The XCOM squad's combat effectiveness

TheD3rp

TheD3rp

Lowly Footsoldier
Joined
Jul 23, 2013
Messages
194
Location
Washington State
I just got XCOM squads in my playthrough and I decided to try them out. I placed a diplomat in another civs capital, and sure enough I could get the XCOM squad there. Another thing about the XCOM squad is your front can be reinforced incredibly fast, for normal units you have to wait turns for them to get to the front. While with the XCOM squad, your reinforcements can get to the front almost instantly.
 
KrikkitTwo said:
They are the Conquest Victory equivalent to Globalization or the Internet... a "finish the game already"
Click to expand...

Exactly this.

X-Com is stronger than Modern Armor, gets defensive bonuses, and unlike the GDR, requires no strategic resources. They are, just as the quote says, the equivalent of saying

'you obviously will win at this point anyways, so here are some units that can jump across the world to take out that one odd-ball capital on a small island or continent somewhere without waiting 20 turns to do it'.
 
Yeah, the combination of stealth bombers and xcom squaddies makes for the fastest city capture I've ever seen in a civ game. The longest part's waiting for your spy to get in place to get visibility when you have a medic parked with your bombers.
 
I never, NEVER, go for domination victory for the simple reason that when I overpower my worst rival, it's always just an easy stroll around the world with my armies. The problem is that my military might is already bigger than that of the whole world combined, but still my units need to physically get to enemy cities: move through jungles, cross rivers, climb hills, embark and swim, disembark... It takes forever and is tedious as enemies can effectively slow down any army. Not stop, but hold for long enough.

XCOM severely hurts climate of the game and serves as a very poor remedy for the tedium of domination. I can't understand why can't we have the old domination victory condition: 66% land and 60% people (or was it 60% and 66%)?
 
And anyone notices the buff to the Paratrooper? It has a 9 range now, and can pillage without wasting a move/action now.

The range is excellent now, but instead of free pillaging, free Cover promotions would fit better.
 
Montov said:
And anyone notices the buff to the Paratrooper? It has a 9 range now, and can pillage without wasting a move/action now.

The range is excellent now, but instead of free pillaging, free Cover promotions would fit better.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I did notice this. And they upgrade to XCOM squad - I dread to think what a highly promoted XCOM Squad would be like! This makes Paratroopers a viable unit for getting into territory quickly and I may even use a few now in BNW.

I think the XCOM Squad is meant to just be a bit of fun. Yes, it is a ridiculously powerful unit but then so it should be at that moment in the tech tree.

Linked to Paratroopers and the XCOM Squad... The Airport and airlifts. I welcome this feature very much. Certainly beats embarking an army across a huge map for 10 turns.
 
As an example, in a recent game I had the science victory locked up. Catherine and Hiawatha were both building parts but had gone Order so they had to hard build them while I went Freedom and was just buying them as I teched into the tree (this seems very cheater, by the way - I wish NASA just "insta-bought" the space shuttle or ISS parts).

After I purchased the last part (the engine, I think?) I parked it in my capital and sent a spy to Catherine to inform her of my progress. After shmoozing around Moscow and getting me a good view of her capital, I politely informed her of my intent to cause mischief, declared war and paradropped 12 XCOM units into the tiles around her capital from my Barracks/Armory/Military Academy military industrial complex city. She was shocked and horrified and probably a little disappointed, but I assured her we would we be BFFs on Alpha Centauri as I set Moscow to the torch and clambered onto my spaceship.

It gave me a great deal of satisfaction.
 
unohu said:
As an example, in a recent game I had the science victory locked up. Catherine and Hiawatha were both building parts but had gone Order so they had to hard build them while I went Freedom and was just buying them as I teched into the tree (this seems very cheater, by the way - I wish NASA just "insta-bought" the space shuttle or ISS parts).

After I purchased the last part (the engine, I think?) I parked it in my capital and sent a spy to Catherine to inform her of my progress. After shmoozing around Moscow and getting me a good view of her capital, I politely informed her of my intent to cause mischief, declared war and paradropped 12 XCOM units into the tiles around her capital from my Barracks/Armory/Military Academy military industrial complex city. She was shocked and horrified and probably a little disappointed, but I assured her we would we be BFFs on Alpha Centauri as I set Moscow to the torch and clambered onto my spaceship.

