Warlord

Ok, here are a few points of wisdom on base defense. 1. Multiple grav shields do not stack. You get one repulsion of the alien craft, regardless of how many grav shields you have at the base. 2. Yes, shooting down multiple battleships does improve your scoring, but by such a small amount as to be completely worthless. You are better off just letting the ship land and taking them out in tactical combat. 3. The magic number for base defense is 3000. Where does this number come from you ask? Why, that's the hull strength of a battleship. As long as your defenses can consistently do 3000 points of damage to an attacking vessel, your base in invincible. A word to the wise though; Don't ever count on the accuracy ratings in the UFOPedia. Plan on 50% accuracy, regardless of the type of defense pods you are using. All this means that you need a defense rating of at least 6000 to be 100% safe from attack. 4. Unless you are very close to going to Cydonia or T'Leth, it is in your best interests to let the aliens attack your base and kill them in a base defense mission. When you let your defenses do the work for you, your base will continue to get attacked about once every 1.5-3 days. This gets very old, very fast. Unless you are getting ready for the final mission, it is almost impossible to get anything done with the constant attacks. 5. In base defense, against the weaker species of aliens, proximity grenades are your best friend. Against the stronger species, psionics are the only way to go. Also, a word to the wise. Make sure you have at least two soldiers with good firepower in any base defense squad. There is nothing nastier than being rushed in a small base by a cyberdisc, and not having sufficient firepower to stop it before it gets so close that killing it is suicidal. 6. In general, for small bases, I maintan a five man garrison squad. I have two riflemen, two heavy weapons specialists, and a medic. Early on, the HW guys should carry autocannons and have a good supply of all three ammunition types with them. HE and Incendiary ammo are excellent at knocking out groups of aliens as they storm out of the airlock, but if things get down to close quarters combat, you will need that AP ammo, or a sidearm. Later on, the heavy weapons guys should have heavy plasmas or small launchers, and it never hurts to have a blaster launcher with one or two bombs just in case. I keep the riflemen armed with laser rifles, and later plasma rifles, and a good supply (about 4 each) of proximity grenades. Properly used, proximity grenades can whittle down a group of sectoids, floaters, and even snakemen with ease. 7. Last, but not least, keep in mind that rookies are not always the best choice for base defense squads. If you want to spend the time and money, it is a very wise decision to have psionic training facilities at every base. If you don't want to spend that money, then all of your base defense squads should be rotated through a base that has psionic training capability. Trust me when I say it can get ugly when sectoids attack a base, and your autocannon guy that is loaded up with HE gets mind controlled. Also, it is a good idea to have at least one higher ranking, combat experienced soldier at each base. The effect on morale can be the difference between victory and defeat, especially if the mission is not going well and you are taking casualties.

Jack Thomas was alone in the gym, which was just the way he liked it. This way, there were no distractions, just pure focus. He focused intently on a spot on the ceiling as his arms moved steadily and rhythmically up and down, rep after rep, looking more like a machine than a human being. The three hundred pounds on the bar seemed no more of an obstacle to his pumping arms than the air around him. His mind worked best under pressure, either real or artificial. In his mind, he replayed his role in the first combat mission undertaken by X-Com. Two dead and two wounded. Hardly acceptable numbers in a unit as small as this. At that rate, X-Com would be out of troops, and the world out of luck, in less than three months. Looking back, he still could not find where his mistakes were, and that bothered him more than anything. Making mistakes in combat was bad enough, but not even being able to spot them in retrospect was unforgivable. That, more than anything else, was at the core of his decision to pass on the role of squad leader. These aliens were unlike any other enemy he had faced in his considerable fighting experience. Their weapons were far more advanced, and far more effective, than anything he had ever encountered. There was only one conclusion to be drawn from their limited experiences with the aliens. This unit was going to either have to adapt, or become extinct. Their tactics needed work, but more than that, they needed much better equipment. He could only hope that the eggheads down in the research labs were coming up with something to counter the massive technological advantage that the aliens held. While the quality of a soldier makes a huge difference in a battle, as he himself had proven many times, the quality of that soldiers equipment directly affects his combat abilities. As Warlord continued to pump his arms rhythmically, he spoke out loud to noone but himself. "This war is a long way from over..."

Well folks, after much speculation as to who legally owns the rights to X-Com, it would appear that they rest with none other than Atari. A search of the Atari website indeed shows that X-Com: UFO Defense, X-Com: Terror From The Deep, X-Com Apocalypse, X-Com: Interceptor, and X-Com: Enforcer are all carried under their support section. For those of you interested in checking it out, or needing support for any of these games, go to the Atari website. Atari PC and DOS titles support page I don't know how much support, if any, you will receive from them however, due to the age of these games. If anyone decides to contact them, please post the results here.

