XCOM 2

[GoodSarmatian]

Man, I can't even with some missions.
Supply raid where you have to mark crates in a city where you can't see the gatew because of all the walls, hordes of Lost, and my first encounter with the Warlock.
Or same thing with the Assassin. Her first attack leaves one of my soldiers bleeding out and I have to evac him and the guy carrying his body...
At least I'm already getting better at fighting the Chosen. If you manage to back them into a corner they die relatively quickly.

 

[sherbz]

IMO legend is actually easier. Reapers trivialize many missions with shadow and remote start early game, and the hardest missions in the vanilla early game such as the first council mission, have been removed or changed. I just got plated armor in early May so I'm about to enter the mid game, which I've heard has become much harder once you start fighting all three chosen.

I guess its all about the second mission then. Assuming you dont get reinforcements it should be doable. Maybe i was unlucky with the psionic and double stun lancer roll. And certain weapon mods are really good on teh special units. Mox becomes really good if you give him an advanced magazine.

The chosen are less difficult than the rulers IMO. But it really does help if you have at least 1 decently promoted soldier that has a squad bonded mate. Two critical shotguns to the face with advanced laser sight is really rather effective.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

The're less difficult than the rulers were. I encountered the Viper King in a facility, and it seems he's been hit hard with the nerf stick.
Now he's started to show up randomly. Currently mostly killing lost in a mission I'm doing for the Reapers.

 

[sherbz]

Im finding that theres a lot of variety in the game. The mission types are very varied. My only criticism so far is that there is a bit too much going on too quickly. I thought the pacing of vanilla was pretty good. Now you have a ton of new mechanics and toys, and you have a bit too much to do or play with in one go. It might benefit from some more branching on the tech tree so that stuff unlocks later as you have to research more techs to get more weapons. Cant complain about too much content though. And you never quite know whats going to happen when you run into a chosen. I will certainly be looking forward to the new mods that will bound to be following. The great thing about the game is that you can tweak it to your liking. Right now im thinking somewhere between long war and what we currently have would be about right for me.

 

[ls612]

I lost the third retaliation after I encountered 6(!) berserkers with mostly ballistic weapons. I sustained no injuries, but there was no way to save enough people when five civilians per turn were being killed by enraged berserkers. I hope that Firaxis goes back and looks at the mission balance, as this was the first XCOM 2 mission I legitimately believe was impossible to complete.

 

[BvBPL]

What month was that?

 

[sherbz]

I lost the third retaliation after I encountered 6(!) berserkers with mostly ballistic weapons. I sustained no injuries, but there was no way to save enough people when five civilians per turn were being killed by enraged berserkers. I hope that Firaxis goes back and looks at the mission balance, as this was the first XCOM 2 mission I legitimately believe was impossible to complete.

Thats rough. But how have you got no mag weapons by the third retaliation? Wouldnt that be like month 4 or 5? Im only just about to do my third and i have mag, gauss and plated (commander).

 

[ls612]

Third Retaliation is June 1-7 (so the start of month 4).

Also I play Legend and my strategy is to rush armor so I stop losing soldiers to lucky crits. I'm about to do the fourth retaliation and now I have full mag weapons and Squad Size 2 so I think I'll be fine.

 

[sherbz]

Third Retaliation is June 1-7 (so the start of month 4).

Also I play Legend and my strategy is to rush armor so I stop losing soldiers to lucky crits. I'm about to do the fourth retaliation and now I have full mag weapons and Squad Size 2 so I think I'll be fine.

Yes, plated is good for that. Although i usually find mag weapons is equally if not more viable because you lack the alloys in order to begin researching plated until you hit your first supply raid (and you certainly cant build it), which is month 2. So its usually best (IMO) to go for mag weapons first so you can kill everything without it even shooting. After all, hitting with a mag weapon of any tier is guaranteed to kill a basic trooper. And you negate the possibility of spending 3 actions in trying to kill either an officer, or sectoid, or priest, or stun lancer, or viper (unless they dodge).

I just finished that mission on commander. I had 5 Berserkers i think. They went down fairly easy but killed a few civvies. I am currently assaulting one of the chosen strongholds. I ran into an Andommedon, heavy mech, heavy stun lancer and trooper though so im going to have a sleep and mull over what to do lol (ive got mag and gauss, but the andrommedon scares me a bit and i lost my mimic beacon in a breakout of jail mission due to some stupid trooper throwing a grenade and then another trooper critical hitting my exposed and wounded specialist).

