Diplomatic aliens

[Rosstoid]

Hi! Perhaps you veterans could help me out here. The aliens are coming up with a potential ceasefire. Unfortunately, this ceasefire involves making all the countries hate me, leaving X-Com in a crippled state, unwanted and poor.

 

It was bad enough when the United States withdrew, but then the aliens took Canada as well. A gut feeling tells me the aliens will make a grab for France and Japan as well. So how do I prevent the Infiltration UFOs from taking infiltrating infiltratable countries? I can easily blow some scouts out of the air with my Plasma beam Interceptors, but the Aliens bring in a battleship, which I knock out, but while the avenger is being repaired another battleship comes and lands.

[NKF]

Two words: Ground assault.

 

If you can't take them out in the air, try to do it on the ground. It may or may not save the country, and it's always very risky to take on battleships, but it's better than letting that ship go.

 

I do not know how long the battleships need to be on the ground before any serious political damage is done, except that once they take off, it's far too late. So get those assault crews out there as quickly as you can. Launching your Skyrangers the moment the battleship(s) appear is often a good idea. With the Avengers and Lightnings, you should wait for them to get closer to their target country (if it's nearby) to conserve fuel.

 

It's hard to tell whether or not your efforts are achieving anything, as I sometimes lose countries to the aliens even though no infiltrator ships were spotted over the area. Even if I've built a base there that's fitted with a hyperwave decoder and a few existing large radars for the range boost.

 

- NKF

[Groovechamp]

slightly offtopic,

One way to keep sticky on a battleship (the way I did it), was to keep an interceptor on standoff range (then minimize the engage-window). I can't remember the names of the ships, but if skyranger is the one which carries your assault squad, then send that one right after the battleship.

 

The skyranger has plenty fuel to follow such a huge ship for a while until it lands.

Other way of course, would be to have that avenger filled with your troops (hope I'm not confusing the names) and keep that on standoff-range.

If you ask me, that might not work, because the battleship has quite a speed and

-> the faster you fly= the more faster fuel(in this case, elerium burns) away.

 

So just to put it together -> Interceptor follows the battleship (send in a second one when you think the first one is almost out of juice ) while a skyranger (the basic x-com troopcarrier) tries to follow until it lands (might only work it the battleship is on one of those abduction jobs).

 

Mesa hope my tips helped out somehow.

Groove

[Rosstoid]

Thanks for the tips, but my unwillingness to attack anything bigger than a big scout is a problem. I'm not all that willing to have to send in my elite soldiers into large UFOs where aliens can shoot them in the back or ambush them with blaster bombs.

I'll just keep a special base with 4 or so firestorms so I can shoot down all the battleships that get sent for infiltration purposes. Provided elerium and building them is not a problem, think it could work? I've managed to prevent alien retaliation attempts by blowing the scouts for them.

[Hobbes]

My experience is that once the fleet of UFOs appear (1 Large Scout, 1 Terror Ship, 1 Supply Ship and, depending if the aliens decide to built a base or not, 1 to 2 Battleships) the country is lost at the end of the month. Doesn't matter if you shoot down every UFO before they land or if you ground assault all of them. The only reason to prevent this is to detect and shoot down the scout missions that precede the alien infiltration fleet.

[Stewart]

When the game is determined to infiltrate it's best effort will involve two battleships plus one large ship (supply or Terror) in the skies at once.

 

1 ) If you don't have UFOs yet 4 interceptors armed with dual fusionball will smash a battleship provided you stack them first then launch them together. Likely you will lose one interceptor, rarely you'll lose either 2 or 0 (yep, I've done it). If you lose your interceptor near the end of the month then who cares!!!

2 ) This needs to be confirmed but I think you can lose a ccountry if the aliens land in a regional city outside it's borders. For example I lost India once and I'm sure I kept the UFOs out of India but a battleship landed in Tehran.

