X-COM XCOM 2 + War of the Chosen Expansion Thread

[Jasede]

DO NOT GET MAGNETIC GUNS FIRST.

Caps for emphasis. They're not important early. Use grenades / abilities.

 

[ArchAngel]

Use 2+ grenadiers. Remove cover from enemies before shooting at them. Put snipers on high ground. Use Phantom Ranger to keep scouting for you after the rest of the team is out of concealment.
If it looks like enemies would survive, throw a flashbang at survivors or use a Mimic grenade. Or use Aid protocol on your forward guy.

I actually tried most of that, since I had some memories from XCOM 1 left. Most of my problems are spending supplies to fast (bought magnetic guns because snipers couldn't kill shit), built the medbay first, while an extra squadmember might have been the better choice. But the next one MUST be the radio room or I can't expand. Haven't even done the first blacksite yet, because the game throws gorilla ops or retaliation strikes at me like lies from a politician.
I only had one Faceless corpse, so no mimics for me yet.
Also I sure hope there are random events removing blibs from the avatar count, since it's already half full without me making real progress, or it is going to be a short game.

And of course that RNG. When you see a snaketits run past your firing line of ovenwatch doom, only to have all 3 guys miss it, than watch him grapple your sniper on the hill behind high cover for a makeout session, revealing your ghost in the process, who only deals 2 dmg with a half missed shot......... you just want to bite your keyboard.
Sorry keyboard.

At least the game offers funny bugs:
On my "save civilians" mission Volourn, the pink powerranger, got to close to 4 civs on a house roof, revealing my first faceless. At least Kingcomrade's ovenwatch triggered and hit him. He then started to walk on the spot (because civies blocked the way) for a while, teleported down and charged at my Codexian Defense Line. All of them missed of course, since a 20 feet tall blob walking towards you is hard to hit, amirite? When he stopped right in front of them and started his attack animation, my finger was already moving towards F9, when... he got pulled back to the roof by an invisible rubberband, fell through that roof and died.
So the 3 guys had an excuse for missing, because the blog was never there, but Volourn "R00fles" Biowhore got punished for his stupdity with heart shaped pattern on his pink armor.

Yea, medbay first is probably not a good idea.

You don't need to counter avatar until it fills up. Just make sure you have contact with countries where the sites are so you can get there in time.
And you should not be overwatching when aliens are active unless you got no other options. Don't choose or do any random actions. If you have 100% options always do those. Make sure to have explosives with every party member (even snipers) until you can get to mid game and have access to better stuff

 

[Bliblablubb]

Yeah I realized that now as well. They still no "1 shot 1 kill", so not really worth all that moneyz so early. Oh well, I consider this run my learning experience regarding mechanics and research tree.
And ovenwatch seems to get a 2hit penalty or something like that.
Was building radio towers in all KWA territories a good idea at least, or should I restart that clusterfuck once and for all?

Git gud.

Better RNG yuo GIEV!

 

[ArchAngel]

Radio tower are good but you should only build them towards sites with avatar facilities so you can lower the Intel costs of making contact. Also you should not build more than you need to get continent bonuses.
Radio tower costs rise fast and you cannot afford to put them everywhere. First few will pay themselves off fairly fast but after that they are a supply loss for a long time.

 

[Bliblablubb]

How fast does Avaturd fill up anyway? 1 pip per month, or does it get faster the more time has passed?

 

[Serus]

The crucial part/big "secret" is to never fight more than one pod a time. And you can do it most of the time. This is the reason the base xcom games are much worse then they should be imho (part 2 is better thanks to timers). The pod activation system with all the consequences for gameplay is the biggest sin of both XCOM games, not the 2-action system. All strategy devolves to:

Step 1: activate ONE alien pod when you are ready to do it.
Step 2: If your 5~6 guys massacre those ~3 poor aliens in one turn --> go directly to step 5. If not --> go to step 3.
Steb 3 if you can't kill all the enemies in the first turn then kill 1 or 2 and suppress/flashbang/psionic/whatever the remaining ones = never leave an alien who can attack you at full skill, always debuff if you can. If you can't do that just overwatch/hunker but this is often a risk and taking risks = dead people sooner or later depending on your luck.
Step 4: finish the remaining alien/s in the second turn.
Step 5: repeat from step 1 until you beat the game.

And i'm not even joking, that's literally the whole secret to playing the whole of both XCOM games. Some types of missions makes this difficult = this is the good thing about timers in part 2, they can force you to risk a double activation sometimes or to take some other otherwise unnecessary risks. This is also why people wanting to remove timers are idiots, without them most of the game is trivial, difficulty settings are just for that if you want easy.

A propos, the best thing that Long War for XCOM 1 did was not all the additional fluff, skills, all the added content etc.. but the rebalancing. They made maps packed with more numerous and stronger alien pods and they made almost all those pods patrol the map (not just some of them). The end result was that sometimes it was impossible to pull the steps 2-5. Another pod enters the combat before you finish the first one and there is little you can do to prevent it. It was enough to improve the game significantly imho. Timers seem to be there to do the same thing which means the devs have learnt something from Long War guys after all*.

