Base Defense without goodies; tactics?

[Stygian]

I had a heroic (?) base defense stand this morning with Snakemen and their terror units, and I lost 9 out of 17 soldiers. At least two units were killed by friendly fire; I'm not quite used to fighting in close quarters, and my deployment soon looked like a crowded dance floor. My enhanced base design was just recently completed, so I had the enemy approaching from only one direction. Due to the 80-item limit, I was stuck with loads of autocannon and clips, but not one plasma rifle or Medikit. Any injury was going to be fatal; in one instance, the no medikit issue caused me to charge one unarmoured unit--unfortunate to get caught in the explosion range of friendly-fire HC HE rounds to the tune of 6 fatal injuries--kamikazi-like at the snakemen. Ironically, the unit was killed by FF the next round rather than by a snakeman.

 

Besides the obvious yardsale/transfer of extra junk prior to a Base Defense mission, does anyone have great base defense tactics for base raids that occur before all the goodies are researched? I don't have any BB, SB, or PSI stuff researched, nor Heavy Plasma. Nor do I have any tanks of any kind on base. I was toying with the idea of hunkering down of the 'safe' side of the Access Lift and waiting for reaction shots and prox grenade reports, but felt compelled to get to the hanger side of the lift--the three directions of entry that the lift affords was bugging me. I guessing that I may have fared better if I had just waited it out and deployed to an inter-connecting crossfire arrangement on the safe side of the lift.

 

Another question: can the part of the exe/dat file that controls the plasma rifle and clip object be edited to force it to appear alphabetically higher on the list so it is one of the first items available--and thus not an issue for the 80-item limit?

[Bomb Bloke]

You learn to spot friendly fire traps. Try to spread out your units enough so that it isn't a risk. Don't clog multiple team members in a single corridor if you can help it, leave any extras around the corner.

 

My tactics are the same for any mission, regardless as to the weapons available to me: Romp my units around, leaving time units over for crouching and reaction fire. If I find an alien and can't kill it that turn, I attempt to move all units involved out of it's LOS. Only have one unit engage the alien at a time, move them out of the way before the next unit jumps out to shoot, to discourage friendly fire.

 

This tactic is easy in base defense, as there's so many places to hide your units when they are low on TUs.

 

Furthermore, don't move units into possible danger zones unless they have a high amount of time units. That is to say, if you want to go around a corner, first move up to it, end turn, and then actually go around it on your next go. This further discourages reaction fire from aliens.

 

I don't often sit and wait for the aliens to come to me. If you wanna do it, fine, but don't sit two units on either side of a corridor - Odds are they'll end up shooting each other when an alien passes between them.

 

I'm fairly certain laser rifles are a sure bet to appear in the item list, which suits me, as I use them exclusively until I get hold of heavy plasmas. Editing the EXE is, as usual, a huge project, but a mod could be made to insure the items you want make it to the list. Not a terribly easy project, mind you.

[Zombie]

The best advice I can give for a base defense attack is to keep a close eye on your inventory. Make it a habit to visit your sell screen frequently and get rid of stuff you no longer use. (This goes for your transport ships too as that inventory gets dumped into your bases GS if the craft isn't airborn at the time of attack). My usual strategy is to sell all of the human weapons in favor of the Laser Rifle. Simple, easy and effective. Lasers do not require clips to operate so you can substitute other things which may play a role. Grenades are good, proxies are great and High Explosives rule, especially when you are dealing with the cramped areas of your base.

 

Here is the short list of strategies:

• Utilize those rooms in your base. They are great places to get out of the direct line of fire from long corridors. Then when it is your turn, poke your head out and take a peek. If you don't see any aliens, jump back in and wait.
  
• When you have men far away from the action and want to get closer, leapfrog them from room to room until they reach their destination.
  
• When you are using a "safe" base design, proxies are effective for mining your end of the Access Lift choke point.
  
• Never, ever, ever go somewhere alone (don't use scouts). Use the buddy system at all times. At least you have backup in case a strategy fails.
  
• Two people per room is a good strategy as one soldier can open the door while the other one can do the shooting. This works even better in the General Stores rooms as the doors are double-width.
  
• There is nothing wrong with waiting. All aliens will move closer to your soldiers unless their morale has dropped too low.
  

- Zombie

[NKF]

Also, where ever possible, use the sniper + spotter strategy. You've got a lot of corridors, and if built them right, a lot of long clear corridors. Use the whack-a-mole strategy where soldiers pop out of all the cubby holes, spot any aliens, shoot where possible and pop back in again. The spotter should opt not to shoot the alien while the sniper, who's well beyond visual range, should open fire.

 

Also, weapon-wise, go with the laser rifle where possible. But do consider the humble rocket launcher and large rockets as well. A few well placed rockets into the hangars at the very start can be morally uplifting. They can be purchased right off the bat and need no fancy schmancy research to be useful. In a worst case scenario, you'll face an attack with sectoids and their Cyberdiscs at the very beginning without even getting your shipment of rockets. In this case, you'll have to rely on your grenades and AC AP shells.

 

- NKF

[Stygian]

Thanks for the input, all. I reloaded my AC + no medikit scenario and deployed defensively on the safe side of the Access Lift. Lost a soldier early to a Chrysalid press, but took them down with sniper and directed fire without too much problem. Several more instances of FF doomed a couple.

 

In one instance my rocketeer hit someone in a hallway that was practically perpendicular to his direction of fire. After the rocket carnage, I tried to get the rocketeer to intentionally hit the spot where the FF victim was standing, and of course got "no line of fire" warning. Odd how a "stray round" can hit a odd spot yet an intentional shot fails...

