XCOM 2 [SPOILERS]

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Jonathan
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XCOM 2 [SPOILERS]

Post by Jonathan »

Image

Campaign 10
Commander Difficulty
Ironman

Corporal Peijen 'Space Gin' Lin shows them how it's done! Unfortunately, he did not get promoted to Sergeant so we still can't get Squad Size 1.

I haven't beaten the first retaliation mission on Ironman Commander, yet. I meandered through some of the game on Veteran to understand what was going on. My strategy is to build a Guerrilla Warfare Tactics first, and then Advanced Warfare. The Skulljack can wait. I research straight resistance communication so I can get the first contact before the first supply drop.

Jonathan
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Re: XCOM 2 [SPOILERS]

Post by Jonathan »

Campaign 10
5/2/2035
Lost officers:
Sgt. Snake Eyes, ranger 4/28/2035
Lt. Space Gin, ranger 4/28/2035
Lt. Newton, specialist 4/28/2035

That op did not go well. I beat the first two retaliation missions. I bought shard guns and brought two rangers to everything. It worked pretty OK. I lost a random resistance mission with turrets because I didn't know the turrets would be there, and then there was a pod that I didn't see. Saved my guys, but lost the mission. I also lost some grunts, but nothing that I couldn't afford to replace.

Then, this routine supply station hit on 4/28. I have one pod with an officer and I think: easy skulljack. So I get in there, no problem, and find when I get in range there's a muton pod just beyond. I suppressed the muton then I skulljacked my officer, which spawned a codex. Not expected! The muton missed, fine, but the codex cloned, which was a problem. In the ensuing firefight, I:

melee'd the muton
stood next to an exploding car
stood in the codex psi storm thing

and lost three officers.

I still have two officers left, so maybe this run is salvageable. We'll see. I just got my resistance relay up and running, and I desperately need to figure out how to retard the Avatar advancement more.

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Re: XCOM 2 [SPOILERS]

Post by Dave »

Sid Meier -IS- back in this game, but with greyer hair! Still got dem buff sexy arms.
It takes 43 muscles to frown and 17 to smile, but it doesn't take any to just sit there with a dumb look on your face.

Jonathan
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Re: XCOM 2 [SPOILERS]

Post by Jonathan »

Campaign 10
XCOM is destroyed.

I sold all my trooper corpses, like an idiot. Couldn't make armor. Never had a chance.

Jonathan
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Re: XCOM 2 [SPOILERS]

Post by Jonathan »

Campaign 11
May 10
Lost a rookie doing Gatekeeper, which set the table for me to fail the first resistance mission to get my engineer. I would have quit and restarted, but I happened to get a rare hack that gave me a quick leg up on resistance comms, so I decided to soldier on.

Got GTS up on March 15. Got resistance comms up April 27. Power for new facilities comes online in three days. Only two engineers, but I have a guerrilla op to pick up another on my mission list.

Just completed the black site and got the vial on May 6. I won both retaliation missions. Definitely prefer black site before skulljack.

Officers are:
Cpt Vincent 'VLSmooth' Lee-Shue
Lt Erin 'Blaze' Lung
Lt Roberto 'Taxman' Suarez
Sgt Alan 'Kazema' Hsu

Every single officer is wounded or gravely wounded.

I also have 4 corporals and 3 squaddies.

Dead list:
No officers
3 rookies, 1 squaddie, 2 corporals

I have East Asia, New India, Eastern Europe, and South Africa. The alien facility is in New Brazil so I'm expanding into Africa next.

I went straight resistance comms into predator armor. I preempted whatever was necessary to get Muton Autopsy done, because the explosives save lives. Once I get the power I can get a Proving Ground, get the improved grenades. I just picked up the sixth man thanks to VLSmooth's performance at the black site. I was doing excellent until I found the vial, then I lost a corporal and got several of my men seriously injured and one knocked unconscious before I managed to evac. I wound up taking the unconscious soldier plus the dead soldier because the dead soldier had looted a corpse.

I am bringing along a gunslinger when I skulljack, which means I have been training a gunslinger to prepare for that day. It's hard to remember gunslingers can't long watch.

Jonathan
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Re: XCOM 2 [SPOILERS]

Post by Jonathan »

Campaign 11 - abandoned
7/22 was the death blow. I played until I rewiped a team, just to see what would happen. Sectopods and Chrysalids happened.
I lost that op to pick up an extra engineer. In fact, I failed several. I had to decline a retaliation mission and lost a country with a tower in it. I had to make contact several times paying double intel cost because I was about to lose. But I did avert Avatar with 6 days left on the counter, but the lack of engineers really held me back.

