How to make an enterance

[Kiryu-Kai]

Like to know What you do when about to enter a UFO.

 

Tin Opener :- {must have fly armour & Blaster Bomb} Fire a BB right on top of the UFO, Blowing the whole roof off allowing your Fly boys to jump in right on top of the aliens. [tactic works well on all UFOs]

 

Crash,Bang and Clear :- {requires Nades} This tactic is rather like what the SWAT use. Crash,bang and clear is when you have atlest 2-3 soldiers 1 facing the alien door at the front and 2 soldiers facing the door on the sides. each soldier has light equipment and nades make sure the turn before entering the UFO you prime the nades to 0. When you bust your way into the UFO with all your guys throw your nades equaly spread out so you got a much bigger radius explosions once you done shoot at any aliens not near the nades you dropped to make sure all aliens in room are killed. You repeat this in every big room, small rooms will require around 1 nade.

 

Knock Knock :- { only good in small-medium ships } This is same as crash bang and clear at the beginning but when you enter the alien ship after you shot a couple of times you retreat outside again and if an alien comes out of the door to try to counter attack you have your whole force waiting there to shoot in enemy turn. you do this every turn until the aliens die. This is the safest way to winning a UFO mission as your using the ufos door at your advantage. as i said its only good for ships with 1-2 rooms.

 

Other :- Please tell me!

[NKF]

I usually wait for as much of the crew to leave the ship before even thinking about stepping in. Saves a lot of lives that way.

 

If the mission does not end once the aliens stop streaming out, only then do I send a small crew in to mop up the rest. This is usually a very small group, maybe one or two soldiers (usually rookies, just a chance for them to get experience. Honest! )

 

Memorising hotspots where aliens tend to stand around, and do nothing until they spot someone, tends to help too. There aren't many, and it's usually in the UFO bridge.

 

Because there are so few aliens left, the soldiers just burst in and try to make their way to the nearest grav-lifts and occupy them as quickly as they can (if it's a big ship). Aliens don't seem to know how to shoot down small grav-lifts (excluding blaster bombs, of course).

 

If the aliens are sectoids, I like to use the tin-opener to first get rid of the high ranking crew members as quickly as possible (preferably by just sending more blaster bombs in rather than soldiers). Commander or leader class sectoids can really be annoying if not dealt with pronto.

 

- NKF

[Crazy Photon]

I use Tin Opener, but use Crash, Bang and Clear before getting flying armor/blaster launchers, and with small ships (they aren't worth the blaster bomb)

[Cazbol]

The safest way is of course to send mind controlled aliens in as scouts. I often have about 8-10 controlled aliens inside but none of my own men.

 

Blaster bombs - if you have enough of them then nothing is a challenge.

 

Failing the easy high tech solutions, rookies with armed explosives are best for opening doors. If the room is clear back him out and send in the shooters to cover other doors, then call on the rookie to proceed.

 

Cazbol

[JellyfishGreen]

After I get tired of waiting, I usually enter with high-TU, armored soldiers with autofiring weapons, to take care of the point-blank aliens. Then pile in as many soldiers as remaining TU's allow, setting them up to cover corridors.

I haven't fine-tuned this tactic.

 

But it would seem to me that in "Crash, Bang, Clear" style, carrying a primed grenade when opening a door, surrounded by your squad, must lead to "Crash, Shot by alien, Drop grenade, Someone grab the hot potato" quite often, no?

[Alan]

personally, i tend to use tin opener tactics, especially for smaller crashlanded ufos, cause they often have ready made holes.

 

however, larger ufo's (especially before flight armour) tend to be tanked.

(ie: storm it's lower level with tank(s), before clearing the rest of the ship with a squad or two)

[Warlord]

I use the tin opener tactic religiously. I've got it down to a science. Also, I never use explosives inside the ship, as I like to get as much salvage as possible. Once I have the Avenger, I run 3 Hovertank Plasma's and 1 Hovertank Fusion to clear the landscape. I send my squad straight for the UFO. I take 1 blaster launcher with 1 bomb. I use that to punch a hole in the top of the command room, and then discard it. Everyone takes either takes Heavy plasma, or laser rifles depending on the aliens I'm fighting. After that, I come in, take the commander alive, if necessary, and clear from the top down. Any alien that runs from the ship is cut down by the Hovertank guarding the doors. The other two Hovertank Plasma's clear the landscape with the Hovertank Fusion providing heavy fire support.

