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I've finally beaten Veteran/Ironman on my 4th attempt. I finally feel like I know how to play the game, and past mid game (August/September) the difficulty was nearly trivial for me. I'll be moving onto Commander when I feel like playing again. Anyone has any advice what I should adapt in play style? I already searched the wiki for the differences in the difficulties, but I'm not asking for numbers. I'm asking for personal experience, what did you feel you needed to adapt in your play style when playing Commander after Veteran?

Skip it and start Legendary? Because I feel like Commander isn't much of a step up from Veteran, and too many things don't carry towards Legendary. Sure you'll fail but at least you'll be learning how the game works at the highest difficulty.

Dwarfling wrote:Skip it and start Legendary? Because I feel like Commander isn't much of a step up from Veteran, and too many things don't carry towards Legendary. Sure you'll fail but at least you'll be learning how the game works at the highest difficulty.

I've made the mistake of starting Commander the first time I tried to play Long War 2. It was a traumatic experience. I am terrified of Legendary.

Veteran -> Commander is mostly "oh right, AP rounds are good now" and "some specialist brings the shotgun for punching Drones out of our face". It's 'breakable' if your tactical game is good.

Legendary is pretty much a completely different game. The extra HP on enemies shuts down certain tactics. More significant is how the strategy layer is unlike any other difficulty in how the earlygame plays out.

The choice between Commander and Legendary makes you think hard on why you play LW2. Which sector of Fun do you want out of LW2? To borrow MtG player psychograph terminology: Legendary is for Spike, Commander is for Johnny. Do you want to brag of how you beat an extreme challenge by mastering the narrow road that few could walk down? Or do you want to show off your own way of beating a hard challenge?

I've recently gone from Commander to Legend. Legend is a bit harder, certainly less forgiving of suboptimal strategy, and strategic layer RNG feels more swingy. I'm enjoying it but I feel I do know what I'm doing in this game now, so I was ready. And still I've lost two Legend campaigns and am now on my third.

Commander is a good challenge. You can run different strategies and build orders without getting crushed by force level if you don't just relentlessly pursue weapon tech.

I never played Veteran so I don't know the step up. Start with resistance comms research, expand to more regions asap. I prefer GTS first building. 5 man GOps on average (more is good, 5 is fine, 4 is only if you have to). An early basic research is good but if you have the resources to research lasers first then do. (Laser skip and psi rush are both viable alternatives on commander but wouldn't recommend for first Commander campaign.) Try not to get shot.

On the tactical layer: GENERALLY try to keep your squad pretty grouped together, and don't make dumb yellow dashes. This will prevent you from activating everything on the map at once. Use high cover and think about each soldier's position in relation to each other and to the objective. Tracer rounds are great early game and AP rounds are great mid game. Technicals and shinobis are very strong early game so I'd use them to lead squads until every other class comes online. They become strong again at gauntlet II and arc blade.

Try to liberate early wherever you can. If you have the choice between 2 regions liberate the region with less neighbors. If you can't get enough scientists early build a lab to increase research. If you have a surplus you may be able to go for an early AWC or early mag weapons. I have found that the sooner you get the vulture GTS perk the sooner you can get your economy rolling. It is important to have a big barracks and get soldiers out doing missions early, so if you don't get many jailbreaks with rookies you will have to recruit rookies manually.

llll BlackFlag wrote: Try to liberate early wherever you can.

Mmm disagreed. A bad 2nd liberation is campaign ending. Seriously contemplate why you want to liberate more than 1 region.

Psieye wrote:

llll BlackFlag wrote: Try to liberate early wherever you can.

Mmm disagreed. A bad 2nd liberation is campaign ending. Seriously contemplate why you want to liberate more than 1 region.

You're right, I should have phrased that comment differently. I meant to say get 1 region liberated ASAP regardless of what region it is - but if you have the choice to liberate the region with fewer neighbors. I've had success on commander with 2 liberated regions, but I can't speak for more than 2. You have to have a lot of contacts to be able to manage strength with 2 regions liberated.

Don't do anything ASAP. Liberation chain will respawn if you choose Legendary or Commander
Also dashes are only thing that make some missions successful but game have dashing classes.
Try to infiltrate 100% and more in early game. You can't kill many Advent with overwatch. Focus on rebels there is no extra detection bonuses. (for Legendary / commander)
If you miss game will not give you sure/increased hit or hack. Remember that when you play with small squads. (only for Legendary)

Commander is good choice after Veteran. Legendary can kill all fun on first missions. Expect heavy loses and hard missions.
Commander is more difficult than Veteran. No advice - just play like Veteran . You will be fine

Yeah I didn't mean never dash your soldiers. There are some great times to dash (as we all know). What I mean is not to make a yellow move into fog as the last action of your turn if your other troops have no actions or are already fighting a pod.

Psieye wrote:Veteran -> Commander is mostly "oh right, AP rounds are good now" and "some specialist brings the shotgun for punching Drones out of our face". It's 'breakable' if your tactical game is good.

Legendary is pretty much a completely different game. The extra HP on enemies shuts down certain tactics. More significant is how the strategy layer is unlike any other difficulty in how the earlygame plays out.

The choice between Commander and Legendary makes you think hard on why you play LW2. Which sector of Fun do you want out of LW2? To borrow MtG player psychograph terminology: Legendary is for Spike, Commander is for Johnny. Do you want to brag of how you beat an extreme challenge by mastering the narrow road that few could walk down? Or do you want to show off your own way of beating a hard challenge?

As someone who never actually used AP round, I'll make sure to start using them on snipers as of mid game.

