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[[Blehm 98]]

Okay, i continually get fleets of one mothership and one battleship, and i only have 1 retaliator, i am trying to get more, the ships are continually dropping overspawns(one completely destroyed an Osiron building, nothing left ) and i get almost continual alerts. i try to stop them from happening, but its not easy when you have only 4 full health soldiers. The rest are all injured, usually more than halfway.

 

Also, what does the personal cloaking device do? I try to use it to run up to alien and use the power swords, but they always shoot my guys before they even get close!!!!

[Cpl. Facehugger]

A well equipped retaliator is more than a match for a battleship. Concentrate on the BS. Make sure you take it with infantry.

 

Focus on getting personal disruption shields. Those are a godsend, it's like instantly adding one hundred HP to your guy.

 

Personal cloaks merely decrease enemy accuracy, and make it so they can't see you at extreme range. At close range, they'll still see and cap your rear.

[Robo Dojo 58]

If you want the personal desruptor shields, you'll have to disable the alien without using conventional weapons. Use stun gas, toxiguns, or PSI to get the shields intact. Always have two shields in your backpack, it will be a lifesaver.

 

Stun grenades rule. Aliens are not afraid of the stun gas, and will fight until they fall unconsious. After that, make sure they don't wake up again.

 

Get more soldiers. Have a few androids, and send them in front to take the heat. Leave your humans safely in the back, so they can snipe the aliens.

 

Personal cloaks are sweet. Anyone with a cloak can only be seen at about half of the max distance. In big UFOs, you will be able to see the uncloaked aliens, but they won't see you. Being hard to see by big guys like the Psimorph and Megaspawn is a good thing™.

 

Remember, if you can see them with a cloak, they can see you with a cloak.

 

After you get the shields, you can eventually research disruptor armor. The combination of the two will make your agents nearly invincible.

[Cpl. Facehugger]

Just remember to watch out for the dreaded entropy launcher. That thing will eat right through your armor, destroying it in the process. Shields stop it though. But the aliens tend to pair entropy troops with dimension missile troops. A bad combonation.

[Guest Azrael]

This doesn't seem to belong to X-Com General, moved to strategy/tactics Edited August 31, 2004 by Azrael151

[[Blehm 98]]

i must also say that i really hate entropy launchers. Shields only last so long until they are gone, then i have to be careful to make sure that i don't get hit with the missiles.

 

also, does the entropy launcher destroy alien equipments too? And, what does it take ot get disrupter armor?

[Guest Azrael]

If I remember correctly, it was the Shield and the Devastator.

[[NKF]]

Small shields are the main ingredient. I think the medium disrupter was the other.

 

As for entropy: It basically eats up 1/3rd of your shield with every hit (impact damage against unarmoured and unshielded unit is minor). When the shields fail, you get covered with the enzyme, which will last 3 game seconds, or 1 game turn. While it's in effect, it chews up the durability of everything in your inventory. Armour, bombs, ammo, guns, everything. If the object is volatile, it will explode once it's destroyed. (Note a full suit of X-Com disrupter armour can sometime survive one missile, but with severe durability damage).

 

In real-time, you have two options for saving the soldier. 1, run to the nearest exit. 2: Drop everything you're wearing and run to safety. After the 3 seconds are up, go back and pick up your equipment. If you've got the teleporters, this is a cinch.

 

Speaking of personal cloaking devices:

 

Remember that it only reduces visibility. However, you CAN shoot at the invisible alien if you have a good idea where it is - from any distance. Hence why I often like to take a whole team of soldiers with disrupter weapons and, spread them out and then force-fire areas where I think enemies with cloak shields are standing. If a bullet hits, it becomes temporarily visible. One good time to do this is if you see source of some entropy beams but cannot see the shooter. Happens a lot when you're camping outside a UFO.

 

By the way, if you're going to use power swords to cut down your enemies, here are a few thoughts I'd like to share after my androids with powerswords campaign:

 

Don't send just one soldier up. Send multiple soldiers. An alien can only target one soldier at a time. So if three to four soldiers are running right at it, the others will be unscathed. Best done while wearing shields so that you can recharge the damage afterwards.

 

If you don't have this option, run from cover to cover to get close to the alien. Have some soldiers distract the alien while another soldier attempts to flank it. Or run to cover and then let the enemies come to you (excellent in places like the temples, or where there are doors). Corner attacks are a bit cheap, but very effective.

 

Smoke grenades can help mask your approach. Well, at least part of the way.

 

When using swords, always use two swords on full auto. It only takes three hits (1 and a half attacks) to kill a fully shielded alien (less than a few game seconds). If you must use a cloak or a teleporter, keep the second sword in the pack.

 

- NKF