So the ADVENT TRAIN mission is meant to fail?

[Zombiekiller]

I am early in the game. No mods. Tried this thing maybe 25 times already. Fail, fail, fail. Seems like this might be one where you are simply supposed to get as far as you can before failure? Or, complete with 1 or 2 troops left? Very difficult early game. Is the pay off worth it??

[fitzifatz]

Not sure, which one you mean, as the train missions are often random. However, there are missions that can appear impossible. I am currently on a playthrough where I took the story progress slowly in order to have time to gear up my squads. Resulting from this I have not failed any missions. So either your squad is undergeared/underpowered, or you are having bad luck with the set up of that particular mission.

[red255]

are we talking about a guerrilla op where you hack the terminal on the advent train?

those are more difficult than other guerrilla ops because the train walls are unlikely to be destroyed so you have to get really close to the terminal to hack it. so your turns to achieve the goal are much tigher.

and your skyranger pilot being a coward or something parks you many turns away so you'll need to dash.

if you take your time or even the same amount of time on other Guerrila ops you will fail, yes.

I'd avoid this mission type if you have a choice until you have the gear to move faster. but if you have to take it, move faster, or you will fail.

[Tamiore]

No mission is "supposed" to fail.

However it's possible to get a combination of map, objective, enemies and your team composition that makes the mission practically impossible.

Working as intended. Bring more diverse or better equipped team next time.

[HVS5b]

I'm guessing the OP means supply raid. They can be brutally tough early game.
Practice, practice, practice :-)

[Eggy]

Some tips depening on which train style map you have. If you stay close to the train you can avoid some turret fire. A grenade on a turret will generaly cause it to drop into the floor and a grenade on the side of the objective carriage will blow out the wall, making it super easier for a specialist to hack it a range.

If your repeatedly loosing multiple units on missions then you need to change up your tactics, squad makup or even drop the game down a difficulty level.

[red255]

frag grenades are not strong enough to reliably break train cars so your advise considering this topic is 'early on' is significantly incorrect

though if the turret is on top of an exploding train car, by all means blow up the exploding stuff which will take out the turret.

[Tamiore]

WIthout WOTC early game train hacking missions can be a bit... "edgy", shall we say.

But WOTC gives you the tools to take the edge of even early game.

[talemore]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=688644689&searchtext=
It's a swiss army knife and you have a solution to every situation. There's no really an explanation on why only specialist can use a gremlin because the gremlin is an automaton.

[Zombiekiller]

I should have described it better. This a timed mission. You have 7 turns to reach the terminal. I have reached it before, but it always self-destructs before I can hack it. Have not been able to hack it from range for whatever reason. The enemies are nothing special, they just pop up perfectly to slow me down. If I try to rush, they pick off usually 2 guys. There are 2 laser turrets on top of a building in my path as well.
I used to have tons o trouble with the train mission from XCOM 1 where you had to activate some transmitters in a certain amount of time. I eventually mastered it. Maybe I just need to skip this one for now.
I did get involuntary LOL moment when I sent my ranger at the muton and attcked with the sword thinking it can't miss and should nearly kill it. Nope. Damn muton blocked the attack and countered instantly impailing my poor ranger. Did NOT know they could do that!

[TradeGy]

Personally I find all hack missions almost require a Specialist to make it in time, unless you're rolling the enemy. Trains can be hard early as you cannot destory the walls for easy access but no mission is supposed to be lost in vanilla.

[Mhblis]

As other have said early game getting LoS to the train terminals can be really tricky. Which often means have g to actually get in the car with it.

These are pretty much the hardest hack missions early game and then suddenly they become easy.

Remember you don't have to win every so how mission. Sometimes abandoning it is the best option.

[Brave Sir Robin]

I usually avoid these missions early on, especially in vanilla. In wotc you might finish it with a reaper, but without one the chance to fail is simply too great even if I keep rushing (and put my squad into great risk).

[Eggy]

Originally posted by red255:

frag grenades are not strong enough to reliably break train cars so your advise considering this topic is 'early on' is significantly incorrect

though if the turret is on top of an exploding train car, by all means blow up the exploding stuff which will take out the turret.

It works enough for me, thats why i suggested it and it makes a big difference on those early missions. Especialy when there is a chance of another pack that will agro if you run in to hack manualy.

The turret trick also works on rooftops, but not on advent buildings.
Maybe the difference in sucess rates is down to throwing grenades or launching them.

[Vinyltavia]

Originally posted by Zombiekiller:

I should have described it better. This a timed mission. You have 7 turns to reach the terminal. I have reached it before, but it always self-destructs before I can hack it. Have not been able to hack it from range for whatever reason. The enemies are nothing special, they just pop up perfectly to slow me down. If I try to rush, they pick off usually 2 guys. There are 2 laser turrets on top of a building in my path as well.
I used to have tons o trouble with the train mission from XCOM 1 where you had to activate some transmitters in a certain amount of time. I eventually mastered it. Maybe I just need to skip this one for now.
I did get involuntary LOL moment when I sent my ranger at the muton and attcked with the sword thinking it can't miss and should nearly kill it. Nope. Damn muton blocked the attack and countered instantly impailing my poor ranger. Did NOT know they could do that!

Grenadiers are always good at making openings against armored and covered units.
Turrets on any surface that isnt the ground is a grenade away from death so use gravity and ordinance for them.
Mutons counterattack can be dealt with by use of flashbang and then cutting them down as disorientation nullifies their ability to counter attack.
Specialists can hack terminals provided they have vision on it with their GREMLIN.

[severe_009]

The first train mission is harder than the average missions but beatable.