Long War - Summer Strategy

Summer is the season for MECs.

My early game strategy post left off about midway through June, having gone the standard Laser/Carapace technology route. This post is going to pick up from where we left off, right at the start of summer and carry through about September.

With a Laser/Carapace opening, Summer is the period when the XCOM project really starts to roll. Interceptors are equipping laser cannons in June, and should soon benefit from modules and foundry upgrades. In July you should have a 2x2 block of satellite uplinks which allows you to grab a couple continent bonuses, and then be able to keep building a satellite uplink/nexus every month until full coverage has been accomplished. A thermo generator should be up, and that enables you to build laboratories, or an alien containment facility, or both. With money rolling in from the Exalt missions, it is possible to fund many projects, but it will never be enough. The OTS upgrades will eat up any money lying around. So lot’s of things are happening, but the most important is perhaps the start of the MEC program.

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Base Layout

Below is a neat graphic showing my filled base, in early December of my latest campaign. I have labeled each facility with the date when construction began, color coded by month, with the satellite uplinks and workshop facilities fenced off for clarity, and the Thermo Generators underlined in red. I was unlucky in the location of steam vents, but made it work.

Current Campaign

It is easier to get your workshop facilities in a nice 2x3 grid, because there is no initial facility, as with uplinks, constraining your choice of location. In this campaign, the initial satellite uplink could only be used in a 2x3 grid if I arranged it horizontally, and so that’s what I did. This delayed the construction of my labs, and forced me to build access lifts all the way down to the 4th level to do so. It wasn’t too big of an inconvenience because I was going to need to get down there anyway to reach the 2nd steam vent in the bottom corner.

In my ideal base layout, the steam vents would be much closer to the top, and they would not impede the vertical downward expansion of satellite uplinks, as shown below.

Ideal Base Layout

The satellite uplink location marked with an X, can be placed on any of the 5 squares adjacent to the 2x3 satellite uplink rectangle, and result in the same number of connections. The key is to get that 2x3 grid with the first 6 uplinks, which then allows full coverage with 6 uplinks and only 1 nexus. Compared with a 3 uplink / 3 nexus layout, this uses up one extra room, and costs 8 extra power, but saves you a lot of time and resources. Switching an uplink for a nexus costs an addition $100, 50 alloy, 20 elerium, and 2 flight computers, and requires 10 extra engineers. Building 3 uplinks and 3 nexuses¹ in a 2x3 grid is very pretty, but it is wasteful, and takes longer.

On reddit, many players discussing base layout describe a 2x3 rectangle with 3 uplinks and 3 nexuses as optimal. And in a way, they are right. But it optimizes for base capacity, not winning the game. And what does an extra room really give you? Well, you can either have an extra workshop or lab. That’s all. An extra workshop will not compensate you for the additional resource costs of 2 nexuses in a reasonable amount of time. And trading resources for an extra lab doesn’t make sense in the late game because the real bottleneck to research is eventually going to be weapon fragments.

I suggest optimizing resources and speed, rather than real estate efficiency. Rapidly achieving full coverage has very large economic advantages. Aside from getting more money, scientists, and engineers, it will also mean that you will acquire continent bonuses sooner, diminish panic in more countries, and increase the chance of landed large UFOs. The inefficiencies that occur when replacing power facilities are very small by comparison, only costing money, which is plentiful in the late game.

If you have concerns about limited floor space and power constraints, consider that in the base layout of my current campaign, I have built 7 uplink/nexus facilities, and was unfortunate in the position of my thermo generators, which are separated from each other and all other generators. It is a worst case scenario. Yet I can still make it work. Currently there is a surplus of 25 power, and only 3 steps remaining to finish the base:

1. Replace an internal fission generator with the 2nd elerium generator (+27p; 52 surplus).

2. Replace the fission generator at the end of the chain with the Hyperwave Relay (-11p -15p; 26 surplus)

3. Tear down a workshop and a lab to build the Gollop Chamber (+10p, -35p; 1 surplus).

I do have to tear down some valuable buildings, but by the time I am constructing the Gollop Chamber the game is almost over.

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The final 2 Workshops can be delayed

By June you should have completed the 2x2 square of Foundry / Repair Bay / Workshop / Workshop. This saves you 30% in material costs. The final 2 workshops in the 2x3 rectangle are far less important; each will provide an additional 5% in savings. My advice is to leave them for the end of the year, hopefully before you build Titan Armor.

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Barracks and Hangar Strength

There is a bump in mission counts starting around June. In my last campaign the potential mission count went from 13 in April, up to 17 in May, then to 22 in June. This happens for a combination of reasons. June almost always has high alien threat/resource levels, and is also the first month with 2 Exalt missions. In my last campaign, it was also the first month that I engaged UFOs on bombing runs, which added 3 potential missions.

