hard call to make.
I am playing on "Normal" difficulty, is it possible to fund both on this setting?
Could anyone recommend a good video guide to Mec building and Gen moding?
One that goes through all the unlocks and gives the pros n cons of each etc?

Edit: Just been looking through the Countries Bonus, as a first playthough, what Bonus is going to help me the most?
I think this will help me choose what Countries I should save so I can worry less about this aspect of the game.

[Tamiore]

Originally posted by Captain Black:

Cheers all
A very hard choice indeed, as I have not had any experience with either Mec's or Gen mods its going to be a hard call to make.
I am playing on "Normal" difficulty, is it possible to fund both on this setting?
Could anyone recommend a good video guide to Mec building and Gen moding?
One that goes through all the unlocks and gives the pros n cons of each etc?

Edit: Just been looking through the Countries Bonus, as a first playthough, what Bonus is going to help me the most?
I think this will help me choose what Countries I should save so I can worry less about this aspect of the game.

It's possible to fund everything on any difficulty. However, you still need to fund something FIRST.
As for the guide — you are playing on normal, just try whatever you feel like. Seriously, "pros and cons" on normal are super-subjective because pretty much ANYTHING will work on normal if you try hard enough.
Again, the most powerful gene mod — mimetic skin — is just plain broken in my opinion, so I just ignore it. But that does not mean that YOU will not like it.
Likewise, I find MEC's absolutely invaluable on my I/I runs — but that's because nothing else on I/I has a chance to reliably survive even a single shot in first months, because MEC's have lots of attacks that simply ignore hit-roll, because they use cover very differently from normal soldiers, etc, etc.

As for content bonuses, again, it's very subjective and HEAVILY depends on your play style and combination of second wave options you use. Really, even pretty straight-forward bonus from SA depends on your ability to get it at the right time.

[red255]

I personally shove panic into Europe. I save evreyone else and leave Europe uncovered for abductions if I can.