*Edit: Maybe they came to the same conclusions on their own after seeing how the first game plays in practice, impossible to tell.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

How fast does Avaturd fill up anyway? 1 pip per month, or does it get faster the more time has passed?

It depends.
When an alien facility is constructed it gives a pip.
Occasionally an existing alien facility will generate another pip. I don't know how often, but I do know that if you destroy one that has accumulated several pips, the meter will go down by that amount. So if you find a facility that has 3 pips, blow it the fuck up.

When November comes along, the game tells you to fuck yourself, and starts introducing an unavoidable dark event that immediately gives one pip. I don't think its every month, but its often enough to be a problem.

 

[Bliblablubb]

Step 1: activate ONE alien pod when you are ready to do it.

That seems the only thing I remember from XCOM1 to be still valid. Tho I had a few times when 2 of the 3 aliens decided to do a frenchman and ran to the next pod, making that one a little.. uuuh more interesting.

This is also why people wanting to remove timers are idiots, without them most of the game is trivial, difficulty settings are just for that if you want easy.

I use a mod that doesn't start the timer when you are still concealed, which basically means 1 or 2 extra turns most of the time. Doesn't affect aliens shooting devices or retreat timers tho. I only did it because I missed the extraction point by 1 fucking square. Twice. It's okay for a first run.

When November comes along, the game tells you to fuck yourself, and starts introducing an unavoidable dark event that immediately gives one pip. I don't think its every month, but its often enough to be a problem.

Oh yay. But I read people saying not to worry too much about that avaturd thing, it looks more scary than it actually is.

Guess I will try a new run with an extra squadmate first and many grenades to be thrown.

Thanks for support gais.

 

[Zombra]

Git gud.

Ehhh. Not Ironman, screenshot and brag are meaningless. You can say "I didn't save scum except when I really wanted to", but who cares?

 

[Jimmious]

Git gud.

Ehhh. Not Ironman, screenshot and brag are meaningless. You can say "I didn't save scum except when I really wanted to", but who cares?

Yeap. No Ironman means you could have reloaded 1000 times per map.
The game is really hard playing on Ironman, Commander difficulty and onwards. Balancing between careful pod triggering and running the counter down is really tricky if you know that any mistake will hurt a lot

 

[Vault Dweller]

The game isn't that difficult. Once you understand the basics (like pods triggering, different enemies types and what works best, etc), it's nearly impossible to lose men, unless you're playing in an extremely reckless manner (like running in random directions). I'm playing on Commander difficulty, my first playthrough, only the final mission left, and for me a mission gone horribly wrong is a mission where 3-4 men get wounded. My sniper drops bodies left and right with Serial. I activate a pod, soften them up with grenades (I have two characters who can throw grenades as free action), let the sniper kill the wounded (2-4 bodies) with Serial. The built-in heavy armor weapons are OP, same goes for the psionics but I built the lab last.

 

[Jimmious]

What can I say, I've finished EU&EW 3-4 times on Classic Ironman, relatively easily the last couple of times too.
So far I can't do it in XCOM2. Sometime, some mission goes wrong, two pods get triggered simply from time pressure and then everything goes downhill.
But I like that, I'm not complaining

 

[Ivan]

3 grenadiers + sniper = ez mode

I agree with Vault Dweller

 

[ArchAngel]

What can I say, I've finished EU&EW 3-4 times on Classic Ironman, relatively easily the last couple of times too.
So far I can't do it in XCOM2. Sometime, some mission goes wrong, two pods get triggered simply from time pressure and then everything goes downhill.
But I like that, I'm not complaining

I also played Xcom EU and EW on classic ironman and I found Xcom2 much easier on commander/ironman. I attributed it to knowing how to play from Xcom EU/EW plays since base mechanics and tactics have not changed that much.

 

[Jimmious]

What can I say, I've finished EU&EW 3-4 times on Classic Ironman, relatively easily the last couple of times too.
So far I can't do it in XCOM2. Sometime, some mission goes wrong, two pods get triggered simply from time pressure and then everything goes downhill.
But I like that, I'm not complaining

I also played Xcom EU and EW on classic ironman and I found Xcom2 much easier on commander/ironman. I attributed it to knowing how to play from Xcom EU/EW plays since base mechanics and tactics have not changed that much.

I don't know how can someone say that. Not only are the aliens generally more dangerous, the timers are pushing you to move a lot which makes some of the tactics that were dominant in EU/EW more or less useless, until you do the main objective.
What can I say, maybe I got unlucky with the map generation, but there have been many occasions where I wouldn't be able to reach the objective fast enough to be super careful about pod triggering for example.

