Just had my first base defence mission! Wow, that was brutal.
Firstly, great game play! So many memory’s from the original xcoms! The running from room to room and covering doors etc. It was just like the old school games but with Pheonix point graphics
Secondly, It was a little difficult. I enjoy a challenge but this was brutal.
The aliens have so many entrances to your base you just cannot cover them. I only had 6 soldiers in my squad (lost one in the last mission). With the aliens spamming in and blowing away all the base civvies I split into 2 groups of 3. I could hold two of the spawns (taking loads of damage) but aliens still streamed in from every other spawn and went to town on my base.
My two groups of three, were busy every turn just covering the new spawns, at those 2 entrances. The other aliens already in the base and coming in from other spawns were free to clear house.
I have left the game at the last alien and last remaining soldier… so I can restart and play it again.
If I had 10 soldiers… maybe…
If the base civvies a handgun each… maybe
If there were less alien spawn points…
I don’t know. The game play was truly fantastic but if this were a real campaign, what was left of my base, squad and base crew might’ve been a campaign ender.
In BB3 I would just park a launcher soldier, at each of the spawn points, I passed in the alien base missions. Anything that spawned was instant mince meat.
In BB4 I have only found one (firecat) launcher so far. The ‘Hel ll Cannon’ is a great one shot weapon but just not the same as the firecat. The firecat will totally clean a spawn point of 3 aliens, then keep it clean.
The Hel cannon is great for a one shot BOOM. I love that it makes the shield useless, has given me several LOL moments so far… but then the two remaining aliens on the spawn start having their way with your soldier… it is not as funny!
Second time around I done much better. All my soldiers survived but my base!!
This time I gave up on protecting every one in the base and the equipment. I just moved as a squad and cleared out the base one corner to the other. The smouldering ashes that was once my base… The aliens with launchers, combined with the over powered environment destruction, left nothing standing! The ‘shoot through walls’ is great fun in the shanty tin town maps, but in your base, it leaves nothing intact.
They actually give you time to get to the base to defend it with a count down which is a good idea. The aliens will be attack base X… in Y time. And a 2 hour counter starts on the Geoscape. It is just enough time, if you have the aircraft within range, to get back and land.
If we had the soldier pool from BB3, it would probably be fine. You could have 1-2 defenders in base and a squad of 8 to land and defend. In BB4 I have only briefly had 8 soldiers once! I usually only have 5-7 in total alive!
The first few times I use the hell cannon I missed everything by a mile! It struggles to hit the barn door when standing on it. Once I realised it is an up close and personal weapon I started using it way more.
When a crabman runs up close and deploys shield. OK buddy, you go right ahead with that! Let me take that weight off your hands
I’m also a big fan of using it to clear pesky firing lanes for my assaults and snipers. Even if I know my hel guy is probably not going to hit, he’ll probably blow down that half wall, which may make an iffy AR shot into a guaranteed kill. It’s a bonus then if it manages to hit anyway. It helps that my hel is a technician with the carry weight talents. He’s got 4 stacks of ammo, mec charges, and a turret, lol
I never used to use the heavy machine gun for that reason in BB3. It is so inaccurate. I preferred to keep the aliens at a non-striking distance. Now with the new shanty town maps that is impossible.
The heavy machine gun is now fantastic in the close quarters maps. If there is an alien on the other side of a wall (or two) just aim through it. He will not only clear a entire path to the target for you… but most likely kill the target too!
If you have lost the soldier with the gun, the gun disappears from your inventory. Is it possible to still manufacture the gun again?
No. You need a copy. If you loose soldier, pick his weapon up with the other soldier. Remember that turret and mech arms still can’t be picked up (bug or something). Good advice is - not to bring last copy of the item to the mission or even soldier inventory.
Damit, I lost my hell cannon and firecat in one mission then!! Will have to scavenge crates and hope I get some new soldiers with good weapons!
Do we not automatically collect loot from crates now? By now in BB3, I had so much crap in the base inventory, I wanted to bin most of it. In BB4 I am having to make my own ammo.
In BB3 it were crates on scavenge missions. Here they are only in haven defence missions, so items in them are property of that haven and are not collected automatically. Recruit soldiers. Maybe you will get heavy with Hel. Goliath you will need to find.
Soooooo… if I were to ‘borrow’ these said items the haven will get pissed off at me?
The recruits are very few and far between at the moment in BB4 for me. I have spread out into North/South America but am now finding all the resources I would use to build radars is being used to make ammo. Expansion restriction by resource starvation.
I think I would rather the radars be cheaper but weaker. They only pick up 1/3 of the havens in the coverage zone but cost 100. If you over lap 3 of them you will see all sites in that over lap. That way you can still expand out, but if you really want to focus on an area you can still have plenty to do there.
I had Slim pickings for a while til I figured out building a radar station at PP base revealed a million places. I’ve had 2 seperate events that reveal 2-3 scavenging sites + a haven. One of those, at least, had a recruit. I’m still only exploring 2 radars worth of areas, but have at least 5 recruits on that, and I’m only about halfway done exploring. Keep having one of the starting havens getting attacked and need to keep returning there. It does suck to have to go leave someone at base in order to pick up a new recruit… would be great if they could just get shipped off to base when you get them if you don’t have room.
Not to say you’re doing anything wrong, I’m guessing there’s a lot of rng at work and sounds like you got the short stick on it this round.
I got off to a flying start and spread out fast. Got about 4 radars out very quickly and explored all the “?” in those areas. The first one was FULL but the next 3 only had a scattering of markers. Now every time I get to about 150 resources a haven is attacked, then I need to come back and reload and have to build back up again.
I have started to steal from the crates in the missions now just to see what happens (and get a bit more $$ out of the missions). It seems to be working as I can sell of what ever I find. Waiting for the havens to get pissed off at me though. I figure, if I am going to come and save your asses, I can steal your shit while I am there
I (stupidly) lost my firecat and hell cannon in the same mission. Thought I could just build more and was avoiding save scumming. My 2 heavies got surrounded by 4 crabmen with launchers in a shanty town and that was the end of them!
It appears not. Done it plenty and no repercussions as of yet in BB4 today.
Wonder what will be the end game result. Probably minus reputation with the haven leader… but I wonder if saving their asses counters the stealing from them…
Not much really worth stealing in the crates TBH. Mostly medkits and ammo. None of the weapons I am looking for (or weapons at all really).
That’s why Anu slums are my favorite setting from BB4. No more putting the enemy away from a distance, shotguns and cannons are now a real blast (eh!) to use, BB4 has really forced me to reavaluate my strategies. And with the new physics, putting down walls to reveal covering aliens is a treat!
I have to agree on that. All the weapons I never bothered with in BB3 are now critical! The heavy machine guns in close range and on close range over watch are brutal. In BB3 at a distance, I never used them because the aim was so rubbish.
The Hell Cannon is awesome but I lost mine. Would be good to have ways to buy the lost blueprints from havens at a price.
The aliens with launchers, combined with the over powered environment destruction, left nothing standing! The ‘shoot through walls’ is great fun in the shanty tin town maps, but in your base, it leaves nothing intact.
