77 replies to this topic

[Mark0]

I was wounderign how many soldiers do you send per mission

i know it depends of the stats of your men.. experienced or all r00ks.

but lets say for a stun raid or any kind of raid.( building..)

me, i allways go with 6 soldiers, doenst matter what type of mission it is

but 1 thing im sure about. 6 for a stun raid aint enaugh

[j'ordos]

I always take twelve. I use my Valkyrie mainly as troop transport: fits nicely with 1 passenger module, 1 cargo module, and 1 bio-module. With this configuration there's room for 12, so if I have 12 men available I use 12.

Sometimes I use 2 Hovercars, 1 with cargo module and 1 with bio-module, mainly for investigations, and then I take 8 men.

[BurnThemALL]

I'm with my friend Mark0 here... I use 6 soldiers until I have to fight in the alien dimension. Then I go with 2 ships with 6+6 soldiers and as many escort ships as I can deliver.

When using 12 soldiers...
Each group has it's own objectives, one group goes with ToxiGuns ahead and the second group is cleaning up behind with IN AutoCannon and Devastators, so I can be sure that there is nothing alive behind me. :crazy:

j'ordos, always with 12 soldiers?!? :happybanana: In that case enemies sure won't mess with you!
j'ordos, I would suggest you to use more than one cargo bay when raiding enemy orgs. You'll get much more equipment that way.

[j'ordos]

You get more then? I thought one would be enough!! Darn. Now I need to catch up for all those raids I couldn't take everything to the base.

[dipstick]

I always take at LEAST 14. that is a hawk capacity. That is only to UFO. To a building I take up to 36 Makes the map bigger too.

[Brute]

i have 5.
4 assaulters -2 teams of 2 men- armed with toxiguns
and an android to support them -medic, ammo, stun grapple, extra personal shields-
That was enough men for me in the superhuman difficulty

[dipstick]

Think of all the fun with 36 men with disruptor cannons!!!!

[BurnThemALL]

but I wonder, don't you get confused with controlling 36 men?!?

I'm sure if I would have 36 men running and shooting Disruptors, my PC would crash to a blue screen!

[miceless]

I use eight in general. Thats the capacity of a Valkyrie. I think i would like to take twelve, but I need hawks for that.

I also have a team of four, that i use to raid the human orgs. They fly around in a car but I am about to upgrade them to Valkyrie, so i will up them to eight.

[Mark0]

j'ordos, I would suggest you to use more than one cargo bay when raiding enemy orgs. You'll get much more equipment that way. 

allways new stuff to learn

and yeah 36 soldiers is way too mcuh ,ahrd to controle, and im sure youll be lost with lots of pink shots being fired from everywhere

[miceless]

Ive upgraded to twelve, now that I have biotransports. Its actually more than i normally use, but its good to have to reinforcements avaialable.

[Mark0]

i think 12 is good, train more soldiers in combat

btw did any of you guys used to train yoru soldiers in Ufo 1 ??
Allways keep an alien alive and stuck somewhere, and meanwhile your soldiers get shooting training and stuff...

you think it would be possible in Apoc?..
i doubt that will work in real time but turn based??

[mikker]

I don't even play the game, but i just had to select 1!

[dipstick]

36 soldiers is GREAT fun. *hostiles spotted - 4 or 5 of them.... hostiles neutralised...along with half of the building....* I usually split all my men into at least 4 men squads. ESPECIALLY when poppers are appearing. I have at least 12 men per mission at the beginning, then I increase until I max out.

Miceless, you can put extra personnel in ships if you upgrade them!

[Brute]

remember... you'll have no experts if u use 36 soldiers per mission.
you'll have many officers and a commander, but no real experts...

[miceless]

36 is too many to control IMO. Anything above 12 I find unecessary.

However, it is funny to line up loads of men with HE weapons and just let loose. I had real fun with minilaunchers.

And yes, i know you can add more with upgraded ships. The BioTransport has the potential to carry loads, as does the annihilator.

[j'ordos]

But who does ever use the BioTransport? I know I just skip them and immediately move on to the more advanced ships

[miceless]

Im using them as troop transports at the moment. They have so much cargo space! :o

[Brute]

i agree with that
bio-transport is the best cargo ship in game...

[Extralucas]

i agree with that
bio-transport is the best cargo ship in game...

Whats cargo space? I mean cargo module says it has 50 capacity, then is it 50 items or 50 squares (like in backpack) or even somethin else?

About BioTrans: I manfacture ver y much of 'em. I earn 22k on every when selling. (On annihilators 50k but it takes 3 times more time so on BioTrans in same time I earn 66k)

Edit: I forgot to write why do I sue 8 soldiers!

