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[Flying Dice]

If you're careful you can clear Newfoundland by killing the Chryssies until they stop spawning, then push the button and walk the whole squad away while they don't look at the explosions.

[Urist Imiknorris]

You mean run the squad away, because pressing the button makes chryssalids start spawning again.

As for HQ management, I prefer to dedicate each "quarter" for a specific purpose - usually something like (final build):

Uplink - Uplink - Uplink - Lift - Officer   - Gene - Psi
Nexus - Nexus - Nexus - Lift - Aliens    - Labs  - Labs
Power - Power - Power - Lift - Foundry - Shop  - Hyperwave
Power - Power - Power - Lift - Repair   - Shop  - Gollop

Of course, depending on the steam vents I may switch the power block with either the science or engineering block. It's kind of expensive early on, digging out layer three for vital stuff, but it's worth it later with all those glorious adjacency bonuses.

[BigFatStupidHead]

I am trying to complete the Long War version of the first mission in Slingshot, Friends in Low Places. Sooo many Thin Men; I had more than ten in view at some points. They cover my team in acid and simply overwhelm me with numbers. Any suggestions?

[crazysheep]

Well, the obvious (smartarse) suggestion is to not let them overwhelm you with numbers. I hope you're not rushing Zhang to the evac point, because that's what will draw all the alien backup to you. Since Friends in Low Places is essentially an escort mission on a special map, there's no pressure to rush through the mission. Kill the aliens pod by pod, advance Zhang into good cover only when the field is clear, then deal with the alien backup.

[SOLDIER First]

With Long War, an evidently difficult mission becomes hellish thanks to progressive health upgrades for the Mints. So I've heard.
It was hell for me too

[BFEL]

The problem with LW FiLP is that the mints spawn BEHIND YOU. ALWAYS. ERRYTIME.

And Rolan you are just MAKING IT WORSE. Admittedly I didn't notice that your steam vent was up there in the crappiest place imaginable at first, but I stand by the fact that you shoulda either restarted or just ignored it and accepted that power was gonna be a problem.

You mean run the squad away, because pressing the button makes chryssalids start spawning again.

As for HQ management, I prefer to dedicate each "quarter" for a specific purpose - usually something like (final build):

Uplink - Uplink - Uplink - Lift - Officer   - Gene - Psi
Nexus - Nexus - Nexus - Lift - Aliens    - Labs  - Labs
Power - Power - Power - Lift - Foundry - Shop  - Hyperwave
Power - Power - Power - Lift - Repair   - Shop  - Gollop

Of course, depending on the steam vents I may switch the power block with either the science or engineering block. It's kind of expensive early on, digging out layer three for vital stuff, but it's worth it later with all those glorious adjacency bonuses.

You beautiful magnificent bastard after my own heart.

[BigFatStupidHead]

Well, the obvious (smartarse) suggestion is to not let them overwhelm you with numbers. I hope you're not rushing Zhang to the evac point, because that's what will draw all the alien backup to you. Since Friends in Low Places is essentially an escort mission on a special map, there's no pressure to rush through the mission. Kill the aliens pod by pod, advance Zhang into good cover only when the field is clear, then deal with the alien backup.

The unfortunate thing about this mission is all the pods rush you at once. They drop in absolutely everywhere, especially if it gives them flank and heavy cover to them. Mostly, I've tried taking over one back corner of the map and holing up there, but I don't have enough firepower to take them down. Worse yet, there are so many of them that they spit acid all over all of my guys. Feels a little terrible right now.

[Rince Wind]

I never really had trouble with this mission. Not even in long war, though they ramped up the difficulty. I actually enjoyed the aliens dropping in random places in my back.

I usually form a defence near the the start, trying to have everybody behind high cover, even if that means they have worse line of sights. Then kill everything while moving as little as possible. A rocketeer that blows up cover in the main graveyard and a sniper that can shoot at thin men spotted by my scout.
Give everyone a medkit, and acid loses much of its threat.

[kilakan]

Yeah same deal for me.  Had a lot of problems the first time but now I barely even move for the first 6 turns or so, blow up any pods I can with explosives and rockets, and then hunt down all the initially spawning enemies with snipers/assaults.  After that it's single move the VIP, kill drops, single move ect until he's out.

[Sonlirain]

Here is my solution to that mission.

1 - Everyone gets a medkit.
2 - rocketeers are a must Preferably with a medkit and secondary rocket.
3 - if you have an opportunist infantryman then its a good time to use him give him a battle rifle medkit and scope.
4 - At least one gunner. Preferably LMG (medkit and grenade)
5 - Check if everyone has a medkit.

Hole up in the lower right corner of the map and wait for spawns.
Don't go forward because that will trigger patroling pods and you want to take out hte imminent spawns first.
Use rockets if several thinmints get behind  good cover.

if you can survive and take out the first wave then you are on the home run.

[i2amroy]

Honestly I just holed up in the back left corner and then used a combination of grenades (I probably should have brought a few more medkits, but instead I brought extra grenades and only my standard "medic with 1 (3) medkits, and one person with a backup medkit in case the medic takes a bad hit") and rockets to annihilate pretty much all of the cover on the lower level, using a gunner to pin down any thin men that actually dropped on my side long enough for me to deal with them. My solution to acid (since I didn't have the medkits) was basically just to grab the edge so I always had at least half cover, then spread everyone out (so that only 1 could get hit with acid at a time) and just having whoever got hit repetitively take cover until it wore off. The fact that the thin men had basically no cover (since I grenaded/rocketed all the tombstones into oblivion whenever a thin man stood behind them) meant that the loss of 1 person for a couple of turns wasn't that big of a deal, and my backup medkit carrier was my best executioner infantry just in case I needed to pick off someone while she was acided.

Then I just slowly progressed forwards along that same side, killing anything that dropped on the lower levels with relative impunity. Hold out long enough and the thin men don't even really drop anymore, I must have killed like 40 of them over the course of the mission and when I finished there hadn't been a single one on the map for at least a couple of turns.

[Flying Dice]

That's the sort of situation where you've got to be incredibly grateful that Firaxis didn't keep the old system where you had to keep track of individual magazines of ammunition and could actually run out if you didn't bring enough. 

[BigFatStupidHead]

That's the sort of situation where you've got to be incredibly grateful that Firaxis didn't keep the old system where you had to keep track of individual magazines of ammunition and could actually run out if you didn't bring enough. 

On the other hand, an individual soldier could carry dozens of items.

I ended up just skipping Friends in Low Places for now; I had just finished up a flurry of UFO activity and all my best guys were down for recovery. Too many stickmen, not enough matches.

[Flying Dice]

On the other other hand, before the fix you could end up running a base defense with 80 assault rifle magazines and nothing else.

I did like being able to leave spare grenades on the 'ranger's floor, though.

[GiglameshDespair]

To be honest I never reloaded a heavy plasma in the hundreds of hours I've played oldcom. Barely ever reloaded the rifle, either because inifinite lasers came quickly or my rookies didn't need to take 20 shots. They'd been killed or won by then.