Ending

[RoyHaggerty]

So perhaps a little more clarity is needed in the instructions of this game.

I just completed it on regular. I was fairly pleased with myself - I'd got nearly all missions as 5 stars, I'd got 6 of my 8 troops to maximum level 25. I had all 3 factions at maximum loyalty, and I'd completed all the achievements, like disrupting 3 reprisal operations at once etc.

All in all, I thought I'd pretty much done a clean sweep very successfully. So I was a bit surprised to find that as the final mission was concluded, I was given a score of 70% and told D-Day had failed because I'd not done enough preparation!

I'd seen the red/green bar at the top of the campaign map, and I'd noticed that it didn't seem to be moving very fast, but because I was completing all missions at 5 stars, liberating whole regions etc etc, I assumed that it was going as fast as it could, and this was part of the game design, and it must be ok.

However, it seems that the only way to shift it enough is to liberate *specific" regions which give 4+ resistance strength, rather than those regions which give bonuses. I had no idea this was the case. Tbh, I'd avoided liberating those "4+" regions precisely because I had no idea what that even meant, whereas it was easy to understand the ones giving bonuses.

Perhaps make this a bit clearer very early on. I wasn't obvious to me!

[Robo]

Agreed - the marked treshholds are not clear.
However I expected them to be what they actually turned them to be.

I just made sure I claimed the "important regions" or how was that labeled and then I went after bonuses - towards the end of the game you get like almost everything claimed anyway, no?

[eduardocecconi]

Man, this is a real bummer. In my 1st playtrough I got 58% on Elite, received the achievement and was surprised with the message "massive defeat".

In my 2nd playtrough, in Normal, I reached 78% and I thought "well, now I got it"...but the message came as "stalemate". Same as you, I had everyone loyal, many regions fully controled and plenty of 5 stars missions.

So I'm thinking maybe one have to reach 85%. In any case it's a big disappointment to the player after spend more then 20 hours on a playtrough, manage to get the things done and find it wasn't enough.

As I said in another comment, it seems to be pretty inspired by the avatar project from XCOM2 WOTC.

[Yeyo]

Fully agree. No instructions on how the bar works or how are you supposed to achieve a victory...I got twice a stalemate.......

[GeneralGonzo]

Originally posted by Yeyo:

Fully agree. No instructions on how the bar works or how are you supposed to achieve a victory...I got twice a stalemate.......

What´s a joke regarding the history. If their would have been a defeat or even a stalemate, the Germans would maybe have won the war.
But in the afterstories of the characters, the WWII is always over as it was in history. So, a little weird the prosa in this game....

[Robo]

Originally posted by eduardocecconi:

Man, this is a real bummer. In my 1st playtrough I got 58% on Elite, received the achievement and was surprised with the message "massive defeat".

In my 2nd playtrough, in Normal, I reached 78% and I thought "well, now I got it"..

Please let me boast here a bit - 98% on first playthrough, on Elite :)

[ozzieduke64]

Originally posted by Robo:

Originally posted by eduardocecconi:

Man, this is a real bummer. In my 1st playtrough I got 58% on Elite, received the achievement and was surprised with the message "massive defeat".

In my 2nd playtrough, in Normal, I reached 78% and I thought "well, now I got it"..

Please let me boast here a bit - 98% on first playthrough, on Elite :)

Congrat's on your 98%. But a little more info please.Did you scum save/retry any missions you didn't get a good rating on.I am also playing on elite,but still have 43 days till D Day.

[Robo]

Originally posted by eduardocecconi:

So I'm thinking maybe one have to reach 85%.

Once reaching the first threshold I got message "Stalemate" other thresholds did not produce such message or I missed them.

Also I am pretty sure that the last threshold is 95% as I was a bit behind that one and thought that it is actually maxed but it was not :)

[Robo]

Originally posted by ozzieduke64:

Originally posted by Robo:

Please let me boast here a bit - 98% on first playthrough, on Elite :)

Congrat's on your 98%. But a little more info please.Did you scum save/retry any missions you didn't get a good rating on.I am also playing on elite,but still have 43 days till D Day.

I loaded only when I missclicked as this is very easy in this game and I reloaded when I charged into too many enemies in the Assault mission when you are pressed by time and you have to hurry in blindly (because I did not want to replay this mission as I do not like these), I got wounded once in the early game (replayed that mission) but later on I got never downed, only broken which I just accepted as the loss to morale does not affect stars and is just quite minor penalty (even on Elite) - once I got like 2 or max 3 mental inhuries I sent the soldier to heal.

What I done was to evaluate my resources first - Days to D-Day is the only resource you cannot replanish. I never ever used that for any event, I never ever run mission which would have increased duration (either picked another or used FFI so I can go there, later I got the region which ignores increased timers for mission). Every other resource can be gained - and limiting factor is resources of course.

Otherwise just mostly minmaxed builds where I was going for the things which worked in similar games - all extra turns and ways how to make them, bonus weapon damage, bonus armor, bonus cover, reduce Aimed shot cost. Also morale recovery as it was my limiting factor and not HP - the enemies never killed me straight when shooting into over, I did not let them to flank me.

