Attacking Alien Base -dirty tricks!

[Aralez]

Kind of an After-Action-Report:

I reinstalled Xcom today and after applying XcomUtil and selecting superhuman i had some insanely difficult tactical missions to do! The first two missions were Terror site missions, i won the first (lost my Tank and my Squad Leader "Beat Takeshi" ), in the second mission i had to flee, the alien cyberdiscs were incredibly accurate with their lasers and took eternally to be killed. Despite losing soldier "Bruce Lee" and heavy civilian casualties the mission was considered "ok" thanks to the huge number of dead aliens. Back at the base i fired soldier Pablo Francisco as he had been PSI-controlled by the Aliens in the last mission

 

Anyway, the 3rd mission was a shock: An alien base had been discovered (wow the difficulty settings really work now!) I had some laserpistols, a rocket tank, regular rifles and an AC and a HC. All soldiers were equipped with grenades, some had proxy grenades and HE kits.

 

I saved the game and went in with my usual tactic: Send the tank in first, soften up the defenses and then slowly start to pour in the soldiers.

 

Not good. My tank went down the elevator and was surrounded by 4 (!) Chryssalids and bazillions of Snakemen. Before i could do anything, the tank was destroyed and a blaster bomb came up the elevator, killing the whole squad with one shot! Ouch!

 

As i haven't played Xcom for a while i allowed myself to reload. And to my surprise i found a cheap dirty trick to win against this huge army of snakeman and Chryssalids without a single loss! I call it the "cork" tactic.

 

I placed the tank directly on top of the elevator and the soldiers right next to him, leaving only space to drive forward and backward a bit. At the beginning of my turn i went down the elevator with the tank to lure in the enemys and returned immediately, using the tank as a barrier so that the aliens couldn't come up! After the enemies had gathered in the elevator i moved the tank aside and threw HE kits and grenades on them, drive back the tank to block the path and clicked end-of-turn.

 

Rinse and repeat When i ran out of grenades i used the AC and HC.

 

The huge and quick losses let the rest of the aliens panic and drop their weapons! Time to move in and clear up!

 

The rest of the mission was VERY easy I ecountered two more chryssalids, but one was already wounded and dropped quickly and on the other i used the cork tactic again, albeit this time with humans as the elevator was only 1x1 big.

 

What do you think? Valid tactic or evil exploit? Not that the later would stop me using it on superhman

[Zombie]

Ah, the ol' "Plug The Lift" tactic. It's a pretty effective measure to keep the aliens at bay. And because they migrate to your troops location, you can basically sit tight and wait for them to come to you.

 

What I like to do is arm about 4 proximity mines in the first round and toss them in the entrances leading to the starting module and possibly one in a central location. Then I prime a couple High Explosive packs and lie in wait, standing over the lift to block it. When one goes "Boom", I wait until the second goes off. Then I toss down a HE pack and listen to the death screams.

 

While doing some tests on alien behavior a while back my men never came down the lifts or even looked below. When they turned around there were 10+ aliens crowded below. A couple HE packs later and the threat was neutralized. You could also wait till an alien shoots off a blaster bomb. Since the explosion can't reach the second floor, the blast is contained below, instantly killing most of the aliens standing there. Also, aliens can't shoot up lifts so this makes plugging them practical strategy.

 

- Zombie

[NKF]

This is quite a useful strategy in the Collectors Edition thanks to the blaster bomb vertical waypoint bug. However, through personal experience, it's not incredibly reliable in the Dos version.

 

Just make sure you've got grenades on hand in case the lift landing is packed with aliens - particurly large aliens like the Reaper.

 

In all versions of the game, the lift plug is an extremely useful strategy for tackling the supply ship. As soon as you can plug the lifts, you can take your time and clear out the map at your own speed. With the exception of psi attacks, of course!

 

- NKF

[Zombie]

In all versions of the game, the lift plug is an extremely useful strategy for tackling the supply ship. As soon as you can plug the lifts, you can take your time and clear out the map at your own speed. With the exception of psi attacks, of course!

Computer yes, Playstation I'm not too sure about. From what I remember, aliens could shoot down lifts. I'll have to double check this though.

 

- Zombie

[Tepid tasoth]

It's their ignorance that kills them. If the aliens had a learning KI, they would only storm to the elevator once and not make the mistake of being blown up multiple times by the same tactics. They'd probably retreat from the elevator, stay out of the HE blast radius and snipe at you as soon as you get down to take a look what's going on.

Your strategy is a good and valid one. If they're too dumb to get the pattern, they deserve no better than being blown into myriads of pieces. After all, grenades were made for exactly that, taking out multiple enemies close to each other w/ one single weapon.

