Tips for Commander, iron man

[Leander.quest]

Any tips?

Had a bad start, then recovered, but lost. After attacking an Alien base I had many tired and wounded soldiers. One day later I had to do the next mission (I never skip them...should I?), had to send rookies and low-XP soldiers...and lost all of them.

Later I had a good mission and everything look ok, but Advent won as I did not know how to attack another Alien base to stop reduce the Avatar project.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2379359903

I could not get there? I contacted other regions, but could not find any other base but this one.

I think I won!? :D
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2379359953

The second of four difficulty levels is so much easier...cannot remember its name. Commander is much harder.

How should I adjust?

Strategy:
Move, attack, last soldier on my turn throw mimic beacon
Next turn, I use my second mimic beacon
Sometimes I have three with me or a frost bomb

Research:
armor, weapons, mimic beacons!

Facilities:
guerilla tactics school, building for more contacts

===========

One my my tired soldiers panicked...although she was wearing a mind shield, but it seems it only protects soldiers against sectoids and not fatigue resulting in panic.

[mk11]

引用自 Stardustfire：

2. im very puzzled now, what you call "resistance tech" ? there is nothing named that way.
and seriously radio towers before mag weapons? have a nice time dieing because you fall month behind in the tech race, seriously mag weapons shoud be at last 4th tech you research, not 6th or 8th (and i set mag weapon research so late as 4th because i rush MC research first to stomp chosen already in the first encounter, directly followed by modular weapons and well, mag weapons) .

What is "MC research"? there is nothing named that way.

[khumak]

引用自 Stardustfire：

1. the hunter weapons are mostly not that great, and you dont get them the way you mentation when the DLC is implemented. a bigger start help are the Legacy weapons.

2. im very puzzled now, what you call "resistance tech" ? there is nothing named that way.
and seriously radio towers before mag weapons? have a nice time dieing because you fall month behind in the tech race, seriously mag weapons shoud be at last 4th tech you research, not 6th or 8th (and i set mag weapon research so late as 4th because i rush MC research first to stomp chosen already in the first encounter, directly followed by modular weapons and well, mag weapons) .

4. and again this illusion that "GTS first" brings you anything, it dont, you lack the ranked soldier for the first team upgrade when GTS is finished as first building, resistance ring can work out of the box, and GTS still comes a little to early for the needed rank when build as second installation. (as long you dont plan excavates and builds at snail speed) so GTS secodn is totaly fine without a drawback. and dont give me the " but you can train rookies to squadys" , for what? in the start you rotate so much rookies in because of tiredness that you automatical end up with at least 3 soldiers of every class. more are only needed early if you somehow burn through your soldiers at start with unnatural high death casualties.
if you really struggle so hard than you sure build proving ground third, not for the ammo, but to get at least one spark as tank.

5. ok ignore priests, what will a holy warrior buffed enemy do exept maybe instagib at least one of your soldiers before you can take out the priest after the dmg is done. and yeah the standard first turn psi bomb of codex dont gimps you in the slightest with first action wasted to get out of the blast radius and second action ammo clips reload first before you can fight back /sarcasm off.
it dont rains autoloaders normaly.

The bolt caster's single shot limitation is annoying, but compared to conventional weapons, before you have time to research mag weapons, it's pretty strong. The Hunter's axe is also really strong. The other 2 I agree aren't very impressive.

Maybe I wasn't as clear as I should have been on the techs. The order I generally use is this:

Modular Weapons
Hybrid Materials (this is really just a placeholder because Resistance Comms aren't available yet)
Resistance Communications
Resistance Radio (could potentially move this below Mag or Gauss)
Mag Weapons
Gauss Weapons

Sometimes I'll do Mag before Resistance Radio but usually not before Resistance Communications. You miss out on too many supplies waiting for it to complete since you can't make contact with any other territories without it.

I go GTS first because it leads to a squad size upgrade pretty early (especially if you intentionally try to feed kills to 1 guy to rank up to seargant ASAP. It's also cheap enough that you can also build the Resistance Ring as soon as it's available. It's also nice to get the xp boost of having most of your soldiers start off as squaddies of whatever class you need the most and preferably with a reasonable amount of compatibility with whoever you plan on bonding them with.