3 ) Your best pre-all the goodies ship for fighting battleships is the skyranger.

4 ) The aliens never take EVERY country. I had a game where I lost all countries except Russia (the bigest country in the world) Anyone actually lost russia BTW, I can't recall ever having lost Russia. I'm wondering if there's a problem with the game logic because Russia is the only country that exists in more than one region and so the game doesn't know what to do?

5 ) Lost nations DO come back. I can personally vouch for it. It has happened to me all the time. BUT . . . . their funding is sporatic after that (it can just go away and start again). The trick is to have high scores. You get high scores by shooting down lots of UFOs. Xcom is paid to shoot down UFOs. I usually have 6 bases (not counting polar ones) before the end of Feb. '99. Mind you these "bases" are a lift and a small radar (see it does have use). This gives me "eyes" all over the world. You can't shoot down what you can't see. And if the aliens take one of these bases, heck, they take 12 days to make and cost about 7 Heavy Plasma Rifles.

 

I hope this helps.

[The Demi-Godly One]

Well I just tested it out, aliens can not take russia with ships just in one area. They need to send ships to both regions that Russia covers.

[Stewart]

Do they have to do it at one time or does it remember having done one part?

[Fox]

4 )  The aliens never take EVERY country.  I had a game where I lost all countries except Russia (the bigest country in the world) Anyone actually lost russia BTW, I can't recall ever having lost Russia.  I'm wondering if there's a problem with the game logic because Russia is the only country that exists in more than one region and so the game doesn't know what to do?

I'll drink to that. My very first X-COM game, Russia was my only funder there. And I never really took all that great care of it. I had one base, but if the aliens wanted to take it, they probably could have.

 

As for the small radar bases around the world, why not tag a general stores on to that, and buy 6 HWPs or something? That way you at least have a chance to defend it, with the cost of about another 6 heavy plasmas.

 

Rosstoid Posted on Jul 25 2003, 09:25 AM

Thanks for the tips, but my unwillingness to attack anything bigger than a big scout is a problem. I'm not all that willing to have to send in my elite soldiers into large UFOs where aliens can shoot them in the back or ambush them with blaster bombs.

I'll just keep a special base with 4 or so firestorms so I can shoot down all the battleships that get sent for infiltration purposes. Provided elerium and building them is not a problem, think it could work? I've managed to prevent alien retaliation attempts by blowing the scouts for them.

 

Well if you are unwilling to assault the larger UFOs, consider yourself out of funding. If you want to keep some of your favorite countries around, you are going to have to make the realization that you must take those suckers. I was scared the first time I took on a battleship too, I remember it very well actually, I thought it was some kind of secret alien base because it looked so odd. The way I took on every other one after that, is to just remember you are better than the aliens, and they are nothing but vermin. Usually helps me out. Make good offensives up the lifts, and don't camp around. If you want some good tactics for attacking the larger UFOs, ask us, or go look at some older forum posts on the matter.

[Stewart]

As for the small radar bases around the world, why not tag a general stores on to that, and buy 6 HWPs or something?  That way you at least have a chance to defend it, with the cost of about another 6 heavy plasmas.

Do get me wrong it's not like I don't build them up later.

 

BTW if you have no people at a base, just HWPs and Genral Stores does the game let you fight it out?

[Fox]

I asked that question a while back too, and everyone said yes. I've had radar bases like yours, stocked with only 4 HWPs. It was never attacked, though.

[The Demi-Godly One]

Also if you have a too many HWP's you will actually not get to use your soldiers! It will force you to use your tanks. (And trust me, that is harder than it sounds)

[Rosstoid]

I get enough money tackling the smaller UFOs, since I raid every sectoid/floater/snakeman scout I shoot down and maybe a third of the time I get elerium with it. Maybe I'll create a new 10 man team, put them on a couple of scout recovery missions for experience and use them to raid Supply ships and maybe even landed battleships (I never shoot battleships down. The last time I did a terrorsite opened up and my avenger was still under heavy repairs). A fresh 10-man rookie squad would be more expendable than the bulk of my forces.