[uriaheep]

As pointed out on the dos version I have had blaster bombs fired at me (up through the elevator) on several occations. I can't remember though if I was ever attacked actually on the elevator itself. Can they do this? if so, it would render the Cork tactic pointless. If not, why not?

[Tepid tasoth]

Most of the times, the blaster bomb will not detonate in the upper level but in the level below. IIRC this will kill all units standing directly on the elevator's upper level.

In TFTD the blaster bombs (forgot TFTD's name for it) will actually behave correctly.

[Aralez]

I'm using the DOS version (Dosbox ftw!) and they CAN shoot up the elevator with the blaster bomb (as i experienced and described above^).

BUT due to the huge morale loss (caused by the big number of losses at the elevator) the snakemen all panicked and dropped their weapons (except one with a plasma pistol that is) and thus saved me from being shot.

 

I wonder if there is another way of surviving such a mission on superhuman with the equipment i had. Remember i only had rookies, no psi-weapons, no armours. Only rifles, laserpistols and standard explosive stuff.

 

Ah, yes i see, Zombie, NKF, i will give your other tactic a try, too. Thx for the tip And thanks to Tepid Tasoth and uriaheep, too!

 

 

A question though.

Quote Zombie: "Also, aliens can't shoot up lifts so this makes plugging them practical strategy."

 

Are you sure about that? I could swear that i saw aliens shooting up elevators, even with non-blaster-weapons. Not sure if it was a sectoid, floater, snakeman or ethereal...

I could be wrong, though...

[uriaheep]

Same here, in the Motherships I have been shot at through elevators, the only reason I was a bit cautious about mentioning it was that I usually nuke the area on the second level before entering - there is a chance that I may have been shot at through destroyed tiles.

[Zombie]

I just tested to see whether aliens can shoot up or down lifts in the Playstation. At least for 1x1 lifts, aliens refused to shoot up or down (like the Supply Ship). I make no guarantees on the larger lifts though. As always more testing is necessary.

 

- Zombie

[Bomb Bloke]

Reaction fire?

[Tepid tasoth]

For blaster bomb reaction fire, you'd need to ensure the alien holding the launcher can actually look up the elevator and see soldiers moving there.

[Zombie]

Well, seeing is not a problem. The alien has a clear view of both of my soldiers (above and below in the 1x1 lift in the Supply Ship). I intentionally ran both of my soldiers around till they had almost no TU left and ended up on the lift tile again. No luck, still no reaction fire. Just for giggles, I turned the alien to face Northwest as that seems to be the only direction you can shoot up or down a lift (at least directly above or below you). Nope, the alien still refused to shoot.

 

Here's something mildly interesting about lifts: if one of your soldiers is clogging a lift on L0 and you want to give your other soldiers an opportunity to shoot, just kneel them down next to the guy standing. They will then be able to see (and shoot) an alien standing on L1 of the lift. If your soldiers are on L0 and the alien is on L2, the guy kneeling will be unable to see the alien but still can shoot blindly up the lift. Neat!

 

- Zombie

[Tepid tasoth]

Do aliens w/ blaster bomb launchers reaction fire at all? I know that X-COM soldiers do, even when within the blast radius... *ehem*

[Knan]

Yep. Always fun getting a blaster bomb reaction fire from the back row troopers in the skyranger. Extremely quick mission that way.

[Aralez]

Yeah, i had that happening once, too! VERY nasty!

 

Btw, i have to thank Zombie for mentioning the Ufopeadia Wiki in another post, that site is awesome! I even found this: https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Alien_Base . My "cork"-tactic is actually a child/variant of the "camper" strategy! And Zobie's info about the lifts and conventional weapons seems to be right, i quote from that site:

 

The "camper" strategy exploits two quirks of the game: aliens cannot fire conventional weapons up or down through lift tiles, and will fall prey to the "Vertical Waypoint Bug". When the aliens attempt to fire Blaster Bombs up the lift shaft, this bug will cause the bomb to travel south, not up, keeping your troops safe on the upper level. The vertical waypont bug only exists in the "Collector's Edition" (Windows) version of X-COM; the camper strategy cannot be safely used in any other version of the game.

 

Here the main link again: https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

[Knan]

It would surprise me if the wiki contributors and the honoured regulars hereabouts disagreed, since they are mostly one and the same...

[Aralez]

Lol, that might explain some things

[NKF]

We live and learn, and this game throws something new every time you think you've got it all worked out. So you might see historical posts by someone like myself saying one thing, then more recent posts saying another.

 

 

- NKF

[Aralez]

That's absolutely true, especially Xcomutil and the applied changes make Xcom feel like a totally new game.

 

My cudos to everyone who helped to make the Ufopaedia!