Call me the Master of Alien Colony Infiltration

[The Veteran]

You know personally I find inside to be the worst bit. Not necessarily harder but it's so long winded and there are so many tiny little rooms and dark corners. I once killed all but one alien on the second level of the base in a really good time. It then took me another twenty turns with a full squad of people just to kill the last damn lobsterman

[knight_of_the_ravens]

yeah...i hate that too.....the last guy is always the chickenwuss....running away and not accepting the fact that "HEY!!!! WE"RE DEAD....MIGHT AS WELL TAKE OUT AS MANY OF THEM AS I CAN BEFORE THEY OFF ME TOO!"

always takes about an hour or so to find the last little creep!!!

[Tammy]

Why kill him? Try this Monty Python approach.....

 

"Oh no, he's stunned."

 

"What?"

 

"You stunned him just as he was waking up. Norwegian Lobstermen stun easily. Lovely bird, the Norwegian Lobsterman. Beautiful plumage"

 

(Okay, slightly paraphrased . Still, stunning lobstermen is much more efficient than trying to kill them.)

[The Veteran]

Stunned? I know a stunned lobsterman when I see it! This lobsterman is dead!

[knight_of_the_ravens]

it really depends....see i'll only stun something when i know he's valuable...

i start with the MC reader and probe the creep....then if he's got some info i want, or i don't have a live specimen yet...then he gets rodded or shot with the stun gun...but if he's just another worthless creep with a bad attitude...then i see no problem with offing him and getting some cash off of selling his body....but....if one of my stun men are the only ones around him....well....then that's different...

[Tammy]

The thing is that they just go down so much more easily to stunning. I don't want to have to shoot him ten times just to end a base raid that is really already finished when one shot will do the trick.

[Jman4117]

I usually lance them. Saves ammo and only takes 20% TU's to kill a lobsterman.

[Rattler]

I go the hard way. No MC and no stunning. Just kill anything that moves.

[The Demi-Godly One]

Killing every thing that moves isn't always that good. I tried that once but stunning aliens is more useful than you might think. :dontgetit:

[Ki-tat Chung]

the thing is, with out MC you don't know what type of alien it may be and you may have to stun all of that race of aliens before you get the one u want...

[knight_of_the_ravens]

well....usually there is'nt a base made by the time u get your first artifact of the MC reader....u can get one in your first battle if you're lucky....always carry one with u no matter what....and lobsters...well i always have my guys set with sonic blasta rifles....not too heavy, very accurate, powerful(though not like the sonic cannons, but the cannon is too much weight especially for new rookies) and even when playing superhuman, the most shots i've ever had to pump a lobster with was like four or five max (with the blasta rifle i mean)...no sweat....even the $20,000 for his body can be useful....but if you're struggling at the time,and need him down quick, then stunning him is probably a good idea....

[Rattler]

Well we're typically dealing with lobstermen and I play on Superhuman so I tend to get about 4 of the alive regardless of how many sonic shots(had one take 9 sonic cannons and 2 pulsers before falling down, IE he was still alive) and pulsers I winded up wasting on them. I only knock out the aliens that I actually need, deep ones, lobsterman commanders and navigators, and the likes. Outside of that I kill em all, even throw gernades on known knocked out aliens.

 

I find you can get MC readers on your first mission rather often, as long as it's aquatoids your fighting. There always seems to be one of them that has it.

[Maugan Ra]

I must admit it is hard... very hard if only using human tech.. those lobbies can take a hell of a beating with those gauss weapons... never tried using stealth before... might try it out soon... maybe it will lower the rate at wich my men are tripping over pulsers and pwt's...

[M. Hoz]

(It's not right to say there are no bases when you

get the reader.you can't see them yet).

[BladeFireLight]

Well we're typically dealing with lobstermen and I play on Superhuman so I tend to get about 4 of the alive regardless of how many sonic shots(had one take 9 sonic cannons and 2 pulsers before falling down, IE he was still alive) and pulsers I winded up wasting on them.  I only knock out the aliens that I actually need, deep ones, lobsterman commanders and navigators, and the likes. Outside of that I kill em all, even throw gernades on known knocked out aliens.

 

I find you can get MC readers on your first mission rather often, as long as it's aquatoids your fighting. There always seems to be one of them that has it.

you want to add a real twist... try the xcomutil "stuned alien research". it rases the cost of all research projects by x10. then you can only lower that quickly by capturing live aliens.

 

-Blade FireLght

[Rattler]

Sounds like fun but I'm still not going to capture any aliens, I prefer hard but not over the top hard(human weapons only)

[knight_of_the_ravens]

hey Hoz....u DO go base hunting,don't u?...u'll always know if there is a base around...even if u don't see it.....all u gotta do is keep good eyes on the graphs and check the rates of alien activity raising in the areas....then have your ships go and patrol the area....4 out of 10 times you will find a base....they don't start making them until u've brought down and recovered at least like ten UFO's...then they will get desperate and begin their construction....depends on the graphs though...the lines must be over half way up before u get suspicious that a base might be present.....the bases don't appear all the time by the monthly thing just telling u....i did once find four alien colonies on the globe after going a year (in game date) went on a hunt because the nations began to reduce alot of funding....but four alien colonies is alot to find in about five minutes of base searching....had one HEEEELLLLL of a time getting rid of them too.....

[BladeFireLight]

hey Hoz....u DO go base hunting,don't u?...u'll always know if there is a base around...even if u don't see it.....all u gotta do is keep good eyes on the graphs and check the rates of alien activity raising in the areas....then have your ships go and patrol the area....4 out of 10 times you will find a base....they don't start making them until u've brought down and recovered at least like ten UFO's...then they will get desperate and begin their construction....depends on the graphs though...the lines must be over half way up before u get suspicious that a base might be present.....the bases don't appear all the time by the monthly thing just telling u....i did once find four alien colonies on the globe after going a year (in game date) went on a hunt because the nations began to reduce alot of funding....but four alien colonies is alot to find in about five minutes of base searching....had one HEEEELLLLL of a time getting rid of them too.....

