Am I missing something here?

[Venrez]

Hey all.

First off, I love Warhammer 40k and the game(s) this one takes after, such as Xcom, all the way from the venerable first iteration to modern Enemy Unknown and War Within, not counting the abysmal Xcom 2.

I love the game thus far, but I have rather quickly run into a serious issue I (currently) see no means of dealing with.

By Mission 2, with my 2 Tech Priests both being level 2 in Dominus with variable loadouts, I am being met with an insurmountable wall of difficulty and I simply do not know what I can do against it.

I am utterly starved for cognition. Even if I use the Servo Skulls at every opportunity on the monoliths between turns, whilst having my Priests at a different monolith themselves, you're met with the choice of standing there and eating gunfire (which is effectively eating your Blackstone) or being unable to attack.

At first I expected an actual Xcom based cover-system, which turns out not to be the case. Simply outright avoiding line-of-sight seems to be the only actual defence you've got, as by this early stage of the game you definitely dont have armor or shields.

Weapons range from being absolutely useless, such as the basic plasma-pistol thingy that is free to shoot but does virtually no damage (thus taking 4+ turns to kill a single Necron Warrior, meaning you're screwed on Awakening), or insanely powerful but require so much cognition you never get the chance to use them anyway, such as the Arc Scourge Gun. (Edition thingy).

If you take longer in missions to play carefully, avoid enemy fire and build up enough cognition to actually shoot back at enemies, the Awakening Gauge increases so much, so quickly, that the odds are often stacked so inordinately against you that there is no hope.

The 4 Servitors you have as expendable backup almost always die the turn they are summoned, or immediately thereafter... for some limited cognition, that you use to down a Necron, who then gets back up the very next turn due to how much Awakening you've accrued - or you cant shoot / melee that second time to "finish" them off, because again you're starved for cognition.

I just dont understand where to go with this. I've done the second mission a dozen times now and been utterly crushed by the Destroyer and his collective Warriors / Scarabs regardless of what loadout of weapons I bring (which are currently available), whether I zoom straight to the end room or explore everything along the way for additional blackstone and cognition. Whether I play keep-away with the Destroyer along the middle pathway of the engagement or whether I try and rush him, it ends the same way.

No I will not play a mission I am guaranteed to lose. I can continue after a loss, but it eats all 200+ of my remaining Blackstone and I see no point in continuing from that. I never saw the appeal in Ironman difficulty settings and potentially losing hours upon hours of progress sunk into a character or campaign entirely. I want to win. I managed to keep-away from the Necron Destroyer in the tutorial for 6 turns without losing anyone. Barely.

Except all 4 Servitors, as usual, get vaporized within 1-2 turns.

Ive tried not using them, to save on the Cognition cost of summoning them in, or only 1, or 2. Things go even worse.

Mission 1 went smoothly. Mission 2 seems impossible.

What am I missing?

[Thorrr]

Nope, you're not missing anything friend. Early game is hard. The learning curve is difficult. You need to learn a lot of things quickly through trial and error.

Yep, this isn't XCOM. Different game, different rules to learn. It sure was fun learning there is no such thing as half cover in Mechanicus.

About the Destroyer. There are many many posts here that are filled with people crying about encountering the Destroyer for the first time early game. So you're definitely not alone. Delay doing that mission until after completing more missions, pay attention to narrow passages and cover, use cat and mouse / luring strategy. From memory that's the best advice I can give you for that early mission without ruining the challenge. Hope it helps, keep at it. :)

Alternatively, fail and move on. Learn to accept minor loss for major gain. Same as reality. Either way, move forward and enjoy the rest of the game. You can always go back and replay that mission later, and maybe see the right combinations and tactics to win the battle. But don't prioritise having a perfect blemish-free play through over continuing on and enjoying the rest of the game. No one cares how you get to the end, just get there. :)

[3Form]

Make sure you take a balanced selection of weapons so that you don't find yourself with a lack of cognition. The melee axe uses one CP, the first ranged weapon doesn't use any. Stick a mixture of weapons on your priests in terms of cognition cost.