Proving Grounds isn't available immediately so you can't build that first unless you build nothing for most of the first month. You could build a Lab to tech up faster but then you probably can't afford to start the Ring until later because it's expensive.

I forgot about the legacy pack weapons, and I agree about that. Definitely do those missions for the free augmented weapons in the campaign.

I'm not sure what your objection is about the casters. You'd rather be shot by that muton you didn't have enough actions to kill so you could kill the codex and avoid having to reload your weapons?

Most of the casters are extremely easy to kill, especially for rangers or templars so you can just 1 shot them with a ranger or templar while the rest of your squad moves/reloads/whatever. So you trade a partially wasted turn for the option to not take any damage.

You make a good point about the spark, although I don't play the integrated DLC version so that's not available in my games until I do the mission liberating that first Spark from Shen's lab. That's not a mission that an early game squad can do immediately. I find that I need either bluescreen rounds or both mag and gauss weapons to take that on and to be safe I usually bring all 3.

Edit: Actually now that I've played around with the timing on builds a bit more on this level I think it's better to do Lab first, then Ring, then GTS. You'll probably still get the GTS built right around the time you get your first seargant, maybe a little before or after and the Lab gets you mag/gauss weapons sooner. So I think my new build order is Lab->Ring->GTS->Power->Proving Grounds.

[Stardustfire]

meaned MS not MC, Typo. Mindcontrol isnt researchable at all, Mind Shield is first month :)

[Enigmatic]

Again Lab first doesn't make sense to me. I'd rather have GTS first as well.
I dunno if it's the same as xcom 1. But as soon as you research new armour. The enemy reciprocate after a mission or two. The advantage does not last long. That's why it's not a huge rush to get the best weapons and armour. It's better to get your squad size up. Then more troop level up at a time. And you can set your self uip for late game better.
In my opinion. I don't have much experience with commander in Xcom2 really on my first run in WotC.
Xcom 1 I played through twice. and I noticed getting best armour means enemy gets tougher as well.
Covert ops will buy you time in the game a lot longer. Usually you can have a lab or workshop before you get there. But building up comms early as well is always a nice thing.

You can put off killing the chosen. Maybe rush one down. But it's not a race, you can keep avatar down and Chosen from finding you with reducing their intel is key. Buy time and level up your squad make a dream team and try to get some extra men at least to Major. Keep your Col. alive. As they will carry you. Not much you can do with Alien rulers tho. You can always play safe. Go for an evac. Get a couple pop shots and get the hell out. Wait till next encounter to bring it down.
Also with inspirations and break throughs. there is little rush to put a lab down. As some research will all come to you soon enough.

[mk11]

引用自 GNU Enig：

Again Lab first doesn't make sense to me. I'd rather have GTS first as well.
I dunno if it's the same as xcom 1. But as soon as you research new armour. The enemy reciprocate after a mission or two. The advantage does not last long.

AFAIK it is not the same as XCOM 1. In XCOM 2 the enemies increase strictly in accordance with time passed. An exception is the Codex which is not unlocked until you have skulljacked an officer. It may also be the case that until you have done that the game makes sure an officer is always available to you.

For example, MECs start appearing from day 42 (or potentially even earlier as reinforcements) so you really need to have magnetic weapons by then.

[Crypto Gamer]

Enemies get stronger over time by increasing "their force lvl" starting from lvl 1 up to max of 20,regardless if you do research or don't do anything at all,they will get stronger overtime.

Codex needs "story objective" to be completed to get into the enemy roster.
Enemy gets 1 force lv per 10,5 days on first 3 diffs,and 1 force lvl per 15 days on legend.
Certain pods can have +-2 to their force lvl.If you are unlucky you can meet a stunlancer(force lvl 3) on your first random mission if its a +2 drop.
Story missions usually have many fixed drops regardless of your force lvl,like 100% gatekeeper on gate mission.

