Xcom 2

[Sir Crashalot]

Ambushing is kind of unreliable anyway unless you trigger it with kill zone or allow them to walk into it on their turn.

If you set up overwatches and trigger them by shooting then you'd better hope that the overwatches hit because the enemies are going to be running into flanking positions which they will take advantage of on their turn. One way around this is just to keep a Ranger or two handy (not overwatched) to take care of any flankers.

Mimic beacons are a bit silly currently and are probably one of the reasons why some people keep blabbing on about the game being too easy, it is likely that Firaxis will readjust these in the future.

Psionics are fun too, especially if you nab an Andromedon early in a mission.

As for Ironman, it is simply too risky right now because of bugs.
There is one game killing bug that can occur on the strategic map where you are blocked from expanding in certain directions. This wrecked my first two games but finally I'm in a game where this bug isn't occurring and am now stomping my way through it.

I'm a little concerned right now that this game might be bug dead too because..

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I am unable to research the Avatar in the Shadow lab, it just says that I have to complete other research first.

[GCU Grey Area]

After the first 2-3 missions squad concealment (and to a certain extent overwatch ambush) become largely useless. Funny thing is how much the dev was trumpeting it so much before the game comes out. But then again it's tradition, Xcom dev tend to be really good at teaching players how to suck.

Having one ranger in perma concealment for scouting is extremely helpful however.

Absolutely essential IMO if you prefer enemies which rarely get a chance to shoot back - love it when you get the post-mission screen & the "most shot at" entry is blank.

Still using concealment overwatch ambush tactics, even late game. General procedure for me is to have my Concealment Scout spot, then 1 of my Grenadiers launches an appropriate grenade or rocket (prefer to have 3 Grenadiers in the squad so I have a wide selection of munitions available), then overwatching Kill Zone Sniper shoots them all as they run for cover.

Specialist is often also on overwatch in such situations (unless there's a mec that's going to need hacking), though prefer to keep remaining Grenadiers available just in case the survivors, if any, need another application of acid, incendiaries, gas, plasma, etc. Sometimes wish it was possible to set them to overwatch with their grenade launchers rather than their guns - they're not particularly good with guns, being mostly trained as Demolition Experts.

[TSM]

I'm a little concerned right now that this game might be bug dead too because..

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I am unable to research the Avatar in the Shadow lab, it just says that I have to complete other research first.

not so sure thats a bug

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did you do the codex coordinates mission?

I been pretty lucky with bugs I think!

[Mightysword]

Absolutely essential IMO if you prefer enemies which rarely get a chance to shoot back - love it when you get the post-mission screen & the "most shot at" entry is blank.

I finished a Commander campaign already, and over watch ambush is extremely risky to use. There is nothing that will ruin the day faster than RNJesus decided that all of your overwatch gonna miss. I'm not save-cumming so it only takes a couple instance like to make it become a very non-viable tactic on higher difficulty. Even a 2 HP damage can send your trooper to the sickbay for 30 days on Legendary.

And even if your overwatch don't miss, it still gives you less bang for the buck. In late game there are so many variable involves that I prefer to able to manually control my soldiers.

- A sniper can make 6-10 shots in a row with the right ability, equipment and condition. It's not rare to have a 5 shots out in one turn.
- A properly equipped Colonel Grenadier can beat a sectopod close to death or even kill it out right in one turn by himself. No need to waste more than 2 soldiers on it.

Also things happens randomly on overwatch, like your Grenadier might attack non-armor target while your other unit wasting their shots on an armored target instead.

[GCU Grey Area]

A sniper can make 6-10 shots in a row with the right ability, equipment and condition. It's not rare to have a 5 shots out in one turn.

Seen that myself. All my snipers have Serial & use rifles with extended magazines & free reloads. If needed they can fire a truly absurd number of shots in a single turn. Try to avoid such situations however as it generally means I've made a really bad mistake & managed to activate every enemy on the map. Prefer to be sneaky & take them on 1 pod at a time, preferably without letting them shoot back or run to cover.

A properly equipped Colonel Grenadier can beat a sectopod close to death or even kill it out right in one turn by himself. No need to waste more than 2 soldiers on it.

