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[Dreadlord]

I shoot rockets at alien snipers.

Ahhhhh, you smell that rookie? Thats the beautiful stench of overkill in the morning. :evil:

BASE UNDER ATTACK!

LOL, THIS.IS.A.GREAT.GAME!!!!

So there I was, commander in Chief of the XCOM iniciative, pretty satisfied with the way things were going. 8 bases around the world pick up ALMOST every UFO, and our plasma beam / avalanche misile equipped interceptors are doing short work of them all, with the exception of those nasty battle ships. In any case, research for a new kind of craft is already under way, and I figured any time now, I would be able to stand up to those as well.

Yup, It was a good job to be a soldier defending earth from the alien scum.

That is, of course, until SurafriCOM came under attack.

My misile defenses, all 6 of them, turn out to be really pitifull, as only ONE actually conected with the invading ship. Alarms blaring, troops hastily picking up some armor and weapons ran to face the until now unthinked off menace.

First blood was mine. Positioning my troops at the end of a rather LONG corridor, I ordered the way in to be literally bathed in proximity mines. The GRAYS that came close enough were blasted to goo by a couple of Heavy plasma wielding sharpshooters positioned at the end of the corridor. It was a killing zone. For a minute there, I actually thought it was easy.

Too easy. All of a sudden, 3 of my BELOVED CRACK TEAM members came under alien attack, turing on their mates and killing at least a cuople of them. At the same time, the dreaded sound of a blaster bomb being launch ended my hopes: by the time the dust settled, I had just ONE defender left.

The rookie went out with style, by all acounts. He ran back, threw a couple of grenades (disposing of a couple of traitors AND some greys) and with but a laser rifle and tattered personal armor digged himself in a corner.

But the base was already lost, and he was surrounded. After some fire exchange, fighting off their mind control, he got at least two other grays (sectoids!) until I heard, again, the coming death that is the sound of a blaster bomb.

SurafriCOM was lost.

I figured they managed to set free the couple of mutons and the snake alien that I kept as trophies..er., prisioners since waaayyy back into the game. Bastards. As I speak, 6 Skyrangers full of powerarmored troops are on the way to kick behind, and NONE of them have any GUM left!

ok, rant over. Couple of questions. Well, just one actually> WHAT IS the best way to defend my base against alien invasion? SurafriCOM I figure I could have defended with some judicius repositioning of my troops, and the base layout works in my favor, but my very first base, New Albion in England, I SHUDDER to think what would happen if it was hit: Hangars in the corners and access hatch smack in the middle of it.

Any help will be greaty appreciated. The brave fighting men and women lost in SurafriCOM will be avenged.


:ranting:

[axident]

Originally posted by Juan Rayo@Mar 30 2005, 06:29 AM
BASE UNDER ATTACK!

LOL, THIS.IS.A.GREAT.GAME!!!!

So there I was, commander in Chief of the XCOM iniciative, pretty satisfied with the way things were going. 8 bases around the world pick up ALMOST every UFO, and our plasma beam / avalanche misile equipped interceptors are doing short work of them all, with the exception of those nasty battle ships. In any case, research for a new kind of craft is already under way, and I figured any time now, I would be able to stand up to those as well.

Yup, It was a good job to be a soldier defending earth from the alien scum.

That is, of course, until SurafriCOM came under attack.

My misile defenses, all 6 of them, turn out to be really pitifull, as only ONE actually conected with the invading ship. Alarms blaring, troops hastily picking up some armor and weapons ran to face the until now unthinked off menace.

First blood was mine. Positioning my troops at the end of a rather LONG corridor, I ordered the way in to be literally bathed in proximity mines. The GRAYS that came close enough were blasted to goo by a couple of Heavy plasma wielding sharpshooters positioned at the end of the corridor.* It was a killing zone. For a minute there, I actually thought it was easy.

Too easy.* All of a sudden, 3 of my BELOVED CRACK TEAM members came under alien attack, turing on their mates and killing at least a cuople of them. At the same time, the dreaded sound of a blaster bomb being launch ended my hopes: by the time the dust settled, I had just ONE defender left.

The rookie went out with style, by all acounts. He ran back, threw a couple of grenades (disposing of a couple of traitors AND some greys) and with but a laser rifle and tattered personal armor digged himself in a corner.

But the base was already lost, and he was surrounded. After some fire exchange, fighting off their mind control, he got at least two other grays (sectoids!) until I heard, again, the coming death that is the sound of a blaster bomb.

SurafriCOM was lost.

I figured they managed to set free the couple of mutons and the snake alien that I kept as trophies..er., prisioners since waaayyy back into the game. Bastards. As I speak, 6 Skyrangers full of powerarmored troops are on the way to kick behind, and NONE of them have any GUM left!

ok, rant over. Couple of questions. Well, just one actually> WHAT IS the best way to defend my base against alien invasion? SurafriCOM I figure I could have defended with some judicius repositioning of my troops, and the base layout works in my favor, but my very first base, New Albion in England, I SHUDDER to think what would happen if it was hit: Hangars in the corners and access hatch smack in the middle of it.