Base are created in two ways...

 

the alines will send down 5 to 6 ships with the mission of create new base..

 

you have the Dreadnought (some tiems two).. two supply ships a Cruiser and a somtimes a battle ship.

 

if even one of the larger ships land a base will be created some wher in the area..

 

 

this will caus a large spike in the graphs.. and the base will continue to generates activity points every day that is exists.

 

the other way is if your getting really high monthly scores consistantly.. so If you get two "exelents' in a base is magicly generated and you get told about it..

 

This base also will generated alien activity every day it exists.

 

Your score in xcom is your points minus the alines points. so the game uese this as a way to bring down your score... however if you can take out the bases quickly it's not a big problem.. but in TFTD bases are alwase more chalenging.

 

-Blade FireLight

[NKF]

Just an addition.

 

The supply ships that land at the bases can easily make up for the points generated by the alien base. But once you get 8+ alien bases in the same area -- be afraid. Be very afraid (this is from experience -- though I only had about 6 or so, and they were scattered around my few bases).

 

Don't forget that the overall activity points are just that. Overall activity points. Each country block has its own alien and X-Com activity scores. As long as the aliens have more points in any particular area, even if you accumulate a massive amount of points in that month alone, the affected country may reduce funding somewhat.

 

This was my downfall in one earlier TFTD campaign. Was doing exceptionally well for a bit, with thousands of points every month. But countries kept withdrawing their funds since I only had sonar scans on one side of the globe.

 

- NKF

[BladeFireLight]

Just an addition.

 

The supply ships that land at the bases can easily make up for the points generated by the alien base. But once you get 8+ alien bases in the same area -- be afraid. Be very afraid (this is from experience -- though I only had about 6 or so, and they were scattered around my few bases).

 

Don't forget that the overall activity points are just that. Overall activity points. Each country block has its own alien and X-Com activity scores. As long as the aliens have more points in any particular area, even if you accumulate a massive amount of points in that month alone, the affected country may reduce funding somewhat.

 

This was my downfall in one earlier TFTD campaign. Was doing exceptionally well for a bit, with thousands of points every month. But countries kept withdrawing their funds since I only had sonar scans on one side of the globe.

 

- NKF

a boring but posible way around that problem.. Watch your graphs carfully.. if you detect a sudden rise in activity send out a patrol (Trition for the far off sea's) you can some times catch the aliens in the act, with out the expensive base.

 

-Blade FireLight

[knight_of_the_ravens]

does'nt everybody watch their graphs?...i know i do...when i see activity go over halfway up, i send out one of my ships to do some patrolling....yesterday i got the decoded transmission of an aquatoid fleet supply ship...it landed north (near greenland)....i sent the barracuda after him (loaded with the sonic ocsillators)...but lost his traking....now i had been searching that area before...but missed that little spot...the graphs said there was something there, but when i searched, i found nothing...so i decided to patrol the exact area the supply ship landed...and whaddya know...there was the frikkin base i had been looking for the whole time.....kicked my self for not moving my patrol ships just a little closer the last time i searched there....now i'm inside the base...(no problem getting in at all .....one other tip....it's best to raid the colonies at night...better infiltration method)...but now i've lost three men and am still searching for every alien...all frikkin lobs btw.....currently building my first Manta fighter....still gotta take the base....

[Ki-tat Chung]

i did excelent for months on end, then i find a base in scandinavia at the end of the month. i take it out several days before the end, and i still lose scandinavia. why? progebly the aliens got a foothold and overall points in that area was less than my points. that was the only country i lost before losing the game...

[Kal Cyann]

I find doing alien colonys easy now, i used to find them almost impossible an would lose nearly all my squad doing them.

Now i have a squad entirly of high ranking MC soldiers so no more threat of MC.

 

But i know ur gonna say it takes tim eto get that, an indeed it does so heres what i used to do.

Upon enterting LZ i would throw flares out 1st stay inside the craft. next i would send 1 soldier out 1st to see potential targets, then try an kill them.

After that i throw 2 sonic pulsers an the middle section ofthe aliens base (rememebr its like a + shape) then throw in plenty of sonic pulsers and dye gernadese, then i would run in so all my soldiers were onthe yellow panal then goto 2nd phase.

No i rarly kill all the aliens on the 1st phase, find it quicker to just dive stright for the room.

 

2nd phase i normally have 3 rookie soldiers designated as expenddable, now i just walk around looking for the tiny square with a hole in it, this is the aliens control centre. Then 1 sonic pulser blows away the out rim, when another trooper drops in an shoots the control centre. After that try an getthe living expendable soldiers that found the CC to the exist if possible, if not no real lose.

Did 1 in the Artic last night, took me 5 turns to get in, then 6 turns to blow up the CC losing 2 men, both designated as expendable.

 

Not to everyones tastes this like but still 1 of the faster ways i find.

[M. Hoz]

It sounds like Raven's way,just faster.louder,

and MUCH more costly.

 

I never thought of the graphs as a way to find

Alien Bases.I will now.

[knight_of_the_ravens]

i did excelent  for months on end, then i find a base in scandinavia at the end of the month. i take it out several days before the end, and i still lose scandinavia. why? progebly the aliens got a foothold and overall points in that area was less than my points. that was the only country i lost before losing the game...

the same thing happened just the other day for me....except i was getting the bastards out of USA.....well...After i got them out ant destroyed the colony....USA still joined the aliens....now that sounds just like something that America would really do,does'nt it?.........but anyways....i'll ask that same question...why?