Your favorite resistance orders

[Ohio9]

Which resistance orders make you jump for joy when you find them? Here's mine

Reapers:

Between the Eyes: Obviously this one is highly situational since it only applies to the lost, but it's still a huge help on their missions.

Guardian Angels: No ambushes ever? I was honestly surprised they gave us one this good.

Infiltrate: This is an absolutely huge one. One of the best overall, because it can result in you getting a several free turns without putting your team at risk. Anything that increased the turn limit is a massive benefit if you aren't playing with the extended turn option on. The only downside is that obviously it only applies to missions when you are concealed, so on non-conceal council mission, you're really out of luck.

Live Fire Training: This one is an absolute godsend on legendary difficulty. It's so huge to be able to give your recruits so many rapid promotions, particularly when you need to replace losses.

Volunteer Army: Not as big a benefit as the others, but it's always great to have another gun in the fight, and a free target dummy you don't need to keep alive.

Skirmishers

Double Agent: Not as good as Volunteer Army, as the guns and melee weapons used by these guys have crap accuracy and get badly outclassed in the late game, but still another free target dummy if nothing else, plus the regular trooper gives you one extra cover-eliminating grenade.

Modular Construction: Another big one on legendary difficulty. Not so big for the lower difficulties, but still a great order with no downsides.

Private Channel: If you aren't playing with extended turns on, this is one of the best orders in the game. +2 turns on every mission with no exceptions? Hell yeah I'll take that.

Sabotage: This is absolutely wonderful if you aren't playing with extended avatar counter on. This one can save you the hassle of having to skulljack an advent officer early and thus avoid dealing with codexes until you feel like it.

Templars:

Deeper Learning II: Not such a big deal on most difficulties, but outstanding on legednary.

Noble Cause: Another one that's kind of only important on legendary, but it can be pretty nice on Commander difficulty too.

Trial by Fire: Probably the best one of the Templars. Big boost to ability points with no exceptions or downsides.

[COINCELPRO]

I like:
the good ones

I don't care so much for:
the bad ones

[mk11]

Live Fire Training but only if don't already have enough trained soldiers. Annoying that you can't apply it to to Squaddies.

Heavy Equipment if early, get the Avenger cleared

Recruiting Centers, if early and can use it for one month to fill up with rookies for rest of game. Very nice if can use it once then swap to Live Fire Training,

Resistance Rising II, it is usually enough to cover whole world with only 1 resistance comms

Resistance Network, huge time saver

Inside Knowledge (more often as a continent bonus)

Sabotage, Avatar progress grinds to a halt

Art of War, if early enough or with Live Fire Training and Recruiting Centers

Feedback, unless playing Beta Strike

Trial By Fire, until the Chosen are defeated

---------

Of ones you like, not so keen on:

Between the Eyes - Lost aren't dangerous

Guardian Angels - ambushes are so easy they are just free experience

Infiltrate - there aren't that many missions where being able to stay concealed really helps, rather have Private Channel

Volunteer Army/Double Agent - they are just so weedy

Modular Construction - it is nice but I would rather have Heavy Equipment

Noble Cause - in principle I like it but have never been convinced it actually works

Deep Learning II - nice but usually have better things for the Templars

[Ohio9]

Originally posted by mk11:

Between the Eyes - Lost aren't dangerous

It's not that they're dangerous, it's that they can mess with your turn limit if it takes too long to kill them, and forces you to burn through ammo and actions I'd rather save. Being able to just mow them all down with a sniper or templar and not lose a single thing doing so is really handy.

Originally posted by mk11:

Guardian Angels - ambushes are so easy they are just free experience

I just disagree here. I think are only easy if you use concealment guys and just sneak to the exit, which doesn't get you much XP. Better to just avoid them.

Originally posted by mk11:

Infiltrate - there aren't that many missions where being able to stay concealed really helps, rather have Private Channel

Now that's just flat out wrong. Most missions with a turn limit do start you out concealed, unless you've got the dark event that prevents it. The only ones that don't are some council missions. So most of the time it is helping, and sometimes it buys you more than 2 turns, since it might be more than 2 turns before you make contact with the enemy, and even if it isn't. It's still nice to be able to take all the time you want in setting up your team to attack a pod.

I do agree Private channel is better overall, simply because it applies to every mission. But I was ranking these orders based on their own individual merits, not based on what happens if you find different similar one. Plus you could use both of them together and benefit from each one.

