Specific tactics

[Slythe]

Although I've been improving in the tactical missions, I still find myself either making the occasional silly mistake or being unsure as how to best approach specific situations, namely entering and taking ufos. I thought I'd throw out a scenario and get some responses on how YOU would best approach it.

 

Take assaulting a supply ship. I'm recalling a couple different times when I ran into some problems. One was a crashed floater supply ship and the other was a landed muton supply ship. Both times I lost a soldier or two. During the floater scenario I had all my soldiers parked outside around the doors waiting to pick off exiting aliens. At one point a floater comes out, gets shot at a couple times and killed, and reveals another floater just behind him inside who fires out and kills one of my soldiers. The other time with the mutons...well let's just say the fact that oftentimes it takes two or three heavy plasma shots to down them is problematic and I find myself in situations where a soldier fires and hits a couple times but doesn't kill so gets turned on by the muton and gets shot. There are times when you can't rely on a reaction fire volley to ensure victory so you HAVE to charge a soldier in a ship who suddenly sees himself facing a muton facing him. He can't turn back around and run or he'll get shot, so he has no choice but to fire and hope he wins.

 

So how do you go about, step by step, assaulting say a landed muton supply ship ?

[NKF]

Hmm, I usually find that Mutons are just as easy to defeat with reaction fire as all the other aliens. The trick is to not have your soldiers directly facing the doorways. But I digress.

 

To assault a supply ship head-on, here's one method that's worked for me:

 

1. Set up a reaction fire team at both ends of the supply ship as per usual (east and west).

 

2. Have two teams of soldiers creep up to both entrances of the supply ship. How many soldiers depends on you. Two per team is okay by me as long as they have enough close-range firepower.

 

3. Before entering, perform whatever door entering procedures you like to do. Motion scanner, smoke bomb, etc. Then charge in and gun down everything you see from both ends of the UFO. Make sure there aren't any aliens in the corridor connecting the two entrances so that there aren't any aliens behind your back.

 

4. Make your way to the grav-lifts ASAP. This is important. Very important.

 

5. Have one soldier stand underneath each grav-lift. Have the other soldiers clear out any remaining aliens in the connecting corridor from both directions.

 

6. Next have the other soldiers that came along scan the engine room for hostiles and deal with them accordingly. Now, since aliens don't seem to know how to shoot down grav-lifts, you've practically sealed off the engineering deck of the ship.

 

7. Wait a bit and shoot anyone that appears at the top of the lifts. You might want to bring in a few more soldiers from outside.

 

8. Get a soldier or two and deal with the supply/medical deck first. Your best bet would probably be to just wait for the aliens to appear above the lifts. They will gravitate towards the lifts if you wait long enough.

 

9. Finally, deal with the command deck. Specifically, the command room.

 

The command room can be dealt with any number of ways depending the type of explosives and weapons you have.

 

- NKF

 

Edit: And I'd just like to add that this works for any alien crew. One other scenario where you'll want to attack the supply-ship head-on would be for psi-capable crews. For these, you'd need soldiers with strong psi-strength to hold their ground at the base of the grav-lifts.

[Slythe]

3. Before entering, perform whatever door entering procedures you like to do. Motion scanner, smoke bomb, etc. Then charge in and gun down everything you see from both ends of the UFO. Make sure there aren't any aliens in the corridor connecting the two entrances so that there aren't any aliens behind your back.

 

This is one thing I still don't think to do most times.

 

Now, since aliens don't seem to know how to shoot down grav-lifts, you've practically sealed off the engineering deck of the ship.

 

I didn't realize this. I can't tell you what problems this has caused when I assumed aliens could shoot down a lift so instead I would station my soldiers nearby it ready to pick off those who came down.

 

9. Finally, deal with the command deck. Specifically, the command room.

 

The command room can be dealt with any number of ways depending the type of explosives and weapons you have.

 

Early on this gave me problems but I've since developed ways to clear it out every time.

[NKF]

Now - snip - ship.

 

I didn't realize this. I can't tell you what problems this has caused when I assumed aliens could shoot down a lift so instead I would station my soldiers nearby it ready to pick off those who came down.

