Let's play X-COM and save the Earth!

[nodikus]

I always liked this game. I'll be following this. I'd recomend you only save at the beginning of missions and let events occur as they may. It's more entertaining this way.

I'll take Gerhard Lecointe if he's still available.

Hire as many scientists, engeineers and soldiers as you can. a missle tank wouldn't hurt until you can get some decent weapons and equipment.

Get a l. Radar and Alien containment if you can afford it.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

I don't think there's any point hiring engineers until the end of January:

They can't build anything right now, we need to research laser weapons and laser pistol before they can build laser pistols, then laser rifles need to be researched too.

Gerard -> nodikus

You look like a heavy cannon dude to me - you have good accuracy and strength. You could also take the auto cannon instead if you like, but you don't need to be as accurate with that since you can auto fire.

EDIT: I'm gonna give Otto to scherbchen, he has ok strength and good bravery, so I trust him with the rockets.

I'm gonna dole out the other soldiers to the rest of the posters in the thread.

Captain2 - Oscar
Thorn - Adam
Feanor - Frank

I'm gonna hire another 6 soldiers so we can fill the whole skyranger, and 20 scientists if I can afford it. I'll try and keep a couple of million bucks around for emergencies.

 

[Erik Mesoy]

Build alien containment, build living quarters and labs, hire lots of researchers, hire engineers around day 10 so we can start making laser pistols. I usually finish all essential research about 6-8 months into the game.

 

[Thorn]

I'm gonna dole out the other soldiers to the rest of the posters in the thread.

Captain2 - Oscar
Thorn - Adam
Feanor - Frank

I'm okay with being Adam.

 

[nodikus]

I'll take the Auto-cannon it more useful overall, epeciall HE and Incendary rounds.
Also make sure you remember to replace the cannons on your interceptors with avalanche missles

 

[ParadigmShifter]

On both interceptors?

I normally keep one with cannon for taking out small UFOs - although it's probably better to wait until they land.

 

[nodikus]

That's a good idea, I can't believe that never occured to me before.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Right, I have spent $3M already

I order another 6 soldiers so we can fill the skyranger

I'm going to line up the hangars on the north edge of the base and get rid of the 2 on the south side, eventually

Living quarters are going to be deleted by the access lift (octagonal red room) so I build a new one here

And I start building a large radar

And a general stores

I can only hire 16 more scientists due to only having 1 living quarters so far (each holds 50 men)

Base info

I start researching laser weapons

I almost forgot to build an alien containment facility

And I rename the soldiers.

I'll get round to arming one of the interceptors with avalanche long range missiles too, and probably sell the spare cannon.

We have just short of a million bucks now so I'm not going to be buying a tank yet Once we shoot down some UFOs we may get some things to sell.

 

[Maniacal]

Sweet, I didn't really know what exactly the X-COM games were. Sign me up to shoot some aliens kekeke pew pew

 

[ParadigmShifter]

OK you'll get a grunt when the new soldiers arrive.

I changed the weapons systems on Interceptor-1 so it has Avalanche and Stingray missiles. Interceptor-2 has Stingrays and Cannon. I'll use Interceptor-2 for small UFOs.

I can sell the 2 extra cannons - or I could just arm Interceptor-2 with 2 cannons leaving 1 left over for sale, never tried a 2 cannon approach probably not a good idea. Each cannon will sell for $22,500 but we don't need to sell yet.

We detect our first UFO at 15:14 on Jan 1st. It's very small.

Here is where it is (it's the red cross to the southeast of the base)

We can either shoot it down and raid the wreckage (less dangerous) or we can wait for it to land and see if we can storm the UFO (more dangerous but greater reward).

EDIT: If we wait for it to land we will probably be fighting at night also, which makes things harder still, whereas if we shoot it down we can wait until morning to investigate.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

NOOOOO it's over Transylvania (sorta). =((

For the first 2-3 UFOs i always shoot them down and look through the wrecks. The only explanation i have is that i like a rising difficulty, not a fluctuating one.
But wait a sec don't "Very Small" UFO never leave a wreck when you shoot it down ? Or does that only apply to bigger guns ?

 

[Maniacal]

Blow it out of the sky!

 

[Erik Mesoy]

Shoot it down! You really don't want to risk losing early UFOs. There's no guarantee that it'll land within sight. Even if it blows up, you still get points for it.

