Damn Those Alien Grenades :(

[aquila]

Just started ANOTHER veteran game, spent about half an hour buying everything and renaming soldiers that you do at the beginning, no missions, then a terror mission around jan 20th in south east asia.

Spent 5 minutes equipping, started the mission, tank got out, spotted a couple of enemies (a reaper and a floater each about 10 squares away). Deployed about 4-5 soldiers off the ramp, and no, they weren't THAT close to each other. 2 were next to each other, but the other ones were at least 2 squares away. Guess what happens next turn. ALIEN GREEEEEENADE ARRRGHH!!!!

Took out all 5 of my marines deployed outside the skyranger, but oh no. that's not all. Guess who berserked? Autocannon high explosive dude inside the skyranger

Took himself out, and 2 of his buddies.

So turn two, had 2 panicked, badly hurt marines and a badly damaged tank left, and hadn't even moved half of my squad.

 

Hate those things, i am sick of them.

Edited July 28, 2006 by aquila

[[NKF]]

One thing you can learn from this is that you shouldn't deploy too many soldiers at once. Or, at the very least, not too close together. Having two squads separted 2 squares away is still quite close together for a device that has a fair blast radius.

 

Deploying 5 soldiers off the ramp for example could be accomplished by having them move out on both sides of the ramp. Everyone could spread out in a star, with perhaps one or two soldiers taking shelter next to the landing gear. Well it's really up to you how they spread out, but it's often a good idea to make sure there's ample space between everyone.

 

Check the screenshot below. This was taken from a recent game I played for a play-by-play, which I really should polish up some time. This shows how NOT to do it. One alien grenade and it would've been all over. The only reason they were deployed so tightly together was because I was confident that there were no aliens that would surprise me with a grenade (Edit: and also, this screenshot was taken several turns AFTER the landing site had been secured - that only required the tank and 2 - 3 soldiers).

 

- NKF

Edited July 28, 2006 by NKF

[xalien]

2 quares apart . When I deploy troops I make like 6-8 squares apart and even that sometimes feel a little too tight. Unless of course I see a pair of cryssalids staring into my soldiers inside Skyranger - then I'll deploy as many troops with minimal TU loses as I need to take out those buggers.

 

But that's just for the open ground, when performing a sweep through a heavily built area I put them closer to each other.

[Platium_Panda]

Well, i looked at the angry face in the title, and i just knew this was serious, its always serious when the little faces come to bare