 

Back to my story. Fared mostly successfully with the popout and sniper fire method, until a background snakeman--who was clever enough to not stay in the line of sight at the end of its turn--had a chance to unleash a BB. Needless to say, I was down to 4 units after this, and two of the 4 remaining went bezerk and killed a unit across the hallway. With at least 3 snakemen remaining and only 3 shaky units left, I closed the game out. There appears to be an advantage to charging BB-equipped enemy units.

[Hobbes]

I'd add: leaving units with TUs for reaction shots can be quite dangerous, considering how the aliens have blaster launchers on base defense missions.

[Bomb Bloke]

I'll second NKF on the use of rockets. If you have to take a long shot though, don't aim them at an alien - Aim them at a wall near the alien. If it's a big enough wall, you're bound to hit it, and the resulting blast has much the same effect as a shot against your actual target.

 

Grenades are also to be recommended. Don't worry about locating the aliens, just take a wild guess and throw 'em at your access lift. Worst case scenario, they'll kill nothing, but still take down that wretched door - Hence allowing you to send more explosives right into the lift shaft. Doors are not your friends... Unless you're hiding behind them, that is.

 

Don't ever sit units in the middle of corridors. This is where aliens like to direct their blaster bombs. I also can't stress the value of crouching enough, as this can prevent even a directly targeted shell from hitting you.

 

Base defense is one of the few times Chrsallids become a problem. As has been mentioned, don't let your units romp alone - If one of your men get turned, you'll need a trigger figger available on the spot to clean up the mess. I recommend point blank range auto fire. It'll all be over in one turn.

 

Building your base in such a way as to force the aliens through a bottleneck is a well advertised strategy, but not one I use myself. I build stuff where ever I can put it, and usually flood the base with modules. This scatters alien entry points everywhere, the advantage being you can usually make a high number of kills on your very first turn. Having lowered alien morale no end, the left overs are that much easier to mop up. Hangers are easier to storm then access lifts, too.

[NKF]

I usually like to have two points of entry into the hangars as opposed to just one. Works better for me that way, as I can go after the aliens in two different directions, or double back on them, so to say. But that's just me.

 

By the way, regarding Chryssalids, remember that if they turn your units - go after the chryssalid first. You can easily out-shuffle the zombie long enough to get into a great position where you can take both it and the hatchling out.

 

- NKF

[Aralez]

Well, i'm a bit oldfashioned when it comes to base defences, my favourite weapon is the proximity grenade. They are excellent to stop that first big alien rush. Once that is done, i finish the survivors with what i have at hand. Usually there is not that much to finish.

[Zombie]

The other day I was doing some testing on a base defense mission (with no weapons but just some Psi-Amps) and noticed a Reaper was upstairs in the Access Lift. Nothing unusual so far. However, when I looked closer, it appeared that it spawned partially in a wall. Today I did some more tests on this. Here is where the Reaper ended up:

 

 

I waited a bunch of rounds and the Reaper eventually found its way out so this isn't that big of a problem, but I might just reserve that spawn point for small units since the map programmers obviously didn't know how big units are placed on the battlescape.

 

Have any of you seen big units in that location? Normally there aren't many terrorists on a base defense mission on beginner skill level, but once you get to Genius or Superhuman, the big units are plentiful. Some of you must have encountered one up there at one time or another.

 

- Zombie

[zaimoni]

The other day I was doing some testing on a base defense mission (with no weapons but just some Psi-Amps) and noticed a Reaper was upstairs in the Access Lift. Nothing unusual so far. However, when I looked closer, it appeared that it spawned partially in a wall. Today I did some more tests on this. Here is where the Reaper ended up:

 

 

I waited a bunch of rounds and the Reaper eventually found its way out so this isn't that big of a problem, but I might just reserve that spawn point for small units since the map programmers obviously didn't know how big units are placed on the battlescape.

 

Have any of you seen big units in that location? Normally there aren't many terrorists on a base defense mission on beginner skill level, but once you get to Genius or Superhuman, the big units are plentiful. Some of you must have encountered one up there at one time or another.

I am unsurprised (fixable with MapEdit, fortunately). The TerrorShip is also affected this way.

[Zombie]

I am unsurprised (fixable with MapEdit, fortunately). The TerrorShip is also affected this way.

Oh, yeah. Forgot about the Terror Ship. That'll be next on my list.

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Fixed the Terror Ship spawning issue today!

 

Turns out the buggy node (#30) which is located nearest to the bridge by the east overlook door was set to spawn any size of soldier rank. Obviously, since alien soldiers spawn first, they may or may not end up being placed there. If a soldier isn't spawned in that node, it's available to any unit which comes after it. Sometimes a large terror unit is placed here and gets stuck in the wall. I switched the node to only allow small ranks to spawn there effectively fixing the problem. You can find the fix in our files section here. Suppose I could have moved the point further inside the ship to give large units the opportunity to be spawned there properly but the location of the node seems to be the intended place hence the unit size change. No longer will we have to battle this very annoying issue!

 

P.S. If I get some time tomorrow I'll include this in my Combo Patch kit as well.

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

And, yet another fix taken care of! That's right, I fixed the Access Lift spawn point so that large units can't spawn in the node near the East wall. It's now reserved for small units only. I ran a few trials with the new setup and I think it makes more sense too. Anyway, you can find the fix here or it also comes bundled with my Combo Patch Kit.

 

- Zombie