[The Veteran]

Crash bang and enter but I don't use a huge number of grenades unless I have to. The best way I find to do it is to set up the men either side of the door knelt and on autoshoot. Then wait a few turns and let the autofire do it's work if any aliens come out of the UFO. If not then I go in normally and check the room. If there's one alien then I shoot, any more and I grenade to kill just who I can see. That's my variant anyway.

[Ego Terrorist]

I personally prefer SWAT tactic's, three 5 man teams (or more) team Bravo clear's the crash site, while team Alpha move's upto the UFO and Stacks up (positions themselves alongside the wall, two either side, guns trained on door, the two nearest are kneeling, then there is a man behind each one standing, the team leader is covering for the team, and is looking away from the door, and out onto the territory.

 

___---___

>> << V

 

> : Is the troopers

V : Is the element leader

 

Team Charlie is my Heavy support team, and set's up behind cover weapon's trained at doors - just incase anything big and scary pop's it's ugly head out of the door.

 

Once the site has been cleared Team Bravo forms up with Alpha and has their guns trained on the door, now as Bravo has been moving about they will be low on stamina and tu's, so I wait and will anything that leaves using the door.

 

Once I think they are ready, I prep two grenades and then I pop 'em in to go off on impact, then team Alpha (Assualt Team - carries mulitple rounds and the most powerful rifle's available, plus several grenades, a pistol and two spares, and anything else I deem nessecery) enter's the UFO clearing

 

<^^>

___---___

 

it, and making sure no aliens are hiding behind the doors, they then spread out a bit, and then team Bravo (Recon/Light Assualt - rifle and a few reloads, plus a grenade and stun rod.) follow's up, attacking as trailer's, following Alpha team's advancment. While Charlie team is covering the door, to make sure nothing comes out, and nothing comes in.

 

Once within the UFO depending on type and occupants I don't bother with Breach Bang and Clear, and just go for Rapid breach and clear. The tactic I use works fine for UFO's and buildings, building often just hving one team entering as opposed to two or three teams.

 

And the best part is yelling 'BREACH BANG AND CLEAR! GO WHEN READY!' And then doing it. hmmm I think I might go off and play a little SWAT3

[NKF]

Ego, about the bit where your soldiers hug the wall and wait just outside the door:

 

I used to do that, but then I realised that my soldiers kept shooting each other whenever they missed. Perhaps they ought to spread out just a bit so that they can't shoot each other by accident?

 

I now use a variation of that, but with a lot of soldiers spread about at random distances and elevations but still within sight of the door. That way, whenever one alien steps out, it gets greeted with a crisscross of reaction fire from ... well, everywhere. A lot of reaction fire actually. I really devised it this way to avoid the area effect weapons in Apocalypse (i.e. poppers), but it appears to have translated quite well over to UFO.

 

Now, it's really just a group reaction fire training session.

 

- NKF

[Warlord]

Before I have blaster bombs and flying suits, I'll use a tactic similar to Ego, but I tend to follow U.S. Army MOUT (Military Operations in Urbanized Terrain) tactics. In MOUT tactics, you move in 4 man elements. The teams stack on one side of a door. On entry, the point man takes two corners, the 2 man takes one corner, and the 3 and 4 men move just inside the door. All 4 men use precision weapons. Grenades are optional depending on the type of structure. Of course, in UFO, you don't have to worry about shrapnel coming through thin walls.

[Bomb Bloke]

Us-ualy, I just stick about four guys infront of each door, all facing it,in a fromation kinda like your cursor keys. The dude directly in front ducks, so everyone else gets a clear shot. When they go in, I leave one guy at the door (in case someone out side decides it's time to go home) and the rest just romp on thorugh killing them and theirs. I've got each ship memorised down to a tile, so casulties are usualy null

 

Of course, after mind control, about eight guys stay in the ship the whole mission, while two others go off on a "recruiting" run. Aliens can't reaction fire mind control.