Originally posted by mk11:

Volunteer Army/Double Agent - they are just so weedy

The volunteer army guys are actually decent once they get plasma rifles. That's a pretty decent amount of extra damage going out that costs you nothing. And like I said, it's a free target dummy if nothing else.

Originally posted by mk11:

Deep Learning II - nice but usually have better things for the Templars

Templars really don't have many great ones. Having better xp is pretty crucial on legendary when it takes an eternity to level up.

[mk11]

With the exception of hunt the general, most missions you are better off engaging the first pod as soon as you find it. Trying to sneak around to the objective can lead to being in a situation where the pods bunch up on you.

Templars I rate Feedback, Trial by Fire, Art of War, Noble Cause better than Deep Learning and I think none of those can appear as continent bonuses.

[Insane]

Really surprised no one mentioned the #1 order that you should have in each Ironman Legendary - Dark Future game. Tactical analysis. This is #1 order to me. Everything else is fine, but this one is extremely important to have. Especially when you are playing double Sparks with hunter protocol to initiate fight.

[Ohio9]

Originally posted by mk11:

With the exception of hunt the general, most missions you are better off engaging the first pod as soon as you find it. Trying to sneak around to the objective can lead to being in a situation where the pods bunch up on you.

I didn't mean sneak around them. I mean sneak into optimal positioning so you can lay into a pod with maximum firepower from maximum cover. With the normal turn limit, you have to take the fastest rout to the objective. Infiltrate lets you take a longer safer rout and take all the time you want to position your team for the first attack.

Also I've stopped bothering to hunt the general as the situation you've described kept happening to me over and over again. Now I just attack the first pod and hope I can get to the general in time.

Originally posted by Insane:

Really surprised no one mentioned the #1 order that you should have in each Ironman Legendary - Dark Future game. Tactical analysis. This is #1 order to me. Everything else is fine, but this one is extremely important to have. Especially when you are playing double Sparks with hunter protocol to initiate fight.

Good point. To be honest I just forgot about that one because I've never found it, and I'm currently on my 4th playthrough of the game. Guess I'm just unlucky.

I don't use Sparks though. They die so easily I found it just wasn't worth the risk to burn resources.

[Insane]

Originally posted by mk11:

I don't use Sparks though. They die so easily I found it just wasn't worth the risk to burn resources.

I guess you don't tend to use specialists.. other than that, i have no idea why your Sparks doesn't work for you. I think only bad team composition may lead to this. Early game Sparks are beasts, and later with Hunter Protocol you can initiate every fight without wasting any time. It's the best scouting unit in game really, because it doesn't just scout, but dealing damage at the same time as scouting, and right at the enemy outside of cover, rarely missing. Hunter protocol is such a game changer. Combined with tactical analysis, it's OP af. But you need at least 1, but ideally 2 specialists with tier 2 drones. Ideal team composition would be 1 Spark, 1 ranger, 2 specialists (or Specialist + Psi) Grenadier, 1 hero class. You really only need grenadier to buff your team with holosight and for 2 frost grenades. You can also always switch hero class or second specialist with sniper. You initiate combat on start with gunner's frost nade, and then only Spark will scout map for you after that. Spark is extremely good in Chosen stronghold mission as well. 2 Sparks - 6 shots + some shots from your team into the shard = almost 1 round fight. Spark is also extremely good on timed missions where you are trying hard to balance between evemy pods and trying to play it slow. Spark helps you to keep up with mission timer thanks to Hunter protocol. It also have one of the best aim (statistically) in game thanks to jump jets and elevation aim bonus. Not even mentioning that I am a big fan of those stompy robots. And if you are playing with Dark Future, eventually advent will be armed with poison, fire, bleed bullets. Spark doesn't care about those, but if your soldier will be touched by poison.. he will be absolutely useless (-30 aim, -4 mobility).

