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Mecs are stunnable, and they really aren't that big of a deal with 1 action; they will shoot their missiles, move to flank (therefore they won't shoot and stand pretty) or overwatch if they can't move enough to get a flank, in that order. They are also high priority, so plenty of times you either kill them, or stun them, but the times were you don't actually deal with them instantly (your soldiers are spread wide enough and in cover, or you won't be able to kill it), they are not going to kill you.
Missiles imo aren't that strong if you are not going crazy stacking into high ground (which you normally aren't if you are rushing), they won't one-shot any soldier, and at the end of the day that's what matters the most. They don't do enough damage to have good chances at critically wounding your soldiers, so at worst, you will get a few soldiers getting a slightly longer rest, and since we have a much deeper roster now, it's not that much of a deal.
Outside of MECs, enemies that can't be flanked appear at points in the campaign before the +2 turns are irrelevant for the most part. Zerker doesn't matter, Archons also have some weird AI responses from only having 1 action avaible.
And rushing forward is easier than ever since we get reapers to pretty much play scout the whole game long while providing support, this allows you to exploit the 1action turn even harder.
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In my last playthrough mecs were a piece of cake because I got the -20 hack defense order really early on, so I was pretty much guaranteed the stun and had a really good chance at controlling in later stages  . I agree that they're not that hard to deal with, but their missles can destroy cover, which easily means 1 or 2 dead soldiers.
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On September 22 2017 23:24 Godwrath wrote:
Mecs are stunnable, and they really aren't that big of a deal with 1 action; they will shoot their missiles, move to flank (therefore they won't shoot and stand pretty) or overwatch if they can't move enough to get a flank, in that order. They are also high priority, so plenty of times you either kill them, or stun them, but the times were you don't actually deal with them instantly (your soldiers are spread wide enough and in cover, or you won't be able to kill it), they are not going to kill you.
Missiles imo aren't that strong if you are not going crazy stacking into high ground (which you normally aren't if you are rushing), they won't one-shot any soldier, and at the end of the day that's what matters the most. They don't do enough damage to have good chances at critically wounding your soldiers, so at worst, you will get a few soldiers getting a slightly longer rest, and since we have a much deeper roster now, it's not that much of a deal.
Outside of MECs, enemies that can't be flanked appear at points in the campaign before the +2 turns are irrelevant for the most part. Zerker doesn't matter, Archons also have some weird AI responses from only having 1 action avaible.
And rushing forward is easier than ever since we get reapers to pretty much play scout the whole game long while providing support, this allows you to exploit the 1action turn even harder.
Do you usually take Haywire? I feel like it's not reliable enough on the higher difficulties... Only about 70% success rate on the heavy MECs, while Revival has saved my butt several times.
There was one "protect the device" mission in particular. Those are always tricky for me because the enemy pods clump around the device and it's tough to avoid activating multiple pods at once.
In this case I missed 3 or so 90%+ shots which caused me to take some MEC missiles. Two of my soldiers were bleeding out. My reaper and a heavy I believe. I had managed to kill all of the bad guys except for a single specter with only 1 hp left which had shadowbound my sharpshooter and vanished. I had no idea where it was, and I only had one more turn before both soldiers would bleed out.
I remembered that I had some battle scanners on my reaper, and Revival Protocol on my specialist. First I had to stabilize the reaper with a medkit, which took both of the specialist's actions. Luckily she was bonded with another unit so I gave the specialist another action to revive the reaper.
After being brought back to life the reaper threw her first battle scanner and found nothing. I had one more chance... The second battle scanner revealed the specter tucked into a corner within Run and Gun range of my Ranger. Blowing it away was pretty satisfying. My soldiers picked up some serious negative perks but no one died at least : )
On the other hand I hate relying on Haywire.... it's far from a guaranteed stun. I think in my I/L campaign I only used it a couple times on Andromedon shells for shits and giggles.
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I always take hayware. I don't find Heavy MECs that important, at that point in the game you already have ways to deal with them efficiently. It's the white early ones the ones you want hayware for, and a 70% chance to stop him from acting in 1 turn is much more efficient than whatever you will do to kill it. Later on is useless, because the game is on easy mode already and you don't need CC. But don't get me wrong, if i can kill it and the rest of the aliens don't are menacing enough, i will kill it. If not, i will try to stun it, and then judge the situation.
Hayware is like combat protocol early game. I prefer to have ways to reduce the number of alien activations if i can.
On September 23 2017 00:00 Sbrubbles wrote:In my last playthrough mecs were a piece of cake because I got the -20 hack defense order really early on, so I was pretty much guaranteed the stun and had a really good chance at controlling in later stages . I agree that they're not that hard to deal with, but their missles can destroy cover, which easily means 1 or 2 dead soldiers.
