Great post! I have a few questions if you don't mind.
1. Any tips on power leveling soldiers to MSGT?
2. Do you have sufficient Avenger power to get all the buildings and building upgrades?
3. In the mid/late game, regarding soldiers who can equip either standard rifles or SMGs, and any type of armor, what's your rule of thumb in equipping them? And did you have any use for unique weapons, for example Shadow Keeper, or the Chosen's weapons?
I typically try to level my soldiers pretty evenly, with the exception being that I want to power level a few soldiers in the early game. I am trying to attain the middle tier ranks quickly on just 2-3 soldiers (usually SGT, SSGT, TSGT) so that I can get Trial By Fire for leaders, and go on Covert Ops that gift free hero class soldiers. Other than that, I level the barracks pretty evenly... but not the whole barracks - I pick about 20 guys to take all the way to MSGT, and the rest just sit on the bench. Of the 20 or so A-Teamers, I like to level evenly. Once a soldier is at MSGT rank there is some lost XP efficiency when taking them on a mission, though not enough to worry too much about.
In LW2 (where I've played most of my campaigns) I've never had an issue with Avenger Power in the mid to late game. The base mechanics are mostly the same and it was not an issue for me when playing LWOTC. I always build a single Power Relay. You need to plan out your base so you can place the Shadow Chamber on one of the free power locations (power coils). The other power coil is flexible, but you should give it to a power demanding facility, such as the Laboratory, or Resistance Comms, or if you are lucky, you can put the Power Relay there, but usually that is not feasible.
I give SMGs to non-shooters: Shinobi, Specialist, Technical, Grenadier. You can mix things up, but these guys don't really need a good gun to be effective and I build those classes to use SMGs and find other things to do than shoot.
By the time you get Chosen weapons victory should be assured. I think they are about as good as the top tier weapons of each class, doing less damage, but having other perks that can be more valuable in certain situations. I was kind of disappointed by the Chosen weapons -they are not weak, but also not a significant upgrade.
Thanks! I need to power level some soldiers to MSGT to avoid the Chosen Assault missions. That sort of end my whole campaign in my most recent attempt.
I see. Yeah that is one of the hardest missions in LWOTC.
So what I do with soldiers I am trying to level up quickly is to sometimes not take them on infiltration missions when I know a DataTap or other Retaliation is due. Also if a Covert Op is about to complete and has a high chance of resulting in an ambush. Sometimes a soldier can go on 2-3 missions over a couple days because all the retaliations lined up. This is kind of rare and you can’t leave your best soldiers in the barracks waiting for it, so it’s a rarely useful strategy but good to keep it in mind.
The most important thing for leveling soldiers quickly is to keep them healthy. You get more XP on 5 man missions but those are more likely to result in wounds.
Some soldiers require less XP at each level. Combat intelligence controls this I believe, but may not be the only factor. These soldiers will be easier to rush to MSGT.
What do you do when strategic RNG is pushing your liberation out so far that you're getting crushed economically?
I wasn't able to get a lib going until August, which meant I was just too far behind in tech (in my opinion) and I was getting outgunned severely on too many missions.
I was really lucky in getting an early contact so I had 4 regions early on, but due to strategic RNG I got chased out of too many areas and couldn't get Lib2/Lib3 to spawn until June in my lower str region.
My biggest struggle is that haven advisors can take months and months to detect faceless - regardless of rank - and if I have 3 faceless in a region it doesn't matter how much I scan with a scientist.
First off, don't use scientists as advisors - that's really dangerous. They can be killed in retaliations, and are far more important in generating research. Also they will not help you find faceless. That's what soldier's do. Scientists improve your scanning for missions, not detecting faceless.
Put a high-ish ranking soldier in the haven that you want to liberate and that will do 2 things; 1) it improves your chance of finding those faceless, and 2) it will help on retaliations so that you can preserve your haven personnel.
That being said, if you get more than your fair share of faceless, liberation can still be difficult, and how to deal with that is a really good question - Unfortunately, I don't have a great answer beyond put all your guys on intel so that you find the missions quicker. This doesn't work if you have faceless in your haven, and so getting rid of them should be priority #1. There are some ways to improve your chances of finding faceless beyond just having a high ranking soldier in the haven. You can equip that soldier with battle scanners, or give them a perk that helps them detect faceless (specialist w/ scanning protocol). Liberating a region is super important, and in some campaigns it is much more difficult than usual. At least one of my campaigns in which the liberation chain took very long ended in defeat to the Avatar project (this in LW2). In LWOTC there is a bit more leeway regarding the Avatar Project, but it is still a big handicap to push liberation beyond August.
All my tips on the liberation chain are in this post:
Battlescanner/Protocol only help prevent incoming faceless - they don't help detect, sadly.
I use scientists when scanning for lib missions, and pull them when there is danger of a retal. It's a good way to pump your chances up of getting your missions.
Great post! I have a few questions if you don't mind.
