Starting out

[infael]

I haven't played xcom for many years. y soldiers are killing killed cuz I don't have armor, nor do I seem able to get armor.

 

I'm only advancing a couple feet to have time for reaction fire but this does noting if I die after 1shot.

[NKF]

You need to research alien alloys to get personal armour. It's your first stepping stone, and can be obtained from any UFO recovery. Then the power source to get power armour, and I forget ... the navigation unit I think to get the flying suit upgrade. Basically just research all the components that you get off an intact UFO and you'll do fine.

 

Armour won't stop you from the 1-shot kills. The best defence against 1-shot kills are make use of a lot of cover, stealth (moving behind cover or using smoke to hide your movement) and to kill your enemies before they can kill you.

 

See, the trick is, the aliens can only shoot at targets that are within thier range. You however can shoot at any target on the map as long as someone's seen it and there's a clear path for your bullet or grenade to travel. So send out scouts, but never let the soldier who can see the alien do any shooting unless it's a guaranteed hit or a 1-shot kill (like a large rocket against a sectoid).

 

See, X-Com units can take double damage from all plasma weapons, regardless of armour.

 

So, a heavy plasma which does 115 damage can do anywhere up to 230 damage to your soldiers. The best armour you can wear offers a front plate protection o 130. 230 - 130 = 100. So you still get between 0 and 100 damage when hit in the front plates of the best armour available. And as the highest health you can get is 60 or 61, you'll still suffer from 1 shot kills. But the frequency of 1-shot kills drops down a lot though. That's for sure!

 

Anyway, the point is, even with armour, use your strategy to keep your soldiers alive.

 

- NKF

[Bomb Bloke]

See, the trick is, the aliens can only shoot at targets that are within thier range. You however can shoot at any target on the map as long as someone's seen it and there's a clear path for your bullet or grenade to travel.

That could use some elaboration. If an alien sees a unit, usually he'll back of out of sight range, and then fire at the target. This means he avoids reaction fire, as the target units can't see the attacker and so can't retaliate. But other aliens won't shoot at units other aliens have sighted, I believe.