Army Sizes and Role Play

[Stun Grenade]

Apoc is such a great game since you can incorporate some "role play" techniques into the game. Like for example, I put my name as one of the soldiers in my Elite Class, but I always hate it when other soldiers get chosen a better rank!

 

Anyhoo, I have 3 teams, Elite, Middle, Lower and even some to protect bases - it gets a bit steamy sometimes! I also send the maximum number of soldiers into battle. . .

 

How many do you guys send in and is their any pos/neg things of sending so many men into battle?

 

~SG

[Bomb Bloke]

I usually send all units available, and I don't hire more then twenty or so tops.

 

But that's just me.

 

Rumour has it that sending many units in can be suicide, as groups make fat targets for grenades. The solution is to split them into small squads in the tactical view, which is fine for me as I like micro management.

 

I say the more firepower the better.

[Slotty]

well.. I usually use like.. 12+ agents per mission... depending on what kind of mission it is.. and yes.. I do like you do.. give one guy my name and let him gain ranks.. atm my agent is only a squaddie... but anyway.. wanna se him go to Captain

[Alex_D]

I normally keep 8 agents per mission, the maximum that the original craft can carry without a seat module. The only cases I send more are when I am recovering a large craft or when I am attacking some building in the Alien dimension.

 

At the tactical level I like to organize them in equips of 2 each. And I try to sort them in the same order that are listed initially. I try to keep their numbers low, because otherwise the game will be longer. I like to cover a lot of terrain but I don't like to be overwhelm by too much micromanagement.

 

Also I name them accordly to their equipment (or role), normally by using a suffix. That way I can reassign them in special purpose squads: D=demolition, A=assault or asassin (toxigunners), F=fire team (autocannons), M=machinegunners for cover fire, MC=mind control (rarely used), S=support (medics, extra bombs, etc). I think this is standard practise for the veteran players.

 

By the way I have a question regarding jamming and computer modules for crafts. I read somewhere that it does not matter if I use two or more jamming modules, because only [the top] one will be used. Same for the weapon computer ones, only the one with the most advanced features will be applied. Is that true?

 

Greetings

 

Alex

[Bomb Bloke]

I thought the gains stacked.

[Martin the Muton]

Well, according to what I saw, the gains stack ( just talking about weapons here), first medium weapons computer added 20% accuracy to my valk, second added 10% and the third added 6%. I also put on some small weapons computers and they increased the accuracy too, but then again, that's just what the equip vehicle screen stats said.

 

I like using 6 Agents in real time. They are easy to control but sometimes you have to wait for the aliens to move around if there's a huge group of them.

[Stun Grenade]

well its good to have heaps for crashed UFOS or/and the Alien Dimension...

 

Although I'm always screwed in the AD when I try to return home. .

[Pruimpje]

I use 3 teams of 6 (18 then hey). 6 is an easy number, 2*3 or 3*2 etc.

 

One heavy demolition

 

One with marsec armor as air defence / fast attack

 

One "standard" team.

 

Depending on the mission I use one team as front attack and the other ones as flank. Though at the end of the missions the teams are all mixed up

[Space Voyager]

Better late than never... (this answer, I mean)

 

I use 12 men, so Valkyre + passenger module. That is, if I have this many men available. More would be too much of a bother to operate (and a crowd), less could pose a problem sometimes.

 

I like standards, so mostly they all carry same equipment, especially after getting toxiguns.

 

The only problem arises when my base gets invaded by non-aliens, so I make sure I have plenty of defense stuctures around before all my men get toxiguns.

 

Usually I use robots, too - these are the only ones equiped with two stun grapples + toxigun. Very usefull when fighting psychic aliens.

 

Otherwise I have five men in every additional base (which are usually two at the end), these carry toxiguns only as a side weapon, just in case they are invaded by aliens. This may not sound enough, but I do build five or six security stations in each base, so that the scientists don't need to run to the exit. The men in the additional bases do have a training facility. I wanted to have robots so this would be unnecessary, but it's hard to get so many of them. When I have enough money to pay their organisation enough to be allied it's usually not worth it anymore since men already have some training.

[DeepOne]

How many do you guys send in and is their any pos/neg things of sending so many men into battle?

I limit myself to 4 soldiers per battle. This usually results in smaller battlescapes (within city buildings) and makes things go more quickly (I play turn based). I keep more soldiers at the base to replace any who are injured or killed (I don't reload to avoid catastrophies), but I only send 4 into battle.

[Alex_D]

And speaking of team sizes, they regularly vary from 4 to 12 men.

 

Then my question is, how many men you regularly keep at the "strike" base, either human, robots or hybrids?

 

My number is 20 or less. Until the development of the personal shield, the turnover rate is very high :dead:. If I have more than 10 injured, I transfer the remained woundeds to the secondary base, where a medical facility is built always.