More missions is not at all a bad thing, supposing you are prepared for it, and that means having a strong Barracks and Hangar. I aim for 50 soldiers total, including SHIVs. Some commanders see this as light; but it works well for me. Additional soldiers make a huge difference, because every soldier can be used twice if you exhaust them. With 4 more soldiers in your barracks, the breaking point of your barracks is extended by one full mission.

The breaking point of the barracks is always farther away than it feels. By keeping track of how many missions remain in the current month you can more comfortably exhaust soldiers when you are hit by several missions in quick succession. In my latest campaign I did not adequately prepare my barracks, and had only about 45 soldiers. This is not enough. I came close to the breaking point, but luckily the aliens were done for the month.

I began June with 17 interceptors and ended with 22. I didn’t have laser cannons installed on any of them until the end of the month and that explains why I needed so many. This many interceptors is not always necessary, even when you are going after the bombing runs. My policy is to just keep buying Interceptors if I need to; whatever it takes to win the air game.

Challenging bombers added 3 potential mission, up to 11 total, though I declined one of them because it was a destroyer. I attacked 10 UFOs, and managed to bring down 9. Not bad. Looking back to a previous campaign, I managed well enough in June with only 18 interceptors when I had some of them equipped with laser cannons.

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The Future is Wide Open

Let’s say we are midway through June, and have just started building 6 suits of carapace armor, and that we have a bunch of laser guns, and a couple laser cannon interceptors, and a couple more on those way, and that we also have squad size II, and are about to finish building a thermo generator… Where do we go from here?

The game is so wide open at this point. There are many good technologies to choose from, and numerous worthwhile facilities and projects to build. You have the freedom to pursue any of them, because Laser/Carapace made XCOM stronger across the board. With improved weapons, armor, and interceptors, you have no weaknesses.

But this is not going to last. The aliens get stronger every month, and if you don’t keep pace, bad things will happen. So there should still be a sense of urgency, even though you have some breathing space, and many good options.

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Tech Paths

I’ve left off the Gene Mods path, because it only requires one technology, Xenogenetics, but to utilize gene mods fully you will need to do many autopsies which are scattered throughout the tech tree. So let’s consider the other 4 Technology paths that are available; MECs, Psionics, Captures and Gauss. Its also worth noting that only Gauss is optional, so the primary concern is what order to do them in.

I believe the MEC path to be the strongest, and so I typically follow research in this order: MECs, Captures, Psionics, Gauss.

MECs

MEC soldiers are absolutely devastating. They hit harder and can take more punishment then all other soldiers at this point in the game. While I don’t like using MECs as tanks, they can do that without much risk at the end of the summer, supposing you have them. Getting MECs early will also make it safer to chop lower ranked troops, which is more efficient regarding experience. The MEC path doesn’t just help you field stronger soldiers but also unlocks the Floater and Seeker autopsies which then unlock Aim Modules, and the UFO Countermeasures project. The MEC path is thus very balanced. Giving you advantages on the ground, and in the skies.

One note: You can start with Alien Computers and Seeker Autopsy if you need more help in the air game.

Psionics

Psionics make a lot of sense at this point with a foundry built, as it means you can have your shadow device. One mulligan per mission is maybe just as powerful as MECs. Getting Psionics early is nice because it means you can start leveling up your psi soldiers, and won’t need to delay the temple ship just to level up a suitable volunteer.

Some commanders use biotanks extensively, and rush psi even before lasers and carapace. I can’t endorse that strategy, but many do.

Captures

Captures are not terribly important. The research credits are nice but only equivalent to a research lab. I like to taser a muton before doing gauss research, and a berserker before power armor. My tech schedule allows me to reach these goals in September, and so I can delay captures till then. The primary reasons to prioritize captures is to unlock the alien base assault, and to get far better loot. Live aliens unlock interrogations, which then enable better council requests that have soldier rewards. And the alien weaponry acquired can be sold off, and thus pay for all your capture related expenses, supposing you are good at tasing aliens.

Once you have Psionics, it is important to start capturing aliens, as you won’t be able to level your psi soldiers otherwise.

Typically I do captures right after MECs because I want chem grenades to help deal with berserkers, and also to give me a better chance to capture berserkers. Also the Thin Man autopsy unlocks Restorative Mist as well as the Medikit upgrade.

