Firaxis + XCOM, that is all.

mothra on 29/8/2013 at 13:48

The moment I started retreating in combat I survived much more encounters. When out of combat advance much slower, put all on overwatch and if the last guy triggers an encounter you can get free shots on the enemy that will (most of the time depending on enemy type) use up their first action to retreat. I have no problems spending many turns in hard cover and not moving at all, waiting for the enemy to get bored of being in overwatch and start to rush me. With later enemy types it is required to retreat as to not get one-shotted in melee. But I only came to this conclusion on classic after 3 attempts, no impossible for me :D
When capturing aliens I like to take 1-2 rookies with me as bait and sacrifice them, they are cheap :D
Another thing I did wrong in the first playthroughs was to spend all my money on shiny new things in the base.
At the start of the game I avoid overwatch during encounters and rely on hard cover/hunker down/smoke grenade so I can level up my squad evenly or rush a certain class to get the good abilities early on.
But in 50% of the encounters stuff goes horribly wrong, if I deviate from previous taken paths by one tile I aggro the whole map and all die in a rain of bullets and panic. Especially my assault likes to gun down civilians or the escort target :D

henke on 29/8/2013 at 13:57

I'm not gonna play the expansion until I'm done with the base game. I didn't wanna reload that disasterous last mission and I didn't feel like grinding my way to having another competent squad or going down with the ship either, so I restarted. Normal Ironman. Applying a lot of the lessons I learned the hard way during my first playthrough, both on the battlefield and in the base. Here's hoping this one will go better.

Quote Posted by mothra

I have no problems spending many turns in hard cover and not moving at all, waiting for the enemy to get bored of being in overwatch and start to rush me.

Yeah. Most of my past experience with turn based strategy fare has been stuff like Jagged Alliance and Frozen Synapse, where there is a turn-limit, so it took me a while to get around to this way of thinking. I take my time much more during the combat now, always having one unit covering while moving forward, reloading/healing everyone before moving on, etc.

mothra on 29/8/2013 at 14:06

good luck !
(and fun)

Pyrian on 29/8/2013 at 22:21

Quote Posted by Yakoob

Never played any of the xcoms but realized it is somehow magically in my steam game list (did someone here gift it to me?)...

Did you pre-order Bioshock:Infinite? (I think it was BS:I.) That's how I got X-Com; it was a pre-order bonus unlocked at a certain number of pre-orders.

Yakoob on 30/8/2013 at 02:58

Could be, I did get BSI on release at least. Actually that probably was it. In any case (xposting from what are you playing): I've just started on the tutorial never having played any of the previous ones. So far, impressions are good!

* Seems like it's shaping up to have nice tactical potential so far :) With managing multiple, upgradable troops having unique perks per class, researchable tech and equipment (reminds me of Civ) and the various actions like knocking doors/peering through window, etc.
* However, I am still getting used to the weird stat rather than reality based combat which makes some stuff counter-intuitive like:
* Cover mechanic is weird - I keep thinking I can't hit someone cause there's no way we can see each other only to get zapped by them next turn.
* Similar to above, the smoke nade upgrade ups defense of everything universally regardless of how/where you use it?? (according to description) Hope other upgrades dont work like that.
* But I do like the base-building approach, adds a whole new layer of strategy on top of just deployments!
* Also like how all the people in base have personalities (your main guy, scientist, engineer etc.)
* Like the fact there seems to be underlying story (who is the "shady evil dude" and "alien DNA similar to ours") cue XFiles and "it's the government all along!"

Continuing on :)

faetal on 30/8/2013 at 10:23

The cover mechanic works by moderately (half cover) or greatly (full cover) reducing the enemy's shooting stat when attacking you in cover. Of course, cover can also be destroyed, which is an essential mechanic to keep people from just camping out and waiting for the enemy to approach.

henke on 30/8/2013 at 11:04

Quote Posted by Yakoob

* However, I am still getting used to the weird stat rather than reality based combat which makes some stuff counter-intuitive like:
* Cover mechanic is weird - I keep thinking I can't hit someone cause there's no way we can see each other only to get zapped by them next turn.

Totally. This was a big turn-off for me when I tried the demo a year ago. Coming off Frozen Synapse with it's pure physics-based line-of-sight gameplay, this roll-of-the-dice bullshit did not sit right with me at all. I don't really mind it on my current playthrough though. Maybe FTL got me around to liking these kinda systems or something.

As for whether your unit can see the enemy or not, check for the Alien-head-symbol in the corner of the screen. That'll tell you if you're in range.

faetal on 30/8/2013 at 11:39

Henke - if realistic ballistics is your thing (and you have a reasonable tolerance for ropey translations & voice acting), you should definitely give the (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men_of_War) Men of War a look-see if you haven't already. It's real-time, so this is definitely OT, but thought I'd mention it :)

icemann on 30/8/2013 at 12:57

Going by the recent RPS review + Spoony's review of the game that was uploaded today (his review), I'd DEFINITELY recommend sticking with the Firaxis XCOM and not "The Bureau".

Link:
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tubjm4QwIQI) Here

Yakoob on 30/8/2013 at 22:01

Well few more missions in, i got over my cover issues and just think of it as pretty visuals for otherwise entirely stat based game, and I must admit I am getting really hooked! Stayed up late last night playing :) For some reason playing the game gives me the same vibe and feel as playing alpha centauri (the dreaded "one more turn..." Included)

Quote Posted by henke

As for whether your unit can see the enemy or not, check for the Alien-head-symbol in the corner of the screen. That'll tell you if you're in range.

Aye that is one thing that keeps bugging me especially if enemy is in overwatch so I'm never sure how to move without triggering it since visuals are not reliable. A "field of view" indicator would be REALLY useful here