I use 8 in stun raids, 12 on UFO and Infiltration mission at the beggining (but I shot all UFOs at begin so there aren't really much of those), and later in game 6. They are great experts with Toxiguns (B is enough for me, but C means aliens have no chance) 2 shields, Disruptor Armors (Fly part from MarSec too), Cloak Field, Vortex Mine (1 per each), And Medikit. Nothing can stop em!

Edited by Extralucas, 07 September 2003 - 04:56 AM.

[BurnThemALL]

Whats cargo space? I mean cargo module says it has 50 capacity, then is it 50 items or 50 squares (like in backpack) or even somethin else?

That's a very good question which we already had once but none had a good answer...

When you finish a combat situation, you get some sort of report like (200 equipment captured) - does this mean we should use 4 cargo bays with 50 storage each? I doubt that because in an alien building you can capture like 1500 equipment but maybe it has nothing to do with what you really get in your ship?

Would be great if any XCOM fellow has an answer to this mystery.

[Mark0]

Whats cargo space? I mean cargo module says it has 50 capacity, then is it 50 items or 50 squares (like in backpack) or even somethin else?

That's a very good question which we already had once but none had a good answer...

When you finish a combat situation, you get some sort of report like (200 equipment captured) - does this mean we should use 4 cargo bays with 50 storage each? I doubt that because in an alien building you can capture like 1500 equipment but maybe it has nothing to do with what you really get in your ship?

Would be great if any XCOM fellow has an answer to this mystery.

Yoooo Btaa!!

well the answer wont come from me since im having the same problem.

i have been woundering too about that situation and i allways asked myself that question.
but i have never sent more than 1 plane with 1 cargo(well cargo + bio) and i allways think i captured all the equipements.
i dunno if i really did ..

[Extralucas]

When you finish a combat situation, you get some sort of report like (200 equipment captured) - does this mean we should use 4 cargo bays with 50 storage each?  I doubt that because in an alien building you can capture like 1500 equipment but maybe it has nothing to do with what you really get in your ship? 

I gues equipment score is value of equipment, not quanity. I noticed that after missions in alien buildings when I have 2k equipment score i can sell it for at about 90k $ so I guess every item has some points value, and that's how the equipment score is conted.

[BurnThemALL]

Hey Mark0!

Extralucas, that's a good explanation!
What really puzzled me is that after a finished raid when you come back with your ships you can check your cargo bay but it doesn't show how much it is loaded...

[Extralucas]

I guess it would be better to, before raid, transfer the vehicle and soldiers to other base, where stores are empty, then after succesfull raid check how many stuff was brought. Still, we do not know is this what the craft brought everything what was on map. Maybe try to take something unusal to tactical fight and drop it in big quanity on the floor. (Maybe 50 toxin clip?). Then after returning to bas e you could check what was actually brought and what was left.

[Extralucas]

i think 12 is good, train more soldiers in combat

btw did any of you guys used to train yoru soldiers in Ufo 1 ??
Allways keep an alien alive and stuck somewhere, and meanwhile your soldiers get shooting training and stuff...

you think it would be possible in Apoc?..
i doubt that will work in real time but turn based??

heck, it sure does work! In real time too! Always my Stn squad (peeps I'm taking on raids) have higher reactions and accuracy than those who are only fighting on normal UFO missions and training at the base.

[j'ordos]

Another thing: I don't think stuff you pick up with your soldiers on the battlefield counts towards the cargo limit, right? That could explain why I can end up with brainsucker pods after an attack although my vehicle did not have bio-transport

[Extralucas]

Well soldiers after coming back to the base still have got pickuped stuff with them so I'm SURE it does not take cargo bays capacity. I wonder does the pickuped stuff count for equipment score.

[j'ordos]

It still could be it counts, but gets taken first, before anything else lying on the ground. But indeed, I don't think it counts either, so just take one cargo bay and let your guys pick up as much as they can

Edited by j'ordos, 11 September 2003 - 12:48 PM.

[Extralucas]

It still could be it counts, but gets taken first, before anything else lying on the ground. Nut indeed, I don't think it counts either, so just take one cargo bay and let your guys pick up as much as they can

Im to lazy for such actions...

[AliensMustDie]

I usually take 9, but 10 is fun too. 3 guys who are my flyers/scout squad. Good shooters with a mix of toxiguns and devastators. Next two squads are mostly devastators with one toxigun guy in each. The only unusual thing is that the last 3 man squad is all androids just in case I run into any of the psi troublemakers. The androids are crappy shots, but in the case of psi aliens, that isn't a big deal since those aliens have no other attack than mind control which doesn't work on androids.

