Setting my standards a bit too high...

[Slythe]

Ever since I read about some saying they can get through an entire game losing few to no soldiers (which I still have a hard time believing ), I decided to try this myself. Result ? Me restarting a new game about 8 times so far after I lose more than 3 soldiers. Now I never claimed to be a pro in the tactical combat, and sometimes I get impatient, but most of the time throughout the course of a game there happens to be more than a few times where a death seems unavoidable (as I've mentioned in another thread). As an example, on an assault mission, half my soldiers had power armor half had personal armour, no motion detectors yet, we land and I toss a smoke grenade out and next turn move a soldier with power armor down next to the wheel. I look around and take a couple steps to see if any alien is visible through the smoke. Coast is clear. I end the turn with him kneeling next to the wheel. Next turn an alien that must've been just a bit out of visual range through the smoke moves closer, sees my soldier, fires with a plasma rifle, and kills him with one shot. :hmmm: I think I need to loosen my strict standards a bit...

[BladeFireLight]

I alwase operate uder the 'acceptable losses' basicly what ever hapens hapens.. If I have to replace a skyranger and full crue so be it. War is h3||

[JellyfishGreen]

I think the people trying to achieve that just take a lot of time - and do lose soldiers, but then reload the mission from the geoscape (which allows the terrain and aliens to rearrange themselves) and try again from the start of the mission.

 

Anyone want to confirm or deny these reports?

[Crazy Photon]

I think you're right JG... although I often reload from battlescape though when I am killed

[Slythe]

See there. I should've added that part of my goal was to NEVER reload unless some bug or misclick occurred, which made things even more difficult. I guess the fact that the combatants are called soldiers should've been an indication that losses, sometimes heavy, should be expected in this 'war against the aliens'.

[Fox]

The only time I ever reload is when a blaster bomb clips the side of the skyranger/avenger, and like the whole squad dies. Because that is just plain dumb.

[BladeFireLight]

Fox: Didnt your mother tell you not to fire a BB indoors?

[Fox]

 

My mother was a sectoid :o

[BladeFireLight]

I thought that the abduction/impragnation would make the sectoids the father

 

 

I think the best way to not loose men is to take your time.. EU and TFTD are like chess. not warcraft

[Aziraphale]

I'm agreeing as long as you aren't dissing Warcraft, or Starcraft.

 

I've been getting better, ever so slowly. I have like 10 vets, and I'm trying to rotate rookies in there so they get some experience too, but I just took out a Snakeman Base, and got both leaders. Evidently, I killed all the Snakemen and Chrysallids except for the leaders and one guy that was hiding on the second floor of the vegetation room. How he got up there, I don't know, but he did. Anyway, Alien leaders have Blaster Launchers to make getting into the Command Room really difficult, right? Well, I needed to open the door to get to the grav lift there, and I was expecting like 3 Snakemen to be holding Heavy Plasma against me. Instead, I walked in to see a Blaster Launcher on the floor. I got a Mind Probe to that side of the map, and found the leader(s). I used a Small Launcher and got them both knocked out, but the funny part has yet to be said.

 

For the heck of it, since I didn't want the leader to wake up, I had a guy stand on him. The next turn, I realized there was another alien there, and I wasn't going to take chances. On a whim, I stood over him too, and picked up the alien corpse, and put it in the soldiers backpack. Because I was in the inventory, I decided, hey, why now hold an alien corpse in the hand, and have one in the backpack too? That way, I'm GUARANTEED that they won't wake up! So, I got out of the inventory screen, and just started laughing. In the Right Hand box, there was the Snakeman body, but the little Power Suit Soldier looked like he was hold a rifle

 

I guess it reverted to the Default picture of holding a rifle, even though I don't see how that's the default item. I thought a pistol would be it or something. I guess Corpses (Or knocked out aliens) are 2 handed weapons, and the rifle is the default 2 handed weapon.

 

But don't disrespect Warcraft.

[NKF]

I guess they never meant for you to carry aliens in your hands.

 

It works in Apocalypse, but in UFO and TFTD, you cannot keep aliens unconscious by standing on them or holding on to them in your inventory. They'll just wake up in the nearest available location (usually the northern tile). Of course, you can get into a funny situation if you're flying in the air while carrying an unconscious unit (one of yours, or theirs), that normally does not fly, and it wakes up. If it doesn't move, it'll levitate in the air. In any case, never ever carry or wait on top of an alien with a built-in hand-to-hand attack, especially important in TFTD where you tend to get situations where you're hauling lobsterman commanders away from an alien colony, as it's easier to abduct them that way than it is to slowly and methodically clear out the whole second level of a colony. But I digress.

 

Similarly, try holding rockets. The battlescape sprites are set to that of the stun-rod. Most misc. items, like elerium pods and weapon clips default to the grenade image, which is generic enough for small items.

 

- NKF

 

edit: It might be interesting to know that you can edit the alien corpses into weapons of mass destruction if you wanted to. Although how you determine the type of bullet that is displayed when the gun is fired and its associated firing sound is beyond me.