Legend ironman successful campaign report
Posted: Tue May 29, 2018 10:01 am
Finally beat LW2 Legend pretty much ironman. Savescummed a couple of Jake's stealth civ reveals, couple of misclicks, quite a few bugs, but that's about it. Sucked up all the bad RNG and unfortunate activations. No gameplay mods, unless you count gotcha again and tactical killcounter, which I could never now play without.
Warning: this is a long post. I've arranged by topic for those who are interested in some aspects but not all.
Gaming experience
I thoroughly enjoyed the campaign. Starting to grind slightly at the very end but not much (performance issues partly). Mission balance and variety were good. I found myself bringing different squad compositions for different missions, including different GOp types, not just timed vs untimed. For me, I think enjoyability was enhanced by the harder difficulty, and also by only doing one liberation.
I have beaten commander before a few times on mostly ironman, with degrees of minor savescumming. I say 'beat', I never actually did waterworld before because I felt I'd already won and wanted to start the next campaign. This was about my 5th serious attempt at legend. Most of the previous runs ground to a halt in the first 3 months as I struggled to get established. I had one nearly go the distance until I got an invasion that was essentially impossible (beacon was distant, on the ground floor, and walled in) and I tried to fight it instead of just noping out of there, but there were probably underlying strategic issues too (e.g. underlevelled soldiers).
I found legend balance to be pretty good throughout. There are difficulty bumps as new enemies come in, but that's good - it's nice to feel ebb and flow in the campaign. I didn't feel 'I'd won' until second year. Classes seem fairly balanced (see below). Nearly all have multiple viable builds, and I see in the forums and youtube that people use other builds that I don't. Biggest balance issue was it's hard to justify doing either psi or sparks on legend (unlike commander). I wouldn't want to try and mag rush either (unlike commander), but that's not really a balance issue.
Other equipment is mostly all usable but not monstrously OP. Items I never use are: gas, acid, chameleon suits, battlescanners, mimic beacons. I probably have a use for everything else potentially. For perks, kubikiri was crazy vs 'bosses', but then I built two soldiers around it, i.e. a 100% crit-stacked DfA sharp with literally every crit chance boost in the game, plus a holobot sharp. Similarly, chain lightning with arc blaster is arguably OP, but then you have to commit to a late game carry build on the assault, you get it late, it takes a gatekeeper shell, and it has a long cooldown. So I kind of feel I deserve that late game power if I commit to all that.
There were some missions I didn't engage with. I don't think I ever did a 'get attention' mission. I avoided recruit retals at all costs. I hate suicide cheese so I mostly ignored UFO detection and retal prevention missions.
Strategic layer
I was fortunate to detect the first few missions on long timers. Sent 7 soldiers to each. Levelled my entire starting barracks through in-mission promotions. Held no-one back for GTS. This gave me a deep roster early that allowed me to run more missions sooner, which helped me snowball early. It did mean that I had lots of soldiers with the 'wrong' stats for their class but mostly I found it didn't matter that much if flexible on builds.
I did build GTS first and used it to train rescued and bought rookies. I researched a fairly standard order. I did lasers before basic research. The short term boost outweighs the long term gain, although I did do a BR later while gathering resources. I did not unlock psi or sparks. I did do battle armour but not mobility armour. I did basic armour before mag and power armour before plasma. I had all plasma weapons at the end,
I liberated only one region, in early July. Vigilance stayed low through mid to end game. I decided libbing other regions would cost more Intel and usable regions than it was worth. Fought off 2 invasions and let the 3rd go as final missions were imminent. Had no shortage of ex light and v light GOps throughout the campaign. Had several unlibbed regions with high strength running supply and just dealing with the retals. Did very few boosts and saved intel for expansion. Waited to expand until I knew where I needed to go or to minimise max distance from a relay (GP missions spawn as far away from you as they can).
I build shadow chamber as soon as I could, which was early autumn. Hit one facility but probably didn't absolutely have to. Finished the campaign in Feb.
Didn't lose many soldiers. Worst missions as follows. Jailbreak early on with too much distance to cover for v light: lost an assault, lost half the prisoners, and carried out an unconscious soldier. Suicided a squaddie on UFO detection (hate this). Lost 2 grenadiers and a technical on the UFO itself, 2 others bleeding out, very nearly squad wipe. Lost best assault and ranger on blacksite: but only because I didn't know there was an absolute rnf timer and once you hit that it gets very bad very quickly. So 7 soldiers that I recall. Might have been another one or two early on.
