How to overcome Greys w/Heavy Weapons?

[Rave]

***WARNING*** POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR THOSE THAT HAVEN'T PLAYED MORE THAN ABOUT 15 HOURS!

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Okay, I've been playing all weekend when suddenly the games gets more difficult by many orders of magnitude.

 

All the Greys are now using rocket launchers, Psi control weapons, and some sort of weapon that kills my troops in one or two shots (maybe three if they're in Sun Armor).

 

In short, I'm getting my butt handed to be on a shiny silver platter. I've tried everything from MP7s at close range ambushes to repeating grenade launchers, to acid grenades and incendiary grenades, to big-boy shotguns to etc, etc, etc....

 

I must have played this particular base defend mission at least twenty times last night and haven't come close to not getting wiped out. I've taken no more than 4 Greys out before my squad is wiped out. HELP!

 

- Rave

[Maniax]

u have to surprise the bastards... try to lead them in a trap. u know where they come from... from the airlock. so try to get all your men in the surrounding. one man has to go in front until he spots the first enemy... run back where the others are waiting and attack the aliens from 2 or more sides... dont care about loosing some of the guys... the base is more important as one single life

 

another way are snipers... if u spot an enemy shoot at him, run back, waiting, shoot enemy, run back... they will follow u...

 

and dont forget about grenades... u cant fire them very far in a base defense mission but often its far enough to pick some aliens out...

[Sindre]

I agree that the game suddenly become 5 times as difficult, it was just a walk in the park up until they started their blaster-frenzy.

 

I have overcome most of it though, and I only use heavy armour, sun, sky and bio armour.

 

Run like mad when they target you with blasters, it helps a lot.

 

Always go in groups to avoid getting owned by psi-control, and pray that they take control over one of your snipers, since they do very little dmg to your armour-types (except sky).

 

A cheezy trick is to load the game when owned, then take the soldier who got controlled and put all his weapons to the ground, this way, he isn't much of a threat.

 

I cant stress enough how good pdw/mp7 sub machinegun is, really tear down those psi-dudes regardless of armour, on full-auto of course.

 

It's also amusing to take control of them (they are heroic at all skills btw), payback time

 

btw, it seems like psi-defence isn't worth jack, heroic psi-defense dudes still get taken control of in one hit.

[Rave]

Getting Psi-controlled isn't as much of an issue as getting owned outright by their weapons and rockets. Lord. Oh, and to the first reply...yeah, I did set up an ambush. Apparently I set it up at the opening they were ALL coming from! lol

 

So I get 8 or so Greys mad-rushing into the same room as my guys. I've tried dropping smoke and all that, but for some reason after a round or two they can see through it and start slaughtering my guys, even though most of my guys can't shoot back through the smoke.

 

I've had guys set up to either side of the door they come through with 900 dmg shotguns and MP7s and I still get rocked. lol.

 

Pulling my hair out over this one.

 

- Rave

[Steffen Jespersen]

I have an other gun question. I have just gotten my first "folding weapon" (railgun) is there any way of keeping the gunner in "combat mode" so he does not fold it back after fireing? I mean it does not have a great range and takes forever to fold out and after the enemy dies he folds it back up and can use half of the next encounter deploying it once more.

 

BTW am I the only one that feels that combat inside the ufo's are to cramp ?

It is very hard to win in a medium UFO with 12 aliens running at you.

[bulldogc]

i to think the ufo combat sucks. u cant get around corners fastenoguh with more then 1 guy and they wreck u with plasma grenades

 

i cant even get the folding rail onto a person(i built it but it wont drag over to a person) anyone know whats up?

[Photon]

i to think the ufo combat sucks. u cant get around corners fastenoguh with more then 1 guy and they wreck u with plasma grenades

 

i cant even get the folding rail onto a person(i built it but it wont drag over to a person) anyone know whats up?

yes the person has to have heavy armor because the rail is a some kind of augmentation of the armor

[Rave]

BTW am I the only one that feels that combat inside the ufo's are to cramp ? 

It is very hard to win in a medium UFO with 12 aliens running at you.

When I'm storming a UFO I usually make sure all my guys entering the UFO have MP7s with plenty of ammo. I usually leave my heavy unit outside as it's too slow to do anything but get in the way.

 

So I'll sweep the UFO with two squads of three using MP7s. For outside I'll give them Assault Rifles or Sniper Rifles. They can drop them or move them to backpack if they're too encumbered once inside the UFO (you'll just get them back after the mission if you're successful).

 

- Rave

[bulldogc]

i to think the ufo combat sucks. u cant get around corners fastenoguh with more then 1 guy and they wreck u with plasma grenades

 

i cant even get the folding rail onto a person(i built it but it wont drag over to a person) anyone know whats up?

yes the person has to have heavy armor because the rail is a some kind of augmentation of the armor

OOOOOOO i guess that makes alot of sence. is there an ailen vairent that works also?

[Paganarh]

I use Neosteads for close quarters- kills baddie in 2 shots and has quick rate of fire. But this is for troopers who are good with rifles. For those who are heroic in handguns, MP7 and P50 is the answer.

