What difficulty for an ironman run?

[CapnKill]

I was contemplating superhuman, but is that just an exercise in futility or can it be done? If not, what's a reasonable difficulty?

 

I'm certainly looking for one hell of a challenge, I want it to feel like I'm barely hanging in there... but I also want sound tactics to pay off for the most part.

[Bomb Bloke]

Oh, it's quite possible to win on superhuman ironman - though if you haven't played ironman before, just remember to never leave the dropship unattended. Having to replace half your squad at the end of a mission is one thing, having to replace the SkyRanger too is quite another.

[chiasaur11]

How much have you played before, is the question.

 

Beginner Ironman isn't easy, but if you've played a couple non ironman games it's not too much trouble, usually.

 

Genius looks good for the real vets. Seeing an LP at that difficulty, it looks right for a challenge.

[NKF]

In most cases, it's entirely up to you and how comfortable you are playing at the various difficulty levels.

 

If you haven't played for a while but want to jump right in again, I guess Veteran's not a bad choice. Not too hard, not too easy. Remember that you can always restart the campaign at a higher difficulty if you feel like things seem too easy.

 

Of course, and this is only my opinion, if you've beaten the game at beginner or any of the intermediate levels at any time in the past, and are fairly sure of your strategies and ability to play entire missions without saving and reloading (bar the save before starting the mission for recovery purposes), then skip the other difficulties and go right to Superhuman. Don't worry if it seems too hard - most of our best lessons learned are the ones we learn through failure, as some famous chap said. I find that with a bit of persistence, trial and error and experimentation, you will eventually improve on your strategies and maybe develop new ones.

 

- NKF

[Bomb Bloke]

"Recovery purposes"?

[NKF]

In the event of glitches or other such technical trouble during the battlescape that causes the game to crash.

 

- NKF

[Bomb Bloke]

Ah.

 

I've gotten used to using the resumers in my toolkit for that, it's been a long time since I've felt the need to make a save to safe-guard against crashes.

[CapnKill]

Well I got my arse whooped. I handled the normal crash missions pretty ok, but that first terror mission destroyed me.

 

The circle disc things took out my tanks in one shot, everyone else was decimated.

 

So now I started a new one on Genius level, but I'm being more careful and trying to pick up some solid strategies.

 

I'm choosing to go with man power over tanks, since I think I can get about 10 soldiers for the price of one tank, so it just makes more sense.

 

I also think that 2 man fire teams are just not enough, on a couple of occasions I split up two guys to go around the back side of an alien ship and while they did some damage they never made it around to the door

 

So from now on I'm going to use at least 3 and maybe 4 man groups when they branch out.

 

This time I bee lined for Laser Rifles, so I think when that first terror mission shows up I'll be much better prepared to handle the discs, because the regular rifles did nothing.

 

Question on Proximity Grenades. Do you have to step on exactly the square that it is on for it to go off, or does it have a range?

 

Either way, I'm amazed at how quickly this old game sucked me back in. The graphics are rough, no doubt, but the strategy and the atmosphere and the way it plays is still amazing.

 

Plus I threw in the patch that allows me to right click open doors, and no longer limits the smoke on the map among other things and it just plays great!

[NKF]

Proximity grenades detonate when anyone steps on it or walk into any of the adjacent tiles. Walking away from the detection tiles on the other hand don't count.

 

For early Cyberdisc support prior to getting the lasers, nothing bests the large rocket or the high explosive pack. The large rocket's the easiest to use of the two, but if you have any 40+ strength soldiers, the high explosives are viable.

 

One thing you might find handy would be to have your forward scouts move slowly. The more TUs used up, the lower their reactions, and the easier they'll draw reaction fire. It own stop reaction fire, but it draws less fire. Similarly, don't try to get the forward scouts to open fire on enemies if at all possible, since that puts them in very vulnerable positions.

 

- NKF

[CapnKill]

Hmmmm... so let me make sure I got this right.