[Fox]

You need another landing squad to back up your first one. I always buy my second Skyranger in February.

[Squaddie01]

That's funny Rosstoid, by mid to late game, I hate being bothered by any thing smaller then a harvester. I sometimes get to the point where I decide to shoot down all small, medium, and large scouts over water when possible. That way all my ground missions are up against large ships with more aliens to hunt and kill.

[The Demi-Godly One]

Why shoot them over water? It doesn't matter towards anything if you ignore a downed ship on land.

[Rosstoid]

That's what I know is true but the sight of that white cross from a downed UFO annoys me. It sits there. Mocking me. Being like a smudge on a window. Telling me I am a bad commander if there are any non X-Com symbols on the earth.

[Fox]

Rosstoid said it. I hate leaving crash sites unattended for some reason. It does mock you. I know it does. The aliens sit in their downed UFO, laughing and pointing. Then when they know you aren't coming, they run to the farms and rape the fields and pillage the women!

 

I also agree with Squaddie. I tend to ignore UFOs later in the game. Gets to the point where you just want to get real work done. In my case I just like to fill up all bases with compliments of everything, then once thats done I go on massive alien-killing campaigns.

[NKF]

Why don't you just send in a landing team, taunt the aliens out the back of the Skyranger and dust off and laugh at the aliens while they stamp around and wave their fists in righteous indignation? The crash site disappears afterwards.

 

- NKF

[Fox]

too much trouble :lazy:

 

There's no smilie for LAZY?!? We must find one, and fast!

[Rosstoid]

I send annoyance landing teams as well. While cute little sectoids hang around the UFO laughing, a tank rumbles towards them and fires a rocket at the nearest sectoid and bugs out to the Skyranger. I then imagine the aliens shaking their fists and running to their dead pal. "Noooo!!!!!! They got Zubleratch! Curse you X-Com! CURSSSEEEE YOUUUUUUU!!!!!!"

Or I just order any nearby aliens to throw their guns in. If I sell a heavy plasma I could buy a house or loads of toys to play with :dontgetit:

[Squaddie01]

Back to the subject of preventing infiltrations, from my expierence, once the Battleships and large UFO's appear, it is already too late. It seems to me the infiltration process almost always begins with either a small or medium scout. It is these that have to be intercepted prior to touchdown, to prevent an infiltration. If you spot these after they have completed their mission, you may be too late. But you'll know shortly if the larger ships soon appear.

 

The key then would be having multiple radar bases and interceptor bases (interceptors as in avengers, firestorms, etc.) able to cover and protect as much territory/nations as possible.

 

I generally cover as much area as I can using 7 bases with multiple radars (small, large, and hyperdecoders). I always place bases in the US, Europe (generally France or Germany), Asia (Japan or Korea), Australia, Brazil, Africa (right in the center), and a 2nd one in Europe usually in Russia between my Euro and Asian bases. I usually have 1 base slot that I don't bother with or for fun, will place on Hawaii or the Northern Polar region and use only as a radar station. All other bases house between 1-3 interceptor crafts.

[Crazy Photon]

IME, I were successful in stopping infiltration missions only by shooting down the scouts VERY early, or the other vessels will appear...

 

I generally cover as much area as I can using 7 bases with multiple radars (small, large, and hyperdecoders).

On a side note, If you have a hyperdecoder in 1 base, the rest of the radars in that base are unnecessary. Sell them

[crazedc]

pardon my ignorance, but i thought that large radars just had a bigger range than the small ones. i always built a large one, destroyed the small one. is there actually a difference other than that?

[The Demi-Godly One]

It does have a farther range, and a higher chance to detect UFO's. (Although you shouldn't destroy the small radars, the chance to detect UFO's with a radar is culmulative)