 

And about that base defence- i have found great use for indirect fire. I equip one soldier with that semiautomatic grenade launcher, step far aside and start firing the ground in front of the hole from where those alien bastards are crawling out from. (use "A" key or "attack" command to lob the grenades or fire rocket)

Works with Plasma launchers too, but those have less ammo in clip.

 

OOOOOOO i guess that makes alot of sence. is there an ailen vairent that works also?

 

havent seen YET

[bulldogc]

the thing that REALY annoys me is u cant lob grenades around corners

[Rave]

Getting incredibly frustrated. I've tried for hours to win the defend base mission against these damn Greys, and I have yet to succeed once!

 

I've killed no more than 8 of them prior to having my team wiped out. One of the biggest problems I have is that these damn rocket launcher Greys will come into sight, I'll have 4 of my best soldiers waiting against the walls for him to appear (2 on each side of the doorway) and even though he drops in the first volley he still manages to get a rocket off at one of my pairs of soldiers!!! WTF?

 

This usually takes out at least one of my guys, and this really weakens my front to the point that I can't kill the rest of the greys streaming through the door fast enough that they don't get more missiles off.

 

I'm at the point where I'm about to stop playing the game entirely. I don't really feel like starting a new game and hoping I get better luck with random equipment finds, or research opportunities, or whatever. This game has just become so incredibly hard out of nowhere that I'm just about done. That's poor design, imho. There isn't even a way to adjust difficulty as far as I can see, and I don't want to resort to using cheats...hell, the games not going to get any easier...what am I going to do? Cheat through the rest of the game? Not fun.

 

- Rave (or Rant)

[OpTi]

rave use heavy armour, they should be able to withstand 2-3 rocket hits. even just keeping 1-2 heavy guys up front for when they launch a rocket at them it will do some damage but not kill them and give you enough time to take the alien down

[bulldogc]

Getting incredibly frustrated.  I've tried for hours to win the defend base mission against these damn Greys, and I have yet to succeed once!

 

I've killed no more than 8 of them prior to having my team wiped out.  One of the biggest problems I have is that these damn rocket launcher Greys will come into sight, I'll have 4 of my best soldiers waiting against the walls for him to appear (2 on each side of the doorway) and even though he drops in the first volley he still manages to get a rocket off at one of my pairs of soldiers!!! WTF?

 

This usually takes out at least one of my guys, and this really weakens my front to the point that I can't kill the rest of the greys streaming through the door fast enough that they don't get more missiles off.

 

I'm at the point where I'm about to stop playing the game entirely.  I don't really feel like starting a new game and hoping I get better luck with random equipment finds, or research opportunities, or whatever.  This game has just become so incredibly hard out of nowhere that I'm just about done.  That's poor design, imho.  There isn't even a way to adjust difficulty as far as I can see, and I don't want to resort to using cheats...hell, the games not going to get any easier...what am I going to do?  Cheat through the rest of the game?  Not fun.

 

- Rave (or Rant)

u can adjust difficulty and starting possion when u create a new game(dont use default)

[RedBear]

Base Assaults were really driving me nuts also.

 

Right!!!

 

If you are targeted by a "rocket strike", guesstimate where you think that it is going to impact, and then get out of the area of impact as soon as possible, if possible. It does work, but you have to be sharp about ii!! Hard to do when you are wesaring "Heavy armour", mind you!

 

I hate Psionic weapons. Best response is to quicly find out who is using it/them, and klil 'im as quickly as possible. Any of your squad that are "possessed" will then "snap out of it".

 

Cover the "elevator" and "Hanger entrances", 'cos that is where they are going to come from, and "concentrate your squad members in one area if possible, to provide mutual covering fire.

 

Weapon and Armour wise, Heavy armour and your heaviest weapons (Gatlings and Twin barrelled MG's are especially handy) are my weapons of choice in this situation, 'cos you want "one hit takedowns" - you don't want to give them enough time to "psi" you or start lobbing rockets at you.

 

Another handy tactic is to equip several members of your squad with any type of grenade launcher you've got and "indirectly" barrage any areas that you think that they are going to attack you from, but not until you've actually spotted someone -to conserve ammo. If you kill them before they can see you, all the better.

 

It does work - you've just got to practise it a bit.

 

Hope this helps! :devil:

[Rave]

RedBear, I've been doing all of what you suggest. The only think I can't do is use heavy machine guns or other heavy armor weapons you recommend because I don't have them to use.

 

- Rave

[Sindre]

you can't say it isn't possible, since both myself and others manage to handle it

but yeah, it's difficult at times.

[Aussie]

The current way i defend a base which is working suprisingly well at the moment is when you start the mission find the largest room (hanger generally) race all you men there priority one. find which direction the air lock is and position a speedy sniper in sky armour at a diagonal from the enterance.

use to stong people who can use grenads well as walking talking grenade throwers and position the around the opposite side from the sniper. these guys are responsible for force throwing grenades into the entrance.

2 heavys both directy opposite the doorway with rocket launchers. to fire against the far wall if more than one target appears.