Maybe, however my Grenadiers aren't configured that way. Their primary purpose is to carpet bomb the area containing enemies, melting armour & smashing cover, so everyone else has an easier time killing them - i.e. wide area damage rather than high single target damage.

As for Sectopods (& other mecs) I generally get my Specialist to shut them down for a couple of turns - save them for later while my troops focus on other enemies. Generally avoid the control option unless the % chance is fairly high, though did have a rather fun 3 turn Avenger Defence mission earlier this evening where I sent a subverted Heavy Mec to smash the Disruptor for me. Meanwhile my squad stayed safely near the ramp providing covering fire for the Mec. Strangely Bradford complained about leaving it behind when I gave the order to take off.

Also things happens randomly on overwatch, like your Grenadier might attack non-armor target while your other unit wasting their shots on an armored target instead.

That specific example is unlikely in my game - my Grenadiers generally only use guns when they've run out of grenades & since each one carries 3 + a heavy weapon they can often go an entire mission without ever needing to shoot. Consequently it's quite rare for them to use overwatch at all.

[Stars_InTheirEyes]

I don't take a sniper in this, whereas I always had at least 1 in every squad in xcom 1.
Especially with timed missions, a couple times I've nearly left them behind. Much rather take a unit that is mobile, plus squadsight seems to get ruined by line of sight a lot. My ideal composition is:
1x Grenadier with w.a.r suit and blaster launcher, EMP bombs and a flashbang
1x medic specialist
1x combat specialist with w.a.r suit and rocket launcher
1x stealth/scout ranger, who learned rupture which is guaranteed crit and devastating with shotguns
1x assault/blade ranger with bluescreen rounds and the serial and reaper abilities, practically limitless close range actions, can take out a sectopod pod from full in one turn
1x Psi operative with soulflare, it's regeneration ability, inspire (target receives extra turn), a null Lance which is seriously strong if you can line up enemies.

I agree breaking concealment early is best so you don't trigger multiple pods, but have a ranger that's been upgraded down the scout path is super useful, the Ai won't see them and very often moves to a position where the ranger can get an easy flanking shot/high chance crit without moving.

Anything EMP or bluescreen is OP as hell. I haven't even been shot at by a sectopod yet because my squad can do so much damage against it so quickly.

Guaranteed damage sources from the specialist's combat protocol or Psi operative's abilities is really helpful, too.

[GCU Grey Area]

I don't take a sniper in this, whereas I always had at least 1 in every squad in xcom 1.
Especially with timed missions, a couple times I've nearly left them behind. Much rather take a unit that is mobile, plus squadsight seems to get ruined by line of sight a lot.

I find the grappling hook on Spider & Wraith armour helps with that, particularly on maps where the evac point is on top of a building, as is often the case. Using the hook doesn't count as a move & it has quite a long range, so in appropriate circumstances can add around 50% to the distance a soldier can move in a turn.

Wraith armour's ability to walk through walls has also helped my sniper catch up with the squad if they're lagging behind. Don't tend to use it for my other troops (extra inventory items & EXO/WAR armour heavy weapons are just too useful), however all my snipers really need is their special ammo, they're too far back to use most of the other stuff effectively.

Personally would not like to manage without a sniper, they're just too effective at mowing down large numbers of enemies in a short amount of time. As for line of sight issues, my Grenadiers can usually assist with that.

My ideal composition is:
1x Grenadier with w.a.r suit and blaster launcher, EMP bombs and a flashbang
1x medic specialist
1x combat specialist with w.a.r suit and rocket launcher
1x stealth/scout ranger, who learned rupture which is guaranteed crit and devastating with shotguns
1x assault/blade ranger with bluescreen rounds and the serial and reaper abilities, practically limitless close range actions, can take out a sectopod pod from full in one turn

Interesting approach, nothing like what I'm doing. In particular haven't done much with EMP/bluescreen yet - guess I like my incendiaries, acid, gas, etc too much to make space for them. Suppose it means you don't need Haywire so much (I pretty much rely on that for mec encounters) & your Specialists can take Revival instead?

