WOTC How do you do the "Eliminate The field commander" mission?

[Good Night Owl]

I never though I would actually be asking anyone this, and so far, I never have in Xcom. But how do you do that mission? I have lost 4 times in a row trying to do this mission. The first was on veteran difficulty (the difficulty I have always done) and then Commander difficulty.

It's not actually the enemies that make it really hard. It's the timer. 4 turns. I have found it forcing me to make decisions I really don't want to do. Like having my soldiers charge out in the open for a crappy shot, splitting up my squad to chase that coward commander, ect. Again, not because I want to, or because it's optimal; But just because I'm working against a very strict timer, then relying on a chance shot. How did you guys do it?

[Chezz]

Leave all the squad on spawn point and send a lone scout, preferibly a reaper, to reveal all the map. Take your time, timer don't start until you break concealment, be ultra conservative so don't get revealed by accident.

Once you locate the commander pod move everyone to it and attack it firsy. If you have frost bomb or skirmisher you can freeze/pull&stun the commander for the easy kill.

Early game they are prolly most difficult missions, and pod spawm and map type may make impossible to reach commander pod without breaking concealment. Good luck.

[Good Night Owl]

Originally posted by chakkal2001:

Leave all the squad on spawn point and send a lone scout, preferibly a reaper, to reveal all the map. Take your time, timer don't start until you break concealment, be ultra conservative so don't get revealed by accident.

Once you locate the commander pod move everyone to it and attack it firsy. If you have frost bomb or skirmisher you can freeze/pull&stun the commander for the easy kill.

Early game they are prolly most difficult missions, and pod spawm and map type may make impossible to reach commander pod without breaking concealment. Good luck.

Ok. This is the first mission though. I don't have a repair yet. So, just don't break concealment? Is that the key?

[TheSuit]

Gernade launcher + Ice Gernade.

[Chezz]

Yes, try to not break concealment until 100% ready. As first guerrilla op is the most difficult by far imho tho, you had bad luck on mission type :/.

Good luck!

[Mavkiel]

Reaper. Remote detonation, or throw a claymore. That will hurt it badly, then if needed you follow up with concealment breaking attacks.

Skirmishers can grab the idiot, Templars can invert if needed.. There are tools to win it, but main trick is to scout ahead and lay a trap.

[learnedhand]

Yeah, these are basically stealth ambush missions. You have to scout it out to figure out the best approach. Sometimes, you can just wait in concealment until the commander walks into view. I've had that happen before.

[Algol]

Reaper scout with Sting (we don't want to take chances) and that ability that continues to show once spotted enemies. Then a Sharpsooter, best with Venom or Dragon rounds. Spot the bastard, soften him up with Sting and kill him with the Sharpshooter. Or vice versa, depending on the situation. Be sure to have Spider suit and/or Sharpshooter's bondmate for good positioning.

Also ice grenades, several psi abilities (stasis, mind control etc.).

P.S. Or just skullmine him

[Halfinger]

He also doesn't leave until the turn after he arrives at the escape zone. Also, I thought it was 6 turns? I've never had a major issue with this so maybe I'm missing something.

[Good Night Owl]

Originally posted by Halfinger:

He also doesn't leave until the turn after he arrives at the escape zone. Also, I thought it was 6 turns? I've never had a major issue with this so maybe I'm missing something.

Maybe it was 6. My issue is, he starts to dash away, and puts himself between you can more aliens, and holds out until times up. I think I've got it now. I kept breaking my concealment really early game because I didn't know what I was doing, so I wouldn't have enough time to catch him.

[Tamiore]

Frankly, this type of mission is one of the major reason you start at reaper HQ and with lost and abandoned disabled.
This way you have a reaper in your squad from day 1.
And reaper can quite consistently kill the general solo without ever breaking concealment (on legend difficulty) or and the very least allow you to set up a proper ambush.

[Adaarable]

Reapers are a godsend with these ops.

My first op like this 3/4 of my troops got knocked out by a hyperactive stun lancer, before my reaper managed to swoop in and save the day. Killed the officer with the very last turn before he evac'd.

The saving grace of these missions for me is that they need an extra turn to evac once they get on the evac zone, so if they get there you have a last ditch attempt to get rid of him.

[The Grand Marmot]

You can do this pretty well even without a reaper, just be very careful not to break concealment - if you see a pack without the commander, back away, try to make sure they won't be able to flank your soldier if they just happen to walk in their direction. Its tough, but do-able. I had one of these very early in my commander campaign and broke concealment early - ended up just bum-running everyone to the extraction point as fast as I could while sectoids were mind controlling soldiers left and right. Ended up killing the commander at the very last possible second when one of my soldiers who had already fired panicked and shot him. :-P

But yeah, best way is to be extremely stealthy until you have identified the commander, then make sure you have a plan to kill him in one turn. I actually really enjoy the way this mission plays out now, so different than any other mission.