Post edited. The only changes made were to update the commander's name as necessary. Next time, try to fix errors like that in your own post a little bit quicker please.

I've seen this bug in UFO, but not TFTD. It's not a major issue in UFO, as long as your entire team isn't stranded in the isolated module. I have tried cutting through the wall, but it appears that the dirt in between the modules is impenetrable, even with multiple blaster bomb hits. On a side note, an interesting feature in UFO base defense missions is that if an alien goes upstairs in one of your modules and destroys everything in that module, when you go back to the geoscape, that module, and any that were connected to it are destroyed. I once lost 8 modules this way when a lone sectoid destroyed everything in my large radar module. I had built the base for easy defense, i.e. everything connected as one long hallway. Anybody else ever seen this?

He's merely stating that the download of any of the X-Com games is illegal, and he's right. The games are not classified as abandonware at this time. X-Com Tactical Command does not endorse the downloading of copyrighted software in any form. If you intend to illegally download this program, please make such arrangments through some method other than these forums. Warlord Site Administrator www.x-com.co.uk

Just a note, but power suits do use elerium for their manufacture, but it's only 5 units as opposed to the 16 units for flying suits. The only things I ever use elerium for are armor manufacture, hovertanks, and craft plasma weapons. I rarely waste time with fusion ball launchers. As for getting it, the supply ship raids are the perfect method. On the last game I played, I actually had to sell elerium because I had so much. Each interceptor base had 500 units, my R&D base had 1000 units, and my combat base had about 750. Of course, I had 2 snakeman bases near my main combat base, as well as a floater base. I ended up using the supply ships as basic training missions for rookies.

That would be opposed to 5am in the evening? Or maybe 5pm in the morning? :devil:

In the specialists briefing, Warlord was grinning from ear to ear. It seemed to make some of the people around him a bit nervous, but they would get over it. He looked at Tammy and she grinned back at him. He then turned his attention back to the weapon on the table that had caught his eye. It appeared to be of a similar design to the classic minigun, but with a bit of a twist. It was considerably shorter, and fired a much larger caliber of ammunition. It also appeared to be clip fed rather than belt fed, which was very odd for a rapid fire weapon, such as this appeared to be. The weapons tech that was giving the briefing moved over to the weapon and introduced it as the Autocannon. "The autocannon is a rapid fire weapon intended for use in a supporting role. It's weight prevents it from being used as an assault weapon. It is capable of firing three different types of ammunition. The most common type is HE, or High Explosive. It can also fire IN, incendiary, and AP, or Armor Piercing shells. The High Explosive shells fragement on detonation, bursting with somewhat less force than a standard issue grenade. The incendiary shells spray white phosphorus on detonation, igniting anything in the immediate area. This can be useful for forcing an enemy out of cover, as well as for denying them an avenue of approach. The armor piercing shells are capable of defeating all known forms of body armor currently in production by any manufacturer on the planet. They can also puncture light vehicular armor, such as that found on recon vehicles." The tech moved on to what looked like a rocket launcher of some type, but Warlord wasn't interested. He had found his weapon. The autocannon looked like it would make short work of anything foolish enough to cross his path. His only concern was the magazine capacity of the weapon. 12 rounds of ammo was not a lot in a firefight, even if the rounds were high explosive. He was surprised to find out that they had produced white phosphorus ammo, or "willie pete" as it was known to grunts. Incendiary weapons had fallen out of favor with most governments. They were dubbed as "barbaric" by the pansy beaurocrats that had never seen any sort of warfare outside of their own living rooms. Granted the effects of the weapons were brutal, but so was war. He listened to the tech drone on and on about the other items on the table. Just when he just about couldn't take any more, the tech thanked everyone and left. He resisted the urge to give the geek a standing ovation. He looked over at Tammy, and it was like she was reading his mind. Her look told him that it would not be one of his better ideas. The subcommander moved to the front of the room. "Any questions?" Warlord raised his hand. "Yes?" "When can I have one, and where do I go for practice?" The subcommander laughed a bit. "I assume you're referring to the autocannon?" "Yep." "You can have this one now. I need your signature before I can let you leave with it though. Unfortunately, our range is not equipped for you to fire either HE or IN ammunition. You'll have to settle for AP for now. I assume you know where the range is?" "Yes. Thank you." With a quick signature that looked more like the aftermath of a ballpoint pen with a siezure, Warlord was off, toting the autocannon the way most people would carry a rifle. He had several clips of AP ammo tucked into his belt. He entered the range quietly. Everybody was intently watching the two spooks he had seen earlier. They seemed to be having some sort of contest with their sidearms. Warlord quietly moved to the end booth and loaded the autocannon. The last shot was fired, and everybody clapped and cheered. The celebration was cut short by a high pitched whine followed closely by a series of what sounded like explosions more than gunshots. Twelve shots later, the only thing left of the target were two splintered boards that had once been the target frame holding a standard silhouette target. Warlord stepped back and looked at the people still recovering. A couple were still standing up, having hit the floor when he opened up with the autocannon. All were giving him looks that were best not translated into words. The two spooks seemed a bit upset that his impromptu weapons demonstration had removed the focus from their pistol competition. Warlord looked around at the dwindling crowd, then back at the spooks. "Don't let me interrupt you boys. By all means, please continue." One shook his head and stepped back into his booth. The other continued to glare at Warlord. "Is there a problem?" "Yes. You are a problem. I hope you don't pull stunts like that in combat." Warlord's mood darkened considerably. He set the autocannon down in the booth and walked over to the spook with the mouth. When he spoke, his voice was barely above a whisper, yet was more intense than any scream could dream of being. "Don't you ever question my combat abilties boy. You will find yourself on the receiving end of my talents. Do I make myself clear?" The spook just continued to glare. "That's what I thought." "If you pull a stunt like that in combat, I'll kill you myself." "You, and what army?" The spook went back to his booth and began to fire another clip. Warlord turned to go back to his booth, and almost knocked Tammy down. He hadn't heard her come in. "I see you're making friends already," she said with a smile.