Dead list:
Lt Peijen 'Space Gin' Lin 7/22
Cpt Alan 'Kazema' Hsu 7/22
Cpt Erin 'Blaze' Lung 7/22
Sgt Tomasz 'Flash' Kaczmarek 7/22
Sgt Catriona 'Loveless' Setliffe 7/16
3 rookies
2 corporals (one on 7/22, natch)
1 squaddie

Officers:
Maj Vincent 'VLSmooth' Lee-Shue
Lt Clare 'Slab' Duff

I got everything too late because of a lack of engineers. I also failed many missions because I didn't spend on the GTS upgrade for concealed mobility, which I think all the timed missions are all balanced around.

I failed my last retaliation because the Chrysalid pod produced babies. So many babies.

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Re: XCOM 2 [SPOILERS]

Post by Jonathan »

Lightning Strike: must have on any timed hack/X4 mission
Ant farm:
PR3/AWC2/GTS1
RC4/WS5/PG6

I think AWC is better than Squad Size 1, but I might try for SS1 and see how that feels.

Research:
Resistance Comm -> Predator Armor -> Nanomedkit -> Magnetic Weapons -> Skulljack -> Plasma Grenade -> Plasma Gun

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Re: XCOM 2 [SPOILERS]

Post by Jonathan »

Gunslinger and scout are not useful. Hacker is.

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Re: XCOM 2 [SPOILERS]

Post by Dave »

You should name one after your ex and constantly use her as bait.
It takes 43 muscles to frown and 17 to smile, but it doesn't take any to just sit there with a dumb look on your face.

Jonathan
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Re: XCOM 2 [SPOILERS]

Post by Jonathan »

Jonathan wrote: Ant farm:
PR3/AWC2/GTS1
RC4/WS5/PG6

I think AWC is better than Squad Size 1, but I might try for SS1 and see how that feels.

Research:
Resistance Communications -> Predator Armor -> Nanomedkit -> Magnetic Weapons -> Skulljack -> Plasma Grenade -> Plasma Gun
Two problems with this.

First, the workshop not adjacent to Power Relay is basically broken. So the correct ant farm is something like:

AWC2/PR3/GTS1
RC4/WS5/PG6

Which means you can't build the AWC before the first retaliation, so might as well go for Squad Size 1 then.

Second, the Plated Armor requires alloys. That research track is not viable. I think one must do this:

Resistance Communications -> Magnetic Weapons -> Resistance Radio -> Plated Armor -> Nanomedkit -> Skulljack -> Plasma Grenade

which means you need to plan ahead for the costs of building rifles/shard guns and predator armor. Therefore Lightning Strike has to wait until after predator armor is built.

Jonathan
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Re: XCOM 2 [SPOILERS]

Post by Jonathan »

Campaign 18 AAR
Ironman Commander Difficulty

Abandoned 8/16. I lost this one in the world map, though I also lost two rangers to muton counterattacks. I didn't expand aggressively enough and didn't have the intel to make new contacts. I kept winning missions with a few wounded soldiers and then needing to decline the next guerrilla operation because my force was under strength.

I also had too many engineers and not enough scientists.

I saved the Avatar countdown with 2 hours to go by triggering the second skulljack a Codex mission, popping the Avatar, and killing it. I had to fail the mission to do this.

I built this ant farm (in contradiction of what I planned):
RC2/PR3/GTS1
AWC4/WS5/PG6

I believe I would prefer:
GTS1/PR3/AWC4
RC2/WS5/PG6

Get Lightning Strike before AWC.

Jonathan
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Re: XCOM 2 [SPOILERS]

Post by Jonathan »

Campaign 22
Ironman Commander

3/14

Officers
Sgt. Catriona Setliffe, specialist

Losses
None

Going to have Squad Size 1 for the first Retaliation, finally.

Jonathan
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Re: XCOM 2 [SPOILERS]

Post by Jonathan »

Campaign 22
Ironman Commander

Image
Valhalla
Beat the game on Commander+ difficulty in Ironman mode
Unlocked Sep 16 @ 11:02pm

I succeeded at 30 missions (only 3 flawless) and failed 2. The first one I failed was an andromedon I fought with conventional weapons that I just couldn't deal enough damage to. The second one I failed was a supply raid where I decided to skulljack a codex to pop the avatar. I did get the avatar, but I was in such a poor position I decided to cut my losses and leave immediately after. I didn't need the region or the supplies, anyway. I only needed the avatar and the final research to access the last mission.

