Ahhh reaction fire!! :(

[CapnKill]

Sent my best squad to handle a small alien ship.

 

There were 4 little bastards inside, so I setup an ambush outside the door looking to train up some reaction fire...

 

bad move These monkeys came out and took down 6 of my guys!

 

The firefight was fun to watch though But yeah, brutal... I think I need to use laser pistols for these scenarios to increase my chances.

 

What are good NON Psi ways to train reaction fire? I'm not using any psionics during this run.

[Bomb Bloke]

What are good NON Psi ways to train reaction fire?

Oxymorons?

 

The ideal training situation has you using low-damage weapons against a target that can't shoot back with lethal force. It's difficult to create such a scenario without using psi. I suppose if you could trap a Reaper in an enclosed space, you'd be able to play with it for a while, but that's the only "trick" I can think of.

 

Hence your best bet is to just play using the normal "safe" techniques - move your troopers slowly, from cover to cover, using as few TUs per turn as possible unless you know an area is clear. The idea is that aliens should be walking into your field of vision, and not vice versa.

 

In regards to getting the best effect from the skill points you already have, remember to crouch your troopers off to the sides of any doors you wish to guard (ideally at least a tile or two away) - the aliens should be required to walk through, then turn ninety degrees before they can fire.

[NKF]

To borrow a brilliant quote: "psi is for psissies". >:] Actually, Reapers or Chryssalids, pistols (with 1 clip per soldier) and flying suits are good combos for training with. Just make sure the melee aliens are the last remaining units on the map. One pistol clip is all you need to get the highest possible improvement roll if you empty it solely with reactions.

 

Speaking of crouching off to the side, one of its biggest benefit is that the aliens behind the one you just gunned down won't be able to react in response to your attack, not having a direct visual of your soldiers.

 

A few things to consider:

 

When setting up the door ambush, the firing squad formation is a definite no-no partly because it makes a bigger target for the aliens, so even a miss will count. More importantly, it's just demanding a grenade attack. I recommend the broken half-circle formation whereby you have soldiers spaced at random ranges around the door in a wide half-circle. If you have flying suits, have some fly (and 'kneel' in mid-air). If the UFO exit on a Medium or Large Scout is up against the edge of the map and there's no room to spread out, have the ambushes set just around the corner from the door. The battleship's quite a fun UFO to seige - you can probably have three or four soldiers down each passage leading to the central lift. Not too much room to spread out though.

 

Spacing. Don't set up your ambush too close to the door. Move as far back as you can but within visual range of the door. The more you force the aliens to walk to get in visual range of your ambush, the better it is for you both offensively and defensively.

 

And now just to contradict myself a little about not standing directly in line with the door, you can actually set someone in line with the door as long as there is sufficient room to do so. Make sure that the exact distance between the soldier and the door is between 19 - 20 tiles. This makes it very difficult for those behind or flanking the alien exiting the door from seeing the soldier, but puts the alien walking out the door in your opportunity fire range. Remember to light the doorway with a flare if your ambush is at night. Throw it on top of the UFO to keep it out of harms way.

 

Laser pistols and especially the basic pistols are the best tools for training reactions, with laser rifles being a good third choice. They are probably the safer weapon to use when fighting Mutons or Ethereals.

 

Training as a group is also a very beneficial exercise as if multiple soldiers are qualified to make opportunity attacks at the same time, even if the alien is killed early in the sequence, the others who did not get to act will still have their reaction experience counter incremented.

 

- NKF

[CapnKill]

Thanks for the tips as usual Yeah the scenario I had was where the ship was one square away from the edge of the map, so I had a couple of guys on each side, but I understand now why I should've been further away... I didn't think that out far enough

 

Lost some good men on that one, but oh well, that's X-Com, the most routine mission can end up in disaster if you don't pay enough attention