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[Shadowclaw777]

Plan Bait and Switch:

Mission Type: Recruit Collaborators
Crafts: 1 Small Scout, 1 Medium Fighter
Unit Loadout: 1 Sectoid (Plasma Pistols)
1 Scout Drone
Destination: France

Mission Type: Harvest:
Crafts: 1 Small Scout
Unit Loadout: 1 Sectoid (Plasma Pistols, Meld Containers, Elerium Grenades)
Destination: Japan

@10ebbor10, I assume the Medium Fighter requires 1 extra VP compared to the previous Fighter?

We need to hit Japan again because they wouldn't expect us to repeat a attack on a area that we previously failed on, and France has a lot of diplomatic activity in the real world so it's a great place to start our infiltration >:-)

I was thinking of giving the other Scout to Japan some elerium grenades and no Meld Containers for the Recruit Collaborators mission, since I believe the Meld would have no effect with the Recruit Collaborator? Or am I wrong?

Edited

[Failbird105]

Hmm. Unfortunate that it costs more. How much more, exactly? I'm guessing 2VP, but it doesn't actually say?

Anyway, the way the results for RC are worded suggests to me that the unit we create next turn should, amongst other things, be suited for infiltration. I like the Masked Reavers for the idea of a unit with a mask concealing a horrible alien face. They could be modelled after the classic tragedy/comedy theatre masks. Then we just cram 'em in a suit, and from a distance, it's just a regular dude wearing a mask for some reason. In combat, they reveal their true face, tear off the suit, and lay into folks.

Hmm, it would require quite a bit of revision to the design. The main thing is reducing the abdomen, which pains me to do. We also would be best off giving them vocal chords.

[NUKE9.13]

I was thinking of giving the other Scout to Japan some elerium grenades and no Meld Containers for the Recruit Collaborators mission, since I believe the Meld would have no effect with the Recruit Collaborator? Or am I wrong?

Yeah, I don't think Meld will help on a Recruit mission. Give the Japan flight the grenades.

[10ebbor10]

Hmm. Unfortunate that it costs more. How much more, exactly? I'm guessing 2VP, but it doesn't actually say?

2VP.

I was thinking of giving the other Scout to Japan some elerium grenades and no Meld Containers for the Recruit Collaborators mission, since I believe the Meld would have no effect with the Recruit Collaborator? Or am I wrong?

Yeah, I don't think Meld will help on a Recruit mission. Give the Japan flight the grenades.

Well, you could give it to people, but who'd want it?

[Failbird105]

Hmm... I'm not entirely sure on sending a medium fighter, or ANY fighter, with our recruitment ship, that will just make it all the more likely to be noticed. I'm tempted to suggest we don't send our medium fighter into battle AT ALL this turn, maybe we can make them think our design this turn was the grenade? We've never deployed it after all.

Also, Shadowclaw, there's an extra EP left, I recommend you use it to send a set of drones with the Harvesting group as well

[Shadowclaw777]

I'm pretty sure the enemy is going to intercept every ship, unless we send four distinct Small Scouts to different areas so that they can't send four interceptors to each ship. So it's better to give the ship a better escort than, me thinks.

[NUKE9.13]

Well, I think the idea is that the fighter would shoot down any XCOM craft before reaching the destination, so all XCOM would know is that we performed a mission in France, but have no idea what.

Although...

What if instead of revising armour, we gave the Small Scout basic stealth? And then send the Medium Fighter to escort the Harvest mission (which we would redirect to Egypt to increase the chances of XCOM going after it), and send a lone Scout on the Recruit mission?

[SamSpeeds]

So far XCOM has successfully detected at least 3/4 of our attacks so far (they might've just ignored the last one, who knows). I'm pretty sure at this point that they've set up some Big Radar or something that covers most of/all of the earth. I doubt it would matter if we sent less craft per mission, they'll find out anyway. So (presuming I'm correct about their detection abilities), it would be safer to send more craft with important missions, because the Scout would be better protected. Also Stealth Tech is a good idea and probably necessary.

