[http://sourceforge.net/p/ufoai/bugs/386 Item 386] imported from sourceforge.net tracker on 2013-01-28 18:18:28

The "Marioka" alien hideout mission is just to hard in
the begining. It's impossible to save the civilians and
not to lose soldiers.

The weapons the game starts with are just to crapy, and
do little damage. Besides, the soldiers are all a bunch
of losers, with poor and very poor stats. They should
be elite troops!

It takes 3-4 soldiers with sniper rifle, shotgun and
assault rifle to kill one armoured soldier. It's to
hard at normal dificulty!
===== Comments Ported from Sourceforge =====

====== nobody (2006-09-30 17:16:38) ======

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this is what? a bug report?
====== nobody (2006-10-01 08:39:52) ======

Logged In: NO

it's not quite a bug, but quite as anoying.
====== cassiterite (2006-10-02 10:24:35) ======

Logged In: YES
user_id=1171370

This mission is quite special indeed.

Firstly, on normal difficulty it is possible to save at
least one or two civilians (probably more). Some loss of
civilians is not a bug. It is relatively easy to finish this
mission without loss of a soldier on normal difficulty too.

In my experience this mission requires some interesting
tactics. The first part is getting through the first round
(often 2 aliens are visible). Most times you should be able
to kill these aliens (although sometimes this can be tricky
due to time-unit limits). Then I use 3 soldiers armed with
close-quarter weapons (e.g. shot-gun) to take control of the
first building. I deploy 3 soldiers to the right of the
building (armed with longer-ranged weapons) and guard/slowly
advance that position. The remaining 2 soldiers guard the
left building but stay out of sight (they simply check alien
movement on that side of the building, keeping their
distance unless an alien moves close enough to engage).

One the first building is clear I move 2 snipers (or a
sniper and an RPG dude) to the top of the building where
they can sniper the rest of the map quite effectively. If I
have another RPG dude or sniper I move them to the hill on
the left of the map, with the remaining soldiers guarding
near the gateway (sometimes aliens will appear to the right
of the second building, these soldiers can pick them off).
With snipers and RPG dudes in place and soldiers acting
mainly in a guard role it is possible to pick off all the
remaining losses without encountering too much alien resistance.

Finally, it helps if you have researched a medi-kit by this
mission since situations may arise where some important
troops sustain heavy damage (although I've played this
mission recently without anything bug basic weapons and
although a challenge it is not staggeringly hard).