Is This Campaign Normal?

SpinDoctor
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Is This Campaign Normal?

Post by SpinDoctor »

This is my first LW2 campaign, Veteran Difficulty. I’ve played a lot of XCOM so I’m familiar with the tactics. I had to do a lot of digging to figure out how this mod works though.

So, it’s December of the first year, Liberated 2 regions and was going for a third, but as I was infiltrating the HQ, Advent did a Super Emergency Reinforcement and instantly jacked the strength from 6, (which I considered doable) to 8. Vigilance was 15. Force level is 18, so after some deliberation, I aborted the mission. It just didn’t give me a good feeling. I saw the UFO precursor, but it was only like 16 hours INF time so I couldn’t stop it. I’ll just let it be a strength sink. I did immediately get a Haven Retaliation, but that’s another story. It went fine, but lost two Rebels.

Recently, I had a Troop Column Mission that I infiltrated and boosted and still ended up with 1 - Gatekeeper, 2 - 64HP Sectopods and 28 other random elite enemies. I got through that, ok because for some reason, I had packed 3 EMP grenades on various people. I don’t even remember kitting them out. That and a lot of fire saved the day…

Anyway, at this point, the difficulty is becoming crazy. My guys have some plasma and I now have EMP and Fire Bombs, so my tech is OK. I need to get this over with, but my questions is:

Did I get too aggressive early on and drive up the force levels and strength too quickly? Is it normal to face this level of enemy before years end? Mid December, 61 legions on the map, Force level 18. Have two high strength/vigilance regions that have exposed network tower and HQ so the strength is kinda stuck there. I have the location of the PSI gate mission and the Forge.

Thanks in advance for your input.
gimrah
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Re: Is This Campaign Normal?

Post by gimrah »

Sounds pretty normal. 2 libbed regions is enough. I would not attempt another HQ after August because enemies become more dangerous and the mission puts your A team at material risk for questionable reward.

The difficulty curve does rise and you will probably find you can't field many squads with enough experience and top tier equipment to fight missions safely. By December you should be pursuing the golden path missions (forge, psi gate etc) as quickly as you can and otherwise focusing on gathering intel to reach them and do all the shadow chamber research.

Not sure if you've had an invasion yet, ie the retal where advent try to take back a libbed region. They are valuable to defeat because libbed regions have value and because they are a good source of rare corpses. However they are also very dangerous. If the beacon is close, and/or exposed and/or on a roof you should be able to go hard and beat it. If the beacon is distant, inside a building and on the ground floor, then they become almost unwinnable (rnfs come thick and fast) and you are probably better off just evaccing. Your A team and their gear is more valuable than a libbed region by end game.
SpinDoctor
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Re: Is This Campaign Normal?

Post by SpinDoctor »

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah, at this point, I've pretty much decided that I'm going to focus on the GP missions and finish out the campaign. I think I was used to just going max tech like the other versions, but LW doesn't seem to let you get that far. I have an all MSGT team that can take pretty much any objective, so I'm just gonna ignore everything else and go for the GP.

Fortunately, I haven't had any Liberated Region invasions, which is a little surprising since I had a strength 12 region sitting next to one of my liberated regions for the whole game. I made the mistake of wondering what the "Get Advent's Attention" mission was all about. Jeeze, that started a real crapstorm that took a long time to beat down. I'll never take that one again. I'm not sure what the value of that mission is at this point. I did manage to detect a lot of troop movement and supply raid missions throughout the campaign, so I was never really hurting for corpses.
gimrah
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Re: Is This Campaign Normal?

Post by gimrah »

Sounds right. You won't get top tier everything. And it's definitely not worth drawing things out to get all plasma or every T3 secondary. Prioritise what you think you need most or what your squad can make best use of - and/or just what you get, given how rare some corpses are.

Get attention missions are rarely worth it. I reckon you need a very full understanding of the strategic layer to figure out when they might be.
Psieye
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Re: Is This Campaign Normal?

