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[Silfurdreki]

This thread made me dust off my X-COM copy I got cheap (along with all the other X-COM games) on a steam sale a while back. Over the course of this game, I've come to realise why I like this game so much. The single most awesome thing is the sheer amount of explosives you get to bring to bear in every mission. Suspicious looking barn? Missile. Suspicious looking hedge? Missile. Suspicious looking jungle?Missile. You get the idea.
Alien grenades takes the whole thing up another notch. I've just recently got hold of blaster bombs and launchers (probably due to me leaving pretty much any crash site/terror mission/alien base a smouldering crater), when they're researched, fun will be had by the aliens.

My motto when playing X-COM is: Blow to pieces first, hope there is nothing left to ask questions later.

[Funk]

try useing auto cannons as there quicker and cut down on the reloads.

[breadbocks]

try useing auto cannons as there quicker and cut down on the reloads.

Or a missile tank  or 4. I've done entire alien bases with just 4 tanks (One was a cannon, but still.) and 2 psykers.

[MrWiggles]

On an odd thought, it'd be pretty nifty if you could bring more then one troop carrier on a mission. This would mean though, that the battle scape (minus alien bases) would have to be larger, to accommodate the extra troop carrier.

But that would open up some interesting avenues.

[Thexor]

I'm apparently in the minority here, but I've never been a huge fan of explosives. Sure, it's great fun to level a building... but it always seems like I'm cheating. I mean, X-Com is some kind of shadowy alien-busting organization. 'Plausible deniability' is a lot easier when you didn't level an entire city block while, ahem, "absolutely not engaging any kind of extraterrestrial life-form, you crazy conspiracy theorist. It was a gang war that coincidentally happened as a large weather balloon passed overhead." 

And besides, it's both fun and Fun to have your plasma-armed rookie nervously open the door, peek into the room, and try to blast the xeno scum before they can trigger a reaction shot. 

[MrWiggles]

I'm apparently in the minority here, but I've never been a huge fan of explosives. Sure, it's great fun to level a building... but it always seems like I'm cheating. I mean, X-Com is some kind of shadowy alien-busting organization. 'Plausible deniability' is a lot easier when you didn't level an entire city block while, ahem, "absolutely not engaging any kind of extraterrestrial life-form, you crazy conspiracy theorist. It was a gang war that coincidentally happened as a large weather balloon passed overhead." 

And besides, it's both fun and Fun to have your plasma-armed rookie nervously open the door, peek into the room, and try to blast the xeno scum before they can trigger a reaction shot. 

I was never a fan of this as well. I didn't take it as cheating per se, but against my own narrative for the game. I just don't think the country would be very happy with X-Com blowing up a city.

[Tarran]

Tried blowing crap up myself, got old for me. Heck, I almost never use grenades, they take too long to prime and throw for my tastes. I don't know why, explosives are just no fun for me, so I'm in the minority too.

[Pandarsenic]

Grenades are slow but I find it tedious having to manually check inside every goddamn building on a map to deal with stuff. I find it less time-consuming to just explode it one floor at a time then have a Laser Tank scout the remains.

This is important because I'm attempting to do my "X-COM Rules Earth" game now.

[Mephansteras]

I try not to level buildings unless it's important. Usually that means either "We're almost all dead and we can't afford surprises" or "I've been searching for this bastard for 20 minutes. Where is he???"

General explosive stuff is used as appropriate for taking out enemies and groups of enemies.

[Sowelu]

I don't use explosives against buildings...THAT much.  Well, okay, I do, sometimes.  Some lots of times.  But I find that they're most important early in the game against your standard run-of-the-mill aliens.  Why snipe with a gun when you can snipe with a rocket launcher after all; even if you miss, you still hit.  And the damage spread for explosives means that unlike even a heavy plasma, rocket launchers are a guaranteed one-hit kill versus sectoids.  And while grenades take lots of TUs and don't do as much damage, they're almost impossible to meaningfully miss with.

Also, if you don't use area weapons versus large enemies, you're just plain making a mistake.  They do 4x damage.

And if it's a conspiracy you want, it's best not to leave alien blood lying around, right?  Just think of rocket launchers as mobile autoclaves.

Also Aeterni, I recommend X-Com Extender/Loader over XComUtil.  I think it makes it easier to grasp for a new player (IE, veterans are used to renaming their soldiers with ranks and stats, but with Extender you don't have to)

[Pandarsenic]

A little update on my Conquest game. I've decided to start clearing out bases; I'm going to start with the easy ones, the Floaters and Mutons, then progress to (non-farming) Snakeman bases, then Sectoids, then Ethereals. Despite my units all being more or less immune to Psi, I have no interest in going up against Ethereals until all 6-7 of my main-force Psi users can reliably MC 3-4 times per turn.

I'm going to systematically wipe bases until I am the sole power left on Earth.

It will take ages.

[Pandarsenic]

If anyone cares about my crusade, I've knocked out 4 or so bases down already. Accidentally lost 1 troop in a sectoid base raid, but overall I scored 10k positive last month, increasing my funding by a million dollars. Mutons are weeping as I grind Psi on them.

[Domenique]

If anyone cares about my crusade, I've knocked out 4 or so bases down already. Accidentally lost 1 troop in a sectoid base raid, but overall I scored 10k positive last month, increasing my funding by a million dollars. Mutons are weeping as I grind Psi on them.

Try not using psi to make it harder .

[Pandarsenic]

Pfft. I'm trying to conquer earth indefinitely without taking the actual Cydonia mission. How much harder do I need to make it?

[Domenique]

Pfft. I'm trying to conquer earth indefinitely without taking the actual Cydonia mission. How much harder do I need to make it?

What are the "victory conditions"?