WOTC - should I restart?

[lemming3k]

As an XCOM veteran I know all too well the reputation for being a game where you can have already lost by month 3, but won't know it until month 6 (or much later).
WOTC seems to have added a ton of stuff that I wasn't aware of and spiked the difficulty at the same time, so now I'm wondering if I'm in that very situation and wasting my time on a dead save. How salvageable is the below scenario?

June and only 6 contacts set up (5 towers).
Only 6 engineers & scientists. No workshop. Nowhere near manning most buildings.
Did the Vahlen mission early and have to deal with Rulers.
Chosen nearly at max knowledge. None defeated. Is that drop in supplies permanent even after they die?
Poor squad bond choices.
Poor combat intelligence distribution (more than half my gifted or above are same class or ones I don't anticipate making my final squad. Not that their AP options seem that good anyway but it seems AP is better spent on heroes. Am I overrating this?).
Poor Resistance card options.
Spark is dead. Not sure if I'm behind on weapons and armour or just feels that way with all the boss enemies but just got 1 Exo suit and magnetic weapons.
Scanning recently doubled, not sure if I had a reduction end or an event increased it. Is 8+ days normal for a new res contact? Is that why progress feels slow?


On the plus side, I've destroyed 1 base (2 more are outside my contacts).
Excavated all slots.
Built all required buildings (not realising the shadow chamber stops all research and I still have some to do) and upgrading a few.
Avatar project still 5 short.
6 squad slots active although few high ranking soldiers. Mostly wounded.


I have no idea how to manage dark events or the effect they're having and feel I should have rushed a covert ops bond pairing to counter chosen early along with focusing on new contacts and towers and less on buildings that seem of little value until later. Also ignoring Vahlen would have helped.

With so many classes now I'm not even sure what the best 6 are. I feel like all the hero classes should be used, plus a sharpshooter and specialist, but then that only leaves 1 slot (I assume for a psi op). Should I drop one of the heroes for a grenadier? The Reaper seems the best scout, and the Templar pretty tank/decoy based.

[kelmenwong]

research wpn is important, the game is primary kill fast and hard.

kill chosens asap if u think can manage it, the challenge is bring down its sarcophagus fast, bring cc and do armor shredding.

built radio tower primary to get the continent perk, as more u built, the cost keep rolling for the next 1.

do covert op to start guerilla op, which can bring mission to stop dark event.

[joebruce185]

No, keep playing. Especially if it's your first attempt at WotC.

You've got some hardships but your campaign isn't lost. If you do lose it, you'll have learned a few more lessons before that happens. Your next try will be better.

[Amanoob105]

Ok, I'll try to answer these in order asked.

Unlike the last game you don't have to contact every, single, region. Truth be told there'll only be three regions you 'have to', they just tend to be a bit spread apart.
While the main reasons to contact them are income and region bonuses there's nothing that says you have to catch em all.

Like the last game engi's are more important than scientists, and having six of each isn't bad going. It's just a case of figuring out what rooms need your engi's help more.

A workshop and a lab are easily the two most optional of rooms in the game. Both simply act as force multipliers for their type of crew.
The lab is the exact same as the last game, research faster.
The workshop lets you turn one engi into two more (or when upgraded, two engi's into four) but they can only staff rooms that are above, below or either side of the workshop.
When I first started playing it was always a major part of my base strategy. These days? I tend to ignore it.

All white (story) missions can be put off indefinitely. This includes the DLC missions.
As you may have guessed, rushing to do the Alien Rulers mission is not advisable to newer players, even vets of the last game.
Easiest option to help defeat them is status effect damage, fire, acid and (for the non-snake ones) poison. These deal damage when the enemy takes a turn, and I'm sure you've seen how often they take turns.

When chosen hit max knowledge you will have an Avenger Defense mission.
If you have a Defense matrix these missions become a lot easier. If you have one staffed then it becomes way easier as your turrets now have squadsight.
The mission itself is a long one. But there's no turn timer. What sort of a timer there is just goes down ever slower as you blow up every "vehicle" (objective) on the map and you have 10 troops to play with. It's a good chance to get some troops to those final ranks.
Have fun!
Also, once you win, that chosen knowledge bar resets to zero.

