Was it an ambush?

[Nibelung44]

I had an 'extremely light / 200% infiltrated' kill a VIP mission turns into an exercise into survival. Firebrand was delayed 8 turns, as it was chased by UFO and then reinforcements dropped each turn, with one turn seeing 2 squads of Advents coming. It was very tense, but I managed to evacuate what was not a top notch 5-men squads with only wounded.

So, is that an 'ambush' from Advent? Any pointers on how to spot them? Can they happen on any missions, any time?

[Jacke]

Sure sounds like an ADVENT "trap" mission, but I had heard they only show up when ADVENT strength is 7 or more and the mission offered is a hack.

[modjo]

i had a similar experience in a recent destroy the relay mission. A supposedly light resistance turned into a bloodbath half way through as reinforcements kept pouring in. I somehow managed to finish the relay but i had to leave one of my best men bleeding out behing because am itchy fingered freak wave of 8 advents showed up 2 turns from evac. I had 17 alien kills by the end + 8 remaining that I could see, that's a lot of advent.

[Vordulak]

In my (admittedly limited) experience, detecting a mission with an unusually generous infiltration time in a high-strength region tends to be a reliable indicator that Advent is trying to lure you into a trap. Sixteen days for a hacking mission, you say? What an easy mission, this shall be, chaps! Tally hoooOOOOH SHIT IT'S AN AMBUSH

Now a related question is: what do you do when a mission is an obvious trap but you really really want to counter the associated dark event or whatever, e.g. Hunt XCOM or Haven Mole? Go in with the A-Team, expecting hell, or just deal with the dark event because nothing is worth the possible wipe from a bad ambush?

[Jacke]

Now a related question is: what do you do when a mission is an obvious trap but you really really want to counter the associated dark event or whatever, e.g. Hunt XCOM or Haven Mole? Go in with the A-Team, expecting hell, or just deal with the dark event because nothing is worth the possible wipe from a bad ambush?

As far as I know from others' stories (not having experienced one meself), the trap missions have so many troops and so many reinforcements so fast, your best team will almost certainly be discovered early and destroyed, not win. I think evac is the only option and wounds, deaths, and squad wipes are almost certain.

[fowlJ]

This doesn't sound like what I know the LW2 'snare' mission to be, but it does sound like an Additional Mission Types mission ('Neutralize VIP on PR Tour') - do you have that mod installed?