Commander Honestman Campaign

Xenos' Phobia
Posts: 21
Joined: Thu Jan 11, 2018 10:43 pm

Re: Commander Honestman Campaign

Post by Xenos' Phobia »

Thanks for the discussion guys. I've been more thoughtful when choosing missions and forming squads, and I haven't lost a soldier or even had a serious wound since. And I even ran another jailbreak with a sharpshooter and a gunner. :wink: The map turned out really well for DFA. I haven't been using the squad management interface, but I'm still a little tempted. Interesting class synergies come to mind and it would be nice to keep certain soldiers together so I can maximize those.

On a side note, I don't have set Haven advisers, so I keep switching them in and out for what seems like every mission. I wonder if there is a penalty for that because I've only had one Rendezvous so far. Maybe I just don't recruit faceless. :cool:

I progressed to June over the weekend. Campaign update forthcoming...
Xenos' Phobia
Posts: 21
Joined: Thu Jan 11, 2018 10:43 pm

Re: Commander Honestman Campaign

Post by Xenos' Phobia »

Campaign Update - June 1, 2035

Global STR 43, Resistance Threat: Low

3/3 Regions Contacted
  1. East Africa: STR 5, 10 Rebels, Lib 2 (DONE)
  2. South Africa: STR 2, 15 Rebels, Lib 1 (DONE)
  3. New India: STR 4, 16 Rebels, Lib 2 (DONE)
Research: MW RC BR HM L AB TA SA OA M >A.Magnetic (10 days left)

Barracks: 32
  • 8 Rookie
  • 5 Shinobi
  • 4 Assault
  • 4 Technical
  • 3 Grenadier
  • 3 Specialist
  • 2 Gunner
  • 2 Sharpshooter
  • 1 Ranger
Highest Rank: 2 TSgt

Staff: 5 Engineers, 4 Scientists

Facilities: GTS Workshop PG Lab (1 day left) AWC (3 days left)

Resources: 15 AA, 54 E, 15 EC, 127 Intel, 23 Supplies

Things of Note:
  • Most scientists are recent. I purchased 2 from the BM in the last 2 supply drops.
  • Skipped A.Laser because I was low on elerium crystals.
  • Haven't had a full salvage mission yet. Just detected my first Troop Column.
  • Thinking about researching Psi after A.Magnetic and before Plated Armor.
  • Just had a large influx of rookies from a jailbreak. Might save a couple for PsiOp.
SpinDoctor
Posts: 115
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2018 1:53 pm

Re: Commander Honestman Campaign

Post by SpinDoctor »

Sounds like your campaign is going pretty well.

Just as a note, my "Big Picture" Strategy is:
Lasers in April
Magnetics in Mid May/Early June
Liberate 2 Regions by Mid August, then stop Liberating.
MSGTs in July/August
Coil in August.

I'd tend to have more High Level Rangers than you by now, but I have a lot of love for them. Generally by campaigns end, I have at least two with kills approaching 150+ each. The rest have kills at around 125+. I think you are getting close to the time where you will need more raw firepower every turn. I take them out in pairs and the beauty of 2 RR Rangers engaging a pod is a joy to behold. But I suppose depending on how you play, that can vary. I don't really use Technicals that much as they feel kinda situational to me, but there are some folks who can really use them well. I mostly only use them for big missions, and occasionally just to get them out for some air/level up.

Many folks use various squad types depending on the mission, but I use combined arms so all my squads look pretty much the same, with slight variations here and there. I was never big on Psi Ops before, but I am now since Mind Merge with a Kubikiri sniper can make short work of a Sectopod or Gatekeeper. Plus they have other really nice skills. Archons are very susceptible to Insanity and Domination. They make a good distraction in the middle of a big pod when you need to buy some time.
Xenos' Phobia
Posts: 21
Joined: Thu Jan 11, 2018 10:43 pm

Re: Commander Honestman Campaign

Post by Xenos' Phobia »

I don't have anything against Rangers, but my class distribution has been skewed by the Use My Class mod. Next campaign I'll either spend more time smoothing out the distribution in my character pool or - more likely - just remove Use My Class and deal with 'mis-classed' soldiers. There are intersting builds to try with suboptimal class stats, but even just having a few truly terrible soldiers I don't mind leaving in Havens wouldn't be the end of the world.