[Ohio9]

Originally posted by Insane:

I guess you don't tend to use specialists.. other than that, i have no idea why your Sparks doesn't work for you. I think only bad team composition may lead to this. Early game Sparks are beasts, and later with Hunter Protocol you can initiate every fight without wasting any time. It's the best scouting unit in game really, because it doesn't just scout, but dealing damage at the same time as scouting, and right at the enemy outside of cover, rarely missing. Hunter protocol is such a game changer. Combined with tactical analysis, it's OP af. But you need at least 1, but ideally 2 specialists with tier 2 drones. Ideal team composition would be 1 Spark, 1 ranger, 2 specialists (or Specialist + Psi) Grenadier, 1 hero class. You really only need grenadier to buff your team with holosight and for 2 frost grenades. You can also always switch hero class or second specialist with sniper. You initiate combat on start with gunner's frost nade, and then only Spark will scout map for you after that. Spark is extremely good in Chosen stronghold mission as well. 2 Sparks - 6 shots + some shots from your team into the shard = almost 1 round fight. Spark is also extremely good on timed missions where you are trying hard to balance between evemy pods and trying to play it slow. Spark helps you to keep up with mission timer thanks to Hunter protocol. It also have one of the best aim (statistically) in game thanks to jump jets and elevation aim bonus. Not even mentioning that I am a big fan of those stompy robots. And if you are playing with Dark Future, eventually advent will be armed with poison, fire, bleed bullets. Spark doesn't care about those, but if your soldier will be touched by poison.. he will be absolutely useless (-30 aim, -4 mobility).

I don't play with dark future, so that's a non-factor.

I certainly do use specialists. One on every mission, no exceptions. But early game Sparks are crap. There are so many enemies that can easily one-shot them. Even a white MEC can do it. And then you're out all those cores and resources, plus whatever heavy weapon they are carrying if it's an extract mission.

Sparks are just so badly flawed. You'd think they would be really tanky, but in fact they can't reliably handle damage at all. They can't take cover, they can't be healed (except by themselves, with skills they don't get until promotions). There's no chance of saving them via bleedout if their hp goes to zero, and they can't pick people up for extract.

But worst of all is they can't go on covert ops, meaning they can't get XP through any method other than missions, so leveling them up takes forever.

I'm sure they are totally viable once you get them bulked up. But the staggering loss of resources you suffer when you lose one just makes it not worth the effort. Better to spend the cores and supplies on your humans who are oddly much easier to keep alive.

[Insane]

Spark is an ultimate damage dealer, not a tank in any sense.. In fact Bulwark is meme ability, which benefits more to enemy, than to your team, and that's meme in itself. Assasin will use Spark as a high cover, and it's actually a one way to abuse it lol. The amount of damage it deals in total is monstrous and only soldier with serial or death from above can keep up at a late game stage. The damage it can deal in one singular turn early game is absolutely unmatched at that stage, and in mid game it's absolutely nuts. Only end game reaper (the ability of ranger) and serial can keep up with that, but even then only so often.

Guess we have a different approach, but i am glad that it works wonder for me. Fact is, Spark is the one unit that is leveling faster than most (at least it can keep up), at times even faster than those who level up by secret missions, because you can farm lost with spark all day long. And if it damaged, i still keep on using it whenever i can, especially against lost. Does it worth the investment? Depends. But in my build order with Skirmishers HQ i tend to rush for Spark and it works like a charm. I always have time to evacuate it, there is simply no way it can be destroyed in one turn unless i let it happen. Evacuation is also an ability you can use for damage. And spark is good at that too, considering the 3 action ability. And then eventually you will get tactical analysis. Spark + Tactical analysis is an extremely OP combination.

I always use Hair trigger + Scope on sparks. You wouldn't believe how often it procs.

[Ohio9]

Originally posted by Insane:

Spark is an ultimate damage dealer, not a tank in any sense.

And that's the problem. It can't take cover or a significant amount of damage. And it's damaging ability really isn't useful when it's dead. Sparks are just so poorly designed. It's not fair to make a unit that can't take cover or tank damage. That makes no sense. Really it's kind of hilarious that human flesh is far more survivable than a hulking metal combat bot in this game.

Sparks just feel like newbie traps: "Here kid, have this giant metal monstrosity...that's actually made out of tinfoil."

Originally posted by Insane:

Guess we have a different approach, but i am glad that it works wonder for me. Fact is, Spark is the one unit that is leveling faster than most (at least it can keep up), at times even faster than those who level up by secret missions, because you can farm lost with spark all day long.

The best way to level up is through covert ops missions that offer automatic soldier promotions, which the Spark can't do.

Anyway I'm glad they work out for you, I just found whenever I used them they always inevitably ended up taking a hit from a moderately powerful enemy like a MEC or an Andramodon, and that one hit killed it every time. And then I'm out a truckload of supplies, plus cores, plus whatever heavy weapon it had. The potential for massive loss is just too huge to take the chance on building them up and learning the best tactics to optimize their use.

