Avenger Defence Mission

[StinkyPete]

Second time of running through this campaign on ironman veteran, but both times I have lost the campaign due to this mission, the mobs are relentless.... any pro tips on how to complete this mission successfully?

Both times I was unlucky to get attacked whilst main squads infiltrating and so only had wounded and low level grunts to help defend. Both times tried to slog it out, but was wondering if anyone else had decent strategies to blow up the beacon....?

[trihero]

Bring a shinobi and a sharpshooter, get shinobi to view the beacon, sharpshooter to squadsight pew pew it. You might even want to bring 2 sharpshooters, or hopefully your sniper rifles tech is high, because it takes a while to shoot down with just regular tech. Everybody else overwatch hump a good location. It's a lot smoother if you built the turret structure ahead of time, if not then tough luck lesson learned.

[Raloris]

Overwatch humping is impossible depending on the enemies that spawn. I got 5 MEC Archers, about the same amount of Vipers, a few rocketeers, a berserker, and a shieldbearer (those are just the enemies of note, let alone the captains and sentries that also spawned in the 5 starting pods) so I can't overwatch at any point or I lose at least two soldiers every time. Plus building the turret structure is RNG based, 'cause I haven't even gotten to SEE turrets let alone bring any turret wrecks back to base with how many missions are Evac only. Heck, I haven't even gotten a third DRONE yet to research those! The shinobi+Sharpshooter strat takes too long and my main force gets overrun every single time before my shinobi can even SEE the beacon. Feels like a forced run restart and there's nothing I could do to fix it.

[trihero]

The shinobi+Sharpshooter strat takes too long

Then you're doing it wrong, there is no quicker strategy. Do you think it's any quicker to charge headlong into the beacon? What other possible quicker strategy is there? It's also safe. You don't have to move much past the barricades, just a couple snipers on the sides where they can still support the center lane.

I just finished an avenger defense and killed the beacon on turn 3. Turn 1 move shinobi towards the side with the beacon, turn 2 move up, turn 3 move up and get vision, have 2 snipers shoot beacon boom done. Turn 4 and 5 to retreat everyone. Shinobi should be naked to have maximum movement + smg of course.

The rest of my team was a lot of firepower - 3 rangers, 2 grenadiers, 1 specialist (my highly trained officer), and 3 gunners. If you can't overwatch hump, then bring a lot of rockets/grenades and blow them all up with their cover. Hail of bullets through high cover to snipe snakes, etc etc.

You have 12 slots - bring 2 snipers, 1 shinobi, then the rest can be a bunch of whatever you think is necessary. Bring all technicals if you think that would help. If they have so many longbows, bring specialists to hack them.

And one more thing - if there's a UFO hunting on your map, it really sucks, but you will learn that it's totally NOT ok to just have a ragtag bunch of five or six rank 1 troop in the reserves and hope for the best. You NEED to keep back your best 4-5 men at all times and have 12 total warm bodies on board all the time until the UFO attacks you or you evade it. Your strategic layer will be slower than normal maybe all you will do are those little 2-3 man stealth missions and make new contacts. Like I just totally skipped some very juicy troop ambush and UFO wreck missions because there was a UFO hunting me, and it hurt but I'm alive now. You can consider trimming back some fat by taking out your soldier adviers from havens back to the avenger so you might lose a few dollars to the faceless for a couple weeks but you'll have more cushion to keep your operations going while under the threat of ufo assault.

[Tuhalu]

Plus building the turret structure is RNG based, 'cause I haven't even gotten to SEE turrets let alone bring any turret wrecks back to base with how many missions are Evac only. Heck, I haven't even gotten a third DRONE yet to research those!

Have you bee-lined the liberation quests to liberate a region? The final mission in a region provides corpses/wrecks and there are usually a few Drones and Turrets there.

[Raloris]

Plus building the turret structure is RNG based, 'cause I haven't even gotten to SEE turrets let alone bring any turret wrecks back to base with how many missions are Evac only. Heck, I haven't even gotten a third DRONE yet to research those!

Have you bee-lined the liberation quests to liberate a region? The final mission in a region provides corpses/wrecks and there are usually a few Drones and Turrets there.

Didn't even know those existed, haven't been able to get the resources to finish resistance radio building. I've basically always been supply starved or just flat out material starved. Guess it's time to restart and try a fourth time and b-line to resistance radios I guess.

[Tuhalu]

Plus building the turret structure is RNG based, 'cause I haven't even gotten to SEE turrets let alone bring any turret wrecks back to base with how many missions are Evac only. Heck, I haven't even gotten a third DRONE yet to research those!