 

It seems to be all right for single-tile sized grav-lifts. I wouldn't try this with the larger grav-lifts though. I have seen the aliens shoot up 2x2 grav-lifts before.

 

If you're fighting in a battleship or an alien base, you might want to note that the aliens won't hesitate to fire blaster bombs up or down grav-lifts. But if you're playing the CE version of UFO, the single-tile sized grav-lifts are blaster bomb safe-havens due to the 'vertical movement on same-tile' bug that sends the bomb off to the south instead of to the next waypoint.

 

 

9. Finally,- snip -have.

 

Early on this gave me problems but I've since developed ways to clear it out every time.

 

With weak weaponry, I usually just chuck a grenade around the corners to get the alien waiting just outside the door. Then set off a smoke grenade in front of the door before entering.

 

When heavy-plasmas become available, I start cutting holes in the rear or side of the room and toss a high explosive or a stun bomb in. Works pretty well most of the time. Sometimes I do it the other way and cut a hole through the ceiling underneath and toss a grenade in (this was before I learnt you could throw objects right through ceilings)

 

Or you could just fire rockets, he-shells or stun bombs right up at the ceiling in the storage deck. This is by far the easiest way of getting the alien in the command room. Same goes for the one in the abducter ufo too.

 

- NKF

[Hobbes]

There's one tactic that i use when i need the Elerium but I'm getting tired of having to sweep through the rooms is the firing squad.

 

Simply load up the transport with soldiers with high reaction ratings (at least six of them). After getting rid of the aliens outside put your soldiers like this:

 

| |

|_____=_____|

Xx

Xx

Xx

Xx

 

where the = is the door, the Xs standing up troopers and x kneeled troopers. keep them at least ten squares away from the door.

 

Then just hit the end turn button a number of times until the aliens start pouring out and getting hit by reaction fire from your troops. Usually it takes care of all the aliens on the lower and middle levels although sometimes you might have to send a couple of soldiers upwards at turn thirty to finish off the ones on the bridge (most of them have panicked by then and dropped their weapons although some have not - watch out).

 

It works fine if you have a somewhat experienced squad using plasmas or lasers. It can be used on Abductors, Harvesters (covering both doors) and Supply Ships (you only need to cover the left door - the aliens never bother to use the right one).

Don't try to use it on Battleships - the aliens will simply drop a blaster bomb down your troops. Also it can be hazardous if used with Sectoids (you need psi-resistant soldiers) or Mutons/Ethereals (they can take quite a few hits before dropping down). Finally, don't line up more than five soldiers or an alien inside the UFO might get an angle to fire at your troops or worse, throw a grenade. (It can happen also if six aliens came out on the same turn and there's nobody left with TUs to fire at the last one, the more experienced the troops are, less the probability for it to happen).

Finally, DON'T make a second line of soldiers in front of the first - if someone misses they might hit the others with friendly fire.

[NKF]

They do come out the other door. Just not all that often. On the other hand, as long as you can see whomever's coming out of the door from where you're crouching, you can get them with opportunity fire. So make sure you've plenty of lighting at the other end during night missions. Or have at least one or two observers watching the other door. Just make sure they're not in the line of fire of your other soldiers.

 

Due to preference, I like to place my squad of soldiers on the right side of the supply ship rather than the left. Since there aren't so many aliens rushing to get out the right door, you won't be facing too many surprises as the aliens exit. Furthermore, you'll still be within range for opportunity fire to kick in for aliens exiting either door.

 

Does anyone know how many tiles a soldier can 'see' in full daylight? About 19 - 20 tiles isn't it?

 

With more space, I like taking a more spread out approach rather than have everyone in tight groups. Tight groups + lucky grenade throw or stun-bomb == very bad. It eventually ends up as a large half circle surrounding the supply ship. Of course, no one ever gets within a straight line with the ufo doors, except when the aliens mill around too long inside the UFO and you need some sort of bait to lure them out. A tank (upper left corner) or a rookie in a direct line with the door usually encourages the aliens to start leaving the ship.

 

Oh, and hey, you can't go wrong with a few proxy mines to soften the first few aliens to leave the ship.

 

- NKF

[Hobbes]

Well, I hardly saw an alien coming out of the right door in all the times I used this tactic. Occasionaly one of them might come out on the first turns while the squad is coming out of the transport but afterwards they just all choose the left one.

