Xcom 2

[Murbella]

I made a soldier avatar of you, in honor of your success. Any class preferences? (warning: my Rangers take a beating; just ask Papageno and Scott Lufkin)

Murbella, I’m glad you clarified, and would be interested in seeing how you play, but my feeling, especially on Legend now, is that, once past the early sections where your soldiers can’t hit the broadside of a barn, the game encourages grenade-centric gameplay, popping enemy cover and being careful to avoid triggering additional pods. I can’t stress the last point enough. Obviously, you also want to close in for better shots and natural flanks, but not at the expense of over-extension. Flanking is really important and popping cover is a fantastic way to get safe flanks.

There a few enemies still to come in your game that make me wonder how your tactics will adjust, if at all. On the other hand, shotgun Rangers can get some really sick damage from in close by late game. I would also suggest looking into developing a gunslinger sharpshooter. Once they get Faceoff, they transform into a close combat force.

I have a gunslinger but my friend nearly has me convinced to respec them to sniper. I had a moment where my two grenadiers each shot a grenade at a group and then my gunslinger killed 5 enemies in one turn, but things have already started to have a lot of armor which limits pistols.

My soldiers still miss a lot shooting people out of cover from 3-5 squares away.

I am grenade heavy too after early game, even more so after getting plasma grenades. This tends to work in to my strategy though. I certainly don’t rush every battle or do it immediately, but VERY often i do attack after i think there is a reasonable chance to clear the group in a single turn doing a rush.

Also i fully admit that i am not afraid to reload if i trigger three packs.

[Papageno]

Hey guys, apologies if this is a FAQ, but what’s the best mod out there that works with save games and increases number of turns left? There’s this one mission that I simply cannot do without a couple more turns (unless I want to lose 5 out of 6 from my squad).

BTW, does the game ever give you a chance to rescue captured soldiers?

[ledshok]

I don’t know if it works with existing save games, but I’m using TimerTweaks.

I believe it adds two turns to the shorter timed missions, and four turns to the longer ones.

[Nihm]

Hey guys, apologies if this is a FAQ, but what’s the best mod out there that works with save games and increases number of turns left? There’s this one mission that I simply cannot do without a couple more turns (unless I want to lose 5 out of 6 from my squad).

BTW, does the game ever give you a chance to rescue captured soldiers?

In case you didn’t know, most missions you can just evac if things go south. I’m guessing this isn’t an option.

[Papageno]

In case you didn’t know, most missions you can just evac if things go south. I’m guessing this isn’t an option.

Nah, this is one of those bleeping “VIP rescue” ones where of course the Evac point is way out in west BumF**k

I’m just going to have to install the mod, reload the geoscape save from right before, and do it that way. I’ve wasted too much time trying to save the mission. What with my STOOPID soldiers missing their shots like 80 percent of the time I get held up and there’s just no saving the situation, even with two rangers and two grenadiers plus a specialist and a sniper.

[inactive_user]

Nah, this is one of those bleeping “VIP rescue” ones where of course the Evac point is way out in west BumF**k

I’m just going to have to install the mod, reload the geoscape save from right before, and do it that way. I’ve wasted too much time trying to save the mission. What with my STOOPID soldiers missing their shots like 80 percent of the time I get held up and there’s just no saving the situation, even with two rangers and two grenadiers plus a specialist and a sniper.

You should also be able to call down a manual evac to scuttle the mission but save your dudes. Believe the control is in the upper-right of the screen.

[Chris_Gwinn]

I have a gunslinger but my friend nearly has me convinced to respec them to sniper. I had a moment where my two grenadiers each shot a grenade at a group and then my gunslinger killed 5 enemies in one turn, but things have already started to have a lot of armor which limits pistols.

I managed to get armor piercing ammo out of an experimental ammo project. A gunslinger with AP ammo is terrifying.

[Murbella]

I managed to get armor piercing ammo out of an experimental ammo project. A gunslinger with AP ammo is terrifying.

Not sure about this yet. I do use armor piercing ammo too actually and i find that it is basically required for a gunslinger to be VIABLE. I haven’t had a chance to try a high level sniper yet, but my gunslinger just maxed out and seems pretty decent. I suspect that a hybrid with minimal pistol skills will be more effective though.

My thinking is that a sniper isnt required to use AP ammo and gets the benefit of weapon upgrades (don’t know if these affect a secondary weapon?).

[Papageno]

You should also be able to call down a manual evac to scuttle the mission but save your dudes. Believe the control is in the upper-right of the screen.

Does that work on that kind of mission? I think it may be an exception. After all, Bradford is always yelling at me to “get to the [choppa]!”

But in any case, I managed, through judicious savescumming and reloading every time outrageous BS happened, to get everyone to the EVAC point just in time. Criminy. That one mod it getting installed right away after I backup my saves.

[ShivaX]

Yeah on extractions you can’t drop the EVAC, which is annoying when it decides to spawn 5 miles away. I’d much rather that was something we could pick (obviously not on the escort missions or you’d just drop it where you started, but for rescue and VIP nabbing, I would have rather had control).

[Papageno]

So does anyone know if the game ever gives you a chance to bust out a captured XCOM soldier in a later mission?

[Quaro]

Yeah, rescues are council missions.

[Murbella]

Is everyone skipping defend missions late game or something?

I just got one where there is a very strong enemy attacking the defend object. It kills it in 4-6 turns.

I rush there and manage to make it just in time with maybe 1/3 health left. While i am clearing up enemies, THREE enemies decide to make a beeline for the defense point and attack it, instantly destroying the remaining health.

As far as i can tell, this mission seems completely impossible.

[Papageno]

Yup, the turn timers seem crazy short sometimes.

[Murbella]

It isn’t so much a turn timer as the enemy that starts attacking the defend object does too much damage sometimes and makes the mission impossible.

[Tony_M]

I found the “defend object aliens are trying to destroy” missions to be the most unpredictable (and therefore most difficult) missions in the game. Sometimes I creep across the map slowly and the object never gets attacked until I’m in direct line of sight. Other times the object is on fire on the second turn.

[Juan_Raigada]

Yeah, objects under fire are not too much of a problem, but if the building with the object gets on fire sometimes there’s nothing you can do. I lost a mission due to the object (at almost full health) burning when there was just one enemy left.

[robc04]

Is everyone skipping defend missions late game or something?

I just got one where there is a very strong enemy attacking the defend object. It kills it in 4-6 turns.

I rush there and manage to make it just in time with maybe 1/3 health left. While i am clearing up enemies, THREE enemies decide to make a beeline for the defense point and attack it, instantly destroying the remaining health.

As far as i can tell, this mission seems completely impossible.

I think I only has 2 or 3 in my campaign and didn’t lose any. I may of only had them earlier on though, I don’t remember.

[dgallina]

Is everyone skipping defend missions late game or something?
…
As far as i can tell, this mission seems completely impossible.

The downside of procedural maps is that sometimes a nearly impossible mission gets generated. The same mission with a different map could make all the difference and there’s no shame in reloading a geoscape save from right before the borked mission.

Diego

[Murbella]

The downside of procedural maps is that sometimes a nearly impossible mission gets generated. The same mission with a different map could make all the difference and there’s no shame in reloading a geoscape save from right before the borked mission.

Diego

I ended up reloading to the world map and entering again for a new map.

If i was on ironman i would have been stuck with an unwinnable mission though obviously.

The problem is that the health of the defense objects doesnt seem to scale, but enemy damage does as the game progresses. Obviously you have a lot more time when the enemy i doing 4 damage per turn than when they are doing 12.