Position your tech priests so you can grab cognition easily next turn. Dump your servitors out front so you get cognition when they're hit. They're there to get hit so your TP's don't and to give you CP. If they're dying there's a chance they're doing their job.

But yes, don't do the destroyer mission 2nd. Get a decent ranged weapon first. It's tricky now that it can rez itself immediately if you kill it with your last action.

[Starkillaa]

Shouldn't have gone with 2 dominus starter build if its your first run. Once you get a 3rd techpriest, build it as a support or tank

[Venrez]

Thanks for the input. I guess I am going to have to go back to an earlier autosave mid 1st mission in order to avoid selecting the 2nd Destroyer mission as I have no manual save inbetween.

I absolutely do not want to work for the High-Lector Magis though. Right from the gate he's an annoyance, heh. But I suppose games need their 'deliberate hate'able character'. Yes I am familiar with the lore. I still dont like him.

Originally posted by Thorrr:

Alternatively, fail and move on. Learn to accept minor loss for major gain. Same as reality. Either way, move forward and enjoy the rest of the game. You can always go back and replay that mission later

I dont think a total squad wipe and losing all 200+ of your saved Blackstone by Mission 2 is a loss anyone can accept. Hell I'd restart entire missions back in Xcom if a single person was killed. People frown upon "save scumming" but I do not see the point in putting such effort / levelling up / time / equipment into characters if they just die in the end, often by RNG or unfair situations you cannot possibly plan for.

I will continue with injuries, damages and events that happen as I play. But the outright death of a character? No. That warrants loading an earlier save.

I know, again this isnt Xcom, I am glad we have expendable Skitarii (only Servitors at this point), but I feel the combination of being forced to rush in order to avoid building Awakening, but losing out on loot and fully exploring Tombs (and thus game content along the way) is simply too much pressure, effectively losing money if you take any damage at all via Blackstone repair costs, coupled with being outnumbered, outgunned AND under the same time constraints mid battle is horrendous.

I hate to draw the comparison again, but in Xcom if a Soldier was wounded they could just sit out a few missions and heal over time, encouraging the use of a wider team - rather than directly losing your valuable hard-earned ingame currency if you so much as get a scratch.

At least reloading my earlier save may allow me to put 1 Tech Priest with 2 levels in Dominus and one as the Support type. Then, as overwhelming consensus seems to show, the Low / No Cognition Weapons are infinitely better than anything higher Tier due to how it scales and circumventing (avoiding altogether) a gameplay element limiting your ability to even fight back.

Yes, Xcom had rules such as double-sprinting (to orange zone) removing your ability to shoot, outside of abilities. Or cover. Or shooting twice without moving. But I find it rather awkward in a strictly turn-based tactical game that you are often left with Units simply standing there unable to do ANYTHING without supposed Cognition. Its spinning your wheels (especially with Awakening Time Constraints) and something I think should be addressed.

But thats another topic.

[Duke de plata]

Sounds like you are just bad and blame the games you play because of it.

[Thorrr]

Totally agree - play any game however you want and enjoy. No one else's opinion is relevant or welcomed. So zero judgement from me.

See how you go with postponing that mission as long as possible before returning on more equal terms to rip them to shreds. That's the main strategy players have used to win that one, going on posts I've read in this forum, and it's the only mission I can remember in the entire game that could possibly be considered "unfairly" unbalanced toward too difficult for first play through. (Suggest you never play Space Hulk, it's a total prck of a game in any of its incarnations, with stacked non-random die). Also take another look at the hints I gave you and try to figure them out. I got through this mission on first attempt with those tactics. Also, I didn't deploy any troops, but sounds like others did and succeeded. It's just a puzzle to be solved. And maybe don't assume you're going to be an expert at this game from the start just because you've played other games in the same genre. Not the case. You are a novice on this one right now. Relax, f up, die, laugh, learn, improve. :)

Everything else besides this one mission early game is comfortably challenging, then it gets progressively easier and then unbalanced toward too easy from mid to end game on base difficulty settings. Still fun though, and there's always the new difficulty settings and ironman waiting in the next release for the second play through.