I prefer to keep them at 10 tiles rather than the 15 or 20. Has to do with the reaction fire dynamics since the soldier might not fire immediately if he's that far. I also prefer not to spread them in the half circle you mentioned because it gets more angles for the aliens inside the UFO to shoot at you when the door is opened.

You're right about the tight groups of soldiers and the possibility of grenades, of course since sometimes one of the aliens manages to toss a grenade. However if you have at least 4 soldiers with high reactions and firing ability in the group each one will fire 1-2 shots that will hit the target.

Sometimes they even kill an alien that was trying to toss a grenade as he steps out. The results are quite amusing on that case *boom*

[BladeFireLight]

I just checked the AI Files. Hobbs is right the alines are not programed to exit using the right door. how ever the path finding that that AI uses can cause one to exit if the hall to the left of the door is blocked by another alien.

 

-Blade FireLight

[Mouse Nightshirt]

Is that the right door to the aliens inside the craft, or the right door to me from outside the craft?

[Hobbes]

It's the left door to the aliens inside the craft

[NKF]

It's your right. I think it would be easier for you to think of them as east and west doors. The west door is the one the aliens like to patronise the most.

 

Hobbes: The half circle is a very wide circle -- and as I mentioned, the soldiers keep out of direct line of sight with the door. As for the angles, yes that is the hard bit. Gauging when and where to place your soldiers while at the same time getting the least angles for the aliens to see you can be tricky. The idea is still to spread your soldiers out a bit so that area-effect weapons aren't that effective.

 

As for range affecting reaction -- well, if you suffer from it, so should the alien. But then again, the distance between the two doors isn't very great.

 

Some explanatory screenshots would probably be more descriptive, but I don't have any on me. Curses...

 

 

- NKF

[Hobbes]

All depends on each one's taste, I guess

 

I also use the wide semi circle on occasion otherwise it would get boring to use the same tactic over and over.

Have you tried placing your soldiers on the upper floor of houses and barns on the farm terrain that face the west door and use the windows or blown holes for cover? Makes it harder for them to use grenades (that is, until the side of the building gets completely wrecked).

[NKF]

Thankfully X-Com is one of those few games that let you do what you want the way you want. Of course, some fairly obvious things like standing in line with the doorway is just demanding trouble.

 

As for roof reaction snipers -- yeah, they're great, given there are farm buildings nearby. You have to pick a good spot so that you're fairly concealed, but can still see the doorway.

 

Heck, I (once, and only once) took out an entire floater battleship with one man and a laser pistol on the roof (okay, so I was actively firing rather than using opportunity fire)... so there's got to be something to it.

 

- NKF

[AcidBoot]

If I'm taking on mutons and really don't want to take losses I pretty much sit back and let 'em have it with blaster launchers. Why enter a UFO when you can just punch a hole in it and rain explosive death?

 

Of course it is more fun to go toe to toe, in which case close range plasma rifle autofire seems to work OK, provided you have enough guys.

 

I save up the hard hitting weapons for when I face the mutons. You seldom need plasma weapons or blasters against anyone else.

 

Apart from that, NKf's tips seem to bear out my experience. Aliens can definately shoot up and down larger lifts. What I find funny is when they try to use a grenade. I don't know if it is possible to make it work, but grenades always hit the elevator "floor" and hence stay on the same level as the thrower, in my experience anyway.

[Crazy Photon]

I don't know if it is possible to make it work, but grenades always hit the elevator "floor" and hence stay on the same level as the thrower, in my experience anyway.

 

Wrong, I've thrown a grenade from floor 1 to floor 2 yesterday in a abductor mission, killed 4 sectoids that way... try it

[Munkeylord]

the best thing that works for me is to use a small squad of troops (4-6) and enter the ufo all in one turn, the first man opens the door and hits the right or left second man does the same, then i take the wall right in front of the door and cover where ever needed, the others file through usually aliens don't stand a chance if everything is done correctly though the first man in is always a target so pick someone who is just not that great. another thing that makes the game more interesting is nameing the soldiers after some of your friends or aquantences. or even putting yourself in there