XCOM: Enemy Unknown aka the one where Haphazard dies repeatedly

[Sareln]

Umm, it's 18 days 'till the next council meeting. There isn't enough time to get satellites in the air. (Nexus is 21 days, Satellites are 20 days, and we're short the needed engineers) I'm going to do some math and see if we can hit that Alien base with full sets of Titan Armor and our Plasma Sniper this month.

[spellman]

So, what should I equip on my squad before heading to the Alien Base?

I have Plasma Rifles, but Titan Armor and Plasma Snipers/Heavy haven't been researched yet. But I do have shiny Skeleton Suits.

Oh, and Berserkers and Floater v2 have shown up. Which mean oh gawds they soak a lot of damage now.

[Sareln]

Umm, it's 18 days 'till the next council meeting. There isn't enough time to get satellites in the air. (Nexus is 21 days, Satellites are 20 days, and we're short the needed engineers) I'm going to do some math and see if we can hit that Alien base with full sets of Titan Armor and our Plasma Sniper this month.

Would you believe me if I told you we're 1 Alloy Short, near as I can tell...

nm, the skeleton key costs something... hmm

[haphazard1]

I think we can probably hit the alien base this month if we can get some Titan armor (or other advanced armor, but probably Titan) built. Our weaponry is generally in pretty good shape, maybe a couple more improvements to be built (heavies? alloy cannon?).

Spellman, if berserkers and heavy floaters have shown up you will need a solidly equiped and promoted squad to handle the alien base. You don't have to have Titan armor, but I find it helpful because of the extra durability it offers your soldiers. The alien base involves multiple fights with a lot of enemies, so you are highly likely to take a fair bit of damage along the way (if not worse). Medkits only have so many uses even with field medic supports (I generally take two supports with this promo along for 6 medkit charges), so the extra health from the heavier armor is quite useful. But you can get by with lighter armor if you are careful and have a bit of luck. If your missions generally result in minimal damage to your squad, then you can probably get by with skeleton armor for the alien base.

Plasma rifles are good for non-sniper/non-heavy soldiers. Do you have laser snipers/heavy lasers, or did you skip the laser weapons entirely? If you still have only basic sniper and heavy weapons I would try to get them something better before the alien base. But lasers are OK if you can not manage the research/builds for plasma snipers and heavy plasmas just yet. The extra damage is useful, certainly, especially with the berserkers and heavy floaters. But as long as everyone has something better than basic weapons you should be OK.

Good luck!

[haphazard1]

Would you believe me if I told you we're 1 Alloy Short, near as I can tell...

nm, the skeleton key costs something... hmm

Ouch. I would definitely believe it...alloys always seem to be the bottleneck. And occasionally weapon fragments.

And yes the skeleton key costs a bit. Maybe we can get by with one less suit of titan armor? Keep our sniper well out of the combat zone? Of course that would mean he would get attacked and killed by a shot that would have been stopped by the titan armor....

[Sareln]

You can pick 5 from suits of Titan Armor and a Plasma Sniper Rifle. There isn't enough research time in the month to get both Titan and another weapons tech.

So that comes out to 4 Titan Armors and 1 Plasma Sniper Rifle in all likely-hood, with Ug and someone who draws short straw (probably a heavy) wearing Carapace.

[Sareln]

Ooor we could bag a small UFO for another 44 alloys and some nav and power supplies to sell for cash. That could happen too.

Report tomorrow, as a Teaser:

Tasunke, welcome to XCOM, congratulations on gunning down a Muton Bezerker after everyone misses it.

[spellman]

Spellman, if berserkers and heavy floaters have shown up you will need a solidly equiped and promoted squad to handle the alien base. You don't have to have Titan armor, but I find it helpful because of the extra durability it offers your soldiers. The alien base involves multiple fights with a lot of enemies, so you are highly likely to take a fair bit of damage along the way (if not worse). Medkits only have so many uses even with field medic supports (I generally take two supports with this promo along for 6 medkit charges), so the extra health from the heavier armor is quite useful. But you can get by with lighter armor if you are careful and have a bit of luck. If your missions generally result in minimal damage to your squad, then you can probably get by with skeleton armor for the alien base.

Plasma rifles are good for non-sniper/non-heavy soldiers. Do you have laser snipers/heavy lasers, or did you skip the laser weapons entirely? If you still have only basic sniper and heavy weapons I would try to get them something better before the alien base. But lasers are OK if you can not manage the research/builds for plasma snipers and heavy plasmas just yet. The extra damage is useful, certainly, especially with the berserkers and heavy floaters. But as long as everyone has something better than basic weapons you should be OK.

Good luck!

Hm. I have a full kit of Lasers for all parties involved, and typically can do my missions w/o any damage taken, so I think my next goal is level up my other support into a healing badass and get Titan Armor before making a run.

[dazedroyalty]

Does my avatar live on?!?

[Sareln]

Yes he does. He lead the squad of newbies on that UFO run iirc. I'll see if I can write it today.