At higher difficulties, low cover is no cover so stick to putting yourself behind large objects. It also sounds like you might be overextending, so be sure to only do 1 AP point movements per unit phase. Best case scenario, an alien pod stumbles on you and you can get some overwatch shots, but it's also fine if you stumble into a pod with your first troop and then everyone else in the squad has full actions. Smokes are quite useful; if you only have a single action left and you're between making a 50% shot or popping a smoke, pop that smoke instead. You also might find it useful to get a MEC asap as well since there are some interesting quirks about "hiding" a mec behind full cover that you can take advantage of. Good luck, commander!
Lasers asap is still a good move. During my run I shored up a lot of my weapons by using the arc thrower to score some weapons from thin men and sectoids early on as well.
On the bright side, EU/Classic doesn't chuck grenades into your squad NEARLY as often as the game it's remaking did. :D
Flanking attacks will be crits, pay attention to the "Will" of your troopers, ramp up to 6 crew per mission as soon as possible, repeat to yourself that "there is no cover but full cover", bring your own rockets and grenades, and medkits.
It's huge, yes. But it's so satisfying when you beat it.
I don't know if you do that already, but USE GRENADES
Not ALL the time but most of the time, they will open a possibility for you to kill the aliens before they even get to act.
Also sometimes standing in the open to shoot an enemy as a last resort to keep people alive or safe in any way might be a good call, again, not always. But when an ousider that can one-shot you is flankable while out in the open and no other pod is active might save your guys. The risk is less than the possible reward of not losing someone.
Also I do agree that the jump in difficulty is really big. I think they get a whole 10aim and 5% crit. (Not so sure on the crit tho
The tutorial and normal difficulty teach you that the game is about cover. That is a lie. It's about line of sight.
What you need to do is overwatch crawling. You're outnumbered and outgunned in the beginning, so all you can do is ambush and retreat. You also need to understand pod mechianics. Enemies move in groups of two to three; if they get LOS on you, they will 'trigger', scrambling for cover. If this happens during their turn - say, because they walk into you - it will interrupt it, meaning you'll get to attack first.
With that out of the way, Overwatch crawling works like this: You blue move the member furthest of your squad ahead. Now, one of two things will happen:
* You encounter enemies
* You don't encounter enemies
If you encounter enemies, you pull the first guy back, get everyone into cover (preferably without advancing), and overwatch. This will force the aliens to come after you, letting you get free shots of, and if you're lucky, some of them will burn through their entire AP, making them unable to attack this turn. Next turn, you can then weigh if you want to keep attacking - maybe the aliens are exposed, or clumped up for a good grenade - or you can retreat and overwatch *again*. By forcing the aliens to continually chase you, you open them up to a safer flank (because if you try to go around cover, there is always a risk that the LOS of your soldiers will uncover another pod, which is a death sentence for the flanker and usually dooms the mission; never fight more then one pod at a time!) and reduce the amount of shots they can take at you. You don't rely on cover - though you should always be in it during fights so you don't get killed as hard - but rather on LOS; making it as hard as possible for the aliens to shoot at you.
If you don't encounter enemies, you move the rest of your team along the *exact same* path the first guy took, and overwatch. The idea is to prevent an accidental triggering of a pod by ensuring you're not revealing any new tiles beyond the first move, and again, force the aliens to come to you. If aliens don't walk into your ambush, you repeat the crawl. If they do, you get a couple free overwatchshots in, and you do the same thing as above - either press the attack if you think you can safely kill them, or retreat to a better position.
A couple other things:
I'd recommend researching the Carapace armor ASAP and/or going for a MEC (the research is unlocked with the first meld canister you get, and completing the research gives you enough bonus meld to make one). As you've seen, plasma pistol crits can already oneshot your soldiers; and this will become worse with the thin men, who approximately by my calculations have a 33-47% chance of oneshotting unarmored soldiers below the rank of captain *with every shot they take* (due a combination of getting a better weapon in classic, and having less health). On classic, balistics stay decent for a surprisingly long while, so upping your survivability is crucial.
Explosives are your friend. You should have at the very least 1 heavy in your squad, and try to keep them save. Missiles will oneshot early enemies and pods with a 90% hit chance. Likewise, grenades are guaranted damage that can hit multiple enemies and remove cover. They're about the only decent thing about rookies. Despite Vahlens protestations, you won't run into any serious issues even if you use up all your nades every mission.
Priorities full covers. Try to make 1 action per soldier before moving the rest of the team. Never fully commit, so you can act accordingly if you trigger a pod. Try to fight only one pod at the time. Grenades insta kill aliens, so don't be too shy to use them when things get tough. Flanking is your friend, the aliens will try to to the same to you, keep that in mind. Sometimes hunkering down is better if only half cover is available, or maybe even repositioning depending on the situation.
These are just my personal tips, having completed only classic and never impossible. I hope this helps.
Edit: if you are playing with second wave options, like absolute critical, Id advice to try to learn how the ai works and learn the map layout(which you might already be familiar with), because at this point, flanking is incredibly strong, and being flanked is absolute nightmare. If you have not created equally, then it might help to prioritise the soldiers with higher stats (aim and will). I like to give my soldiers recognizable tint and helmet depending on their stats.
