Scorched Earth is scorching my ass.

[laagamer]

There are so many ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ enemies. And the spawn points suuuuuuck.

[sf]

that's the first CIA abadon old hideout mission right?

I remember messing it up totally the first time, learning the combat mechanics for real(tutorial misison doesn't really teach you combat)

but 2nd time, it actually went quite smooth. In fact, it was so smooth I can't really remember all the details immediately.

Note that I actually cleared it BEFORE the changes to game mechanics so it may be different. (actually, it should be easier).

Some points which may help:

Preparation

- equip long range weapons: rifle, lmg and sniper. you may want to keep a pistol as secondary for agents who can take head shots at close range. But ideally all enemies should be removed at max range possible.

- wear armor, there is no infiltration anyway and everybody is hostile.

- best if you have a sniper (with sniper rifle) with 1-2 other agents with "Warn Ally" skill. My sniper (not even weapon proficient) accounted for more kills than anybody else in the team. Use Warn Ally to recharge his/her awareness whenever required to keep the head shots going.


Tactical part

- I chose the spawn point near the edge of map, close to the entrance to the old hide-out building.

- there will be enemies on the highway, as well as possible approaching from the street if you are not fast enough. Remember, don't trust what you see in the 3d scene, pay attention to the visible enemy icon list.

- I deployed my sniper team (1 lmg with Warn Ally + the sniper) onto the roof of the entrance guard house. Scout with non-sniper first to expose enemies (esp on the highway), then move the sniper to take them down. If you are lucky, you may be able to take them down with just the sniper, but to be sure, suppress them with the lmg/rifle first.

- the rest of the team moved into the hideout compound ready to climb up the stairs (plan your movement so you will end up in cover when you climb the ladder). for members who ended their movement before climbing the stairs, overwatch on the highway (i.e. not the same level as your characters)

- After reaching 2nd floor, I made my agents take cover behind the desks etc to take out any exposed enemies. Remember to move your sniper team to catch up when there are no more targets for them.

- I cleared off all visible enemies from the 2nd floor, while moving agents from the desks towards the windows and of course, interacted with the safe to complete the mission objectives.

- after that, I just called for evac and made them jump out of the window onto street level to climp up to the highway. (there are two ways up, a staircase and a ladder.) For agents who moved up first, while waiting for others, overwatch, especially into the courtyard of your old hideout as there may be enemies moving in from the main entrance.

- I evac'ed in the same turn as the enemy air strike first arriving.

Don't know how applicable this is after the patches, but hope you find something useful here.