Question on Bases & tactics

[NCC-1701-F]

I was just reading the tips for beginners post. I had a few questions that wouldn't really fit into a reply to that post.

1) With bases, how many people use xcomutil, not to cheat, just to enhance some parts of the game???

2) When do you build a second base, and how do you get the soldiers??? (IE. Hire, Transefer/Both)

3)Base defenses, i ususally don't build them, but i wanted to step up from beginner, but not to superhuman, so in vetern i have 1 base, but in 2 months it's been attacked over times, no joke, it's not funny anymore, do you bother with base defenses, or is there some secret to keep the bugs from finding you

4) First thing to push for manufacturing, Laser rifles, Laser pistols (i dunno, someone might do it), medi-kit, armor, or motion scanner. I think the 2 big ones are the laser rifles or armor, and after both of those medi-kit, how do you do this????

5) Grenades, how do you use them, and how many per soldier if you're using a skyranger.

6) Worst bug, chryssalid, ethereal, muton, or something else.....

[NKF]

1. I use XComutil with the dos version of the game, although I don't particularly use any of the enhancements, such as the troop-transport interceptors and firestorms (because of bugs), or the enhanced bases (which are quite nice, although the starting large radar is a bit much!). I kind of like the autofiring pistol though...

 

 

 

2. When money permits.

 

If there's enough to build the grav-lift, that'll go in. Then living quarters and some stores, for the base guards. When more money rolls in, a temporary small radar is put in for quick detection and a hangar. Later, once an interceptor with dual plasma beams is installed, a large radar is added (or before that, so that it gets there before the interceptor). When the tech finally arrives, a hyperwave decoder, and voila, a mini-interception base. More can be added later on if I want to evolve it into a specialised base.

 

 

 

 

3. I don't build them because if you have impregnable defenses, the aliens will just keep throwing themselves at the base. And watching base defenses shoot down a constant stream of UFOs tends to get boring after a while. If I do put them in, I'll put multiple grav-shields in and a few fusion modules. Maybe, if I feel silly, I'll put in multiple missile and laser defense stations too. Huge quantities of minimal damage tends to build up.

 

Yes, there is a secret to keeping the aliens from not retaliating. Do not shoot UFOs down when they're too close to your base. And when they send retaliation scouts, you can send them off on a wild goose chase by waiting until they are really far away then shoot them down. I once had a scout team that kept appearing but each wave kept getting further and further from my base as I think I was able to fool the aliens into thinking that my interceptors were coming from elsewhere.

 

The mind shield helps, but do not attract too much attention to yourself and continue to shoot down UFOs at a distance, since they will still attack a base even though it's shielded. It's just harder for them to spot it.

 

 

 

 

4. You have to decide what research priorities you want to go for yourself. My main priority is always armour first, offensive equipment later. Although, before alien alloys become available, I start on the laser pistols. When personal armour is available, I move on to the laser rifle if I haven't got it, then medikits. Motion scanners are very useful, but I generally keep them for later. Once I've got armour, lasers and medikits, I push for the craft plasma cannon. This is done either with a heavy plasma or a plasma rifle and the corresponding clip, which ever one appears first. Everything else is researched as it becomes available. Corpses, unimportant alien artefacts and non relevant aliens are left for the very last. No, I lie, alien medics are left for the very last.

 

 

 

 

5. There's so many ways you can use grenades. I'll only be touching a small portion of what you can do with them in this post.

 

Just arming them and tossing them is the easiest way of using them. Since priming your grenades is quite time consuming (50% tus!), pre-arming your grenade is a good idea, but it has its drawbacks. If your soldier dies or falls unconscious, the grenade will go off and wipe out equipment and your soldier. So if you want pre-armed grenades, protect that soldier! Just FYI, TFTD's sonic pulsers are nigh indestructable, so you can have multiple explosions if you're carrying multiple pulsers.

 

Learn the grenade relay. This is just having one soldier in secure area arm a grenade and tossing it to a nearby comrade, who then picks it up and tosses it to the next. Repeat until you get the grenade to where you want it to be.

 

When throwing grenades, make sure that there are no obstructions above you, like the Skyranger wings, or tree tops. You can throw them(the grenades), but not at any reasonable distance.

 

If your game hasn't got the skill caps in (i.e. pre Col. Ed. or 1.4), soldiers with more than 70 strength have a lot of trouble throwing anything. I don't know why. They do not make good grenadiers. Period.

 

A patched up critically injured soldier might not be able to shoot straight, but he or she can still throw grenades just as well as the next person (even though the throwing stat may have decreased). Might as well rack up plenty of experience (and a bit more firing accuracy) with grenades before hitting the month long stay in the infirmary eh?

 

Grenades, especially armed ones, are best stored in your shoulder or belt slots. The shoulders are expensive to move items into, but it's very cheap to move items from your shoulders to your hands (3 tus). Store ammunition in your pack, as they'll still cost 15tus to load in a gun regardless. Keep the slots clear for your grenades.

 

Be crafty when using your grenades. Make use of their splash effect. Around corners are nice, like before going around the bend to the command room in the alien supply ships. Or maybe if you see a floater floating at roof level but not standing on it? You can toss a grenade onto the roof, and the splash damage will get the floater. Oh, and toss them into the tile of a large terror unit. They'll receive roughly 4x more damage. Cyberdiscs and Sectopods need hi-explosives or alien grenades for the best results. Reapers will die from a regular grenade.

