Pavonis Interactive Forums

I am one of those guys that wants to extend LW2 to the maximum possible, play with all the top tier toys and stomp the aliens. To that end, I managed to play through July 2037 (419 battles - approx. 15/mo @ 17 aliens on average) and I could have played a lot longer, having the doom ticker at 9 when I decided to trigger the final two missions. This because the game started to lag, crash more often, and take longer and longer to load (why do loading times/screens take longer and longer as the game goes on?). Managed to amass 50+ engineers & scientists, 1k+ intel, alloys & elerium. Over 100k in the bank. Had 120+ barracks, 95% MSGTS. Liberated all 16 regions. Complete stomp.

Final screen: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... 1235288479

A few comments/questions;

- This is an EXCELLENT, EXCELLENT game - congrats to Johnny L & the team. Have about 2,700 hrs on LW2. Only three campaigns though.... (1L, 2W)

- Very late game, I was browsing through the recruit pool, and found 2 x 18 mobility recruits!!!! I did not think this was possible. I kept checking afterwards, but found none. Never ever had I found such high mobility recruits. Made one a flame technichal, the other a CE assault. Both made excellent soldiers.
- I go lasers - coil, lots of savings skipping mag.
- Tried to get the maximum off awc perks for the troops. Like a "free" promotion, huge power spike sometimes. I got traverse fire and ccs on a technical, several times ever vigilant + sentinel, and once, a sniper got "kill zone"! Even though it was a yellow action (meaning it took both action points), it took me back to the days of XCOM EW vanilla. Kill zone proc even without "long watch", so it was perfect for activations, six high damage high aim shots to start an engagement with..... (yes, OP and I LOVED IT).
- Relied heavily on Sparks, got 6 in total, got one on almost every mission.
- You can 0% any non-timer mission.
- Hate extractions, 90% of KIA during extractions.
- Invasions are not that bad. Quite easy after securing the Archon King armor. Just Aid Protocol, Mind Merge and jump a trooper (gunner most likely) within LOS of the beacon and voila, no more reinforcements.
- Specialists mostly hybrid medic/overwatch. Combat protocol declines in value rapidly. Surgeon is the best.
- Rangers mostly overwatch.
- Assaults mostly CE. Take lethal as MSGT perk.
- Snipers mostly DFA. If on a supply raid or ambush mission, took two, one DFA one Holo.
- Shinobis mostly covert - sword use is too dangerous for my taste, if a long range kill is needed, I send in tanky assaults.
- Technicals. Love watching XWynn's "burninations", but can't make them work as often as rockets. I found I got the most value from taking roust (incredible range), Shredder, Inferno, Salvo & Rapid Fire.
- Grenadiers, same as technicals, found a hybrid build to be most useful. Took Rapid Deployment & Salvo (yes, read on), Full Kit, Sting Grenades. My grenadiers could carry 4 plasma AND four flashbangs, and could deploy a maximum of three grenades in a turn! Or, blue move and deploy a flash & plasma, or 2 flash. Fantastic crowd control.
- Gunners. Can't figure them out. Mostly right side, had a couple left side (for destroy relay or haven invasion missions). I find they compete with rangers on squad buildout, and I usually prefer rangers. Just me.

So, very specialized sharpshooters, rangers, gunners, assaults & shinobis, very much hybrid, flexible, grenadiers & technicals.

Love Sparks and Psi. Psi easily the most powerful type in the game (although not the highest damage potential), definitely a "force multiplier" on any squad.

Again, congrats on a great game, very well designed.

Also, its great you're not doing WotC LW, I would probably spend 5,000 hrs on it!

Thanks for this.

Nice write-up. Interesting that your experience of what's strong and what isn't necessarily the same as other players. Sign of a good balance probably!

Holy hell how did you manage to end missions with 9.9 turns remaining on average?
Did you quit them?

What difficulty was this? I just set aside a Veteran campaign that's in kind of a similar state, currently xmas 2036. I've got more troops in the barracks (~170), but only about half MSGTs. 3 doom pips, 120%+ Avatar slowdown. I just started a Commander campaign to see how well I can do there.

Yeah, I enjoy this kind of thing, too.

Legend difficulty, July 2037.

Have tried to go back to it, but game crashes too much. I wonder what makes the game keep increasing loading times & crashes....

I don't think there is THAT much of a difficulty spike between Commander & Legend, once you're in late game. Earlier it is significant (because of research times, costs etc). The tactical layer is not much different, IMHO.

I say keep going!

....btw, any "neutralize target" mission = assassination for me. I just never go for captures, too risky.

Also, on UFO missions, I activate/ambush when my squad is relatively close to the beacon, which MIGHT account for why so many turns left in timer.

Metal over flesh ?

It's great, but wonky, I used it in my previous campaign, but it did not work 100%, couldn't mod weapons or use PCS.

You should edit lines in Long war ini. files for that.
XcomLW_Owerhaul.ini

; Shen's Last Gift -- the RequiredTech1 is also used for the AlternateRequirement that includes completing the narrative mission (if enabled)
+ItemTable=(ItemTemplateName="SparkRifle_CV", Slots=3, Starting=false, Infinite=true, Buildable=false)
+ItemTable=(ItemTemplateName="SparkRifle_MG", Slots=3, Starting=false, Infinite=false, Buildable=true, RequiredTech1="GaussWeapons", RequiredTech2="MechanizedWarfare", SupplyCost=30, AlloyCost=3, CrystalCost=2, CoreCost=0, SpecialItemTemplateName="", SpecialItemCost=0, TradingPostValue=10, RequiredEngineeringScore=25, Tier = 157, PointsToComplete=200, InventoryImage="img:///UILibrary_DLC3Images.MagSparkRifle")
+ItemTable=(ItemTemplateName="SparkRifle_BM", Slots=3, Starting=false, Infinite=false, Buildable=true, RequiredTech1="HeavyPlasma", RequiredTech2="MechanizedWarfare", SupplyCost=60, AlloyCost=6, CrystalCost=10, CoreCost=1, SpecialItemTemplateName="", SpecialItemCost=0, TradingPostValue=25, RequiredEngineeringScore=40, Tier = 177, PointsToComplete=200, InventoryImage="img:///UILibrary_DLC3Images.BeamSparkRifle")

Slots=0 change to Slots=3 or whatever

What did your squad comps look like early and late game? Were you doing many under-infiltrations on timed missions?