well now, looks like x-Com worked on improving their infantry quite a bit .
on the other hand, while working on a vehicle would let us fully leverage, we could also use those Vp to increase the deployed UFO's on missions to prevent souther asia from repeating. The longer we hold off on a better infantry, the longer we lose to a skyrangers worth of troops.
I would argue it would be better to make a better unit first, because VP can be used to let our units land. Chances are also good that they improve their Fighter this turn, so I'm am arguing for either increasing UP or a better unit to spend it on.
That's a fair argument. Small Scouts appear to fight Interceptors to a draw, so it's not like they're useless in aerial combat. It is somewhat concerning how thoroughly outclassed we were on the ground. Hmm.
An analysis of combat results:
Canada: XCOM soldiers flatly superior to Sectoids (not super surprising), and also better at coordination/scouting than Ophanim (unfortunate). Turret dangerous, but apparently not super mobile, which allowed us to escape, I'm guessing- they couldn't chase us to the UFO without leaving behind their trump card. Still, we lost. XCOM gains: Ophanim & Sectoid corpses, plasma weapons.
India: 1v1, an Interceptor and a Scout will draw. There may be an element of luck- there was last game-, so I can't say for sure that this will continue. Still, I imagine XCOM will see the results and think "Not good enough, gotta improve our Interceptors", especially given their infantry proved more than capable. XCOM gains: nothing.
Brazil: Apparently we stormed a palace? Well, XCOM ignored this mission, presumably due to lack of resources. Good for us.
South Africa: No turret, but instead close-range weapons. It's not totally clear what that entails. Regardless, the more aggressive approach paid off for them- we were completely overwhelmed. XCOM gains: All of the loot, including Meld and an intact UFO. >:/
I think it's safe to say that XCOM got the better of us this turn, although not by a landslide- we did get the two Ancient DNA tokens from Brazil, which is nice.
I now have some questions for
ebbor:-Can we get more details on the close-range weapons XCOM used in SA? Like, are we talking shotguns here, or what?
-The Chariot is listed as costing either 1.5UP, or 1EP+0.5UP. Is that correct, or is it supposed to be 1UP+0.5EP?
-What does the cloning feedstock do? Is the idea that it can make things cheaper (amongst other uses)?