LW Rebalance - Blogging a Brutal Run part III
In November I realize why I should have tried to capture a sectoid commander during the the 1st Alien Base Assault, way back in June...
I hit AL 5 sometime in September. This post is going to cover the next couple months which will take me up to AL 6 and the true late game enemies. I’ve only been this far in a campaign once before, and so I am a little worried. The last time I encountered a sectopod, things went poorly. That campaign was doomed anyway because I tried to skip laser/pulse weapons, which is not a good idea.
I am much better prepared this time around - this feels like a winning campaign. If things go awry it will be due to my inexperience. And so I have been asking a lot of questions on the discord forums so I don’t make any grievous mistakes. In particular, I was concerned with my plan to exclusively use MECs and SHIVs as tanks. But apparently, its not such a bad plan. I was also a little worried about resources, but the overseer UFO provides plenty.
Version
I’ve updated to 1.36.10 and there is a significant change to Run and Gun - it makes the assault immune to reaction fire. I have been RnG all the way on my assaults for a long time. Its not because I think RnG is better than the alternative perks, but rather because there are so few ways to cope with the overwatch flanking from thin men, floaters, and Exalt. A hidden RnG assault has been the best solution by far. I mostly use assaults on exalt/council missions which feature a lot of flanking overwatches. With this enhancement to RnG it is much simpler and faster to use RnG to counter flanking overwatches because I don’t have to spend time hunting around for a hidden location to hide my Assault. And that’s not fun gameplay besides.
Gene Mods
So far I have done very little gene modding; only upgrading my snipers with Advanced Perception, Adrenal Neurosympathy, and Muscle Fiber Density. I am saving a lot of money and meld by only gene modding one class, and the sniper gets the most use out of these upgrades.
This is my typical 6 man squad: sniper, MEC, rocketeer, SHIV, officer medic, and engineer (I am not using scouts and infantry very much anymore and I reserve assaults for exalt missions). I would like to give gene mods to the rocketeers and engineers that are not psi soldiers, but it will be more efficient to wait until Neural Damping and Iron Skin become available, and then I can upgrade those classes all the way.
October
Tech: UFO Analysis: Destroyer, Berserker Autopsy, UFO Analysis: Raider (switch), Berserker Interrogation
I haven’t capture a Sectoid Commander so instead of doing that research, I spent 20 days on UFO Analysis: Destroyer. Not great. I now believe it is a very good idea to capture the sectoid commander in the first alien base assault.
Engineering: I am Building a lot of cheap stuff at the start of the month as I wait for 2 workshops to finish completion on the 14th. I have a lot to build, but nothing urgent, and want to save resources for late game gear.
October 1: MEC-1 suit #2, Ammo - Flak (quickly), Mechanized Defenses October 2: Pulse Carbine (quickly) October 3: Pulse Rifle October 4: Alloy Carbide Plating October 8: Arc Pistol x 2, Elerium Generator October 10: Shielding Pod October 14: Pulse Strike Rifle, Pulse Rifle #2, Banshee Armor, Elerium Batteries, Supercapacitors, Advanced Surgery, Aircraft Boosters October 16: EMP Cannon x 3, Laser Cannon October 21: Alloy Carbide Plating #2 October 27: Ammo - Breaching October 29: XTP III, Grenade Launcher, Advanced Servomotors October 30: Reinforced Armor x 2, Aim Booster x 2, Neural Gunlink
Base Buildout on October 31:
Tactical Notes: I am not sure if I like acid. It makes it difficult for my marauders to move freely. Acid applies a few decent debuffs to the enemy, making them a little less dangerous and easier to kill. Its definitely not necessary; whereas concussion grenades are still great. I am still equipping my Rocketeer with acid, expecting it to prove essential at some point.
The last time I did the furies mission it was rough, but this time it went fine, even though I activated 3 pods on turn 2. It was very helpful to put my marauder on the roof, which allowed me to engage the drop ins, rather than waiting for them to come down to me. I also had a jumpy-legs sniper, which made a nice rooftop sidekick. I brought a stun gun on the mission, and captured a berserker as well. Great mission.
Campaign Notes: Furies had a ton of resources, just like Gangplank. When I get money on the first of November I can build whatever my heart desires. But I still don’t have a sectoid commander capture, and that is what I really need.
Furies on October 27
Lost India. Japan is still hanging tough.
85 engineers at the end of October.
November
Tech: Advanced Power Armor, UFO Analysis: Raider (switch), Sectoid Commander Interrogation
I wasted a good deal of time on the Raider Analysis, until finally capturing a sectoid commander near the end of the month. I also acquired a sectopod wreck, muton elite corpse and muton elite capture, and so now I can finally put my scientists to work.
Engineering: I thought my resources would last through November, but that was foolish. After building a couple Titan Armors, I have once again depleted all my alloys and elerium. Resources are tight during most of the campaign, and that is more evidence that Sukhoi Company is a great starting bonus.
At the end of the month I began building the equipment I will need for the Base Defense.
November 1: EMP Cannon x 4, Firestorm, Neural Gunlink November 2: Combat Stims x 2 November 3: Satellite x 2 November 6: Satellite Uplink, Hyperwave Relay November 13: MEC-1 November 17: Titan Armor x 2, Corsair Armor x 1 November 24: Titan Armor #3 November 27: KSM #2, Ammo - Armor Piercing #2, Alloy Carbide Plating #3, Chitin Plating
Base Buildout on November 30:
Tactical Notes: At AL 6 the enemy composition gets rough. In late November I got a council mission (asset recovery) on the Marazuki map. Enemies: Sectopod, Sectoid Commander, Muton Elites. Brutal draw. I am going to describe this mission in detail because it was awesome, and I learned a lot.