Post by Psieye »

One thing: force level rises over time regardless of what you're doing - you're not going to catch the Force UFO as it tries to land as far away from you as possible each time. The "story" of LW2 is that as Advent gets serious (force and strength), the rebellion has to find a way to crit Advent somehow or get stamped out. The Avatar project is that crit. The doom bar is the more obvious time limit on the campaign but the rising force level is what really pushes you to race.
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SpinDoctor
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Re: Is This Campaign Normal?

Post by SpinDoctor »

Psieye wrote:One thing: force level rises over time regardless of what you're doing - you're not going to catch the Force UFO as it tries to land as far away from you as possible each time. The "story" of LW2 is that as Advent gets serious (force and strength), the rebellion has to find a way to crit Advent somehow or get stamped out. The Avatar project is that crit. The doom bar is the more obvious time limit on the campaign but the rising force level is what really pushes you to race.
Yeah, the force level is the real monster under the bed.

I've been watching DerAva's 1.5 patch campaign on YouTube (The Dude is a genius tactician) and it looks like the force levels at Legendary (which is what he's playing I think) scale almost exactly with the Veteran levels, which is what my game is. It seems as though the force level ramp should be less steep at lower difficulties, which would help make the game more accessible. But, anyway...

The Doom meter is no real issue and is easy to control. Just be a PITA to advent. It seems like you have to walk the fine line of keeping GV between "Elevated" and "High" with it being "High" most of the time. That is enough to put the brakes on the Avatar Project significantly.

I realize now that I messed up, and let the strength get away from me, by being way too big a PITA, causing Advent to panic and triggering massive UFO RNFs, most of which I never detected. I would have GV at "Severe" like every other month, and that is how the strength jumped up so drastically in my campaign. However, the Doom Meter rarely got above 4-5 pips. It was at 7 when I ran my PSI Gate mission last night and having done that, it's back down to three.

Speaking of PSI Gate, if you've never seen (3) MSGT Rangers with 100+ aim and Rapid Reactions simultaneously dish some dirt on a pod of 8 or 9 gently softened MECs, let me tell you, it is a joy to behold... Nothing left but charred circuit boards and hot metal... Initially it looked bad, but that's why I brought the team that I did... They earned their bitcoin that day. The whole map was really MEC heavy. (16 MECs out of 38 total enemies) Luckily, I brought a lot of EMP bombs/grenades.

I even hacked a Super Heavy MEC for the Haven... Sweet.

So, lesson leaned is 1) NEVER take the Get Advent's Attention Mission and 2) only run significant missions unless you just have nothing better to do. You don't have to take every mission, and you can probably ignore more than you imagine... I dunno... I have to see next campaign. I should be able to finish this one by February at the latest.
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SonnyWiFiHr
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Re: Is This Campaign Normal?

Post by SonnyWiFiHr »

Did you even try to reduce Strength on map ?
Supply Raid, Troop Transfer, UFO, Super UFO ?
You need to scan more after 2nd or 3rd Mission. I hit Severe in first month (can't avoid this on any difficulty) and start to look for them in low Strength regions.
Dark Events seems to spawn in non contacted regions if you do many of supply raids. Plan ahead your expansion and expand fast (few good DE can end your campaign faster than Avatar).
Get Advent's Attention is good for - moving the Strength and UFO traps. Don't recommend it if your region have Strength above 3. Never do this kind of mission in "working" region.
Cooling down region is done by Hiding.
Currently I reduced more than 6 Strength from map every month. I m in early May - Number of Legions is 41, started with 37 and I m in Severe from March. Some UFO-s can escape than you put some Get Advent's Attention (Liberation 2 + Tower must be done before) for Troop Columns and Supply Raids. This game is about detection and you need Sci + 13 rebels on duty to kill Strength.
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SpinDoctor
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Re: Is This Campaign Normal?

