Attack styles

[Xcom-Warblade]

Okay, I would just like to find out how other fellow X-com players approach destroying the enemy. Just speak up, talk about anything from squads to weapons. Say your word, stake your claim.

[Cazbol]

As I'm approaching the end of my game, I do it the dull way..... with psi. The first alien I see gets mind controlled and subsequently goes out scouting for his comrades who in turn are also mind controlled. It's non-heroic, it's not a lot of fun, but it keeps my troopers alive until I send them to Cydonia.

 

Once every alien is mind controlled, I disarm them and pack them into some enclosed room in the UFO. Once they recover from mind control, they'll usually leave the room and be greeted my by firing squad which is practicing reaction fire. A soldier in the early phase of psi training is often sent into the room with the aliens to panic them and drive them out a bit quicker. (I really should get myself to finish this game soon.)

 

Cazbol

[The Veteran]

Heavy plasmas all the way. I'm on my third or fourth mission and six of my men already have them. They're the best all around slayer I've found and it doesn't make the game too easy or too hard.

Crush, Kill, Destroy!!!

[Xcom-Warblade]

Guess I'll add my say. Depending on the mission, depends on what I do.

 

If the alien crafts are the size of a large scout (small class) to a battleship, I usually send a squad of 2 men down to the alien craft's front door and hold fort there. If any aliens step out, BANG! they're gone. The rest of my men are usually separated in squads of 2 or 3, out clearing buildings and exploring the map.

 

This is my squad numbers:

 

Very Small (small scout):

 

How often does that happen?. 2 of my best guys anyway, equiped with a grenade, proxy grenade and medkit. If available, both men with Heavy Plasma's.

 

Small (Medium and large scout):

 

8 soldiers, 4 squads, 2 soldiers in each squad. 2 head for the alien craft, the rest seek and destroy. Usually make 1 squad my snipers (best firing accuracy) and give them Heavy Plasma's. all soldiers equipped with 2 grenades, 1 proxy grenade, medikit and YES, smoke grenade. Only use Rocket Launchers/Blaster Bombs WHEN the game is getting harder.

 

Supply ships/ Terror ships

 

10 soldiers, 2 squads, 5 soldiers in each. 9 soldiers armed with weapon of choice (usually laser rifle), 2 grenades, 2 proxy grenades, medikit and 2 smoke grenades. 1 soldier armed with Blaster bomb for creating new "doors". That soldier will also have the other weapon line up once the bombs are used. Both squads will clear out the surrounding areas of the ship and once clear, they will sit out the front of the alien ship door and let the aliens come out one at a time. Once no more come out for a while, my men will go in (ALL OF THEM!!!) and clear the ship out.

 

Battleships

 

Full load of soldiers, a HWP, best of the best items. You will have to consider personal selections at this time. Clear surrounding areas of the ship then go in CAREFULLY.

 

[umbriel]

My strategies is the same than "The Veteran" One...

 

Allways using Heavy plasma gun (i love this weapon) as soon as i can...

 

I send a tank (with 1 or 2 men) in scouting... and the others soldiers stay near the skyranger for sniper shots (work well in desert).

 

I use squads of 3 men (2 veterans, and 1 rookie). The rookie shoot in first... If he miss, the veteran do the kill...

 

Later in the game, i use psy... the howertank for scouting, and psy to control... But the game is too easy at this moment...

 

Umbriel the small veteran

[Solfius]

i prefer to use laser rifles, and sell the plasma weapons for cash, i have yet to find something that takes more than two or 3 laser hits to kill it, (although i've had some strange instances of sectoids taking 3/4 shots to kill), i deploy my men in a semi-circle around the boarding ramp, decide which way to go form them up in a line (like this '.'.'.'.'.'.' '=soldier .=soldier) and move them forward leaving plenty of tu's for reaction fire (i once cleared a snakeman+cryssalid terror site just by setting up a firing line one one side of a street and using reaction fire)

 

only problem with that tactic is it breaks up in buildings, in buildings i don't realy have tactics

[Cazbol]

I never thought I'd see Napoleonic tactics used seriously in UFO. Now that was original. I salute you.