Yes, the reasoning i am speaking about is that if you don't need to deal with the MEC, it is because you are able to deal with the rest or atleast guarantee they are not acting through flanking, then you won't have that problem.
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Man how does the Surgical sitrep exist. In what world are missions with that possible? Supply raid with 3 people, pods of Spectre Viper Viper, Viper Viper Viper, and Adv. shieldbearer Adv Officer Advanced Purifier. Each pod has over 30 hp, how the fuck am i supposed to kill that. I can already see engaging the first pod, missing all shots and then being Bound Bound and shadowbound gg.
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Viper King Armor and freezing grenade :D and flashbangs. Surgical are usually easy if you have your best ready. Otherwise you usually have to skip it.
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Germany25657 Posts
Just finished my first War of the chosen run. I found it very interesting that the chosen were actually pretty weak? except for the sword guy who always managed to walk out of range somehow so I couldn't fucking hit him properly lol.
The sniper was pathetic and the warlock was pretty meh.
The most difficult part of the game was still the early-ish/midgame when mutons show up. The first 2 muton missions are usually where I die horribly.
Can't wait to longwar this thing, have the developers said anything about adapting longwar to work with the new addon? I haven't really kept up with any new whatsoever.
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Canada8033 Posts
I believe the last Pavonis announcement was that there is "nothing to announce". The original standalone mods they released (weapon pack, etc.) are getting updated though.
The "A Better Advent" guy has been pushing out a bunch of stuff if you're interested in that.
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On September 23 2017 22:21 Warri wrote:
Man how does the Surgical sitrep exist. In what world are missions with that possible? Supply raid with 3 people, pods of Spectre Viper Viper, Viper Viper Viper, and Adv. shieldbearer Adv Officer Advanced Purifier. Each pod has over 30 hp, how the fuck am i supposed to kill that. I can already see engaging the first pod, missing all shots and then being Bound Bound and shadowbound gg.
3 reapers = GG :D
EDIT: Realistically you cannot get 3 reapers so for me these sitreps are autoskip.
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Surgical is probably doable when you're still on 4 soldiers base. Or 5 and just got T2 guns or something. I'd still probably skip though.
I haven't had the chance to play much, but if you get an early mission with the thing that give retaliation enemies on a normal mission, you just get a bunch of faceless. Which lets you get super early mimic beacon and the corpses to make multiples. Pretty great on legendary.
At first I thought the new retaliation mission was really easy, but I have to say I've had some very close calls with missions with 3-4 zerkers, the fact they can kill multiple civilians in 1 turn now makes the mission timer on retaliation actually matter. Seems like there might be a way to cheese the missions before activating the 2nd area you need to protect though? Playing ironman so I didn't explore the options too much.
My biggest gripe is the 'integrated dlc'. Does anyone research any of that stuff? It seems you're just delaying T2 guns forever, not to mention resources are tight anyways early game, how are you going to spare some to make the first guns after when you used to get them free? Same goes with the Spark. At least before you got one free you could use as long as it didn't die. (And wasting supply/alloy on upgrades for it was already kinda a bad move for what's essentially a sidegrade at best.) Not to mention, you're probably already well into upgraded nades and t2 armor/weapons and most of your soldiers are Lieutenant rank or higher before you can make one? The balance might of been off for DLC stuff before, but now it's even worse :\
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On September 27 2017 21:52 Xafnia wrote:
Surgical is probably doable when you're still on 4 soldiers base. Or 5 and just got T2 guns or something. I'd still probably skip though.
I haven't had the chance to play much, but if you get an early mission with the thing that give retaliation enemies on a normal mission, you just get a bunch of faceless. Which lets you get super early mimic beacon and the corpses to make multiples. Pretty great on legendary.
At first I thought the new retaliation mission was really easy, but I have to say I've had some very close calls with missions with 3-4 zerkers, the fact they can kill multiple civilians in 1 turn now makes the mission timer on retaliation actually matter. Seems like there might be a way to cheese the missions before activating the 2nd area you need to protect though? Playing ironman so I didn't explore the options too much.
My biggest gripe is the 'integrated dlc'. Does anyone research any of that stuff? It seems you're just delaying T2 guns forever, not to mention resources are tight anyways early game, how are you going to spare some to make the first guns after when you used to get them free? Same goes with the Spark. At least before you got one free you could use as long as it didn't die. (And wasting supply/alloy on upgrades for it was already kinda a bad move for what's essentially a sidegrade at best.) Not to mention, you're probably already well into upgraded nades and t2 armor/weapons and most of your soldiers are Lieutenant rank or higher before you can make one? The balance might of been off for DLC stuff before, but now it's even worse :\
I'll just say that the SPARK is a lot more than just a sidegrade since it's immune to fatigue
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On September 27 2017 21:52 Xafnia wrote:
Surgical is probably doable when you're still on 4 soldiers base. Or 5 and just got T2 guns or something. I'd still probably skip though.
