Attack styles

[JellyfishGreen]

Hey E-T, when the first guy kicks open the door with a primed grenade ready, what does he do if an alien is standing RIGHT THERE! (eek!) Or, how do you avoid this?

 

Do you have to groom a high-reaction soldier and research alien grenades before this becomes an effective tactic?

[Ego Terrorist]

You'd be surprised at how often this does happen whats even worse is if the alien reaction fires at the guy and kills him, in which case the grenade goes off wounding all. :hmmm: The only way to avoid this is to have too point men, one with a grenade that opens the door and checks if there are any aliens in the way, the point man gets out of the way (stands next to the door but not infront) and then the Grenade point man runs in lobs a grenade and then I carry out a standard entry eliminating any aliens.

 

In the eventuality of an alien stood by the door as my point man enters I yell "Bugger" and then using the rifle or pistol in the other hand I auto fire at the alien, if the alien is still standing (such as in the case of Mutons, or Chrysallids) I then get my man out of the way and then the rest of my team that's stacked up and can make a shot at the alien lets rip with small arms fire and if need be AP rounds from the Heavy Support. And with a bit of luck and a hail of Bullets/Lasers/Plasma the Alien usually goes down.

 

Once the alien is down I wait a turn just in case there are any aliens that are going to come out, during this I move my point man into position and then I storm in again lob the grenade in and then excute a standard entry. And if I don't have a Grenade or I'm not too keen on sending in a rookie I position a guy with a Autocannon or Heavy Cannon about 2 - 4 blocks away from the door loaded with HE ammo and then I fire a few rounds into the room. (or Incendery Ammo depending on what resistance I'm expecting and if I feel evil. :devil: )

 

In my next post I shall discuss Terror Tactics - 'The art of Anti-Alien Urban Warfare'

[JellyfishGreen]

I suppose the ol' Grenade Relay would work - have your door-opener armed with a laser pistol and then, if grenades are appropriate, somebody toss him a live one. He wouldn't have to get out of the way, just re-throw. I assume you wait for the grenade to go off before re-entering?

 

My feeling is that high reactions serve much better than heavy armour, as I've lost power suits a few times by assuming it would be better for the breacher to be the most heavily armoured. (Armored. Whatever.) That's how real SWAT would play it, using shields.

[NKF]

Actually, throwing a grenade in before filing your soldiers into the UFO works quite well in Apocalypse. I like to use a variation of it to quickly charge into the UFOs and secure the base of the hover lifts.

 

In UFO and TFTD, it's very hard to pull off due to alien opporunity fire. Of course, you could make use of motion scanners and hope that the blips behind the door are all very big, meaning the aliens are exhausted. One soldier could then step in then step out and run to safety to open the door (in UFO), while a soldier standing just behind with a prepped grenade can toss it in and then run off to safety.

 

I admit I use a similar method when attacking the supply ships. See, the only aliens to not leave the supply ship generally hide on the top level in the command room. Since the door is around a corner where soldiers are prone to getting shot at with reaction fire, I have my soldiers hug the wall while one tosses a grenade around the corner. When it goes off, and if the alien screams, I then send my soldiers in. Otherwise, I toss another grenade from the OTHER side just to make sure. Entering the command room is another matter entirely. I might lay down a smoke bomb before going in, as the smoke can sometimes go right through walls. Every little bit helps, see?

 

The method I described in my earlier post actually turns the tables on the aliens. Instead of me stepping in to get shot at, it's the aliens that step out and get shot at. You can sometimes learn from your foes now can't you? It doesn't work well in TFTD due to the slightly different AI. Quite a lot of the TFTD aliens tend to stay in one spot and not move about very much.

 

- NKF

[Asmodai]

I never even bother with grens. I usually just have 2 plasma tanks kill the aliens outside, and i attack UFO's with 3-5 agents. I very rarely get hit by an alien's reaction fire, and they mostly die in the first shot so I never have to deal with it. I LOVE TANKS!

[Orac]

I don't prime grenade(s) before entering either. I used to use that tactic. While realistically it's a good tactic, in the game it often works against me. Seems that all too often throwing a grenade, more than most other types of actions, tends to draw alien reaction fire. To much of the time the guy throwing the grenade gets wasted. Does anyway for me. Seems like priming a grenade is what would be a good tactic.

 

I use a different strategy now. After I've cleared everything up to the crashed UFO I then bring my two COs up to it. I have them get right up against the outer hull and perform motion scans. If I'm in doubt and think that there could be aliens holding still, I do scans over a few turns. While doing the scans I start to set up my squad outside the entrace so they can make it into the enterance area and have TUs left over to shoot anything that may be lurking.

 

If it's a big UFO, I bring my COs in after I've moved in a good chunk of the combat oriented men. The COs stay back a bit where it's safer, but stay close enough they can scan ahead of the assault squad.