Hey J'ordos, how do you manage 14 hoverbikes with plasma cannons? I can never buy enough elerium ammo for that amount of guns. Are you getting it somewhere else? How? Thanks

[j'ordos]

Not 14 with Plasma cannons, only as much as you can afford (about 4-6 I think), the rest equipped with Janitor missile arrays.

[Extralucas]

We're raiding other organizatoins. I'm raiding syndicates, they've got lotsa Psi-Clones and Elerium in their slums which I can sell (Psi) or use (Elerium). I guess it's only way to get enough amount of elerium to make a good use of it... I duno about raiding about other orgs and I'm 78% sure that BurnThemALL raids Cult of Sirius mostly and burns anything behind him, in front of him, and next to him. I duno what are the others doing, tho.

[BurnThemALL]

Yes I know, it's always a tough decision... Should I BURN THEM TO THE GROUND :flame: :psychosanta: and have lots of fun - should I take the money and better not burn them?

Well, it's a 10:1 thing for me. :crazy: And after all... You get a little bit of money if they burn too...

Best raid orgs for me: Sirius, Psyke (Psiclones), SanctuaryClinic (Hospitals burn well), Nutrivend (their hydrocultures can be blasted away and all crashes down) You have to try this!

[Jonaleth Irenicus]

I remember doing the last dimension gates mission with 36 men. Result:

Only 1 survived the constant stream of fire from enemies. With tears in his eyes, he picked up his fallen comrade's devastator cannon, fired at the dimension laser pointer and prayed it was the last one. Then he RAN LIKE heck out of there.

[Robo Dojo 58]

I remember doing the last dimension gates mission with 36 men.

Woah, that's alot of troops! When you have that many people, you should equip some of them with Marsec flying armor. That way, you can spread out your guys more, so an alien shot doesn't have such a high chance of hitting someone. (Who knows who they were aiming for?) Also, your troops won't be so eager to shoot each other in the back if they're on different levels.

Get 5-15 agents with teleporters, and teleport them all to sniping positions. They'd be spread out for safety, and will kill alot of aliens, while your main force dukes it out in the land and air.

That must've been a really cool and fun mission, though.

[Jonaleth Irenicus]

The thing is, I wanted it to be this grand finale where most of my men died trying to eliminate the last alien threat as the aliens made their final stand. I knew that I would make it easy for them since they would hardly miss and explosive weapons would basically kick my donkey (dimension missles rule from this perspective).

Unfortunately, I didn't realise it would be SO dramatic that I would have to get my last man to pick up a dead guy's weapon and finish the job. It really was cool, the last man firing the last shot, hoping it is the last and it doesn't miss. When he got the message "alien building disabled", he ran like a chicken with his head cut off (for a second, I thought about stripping on my way to the exit, then decided against it).

[Tsereve]

Haven't made it to the last mission yet, but I read online a way to beat it within several seconds. Not too practical, cuz it involves stockpiling 126 teleporters & vortex mines, but hey. Bring 36 agents, like you did, Jonaleth, have six be at least Captains (Sergeants will work at a pinch--just have their accuracy ratings be 90 or above with good reactions and speed). Arm the 30 soldiers (they can be rookies or whatever--they're gonna end up dead anyway) with 4 teleporters and 4 vortex mines each. Nothing else. The 6 sharpshooters should each have 2 ToxiGuns (Toxin C, of course). Teleporting takes no time, so pause the game and teleport your officers onto the balcony. Then teleport each of your cannon-fodder troops onto a generator, and have them drop a vortex mine. Repeat this until all of the generators have been mined, then unpause the game. In the split second before the generators are obliviated, your ToxiGun guys should kill most of the aliens. Then the vortex mines explode, annihilating the generators and winning the game. The 30 agents down there are toast as well, but who cares? They're expendable.

[NKF]

Or just arm EVERYONE with Marsec heavy launchers packed with anti-alien gas rockets. No, I don't know how it is they can destroy the generators, but they can. Best of all, the pink gas clouds will be a deterrent for the horde of skeletoids in the centre of the pit.

Also note: You only have to destroy one in every two pairs of laser grid generators to disable them.

The moment the mission starts, fire away at the generators with the rockets. It'll be over pretty quickly. Most of the time would involve the evacuation.

Hmm, I wonder how hard would it be to solo the final mission?

- NKF

[Tiberius_51]

Only 2 at this point and I split them into 2 squads. It's pretty funny when you clear an entire ship with only one or two guys and everything is panicking.

Only reason I use two is so that they can cover each other for brainsuckers. I've found that the less men I use, the better I do.

