Mid-Late game shinobi solo infiltrations

[nmkaplan]

I'd like to describe my experience and wondering if anyone else shares it.

I'm mid-late game playing on Veteran (Advanced Mags, saving cores for shadow chamber, just finished elurium research) and I have two highly leveled infiltration shinobis (with ghostwalker, covert, conceal, and tradecraft).

I'm starting to find that anytime I get any "hack the thing and evac" missions, anything I do other than "send the shinobi by himself" feels suboptimal. The basic tactic usually goes:

1. Infiltrate to at least LIGHT (doesn't take long with tradecraft + suppressor + chameleon suit)
2. Get nearish to the objective.
3. Find a spot where you can't see any aliens.
4. Throw beacon within blue move of objective (blows concealment)
5. Activate Conceal
6. Stay concealed until evac is ready
7. Activate Ghostwalker and move next to objective
8. Hack and evac

I find that every time I try to take more soliders, I end up wishing I'd gone with just the solo shinobi. Am I nuts for thinking that these missions might be a little too easy once you get a shinobi with Conceal? Or should I just be playing on a slightly harder difficultly?

[trihero]

You hit the nail on the head, and if you've been reading the threads in the main LW2 forum, we've been complaining recently about how there is no viable mid-size squad strategy, it's either yolo shinobi or 0% infiltration 10 man raids. You're doing it right, but the game is designed incorrectly in that as the difficulty goes up, you are polarized into 1 man vs 10 man missions.

I try to take on extra men for the experience points, but they are just 3rd wheels on the bicycle. The game is subtly going in the wrong direction and I hope 1.2 tries to address it, even if it takes to 1.3 to get it right.

I find that rescue the VIP from a van is pretty tough though for some infiltration teams, especially when the van is not within 1 yellow move of the evac. When they have 3 pods humping the van, that VIP just don't make it home D:

[laestic]

Your plan looks well-refined and should work well for non-fixed Evacs, like Hacks. Yet I prefer to send a Specialist for such hacks as rewards are sometimes really REALLY good (Extensive Intel Cache, +10 permanent Hack...).

I used solo Shinobi infiltration in Free the VIP missions in early game (Fixed Evac) but those are now really hard to go solo, mostly losing the VIP in the 2 turns following door hack. My new ninja team consists of 1 shinobi with Ghostwalker, Evasive and overall high dodge + 1 Support Grenadier preferably with the Frost Bomb. Both are geared to maximal infiltration and mobility. 1 Smoke to help if too few high covers, Sting and Frost to delay. Shinobi with Evasive to drain at least 1 shot on him. If infiltration timer allows it, a Specialist, even low-ranked, is a nice addition, with Aid Protocol and Interference and ranged hack.

Now I may need an Officer to delay timer because sometime I have to wait 4 or 5 turns to have the pods near objective in the least harmful configuration possible.