Pherdnut

Try an all-human-tech game, researching only what you start out being able to research and the prereqs for the Avenger to get to Cydonia. A couple guys with heavy lasers (anti-armor) and LRs isn't as insanely hard as it sounds.

Old thread but early Sectoid Terror missions can be the hardest missions in the game. The more TUs you've expended, the more likely reaction fire is to occur I believe. Sometimes just a twitch is all it takes with cyberdiscs but don't turn a corner until you've stopped and waited a turn basically. When a soldier spots a cyberdisc, don't move him until squad mates outside of the cyberdisc's sight can grenade/missile, snipe the thing to death or you run out of options. If the soldier has a chance at killing it, it's better to have him try with no time units remaining if he succeeds than to attempt to move him to cover, which is certain death without armor. If you don't have at least lasers, I wouldn't bother with rifles/pistols except as a last resort. Explosives tend to kill cyberdiscs without the bonus explosion which is larger/deadlier than most explosive attacks you yourself have access to in the early game. Soldier too close? Try to missile/heavy-explosive it with a blast radius that doesn't hit the soldier. Heavy explosives are a good equalizer for the discs if you don't even have lasers but it takes a strong soldier to throw them from cover. Use those flare light thingies. I'm pretty sure the aliens see better in the dark than humans do. Use prox grenades on corners you're expecting sectoids to turn or simply want covered. Those occasional first month sectoid terror missions can be brutal but they can also be a massive boon if you can manage to bag a leader (you'll know him as the one mind-controlling/panicking your men). You might lose all but 2 of your team getting him, but early psionics is a game changer.

My standby seems to be to expand, excavate, and build a power station right off the bat. Then scientists on the first mission to get a lab and then primarily focusing on engineers/relays/satellites with the goal of getting your first new wave of satellites out by the end of month 2 and really pushing to get every last slot filled in by the end of June. I tried getting at engineers first to get satellites sooner but it's just so unlikely you'll be able to get sats out before end of month 2 anyway, that I found earlier technology breakthroughs made life a lot easier.

It's a very good remake and worth any fan's time/money, but I do think they erred on the side of excess with the streamlining. I'm really not 100% confident that the world view is actually a sandbox for instance. Even after you get the hyperwave scanner and satellites everywhere, abduction missions still just kind of happen without the presence of a UFO. It also bugs the heck out of me that I can fly the transport to any corner of the world but I can only launch interceptors from an airbase on the actual continent where a UFO first appeared (even if it actually gets closer to an airbase on another continent. And what's so terribly wrong with starting a laser cannon franchise with a factory in Antarctica? But seriously not being able to sell your manufactured goods gets really old at times. Why doesn't anybody want my old lasers? I know I'd buy an x-com laser rifle on e-bay. I would love a mod that made satelllites 100% about detection and country happiness 100% about actual UFO-stopping performance, and UFO-stopping actually 100% about detecting and stopping them again with funds earned from manufacture and sale of advanced technology. That worked for me. Not sure why it needed to change. I also miss facing's relevance and I always thought pulling the actual ship departure out of the missions in Apocalypse was a mistake. Your first move now is basically 100% safe as long as you land in cover and the cover mechanic so heavily simplifies the targeting mechanic that sometimes you'll be shooting or more frustratingly get shot at straight through solid objects. Sometimes you'll actually see move that puts you in front of a wall but because there's no cover shield-ey icon, you can be pretty sure an alien whose view should be blocked by that wall will be able to shoot through it like it was air. The UFOPaedia is kinda weak. Negatives aside, the action is very cool. The soldier specialties and leveling/ability choice dynamic seemed lame at first but is actually a stroke of genius. And the easily skipped movie sequences added some nice flavor to the game, although I still have no idea what the people turning into green goo is all about, or why that qualifies as an "abduction." But seriously, snipers? Wow. Take the squad-view perk over being able to shoot after a move. Trust me on this one. You'll like it a lot when you get a Colonel. Anyway, I'll be playing for months I'm sure but I think they did so much to control the pace of the game that any 2 games of the same difficulty level are going to be very similar experiences. Whereas in the original, one event, like whether you were able to bag a sectoid leader on the first terror mission could drastically alter the course of the game. And you never knew if you were really starting out on the right part of the planet or if you're idiot skyranger pilot happened to land right in the middle of a circle of cyberdiscs. Uncertainty and sanboxiness are key ingredients of what made the original so insanely replayable IMO. This one captures the core essence of what made the missions and new toys fun and added some nice new touches of its own but takes just a little bit too much control of the player's experience for its own good, IMO.

House Rule: Don't eat the Homborgers.

I tried starting with Rendors now that I know how easy it is to raid for elerium. Holy cow does it make a difference in the first week. Half the UFOs never even hit the ground in one piece.

I decided it would be more fun to play through with a single super-soldier mutant. Man does bravery go up fast when it's just one guy killing all those cultists. The strength issue isn't so bad if you pay a few visits to Marsec to get the flying armor. He doesn't have enough power to actually attempt mind control yet though. Once his strenght is reasonable, I'll switch him to psi for good I think.

Maybe turn-based is easier, but I always felt like in Apoc. X-Com has everything it needs aside from interdimensional ships to beat the game. Air Warriors are roughly on par with Explorers and defend quite adequately in numbers. Stun gas ignores shields and a couple full m4000 clips ought to be able to take down a MegaSpawn or two.

Ah, how I do love that first "Let me finish all my research damnit!" pillaging of the alien dimension's fleet once you get a couple decent annihilators up and running. Do the gangs ever attempt to destroy your buildings if you piss them off enough?

Eight Soldiers is plenty for TB. I rarely use more than ten unless I'm goofing around.

I'm a loot hog. Real-time means less ammo to be found. TB offers more ninja-style tactics only assassinations tend to happen with full auto which really shouldn't be considered stealthy but whatever. It's fun. I feel like I've failed on some level when the aliens actually take a shot at me. At least until I get double shields on everybody. Then play gets considerably more sloppy. That's a pity about psi only going up with gyms. They really overnerfed psi in this game. Limiting early effective psi to humanoids with actual brains was all the balance that was needed IMO. So the only way to max psi is to just play for weeks beyond the point at which you could easily finish the aliens. Not that I don't do that a lot but it's not a very strong argument for psi.

If it were an RL situation, agents that throw $250,000 pieces of loot around for no particular reason would get fired if I were in charge.

Anybody know if height effects visual range? That's the only time I've never noticed a discrepancy, but it might have been a terrain thing too.

2 Stun grenades. Wait. Shoot. That's the TB method.

I've never gone all-out with the hybrids before but I did enjoy having a couple on my team in my latest round. I've been thinking of trying a game where I use them exclusively to try and max out their psi scores earlier in the game. I think I'll start by replacing my starting agents with androids until I have at least ten hybrids. I may have to go armorless at first until their strengths are up. I'm not sure how to do the training though. It seems like Psi goes up very fast with use. Maybe stick with physical training but then start zapping the cultists with psi for the first week?