Completed my first Long War (Long)
Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2017 8:31 pm
So...last night completed Xcom 2 Long War, my first ever of a Long War campaign. And campaign is the right word, over 210 missions and several hundred hours of gameplay. It is by far the biggest, longest single-campaign game experience I have ever, well, experienced. Sure there were bugs along the way, but in general hats off to Pavonis for creating such a (dare I say) fun mod to a great game. Also, thanks to everyone on this forum, which I checked fairly regularly and the videos by xwynns and marbozir, which were what really taught me the game.
Full disclosure, I was a shameless turnscummer to get through this campaign. I just don't see how anyone can even bronzeman their first time through a campaign, it is too difficult, too many quirks and tricks to learn, upper tier combat strategies to master. Or at least if they do Bronzeman, the time it would take to complete the campaign would be insane, 400+ hours. And if first-timers don't give themselves some help they will get 150 hours into a campaign and probably face a death spiral. Never getting to experience (and get better at) the end-game tactical combat. I rationalized it as the cosmic god(s) were on my side...they influenced spacetime in my favor letting me go back to the beginning of the turn!
First I need some rest, but my next trip through will be an honorman campaign, see how long my guys can hold out, and it will probably be a bloodbath. My impression is "honorman" is way harder than bronzeman, since so many missions knowing where the enemies are changes the whole mission - can transform an emergency evac with a couple killed guys to a dominating success. And battlescanners are nice but they are limited.
I only had two big strategies: 1) expand to as many regions as possible to try to identify dark events so I avoided the doomsday timer, and 2) build my squads around medical-build specialists who were also my officers and hack specialists. I liked putting them in the rear, let them influence the battlefield with their drones and commands. I also really favor medical protocol over combat protocol, you don't know who is going to get hit and this keeps guys alive to fight other missions. As for the rest, I experimented a lot and tried different builds in each class, had different team mixes, etc. Just figured it out. I also decided to skip psionics, focused on other things.
One other thing worth mentioning is I really invested in my haven advisors. Gave them good gear, rotated in some top guys, gave them officer training when possible. Probably my favorite build for an advisor is a Ranger graze/both barrels/tank build with the ammo that gives +2 against aliens (later w dragon rounds). Total faceless hunter/killer and adds nice firepower on a wide variety of other missions. He (or she) will pile up the alien bodies even if overrun with Chrysalids.
I ended the campaign with four or five pips left on the Avatar doomsday clock - plenty of time - and was pretty successful (and a little lucky) early to stop a slew of dark events though later in the game they seemed to sneak a ton in. The early successes definitely snowballed as compared to my two earlier tries at a campaign - more guys lived and gave stronger teams later in the game. Sort of obvious, but it felt good after two previous campaigns where I got wiped early (one of them the early reinforcements fired early and extra faceless soon after - brutal!).
The key to success in this game seems to me to be able to run a bunch of missions in any given month, at least ten and fifteen (or more) even better. Build a roster and harvest intel accordingly. Supplies are of secondary importance to the intel necessary to find the missions. I also think using the squads helped with infiltration and combat later in the game, from about halfway through I really kept the squads together. Kind of fun because they evolved differently, each had different ways to fight.
This is a long post, could share/write so much more given all the experiences in this long campaign, but will leave with two of my favorite moments in the campaign:
The first, on a "protect the datatap" mission mission my stud "kill from above" sniper just could not get shots and missed the few he did get. Just useless, meanwhile the haven rebels are turn by turn getting closed in (killed) and my xcom squad dead in the middle of a 3 pod ambush (love those!). Anyway, the sniper does not do anything all mission, I am literally cursing at him for how useless he is, the datatap is down to a final pip of health and a full strength muton rushes the building. No one has a shot on the muton as he is now inside the datatap building except...lo and behold...from completely across the map through a window the sniper has a beautiful yellow alien head icon on the muton...a flank shot cross map! Not only did he hit, he low-probability critted and one-shot killed the muton saving the mission and preventing a retaliation. Was just a beautiful sniper moment, out of the blue.
