So, which faction for WoTC?

[Bullett00th]

This being my probably fifth campaign, I'm planning to do just one walkthrough of WoTC, at least for the moment, so I need to think really hard on what faction to side with.

My question is simple: which one in your opinion brings the most fun and diversity to the gameplay? I don't care about effectiveness, I want to use the one that feels most different from my usual XCOM soldiers.

Thanks in advance!

[Azure]

Skirmishers with the mod that gives them cooldowns instead of finite charges

[Rez Elwin]

I feel the Templar is the most unique out of the three. The templars bring a real risk/reward factor with them because they focus on melee attacks rather than guns.

[Albino Noodle]

You know you don't have to choose just one faction right? infact you need to use them all
for finding the different chosen.

[Bullett00th]

Originally posted by BattlePanda:

You know you don't have to choose just one faction right? infact you need to use them all
for finding the different chosen.

I did not, for some reason the marketing made me think you pick one, ally with them and move on because the others hate them

[learnedhand]

Yeah, you get all factions pretty quickly. The only differences are who you start with and what benefits are associated with that start.

If you play the lost and abandoned mission, you automatically "start" with the reapers though not right away, like a few missions in. Like the other DLC missions, lost and abandoned is a multipart mission that gives you more lore so if its your first time, you probably should do it.

Otherwise, under advanced options you can choose which faction you start with right out with gatecrasher, so you actually have a faction squad member in that first mission. It adds some replayability because the faction classes are so different and the faction HQs scanning bonuses give you only one benefit (different from vanilla where you could scan for intel, healing faster, or building faster).

The rivalry between the factions is just cosmetic unfortunately. They should have done more with that imo.

[Bullett00th]

thanks for the info! I'll start with the reapers for the lore then.

But yeah I wish their rivalry affected the gameplay somehow

[Tamiore]

Most people agree that for higher difficulties reapers or skirmishers are best as a starting faction.

Reapers are the best as far as the actual hero soldier goes, skirmishers have great HQ bonus, both have some VERY nice faction orders (but those are quite random).

Templars have neither good heros at low rank, nor good HQ bonus, and faction orders are the weakest.

P.S. Starting faction also effects what faction you will likely end up having more than ONE hero soldier with.

[Ygolnac]

For your first playthrough I suggest to leave the WotC tutorial enabled, wich will make you undergo a mission called lost and abandoned, where you will be presented with many new game mechanics. If you choose this option you will start woth reapers but other factions will come sonn after. That mission should be your 3rd or 4th.

In this mission there are cutscenes that will explain you what's going on with these factions.

If you disable that you will be given a random faction soldier from the first mission. There's also an option in the advanced setting to choose with what faction start. But these options willl skip all the cutscenes that explain these factions, leaving you with a big question mark.

[Syndra]

Is this your first campaign with WOTC?

[MysticalPotato]

All 3 :) You don't choose to "side", as you put it, with any 1 faction, but all 3. Unless you're doing something wrong, you should have access to all 3 through covert actions.

[alangriffith]

Originally posted by Bullett00th:

thanks for the info! I'll start with the reapers for the lore then.

But yeah I wish their rivalry affected the gameplay somehow

It kinda causes the earlier gameplay with Lost and Abandoned on. You are the broker between them (well, two of them, the Templars just show up later if you look for them)

It's also there as the historical reason they didn't team up and take out ADVENT (or get themselves killed) during the years of occupation. Considering how their individual soldiers are better than your Xcom guys and all.

[AlexMBrennan]

All 3 :) You don't choose to "side", as you put it, with any 1 faction, but all 3.

You can get multiple units for the faction you start with, but only one each from the other two so if you want to have multiple templars, say, then you will need to think ahead and pick the templars at the start.

[Cahos Rahne Veloza]

Reapers are l33t for their scouting ability.

Skirmishers are awesome at pod massacres but are all fugly as heck.

And Templars are melee counterparts to Psi Ops soldiers, think of Psylocke in X-Men.

[theworld]

Reapers are the best.

Templar needs RNG to shine. Availability of Bladestorm makes or breaks Templar.

Skirmisher got nerfed pretty badly last patch and what's more the devs bizarrely did not bother to buff their underpowered and overpriced tier3 weapon... But devs not playing their own games enough should hardly be surprising to anyone.

The most fun is Templar if he gets Bladestorm. (And Reaper and Fortress... A man can dream, right?)

[GeminiEclipse]

For fun factor, I think reapers. Remote start is fun every time you get a nice setup. Or a claymore + grenade combo.