LW Rebalance - Basic Tactics
Its about negating the enemy's cover, while not allowing the enemy to negate yours.
I’ve been trying to write a post about tactics for Long War Rebalance, but it has been hard to get started because the rules keep changing, and I am not entirely sure of the best tactical approach to the game, or to put it more accurately, I am entirely sure that there is no best approach. LWR is very different from other versions of XCOM, in that the classes and their abilities are much more evenly balanced. This is great, but it has made it hard for me to write about LWR, because I typically write from a position of expertise, and describe what I have found to be the best approach for class builds, and from there discuss tactics. I can’t follow that formula, as I can’t even pin down which class builds I find the most effective. and so instead of arguing for a best approach to tactics in LWR, I am going to talk about basic maneuvers.
Offensive Maneuvers = Negating Cover
First, let’s talk about offense. In LWR the point of most offensive maneuvering is to negate cover, which is very effective in this version of XCOM because cover not only reduces the chance to hit, but also decreases the damage done. There are 6 primary methods of negating cover in the early game.
Cover Negation Techniques:
Flanking
Cover Destruction
Explosives for Damage
Overwatching
Steadying
Buff your Attacks
This list is roughly in order of my preference. Generally speaking my game plan is to find flanks, and destructible cover. If that isn’t possible then maybe, I can try to blow them up directly. If not, then I consider pushing through cover using concussion grenades. If that won’t work, then it is time to overwatch and steady or prioritize defense.
Chronologically the attacks do not follow the same ordering. Typically I like to throw out a rocket at the beginning of an encounter, supposing I have a rocket and that makes sense to do. Throwing grenades (of all variety) is usually the next action to consider. After that you want to plan out how to buff attacks with a battle scanner or holo rounds. Lastly, you should plan out any remaining shooter actions and determine whether they should shoot, overwatch, or steady.
So the first thing I look for is flanking shots, but I won’t actually take those shots until I’ve done a bunch of other stuff…
You should give some consideration to defense at some point, but I am going to skip that for now.
Let’s go into the finer details for each of the offensive maneuvers.
Cover Destruction:
Destroying cover is a pretty simple maneuver which wouldn’t require much tactical analysis except for the fact that not all cover can be destroyed. It is hard to destroy cover in LWR. Most environment objects will not be destroyed by an HE grenade even if you center the blast directly on the object. Rockets do slightly more environmental damage than HE grenades, but you cannot pinpoint their blast center and so they are usually less reliable than grenades at removing cover.
The environmental damage of explosives can only be improved by the Sapper ability, which is unavailable in the early game. Other abilities that increase the damage of explosives will not increase their environment damage. (This includes Tandem Warheads).
The only insight I have regarding cover destruction is that experience is key. Knowing which cover objects are less durable and thus vulnerable to explosives will make you a better player. In general, you should only expect to destroy small objects such as benches, boxes, rooftop ledges, and so on. Normal walls also break most of the time. When you are hoping to destroy cover, it is usually best to center grenades on the cover object, which will increase the chance of destroying it.
For a more detailed explanation of how environmental damage works scroll to the bottom of Ufopaedia(LWR) - Damage. In this article there are some instructions for revealing the HP for all cover objects. This is done by setting the BASE_DAYS_INJURED value to 1 in the DefaultGameCore.ini file. It makes the screen a mess, but can be extremely useful.
Explosives for Damage:
Instead of using explosives to destroy cover, you can focus them on the enemy and try to kill them outright. Enemies will receive cover DR if the explosive is centered in front of their cover, so try to toss explosives behind the enemy’s cover.
Flanking:
Flanking is the best way to negate cover, but it is often difficult or dangerous. The easiest way to flank the enemy is to use Run & Gun and put your Assault right up next to the target. This is great for finishing off a pod, but it is often unfeasible when facing a large cohort. There are many other more subtle ways to create flanking shots. Here is a short list of some of my techniques.
Activate from the side: When activating a pod of aliens, if you approach from the right or left, they may take cover relative to the activating soldier, leaving them flankable by the other soldiers in your squad. In the image below I moved my scout forward on the left side of the battlefield, inviting the floaters to take cover along the building, which enabled my sniper to get an easy flank.
Give them cover positions that can be flanked. Sometimes the aliens will move into cover that is easy to flank, but not when you are already flanking that position. So leave that cover open to them, so you can turn it into a flanking shot on your next turn.
Use LOS breaking terrain to get close before activating. Door breaches are great in LWR. Approaching from behind large vehicles, roofs, trains, etc. will also work. Using the terrain to get in close before activating a pod is still one of the best ways to win a mission.
Break LOS. This can backfire, but sometimes it works extremely well. Without LOS to any of your soldiers the aliens will often leave themselves exposed.
Double move or move and hunker: It is often possible to use a soldier’s entire turn to get them into position so they can flank on their following turn.
Offer the SHIV as cover: The enemy will sometimes use your SHIV as cover, a gloriously stupid move that always makes me laugh. This AI blunder is rare, but perhaps it could be engineered with some effort.
Overwatching:
Overwatching and Steadying are often the best things to do when you can’t do anything else. If most of my squad is on overwatch at the end of a turn, it usually means that I didn’t have a very good plan, or the aliens are in a strong defensive position. Ideally, overwatching is left to the soldier with the Sentinel ability (or Opportunist), and all your other soldiers will find flanks, or steady their weapons, or throw grenades or whatever. The reason to avoid overwatching is not because it is weak. LWR has buffed it considerably, but overwatchers do not get to pick their target and will often shoot at the least dangerous enemy or one that is hard to hit, rather than the enemy that is about to kill your squadmate or that has been disoriented by a concussion grenade. Also, cover DR will still apply to overwatch shots (unless your soldier has Sentinel/Opportunist), and that makes overwatching far less effective than flanking/steadied shots. Against flyers and those that don’t take cover, regular overwatching offers little advantage, and against thin men, who have the Snap Shot ability, overwatch shots will not always trigger. For soldiers that have Holo Rounds, Shredder, or Double Tap, direct fire will better utilizes these abilities. For all of these reasons, non-overwatch specialists should only use overwatch when there is no other way to approach the situation.
