Your strategy for missions with strong alien activity.

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LouisdeFuines
Posts: 46
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2017 8:42 pm

Your strategy for missions with strong alien activity.

Post by LouisdeFuines »

Hi, there,

I`ve achieved now magnetic weapons for most of my people.

But I`m still sucking at missions with high alien activity. What do you recommend?

Are those only for the end game?
Flapdrol
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Feb 03, 2017 9:03 am

Re: Your strategy for missions with strong alien activity.

Post by Flapdrol »

The missions with no time limits and/or enemy reinforcements (supply raids, troop movements): use patience and overwatch a lot. Because you have all the time in the world, you can patiently whittle enemy troops down. These are easy and more profitable if there are many enemies.

The missions with time limits/reinforcements will become harder and harder as time goes by. In month 1, standard grenades kill everything, in month 4, they are a minor annoyance to even weak Advent troopers.

You really have to ask yourself for every "hard" mission: given that I may lose soldiers, is this mission really worth it? What am I getting out of it? If you can prevent disastrous Dark Events, yes. 30 Intel and a package? No.

General tips:
- keep expanding and do missions in low force areas. Why go where the enemy is? Just accept that some areas are now no-go.
- many missions can be solved with a Shinobi Officer+Specialist team or even just a Shinobi Officer. They can infiltrate to 200% (because they are a small team), so they can bring down a Moderate-Light mission down to Extremely Light and sneak.
- some missions can be done ISIS-style. A squaddie Specialist can solo a Hack mission. A squaddie Technical can solo kill a VIP. Two squaddie rangers can Double Barrel an Alien Relay. In all these cases: survival of the squaddies is optional (and somewhat unlikely). Just train some bad rookies for these roles and train one more when there is an "industrial accident"
- Exo armor (with inbuilt Shredder guns) are a *huge* force multiplier. I usually go Laser first, then Exo armor, and only then Magnetic. Shredder guns hit several enemies at once and strip their cover for good measure. Yes, they are one-shot only, but if you have 6 in a squad.....
- At the end of your turn, all active enemies should be either dead, on fire, flash-banged or suppressed. Use Flashbangs (especially with grenadiers with Sting Grenades), use Incendiary Grenades, use (Area) Suppression.
- Avoid activating multiple pods at the same time. It is great fun to run-and-gun and deliver a flanking crit from one square away (or stick a shinobi sword into an alien), but it often ends in disaster.
LouisdeFuines
Posts: 46
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2017 8:42 pm

Re: Your strategy for missions with strong alien activity.

Post by LouisdeFuines »

What annoys me most is unwillingly activating multiple pods on high activity missions.

I just can`t stand all of them. And there is a pod activated just 3m to direction X. This combined with the timers ruins the mod for me. Gone is the overwatch strategy from LW1 for me. What sense does it make to unlock 4 pods at once right from the beginning?

And taking the reload time of the missions gives me the feeling of wasting my time now on.

(Sorry, I feel frustrated after having invested hours into the game).
Zyrrashijn
Posts: 188
Joined: Mon Aug 01, 2016 6:02 am

Re: Your strategy for missions with strong alien activity.

Post by Zyrrashijn »

It's fairly easy. If you have the time on your side, engage larger fights. If you race against the clock, don't face large enemy numbers at the same time.
Fizpez
Posts: 20
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2017 1:29 am

Re: Your strategy for missions with strong alien activity.

Post by Fizpez »

You have to learn (took me a while) that with this mod comes some universal truths:

a) You aren't supposed to do every mission, so dont even try - which means:
b) You need to be choosy about which missions you DO try but:
c) There is a decent chance that ANY mission on a difficulty above ROOKIE will go badly if you pull more than 1 pod at a time which means:
d) You should be prepared to signal for evac and hope to salvage as many of your troops as possible but:
e) You are probably going to lose quite a few campaigns regardless.

e* is particularly frustrating if you go in to the game thinking you are going to set up some sort of global dynasty of control where you roll Advent back in to the sea, carefully working your way up the tech tree and kicking ass and chewing bubble gum all the away. I went in to my first (and second) campaign with this attitude and pretty much promptly lost.

Instead imagine you are at one end of a very long room with an escape exit on the far end. Now image the walls on your right and left start closing in AS SOON AS YOU TAKE YOUR FIRST STEP toward the door. From this point on every decision should be made toward getting to that door as fast as possible. This is not a mod where you get to savor your growing power - it is designed to punish you if you wait too long to move along. The tech tree makes it SEEM like you should be growing in power, kicking more and more ass along the way, but in reality the tech tree is merely the life preserver that keeps you from drowning right away.

