Most Number of Crafts Damaged

[Squaddie01]

What's the most number of crafts you ever had out of action at one time? Recently I was at a point where I had 8/12 Interceptors, Firestorms, and Avengers damaged and under repairs. I had 4 of 6 Avengers out, 1 of 2 Firestorms damaged, and 3 of 4 Interceptors down. This was due to two infiltration attempts and one base building operation that all occured on two consecutive days, resulting in quite a few (6) alien battleships appearing. I knocked out 5 and was forced to allow one to successfully touch down, since the only two Avengers left needed to be able to ferry my two different squads into battle against all the UFO's that had been downed.

 

I was even at a point where I had all 12 ships out of action with a UFO spotted. The remaining 2 Avengers, 1 Interceptor, and 1 Firestorm were refuelling and rearming.

[Jman4117]

I think that I have had 3 or 4 craft damaged and have had all of them refueling at the same time. I try to avoid the battle ships unless they are on infiltration missions. Any other ship can be shot down with a plasma cannon. The battle ship can fire back. Get two firestorms on it, both with 2 plasma cannons, and do an aggressive attack. If it's on a base mission get it after it lands.

[Squaddie01]

Battleships are real badasses. I think once they appear on an infiltration mission, it's already too late. A small scout or medium scout has already infiltrated the country. When I do go up against Battleships, I use a minimum of 3 aircrafts. Sometimes even 4. I try to bring in at least one or two interceptors, a firestorm, and an avenger or two, depending what's available and close by. The firestorms and interceptors are always sent in first to draw fire followed then by the avengers.

 

This can cost an interceptor but those are easy to replace. Sometimes the avengers do take damage but usually no more then about 15%. Anything more, and that avenger is out of action for a very long time.

[Fox]

There is no "drawing fire" really in interceptions. When you send multiple crafts to attack a single UFO, the UFO will take turns shooting each ship. If you send say, 4 interceptors against a battleship, it will shoot at the first interceptor you send at it, then the next, then the next, then the next. The process repeats until it is shot down.

 

I try not to ever send my Interceptors against a battleship, it's folly. It's such an utter waste in resources, it just isn't even worth it. You are basically sending the craft on a suicide mission when you order an Interceptor to attack a battleship.

 

I rarely have damaged crafts. I think they send a lot more battleships and heavy duty missions when you let alien bases hang around. I usually let the alien bases build up pretty heavy until April or May of '99, and then attack them. There is typically about 6 of them. I assault them all and destroy them in a 24 hour period. The next month, the aliens really back off, and you have a lot of time to get research and manufacturing done relatively unimpeded. Then in the next couple of months I beat the game.

[Ion Mage]

wow, i never have had that many craft at a time before

 

And i agree, dont send interceptors after battleships, EVER, no matter how many we talk. Its like sending a hive of bees againts a man with a BFG (you all know what that is, admit it)

[Squaddie01]

I totally disagree with both Fox and Ion Mage. Interceptors are a dime a dozen in the mid to late game. The interceptors going first allows it to DRAW that first fire. Plus its inflicting damage as well. Think about it, if what you said is correct about the UFO's alternating attacks, then if you send only two avengers and say a battleship gets off 8 shots, that's 4 shots apiece against the two avengers. But If I send in an interceptor, firestorm, and two avengers, then that battleship takes two shots apiece. I'd rather have my avengers fired on twice then 4 times, 3 times instead of 6, 4 times instead of 8, etc... So in other words, the interceptor DOES draw fire.

 

Let's take an even closer look. Say if a battleship is swarmed by 4 crafts, that on average it may get off 6 shots. In this specific case, the first two crafts in, draws two shots apiece while the 3rd and 4th are only fired upon once. And likewise, every shot the UFO takes, you return 4 shots (counting both weapons as one attack). In this case you have 24 XCom attacks versus 6 UFO. Now if you send in only two avengers, to take 24 shots between the two avengers, you allow the UFO to get off 12 shots. That means your avengers will be fired upon 6 times each in this scenario comparerd to once each in the above example. Again, the interceptors and firestorms do DRAW FIRE.

 

My experience backs this up. Send in two avengers against a battleship and watch them come back with damage between 10-35%. Send in the multicraft approach with a sacrificial Interceptor as the point, and perhaps you lose an Interceptor, or it takes about 80% damage, but your Avengers return with 0-15% damage.

 

As for battleships appearing, sometimes it's just bad luck that to have 3 infiltration attempts along with base building activity and retalliation attempts resulting in quite a few battleships appearing in a single week.

 

As I have said my style is to engage all UFO's that appear.

[Fox]

I see your points, which are valid. I was under the impression that you meant the first craft would draw fire until destroyed, and then the UFO would move onto the next one.

 

I still disagree with your tactics, albeit they could be useful as a desperate maneuver so save a country in an infiltration mission. In my opinion, the battleships aren't worth the sacrificing of an interceptor. You've got:

 

A) Price of Interceptor

B) Price of Plasma Cannons

C) Elerium in Plasma Cannons

D) Waiting about another 3-4 days (depending on whether or not you have more plasma cannons ready) to get a whole new Interceptor up and ready to go.

E) Annoyance of having to deal with the whole thing

 

An effective way to destroy Battleships is to just arm one Interceptor at every base you have around the world (assuming you have all 8 bases functioning with good globe coverage) with Fusion Ball launchers. You can usually get three Interceptors on one Battleship, damage it heavily, and then send in a Firestorm with plasmas in for the kill.