 

[Vault Dweller]

I'm going with a single grenadier, two rangers (one has free grenade action): both run & gun and rapid fire are deadly, one haxor with a healing bot, one sniper, and one 'mage' who replaced another haxor (I went through 3/4 of the game with 2 specialists which was a mistake, not that it mattered in the end). If I ever try to beat it on ironman, I'd go with either two grenadiers instead or two mages for their dominate ability.

Overall, it's the pod activation mechanics that keeps the difficulty low. In most cases you can easily kill a pod without taking any damage and you can kill two pods without losing any men, but taking some damage. The two-three pods fights are the best fights that can quickly expose weak parties, poor builds/upgrades, etc. It would have been better if the other pods didn't wait to be activated but moved toward you the moment you'd attack someone.

Edit:

Usually I end timed missions with 2-4 turns left, so they definitely weren't an issue for me.

 

[Jimmious]

The thing is, I find the game very difficult before you can get all these abilities. What can I say, maybe the timers intimidate me much more than they should

 

[Vault Dweller]

Maybe. Keep in mind that before you get these abilities, the enemies are much weaker (no armored mechs or big daddy that needs to be killed twice which takes a lot of firepower). I had two rangers on most missions and in the early game their ability to run across the field and kill someone with one swing made a huge difference.

 

[Jimmious]

Maybe. Keep in mind that before you get these abilities, the enemies are much weaker (no armored mechs or big daddy that needs to be killed twice which takes a lot of firepower). I had two rangers on most missions and in the early game their ability to run across the field and kill someone with one swing made a huge difference.

Did you play with the Muton Commander mod also? That asshole appears after the regular Mutons and he's a beast with 3 armor and like 10-12 hp if I recall correctly. Also has a "War Cry" which boosts nearby aliens. He has been a big issue a couple of times. Especially once that he was in a second pod that got triggered during battle.

 

[Mozg]

Long War mid-lategame basically works by turning accidental double/triple pod triggers from the base game into the median encounter by heavily beefing out individual pods (both with more units and strengthening individuals), and then giving you a big set of new options to mitigate the danger of leaving shit alive to shoot at you. I feel like that's almost a no-brainer design-wise because the activation shit is obviously stupid yet having lots of small pods instead of bulky ones that can't be killed in a turn maximizes the importance of exploiting it.

The XCOM2 thing where they dropped armor health and any scratch is a wound that requires healing time means taking "safe" hits on a tank isn't a good option either, which makes 1-turn annihilation even more optimal.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Nope. Which mod is it?

 

[Jimmious]

To be exact it's Muton Centurion Alien Pack. One of the three from the Long War guys.

 

[Zombra]

Maybe. Keep in mind that before you get these abilities, the enemies are much weaker (no armored mechs or big daddy that needs to be killed twice which takes a lot of firepower). I had two rangers on most missions and in the early game their ability to run across the field and kill someone with one swing made a huge difference.

Interesting, so you use swords a lot, at least in the early game? This is good information.

 

[Lerk]

Maybe. Keep in mind that before you get these abilities, the enemies are much weaker (no armored mechs or big daddy that needs to be killed twice which takes a lot of firepower). I had two rangers on most missions and in the early game their ability to run across the field and kill someone with one swing made a huge difference.

Interesting, so you use swords a lot, at least in the early game? This is good information.

Early game is the only time swords are worth a damn, though. The ability to reliably (or at least 80%+ reliably) finish off some mook sitting behind full cover who'd otherwise be a <40% ranged shot is a great advantage. But swords become obsolete the moment you get decent aim with a shotgun, which is easily done. Marbozir's LP (ironman commander) saw him modding his shotgun rangers with +aim scopes, PCS and tracer rounds. He was reliably critting things from across the map with some ludicrous flanks, one-shotting mechs even.

I think Beaglerush plays with a 100% hit mod for swords. Even then, they're crap. Top tier sword....sets things on fire (useless against robotics), bounces off armor (so most of the mid-late game aliens), and can be dodged/grazed as easily (or even easier) than a ranged attack. Pretty terrible. Even Reaper has diminishing returns and requires you to put your ranger directly in harms way to be able to use it effectively or with anything approaching consistency.

Shotgun just outclasses sword past the first 2 months of the game in every department, sadly.

 

[Jasede]

He uses them a little more in his "+1-2(maybe, at least +1 though) enemy for all pods, nerfed grenades, nerfed shotguns" run. That one is, needless to say, pretty hard, since the rest of the settings are on vanilla Legendary/Ironman. And you can imagine extra enemies on pods can be quite rough with just 4 guys.
Even then he prefers the shotgun when he can flank or get a 90+ shot in, since the damage is just so much higher and more reliable. Plus, the stealth abilities are king.

I will say, Beags is stunning; how can one man be so good at this? The guy reliably gets through situations we can only dream off. 10+ enemies, multiple pods... he is tedious in that it takes him 10 minutes to make a turn, but the results are so damn good.