1x Psi operative with soulflare, it's regeneration ability, inspire (target receives extra turn), a null Lance which is seriously strong if you can line up enemies.

Only recently started using Psi Operatives but really starting to like them a lot. Favourite thing about them so far is some of their abilities (e.g. Null Lance & Void Rift) don't even need line of sight. As long as they've got another soldier to spot for them it goes right through walls without damaging them & revealing the Psi. Perfect for a sneaky ambush approach.

Also becoming rather fond of Domination, particularly if there's a Gatekeeper on the field. Mass reanimation of dead civilians who got caught in the blast radius of my grenades has proved rather handy.

[Olterin]

For those curious, my final squad loadout ended up being:

-2 Grenadiers in W.A.R. suits with a blaster launcher and plasma blaster, both gunnery specialists (their grenades are still very strong, but the extra suppression possibility is very nice to have). Total of 3 plasma nades and 1 acid nade between them
-1 Phantom Ranger, my dedicated scout. Only revealed when no other course of action available, can restealth once, thankfully. Carrying a Mimic Beacon
-1 Gunslinger Sharpshooter. Codex clone is the worst, this allows me to deal with it without issue most times. Otherwise there's many pistol shots or the occasional snipe. Burning ammo, wraith suit. The ammo works with pistol shots as well.
-1 Psi Operative, maximally trained Magus. Ii had the time to do it, and just the one Psi felt more than enough - they don't have quite the stopping power of my other soldiers, but provide very useful group utility and control abilities. Stasis MVP when there's just too many high-hp enemies (or when you want to isolate a particular enemy for a skulljack)
-1 Phantom Specialist. Advanced Warfare Center granted the combat hacker "phantom", which was very useful to have in case I had to reveal my ranger but didn't want to use the restealthing quite yet. Mostly there to deal with mechanized units. Carryng a mimic beacon and a skulljack.

There hasn't been any situation this squad couldn't deal with while on the move in the space of 2-3 turns at most. I'd have to give the Andromedon the "most annoying enemy" award with this squad, just because it has two lives, with the second hitpoint bar not being damageable while the first one is up. (Outside of a particular plot enemy). But you guys have given me ideas on what to try with the next playthrough, thanks

[Sir Crashalot]

not so sure thats a bug

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did you do the codex coordinates mission?

I been pretty lucky with bugs I think!

Yup.

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I dragged my feet and made sure to get everything before doing those two missions, once done I was able to complete the research.

Finished up today and overall enjoyed the game, but it is in need of patching to sort out performance, fix bugs (1 game killer) and address some balance issues.

I generally stuck with this team.
1 Combat spec for Haywire, hacking and skullmining.
1 Devoted Medic Specialist. (had kill zone )
1 Grenadier (shred spec)
1 Pure Sniper (bluescreen rounds)
1 Phantom Ranger (Jane from the tutorial)
1 Psionic

The Combat Spec and Psionic were almost godlike in my game.
The phantom and sniper were typical of the mimetic+sniper cheese of XCOM:EW.
I also used a gunslinger, bombardier and blademaster when the others were lazing around with minor scratches.

Oh an honourable mention to one bug that made me laugh.
A Stun Lancer charged and hit one of my grunts during a Terror mission, he then lay on his back and slid about twenty tiles to the left.

[GCU Grey Area]

I'd have to give the Andromedon the "most annoying enemy" award with this squad, just because it has two lives, with the second hitpoint bar not being damageable while the first one is up.

May be annoying to fight but they've ended up quite high on my list of preferred targets for Psi Domination. Lots of handy attributes for an expendable front line shock trooper. Heavily armoured & can smash through walls. Immunity to all the stuff my Grenadiers launch, so I can send them into the hell my Grenadiers create to finish off survivors. Decent weapons too, including a reusable acid bomb with a 2 turn cooldown - means they effectively replace the 3rd Grenadier I had to drop from the squad to make room for the Psi Operative. Only thing I haven't determined yet is what happens when the pilot is killed - do I still retain control over the suit?

[Olterin]

I'd have to give the Andromedon the "most annoying enemy" award with this squad, just because it has two lives, with the second hitpoint bar not being damageable while the first one is up.