 

Greetings

 

Alex

[DeepOne]

Then my question is, how many men you regularly keep at the "strike" base, either human, robots or hybrids?

I don't have any set number, but I suppose I usually end up with something like 12-16 of them. The ones who aren't on the assault team benefit from training, so they will be in a better position to join in when needed. When a soldier's stats get really high, I usually retire him from active duty (saving him for the alien dimension) and let someone else take his place. I don't lose many soldiers in Apocalypse; I find there are only a few points in the game where my soldiers are in great danger. The ones that come to mind are when devastator cannons are introduced before I have personal shields, and when cloaking devices and entropy launchers are introduced simultaneously before I have cloaking devices.

[Alex_D]

The ones who aren't on the assault team benefit from training, so they will be in a better position to join in when needed.

 

But with the exception of Robots, all the soldiers benefit from training (psy or gym) except for those that are away in a mission, and only while the mission lasts.

 

Regarding this, is it really important not to send those soldiers for a mission when midnight approach, so they will be at base and will receive the full benefits from training?

 

The ones that come to mind are  when devastator cannons are introduced before I have personal shields, and when cloaking devices and entropy launchers are introduced simultaneously before I have cloaking devices.

 

You can always send more troops in that stage so to avoid being overgunned. For me, the high priority in the early game is to capture alive and research every single alien possible, so the Toxigun type "A" is also researched. This has the benefit that when Personal Shields are introduced, they are easily captured because I'm in "stunt" mode instead of "assassin/demolition" mode . In this way I got the PS as a working item long before the aliens introduce their puny entropy launcher

 

Greetings

 

Alex

[NKF]

My guess is that they would have to be at the base.

 

Also, in order to benefit from training, you HAVE to have 100% health. That's where the androids come in real handy. Send them out, let them take the brunt of the damage and also let them go out on those midnight runs to let the humans and hybrids train. Fun stuff.

 

- NKF

[Space Voyager]

Also, in order to benefit from training, you HAVE to have 100% health. That's where the androids come in real handy. Send them out, let them take the brunt of the damage and also let them go out on those midnight runs to let the humans and hybrids train. Fun stuff.

Both true. If your soldiers are wounded it's also seen in the training facility usage; it drops.

 

And I use robots for this purpose as well. Especially when it's necessary to shield the hybrids who usually have really low health. If needed one of my robots runs towards the enemies and drops a stun grenade or two. This way he's "safe" as well.

[GhostRogue]

I use 36, having well over that. Heh. Suxxorz my commander. Ranks doa lot, the better the rank, the better the stats.

 

I do this

 

 

1. 36 men

 

2. I find a large / huge room with 1 or 2 entrances

 

3. I send all squads running there

 

4. They get there, I pause.

 

5. I move them around in a huge set up, maximizing fire power on the 1 / 2 entrances

 

6. If no aliens come, my Captain in marsec armor finds 1, hits, runs like hell. They usually charge u.

 

7. after about 15 or so corpses, just explore the building

 

This set up owns all but the spawns

I hate them spawns... =/

 

My anti spawn team have their first names, then - AS on them

 

They have heavy demos, mines, n nades out the ass. 6 guys w/ heavy demo charges, cloak (only helps a lil..) and shields. -

Go in, Set charges to max time

Drop them in the area

Retreat, I usually have my AS in marsec so its not always a suicide...

 

Another tactic, involving my - SRG (Special Response Group)

 

Is to equip them w/ heavy launchers, shields, and stun nades

... If you cant win with 3 of these guys, well... pfft.

 

 

FINALLY. If things look bad for a squad out onits own, always always always pause, set their stun nades to instant, drop, get squad to stand still..

 

This saves so many soldiers... unless they are bleeding, then they are just fawked sideways =P

[Zager]

Generally, when I play, I like to define several groups of three to four men. One with laser rifle, one with autocannon, and one or two with assault rifles (though, sometimes this equipment layout may vary. I had one android using a pair of plasma pistols). As the game progresses, the equipment loadout changes, but I try to keep the squads together.

[ricardo440]

start with 12-14 men. But as I take on missions and people get wounded you have to go in with as few as 8.

 

 

Later I like 24 on my biotrans. It means you can do even alien dimension missions and some of your guys don't even fight.

 

As for escaping from the alien dimension. I never ever do. I go disable the building then I kill all the aliens to end the mission.

If you park 4 guys with toxiguns over the spawn points, nothing is comming through.

and you can blow teh spawn points up if you can be bothered.

 

Then you hunt down the last spitter, usually quite easy, and win. Especially as you generally have killed 95% of the aliens when taking out the objectives.

 

p.s. Disadvnatage of more men.

Missions take longer, and it takes more time to equip them again after. That is it.