Arrrg what pistol do I choose?

[Snikers]

What exactly am I going to do...

 

I'm trying to decide which pistol to use. If anyone cares I'm early in the game, but I don't know how much difference

that will do.

 

Now, I'm going to have one guy in every squad equipped with a stun launcher, so it's position is secured. The

problem is what to use with the pistol name.

 

The bullet pistol is more accurate than the laser pistol, and almost as accurate as the plasma, and perhaps best

of all is its speed - 30% aimed and a stunning 16% snap. However, it takes ammunition, and really doesn't hurt

much above sectoids and floaters.

 

The laser pistol has significant damage. It it also pretty fast, 30% snap and auto and 60% aimed. And perhaps

one of the best is the best in logistics - no ammo, will be less offensive to the 80 item limit, etc. However, it is the

least accurate pistol I've got (with no recoil? Is this correct?) and I don't know if it will punch holes in Mutons.

 

Plasma pistol, good. Accurate and powerful fire. However, it takes ammo, and is rather SLOW for a pistol. I'm

probably going to use this, though.

 

I can have two pistols on each soldier, so which should I choose? If all else fails I can just have different combinations

in a squad.

[The Demi-Godly One]

I would have a laser pistol in one hand and a plasma pistol in the other hand,(only to shoot the tough aliens)

but I would make sure to have one out of every person carry a stun launcher.

BUT that is just me and my playing style.

[Psy Guy]

Go laser. Plasma is nice to have but remember the clips require elerium and are rarely found on ground assults. If you got to have a weak weapon make sure you can shoot a lot of rounds to take the big aliens down. (I don't see why you can't just use a rifle. Is this a challange to not use rifles?)

 

-PSY GUY-

[NKF]

I'd say dual pistols is a must for a pistol only campaign. And of any two pistols you carry, the laser pistols is a must-have. It's strong and is ridiculously fast firing. Accuracy is a problem, but it makes no difference if you're standing right next to your enemy.

 

Plain pistols are great for quite a lot of the weaker aliens. Except Chryssalids, Cyberdiscs and Sectopods and presumably Mutons, although they aren't as bad since you can kill them with rifles (and pistols are only -4 damage). Reapers need at least one or two full pistol clips worth of ammunition before they crumble. The biggest advantage the pistols have is that they cannot harm soldiers in power armour. So you're safe from berserk outbursts or mind controlled buddies. Oh, and the ammunition is dirt cheap.

 

If you're still using grenades, accompany the pistol with a mix of alien, proximity and high explosive grenades. Have strong soldiers with 40 or more strength deal with the high explosives. Pistols and grenades are a great combination.

 

Plasma pistols... eh, they're okay. I'd say keep one or two for the entire team and hoard the clips that you find. And only use the plasma pistols sparingly.

 

By the way, the stun launcher is in the same class as the rocket launcher and blaster launcher. So it's technically a rocket launcher, not a pistol. Although you'll want it for capturing research critical aliens, or for instantly killing the larger terror units.

 

Overall, of the three pistols, I like the laser pistol the best.

 

- NKF

[Snikers]

1. Yes, playing a game yesterday I did notice the stun launcher is two handed. Guess I'll

have to use stun rods...

 

2. Yes, I'm playing a combination of pistol and armour-less challenges.

 

3. As I'm not going to be using elerium on much else, I think I can sustain myself with

using the E-115 for plasma pistol magazines.

[Orac]

I like the idea of going akimbo laser pistol/plasma pistol. Though, if you have a hyperwave decoder, it probably becomes much easier to figure out which to bring along. Also not going the akimbo route is probably going to solve more logistical issues (80 item limit issue). Maybe go the akimbo route till you have hypewave decoder?

 

The bottom-line is most of the weapons have trade-offs. Laser pistol is ideal for some situations while plasma pistol is more ideal in others. I guess if it's a situation where you have to pick one or the other, probably the best thing to ask yourself is what's the most critical factor. Like is it likely to be critical to have room in the transport for other gear and keep freed up TUs and have unlimited ammo, or is going to be more critical be able to dish out more damage per man, per shot. Based on which of the two is the overriding issue to address is going to determine which pistols to bring.

 

Like you said, Mutons can take alot of punishment. Perhaps the extra damage might help, on the other hand maybe the unlimited ammo and extra mobility may. You can probably make either work depending upon how you go about things. Regardless, either pistol you're going to probably have to play from standpoint that it's going to take a few men a few turns to down each Muton. You'll probably want to keep that first and foremost in mind with your tactics if you want to have a good success rate with minimal casualties. You're probably going to have a real big challenge out in the open though. Probably approaching it from a probability standpoint is going to be your best bet - i.e. trying to get in as many consequative shots per man per turn upon the same target as possible, while also giving them enough time to reach safety for the alien's turn. The aliens will have the advantage in probability in that they'll only need a hit or two upon each of your soldiers to neutralize each one of them. Whereas you'll need many more hits on each on them, but the equalizer will probably be your sheer volume of fire.

 

I'd expect many casualties regardless. Afterall, even though you may get more shooting opportunities to fire, which in turn increases probabilities to hit, the aliens in turn get more chances to possibly react to your shots.

