Arghh!
I haven't caught up with this thread yet, spoilers and stuff, but just needed to share a little. I'm... I dunno, pretty early on I think. The doom clock was only just introduced and then ticked to 4 pretty much instantly (nothing I can do of course, for now, without "making contact").
But wow this game pulls some BS sometimes.
I don't mean difficulty - I'm glad that normal is a challenge, particularly since I was never good at XCOM 1.
Vipers pull soldiers straight through walls. Lost 2 wounded soldiers in 2 turns to that...
I actually played that mission out, ended up losing one turn away from the evac. Fair enough, surely I can handle ONE loss...
Wait, why is West Asia's mission now "establish contact?"
No seriously, I have no idea whether this was a bug or not. I was building my first tower there, and suddenly the mission was to establish contact. I honestly think it's a bug, because why would a failed council mission cause me to lose contact with one of my only zones? Where I have an ongoing projet?
Well, fine! I savescum for the first and only time so far. Eventually win, losing half my squad - alright. Councilman report changes from "Maybe we were wrong to choose you" to "Well done commander!" Based on ONE mission, so yeah, like NewCOM 1, you better win everything...
I would add "and you better know the geoscape meta or lose anyway even on normal", but honestly I have no idea how I'm doing geoscape wise. I only just now got an indication at all, and it's pressuring me to expand to a place, which I literally can't do for like a month. That, of all things, made me finally look up some unspoilery tips, and I think I'll be okay... But really, the geoscape interface is really confusing.
Just now: Advancing in stealth, saw a viper+trooper on a roof. Moved my guys up (since there's a unjustified timer, as usual). The viper casually jumps off the roof and accidentally flanks my guys. Then activates, running practically BEHIND them. The trooper even flanks and takes a shot (missing, thankfully).
THEN! THAT activates A MEC and trooper who I *never saw*, who also advance.
Was that bad luck, or should I act like every patrol is going to leap off roofs directly at me? Not like I can observe their routes, I had 8 turns to reach this thing across the map. *Gotta* go fast.
Okay honestly the only really bad part of that is the second pod activating. I guess maybe they happened to patrol into my group after the first pod broke my obscurement (because I didn't take cover properly).
Anyway, having fun. I'll just have more fun when I master the system. And I'm not going to do that by watching Beaglerush, thank you very much, I ought to be able to win on Normal if I try hard enough. Will continue to only savescum when shit doesn't make any sense. (Seriously, did I lose West Asia? There was no message whatsoever, so it was probably a bug)