Getting started with classic

[Sadu]

OK, so I have completed normal twice on Ironman, the second time only losing one soldier which was pretty good I thought. And not finding it particularly challenging.

So I try out Classic - and I'm seriously struggling. Have had about 10 restarts now and I just can't find the right balance.

It seems that even if you survive the first month, you can't afford any sattelites and you have to choose the abductions based on panic level moreso than the resources you actually need. And not to mention that a sectoid can easily splat you with one shot if you dare venture into half-cover. Not starting with the Officer school means you are stuck with 4 soldiers for a while longer than normal.

Does anyone have some pointers for getting started. It seems surviving the sectoids is hard enough, let alone putting together a long term strategy to get the economy working. Just doesn't seem sustainable losing a soldier every mission.

[InfinityJason]

Unless you're very lucky, you will lose countries, first and foremost, ENGIES! after first mission and new engies arrive, build sat, should be like $77, but every month you need to be aiming for a new sat uplink and sats to the max. Don't rush with the main objectives, if you don't assault the base things start becoming easier as time goes on, eventually harder enemies will arrive, but at a slow pace.

Assault the base when a ton of countries are about to leave XCOM and you can't use Sats to reduce panic, as completing the base mission reduces world panic.

I found a squad of, 1 Sniper, 2 Support, 1 Assault, and 3 Heavies works well. Once you get plasma, alot of enemies will fall in one shot!

Sectoids are difficult Start game, because of the crappy balistic weapons, don't be too aggressive, let them come into your overwatch ambush. And always try to use full cover.

Sniper, Squadsight, and the perk to increase Pistol damage is a must IMO, along with double tap.

[Wolfera]

The difficult lvl in classical is a lot higher than the normal one. I found myself struggling after finishing the game in normal diff, I didnt try Ironman in normal, since its pretty much a walk in the park after u develop plasma weapons and IMO u must go for them ASAP in classic aswel. Develop Arc Thrower, capture an alien with a light plasma rifle and study it, from my experience, laser weapons suck and rnt worth the effort and money u spend on them, just like in the old game.

In combat, avoid close combat, that will prevent u from getting killed behind half cover, also the AI seems a bit better in this mode, they will flank ur units when they get the chance and its pretty much a 1 hit KO. Ill describe the units I find useful and explain how I use them, since u said ur struggling in missions.

Assault class is a must have in any squad, I usually bring at least 2 of them for missions, 3 if its a tough one, like terror, since u can keep ur distance and still flank the aliens and get 1 hit KOs when u get the chance by using Run & Gun, just make sure u wont get ur soldier killed. Equip them with shotguns and make the aliens suffer.

Heavy is my second favourite class. Bullet Swarm will grant them 2 attacks per turn if u dont move and HEAT ammo will make them deadly agaisnt robots, ull need them since u wont have much to use when cyberdiscs start showing if ur going for plasma weapons before researching lasers.

Bringing a sniper to the missions is important aswel, a well placed sniper will keep ur whole team covered and he will get ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of kills, of course u need Squad Sight, snapshot isnt a good skill for classical diff. But one sniper is enough in the squad.

Support class is the least in my list. Simply coz I dont think healing is that important and before u get Don`t Die On Me from OTS, ur soldiers will get killed instead of critically wounded. With the ammount of enemies ull find in a classical game, ull train ur rookies in no time, its pretty much a rank every mission, so u can keep a high rank squad without much trouble. It hurts to say this, but in classical diff, u must think of ur guys as expendable resource. I try hard to keep them alive and I feel bad when I lose someone, but well, it happens. But I usually bring one support, coz of the smoke nades and their deadly aim with rifles. Later in the game, I bring them to revive critically wounded soldiers.

Abuse overwatch, u dont want to use dashing in ur turn. Move ur troops carefully and always keep at least 3 soldiers in overwatch. Its boring till u find aliens, but its the only way to keep ur soldiers alive. Be aggressive in the battlefield, like they say, offense is the best defense, always move ur troops to flank the enemy, keep ur assault units behind their lines with shotguns and watch them suffer.

As for tech researching, u need to get ur hands on nano-fiber vest and carapace armor before anything or ull see ur troops going down often in the battlefield. After those, I suggest u go for the Arc Thrower, so u can capture an alien with a light plasma rifle and start researching plasma. Like I said before, I strongly recommend not developing laser weapons, they rnt worth the effort and money ull spend on them.

I think the purpose of classical is to force u to manage with lower resources, I find it impossible to keep all countries in the council, Im in July and I already lost 2 countries, my manage skills rnt so good, I even lost countries playing in normal diff, so I cant give many tips in this field. Like u pointed out, u gotta do abduction missions in order to reduce panic, try to keep the rich countries in the council, which means more income.

[Barawin]

There's a whole thread about useful tips for a classic-ironman campaign. It's probably 2 or 3 pages back on this forum.