May be annoying to fight but they've ended up quite high on my list of preferred targets for Psi Domination. Lots of handy attributes for an expendable front line shock trooper. Heavily armoured & can smash through walls. Immunity to all the stuff my Grenadiers launch, so I can send them into the hell my Grenadiers create to finish off survivors. Decent weapons too, including a reusable acid bomb with a 2 turn cooldown - means they effectively replace the 3rd Grenadier I had to drop from the squad to make room for the Psi Operative. Only thing I haven't determined yet is what happens when the pilot is killed - do I still retain control over the suit?

No, that's the problem with dominating them - the suit is a robotic autonomous unit, once it goes active you lose control of it.

[GCU Grey Area]

No, that's the problem with dominating them - the suit is a robotic autonomous unit, once it goes active you lose control of it.

Thanks, good to know. Hasn't been an issue so far - been keeping my bullet magnets healthy with Gremlin healing, just in case that's what would happen. Anyway, not something I'm going to be too concerned about. The suit itself isn't that hard to destroy (no armour) & I reckon the benefits of Dominating an Andromedon significantly outweigh the problems of disposal if the pilot is killed.

[Stars_InTheirEyes]

I dominated an Andromedon in a mission I just did.
Was not worth it.
It ran through a car, exploding it, shredding its own armour and that of my squad near the car, and doing 5hp to all.

The best to dominate is a Gatekeeper, I've found. Use the large AoE psi attack on civilians and they will become a psi zombie army for you. The worst to dominate are Berserkers, unless you just want a damage sponge - but even then they die quickly.
Have yet to dominate an archon, I'd imagine that annoying blazing pinions attack could be pretty useful when not used by AI.

[Sir Crashalot]

Their Blazing Pinions attack isn't really that useful because most of the time everything will have moved out of the way before they land. They make pretty good tanks though because they are hard to hit.

Andromedons are great shock troopers, send them out ahead and stir up the nest while you keep to good defensive positions about 1 move behind. It doesn't take long to take down the suit if it dies and the suit isn't that dangerous because it wont launch those horrible acid bombs. I see them as mobile mimic beacons that can damage the enemy.

Sectopods are killing machines, especially if you get to use its close range attack on a group of enemies but you only get them for a couple of turns then you lose control. :/

I haven't tried a Gatekeeper yet, no doubt they would be best of all.

[Olterin]

... How OP are your Psi troops, people, I never got a 100% domination chance on an Andromedon, nevermind a gatekeeper - best I had was 88%, which just isn't good enough in my eyes when the situation is already fragile (for "some weird reason" I only ran into the interesting enemies when there was more than one pod active ... ) I found it much more useful to use stasis and subsequently (on the next turn) flat-out kill the enemy in stasis so I wouldn't have to worry about an extra unit that might activate a pod I wasn't prepared for or something ... Or well, that was often the case. Archon is indeed very nice for domination - had it hold the ground for several turns against really bad odds at a particular plot point. I think that one saved the lives of a trooper or two.

[Sir Crashalot]

At endgame my psy (with alien amp) had 90% chance on Andromedons which meant I'd succeed about 50% of the time.

[GCU Grey Area]

Thought it might amuse you lot to know it was an Andromedon who fired the final shot which won my first campaign.

Not sure I could have managed without it. That final battle got distinctly dodgy at times, more than once came very close to being overwhelmed by enemy numbers. Having that extra gun & acid bomb made all the difference. MUCH more satisfying final battle than the first game IMO.

In case anyone's interested my squad for the final mission was:
2x Grenadiers in WAR Armour with a combined total of 2x Plasma, 2x Incendiary & 2x Acid Grenades + 2x Blaster Launchers.
Almost all of the Demolition Expert abilities with Shredder.

1x Sharpshooter in Wraith Armour with Talon Rounds for extra crits.
Almost all of the Sniper abilities with Lightning Hands.

1x Ranger in Warden Armour with Proximity Mine & Battle Scanner.
Mostly Scout abilities with Shadowstep & Untouchable.

