4944

I don’t recall getting either of the “rescue” missions as EXALT one-offs, maybe there’s some variety to that

4945

Really? They seemed pretty key to the EW story.

Because…

First, when I say “rescue the girl” I’m referring to the mission on the crumbling dam where you have to open the valves to extend the mission length, and at the end you open the truck and the girl pops out. Maybe referring to it as a “rescue” was misleading as you don’t go into it thinking there is (necessarily) a person in the truck.

It seems to me that you’d have to have done that one, because it is her presence in the base that allows the aliens to stage the attack against XCOM command.

The “rescue the other abductees” is a mission where you assault an alien ship and have to disable the central controls before the aliens use it to kill three more abductees that they have in stasis tanks. I could certainly see that one being optional.

4946

http://blog.playfire.com/2013/11/space-travel-costs-fraction-due-to.html

New 25% off code worked on Enemy Within

GMG25-DW6L1-6XGZ9
4947

Does anyone know the stats that if you’re in full cover and hunker down, that it will compensate enough to prevent thin men from hitting? The thin men early on are the game killers for me, just had one where they wiped out 5 of my six man squad, all with one hit crits except for my mec who was able to shrug it off.

4948

I think that hunker down makes you immune to crits, and subtracts a huge penalty to hit. Something like 70-80% iirc.

4949

Hunker Down doubles your cover bonus. Low cover is 20%, high cover is 40%, so with Hunker Down those become 40% and 80%. And yes, you do become immune to crits.

4950

Hunker down doubles cover bonuses, so hunkering down in full cover is -80% hit in total and immune to crits.

Do you have at least one heavy? Rockets kill thin men on any difficulty.

4951

He was the second to die. I had a case where a UFO attack spawned nothing but Thin Men, so it was 10 against six and they always had the advantage due to the terrain.

4952

Thin men, on classic or impossible, are the hardest enemies in the game relative to when they’re introduced imo. Hunker down and they’ll just spit poison at you. Rockets, squadsight, tactical retreats, and downright luck are the only things that spare me from a squad-wipe vs. thin men during the first month or two on impossible. What’s worse is they seem less likely to chase you than some other enemies. They just bide their time in overwatch.

4953

Council bomb disposal missions wouldn’t be so damm hard if it weren’t for those dammed thin man.

4954

I’m having trouble still on Normal difficulty, but still curious, how do Thin Men evolve in the Impossible difficulty? Is it their ability to just pop up anywhere or is it there massive numbers?

4955

The Council mission on the docks (I assume it’s part of the Xalt story) with all the Chrysalids and Zombies totally kicks my butt on Normal. Suggestions?

4956

Power fists, flamethrowers, jump jets, shotguns and the odd rocket. Line up targets by scouting with a mimetic skin assault.

4957

I think it’s mostly the fact that they almost never miss.

4958

Mimetic skin sniper, i love you so much.

4959

Stats for thin men on easy/normal/classic/impossible (from enemy unknown, dunno if it’s changed for enemy within). Also note: light plasma rifles have +10 to aim. Thin Men are always very mobile, and as I noted earlier, it seems to me they have more a more troublesome ai. I’ve never played on normal, but impossible has a significant increase in the number of enemies in non-scripted missions (scripted missions remain exactly the same).

Aim
65 | 65 | 75 | 75
Critical Chance
0 | 0 | 10 | 10
Defense
0 | 0 | 0 | 0
Health
3 | 3 | 4 | 6
Mobility
15 | 15 | 15 | 15
Will
15 | 15 | 15 | 15

Edit: You know- I just have never believed the numbers. Thin Men crit me all the time in full cover. 10% chance? Yeah right.

Edit 2: apparently these stats include the +10 bonus of the light plasma rifle? Do they not carry these in normal?

4960

Portent keeps kicking my ass. I’ve been playing on classic ironman and so far I’ve reached this mission three times – each time, a lone thin man manages to one-shot the VIP while in cover and hunkered down such that I ‘fail’ the mission, despite taking no other casualties. Is it possible to succeed on this mission? Does ‘failing’ this mission close off any other parts of the story/missions/game?

4961

It’s not 10%, its +10%.

4962

You know, this mission isn’t really that hard if you think ahead. Getting to the ship is easy. Once you see zombies, you know you’ll see Chryslids. Keep your troops in a tight, and I mean tight group, move them slowly, use overwatch, and mow down any enemies that approach. No melee unit can get close with the combine firepower of your squad. With overwatch and your turn, you’ll get 2 shots per trooper at everything. Even in the ship, you only deal with no more than 2 Chryslids at a time.

Now getting out. Well, it was obvious to me this was going to be a setup. I sent a rookie up to the bridge and got my troops outside the ship on the dock in a tight group. Then the rookie hit the switch. My group of troops moved to the full extent of their regular move each turn, then went into overwatch. Interestingly, they only ran into on Chryslid on the docks as they approached the extraction point. It seems like most of the Chryslids spawned inside the ship. Meanwhile my rookie jumped down from the bridge, and dashed almost all the way across the docks to catch up with my group. Only once at the last dock did the chryslids get close - only a couple and my entire squad took them out. I got to the extraction point with 2 turns to spare.

4963

Now that first Exalt mission kicked my butt. They were using grenades, rocket launchers, etc. I guess I shouldn’t bunch up my troops, huh? Any hints/tips missions. The AI on these guys is pretty good. I gotta retool my tactics!