Anyway, I haven't been missing OW Rangers because all three of my Specialists took Sentinel. My single Ranger is actually a mix of left and center taking a mobile marksman route. With AP Rounds and Walk Fire he's well-able to take out any drones or stragglers for which Combat Protocol is often used. It's a flip of Specialist and Ranger roles for sure, but one I'm quite happy with as it gives me multiple OWs at LCpl instead of GSgt.

I'm trying out a hybrid build for Technicals: FitH, Fortify, Shredder, Formidable, Incinerator, Quickburn, and BB. The idea is to have reliable rockets for cover destruction, survivability when flaming for control, and perpetual utility with Shredder. They haven't really performed better or worse than any old early-game Technical yet. I might train pistol perks and give them Redscreen Rounds for even more utility later on.
Psieye
Posts: 829
Joined: Thu Apr 06, 2017 12:27 am

Re: Commander Honestman Campaign

Post by Psieye »

Xenos' Phobia wrote:With AP Rounds and Walk Fire he's well-able to take out any drones or stragglers for which Combat Protocol is often used. It's a flip of Specialist and Ranger roles for sure, but one I'm quite happy with as it gives me multiple OWs at LCpl instead of GSgt.
While Combat Protocol can be valuably used to kill off stragglers, it does have a couple other uses beyond that - hard-hitting robotic enemies and no-LoS pod activation come to mind. Also, I'd still consider taking RR without any of the support perks earlier. It just doesn't feel right if a GSgt ranger isn't shooting 5 times per player+enemy turn-pair.
My three 8-man GOp squad Commander campaigns:
1st
2nd
3rd
SpinDoctor
Posts: 115
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2018 1:53 pm

Re: Commander Honestman Campaign

Post by SpinDoctor »

Xenos' Phobia wrote:I'm trying out a hybrid build for Technicals: FitH, Fortify, Shredder, Formidable, Incinerator, Quickburn, and BB. The idea is to have reliable rockets for cover destruction, survivability when flaming for control, and perpetual utility with Shredder. They haven't really performed better or worse than any old early-game Technical yet. I might train pistol perks and give them Redscreen Rounds for even more utility later on.
I also had the idea to give Red Screens to my technical for my next Mission. It's a UFO assault in a strength 7 region, force 20 (East Europe). So I know there's gonna be Sectopods lurking. I'd like to actually try controlling one and I have a Specialist with 198(!) hacking who should be up for that. She's not even MSGT yet. Anyway, red screens for softening it up, then hack it. Another option I'd considered is red screens for a Ranger and he could hit it twice with "light em up".

I just finished a Supply Raid in the same region and it had 2 Sectopods along with 26 other high level enemies. I'm really wondering why Advent is so keen on reinforcing that Area. It's not next to a liberated region but there could be a GP/Facility site that I don't know about yet.

Anyhow, I didn't have my sniper, but I did have EMP bombs, so the Sectopods were put under control early on. I mind controlled an Archon just as I'd mentioned in an earlier post and it soaked up a lot of damage. Plus I got to see what Blazing Pinions was all about. The rest were nasty, but pretty typical but it got dicey as Psi Eye mentioned the "fog or war", as soon as I mind controlled the Archon, it pretty much activated the rest of the map. There were only 6 left to activate by then, but about 12 were active at the time. They could only see the Archon as the rest of my squad was well back on some high ground, so it was all good. It was a small map so it became all about crowd control. Fighting multiple pods is not my usual MO, but it was fun...Very lucrative run.

I may have a big problem with my campaign as I'd just been running missions, mainly ambushing troop columns lately and have managed to keep the legion numbers pretty low, while gathering a crap ton of high grade corpses. GV is severe and Avatar Progress is hindered by about 40% so it's not going up much. The meter is about half full. The problem is that it's now January of the next year and I've all but ignored the GP missions. I've only run one and that was the Blacksite. I haven't even bothered to research the vial. I know were the Psi Gate is, but I've pretty much blown that off too. I have a lot of catching up to do... Hopefully it's not too late.

That sounds like a good Technical build you have cooked up there. I should try to do more with them.
gimrah
Long War 2 Crew
Posts: 422
Joined: Fri Jul 15, 2016 12:25 pm

Re: Commander Honestman Campaign

Post by gimrah »

I use that technical build. It's decent. I would give a shout out for considering burnout though. If you pair it with fortify you can stand in the open and flame even with other enemies active (+40 defence plus crit protection). That often allows you to get a better flame on. Once you have incinerator and especially if you get covert/ghostwalker from AWC then that's particularly true with flame from concealment. Burnout is also a ghetto smoke grenade for someone caught out of cover. And in general it's just nice because a technical is often the enemy's prime target since it will be the closest soldier, so the more defensive and tanky perks it has the merrier.

