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[Vel]

They do? Strange, I must've misremembered. Still, it's easy to manage panic to a minimum by that point.

[Tarran]

So, looks like someone managed to open up most or all of the Second Wave options. I'll have to check that when I finish my game.

[Sirus]

So, looks like someone managed to open up most or all of the Second Wave options. I'll have to check that when I finish my game.

I'm gonna have to try these out! I'm glad some enterprising person managed to find them!

[Cthulhu]

Important note for multiplayer:  Trainyard is bullshit.  If you get trainyard, just buy snipers and hide in the corner.  Don't feel bad, the other guy's doing the same thing.

[Urist McSpike]

Wow, and my Classic Ironman run is finished - after 92 days.  I lost too many troops, and had to keep sending out rookies - to die.  Even with carapace armor & laser rifles.  I think the pacing on Classic is too fast, from that run - I was getting hit by Mutons just after the first (only) terror mission I had, and everything was hitting often & hard.

I know I made a couple of mistakes early, moving in too fast or leaving troops without enough cover.  The aliens were definitely moving to flank my guys, which resulted in me taking a lot of hits.  Plus, the constant lack of funding early on is pretty harsh.  I almost think they didn't balance the funding well enough - everyone should give you some token money, if they're part of the council, and then more as you put up satellites.

What priorities do you folks go with, on Classic?  I started in Asia (and never used the perk), focused on Engineers & cash rewards early on.

[Briggsy16]

Can someone confirm if I don't go ahead with researching the Arc Thrower that the aliens I'll be left with the Thin Man, Sectoids and Floaters until after I've finally moved forward with the story? Or does it not effect it

[USEC_OFFICER]

Can someone confirm if I don't go ahead with researching the Arc Thrower that the aliens I'll be left with the Thin Man, Sectoids and Floaters until after I've finally moved forward with the story? Or does it not effect it

I'm pretty sure that the story will cause stronger aliens to spawn, but only if you haven't encountered them yet. Better aliens will start appearing if you just twiddle your thumbs though, and the Arc Thrower is very important, so you have no reason not to research it.

[alway]

From what I've seen, the game progresses up to Cryssalids, Mutons, and Cyberdisks even if you haven't captured the first sectoid. Dunno about the arc thrower, but my guess is it will continue up to that point even without it. Not sure if it progresses past those critters w/o continuing the story though. Some of the story will force the most advanced units on you though; a sort of 'tit for tat' escalation is what it is explained as. Though I don't know if that escalation will occur w/o story or not (as my non-story game was a game over before getting anything more advanced than a cyberdisk). So you might be able to slow down the later stages of escalation, but the early stages seem to go regardless of story, up to the Mutons, Crysallids, and Cyberdisks. With story-based escalation, not to give too much away, things escalate after missions which are generally big events, and as such it's pretty easy to spot where they will occur and stop doing story things until you are ready.

Also, capturing aliens is really good for you.

[USEC_OFFICER]

From what I've seen, the game progresses up to Cryssalids, Mutons, and Cyberdisks even if you haven't captured the first sectoid. Dunno about the arc thrower, but my guess is it will continue up to that point even without it. Not sure if it progresses past those critters w/o continuing the story though. Some of the story will force the most advanced units on you though; a sort of 'tit for tat' escalation is what it is explained as. Though I don't know if that escalation will occur w/o story or not (as my non-story game was a game over before getting anything more advanced than a cyberdisk). So you might be able to slow down the later stages of escalation, but the early stages seem to go regardless of story, up to the Mutons, Crysallids, and Cyberdisks. With story-based escalation, not to give too much away, things escalate after missions which are generally big events, and as such it's pretty easy to spot where they will occur and stop doing story things until you are ready.

The game will progress no matter what. Doing the story missions will just make it go faster. So if you're feeling pressured, then hold off on the story. If you're feeling awesome and are rearing to go, then you do the story missions. It's simple, really.

[umiman]

Wow, and my Classic Ironman run is finished - after 92 days.  I lost too many troops, and had to keep sending out rookies - to die.  Even with carapace armor & laser rifles.  I think the pacing on Classic is too fast, from that run - I was getting hit by Mutons just after the first (only) terror mission I had, and everything was hitting often & hard.

I know I made a couple of mistakes early, moving in too fast or leaving troops without enough cover.  The aliens were definitely moving to flank my guys, which resulted in me taking a lot of hits.  Plus, the constant lack of funding early on is pretty harsh.  I almost think they didn't balance the funding well enough - everyone should give you some token money, if they're part of the council, and then more as you put up satellites.

What priorities do you folks go with, on Classic?  I started in Asia (and never used the perk), focused on Engineers & cash rewards early on.

My successful run was in South America. The reason was that you need a really successful start to succeed on classic iron man or you're completely boned. So everything I did was to maximize that.

I would take 2 rookies on every mission. Get as many squaddies as I could. All the way till I got the OTS second final level thing where everyone would be a squaddie. This way if anyone dies I still have useful soldiers instead of a handful of crappy morons with no skills.

I rushed to laser weapons before all else. So that means capturing a sectoid for the boost. Getting two labs, etc. I'm not sure how to optimize that but that's what I went for. My rookie survivability rate went through the roof the moment I got those.