1x Specialist in Warden Armour with Skulljack & Medkit.
Even mix of abilities from both trees: Medical, Haywire & Scanning Protocols, Threat Assessment, Ever Vigilant & Restoration.

1x Psi Operative in Warden Armour with Mimic Beacon & Gas Grenade.
Fully trained in all Psi abilities - never got round to using her gear, too busy spamming Psi stuff as soon as each one finished it's cooldown. 99% chance of Dominating Andromedons.

1x Andromedon - hero of the campaign!

[GCU Grey Area]

Started a new campaign. This time decided to go for an early Psi Lab, rather than leaving it as an end-game novelty (build order was: GTS->AWC->Power->Psi). Results so far have been mixed.

Having early Psi available has been pivotal in some missions - killing enemies in difficult to target places with attacks which ignore armour & cover, Stasis to pacify Berserkers (etc) while I kill their friends & Inspire to retreat my Scout when he went a bit too far forward on a recent Retaliation mission & lost concealment. No Domination yet but certainly looking forward to it.

On the other hand early Psi Lab has significantly delayed construction of other facilities. In particular the Proving Ground. Was planning to build it next, but then the Avatar project started to get a bit too imminent & Resistance Comms became absolutely essential. Consequently got basic mid-game gear (mag guns & predator armour), but none of the really good stuff. In particular my grenades are terrible. They're still good for destroying cover but that's about all they do, 3-4 damage frag grenades are little more than a minor inconvenience to most enemies now.

[Sir Crashalot]

No, no, no, no, NO! Evac damnit! Evac NOW!
This can't be happening!

Decided to go Ironman on Commander, doing pretty well having only lost 2 grunts with 1 captured.
It is September and the countdown was active (again) so I hit a Blacksite with 4 dots under it and got another 2 dots for Skulljacking a certain mob and dealing with the result. In total I knocked 6 dots off the project in just one mission.

Feeling pretty pleased and confident, I embark upon a supply raid mission a short while later.

I move one unit ahead and immediately spot an Andromedon, an Advent Captain and an Shield Bearer. I move everyone up into cover which consists of a small fence and a table.
On their turn another Andromedon and an Archon come around the house to the left and spot me. Ouch.
I focus down the first Andromedon and put the second in Stasis.
The Archon uses Blazing Pinions over my bunched up group, the captain shoots and heavily injures my Psy Op and the Shield Bearer puts up shields.
Another group of Advent enter the fray. (Captain, Elite Lance + Shield Bearer).
I move those I can into the house and pull the others back away from the incoming Pinions. I take down the Andromedons first stage but cannot finish him with my now split group.
During the Enemy turn I take more injuries from the officers and stunlancer but thankfully the Andromedon suit misses, though it takes away what was left of my cover in the house.
A Sectopod and another two Advent enter the fray.
I am still in the corner of the map and nearly all the cover is gone, facing the very legions of Hell. I considered the situation and decided that the best thing to do was to get the heck out of there while I could.

Cut to ship where everyone looks thoroughly miserable and Bradford starts whining about reviewing tactics... shut up!

On this game I have two fully trained Psy Ops with two more in training, I'm aiming to get 6 up and running in total to see what I can do with a full Psy Op team. (because why not?)

Ironically the Op with the focus PCS (+22) ended up being considerably weaker than the one which doesn't have one yet. Getting 6 fully trained will allow me to cherry pick the strongest for the final battle(s).

[Mightysword]

Cut to ship where everyone looks thoroughly miserable and Bradford starts whining about reviewing tactics... shut up!

You should review your tactics

So far on my legendary run I find the Archon to be the most annoying enemy. Sure, Sectopod or Gatekeeper have a lot of HP and Armor, but I can predict reliably what it takes to take them down (ChainShot + Bluesreen ammo can make mince meat out of a Sectopod). But the Archon can really throw whatever plan I have for the turn wide, not only you're not sure you can hit them, but even if you do they still have a high dodge that makes most of the attack grazed them. I have many times when I literally throw all of my attack in the turn at an Archon and still fail to kill it. Seeing a Plasma grenadier hit for only 4 damage is painful.