I haven't had the chance to play much, but if you get an early mission with the thing that give retaliation enemies on a normal mission, you just get a bunch of faceless. Which lets you get super early mimic beacon and the corpses to make multiples. Pretty great on legendary.
At first I thought the new retaliation mission was really easy, but I have to say I've had some very close calls with missions with 3-4 zerkers, the fact they can kill multiple civilians in 1 turn now makes the mission timer on retaliation actually matter. Seems like there might be a way to cheese the missions before activating the 2nd area you need to protect though? Playing ironman so I didn't explore the options too much.
My biggest gripe is the 'integrated dlc'. Does anyone research any of that stuff? It seems you're just delaying T2 guns forever, not to mention resources are tight anyways early game, how are you going to spare some to make the first guns after when you used to get them free? Same goes with the Spark. At least before you got one free you could use as long as it didn't die. (And wasting supply/alloy on upgrades for it was already kinda a bad move for what's essentially a sidegrade at best.) Not to mention, you're probably already well into upgraded nades and t2 armor/weapons and most of your soldiers are Lieutenant rank or higher before you can make one? The balance might of been off for DLC stuff before, but now it's even worse :\
Nah, I play on L/I only and I rushed Proving Grounds as 3rd building. Had Experimenal weapons researching as it was being built. Then got SPARK asap and Frost Bomb and Axe and Boltcaster. After that researched armor first. You don't need to rush Mag weapons, you don't really need them fast. And I deal with MECs and Mutons without them just as well. And now I got plasma grenades before Mag weapons, still not needing them. And Templar gets a weapon boost from armor upgrade. I even got the advent stun lancer researched before so my skirmisher can 100% stun with its upgraded melee weapon.
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So you can gain a perk that allows for instantaneous contacts with new regions. It is amazing and allows you to delay Resistance coms a bit if you can afford it (I play with the second wave option that doubles the Avatar Project timer, so no problems for me).
One thing I think Firaxis really nailed with the Chosen is perceived vs. actual threat. When you first encounter them, they can feel broken, but when know how they work you can negate some of that threat
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Yeah I'm done with this DLC; just lost all soldiers on a mission again. The chosen just add to the chance driven outcomes the game already had. Too arbitrary and disruptive of balance.
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On October 08 2017 13:53 Doodsmack wrote:
Yeah I'm done with this DLC; just lost all soldiers on a mission again. The chosen just add to the chance driven outcomes the game already had. Too arbitrary and disruptive of balance.
See the issue is that you're suppose to enjoy this outcome if you're going to enjoy the game and the genre as a whole. This is whats suppose to happen.
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On October 08 2017 13:53 Doodsmack wrote:
Yeah I'm done with this DLC; just lost all soldiers on a mission again. The chosen just add to the chance driven outcomes the game already had. Too arbitrary and disruptive of balance.
PSA: You can leave a soldier dazed and the chosen is likely to extract information and then leave. I had to use this to not die to the assassin a few times early game. There's a chance the soldier will be kidnapped, but you get a rescue mission next month to get them back.
Which chosen is giving you trouble?
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They need to add the action mode from their first xcom. Where your soldiers just don't miss and roll over the aliens. Perfect for people who can't accept pulling out against ai. Even if the AI is murderous ahead.
I had fun with that mode when I wanted to play x-com, but didnt wanted the rng of missing shots on easy targets.
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Currently on my way to finish of the assassin once and for all. The first step is relatively easy if you bring a psionic (from the base game, not a Templar) and two specialists.
This mission (and my Avenger Defense just before) has made me realized how insane combat protocol is (especially if you are just about to get a new weapon tier). Like, why would I ever pick Medical Protocol over it, especially given the double damage vs. mechanized and the more aggressive approach that XCOM 2 is encouraging.
(Yes I am savescumming, but with the amount of problems I've had with ironman being ruined by bugs or broken save in games I don't care.)
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being able to pull a heal or revive out of my ass without moving means I can shoot with that person in the spot hes in during the same turn.
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I have now finished of the Assassin and Warlock (and doing covert ops for the Hunter as well), and I know remember why I like procedual generation in this game,
The fact that my Assassin was immune to melee but weak to close-range attacks made for some... interesting engagements with her. And my Warlock was weak to high-ground attacks, so the fact that I had a plateau for my Sharpshooter and Reaper during the final mission meant that the final battle with the Warlock was rather easy.
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EPT