I voted for motion detector, because I never use it. It's a waste of TU's and takes up a very valuable slot on my 80 item list. I like the Lightning for quick response on terror sites, as well as for basic training missions. It can shoot down anything medium and below with ease and drop a squad of rookies to clear it. I also use the craft cannons when it comes time to snag an ethereal for research purposes. I wait until I get a very small ethereal ship, and make sure to hit it with cannons so that I don't destroy it. It's much easier to capture an ethereal when all his buddies aren't trying to mind control you or shoot you. I agree with JG on the mind probe and smoke grenades. I occasionally use the Heavy Laser as a sniper weapon, but the drawback is that you need a soldier with a considerably high accuracy to offset the weapon's low accuracy rating. As for plasma pistols, I have used them on occasion. They're much more effective against Mutons than laser pistols are. On a Muton mission, I always give them to my heavy weapons personnel as a sidearm.

The motion scanner gives the highest profit per engineers' working hour early in the game, higher than laser pistols and laser rifles. Once you develop the laser cannon it becomes the most profitable product. (The exception is plasma cannons produced in 1 unit batches but I won't get into that again.) Cazbol Yes, but this requires that you spend valuable research hours on this project. My research time is too valuable to waste on motion scanners early on. They're a nice luxury to have down the road, but not necessary by any means. I produce Laser Pistols because I have to research them to get to Laser Rifles anyway, therefore I'm not wasting research time on an unnecessary item.

I occasionally name my soldiers, but for the most part I leave their names alone. More often than not, the only naming I do is to give a soldier a nickname. For example, in TFTD, I had a superstar soldier named Nikolai Bakeovitch. After he single handedly killed two Displacer Sonics and wounded 3 X-Com soldiers with his sonic cannon (due to missed shots) I renamed him to Nikolai "Half-Baked." I also use the specialization tags. Mine are: SN = Sniper S = Scout T = Trooper M = Medic HW = Heavy Weapons

Early in the game, my rookies are treated the same as anyone else, because everybody's a rookie. Later on when I have a squad of hardcore veterans, I tend to use the bootcamp philosophy. I like for all soldiers to have combat experience, so I rotate the garrison squads through the bootcamp, and I try to keep one high ranking officer as the base CO for each installation I have. Either Commander or Colonel.

