Progressing

[Guest Sasquatch]

Okay, here's my situation:

 

I'm just over a year into the game, with five bases - One in Brazil, one in South Africa, one in America, one in France, and my main base in Japan. So far, UK and France have signed a pact with the aliens, though I still have retained my base in France.

 

I researched 'alien origins' a while ago, and it said something to the extent of I should capture some alien leaders for interrogation. So I have a lot stun launchers and rods, but it's been a while and I haven't been capturing any alien leaders.

 

Any advice on which ships usually have alien leaders? Or where alien leaders generally reside? Also, what could I do to prevent other countries from signing over to the aliens, aside from watching their backs?

[adamgiles]

I've found that the largest (four story) alien crafts carry high ranking 'leader' aliens the best. Of course alien bases carry 'leaders' more often then any vessel.

As for the prevention of countries falling into alien hands the best strategy I've found is 'dummy' bases. I start off by building a main base somewhere in America or Europe, or at least somewhere centralized. Later on when funding permits, start building bases in other countries. Be sure they are evenly distributed around the globe. Build structures that will only be needed by the occupants of the base. Such as barracks, long range sensors, storage, and one hanger. Transfer soldiers to these facilities that have some good experience; obviously you don't want rookies guarding these bases. The long range sensors are self explanatory. If you build enough of these evenly around the globe they act as eyes to catch whatever vessel happens to fly by. Plus you'll need at least an interceptor to go after vessels and for regular scout missions too.

DON'T THROW ANYTHING AWAY!!! Keep it all in these storage facilities around the world. You'll have an awesome arsenal, and you can sell it all for profits later if you are hard up for cash. If one base gets low on something you can always transfer stuff around too. I've used this strategy for some years now since, say 1995. I've found you only need maybe 2 or 3 extra 'dummy' bases at any given time. But, if time and money allow, build more. Just don't forget to equip them with the latest technology, and don't keep laser guided missile tanks as a defense in base...they're almost useless, too destructive.

[NKF]

I have an opposite view on the rocket tanks. I highly recommend them for base defence (and not just because the ammo is free). They are powerful, but their rockets are not that powerful that a constant barrage of rockets will destroy a base module. Damaging parts of the base has no consequence, unless you blow everything up, including the scenery and other knick knacks on the upper floors. The hangars and access lift cannot be destroyed, so damage them however you wish (the hangars can, if only via the domino collapse effect, but not from direct damage). The rocket tanks are fairly useless (as in, you need to use a LOT of rockets) for taking on sectopods and cyberdiscs, however, so you will want to back them up with plasma hovertanks or heavy laser tanks. Otherwise, they're great for clearing out the majority of the attackers entering from the hangar.

 

I'd recommend the fusion hovertanks too, but you have to be a bit careful with when aiming those. Note, you needn't build any ammo for them if you're only using them for base defence. A massive saving on elerium.

 

---

 

Leaders. Lots of ships carry leaders. One such ship that has a leader would be the supply ship. The abducter and the harvester often have one too. Heck, I've even seen one in a large scout. Or if you're feeling brave, go for the battleship. This has a guaranteed leader and, more importantly, you'll often find a commander. Same goes with alien bases. Get one of each, research them in the right order, and you're half way to the final mission already. Then it's just a matter of building the right ship and you're on your way. (note, you can abduct the leader/commander rather than destroy the battleship/base. Just bring one back to the exit pads, stunned, and dust off)

 

If you're fighting sectoids and they are trying to mind control you, then that's a very good indication that either a leader or a commander is in the area - as they are the only sectoid ranks that can attack with psionics.

 

I highly suggest you employ one or two soldiers to weild mind probes and have them stay in the back of the Skyranger (or the exits pads in bases). When aliens are spotted, mind probe them. When you spot a leader or commander, stun bombs away! Psi-amps work too, but you must remember to stun the alien when it has returned control to the aliens. They simply vanish after the mission if stunned while under mind control.

 

---

 

As for preventing countries from defecting - stop those infiltrators! Make sure your activity score is equal or higher than the alien activity score (in each of the zones with activity, and not just overall). Once the infiltrators lands, you may have a small chance of saving the country if you destroy it before it takes off. A small chance, but a chance nonetheless.

 

The mass infiltration attacks are the worst (five infiltrators appear all at the same time). You can easily take on the smaller ships with plasma cannon interceptors, which leaves you two battleships to contend with. I'd try to take them on the ground. But as there are two, you're going to need two transports to get both of them, or at leat pray that your first transport can refuel fast enough for a second trip.

 

In the end, however, don't worry about losing the occasional country. Live with it. There is, and this might come as a shock, an advantage to losing a country. The aliens are a bit on the dim side, and will sometimes attempt to infiltrate countries they've already infiltrated. You can often leave these alone. Though you may need to make up for the area activity score just to make sure their neighbours are happy.