 

So lets say Jimmy needs at least 17 TUs to fire a shot. So if I end the turn and Jimmy has 17 TUs left, he is less likely to fire a reaction shot than if he had full TUs?

 

That would certainly change the way I play if that was the case

[chiasaur11]

Hmmmm... so let me make sure I got this right.

 

So lets say Jimmy needs at least 17 TUs to fire a shot. So if I end the turn and Jimmy has 17 TUs left, he is less likely to fire a reaction shot than if he had full TUs?

 

That would certainly change the way I play if that was the case

 

True.

 

And yeah. It does change the game.

[Jman4117]

As far as tanks go, you have a 1 time cost, those 10 rookies are going to cost 400k every month. The tanks can move nearly double the speed of a rookie, and have good armor. The rocket tank is an excellent scout and fire support unit for the early game. I pretty much always have 1 along with 10 soldiers. It can fire off what amounts to 2 small rockets in one turn so long as it doesn't move much, or scout for 70tu vs a rookie's 40-50tu (less if you want to save for reaction fire, the tanks only have 30 reactions, and almost never react so either don't move them or drain them). Later in the game, they make expendable scouts compared to your 80tu super soldiers.

[chiasaur11]

As far as tanks go, you have a 1 time cost, those 10 rookies are going to cost 400k every month.

 

Well, yeah, but a rook would have to survive for months to match the price of a tank. I mean, tanks are good and all, but they aren't a savings measure all that often.

[Bomb Bloke]

Note that this works both ways: aliens with full TUs are much more likely to fire on your turn. When the battle starts, you get the first go, and all aliens haven't had a chance to use any TUs yet - this is why they'll happily blast anything that dares stick its nose out of the dropship that early. On that note, never open a door without full TUs. In UFOs, it's often best to wait a few turns in case an alien decides to open it for you.

 

Having rear-guard snipers follow behind your scouts helps avoid reaction fire (aliens can't shoot at things that are so far away they can't personally see them), but make sure your scouts have cover from both the aliens and your snipers. At least until you've had some time to improve accuracy stats a bit. Murphy's Law is in full effect.

 

Remember that the higher forms of armour aren't that useful on the higher difficulties. Stick with with Personal Armor (manufacture it in advance, even) - it's far cheaper then all the other stuff, but still somewhat effective.

 

Consider skipping terror missions if you're up against a large amount of Cyberdiscs and don't have the firepower on hand to take 'em down fast. Always at least turn up (or you'll be slugged with a huge score penalty), but once you've put in a token appearance, the penalty for leaving is relatively minor.

[CapnKill]

As far as tanks go, you have a 1 time cost, those 10 rookies are going to cost 400k every month. The tanks can move nearly double the speed of a rookie, and have good armor. The rocket tank is an excellent scout and fire support unit for the early game. I pretty much always have 1 along with 10 soldiers. It can fire off what amounts to 2 small rockets in one turn so long as it doesn't move much, or scout for 70tu vs a rookie's 40-50tu (less if you want to save for reaction fire, the tanks only have 30 reactions, and almost never react so either don't move them or drain them). Later in the game, they make expendable scouts compared to your 80tu super soldiers.

 

I was on the tank bandwagon until I saw 1 shot blow one up... at that point it's just too much of a risk. I rather a rook walk off the ramp and take on in the face than a 400k tank. If I was guaranteed at least 4 or 5 shots then it would be a different story, but at least with the starting HWPs, its a problem.

 

I suppose for crashed ships its ok, they seem to take a ton of punishment, perhaps just the Cyberdisks that are a bit too much for them to handle.

[NKF]

Love or hate the tanks, the whole tank vs. soldier debate only matters at the start, and is entirely up to you how you proceed. Later on, when money is a non-issue, they're great throw-away units to help keep your super soldiers and budding rookies alive. I quite like the laser tanks. Cheap compared to the advanced tanks, but pack a very big punch with their heavy laser. Also if you don't mind exploiting the free ammo bug - the fusion HWP is an absolutely fine base defender.

