Enemy Unknown Strategy Guide

[Hobbes]

Hey all,

 

I've finished a guide for the strategic aspect of Enemy Unknown for those interested at the UFOPaedia. You can find it at:

 

https://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Strategy_(EU2012)

[Space Voyager]

Damn, that's a lot of work! Very nicely written with a shitload of cross-referencing.

[silencer_pl]

Found some bugs:

 

They will strike back against XCOM by attacking your satellites if their UFOs are shot

 

Should be AREN'T shot down.

 

Marathon - everything takes longer to complete (research, manufacturing, etc) and appearances of new alien species will also be pushed forward.

 

I can argue with that. I had Floaters in April and Mutons in May - just normally as if I didn't use Marathon. Marathon also makes it harder for satellite coverage. Despite everything costs twice as much and research takes twice as much you still have to maintain 3 countries per month satellite coverage (except January where you can only field 1 additional) in order not to lose any of them - specially talking about classic mode (on impossible you will lose 2 countries at best). So if you think this mode is to ease on you - think again.

 

Any countries covered at the start of the month (i.e., they're already covered when the Monthly Report comes in) will be off the list of Abduction Mission

 

I think that country will be scratched from the abductions when satellite will reach it's destination. Had sometimes few missions after I've launched the satellite but before it reached it's point.

 

Order satellites individually, not in bulk.

I would go otherwise - it's better to build all on the 1 day before end of month the construction is finished rather than build whenever you can. Besides you can gain some Engineers and lower the cost of production. And if dire need of money it is better to sell some power sources / navigation's - you will have that in plenty.

 

Fusion Cores can only be recovered from alien Battleships and they allow for Fusion Lance and Blaster Launcher research. If you're looking to get those on the middle/late game, just ignore an UFO and wait for the Battleship to appear. You'll need to shoot it down (otherwise it might destroy a satellite) and assault it afterwards though.

 

Well good luck on fighting battleship with Raven - Firestorm will be heavily beaten up - and even still mid game you will have much higher priority research than wasting 20 days for fusion core. Firestorm should be fielded just close enough to finishing building of hyperwave decoder, since Raven will not be able to shoot down the Overseer - maybe with some lucky shots and time booster. But normally even Firestorm sometimes must use time booster.

 

Alien Base Assault

The Tutorial is the most decisive Storyline moment affecting the overall strategy, due to its effect on the game:

 

Isn't something wrong with "The Tutorial " in the Base Assault mission overview?

 

Remember that you'll need to build the chamber first then equip the soldier with the armor, otherwise you'll get the message that there's no soldier capable of using the Ethereal Device.

 

What about changing the armor and putting the psi one again ?

 

 

Overall good work.

[Hobbes]

Found some bugs:

Should be AREN'T shot down.

 

Fixed.

 

I can argue with that. I had Floaters in April and Mutons in May - just normally as if I didn't use Marathon. Marathon also makes it harder for satellite coverage. Despite everything costs twice as much and research takes twice as much you still have to maintain 3 countries per month satellite coverage (except January where you can only field 1 additional) in order not to lose any of them - specially talking about classic mode (on impossible you will lose 2 countries at best). So if you think this mode is to ease on you - think again.

 

Mutons come on June in Enemy Within, so I'll simply add that the info is for EW. I still haven't checked it myself since I saw the code for it but I've found already a reference on a forum post for them to be in June. And that's also my recollection as well, although I haven't played Marathon in a while.

 

Overall, I consider Marathon to actually make the game easier, without using other harder SW options, because of the experience points for your soldiers you're able to gather due to the additional missions you're able to play before encountering new aliens.

 

I think that country will be scratched from the abductions when satellite will reach it's destination. Had sometimes few missions after I've launched the satellite but before it reached it's point.

 

I'll recheck that one on my next game.

 

I would go otherwise - it's better to build all on the 1 day before end of month the construction is finished rather than build whenever you can. Besides you can gain some Engineers and lower the cost of production. And if dire need of money it is better to sell some power sources / navigation's - you will have that in plenty.

 

On Ironman you may get unlucky on the 1st month and not receive the engineers you need on the Abductions to build the 2nd Uplink. If that happens and you have 4 satellites on the same batch you either cancel the whole batch (and launch no sats at the end of the 1st month) or have about §200 invested on 3 satellites that you'll only be able to launch in 1 and 1/2 months (and also you'll be receiving less money next month). Those credits that can be useful to build or buy other things and if you order them individually, you can cancel those 3 sats, and still 1 launch one at the end of the month.

 

You actually shouldn't set their timeline to be not on the last day of the month but on the day before it since there's a bug that may prevent you from launching the sats (it causes a delay on them that may push their finish time to after the council report). And if that issue mentioned above about them only preventing abductions if already deployed (and not in route) at the beginning of the month, then you should launch them on the 4th day before the end of the month, to be operational before the council report.

 

Isn't something wrong with "The Tutorial " in the Base Assault mission overview?

Fixed.

 

 

What about changing the armor and putting the psi one again ?

 

 

Overall good work.

 

Thanks

[sp1ke]

You don't know how hard I am having to try to NOT read your Strategy Guide until I've played the game a few more times and I'm really stumped. Especially because I know that your Strategy Guide will be excellent. :-)

[Space Voyager]

You know you wanna take a peek, just a peek... https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/Smiley/woodoo.gif

[Hobbes]

You don't know how hard I am having to try to NOT read your Strategy Guide until I've played the game a few more times and I'm really stumped. Especially because I know that your Strategy Guide will be excellent. :-)

 

The thing is that it only covers the Base/Strategic portions of the game in detail but I never had time or motivation to write about the tactical fights, specially when there's already tons of videos showing the basics.

[sp1ke]

Ok I will read it. You have convinced me. :-)