[JellyfishGreen]

Squaddie01, do you even bother arming that sacrificial interceptor? Or do you just install an ejection seat, fuel it up, strap on a kamikaze headband, and go to ramming speed?

 

'cos that would save on elerium and turnaround time.

[Alitorious]

I guess what it boils down to is this: Is the amount of time it takes to replace the interceptor less than the amount of time taken to repair a ship with the damage the interceptor draws?

 

The interceptor takes one or two shots, then it's gone. It takes 72 hours to replace it. Does it take more or less time than that to repair an firestorm or avenger?

[Squaddie01]

Fox,

 

The only problem with trying to send 3 interceptors against a battleship is that the timing is difficult because of the low speed of the interceptors, the time it takes for 3 interceptors from various bases to intercept and the high speed of the battleships.

 

As for the cost, elerium just isn't an issue late game. In my current game, I have over 2300 units of elerium across all my bases and this is without having farmed elerium from enemy bases and supply ships. I have dozens of flying suits and power suits already produced and have a stash of Fusion balls on hand. So it's no big deal to resend my engineers to make Plasma cannons. As for the time I'd rather wait the 3 days for another Interceptor then the 4+ day of repairs needed by my avengers.

 

Jelly,

 

My interceptors usually have one plasma cannon and one avalanche launcher. They're there to inflict damage as well as to absorb hits. As for losing an interceptor, I lose perhaps no more then two interceptors in a game. Three maybe if I have bad luck and alien battleships appear early on in the game. They usually just take a severe beating and limp back to base at 80+% damage or so.

 

Alitorious,

 

Firestorms are quick to repair but suffer from a lack of range. When attempting to intercept the battleships, the window of engagement is quite low while using Firestorms. Often times, a Firestorm runs out of fuel before my other crafts are able to join the interception. Avengers, when damaged, can take days to a couple of weeks depending on the extent of damage. A damaged interceptor also doesn't take long to repair.

 

By mid to late game, my interceptors have only two purposes. They are either sent out to patrol for enemy bases or are used as cannon fodder when the Battleships appear. Any other interception mission is performed by one of my many Avengers and Firestorms scattered about.

[NKF]

If you can afford to spend a lot of elerium on multiple Avengers, plasma cannons and fusion balls, I don't see why you don't just use the same resources to just buy troops and build a lot of blaster bombs and take the battleships out on the ground.

 

It would perhaps be less costlier and it would mean your ships would always be in tip-top condition. Say there's a troop transporter stationed at every one of your 8 strategically placed bases. Whenever a battleship is spotted, just take note of where it's heading and be prepared to launch the nearest troop-transport once it's close to its destination. Even if a sudden freak disaster occurs and multiple battleships decide to land all at the same time, you'll be able to launch an assault each one while your interceptors deal with the other ships with their trusty plasma cannons.

 

---

 

I had a rather interesting experience once with a mass infiltration UFO team. My interceptor dealt with the 3 other small fry easily, but the two battleship infiltrators landed in the adjacent country (France). I'd already launched my Skyranger the moment they appeared so I caught the first one just as it landed. It was my only troop transport at the time, so I had to wait for the Skyranger to return and refuel. Because it was so close, the refuel time was very short, so I put on a new HWP and put in a fresh crew and was able to launch and catch the second battleship before it left. I really don't know how I managed to pull off the two battleship missions... France didn't defect either, which was amazing considering the amount of time the other Battleship was on the ground.

 

Just another one of the coveted once-in-a-blue-moon moments.

 

- NKF

[Fox]

I agree with NKF. Take the suckers on the ground.

 

I have also pulled off crazy stunts like that, with the massive UFO Infiltration/Base teams. The "launch the Skyranger as soon as you see a UFO squad tactic" is a very useful one as well.

[The Demi-Godly One]

A UFO is not like a terror mission, it will fly off of the ground even when you are sending a ship to it, right?

[NKF]

That's right, they will fly off, but they do stay down for a certain amount of time after they've landed. I don't know for how long, but I've seen one stay down as long as 3 hours or so.

 

Although, I have noticed some UFOs on simple missions, or whatnot would land when being chased by an interceptor and wait until it runs out of fuel before running off. It'll take off shortly after the chasing interceptor breaks off and heads back to base.

 

Of course, it could just doing its mission and it just so happened to land during the chase.

 

Speaking of the topic: One of my worst airship downtimes was... well, I used to take a very aggressive approach too, so all of my ships except the primary Skyranger were in need of heavy repairs. That was rather embarassing, I can tell you!

 

- NKF

[The Demi-Godly One]

Hmm, I've never had more than 3 craft damaged at a time. (Probably because I only use 4 ships, one being a troop transport)

[Squaddie01]

The mass nuke-em approach is just not very challenging, much like using PSI-Amps for mind control.

 

I just don't like UFO's succeeding on their missions, especially if it's an infiltration, base building or retaliation mission.

 

But yes sometimes, it's necessary to just let them land. This is the case when I'm low on elerium or low on available interceptors.

[Fox]

The mass nuke-em approach is just not very challenging, much like using PSI-Amps for mind control.

When you play Superhuman, you don't care about how you kill the bast*rds, you care if you do kill them. Heh heh.

[The Demi-Godly One]

Well EVEN on superhuman using psi-amps makes the game pretty easy. :hmmm: You do want a challenge, don't you?

[Fox]

I guess I was talking more about using blaster bombs. I tend to use Psi sparingly.