What would a Superhuman Ironman player do?

[Timbukto]

I'm playing through a superhuman game on PSX but with some reloads just to brush up on skills and get a feel for the difficulty of the game before I choose to play again in the future with no reloads. In many instances I've come to realize that superhuman + ironman is definitely do-able with patience, experience, efficient base management/tactics, and of course some luck.

 

Then there are scenarios that happen where I'm at a total lost to figure out how I could possibly swing sides on my favor to win a battle at minimum loss if I had to do ironman/ no reloads.

 

For example, right now I've been doing extremely well with research and money and soldier training. I'm a bit late on PSI and have no PSI capabilities, but my interceptors have plasma cannons, my men have flying/power suits, and pretty much any of the best weapon choices. What I do *not* have are better transports, blaster bombs, or PSI.

 

Now given that scenario, what would an ironman player do when landing at a Snakeman Battleship in the night (lets assume it *has* to be at night due to timing and inability to wait for daytime, etc). In the game I have now, they seems to be a high occurrence of being blaster bombed on Alien turn #1.

 

There are also more negative factors involved...for one the opening of my skyranger faces towards the battleship lift doors, but the darkness gives them a clear LOS advantage. Deploying flares and incendiaries of course is helpful, but between defending yourself, deploying from the ship against enemy fire, etc, there aren't enough turn units available to have a truly secure deployment, and sitting in your ship has a extremely high probability of being blaster bombed (cause the rear of the ship faces the battleship lift doors).

 

Would you:

 

1. Factor in the poor positioning of your ship to the battleship lift and just lift off without casualties? Lift off and perhaps wait til you have judicious use of blaster bombs yourself to have a good chance of clearing the lift areas on turn 1?

 

2. Carry plenty of fresh expendable crewmen and hope they can make it far enough away from the LZ and actually be targeted for blaster fire and not killed off by plasma fire? Perhaps utilize flying suit technology to stagger your men on different elevation levels knowing explosives can only hit 1 elevation level and additionally have a better chance of missing (vs hitting the ground)?

 

3. Smoke Grenades? Maybe blocking all LOS on your turn can prevent an initial blaster bomb attack and allow your guys to spread out?

 

Something else?

 

I guess I can reload this scenario a couple of times and see what has the highest survivability rate. Just wondering what another player would do if hypothetically in iron man mode.

[Knan]

I guess I can reload this scenario a couple of times and see what has the highest survivability rate. Just wondering what another player would do if hypothetically in iron man mode.

 

Me? Mess it up and lose the squad and the skyranger, I suspect.

 

Spread out - half the squad outside the skyranger, half the squad inside. And a smoke grenade or two. Then half the squad ought to survive for a little while, due to being on two different elevations.

 

Hide up against a battleship wall, flying, at different elevations also sounds good.

 

But, well, once >50% of the squad is gone I'd probably cut my losses and run unless things otherwise was going extremely well.

[Zombie]

I'd opt for heavily smoking the LZ plus a few Electroflares to light the way. Then deploy as many of my troops as I could fit in the cloud. The rest (maybe 4 or so) can sit it out in the craft for a turn or two. If there was a totally clear LOF to the Battleship's door, they might be able to do some reaction fire too. After that, I'd start to spread out, but move a majority of my men to cover the doors of the Battleship since most of the aliens will probably be inside.

 

Now if I had a squad mostly in Flying Suits, I'd deploy them and have them hug the hull of the UFO for protection like Knan said. Every round I'd go down, have a look at the doors, shoot any aliens that came outside, then fly back up again. The guys in power armor can scout the battlescape by staying near the legs of the battleship and tossing flares out a distance for better visibility. Or maybe even use incendiary rounds to burn an area down to the soil if there are a lot of combustibles present. Fires create both light and smoke, so don't be afraid to venture out into the firestorm to do some scouting.

 

I'd also be a little worried abut the race of the aliens. If it was Snakemen, Mutons or Floaters, then it's mission on. Ethereals? Dust off. Sectoids? Play it by ear.

 

- Zombie

[Timbukto]

Played through this scenario a few times and had some interesting outcomes(didn't have any smokes on me). First wondered if there was any benefit of flying my guys out to sit on top of the skyranger fuselage.

 

When I left one unit sitting at the skyranger exit, and the rest sitting on top, the blaster was directed in to the skyranger killing the 1 unit and sparing the rest. I then tried shoving them all on top of the plane to see if that did anything, however the blaster bomb headed straight up there and wasted a good portion of my guys.

 

Next I did the battleship wall hug, which was easy on turn 1 given the positioning of my ship and closeness of the walls. Also my flying suits automatically fly out of the skyranger at elevation 1. This seemed to consistently spare me from any blaster bomb firing at alien turn #1 for whatever reason. Out of curiosity I just waited another turn hugging the wall to see what would happen, and out comes the blaster bomb, however its behavior was a little unexpected. It definitely killed the intended target, however the blast seemed to fail to propagate and do any damage to many units in close proximity on the same elevation. Not sure if it had to do with how blasts propagate but I was hugging the SE diagonal wall.

 

Finally instead of passing on turn #2 I decided to fly up and position my guys on the outer edge of the SE diagonal ceiling of the battleship and see what happens. Again the blaster bomb comes flying out and up around the corner going right at my guys and I see a big explosion but no screams. When it is my turn it is apparent that the blaster bomb hit the side of the wall right below the ceiling, punching a hole right into where the commander and leader units should be. Didn't do any more tests at this point as I didn't want to pass up the opportunity of making them pay for the comedic turn of events. Regardless from the limited runs, it seems the wall hug is definitely a consistent life saver at least in this given situation. The fact that they punched a hole into their own battleship however is probably sheer save/reload luck, but I'll try it again when the opportunity arises.

 

Also not sure but on superhuman PSX, I'm pretty sure Ive racked up 10+ blasters an 36+ bombs in like 3-4 months out from the start! (1 Base defense, 2 battle ships, 2 alien base attacks). Which is why I definitely need to know how to handle blasters if I plan on doing ironman-superhuman on the psx. However blaster fire was never so persistent except on this night time mission where my ship ramp faces the grav lifts. I think this is due to my improved ability to knock off their front-line fighters or avoid LOS as I clear the field in the daytime and/or with a better skyranger landing position.

[Bomb Bloke]

Note that when flying in a horizontal trajectory, blaster bombs fly high enough to go over the heads of kneeling troopers. This is more useful in alien bases (because when you're sitting in the SkyRanger for eg it'll still end up detonating near enough to do you serious damage), but it's worth keeping in mind.

[Timbukto]

So I've moved all my guys into the empty room to the east of the commander room and I'm shooting it out a few rounds. The door to this room managed to blow open from the blaster bomb entry wound made previously. Thought I was clear from blaster bomb danger when I hear the fearful whizzing sound coming straight into the room most likely with the commanders signature on it. Completely blows out most of the floor and half my guys bodies fall to the room below, the rest in complete panic.

 

Pretty sure that when I play in ironman mode I'll be sending completely expendable/fireable soldiers on an extra skyranger for battleships, hopefully towards the end of the month if possible (at least a lost skyranger at the end of the month doesn't cost anything extra cause you don't need to pay the rental). In addition, not to be a heartless bastard but losing new recruits doesn't hurt your score too badly and again you don't have to pay the monthly salary. I'm guessing learning PSI is going to be a great equalizer in battleship survivability.