Tactics vs Warlock in early game

[Green Raven]

If you draw the Warlock as your first Chosen, what do you do? The first retribution mission is really hard; you have only 4 soldiers and no way of countering his mind control.

[Breadsmith]

The best part is whn he Mind Controls one of your soliders and the Resistance Soliders decide to put a bullet in the back of his skull instead of fighting the Warlock.

[Hannibal Barca]

abort

[drnovaselinebrown]

Lol, I always thought this guy was somewhat of a pushover because I've always encountered him last during my two previous C/I-campaigns. By then you usually have some mind shields and maybe a psi-op or two with the Solace ability to counter his little tricks. Yesterday, I started a new campaign and like you I drew the Warlock as my first Chosen, and he showed up on the first retaliation mission starting to mind control the soldiers in my squad of five. My tactic? I decided to evac my remaining three soldiers after having lost my grenadier to fire from my mind controlled sniper. It was like impossible to get a good shot in on the Warlock too, since he ran away into full cover all the time. Rather than risk losing more soldiers in an uphill struggle, an evac seemed like the best option to me.

[GeminiEclipse]

I don't know what the limit is, but if you get him low enough in health he'll do the army summon that shields him. That will break mind control. So you can kind of go all in on him and get a sort of free round to recover.

[learnedhand]

Bailing on the first retaliation mission is usually okay. If I recall right, you won't lose the region.

[Tamiore]

Originally posted by learnedhand:

Bailing on the first retaliation mission is usually okay. If I recall right, you won't lose the region.

Yep. You can't lose your ONLY region.

[Tamiore]

Originally posted by Green Raven:

If you draw the Warlock as your first Chosen, what do you do? The first retribution mission is really hard; you have only 4 soldiers and no way of countering his mind control.

Have a reaper with remote start, bait the warlock into running pass a car or a fuel tank. And then an accident happens.

[Longtoke]

Originally posted by Green Raven:

If you draw the Warlock as your first Chosen, what do you do? The first retribution mission is really hard; you have only 4 soldiers and no way of countering his mind control.

sad as it sounds, i dream of having warlock as the first over that wretched ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥ thing - the assasin...i'm on my 19th campaign so far, yet EVERY TIME....assasin.

As far as your problems with his mind control, in the early game the chosen don't try to kill your soldiers, they only try to incapacitate them. Killing them ( the chosen ) over other mobs is key.

Best bet is to check the will stat's on your soldiers, it can be as low as 35 starting out, and as high as 50. I generally park and later dismiss the ones below 40 or so, and keep multiple crews ready and rested. Now your probably wondering why i'm going on about will stats - thats because it's what is "rolled" against on mind control ( and other psionic / mental state attacks ), i've found so long as your crew has 45 or higher will, the mindcontrol almost never takes fully, and usually only results in a panic, which won't have resistance troops shooting at you, and if your lucky they can go berserk instead of panic, giving them free shots sometimes.

Keeping your soldiers rested and having a good rotation is key to mainting a high will stat, because every action in the tactical rounds draws from that pool. The more depleted their will stat is from overuse, the more likely they are to suffer from psionic attacks etc.

[Fringehunter7719]

Originally posted by Green Raven:

If you draw the Warlock as your first Chosen, what do you do? The first retribution mission is really hard; you have only 4 soldiers and no way of countering his mind control.

I developed a three step programme after practising L/I starts:

1) Don't bring ranger or templar on the first retaliation mission.
2) Move soldiers reasonably close together to make them tempting targets for daze.
3) When a soldier is dazed, don't remove it. You want the warlock to interrogate and leave.

[Tiasmoon]

Rangers are pretty awesome against the Chosen early on. I'm a bit sad I rarely get the hunter or warlock first, it gets boring always fighting the assassin first.

That said, for the first retalation mission you want to push for first camp with overwatch near it. Take care of the 2 groups asap, so the resistance soldiers join the rest.
Then proceed slowly towards second camp (make sure to stay on one side so you dont pull too much). If you take care of all aliens and have some resistance soldiers alive those will help fight the Chosen (once its activated)

[Tamiore]

Originally posted by Tiasmoon:

Rangers are pretty awesome against the Chosen early on. I'm a bit sad I rarely get the hunter or warlock first, it gets boring always fighting the assassin first.

That said, for the first retalation mission you want to push for first camp with overwatch near it. Take care of the 2 groups asap, so the resistance soldiers join the rest.
Then proceed slowly towards second camp (make sure to stay on one side so you dont pull too much). If you take care of all aliens and have some resistance soldiers alive those will help fight the Chosen (once its activated)

First retaliation on legend without lost and abandoned is almost never heaven defense.

[Fringehunter7719]

Originally posted by Tiasmoon:

Rangers are pretty awesome against the Chosen early on. I'm a bit sad I rarely get the hunter or warlock first, it gets boring always fighting the assassin first.

Rangers are usually. But what do you do if one gets mind controlled?

Your options are either a) flashbang and hope you don't get another bad mind control or b) have fun with those 91+% melee attacks.

[Fringehunter7719]

Originally posted by st88:

First retaliation on legend without lost and abandoned is almost never heaven defense.

Yep, I've done it well into double figures and never seen one.

[TrickBurrito]

Yeah got Warlock as first chosen on my Legend playthrough as well. Best bet is hopefully you can flashbang your own unit that got mindcontrolled and kill the warlock asap.
My encounter wasn't as bad because the unit he mind controlled just started to kill the civies I was trying to rescue. I also encountered the warlock alone and he had the brittle weakness so I was dealing good damage.
What's crazy is that he mind controlled another person same turn the first one ended. Warlock is damn tough to fight as first chosen. If you don't get lucky with weaknesses/strengths especially. If you ironman/honestman, then it might just be campaign restart if you encounter him as first chosen. Or maybe you just evac lol.

[Tiasmoon]

Originally posted by st88:

Originally posted by Tiasmoon:

Rangers are pretty awesome against the Chosen early on. I'm a bit sad I rarely get the hunter or warlock first, it gets boring always fighting the assassin first.

That said, for the first retalation mission you want to push for first camp with overwatch near it. Take care of the 2 groups asap, so the resistance soldiers join the rest.
Then proceed slowly towards second camp (make sure to stay on one side so you dont pull too much). If you take care of all aliens and have some resistance soldiers alive those will help fight the Chosen (once its activated)

First retaliation on legend without lost and abandoned is almost never heaven defense.

Mine was one, before I started using the mod that made them all into Haven Defense. If you get a regular one yeah, it'll be much harder.

You can use 50+ Will soldiers tho.