 

As for quantity, bring as many as you want as long as its within the 80 item limit and your soldiers are strong enough to carry them. I like taking plenty of regular and alien grenades, maybe two or three per soldier. One high explosive per soldier, or more if a lot of my soldiers are above 40 strength (soldiers under 30 strength do NOT get them, for obvious reasons ). One smoke grenade for the first fellow to leave the transport. And a couple of proximity mines randomly distributed. I'd take more, but the collectors edition has this funny bug that makes random and potential harmful things explode if an armed proximity mine isn't used.

 

 

 

 

6) The worst alien is an alien that manages to kill you, regardless of species.

 

 

 

- NKF

[NKF]

Right, this is an addition to the grenade bit. It deserves a separate post because it's ... well, surprise, surprise.. it's new to me.

 

Bear with me on this, no matter how stupid it may sound.

 

Start up a brand new game, or any game, whether in TFTD or UFO, and bring along a few grenades into a mission.

 

At the very start of the mission, prime your grenade and throw it up at the ceiling.

 

Go do that right now.

 

Common sense dictates that it will hit the ceiling and fall back down right? Right. But in X-Com, it doesn't know how to handle this. So it goes right through the ceiling.

 

I know you can fire an explosive shell, rocket, stun bomb or any other directed explosive round right up at the ceiling and send shockwaves through it and hurt whatever standing above you, if not destroying the ceiling completely if its indestructable, but throwing a grenade up and have it go right through the floor is a little...

 

I suppose, you could walk into a barn, stand in the middle of it and toss a high explosive up into the room above to create a nice skylight. Still...

 

Make of that as you will. I think I'll go have a lie down.

 

- NKF

[JellyfishGreen]

That's just freaky, man.

 

I can't believe there's something in the game NKF didn't know about already. Tell me you just dreamed that - my world is falling apart.

 

But yeah, being able to shove a grenade up through the ventilation grille sounds a good way to clear my next UFO. Might try the first one with a delay, though, if it slips.

 

1. I am using the XCOMUTIL base in my current game. I never did buy small radar. I have stuck to just one large radar per base (and later, one Hyperwave decoder) and got all the UFO's I could handle anyway.

 

2. I took a risk and put in stores and a hangar as the first builds on my third base, then added living quarters once stores was complete. I manned it with 5 new hires and a transferred vet who was recovering from injuries.

 

3. I had a defensible base design, playing on Average ability, so I didn't sweat the defense too much. Only two or three base attacks even when I was deliberately leaving myself open. Now building it closer to the endgame in case the battleships become too frequent.

 

4. Yeah, what NKF said sounds good.

 

5. Two per person, my tactics usually don't incorporate a need for more.

 

6. Got very nervous when I spotted my first ethereal (because of the reputation) but chryssalids are still higher on the pants-wetting scale. Few encounters in this game, though. Sectopods more frequent (and take AGES to shoot enough holes in).

 

JG

[Crazy Photon]

1. I use XCOMUTIL for that... and to be able to use the Interceptor and Firestorms as troop carriers too.

2. When I've enough money (around $5: or $6:), and start like JellyFishGreen.

3. I don't build them except in factory base when I've the tech (1 grav shield + 4 fusion defences), as my bases are RARELY attacked, as I use the secrets NKF described...

4. Laser pistols, Laser rifles and Medikits, in that order. Build motion scanners when the factories are "idle" (or laser cannons when I have the tech)

5. Usually bring 3 grenadiers with 6 - 8 grenades each one. I also use 2 smoke grenades to deploy at the LZ (1 inside of the Skyranger, the other on the stairs of it) which are assigned to the likely-to-be the front line soldiers (I also let XCOMUTIL reorder my troops).

6. I hate it when my best trooper connects 3 salvoes of Heavy Plasma (the other troops use only laser rifles) to an alien and not only he doesn't kill it, the alien reaction-fires with 2 salvo of plasma rifle and kills my soldier (he has flying suit)

[The Veteran]

1) What is the XCom util base? I never use it, never have, probably never will...

 

2) I don't build a second base. I build a second four! And I never staff them. I just place the access lift and build a hanger and a store. Then I buy an interceptor in each one and transfer two plasma cannons there from my main base. Although when I originally built the bases I had to buy missile launchers as my research was still minimal.

 

3) I haven't built defences in my superhuman game. I've been attacked once and as soon as my Avenger is finished I'm off to Cydonia. My other four bases have no defences at all, like I said no staff... Luckily I don't think the aliens care about them as it's my skyranger they want destroyed...

 

4) I don't research anything to manufacture early on. I wait until my first mission then research plasma cannons straight away.

 

5) I never use grenades unless I'm either worried about entering a building or room, or there's a large group of aliens and I have no blaster bombs.

 

6) I think I'd say Chrysallid instinctively but of course it depends on the mission. If it's a mission with Chryssalids and Ethereals I'd be more worried about the Ethereals but if I had the same aliens in a base defence it would be the Chryssalids that bother me...

[Solfius]

I never have a problem with crysalids, but i only fought them once in broad daylight (I never do night missions, i wait till daybreak) in a big open space, i set my men up in aline and waited for the crysalids, and got them all with reaction fire.

 

What really scares me is etherals, I have only just got psi, so i have no idea the psi strengths of my soldiers, i seem to spend as much if not more time blasting MCed soldiers than etherals

[Xcom-Warblade]

<------- See this? they are good for hunting Ethereals. Get your tanks right out there searching for them, make your tanks the "cannon fodder" (pardon the pun). With ethereals you have to be quick in to destroy them. Just remember: If they can't see you - they can't get you. Use cover as much as possible, stick to the walls, enclosed areas where they can't see you. The windows are your friend....so are high explosive weapons. You just need to think carefully of how you are going to get to them. Hope that helped and was not mindless blabber.