ShivaX
5144
Hacking makes Exalt all have to reload. So they can still move, but they can’t shoot.
How that works, hell if I know, but it can be handy if you time it right.
It’s better than that, really. If you dash for the encrypter, you have time to get there and set up before the first Exalt reinforcements arrive. It only seems like Exalt gets there the same time you do because there’s an inactive group just north of the encrypter. If you move into the defended area, they’ll see you and activate.
It’s a map where it’s completely practical to dash because you can see everything between you and the defense zone at the start of the map. You can’t pop hostiles by dashing.
Ah ha! I’ve seen them pointlessly reloading, and I didn’t realized I had “stunned” their weapons for a turn. That’s, um, some potent hacking going on. I guess we can rationalize that it’s simulating confusion in the enemy ranks, rather than actually physically jamming their weapons.
thither
5146
I’ve been assuming in the back of my head that the same type of tech that makes alien weapons explode when their owners die make Exalt weapons able to be briefly disabled by computer. (Not that that’s any less handwavy.)
Exalt first shows up with bog-standard assault rifles. They don’t get all alien techy until the elite troops show up.
I just did the Exalt defense (“encryption”) mission on the bookstore / mall map, which nearly kicked my butt the first time I played. This time I managed to get everyone covering the defense zone without triggering any of the inactive groups. The reinforcements start active, so they climbed up into the cafe one-by-one where I slaughtered them with overwatch fire. Eventually they ran out of reinforcements, so I had to go on the offense to clear out the 8 Exalt troops running around in the bookstore.
Knowing that hacking the comm towers disables all enemy fire for one turn - including overwatch - is ridiculously unfair if you have the covert operative waiting to do it at a strategic moment. I did some rushing that would normally have been quite unsafe if I didn’t know they couldn’t shoot at me next turn. Rushing to flank someone at point-blank range usually results in a kill, but also usually exposes you too much.
I now think this is by far the easiest of the Exalt defense maps, provided you’re careful to avoid the patrol zones. It was quite helpful that my covert agent was invisible due to mimetic skin, so I had good intelligence on the location of enemy patrols.
Thongsy
5149
I had to quit my latest IM playthrough. I made it to the beginning of month four and it went all to hell. Mostly due to me being stupid. It was all going relatively well then I shot down a medium or large scout. I hadn’t been doing captures at this point yet so I needed to capture the crystal guy that you make into a key. For some reason I though the ship was really small so I loss two of my guys capturing one of those guys. Then the next room had mutons and seekers and they killed off the rest of my team. And thus my A team was all gone and I think I only had 4 guys left in my barracks at this point with no money. I think I may try a new playthrough skipping on Slingshot and Progeny since those seem to be pretty tough with the way they always have aliens dropping in.
I’m never, ever going to try Impossible. Classic is frustrating enough for me.
OK, I’m playing an Exalt defense mission right now, and you were right and I was wrong. Exalt only make progress hacking the transmitter at the end of your turn, not theirs as I thought. So it’s safe to allow them to enter the zone as long as you kill all of them before the end of the turn.
Zemalf’s Let’s Play makes it look absurdly easy. He’s a brilliant player who makes few mistakes, but also, irritatingly, a consistently lucky bastard.
I have a suspicion that using the Second Wave option that randomizes the soldier’s stats (plus of course liberal use of grenades in the first few missions) is key to it, because, being so fragile, you really need to be able to kill things before they can even touch your soldiers on those first few missions, so it might be worth doing a few restarts until one gets better-than-vanilla hit stats on most of one’s starting troops.
Just an observation from watching his marvellous vids - on his first mission all his soldiers bar one have to-hit in the region of 70-80, which is ludicrously better than the standard 65, and I think that right there is probably what gets the ball rolling - he never loses a man because he invariably manages to kill the mobs with well-anticipated and well-positioned Overwatch and then standard shots plus grenades (especially using grenades to destroy cover), before they can do any damage, and has at a rough estimate about 70% Excellent missions with only a few injuries of his best men now and then, with the occasional rookie rotation and train-up.
From there he’s able to use a levelling-up 4-man squad to great effect through March and the beginning of April, so that relieves the pressure on having to get the team size upgrade (which I think is possibly the only other way one might be able to beat it, if one had standard stat troops, i.e. getting the early 5 and 6 man team going). This in turn means he has enough money to get the satellite thing going very effectively, so that side of the game is covered too right from the start. He also avoids getting Containment early, which means he has enough Power to prepare the Satellite stuff in the first month.