Otherwise, keeping all countries requires a bit of both luck and skill but is doable: I'm in July, just assaulted the base and I have every country covered with sat except Mexico (I keep it on purpose for abduction missions, in order to train my squad).. I have titan armor, plasma weapons and demon interceptors... I struggled for the first 6 months (lost about 25 troopers) but should storm what remains of the campaign from now onward: I have cash, armor, weapons and finally leveled a group of veterans.

For more details, see the other thread giving tips.

edit: it was 2 pages back:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/200510/discussions/0/864951657959803615/

[Twelvefield]

With the satellites comes the money.

With the money comes the power.

With the power comes the women.

Maybe they will bring the doughnuts....

...mmmm doughnuts....

[Frodo]

I heard that when playing classic, it's better to hunker down than overwatch if your only choice is to go to a half cover? Can anyone confirm this?

[Segovax]

Always advance slowly in the early game and yes, overwatch is your friend. Don't take risks because they don't pay off regularly enough to be worth it. Don't get attached to anyone unless they're Captain or higher and even then get used to the idea that they can get hosed by panic fire.

I throw as many sats into production as I can day one. They take longer to build than to put in a genny and uplink when you get the engis for it. Save your sat deployments until the last day before a council meet and tap out the red nations to buy another month.

Play to the advantage of your starting nation, obviously. If you're not playing Second Wave and randomizing everything then you can pretty much map out priority nations based on bonuses and cash. South America is a great starter bonus for Classic Ironman since it saves a ton of research time in the early game. North America is decent because of the resource bonuses and savings on maintenance. Africa's 30% is best later in the game IMO. Asia's Future Combat is also great when it comes to cost savings in order to tech up fast. I don't really think Europe's bonus is good for a vanilla classic ironman, but I could be convinced otherwise.

Explosives are your friend. Don't try to finesse when a sure thing is available. Early on medkits are useful because they make the carrier immune to poison just having it in his inventory.

Lasers and Carapace armor are a lot more important in a classic IM game because of the research and resource crunch compared to normal, when hanging on and snoozing through alien fights to get to plasma is a lot harder. You can hop on those two and hold on to the base assault for a bit if you need it and crash it right before a council meeting if the world is out of control panic wise - it reduces panic worldwide.

Read the strat suggestions pasted everywhere. Plan your own strat. Expect deaths.

[Twelvefield]

Never knew that about the medkits!

[Cougarific]

You're probably already aware, but just in case - the aliens get a substantial +Aim and +Critical buff on Classic, leading to some (IMHO) improbably accurate and deadly shots from halfway across the map.

There are mods available on XCom Nexus that remove or tone-down the buffs, tweaking other aspects for balance.

If you're find normal Classic as frustrating as I did, try a mod.

[Wolfera]

To everyone struggling on missions, check this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9zJE9GodMQ&feature=plcp

This guy is a great tactician, the game is Ironman Impossible and he shows how to deal with different combat situations with minimal casualties. I found this yesterday, hes recording his campaign and uploading the missions. It will help a lot if u watch to all his videos.

Początkowo opublikowane przez Bazinga:

I heard that when playing classic, it's better to hunker down than overwatch if your only choice is to go to a half cover? Can anyone confirm this?

Yea, man, its better to hunker down than overwatch or risk a shot. I just had a Thin Man to shoot my Support Major from accross the screen when I risked a 55% to hit shot and missed, he scored a 7 dmg critical, luckily I had Carapace Armor and my soldier survived.

Its pretty much u can never rely on luck in classical, even when the odds r against the aliens, coz if things go bad for u, u cant reload the game. So whenever ur gonna risk for a shot, make sure u got a backup plan to prevent that soldier from being nailed, coz it happens a lot in classical lol.

[PictusCZ]

I don't have much trouble with tactical part - yeah, you can't rely on luck very much and shoot when you are certain to hit... That is true... But the thing that pisses me off is the strategic part... I really dunno what i am doing wrong... I pass every tactical mission with flying colors, yet I am again in a situation of having a game saved at the point where I am almost certain to have panic in a country and not being able to do anything about it... I build satellites as fast as i can and as many as I can afford, to reduce the panic and monitor the states, yet it seems insufficient... :-(

[Wolfera]

In the beginning money is really a problem, sell all UFO Power Sources and Nav Computers u get, bodies, save only Elerium, alloys and weapon fragments, the money will allow u to build more satellites and keep panic down, u can use interceptors with improvements to fight alien ships if u dont assault their base. Plan on when ur gonna assault their base (usually when things r going outta control), then u save these to develop the firestorm.

[Milk]

OK, in Classic, overwatch is actually not your friend. It makes your rook take a -15 aim shot, and if the enemy has any type of innate defense bonuses (floater, Muton, etc.) they will most likely miss, and then get raped by said enemy. Ideally you will NEVER use light cover, as that's basically garbage. Heavy Cover is bare minimum to survive Classic.