Gauss

Gauss require the most research of these paths, but is worth it. Like the MEC path it provides upgrades for both your soldiers as well as your interceptors. Gauss weapons are a big upgrade over lasers because along with extra damage, they have more ammunition, and DR reduction. You can win the game with this weapon tier. The recoilless rifle is also the only upgrade for your rocket launcher, supposing you play with operation slingshot turned off, which is how I play, and also choose not to tangle with Terror Ships, typically a bad idea.

If you skipped Laser tech, you will definitely want to get Phoenix Coilguns which are roughly equivalent to laser cannons against scouts, raiders, and fighters, but twice as good against destroyers until the completion of penetrator weapons. I usually skip this foundry project as laser cannons are good enough.

It might seem more efficient, if you researched Laser tech, to skip gauss in favor of pulse. I don’t think this is true. Pulse weapons are not significantly better than gauss but far more expensive in both research time and resources. Pulse also unlocks the supercapacitors project which is incredibly powerful, but also incredibly expensive, and not necessary to win. I always go Gauss, and I always skip Pulse.

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Standalone Techs

One standalone technology takes priority over everything else, and I will usually research it the moment it becomes available:

• UFO Analysis: Destroyer

The autopsies not required by any of the primary tech paths, also may be worth doing during the summer in order to unlock gene mods, projects, interrogations, council requests, and enable VPT.

• Muton Autopsy - Ammo Conservation, Interrogation

• Drone Autopsy - SHIV suppression

• Cyberdisc Autopsy - Iron skin mod

• Chryssalid Autopsy - least important, only for council requests and VPT

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Costs

Another consideration is the cost of the upgrades provided by these technologies. Comparing them is not at all easy; they have different costs in dollars, alloy, elerium, corpses, UFO components, meld, power and facility space. If that weren’t complicated enough, there are very significant discounts applied based on workshops, and continent bonuses.

Still I managed to simplify the costs for all of the tracks, and distilled them down to 2 metrics: meld, and dollar equivalent. Dollar equivalent is a metric of my invention which is defined below.

             Dollar cost  
+ 15.8 * Power requirement
+ 51.6 * Room requirement
+      3 * (Alloy + Elerium)  
- Foundry/Workshop discount
--------------------------------
=   Dollar equivalent  

This is intended to provide a better metric for comparing the costs of different projects. I think it is fine to treat alloys and elerium as their price on the gray market as you will probably be selling those resources during the summer. It also assumes you have the 2x2 workshop block, as well as the Asia continent bonus, which is not always achievable. Also it assigns a price for power and rent.²

This calculation ignores upkeep on all facilities, which is fine. Upkeep is less significant, and far more complicated as it has a time component. A more problematic limitation is that I also ignore the cost in corpses and UFO components. These are very significant but less fungible costs, that function more as a gateway to entry. As an aside, to keep track of what corpses and UFO components you will need for various projects I recommend using the 2nd tab on this excel file created by xwynns.

Meld and Dollar Equivalent Costs

The MEC path has by far the highest price in meld, at 330 with only 3 soldiers augmented. Perhaps a gene modding player can hit those levels of meld consumption during the summer, but it would be hard. The MEC path is also the most expensive in other resources as well, and these numbers assume the player has the Asia continent bonus. I hope that price tag doesn’t dissuade anyone from going the MEC route; it is definitely worth it. Surprisingly about half of the dollar equivalent cost of MECs comes from the Shaped Armor and Mechanized Unit Defense projects. That’s incredible. These are very important purchases, but they can be delayed if funds are low. You can get 3 MECs for the price you would pay for the psionics program, if you exclude meld from the comparison.

An interesting realization is that the Psi and Capture routes cost about the same, and that cost is far higher than I had thought. This is due to adding in all the other necessary purchases, and assigning a cost for power and rent that is averaged for the entire base, which is not what you will actually pay when you excavate space in the summertime. The dollar equivalent metric includes the opportunity cost that accrues when using up the cheap real estate, as you will have to pay dearly to acquire more.

The cost of Gauss is dependent on which weapons you prefer. My summary includes seven weapons, and the total cost is cheaper than I had thought it would be, though still pricey.

The Phoenix Coilguns project costs about the same as Aim + UFO Countermeasures project. I did not include the actual price of buying phoenix cannons for your interceptor, which would be misleading. Phoenix cannons are cheaper than laser cannons, just as good with the coilguns project, and so will save you money after the initial project cost.

Another realization is that satellite expansion is hugely expensive and takes about 3 months to be repaid if counting only the increased income. Of course there are other benefits which I’ve already discussed, but rapid expansion is not quite the obvious economic winner that I had previously considered it to be.