Have you bee-lined the liberation quests to liberate a region? The final mission in a region provides corpses/wrecks and there are usually a few Drones and Turrets there.

Didn't even know those existed, haven't been able to get the resources to finish resistance radio building. I've basically always been supply starved or just flat out material starved. Guess it's time to restart and try a fourth time and b-line to resistance radios I guess.

Resistance Radio is nice, but not necessary for these quests.

You have to do missions with an Intel Package reward to unlock the first step (may not happen on the first one). When that is complete, you'll see a little dot in the line for that region in the Haven Management screen (accessible from Command in the Avenger or the big radio tower in the missions list on the Global map). Then you'll be able to get a mission with Liberation in the objectives. Doing that unlocks a Tower assault followed by a HQ assault.

I was able to liberate my first region in the second or third month by prioritising the unlocking quests on Veteran.

[Raloris]

The shinobi+Sharpshooter strat takes too long

Then you're doing it wrong, there is no quicker strategy. Do you think it's any quicker to charge headlong into the beacon? What other possible quicker strategy is there? It's also safe. You don't have to move much past the barricades, just a couple snipers on the sides where they can still support the center lane.

I just finished an avenger defense and killed the beacon on turn 3. Turn 1 move shinobi towards the side with the beacon, turn 2 move up, turn 3 move up and get vision, have 2 snipers shoot beacon boom done. Turn 4 and 5 to retreat everyone. Shinobi should be naked to have maximum movement + smg of course.

The rest of my team was a lot of firepower - 3 rangers, 2 grenadiers, 1 specialist (my highly trained officer), and 3 gunners. If you can't overwatch hump, then bring a lot of rockets/grenades and blow them all up with their cover. Hail of bullets through high cover to snipe snakes, etc etc.

You have 12 slots - bring 2 snipers, 1 shinobi, then the rest can be a bunch of whatever you think is necessary. Bring all technicals if you think that would help. If they have so many longbows, bring specialists to hack them.

And one more thing - if there's a UFO hunting on your map, it really sucks, but you will learn that it's totally NOT ok to just have a ragtag bunch of five or six rank 1 troop in the reserves and hope for the best. You NEED to keep back your best 4-5 men at all times and have 12 total warm bodies on board all the time until the UFO attacks you or you evade it. Your strategic layer will be slower than normal maybe all you will do are those little 2-3 man stealth missions and make new contacts. Like I just totally skipped some very juicy troop ambush and UFO wreck missions because there was a UFO hunting me, and it hurt but I'm alive now. You can consider trimming back some fat by taking out your soldier adviers from havens back to the avenger so you might lose a few dollars to the faceless for a couple weeks but you'll have more cushion to keep your operations going while under the threat of ufo assault.

I skipped almost two months worth of missions to make sure I had my highest trained squad available for the defence, but the beacon is five turns away and is in a straight line ahead of my troops on a hill. So I can't even get a cheeky shinobi flank on it or I get in detection radius of all the pods and lose that soldier instantly. My guys don't have enough hack to be able to consistently stun the archers, let alone controlling them. My highest soldiers are only corporals at best and they've been on nearly every mission possible. I don't care about a quick strat, just one that's possible. If I wasn't so outgunned, I could do it, but by turn 3 I've lost half my squad to cross-map viper shots, tongue lashes, or the sheer rocket power that the pods have.

[trihero]

He didn't say beeline resistance radios, he said beeline liberation missions. They are different things. Liberation missions are a quest chain of missions you get by scanning/putting rebels on intel in a region and successfully completing them. They get more difficult until the final mission, but the final mission has a ton of corpses/materials, including drone wrecks and turrets that are more than you need to conduct appropriate research assuming you don't blow up their corpses by accident.

Resistance radios allows you to expand to new regions, but this is sideways expansion between regions rather than liberation missions, which are vertically stacked within a region.

[Raloris]

Have you bee-lined the liberation quests to liberate a region? The final mission in a region provides corpses/wrecks and there are usually a few Drones and Turrets there.

Didn't even know those existed, haven't been able to get the resources to finish resistance radio building. I've basically always been supply starved or just flat out material starved. Guess it's time to restart and try a fourth time and b-line to resistance radios I guess.

Resistance Radio is nice, but not necessary for these quests.

You have to do missions with an Intel Package reward to unlock the first step (may not happen on the first one). When that is complete, you'll see a little dot in the line for that region in the Haven Management screen (accessible from Command in the Avenger or the big radio tower in the missions list on the Global map). Then you'll be able to get a mission with Liberation in the objectives. Doing that unlocks a Tower assault followed by a HQ assault.

