Winding things down.

[Rikokrates]

When do people usually start winding missions down?

In my last campaign, I got to December, had liberated a region and contacted all but one other, I had a good supply of income and 2 pretty good squads. At this time I felt as though the risks of loosing a soldier or even a whole squad outweighed any reward that could have been offered.

By December I was effectively just playing through the storyline missions, blacksite, forge etc while waiting for wounds to heal and squads to infiltrate the next mission.

Is this normal or do people continue to run g-ops etc?

[SouthpawHare]

I have yet to make it to the end game myself (still plugging along in the mid-game right now), but I would guess that the answer here is dependent on how successful you've been on holding off the Avatar Project. Due to the fact that there can be a large variance between how much the Avatar Project Progress Rate was slowed down or how many pips were or were not removed, it probably comes down to that. If you've gained a sizable lead and can afford to not run any more missions, good on you, that's your reward for the game you've played thus far and you've earned it. On the other hand, if you're cutting it close on the Avatar Project, you might have to be fighting its progress until the bitter end (which is done with more missions, one way or another). So, more than likely, the answer is "it depends heavily on every other decision you've made throughout the entire game."

[Dwarfling]

You should definitively not stop doing GOps for Intel: the 2nd to last Golden Path mission, the Network Tower, will spawn on the furthest uncontacted region on the map. So unless you have every region contacted, you're gonna have to spend time, intel and supplies (for towers) to get there. Also Avatar progress can suddenly explode and you might need some facilities discovered to delay it. Those cost intel too (plus leads). Also researching many golden path related "techs" require intel. And you might want to boost some of the Golden Path missions.

Doing no intel GOps can end your campaign prematurely.

[Saph7]

In my last campaign, I started turning down some missions (mostly engineer VIPs) in September, stopped doing about half the mission types in October, and by November I was doing Golden Path and stealth missions for intel and nothing else.

[Halafu]

I wouldn't wind down until you have done most of golden path and most areas contacted. Main reason being that the avatar project can really accelerate if you are not driving vigilance up by doing missions. If you check youtube, you can find a few campaign losses where the avatar project adds like five pips within a few days and results in a surprise loss. Use the opportunity to train up some back up soldiers with a trial by fire officer if possible.

[Rikokrates]

You should definitively not stop doing GOps for Intel: the 2nd to last Golden Path mission, the Network Tower, will spawn on the furthest uncontacted region on the map. So unless you have every region contacted, you're gonna have to spend time, intel and supplies (for towers) to get there. Also Avatar progress can suddenly explode and you might need some facilities discovered to delay it. Those cost intel too (plus leads). Also researching many golden path related "techs" require intel. And you might want to boost some of the Golden Path missions.

Doing no intel GOps can end your campaign prematurely.

Invaluable advice, thank you very much. Also I guess that explains why all the pips I worked so hard to removed were added again in less than a month!!!

[orion_winterfire]

Agreed. I'm just about to hit that point in my game, as well.