 

Cazbol

[STIM]

I have 2 men, a rookie and a squaddie. Hold the UFO door, and shoot any aliens that come out.

 

Then I send 2 squads of two, with a Rocket Tank out.

The 2 squads of two are.

Rookie-Squaddie. Rookie to shoot aliens first, but if he misses, the squaddie will shoot it.

 

Then in my SkyRanger, I have 3 men, a Captain and two Sarg's, Hold down the sky ranger, and on stand by to be sent to where the action is the hottest.

Right now they are armed with Laser Weapons, but soon they will have Heavy Plas.

 

I never use Nades, unless in base defense, don't know why.

[Solfius]

you're kidding me, Nepoleonic tactics?

cool, i like tactics which involve lines of men, firing in volleys, any of you seen Zulu?

[AcidBoot]

SAS room clearing protocols all the way baby! Exploit those FOVs!!! Lots of speculative grenade work too (unless on terror mission).

 

In open areas I go for a spread double line. This works much like Solifus' ',',',', tactic, but it moves perpendicular to that (ie: Not in a column). One line moves a bit, while the other's wait/react, then the reverse.

[Xcom-Warblade]

The way to go Acidboot. SAS tactics. I love it!. How exactly do you approach your SAS clearing tactics?

[AcidBoot]

Well, it's a bit trick due to limitations in the engine involving doors, but basically...

 

Guys arrive at the UFO, for example, and cover the door (reaction fire) When enough guys are on the scene they take up positions either side of the door, then one by one they burst in, checking all sides, and eliminate all resistance.

 

The idea is to move as much fire power into the room at one time as is possible. Flashbangs, as well as the ability to throw them around corners, would be ideal, but would make the game too easy.

 

Target any alien facing the door first. They are more likely to get off reaction fire. If a couple of aliens are facing you, get multiple guys to do snap shots (one each) trying to kill em, when there's only one left, use auto fire to make sure he goes down. This minimises thier reaction fire. Use the guys with the most TUs first, unless they are otherwise totally crap.

 

Some rooms, particularly in UFOs, have "hiding" places, which should be investigated in the same turn as initial insertion. A classic is hiding behind a power source. Don't leave it unchecked! The bug-eyes will just step out and let loose, and you'll be lucky not to lose a guy or two.

 

Sometimes it is good to whip out the stun batons, particularly for small rooms like the power core of a Lg Scout.

[Xcom-Warblade]

 

Sweet! I like that attack style....gotta try someday.....

[Orac]

I like to have my squad consist mostly of riflemen. I generally have a couple of COs, medics, and few heavies. Each rifleman gets issued identical rifles (either the best rifle possible or laser rifles depending up logistics and what I think the mission is going to be like. Note when I say rifle I even mean heavy plasma if applicable), 1 or 2 grenades (preferably alien grenades), 1 or 2 proximity grenade, and 1 smoke grenade (if logistics are possible to fit it on the transport), and if it's night I try to give every soldier one electro-flare, regardless of role or rank.

 

The only difference between my medics and standard riflemen is medics get a medi-kit and stun rod on top of the other, what I call "standard issue gear". I usually have two medics per squad.

 

My COs get best and most applicable type of pistol (usually laser or plasma pistol with an extra clip), motion scanner, medi-kit, stun-rod, one of each type of grenade, and possibly a mind-probe or psi-amp. So my COs are like jack of all trades light combat units. They perform more specialized tasks like recon etc. Also there mainly to help keep up morale, so I try to keep them safe.

 

My heavies get issued a grenade (preferably alien grenade) and some heavy weapon (later in the game, I may even issue them heavy plasma, but I tend associate heavy plasma as being more of just a kick-ass rifle than a heavy weapon) be it an AC with as much incendiary ammo as they can carry(keep in mind, ideally without being encumbered. Though I usually have a minimal loadout to where I disregard encumberance since if they hold below that limit they need to be encumbered to get their strength high enough not to be), HC with as much HE ammo as they can carry, or an RL with various rocket loadouts (most common loadout being 1 small rocket and 3 large rockets. Generally, I find incendiary rockets useless for my uses so don't usually stock any. I mean I usually want a smaller explosion or a very damaging big one, and incendiary rockets seem rather redundant to me since I usually have one HW guy with AC-I anyway.). My RL guy will always have some form of backup pistol. I tend mostly to use heavies with a role in mind to either concentrate fire power in an area, or associate them as being like mobile artillery units. If they were WWII troops they'd be the guys who tote around a mortor or machine gun for the squad. That's how I've come to think of them.

