So I've been playing the latest XCOM game quite a bit lately, with the Long War modpack (which is absolutely amazing) installed for good measure. I decided to play the game on Classic Ironman mode just to see if I could do it, and... hooo-ly shit. Things started off relatively fine and dandy with my squad surviving and winning most of the missions they came across, although I lost 2-3 on a Terror mission (in which only one soldier was still conscious at the end of it), and had to pull out of a Large UFO landing when I got mobbed by Outsiders, Thin Men and Chryssalids all at once. I came back swinging once I picked up Beam Lasers and Carapace Armor, though, and managed to utterly massacre an entire platoon of enemy units on another Large UFO landing all at once (2 Mechtoids, 2 Drones, 6-7 Floaters, 4 Sectoids) and win the mission handily. I even survived the XCOM Base Assault that came out of nowhere, and that was when I had forgotten to equip my best soldiers with something better than Assault Rifles before the carrier hit my base.
Now things are starting to get... interesting. I've lost 4 countries (all of Asia) to the Alien menace so far, though I'm holding the rest of the world in a tenuous grip. The aliens appear to have upgraded their UFOs to be harder to kill and with more firepower, so now they can almost kill my interceptors in 3 hits. I'm rushing Advanced Aerospace Concepts (with Floater Interrogation for the research credit) so I can maintain parity, but I'm really strapped for cash at the moment. Sectoid Commanders and Muton Berserkers have already shown up, although so far I've managed to handily massacre them before they did any serious damage. However, at the rate the missions are piling up now, especially with the aliens no longer focusing on Asia, my troop list is really starting to fill up with Fatigued soldiers (in Long War, soldiers that come out of a battle with no wounds still get combat Fatigue which hinders their re-deployment for a few days). I'm currently raiding a Small UFO landing (Scout) with a bunch of fairly low-EXP soldiers, and though I already killed the Outsider, I just triggered 2 Mutons, 1 Muton Berserker, 5 Thin Men and a Sectoid. All at once. And with me almost right next to the Berserker.
Enemy health and upgrades are piling up fast, so I can only hope that I'm able to research and engineer fast enough to keep up the pace. I'm working on getting MEC's now, but I've gotten by pretty good so far with Gauss weapons (especially with my best soldier, Ursula "Millennium" Frost, a maxed-out Infantry elite officer who can fire 3 times in one turn; rips Mutons apart). All I can say is, I'm relying a lot on luck just as much as I am my tactical abilities, now, and both are starting to be stretched to their limit. I don't know how many more times I can have my Assaults go "SMILE, YOU SON OF A BITCH!" and Rapid Fire dual-critical a Berserker that was about to chew my face off. And if I can't shoot down UFOs reliably anymore, then my resource stockpiles are going to start hurting soon...
To anyone who dares to play the Long War mod for XCOM: Enemy Unknown/Within, beware. The aliens are not screwing around, this time. I, personally, can't wait to see what else they have in store for me, because I am having a BLAST right now, even though I've lost several good soldiers and SHIVs so far. My prospects for an ultimate victory out of this are still looking solid, but I LOVE how it's making me work for it, especially when I can't just reload when one of my guys dies. You really start to get attached to your soldiers when they've come through so many missions and survived against all odds.
I highly recommend this mod to anyone who simply didn't find enough challenge with the original game, because there is PLENTY of it in here, as well as an entire slew of new and exciting options and items to choose from. And I've barely scratched the surface. Does anyone else have any stories they'd like to share about their XCOM games? I'd love to hear how well I'm doing in relation to everyone else.
Vigilo Confido.
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Topic: So far in XCOM: Enemy Within (+ Long War mod), I'm starting to feel the heat... (Read 1290 times)