 

Though my favourite way is to make a big ass hole in the roof (usualy achieved when the thing crash lands) and lowering a hover tank down there. Ping! Ping! Ping goes the alien guns, then the thing just mows them all down.

 

Bahaha.

 

Love that smell of plasma in the morning.

[Ego Terrorist]

For the most part I've found that Tanks and Hover Tanks are really just cannon fodder, I often find that they get shot too piece as they leave the transport, so nowadays I don't really bother with them, instead I just use the extra space for extra soliders

[The Veteran]

Hovertanks are absolutely invincible in my games! I have two per avenger both plasma. I've had a tank face to face with a chrysallid for two turns in a terrorship and it recieved no damage at all from the attacks. Just to show how good Chrysallids are though it took me both rounds of combat to kill him!

[NKF]

I find that no matter what tank I use, there's always that million-to-one-chance shot the aliens get that'll knock it out of commission instantly. As they say, a million-to-one-chance always crops up nine times out of ten.

 

As for keeping tanks alive when deploying:

 

What I do is apply a smoke grenade and wait a couple of turns before even thinking about sending the tank out (even when I'm only deploying troops). Some might find smoke grenades useless, but it does reduce a unit's visibility by a few tiles (for everyone. Double edged sword and all that grot.). And these few tiles are usually all you need to ensure your tank's continual functionality.

 

Before moving the tank, and if I remember to do so, a soldier will scan the area for any aliens skulking about the ramps. If there are any, I'll just have the front soldiers throw an explosive down the ramp...or if it's a rocket tank, just blast the ramp landing.[1]

 

Part of the reason for waiting one or more turns is to let the aliens wander about, in hopes that most of them will get exhausted, lowering the chance of reaction shots.

 

By the way, some might find it hard to throw things out the back of the ship with a tank in the way. In short, it is. What you can do is to try and throw things a bit further. Just keep increasing the throwing distance until you hit the right spot.

 

There is a science to deploying soldiers and tanks just right, but I don't think this is it.

 

- NKF

 

[1] Except in the mountains. Bits of the Skyranger are quite destructable in that terrain. Try firing a tank rocket or a fusion ball at the landing gear or the ramp the next time you visit the mountains.

[The Veteran]

I never liked science that much. I mean I'm a scientific person sure enough (hence the whole sectoids topic) but I don't think I can apply Quantum physics to XCom...

[InsaneLapin]

I storm the front !

[The Veteran]

You are a mad french rabbit, I'm sure there are a lot of things you do that make little sense to us sane people... and me.

[Bomb Bloke]

I normally ignore the Earth tanks (though sometimes a rocket is much liked ) but my end game squads involve ten troopers and four hover plasma/sonic tanks. I consider them cheaper then troops, as I never seem to run out of money (it's as though they add the cash I spend to my total or something) and troops gain stats. Dead tanks just aren't much of a loss, and they work with psi magnificintly.

[The Veteran]

True though that is I don't think I'd feel happy with more than the two hovertanks I have. It would seem to me that the soldiers I take along would feel useless and therefore they wouldn't be as good for that fact. I know it's not a fact in the game but I take things like this into account to set a few guidelines for myself in the game.

[Warlord]

I prefer to use the hovertanks to clear the landscape and let the troopers concentrate on the UFO. It's an extremely effective tactic.

[The Veteran]

That's what I do (unless it's a battleship then I send the tanks almost all the way and support them with my four special front line troopers and my psionic guys at the back)

[Warlord]

I actually rarely use psionics. They just make things too easy.

 

I prefer to have a squad of psionically hardened soldiers doing battle the old fashioned way. I do keep a psionicist or two on staff, but they rarely see any action.

[The Veteran]

I could never do that. It's an unnessicary risk to my troops.

[Warlord]

In my UFO game, I haven't lost a soldier in over 250 missions. That's without the use of psionics. Those missions include terror sites, alien base attacks, and a couple of X-Com base defense missions.

 

The closest I came to losing a soldier was when a scout took a hit from a cyberdisc. The soldier was critically wounded, but lived.

 

It's all about tactics. If your tactics are sound, psionics aren't necessary.