Ninja playstyle possible?

[sims7h]

Hello together.

I was a quiet reader until now. But some of the discussions here give me an idea of playstyle: Ninja-Stabbing

At the moment I'm in my first campaing playthrough with a mixed assault/sniper (main-team) and two full assault teams.
Laser riffles are awesome and snipers were great until i get the laser weapons. Now I'm building my first coil guns...
I've played some Missions with Smoke Grenades - very strong but not so funny and you lose very much civils.
Now I'm using a camping + reaction fire playstyle with laser riffles... quiet ok but not as offensive as i like it.

So I've read about soldiers wiht monomolecular knife and grenades only. It sounds interesting but is it realy playable?
I mean running from smoke cloud to smoke cloud, using IR googles and then stabbing the dammed aliens sounds fun.
Or would it be better to use flashbangs?

And about reaction fire: would a small shotgun/machinegun/plasma revolver work?
Does it have to be in the main hand?

What do you think?

[anonymissimus]

Monomolecular blades are IMHO not worth it, because you never get the research time to get them before you can research the superior plasma blade anyway, on the harder levels. Or you should not research it, other things have much higher priority. Plasma blades are good if you get a chance to use them safely (especially against hard to kill aliens, Ortnoks and spiders). But most of the time it's too dangerous since the using soldier tends to be too near to other aliens or not well covered at the end of his turn. Smoke blocks IR sight in 2.6.

[sims7h]

Hm, strange...
I've researche every possible thing at the moment - except of plasma blade which dropped the first time in my last mission. I could build Monomolecular blade surely since 2 or 3 months...
Maybe you have to less labors... or i have to much. I run 5 labs - all in my first base.

Oh and I play version 2.5 with normal difficult.

[anonymissimus]

Research speed is much faster on the easier levels. On very hard I have maybe 10 labs and still can only research selected stuff. This is the main area where you can save money, comparing very hard to the easier levels.

[hwoarangmy]

IMHO, close combat is suicide. To not get killed by aliens, you will have to get close and kill. You will not have time to check the surroundings for another alien and, if there is one, your soldier is dead. And that will happen so often that you will keep rookies during the whole game...

[sims7h]

I didn't find the time to start a new campaign but I still want to test this playstyle.

@anonymissimus:
OK, this is a good point. But when you are fully playing as Close Combat Knife Fighter you don't need to research the other Weapons.
Monomolecular only has three preresearches:
* Kerrblade - uselsee stuff for sale.
* Bloodspiders - Autopsy doesn't need so much time.
* Alien Material - Which is a must have research for disassembling UFOs.
So all in all there are only 2 researches you have to make which you normaly don't make. Kerrblade and Monomolecularblade. But therefore you don't need Plasma Pistol, Plasma Blaster or Plasma Riffle.

@hwoarangmy:
Yes, close combat is dangerous. But you can reduce the danger by many ways:
* using Infrared googles to spot them through walls.
* Smoke to cover.
* Sending your soldiers out in teams of 2 or more to save the backs, give first aid or kill multiple Aliens.
* Use a small weapon with reaction fire (Microshotgun) to secure a door.
* Use flashbangs to *stun* the enemy.

And it is not so important that your soldiers survive. A Knive doesn't need high skills to hit and your soldiers doesn't need to be hulks who carry 20 or 30 kg.
Sure, more Speed or HP are nice but not necessary.

Only Problem I really see ATM are the Monomolecularblades. If i will loose 1-2 Soldiers at every fight it will be a Problem to reproduce enought and to get enough alien material.

[anonymissimus]

So all in all there are only 2 researches you have to make which you normaly don't make.

Too much, really.

i will loose 1-2 Soldiers at every fight it will be a Problem to reproduce enought

Not at all.
On very hard, with maximum nation happiness, I get 25-30 recruits each month. On the easier difficulties there are more. From those I lose maybe 20-25 as cannon fodder. 2 soldiers per battle is no problem. Though there are generally battles where I lose only one or none, and others where I lose 4 or 6. Typically the close combat maps where you have to sacrifice a soldier for each alien.

[Noordung]

Well good luck with ninja style. Basically you will need to have very fast soldiers to outmanoeuvre aliens. Strike them on flanks to prevent reaction fire... I dont think it much fun and you probably still need skilled soldiers for speed.

[kingchaos]

isnt it possible to play without any loss on very hard ?

[anonymissimus]

Are you playing 2.4 still or so ?
Yes, it's definitely impossible to play without losses.
Maybe without loosing any non-cannon fodder unit. Once a playthrough without loosing any trained soldier is my great goal, but I lose 3-6 of them in a campaign. Still enough for some to reach superhuman status.

[kingchaos]

the 5 ppl i lost in the whole campaign were in 2 base defend missions, i made some basics mistakes in the beginning.

I found it not so complicated, to play the medium difficulty without having any losses after those 2 missions.

i made 300 missions without any loss.

Dollars were not the problem, i got 6 million dollars more than i could need at 1 million monthly cost & income.


why it would be not "possible"?

[anonymissimus]

Well, perhaps your nations are just so-so satisfied with you so that you don't lose the campaign, while I am only satisfied if they are all always exuberant ? Or perhaps you just restart a mission if you happen to lose a soldier ? Upon restarts, the starting situation can be quite different, making the same mission much easier. A civilian life is usually worth more to me than the life of a cannon fodder soldier, this makes me lose lots of cannon fodder. Also, in 2.6 on very hard, if any unarmored soldier is hit by anything, it's a sure instadeath, as the damage dealt depends upon difficulty. This really increases loss rates (and lowers them on easy difficulties).

[Adler]

Or perhaps you just restart a mission if you happen to lose a soldier ?

That means you play on very hard without reloading and manage to not lose more than 2-6 soldiers per capaign? That's really good!

[anonymissimus]

Thanks.
Out of trained soldiers, yes. I always put expendable cannon fodder into the front line whenever possible, so these are the ones that die, if anything, After the kill the enemy position is known so the alien is dead. Or, more often than not, the cannon fodder soldier spots the enemy before he is killed, then a trained soldier moves into killing range, and the expendable soldier survives. For this time at least.