Standout soldiers
Arc pulser assault. Built with rapid fire and used rifle. Brilliant AWC perks including shredder, LEU, deadshot. He basically became my best ranger. I was building another but he died on blacksite. Weaker earlier but not as much as you'd think: rifle tech comes before shotgun tech and the arc thrower perks are really good against beserkers and generals on hqs, also disorienting rocketeers and other dangerous advent you can't kill that turn.
Holobot sharpshooter officer. If you get a sharp with quickstudy I recommend going holobot officer with pistol perks. Especially if he has good aim, as he can then add a lot with lead by example. He levels slowly but it doesn't matter. Holo is great on the big missions. Pairs brilliantly with dfa/crit/kubi sharpshooter, but more generally in big missions you're flanking less, shooting through cover more, and you have more soldiers to benefit from the buff.
Sawn off ranger. No AWC magic until the very end, when he got run and gun. My first MSGT by a clear month. Came on both final missions and was great. Cheesed the final network tower with run and gun, stims, oscar mike and command - won that without a shot fired.
Class review
Assaults. Pretty good throughout. Arc pulser riflemen are very strong in late game. Otherwise I went all right side classic in your face build, which was decent throughout. Main issue was on legend you often can't oneshot reliably, so I think the rapid fire build is probably also good. Main problem is they tend to die.
Shinobis. Intermittently very powerful. All blade all the time. No regrets, especially if you only lib one region and have less use for stealth. Much as I love shadowstep, combatives is more valuable: mutons early and archons late. Strong when sword tech oneshots enemies. Fall off a lot in between, including end game with mostly elite everything and m4 advent. But when strong they are very strong.
Grenadiers. Intermittently strong. Couldn't make sapper work: sapper itself is too unreliable/situational and plasma comes too late. RD is great. Pack incendiaries early and EMP late, especially on bigger missions. Start to fall off before fire, before sting and before full kit. But then still useful right into end game: I would take a full kit grenadier on any mission except an HQ or waterworld.
Technicals. Very strong early. Fall off fairly gradually but steadily through the game. Built rocket/rifleman and flame/tank builds. Javelin rocket is great on invasions though.
Rangers. Very strong early to mid game. Fall off at the end vs gunners, except for sawn off build. Otherwise I go mostly left side with some centre, i.e. stand and shoot build. I don't like OW in general and for rangers RR comes way too late.
Gunners. Medium through most of the game but very strong at the end. Good aim gets shredder, RF, traverse. Poor aim gets the utility shots. Both can be very useful: do not despair at a low aim gunner.
Sharpshooters. Decent in all 3 main builds, especially mid to late game. Holobot officer as above. I love snapshot sharps normally but this campaign I only had one with decent movement and he had sub 60 base aim - still the first to MSGT but not A team generally. I found room for one dfa sharp in the campaign, with all the critstacking: came into his own late game, oneshotting sectopods, gatekeepers and avatars - with holobot support. For me DfA needs to always kill and on legend things have a lot of hp, hence getting the crit is everything.
Specialists. Probably my strongest soldiers - this campaign. I complained recently that my specialists suck. They didn't this time because they got all the breaks. This time I got specialists with great stats or awc perks like shredder (for OW build) or quick study (for right side officer pistoleer). I got lots of drone wrecks for m2 gremlins, lots of officer corpses for skulljacks, even early sectopod wrecks for t3 gremlins. And I managed to blocks advent firewalls when it appeared early - they got it eventually but only late game. I got a lot of hack rewards and hacked a lot of robots, including a sectopod on the forge and 3 superheavy MECs on waterworld. Skullmining rarely gets you a reward but the +20 hack is well worth it. They were so-so as riflemen, so I think their strength really depends on your access to tech.
Officers. I went mostly shinobis. One holobot sharp with quick study, who led most of the big missions and became the commander. One right side specialist with quick study, who led other big missions like forge (after my blacksite disaster my forge strat centred on hacking a sectopod and ploughing through it pretty rapidly, which worked well). Oscar Mike is a must (focus fire would be better if it worked at squadsight). Incoming is a must. TBF is a must except for very late officers.
