Xcom, very late to the party

[Alinestra Covelia]

I always take a screenshot in combat when my scanner-bearing scout unit does a scan of the area. I keep that screenshot open the rest of the turn so I can know where the enemies are without trying to take notes or memorize their locations.

[Dis]

How do I find the alien leader? I researched martian solution, and this is the last thing I need (and to build the avenger). though I only started researching the psi tech line.

I did one base invasion. I caught 4 live aliens, but when I go to research all I got was a navigator . How do I know which one is the leader? I figured the 2 guys up in the control room were important, so I made sure to use a stun bomb on them. But does my alien containment only hold 1 person? I'm just not sure how to capture a leader.

I have one more base still left on the map, but I'm leaving that for now. Those are the mind control aliens . I simply don't want to lose all my good gunners. Though I'm not sure if I can actually succeed in that mission. I had like 3 guys go bezerk after the first turn and 1 panic. So I reloaded. I need some kind of psi defense before I attempt that one. What happens if I leave the base for a while? It's in Africa, and the money there isn't important.

[Dis]

this base will be very difficult to defend lol. The original base design sucks, then I added all this crap to it.

[Dry]

How do I find the alien leader? I researched martian solution, and this is the last thing I need (and to build the avenger). though I only started researching the psi tech line.

I did one base invasion. I caught 4 live aliens, but when I go to research all I got was a navigator . How do I know which one is the leader? I figured the 2 guys up in the control room were important, so I made sure to use a stun bomb on them. But does my alien containment only hold 1 person? I'm just not sure how to capture a leader.

AFAIR, leaders are found in huge ships and/or in alien bases.
Just keep capturing those in the last room of huge ships and bases, and eventually, you'll get one (althought I think I remember you need more than one, because they release secrets one at a time)

I have one more base still left on the map, but I'm leaving that for now. Those are the mind control aliens . I simply don't want to lose all my good gunners. Though I'm not sure if I can actually succeed in that mission. I had like 3 guys go bezerk after the first turn and 1 panic. So I reloaded. I need some kind of psi defense before I attempt that one. What happens if I leave the base for a while? It's in Africa, and the money there isn't important.

Alien bases are TEH fun. When I played the game, the thing I preferred was the base attacks.
Well, except during that phase of the game, when the aliens have the mind control and you know nothing about the psi rating of your guys. I think it is the first (or first two ?!?) base attack.
It is time to sort your people and find out those who have high psi.

I remember a game where I sent my guys with their weapons in their backpack, so, if they became controled, they would not fire on their mates. It cost more TU to fire, but at least we didn't empty our loaders on ghosts or worse: on each other.

[Dis]

The end game can be tedius. I get to the point I don't want to do any more missions as they take along time and I don't want to risk losing good guys. Esp. if it's an etheral mission. But now I'm running low on Etheium . I'm gonna have to do more missions. I just want to find this damn leader already.

And I thought I had the psi stuff earlier, but it was just the decoder tech. But I think intentionally did an etheral mission and caputured 3 live ones and that gave me the opening to the psi tech. Takes forever to build that psi lab though. . and I'm building a mind shield.

I actually did get my base attacked shortly after posting the above pic. But things went well. 2 out of my 3 defenses fired and hit. Only had like 10 or 11 aliens I think. And non etherals . Sectoids and saucers- easy stuff. Didn't lose a single guy.

I'm at feburary first now. I got 2 avengers, 2 lightning (forgot how worthless these are), 1 firestorm thingy, and 2 interceptors in 3 bases. Gonna try to get this leader again. I got 2 bases now. 1 in UK and 1 in Africa. The africa one is etherals, but I'll try the UK one. I may have to do the Africa one and just keep my guns in my backpacks I guess. I see no other way to accomplish that. But they will control your guys after a while.

[Dis]

woohoo, Cydonia or bust is researching (average now). My manufacturing base was attacked and taken over. I had 14 guys with no armor and all rookies. The etherals made mincemeat out of them. . Acceptable loss I suppose. I built another manufacturing base, but it might not be fully operational before my mission to mars. I finally got a snakeman leader when I attacked an alien base in Antartica. Attacking Etheral bases is too hard.

