LW Rebalance - Blogging a Brutal Run Part VI-B
Do over! The Uber Ethereal was off sides!
Its been a long time since I’ve replayed a battle in XCOM, but I want another shot at the uber ethereal. I have no idea how to approach this encounter, and it seems like a good idea to figure that out before I start another campaign.
In my first attempt at the uber ethereal I used an opening that is best described as “Heedless Charge”. This tactic actually works pretty well in Long War if you have a shadow device. Not so much in LWR.
The big problem with charging forward is that no one can tank ethereal attacks. They are either going to be killed, or mind controlled. Ideally we want the ethereals to double move, and to make that happen I want to try breaking LOS.
Opening #2: Hide Everyone.
I am very curious about what the aliens will do if I break LOS completely. I want to know if they will magically know where to throw a rift, or if they will double move, or if the muton elites will stand out in the open.
So I start the encounter with all my soldiers hiding behind LOS blocking objects as pictured below (the medic and sniper are further back):
I’ve tried this opening twice and both times the uber ethereal, who has very high mobility, moves into visible range of the 3 soldiers I have in the middle, and hits them hard. The other enemies behave erratically, sometimes moving forward, and other times going on overwatch though they can’t see anything.
This opening is not as bad as charging forward but it’s still awful. The problem is that you sacrifice the first round of attacks on the muton elites, and don’t get much for it.
I didn’t explore this opening fully, because I found that my squad was still in bad shape after a couple turns. The muton elites are extremely dangerous, and focusing on them in the first turn is a good idea. And with that in mind I came up with my third opening, which is the one that I would recommend.
Opening #3: Kill the Muton Elites; break LOS with the Ethereals.
The plan is to focus on the muton elites, hopefully killing them both, and not have any soldiers in line of sight of the ethereals. This will enable my squad to do a lot of damage in the first turn of the encounter, while reducing the threat posed by the ethereals and also forcing them to move closer.
In retrospect this opening seems kind of obvious, but I didn’t even know that it was possible in my first attempt. The uber ethereal is only a few squares away from the muton elites and much of the available cover positions put your soldiers in line of sight of the uber ethereal. But there are a 4 cover spots that grant LOS to the muton elites but not to the uber ethereal.
Below is the location of my squad on the turn before activation:
You can move your soldiers all the way up to the two low cover spots on either side of the ramp, but not to the low cover further ahead.
On the next turn, my squad can use almost all of their actions to attack the muton elites. The soldier that activates the room will need to get in view of the uber ethereal, and then break line of sight. It is possible to do this with a single action, by moving a soldier to either high cover position on the left or right, as shown below.
Conveniently, the 2 soldiers who were positioned in the half cover at the top of the ramp can target both of the muton elites; the adjacent MECs can also see both of them. I put my engineer in one of the low cover spots and my rocketeer in the other. This will allow me to holo/shred both mutons and follow up with a rocket that may apply disorient. The high cover spots on the left and right have line of sight to one of the muton elites, but not the uber ethereal.
With this opening I was able to kill both of the muton elites on the first turn. The ethereals moved forward as I had expected, and they did quite a bit of damage, but much less than they would have done otherwise.
I was able to kill an ethereal on the next turn, and from that point on victory seemed inevitable. I tried this opening a second time and even when planning my moves with much less care, and having much worse luck, I was able to win.
And so now it seems to me that the last room in the temple ship is not gratuitously hard, but much like the twin sectopods, it requires the right approach. Foreknowledge is the key to this encounter, and the whole mission.
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
LW Rebalance - Blogging a Brutal Run Part VI
LW Rebalance - Blogging a Brutal Run Part VI-B