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[PanH]

Also, the rule with thin men: either the thin men are dead OR YOU ARE NOT OK.

Fixed.

[GiglameshDespair]

yeah. Early game is really the only difficult part of Xcom. EXALT are a joke - I have literally never lost a single soldier to them.

I think part of the loss in difficulty is by early mid game you won't get one-hit killed. By mid game you can tank numerous shots and keep going, and as the aliens can't, you win. By endgame my soldiers could take tank shells to the face - not that enemies ever got shots off under a hail of pinpoint plasma.

I never even bothered with psionics. Didn't have to.

this isn't me bragging, either - the game is severely unbalanced from at least mid game.

[EnigmaticHat]

I found EXALT at least as hard as the aliens in my EW C/I run.  Depending on they way the level is set up they can have 2 or 3 times as many active soldiers as you, constant reinforcements from all sides, and comparable abilities.  And EXALT heavies are a nightmare.

This is only for the defense missions, because those spawn soldiers regardless of what you do.  The agent extraction missions are easy because they'll only spawn enemies if you hack relays IRRC.

I mean I still won the fights, and it was mostly because I lagged on weapons research messing around with all the new toys, but still.

[Anvilfolk]

I actually did a run without the Angles option and it went a TON better as far as the first fights were concerned.

Unfortunately, I never unlocked the damned workshop, so I couldn't actually build satellites or better weapons...... eventually was up against Mutons without armour or laser weapons... that was the end of that run...

[Parsely]

Gotta play missions with engineer rewards at the start my man.

[EnigmaticHat]

You need 6 engineers for your first workshop, 10 for your first uplink, 10 for laser pistols, and 12 for laser rifles.  You start with 5.  Abduction rewards usually provide 4, workshops provide 5, and each launched satellite provides either an engineer or a scientist (engineer is generally better early game) depending on which continent it is launched over.

All that means its very important to pick engineers as the reward for your first abduction mission.  From there you need to obtain a single engineer from any source to build your first uplink, and from there you're pretty much set as long as you have even one or two nations that provide engineers as monthly rewards.  You might want more but in my experience engineers are never a problem past the first two months; once you gain coverage over all surviving nations you should be getting 5+ engineers per month with no input required.

[Delta Foxtrot]

Well that explains why I lost my first real game. Turns out basic assault rifles are too low tech against mutons and chryssalids. Gotta stack those engis then.

[GiglameshDespair]

You want lasers by the time floaters show up. Normally by mutons I've started bringing out light plasma rifles.

[Anvilfolk]

Again, the problem is the downwards spiral!

The game that I went further was when I slowly managed to get my tech up. Unfortunately, by that time I was losing all the missions and did not have the alien allows for armour and weapon for all my guys. And of course, none of them made sergeant, so I couldn't get 5-soldier teams.

This time around I decided I would go for science and tech up much more quickly - which I did. Unfortunately, I never got the engineers to get a workshop and actually produce all the tech I researched. I was trying options that weren't my usual ones, but it's pretty sad that basically the game funnels you into making the one sensible choice, which is engineers on the first mission, and a satellite that gets you +1 engineer at the end of the month or just building a workshop.

I still want to finish or get far enough in a campaign, but am I looking forward to The Long War

[Parsely]

Make X-COM 2.
1% Hit Chance

[Remalle]

Every so often I get complacent, and do something overconfident like send four rookies to clear a crashed UFO (Classic Ironman).  The game likes to remind me not to take it lightly.

Spoiler: In retrospect, dressing all my rookies up like Imperial Stormtroopers may have been a mistake. (click to show/hide)

On the bright side, I got a badass finishing screen.

[Parsely]

Jeez, only five aliens? That must've been your first abduction of the run, right?

[Remalle]

crashed UFO

One of my soldiers was crit'd by a mind-melded Sectoid.  Another was sniped by the Outsider, panicking the third casualty, who got flanked for twelve damage.  Then my last rookie counter-flanked and finished the mission.
Also, look at that screenshot.  Look at it.  Everything's on fire, a soldier and an alien are both lying in pools of their own blood, the sole survivor looks dejected and broken.  It's the most XCOM screenshot ever.

[Parsely]

crashed UFO

One of my soldiers was crit'd by a mind-melded Sectoid.  Another was sniped by the Outsider, panicking the third casualty, who got flanked for twelve damage.  Then my last rookie counter-flanked and finished the mission.
Also, look at that screenshot.  Look at it.  Everything's on fire, a soldier and an alien are both lying in pools of their own blood, the sole survivor looks dejected and broken.  It's the most XCOM screenshot ever.

Sorry, that's what I meant. :p I figured four sectoids and one outsider which is how the first UFO splash always plays out.

Yeah it looks super cool!

[Remalle]

Something happened in Confounding Light that I'd never seen before.  A muton spawned, represented in game as them dropping down from the Battleship above Shanghai... right on top of a muton that was already there.

Spoiler: Weirdery. (click to show/hide)

It just kinda stood on top of the other muton.  Couldn't take cover, so it went down fast, but I took a screenshot first because I didn't even know that was possible.