Side note: in Xcom 1 EW enemy gets new aliens/UFOs based on the monthy schedule even if you stay on tier 1 armor,weapons.The 3 types of UFO commander pods gets "upgraded" based on story progression and not on time.DLC and story missions can ignore monthly schedule.

So both in Xcom 1 and 2 even if you do ZERO research,upgrades,story missions evetually you will ecounter sectopods while you have tier 1.

[Leander.quest]

Thanks!

Everything is easy now....my soldiers are well-equipped and skilled...I am about to kill the second Chosen.

I think I found a bug. I got the snake armor for killing the viper king. In the "build items" section I can click on "snake armor"...and I lost resources, but the second snake armor does not appear anywhere...although I built it...seems you can only have one, but you should not lose resources for building a second one.

[Zeonista]

引用自 khumak：

I've only just recently started playing on Commander difficulty, but there's a few tips I've discovered that I think are essential unless you want a frustrating game of constant save scumming.

1. If you're playing with all of the expansions, scan the crashed avenger as soon as it appears even if you were already doing something else. The 4 special weapons you get from there are a huge help initially before you've had a chance to tech up at all.

I agree here; the Hunter weapons aren't as uber on Commander as they are on veteran, but their boosts are still very helpful. And frost bomb, yeah, the sure cure for a tough foe.

2. Get the first resistance tech so you can start expanding asap. You need those extra supplies. The radio tower is less important but you want that soon as well.

Also a good idea, because the supplies are needed ASAP. Resistance Radio is also something I prioritize early on, but if an Inspiration comes up, I wouldn't tell another player no. If I got that early on, I just might do it myself.

3. Get Mag and Gauss weapons immediately after the first 1 or 2 resistance techs. Conventional weapons are simply not powerful enough to handle commander level opponents early on.

I'm not a Mag rusher myself, but then again I use the WOTC laser tier mod. :P Without some of the nifty Ring bonuses, Mechs, Turrets, and Mutons can be tough, and that's considered fair warning for later armored foes.

4. Your first 2 buildings are obviously going to have to be GTS and the Resistance Ring, but the 3rd one should be Proving Grounds so you can build AMMO for a further damage increase.

GTS, because who needs random troop generator when you can get the ones you want? IF using the officer mod from LW 2, that allows squad buffs as well, which is not a bad thing to have in Commander mode. Proving Grounds also gives early access to Tier 2 armors; guys who prioritize offense over defense should have the exo-armor and spider suit!

5. Make sure you understand how the AI for each type of enemy behaves so you can prioritize your targets when it's not possible to kill the entire pod you're fighting in 1 turn.

You know how his game works, you are a great Commander! For myself I will prioritize Mechs and Andromedans first; eating grenades is no fun, and they usually activate first so the grunts have an easier job of it. Officers are high priority too because on Commander mode the grunts in range will prioritize the marked soldier. For Sectoids, Priests, Codexs, etc that is why the squad has flashbangs.

6. Turn down missions that just aren't worth it at your current tech level.

It sucks having to bail on a mission, especially if it's WOTC and a squad-full of Tired labels is waiting. But having a squad get crushed because they're overpowered by the aliens sucks worse. Call the chopper and scram; there is always the next mission. Note, once the Shadow Chamber becomes available this sort of surprise factor goes away.

4 squaddies with conventional weapons can't kill 3 commander level mechs in 1 turn barring ridiculous luck, let alone 3 pods of them.

If anyone in the community has actually done this feat, I want to see the pics/video, so I can be inspired to further greatness!

[khumak]

One big difference I noticed in Commander vs Veteran is that the Warlock's Mind Control ability is VERY effective on Commander. On Veteran it was mostly a joke. On Veteran I considered the Assassin to be the worst of the Chosen. On Commander I would say it's the Warlock. He's especially annoying on retaliation missions where he will frequently send summon a suicide bomber to go blow up all the civvies before I can do anything about it. I have to make sure none of my troops are anywhere near any group of civvies to avoid that.

I'm thinking Mind Shield may become a top priority for me on Commander. I rarely bothered with it on Veteran since I could usually kill whoever did the mind control pretty easily on my next turn. On Commander sometimes it takes more than 1 turn and I don't want my own guy killing my soldiers. Did a supply raid recently and my Reaper got mind controlled by the Warlock who then killed one of my guys by remote controlling an explosive nearby. Not good...