Observation: soldiers who are strong on GOps are just as valuable as soldiers who are strong on big long missions. You need to beat all mission types to win.
Warning: this is a long post. I've arranged by topic for those who are interested in some aspects but not all.
Gaming experience
I thoroughly enjoyed the campaign. Starting to grind slightly at the very end but not much (performance issues partly). Mission balance and variety were good. I found myself bringing different squad compositions for different missions, including different GOp types, not just timed vs untimed. For me, I think enjoyability was enhanced by the harder difficulty, and also by only doing one liberation.
I have beaten commander before a few times on mostly ironman, with degrees of minor savescumming. I say 'beat', I never actually did waterworld before because I felt I'd already won and wanted to start the next campaign. This was about my 5th serious attempt at legend. Most of the previous runs ground to a halt in the first 3 months as I struggled to get established. I had one nearly go the distance until I got an invasion that was essentially impossible (beacon was distant, on the ground floor, and walled in) and I tried to fight it instead of just noping out of there, but there were probably underlying strategic issues too (e.g. underlevelled soldiers).
I found legend balance to be pretty good throughout. There are difficulty bumps as new enemies come in, but that's good - it's nice to feel ebb and flow in the campaign. I didn't feel 'I'd won' until second year. Classes seem fairly balanced (see below). Nearly all have multiple viable builds, and I see in the forums and youtube that people use other builds that I don't. Biggest balance issue was it's hard to justify doing either psi or sparks on legend (unlike commander). I wouldn't want to try and mag rush either (unlike commander), but that's not really a balance issue.
Other equipment is mostly all usable but not monstrously OP. Items I never use are: gas, acid, chameleon suits, battlescanners, mimic beacons. I probably have a use for everything else potentially. For perks, kubikiri was crazy vs 'bosses', but then I built two soldiers around it, i.e. a 100% crit-stacked DfA sharp with literally every crit chance boost in the game, plus a holobot sharp. Similarly, chain lightning with arc blaster is arguably OP, but then you have to commit to a late game carry build on the assault, you get it late, it takes a gatekeeper shell, and it has a long cooldown. So I kind of feel I deserve that late game power if I commit to all that.
There were some missions I didn't engage with. I don't think I ever did a 'get attention' mission. I avoided recruit retals at all costs. I hate suicide cheese so I mostly ignored UFO detection and retal prevention missions.
Strategic layer
I was fortunate to detect the first few missions on long timers. Sent 7 soldiers to each. Levelled my entire starting barracks through in-mission promotions. Held no-one back for GTS. This gave me a deep roster early that allowed me to run more missions sooner, which helped me snowball early. It did mean that I had lots of soldiers with the 'wrong' stats for their class but mostly I found it didn't matter that much if flexible on builds.
I did build GTS first and used it to train rescued and bought rookies. I researched a fairly standard order. I did lasers before basic research. The short term boost outweighs the long term gain, although I did do a BR later while gathering resources. I did not unlock psi or sparks. I did do battle armour but not mobility armour. I did basic armour before mag and power armour before plasma. I had all plasma weapons at the end,
I liberated only one region, in early July. Vigilance stayed low through mid to end game. I decided libbing other regions would cost more Intel and usable regions than it was worth. Fought off 2 invasions and let the 3rd go as final missions were imminent. Had no shortage of ex light and v light GOps throughout the campaign. Had several unlibbed regions with high strength running supply and just dealing with the retals. Did very few boosts and saved intel for expansion. Waited to expand until I knew where I needed to go or to minimise max distance from a relay (GP missions spawn as far away from you as they can).
I build shadow chamber as soon as I could, which was early autumn. Hit one facility but probably didn't absolutely have to. Finished the campaign in Feb.
Didn't lose many soldiers. Worst missions as follows. Jailbreak early on with too much distance to cover for v light: lost an assault, lost half the prisoners, and carried out an unconscious soldier. Suicided a squaddie on UFO detection (hate this). Lost 2 grenadiers and a technical on the UFO itself, 2 others bleeding out, very nearly squad wipe. Lost best assault and ranger on blacksite: but only because I didn't know there was an absolute rnf timer and once you hit that it gets very bad very quickly. So 7 soldiers that I recall. Might have been another one or two early on.