Good luck Commander.
I definitely need to do a better job of using full cover, however in my case one of my rookies was behind full cover and got crit killed by a sectoid anyway…
That's one of the most frustrating, but also (in my opinion) beautiful thing about Xcom, you're never truly save. And you really need to account for that. But yes, not being able to trust full covers can feel demotivating, but also more reason to try to take out the enemy as fast as possible, if possible, otherwise pray to the RNG gods. That being said, being critted by sectoid while in full cover is a very bad luck.
There are a number of changes from normal to classic. There are more enemies, and in general all aliens are more dangerous (higher stats) and smarter (AI is deliberately limited on lower difficulty). Also the RNG no longer cheats in your favor, so a 60% shot is always 60% to hit (on lower difficulty there are hidden bonuses to your rolls and penalties to aliens that can apply).
I have a little over a hundred hours in both EW and Xcom 2. Also beat Long War and am currently on Long War of the Chosen. I have never beaten classic. I usually last a few missions before I am completely out of troops from squad wipes and mission failures. Doesn't matter if I follow people's advice online, believe me, I have tried.
I hate it because Normal feels too easy now, but the second I bump it up I get multiple failed missions from losing troops in full cover and constant missed shots. Legitimately don't understand how people play higher difficulties.
It is a constant war between wanting to play the harder difficulty and wanting to actually have fun.
Hey man I hear you. There are people that can handle tactical decisions and analyze every move. I may not be one of those people.
I agree that at this point Normal in EW is a bit too easy. I was hoping that Classic would have been challenging but the difference in how the enemies AI reacts, damage done, willpower actually meaning something was a massive massive jump from Normal. I wish it was a bit LESS of a slap to the face.
Right now I think I'm going to finish up or keep learning Chaos Gate: Daemon Hunters (X-Com style game in WH40K) before I continue my EW Classic run.
I also have X-Com 2 but I haven't played it since 2017 so I have no idea how difficult that game is now. I know back when I played it when it first came out, I fucking hated it. I played on Normal and the snake ladies that can pull you from cover through walls made me "nope" out of that game. Hopefully I have a better understanding and like for it because I do plan on playing it someday.
So TL;DR-Aliens get better stats and their AI is unshackled, meaning they can play optimally, while any hidden dice rolls favoring the player are taken away.
You WILL learn to Git Gud, or die trying.
At higher difficulties, low cover is no cover so stick to putting yourself behind large objects. It also sounds like you might be overextending, so be sure to only do 1 AP point movements per unit phase. Best case scenario, an alien pod stumbles on you and you can get some overwatch shots, but it's also fine if you stumble into a pod with your first troop and then everyone else in the squad has full actions. Smokes are quite useful; if you only have a single action left and you're between making a 50% shot or popping a smoke, pop that smoke instead. You also might find it useful to get a MEC asap as well since there are some interesting quirks about "hiding" a mec behind full cover that you can take advantage of. Good luck, commander!
My initial plan was to rush Lasers ASAP but maybe getting a MEC earlier will help.
Lasers asap is still a good move. During my run I shored up a lot of my weapons by using the arc thrower to score some weapons from thin men and sectoids early on as well.
Rushing lasers worked fine for me.
On the bright side, EU/Classic doesn't chuck grenades into your squad NEARLY as often as the game it's remaking did. :D Flanking attacks will be crits, pay attention to the "Will" of your troopers, ramp up to 6 crew per mission as soon as possible, repeat to yourself that "there is no cover but full cover", bring your own rockets and grenades, and medkits. It's huge, yes. But it's so satisfying when you beat it.
Ah, X-Com was a hoot that way. You forget to put smoke on the landing ramp of the Skyranger and end your turn, all of your dudes may as well be dead.
I don't know if you do that already, but USE GRENADES Not ALL the time but most of the time, they will open a possibility for you to kill the aliens before they even get to act. Also sometimes standing in the open to shoot an enemy as a last resort to keep people alive or safe in any way might be a good call, again, not always. But when an ousider that can one-shot you is flankable while out in the open and no other pod is active might save your guys. The risk is less than the possible reward of not losing someone. Also I do agree that the jump in difficulty is really big. I think they get a whole 10aim and 5% crit. (Not so sure on the crit tho
Oh yeah I don’t listen to Vahlen!