Post by SpinDoctor »

SonnyWiFiHr wrote:Did you even try to reduce Strength on map ?
Supply Raid, Troop Transfer, UFO, Super UFO ?
You need to scan more after 2nd or 3rd Mission. I hit Severe in first month (can't avoid this on any difficulty) and start to look for them in low Strength regions.
Dark Events seems to spawn in non contacted regions if you do many of supply raids. Plan ahead your expansion and expand fast (few good DE can end your campaign faster than Avatar).
Get Advent's Attention is good for - moving the Strength and UFO traps. Don't recommend it if your region have Strength above 3. Never do this kind of mission in "working" region.
Cooling down region is done by Hiding.
Currently I reduced more than 6 Strength from map every month. I m in early May - Number of Legions is 41, started with 37 and I m in Severe from March. Some UFO-s can escape than you put some Get Advent's Attention (Liberation 2 + Tower must be done before) for Troop Columns and Supply Raids. This game is about detection and you need Sci + 13 rebels on duty to kill Strength.
Thank you for your input!

Yeah, I did quite a few Supply Raids and Troop columns, but I didn't attempt to reduce strength by 6 every month as you say. I'm not sure how that is even possible. I'm just not that good, lol. Anyway, In my way of thinking (right now) I don't believe it's a game you can win by reducing strength like a game of Risk. You can't wipe the strength off the map because Advent can resupply faster than you can remove it. Trying to do that requires way too much thought anyway... You have to be aware of every mission type and mission description. If one comes up, and it looks promising, I'd run it, but I don't think I need to go out of my way to hunt UFO's.

As far as I can tell (and the way I'm currently playing) you use "strength removal" to gain war materiel, not to actively try to clear the map. You use vigilance to control the Doom Meter.

In my original post I was wondering if my strength was too high, but honestly, I think it's fine. It does seem excessive compared to other versions of XCOM, but I've come to understand, that LW is nothing if not excessive...

Overall, with the help of the posts here, I've concluded that the strength isn't that high, because I'm reaching maximum tech and I'm on pace to finish this campaign in a couple of game months (February 2036) and it didn't matter at all that I didn't detect a single UFO. I only have one GP mission left which is the Forge and I already know where it is. All I have to do is run it, do the research and do Waterworld. So for a first campaign, it seems to be going pretty well.

All I needed to do is change my perspective of how to play the game which is: I have the tech, the Alien strength is getting high, I can just finish this, instead of dragging it out further.
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Re: Is This Campaign Normal?

Post by ClodRaker »

I've been watching DerAva's 1.5 patch campaign on YouTube (The Dude is a genius tactician) and it looks like the force levels at Legendary (which is what he's playing I think) scale almost exactly with the Veteran levels, which is what my game is. It seems as though the force level ramp should be less steep at lower difficulties, which would help make the game more accessible. But, anyway...
One of LW2's greatest flaws by far was that it was never really balanced for less hardcore play at lower difficulties. I partly blame the early community/testers more than the devs for insuring that it was given null priority in development -- but then again, its the devs' job to filter input for both current and potential audience. I'm just hoping PI has learned a valuable lesson to apply when considering the audience for TI.

Back in 1.3 I was entirely too trepidatious about moving from Veteran to a higher difficulty level, having learned harsh lessons from transitions from Classic to Brutal to Impossible back in LW1, and falsely assuming the presence of a similar gap.

On the plus side, if you do choose to play LW2 on Legendary difficulty, you'll find that once you get a handle on the rougher strategic changes (which ultimately simply require you to pick and choose missions and intel boost more careful), it's not substantially harder than Veteran. You'll just want to insure you have plenty of CC handy on Legendary, since the biggest tactical jump from Commander to Legendary is in enemy HP.
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SonnyWiFiHr
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Re: Is This Campaign Normal?

