XCOM changed my strategy completly

[Fabio1701]

I was wondering if anyone else found a shift in their strategy since XCOM came about. In the olden days I domination strategy in the late game didn't change much: a bunch of tanks with artillery back up, eventually artillery would be replaced by bombers. I rarely build anything else, having anti-tank, anti-air and infantry for sporadic defence if at all. I find a good offence means you can skip defence units as the enemy struggles to deal with your attack rather than counter attack. Paratroopers which are almost the same strength as normal infantry were a novelty for me to play with or if I needed a line of sight for bombers. This strategy enabled me to upgrade to Giant Death Robots and Stealth Bombers and continue he same way.

Now that XCOM units are available I don't even build tanks anymore. Infact I don't build infantry and artillery either, just lost of paratroopers and bombers. When they upgrade, their ability to move much faster and over enemies, in combo with bombers, move way faster than my GDR can. they always get left behind.

Anyone else feel this?

 

[danaphanous]

Yes, my last Deity game as the Maya I bough 3 or 4 XCOM units. I started to use them and was amazed. with Stealth Bomber Support they rock. I still like Modern Armor though and Helicopters though because they don't have to airdrop to move quickly. I can get 6-8 movement and multiple attacks to clean up land troops more quickly. If you're Island-Hopping though XCOM is the only useful land unit at the late stage. Tanks are too slow crossing. Use Stealth, Aircraft Carriers, and Supporting ships and just drop them from Island to Island.

 

[Izmir Stinger]

I think they want you to buy XCom. The "Enemy Within" expansion included a couple of references to Civilization as well.

 

[Sagax]

Their mobility is just too good. I try to have a diverse army but I always catch myself on the thought that the fights would be even easier if more of those infantry hammers went into XCOM instead.

 

[Fabio1701]

Yes, my last Deity game as the Maya I bough 3 or 4 XCOM units. I started to use them and was amazed. with Stealth Bomber Support they rock. I still like Modern Armor though and Helicopters though because they don't have to airdrop to move quickly. I can get 6-8 movement and multiple attacks to clean up land troops more quickly. If you're Island-Hopping though XCOM is the only useful land unit at the late stage. Tanks are too slow crossing. Use Stealth, Aircraft Carriers, and Supporting ships and just drop them from Island to Island.

If you play on terrain heavy maps with lots of forest jungles and mountains then you can't get that 6-8 movement, and when the tanks turn into GDR it's even slower! I love the GDR, but god is it slow when you are used to the speed of bombers and xcom. I just gave up using my saved uranium for GDR's and built nuclear plants. (I try to make nukes illegal when I can, and only have a couple in reserve for defence.)

why bother even cleaning up the ground troops? with xcom and stealth I took core production cities so fast that the enemy frontline troops disbanded before they could even try to turn around and retake cities.

so now I am wondering, is it overpowered? I remember playing SMAC where you could have worldwide paratroopers with the space elevator wonder and that jsut cleaned up militarily because there was no front line to concentrate on. xcom has such a range that it is at least hemisphere wide. should the next iteration of civ have some counter to xcom?

 

[Tagma]

why bother even cleaning up the ground troops? with xcom and stealth I took core production cities so fast that the enemy frontline troops disbanded before they could even try to turn around and retake cities.

Agreed! I love that feeling of decapitating an empire. I like to think my xcom unit is literally three dudes, phasing into the palace to murder Alexander or whoever...

Also the GDR/XCOM contrast says a lot, I think, about the process of designing the game. It seems pretty clear that the GDR was intended as a real game-ender, hence its huge strength. However years of actually playing the game revealed that what was needed was not firepower, but some means of bypassing all that tedious cross-country micro occasioned by 1UPT. Hence the global paradrop...

 

[4N4C0ND4]

so now I am wondering, is it overpowered? I remember playing SMAC where you could have worldwide paratroopers with the space elevator wonder and that jsut cleaned up militarily because there was no front line to concentrate on. xcom has such a range that it is at least hemisphere wide. should the next iteration of civ have some counter to xcom?

I think XCOM are supposed to be very end game units that are by concept basically imbalanced. The thing is that at this stage of the game, it should be finished or at least close too. It's actually convenient that a monstruous unit like that means the game will end soon now.

 

[Vitruvius]

Yea I am usually sick and tired of the game by the time of xcom. It really helps end the game faster. If you want to sandbox the game and set your own victory objective then its better to remove xcom and GDR and stealth.

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