Base invasion

[Aziraphale]

I'm stuck with a game where a base invasion is imminent in 1 day from the save point. It's Snakemen, but at least there are no Chrysallids. Anyway, I have 5 Heavy plasmas, 1 Heavy Cannon with 6 rounds of AP ammo, an Autocannon with 2 clips AP ammo, 4 Pistols, 10 Laser Pistols, 4 Smoke Grenades, 4 Terrestrial Grenades, 2 Stun Launchers (Unreloadable, haven't gotten Stun Bombs yet). Half of my troops are Rookies, I have 3 or 4 Sergeants, 2 Captains, and a Colonel. 10 of the 18 troops are in Personal armor, the rest have none.

 

My question isn't "Can I emerge victorious?" because I've beaten them off loads of times. But how can I beat them off without losing a Veteran? Just save/reload? I have no qualms with doing that right now, I'm on Beginner. I just won't go down to XComUtil, because that's REALLY cheating. Soldier placement is random every time, so I can't give a specific soldier a grenade where it will be most needed, etc.

 

Why does the Lower Left hanger (initial base, really badly placed stuff.) have a door, but the other hangers don't? That has caused me no end of problems. I can't defend that hanger fast enough. The other two I can cover well, with a line of 3 kneel soldiers. I send a rookie out to spot, then if he has TUs left (usually a pistol or laser pistol too) get a few potshots on the alien, and then have a vet kill it with a heavy plasma.

 

But anyway, I guess there isn't much for you guys to answer, I'm just ranting, basically at how much the initial base setup works.

 

Oh, just thought of a question. If you shoot down Retaliation UFOs, will they send out more, or give up? Also, once they discover your base, will they have to continually send out Retaliation UFOs to rediscover it every time? Or, once a race knows about it, you're doomed to an invasion twice a month?

 

I think that about covers it.

[Slythe]

Well if your only goal is to not lose a veteran then I guess you can sacrifice all your rookies while defending the base if need be. It certainly sounds possible from the situation you describe although I'd have to see it. I'm not sure how far you are in your game but some good advice to take that I read in a very old post is to immediately (like the first day of the game) start restructuring your starting base to make it more defensible. You do this by building 2 hangars beside the one at the top, when those are complete you remove the other 2 along the bottom. You also build 2 living quarters along the bottom of the two rows of single square facilities, one on either end, then dismantle your starting living quarters that's next to the access lift once those 2 are finished. You end up with a base that has only one entry point. It also helps if you keep some proximity mines for base defense.

[NKF]

I cannot offer any specific answers, but here are a few thoughts that come to mind:

 

- The alien's aren't after the base. They're after your soldiers. Place your soldiers before the base. Spend as much time as you need, but don't take any risky chances. Hide in the broom and hwp closets. Send rookies out before veterans. And don't try to get every soldier to do too much in one turn unless it's absolutely necessary.

 

- Hide. Do not stay in the corridors longer than you need to. Sometimes you can be daring and wait patiently for an alien to walk by the hwp closet and then step out behind it. Not adviseable, but possible.

 

- Have a few proxy-mines? Mine strategic areas where you expect a lot of traffic. Don't worry if your soldiers don't start near these areas. Be patient and relay the grenade if you have to.

 

- Remember the golden rule: If the alien cannot see you, it cannot use opportunity fire on you.

 

- Use the upper levels if you have to. The aliens can go upstairs if you wait long enough. A reaction-fire team waiting upstairs can be useful. Might not be all that grand a tactic for large bases, but for tiny bases it can work.

 

 

For future base design considerations:

 

- All base modules have rooms and HWP closets and sometimes walls of their own placed in different locations. Knowing which way the doors are pointing can be useful.

 

- Soldiers do not start in small radar modules (and probably some others, but I haven't identified them yet, anyone familiar with the map files might be able to provide more information). They might be useful to bridge between the hangars and the rest of the base where your soldiers will be. Sort of a buffer. Having soldier start right next to the hangars in full view of the entire alien army tends to be rather embarassing at times. Also, if you didn't use X-Comutil it fix the base disjoint bug, this means it's safe to build it in the lower right hand corner of the base -- as no one will be created there, so it won't matter if this module is sealed off from the base.