It’s inspiring and informative watching his vids though - since recovering from nerdrage at failing my first CI runs, I’ve been doing a very good Classic with Autosaves run on EU, and really getting the hang of 180 degree cover and LOS, so I’m feeling more up for another go at CI with EW soon.
Was just reading this polygon piece on Jake Solomon and Enemy Unknown for the first time. The article is a year old at this point, but makes a fascinating read now that I’ve gotten further in the game and can see the final product. Their original vertical slice video looked pretty different, and is shown in that article.
I just got the St. John’s Council mission, and I noted the only reward was “panic reduction.” Really? Screw that. It’s a rough mission, and I want more than some XP and panic reduction I don’t need if I’m going to brave it again. I guess it would be worth it if it came while I was still struggling with panic and Canada was in bad shape panic-wise.
Quaro
5155
People have beat I/I with a 4 man only squad, with every single second wave enabled (all the ones that only unlock after beating impossible and only make the game harder).
It’s interesting what you have to do at that level. Even if you sell every single thing and never lose a battle you can’t build enough satellites to not lose the campaign, so the only way to win is to rush alien base for the global panic increase, then buy all the satellites at once. They will have a monthly deficit every single month and can only buy things by immediately selling and then purchasing. They will destroy cover before aliens are discovered, just because it means any future aliens will run to different cover instead that is much better position for the player. All things I never did in my C/I runs.
If he’s using Not Created Equal to get extraordinary starting recruits, he’s playing on a difficulty that’s a bit less than Impossible. Maybe not a lot less, since there’s still a ton of other drawbacks, but less.
After I saw that some weapons (like plasma rifles) often destroy cover, I started thinking that this could be an interesting tactic/mechanic. But as far as I know, I can’t intentionally target terrain with my primary weapons, and I’d consider grenades and rockets too valuable for this purpose.
That said, I’m at a totally different (lower) level of play. I’ve only played on Normal and I tried to avoid grenades entirely since I thought it was important to collect the maximum in loot.
I’m only a Classic player, not Impossible, but this mindset from Normal was one of the first things I had to unlearn. On Classic, grenades are the one reliable way to avoid casualties against Sectoids. Less so on Impossible I gather, since they gain enough HP so you can’t kill them with a single grenade.
Thongsy
5159
Stupid Thin Men. I think all my Classic Ironman runs have been halted by them. I must have the worst of luck. For seemingly such weak enemies they sure like to completely destroy my squad. I’m now reliably making into late May but then someway or somehow I run into Thin Men that will one-shot all my squad members. They’ll hit me for 6 or 7 and crit for 9 a lot, like five times or more in a row. I think I’m done, this is just making me angry now.
Thongsy
5160
I lied, I gave it a couple of more tries once again. Kept hitting a new Thin Man wall that would end my game. It’s probably for the best as I haven’t even encountered Elite Mutons, Mechtoids, or any of the more advance enemies. I should give it a go on Normal Ironman but dammit I want my trophy/cheevo for some reason.
Terrible mission last night. Lost a captain with full health to an exploding tank (that had been burning from the start, so I really didn’t see that coming…), the aliens shot one of the meld-containers just before I could reach it, I missed a 99% point blank shotgun-shot and I missed áll overwatchshots, twice, when getting attacked by seekers. Result: one dead, three severely injured.
God I love this game :p
The thing about Thin Men is that they have a base 85 aim and 20% critical chance on Classic. So even when you have high cover they have a 45% chance of wounding your guys in Carapace armor, and 9% chance of killing them outright. You want to kill them before they have a chance to shoot or spit at you.
Assaults with shotguns or laser rifles are good at this. Run and gun to a flanking position, stop an extra square away so you aren’t in the poison cloud, and pretty much 100% chance of killing the Thin Man outright. Rockets are another solution if you can get a couple of them in the blast.
If you must put a guy where a Thin Man can shoot at him, Hunker Down will eliminate that chance of a one-shot critical.
Mostly though, it’s superior numbers. A 6 man squad with anything better than assault rifles should often have enough firepower to deal with a 3 Thin Man group. It’s when it’s nearly 1:1 that squad wipes happen - a 4 man squad, or activating two Thin Man groups at once.
Thin Men also use light plasma rifles, which have a +10 aim bonus, making them extra annoying.