Any help will be greaty appreciated. The brave fighting men and women lost in SurafriCOM will be avenged.


:ranting:

The first base is terrible in layout, so what I try to do when I have the money is to relocate the bottom two hangars to the top left and top right:

[Hangar][Hangar][Hangar]
XXXXXXXX[AL]XXXXXXXX
[Rest of my base here.....]
[.....more of the base......]
[.....more of the base......]

AL = access lift
X = empty space

That way, I don't get a long hallway but at least I get to surround the access lift's southern border. You can also sell off the stuff diagonal-and-down from the access lift to make a short hallway for yourself:

[hangars.....................................]
XXXXXXXXXXX[AL]XXXXXXXXXXX
[blahblah]XXXXX[]XXXXX[blahblah]
[blahblahblahblahrest of base blah.]
[more of your base blah blah blah]



Mind control is hard to defend against, even with the long hallway (see my previous post, but I think you know what I mean since it's common practice among veterans). I wrote several pages ago my easy-as-pie situation using "spotters" and laser rifles, but you have to keep the aliens so far away that they can't see your soldiers to mind control them. They should be so far away that they can't see anyone to Blaster Launch, either. So use those spotters!

Missile defenses are worthless; you want to either have soldiers for base defense or at least 4 Fusion Ball Launchers with 1 Grav Shield. Either that or just Mind Shield the whole base.

[PrejudiceSucks]

Ack! Folied again!

You have the right kind of idea with your base, though.

Bases are 6x6 I think and this is how to arrange them. Key= H=Hangar A=Access Lift O=Other. Remember that Hangars are 2 spaces wide+long.

HHHHHH
HHHHHH
HHHHHH
HHHHHH
A . . . . .
O . . . . .
O . . . . .
OOOOOO

This provides excellent defence, as the aliens can only use the access lift and the hangars to attack from. Your first base is a complete bitch to defend, I wouldn't try too hard with that one, make a new base ASAP.

This base also gives space to improve with. As you can probably see, there is a 2x2 sqare of dots to use, you could even use 2 of those, but that would severely limit space for other upgrades. Just remember the golden rule - no more than 1 structure, the first, should ever have to touch the access lift and no structures other than other hangars should touch hangars. If you use this base layout then you will only have one place to defend.

Missile Defences are an absolutely awful way to defend a base and you shouldn't bother. Laser defences are OK, Plasma Defences are good, but Fusion Defences are easily the best. 3 of them + Grav shield = about 9/10 battleships won't get to land :w00t: . That'll teach em.

Oh and by the way, you get SERIOUS amounts of equipment if you fight off an alien invasion of your base. I mean absolutely LOADS.

hmm, that would mean rebuilding my first base (Nueva Albion) from scratch? don't see how.

Thanks for the imput. I have tried to build my other bases so I get a long hallway and can wait for them at the bottom. My first experience using this layout has been a bust. I could also try to bring out the launchers to play BEFORE the aliens do.

As for the equipment. Hmmmm... so.. one could actually WANT to let them invade in order to get the goods? I can see that happening.. UNLESS, as someone mentioned in a prior post, base invasions would become TOO common, that would just be annoying...

Anyway, I reloaded the game, and discovered a Scout that I had previously ignored. Took him out with interceptors and the base invasion didn't happened. Now I ALMOST wish it did. Hard to explain, but they kicked my behind so clearly last time, I am itching for a re-match!

Fussion ball launchers? err... how do you get those?

Thanks

Axident, sorry but my english is not that good and, while I did read your post about the "spotters" (read the whole 60 odd pages, THAT's how much I am liking this game), I didn't really understand how is it that you put this tactic to use.

Let's see, you get some soldiers (as I did) at the "bottom" of the hallway and some others halfway thru? so the second group can take a quick look and see the aliens for the snipers to shoot? wouldn't that subject the "spotting" group to all kinds of alien induced hurting?

Sorry, but I would appreciate it if you could explain it a bit further. I know it's a bother, but the help is appreciated!

k:

Err, previous post was mine.

[The Fifth Horseman]

hmm, that would mean rebuilding my first base (Nueva Albion) from scratch? don't see how.

You can dismantle base structures - at least as long as they are unused. Transfer (almost)everything to antoher base, then dismantle the structures that are against your planned layout and build all anew the way you want it.

Fussion ball launchers? err... how do you get those?

As all alien tech. You need to obtain a working Blaster Launcher first and then research. They're kickass. Intelligent missiles with programmable trajectory. :evil: Ultimate weapon.

This will give you access to Fusion Ball armed HWP's (absolutely worth that) and craft-mounted version (can smack down a battleship!)

Altough sending one into a puny earthling house does not destroy it completely. :angry:

[Spookyfish]

Originally posted by Dreadlord@Mar 29 2005, 11:19 PM
I shoot rockets at alien snipers.

I think someone likes explosives .

...

I love terror sites. Blowing up unnecessary amounts of houses instead of peeking though the window to check for aliens is sooo much fun... Tends to kill a civilian or two though :whistle:.