 

- If the base does not have any hangars, the aliens will be created in locations where your soldiers are normally generated. This is bad.

 

And as for the retaliation scouts -- I can't really say much about shooting them down. For me, shooting them down always seems to attract more and more -- but with careful planning, it can be used to divert them away from the actual location of your base.

 

However I can say that if one group of retaliation scouts find your base, expect to have a battleship visit your base. If you destroy this battleship with your base defences, this 'group' of aliens will just send another, and another, and another until at least one gets through. Once this happens, they'll 'forget', no matter the outcome of the battle.

 

Mind you, multiple groups of the same aliens can target your base, so don't be surprised if the same species of aliens attack your base twice in a row a few days apart.

 

- NKF

 

On a less related note: When the aliens destroy your base, you only lose points for your soldiers killed in combat. The loss of the base itself, all the equipment in its stores and whatnot aren't penalised. That is to say, if you surrender to the aliens on the first round, you'll lose everything at that base, but only get a 0 point penalty. Wacky. Don't quite understand it myself.

[Mouse Nightshirt]

Well good luck to you. I tend not to have problems; either the battleships are continuosly shot down by my base defences (Do I get points for this?) Or I use my normal tactics.

[JellyfishGreen]

Referring to your post, use the veteran to make the kill from uprange, use the rookie's extra TUs to get him out of sight for the next victim.

 

As NKF said, sacrifice space for safety: let them have the base. Aliens won't be forming the strategic assault groups, I thnk they'll start wandering the corridors one at a time which makes them easier to kill.

 

Try racing all your men to strategic points where they can support each other, rather than staying behind to attempt to hold a room.

 

As a wacky thought: you could then start moving them out and treat the counterattack as invading the alien's base. Concentrate on securing your flanks then securing one hangar at a time, keep going around the base until the aliens stop moving. NB this idea has not been battle-tested.

 

JFG

[Aziraphale]

I couldn't let them have the base so early in the game. If it was my new base, then maybe, but not this one. I was always trying to hold everything in the hallways, and was really getting a love/hate relationship with defending my base. It's a really cool experience to be in your own base, but it was getting annoying almost always losing everyone. I lost 3 rookies defending the base, and kept EVERYONE else alive through it, due to NKF.

 

Yes, Norm, thanks to you, I was able to do this I just hid EVERYONE, and if I felt too many turns were going by without anything happening, I took a rookie with 1 step out of his room, look around, and put him back in. If there were any vets around, I would have them snipe 'em off. They rushed a single closet, and this was kinda funny.

 

I took a rookie out of his room. Didn't see anything from where he was. Started looking around, and it turns out there was a Chrysallid right next to him. And a Snakeman, and one more a few tiles behind that. So this Rookie was doomed, right? I just started Auto-Firing with a Laser Pistol, and managed to kill the Snakeman right behind the Chrysallid. As it turns out, the Snakemen behind the Rookie and Chrysallid used an alien veggie to try and kill my rookie, taking himself, the Chrysallid, and the rookie out, all in one blow. Talk about friendly fire.

 

So, I am very thankful for the hide-in-the-broom-closet strategy. Thank you.

[NKF]

I suppose you can give yourself a pat on the back for that one. I'm not that lucky.

 

Don't rely on that one too much for all your base defence needs. Mind you, it's an effective one at times, but I'd still suggest developing a mix of strategies just in case. High armour aliens and psionics tend to mess things up a bit.

 

One other thing I like to do when I have some heavy explosives like the large rockets or the blaster bomb, or heck, even the HWP rockets, is to fire a rocket or two into the hangars to soften the opposition up a bit before hiding. Even the high powered rockets aren't strong enough to destroy the hangars in one or two shots.

 

- NKF

[Mike]

In all the years I have played UFO, the old dos, playstation, and CE I have never lost a base feature. Is that possible? Many base invasions I have peppered the hangars with blaster bombs never thinking I could bring the roof down.

[NKF]

Well, I don't know about the hangars -- as I've dealt some really heavy damage to them from time to time (cyberdiscs). But for the smaller base modules, yes. If you deal enough damage to a base module, it will just disappear. Well, not immediately, but when you get back to the Geoscape, the overly damaged base module will no longer exist. Some base modules like the lift don't seem to get destroyed.

