XCOM: Enemy Within

The new GMG code works for the Xcom expansion. Knocked it down to $20. GMG25-7VBH8-67CAC

I really liked the wounded aspect. It gave you a bit of reason to have a deeper bench than just your starting lineup. Also as you progress in the game you'll find your guys get wounded less and less from various skills.

One of the best things to get early on is the "Quicker Healing" thing in the Officer Bay for that reason. Also as you get better armor those HP are "free" most of the time when it comes to getting wounded - if you've got 8 pts of armor and take 7 on the mission usually the guy will not be wounded after the mission. (although it's not an absolute)

HEaling your guys up before mission end via the support class has no influence of them being labeled wounded and taking 2 weeks of in the hospital. Only reason to heal up would be to not getting killed by the next lucky alien shot.

Also Heat Ammo + Rockets AE = ownage for me on most maps and i can hardly imagine going without one when shit really hits the fan random alien encounter wise.
Assault guy is not much more than a run and gun cannon fodder guy (that tends to horribly miss with his shotguns) that may carry the stun device on good days.

Dyvim_sl said:

HEaling your guys up before mission end via the support class has no influence of them being labeled wounded and taking 2 weeks of in the hospital. Only reason to heal up would be to not getting killed by the next lucky alien shot.

Also Heat Ammo + Rockets AE = ownage for me on most maps and i can hardly imagine going without one when shit really hits the fan random alien encounter wise.
Assault guy is not much more than a run and gun cannon fodder guy (that tends to horribly miss with his shotguns) that may carry the stun device on good days.

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I was having amazing luck with Assault with bonuses into: Run & Gun, Aggression, Lightning Reflexes, Rapid Fire, Close Combat.

At that point I basically just sprint up to enemy lines behind full cover and take a shot. Depending on how close the enemy was I would rapid fire. But I'd run with 2 Assault so I'd have them take the point and as the aliens started to filter themselves into the combat zone my assaults would just be shelling them with free overwatch from Close Combat. I usually ran 2 assault/2 heavy/2 support. I was trying 2 assault/1 heavy/2 support/1 sniper but my sniper was constantly getting left behind by the destruction my 2 assaults and heavy could dish out.

Hm my heavies was alien lawnmowers. They had outstanding accuracy and could fire twice. Like I said above my general idea was to have my assaults soften up all the targets while my heavies finished them up. Heck towards the end of the game one of my supports was a killing machine as well.

It really depends on the difficulty you're playing at. I chose to play the game from the jump on ironman classic, I think it really changes the resource pinch a lot. If you haven't try out ironman with the expansion - it adds a lot more to the experience in my opinion. Many skills or game mechanics become more engaging on harder settings with the cost of mistakes being a pile of rookies. (in ironman)

Every class has uses - while some builds are less efficient - they almost all work in the base game and you just lose some flexibility as you raise difficulty.

Well when you have like 5 cryssalids and a zombie or 6 sectoids and 2 mutons + 1 berserker with 2 floaters behind coming at your guys with laser weapons you are very grateful for these rockets in your launcher.
And yes that totally happened to me on my actual game.

I had very bad luck with my heavies. They had the worst accuracy ever, and I had two cases where my rockets like...blew up like they had hit an invisible wall or something, (killing one of my guys, once, I believe). That made me stop using them and my endgame setup was Support x2 assault x2sniper x2. It worked pretty beautifully. Squad sight snipers are amazing.

I did 3 Assaults, 2 Support, 1 Sniper. 1 Support was smoke grenade oriented, so two smokes per match, with +40 defense/larger area. Assaults wore heavy armor, combined with their bonus health perks and tactical sense +5 Defense for every enemy, it made them beasts when they broke into a room with two or more enemies. Smoke, Tactical sense and they had +50 defense--their run and gun would be saved, so even in bad positions (Enemy was far up on a ledge or something) they could get right next to the them and double tap them (With near perfect accuracy, thanks to how close they were.) Since there were three of them that could do this, and since assaults do ridiculous damage close up, usually at least 1-2 aliens would be dropped. If there were more, a smoke grenade got thrown and they ones that were left didn't hit shit.

The only problem were Chrys but assaults get a free reaction shot whenever something closes to within 4 squares and I usually had the sniper and a support (Healing one) on overwatch just for that reason. Combo was ridiculously effective, and very, very safe because it left a lot of room for huge fuck ups thanks to the tank nature of the most of the squad.

See ive never been into smoke supporters, could very well be the reason my assaults sucked (and died).

Dyvim_sl said:

See ive never been into smoke supporters, could very well be the reason my assaults sucked (and died).