I was able to liberate my first region in the second or third month by prioritising the unlocking quests on Veteran.

That's what the intel packages are? I legit thought they were just data pads or caches, given the name they were given.

[Raloris]

He didn't say beeline resistance radios, he said beeline liberation missions. They are different things. Liberation missions are a quest chain of missions you get by scanning/putting rebels on intel in a region and successfully completing them. They get more difficult until the final mission, but the final mission has a ton of corpses/materials, including drone wrecks and turrets that are more than you need to conduct appropriate research assuming you don't blow up their corpses by accident.

Resistance radios allows you to expand to new regions, but this is sideways expansion between regions rather than liberation missions, which are vertically stacked within a region.

I had no idea what liberation missions were, so I assumed it was something added in LW2 to gain the continent bonuses. That's why I thought of resistance radios.

[trihero]

I skipped almost two months worth of missions to make sure I had my highest trained squad available for the defence, but the beacon is five turns away and is in a straight line ahead of my troops on a hill. So I can't even get a cheeky shinobi flank on it or I get in detection radius of all the pods and lose that soldier instantly. My guys don't have enough hack to be able to consistently stun the archers, let alone controlling them. My highest soldiers are only corporals at best and they've been on nearly every mission possible. I don't care about a quick strat, just one that's possible. If I wasn't so outgunned, I could do it, but by turn 3 I've lost half my squad to cross-map viper shots, tongue lashes, or the sheer rocket power that the pods have.

I honestly think you are exaggerating or making things up to try to see if you can fish another solution out. For one thing, the UFO only hunts you for a max of 1 month. For a second thing, I've never seen the beacon behind the center lane, it's always off to the left or right of it, even if just slightly, and that's enough to perch a sniper on either the left or the right ledge above your barricades to squad sight it.

Your shinobi should be able to flank if you hug the side of the map. If one side is too crowded, try the other. And you might have to pop ghostwalker intelligently, so be it. I don't see how you can get revealed since the shinobi is concealed unless you make stupid moves, you know where they are and what they can see before they can see your shinobi. The sharpshooter/shinobi is a tried and true tactic from vanilla, and I just did it fine in LW2, and it's both the safest and the most possible method.

If you can't hack, bring more firepower. Hail of bullets (a tier 2 talent, don't tell me now you're going to complain you haven't trained gunners to rank 2?), rockets (rank 0 technicals have this), grenadiers can't miss with grenades, etc. I tend to blow up all the cover in the center lane with rockets/grenades so they don't have any cover when they sneak up the hill. Grenadiers with flashbangs stop vipers from using tongue/poison for a turn.

If everything here is failing then you simply lack the men/gear maybe due to previous decisions, but it's not the fault of the mission being too hard because plenty of us get through avenger defense without complaining or failing.

I think it would be more constructive at this point for you to tell us what you have available, because other than that I just get the sense that you're trying very deliberately to argue with whatever strategy we put out there.

[Raloris]

I skipped almost two months worth of missions to make sure I had my highest trained squad available for the defence, but the beacon is five turns away and is in a straight line ahead of my troops on a hill. So I can't even get a cheeky shinobi flank on it or I get in detection radius of all the pods and lose that soldier instantly. My guys don't have enough hack to be able to consistently stun the archers, let alone controlling them. My highest soldiers are only corporals at best and they've been on nearly every mission possible. I don't care about a quick strat, just one that's possible. If I wasn't so outgunned, I could do it, but by turn 3 I've lost half my squad to cross-map viper shots, tongue lashes, or the sheer rocket power that the pods have.

I honestly think you are exaggerating or making things up to try to see if you can fish another solution out. For one thing, the UFO only hunts you for a max of 1 month. For a second thing, I've never seen the beacon behind the center lane, it's always off to the left or right of it, even if just slightly, and that's enough to perch a sniper on either the left or the right ledge above your barricades to squad sight it.

Your shinobi should be able to flank if you hug the side of the map. If one side is too crowded, try the other. And you might have to pop ghostwalker intelligently, so be it. I don't see how you can get revealed since the shinobi is concealed unless you make stupid moves, you know where they are and what they can see before they can see your shinobi. The sharpshooter/shinobi is a tried and true tactic from vanilla, and I just did it fine in LW2, and it's both the safest and the most possible method.

If you can't hack, bring more firepower. Hail of bullets (a tier 2 talent, don't tell me now you're going to complain you haven't trained gunners to rank 2?), rockets (rank 0 technicals have this), grenadiers can't miss with grenades, etc. I tend to blow up all the cover in the center lane with rockets/grenades so they don't have any cover when they sneak up the hill. Grenadiers with flashbangs stop vipers from using tongue/poison for a turn.