Exploit overwatch - overwatch is always better than risky shot, enemies will like almost never walk into your overwatch unless they have 2 or more units who might followup after the first unit broke the overwatch.

I underestimated marks early but lately I realised how brutal they are - mark enemy, sniper oneshots him (even the pesky grenadier and my nemesis - their LMGs) and still have AP for one more shot or at least overwatch.

Also during the stealth part of the mission - dont kill everything you see, save these precisous stealth kills for important enemies - medics, snipers, scouts.

Once I understood the game mechanics the game became much easier as it was possible to exploit AI behaviour.

The elite enemies are annoying - talking these 13hp 7 armor enemies. But again - minmaxed snipers were oneshotting them. Other classes were barely able to scratch them - when I needed to keep them eliminated then it was knife time, one shot and single knife attack from my Scout (always buy best knives - they are cheap and the morale damage they do is INSANE) broke them, then Scout was keeping him broken until Sniper had time to down him (or Support came close for oneshot with shotgun).

I dont know - there might be more, just played carefully - never felt pressed by time until in like 2 missions.

Maybe this, but this should be given - always try to focus target and get one target down, 2 wounded targets is worse than 1 healthy and 1 dead (and also their medics would bring them up). Also their commanders are not that scary - was trying to prioritize them early but mostly ignored them/lowest prio targets lately.
LMG will wreck your team, then Grenadiers, Snipers are deadly but can easily be outsmarted.

Ended up with every mission on 5 stars, all regions except 2 maxed (one had 1 and one 2 sectors), all factions maxed, all soldiers max level. I would prio extra reward from missions first, then reducing enemy movement and reprisal times, ignored reduced time for healing and +5 morale to my team regions.

[GeneralGonzo]

You can exploit knifing on all hard enemies! Even from beginning on you can go and knife heavy enemies (with MG) and Soldiers with grenades who can´t be knifed silently else. You keep them constantly without morale (and so being unable to do something) until their health is down to kill them with one shot! Beware to move away from the grenade soldiers before though (explosion radius) ;-)

[Iron Horse]

My first playthrough I received a minor victory where the invasion was bogged down. 2nd time around, I grabbed the provinces where I received some major benefit first, like extra rewards and exp. With 30 or so day left, I started grabbing the ones that gave me bonuses to D-Day. We will see how it goes.

Trying to grab the characters I didn't have the first time around, I missed all the Heavies somehow. They are really effective the last 10-12 days, when you fight the tougher SS enemies.

[Robo]

Originally posted by Iron Horse:

They are really effective the last 10-12 days, when you fight the tougher SS enemies.

Interesting - I found them extremely weak. The enemies were recovering 75% of morale per turn and shooting them removes like 25% of it only.

[Iron Horse]

Originally posted by Robo:

Originally posted by Iron Horse:

They are really effective the last 10-12 days, when you fight the tougher SS enemies.

Interesting - I found them extremely week. The enemies were recovering 75% of morale per turn and shooting them removes like 25% of it only.

If you position them well, you can break a group of enemies, and keep them broken. Breaking an enemy, with Bulletstorm LvL1, allows you to shoot again. You should be able to fire twice, and suppress some more. Keeping enemies suppressed means you are not getting shot at potentially. They going to die really quick.

I speced into gunner and destroyer.

[Iron Horse]

Any of the missions where you are on defense, in tunnels or bunkers, or just have a group of enemies that may have been bunched up, the Heavy is a solid class late game to control and destroy them.

[Robo]

Originally posted by Iron Horse:

Originally posted by Robo:

Interesting - I found them extremely week. The enemies were recovering 75% of morale per turn and shooting them removes like 25% of it only.

If you position them well, you can break a group of enemies, and keep them broken. Breaking an enemy, with Bulletstorm LvL1, allows you to shoot again. You should be able to fire twice, and suppress some more. Keeping enemies suppressed means you are not getting shot at potentially. They going to die really quick.

I speced into gunner and destroyer.

I know how is that supposed to work - in reality it never really worked for me as even breaking lots of them does not solve the problem - they are still there alive and with 75% morale next turn. Maybe I am missing on something there but just killing them works better for me in general.
The only use for him I found was to cover reinforcement spot with Overwatch.

[Blacksnake]

Originally posted by Robo:

Originally posted by Iron Horse:

They are really effective the last 10-12 days, when you fight the tougher SS enemies.

Interesting - I found them extremely weak. The enemies were recovering 75% of morale per turn and shooting them removes like 25% of it only.

This all comes down to learning mechanics and reading skills. In the bottom right skill branch for Heavies, they get a skill in which shooting does not remove Overwatch. You should also prioritize gear that breaks morale over dealing damage. What that does is allows them to cover a wide area with continuous Overwatch shots. Those shots can fully break the morale of the targets (meaning they cant shoot back or they attempt to move into cover instead of firing). You can then flank the victims with your other troops for guaranteed crits.

Another fun use of this is to set up the Heavy with Overwatch on a particularly nasty area and have one of your troops toss a Satchel charge into their midst. The enemies will attempt to move away, setting up a killzone. Either the Heavy blows them away, or they get broken so they cant get out of the blast radius.

Heavy is super strong.