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Probably. One of my supports was also smoke specced and it definitely added to the assault's lethality and survivability. Made me feel a lot safer playing riskier. I played it either as "assaults lure them to snipers" or "assaults blast into the room in full breach and clear mode". Smoke was kind of an "oh shit" button that gave them crazy defense and then they could escape to my overwatch/squad sight snipers if needed.

Deathwing_sl said:

Heavies aren't that great outside of explosives, can't hit shit. Though, you can eventually carry 3 rockets and 2 grenades, so who cares? Do people not care about weapon fragments, or does the game just give you too much anyway?

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I always equip the scope on my heavies first chance I get. They are very effective then. The overall use of the scope is far greater than a grenade. I'm not even sure how Ironman classic would be possible without it. Scopes are the first thing I buy, and they never come off the heavy for the duration of the entire game.

My most important members, Snipers with squad sight. Heavy. Medic/support.

On ironman my tactic is usually the same. Pick South America, then let the entire right section of the world map go under. Wait with satellites until close to the monthly review, then use them on any country on the left with a risk of disbanding. Make sure to be able to build another satellite array / satelitte within the first 31 days (takes 20 days to complete the order of the satellite). On classic+ difficulty, I reroll until I see a steamvent or two close to where you can dig to it immediately. Try to get snipers first, then heavies. Once you get 2x snipers with the armor that flies and a support with ghost armor, you've close to won the game. My squad was usually 2x snipe, 2x heavy, 1x support, 1x assault. Sometimes switch between 2x heavy 1 assault to 2x assault 1 heavy.

Dyvim_sl said:

See ive never been into smoke supporters, could very well be the reason my assaults sucked (and died).

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Yeah, as Tol said, the aggressive nature of using Assaults really requires an "oh shit" button. If you bust into a room and there are 5 aliens, you really need two rounds to mop up--and the smoke grenade buys you that. Once you have that smoke grenade? The assault strategy, despite seemingly being riskier? Is a good deal more forgiving, because it doesn't rely on positioning as much as other strats.

Of course, assaults really don't come into their own until they get to Lt. rank. You really need lightning reflexes (First reaction shot avoided) and double tap (Two shots)+Run and gun to make the strat work well (Before then, you'll be relying a lot on smokes). With heavy armor and the +defense per alien? You can easily break a room with 2-3 aliens risk free, and take all their reactions. If there are more, that's when you smoke. But because of the Run/gun and Dbl Tap, you'll almost always kill two, even of the beefy aliens, with three assaults.

By the end, with the HP perk at colonel, and heavy armor--my Assaults had some ridiculous health, they could just tank straight up hits without breaking a sweat, even from those machines. Assaults, I feel, are the strongest class after colonel--but the riskiest early class because they don't really have the tools to do the strat that works for them yet. Best way to build them is run a heavy support team and cycle your assaults until you get a few LT's, then you're golden.

Just finished a shot down harvester ship mission on ironman classic and the smoke really saved my (assaults) butt when i managed to run into 3 sectoid commanders on the bridge all barricading from my double tap snipers, ofc when he run n gunned to flank em his shot failed to connect. 86% my ass.

I was reading some of the patch notes for the new game and it sounds kind of intimidating. A lot of changes to tired and true strategies. Some of the ones that look like they're aimed at taking people out of their comfort zones. Deep pockets and covering fire might be neat though. RIP ghost armor crits. I wonder if this is aimed at getting people to use mec soldiers more.

- Ghost Armor's "Ghost Mode" now grants +30% critical chance instead of +100%.
- Sniper perk "Squadsight" can no longer deal critical damage against enemies the sniper themselves cannot see unless using Headshot.
- Support perk "Deep Pockets" no longer provides two item slots, instead it adds +1 charge to limited use items (Arc Thrower, Medkits, Grenades, Combat Stims etc.).
- Support perk "Covering Fire" now engages before an enemy attacks.
- Heavy perk "HEAT Ammo" now grants only +50% damage bonus against robotic enemies instead of +100%.
- Increased EXP required for soldier rank-up across all difficulties.
- Research and Build times on Classic and Impossible increased.
- Alien Base Assault global panic reduction decreased; undisclosed new methods of reducing global panic.

It has nothing to do with getting people to use the new soldier types (why would you pay for the expansion if you didn't want to do that already??) and everything to do with toning down some of the more OP abilities/items. Although, IMO increasing research and build times on Classic and Impossible is fucking retarded. Impossible is difficult enough already.

Edit: Nevermind, I forgot. They want to make labs/workshops actually necessary now.