1. Any tips on power leveling soldiers to MSGT?
2. Do you have sufficient Avenger power to get all the buildings and building upgrades?
3. In the mid/late game, regarding soldiers who can equip either standard rifles or SMGs, and any type of armor, what's your rule of thumb in equipping them? And did you have any use for unique weapons, for example Shadow Keeper, or the Chosen's weapons?
I typically try to level my soldiers pretty evenly, with the exception being that I want to power level a few soldiers in the early game. I am trying to attain the middle tier ranks quickly on just 2-3 soldiers (usually SGT, SSGT, TSGT) so that I can get Trial By Fire for leaders, and go on Covert Ops that gift free hero class soldiers. Other than that, I level the barracks pretty evenly... but not the whole barracks - I pick about 20 guys to take all the way to MSGT, and the rest just sit on the bench. Of the 20 or so A-Teamers, I like to level evenly. Once a soldier is at MSGT rank there is some lost XP efficiency when taking them on a mission, though not enough to worry too much about.
In LW2 (where I've played most of my campaigns) I've never had an issue with Avenger Power in the mid to late game. The base mechanics are mostly the same and it was not an issue for me when playing LWOTC. I always build a single Power Relay. You need to plan out your base so you can place the Shadow Chamber on one of the free power locations (power coils). The other power coil is flexible, but you should give it to a power demanding facility, such as the Laboratory, or Resistance Comms, or if you are lucky, you can put the Power Relay there, but usually that is not feasible.
I give SMGs to non-shooters: Shinobi, Specialist, Technical, Grenadier. You can mix things up, but these guys don't really need a good gun to be effective and I build those classes to use SMGs and find other things to do than shoot.
By the time you get Chosen weapons victory should be assured. I think they are about as good as the top tier weapons of each class, doing less damage, but having other perks that can be more valuable in certain situations. I was kind of disappointed by the Chosen weapons -they are not weak, but also not a significant upgrade.
Good Luck Commander!
Thanks! I need to power level some soldiers to MSGT to avoid the Chosen Assault missions. That sort of end my whole campaign in my most recent attempt.
I see. Yeah that is one of the hardest missions in LWOTC.
So what I do with soldiers I am trying to level up quickly is to sometimes not take them on infiltration missions when I know a DataTap or other Retaliation is due. Also if a Covert Op is about to complete and has a high chance of resulting in an ambush. Sometimes a soldier can go on 2-3 missions over a couple days because all the retaliations lined up. This is kind of rare and you can’t leave your best soldiers in the barracks waiting for it, so it’s a rarely useful strategy but good to keep it in mind.
The most important thing for leveling soldiers quickly is to keep them healthy. You get more XP on 5 man missions but those are more likely to result in wounds.
Some soldiers require less XP at each level. Combat intelligence controls this I believe, but may not be the only factor. These soldiers will be easier to rush to MSGT.
Piggybacking
What do you do when strategic RNG is pushing your liberation out so far that you're getting crushed economically?
I wasn't able to get a lib going until August, which meant I was just too far behind in tech (in my opinion) and I was getting outgunned severely on too many missions.
I was really lucky in getting an early contact so I had 4 regions early on, but due to strategic RNG I got chased out of too many areas and couldn't get Lib2/Lib3 to spawn until June in my lower str region.
My biggest struggle is that haven advisors can take months and months to detect faceless - regardless of rank - and if I have 3 faceless in a region it doesn't matter how much I scan with a scientist.
First off, don't use scientists as advisors - that's really dangerous. They can be killed in retaliations, and are far more important in generating research. Also they will not help you find faceless. That's what soldier's do. Scientists improve your scanning for missions, not detecting faceless.
https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Haven_Management_(LWOTC)
Put a high-ish ranking soldier in the haven that you want to liberate and that will do 2 things; 1) it improves your chance of finding those faceless, and 2) it will help on retaliations so that you can preserve your haven personnel.
That being said, if you get more than your fair share of faceless, liberation can still be difficult, and how to deal with that is a really good question - Unfortunately, I don't have a great answer beyond put all your guys on intel so that you find the missions quicker. This doesn't work if you have faceless in your haven, and so getting rid of them should be priority #1. There are some ways to improve your chances of finding faceless beyond just having a high ranking soldier in the haven. You can equip that soldier with battle scanners, or give them a perk that helps them detect faceless (specialist w/ scanning protocol). Liberating a region is super important, and in some campaigns it is much more difficult than usual. At least one of my campaigns in which the liberation chain took very long ended in defeat to the Avatar project (this in LW2). In LWOTC there is a bit more leeway regarding the Avatar Project, but it is still a big handicap to push liberation beyond August.
All my tips on the liberation chain are in this post:
https://xcom.substack.com/p/long-war-2-liberation-guide?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web&s=w
Battlescanner/Protocol only help prevent incoming faceless - they don't help detect, sadly.
I use scientists when scanning for lib missions, and pull them when there is danger of a retal. It's a good way to pump your chances up of getting your missions.