Having crunched all these numbers, I am not sure that any of it really matters. Math is fun, but not always helpful. The difference in costs are just not significant enough to justify one strategy over another, in my opinion. Especially given that much of this is only about timing, as you will need to fund most of these projects eventually. Even when considering whether or not to skip a branch of the tech tree, the primary concern is “can I do this, and still win on the battlefield?” rather than “how much money am I saving?”

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Priorities

The following is a list of my priorities in the summer. It is very similar to the Tech path ranking that I’ve already discussed, but with other expenditures added in as well.

1. Air game dominance

2. MEC Program

3. Satellite expansion

4. Officer rank ups

5. Alien captures

6. Research Lab

7. Psionics

8. Gauss Weapons/Adv. Gauss Weapons

9. Genetics Lab

The ranking above is very accurate in predicting my in game choices. That being said, there are some weird situations where I am able to build something low on the list (like a genetics lab on July 28) when I would prefer the psionics lab, but haven’t yet done the research. Little complications like these mean that our actual build order doesn’t always match our priorities.

What these priorities actually mean during the game

Air game dominance is the obvious top priority, and it is hard to spend too much money on the air game during the summer because you can challenge bombing runs, which adds extra UFOs each month. There is a point of diminishing returns on air game investment, but it is a very large number. In my last campaign I had 22 interceptors total at the end of June. In July I installed 5 laser cannons, and had 3 more on the way by the end of the month. I think 10 laser cannons is about the right goal, when eventually supported with UFO Countermeasures and aim modules. That should be good for the duration of the Summer, and well into the Fall.

I hope to have 400 meld by the time I complete Biocybernetics. Often I reach that goal, but 300 is sufficient. During the summer I hope to chop 3-5 MECs most of which are Pathfinders. This is stage 1 of the MEC program, which entails running one MEC on most missions, occasionally two. It is incredibly hard to procure enough meld to augment the 7-9 soldiers needed to run 2 MEC squads on most missions, and also pay for all the meld thirsty foundry projects that you will want to do, such as Ammo Conservation, Psi Warfare Systems, Armored Fighters, etc. I elect to postpone two MEC squads till December, or January.

One Satellite Uplink per month is usually possible in July and onward. I don’t think it ever makes sense to try to build 2 in the same month, even if it is possible. Satellites are also important as panic prevention. Having those satellites ready to launch at the end of the month is a big safety net that can save you when Exalt manages to spike panic, or when a terror mission gets away from you.

I put a very high value on leveling up officers. At Colonel rank they start delivering a very large bonus to aim, and the earlier you get your Field Commander the more bonus aim you can sprinkle around your squad. By the end of a campaign I typically have 15+ soldiers with 5 or more bonus aim. I keep track of when my officers attained each rank, and try to level them up evenly so that I can optimize when I buy the next OTS upgrade, purchasing it when most of my officers have been on 5 missions since their last rank up, and are thus able to pin a new medal. That being said, it is okay to let OTS upgrades slide a week in order to make some other financial deadline.

Regarding captures, I try to sync up the start of research with the start of construction of the alien containment, which almost always follows the completion of a thermo generator. Typically that means I will have an arc thrower a few days before containment, and the chem grenade a few days after.

The research lab is usually not that important in the summer, because there are a ton of expensive projects and weapons to build, and I am struggling to fund them all. During this point in the campaign, money and resources are the primary constraint, not technology. That changes in the fall, and so I like to get a lab built at some point.

The psionics lab is usually built shortly after alien containment. It can be postponed, if I am running low on money, but every day without the shadow device means a slightly higher chance for a disaster.

By the time I start researching gauss, my MECs are doing most of the damage, and weapon upgrades for my other soldiers feel overdue. With higher ranked soldiers and MECs, I don’t mind postponing gauss till after all the other tech paths are completed. With a Shadow Device, only transports and trapped UFOs are scary.

I skip the genetics lab in most campaigns. It is very hard to fund my ambitious MEC program, and still find adequate use of the genetics lab as they both compete for meld. The biggest loss is iron skin, which is expensive and not as important as MECs.

1. Yes, Nexuses is this the correct plural of Nexus. I had to look it up in a dictionary.

2. The cost of power (15.8 per unit) is equivalent to the average price per unit of power when building 2 Steam Generators, 4 Fission Generators, with 4 connections. Rent (51.6 per room) is determined by averaging the cost to excavate the entire facility per room, ignoring one room for the initial Satellite Uplink, and assuming 2 rooms on the 1st floor, and one room on the 2nd floor are empty. The power calculation is used by the rent calculation, as each power generator requires a room. And the rent calculation uses the power calculation as each Access Lifts requires 1 unit of power.