[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?

[Martial.Lore]

Originally posted by 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.

This is exactly what happened to me. I think the game is balanced to begin providing players missions featuring the Chosen once they have acquired the assassin's nemesis, the Reaper squadmate.

[Stardustfire]

how it is balanced? its just mechanical. to each choosen is one of the faction linked, they both occupie the same areas.
so its only natural that u will end up in a special choosen territoy when u get the urgend mission from the faction linked to it.
its a pain in the ass the other way around, u can contact a faction, but sometimes it several cycles till u get a glimpse at the linked choosen, means u cant get more influence to a faction, because u cant start the choosen search action without know the choosen.

[red255]

avoiding chosen is gameplay cheesing and anything that negates it is more balanced than avoiding the chosen.

[Tamiore]

Originally posted by red255:

avoiding chosen is gameplay cheesing

Are you for real?

[SeriousCCIE]

Hmm my hunter chosen was not tied to any faction area. I killed (in their lairs) the assassin and warlock and had only the hunter remaining, who I hadn't found yet. My skirmisher rep was low since I hadn't found that chosen to do the rep raising missions.

But the only reason I found him was beacuse I flipped a coin and chose to go in a direction far away from everything else I discovered, in an effort to get a contact along a permiter and re duce the cost of other contacts down that coast -- none of the factions where on that side of the world and I had no visibility into the area other than that a couple dark sites were located somewhat nearby.

Anyway I had all of the factions as members and it took quite a long time to ever find out what that hunter guy was. I was really surprised there was no cut scene after the 2nd chosen died and nothing at all after the third one died. It's like the elders decided that their chosen were really just problematic and that they were less choosey about their minions going forward...

[Stardustfire]

the factions dont stop at continent boundarys, so the choosen do not. see it more often that not 2 choosen divide one or more continents betwen them.

[kingts]

Why I enjoy Long War. I have always had an issue with X-com's progressive storyline system, were your almost forced to go forward. You really do not get to enjoy the building up of your forces and resources. The regular games are not meant to be 4x strategic games. You can basically train the same group and walk through the story with the same troopers. However that is me. I am sure plenty love to just go beginning, middle, end and done. All player preference.

[SeriousCCIE]

WoTC introduced the 'tired' condition to soldiers, to thwart the typical progression you described of making The Commander's Chosen and then taking over the world with them.

They need to be rotated out (or replaced with robots, who do not tire) or their performance begins to greatly suffer and they can succumb much more easily to attacks that overcome the weak willed, as well as typical panic conditions.

Although other than that, I agree with you, other Firaxis games... like the civilization series... often need to be played quite slowly to have an appreciation for a given type of special unit or development, because otherwise the tech progresses so rapidly that by the time you have more than a few of them, they are outdated.

[Player]

I try to expand ASAP but its definitely slower than in vanilla

[grapplehoeker]

I don't care how many Chosen are active at the same time.The more the better imo, they're fun.
I do care about making money and fast:
Gaining more territories provides more regular income.
Controlling all territories on a continent and building at least one radio relay will activate the continental bonus which can be very useful.
Controlling more territories = more Avatar facilities to raid and loot. This not only keeps Avatar advancement down, it's a good source of loot.
You need the resistance contacts to be able to locate the Chosen stronghold and that means controlling those territories. Therefore you have to take them eventually anyway, so there's no point in holding back.
If that means more Chosen in play, so what? Learn to kill them and have some fun and then when it comes to their stronghold it will be so much easier to remove them from the game altogether ;)
Trying to turtle in WotC will just bite you hard and is a failing strategy.

Besides, it's not so much about rushing to gain territory. For me it's about rushing to take out the first Chosen before she launches an assault on the Avenger. The other two are very easy to deal with, but the first one can be annoying during the Avenger assault, so I'd rather remove her first and quickly. And I want her weapons to play with asap ;) Her katana is awesome for my ranger.

[Fringehunter7719]

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

Trying to turtle in WotC will just bite you hard and is a failing strategy.

It's really not. Whilst I don't object to you playing the game however you like - I think it's great, I've completed runs quite easily with a very slow expansion strategy - including L/I Grim Horizon + Grenade damage fall off.

I can't see how that could be said to be failing.