Which one is the Commander, and which the Legendary in the metaphor?

gimrah wrote:I've recently gone from Commander to Legend. Legend is a bit harder, certainly less forgiving of suboptimal strategy, and strategic layer RNG feels more swingy. I'm enjoying it but I feel I do know what I'm doing in this game now, so I was ready. And still I've lost two Legend campaigns and am now on my third.

Oh I don't expect to beat Legendary at all let alone on my first try, I am well prepared to cope with failure.

llll BlackFlag wrote:On the tactical layer: GENERALLY try to keep your squad pretty grouped together, and don't make dumb yellow dashes. This will prevent you from activating everything on the map at once. Use high cover and think about each soldier's position in relation to each other and to the objective. Tracer rounds are great early game and AP rounds are great mid game. Technicals and shinobis are very strong early game so I'd use them to lead squads until every other class comes online. They become strong again at gauntlet II and arc blade.

Try to liberate early wherever you can. If you have the choice between 2 regions liberate the region with less neighbors. If you can't get enough scientists early build a lab to increase research. If you have a surplus you may be able to go for an early AWC or early mag weapons. I have found that the sooner you get the vulture GTS perk the sooner you can get your economy rolling. It is important to have a big barracks and get soldiers out doing missions early, so if you don't get many jailbreaks with rookies you will have to recruit rookies manually.

Huh, I might be more ready for Commander than I thought. I already employed all of those things in my Veteran gameplay. That's a boost of confidence.

SonnyWiFiHr wrote:Don't do anything ASAP. Liberation chain will respawn if you choose Legendary or Commander

What exactly do you mean, I don't understand?

Legendary is for Spike, an extreme challenge to brag about beating.

Don't rush Liberation missions - you need proper squad. Most things are +1 /+2 HP or more. Ballistic is super weak against them .
SMG is almost useless, bombs are mediocre choice - if you can throw them.
Your Assaults do not kill / all classes do not kill for quite long time.
Flank is the best/risky option.
If you plan to play Legendary - you will notice that very soon

Some quick things I noticed.

AP and shredder are much more useful.
Defensive perks are much better as your less likely to be able to kill everything. Its good to have a guy who can take the shots.
Its more important to go wide in the roster as you'll have more wounded.

One thing you will find going up difficulties if you will find yourself more resource constrained.

You don't just deck out everyone in the latest weapons and armour. In September my GOp squads still use a mixture of ballistic, laser, mag and coil. Armour items are bought gradually and prioritised on frontlines and maybe those with negative defence (eg my rangers usually).

If you do find yourself with lots of resources ask yourself whether you should be doing a building or an expensive research or something from the GTS.

Just watch for the transitions to mainly M2s and then to mostly M3s. I find there are a couple of force levels that really steps things up, or just a harsh schedule. Gotta keep respecting the enemy.

gimrah wrote:One thing you will find going up difficulties if you will find yourself more resource constrained.

You don't just deck out everyone in the latest weapons and armour. In September my GOp squads still use a mixture of ballistic, laser, mag and coil. Armour items are bought gradually and prioritised on frontlines and maybe those with negative defence (eg my rangers usually).

If you do find yourself with lots of resources ask yourself whether you should be doing a building or an expensive research or something from the GTS.

Just watch for the transitions to mainly M2s and then to mostly M3s. I find there are a couple of force levels that really steps things up, or just a harsh schedule. Gotta keep respecting the enemy.

Well that's gonna bother me a lot. I really love my squads armed to the teeth, especially for the end missions.

Research datapads (not needed on Commander) and expand. Build havens. Even with this you will be poor in April but not in May.
Dig the Avenger and skip GTS / AWC for Workshop and dig more with gremlins. ( I never had time to put anything in them in first month - why to rush them?)
First scientist is better investment than anything. Second also.
First Engineer will pay off quickly.

This can offset no supply issue .
On Commander - under infiltration will produce so much everything that I don't know how you can have shortage.
50% infiltration - you are rich if you do not sit in one region and then you will start to do 0% infiltration.

SonnyWiFiHr wrote:Research datapads (not needed on Commander) and expand. Build havens. Even with this you will be poor in April but not in May.
Dig the Avenger and skip GTS / AWC for Workshop and dig more with gremlins. ( I never had time to put anything in them in first month - why to rush them?)
First scientist is better investment than anything. Second also.
First Engineer will pay off quickly.

This can offset no supply issue .
On Commander - under infiltration will produce so much everything that I don't know how you can have shortage.
50% infiltration - you are rich if you do not sit in one region and then you will start to do 0% infiltration.

I don't do sub 100% infiltrations, I find it game breaking so it's a rule of mine. I actually ran into a few early smash and grabs that netted around 150 supplies each, so I don't have supplies problems surprisingly. Intel is making me more problems.

You may want to allow 92% infiltration missions. That's still E.Light in a Str 1 region.

I can commend the house rule to not cheese low infiltration missions. Get used to being poor in one resource or another.

I m joining in commendations to the house rule - not cheese low infiltration missions.


P.S. We all did it and it was fun

I guess I'm in the minority here, but low infil missions was a cornerstone of my Legend campaigns - the payoff in xp is just too good!

Yes it is risky, yes you'll probably have wounds/KIA, but overall I think it accelerates the development of your roster, and having soldiers rank up is THE priority for me.

1Warmonger wrote:I guess I'm in the minority here, but low infil missions was a cornerstone of my Legend campaigns - the payoff in xp is just too good!

I don't think it's that small a minority. The bigger question is what timing window to do it in. There's a period in Commander around June when I honestly feel safer doing a 0% infiltration GOp with 8-man than a 100% infiltration GOp with 5-man.