Here's my foolproof plan for starting off. Sell all pistols, HC-AP ammo, the Autocannon and all ammo, the rocket launcher and ammo, and all craft cannons and ammo. Sack all soldiers with bravery below 40 (30 might work if they have really awesome stats other than bravery). Buy a second Avalanche launcher and enough missiles to keep both interceptors armed. I like to keep 15 missiles in reserve. Also buy HE and IN ammo for the heavy cannons, extra grenades, prox grenades, and smoke grenades. Flares and HE packs are also a good idea. Recruit enough soldiers to get your squad up to 10 regulars. Then recruit 15 scientists and 5 engineers. That should max out your living quarters. If you have the cash left, buy a rocket launcher tank and about 16 rockets. I like to build two additional hangars on either side of the top one. I also build one living quarters at each side of the base, and a general stores and an alien containment between the two bottom hangars. Once the living quarters are built, I sell the one next to the lift, and once the hangars are built, I sell the two bottom ones. This has the net effect of making my base extremely defensible, as all aliens have to come through the lift module to get anywhere. Your primary goal in the first month is to complete laser rifle research, and acquire alien alloys. Researching the alloys and personal armor is desirable, but not always possible. As for the first terror site, I usually land, my soldiers shoot anything they can see from the back of the skyranger, and then I abort. You lose some points, but you can make them up in the second month. There's no point in getting your soldiers slaughtered at the beginning of the game. The trick to making money early on is sales of laser pistols. Yes, rifles sell for a bit more, but the pistols produce a lot faster. Farther along in the game, the aliens will build a base close to yours. It's almost guaranteed. At that point, you can start raiding supply ships on the ground. You can make millions off of these every time. In the second month, you should concentrate on getting your scientist staff up to 50. I also build a large radar in the second month. That usually sucks up most of your cash. If you can afford it, recruit more engineers. You should also have your entire squad in personal armor before the end of the month. You are likely to see another terror site this month. After this, you can start expanding your garrison. Laser pistol production should be in full swing by now. By the end of the third month, you should have a total of 100 personnel at your base. 15 soldiers, 35 engineers, and 50 scientists. I like to focus on finishing out the Laser Weapons tree by the end of this month. The Laser Tank is a nice addition to your arsenal and is ideal for terror missions. Alternatively, you can concentrate on plasma weapons, but getting the plasma cannon this early is a bit premature, as Elerium 115 will still be in short supply. In the fourth, fifth, and sixth month, you should concentrate on getting flying armor, and building enough of an elerium supply to build ten sets of armor. 160 units of elerium is enough, if I remember correctly. This is another reason that I don't worry about plasma cannons early on. You should also begin research on new craft as well. I also usually build a second base during these months. Always build new bases close enough to be supported by other bases. My favorite locations are, near Moscow for base 1, deep in Siberia for base 2, north-central Africa for base 3, Australia for base 4, Central US for base 5, Central Brazil for base 6, and usually a radar base in Hawaii for 7, and a manufacturing and research base in the antarctic for base 8. I usually keep to one main combat base, although I have been known to station a Quick Reaction Force in the US base for terror missions. All the other bases are interception bases, and I maintain 6 interceptor craft at each one. Once my 8 bases are built, no UFO can escape me. I keep 4 Firestorms and 2 Interceptors at each base. For the US base I keep 4 Firestorms, 1 Lightning, and 1 Interceptor. At the main combat base, I keep 1 Avenger, 1 Lightning, and 1 Skyranger. On each of these is a specialized combat squad. The Avenger is the heavy duty veteran crew. It consists of 14 men, 3 hovertank plasmas, and one Hovertank Fusion. The Lightning is a QRF with 12 men with precision weapons and stun equipment. They are used for terror missions. The Skyranger is for rookie training. They get to go on all the small shootdowns. I keep a 10 man squad and 1 hovertank plasma there. Once a soldier has a few missions under his belt, I transfer him to a garrison squad. That way on a base defense, I have combat veterans available for defense. Sometime between months 3 and 6, I try to get a sectoid commander so that I can research psi labs. Usually, you won't see ethereals that early, so they're not an option. I like to have Psi Labs before I start heavy recruitment. Once I'm in full swing, I keep no less than a 10 soldier garrison at all bases, plus I have the 14 man combat team, the 2 12 man QRF's, and the 10 man training squad.I keep a minimum of 5 psi labs at my combat base, and do all recruitment and training there. After my manufacturing base is built, I sell all workshops and labs. I keep the two living quarters, the stores, and the alien containment. I don't bother with base defenses at the combat base due to the sheer numbers of soldiers there. This should get you well on your way to winning the game. Keep in mind that these strategies hinge on you being able to conduct tactical missions with minimal losses. If you can't do that, you should practice the tactical missions until you're good at them.

My first encounter with the wonderful world of X-Com was the PC Gamer demo of X-Com: Terror From The Deep. I was about 14 at the time. I played that mission until I could beat it with no losses. After saving my allowance for a bit, I finally managed to get a copy of TFTD. After playing it nonstop for quite some time, I found the original X-Com. I also remember being very upset about not being able to open doors. I also got quite irritated that the aliens would reaction fire on your soldiers when they threw a grenade. That didn't happen in TFTD. At any rate, I've been playing the X-Com games for many years now. 11 years if my calculations are correct.