Overwatch should also be considered a defensive maneuver as it discourages the aliens from moving to flank you, or running away and then activating another pod.
Steadying:
Like overwatching, steadying your weapon is a maneuver that proves useful when you don’t have a better plan. Steadied shots (with 2 AP remaining) will ignore cover DR and so they can help you push through a tough enemy position. Steadying your weapon is also extremely effective against hard to hit flyers. Waiting a turn before you take your shot can leave your squad vulnerable. Steady works best in a good defensive posture, using smoke or suppression to buy time for the steadied shooter.
As I have gained experience, Steady is an action that I’ve relied on more. It can easily be overlooked by beginners who are less accustomed to dealing with cover DR.
Buffing your Attacks:
There are several ways to buff attacks in the early game:
Concussion Grenade
Holo rounds
Battle Scanner
Shredding
I don’t have much tactical guidance here, except to say that it is a good practice to make a mental note of which buffs are available to your squad at the start of combat so that you don’t realize you have battle scanners right after missing a 90% flanking shot.
Defensive Maneuvers = Don’t Get Flanked
There are lot’s of techniques that will help your soldiers survive, but none of them are more important than this simple rule: Don’t Allow the Enemy to get Flanking Shots. If the enemy has your soldiers flanked, or can move to flank your soldiers, you should prioritize negating that threat using one or more of the techniques below.
Basic Defensive Maneuvers:
Kill ‘em
Concussion grenade
Suppression
Smoke
Tank
Move to safety, hunker, and/or break LOS
To discuss each of these techniques, I am going to consider a few different scenarios related to flanking.
Scenario A: Your soldiers are flanked by a thin man on overwatch.
This is a very common scenario on bomb disposals and other council request missions, and it is also extremely dangerous.
The best option is when you have a soldier that can flank the thin man but is not in LOS of him. When thin men are dropping in, You should hide your Assault in a van or behind a wall. Then the Assault can Run & Gun over to an overwatching thin man and hopefully one shot it.
The next best option is to throw a concussion grenade on the thin man with a nearby soldier who also has the Smoke & Mirrors ability. This will remove the overwatch and make the thin man an easy target for your shooters.
A final 100% safe alternative is for a soldier with Smoke & Mirrors to throw smoke on another soldier who is capable of dealing with the thin man. Smoke will allow any soldier in throw range to cancel the overwatch with a grenade, or your gunner to suppress him, or your rocketeer to blow him up, or whatever.
If none of those maneuvers is possible, you can tank the overwatch with your SHIV or the soldier with the best defensive position. A soldier with good armor and in high cover should trigger the overwatch by shooting or overwatching rather than running - this will give your soldier some cover defense and DR.
Scenario B: A thin man can move to flank your squad.
There is no overwatch to worry about in this scenario, so you have more flexibility, but the danger is still very real, and should be mitigated. All of the techniques for disabling an overwatch that I listed in Scenario A (kill, suppress, concussion grenade) will work here as well. However there are a few additional techniques you can use.
Overwatching will often discourage movement of the enemy, and if they do run the overwatch, it could stagger the target, and so neutralize the threat. However this is not 100% reliable. Even a high aim sentinel overwatcher can miss, or shoot at other targets.
If only one soldier is in danger of being flanked, you could just move that soldier to safety, or alternatively, move your SHIV to provide cover relative to the threat.
Scenario C: Pod of floaters. Potential flank via the launch ability.
Floaters have the launch ability, which can be very dangerous if they overwatch after flanking your squad. With an active pod of floaters it is usually a good idea to reshuffle your squad positioning to protect your rear.
This can be done by moving a soldier with Smoke & Mirrors to the back of your squad, which will hopefully put them in grenade range of a launching floater. Then they can toss a concussion grenade on it to negate the threat.
It is also a good idea to reload your SHIV and not move it too far forward. The SHIV is very helpful in dealing with overwatching flankers because it can run the overwatch, and/or use suppression.
Alternatively you can move soldiers to take cover relative to your rear, thus allowing them to at least take actions from behind cover. A hidden Assault is again a very powerful option.
A Few other Early Game Defensive Considerations
There are too many situations to go over all of them in detail, but here is a short list of the other early game enemies, and what I do to protect my squad when they pop up.
Pod of Sectoids: Give some consideration to the counter charge ability. Rocket them to deactivate it, and/or throw grenade/shoot from out of LOS, and attack with the SHIV before attacking with the rest of the squad. Do not let the Sectoids gang up on any low will soldiers.
Pod of Drones / Enemy Leaders with CST: Smoke the SHIV, or limit its LOS.
Thin Men: Along with their skill at flanking, which I’ve already discussed, the thin man can also spit acid. Bring plenty of medikits.
Seekers: Holo rounds will prevent them from cloaking which removes their most dangerous attack, while also giving other shooters an aim and penetration bonus. Once seekers start showing up (AL 2), it is essential for your squad to have either a SHIV with a motion tracker or a Scout with battle scanners or a proximity sensor.
Mutons: Watch out for grenades. Stay back if you cannot diminish their throw range. Use indestructible cover.