What's your loadouts?

[XCOMTurcocalypse]

Beginning : 4 Assault rifles, 1 Riotgun 1 Machinegun 2 'nade launchers.

Later on: 4 Plasma Rifles, 1 EM rifle (for wall penetration kills),3 Grenade launchers. For farm area/harbor missions, change EM rifle and 1 plasma rifle with 2 Snipers (but I think it sucks)

Also, can anyone tell me how to deal with extreme long range slaying Ortnoks in the open with no cover?

[Sarin]

I kinda prefer to carry one Rocket Launcher and one GL, love the indirect fire...

Assault rifles are kinda useless IMO, never gets the job done. I always carry two MGs until late game, and for CQB I use flamer.

And for late game load...lasers are good standard issue, while quite weak (on level of starting weapons), they are most accurate weapons ingame. I use just one plasma rifle for close to medium range, rest are lasers, coilguns, machinegun, GL, flamer. That also answers the Ortnok problem...use lasers/coilguns to snipe them out.

[s9ilent]

I typically use the following loadout (Mostly because I'm too lazy to change between missions)

2 GL's
3 Assault's
2 Close Combats
1 Heavy

Everyone carries a medkit in their backup
My assaults carry, Assault rifles first, then lasers rifles and typically provide bases of fire. 2 spare clips in belt (7.62 pistol, 2 nades in holster) and the usual medkit, sort of my jack of all trades master of none. Thou given the lack of a sniper on my team, (and some what.. questionable results of a single heavy) they are often relegated to long range support as well.

My close used to carry shotgun + spare rounds + (Pistol + 2nades in holster) + 3 nades in backpack
Now they use a single laser pistol in hand + nade in hand, 2 clips in belt, 4 nades + knife in holster, 3 nades in backpack (and the usual medkit)
They form the basis of my reaction fire close range, long range medics, and indirect nade support (where a GL can not reach, e.g. over the mountain in the crashed harvester mission)
They nade in hand is the single coolest tactic ever, as often a single pistol/shotgun will not get you a kill. What explosives do however, is cause fear in the enemy, which when combined with the direct fire from the pistol and support from friendlies, will cause the enemy to route.

The heavy is basically a machinegine/similar upgraded version
Right now it has a heavy laser, (pistol + 2 nades in holster) medkit, 2 clips in belt + extra clip in backpack. Personally I find *limited* use for the heavy. I find it does supress enemies *slightly* better then my other guns, but never enough to make it a tactically viable weapon. (In greater numbers it might perform better, but I would loose too much versatility if I keep transfering assaults to heavies)

And my GL specialists. My "best" (highest ranked) soldiers with the most kills.
Given the AI's "tactics" (they use hit and run mostly) it usually means they are around the corner which makes them prime targets for a bit of indirect fire.
Grenadelauncher, 4 grenades launcher nades in belt, (usually 1 is fletchet, the rest are he/pb when available) (watching a triple shot fletchet is on of the most awesome things... ever Its like a super shotgun...)
pistol + 2 hand grenades in belt
3 more grenade launcher grenades in the backpack + the usual medkit





Standard tactics are as follows

For long range engagements.
My close combats, drop their nades and pick up a medkit
Grenade launchers are dedicated medics
Assaults and heavy provide most of the fire
Typically. I try to get 1 assault + medic, to stay at extreme range and provide overwatch, drawing fire from the enemy (and given the range, they are mostly safe from instant kills, and the constant medical aid allows for continuous watching)
Then the rest of the team is deployed closer up to score kills by hit and run. So my overwatch might spot an alient rushing, and then 3 guys pop out from behind a wall and pop the rusher.

In Close combat
Usually I have no dedicated medics (as the short range does not allows you to disengage) (thou if required, I tried to make the heavy do medic'ing as he is the least useful)
Stunning your own guys who are exposed and out of TU's is a great way to save them! (Careful not to choke your whole team thou.... "lost" 3 guys once from that...)
Close combats naturally lead the way. (Toggle reaction fire depending on the circumstance) with grenade launchers as seconds, usually using goggles when not firing. If assaults are present, they become the number twos, whilst GL's become threes (thou GL's still use their goggles, 1's and 2's never use goggles)
The heavy is usually never in short range combat, unless he is a dedicated medic/goggle'er

Med Combat
Hit and run + grenades. All direct fires provide fire superiority, whilst grenade launchers score the majority of the kills. (This requires superior numbers/positioning/choke points thou e.g. 6+ members overwatching the exit of a UFO harvester). If I can not get fire superiority, I will use hit and run/shoot and scoot, / indirect fire and less(/no) overwatch.
Usually no dedicated medics





