Holy smokes, that first tower mission?!!!

[JulianSkies]

They get super hard really fast on legend. I peaked in a network tower mission on legend in october in a strength 10 advent region (this is about average at this stage in the game for regions you have done missions in), and holy smokes...21 hp elite officers with 1 armor pip....scouts with 100 aim....15 hp elite sidewinders with 25 defense on top of their dodge. And I barely finished coil guns for that o.O

I can see why joinrbs just prefers to skip network towers past the first 1 or 2 on legend.

Wait 100 aim scouts? That should not be possible on any difficulty since on all three their aim should be 80, and the application rate of the tactical DEs means they only have an 8% to have +10

[Dwarfling]

Erm, you bring a no-shinobi-shooty squad (gunners, grenadiers, rangers, specialists), and with a lot of patience (namely turn skipping and backtracking) you sneak all your guys into the console room. Bring a Specialist in case there's a turret on top of the room. Then you open on a pod close to the bridge, and once the pod that usually patrols the room gets to you, you activate the console to stun them and wipe them out. So now you're fighting -2 pods and no reinforcements.

[trihero]

Wait 100 aim scouts? That should not be possible on any difficulty since on all three their aim should be 80, and the application rate of the tactical DEs means they only have an 8% to have +10

Maybe it was 90 and my mind rounded it up to 100 but the point is that wow....that aim is high. Advent generals are 100 aim o.o

[Doglywolf]

the Trick is to get your guys as close as possible to tower before you are reveal , ideally 1-2 moves from hitting the button.

If you can rush/ sneak a shinobi in to press the button , you will stop reinforcements form ever coming and stun everyone for 2 turns which should let you kill any guys that are now flanking you and savagely destroy at least 1/3 of the bad guys before their turn. Then you can just pull back to the building and defend it.

In order for them to get to you once you have the building they have to cross the bridge which is mostly low cover while everything in the tower is high cover. I can normally at least get to the bridge before im revealed - clear out everyone inside the building while they are stunned and take high cover and wait for everyone else to come after me and pick them off.

The biggest mistake you can do is blow your cover early its really the reinforcements that get you more then anything else

Worst case bring an assault with high move / no gear and lightning reflex or a good stealth shinobi. #1 goal is hitting that button...a Run and gun with lightning reflexes to sprint at it has saved my ass several times.

[AegixDrakan]

*Takes notes*

I just got WIPED on this mission. Apparently, if the region is strength 4, and the enemy force is "Light", this means they can have 4 heavy mechs, 2 regular ones, a muton and two sectoids AND a full pod of soldiers with an archon. x_X With a turret watching the safest possible route to the objective.

You ever fight 6 mechs at once? Everything goes Kaboom.

I went in with a grenadier, Gunner, Specialist, Assault and Shinobi, all with laser guns and we got ROLLED. Am I supposed to do this only at Strength 2 or lower or something? Does Advent still get stronger by the date (I'm in August)? Because holy hell this felt impossible, even though I'm on Rookie.

The only thing I think I could have done better is give my Specialist a Hack+ PCS to make hacking that Mech easier, and aborting the mission while infiltrating to wait for Plasma Grenades to finish researching. :s

[seananigans]

*Takes notes*

I just got WIPED on this mission. Apparently, if the region is strength 4, and the enemy force is "Light", this means they can have 4 heavy mechs, 2 regular ones, a muton and two sectoids AND a full pod of soldiers with an archon. x_X With a turret watching the safest possible route to the objective.

You ever fight 6 mechs at once? Everything goes Kaboom.

I went in with a grenadier, Gunner, Specialist, Assault and Shinobi, all with laser guns and we got ROLLED. Am I supposed to do this only at Strength 2 or lower or something? Does Advent still get stronger by the date (I'm in August)? Because holy hell this felt impossible, even though I'm on Rookie.

The only thing I think I could have done better is give my Specialist a Hack+ PCS to make hacking that Mech easier, and aborting the mission while infiltrating to wait for Plasma Grenades to finish researching. :s

That sounds wonky for Rookie, August, Adv Str 4. I'm on Veteran and either late Aug or early Sep, and just now am seeing my first Archons. Either something you did made them ramp the force level way up, or you have extra mods messing with it somehow? Beyond the Archon, even all the MECs and such sounds incorrect for your difficulty and timeline. Dunno.

[AegixDrakan]

That sounds wonky for Rookie, August, Adv Str 4. I'm on Veteran and either late Aug or early Sep, and just now am seeing my first Archons. Either something you did made them ramp the force level way up, or you have extra mods messing with it somehow? Beyond the Archon, even all the MECs and such sounds incorrect for your difficulty and timeline. Dunno.

This was my first Archon actually, and apparently the region is at STR 3 (unless me losing the mission lowered the STR rating from 4). :s

That and I DID start on Veteran and only later knocked it down to rookie because I was seeing Waaaay too low hit %, and the "can't see where reinforcements will drop" mechanic really rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe that was a factor.

My mods are:
-Show HP values
-Full customization
-Experimental Item unlock (just forgot to turn it off)
-More random backstories
-True Concealment for LW2
-LOTS of voice packs

The mecs themselves were bad, but the problem was the sheer VOLUME of them. I can handle 2-3 at once, but having 3 more come charging out a turn later and start bombarding the entire place was just too much to handle. Especially when reinforcements dropped a shieldbearer who buffed them all. ;_;

[trihero]

I think there's only one right/easy/safe way to do the tower missions

1) pick a stealth shinobi (both ghostwalker + covert are required; I've been in situations where one pod refuses to move and without ghostwalker/covert you can't slip by them). It is super easy to get to the control console with him

2) rest use assaults, good shotguns + laser sight + talon rounds, preferably with close encounters and eventually street sweeper

Have one assault "shadow" one patrol each, with one assault trying to follow the shinobi as much as possible to help with the control room/rooftop mobs. When your shinobi is able to, hack the console thereby stunning everything on the map for 2 full turns and blocking reinforcements, then decimate all the pods. There might be some details I haven't mentioned but that's the general idea and you can fill in the gaps.