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Well, it is called impossible. I would be very disappointed if it were easy.

Anyone used the second wave options yet?

I love using hidden potential, not created equally and absolutely critical. So much fun.

New World Economy is fun - shakes things up a bit and makes some of the other continents more viable.

I use damage roulette, hidden potential and not created equal.

Gah, just reached sectopods and muton elites on classic, without getting titan armor. I'm going to have a bad time...

Titan Armor isn't totally necessary for them. You just need good snipers and plasma.

I have only 1 sniper who is any good (and he is; he has 110 aim base, and he's a major.), and my heavies are still stuck on las.

I do have many high-level assaults and plas rifles though. I do have the plas cannon for the shiv, but I'm running out of alloys fast, meaning I have to use the crappy type that dies in 1 hit to most things.

1 Sniper should be enough. Just means you have to move super slow on missions and be very sure of yourself.

Plasma Sniper?

No, laser sniper. Plasma is researched, but I haven't built one yet.

I keep running out of alloys. I think I may have made a few strategic blunders.

I'll start producing SHIVs. If they get the first strike with their plasma cannon, they may do enough damage.

Yeah, I had a game or two where I just researched wrong or did a couple things wrong and started over.

This problem is compounded if you play in classic or imp.

Classic is a great level of difficulty. Keeps you on your toes but isn't over the top. Impossible... yeah.. eff that.

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:
Currently playing on Classic Ironman, Europe start.

Its insane! I have no money, and I have 3 countries in the red, and that's only Month 3. I'm having to do an early base rush to try to lower the panic to manageable levels, and get some loot.

Its great ^^

Also, you have to do the alien base in one shot; failing that mission is game over, iirc.

No, I failed my first alien base raid. It came down between a standoff between their leader and my last remaining troop. Literally whoever shot first won and my sniper missed for the first time in ages ;_; sad times.

Regardless, the game still is going. It sucks having to rebuild your squad after a failure like that. Squaddies are so much worse than what I had before.

Yeah it's not a total loss, but you are determented so hard that the already tough difficultly becomes nearly unrecoverable.

Ok, I think I worked out how to deal with sectopods despite my poor tech. The secret is shredder rockets + heat.

The shredder will deal 8 damage (because of heat), and anything that targets the sectopod after that will get a damage bonus. A second heavy with a holo targeting thing is nice as well.

Beating the alien base helped a lot. I now have satellite coverage over everywhere, and I lost only 2 countries, both of which limited to africa so I can get the bonuses from the other continents.

I still lost like 40 dudes though :/

I thought losing the alien base was an instant game over?

Just coming back to XCOM after a break, and i forgot how hilarious and often painful the panic options are.

"Wow those aliens sure are scary, guess I'd better off the Major"

*Then proceeds to Alloy Cannon the Major in the Eyeball*

My guys always panic and murder the VIP I'm supposed to protect.

Oh man I've never had that, I've had them play catch the bullet before where #1 panics and shoots #2, who then panics and shoots #3 who then... I think you get the idea

 DA's Forever wrote:
Oh man I've never had that, I've had them play catch the bullet before where #1 panics and shoots #2, who then panics and shoots #3 who then... I think you get the idea

Well, where do you put your VIP? In the pocket.

And what's the best target for the people defending the pocket?

The pocket.

I usually have my sniper or assault near the VIP, Either of those would not end well for him

I guess I've been lucky my panicked guys shoot and kill aliens better than my non-panicked guys!

I'll admit, a majority of the time they do indeed behave like that, its just anytime I NEED them to kill that alien Jimmy seems to want to get back at the Major for being an arse last Thursday in the mess hall

I generally find that if a panicking soldiers sees an alien, he will either take a shot at it, run away or hunker.

If there is no alien in sight, then he may shoot at a friendly.

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:
I generally find that if a panicking soldiers sees an alien, he will either take a shot at it, run away or hunker.

If there is no alien in sight, then he may shoot at a friendly.

Are you playing the same game as me?

Because I've watched Colonel level troopers ignore a sectoid 3 tiles away to take a shot at my support on one health 10 tiles away.

I just had this ridiculous battle where one guy panicked and shot another guy and then he panicked and shot another guy and it just kept chaining until everyone in my squad shot at another guy in the squad. It would have been funny but this is the first time I'm trying Classic difficulty. Everything was going fine but I have Slingshot and basically the 2nd mission is impossible now because it has like six mutons in it and I still have normal assault rifles and body armour.

 KamikazeCanuck wrote:
I just had this ridiculous battle where one guy panicked and shot another guy and then he panicked and shot another guy and it just kept chaining until everyone in my squad shot at another guy in the squad. It would have been funny but this is the first time I'm trying Classic difficulty. Everything was going fine but I have Slingshot and basically the 2nd mission is impossible now because it has like six mutons in it and I still have normal assault rifles and body armour.

Yeah one bad timed panic on classic can really screw things up, especially before carapace armour when the destroy most of each others health.

I haven't tried to many of the second wave options yet, been wanting to actually beat classic before i dived into them too much. Damage roulette and marathon sound fun. How much farther does marathon make the game go?

 MrMoustaffa wrote:

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:
I generally find that if a panicking soldiers sees an alien, he will either take a shot at it, run away or hunker.

If there is no alien in sight, then he may shoot at a friendly.

Are you playing the same game as me?

Because I've watched Colonel level troopers ignore a sectoid 3 tiles away to take a shot at my support on one health 10 tiles away.

That's what I observed. I never had a soldier shoot at another when there's an alien in sight.

I spent so much time preparing that i had to skip capturing a sectoid. There were none around by the time I had the money to focus on other things.

Example: Everyone has Titan armour and laser guns, Just now got the containment facility built

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:
I never had a soldier shoot at another when there's an alien in sight.

This boggles my mind.

I find it rare to have a soldier shoot an alien when an ally is in sight.

Especially "ally" not "squadmate" in escort missions.

 DA's Forever wrote:

 KamikazeCanuck wrote:
I just had this ridiculous battle where one guy panicked and shot another guy and then he panicked and shot another guy and it just kept chaining until everyone in my squad shot at another guy in the squad. It would have been funny but this is the first time I'm trying Classic difficulty. Everything was going fine but I have Slingshot and basically the 2nd mission is impossible now because it has like six mutons in it and I still have normal assault rifles and body armour.

Yeah one bad timed panic on classic can really screw things up, especially before carapace armour when the destroy most of each others health.

I haven't tried to many of the second wave options yet, been wanting to actually beat classic before i dived into them too much. Damage roulette and marathon sound fun. How much farther does marathon make the game go?

Really long time. I don't really recommend it but one cool thing is injuries last longer. I know that doesn't sound cool but you end up with this huge roster of guys because of it which ended up being kind of fun.

Oh alright, so does it just extend it by making things take longer then? Healing, Research, building?

Damnation this game is without mercy! After a very long break I took it up once more, and tried the second wave options. And I dare say they made the game a lot more enjoyably. Until Germany went into panic mode and the rest of the world fell down the drain when all my veteran team members died due to alien grenades to the face.