It also takes a while before you can clearly realize when those walls closing in on your are definitely going to splatter you before you reach the exit - if you're more than 10 months in to the game above rookie difficulty and the end goal (Waterworld) isnt clearly in sight you're probably already a lost cause and need to restart, which, as I well know, is brutal when you feel like you've invested 40-50 hours in to that campaign, but that's just the nature of this beast.
LouisdeFuines
Posts: 46
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2017 8:42 pm

Re: Your strategy for missions with strong alien activity.

Post by LouisdeFuines »

Maybe I missunderstood the mod a bit.

I like to grow in power and not just preventing from drowning.


How do I prevent unlocking several pots? I hide somewhere and.... there it is.

Or: How am I supposed to move cloacked, when there will be about 2 or 3 pods near my target in the mission?
Dwarfling
Posts: 524
Joined: Wed Jan 25, 2017 12:16 pm

Re: Your strategy for missions with strong alien activity.

Post by Dwarfling »

Watch some of the videos by Xwynns on youtube to get an idea.
Flapdrol
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Feb 03, 2017 9:03 am

Re: Your strategy for missions with strong alien activity.

Post by Flapdrol »

LouisdeFuines wrote:Maybe I missunderstood the mod a bit. I like to grow in power and not just preventing from drowning.
Then this may not be a suitable mod for you. Long War 2 is very tough even at Veteran. You need to read most of this forum to understand how infiltration, stealth, haven management, research and a few more concepts work together to even stand a chance.
How do I prevent unlocking several pots? I hide somewhere and.... there it is.
You should strive (at least in the first few months) to do only missions which end up "Extremely Light" (6-9 enemies) or at most "Very Light" (10-12 enemies) UNLESS the mission has no deadline. That means that you must infiltrate a long time with a relatively small team, assign many rebels to Intel to detect missions early and skip all missions that do not give you enough time.

Light (13-15 enemies) is very dangerous on a deadline. Everything above Light (16+ enemies) will kill you. Especially when snakes start to come in groups.
Or: How am I supposed to move cloaked, when there will be about 2 or 3 pods near my target in the mission?
You can't. But if there are only three pods on the entire map (because it is an Extremely Light" mission), they won't be all near the target.

You are a resistance platoon fighting a guerilla war against a very powerful foe. You are not a Marine Division overrunning a defenseless Third World country. Infiltrate, strike and disappear.
Last edited by Flapdrol on Thu Apr 13, 2017 6:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Fizpez
Posts: 20
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2017 1:29 am

Re: Your strategy for missions with strong alien activity.

Post by Fizpez »

LouisdeFuines wrote:Maybe I missunderstood the mod a bit.

I like to grow in power and not just preventing from drowning.


How do I prevent unlocking several pots? I hide somewhere and.... there it is.

Or: How am I supposed to move cloacked, when there will be about 2 or 3 pods near my target in the mission?

If you really want to feel like you have the power (and also get to understand the game) just play on Rookie and dont be afraid to save scum like a bandit. I did it for my third campaign and learned a lot - there will be points where your tech will make most encounters feel like a turkey shoot, rolling 50+ advent up and killing them all in one mission (I should point out however that even on rookie pulling 3 pods in to the same fight can still often turn out badly). You'll get tons of soldiers capped out and get try all the cool highest level skills (some of them suck but that's also changing as soon as 1.3 comes out.)


Pulling in (not pulling in) extra pods is one of the hardest lessons to learn - you want to run most missions with a concealed Shinobi running point and scouting during the fight - do not use your scout in the fight unless it will be decisive. Giving up your one concealed soldier early in a mission should never be done lightly. With this scouting telling you if theres another pod danger-close I would also suggest you install the mod called "Gotcha" With it you will be able to tell (once you know they're there) if a movement is going to trigger another pod. The absolute worst thing you can do is trigger a new pod during your turn - if they blunder in to you during their turn its MUCH better as on the lower difficulties as they most often (always?) do not get to attack that turn.

As mentioned above watching an hour or two of youtube videos by some of those experts is VERY instructional.
LouisdeFuines
Posts: 46
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2017 8:42 pm

Re: Your strategy for missions with strong alien activity.