 

After heavily bombing any base module, If you notice that there's no more natural lighting in that module, then you'd better start worrying.

 

I've always wondered what would happen if, using the xcomutil optimal base layout (i.e. the hangars and grav-lift separated from the rest of the base via a single corridor construction setup), what would happen if any of the modules in the single connecting corridor were to be completely destroyed. Would it truncate the base? Frightening thought. That's one of the reasons why, these days, I prefer two corridors rather than just the one.

 

- NKF

[BladeFireLight]

NKF: you must have a scorched earth policy. I have never seen the need to do so mutch wanton damage to my own base.

[NKF]

Well, most of the time it isn't my fault. :angel:

 

The few times it happened, the aliens were just successful (or rather, they were unlucky enough) at having their blaster bombs detonate in the same module several times over, plus the cyberdiscs... oh dear. There was nothing left in the centre of the room but dirt tiles.

 

 

- NKF

 

edit: as a matter of fact, I should get you some screenshots of my lightning/grenade/pistol sessions... if the game had fully deformable terrain, my lightning would be on its side in a very big ditch.

[Mouse Nightshirt]

Could someone test whether it will trunctuate the base if you destroy a linking module: I would, but I've lent the game to someone.

[NKF]

Mouse, I can confidently say that the answer is 'yes'.

 

I just tried it and am now staring at the results. All the modules left in my base are the three hangars and the grav-lift.

 

Get this, my 'stores' are still packed with all the goodies I collected, and even the soldiers are still alive too, although there are 0 bunks in the base. Poor saps must have to sleep in the rubble...

 

I think that in order to destroy a module, you need to destroy all the furniture in the upper room as well. I had to give the thing several tries before the module was destroyed, and it only worked after destroying the upstairs furniture.

 

Hmmm. I wonder where your soldiers will spawn if the base is attacked before you can build any new base modules? Probably in the alien start-locations, or cause the game to crash. Either way, it's not a very nice thought.

 

- NKF

[AcidBoot]

Good lord, Aziraphale! What an odd assortment of gear! In future try to keep a base well stocked with decent weapons! As has been said; prox-grenades are great on defence missions. Chuck em near hanger entrances, and around the elevator. You can wait a really long time for the bozos to trip them up.

 

I like to have 2 plasma defence modules, and one of those forcefield do-hickeys that lets you fire twice before they land. That stops the battleship most times. If you want be real sure, use blaster defences!

 

Of course what I really like is to let 'em land and to kick seven kinds of alien goo out of them.

 

I find that on easier levels, once you beat back a couple of ships they don't give you any more grief. On harder levels they typically try again every 1-5 weeks, usually at weaker bases.

[Aziraphale]

Let's put it this way:

I had the save ONE DAY before the invasion, and all I could do was complete the laser pistol manufacturing (10 at the time)

 

The thing was, though, it was March 17th, 1999. I had researched Personal Armor, Heavy Plasma, Laser Pistols to that point. Since it was the day before, I couldn't order a new HWP or any prox mines. I haven't researched Plasma Pistol/Rifles yet, and I had Small Launchers done, but not Stun Bombs. So I had 2 small launchers with a 1 shot pot at an alien, and managed to get a Live Snakeman Soldier out of it.

 

I really haven't had time to research anything else. I have 40 scientists trying to get Laser Rifles right now, as it is.

[Solfius]

I had a tiny base once all it had was a hanger, lift, stores, and living quarters, and a radar. Garrisoning it was 50 rookies with rifles, basically anything left over from my main base that I no longer needed due to better equip.

 

That base was attacked by sectoids, and all the sectoids spawned in the hanger, with some spilling into the other sections, but my 50 rookies spawned everywhere, even in amongst the aliens!

 

So after deliberating whether I could be bothered to do all the shooting or not I decided no. I clicked end turn, and all hell broke loose.

 

First alien shoots at a nearby rookie, about 5 rookies reaction fire back, then next alien shoots and gets reaction fire back and so on. Basically it was 5/6 minutes of the most intense fire fight I have ever seen on UFO. Shame they can throw grenades by reaction fire as well

[JellyfishGreen]