I do not use snipers, and I have minimal reliance on direct fire heavies (I just hired him because he had an insanely high initial heavy proficiency)
I typically build a load out around the soldiers skills, not around my desired loadouts. (i.e. I find the best soldiers first, then give them their best weapons)
A side effect of my loadout however, is that the close combats have fairly high explosives as they throw lots of grenades. (I try really hard not to nade with my assault/heavies, as they tend to miss.. which hurts my guys quite a lot)


Some other funny tactics I do, is to hit an ortnook once (e.g. with a poorly place grenade), and run behind friendly troops/walls. It will get angry and in it's rage, will rush my well prepared team and die.

[XCOMTurcocalypse]

Err, how do you deal with ortnoks? I thought I asked it.

Also, how does the flachette work? It looks like a shotgun blast and not even a point blank 3 shot brought an ortnok down, or even angered it, even though a plasma burst mostly kills em.

[Lew Yard]

Ortnoks tend to be willing to engage at very long-range, with plasma rifles (and later plasma blasters), standing up.  This is a duel that they'll lose if you've got a team set up for long range fire, since all the plasma weapons are very imprecise compared to what you can field from the beginning of the game so while if they /do/ hit it'll hurt, they're not at all likely to hit.   And if you hit /them/, they frequently go berserk and march towards targets completely ignoring cover.

A sniper rifle (available at start, good accuracy when firing crouched, pretty high damage, cheap and not particularly bulky ammo, *can hit through thin walls*) or laser rifle (three techs required -- continuous-wave weaponry, laser rifle, DF cartridge -- *extremely* accurate, low-ish damage, high rate of fire)  is /far/ more dangerous than a plasma rifle for across-the-map duels unless the guy with the plasma rifle is an incredibly good shot.   And none of the weapons the aliens use can penetrate walls, IIRC (it's a fairly rare trait; last I looked, it was confined to the sniper rifle, bolter rifle, coilgun, and -- in multiplayer only -- the minigun), giving you a nice edge if there's even a bit of cover.

Close-up, the flamethrower is very, very lethal for the TU and space requirements -- good for ambushes at doorways.

[s9ilent]

Tbh, I've only used fletchets, once - and it was against an weakened taman at something like 5 paces aware.
(I can never seem to control what is reloaded with what :S I'm too lazy to manually reload, I just hit the auto reload and realize too late that I've got the wrong ordinance)


Lew yards tactic is very good for dealing with ortnooks. Hitting them with just about anything causes them to go berserk and charge you. This often leaves them out of cover (which is most exploitable at long range, but works at close range as well some times).
Generally speaking thou, I use goggles to get full intel, + indirect fire (nades) + superior positioning/tactics (ie. 2v1, 3v1 4v1 etc.) to kill ortnooks at close range. Typically the indirect fire weakens them and my lasers finish them off. (Lasers are not strong vs ortnooks, but they are my standardized weapon)

Also the fact that every one of my men is a medic, makes my generally invincible at long range (until they up tech... they are still using mostly plasma and little tachyon)




b.t.w.. Did an ortnook really survive that? as in literrally 1 tile away, tripple shot.. and you didn't kill him? I find that.. some what unlikely...

[Lew Yard]

If memory serves, the flechettes -- like the flamethrower, although they use different damage types -- is implemented as multiple weak shots, so the damage of each shot is reduced by the relevant armor value.  Unless the damage type is something against which armor is weak, the flechettes will do poorly against e.g. alien medium armor.

[Hertzila]

Flechettes are like buckshots: they fire multiple small projectiles (buckshot=pellets; flechette=arrows) that are designed to devastate unarmoured targets. They are, however, ineffective against armour since the shot is dispersed widely instead of being concentrated like bullets or slugs are.

[XCOMTurcocalypse]

Hmph. I'll sell all flachette rounds then. And yes, flamers kill virtually everything up close with one salvo.

[Kanjejou]

I have a pretty strange load out I take almost a bit of everything.
1GL because its good
1RL for the same reason plus the extreme accuracy make it better than any sniper, I shoot through doors and windows
He also carry à plasma pistol when he run out of rockets or is too close for that
1MG for the full burst to kill or break the alien moral
1Flammer because burn baby burn!
1Sniper the first one not the coilgun its suck its heavy have 2 shot per magazine and it's less accurate
1Bolter if i have a really good guy
and 2 or 3 laser rifle because its so accurate all the time, even if the damaged are poor.
If I have a good close combat guy he take the alien pistols the best I have at the moment and a medikit and a melee weapon

All guys except RL and GL get grenades,and  medikit for alls, and a rocket for my RL man because im a big rockrt consumer, im waiting for the plasma rocket .