Post by LouisdeFuines »

Ok, I seem to have come to some kind of dead end. Most missions can`t be done anymore by me due to the strength of the enemy pods.

And I am not willing replaying a weeks work on that game. Something is clearly wrong for me, when this is necessary on a rooky - game....
Last edited by LouisdeFuines on Fri Apr 14, 2017 6:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
Notintheface
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri Mar 24, 2017 11:41 pm

Re: Your strategy for missions with strong alien activity.

Post by Notintheface »

Question to OP: Do you understand infiltration mechanics and usually infiltrate to 100% or more?

If you do, the vast majority of the time you won't be activating multiple pods on the first turn. That is when you do 0% supply raids, etc.
LouisdeFuines
Posts: 46
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2017 8:42 pm

Re: Your strategy for missions with strong alien activity.

Post by LouisdeFuines »

Since in Sept. most missions start with an infilitration time of about 2 days or 3, my infilitration can`t go higher then maybe 50 %.
Kyrsoh
Posts: 50
Joined: Tue Feb 14, 2017 8:53 am

Re: Your strategy for missions with strong alien activity.

Post by Kyrsoh »

I think there is a misunderstanding about the game. This is not Long War 1, where you can detect and attempt all missions. Most of the time you do not have to do missions in high-strength areas if you understand the mechanics correctly.
The main points are:

- You are leading a guerilla platoon (or revolutionist fighting force if you like that better) against a global government who can ask for reinforcements from space. You have absolutely no chance to defeat this enemy on the field.
- You have to use real life guerilla tactics - fight at locations where enemies are weaker, make deceptive actions so ADVENT strenght will go to unimportant locations. You have to liberate as many regions as you can because doing that slows down your enemy (killing ADVENT legions, slowing down Avatar project). You have to gather resources from the hostile government as well.
- To achive this you can make decisions about where and when you want to fight. You generate the missions by assign Rebels on Intel jobs and scanning with the Avenger. So if you have a high ADVENT strenght region you simply do not assign Rebels on Intel there and DO NOT SCAN with the Avenger at such locations. You may put some Rebels on Recruit or Supply jobs or may go hiding with all of your Rebel forces but do not gain Intel and missions at these regions. ADVENT may initiate Retaliation against you (if you are not hiding) but that's all: you will do not get a single mission where you are not gaining Intel or scan with the Avenger.
- You have to pick a few regions where ADVENT is weaker, you have to assign as many Rebels on Intel as you can and scan these regions with the Avenger as well. You have to do missions in these locataions and try to liberate them if you can. You will gain XP, loot and resources from these regions. This means that you have to contact as many regions as you can, expanding is key to have regions where ADVENT is weak. Gathering Intel with your Rebels is the key to find doable missions. If you want good infiltration times, you have to assign at least 8 to 10 Rebels on Intel PLUS scanning the region with the Avenger.
- You have to divide your contacted but unliberated regions into 3 category. You will have mission regions (almost all of your Rebels on Intel), growing Resistance regions (most Rebels on Recruit, NO ONE ON INTEL!) and regions overwhelmed by ADVENT (maybe a few Rebels on Supply but Hiding for all is better and NO ONE ON INTEL!).
- You have to generate Supply mainly in your liberated regions, not at oppressed/fighting locations.
- You can control ADVENT strenght a little from the start of the game. You can destroy ADVENT legions on Troop Column missions, Supply Raids and by liberating regions (doing this also kills a few legions at the given territory). If you do a lot of missions at a region but DO NOT LIBERATE this territory quickly ADVENT will go there with a lot of soldiers. You may fight them for a while (Troop Column and Supply Raid missions, maybe a few landed UFO missions) but they will get strenght here. If they are stronger than your forces, you simply Hide all your Rebels there (NO ONE ON INTEL AND DO NOT SCAN THE REGION with the Avenger) and put your Rebels on Intel at a different region where ADVENT is weaker. After that they will have a territory with a lot of troops but you do not take missions there, so they have to slowly relocate their forces to your new "mission regions". During this transportation process you can hit them by Troop Colums and Supply Raid missions in your new operation locations (with all of your Rebels on Intel there). Doing that you have a chance to reduce ADVENT strenght constantly. Their Global Strenght will go up during the game but you can slow this down by a huge amount if you do your guerilla stuff properly.

