[LW] Harvester landing: I have made a huge mistake

[Bullett00th]

[unnecessary intro]

So I got me a harvester landing and decided to take it on because most of my guys are TSGT/GSGTs, most of my officers are promoted to CPT, I'm armed with lasers and ballistics and I already have a few MEC troopers, one suit though.

So what do I do? Being the idiot that I am, I immediately forget that this is not my average UFO landing and assemble a squad of my lowest ranks, being used to handling light/medium UFO landings to boost my troops' ranks. AND I take my smoke engie with arc thrower instead of my demolition guy, so all I have explosives-wise is 4 rockets (2 shredder) and 2 MEC grenades.

Obviously when the game starts I realize this is a bloody large UFO and I get swarmed by aggressive alien pods a few steps from the dropzone. The smart (and fair) thing to do would be running back to evac, but I decided that this is my math problem and I want it solved (thank you, bronzeman).

[/unnecessary]



- Now, THE PROBLEM -

Should I advance or just give up and evac?

Throughout my 4 restarts I have noticed that no matter where I begin in relation to the landed ship, I always encounter the same 6 pods with preset aliens. They are all aggressive, meaning that I don't need to move too far up to the ship. Assuming defensive positions up to 2 turns within the landing zones guarantees that at least 3 pods will come looking for me. What I want to know is could there be MORE than the 6 pods that attack me in different order? I have thrown battlescanners into the ship and always see the same guys. I thought the game would spread them along the ship more evenly but they are always not far from me.

If this is all, I can take them on. With difficulties (1 CPL MEC, 2 SGTs and 5 TSGTs), but I can. If there can be more inside the ship, I should just GTFO.


The pods are as follows:
- about 5 or 6 Outsiders (roaming, not stuck in a room) accompanied by a sectoid commander;
- 5 chryssalids with a Hive Queen;
- 4 mutons (non-elite) and 3 berserkers;
- 5 seekers with a seeker leader kind;
- heavy floaters with a floater leader;
- a Mectoid with a sectoid, 2 drones and 2 chryssalids.

Individually none of these are too much of a problem, but I will once again point out that they are aggressive and attack almost 2 at a time with a third one coming up if I don't manage to dispose of them in 2 or 3 turns. Or just activate if I get too ballsy and start advancing.

This mission is very important to me because the landing is in India and they REALLY want India for some reason. They've already taken down a satelltite there twice and terrorized it once so the panic levels are peaking. Asia is my home continent and they've already infiltrated Australia. I can't afford having to do 2 base attacks just to get my home continent under control...

[red255]

a Harvester is an abductor map right?

ok first. taking low rank troops on any LW landed isn't a good idea. Not sure where you got that idea.

If its an abductor and you have a spawn in the rear you need to blow a hole in the cockpit (ideally with a mec fist) and breach thru the there.

if you start in the front you can have a much easier time and rain fire down from the kill zone in front of the ship. you just won't be able to make it around the ship from the other side unless you are really lucky so you are better off using the interior and the defensive cockpit position.

[Bullett00th]

It's acutally the Furies winter map:
http://ufopaedia.org/images/4/47/Furies_%28EU2012%29.png

I'm not saying I took low rank troops, I took the lower ones because I'm used to XP boosting on UFO landings and/or light threat abductions which generally prove to be more than doable. I just had a brainf**t and forgot that this is a bigass UFO I'm going against when I was assembling the squad.

And yeah I'm in front ATM, not even thinking about going inside yet because everyone is coming to me. I was just thinking about whether or not it is futile and is it possible to encounter more guys in there.

[red255]

generally speaking once you make contact the entire UFO just charges you except the command pod. and maybe one coward pod.

so all the contact will attack you, find a 'defensive' position, and hole up.

you have to basically defeat a pod a turn because they generally arrive at that rate. until you finish off everything. Or at least break their will.

maps have between 35-60 aliens on them. only the hyperwave can give you a better number.

I generally don't have trouble from the front but I guess the furies map doesn't give you the hill. and there are places in those buildings on the side to sneak in a flank, making it a mess.

I could do it, but I wouldn't have brought an eco squad.

[Mojo Amok]

Generally speaking, the only way the full map worth of aliens charges you on a UFO map is if you trigger the command pod. However, every once in a while there's a UFO where they all head at full speed towards the LZ from the first turn without any provocation.

For example, I had this one where I never left the LZ area until they stopped coming: http://i.imgur.com/c0Led9z.jpg

I think its just a matter of if you can get through the first 6-8 turns with that limited volume of explosives. I suspect that they're throwing everything at the LZ and the only remaining pod will be the Command pod, which is different from the Outsider/Commander pod you've encountered (could be a small pod of just 2-3 outsiders somewhere in the ship as I've seen multiple outsider-based pods on rare occasions - actually it might have been on that ship I just posted the picture of).

Alternatively, maybe that Pod is the command pod and you've just had the bad luck if triggering it on each and every reload. But if thats not the first one you triggered and they're still aggressively moving towards the LZ at the start of the mission, I suspect that its the previous scenario and this is just a UFO with the AI set to full on hive mind bum rush.