The sectopod activated first. I killed its entourage of seekers, hit it with acid, and broke Line of Sight. I thought that was a very good turn and things would go smoothly, but instead of moving forward, the sectopod set up cluster bombs, and the other 2 pods activated. I was thinking it might be a good time to retreat, but instead I decided to keep fighting. I really needed to capture a sectoid commander, and was willing to make sacrifices. And so I moved forward to the edge of the room adjoining the observatory, still breaking LOS, to set up for the next turn. My squad took a few very minor wounds because the cluster bomb area of effect is really large (5x5). Then I pushed forward hard; killed a muton elite leader with marauder punches + command, dropped acid on a couple muton elites, shredded the sectopod somewhat, dropped smoke on my biosoldiers and crossed my fingers.
The sectopod did 14 damage to my SGT marauder but only 9 to my SHIV. Marauders really need to get to TSGT to tank against late game enemies, but the ordinary SHIV was great, shielding pod + damage control really helping out. The other aliens mostly took the turn off, which was a huge relief.
My next turn, was the critical point in the battle, and it took me about 15 minutes or more to complete, needing to think it all through and make sure that I could get all the soldiers in a safe place, and healed up, and also manage to do the most important thing; kill the damn sectopod.
First I fired a rocket at the center of the aliens, doing some good damage, and breaking a suppression. Penetration is very important against sectopods and the Kinetic Strike Module has 8 penetration, but that alone would not be enough. My engineer hit it with shred and holo. Then I shot the sectopod with my SHIV shredding it some more, and pulling its overwatch shot, freeing up my MEC to get up right next to it and punch it to death.
Because my medic and engineer were TSGT rank, they had master mechanic and savior, and so I was able to get both my SHIV and MEC back to a safe HP level.
Things were still tense. There were still 2 muton elites and a sectoid commander, but the aliens kept shooting or throwing grenades at my wounded MEC and SHIV which I was able to heal each turn with master mechanic. At some point the sectoid commander tried for mind control on my psi engineer (23%) and missed, which gave me the win, and quite a bit more as well - I managed to capture the sectoid commander and the last of the muton elites.
Campaign Notes: I spotted an overseer UFO in mid November but I turned down that opportunity. Going to wait till I have better armor all around. I am also going to delay assaulting the exalt base, which was confirmed to be in Nigeria on November 17.
I downed my first fighter of the campaign this month, which seems really odd.
I think I made a mistake building a 5th uplink. More satellites means the aliens will throw more UFOs at you. I am seeing a lot of bombing runs and hunts, and my hangar in Asia cannot cannot handle it. It seems like there is an optimal amount of expansion at maybe 7-9 countries total, depending on difficulty.
I am in the process of abandoning Asia, and moving all my aircraft to South America.
At the end of November Japan finally left XCOM. The aliens had been targeting it for months now.
Strangely China stayed with me, despite being at 100 panic and with no satellite. Weird. China dropped down to 98 Panic at the beginning of December. Perhaps the dice roll that determines whether or not a country leaves occurs after the monthly panic adjustment?
Some Thoughts
The “Not So Long War” setting may have a problem with alien captures. There are fewer missions and thus less opportunity to encounter the aliens you need to capture. My research was severely delayed when I failed to obtain a sectoid commander captive, which probably shouldn’t act as a gate for mid game research anyway.
But setting aside that annoyance, I am really enjoying this campaign. It feels like I finally understand all the game mechanics. My goal for this campaign was to kill a sectopod, and I’ve done that, and it was with a 6 man squad, caught in a bad spot, and with the whole map active.
I am going to talk about the classes that don’t make it into my late game 6 man squads: Gunner, Infantry, Scout and Assault.
Here are all my class builds.
Gunner: I am having a lot of success without any gunners, and this has me convinced that their stats are too low relative to other classes. Their aim and will stats are terrible, and they are slow. Previously they made up for it with suppression, but that was nerfed, and no longer removes an action from most late game enemies that attack twice. That nerf was fine and good, but it makes the gunner far less valuable. With Commander’s Choice I am choosing to avoid the class entirely. In my next campaign I probably won’t use Commander’s Choice, but I still expect to build very few gunners in preference of rocketeers.
Infantry: I used both grenadier and overwatch infantry builds during this campaign, and I think I prefer the grenadier. They are both solid builds, but neither is indispensable, and so they don’t make it onto my 6 man squads anymore. Infantry make great psi soldiers, and I like having them on 8 man squads because of their versatility. High mobility helps them find flanks and get in place to throw grenades, and they can shoot twice with high accuracy, or use psi powers.
Scout: I like my scout build very much, but it loses out to the sniper, which is a stalwart in my 6 man squads. I am not entirely sure that my scout build is weaker than my sniper build, but one thing is certainly true, it is less reliable. Snapshot is very powerful, but it is inconsistent, and that is very problematic for a soldier that already has low aim. Still, I miss this class when they are not around - they add a ton of utility.
Assault: I love my assaults. They are the best soldiers on exalt missions, and quite good on normal missions as well. The problem with assaults is that they usually must charge forward in order to be effective, which is risky. I prefer to charge forward with a SHIV or MEC, rather than biosoldiers. I chop a lot of my assaults into marauders, and the others mostly wait in the barracks for exalt missions, which is where they really shine.
Related Posts:
LW Rebalance - Blogging a Brutal Run Part I
LW Rebalance - Blogging a Brutal Run Part II
LW Rebalance - Blogging a Brutal Run Part III
LW Rebalance - Blogging a Brutal Run Part IV
LW Rebalance - Blogging a Brutal Run Part V