I also prefer the stand-and-shoot ranger build to OW rangers. I know you can theoretically get a lot of shots per turn from an OW ranger (eventually). But you don't get to choose where they go, and that for me makes them far less valuable than shots I direct. My approach is kill what you can and control the rest. But if I rely on OW to kill then it could fail and then I have an enemy I haven't controlled. I find a mix of right side and centre (maybe with CuP) is strong early, shooting drones and MECs with AP and walkfire finishing others. It's very powerful mid game, as they rank fast, get rapid fire and then act as your turrets against the increasing numbers of enemies that stand in the open with lots of HP. Admittedly, very late game they fall off to gunners, who do the same thing with a bigger gun, but take a lot longer to get there.

For me OW is a nice set of bonus perks on a specialist. Even then I consider OW to be a secondary role for them, after hacking/support.

Best redscreen users are pistol soldiers. Ideally you don't want redscreen on a ranger. They will miss the damage the rest of the time and they will still mess up your hacking target with high damage shots. Put them on someone who doesn't otherwise shoot like a flame technical (unless you took shredder) or shinobi with an SMG. Remember also to try and pair that spec with your bluescreen grenadier and/or arc pulser assault.
SpinDoctor
Posts: 115
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2018 1:53 pm

Re: Commander Honestman Campaign

Post by SpinDoctor »

Funny you say give the red screens to a pistol wielder. My Technical has mad pistol skilz so she did get the Red Screens. I had her in the pistol tank for a long time, since I never used her, so she has all but one. I'd completely forgotten about her till I looked her up. I also gave some to my Psi Op. She rarely shoots, but I might need an additional hack boost. I really just wanna see if Red Screens are good for anything.

Concerning Rangers, I know people lean toward the point and shoot type, but since I ambush 90% of the time, catching the Aliens flanked and in the open, hence vulnerable to crits, is a preferred option for me, rather than trying to shoot them out of their cover. Besides, you can still shoot with an OW Ranger. I can appreciate picking shots, but hey, everything needs to catch a bullet and if one extra alien can get shot, then so much the better. So it's either gonna be a Sting Grenade CC opening, with Ranger OW, then cleanup or it's Sniper shot, Ranger OW, then crowd control, then clean up. Either way, everything will be accounted for. I think there's a way to get more than 2 shots from a Shooty Ranger, but I don't know the process. I haven't thought that much about it. If you know let me in on it.

Because of my typical unit builds, I've not had much use for an OW Specialist. I can't even say I've had one that had enough mobility to carry a decent rifle, and OW with an smg/subcoiler is a waste of time.
Dwarfling
Posts: 524
Joined: Wed Jan 25, 2017 12:16 pm

Re: Commander Honestman Campaign

Post by Dwarfling »

You're gonna have serious issues against the T2 MECs unless you get your ranger and gunner count higher and I much prefer the rangers because it takes the gunners a while to get multishotting skills unless you take Chain Shot which I find not so amazing.
SpinDoctor
Posts: 115
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2018 1:53 pm

Re: Commander Honestman Campaign

Post by SpinDoctor »

Psieye wrote:
Xenos' Phobia wrote:With AP Rounds and Walk Fire he's well-able to take out any drones or stragglers for which Combat Protocol is often used. It's a flip of Specialist and Ranger roles for sure, but one I'm quite happy with as it gives me multiple OWs at LCpl instead of GSgt.
While Combat Protocol can be valuably used to kill off stragglers, it does have a couple other uses beyond that - hard-hitting robotic enemies and no-LoS pod activation come to mind. Also, I'd still consider taking RR without any of the support perks earlier. It just doesn't feel right if a GSgt ranger isn't shooting 5 times per player+enemy turn-pair.
I'd never considered using combat protocol for activation. Thanks for the tip! Always good to add another tool to the box.

I agree with you on the GSgt Ranger comment. My life without RR Rangers is sad and difficult... If you cultivate them early on, it's no big deal because they suck just like everyone else. By the time they get seniority, they are the beast of the battlefield. If you wait and try to catch up with them, they just can't pull their load. It's an early game decision and if you go a different direction, I suppose you have to commit to that decision. I'm currently trying to build a late game Ranger and it's hard getting him going.
starkzop
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Sep 16, 2021 10:29 am

Re: Commander Honestman Campaign

Post by starkzop »

I would not advocate boosting ordinary GOps. Expanding sooner will probable be more valuable.
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