Other than that things are going ok. Im playing commander ironman. Lost 4 soldiers so far to unlucky criticals (i would call the above unlucky). So im doing worse than my commander ironman run on vanilla where i only lost 1 soldier. I do think some of the bonuses are a bit too good. The one where you get a guaranteed reduction of 1 on the avatar project every month almost nullifies its completion as a threat. And the insta kill on any hit on the lost trivialises their threat quite significantly. I also have the new continent bonus which allows instant contact of a new region. thats also a bit too good. It spawned on my home continent. So when you think about it, that saves me about 84 days scanning time (started in Asia, and theres 12 more regions outside of asia @ 7 days scanning each)

 

[tesb]

started a new game with wotc. wanted to play honest man, got crit through full cover on second mission ... time to reload. i really wish there was a game option with no rng involved (like in chaos reborn)

 

[sherbz]

I managed my problem. The chosen battle missions in their fortress are rough. I had full mag and plated, but it was still tricky. I managed it though. Barely. To avoid spoilers:

Spoiler victory screen :

And the mission info:

Spoiler :

The penultimate room was tough with an andrommedon, heavy stun lancer, heavy mech and purifier. i managed to kill all of them though with only taking damage from the mech - which almost killed my ranger. Interestingly i think theres two ways to reach the ascension chamber. Im not sure if one way is easier than the other. It might make sense to rush past the final room if you can spare the movement. As it works like an evac. The final room was pretty brutal. I killed her quite easy first time round. Then she goes to a sarcophagus like a vampire and you have to destroy that. But meanwhile 2 archons and 2 chryssalids spawned in, which was pretty rough IMO. Artchons are dangerous when you only have mag weapons. Plus the coffin has a huge number of hitpoints and i suspect the assasin respawns if you dont kill it in time. She respawns anyway once you kill it, and by that time i was running out of stuff to throw at her. Thankfully she fell in the end and i didnt have to kill the archon and two troopers she spawned in the turn before. Got some nice loot out of it - a sword which looks rather tasty and a shotgun. Still though, i am guessing the next two will be more difficult. So i think i might wait for plasma weapons and/or powered armour. A decent psi op wouldnt go amiss either. Finally, battle scanners are rather useful for the assasin as they reveal her when she is in shadow. Which enablers you to get some free hits in on the first turn if your troops are in favourable positions.

 

[sherbz]

started a new game with wotc. wanted to play honest man, got crit through full cover on second mission ... time to reload. i really wish there was a game option with no rng involved (like in chaos reborn)

Are you playing on legend? I started on legend but dropped down to commander after 2 failed attempts. The first mission was easy. But the second one is brutal. I had a drop of 1 priest and 2 stun lancers. There were also the stock map aliens including 2 sectoids as well. And it was a kill the advent commander mission. I just didnt have the damage or tools to kill everything.

 

[Ailedhoo]

Currently enjoying. I have faced one of the Chosen in their lair.

Spoiler Fight against the Assassin :

Outrider was the one who shot the killing bullet.

It was a fun fight, having to take on the Chosen and deal with their resurrection machine.

BTW a fun factor with the defector orders you can give the Skirmishers is that you can start the mission with a fun lancer under your command!

Spoiler fun lance start :

 

[GoodSarmatian]

I just had a reinforcement squad of one Priest and two Stun Lancers appear in the second mission of my campaign.
In that mission my specialist got Enemy Protocol from a hack.
I managed to kill the Priest and one Lancer before they could attack.
The surviving Lancer gravely wounded my Specialist and she's now out of commission for twenty days.
The RNG giveth and the RNG taketh away.
Also got one Elerium Core and three weapon mods, so this time he gave more than he took.

 

[sherbz]

I just had a reinforcement squad of one Priest and two Stun Lancers appear in the second mission of my campaign.
In that mission my specialist got Enemy Protocol from a hack.
I managed to kill the Priest and one Lancer before they could attack.
The surviving Lancer gravely wounded my Specialist and she's now out of commission for twenty days.
The RNG giveth and the RNG taketh away.
Also got one Elerium Core and three weapon mods, so this time he gave more than he took.

Yea that happened to me on my failed legend attempt. I died though. I was hampered by a sectoid who mind controlled one of my soldiers.

I think the mid game is definitely tougher this time. I just almost squad wiped. Had a very difficult protect the device mission. I am not quite at plasma weaponry yet or powered armour and i had a 12 enemy mission which consisted of 2 spectres and 2 andrommedons. Things went slightly pear shaped and i lost my templar and my major specialist, which was a bit of a bummer. Fortunately there was a captain replacement in the black market and a few recon missions later, i got a major templar from a resitance mission.

Another thing i have noticed is that there isnt enough space to build everything in your base. You have 12 slots. So utilising all the slots you would build:

2 power generators
Workshop
GTS
AWC
Proving grounds
2 resistance coms
1 lab
Shadow chamber
Psi lab
Turret defence

Some you could skip, or only build if you had nothing left to burn the cash on - like the lab and the turret defence. But the rest were fairly optimal. Now though you also have:

Training centre
Resistance ring
Infirmary

So if you take off the AWC which no longer exists you have to drop 2 buildings, which will nearly always be the turret defence and the lab. Or is there another optimisation i am missing?