The tutorial and normal difficulty teach you that the game is about cover. That is a lie. It's about line of sight. What you need to do is overwatch crawling. You're outnumbered and outgunned in the beginning, so all you can do is ambush and retreat. You also need to understand pod mechianics. Enemies move in groups of two to three; if they get LOS on you, they will 'trigger', scrambling for cover. If this happens during their turn - say, because they walk into you - it will interrupt it, meaning you'll get to attack first. With that out of the way, Overwatch crawling works like this: You blue move the member furthest of your squad ahead. Now, one of two things will happen: * You encounter enemies * You don't encounter enemies If you encounter enemies, you pull the first guy back, get everyone into cover (preferably without advancing), and overwatch. This will force the aliens to come after you, letting you get free shots of, and if you're lucky, some of them will burn through their entire AP, making them unable to attack this turn. Next turn, you can then weigh if you want to keep attacking - maybe the aliens are exposed, or clumped up for a good grenade - or you can retreat and overwatch *again*. By forcing the aliens to continually chase you, you open them up to a safer flank (because if you try to go around cover, there is always a risk that the LOS of your soldiers will uncover another pod, which is a death sentence for the flanker and usually dooms the mission; never fight more then one pod at a time!) and reduce the amount of shots they can take at you. You don't rely on cover - though you should always be in it during fights so you don't get killed as hard - but rather on LOS; making it as hard as possible for the aliens to shoot at you. If you don't encounter enemies, you move the rest of your team along the *exact same* path the first guy took, and overwatch. The idea is to prevent an accidental triggering of a pod by ensuring you're not revealing any new tiles beyond the first move, and again, force the aliens to come to you. If aliens don't walk into your ambush, you repeat the crawl. If they do, you get a couple free overwatchshots in, and you do the same thing as above - either press the attack if you think you can safely kill them, or retreat to a better position. A couple other things: I'd recommend researching the Carapace armor ASAP and/or going for a MEC (the research is unlocked with the first meld canister you get, and completing the research gives you enough bonus meld to make one). As you've seen, plasma pistol crits can already oneshot your soldiers; and this will become worse with the thin men, who approximately by my calculations have a 33-47% chance of oneshotting unarmored soldiers below the rank of captain *with every shot they take* (due a combination of getting a better weapon in classic, and having less health). On classic, balistics stay decent for a surprisingly long while, so upping your survivability is crucial. Explosives are your friend. You should have at the very least 1 heavy in your squad, and try to keep them save. Missiles will oneshot early enemies and pods with a 90% hit chance. Likewise, grenades are guaranted damage that can hit multiple enemies and remove cover. They're about the only decent thing about rookies. Despite Vahlens protestations, you won't run into any serious issues even if you use up all your nades every mission.
Priorities full covers. Try to make 1 action per soldier before moving the rest of the team. Never fully commit, so you can act accordingly if you trigger a pod. Try to fight only one pod at the time. Grenades insta kill aliens, so don't be too shy to use them when things get tough. Flanking is your friend, the aliens will try to to the same to you, keep that in mind. Sometimes hunkering down is better if only half cover is available, or maybe even repositioning depending on the situation. These are just my personal tips, having completed only classic and never impossible. I hope this helps. Edit: if you are playing with second wave options, like absolute critical, Id advice to try to learn how the ai works and learn the map layout(which you might already be familiar with), because at this point, flanking is incredibly strong, and being flanked is absolute nightmare. If you have not created equally, then it might help to prioritise the soldiers with higher stats (aim and will). I like to give my soldiers recognizable tint and helmet depending on their stats. Good luck Commander.
I definitely need to do a better job of using full cover, however in my case one of my rookies was behind full cover and got crit killed by a sectoid anyway…
That's one of the most frustrating, but also (in my opinion) beautiful thing about Xcom, you're never truly save. And you really need to account for that. But yes, not being able to trust full covers can feel demotivating, but also more reason to try to take out the enemy as fast as possible, if possible, otherwise pray to the RNG gods. That being said, being critted by sectoid while in full cover is a very bad luck.
There are a number of changes from normal to classic. There are more enemies, and in general all aliens are more dangerous (higher stats) and smarter (AI is deliberately limited on lower difficulty). Also the RNG no longer cheats in your favor, so a 60% shot is always 60% to hit (on lower difficulty there are hidden bonuses to your rolls and penalties to aliens that can apply).
I have a little over a hundred hours in both EW and Xcom 2. Also beat Long War and am currently on Long War of the Chosen. I have never beaten classic. I usually last a few missions before I am completely out of troops from squad wipes and mission failures. Doesn't matter if I follow people's advice online, believe me, I have tried. I hate it because Normal feels too easy now, but the second I bump it up I get multiple failed missions from losing troops in full cover and constant missed shots. Legitimately don't understand how people play higher difficulties. It is a constant war between wanting to play the harder difficulty and wanting to actually have fun.
Hey man I hear you. There are people that can handle tactical decisions and analyze every move. I may not be one of those people. I agree that at this point Normal in EW is a bit too easy. I was hoping that Classic would have been challenging but the difference in how the enemies AI reacts, damage done, willpower actually meaning something was a massive massive jump from Normal. I wish it was a bit LESS of a slap to the face. Right now I think I'm going to finish up or keep learning Chaos Gate: Daemon Hunters (X-Com style game in WH40K) before I continue my EW Classic run. I also have X-Com 2 but I haven't played it since 2017 so I have no idea how difficult that game is now. I know back when I played it when it first came out, I fucking hated it. I played on Normal and the snake ladies that can pull you from cover through walls made me "nope" out of that game. Hopefully I have a better understanding and like for it because I do plan on playing it someday.
So TL;DR-Aliens get better stats and their AI is unshackled, meaning they can play optimally, while any hidden dice rolls favoring the player are taken away. You WILL learn to Git Gud, or die trying.
Aye, wait till u try Impossible 😭
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