Covert Ops Ambush

[CondorDrake]

Is it even possible to survive these? Losing all my high rank soldiers in covert ops ambushes, having to fight like 12 aliens + lost swarms with 2 soldiers.

How on earth are we supposed to get through these?

[KRON]

On ambushes you never get more than 3 aliens on the map(in 3 different pods) + 2-3 advent soldiers as reinforcements, not counting the lost. Even on Legend. If you get 12 aliens, then mods screwed up your game

[CondorDrake]

The mission started with a squad of 3 advanced troopers and an advanced officer + 2 advanced troopers. Next turn, a mech, and two lancers came as reinforcements. The turn after that, a sectoid with two mutons came as reinforcements and another reinforcement signal was placed, but my two soldiers (lt. sniper and srgt. grenadier) had died before the next ones arrived. Lost swarms kicked in in turn 2.

So, yeah, I don't know what you're talking about, because this has happened twice to me now on commander difficulty without any mods at all.

It really sucks, because you need to send high rank soldiers to the chosen detection missions, so it's basically just selecting who is going to die. The missions are rated as success anyway, but it's still rough to lose two good soldiers to discover the chosen base.

[Tomdroid]

A good plan for these missions is to just run. Don't try to engage the aliens, there is no point.

[gimmethegepgun]

That isn't even remotely close to what the game is supposed to do. Your installation is ♥♥♥♥♥♥ or something.

[CondorDrake]

Originally posted by Tomdroid:

A good plan for these missions is to just run. Don't try to engage the aliens, there is no point.

That's what I tried but the 2nd squad with the officer and the two troopers popped up right in front of me and grenaded my soldiers down from a 2nd floor fire ladder. Needless to say the troopers and the lost did the rest...

[Drenus]

you either got corrupt files, or you didn't clean out previously used mods before playing vanilla, either way, the problem is on your end

[KRON]

This is how ambush is supposed to be like: 1st turn, reinforcements flare pops up, 2nd they land and they have only one advent officer and 1-2 advent troopers(quantity depends on the difficulty, level on how far are you into the game). On the 3rd or 4th turn a pod of the lost shows up(usually 5 of them). Then you have to find and deal with the aliens on the map. It’s no more than 3 of them and they are in different pods each.

I’ve played this mission type more times than I care to count and it’s always the same. Sometimes I even played it with a single soldier from the start.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Drenus:

you either got corrupt files, or you didn't clean out previously used mods before playing vanilla, either way, the problem is on your end

Right.

What is SUPPOSED to happen on Ambush (at least, on Commander, can't speak for Legend) is that there are about 20 Lost on the map to begin with, 3 aliens in singular pods (as in, each pod is 1 alien, and they're usually Purifiers) throughout the map, and at the end of the second turn a reinforcement flare drops in a Trooper and a Captain (though they have a unique statline, independent of difficulty. They're a little stronger than the Commander level versions of those enemies). Lost swarms consist of about 6 Lost.

[Eggy]

Theres a clue as to what tactic to use is in the first voice over by bradford in every single one of these missions. "your out of time, break cover, run for the exit".

Run high, run far, fun fast. Works for me 99% of the time and I finish most of these missions withought firing a shot. There is never any enemies at the spawn point and if you run, then the pack thats spawns in after your first move will never reach you.

On the odd occasion that doesnt work and I realise I need to engage, I get high. I find a fire escape I can block and then just kill everything.

As soon as I get access to the card that removes the chance of ambush on converty ops I use it.

Something is wrong with your install as your not supposed to get anywhere near that number of enemies.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Eggy:

Run high, run far, fun fast. Works for me 99% of the time and I finish most of these missions withought firing a shot. There is never any enemies at the spawn point and if you run, then the pack thats spawns in after your first move will never reach you.

But if you do that you don't get xp and a loot drop for killing them.

[red255]

OK, so the map starts and central yells, 'break cover and run for the extraction point.'

so don't do that. because as we've established, central is full of bad ideas.

first turn ends the aliens drop in a pod usually an officer and a trooper, legend is 3 units, best bet is to have a templar bladestorm them.

You should be sending your templar with bladestorm on all covert operations with a chance of ambush. to get a templar with bladestorm, dismiss your templar if he doesn't have bladestorm. recruit at the end of the month, so that you can pick up two templars.

regardless. templar with bladestorm or other overwatch the dropping in advent pod. next turn wipe it out.

the templar with bladestorm should be relatively immune to lost.

the enemies on the map there are 3 of. a templar with parry should be able to manage attacking something, and parrying the enemies attack. he can get thru most things, mutons might not be advised as mutons can counter. for mutons i generally use some other move, the templars have a volt attack that adds holo target lost swarms should be keeping the templar full of focus.

but yeah a templar with bladestorm and parry should be able to manage any ambush. ideally the focus capacity +1 is good too, and maybe a +3 movement PCS. take your time, you got 3 enemies and the drop in pod. the lost come in but are not an issue if you have bladestorm. or hell you can use your pistol if you have the headshot resistance order.

[KRON]

Originally posted by red255:

OK, so the map starts and central yells, 'break cover and run for the extraction point.'

so don't do that. because as we've established, central is full of bad ideas.

first turn ends the aliens drop in a pod usually an officer and a trooper, legend is 3 units, best bet is to have a templar bladestorm them.

You should be sending your templar with bladestorm on all covert operations with a chance of ambush. to get a templar with bladestorm, dismiss your templar if he doesn't have bladestorm. recruit at the end of the month, so that you can pick up two templars.

regardless. templar with bladestorm or other overwatch the dropping in advent pod. next turn wipe it out.

the templar with bladestorm should be relatively immune to lost.

the enemies on the map there are 3 of. a templar with parry should be able to manage attacking something, and parrying the enemies attack. he can get thru most things, mutons might not be advised as mutons can counter. for mutons i generally use some other move, the templars have a volt attack that adds holo target lost swarms should be keeping the templar full of focus.

but yeah a templar with bladestorm and parry should be able to manage any ambush. ideally the focus capacity +1 is good too, and maybe a +3 movement PCS. take your time, you got 3 enemies and the drop in pod. the lost come in but are not an issue if you have bladestorm. or hell you can use your pistol if you have the headshot resistance order.

Well, ranger with bladestorm is just as useful. With katana even more useful.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by red255:

so don't do that. because as we've established, central is full of bad ideas.

This should probably be the beginning of any piece of advice given for XCOM lol

[Mors Avis]

Usually, you don't see that kind of a response in ambush missions. As others have said, it's usually just a few enemies, easy to kill and/or outmaneuver. I have seen a couple of ambush encounters, though, where there were a lot more enemies than usual, but it seems like a rare occurrence. I chalked it up to mods, etc.

Also, I guess I'm in the minority in that I usually just stay and murder everything as I move my guys through the encounter. I find it's much easier/safer to just ambush the first set of reinforcements, then move carefully through the buildings, looking for snipe targets on the ground. If you miss, move deeper into the buildings, take up defensive positions, and kill the aliens as they approach.

Straight up running only works if you have the mobility and the map's layout favors it. Sometimes, the patrols are too close together, and you have to fight. And if lost are in the equation, it's sometimes better to just trigger the Advent enemies, then retreat, so that the lost can get mixed up with them.

https://youtu.be/avo11cLt-W0

[KRON]

This is how an unmodded ambush mission on commander difficulty is supposed to look like.
Except you don't usually do this mission with one soldier.
https://youtu.be/Fr7JpZUVdZQ