"Stealthing Network Tower Missions"

[Ithuriel]

I figured out my whole confusion here- I thought the infiltration reduction mechanics staked multiplicatively, which in fairness would make sense. I now totally get how people are able to stealth this.

[plasman]

A Specialist in your team can be handy too. You'll face (minor spoiler) some turrets and sometimes some MECs, so being able to control them or at least shut them down for a while can be quite helpful + since this is a high-intensity mission you'll probably need to heal some of your operatives as well.

[LordYanaek]

The issue with a specialist is they are low firepower soldiers unless built for overwatch and an overwatch build really doesn't work well with stunned enemies. They can't easily hack the console either so i really stopped using specialists on Network Towers in favor of high impact soldiers capable of killing stuff fast. If i have an AWC Field Medic in the squad, it's usually enough in case someone get hurt.

A timely hack really gives a new meaning to "alpha strike" in that mission.

[Jadiel]

It depends. If they have air drop, they also bring 2 free grenades, which is like an extra half a grenadier. My first network tower team is usually: Shinobi, Grenadier, Specialist, Ranger, Sharpshooter. This is mostly because I tend to run it as soon as Mag Weapons are done, and so I want a team that doesn't need Adv Mags...

[LordYanaek]

This is mostly because I tend to run it as soon as Mag Weapons are done, and so I want a team that doesn't need Adv Mags...

I tend to run it as soon as i have Advanced Laser which is faster and gives me weapons for my assaults but of course Airdrop can help you if you have a grenadier. However your grenadier won't be able to throw those 2 additional grenades during your 3 free turns so i think the added power comes a bit late in an ideal situation where you can wipe most of the opposition while they are stunned. We don't always have idea situations of course so it's a valid argument. I used Airdrop a lot on squads doing prolonged fights which Network Tower shouldn't be so i didn't consider it.

[Jadiel]

This is mostly because I tend to run it as soon as Mag Weapons are done, and so I want a team that doesn't need Adv Mags...

I tend to run it as soon as i have Advanced Laser which is faster and gives me weapons for my assaults but of course Airdrop can help you if you have a grenadier. However your grenadier won't be able to throw those 2 additional grenades during your 3 free turns so i think the added power comes a bit late in an ideal situation where you can wipe most of the opposition while they are stunned. We don't always have idea situations of course so it's a valid argument. I used Airdrop a lot on squads doing prolonged fights which Network Tower shouldn't be so i didn't consider it.

That's fair enough. It depends how you tackle it. I don't find killing all the enemies on the map in 3 turns to be that feasible early in the game. It works if you're lucky, but if you get unlucky, you typically end up in trouble. I tend to engage a pod, and then trigger the relay when the next pod (inevitably) patrols into me. I should maybe try the trigger-from-concealment and murder everything strategy again though...

[chrisb]

This is mostly because I tend to run it as soon as Mag Weapons are done, and so I want a team that doesn't need Adv Mags...

I tend to run it as soon as i have Advanced Laser which is faster and gives me weapons for my assaults but of course Airdrop can help you if you have a grenadier. However your grenadier won't be able to throw those 2 additional grenades during your 3 free turns so i think the added power comes a bit late in an ideal situation where you can wipe most of the opposition while they are stunned. We don't always have idea situations of course so it's a valid argument. I used Airdrop a lot on squads doing prolonged fights which Network Tower shouldn't be so i didn't consider it.

That's fair enough. It depends how you tackle it. I don't find killing all the enemies on the map in 3 turns to be that feasible early in the game. It works if you're lucky, but if you get unlucky, you typically end up in trouble. I tend to engage a pod, and then trigger the relay when the next pod (inevitably) patrols into me. I should maybe try the trigger-from-concealment and murder everything strategy again though...