And I finally got some Elerium. I was getting to the point I couldn't refuel my ships (forgot lightning and avenger need elerium to refuel). I did several missions with 2 larges, and a medium and no elerium (all were attacked by interceptors btw). Finally I got a very large snakeman that landed (not shot down) and my team made short work of them. They are so much easier than Etherals. 200 Elerium!! That should hold me for a while (building too many flying suits is what ate up all my Elerium).

Beginning of March (or later if the research takes longer) is when I attack. My psi labs should identify 20 (10 in each base) guys for psi fitness. I'll take the best of the lot. Though I think my avenger holds 20, so I'll either take all 20 regardless or take a chance with rookies. I could wait another month, but would rather not. The ships come fast and furious when you start researching Cydonia.

I'm off to bed. BTW anyone ever get a weird outdoors map with weird graphics? I got one in south america. I took a screenshot, but a power surge cause my computer to shut off, so I lost it before I could paste it. It had tunnels or something were you could move your guys on the ground level thru a hill. The colors were all funky, like a mix between artic and jungle maps.

[El_Cid]

woohoo, Cydonia or bust is researching (average now).....

Congrats on getting to this stage

I'm off to bed. BTW anyone ever get a weird outdoors map with weird graphics? I got one in south america. I took a screenshot, but a power surge cause my computer to shut off, so I lost it before I could paste it. It had tunnels or something were you could move your guys on the ground level thru a hill. The colors were all funky, like a mix between artic and jungle maps.

No not seen, but i run Xcom on a p166 in W98se Dosmode. I understand there were some graphics glitches that could occour in XP/modern hardware etc............not sure if the "xcom1fix.exe" thing might help you with this or not?

http://www.xcomufo.com/x1dl.html

[Dis]

victory at last. easy stuff. I should try a harder difficulty level. Maybe if I play later this year. There isn't enough variation in research and combat to play repeatedly- unlike civ4 for instance. but a good game. Nice to play through every now and then.

I ended up with like 20 guys at the end of the last mission lol. So I could have played a higher difficulty level. I remember a long time ago only having like 3 guys left at that final room. And being wiped out by like a blaster bomb lol.

[El_Cid]

what i love about the difficulty levels is they really make a difference, even just going up to the next level over beginner you will notice the accuracy of the aliens is much improved! you are forced to play a much more tactical game in the battle maps, so take the best of what you learned on the first play through to develope into proper tactics to help you survive the battle maps.

But yeah experienced and veteran levels make the overall battle seem very desperate - for a laugh(a short one mind!) try a game on the hardest difficulty level, it's ridiculous!

[Dis]

I wonder if anyone can actually beat the hardest level. I should do it for a laugh. Has anyone even beaten civ4 on the hardest level? I'm not sure which is harder. Probably Xcom.

[El_Cid]

Yeah....probably Xcom......you will just get wiped out so many times, on even the simple missions
I play on experienced these days, and that is hard enough for me - Veteran and you start to get no breaks at all, the aliens rarely miss! I'd be impressed if someone could complete the game on Veteran(it must have been done mind you).

[DrSpike]

Pretty sure I did it on the hardest difficulty on the Amiga version. You had to play slowly and perfectly, and keep a backup save in case things went really bad. But it was doable.

Civ4 deity is not that hard for experienced players - so Xcom is definitely harder.

[El_Cid]

It seemed to me that Civ2 Diety was much harder than Civ4? so you right about that i would say.

I'm thinking now that the amiga might have suffered from the same glitch that non-patched PC Xcom had - all the difficulty levels played as 'beginner'. Not 100% on this, but it might explain why you(and I) found the amiga version easier than the PC(patched) one?

@ Dis - it would be great to see a short AAR of you playing Xcom on the hardest difficulty

[DrSpike]

No my version definitely wasn't on beginner.

And Civ2 deity was the easiest of them all.

[EPW]

haha, I went down the ramp of skyranger with my men bunched up. One alien grenade later and they are all dead.