 

So my most common squad configuration is 8 riflemen (2 of them being medics) 2 CO/specialists, and 4 heavies (2 with an HC with HE ammo, 1 with an AC with incendiary ammo, and one with an RL and pistol along with possibly different loadouts depending upon mission). I generally don't bother with tanks anymore, I find that I like a larger squad more. This of course starts to all change later on in the game. Later on the in the game, most of my men are toting heavy plasma.

 

My usual tactic is to try to form a spread out column, with HWs and COs in the rear, or HW near the center, that sweeps acrossed the map turn by turn clearing out all enemies along the way. Any buildings or house along the way, my COs start doing their scanning and often are the ones to do most of clearing them out. Also I tend to use rookies for this also. Most often though, a mixture of COs and rookies. Of course all of that varies depending upon the tactical situation. Sometimes the terrain is such that I have to use completely different tactics.

 

My main tactic at the beginning of a mission and how to deploy is to have my guys at the front go off the side of the ramp and then move toward the front of the transport, on on each side. The second two guys in line go out downward toward the front of the transport and diagonally outward. Then the two guys that are third in line go directly out to the left and right of the transport. Then the fourth sort diagonally away and off to each side of the transport, and then the fifth in line go straight out from rear of the transport. That way, on my first turn I end up with well spread out circle of men around the transport to spot any enemies.

 

Also I generally will give extra gear (like when I have a limited amount of smoke grenades and flares) to my first soldiers in the loadout screen (i.e. soldier 0, soldier 1, soldier 2, soldier 3, and so on...). That way the early to deploy troops get the extra gear since they're usually the ones that need it the most and engage the enemy first. I mean, half of the time, a good portion of the combat is right outside the transport. Then it's a bughunt from there where at that point I start setting up my frontline to sweep the map. This seems to eliminate the occurance of the monotonous scenario where you spend many many turns trying to find last one or few aliens.

 

Also, I generally keep my COs and RL guy in the transport until the area around the transport is secured. Then, at that point, I generally have an idea where they're needed most and they can usually get into ideal positions more safely.

 

Out in the open, it's generally my rookies I move forward in the frontline first (guess you could call them point men in a sense). That way they get first dibs at downing a spotted alien and getting that much needed experience they need. Also the more experienced troops usually aren't too far behind them and can help bail them out if needed.

 

As far as enclosed areas, it's often ends up being whoever is in the best position to go in and clear a structure out, is the one(s) that end up getting relegated to the role. Ideally it's a mixture of rookies and more experienced troops. Usually I try to let the rookies enter and fire first because it both give them a good opportunity for when I catch the alien off guard, and also draws reaction fire if there's going to be any from the aliens. The more experienced troops are accompanying him in case he runs out of TUs before he can finish off the discovered alien. Not really all that sadistic to the rookies I believe. Afterall, doesn't it just make the most sense to have an experienced soldier cover a less experienced ones in so many ways? Both from a realism standpoint, and common sense standpoint?

 

In situations where I'm getting ready to enter a UFO, I generally first get my COs up to the UFO, then position them in those areas of the hull that go inward and have them do some scanning (note: all the expending of all their TUs to get to the site seems to help bring up their TUs, and energy, which is just what I want them to have tons of). While simultaneously I start setting up my squad in good positions outside the door to react to anything that may pop out. While simultaneously I have a couple of rookies gather around the outside of the door. All throughout these "setting up turns" I have the COs do scanning for a few turns (mainly the important thing is to get the, whoever you have doing scanning guy, in a position where they can detect any movement near the inner room of the UFO at the entry-way) so I can try to both feel a trend in what the aliens inside may be up to, and so I can pickup any aliens on my scanner near the entry-way, that may be deciding to hold still for a turn or so. I keep scanning and waiting till I feel is a good time to have my rookies rush in and blast the place up. My seasoned soldiers are one step right behind to help cover. I generally will send in heavies and COs last. You know, explosive weapons have a tendency to backfire in tight quarters. That way I avoid putting any of my heavies in immediate danger where they may be forced take action when it's less than ideal.

