LW Rebalance - Blogging a Brutal Run part V
The late game grind isn't as bad in LWR, as in other versions of XCOM, but I am still skipping a lot of missions, and fast forwarding to the Temple Ship.
So now I am just waiting for an ethereal to show up. I’ve had a squad of soldiers ready for the Temple Ship since December, and by the time I acquire an ethereal corpse in early March, I will have 27 MSGTs and more on the way.
The aliens seem to go up one level every month, reaching level 8 in January; 9 in February; 10 in March. For those few missions that I undertake (I’m skipping about half the missions offered), there is considerable danger. The missions are actually pretty fun in the late game, which is very different from standard Long War. Maybe its just because I am new to late game LWR, so its fresh to me, but I think the late game tactical balance is quite good. The enemies are not only dangerous, but have a variety of strengths and weaknesses, as does XCOM, and you have to actually think through every turn. So these are fun missions, that sometimes don’t really mean that much.
Late game psi infantry have become good again. My psi infantry grenadiers, once neglected in the barracks, are now required in 8 man squads. This is mostly due to the addition of either Psychokinetic Strike or Telekinetic Field, both extremely powerful abilities.
Version
I am going to stick to the 1.36.10 version for the remainder of the campaign because I would prefer not to tear down my whole base to build the gollop chamber. This is mostly because I am not sure how much plasma weaponry I will want to bring to the Temple Ship and how long it will take to research and build it all. I have many concerns regarding technology and equipment, and I would rather figure them out as I go along, and that will be easier with my labs and workshops intact.
January
Tech: Heavy Floater Autopsy, Light Plasma, Standard Plasma (switch), Antigrav Systems, Standard Plasma, Precision Plasma
Engineering: Realized that you do not need a MEC-2 suit in order to build a MEC-3 suit. Totally okay to just skip that tier of MEC armor. After building 2 HMEC-3s, I am out of alloys yet again.
At the end of this month I got very close to peak gear, missing only some plasma guns, and flying suits. There is very little else that I can build to increase tactical strength. I have once again exhausted all my alloy and elerium.
January 1: Field Commander January 2: HMEC-3 x 2, Flamethrower January 6: Jellied Elerium January 7: Advanced Repair January 15: EMP Cannon x 2 January 18: Plasma Carbine January 20: Electro Pulse, Incinerator Module January 23: Combat Stim #3, Thumper, Archangel Armor January 26: Plasma Rifle, Plasma Reflex Cannon January 29: Elerium Generator x 2
Base Buildout on January 31:
Started 2 elerium generators again, hoping to build the gollop chamber in February.
Tactical Notes: I retreated for the first time this campaign. It was a heavy abduction, but had a double Sectopod pod, and one of them was a leader. I wanted to fight, but didn’t have a good reason to take the risk. I learned that even if you grab a meld cannister, you won’t get to keep it if you retreat.
Campaign Notes: I still need an ethereal corpse. Kind of frustrating.
Skipped a Bomb Disposal in Europe. It doesn’t cause the bombed country to leave XCOM, but rather bumps panic across the continent.
February
Tech: Heavy Plasma Weapons, Sectopod Autopsy, UFO Analysis: Fighter, UFO Analysis: Scout
Engineering: Waiting on resources for most of the month.
February 9: Plasma Sniper Rifle February 20: Condensed Plasma, Advanced Flight, Particle Cannon February 24: Plasma Grenade x 2
Base Buildout on February 28:
Again I canceled the Elerium Generators and restarted them because I had yet to obtain an ethereal corpse
Tactical Notes: I finally decided to run the Exalt HQ mission on Feb 8. I had heard that this would be a hard mission, and so I delayed it until I had near peak equipment.
Exalt Base: 19 total enemies. There were about 9 leaders total; 5 of them were gold leaders. I believe there was one gold leader for each exalt class and a gold muton elite (Bashar) as well.
My squad: Marauder, Goliath, Medic Officer, Sniper, Engineer (psi), Infantry grenadier (psi), Rocketeer, and Assault.
I used the same strategy that I follow when playing Long War, which is to move my squad to the back of the helipad, and then wait for exalt to come to me. It worked beautifully. On the second turn 2 pods activated and charged my position. The first was a gold exalt sniper + 2 regular exalt. The other was a sectoid commander leader with 2 sectoids.
Because they moved in close, it went smoothly. First I fired a rocket to deactivate countercharge and break cover. I concussed the sectoid commander, then holo/shredded him, and a few attacks later he was dead. Then my psi Infantry used Psychokinetic Strike (which is great) to expose the gold Sniper, enabling my Sniper to one shot him. The rest was clean up.
I waited a few more turns at the helipad, but exalt wasn’t coming out to play, so I moved my squad in a bit closer which activated 2 more exalt pods, and a gold muton elite. Unfortunately only 2 of the grunts were within line of sight - this is why I like to stay back around the helipad.