It gave me a great deal of satisfaction.
Click to expand...

I like your story.:)
 
Makavcio said:
XCOM severely hurts climate of the game and serves as a very poor remedy for the tedium of domination. I can't understand why can't we have the old domination victory condition: 66% land and 60% people (or was it 60% and 66%)?
Click to expand...

I think 30% or so of the people was enough. 66% of the people was a "diplomatic" victory anyway...

In any case, I like the current one better. It doesn't force you to hold on to poor cities just to keep the land claimed. It is much simpler. It doesn't happen just because some odd tile is acquired via culture.

It is somewhat tedious to acquire that last capital, true. Again, a case of "the game being practically won already" most of the time. I'd personally remedy this by combining cultural and domination victory - to win, you must control each civ either culturally or by holding their capital. This way you could sweep the pushovers without military micromanagement.
 
XCOM severely hurts climate of the game and serves as a very poor remedy for the tedium of domination.
Click to expand...
Should be renamed, really. And affected by air defenses also. Paratroopers aren't either, which is stupid.

And be more powerful. Infantry with powered armor would totally and completely obliterate modern infantry.

I mean, Alpha Centauri had that, you couldn't drop anything near cities with Aerospace Complexes.

It's a pretty realistic concept though. Powered-armor infantry paradropped from aircraft.
With hypersonic sub-orbital planes it's going to be possible to get troops at any point on Earth in a couple of hours..
 
I don't really mind the XCOMs in the game and I don't think there's any climate to ruin - as if GDR didn't do that already. They're a bit tongue in cheek, obviously, but essentially just potent upgrades over normal units to accelerate the endgame.
 
Come on Firaxis, just waiting for the 'mech scenario... different types of GDRs with XCOM units and such. Mega damage!
 
unohu said:
Come on Firaxis, just waiting for the 'mech scenario... different types of GDRs with XCOM units and such. Mega damage!
Click to expand...

Frankly, I'm surprised if there isn't a tactical mech fighting mod for Civ V already.
 
VainoValkea said:
...I'd personally remedy this by combining cultural and domination victory - to win, you must control each civ either culturally or by holding their capital. This way you could sweep the pushovers without military micromanagement.
Click to expand...

This pretty much already is what the cultural victory is about. Usually there are at least one or two civs that have so much culture it's hard to become influential with them. The capital city is normally where the AI/player stations most of their great works, builds most of their wonders, and is where most of their culture comes from. Taking a civ's capital can be a pretty effective way to put an end to their resistance. The tourism creeps up on them sooner or later.

There are a few differences between the current cultural victory and the version you described but for most purposes they end up being identical.
 
I_qua_I said:
This pretty much already is what the cultural victory is about. Usually there are at least one or two civs that have so much culture it's hard to become influential with them. The capital city is normally where the AI/player stations most of their great works, builds most of their wonders, and is where most of their culture comes from. Taking a civ's capital can be a pretty effective way to put an end to their resistance. The tourism creeps up on them sooner or later.
Click to expand...

It'll still take a long while for the tourism to make up any big cultural lead they may have, which I would remedy. And it would remove the need for domination-oriented civs to smash every puny weakling nation, although at the cost of possibly over-emphasizing culture which is fairly big already.
 
Makavcio said:
I can't understand why can't we have the old domination victory condition: 66% land and 60% people (or was it 60% and 66%)?
Click to expand...

Just immagine: one civ have 100 cities with 5 citizens each and another have 10 cities with 20 citizens each.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

L. Vern
[QoL] Squads: Group Movement + RTS Style Control Groups
2
Replies
32
Views
7K
Better Buff Turtle ship
Better Buff Turtle ship
Y
  • Locked
[Complex] (7-NS) Recon Units Line Rework
Replies
11
Views
550
N.Core
N.Core
L
Recommendations for Civilization VI Improvement
Replies
1
Views
392
Bonyduck Campersang
Bonyduck Campersang
KayAU
Which are your favourite civs (in Vox Populi or vanilla)?
Replies
6
Views
3K
Darth Tribble
Darth Tribble
J-man
XCOM Thread
Replies
7
Views
2K
J-man
J-man
Top Bottom