 

After the initial UFO entry phase, it's then time to organize my squad. The idea, for me here, is to keep my COs out of danger as much as possible but also be able to position them where they can get a good scan into the next room. Often the COs will end up finishing off any aliens left standing after my riflemen have spent all their TUs.

 

What I like about these tactics and strategies is that it seems like, from what I can tell, that it advances different levels of soldiers in a rather scaleable way. Like the less experienced soldiers start to catch up with the more experienced soldiers in a very fast and efficient way. Impact of losses is also minimized this way. I find I don't need to rotate my soldiers as much as well. I, of course, will often rotate my base defense squad and a assault squad though. Like if I got a bunch of losses, the new recruits are the ones for the next mission. Of course a couple COs are going to accompany them on the mission. In fact, depending upon how many COs are available, they generally go on every away mission. They need to be there to help the rookie's morale and my COs aquire experience often slower than my grunts since I mainly use them as backup firepower.

 

So what you end up with is:

-COs, while they tend not to engage in hectic fire fights, they advance steadily because they're regularly on away missions. This has the added benefit of keeping them safe and morale from sinking as badly in general.

 

-Rookies advance rather fast since they get the most opportunity to get "broken in". However, they get the advantage of backup and cover fire from more experienced squad-mates.

 

-More experienced squadmates scale well in stat advancement with less experienced squadmates.

 

-Losses and impact on morale for losses are minimized.

 

Anyway, those are my latest strategies, and so far it seems to be panning out real well for me. Alot of what I wrote is probably going to be more of use earlier in the game, because it seems later on the game tactics become less important since your soldier end up becoming walking tanks. I think that's why I have the most fun in the earlier part of the game.

[Asmodai]

Wow I can't imagine how long it took to type all that. If i wan't as lazy as i am i might have actually tried to read it all...

[NCC-1701-F]

Well, as to SAS tactics..... remember a room, or any of the square "blocks" has 6 sides.... check them all, think in 3-d. Front, back, sides, top bottom. 9 times out of ten, you will lost to an enemy who thinks in 3-d if you don't. Also, getting tied to any one strategy is a bad idea, you develop patterns and routines, which ALWAYS sink in, and once they do, you will be the most predictable opponent. Even though you're only fighting a computer AI, you need to take care not to develop patterns, keep a very flexible doctrine/stretegy. Use seemingly random movements to confuse enemies, if they were human, this would help considerably. Especially if Firaxis decides to do an x-com remake, then there'll be multiplayer, and you won't have 8 years to develop your strategies. The idea here is to have a strategy that can adapt to change almost instantly, can deal with unexpected losses and new enemy tricks. The perfect example of this would be getting dropped onto a battleship crash site.... with a totally new map, i mean like, different terrain than you'd ever seen, and a new race of aliens, never before seen. Once you can adapt to new changes, you will have a serious advantege over most of your opponents, human that is. If you keep winning, and people look over your strategies in each battle, they won't see that there is NO set doctrine. I say this referring to human opponents, because first of all, it is important as a strategist never to fall in patterns, and someday, there will be a multiplayer version of x-com, the game will eventually be made, and also, computer AI's are getting better, as a strategic game, X-Com has an incredibly simple AI, that works. Why???? it doesn't use predictable patterns, sometimes on thing will happen, but it's almost never a constant. And it can beat you, why, because of what i just said.... anyway, i'm rambling now..... so that's the end....

[The Demi-Godly One]

I either guard the door at a UFO or I mind control an alien

and make them search. Then I snipe the aliens.