I never bothered with Shivs. They died too easily and couldn't take cover. Good distractions though, but really expensive for just a distraction.

Then just try to do very well in missions I suppose, though I guess that should come naturally. Be super duper cautious. Never use shotguns, since you'll end up dying. Never go close range, since you'll end up dying. Proceed at a snail's pace and use hunker down liberally. If you think the enemy has a good chance of shooting you, grenade him or smoke yourself. Even if it's just a shitty sectoid. If you see an enemy and the probability of success is lower than 60%... hunker down. If you see an enemy and he can see you, don't overwatch. Hunker down. Never risk it. Ever. That's the hardest thing to overcome. You'll need to do that to stand a chance of success. It's really boring, but that's how careful you have to be. Once you get super armour and your units can survive more than two shots then you can be a bit more relaxed.

Oh yeah, I think the most important skill I learnt was running away. See a new alien group? Everyone run the fuck away back to spawn! Run run run! My guy got critted and he's at 3 hp? Run the fuck awaaaaaaaaaaaay!

But really, it's all about getting a great start and levelling as many guys as possible. It normally took me about an hour just to finish one mission when I started. Hope that helps.

Tl;dr:
1. Get as many levels on as many soldiers as you can. If you run out of squaddies it's game over.
2. Get better guns.
3. Take forever to do a mission. Always be cautious. Never take risks.

[kilakan]

Also I can definitely confirm that people gain ranks just by being in the mission, my support healer/smoker went his first 7 missions without a single kill and was still rank 3 or 4.  Either that or taking random pot-shots at things, healing people, and using smoke all gives fairly good exp.

[LoSboccacc]

(while on normal/ironman)
so, I got to

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

the point I had to storm the alien base

then I had those two veteran wounded... I thought that I could wait a couple days to get them back, but abduction happened. after a very hard fight, with a single wave of 4 mutons and 6 floaters, I had three veterans down and another critically wounded.

the sniper lived, and got promotions and the best equipment I got.

but now I had nothing available for to the mission. and so I went, with the sniper and four rookies.

it went quite well, just one rookie got killed by chrysalid bullshit-turn (two, when spotted, bullrushed the rookie during my turn)



now I feel really bad for that rookie, I even had a commemorative poster of the squad to be posted in the event of success...

[Microcline]

I'm currently coasting to victory in my ironman classic game (A-team of Col/Majs with plasma, no deaths in the past 100 days, only one nation lost).

Getting satellites up early is the most important thing.  You'll want one satellite in the first month, another uplink at the end of the second and third months, and a nexus in the forth.  Order your satellites 20+ days before the council report and use them to reclaim any panicking nations.  Balance abductions between getting engineers and keeping nations from panicking.  Knowing what you're going to need an what you can sell on the gray market is essential towards making ends meet.

For tactics, numbers are the most important thing.  Move slowly and overwatch constantly.  You can minimize the effects of bad luck with overwhelming numbers, but if you're outnumbered someone is probably going to die.  I went with Asia to get the officer school discounts.  Snipers are the easiest unit to get to colonel and are essential for evening the odds.

They may not be the best, but these are the builds I like to use:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Sniper:
Headshot
Squad Sight
Damn Good Ground
Disabling Shot
Executioner
Low Profile
In the Zone

It's all about In the Zone.  That's the one ability that can even the odds when you're outnumbered.  I get Damn Good Ground, Executioner, and a S.C.O.P.E. to make sure it'll always hit.  Disabling shot helps with capturing enemies and can neuter cyberdisks and (I think) sectopods.

Heavy:
Fire Rocket
Bullet Swarm
Shredder Rocket
HEAT Ammo
Danger Zone
Will to Survive
Rocketeer

This one is all about cover destruction.  He's got three rockets, each of which can render an entire enemy squad naked.  HEAT Ammo helps against cyberdisks/sectopods, and Bullet Swarm allows you to drastically increase their firepower, provided you give them a S.C.O.P.E., because otherwise they aren't going to hit shit.

Support:
Smoke Grenade
Sprinter
Field Medic
Revive
Dense Smoke
Deep Pockets
Savior

Sprinter and Field Medic are the most important ones here.  Sprinter increases your mobility and makes arc throwers easier to use, and Field Medic is the only way to make medkits effective.

Assault:
Run & Gun
Tactical Sense
Lightning Reflexes
Rapid Fire
Close Combat Specialist
Extra Conditioning
Resilience

Run & Gun, Lightning Reflexes, Rapid Fire, and CC Specialist are the important ones.  The other ones are personal preference, but I see no reason to pick the offensive ones when there are few enemies capable of surviving two shotgun blasts from point-blank range.

Also, grenades and rockets are the only guaranteed way to kill aliens on the first few missions, so fuck Dr. Vahlen.  Leveling up your troops is more important than a couple of weapon fragments.

[LoSboccacc]

this game suffer of need for speeding sindrome, or rubber banding.

I got in a mission with just three squaddies, because I had ton of people in medbay, and I got just 6 thin mens

[dogstile]

I'm still pretty sure the monthly bonus is bugged. Classic wouldn't be anywhere near as hard if I actually got that 400 or so bonus.