Either way that ship should be empty except for the Command pod once the LZ is secure.

Good luck.

[Bullett00th]

Thanks to both of you.
I've managed to get good positioning in the beginning so far.

Not rushing to those buildings anymore as there have been pods to the sides of the UFO as well. I'm better off just using the very first sets of cover.
And I'm not sure whether or not that Outsider pod is the command one. Scanners have shown that it spawns not too far from the LZ and patrols aggresively, including even the UFO roof.

Unless there are no repeating pods, none of them spawn in the command room because I've already breached it twice when boarding the ship from behind (insert if you know what I mean joke here), and it had a muton pod once, and no pod the other time. The game just seems to spawn all the pods within a 1-5 turns reach of me just to give me the middle finger.

I like the challenge though :)

[OsoMoore]

I've had this a few times. My usual strategy is to quickly move to a strong defensible position, ideally with indestructible cover. You want an area that the enemy can only assault from one side, and without a lot of cover positions to attack you from.

Normally this means the south side of the ship (assuming it opens to the east). Dig into cover, focus fire, and don't move. Good luck commander!

[Bullett00th]

Ok so I got the mission. And I've lost a TSGT rocketeer SO STUPIDLY I hate myself now.
But HUGE thanks to everyone, the defensive tactics worked, I did most of the mission around the houses near the ship.

45 kills, 1 loss. There was 7 pods apparently, one more with outsiders - but that one was roaming within the ship. All the rest were either roaming around or actively looking for me. MAN this was hard. By the time I got rid of the 6 pods I had no explosives and no medkits, and my scout has been downed and revived.

I knew things would get messy because I had to enter the ship now, which I did after a few overwatch turns. And with a foolish positioning mistake I've got my medic downed. The mission ended with him still bleeding out so he survived, but when chasing a muton that got scared and apparently ran off from the very first pod I've encountered, I caught the remaining outsider's overwatch fire. The bastard was hiding in a corner. What a STUPID way to lose a soldier, but man what a round!


Fellow commanders, I duly ask you to pay respects to TSGT Leonardo Batista.
Known among his squadmates as 'Collateral', and for a good reason. Every single one of his rockets served a purpose and not once has saved the whole squad from the impending doom - be it by destroying enemy cover along with its HP, shredding them to pieces to allow others to do the cleanup, or making sure the flying aliens were forced to land... the hard way.
You have been an invaluable asset in saving our planet from the invasion. May your skills and bravery be an example to others. You will be missed.

[Avarice0107]

Finished a similar mission a couple days ago. I started at the boarding ramp and the first pod activated was 2 mechtoids plus support but I killed one and knocked the other down to a couple health (red fog ftw). THEN the bad things started happening. EVERY pod on the map activated during the next 2 turns including my first Sectoid Commander and Berserker of the game, and when I moved forward 2 tiles for better cover, the 4/5 Outsiders /sigh. I got lucky with the zerker who strolled up to my engineer with 2 health for an easy capture and then stupidly decided to try and take the commander alive. Liberal use of suppression, explosives, my best sniper, and a healthy game of ring around the rosy from my mind controlled scout I elimated every other alien. After all the trouble the little freak caused me I hope Dr. Vahlen has all the fun in the world with it. 2 Critically wounded and no KIA's, after a rough month this, I believe, will be the turning point in the Long War.

[Bullett00th]

Originally posted by Avarice0107:

Finished a similar mission a couple days ago. I started at the boarding ramp and the first pod activated was 2 mechtoids plus support but I killed one and knocked the other down to a couple health (red fog ftw). THEN the bad things started happening. EVERY pod on the map activated during the next 2 turns including my first Sectoid Commander and Berserker of the game, and when I moved forward 2 tiles for better cover, the 4/5 Outsiders /sigh. I got lucky with the zerker who strolled up to my engineer with 2 health for an easy capture and then stupidly decided to try and take the commander alive. Liberal use of suppression, explosives, my best sniper, and a healthy game of ring around the rosy from my mind controlled scout I elimated every other alien. After all the trouble the little freak caused me I hope Dr. Vahlen has all the fun in the world with it. 2 Critically wounded and no KIA's, after a rough month this, I believe, will be the turning point in the Long War.

many critical wounds are better than a single KIA, so congrats on the tough mission.

This one taught me to never progress forward when in defensive positions, these '1-2 tile' activations can really screw thing up for you.


Oh I also did my best with the engie I took. 2 risky failed stun attempts at a 1hp heavy floter, but at least I got myself a live sectoid.

[theworld]

Originally posted by Bullett00th:

Fellow commanders, I duly ask you to pay respects to TSGT Leonardo Batista.

He was a pathetic weakling and deserved what was coming to him. The truly strongest could have simply resurrected himself.

[Bullett00th]

Originally posted by TheWorld:

Originally posted by Bullett00th:

Fellow commanders, I duly ask you to pay respects to TSGT Leonardo Batista.

He was a pathetic weakling and deserved what was coming to him. The truly strongest could have simply resurrected himself.

Go on got out of here you EXALT traitor. I'll find your nest soon enough