[NUKE9.13]

So a revision like this:

Basic Craft Obfuscation: A combination of small changes to hull shape, and the use of certain materials, makes the Small Scout a lot harder to detect using conventional means. The goal here is not complete invisibility, but rather a reduced chance of detection. We hope to be able to apply this to all our Small Scouts with no significant increase in cost.

Combined with a plan like this:

Mission Type: Harvest
Craft(s): 1 Small Scout , 1 Medium fighter (3VP)
Unit loadout: 1 Sectoid (Plasma Pistols, Meld container) (1UP, 1EP)
1 Scout Drone (1UP)
Destination: Egypt

Mission Type: Recruit Collaborators
Craft(s): 1 Small Scout (1VP)
Unit loadout: 1 Sectoid (Plasma Pistols, Elerium Grenade) (1UP, 1EP)
1 Scout Drone (1UP)
Destination: Canada

Total Cost: 4VP, 4UP, 2EP

[Failbird105]

So a revision like this:

Basic Craft Obfuscation: A combination of small changes to hull shape, and the use of certain materials, makes the Small Scout a lot harder to detect using conventional means. The goal here is not complete invisibility, but rather a reduced chance of detection. We hope to be able to apply this to all our Small Scouts with no significant increase in cost.

Combined with a plan like this:

Mission Type: Harvest
Craft(s): 1 Small Scout , 1 Medium fighter (3VP)
Unit loadout: 1 Sectoid (Plasma Pistols, Meld container) (1UP, 1EP)
1 Scout Drone (1UP)
Destination: Egypt

Mission Type: Recruit Collaborators
Craft(s): 1 Small Scout (1VP)
Unit loadout: 1 Sectoid (Plasma Pistols, Elerium Grenade) (1UP, 1EP)
1 Scout Drone (1UP)
Destination: Canada

Total Cost: 4VP, 4UP, 2EP

But wouldn't the fighter completely nullify our stealth advantage if the scout is the only stealthy one? If we did that then they could learn about the new fighter, the new mission, AND the new stealth all in one action, and they still learn about the fighter and stealth even if they DO get shot down!

[SamSpeeds]

Hm. Yeah, it kinda sucks that we have to send our missions BEFORE we see how our crucial revision turns out. On one hand, if it works, we can ruin it by sending too many craft. On the other, if it doesn't, and we only send one, we get shot down. Maybe the revision could be applied to the fighter as well? Just say it's a general hull revision, or something. Being harder to detect WOULD definitely make our fighter more competitive in the end. I'll cast my vote in a bit.

[NUKE9.13]

But wouldn't the fighter completely nullify our stealth advantage if the scout is the only stealthy one? If we did that then they could learn about the new fighter, the new mission, AND the new stealth all in one action, and they still learn about the fighter and stealth even if they DO get shot down!

Which is why my plan does not involve sending a fighter on the Recruit mission.

[Shadowclaw777]

I'm pretty there some sort of logic balance thing going on where the enemy gets to do the revision before us, but we get to decide where to go and start the missions. With this logic, we should probably go loud this turn and not spend the revision on stealth materials since it won't impact the UFOs after we engage and send them. So we should probably do the revision on a basic alloy suit, and we must send the UFOs. Actually it seems like the only thing that can pre-emptively sent to the Ships are upgrades to our units; whether making the Scout Drone more durable, the Sectoids more psionic, etc

Basically it means if we want a advantage this turn, it has to a revision to our units; otherwise the revision will only useful in the following turns.

[NUKE9.13]

What makes you think that a revision cannot be applied to ships as well as units after we've planned the missions? I think that so long as it doesn't affect the cost, we should be able to apply the upgrades.

ebbor, could you confirm this?

[Failbird105]

It really does, but it is fair, since we, the initiators, don't get our revisions until after we send our missions, but they, the responders, don't get to know what they need to prepare for until after they've revised.

Personally I do still think we need a revision to get armor, because upgrading a units durability first is wasting a revision, since it ONLY benefits that unit, any further ones we make will not get that advantage.