Rakkin frakkin blaster bombs

[sluissa]

I know various topics have come up on the subject before, but I'd just like to say that I absolutely hate Blaster Bombs.

 

In this case I was doing something extremely stupid which, I deserve the punishment I got, although I didn't realize the stupidity of it at the time.

 

Picture it, a landed battleship. My squad of 14 soldiers, a few vets, a few rookies deploy from the skyranger, it's the first time they've taken on something this big in this game. (And to tell the truth, one of only a handful of times I've messed with a battleship at all, other than base defense.) The armor is mosly none, with a few personals and a smattering of power. At this time I've got 12 heavy plasmas and a couple of laser rifles in case I run into sectopods or cyberdiscs or just plain run out of ammo.

 

I throw out a smoke, wait, send out a group of 3 into the smoke to look around, they exit to the left, and hide beside one of the huge legs of the UFO. Wait a turn, deploy toss another smoke, move the group up, pull another 3 out of the skyranger. Finally run into a Muton, feeling relieved that it wasn't full of sectoids or etherials, who i've had a bit of trouble with before without having Psi screening yet, or snakemen with their evil chryssalid companions whom I had just cleared a base of with heavy, though less than expected losses.

 

I fire off a few rounds of plasma and laser at the muton, he falls. I march my guys forward some more and bring out another 3 and two more to sit between the wheels under the ramp.

 

My march continues towards the entrance of the battleship I'm within sight of their door, when suddenly during the alien's turn, a muton comes out with a blaster launcher, launches one right into the middle of my 9 guys in a very similar formation to what might be seen taken in Europe by armies armed with muskets circa 1800, albeit a bit spread out, but not enough. All nine guys are hit, inexplicably, an unarmored guy behind a wheel survives while my colonel in power armor next to him, behind the other wheel dies instantly, 10 soldiers, many of them very experienced, taken down with one shot, the final four panicing and berserking(thankfully in that order). It takes several turns, but they finally calm down, and amid heavy plasma fire, I get the one on the ground survivor back in, and one who paniced and ran outside back in and take off.

 

It hits me hard once the mission is over. Harder than it should given that it's a game.

 

I realized my mistake as soon as the blaster launcher was fired, but at no point did I expect to lose all 10 guys, I thought I had things spread out enough that no more than 3, or 6 if I was really unlucky would die, but nope, 10 was the final tally.

 

I dont' know if I've learned a lesson or not. Obviously bunching up people is bad, but is it any better than leaving them unable to support each other? Maybe I shouldn't have had so many guys outside of the skyranger at one time, then again, what if that bomb had been programmed to go straight into the skyranger?

 

Anyway, I've rambled on enough, just figured I'd breathe a bit of life into this particular forum, lemme hear you guys blaster bomb stories, or any stories for that matter, sad, happy, or just plain cool. I've got another one to tell, but I'll hold off until we get a few more.

[Zombie]

Blaster Bombs can indeed be a problem on a Battlsehip mission. My usual course of action is to get my guys spread out ASAP. I move 2 soldiers (and only 2) to stand watch on each blind corner of the Battleships "leg". That may consist of 75% of my squad, but usually 75% of the aliens are inside the craft to start so it works. The remainder of my squad splits up into a couple groups and starts the long sweep around the UFO to catch any aliens outside.

 

If I hear doors opening and closing, I move my men guarding the leg corners so they can look at the primary entrance. Nobody there? I move them back into hiding. The backup dude will prime a grenade or a proxy and toss it to the man on guard duty. That way, if he sees anything the next round he can toss an explosive at the alien.

 

Once my 2 groups of "sweepers" finish searching the landscape, they come running to provide support on the far legs of the ufo. They make their way to the flanking sides of the primary entrance and keep watch there. Meanwhile, my guys guarding the legs slowly start to make their way to the doors. Then it is just a matter of getting everyone near the doors, peeking upstairs every round and killing anything that moves.

 

If at any time, one of my men spots an alien toting a Blaster Launcher, he runs up to the alien. That's right. It may seem like a kamikaze strategy, but the aliens value their lives too. The alien will not fire if it means killing himself in the process. Use the alien as a shield against plasma fire if there are other threats around. When the coast is clear, the guy standing next to the alien can kill him at point blank range. This is pretty effective.

 

Of course, once you have Blaster technology and Flying Suits researched, it becomes a piece of cake. Open a hole in the top of the battleship near the bridge with one bomb. Then send in another right down into the guts of the command center on the first or second rounds. The death of the higher ranking aliens usually means a significant drop in morale for the surviving members of the force. Not to mention that sometimes you may kill an alien carrying a Blaster Launcher in the process too.