[Puasonen]

I have always used 6 guys but lately I have been used 4 guys and I think it's enough even on hard difficulty (and I don't reload if I loose or cheat in any other way either)

[Tiberius_51]

I just did a base defense misison using only 1 guy against ~15-20 enemies with overshields, cloaks, and devastator cannons. It's actually a LOT easier than using several soldiers because all the enemies were concentrated into one area, letting me kill them off pretty fast. It seems like having fewer soldiers is worthwhile if you use them wisely.

edit: BTW, this is on superhuman.

Edited by Tiberius_51, 20 July 2004 - 09:09 AM.

[Puasonen]

I have noticed that too. It really is easier to control 2 guys than 6. I think 1 is not enough since you can get surpriseattacked by popper or brainsucker. 2 guys can watch each others backs..

[NKF]

It's really just a matter of communication. Large squads force you to spend more time watching over everyone, while with smaller squads, you don't need to spend so much time. It's really just a test of our patience.

Because of the brainsucker threat, only androids can truly solo missions - unless you're willing to crawl throughout the mission .

With full suits of X-Com disrupter armour, you can even go solo against poppers (while your armour durability holds out, you'll be immune), but your disrupter shields will never survive, leaving you vulnerable to entropy and disrupter beams.

When teleporters arrive, try sending out solo androids with dual power swords and as many teleporters that they can carry (be sure to allow the second sword to be easily placed into the pack when swapping it out with a teleporter). As long as you remember to take brief breaks in between combat to reenergise, you'll be unstoppable.

If you remember to always keep a teleporter charged and in one hand, you can even attempt to solo with with humans and hybrids. Brainsuckers will not teleport with you.

- NKF

Edited by NKF, 21 July 2004 - 12:47 AM.

[Tuoppi]

I mostly use full valkyrie on every mission in city, and minimum of 20 troopers in "Other side".

Why? It seems that enemy count relies somewhat on number of your troops, and so does the map size. (not in all kinds of battles). Because more troops means generally more enemies and area -> more goodies. Especially handy in raids, i don't bother to kill just few cultists.

The battle is harder and more dangerous but it seems worth it for me...

[Tsereve]

I used to take 36 soldiers on each alien building, plus every single retaliator, but that came to an end when 3 destroyers and 2 assault ships attacked. All my good ships (as well as my good agents) had just entered the dimension gate (alien side), headed home, and the destroyers attacked my base. . .it takes forever to traverse the dimensions!

These days, I bring 10 agents to investigate buildings (squads of 5--1 w/ toxiguns, other with devastators). For UFOs, it obviously depends on the size. For types 3 & 4, I send 5 agents. Ten are sent in when dealing with destroyers and down, while everything above that requires 15.
Alien buildings 1, 2, and 3 get 10 agents each, the last two get everyone (usually about 20), and everything in between gets 15 soldiers.

That said, I use a valkerie for city missions until I get explorers(better speed), and biotrans in the alien dimension (small disruptor, 2 cargo, 2 passenger, 1 biotransport, a missile evasion, and 2 small shields).

If you look at it in terms of area, 2 small sheilds (400 prot.) takes up 8 spaces, while 1 large (still 400) needs 9. . .hmmmm. ..

[Sowelu]

I used 12 soldiers prior to the alien dimension, and now I'm using about 28 inside it. It's a lot, and more than I need, but I think I have good reason... Whenever anyone loses their shield, or if a whole squad gets very low shields, I just tell them to leave the field!

Because I can make a squad fall back while still keeping a lot of cover fire, I almost never even get wounded any more... then again, I am playing on the easiest skill...

[Exo2000]

I have a squad of around 20 elites who have successfully got a three-in-a-row CoS raid with no losses. Of course I knocked the CoS buildings down after I cleared them out.

These guys are supersoldiers. I'll get a screenie of them sometime. They are edited though. ^^;

And they are not tireless or invincible. They have a lot of stamina, but running around inside a Battleship hunting a lone alien quickly tires them out. On said mission they also took a couple of dimension missiles to the face and their shields only barely survived.

Hint: Two to Three Devastator Shots is all it takes to start a catastrophic chain reaction that will take down one of the generators in an explosive cloud of explosiveness and smoke. The shots are best aimed near the base, around level 2.

Hint2: Those orange pads in alien buildings spawn a few aliens periodically. Watch out.

[Exo2000]

My Squad has recently increased in number to about 28... and I'm hurriedly building as many Vortex mines as I can and keeping the Androids as long as possible.

They have an improvement of 6-7%, but I think that's because of boosted Psi Def. Everyone else is slowly heading back down to maximum standard levels (about 100, but speed and stamina refuse to drop *whew*) and has lost about 10%.