Post by SonnyWiFiHr »

UFO traps - Super UFO will bring 2 Strength on map. It is hard to detect them but they are worth doing.
Normal UFO - 1 Strength.
Supply raid and troop column are easy to find. Problem is that you must spend intel. to finish them (3-4 days detection) in the beginning.
If you do not do that you will be very fast in Strength 5 region. Missions in Strength 5 region just kill soldiers. Every early kill of strength have downside. They produce vigilance in connected regions attracting more strength and Dark Events. This is manageable and controllable.
I have only two active Dark events. Supply raid or troop column = expand in to nearest region and scan until you find Dark event. Game will place them in un-contacted region with high vigilance.
Not killing Strength - 6 or more active DE because now game choose random high vigilance region. Probably far away

Currently I have (May 10). 2x 4 Strength regions, 2x 3 Strength regions and 1 Strength Region. 20+ missions at month.
Deciding when you do Lib 2 and tower to attract more Strength is - easy. Vigilance alone will attract more strength - why not to control it.
Not doing Strength kill - I will have 5 x 6+ Strength regions and not enough intel to expand. This is 9 high risk missions at month.

Liberation will put you in Severe anyway.
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Psieye
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Re: Is This Campaign Normal?

Post by Psieye »

SpinDoctor wrote:it looks like the force levels at Legendary (which is what he's playing I think) scale almost exactly with the Veteran levels
Force ramps up a little faster at Legendary than Veteran, but for the most part it is just a steady clock. In RTS terms, LW2 is about pulling off a 'timing push' - you get your tech up faster and you have to push hard before Advent gets their tech up to their endgame. I mean sure there have been accounts of people dragging campaigns on with ridiculous min/max'ing but the conventional story is "get it over with before Advent catch up".

As for Strength, seek not to reduce it inline with UFO reinforcements - at Commander and Legendary that becomes an RNG exercise. Instead, trap it: make a ridiculously hot region then abandon it (and maybe its neighbours, aside from Alien Facilities and GP). Advent huddles up over there.
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SpinDoctor
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Re: Is This Campaign Normal?

Post by SpinDoctor »

Psieye wrote:
SpinDoctor wrote:it looks like the force levels at Legendary (which is what he's playing I think) scale almost exactly with the Veteran levels
...As for Strength, seek not to reduce it inline with UFO reinforcements - at Commander and Legendary that becomes an RNG exercise. Instead, trap it: make a ridiculously hot region then abandon it (and maybe its neighbours, aside from Alien Facilities and GP). Advent huddles up over there.
Creating strength points was more or less my plan when I started my campaign. I did end up with a couple of huge strength sinks, but one was parked right next to my liberated region the entire game. That kept me a little nervous, but so far it hasn't generated anything more than a bunch of retals on other areas. I'd like to avoid those as much as possible, since they really are not fun at all...

Next time, I will try to be more strategic with how I manipulate Advent's strength. I dunno if that's possible but I have a better idea (slightly anyway) of how it works.

I'm thinking that the trick to manipulating the strength is to make it move, without generating the major UFO drops, which increases the total Global Strength. I get that it will go up anyway, but I don't need Advent pushing the panic button all the time. I find myself giving way more thought on how to do that, than any of the tactical aspects, which is awesome also... It's the game within the game.
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Re: Is This Campaign Normal?

Post by Psieye »

I've said it in another thread recently, but it bears repeating: you can lose from messing up the strategic layer. When you have squads so badass they can farm supply trains and troop columns, consider exercising restraint until you've contacted every neighbour of the region you'll be farming in. Vigiliance (hidden unless you get a mod) only decays in contacted regions. Hitting Advent so hard you don't even leave behind corpses can make neighbours raise vigilance, even if you haven't contacted them. Likewise, after the first liberation to advance the story, seriously consider if you NEED to do another liberation and where. Liberated regions permanently (until un-liberated) make neighbours want 2 Str more than their vigilance otherwise says. I've lost a campaign because every region I was contacting started with Str 6-8 due to my reckless rampaging a couple months earlier.

By "reckless rampaging", I mean winning zero-infiltration missions in June/July - you get so much resources and EXP from spamming wins that hard but then Advent wakes up and takes you very seriously. XCOM needs Advent to be complacent to win, at least in the midgame.
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SpinDoctor
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Re: Is This Campaign Normal?

Post by SpinDoctor »

So I had an interesting strategic turn of events in my campaign. Warning: Long story ahead…

If you’ve been following along, I’d pretty much decided my campaign was nearly over. I have one GP mission left which is the Forge Mission and then there’s the research etc., which leads to the end. Because of this, I’d more or less shut down all operations except for supply/hide (no point is doing intel), and just began a lot of training, and a few tech upgrades - making sure boots were polished and swords were sharpened, as it were.