 

- Zombie

[NKF]

Blaster bombs are dreadful devices to go up against unless you have some of your own. It's the one weapon in the alien arsenal that can frustrate even the best of players at times. However the only way to beat them is to do it the hard way, and learn through experience.

 

Spreading out soldiers shouldn't be too much of a problem if you're out in the open. As long as they have a clear line of fire or can set up a grenade relay, they'll be able to provide adequate cover fire. The aliens are practically hardwired to fire a blaster bomb or throw an alien grenade into bunches of soldiers, so you'll want to avoid bunching soldiers together at all times.

 

As for myself, I once played a mission in my solo-Floater-base assault savegame (minor variation - I went after the Floater battleship instead) and had a soldier wipe out about ten or so aliens with grenades and laser pistol fire before one decided to fire a blaster bomb. I think the soldier (wearing power armour) wasn't precisely at groud-zero, or else he wouldn't have survived the blast. The massive damage and wounds only left the soldier with 2-3 turns to live. The soldier managed to achieve some retribution with a high explosive and soak up a few direct hits to the chest before succumbing to the blood loss.

 

Yes, I lost the attempt, but it's a good tale of survival. I think the bomb might have clipped the wall of the nearby stables that the soldier was facing, so didn't have to suffer the full fury of the attack.

 

- NKF

[Bomb Bloke]

It's uncommon that a Launcher toting alien will actually leave a Battleship, but one door is as dangerous as another. Try and use reaction fire to your advantage, especially when you have a large group of units at stake.

[The Veteran]

I reckon blaster launchers are a bit of a mixed blessing... Like Zombie said, once you have them yourself the game becomes much easier but until then it can be an absolute pig.

 

The most annoying thing that I find with blaster bombs is that the aliens seem to be able to take out XCom soldiers without actually being able to see them at all. We can't do that unless we guess, although it is sometimes fun to destroy half the farm before leaving the Skyranger!

 

The bonus that we have over the aliens is that we can think a bit more about things! Leave one man in between two feet of a battleship while a second opens the door, have a third ready with a stun launcher just in case there are people in the elevator so you can take them straight out without killing your door opener as well!

 

Your guy between the feet can send a bomb wherever he wants to, especially if you have a map! I found that was a really good use for the floorplans I did all those years ago. I once managed to send a bomb straight to the top floor and through every corridor and open space up there without having a single square of it revealed in the mission! It did its rounds until it hit the commander up there and took out a few of the other irritating scumbags too

[Zombie]

I was fooling around with a soldier carrying a Blaster Launcher today trying to get him to reaction fire (CE version of the game on Beginner difficulty level). No dice. I tried multiple values for TU/Reactions for the soldier and the alien, but nothing seemed to work.

 

Here is the scenario: an X-COM base defense mission with plain rookies and Snakemen. I killed off all the aliens (except for one) in a single round via editing unitref.dat. Then my men searched the base and found the alien at one end of a hangar. I positioned my man with the Blaster Launcher on the opposite end on ground level and then ran some tests. With base TU and reactions, the alien didn't trigger a reaction shot. After modifying the stats for both units again, still nothing. I went so far as to lower the aliens reactions to 0 and cranked my soldier up to 200. You can guess the results: still nothing.

 

So what am I doing wrong (and is it even possible in the CE version of the game)? True, I could edit the TU cost to fire the Blaster Launcher in OBDATA.DAT to make it easier, but I want some real-world data with an unmodified weapon. If any of you happen to get a soldier to reaction fire with a Blaster Launcher, please take some notes on how you got it to work. Soldier stats, type of alien, difficulty level, distance between soldier and alien, version of the game, etc. Once we have that data, then it should be a piece of cake to replicate the result. Thanks!

 

- Zombie

[NKF]

How about setting it up so that the alien is initially hidden and triggers your reaction fire by walking into view? It sounds like your test pits both units against each other in full view.

 

I know it happens, but it's hard to replicate.

 

- NKF

[Zombie]

I just double-checked my game and the alien is indeed out of view initially. To be safe, I even moved him back a few tiles. During the aliens turn, it moves into view and moves back without so much as a flinch from my man. And yes, the Blaster Launcher is selected as the "main" weapon for the soldier. The alien sometimes even fires it's heavy plasma and hits my man (who can't get hurt) but still no reaction.

 

Because it's hard to replicate (impossible for me at the moment) that's why I'm asking for everyones help in nailing down the conditions which make it happen. Maybe you guys will have better luck than I do.

 

- Zombie