Just to quickly put this out there for consideration:
I've run a few retaliations this campaign and I've realized something that's bugging me a little. When you get a retaliation mission, the reinforcement wave one (wait 8 turns to extract) is vastly preferable to the evac-available sweep.
The reason why is pretty clear. For one, the wave based one is just flatly easier- no chance of accidentally activating multiple pods. But for the other thing, the wave based one is very easy to keep all your resistance contacts alive in, whereas in the sweep, it's virtually impossible to win without losing 3-4 haven members at the very least.
Is this distinction made clear to the player in advance in any way? Otherwise, I think this dichotomy might be worth looking at. I don't mind if you should focus hard on detecting resistance data leaks to prevent retaliations guaranteed to take a fraction of your contacts, but the lack of consistency is a little frustrating. Ideally I think we should know in advance if letting that leak go through is going to lead to a trivial wave defense wherein I lose nobody if I have a good team on hand or a sweep where I could easily lose half of the resistance members at that haven.
Quick thought about Retaliations
Re: Quick thought about Retaliations
I'm fairly sure that if you fail a Data Tap you go straight to full Retaliation (the ones from vanilla), not Haven Evac. Haven Evac is a mini-retaliation (Data Tap, Recruit raid, Supply defense and Haven Evac). I'm just not entirely sure what triggers the Haven Evac mini-retal. I think it happens by having a mix of rebel jobs.
Anyways, it's not always super easy. Once I got a desert map with a 3 story building in the center that had the spawns all over the place in opposite sides. Did it without casualties but I took gnarly wounds just getting my squad from one flank to the other.
Anyways, it's not always super easy. Once I got a desert map with a 3 story building in the center that had the spawns all over the place in opposite sides. Did it without casualties but I took gnarly wounds just getting my squad from one flank to the other.
Re: Quick thought about Retaliations
Haven evac vs vanilla retaliation are both random variations of the full retaliation. The OP is correct in that you can't tell which version of the full retal you will get, it doesn't have to do with failing the data tap precursor.
As far as the mini-retals go:
Intel raid -> defend relay
Supply raid -> defend your supply convoy
Recruit raid -> escort rebels to evac point, then wait for a different evac point to get your soldiers out
On topic, I don't agree that there is anything that needs to be looked at. The dichotomy is fine, and it provides variety. You should bring your best troops anyways if the enemy is attacking your headquarters in the region.
The only issue I have with retals in general is that the intel mini-retal is harder and just as punishing as a full retal (you lose all your rebels on intel if you fail or pass...which is probably all of them if you're working in the region), yet there is no precursor mission for it.
As far as the mini-retals go:
Intel raid -> defend relay
Supply raid -> defend your supply convoy
Recruit raid -> escort rebels to evac point, then wait for a different evac point to get your soldiers out
On topic, I don't agree that there is anything that needs to be looked at. The dichotomy is fine, and it provides variety. You should bring your best troops anyways if the enemy is attacking your headquarters in the region.
The only issue I have with retals in general is that the intel mini-retal is harder and just as punishing as a full retal (you lose all your rebels on intel if you fail or pass...which is probably all of them if you're working in the region), yet there is no precursor mission for it.