Man up, fans of X-COM! [Xenonauts]

[keith.lamothe]

Odd, shotguns were much more useful to me than the standard rifles.  I used snipers for long range work.

The number of times I was able to take a full-TU shotgunner and run them directly adjacent to an alien without taking reaction fire, and then eviscerate them... well, there were a lot.

They were also my go-to people for setting up reaction fire against around-the-corner and such attacks.  They disappointed many a reaper.

[Mánagarmr]

Odd, shotguns were much more useful to me than the standard rifles.  I used snipers for long range work.

The number of times I was able to take a full-TU shotgunner and run them directly adjacent to an alien without taking reaction fire, and then eviscerate them... well, there were a lot.

They were also my go-to people for setting up reaction fire against around-the-corner and such attacks.  They disappointed many a reaper.

That is pretty much my experience as well, although I only ever brought a single sniper. Usually a contingent of 4-6 riflemen, 2 assaults (shotguns/energy shotguns), 1 sniper and a tank. That was usually my setup.

[keith.lamothe]

I found that normal rifles couldn't hit the broad side of a barn at the ranges I tried to engage at, so snipers were a must.  Honestly there were more than a few times where even the sniper rifles were getting into the "yellow zone" where they were starting to get an aim penalty for being too far away.

I liked the burst fire on the rifles for targets somewhat outside shotgun range. but for those I much preferred the machine gunners, whose opinion of rifles was "That's not Burst Fire.  THIS is Burst Fire."

This became far more true with the advent of Predator Assault Armor, which allows one to actually move some kind of significant distance and fire an MG on the same turn.  To best express my glee at those I probably should have modded the gun names to "Heavy Bolter".

[Mánagarmr]

The Predator armor is glorious. Feels SO much more like a "tank"-kind of armor than the Power Armor did in the original. The Power Armor was just a VERY short stepping stone to the Flying Armor which was superiour in every way.

[keith.lamothe]

Yea, it at least belongs in the same sentence as the word "Power Armor".

One step closer to my preferred way of dealing with XCOM-like situations:


(ufo lands, aliens depart to interrogate local bovines)

( ... )

BAM! (Orbital Drop Pod smashes half the ufo, and some Devastator and Assault Space Marines mop things up in less than a turn)

[Mánagarmr]

I never really understood the balancing reasons for giving the Flying Armor MORE protections than the Power Armor So I can fly...fire while flying (thus being completely safe from Chryssalids and Silacoids) and have more protections than my walking brethren.


Then again, the first game had psi and Blaster Launchers. I guess "balance" wasn't what it was about

[keith.lamothe]

Though I definitely understood why, I was sad to not see a blaster launcher in the endgame.  Though the closest thing was still pretty impressive.

And I did get my winning killshot with a fusion rocket to the face, so I can't really complain.

[Mánagarmr]

I still haven't won. Found the Preator in a base, but I've yet to progress from there. So we'll see what the "future holds".

[Mánagarmr]

Well then. That's my first game finished. Lost, unfortunately. The aliens simply overwhelmed me in the end and managed to make me lose 5 funding areas, thus ending the game. I was so close too Well, I've learned some pretty important stuff so I'm better prepared for my next bout.

[keith.lamothe]

It is a game which revels in the suffering and defeat of its players.

...

That sounds kinda familiar.

[Aklyon]

It is a game which revels in the suffering and defeat of its players.

...

That sounds kinda familiar.

Dwarf Fortress?

[keith.lamothe]

That too.

[Mánagarmr]

FINALLY finished it. On easy and with some in-combat savescumming. It was actually surprisingly hard, even on easy. Last mission had me dripping in sweat. It was tense!

[Pepisolo]

Currently on my second veteran ironman game. I'm going to lose the Americas since I have no radar coverage at all on them. My weak link is Australasia. Built my second base too far north of it, so only have half radar coverage there. I'm going to have to go all out to protect it as best I can. Getting rid of my Condors as early as possible and swapping for Foxtrots seems to have helped enormously this time around, as well as getting used to sometimes manually controlling my interceptors. Both bases have two Foxtrots and a Corsair, and I'm currently manufacturing a Marauder. Air dominance has been pretty important.

On the ground I was on a run of 6ish missions without losing a troop, but on my last mission I lost two, one of which was my squad Captain. Currently on an Alien Base mission, but losing my nerve a bit. One strategy I've been employing to good effect is -- bring along extra shields! This can help a lot. I usually bring along an extra shield per guy. Just give the shield to whoever can carry it and drop it at the start of the mission as a backup. I also do a similar thing for my Rocketeers and bring along a couple of extra rockets per guy. Got my first Predator armour which I was super excited about until my troop got one-shotted wearing it... didn't give me quite the Terminator style protection I was hoping for! Haven't captured an Alien Leader yet, as I keep getting Andron bases and the Leader is pretty much unknockoutable. All in all I'm doing pretty well, but just need to get a second wind. My alien terror mission tactic is bring along a tank with a pulse laser, back it up with smoke grenades, and try to explode as much as possible without losing the vehicle. Also, I bring along two rocketeers minimum. On one mission I brought along 5 Rocketeers. Basically just explode everything.

[Mánagarmr]

The Predator actually does provide you terminator-style protections and a boatload of firepower, but as with everything, RNG can be a pony and they can hit you somewhere the armor is weak AND roll a huge damage number. I've had that happen a few times myself. Most of the time though the Predators just soak enormous amounts of damage. Even from the plasma cannons.