[Asmodai]

I never have any problem rushgin through doors, I just take one room at a time.

[Psy Guy]

My basic tactic involves using a scout / grenadier tactic. On average i split my platoon(everyone at mission) into groups of 3. 1 Being eather a rookie or an expert recon trooper and 2 being standard to above average solders. And i always have a sniper team which will usally have flying armor. On a skyranger this give me 4 groups of 3 and a group of 2 (sniper team). The standard plan of attack invloves the two troops (grenadiers) to take cover being anything they can find while the recon guy checks out the area. In order to supply a lot of coverage and at the same time give pleanty of fire power, I will move one team up each side while the other two teams sweep from side to side (while slowly pushing forward) flushing out any buggers they may find. This tactic usally works out untill the alien ufo is found. My sniper team (where ever they may be) will move to the ufos possition and will cover the exit. After the teams finish there sweep they rally back near the ufo (eather in a near by building or on a side thats not visible to the ufo's exit. Depending on UFO or alien ill swap weapions and possiable send troops back to the transport for some heavy weapions. Now the rookies prime HE Bombs and enter the ship. As stated in the "Rookie" poll this tactic is what i call the "bomberman". After the rookies eather clear the first room (one way or another :devil: ) my average skill vets go in to finish clearing.

 

(Combat)- When the recon finds an alien this is how combat takes place. First my recon will eather a. find cover (if TUs and terrain permits) b. Stay there untill other act or c. Shot (if on one is around and cover can't be found). Normally my grenadiers will prime a gernade and toss it eather in between the alien and the recon or onto the alien (if they can). If a gernade is thrown between or on the alien then i just leave the recon guy where he is (reasion being moving will cause a reaction shot and the gernade will almost always cause smoke which cause the alien to not see the recon) Now i have the aliens possition, it can't see me, i can get backup, and i have a guy who can take a shot during the aliens turn. After that things tend to go into a long range sniping mode, (after the aliens death) reorganization, and then recon (again)

(Equipment)- Simply Rifles (laser, plasma, standard) , gernades, and medi-kits. Onboard the ship there are rocket launchers, blasters, HE explosives.

(Im not including psi amps because its easy to see how psi amps whould be used. *For those that can't see the obvious i would use the aliens as recons*)

 

-PSY GUY-

(Join the school of PSY GUY's master stratigies and tactics today )

[NKF]

Looking at the title of the topic, my answer would have been "I'd just point a gun at them and fire"

 

Seriously, there are so many tactics that can be used, not one is necessarily better than the other.

 

Anyway, I'd just like to toss in my usual UFO assault tactic for intact ships:

 

I don't storm it. Well, not immediately.

 

I wait until all the aliens come out of it first. Mainly this is for opportunity fire practice, but it also reduces the risk of bursting into a UFO only to get shot at once you step through the door.

 

I generally set up a my troops at random distances, positions and even random elevations around the UFO exit (door, or hole). This scattered layout is so that a stun bomb or a grenade won't get everyone. The criss-cross of opportunity fire is amazing. It's even more impressive with regular and laser pistols and laser rifles, since you can get so many opportunity shots with them. Otherwise, any weapon will do so long as you remember to rearm your soldiers when they run out.

 

I then wait for 20 - 40 or even 60 turns if it's a large ship. During the first 10 - 20 turns, some other soldiers mop up the rest of the aliens in the map. The rest just wait for any aliens to pop out the door. If I hear the doors inside the UFO still working, I put a proximity mine just one tile beyond the door. If I accidentally put down one too many proximity mines, and no more aliens are leaving the ship, well, I just get a soldier in a flying suit fly to down on top of it and pick it up (for those who do not know, yes, this is possible), or just blow it up with a light explosive (one useful feature they took away in TFTD).