I lost 5 soldiers overall, including my battle medic during the final fight. I lost Neal as a rookie during the third mission. I sacrificed some squaddie during the Avenger defense mission (which popped crazy early). I also ran through some red shirts trying to train up a second squad.

Tower Squad
Colonel Catriona Setliffe, combat hacker
Colonel Chuck Szeto, assault
Major Lisamaria B, heavy gunner

Last Squad
Colonel Chuck Szeto, assault
Colonel Dave Lung, assault
Colonel Erin Lung, sniper
Magus Vincent Lee-Shue Jr., resonant
Major demolitions expert
Captain battle medic

Did the final fight at 9/29. I could have done it a week or so earlier, but I wanted to let some soldiers heal up first. I wound up leaving Catriona behind on the final fight because I was worried about having enough health. I should have taken more damage with the commander avatar and Magus Vincent Lee-Shue Jr on the run in. The battle medic did get off his last heal before the Sectopod popped him with a crit, but I had a couple hurt soldiers who wouldn't have minded a top-off.

I went into the final fight with mind shields on both of my rangers, which was wise. They also both had wraith armor, but I never used the phase or the dodge. Chuck is the real MVP because he chased the second avatar into the room I had just exited and fought her to a standstill without dying. Having Superior Speed helped. Dave did chunk the third avatar down to death from practically full in one round with Rapid Fire critting twice at point blank range, so I guess it was just a ranger kind of mission.

I wound up pulling my whole squad back through the entrance because I let a codex disable my weapons and I couldn't keep up with onslaught of enemies. Vinny used Void Rift on a muton pack and got a clutch Mind Control. I used the Muton grenade to shred the third avatar's armor and reposition her next to Dave.

I was hurting for elerium cores the entire game. Bad luck with explosives, mostly, though I also was late to Vulture. I don't think I got any random improvement from my AWC at all! I bought it on the third row because it just wasn't useful enough. Dumping money into Guerrilla Tactics is the way to go for the early game.

123 days to first Colonel isn't bad.

I got magnetic rifles at 34 days but no other magnetic weapons. I got beam weapons at 146 days. A few days earlier would have been the correct timing, because then I would have killed the andromedon with them.

The RNG nicknamed Lisamaria 'Big Nasty'. This made me laugh every single time.
Gunslinger and scout are not useful. Hacker is.
I relented some on gunslinger. Until you get that Colonel sniper with Serial, gunslingers are OK for codex engagements, but only after you have upgraded the pistol. I trained the gunslinger mostly for the second sniper rifle in certain mission types without countdown clocks. Once you have Serial, though, it's time to shelve your gunslinger.

I relied heavily on rangers once I unlocked Hunter's Instinct. It's a very reliable damage source. With Untouchable, you can deal it very safely. Chuck and Dave were both assault, but I did take Rapid Fire on Dave. I think it is the better ultimate compared to Reaper.

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Re: XCOM 2 [SPOILERS]

Post by quantus »

Jonathan wrote:The RNG nicknamed Lisamaria 'Big Nasty'. This made me laugh every single time.
Debating on whether I should tell her this...
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Jonathan
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Re: XCOM 2 [SPOILERS]

Post by Jonathan »

Jonathan wrote: GTS1/PR3/AWC4
RC2/WS5/PG6
I won with:
GTS1/PR3/SC6
RC2/WS4/PG5

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Re: XCOM 2 [SPOILERS]

Post by Dave »

This game runs like absolute shit. Doom runs better on my system.
It takes 43 muscles to frown and 17 to smile, but it doesn't take any to just sit there with a dumb look on your face.

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Re: XCOM 2 [SPOILERS]

Post by Jonathan »

I had to turn off the action cam because my system is below the minimum Linux specs.

quantus
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Re: XCOM 2 [SPOILERS]

Post by quantus »

How sad is it that someone working for the leading supplier of desktop cpu's doesn't even have an up-to-date enough of a system for playing cutting edge games?!
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Jonathan
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Re: XCOM 2 [SPOILERS]

Post by Jonathan »

I blame Nvidia/TSMC for not making interesting products in my power envelope for a couple generations! :P

quantus
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Re: XCOM 2 [SPOILERS]

Post by quantus »

And what power envelope is that?
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