Actually i have some difficulties if the alien are too numerous can't kill all of them in one round and the retaliation can be devastating when they have blaster and needlers

[mutant]

Haven't played in awhile but 6 GLs and 2 RLs for sniping.

[Falkenherz]

Hi all! I had this game on my "to play" list since 2.1, but started it really now with 2.3.1. So far, it is already a great game, which really gives me back the feeling of the good old X-Com series! I easily swallowed up three game days in a row, that´s saying a lot about playability and dept! Thanks a lot for all the open source programmers who made this possible!!!

I am not very far into the game yet, I had to restart after a year because I forgot to port the save game to my new computer. So far, I totally skipped RL and GL because I figured that reloading and carrying that clumsy ammo would be a problem.

My squad is doing very well with the following loadout:

0 All units carry Medpack, IR-Goggles, and one secondary (mostly SMG, few pistols because they take less room in holster), and have two ammo clips for their primary weapon.

1 CQC-Unit with Riot-Shotgun
2 Support-Units ("SU") with Assault-Rifles
4 Snipers ("SN") with Sniper-Rifles (duh)
1 Heavy-Unit ("HV") with MG

I am playing tactical long range and holding choke points with the HV. I usually send them in pairs, so that I always have overlapping fire. When I have to clear out inside, the non-SN converge together to hold choke points. Then I either do a hit-and-run sweep with the non-SN, back them up with SN who switch to secondary SMG, or I wait for the aliens to come into a sniper scope. As the levels of my units increase, hit-and-run-tactics become more dominant.

So far I only had a few losses when something with the RF did not work or I did not choke-point correctly, which always includes two units for overlapping fire.

I am currently experimenting with the electromagnetic rifle ("bolter"?) and I skipped lasers or plasmas, directly going for nano-armor, stun rods, and increasing airforce-superiority so that I do not have to wait for terror missions.

Side note: I am still without a current tech tree overview, though, so I don´t know what exactly to research in order to have strong interceptors who can survive and bring down those pesky 880km/h and 1100km/h Ufos...

[Tamanfodder]

My loadouts hu?

Well at the becinning:
4X assaults (assault rifle, mag + 2 `nades on belt, MedPack + knife on holster)
1X snipa (Sniper rifle, mag + knife on belt, 2 mags + 2 `nades on holster)
2X John RAMBOZ (Machinegun, 4 `nades on belt, mg clip + knife on holster)
1X RLs (Rocket launcher, 2 rockets on belt, pistol + knife on holster, 2 rockets + 2 pistol mags on backpag)


Mid game:
2X Lr Assaults (Lazor rifle, catridge + 2 plasma `nades on belt, medpack + P-blade/knife on holster[occasionally another catridge instead of thr P-blade/knife])
2X Sr Assaults (Plasma rifle, charger + 2 plasma `nades on belt, medpack + P-blade/knife/charger on holster)
1X Snipa (same as on early game but with plasma `nades and possible P-blade, mainly to harras enemy and make ortnoks go berserk)
2X John RAMBOZ (same as on early game but with plasma `nades and possible P-blade, Mainly to make ortnoks go berserk and tamans crap theyr pants)
1X RLz (same as on early but with pistol and knife replased with plasma pistol)


P.S If you put only two rockets and two items that take only ONE space each on the packbag CORRECTLY, Rocket launcher still fits in it, Which makes close guarters much more survivable  to the RL-guy.

P.S.S(or whatever) Occasionally i use bolters instead of plasma rifles because of theyr IMMENSE penentration capability!

[Crazy Tom]

Medkits on every soldier, in the holster, and a plasma blade also in the holster as the secondary.
Then half-half heavy lasers and grenade launchers. I've found all other weapons have terrible accuracy, and while lasers don't have the same damage potential, they can be fired more often, more accurately. Reloads for the weapons are on the belt, a DF cartridge for the lasers and a thermobaric and flechette load for grenadiers. Also, two grenades, plasma or frag, on the belt. Laser users carry an extra clip in their backpack because the heavies go through ammo fast.

I've dropped flamethrowers because they have short range, where I can simply close and use the plasma blade. Through I'm thinking of using them a lot more in base defense missions, thoughts?

[killyblame]

6 RL + 2 MG will do all the job believe me or not
later 7 Heavy Lasers + 1 MG or 8 Heavy lasers + nades since ur soldiers are already skilled in using explosive weapons