[Perplex]

Outside of the ones that give better weapon and personal mods Between the Eyes is my fav one. It is super helpfull in the early game when you are stuck with useless snipers (they are useless early game). With Between the Eyes they actually become very good.
The one that makes Advent lose a turn if you discover them on your turn is massive also.

[Insane]

Originally posted by Perplex:

Outside of the ones that give better weapon and personal mods Between the Eyes is my fav one. It is super helpfull in the early game when you are stuck with useless snipers (they are useless early game). With Between the Eyes they actually become very good.
The one that makes Advent lose a turn if you discover them on your turn is massive also.

Snipers are actually ok early game. That's pretty much your only way to initiate enemy pod outside of your squad vision to put them on overwatch. The catch is, you need either Reaper or srg Ranger (genius with additional points to get perk) with phantom perk. Also it is very common to get lot's of snipers early game because your soldiers usually shoot their guns at a distance most of a time because of low mobility, so they tend to get promotion to sniper most of a time. That's why we usually have so many snipers early game. So because you tend to have lot's of snipers, you can actually use them if you have a spotter. After all, it's a 4-6 damage with the highest weapon accuracy and very low penalty for range. The chance to hit from an elavated position early game is about 70-80% on target out of cover, 50-60% half cover. That's pretty damn good. That's a guarantee 4 damage on any of the advent troopers. 50-60% chance hit on half cover is much better than any of your soldiers early game. Provided they can't flank shot. But sure, if you can get second gunner instead of sniper, it would probably be more convinient. However, next mission both of your gunners will be tired. And you still need to get some XP for your sniper regardless. Personally i tend to take snipers on lost missions early game. That's their best natural environment. In first month you will always get a mission inside city with Lost swarms. I also highly recommend to finish Legacy missions to get 5% aim bonus on your first legacy sniper rifle.

Shooting from a distance without movement - higher chance of promotion to sniper, using grenades - higher chance for promotion to grenadier, flank shots - higher chance for promotion to Ranger, Relying on overwatch - higher chance for specialist.

[Mistfox]

Heavy Equipment first to clean up the Avenger, Modular Buildings later to fill it but it dies off mid game. Helps a lot at the start though.

Between the Eyes helps a lot for a Sniper to simply pistol his way through hordes of the lost, Helps when your pistol tech is low, later game like the previous, it dies off once pistol tech becomes better.

Weak points are a huge godsend in the game and Resistance Network are the 2 that I try to keep on from mid to the end game provided the whole world is not linked up yet.

[Liro Raériyo]

From the reapers its got to be infiltrate, nothing is as powerful as pausing the timer, and with just one reaper you can often take your time to devastate 1 or more pods before unleashing the rest of your squad.

The skirmishers best is a pretty hard decision, many of them are extremely high quality choices, but id probably most want Inside Knowledge, the extra strength for weapon mods really pushes just how powerful things like hair trigger and repeater can be, especially on skirmishers and sparks.

Templars orders are either extremely niche and bad or outstanding, doesnt feel like much resides in the middle, but id say the good ones are Art of War and Trial By Fire for the increased AP, Templars in particular have a lot of skills for special class units and they need a LOT of AP to obtain all their abilities.
Machine learning is also great, while the game does force random breakthroughs when you are unable to research anything else, those take twice as long as usual, this gives more breakthroughs throughout making it easier to get the juicy ones that really impact the game.

[Insane]

Originally posted by Liro Raériyo:

From the reapers its got to be infiltrate, nothing is as powerful as pausing the timer, and with just one reaper you can often take your time to devastate 1 or more pods before unleashing the rest of your squad.

The skirmishers best is a pretty hard decision, many of them are extremely high quality choices, but id probably most want Inside Knowledge, the extra strength for weapon mods really pushes just how powerful things like hair trigger and repeater can be, especially on skirmishers and sparks.

Templars orders are either extremely niche and bad or outstanding, doesnt feel like much resides in the middle, but id say the good ones are Art of War and Trial By Fire for the increased AP, Templars in particular have a lot of skills for special class units and they need a LOT of AP to obtain all their abilities.
Machine learning is also great, while the game does force random breakthroughs when you are unable to research anything else, those take twice as long as usual, this gives more breakthroughs throughout making it easier to get the juicy ones that really impact the game.

Information war is my second favorite when it comes to Skirmishers. However, if you play with Dark Future, there will be a moment when you won't be able to avoid double Hack and Psi defence event. But untill then it's a top tier order.