If everything here is failing then you simply lack the men/gear maybe due to previous decisions, but it's not the fault of the mission being too hard because plenty of us get through avenger defense without complaining or failing.

I'm not exaggerating, except maybe with how long I was ignoring missions to keep my squads at base. The beacon was dead ahead of my guys, two spaces up, and surrounded by pods. The only spots I could find that gave me vision were 1) in detection radius or 2) took too many turns to get to. I tried resetting the mission four times, tried left and right sides, but couldn't get my sharpshooter vision before all the alien pods were on me. I tried putting my sniper up on the ledge but it only had half cover and he got sniper by a viper or sidewinder, instantly killed. I've used my technical rockets, I don't think I took hail of bullets on my one ranked up gunner because he had a good aim stat, and I didn't have any grenadiers at all.

So yeah, odds are I probably misplayed at some point but I had no chance to grab turrets and was flat out outgunned on that specific playthrough. Also, just because there are other people getting through without complaining online or admitting they failed doesn't mean everyone is breezing through it. You being able to finish it in five turns probably isn't the same experience everyone else is having. You also could have rolled way different pods than me, so yes it could be the fault of the mission for rolling pods too difficult for my squad set up to deal with.

[Tuhalu]

That's what the intel packages are? I legit thought they were just data pads or caches, given the name they were given.

They are one of two things. Either you get a liberation quest stage or you get a Point of Interest that appears on the map. I prioritise them as hard as Scientists and Engineers since you can get Scientists, Engineers, an extra contact or extra avenger power from them (among other things)

[trihero]

So yeah, odds are I probably misplayed at some point but I had no chance to grab turrets and was flat out outgunned on that specific playthrough. Also, just because there are other people getting through without complaining online or admitting they failed doesn't mean everyone is breezing through it. You being able to finish it in five turns probably isn't the same experience everyone else is having. You also could have rolled way different pods than me, so yes it could be the fault of the mission for rolling pods too difficult for my squad set up to deal with.

I don't think it's a breezy mission nor that everyone breezes through it, all I'm saying is you're blaming the mission for being too hard and you obviously expect the developers to make it easier because you keep saying "feels like a forced restart" and "nothing I can do." I don't think that's necessary. You might lose a few men, but it's supposed to be a hard event.

I probably did roll different pods than you - harder ones. Mine had a gatekeeper, chrysallid queen guarding the device (with a bunch of followers). There was also a codex that disarmed 6 of my men with one of those void rifts. Right off the bat the platform started with 2 viper snipers and 1 sidewinder, and a pod of 8 advent with 2 of them heavy mechs. Then again, I had upgraded turrets, and enough explosives to wipe out their cover.

Try not to activate all the pods at once. Let them come to you until it dies down a bit, then go and look for the beacon (this was how it was in vanilla as well). I did this too; the only offensive action I took was to scout with the shinobi which was easy because of ghostwalker and he shouldn't be tripping anything.

I would also suggest throwing some men to the lions, if it means you survive the mission. Aid protocol your snipers, smoke grenade them, so they have time to shoot the beacon. Have assaults be suicidal with run and gun flank/killing vipers and then getting killed in return, it's ok assaults are fodder like that. If you lose 6 men in order to purchase your snipers enough time to kill the beacon at squadsight, it's a win. Heck if you lose 11 soldiers at least you move on. There is no other feasible strategy. Even if you took 12 technicals you might have trouble trying to push to the beacon in a straightforward manner because you would fight every mob along the way and still have to fight your way back as reinforcements drop in. Squadsight/shinobi saves you much effort, leaving the bulk of your forces fighting a delaying, defensive game.

If you literally cannot handle them as they come to you, then it's simply a mistake you made in preparation at some point prior to the mission.

Even if your specialist hack score sucks, 2 applications of combat protocol will kill longbows with 100% accuracy. If you keep saying things like well I didn't learn combat protocol, didn't learn hail of bullets, didn't learn this or that don't have enough of this or that, then refer to the previous paragraph.

[Jacke]

If you literally cannot handle them as they come to you, then it's simply a mistake you made in preparation at some point prior to the mission.

Even if your specialist hack score sucks, 2 applications of combat protocol will kill longbows with 100% accuracy. If you keep saying things like well I didn't learn combat protocol, didn't learn hail of bullets, didn't learn this or that don't have enough of this or that, then refer to the previous paragraph.