Standout soldiers
Arc pulser assault. Built with rapid fire and used rifle. Brilliant AWC perks including shredder, LEU, deadshot. He basically became my best ranger. I was building another but he died on blacksite. Weaker earlier but not as much as you'd think: rifle tech comes before shotgun tech and the arc thrower perks are really good against beserkers and generals on hqs, also disorienting rocketeers and other dangerous advent you can't kill that turn.
Holobot sharpshooter officer. If you get a sharp with quickstudy I recommend going holobot officer with pistol perks. Especially if he has good aim, as he can then add a lot with lead by example. He levels slowly but it doesn't matter. Holo is great on the big missions. Pairs brilliantly with dfa/crit/kubi sharpshooter, but more generally in big missions you're flanking less, shooting through cover more, and you have more soldiers to benefit from the buff.
Sawn off ranger. No AWC magic until the very end, when he got run and gun. My first MSGT by a clear month. Came on both final missions and was great. Cheesed the final network tower with run and gun, stims, oscar mike and command - won that without a shot fired.
Class review
Assaults. Pretty good throughout. Arc pulser riflemen are very strong in late game. Otherwise I went all right side classic in your face build, which was decent throughout. Main issue was on legend you often can't oneshot reliably, so I think the rapid fire build is probably also good. Main problem is they tend to die.
Shinobis. Intermittently very powerful. All blade all the time. No regrets, especially if you only lib one region and have less use for stealth. Much as I love shadowstep, combatives is more valuable: mutons early and archons late. Strong when sword tech oneshots enemies. Fall off a lot in between, including end game with mostly elite everything and m4 advent. But when strong they are very strong.
Grenadiers. Intermittently strong. Couldn't make sapper work: sapper itself is too unreliable/situational and plasma comes too late. RD is great. Pack incendiaries early and EMP late, especially on bigger missions. Start to fall off before fire, before sting and before full kit. But then still useful right into end game: I would take a full kit grenadier on any mission except an HQ or waterworld.
Technicals. Very strong early. Fall off fairly gradually but steadily through the game. Built rocket/rifleman and flame/tank builds. Javelin rocket is great on invasions though.
Rangers. Very strong early to mid game. Fall off at the end vs gunners, except for sawn off build. Otherwise I go mostly left side with some centre, i.e. stand and shoot build. I don't like OW in general and for rangers RR comes way too late.
Gunners. Medium through most of the game but very strong at the end. Good aim gets shredder, RF, traverse. Poor aim gets the utility shots. Both can be very useful: do not despair at a low aim gunner.
Sharpshooters. Decent in all 3 main builds, especially mid to late game. Holobot officer as above. I love snapshot sharps normally but this campaign I only had one with decent movement and he had sub 60 base aim - still the first to MSGT but not A team generally. I found room for one dfa sharp in the campaign, with all the critstacking: came into his own late game, oneshotting sectopods, gatekeepers and avatars - with holobot support. For me DfA needs to always kill and on legend things have a lot of hp, hence getting the crit is everything.
Specialists. Probably my strongest soldiers - this campaign. I complained recently that my specialists suck. They didn't this time because they got all the breaks. This time I got specialists with great stats or awc perks like shredder (for OW build) or quick study (for right side officer pistoleer). I got lots of drone wrecks for m2 gremlins, lots of officer corpses for skulljacks, even early sectopod wrecks for t3 gremlins. And I managed to blocks advent firewalls when it appeared early - they got it eventually but only late game. I got a lot of hack rewards and hacked a lot of robots, including a sectopod on the forge and 3 superheavy MECs on waterworld. Skullmining rarely gets you a reward but the +20 hack is well worth it. They were so-so as riflemen, so I think their strength really depends on your access to tech.
Officers. I went mostly shinobis. One holobot sharp with quick study, who led most of the big missions and became the commander. One right side specialist with quick study, who led other big missions like forge (after my blacksite disaster my forge strat centred on hacking a sectopod and ploughing through it pretty rapidly, which worked well). Oscar Mike is a must (focus fire would be better if it worked at squadsight). Incoming is a must. TBF is a must except for very late officers.
Observation: soldiers who are strong on GOps are just as valuable as soldiers who are strong on big long missions. You need to beat all mission types to win.