The drop in supplies is permanent, people they killed don't come back to life. But between covert op options, Retaliation Strikes and radio towers and general grabbing of new regions your chances to put your income back up never stop happening.

To be far, the game has terrible ideas about who should be bonding with whom. It's a bit of a learning curve unto itself, but not game braking if not done quite right.
Personally I try to make it so I have one of every class bonded to one of every other type of class. Also that each hero unit is bonded to a different type of basic unit.

AP is another tricky one. Some people end up gifted, but have nothing good to buy with it, while other have all the good stuff but need to be sent though multiple covert ops to become gifted enough to afford any of it.
Spending it on the hero's isn't a bad idea, but neither is just giving everyone a little boost. It's one of those things that heavily depends on play style.
So, yes, you're likely overthinking it. You're not the first.

Some games you get amazing Resistance card options. Others, you wish you got amazing options and just have to make the best of what you do have.
If you really don't like what you got just keep an eye out for covert ops that grant anything that looks like it could be better.

In the Proving Grounds among the many, many fun toys you can make in here, is an option to make more SPARKS.
Treat them like MECs of the last game, glass cannons that act like an in-between of a ranger and a grenadier. Plenty of damage but they don't like getting shot at.

The scanning times being doubled is only temporary, unless you selected one of the advanced game options to make it otherwise. Same is true for all other dark events.

There is no "one size fits all" best six classes. This comes HEAVILY down to play style.
And that's not counting how the abilities of each class let them take on some very different roles depending on what you pick, and that's just the normal four. I'd argue the sharpshooter offers the most extreme example of this depending on whether you went rifle or pistol.

Personally all my squads (once it becomes an option) will have a Spec (built more for combat than healing), a sharpshooter (always with bluescreen rounds) and a grenadier (who acts as a force multiplier for others). The other three slots vary depending on the mission, what enemies I think are there and if I think a chosen will turn up.

[mk11]

You don't mention the difficulty or advanced options you used but none of that sounds particularly bad.

If the Chosen are nearly at full knowledge you should at least play on to experience the Avenger defense against the Chosen mission. As long as you have staffed and upgraded defense turrets it shouldn't be too hard.

Personally, I don't rate the Skirmisher or Reaper as good for your final missions. They are a bit of a slug fest and neither of them works well on that case. Reaper is good on attacks on Chosen bases.

You don't need all your final team having good combat intelligence since you can use the pooled AP to get the extra skills for those with less personal AP.

Unless you are playing with Grim Horizon, Dark Events only last a month or so so don't need a lot of management. Block the really bad ones but otherwise pick missions for ease and rewards.

There is a Dark Event that doubles scan times and there is a hack reward that halves them. Each for a limited time.

[lemming3k]

Originally posted by Amanoob105:

....

Thank you!
That got way longer than I intended, but I appreciate the time taken in responding to it all so thoroughly.

I was feeling like I was falling behind and I know how that goes so I just don't want to waste another 20+ hours or something. I know I'm far below optimal at this point, it's just whether it's terminal.
I don't really like save scumming, but activating the rulers with only the base weapons and low level units makes it impossible not to get squad wiped without it. I don't see any weapons yet that burn etc so don't have that option. It was like that tutorial Sectopod all over again and that wasn't fun.
Nevermind civilian rescue missions where you're basically running into a trap, which is bad enough without the chosen, and the faceless, and the lost swarms (which seem to ignore the aliens and only attack me).
I don't have any cards that extend the mission timers either, so only the regular missions are easy(ish) since I can move slowly as a squad.

To respond to some specific things since it sounds like my progress is better than I realise in other areas to make up for the mistakes:

My supplies income went from nearly 400 to closer to 250 in a matter of days. I perhaps don't need many at this point and can of course pick them up from other sources, but that means ignoring other things to do so and seems like I'd suffer a lot more for it (as I probably already have).

I don't have missile defence for Avenger missions. Not even buildable. I'm not sure I have 10 people fit to field either unless I buy a few rookies.

I skipped the workshop as I read the cost isn't worth it and since the training centre split in two there aren't any 'spare' slots - It makes perfect sense, until you're short by a half dozen engineers where the guides say there should be plenty. Maybe I didn't check the black market enough to buy them or just got unlucky.

