[WOTC] Try to expand quickly or not?

[dreizehnX]

I have looked online for some guides and I have found two which disagree each other.
One says that is is not good to expand to other countries/continents too quickly because that will result in having more than 1 chosen at the same time.
The other says that is is important to expand quickly to get more intel.

Now... what do you think? Can you please help me with the advantages/disadvantages here?

[Fringehunter7719]

Pros

• More income.
  
• More choices at Guerilla ops (up to three regions).
  
• Continent bonuses.
  
• Access to Facilities and Blacksites for doom reduction.

Cons

• Requires researching resistance communications and resistance radio.
  
• Costs time.
  
• Costs supplies.
  
• Costs intel.
  
• Activates more chosen (for third region+) which means they start gaining information on you and triggering extra sabotages, dark events and so on sooner.
  
• Requires extra comms capacity, which means building a resistance comms facility (fourth or fifth region+).

All in all there are sweet spots at two and three regions, which opens up the best options at guerilla ops (and your first continent bonus if you start in the Americas or Africa and feel like unlocking resistance radio) but without triggering all the chosen.

Two regions ASAP is definitely good. A modest delay before three is, in my opinion, best. After that I get some missions, research and facilities under my belt for a couple of months.

[dreizehnX]

Wow, thanks a lot.
So do I understand right that the chosen are only start gathering information about me once I have meet them?

Originally posted by Fringehunter7719:

Activates more chosen (for third region+) which means they start gaining information on you and triggering extra sabotages, dark events and so on sooner.

So they are not triggered by continents but more by the amount of contacts I have?

[Fringehunter7719]

As far as I can tell you meet your first chosen at the first retaliation, which is on a timer. The second chosen you encounter when you unlock the third region and the final chosen when you contact a further region (not sure if always the fourth, but I'd plan on it).

Chosen you haven't met yet do not accumulate information. They do acquire more strengths at the usual rate, but won't trigger any of the deleterious chosen activities.

[Tamiore]

I'm pretty sure it's not third region per se that triggers second chosen, but rather that the black site region always has the starting chosen. And chosen in general are linked to regions.

So if you contact black site region as second, it's always safe. But if you contact a different region as second that might get you a new chosen right away.

Otherwise Fringehunter7719 above explained it all.

As a personal advice, I would recommend rushing second region (black site one) asap, but otherwise only expand if you have a solid reason to.

[Tamiore]

On a side note, it's possible to trigger a new chosen if you do a mission in one of his/her regions even if the region was not contacted.

[NYuKeM]

You only need the Chosen gains 33% reduced intel card as active and there won't be any problem even with 3 Chosen. That'll greatly reduce their progress!

[Tamiore]

Originally posted by NYuKeM:

You only need the Chosen gains 33% reduced intel card as active and there won't be any problem even with 3 Chosen. That'll greatly reduce their progress!

Their knowledge meter going up is the least of the problems if you ask me.
It's the sabotage, the dark events and actual mission interference that are the problem.

[dreizehnX]

You have written a lot of stuff I was not aware of. Thanks, this is a great help.

Is there a way to reduce the sabotage?

[Stardustfire]

sabotage only happens when it is declared as a choosen action for the following month, u can see at every choosen what they is up to next after the speaker rates u. sabotage is the least of problems choosen cause, the only really anoying things they do is captureing soldiers and avengeer attacks, the second can only happen when there knowledge is complete filled.

[red255]

the turret facility should reduce sabotage but it doesn't seem to.

generally speaking it stops when the chosen are dead. Sabotage takes a few routes.

1. Fear of chosen negative trait on a few soldiers. fades with time and infirmary, have plenty of soldiers not a big deal. only one chosen per map, 1 panic roll, not big deal.

2. Wound times for a number of units, staffed infirimary reduces the effect

3. resource hack, steals unequipped weapon mods. so equip or sell your weapon mods.

I think theres also a research hack I only had happen once which was annoying but low chance of occurring.

But yeah the best solution is use covert ops to level up to colonel and take out the enemy chosen relatively early

[Fringehunter7719]

Sabotage can add 8 days to an attempt to contact a region or 8 days to a research project. Those are hardly insignificant.

It's a lottery though, sometimes it just destocks the black market or fails altogether.

Regardless, having 3x the risk is still a clear disadvantage.

[red255]

Originally posted by Fringehunter7719:

Sabotage can add 8 days to an attempt to contact a region or 8 days to a research project. Those are hardly insignificant.

It's a lottery though, sometimes it just destocks the black market or fails altogether.

Regardless, having 3x the risk is still a clear disadvantage.

there are costs and benifits. you weigh the risk benifits of the costs verses the benifits of the benifits.

Early on On one of my maps I had contact Europe and get GTS soldiers are SGT, and contact African and contact with new regions is made instantly.

the africa continent bonus fully negates the region time increase, maybe it adds 8 days to a radio tower build whatever. but those new bonuses were worth the risk of contacting new regions.

so contacting regions to expand to SEE what the continent bonuses of your neighbors ARE is useful in my book. and of course expanding so you can deal with facilities is important. but I wouldn't worry about it too much.

also once you contact the chosen in a region you can get 1-2 resistance orders for that faction by doing the covert missions so you get those bonuses which should be listed in the pros section above.

it is a lottery. sure but generally the resistance orders I pick up make contacting the chosen worth it.

[dreizehnX]

Thanks for all the explanations.

[Fringehunter7719]

You have to complete a minimum of 2 covert ops for finding the first chosen and a covert op to locate a second faction before you need to find the second chosen or face being gated on resistance orders. At that point you're no longer talking about a quick expansion strategy and into midgame.

To be gated on the third chosen you need to have completed a minimum of 4 covert ops finding the first two chosen and both covert ops to locate the other factions. That's only a roadblock in late game.

Expanding in mid and late game is a very different question, and is practically mandatory.

[red255]

Whatever. I expand when its economical to do so. I wouldn't worry about encountering new chosen as I'm pretty sure expanding generates more than not expanding.

but fine, if you don't encounter the chosen until you are ready to do the chosen covert ops fine.

if that puts it in mid game. Fine.

i don't generally fine tune my campaign, things happen when they happen. because Random number generators and ♥♥♥♥. if I'm sitting on something for a full supply cycle because reasons then yes, that was a waste. but not really something I'm going to spend alot of effort controlling.

I've contacted 13 regions before locating the last chosen once. you can contact regions and not locate chosen.

pretty sure to go past 3 regions significantly you'd need a resistance ring or alot of covert operations done putting us mid game.

I'm normally at 2 chosen with 3 regions. if you expand in a single direction it can be a long time before you hit the 3rd chosen.

chosen are map zone restricted, all of a particular chosen is in a particular area of the map.

16 areas. so like first area is whatever chosen you start as (assasin for reaper etc) then 5 zones for assasin 5 zones for warlock and 5 zones for Hunter.

so just expand in the direction of Hunter of assasin and you don't worry about Warlock you can go well into the mid game without triggering him. far beyond 3 zones at least.