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Some you could skip, or only build if you had nothing left to burn the cash on - like the lab and the turret defence. But the rest were fairly optimal. Now though you also have:

Training centre
Resistance ring
Infirmary

So if you take off the AWC which no longer exists you have to drop 2 buildings, which will nearly always be the turret defence and the lab. Or is there another optimisation i am missing?

I wouldn't skip the lab because now there's more stuff to research and it increases the likelihood of breakthroughs, but maybe you can do without it if you get enough scientists. If you have engineers, the workshop can be safely ignored. A second comm might also not be necessary if you can get contacts through ops.

 

[ls612]

I just survived a really bad 4 pod activation with 4 mutons, an Archon, and some other stuff in a Rescue Resistance People mission without losing anyone. The I wish I had screenshotted the end mission screen, there were over 100 kills when all was said and done (I used copious explosives to manage the bad activation which drew a tooooon of lost). The whole mission took 2 hours but in the end I got 2 captains and 2 promotions and an Engineer so I'd say it was worth it for 6 wounded.

Another thing i have noticed is that there isnt enough space to build everything in your base. You have 12 slots. So utilising all the slots you would build:

2 power generators
Workshop
GTS
AWC
Proving grounds
2 resistance coms
1 lab
Shadow chamber
Psi lab
Turret defence

Some you could skip, or only build if you had nothing left to burn the cash on - like the lab and the turret defence. But the rest were fairly optimal. Now though you also have:

Training centre
Resistance ring
Infirmary

So if you take off the AWC which no longer exists you have to drop 2 buildings, which will nearly always be the turret defence and the lab. Or is there another optimisation i am missing?

I've been putting off building resistance comms and a second power relay by using Scavenger and getting a couple Contact and Avenger Power scans done. I have 8 contacts available with no RC built, which let me rush Psi soldiers, and, because I got really lucky with a covert op I was able to instantly excavate a power coil and rush the Shadow Chamber at the same time

 

[sherbz]

I just survived a really bad 4 pod activation with 4 mutons, an Archon, and some other stuff in a Rescue Resistance People mission without losing anyone. The I wish I had screenshotted the end mission screen, there were over 100 kills when all was said and done (I used copious explosives to manage the bad activation which drew a tooooon of lost). The whole mission took 2 hours but in the end I got 2 captains and 2 promotions and an Engineer so I'd say it was worth it for 6 wounded.



I've been putting off building resistance comms and a second power relay by using Scavenger and getting a couple Contact and Avenger Power scans done. I have 8 contacts available with no RC built, which let me rush Psi soldiers, and, because I got really lucky with a covert op I was able to instantly excavate a power coil and rush the Shadow Chamber at the same time

I must be unlucky with the RNG. I have not had too many resistance contacts come up. 100 kills? That is craaazy lol. I must admit i kind of ignore grenades on lost missions. But i can see that being impossible when you have advent and lost, not just lost.

Craziest mission i have seen so far is not one played by me. Skill setting is legend, and i had to change my underwear just watching it . He was saved by a lucky hack. For those interested its here:

 

[SupremacyKing2]

Initial impressions of War of the Chosen
So I started a new campaign in War of the Chosen. Played the Lost and Abandoned mission and I am about to do the first Retaliation Mission. So still very early in the campaign.

But here are my initial impressions:
1) The pre-mission and post mission screens where your squad is in the skyranger load much faster now. I was very impressed. In the base game, the screens would take a couple minutes to load, now they are almost instantaneous.
2) The lost are a nice addition to the game.
3) There is more variety now which is very welcome. I liked the first guerilla ops mission to kill an advent commander in an abandoned subway station. It's nice to have something different.
4) New mechanics like fatigue and bonding are nice.
5) Covert Ops and Resistance Orders are fantastic!
6) Skirmishers and Reapers are strong soldier classes and a nice addition. They provide nice needed variety to the traditional xcom soldier classes. I personally feel like they are much better than the new soldier classes in the Long War 2 mod.
7) Dropped back down to Veteran level since I know the expansion changes a lot. I wanted to give myself an easier campaign while I learn the new mechanics. But I consider myself an experienced xcom2 player with the base game, having logged in over 400 hours. So far, on veteran, war of the chosen, seems pretty easy. I got an excellent on the gatecrasher mission (just 1 wounded soldier), a flawless on the guerilla ops, and an excellent on the lost and abandoned mission (just one soldier wounded because I foolishly let a purifier too close).

Overall, WofC seems to make the xcom experience much more complete.

 

[Ailedhoo]

Spoiler photo :

Another one bites the dust!

I had Mok bring the last shot against the Warlock.

Now just the bad boy to deal with...