Ironman Chosen Stronghold

[mafilux]

Finally got a good Veteran Ironman going, things have been going well up until the most recent story mission (Blacksite vial mission, not the first one the one where you find the advent production facility). This one was the worst losses yet with half a squad (Warlock showed up, and evac zone was in a bad spot ree) so now I'm nervous about taking out the Assassin. We're ready to go and have the stronghold location, so its whenever we're ready.

Currently I have Mag weapons unlocked for everyone along with things like Frost grenade, a SPARK with a second almost ready, and high ranking templar (her weakness in this one). Upgraded grenades and predator armor, with a spider suit. My Major atm is a sniper with mostly gunslinger abilities, but I have some Xcom points built up and the training center if I could use a certain ability.

Any tips going into this one? I really don't want to lose half a squad again (if things went bad so far, I'd only lose 1 at most) so anything that'll help will be nice. I was thinking battle scanner might help her since she likes to run around?

[Veylox]

I find chosen strongholds easy on anything but legendary. The first half favors you, rooms are well segmented and you have no timer, so you can always find a way to nuke pods on overwatch and you have less chance of activating 3 of them than in other maps. Just take your time only doing blue moves and setting up proper overwatches, you can normally kill everything without wasting your important one-use items (although frost grenade doesn't have a lot of uses against the chosen so you don't really need to keep it for later)

Second half is trivial, there are two enemies chilling somewhere in the room, your first blue move will probably reveal them. Kill or dominate them (keep domination for that room because you can't carry mind controlled enemies through the teleporter), then it's a 6 or 7v1 against the assassin, no issue there, check her weaknesses and blast her, no chosen can deal with a full team focused solely on them. The trickiest part is killing the pillar fast enough once the chosen goes down, because if you don't, enemies start spawning and then you'll have to deal with the usual chosen + several pods situation. Preferably you want the chosen to go down on her own turn (through blademaster, or some grenade DOT), OR in the first action of your own turn, it gives you more time hitting the pillar. If you can kill her at the end of your turn, you should strongly consider just letting her having a free turn so you can kill her in the beginning of the next. Also make sure your team is in range of the pillar before killing her, you don't want to have to yellow move to the pillar and not be able to shoot

The pillar timer is stupid fast on legendary but really easy on commander, so I assume veteran is chill too

I usually have some plasma weapons when doing the strongholds and I don't know exactly how the game scales with upgrades so it might be tougher with mag

In my experience the room isn't big enough for her to properly hide, once she reveals the first time you can track her by just watching where she runs (you can do that even on regular maps but stronghold is easier). Even if you don't have the exact tile you can always blue move someone in that general direction to reveal her, or toss grenades, it's not like bringing a specialist will make or break anything here

[mk11]

You don't mention the date and hence force level so no idea what opposition you are expecting.

If you can get Bladestorm on a Ranger (or Templar) that is a big help in killing the Assassin during her turn. Other abilities that may be worth investing in are those that give burst damage such as Chainshot and Rapid Shot.

A lot of the first maps have some nice explosive rooms and, as above, you get good overwatch opportunities so the Reaper is good on the first map but underutilised on the second.

I would rate the Frost Bomb as good to keep for the second map in case one of the reinforcements is something nasty like a Berserker.

Note that when the Chosen returns after destroying the sarcophagus you do not need to kill the other mobs just focus fire on finishing off the Chosen.

[Raider Deci]

This really screwed over my former save (legendary, ironman). Was my second stronghold & was going up against the assassin. Was not properly prepared.
Went very smooth through the complex and could take down her the first turn.....then the game healed her up to 64% (so 1 turn for doing damage to pillar before she runs around again) and spawning in 2 andromedons & 2 soldiers. It did not go well, could not keep it up. Doing these as early as possible is problaby for the better.

[megansweden]

If you don't mind a tiny spoiler - the Assassin's stronghold has no high ground anywhere, it's the only one like that. Don't bother with the spider suit and it's probably good that your sharpshooter is more of a gunslinger.

[mafilux]

Some good tips here, I'll have to check the date but the most recent thing I'm up against are archons (No bioshock guys yet, fought one sectopod during the one mission but iirc its always there, haven't run into any of the 'king' monsters yet either like king viper). I do have a ranger with bladestorm and chain shot so I'll definitely bring it along, and I can probably get it on the Templar too since he's definitely coming since he's strong against her.

Unfortunately my reaper was one of the casualties in the mission where I lost half my squad so thats out until I can get another one. I'm planning on doing the mission later today so I'll let y'all know how it goes. Really don't wanna lose the save since its the farthest I've been on ironman so far lol but can't put it off forever, I don't want her finding out the Avenger's location.

[mafilux]

Originally posted by megansweden:

If you don't mind a tiny spoiler - the Assassin's stronghold has no high ground anywhere, it's the only one like that. Don't bother with the spider suit and it's probably good that your sharpshooter is more of a gunslinger.

Spoilers are fine! I've beaten the base game casually, and beaten WotC casually too iirc (or got really far anyway, cant remember) so I've seen p much everything the game has to throw at you. I won't bring the spider suit though, extra item slot seems useful for mindshields to avoid dazes or sectoid mind controls.