 

CapnKill - reactions and TUs combine to make what I used to call the reaction score, but properly known as Initiative (got this term from Rebelstar Tactical Command, X-COM has its roots in this game's ancestor). As long as your initiative is higher, you get to move. If it's lower than the other side, they get to move. You get your initiative with this formula: Current TUs / Max TUs * Reactions. Mind probe the aliens to check theirs if you want.

 

To put it simply, when your initiative is higher, you prevent any aliens that can see you from performing an attack of opportunity. If it falls below, then the alien reacts (if it can). Say you've got a lot of initiative. You can basically run circles in front of the alien while the initiative is greater. Once it falls below, then the alien reacts. This is why the forward scouts should move slowly rather than run out ahead. And also the reason why Bomb Bloke mentioned you shouldn't deploy on the first turn. It's the only turn where all the aliens are guaranteed to have 100% of their time units.

 

In a funny way, regular use of the smoke grenade before deploying forces you to wait a turn.

 

When initiative is used with reaction fire, you are correct. If you simply reserved TUs for one shot and used the rest before the end of the turn, your chances of getting off that reaction shot are much less than if you'd waited with full TUs. Really, the reserve TU buttons are meant as a failsafe for the current turn to ensure that you can make that shot (it won't stop you from shooting). I doubt they were intended to be used with reaction fire.

 

- NKF

[chiasaur11]

I was on the tank bandwagon until I saw 1 shot blow one up... at that point it's just too much of a risk. I rather a rook walk off the ramp and take on in the face than a 400k tank. If I was guaranteed at least 4 or 5 shots then it would be a different story, but at least with the starting HWPs, its a problem.

 

I suppose for crashed ships its ok, they seem to take a ton of punishment, perhaps just the Cyberdisks that are a bit too much for them to handle.

 

That's nothing.

 

I lost a HWP right off the ramp.

 

To one shot from a heavy plasma.

 

On its first mission.

 

A crash site.

 

On beginner

 

Did I mention this was an almost a million dollar hovertank?

 

It... could have gone better.

[CapnKill]

Love or hate the tanks, the whole tank vs. soldier debate only matters at the start, and is entirely up to you how you proceed. Later on, when money is a non-issue, they're great throw-away units to help keep your super soldiers and budding rookies alive. I quite like the laser tanks. Cheap compared to the advanced tanks, but pack a very big punch with their heavy laser. Also if you don't mind exploiting the free ammo bug - the fusion HWP is an absolutely fine base defender.

 

CapnKill - reactions and TUs combine to make what I used to call the reaction score, but properly known as Initiative (got this term from Rebelstar Tactical Command, X-COM has its roots in this game's ancestor). As long as your initiative is higher, you get to move. If it's lower than the other side, they get to move. You get your initiative with this formula: Current TUs / Max TUs * Reactions. Mind probe the aliens to check theirs if you want.

 

To put it simply, when your initiative is higher, you prevent any aliens that can see you from performing an attack of opportunity. If it falls below, then the alien reacts (if it can). Say you've got a lot of initiative. You can basically run circles in front of the alien while the initiative is greater. Once it falls below, then the alien reacts. This is why the forward scouts should move slowly rather than run out ahead. And also the reason why Bomb Bloke mentioned you shouldn't deploy on the first turn. It's the only turn where all the aliens are guaranteed to have 100% of their time units.

 

In a funny way, regular use of the smoke grenade before deploying forces you to wait a turn.

 

When initiative is used with reaction fire, you are correct. If you simply reserved TUs for one shot and used the rest before the end of the turn, your chances of getting off that reaction shot are much less than if you'd waited with full TUs. Really, the reserve TU buttons are meant as a failsafe for the current turn to ensure that you can make that shot (it won't stop you from shooting). I doubt they were intended to be used with reaction fire.

 

- NKF

 

Wow, this changes everything! Thanks for this info, I will put it to use immediately. I'm trying an iron man game on Genius, just started. Thinking about documenting the progress, but it might be short lived