 

Infiltrated countries sometimes have alien bases built in them. This can be a good thing if it's near your base and you've been having a hard time attacting an alien base building team to build near you. The loss in funding will be offset by the stream of supply ships.

 

However, this doesn't mean you should slack off from dealing with infiltrators! The game shuts down X-Com if you lose too many countries at a time (although it is interesting to note that if you edit all the countries so that they've all defected, you can continue playing regardless of infiltration - sans funds, of course).

 

- NKF

[adamgiles]

Just out of curiosity, NKF, do you not agree with my particular strategy?

Just wondering. Because I notice that you respond to just about everything on this site. Not that that is a bad thing. :angel:

[NKF]

I only look like I respond to everything on this site. It's just one of those phases where everyone else is away or just too busy to respond, and the volume of my posts look immense, but seriously, it isn't.

 

I don't disagree with your strategy. No strategy is perfect, even mine. Hey, I promote the use of grenades, pistols and Lightnings (a good combination, mind!). Most players must think I'm a bit crazy!

 

I too litter the globe with radar posts and slowly upgrade them to small interceptor bases and add some defenders when funds permit - though I don't mind using rookies, just as long as they have something strong enough to fight back whatever it is that's attacking the base. In fact, this strategy is useful enough that I never need to build more than two hybrid aircraft in the entire campaign. Most of the time I just build a Lightning and Avenger and that's that. The plasma cannon interceptors are adequate enough to deal with everything but battleships, and since they're littered around the globe, you only ever need launch the right interceptor at the right time (i.e. once the UFO's arrived at its destination and not in-transit) to get any of the ufos.

 

As for storage - I have a different opinion. Keep as little as you need and never over-stock your base with equipment you won't be needing. For example, you only have ten soldiers a the base. You don't need 50+ heavy plasmas and hundreds and thousands of ammo clips for those ten soldiers. It's just not reasonable. Keep 10 heavy plasmas and 10 clips (or 20 if you like spares). Before the next mission is over, you'll have even more . Also, overstocking tends to work against the 80 item limit the game imposes on you, and can leave you defenseless on some base defense missions. I like to use a variety of weapons, from rocket launchers to stun bombs, but if my base has too many heavy plasmas, I won't get to use the others when the aliens attack it. Hah, I've even gone to the point where I only stock lasers in smaller bases and use them to gather the heavy plasmas during the battle - then sell them off when the mission is over.

 

So, keep the stores in your main bases or any of the vulnerable bases as lean and mean as possible and don't overstock too much on the items you know you'll have in abundant supply (such as heavy plasmas). Elerium, alloys, and finite ammunition (such as plasma rifle bullets) on the other hand, should be stocked up as high as possible (more so in the case of elerium, but not alloys as that is far too easy to obtain). I often end up building a giant storage/manufacturing/psi-academy later on to house all the excess elerium and alloys for later just to reduce the storage requirements for my other bases.

 

In the end, however, these are merely my opinions. What counts is what you think, whether or not whatever I said has given you food for thought.

 

I really should try to trim the length of my blasted posts down a bit...

 

- NKF

 

P. S: The 'short' range detection for the small and large radar ranges actually stack (from 10% and 20% to 30%, giving you a total of 20% long and 30% short range detection). Though, only one of each radar type is functional (i.e. multiple radars will only drain cash - unless you want them for base layout purposes). So you can probably get away with small radars for your radar outpost if you aren't doing too well financially, or you want them up and running ASAP while waiting for the other one to come on-line.

[adamgiles]

Wow! Kewl! I think I just made a new friend

[Guest Sasquatch]

As an update, I bagged two etheral leaders today, off a small scout ship nonetheless! How many leaders do I have to capture in order to see some progress?

[NKF]

Ethereals eh? If you haven't got the psi-lab yet, then you're only one step away from obtaining it.

 

You'll only need one leader and one commander to win the game. Commanders can double as leaders if you're lucky enough to get a couple of them straight away.

 

I think you've done it, but just remember to have 'alien origins' researched before researching the leader or commander (do the leader first if you have both. Save the commander for the next step). When that's done, you'll get The Martian Solution (TMS). If you don't get Cydonia or Bust(CoB) immediately after researching TMS, then you interrogate the commander. Once you have CoB, you'll now have the 'Cydonia' button on the launch panel for any of your Avengers. Tada! The final mission can be launched at any time.

 

Oh, just as an aside: if you haven't got the hyperwave decoder yet - get thee a navigator post haste!

 

- NKF

[Guest Sasquatch]

Awesome. Thanks.