In the very early game I'm finding Phantom (Ranger), Combat Protocol (Specialist), and Haywire (Specialist) to be pretty much essential in the early game. I need a stealthed scout on every mission and I need a guaranteed way to destroy or disable mech units in 1 shot before I have significant shredding capabilities. I find that Specialists can almost always either 1 shot a mech/turret with combat protocol or disable it with shutdown. I rarely bother taking control since it usually fails. I will sometimes do it if I know for sure I can kill it if it fails and there's nothing else around.

[Leander.quest]

Killed the second Chosen. Piece of cake. Getting the best armors was my key to success. Even if I get wounded, the specialist can heal all injuries in one turn...and recruiting new soldiers to have a large roster was important as well.

I seemed to be a quick fight by killing the Chosen and destroying the sacrophagus on my first attempt, but I miscalculated my damage and it survived with 1 hit point left...then it was a long fight as I was busy killing minions and I lost the sacrophagus target although I had seen it before. Looked like a bug. I had to move really close to see it again.

Now I'll kill the third Chosen and destroy all remaining alien facilities. Now I know how the game works.

[Leander.quest]

Done! Advent is no more. Game completed on commander iron man!

The last two hours were easy...the last mission was illogical again. Just like the Chosen hideout that suddenly ends after killing the Chosen (and all remaining enemies do not matter at all!), you are supposed to kill three Avatars. Of course I did not rush, but focus on all enemies...and I was flooded by about 10-15 of them.

How should I have known that all you have to do is kill three Avatars? And then you completed the game? LOL Come on, I really hate such design flaws.

Been OP for hours, 80% of all missions were flawless...and then my beloved sniper got killed right before my eyes in the last mission...because of 6 Codeces, 3 mutons, 2 avatars, 2 faceless and some others..."oh, the last Avatar died so let's just stop the mission"...if I had known that, the mission would have been easy as hell. Good weapons, high damage...just kill the Avatars and I also had two weapons with 20% instakill bonus...

Ok...fine...I cannot enjoy my win with my beloved sniper being killed.

And what's even worse: I want to take screenshots of my roster, keep track of statistics, look at my soldiers again I spent countless of hours with...but how? The game ends and you cannot do anything...back to main menu...and if I load my save, I am back in the mission with one Avatar to go! :( Really?!?

Anyway, here are my final stats. They are quite unique as nobody loses so many soldiers including high ranks! It was a long and hard playthrough.

Missions won: 63
Missions lost: 10
Flawless missions: 22
Aliens killed: 1,147
Soldiers lost: 44 (!!!)
Hit%: 82%
Turns left on timer: 1.83
Days till first Chosen killed: 287
Global skill points: 7956
Covert missions: 81
Soldiers deployed: 56
Days till first Colonel: 150
Days of injuries: 356
Colonels: 16
Robots hacked: 23
Scientists: 8
Engineers: 11
Days till magnetic weapons: 37
Days will plasma weapons: 206
Days till plate armor: 53
Days till servor armor: 236

[gimmethegepgun]

引用自 LeanderAT：

I think I found a bug. I got the snake armor for killing the viper king. In the "build items" section I can click on "snake armor"...and I lost resources, but the second snake armor does not appear anywhere...although I built it...seems you can only have one, but you should not lose resources for building a second one.

It doesn't build another snake armor. What that is is an upgrade to the existing one, giving it better stats, in line with tier 3 light armor.
The Berserker armor is also upgradeable, which likewise brings it in line with tier 3 heavy armor. The Archon armor is already tier 3 though so it has no upgrade.

[mk11]

Congratulations!

Taking a rest now or going to try Legendary or modded?

[crayno]

Congrats on beating it Leander :)
You showed you can complete the game against all odds :)

[Tuco]

Yeah. I’m sort of amazed you can even actually complete the campaign with stats that bad.

Goes to prove that despise all the memes about the game being a sadist toward the player, the overall experience is FAR more forgiving that people give it credit for.