I guess losing the Spark isn't so bad, it's more that I don't have enough top tier replacements. Especially in the classes I want or with decent AP (not much in the pool either). 3 genius/gifted snipers and 1 ranger isn't great. I'm not a fan of Rangers (who brings a sword to an alien gunfight?) for anything but scouting, where I prefer the Reaper. Got a decent Grenadier though and will use 1 of the snipers.

I assume covert ops missions refresh monthly as I'm out of Templar missions and stuck on Low influence? I think I'm getting the same dark event mission every month (prevent avenger attack).

[x-the-Andy-x]

i actually cant remember the last time i built a workshop. absolutely pointless waste of a room imo

[Amanoob105]

Originally posted by lemming3k:

....

Here we go again....
In order. Possibly....

Your welcome.

I have no memory of either game having a "tutorial Sectopod". Was that a LW thing?

It's only terminal if either you loose a base assault, or the red blips hit full "and" the following timer (about 24 hours, depending on difficulty level) also hits zero before you can get it back down a blip.
Anything less and the fights not over yet. Generally speaking, much like the last game, so long as you're keeping up with your weapons research you should be fine.

For the weapons that do status effect damage, look in the Proving Ground. There's options to make Experimental Ammo and Grenades. Buying one will net you a semi-random item that does more than the basic options.
I say semi random because while your first use will be random, any item gained will be far less likely to show up twice until you have brought your way though the list.
As an example, the grenade ones will net you either a fire, poison or acid grenade. All will strip armor (the acid excels at doing this) but won't destroy cover, though the acid and fire can cause buildings to fall apart due to environmental damage.
The list of ammo types is a long one and bluescreen protocol is how you get to build bluescreen rounds.

Nothing wrong with save scumming so long as it's used to "oh, so that's what I did wrong" (or your favored child got turned into so much red mist ).

Never move up next to a civ with your second move, in case of faceless.
Researching the trooper will net you the option to build Battle Scanners. They are two uses per person holding one but otherwise work the same as the last game.

The lost do target us over advent. The default chances of who they go for are 70% us to 30% advent.
Welcome to Xcom. Where the only thing it will try to hand you on a silver platter, is your ass.

On a avenger defense mission wounded troops can be sent into combat. It's all or nothing after all.

There's no card to extend mission timers. There is one that stops them from ticking down while all of the squad is concealed, but that's about it.
There is an advanced option when setting up a new game that can double them, also one to double the avatar clock.

Ok, that is quite a loss in supplies. You may be better off at this point grabbing all the intel you can and trying to open up some new regions. If you can afford to build a radio in a region you already own it lowers the cost for connected regions.

To be able to build the defense room for the avenger you need to find, and kill, a turret in a mission. Your best bet is a supply mission, however the game doesn't require you to kill them to complete those, but it DOES require you to kill one to get one for research.
Also, don't kill it with explosives. Vahlen may be gone, but her memory lives on.

As I say, in my early days a workshop was invaluable. These days I can live without it.
As for trying to fit everything in, I find you only need one comms room. Even if you want to contact all regions you can make up the difference with +1 contacts from covert ops or scan sites from the over map.
The Lab is typically worth it however.

How likely you are to come across engi's can get a bit RNG. Take those guides with a pinch of salt.
They also possibly aren't always mentioning the idea that there's more rooms that want engi's than how many you can find. The more you play the game the less you need all of your rooms staffed and know how to work around the ones that don't have anyone.

Again, you're thinking too hard about this AP thing. It's just a bonus you can give your troops for more options and not something you want to try and build your plans around.

Cover ops do refresh monthly. Doing the faction ones will unlock more options for them, as well as give you more cards and slots to put them in.
Doing the one of your starting faction will also give you a chance at an op to get a second hero unit of that type (this can be cheesed to get three of them).
Getting it to full will let you try to attack the home base of the chosen they are pared with. However, you will only get the one shot at that. Fail that mission and you can't go back.
Completing the mission will remove that chosen (along with the chance to farm them for AP) but also give you their weapons. These things range from "nice to have (like the assassins shotgun, which has better range than a normal shotgun)" to "OP AS ALL HELL (like the hunters sniper rifle, which only needs one action point to fire)".

[Amanoob105]

Originally posted by lemming3k:

....Again....

I'll stick this in its own comment, because.... The above one is a bit of a monster.

