Messages

1

Tactics / Re: Your Tactics

« on: January 29, 2010, 10:29:47 pm »

"In A Hole" means...well...in a hole, a prepared fighting position. Call it "Prone Plus" 

2

Tactics / Re: Your Tactics

« on: January 29, 2010, 05:47:07 pm »

I'm still wedded to fire and movement in pairs; bounding overwatch, shoot and scoot, whatever you want to call it. Protecting the civilians is a priority, and is much easier than it looks when when you can stun rod them so that they don't go wandering around drawing fire. And I don't clear a building by firing volleys of grenades into it. Next priority is force preservation; I don't go in assuming that I'm going to lose guys. It's not realistic and if the UFO:AI story line tracks XCOM you'll need lots and lots of veteran soldiers as time goes on.

So far as weapons are concerned I avoid the SMG because I think it's overpowered. I'm not a big fan of firing rockets at individuals, but it would be cool if when you hit, say, an Ortnok with a rocket if the Ortnok would brew up and a smaller alien would bail out and scurry for cover.

I still wish that the game allowed for the two most logical positions in a firefight: Prone and In A Hole.

3

Tactics / Re: What's a good 2.2.1. squad loadout?

« on: July 10, 2009, 10:12:16 pm »

My aesthetic problem with flamethrowers comes from the fact that throughout their period of battlefield use, flamethrowers were primarily bunker-busters. In an enclosed area the targets who weren't roasted would be asphyxiated as the flame used up all of the available oxygen. In the open flamethrower operators tended to die horribly when the weapon malfunctioned (and it blew up) or a tracer round hit the tank (and it blew up) or whatever.

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Tactics / Re: What's a good 2.2.1. squad loadout?

« on: July 08, 2009, 02:23:59 am »

I prefer to go with a pair of four-man elements built around a heavy weapon (usually a machine gun) and containing one sniper and two long weapons. As a matter of personal taste I won't use SMGs because in my opinion they are vastly over-powered. I'm also biased towards protecting civilians and force preservation and I'm not a big fan of just blowin' stuff up, so I stay away from flame throwers and indiscriminate grenade volleys. Putting all of your medikits in one basket is just asking for Rifleman Basket to get shot dead, so everyone carries one in John's Army.

Of course things would be a bit different if Standing and Kneeling were augmented by my two personal favorite battlefield postures; Prone ("I can't get no lower, my buttons are in the way!") and In A Hole.

5

Tactics / Re: Capturing alien UFO

« on: May 12, 2009, 03:15:16 pm »

The lack of landing gear would explain why almost every UFO we find on the ground is wrecked. 
I'm assuming that the aliens have a not so well thought out program to flight-train the notoriously dim Ortnoks.

It's random, you just wait for a landed ufo mission.

In X-com, the ufo's would eventually land or do a terror mission or something.

It's weird that we see landed scouts & fighters because the UFOpedia states that they don't have landing gear.

6

Discussion / Re: I just got shot by a civvie!!??!!

« on: April 08, 2009, 03:16:24 pm »

I haven't encountered the hostile civilians yet (though I always have a stun rod or two around for the won't-get-out-of-the-way civs). But on a related note, once on the "Roma" map the aliens, as usual, holed up in the corner store on the bottom right. What wasn't usual was that the aliens had their own little shootout in there and left only one for me to finish off. Does the game allow for the mind-enslaved Ortnok going Cylon on their masters? Were they panicked? Or was it a bug?

7

Tactics / Re: tactics for druglord map

« on: April 08, 2009, 03:04:27 pm »

He must live in the future

That mission is quite annoying, I don't have any pre planned strategies for it, but I do try to snipe as best as I can.

Sorry. When I said "snipe" I was trying to say "engage targets of opportunity from in or near hard cover" while saving bandwidth.

8

Tactics / Re: tactics for druglord map

« on: January 14, 2009, 05:06:10 pm »

I snipe too. With machine guns. I put one team of two snipers (w/laser rifles if I've tech-ed them) and two really beefy guys with MGs in the rocks towards the center. One of the snipers is also loaded up with medkits. The other team of three riflemen and a grenadier will be going over the bridge on the right edge. One machine-gunners (Call him Mongo) will set up to shoot in the open a half move out of the rocks to draw fire while the other Mongo and the two snipers set up in the rocks engage targets of opportunity. Mongo1 and Mongo2 will switch off as necessary (hence the medic/sniper). Ideally, the Mongo in the open should be the only target visible to the bad guys until the second team is over the bridge and kicking doors from right to left. If the second team draws a lot of bad guys onto them and it looks really good, Team Mongo can force the bridge in the center, but I usually just light up the bad guys from long range while they move from left to right. When smoke works in a stable Mac release I'll refine this.

"Mongo only pawn... in game of life".
Blazing Saddles

9

Discussion / Re: Blowi'n Holes In Buildings ;D

« on: May 08, 2008, 06:04:40 pm »

During Operation Urgent Fury in Panama, the US Army used Korean War vintage 90mm recoilless rifles to bust bunkers and make holes in standing structures, but everyone within ten klicks was aware of it. Not covert.

I'd like to see the "hard target buildings with soft target furniture" aspect because it forces the player to be careful; teaches you to not to get your only grenadier stuck down a blind alley with one IT round loaded, a kerrblade ahead and a kerrblade behind.