 

Lastly 2 very good up close and personal specialits MP7's (cant stress enough how good these on burst fire are). sniper spots and runs around avoiding rockets grenaders make a mess of the entance and heavy guys are great for mowing down multiple hostiles. When that annoying moment where both the heavies are reloading and aliens get to the doorway they endure horrific MP7 damage. hold this position for as long as it takes. most of the time you can sit there litteraly killing the as they come but sometimes a couple of the little blighters are hiding in this case MP7 guys to the rescue run then around together and no two bit alien is going to stand in thier way.

What i would not give for a Displacer Sonic

[bulldogc]

base defence would be soo much easier if foldable weps didnt suck soooo much ass that they were useless(they sooooo need to be able to deploy without fireing(or atlease dont redeploy when u change targets)

[RedBear]

Yeah, I agree. Foldable weapons are a bit of a pain, but they do have a place in your squad!

 

If you rely on them solely, then you are goin to lose your squad very quickly (well, even more quickly) - you have to have other types of firepower in your squad to compensate.

 

My current favourite squad weapons loadout is: 3 * Gatling Guns; 1 * Rocket Spitter; 1 * Twin Barreled MG (like this weapon a lot -would use more in my squad if I had 'em); 1 * Folding Gauss (quicker to deploy than folding MG); 1 * Folding MG - slow to deploy but one that baby starts firing, it can deal out a lot of damage.

Unfortunately, you have to use "Heavy Armour", with this loadout, which limits your movement, but the available firepower compensates for this.

 

If you haven't got Heavy Armour, then simply equip your best Armour - Fire armour, say, grab as many Super Strikers or Grenade Launchers as you can, and go in hard with "indirect fire", as others have already mentioned.

 

Use indirect fire on their suspected hiding places - you may not be able to see the "grays" themselves - they may be out of your spotting range/arc, but you will probably be able to see the "trail" of any fire/rounds that they are putting out/down. Saturate the area with indirect fire-even up to the point of hitting an area with 4, 5 or even 6 Gl rounds, per squad member - as in a small artillery barrage. It is surprising how many kills you can actually get, using that method.

 

It is especially handy in Base Defense missions, because in this case you do not want the greys to have "line of sight" on you, for, if they get it, you, are going to get "psi'd" silly( in my case it's generally my best trooper with the shootiest weapon that i've got who get "possessed" - who then wipes out the rest of my squad), and then get absolutely pelted with rockets......

 

If they see you - result - Squad dead within about 10 seconds - game over.

 

Hit them before they hit you.

 

If Psi is a hassle to you early in the game - use your troops with the best willpower that you have (natch) - use every Psi hemet that you have, and use as indirect fire (as above) as much as you can.

 

Oh yeah, also, save your game frequently, after everu other grey killed, if you have to.

 

Hope that this was useful!

[bulldogc]

what ammo do the rocket spiter use? i have tons of rockets but there is nothing in the ammo list.

[Edge]

I have to agree that the degree of difficulty has gotten so insanely harder that I, too, am wondering if I will be able to finish it. If I want an easy game, I want an easy game, dammit. I don't want to start easily only to have my ass handed to me because someone thinks that you shouldn't have an easy game all the way through. If I wanted normal or insane difficulty, I'd have signed up for it from the start.

 

With that said, I like to play games through first on normal or easy to get a feel for the game, to learn how to best utilize my men, weapons, armor, etc, and THEN I play it on the more difficult levels. This game has done that for me: I don't have to start over and play on a more difficult level. I'm already there.

 

OK... on to the task at hand: getting through the game after the "shift" (to harder difficulty). I, too, am finding it's more difficult to survive, and now, I look forward to bringing my guys in limping to the sick bay. I used to like bringing them back uninjured... now, they BARELY make it back. I am using heavy armor anda mix of rocket launchers/MP7's/Steyr Augs and STILL, I get my ass handed to me.

 

On base defense, I've found that the aforementioned startegy of getting all your guys into one big room and wait for the masses is sound, and it has worked for me. Unfortunately, this is not the case in UFO's, as basically, every time you enter one, you are ambushed (and rightly so, but GOOD LORD is it tough). I've not found ANY good strategy for entering UFO's, and am waiting to read one here.

 

I apologize for my uncharacteristic rambling, but the "shift" has got me a bit perturbed, perplexed, and pooped.

[bulldogc]

i just got a nice planter strat to work. i had nothing but advanced lasers on burst. then all i did was wait. i str 3 on eather corner(each covering 2 passages) and one left with normal grneades and clean up. i butchered all aliens in a matter of seconds. they managed to get 1 rocket off and thankfully it was only emp(wtf do these do anway?).

[Rave]

Um...okay. I saw some other posts about checking/adjusting the difficulty of the game after you'd started using the default profile...turns out I had been playing at the hardest difficulty the entire time! Jeez...no wonder the aliens kepy kicking my butt all over the place.

 

I turned the difficulty to easy and it was a breeze...will probably change it to medium/normal for a happy medium.

 

Do you get different amounts of experience depending on your difficulty?

 

- Rave