Again, just forget XCOM. This is not XCOM. The styles are different, and that comparison is too high a bar considering XCOM was an historic icon that defined this entire genre, and has had the luxury of muchos $$$ and re-releases to refine and polish over three decades. Clear your expectations, play with a clean slate and open mind, and enjoy this game for what it is - not XCOM. I played all the XCOM games repeatedly from the very first release date, and I've thoroughly enjoyed this game.

Finally, I bet you all of the imaginary dollars in all of the places that you will end up completing many of the religious nob's missions, simply because the rewards cannot be ignored. :)
Plus, his drive for no mercy annihilation grows on you after you've taken a few hits in forced corners early game.

[Thorrr]

Originally posted by Espada de plata:

Sounds like you are just bad and blame the games you play because of it.

Haha come on man! Help a brother out of a crisis! :D

[Marvy]

The cognition thing at the start is a pain,

Make sure you take the skill that gives 1 cog at the start of each turn,
Use skulls to collect cog, that will give you 2 cog each turn each priest...

early game just a power axe and a pistol are really your best bet (shoot & hit 1 cog)
like everyone says it gets easier and you'll get the hang of the cog thing :)

[EvilMuteBear]

I too found myself stumped several times with this game until I chanced upon a discussion in which it was suggested placing one of your Techpriests next to the Cogitation devices. That way they automatically collect the Cogitation points at the start of every round.
This does however mean that I ended up playing almost every mission in "Turtle Mode":
All Techpriests clustered together around a device, sucking up the points and zapping the enemy as they approach.

[勇気オ]

Originally posted by Venrez:

I dont think a total squad wipe and losing all 200+ of your saved Blackstone by Mission 2 is a loss anyone can accept.

If you press ESC and select Retreat to the ship - then your priests won't be lost. But you won't get the reward for the mission.

[Tyrax]

wait, 4 servitors?? I only have 1...it's nigh impossible to do any mission

[Venrez]

Originally posted by Tyrax:

wait, 4 servitors?? I only have 1...it's nigh impossible to do any mission

Click the Servitor icon multiple times when loading up your dropship before a mission. It is a troop type, not an individual "character" like a Tech Priest, so you can bring multiple.

[Zot]

Hey, same issue an I just beat him today.

What I did was basically little more than go into the mission with 4 cog and then just pounce on him with all my tech priests. I forget what the build type is, but if you got ranged units, there's this REALLY good ability in another tree like first level that cuts 2 cog points off of a weapon to use. I used that, a volkite gun, then just ran into melee and killed the guy with opportunity attacks. Just ignore the like one dumb necron that spawn with him. That guy is going to do nothing compared to hover butt over there.

Hope that kinda helps? I had same trouble. i just did another mission, got another level on my guys, and came back.

[Tyrax]

Originally posted by Venrez:

Originally posted by Tyrax:

wait, 4 servitors?? I only have 1...it's nigh impossible to do any mission

Click the Servitor icon multiple times when loading up your dropship before a mission. It is a troop type, not an individual "character" like a Tech Priest, so you can bring multiple.

Omg, why isn't that explained in the tutorial... No wonder I couldn't complete even mission 3. No way I can fight 6 necrons with just 2 low tech priests

[Baron]

Originally posted by Tyrax:

Originally posted by Venrez:

Click the Servitor icon multiple times when loading up your dropship before a mission. It is a troop type, not an individual "character" like a Tech Priest, so you can bring multiple.

Omg, why isn't that explained in the tutorial... No wonder I couldn't complete even mission 3. No way I can fight 6 necrons with just 2 low tech priests

yeah they neeeeedddd to explain that in the tutorial, because i lost two runs before realising that i could bring multiple survitors, and i feel like it could be just getting people off the game entirely