Now, ”The Forge” is in Eastern USA and the region has 5 hiding Rebels. Hiding, because I wasn’t trying to attract any attention before we hit it. It had been sitting at Strength 5 since I contacted the region. And I’d been considering what, if anything I could do about that strength, before I assaulted the facility. But there was no rush…

Anyway, down in Brazil I have a team of 10 Rebels. 5 were hiding and 5 were doing supply, under the "watchful eye" of a squaddie gunner I stuck in there. As it happens, the 5 guys on supply detect a Supply Raid coming into Brazil. 4.5 day timer. Very unexpected… I’m like ok, this is cool. We are not doing anything anyway, so I kit up the “A” team, since the time was short and then boosted it for an expected strength of Light-Moderate. So 12-15 enemies. No big deal as these guys take on 30+ enemies on a regular basis.

I start thinking, well, if these Brazilian Rebels are THAT good, I’ll just put all 10 on intel and give them a scientist and see what turns up. Not even half a day later, they detect a Troop Column moving in. With a 12 day timer. 12 DAYS… That was the best infiltration time I’ve had all campaign. Of course, I kit out my second squad, which honestly, is at least as good as my top squad. Anticipated strength is expected to be extremely light… But I may under-infiltrate so I can get more corpses…

Meanwhile, I’m noticing that the Strength in Eastern USA (The Forge Region) is falling… It was 5, then 4 now it’s at 3. OH BOY… Now I'm rubbing my hands together because of course, it just so happens that Eastern USA is connected to Brazil. So I have a Supply Raid and a Troop Column moving into Brazil simultaneously, and possibly from a region I’m planning to hit with everything I have, so I may end up with strength 1 in a region with a Major facility.

Hmm, I may have to keep this going just a little longer. Once I crush the Forge (And I fully expect to grind them under the heel of my boot), I should have the corpses and supplies to go max tech for the Water World. But I’m anticipating the next 3 or 4 missions to be fun.
Last edited by SpinDoctor on Thu Apr 05, 2018 7:42 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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SonnyWiFiHr
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Re: Is This Campaign Normal?

Post by SonnyWiFiHr »

Now you know how to reduce strength on map. Keep in mind that every supply raid will add more Vigilance in neighboring regions.
Then this regions will request more strength. This can lead to increase in Global Vigilance.
Severe adds Super UFO = +4 Strength on map .
If you need more - everything. Spike up to Severe and kill some Strength. Than cool off most of the regions and keep Global Threat in High. Less is just bad.
For new play of course.
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SpinDoctor
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Re: Is This Campaign Normal?

Post by SpinDoctor »

SonnyWiFiHr wrote:Now you know how to reduce strength on map. Keep in mind that every supply raid will add more Vigilance in neighboring regions.
Then this regions will request more strength. This can lead to increase in Global Vigilance.
Severe adds Super UFO = +4 Strength on map .
If you need more - everything. Spike up to Severe and kill some Strength. Than cool off most of the regions and keep Global Threat in High. Less is just bad.
For new play of course.
LOL, I don't know that I actually did anything except hide... But I'd been slowly backing down my operations for awhile now. Probably since October/November.

It seems (at least in this campaign) that raising all kinds of Hell in the mid-game, then backing off in the early end game leaves you with a low Doom Meter (currently at "3"), most of the objectives having been met and Advent being vulnerable to the last few assaults because they think you have gone away. Maybe the last part is true if you are lucky. The first 2, I think you can sort of count on.

My current global threat is Low, down from Severe. As far as Advent is concerned, XCOM isn't a problem at all, and that's the way I like it. It might be that the neighboring vigilance goes up after those two raids, but I'm thinking it's going to be too late for Advent to do anything about it, because if the strength in "The Forge Region" goes to "1", I will immediately launch the attack. We can do it now if I wanted, but I want an Infiltrator Colonel to lead the assault. I think I have time to get that done.