 

I almost never ever bring in my HWs (guys toting HC, RLs, or ACs). The only exception is if they're toting heavy beam weapons. But if they're using HCs, ACs, or launchers, I don't. I never waste precious space giving my HC toting troop anything but HE ammo (while many players seem to recommend giving them some AP ammo in case they get jumped, I find it's usually unecessary since I use them with the role of artillery in mind). I mainly use them to act like mobile artillery and generally only keep 2 for a squad of 14 men total. I really seem to never need more than that since the maps aren't really all that big. Just merely having 2 seems like enough that I have artillery wherever I need it. For the way I play anyway. I think also it's because I've been more partial for the whole idea of giving the majority of the squad some form of rifle. Maybe it's the WWII nut in me.

 

The COs get pistols so they can always have a piece of gear in their left hand without any penalty without having to spend TUs to fumble through their inventory. Works out good for COs since I never use them for the heavy combat roles anyway and the low TU cost of pistol variant weapons seem to make them ideal as defensive weapons and close quarters (like ideal weapon when a character gets in a jam since they get lost of actions as a result of the low TU cost. I guess I tend to associate pistols as being ideal for rear echelon troops). I use COs more for specialized things like capturing and scanning etc.

 

I also keep 2 medics. Generally my medics are just like all my regular combat troops (or what I call riflemen). They get some form of rifle and a variety of grenades (just like how I stock my riflemen). The difference is that I tend to relegate my soldiers with the highest TUs to the role of medic. Also always give medics smoke grenades. The reason for all of that is because TUs become important to being able to make it to a wounded soldier in a timely fashion and have enough TUs to operate the medkit. I stock them with smoke grenades because sometimes it can be handy if someone gets wounded in a spot that's real vulnerable. Like if one of the soldiers walks into an alien ambush and gets wounded and knocked out, throwing a couple of smoke grenades on his incapacitated body seems to help. At the very least, makes it harder for the medic to get hit when he goes in to operate. Most ideally it helps shorten the visibility enough so that the aliens can no longer see the medic and his patient. Regardless, I always give my medics smoke grenades just in case of a situation where they may make all the difference in the world for the medic being able to get to a fallen comrade. That's seems to be how smoke grenades are - useless 90% of the time, but for those rare times where they're handy, they're a total godsend. That's fine with me though, because I don't have to hassle with restocking them very often.

 

Also, not only do my medics get medkits, but both of my COs do as well since they also tend to have very very high TUs (I think they tend to have high TUs because of the manner in which I use them - keep them in the transport till it's clear to the crashed UFO, then have them haul ass there. Good medikit carrying candidate none the less.) and they're often near the rear of the squad and less likely to be downed. Also, all my medics and COs get stun rods. Again because of their high TUs, but COs especially are prime candidates because they also carry scanners.

 

Anyway, Ego Terrorist sounds like he likes tactics similar to what I like. When I read your post it reminded me of alot of what I think about in Xcom. I notice you like to have more HW guys though. I've never tried it that way. However, lately I've started having 4 heavy laser troops since I using an Avenger where I'm at currently. I try to give heavy laser to what I call my sharp shooters. I think of them more like snipers with high tech sniper rifles. I have Heavy plasma available, but just seems like I like using laser based weapons more. Seems to be working pretty good with laser weapons and it's nice not having to fuss with the extra logistics. Not to mention all the extra cash from selling plasma weapons recovered. I used to swear by plasma weapons, but in more recent campaigns I'm not so sure they better than lasers. When you consider all the different aspect besides just damage and weigh it all out, it seems like lasers may come out slightly ahead. Hard to say though, still have mixed thoughts on laser vs. plasma. When I say plasma I mean any kind of plasm. Even heavy plasma. Again, I figure heavy plasma is assumed since it's so good compared to the plasma pistol and rifle. Like it seems their's almost no reason to use plasma rifle over heavy plasma. I can't think of any good enough trade-off to plasma rifle compared to heavy plasma to merit even considering plasma rifle over heavy plasma in any situation. Then again, maybe there's something I'm missing.

[Orac]

In UFO and TFTD, it's very hard to pull off due to alien opporunity fire.

In TFTD it seems like many of the aliens have insane reaction in general. All too many times in TFTD the following scenario happens.

 

Move a few men through a door, one of them goes auto with gauss rifle, or single shot with a heavy gauss, or even sonic blasta rifle. They hit the alien in the back, but alien survive and just turns around and kills them.

 

Anyway, I think they went overboard with the reaction of many of the aliens in TFTD. It seems like no matter what you do with some of them, you're going to lose at least one man per entry way.

 

TFTD is cool, but it seems like they rush it too much and there were many balancing issues. Kudos to the people who beat it though. They must've been very good at overcoming frustration.