Also, as to building, I'd suggest leaving the Living Quarters by the Access Lift. If the base is attacked, aliens will come down the Access Lift and Hangars, and you will very much want to keep them contained before they start spreading out and blowing too much stuff up. (And this isn't the Apocalypse sequel, where researches and engineers also spawn in the base and need protection.) Besides, you need more Living Quarters anyway, and you're probably short on money early on.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

I've done a bit of digging, it seems it is easy to blow up very small UFOs unless I use cannons (basically involves aggressive attack so I get very close to it). I get more points if I destroy it though...

Landing seems the best bet but they are very fast.

@Erik: I'll keep the living quarters until I dismantle one of the hangars, and build a new one over part of the hangar site.

EDIT: Ok, I'm going to launch interceptor-2 and aggressively attack (hopefully making t crash with cannon fire rather than destroy it).

 

[Erik Mesoy]

Dismantling that middle living quarter would leave invading aliens from the lift and upper hangars wandering through the general stores and into the radar or research rooms before meeting your soldiers. If you're a noob, this seems like a bad idea. You have the home turf advantage when defending: use it, know where the aliens are, don't let them wander too much.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Well I'll cross that bridge when we come to it

Interceptor-2 is scrambled:

The UFO outruns us but then turns around heading back to Romania so we catch it

I aggressively attack hoping to get close enough to cannon it from the sky but the interceptor fires a stingray missile. It doesn't destroy the UFO and it crash lands!

I chuck some equipment and all our soldiers into the skyranger:

It's about 1900 hours now, should we wait until morning to investigate the crash?

 

[Thorn]

Night operations are a little riskier, but if you wait too long (ie, for morning) I think the wreck location disappears. Just remember to bring flares if we go at night!

 

[ParadigmShifter]

I'm trying to find out how long the wrecks stay around for now, I'll get back to you.

EDIT: A guide online said they stay for a couple of days so I vote waiting till around 6AM or so to launch the skyranger.

 

[scherbchen]

woohoo! I am a rookie!

really ought to have reserved names for forum users for my blood bowl LP, good idea. well, many of my players will die anyhoo.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Everyone is a rookie until they get some action (kills definitely promote them to squaddies, not sure whether anything else does).

Here's the troop roster

First Row

Erik Mesoy

TIME UNITS 54
STAMINA 67
HEALTH 35
BRAVERY 20
REACTIONS 35
FIRING ACCURACY 56
THROWING ACCURACY 64
STRENGTH 28

Erik want's to move into 2H weapons but his average strength suggests a rifle for now.

Captain2

TIME UNITS 52
STAMINA 52
HEALTH 31
BRAVERY 60
REACTIONS 50
FIRING ACCURACY 54
THROWING ACCURACY 61
STRENGTH 22

Looks like a pretty good scout to me, so packs a pistol.

2nd row:

Heretic Cata

TIME UNITS 58
STAMINA 59
HEALTH 37
BRAVERY 30
REACTIONS 53
FIRING ACCURACY 65
THROWING ACCURACY 68
STRENGTH 20

Could function as a scout or a sniper

Thorn

TIME UNITS 55
STAMINA 43
HEALTH 30
BRAVERY 10
REACTIONS 30
FIRING ACCURACY 68
THROWING ACCURACY 71
STRENGTH 25

Looks like another sniper

3rd row:

scherbchen

TIME UNITS 53
STAMINA 59
HEALTH 26
BRAVERY 60
REACTIONS 42
FIRING ACCURACY 63
THROWING ACCURACY 74
STRENGTH 35

scherbchen is the rockets man, so gets a rocket launcher and a pistol. Since it's only a very small UFO 2 rockets (1 loaded and 1 in pack) should suffice.

nodikus

TIME UNITS 50
STAMINA 51
HEALTH 29
BRAVERY 30
REACTIONS 50
FIRING ACCURACY 66
THROWING ACCURACY 50
STRENGTH 40

nodikus is the auto cannon wielder so gets that and a pistol. We only have AP ammo at the moment, I should order some HE ammo for the next mission.

Back row:


Paradigm

TIME UNITS 60
STAMINA 40
HEALTH 33
BRAVERY 10
REACTIONS 44
FIRING ACCURACY 70
THROWING ACCURACY 54
STRENGTH 35

I'll take one of the heavy cannons and a pistol.

Feanor

TIME UNITS 56
STAMINA 64
HEALTH 34
BRAVERY 30
REACTIONS 34
FIRING ACCURACY 40
THROWING ACCURACY 73
STRENGTH 31

Looks a bit average could either carry the other heavy cannon or a pistol or a rifle, I dunno.