 

It will be interesting to see how it goes for you. I wonder if the best strategy will be to try to surround as many men as possible around single aliens. You might want to consider bring along at least a few motion scanners to help you figure out where the aliens could be hiding so you can work on positioning your men before you end up exchanging fire with them.

[InsaneLapin]

Laser - Plasma

[NKF]

I like a mix of all three guns, just to be on the safe side. Not three guns per soldier though, as that'll use up too much space.

 

For an eight soldier squad, perhaps I might take six lasers, four regular and two or more plasmas, or perhaps some other reasonable combination. Not everyone needs dual guns at all times, but it is desirable.

 

For combating the aliens in open areas, I take the stance that an alien that cannot see you, cannot shoot back at you.

 

So some eager rookies and or a tank go out and widen the perimeter while attempting to spot aliens along the way. The soldiers in the rear, who rarely move unless they need to reposition themselves, will fire long range potshots at any visible aliens, shot type depending on the urgency and or number of soldiers. Given it's against weak aliens, this'll normally be done with regular pistols, since their snapshots are as accurate as their rifle counterpart.

 

If I'm forced to have the scout shoot, and I have no way of knowing whether the alien has enough time units to shoot back at me, I try to have the scout take a step or two backwards until the visible alien marker has gone. Then open fire. Like above, since it cannot see you, it cannot use reaction fire, unless, of course, there are other aliens that can see you.

 

Being able to move about a good distance and still get to fire is a luxury the pistols possess, since they need so few time units.

 

- NKF

[Orac]

Plus it seems like they make up for their lack of damage in the amount of attacks you can get with them per turn. Also that flexibility they have, like whether you want to attack a few times, then still be able to move to safety, or attack many times, or just be to attack once and move alot, etc etc.

 

Like that whole statistical analysis of pistols vs. rifles (mentioned in the USG). It doesn't take into account the versatility and adaptability aspect of them. I don't know of any way you can measure that either, but more that it's one of those those things you just get an opinion of how you feel about it over time. My conclusion was that I noticed that often times my soldiers with some form of pistol seemed to survive more often than my soldiers with rifles, missions where most combat happenned in close ranges (like due to lot's of buildings and terrain layout etc). Other's conclusions and mileage is probably going to vary based upon lots of different factors like tactics they use with them (and what other equipment they use). Like I find a soldier with a motion scanner and some form of pistol fairs rather well in interior places. Though alot of my riflemen do as well thanks to that soldier with the motion scanner. I guess though, that I generally feel safer in cramped quarters with a pistol since I have plenty of TUs to have many tactical options available. Like those aliens equiped with heavier weapons just can't seem to be able to chase you and still have enough TUs to kill you. Whereas the guy with pistol can keep hit and running them till they die.

 

 

I guess though, I feel the whole pistol vs. rifle debate is pretty moot. I just leave it at that they both have their pros and cons and it's going to come down to how the player utilizes them for which is better for him.

 

Anyway, the akimbo pistol idea is a good one I never even thought about before reading this thread. I think I want to try that sometime. Like give most of my men mixtures of two different kinds of pistols, then have a couple of guys with motion scanners in their off hand, or other special gear.

 

Or what about guys with some kind of pistol and lots of grenades? Like just think. You could prime all their grenades near the beginning of the mission, then they could throw and shoot on single turns alot where needed for the tougher aliens. Like grenade a muton, then finish him off with the pistol. Actually, more technically, probably blast a muton with the pistol and finish him off with a grenade. But it would seem there would be lots of possibilities with that combo alone.

 

My guess is that it's probably going to be playing off all the versatility and different possibilities that's going to make the biggest impact in a pistol only campaign. i.e. thinking of all sorts of different combos for different situations.

[NKF]

This is a fair warning for those who are intent on pursuing a pistol intensive campaign.

 

Watch out for sectopods.

 

You cannot fight these easily with pistols.

 

Well, I did kill a beginner level sectopod with two snapshots from a laser pistol, but that's only because I shot it in its under armour, the weakest spot on any creature.

 

A head on assault with a plasma pistol had horrible results. It barely scratched it, and this is only just on a beginner level sectopod! If that's how it behaves with a beginner sectopod, then it will probably not be able to even scratch a superhuman sectopod.

 

I tried fighting a superhuman level sectopod with the laser pistols, and after several rounds of three or four soldiers zapping it with laser pistols on full auto, it only lost 10 points of health.

 

Either evade ethereal ships with sectopods, or bring along something that'll kill them, like stun bombs, a laser tank or perhaps even a heavy plasma/laser.

 

- NKF

[Ki-tat Chung]

as for the elurium issue, just stock pile it! i got so much i have now dedicated a base to storage (mainly elurium and alien alloys).

[The Demi-Godly One]

I've never had a problem with elerium, so maybe you could make ammo for the plasma pistol.

[Xcom-Warblade]

:devil: My personal opinion would be to use the Pistol to deal with aliens that are weak against AP damage and the Plasma Pistol to deal some damage with the other, more resilient aliens. Stick with the laser pistol if you want to save room in your base.

[Jman4117]

I'd say use a Laser/Plasma combo.

Use the laser as your primary weapon, and the plasma when you have to fight something big.