I fired another rocket exposing the 2 grunts, and they were easy to kill. I smoked up my frontline soldiers and waited for the enemy to come to me. The rest of exalt activated during the alien turn, and Iago Van Doorn made his appearance. Here is what it looked like:
Iago is on the roof, and the gold medic and muton are on the ground floor behind high cover. My Assault used his grapple to get right up next to Iago, and then used his brand new plasma reflex cannon to put him down. I used Telekinetic Field with my psi engineer (Durand) to make it safer for my MECs to move forward out of the smoke. The goliath (my Van Doorn) flanked a wounded grunt, then my marauder used the flamethrower to finish him off and wound the gold medic. With jellied elerium and the incinerator module, the flamethrower is awesome. I threw a grenade at the medic but couldn’t break his cover. My mayhem sniper is flying low way in the back and going on overwatch if there aren’t uncovered targets, which is ideal.
On their turn most of the remaining exalt forces charged forward, including the last gold, but they did very little. The muton elite threw a grenade on my marauder doing a single point of damage. A couple exalt went on overwatch. So not much.
My infantry uncovered the last gold exalt with an alien grenade, and I focused my firepower to bring him down. I also exposed and disoriented the muton elite, and killed 3 grunts. I used up both of my officer’s command charges as this was the climactic point in the battle.
The muton elite went on sentinel overwatch, and the remaining exalt grunts took a couple weak shots. I disoriented the muton elite, breaking his overwatch, and the rest was clean up.
I ran 2 more missions in February. A downed Raider and a Terror mission. I skipped a landed harvester which did not have an ethereal aboard, and a target escort, which was probably Thorn.
Campaign Notes: The aliens targeted Argentina and sent a fighter and a destroyer within hours of each other. My interceptors were still refueling and the satellite was shot down. I launched a replacement satellite and did a few combat patrols, but they kept pushing Argentina with hunts and bombing runs. Argentina left at the end of the month. Whatever. All I need is an ethereal corpse.
March
Tech: UFO Analysis: Overseer (switch), Ethereal Autopsy, Ethereal Interrogation, Alien Command and Control, Mind and Machine
Engineering: From March 10 onward, everything is Temple Ship prep.
March 1: EMP Cannon x 2, Firestorm, HMEC-3 #3, Flamethrower March 8: EMP Cannon x 2 March 10: Ammo Conservation March 14: Plasma Strike Rifle March 27: Plasma Stellerator x 2, Pulse Lance #2, Thumper, MiNE, Incinerator Module, Archangel Armor, Gollop Chamber, Vortex Armor
Campaign Notes: At the start of the month I was extremely frustrated by the lack of ethereals. I don’t want to run a bunch of pointless missions, even if they are kind of fun, and so I have been skipping them.
When a sortie of abductors showed up this month I took things even further and decided to shoot them down hoping to spot an ethereal. After shooting down 2 abductors, the last one ran away! I haven’t seen that before. No ethereals at the 2 crash sites, and so I skip them. Then the second batch of abductors arrives, and I go right back to shooting them down. My hangar is very banged up, but whatever. The first abductor (in the 2nd sortie) has an ethereal! Hallelujah!
Three days later I finally get an overseer; another attack on XCOM. I shoot it down but ignore the crash site.
I ignore a terror mission in Brazil, and so that country leaves. Mexico will also leave at the end of the month.
I only run one mission in March, the downed abductor, which gives me enough resources to get everything I want for the Temple Ship, which will be the next and last mission of the campaign.
Tactical Notes: The crashed abductor mission went well, but with a couple minor mishaps. While I was engaged with a pod of outsiders, a small pod of heavy floaters and a chryssalid activated well out of line of sight. I left my marauder in the open and 2 heavy floaters, one an aircobra, moved in and blasted him down to half HP. They were very close but Brawler didn’t trigger. This was at AL 11 (the mission had +2 AL), but it was still a lot more damage than expected given that my marauder had Shock Absorbent Armor. Heavy floaters really are quite dangerous in the late game.
The ethereal was easier to deal with because it once again charged right at my squad, which allowed me to apply shred/holo/disorient, then blast it with my heavy hitters. An assault with a reflex cannon is now ridiculously powerful.
Goliaths are maybe as good as marauders at this point? They can do a ton of damage from a distance, and they tank better.
Base Buildout on March 31:
Final Map on April 9:
Some Thoughts
I really like how the end game has fewer total missions, and it is perfectly okay to skip many of them. Despite this, the late game can still end up being a bit of a grind when all you need is a corpse or capture. A lot of the fun in this game is about leveling up your troops and acquiring all the best equipment. Once I’ve fully leveled up about 20 soldiers, I want the game to end.
If the 3rd alien base assault had a guaranteed ethereal, I think that would help players avoid late game grinding. Currently the 4th ABA has an ethereal, but doing 4 ABAs to get an ethereal seems like a bit of a grind in itself. Alternatively, the overseer missions could be more regular in their continent rotations. I saw a bunch of overseers in November and December, but then nothing in January and February; presumably they were overseeing important matters on continents that I did not control.
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