This is the crack in their armor I was waiting for. What really caught me off guard was 5 rookie Rebels and a Squaddie, running a small supply detail detecting a major enemy Supply Raid... Then they are given some resources to help them out, and they pick up on major troop movement with the highest infiltration time of the campaign, at a key time of the war. It's like a movie...
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Re: Is This Campaign Normal?

Post by Psieye »

Yes that's generally the pattern of LW2 campaigns. You get a tech advantage in the midgame and it won't last that long so you push hard. To keep Advent from concentrating, you need to be spreading your hits around to always have somewhere you can be doing missions in while Advent focusses elsewhere. In the lategame, Advent "catches up" on tech, arguably surpasses XCOM and you start valuing your best soldiers more than what any normal mission can reward you with. On that note, it's the lategame when "Get Advent's attention" missions have some use: those spike Vig like winning 3 missions, so you can keep Advent on its toes to an extent should you decide that's necessary.
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SpinDoctor
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Re: Is This Campaign Normal?

Post by SpinDoctor »

Well, my big strategic plan didn't play out quite the way I expected.

I did run one of the Reduce Strength missions and it went fine. But vigilance immediately went up in the Forge Site Region, as Sonny predicted and then within a day or 2, the strength went from 3 to 4. I was hoping it would go down, but I forgot that regions with GP sites have extra strength. I wouldn't have thought that one mission would make the vigilance change from low to guarded. But it did...

The best thing I could have done was to assault the facility as soon as it went to 3, instead of trying to make it drop further. So now I have a really juicy Troop Column mission currently infiltrating and if I run it, that will probably make the Forge Site Strength go up even higher...

I hate to abandon missions, but I'm undecided if there is a real advantage to getting a few corpses that I honestly don't need, which will result (probably) in assaulting a Facility with ever increasing strength.

To add to the little drama, I have a couple of UFOs decidedly hunting for me. I've been avoiding them while my missions were infiltrating, but I may just abort the troop column, fly directly to the UFO's and confront them directly with all of my squads in place.
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Re: Is This Campaign Normal?

Post by gimrah »

Strength is kind of irrelevant for the big missions. Each point is like 2 extra enemies. When there are 35+ as standard on an HQ or golden path mission, what's another 2?
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Re: Is This Campaign Normal?

Post by SpinDoctor »

gimrah wrote:Strength is kind of irrelevant for the big missions. Each point is like 2 extra enemies. When there are 35+ as standard on an HQ or golden path mission, what's another 2?
OK thanks, I didn't realize that. I assumed strength would scale up the difficulty by a big factor.

Had my first Liberation Invasion the other day. It was a pain, but I got a sniper up on the high ground and he managed to take the relay out maybe 5 or 6 turns in. But I got RNFs starting from turn 2, not turn 4 like I'd read about. The last pod to show had 2 Andromedons, 2 Sectoid Commanders, General enemies were Muton Elites, gatekeeper etc... You get the picture. I ended up winning with a final tally of 54 enemies. And since the invasion was in January of the next year all enemies were max level/max HP (Force Level 21).

I lost a MSGT gunner who was always missing targets despite 91 aim and all elite attachments. I stuck him in key position, in a defining moment of the battle and he whiffed two shots from 5 tiles away. So he had death coming. He never was that good. I dunno why...

I think 1.5 way overtuned the RNF/enemy numbers. From what I understand, in LW2 V1.0, you could run 0% infiltration missions with no problem. Granted, that made it pretty gamey, but they went the other way by a wide margin. At one point, there were so many active enemies and stuff going on that it crashed my machine, and it takes a lot to do that. It's just unnecessary...

At this point, I'm ready to get this over with... The fun factor is rapidly dwindling..
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Re: Is This Campaign Normal?