 

I mean there's one thing about making a game challenging and I like that about UFO. But sometimes you feel like Mythos was being a little slap shot about it. Like instead of having you try have more sound tactics to overcome the challenge, they seemed to just give the aliens really strong stats. I would've prefered more reasonable stats (challenging but reasonable), but better AI instead. Not that I think it's easy to make AI, but that would've been more ideal and probably held my interest better. Inflating enemy unit's stats is kind of the easy way out and no substitute for better AI. Not knocking Mythos though. They probably would've like to have gone that route instead, if they would've had the time and breathing room to have. Somehow TFTD, in general, always left me with the impression that Microprose put alot of pressure for them to get it out the door in timely fashion. Like too many things in TFTD they seemed like they were on the right track and were adding things that had tremendous potential to add to the game alot, but somehow they weren't given enough time to flesh it out as good as they would've liked. A prime example is the cruise liner missions. Those could've been so much better and were a great idea. It's just they always felt like they didn't have enough time to implement them like they originally envisioned.

 

Anyway, TFTD and UFO defense are both cool. It's just I would've prefered to have waited another year to see TFTD's full potential.

[NKF]

The AC/HC-AP shells are best applied when fighting superhuman level aliens that are highly resistant to the HE shells, like the chryssalids, which sadly don't take much damage from AC-HE or HC-HE shells at all. I had to learn this the hard way. *shudder*

 

For close quarter combat against most of the weaker aliens, a soldier decked in a power suit, with an autocannon, with his or her pockets filled with HE magazines, can do a generous amount of damage in small confined spaces. See, the explosive backlash isn't strong enough to punch through your armour. A most desirable combination. Having the armour absorb direct hits from the HE shells is another matter entirely.

 

As for the plasma rifle vs. the heavy plasma: Compare the stats. No other weapon in the game has an 86% for snapshot accuracy. But apart from that, I guess there's not much else to say about the rifle. Most people just switch right over to the heavy plasma because it has quantity, quality and a 1% faster burst mode.

 

- NKF

[mirage]

for the small cross shaped ufo's I have a tactic I like to call the oldest trick in the book. (granted the ship is intact .. no hole to throw grenades into)

 

after I have wiped out the aliens outside I'll send in a soldier to take out ailens in the front room if any .. then another with a primed proxy, and throw it a space in front of the door in the upper part of the cross. then a third guy with a primed grenade runs around the other side to flush aliens out to meet the proxy (does'nt work to well on mutons) the first soldier stands by with the a medic to toss more proxys if needed.

 

 

later in the game when I like to mess with sectoids :devil:

 

I'll have psi troopers mind screw them and my soldiers are olny armed with laser pistols. I make the sectoids drop weapons and run up to a soldier and turn around. heheh next!!!

 

when I get a soldier who has been around for a million missions and has like 120 firing accuracy I'll give him his own ship with two unarmed helpers.. a medic and a blaster bomb runner. I once took a landed abducter full of floaters with this guy (I named him bobba fett)

 

mirage

[JellyfishGreen]

The AC/HC-AP shells are best applied when fighting superhuman level aliens that are highly resistant to the HE shells, like the chryssalids, which sadly don't take much damage from AC-HE or HC-HE shells at all. I had to learn this the hard way. *shudder*

"Johansen! Crab! Seventy-five meters your ten o'clock! Fire at will"

"On him, Sarge! Eat HE, you SOB"

 

BRRRRT BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!

 

The chryssalid emerges from the smoke, it's rictal grin shining in the firelight.

"Still moving, Sarge! 50 meters and closing" "Crap - He's coming our way" "Get back - get back" "FIRING"

 

BRRRRT BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!

 

"Anyone see - movement! Movement"

"Twenty-five meters! Christ he's fast" "JOHANSEN! PUT SOME AP ROUNDS ON THAT TARGET"

Johansen scrambles for his belt pack. Hands shaking. Nearly drops the magazine.

"Ten meters"

Sweat pouring down. Slams magazine home. Hauls autocannon to waist level. "Ungh"

"Five meters"

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT! BRRRRT! BRRRRT! <alien scream>

 

We like our job, we do.

[NKF]

Heh, that's almost exactly what happened except that I ran out of HE clips.

 

- NKF

[darkvenom]

My tatic (wen i realli angry at aliens) is on a battleship recovery mission is to blow it up as much as possible!!!

 

I have 2 Hovertank/Launchers and 6 Men armed with Blaster launchers and fill up the ship with blaster clips...

 

It is extremely fun to have levelled the entiremap and only having my Skyranger left standing, however, the cost is that you loose a lot of resources...

 

WHO GIVES A DAMN BLOW IT ALL UP!!!!