Think about these things like in real life: you want safe places (liberated regions) for your economy (making Supplies for your forces), a lot of spies and agents (Rebels on Intel) at war zones (low ADVENT strenght mission regions) and you have to evade total destruction (by Hiding all your Rebels) where your enemy has rock-hard elite forces (high ADVENT strenght regions).
LouisdeFuines
Posts: 46
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2017 8:42 pm

Re: Your strategy for missions with strong alien activity.

Post by LouisdeFuines »

So maybe my game is not yet lost. By what means can I recognize, if the campaign has gone to hell for me or not?
Severian
Posts: 28
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2017 2:23 pm

Re: Your strategy for missions with strong alien activity.

Post by Severian »

I feel for the OP. Just yesterday I suffered a squad wipe in a relation mission. It was very frustrating because there was nothing I could do - I was still quite early in the game so my guys had ballistic weapons and kevlar. Retaliation is important to counter if you want your rebels to survive, so felt obliged to do the mission. So my guys drop in, and before I can even take my turn (i.e. from their appearance itself) I triggered a pod next to the landing area. The pod scatters as usual, but then start to fire (I had previously thought that this wasn't possible without yellow alert). In particular, an Advent rocketeer sent a rocket into my squad (still at its starting point), killing 3 (and all the accompanying rebels they were supposed to escort to safety) and sending the rest into panic. I can't move since everyone is panicked and Advent clean up the next turn. I was literally unable to make a single move.

But that's XCom!
LordYanaek
Posts: 940
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2017 1:34 pm

Re: Your strategy for missions with strong alien activity.

Post by LordYanaek »

Severian wrote: But that's XCom!
Ughhh, not sure.
That looks awfully like a bug.

One thing to know is that on retaliation mission, pods are on yellow alert so they can have reaction shots before you open fire. What they shouldn't be able to do is act before your first turn start. I had a similar situation once in an Intel Raid in my very first run (fortunately i only lost the adviser and a few rebels but not the squad) and several people here assured me it was a bug that was supposedly fixed somewhere in 1.1 or 1.2

Looks like it wasn't.
Severian
Posts: 28
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2017 2:23 pm

Re: Your strategy for missions with strong alien activity.

Post by Severian »

For the record, this was a recruitment raid. I had been trying to increase my rebel count (I had 5 I think) and managed the opposite.
LordYanaek
Posts: 940
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2017 1:34 pm

Re: Your strategy for missions with strong alien activity.

Post by LordYanaek »

Recruitment raids can be brutal but what you describe should not be possible.
Aliens get Yellow Alert reactions only during their turn and missions start with an XCom turn so those reactions actually occurred outside of any real turn as far as i understand.

If you still have a save available you should probably report this as a bug because i can't see how it's working as intended.

EDIT : Maybe this is related to an issue where XCom doesn't get action points on mission restarts (see this post by tracktwo).
Tuhalu
Posts: 433
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2017 9:02 pm

Re: Your strategy for missions with strong alien activity.

Post by Tuhalu »

LordYanaek wrote:Recruitment raids can be brutal but what you describe should not be possible.
Aliens get Yellow Alert reactions only during their turn and missions start with an XCom turn so those reactions actually occurred outside of any real turn as far as i understand.

If you still have a save available you should probably report this as a bug because i can't see how it's working as intended.

EDIT : Maybe this is related to an issue where XCom doesn't get action points on mission restarts (see this post by tracktwo).
This is certainly a thing that can happen. Even on regular missions, you will rarely get a situation where a turret or something is in sight range of you on turn 0 and activates before your entire party conceals. In retaliations, you can get a worse situation where 1 or 2 pods spawn in sight range, scamper and then get yellow-alert actions. Especially if you restart the mission.
LordYanaek
Posts: 940
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2017 1:34 pm

Re: Your strategy for missions with strong alien activity.

Post by LordYanaek »

The Yellow alert action is the buggy part.
Yellow alert actions occurs when a pod activates during an Alien turn.
The game starts with an XCom turn.
It's possible (unusual but possible) that a pod spawn within LoS of your start position and activates before you get to act but the pod shouldn't have yellow actions because it's not an alien turn

The fact that you see more yellow actions on restarted missions sort of confirms it might be related to the linked bug. This bug causes the first XCom turn to be forfeit because soldiers don't get their action points on mission restarts. Then the game proceeds to a (partial) alien turn without warnings of activity or timer counting a turn but the aliens can get yellow actions during that turn. It's not the intended behavior.
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