Post by Psieye »

SpinDoctor wrote:From what I understand, in LW2 V1.0, you could run 0% infiltration missions with no problem.
You can still do this. It kinda became the hallmark of my Commander playstyle. Invasions are meant to swarm you - the general consensus is "if you can cheese it because relay spawned on a roof (rainmaker), then be happy about the corpses. Else GTFO". Ok, maybe not an immediate retreat decision but seriously don't expect to have a good time in an Invasion... unless you get one in July/August and your tech/EXP advantage over Advent is amazing.
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SpinDoctor
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Re: Is This Campaign Normal?

Post by SpinDoctor »

Psieye wrote:
SpinDoctor wrote:From what I understand, in LW2 V1.0, you could run 0% infiltration missions with no problem.
You can still do this. It kinda became the hallmark of my Commander playstyle. Invasions are meant to swarm you - the general consensus is "if you can cheese it because relay spawned on a roof (rainmaker), then be happy about the corpses. Else GTFO". Ok, maybe not an immediate retreat decision but seriously don't expect to have a good time in an Invasion... unless you get one in July/August and your tech/EXP advantage over Advent is amazing.
Retreat is never an option. Long Live the Resistance! Ahem...

Anyway, Yeah, if you can get GP/Facility Missions in that narrow XCOM power spike window, you have it made. I think my Blacksite Mission was around that time frame and it was pretty easy.

Is the game set up so that you need to win before the end of the first year?

At this point of the game, I don't need the corpses or the tech. I didn't drag out the Liberation part very long at all so I always had supplies coming in. I think I shook the beehive when I took the "Get Advent's Attention" Mission when I had no idea what it did. It's worked out pretty well so far but the step jump in Legion numbers was not expected.

LW2 is nothing if not excessive. I guess you just gotta deal with it. Also, since I'm in the mood to gripe, I gotta say the "perks" - not the ones from the tree, but the ones you get from running squads together, having an officer, chameleon suits, etc. all that stuff is underwhelming to the point of being non-existent. I can't see any difference in squad performance with an officer (save the obvious benefits of a few commands) and taking up a utility slot with a chameleon suit to save an hour is pointless to me. Maybe I'm missing something though.
Last edited by SpinDoctor on Mon Apr 09, 2018 10:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Is This Campaign Normal?

Post by Dwarfling »

Chameleon Suits reduces infiltration time on a soldier. You usethem when you want to fit a soldier you otherwise would not be able to deploy without an increase in enemies.

Officer skills do make a difference and it's pretty much a free bonus. You just gotta remember to use them. Around midgame some soldiers will inevitably end up together because they get deployed at the same time. Those are good times to make them a squad and get some free dodge and whatnot.
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Re: Is This Campaign Normal?

Post by Psieye »

SpinDoctor wrote: Is the game set up so that you need to win before the end of the first year?

LW2 is nothing if not excessive. I guess you just gotta deal with it. Also, since I'm in the mood to gripe, I gotta say the "perks" - not the ones from the tree, but the ones you get from running squads together, having an officer, chameleon suits, etc. all that stuff is underwhelming to the point of being non-existent. I can't see any difference in squad performance with an officer (save the obvious benefits of a few commands) and taking up a utility slot with a chameleon suit to save an hour is pointless to me. Maybe I'm missing something though.
Mmm, end of year is sort of when you're expected to end it, unless you're hard min/max'ing.

I can agree with you on chameleon suits, but 100 aim Lead by Example, Firing Discipline officers are another story. I rarely care for Command if I have a competent officer around.
My three 8-man GOp squad Commander campaigns:
1st
2nd
3rd
SpinDoctor
Posts: 115
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2018 1:53 pm

Re: Is This Campaign Normal?

Post by SpinDoctor »

Psieye wrote:Mmm, end of year is sort of when you're expected to end it, unless you're hard min/max'ing.

I can agree with you on chameleon suits, but 100 aim Lead by Example, Firing Discipline officers are another story. I rarely care for Command if I have a competent officer around.
"Min/Maxing" I've seen this term a lot. What does it mean?

Could be my Officers were not a high enough rank to make an obvious difference. Until I did a crash training course on one of my Grenadiers to "Colonel", the highest ranking officer I had in play was a Captain. I still haven't seen what a Colonel can do as she is currently infiltrating the Forge.
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