On the subject of Lost targeting. If you're up for some basic mods.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1123260291

While I'm on the subject of basic mods, I'd also best recommend these two (technically, one and a half). They're basically fan made bug patches built by people that spend a lot of time digging about in the games code.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1134256495
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2534737016

[Remiel]

DON'T RESTART!
You're just going through the most difficult part of the game. That's actually the best part!!! :D
Rulers can be pretty difficult if you aren't savescumming, in Ironman I lost 3 of my best soldiers against them. Good news is that Rulers don't regenerate, so every fight against them counts. When you encounter them, stop whatever you are doing and concentrate your efforts against them.
Engineers and Scientists: You are ok. I usually have around ten of each by the endgame.
Avatar project still 5 short: You are living the life. For months I was 2-3 short and was constantly suffering the final countdown.
Wounded soldiers: Get new soldiers. Keep constantly training in the battlefield at least one low-rank soldier so everyone slowly keeps leveling up. Play conservatively, keep a distance between soldiers so aliens don't use grenades nor area-attacks against two or more of them. Always asume that xenos are waiting just around the corner. You want to make it quick into a place that's just one square into an unexplored place? You WILL trigger more enemies. Don't risk it. After some hard missions some good soldiers will heal. Also, try to ignore some missions and let time pass while putting your base on the healing base, if you unlocked it.
Best classes: This depends completely on your style. Probably the best team is composed completely of psionic soldiers, but what's the fun on that. I'm a big fan of the classic team (heavy+ranger+specialist+sniper), plus a psionic. For the sixth slot, I love Templars and try to keep them at maximum focus.
Covert Actions: Always have someone doing a mission! You can send low-level soldiers into this. I'm pretty sure their Will will slowly recover during missions. Gathering info about the Chosen will raise your status with that faction and will allow you to use more cards with them. And yes, missions reset every 21 days (when the cash arrives). Also, if you don't get the cash it will just wait there: if you wait for a whole month then the cash will just accumulate, so there's no rush.

[Zeonista]

Don't reset the game. It's a rough go so far, but you're doing pretty good for your first WOTC campaign. WOTC is even more of a long haul than the vanilla game, so yes, at times it can feel very wearying. But aside from activating the Rulers a little early for your comfort level, you're doing fine! Or good enough if not great, which itself is fine for an XCOM game. And you're learning a lot about the new WOTC features as you go along, which is also good. Finish this run as best you can, and your second one will find you being awesome from the start.

[mk11]

Engineers: You need 2 for Resistance Comms, 1 for Resistance Ring, and 2 for power. The slots for Infirmary, Proving Ground, Defense Matrix, Psi Lab are situational and you can move engineers around as needed. So 6 isn't bad.

I find the easiest mission to get a turret wreck is hack workstation on train. It needs to be a mission you don't evacuate from else Blacksite would be good.

If you are low on supplies have you checked what you can sell at the Black Market? I usually get an excess of Datapads and low value weapon mods and sell some of them when the price doubles. Or buy swapping in the +33% payout resistance order.

There is a resistance order (skirmishers?) that gives +2 to mission timers.

Influence with resistance groups comes from progressing the hunt the chosen missions. Unless one of the chosen (there are three) has not been revealed you should be getting offered one of these for each chosen each month.

[BadGamer]

Originally posted by kelmenwong:

the challenge is bring down its sarcophagus fast, bring cc and do armor shredding.

What does "cc" mean in this context please?

[BadGamer]

Durr, crit chance
I'm so dumb

[kelmenwong]

Originally posted by BadGamer:

Originally posted by kelmenwong:

the challenge is bring down its sarcophagus fast, bring cc and do armor shredding.

What does "cc" mean in this context please?

crowd control

[Wrayday]

You can press on. Don't forget to use the training center to apply any good bonus skills to your squad.

Using monthly delay the avatar project and keep the progress low.

Bonding really doesn't matter.

Don't forget to update perks and attachments.

You will always be on the back foot until you level your troops up and start taking down rulers and the Chosen.... that being said.... sometimes a blown mission is a blown mission and retreating is the best option. Like blowing up a black site when a ruler and a chosen show up might not be the best option. Bug out and retry the mission with the off chance one or both ruler/chosen won't reappear will make your life easier.