[mafilux]

Game Date is 6/26/2035, so about 3 months into the campaign. Worst I get on Veteran at this point are Archons and those Pepsi-man looking guys (that make nano machine clones of your dudes) but nothing too crazy yet. Advanced mechs are starting to show up too.

Do you guys think Parry would be/is better than Momentum for the Templar? Seems like it'd be great for this mission but I've been putting it off in case I don't like it.

[mosspit]

@OP

Everyone's playstyle is different, so take my take with a grain of salt. I am pretty used to rushing the first Chosen Strongholds on L/I with magnetic weapons and I often (even prefer) encounter Assassin as my first Chosen. My decision point is whether or not Andromedons appear in the generic missions. Andromedons are really rough to deal with just magnetic weapons in a mission like Stronghold. So if I miss the timing, I will do stronghold after plasma instead.

Try to conserve your consumables during the first phase before the Assassin room. That includes Frost Bomb and Mimic Beacons. I like having a Reaper on the squad for that purpose.

In the Assassin Room, the layout is always the same. There should be a 2 enemy pod in the room itself. Deal with them without moving too far forward to trigger the Assassin. Once done, note the layout. There will 3 rows of low cover walls before the Sarcophagus. Position your squad just behind the row furthest from the Sarcophagus. I prefer to do 2 left, 2 middle, 2 right. Once ready, 1 soldier on the left will move forward just next to the 3rd row wall (furthest from the Sarcophagus). This will trigger the Assassin. Next, move the solider on the right past the 1st row (closest to the Sarcophagus). You will always reveal the Assassin behind the 2nd row. I do this to avoid the randomness of finding her location for the initial reveal.

Next, burst her down. The trick is to delete her HP with one of the first move on your turn. The best way is to use Bladestorm (Ranger / Lucky Templar) to defeat during her turn. So that you can have full actions on the Sarcophagus on your turn. 2nd best way is to burn / poison her and leave her at 1 HP (not easy).

For the Sarcophagus, save most of your multiple hits move on it. In particular Overdrive with Adaptive Aim on the SPARK is my favourite. 3 hits on the Sarcophagus for a soldier's turn is solid. So make sure you have at least an Expanded Mag mod on the SPARK's weapon. And end your SPARK's turn within hitting range of the Sarcophagus to avoid wasting an action on a move.

For the future spawns of Assassin, use the Battle Scanner. And if your Templar is at least a Captain, Invert is a solid move to place the Chosen out in the open since she can move out of attack range of your squad. Try your best to end your Templar's turn in Parry just next to the Assassin. She prefers to target soldiers closest to her with her dazing melee strike, and so Parry protects the Templar.

[mafilux]

Originally posted by mosspit:

For the future spawns of Assassin, use the Battle Scanner. And if your Templar is at least a Captain, Invert is a solid move to place the Chosen out in the open since she can move out of attack range of your squad. Try your best to end your Templar's turn in Parry just next to the Assassin. She prefers to target soldiers closest to her with her dazing melee strike, and so Parry protects the Templar.

I believe he's colonel so I can definitely invest some AP into Invert, forgot about that ability but seems perfect since she likes to run and hide a lot lol. My high ranking SPARK is definitely coming along too so I'll see if I have a bigger mag sitting around, I think I at least have an auto-loader or two.

[mosspit]

Originally posted by mafilux:

Originally posted by mosspit:

For the future spawns of Assassin, use the Battle Scanner. And if your Templar is at least a Captain, Invert is a solid move to place the Chosen out in the open since she can move out of attack range of your squad. Try your best to end your Templar's turn in Parry just next to the Assassin. She prefers to target soldiers closest to her with her dazing melee strike, and so Parry protects the Templar.

I believe he's colonel so I can definitely invest some AP into Invert, forgot about that ability but seems perfect since she likes to run and hide a lot lol. My high ranking SPARK is definitely coming along too so I'll see if I have a bigger mag sitting around, I think I at least have an auto-loader or two.

Colonel is perfect as a Templar has the Ghost ability. It is really good for a mission like Stronghold. Use it within the Assassin room. What's better than a Templar using Invert is having the Ghost clone use Invert instead.

Auto-loader can sort of work but you need to see if you can make it last until the Assassin room. For me, my SPARK does a lot of weapon attacking so it will reload multiple times before the Assassin spawn.

[mafilux]

Originally posted by mosspit:

Colonel is perfect as a Templar has the Ghost ability. It is really good for a mission like Stronghold. Use it within the Assassin room. What's better than a Templar using Invert is having the Ghost clone use Invert instead.

Auto-loader can sort of work but you need to see if you can make it last until the Assassin room. For me, my SPARK does a lot of weapon attacking so it will reload multiple times before the Assassin spawn.

Yeah I was thinking that with the auto-loader, been a bit unlucky on drops (2 PCS the entire game on the run where I get reusable PCS early, of course lol). I'll check the black market for something when I get on, willing to throw as many resources as I need at this thing

[mafilux]

I got it, I did lose my ranger though! Thanks for the tips, but it got dicey early on with a failed hack. Saw my first andromedan on the way in, but my hacker came through this time and stunned it for a while - and then later again in the boss room, turning and advanced mec to our side.

No Assassin anymore? She was the worst lol. My SPARK even punched her in the face for the second kill.

I thought things would go worse, but RIP ranger.