It really comes down to doing as much dmg as possible each turn. I've always managed to wipe the map in the 3 turns. It helps alot if you can get the pods to merge. It can take a certain amount of practice to learn what works and what doesn't. Grenadiers, Technicals, Assaults and Rangers are my goto. Everything else can really only kill 1/turn. If you learn to do it well, you can leave the utility items at home for better mobility. Once your shinobi is in place, try and get your squad as close to the middle of the map as possible. Typically once they're pinned in, pop the button and slaughter all the things.

It's probably worth practicing it a few times if you haven't done it before. You don't see that many network towers so it's not something you get to experiment with often. When I first started out with this, I grabbed a save before infil. Played the game normal and do the mission. Save again (so not really savescumming), then use the old save to just fast forward the infil, skipping everything else and try again if it didn't go well the first time.

[josna238]

In my opinion the difficulty of Tower is nearly absurd. In my case I need the best A-Team with the best A-Gear.

Deploy an strange tactic. In fact the only one that I think can work (the shinobi strategy previously mentioned). Spent an embarrassing amount of turns making aproaching and, of course, having the lucky day because with a 5 soldiers team any bad RNG moment is highly punishing and a pair of bad patrol movements could let or squad commited.

The only thing that I can add to the ideas previously mentioned is that I tend to wait until 2 or 3 pods stack together to switch the relay, making this I have two free turns of stuned aliens stuck in a small area, so I use area of effect things.

For example in my last tower: 2 pods and a half were in grenade area, I activated the relay in this turn, threw a grenade, used command, threw second grenade so the 3 pods were highly damaged and uncovered and terminated several of them with Iron Curtain, on the next stun turn cleared the remainder aliens. And then I had only 2 pods (patrol plus objective).

[stefan3iii]

Deploy an strange tactic. In fact the only one that I think can work (the shinobi strategy previously mentioned).

This tactic also works well, I mentioned earlier in the thread:

1) Bring an assault and an officer with Oscar Mike.
2) Stealth your entire squad safely as far as you can into the map. Usually can make it about half way.
3) Begin combat as usual.
4) If you're losing control of the fight, Oscar Mike + Command + Run And Gun allows the assault to sprint halfway across the map and hit the switch.

Personally I think that's more straightforward and consistent than stealth, which can go horribly wrong sometimes.

[josna238]

Thanks, I had missed that post. Is an interesting idea I hadn't thought but I fear that maybe in the assault's run to the relay we could activate lot of aliens, while we are already fighting and lot of aliens could stack between the assault and the squad and we could be not able to rejoin the team. With the stealthing we don't break concealment and can use the shinobi to scout and snipe the central pod.

[stefan3iii]

Thanks, I had missed that post. Is an interesting idea I hadn't thought but I fear that maybe in the assault's run to the relay we could activate lot of aliens, while we are already fighting and lot of aliens could stack between the assault and the squad and we could be not able to rejoin the team. With the stealthing we don't break concealment and can use the shinobi to scout and snipe the central pod.

Well, usually you've killed a pod or two by the time you decide to sprint in, and then you have 2 turns to finish cleaning up the remaining stunned enemies. Worst case you have to still fight some left over aliens after the stun. Best case you never even have to sprint in to hit the switch and just play the level normally, clearing pods as they engage.

[Dwarfling]

So far bringing two Assaults with Trenchgun, a Technical and a Grenadier full of damage grenades, along with the sneaky shinobi hasn't failed me in Legendary up to Moderate strenght. I put two frags or plasmas on the Assaults and I have them go frag-trench-frag (usually a pod is dead after trenchgun turn but you can get a miss), the Technical can go frag first if he wasn't close enough to a pod and the grenadier doesn't seem to have any problems to kill a pod. The only tricky part is the command pod because you mostly only get two turns with a Shinobi, but you can run and flash on the 3rd turn after the stun if your grenadier isn't close enough to finish it or freeze them. If the command pod is in the roof then you can rocket their feet.

Two Grenadiers also work, and they don't even need to be super leveled up. Left tree Shinobi is a requirement tho. Spider armor makes it even easier but that won't be available for the 1st NT unless you do it late.