 

After all those turns, all the aliens who aren't standing purposefully in one spot will have gotten bored and will have left the ship. The few that remain inside seem to stay in one spot until triggered by your presence in certain locations inside the ship (and I think outside too, but I haven't seen any pattern), or they just wait and shoot you when you step through the door. They are, in first person shooter terms, the 'campers'. At this time I storm the ship with one or two soldiers and carefully deal with these 'campers' in a manner suited to each different ship layout. (i.e. making alternate doors, luring them out, or shooting explosives up at the ceiling where I think they're standing)

 

It's a somewhat lazy method of dealing with the aliens, but it does exercise opportunity fire, and it does make assaulting the ship a lot easier (and you don't have to worry about accidentally damaging the power units and destroying the elerium).

 

I've spotted a pattern with the alien in the large scout who always waits in the bridge and gets anyone that comes through the doors. I figured out how to lure it out and get it to walk into an ambush of your own. It works almost every time, but I won't describe that here as time does not permit.

 

- NKF

[NKF]

Here it goes:

 

https://www.geocities.com/nkfarma/temporary...y/lsc_lure.html

 

A picture paints a thousand words, or so they say. Pardon the awful Yahoo!Geocities popups if your javascript's settings for opening-new windows are still enabled.

 

The above link points to a little diagram I made up to show how to lure out the one alien in the large scout that always waits in the bridge and shoots at anyone stepping through the doors.

 

As always it won't work 100% of the time, depending on a variety of factors. But test it out anyway the next time you're assaulting an intact large scout.

 

- NKF

[Psy Guy]

The best way to get that alien is to fire a rocket into the side of the UFO (the side that goes streight up cutting across a grid square) Because the wall is in the middle of a square the computer thinks that the explosion caused by the rocket is on both sides of the wall killing most anything inside the bridge of the UFO.

 

-PSY GUY-

[NKF]

Ah yes, that's another one I use from time to time. You can even use grenades, stun bombs and incendiary shells too. I like to use the high-explosives in particular.

 

If you're in the mountain map, you can actually blow away the wall with the explosives... even the Skyranger ramp and landing gear aren't safe.

 

Still if you don't have any explosives on hand, luring out that alien is still a valid option. The grenade or explosive through the wall trick is all right if you're fighting a damaged UFO with the engine room destroyed.

 

But is it cheating? The aliens do shoot at you through walls that should otherwise block the shot. So it's a toss up really.

 

- NKF

[Xcom-Stub]

One move I use to love to do was getting a raiding party on a grounded battleship.

 

Full squad. All in Flight suits. This was my A-team. full offensive weapons and Stun launchers. Stun grenades. Stun rods. And 2 Plasma remote missle launchers.

 

One team of guys 7-8 would head high and for the roof of the Battleship. 1 missle blows the roof off the top. Send in capture team with stun weapons knock out captians and leadership.

 

2nd team sweeps the area for loners.

 

best way for captured leadership and making the most money, imho.

 

Man that was fun......

[Ego Terrorist]

For standard UFO recovery/assualt missions I use 14 man teams broken down into 2/3 Heavy Weapons Troops, 1 CO, 1 XO and 2 Medics. Once the SkyRanger has landed I deploy all my troops and clear the LZ, the first 4 men down often act as spotters if there are any aliens in the LZ and the troops that follow up take down the aliens with small arms fire.

 

With the LZ Cleared I usually take amoment to survey the the location I'm at, once I know that I can then start moving my men out, 2 man teams start spreading out in a arc basically creating a 'dead zone' where any hostiles within the arc are dead, and anything within the 'firing arc' is either dead or 'supressed'. As my men clear the area I keep enough spare TU's for a snap reaction shot and I hug cover like mad. Within the central point of the arc's dead zone my heavy weapon troops can be found there, slowly moving forward while keeping out of the front line but keeping in such a position that they can provide supporting fire.

 

Once the UFO has been located I dispatch 4 men to cover the door(s) I never have a man stood in front of a door - I've lost a few good men that way. Instead I 'stack' up against the side of the door and then await for the area to be cleared, once clear I get all of my men and stack them up facing the door(s) At this point I switch to SWAT tactics. One of my men chucks in a Grenade primed to go off on impact. The Grenade goes off and my men storm the UFO and cover each corner neutralising any aliens that are in the room, and then my men move to cover the any more doors, and then I storm forward though the UFO enter and clear, consolidate leaving trailers behind.