Now in Classic, you need to understand that missing a shot is a death sentence in most cases. Therefore you need to make absolutely sure to have a backup plan/guaranteed damage. If a rook has a 25% chance to hit a sectoid, hunker down, void the sectoid's shot (Sectoids have 75 aim, Hunkering down drops their acc to 1% (Assuming it's heavy cover), they won't shoot with those ♥♥♥♥♥♥ odds) and possibly make it overwatch.

Rockets are your friend here. While occasionally your Heavy will go full ♥♥♥♥♥♥ and shoot your teammates hiding behind a car :( most of the time they'll hit what they're aiming at. 2 Heavies in the right hands can decimate 1-4 enemies with a single rocket easily.

The last thing to surviving classic is combat stims. Turn your rooks from wimpy sponges into bulletproof killing machines. 1-3 damage shots do nothing to them, and normally lethal plasma weapons are turned into tickle machines. Combine w/ run n gun assaults (preferably with rapid fire) and run right up to them, then waste them. This is only viable late game sadly, but combined with Titan armor, an assault could survive 5-8 shots, and still live to kill more X-rays. Did I mention immunity to crits and increased movement speed?

So, surviving Classic in 6 easy steps:
1.) Get satellites
2.) Always use Heavy Cover.
3.) AoE weapons are your friends.
4.) Combat Stims = Bath Salts
5.) When in doubt, retreat (especially with high ranks; the exceptions are terror missions and/ or if your entire squad is rooks.) Don't do this until you have full coverage on all continents, as you can't afford to retreat from abductions early on.
6.) Sniper + squad sight + plasma pistol + expendable rook + gunslinger + double tap + ghost armor = 1 man army

Also, have a backup plan for EVERY ENCOUNTER! Assault with 92% chance to hit an adjacent muton? I've missed twice with rapid fire with those odds. Luckily I had a sniper. Believe me, the game will screw you over when you have the best odds, and inversely seem to bless you with garbage chances (I had a sniper one shot a heavy muton with 11% chance to hit).

[PictusCZ]

That strategic part seems to piss me off... I will probably have a break playing this game... Tactical part is very OK for me, if you don't risk at all or risk very little and always have a backup, it's quite doable... But MAN, the strategic part is way different...

What is the strategy you use for deploying ur satellites?

- try to have something on every continent?
- try to cover full continents one by one?
- keep your sats to decrease panic level when it gets hot somewhere?

Right now, I got the following scenario

- USA 4/5 (SAT)
- Australia 3/5 (no SAT)
- Argentina and Brazil 4/5 (no SAT)

And abductions in Mexico, Brazil and USA. Mexico has very low level of panic, but if i don't go there, the increased panic over continent triggers panic in the USA. When I go to Mexico, I save USA from panicking and can even save Brazil, but Argentina is triggered anyway... When I go to Australia, I leave Mexico (triggers US panic) and Brazil (triggers either Brazil and Argentina in case of no sat launch, or Argentina in case of sat launch over Brazil)...

All this when I passed all the missions with excellent ratings, just one ufo escaped (According to monthly report)... Seems I can't do anything about one or two states leaving... :-(

What would you recommend me now? I would probably go and "sacrifice" Arg&Brazil, use my sat to lower AU panic and go for a mission in Mexico... Can't afford losing USA, they pay the same money as B&A together :-(

[Wolfera]

I wouldnt sacrifice South America, since it will grant u a lot of research improvement when u get it covered and it only requires 2 satellites, I only really do autopsies once I get this continent, except for the Floater, coz of Dodge.

If u already got one satellite over USA, its not likely they will withdraw from the council this month, itll take some time before they do that and ull fight a lot of UFO activity over them, so it isnt hard to keep USA (IDK why, but I always lose Canada lol).

Well, if u havent lost any countries so far, losing one isnt that bad, Ive already lost 5 in my game, its November and at this point I dont miss money anymore. Also, the remaining 11 countries r covered by stealthy satellites.

What is being really painful is the lack of UFOs, so I can take them down and get alloys. I still need researching Heavy Plasma and Alloy Cannon to start sending those aliens back to their planet. I dont see myself losing any more countries, since I still havent assaulted the alien base, which means Im set and Ill soon be able to end the game if I dont ♥♥♥♥ up in missions.

Im not sure about how many countries u can lose till the X-Com project is shut down, I believe its 8. Thats what u must prevent from happening. It will come to a point where u feel like ur losing the war (I had to flee from my first large scout ship assault, I got my squad trapped between 2 groups of mutons and berserkers, they killed 1 Colonel and 2 Majors, the others were badly injured, I ran away with the remaining 3 guys, same thing happened on the 3rd large scout, but I managed to finish the mission with the remaining soldiers), but thats Classical/Ironman, u gotta deal with losses and failures, u cant win all like in the easier difficulties.

[Sadu]

Thats all good advice, thanks.

I wasn't aware that medkit carriers were immune to poison, handy to know. I guess one of the things I need to do more of is use rockets and grenades - I never really used with these in normal because the nice Frau growls at me and I understand you miss out on the weapon fragments. But in classic is seems like it might be safer to blow up the sectoid and be sure he's dead, rather than miss the 55% shot and die the next round.