Long range firefight or close combat?

[hwoarangmy]

It is a VERY BIG issue, because new soldiers aren't as skilled as veterans so it is not worth to let a lot of soldiers die every mission.

No, he is saying that you can use cannon fodders to lure aliens. Of course, good soldiers should be saved at all costs. However, I can say I have already lost a game where I had played and won every available mission very defensively, loosing every civilians. So, saving civilians is not an option ^^

[anonymissimus]

Of course I was referring to losing cannon fodder - bad recruits with little experience. The fresh recruits you just got, basically. Luckily even such a soldier can easily kill an armored Ortnok with a plasma blade.
However, the good thing about the difficulty scaled damage is that you need a lot of hits for a kill, which means there are lots of opportunities to train good recruits to moderately skilled soldiers. So even losing some of those from time to time is affordable, and training becomes easier with new weapon techs. I generally have mixed teams of some cannon fodder, some trainies, and a few skilled soldiers.

[kingchaos]

in the beginning i tried long range, but the acucracy was not high enough.

then i take the weapons i have to use, or i set the situation up to medium range.

for the start i used assault rifles and mg for medium/close combat and i really love plasmagrenades ^^ for infight.

then

-> plasma rifles,
-> needler
-> part. cannon
-> heavy needler
-> emp with antimatter

infight with needler is very easy, scout out for aliens get them into smoke, block the ways you dont want to let them come with firegrens and u dont have any losses.

i found out, that the alien shoot on the soldiers with low hitpoints. fresh recruits got not so much, so it must be true, that they hit the soldiers first.

in the end when u got superhuman skills u can take the heavy needlers and emp-antimattersniper for nearly all aliens one shot kill even on maximum range.

the later the game, the longer the distance will be

[Rodmar]

I figure that the 'emp' is the electromagnetic rifle, 'emr', then? 

[3d_camper]

In close combat, only with assault rifles, equipped with plasma bullets. Turn the return fire on 3 shots. And at least two fighters.