StinkyPete, I agree with trihero. You have to play the campaign well to have a good team well prepared for the tough missions. They have to be able to solve the tactical problems like taking out enemy in good cover and defeating strong mechanicals, one way or another. XCOM always demands careful strategic and tactical play or you can end up in situations where you run out of options. It's why we all hang out here and ask so many questions. It's good you're asking for help.

TL;DR: I think the answer is having a better strategy before this challenge. The tough missions are won by the team you've made with your strategy before the actual battle.

I'm comfortable on Legendary from stock XCOM 2, because I think some of the changes are significant going down in difficulty and it almost makes XCOM a different game. So I'd rather not learn bad habits or get used to stuff happening with better timing. However, I don't play with Ironman. There's still bugs and I still make mistakes, especially with getting a feel for both the strategy and the tactics in LW2. I'd like every now and then to be able to back up a little to learn more quickly from my mistakes and enjoy the game more.

I'm into April into my Legendary campaign and I already have a Sgt and am starting to run low on Rookies thanks to getting the GTS up first. Selecting the best soldier class and their future skills for your Rookies based on their varying trait levels (thanks to Not Created Equally) is the basis for building a good team. Especially because of the initial 8 from the Gatecrasher mission, I'm going to add in the mod Commander's Choice (now working with LW2) because I just think this is an obvious decision that should be in the hands of the Commander, as it is in the real world.

I think it's most important to start building the GTS immediately. And when it opens, to have the 35 supplies to upgrade it with a Officer Training Slot. That way it can churn out 2 Squaddies every 10 days and a fresh 2Lt (of carefully selected soldier classes) every 6. The shear power of having properly selected Squaddies and an Officer on each mission is a force multiplier and I have that before April. It's as important as having the right team and whether to stealth or kill-all a mission.

After that, the first Engineer starts excavating towards the spot for the AWC, which is next. I've planned out my 12 rooms on the Avenger and use a mod (Commander's OCD) to force the location of the initial empty space and the 2 power coils. Again, I consider it a little change that just makes me more happy with the game.

And to win missions and keep your team and strategy improving, you have to play extreme well on every missions. You avoid those you can't do well. You have to avoid getting soldiers wounded and killed. You use missions to recruit Engineers, Scientists, and even more soldiers without playing Black Market prices. Mind you, Black Market soldiers aren't that expensive and can be very useful to expand the team. And I use Needle Grenadiers so I can get back as much loot as possible, whether to use or sell.

Managing the Resistance zone is a whole 'nother part of strategy to learn and master. Get a soldier advisor into the first zone right away and keep those posts filled--except for vital times like the Avenger Defence Mission. I agree with trihero: the best advisors are eventually 2Lt/LCpl+ Technicals focused on primary weapon skills considering the rendezvous missions to take out Faceless infiltrators. Put everyone to Intel in the first zone in the first month (and scan with the Avenger to boot) so you get those crucial first missions with plenty of time to infiltrate. After that first month, likely with more rebels you can put some on Supplies and eventually Recruiting.

As others have said, there's a series of 5 missions to liberate a zone from ADVENT control. However, the last 2 missions are very tough and you need to have a developed team and be really on your game for them. And you can expand horizontally first. You only need Resistance Communications for contacting the next 2 world zones. Resistance Radio improves comms and allows wider expansion, but that'll come later. Even having the 3 zones mean you can spread out your impact on ADVENT and not get them building up against you in one zone.

[StinkyPete]

Cheers for the advice all. In the end I started a new campaign, taking on everyone's advice, playing the game a lot more cautiously this time... third time lucky. Pro tip equip everyone with med kits, takes the edge f wipers....

Personal preference Iron man is the only way to play xcom IMO, live by the mistakes you make :0). Loving this mod btw

[Jacke]

Cheers for the advice all. In the end I started a new campaign, taking on everyone's advice, playing the game a lot more cautiously this time... third time lucky. Pro tip equip everyone with med kits, takes the edge f wipers....

Personal preference Iron man is the only way to play xcom IMO, live by the mistakes you make :0). Loving this mod btw

Glad we could help.

With bugs, especially display bugs that can be fixed by saving and reloading, I think it's a bit tricky to go with Ironman. And I'm still learning about XCOM 2 LW2 both strategically and tactically, so being able to back up a bit at times helps me to learn as well as enjoy the game.

Most times early game medkits aren't worth it, especially on higher difficulty--except on poison heavy battles, like going up against the bugs. it's better to play to not get hit, which can be hard, because getting hit often means death. Better to stock up on grenades. Flashbangs and smoke can prevent your soldiers from getting hit in the first place.

Now I have to get back to my restarted Legendary campaign. Where I'm trying out researching Resistance Communications first and getting a 2nd zone early. Wish me luck.