The other was on the final network tower mission, the one you do to get to the endgame. My team rushed forward, trying to get to the shut down console before reinforcements started spawning, I really hate late game reinforcements with 105 aim. Anyways, there are two pods to the rear, one close and one a move outside sight range. My technical rockets the close pod, destroying all cover and my team mops them up with grenades and rangers. Then my gunner - who was born and raised to be a kill zone gunner - sets kill zone on the entire area where the second pod will advance into. Which has no cover btw since it was just rocketed. 92 aim gunner, plasma cannon, elite magazine, elite hair trigger. It was just gorgeoous, "flight of the valkyries" should have been playing. One by one, the entire pod advanced into the kill zone, all of them, into the open and got a taste of plasma cannon from a guy who knew how to use it. I think he took a shot on the whole pod one by one, hit seven and outright killed four. It was a complete massacre of what was otherwise an elite advent pod, by one guy, when they otherwise would have flanked us from the rear. Probably my best long war 2 moment ever, still makes me smile.
Final thought is that this is the first game I can remember where I really HATED individual aliens. Where I really wanted specific aliens to die, and was happy when it happened. It became personal. Muton Elites, Advent Vanguards, and Gatekeepers, I really hated those guys. Nothing like getting critted from behind full cover by a guy who was suppressed.
Full disclosure, I was a shameless turnscummer to get through this campaign. I just don't see how anyone can even bronzeman their first time through a campaign, it is too difficult, too many quirks and tricks to learn, upper tier combat strategies to master. Or at least if they do Bronzeman, the time it would take to complete the campaign would be insane, 400+ hours. And if first-timers don't give themselves some help they will get 150 hours into a campaign and probably face a death spiral. Never getting to experience (and get better at) the end-game tactical combat. I rationalized it as the cosmic god(s) were on my side...they influenced spacetime in my favor letting me go back to the beginning of the turn!
First I need some rest, but my next trip through will be an honorman campaign, see how long my guys can hold out, and it will probably be a bloodbath. My impression is "honorman" is way harder than bronzeman, since so many missions knowing where the enemies are changes the whole mission - can transform an emergency evac with a couple killed guys to a dominating success. And battlescanners are nice but they are limited.
I only had two big strategies: 1) expand to as many regions as possible to try to identify dark events so I avoided the doomsday timer, and 2) build my squads around medical-build specialists who were also my officers and hack specialists. I liked putting them in the rear, let them influence the battlefield with their drones and commands. I also really favor medical protocol over combat protocol, you don't know who is going to get hit and this keeps guys alive to fight other missions. As for the rest, I experimented a lot and tried different builds in each class, had different team mixes, etc. Just figured it out. I also decided to skip psionics, focused on other things.
One other thing worth mentioning is I really invested in my haven advisors. Gave them good gear, rotated in some top guys, gave them officer training when possible. Probably my favorite build for an advisor is a Ranger graze/both barrels/tank build with the ammo that gives +2 against aliens (later w dragon rounds). Total faceless hunter/killer and adds nice firepower on a wide variety of other missions. He (or she) will pile up the alien bodies even if overrun with Chrysalids.
I ended the campaign with four or five pips left on the Avatar doomsday clock - plenty of time - and was pretty successful (and a little lucky) early to stop a slew of dark events though later in the game they seemed to sneak a ton in. The early successes definitely snowballed as compared to my two earlier tries at a campaign - more guys lived and gave stronger teams later in the game. Sort of obvious, but it felt good after two previous campaigns where I got wiped early (one of them the early reinforcements fired early and extra faceless soon after - brutal!).
The key to success in this game seems to me to be able to run a bunch of missions in any given month, at least ten and fifteen (or more) even better. Build a roster and harvest intel accordingly. Supplies are of secondary importance to the intel necessary to find the missions. I also think using the squads helped with infiltration and combat later in the game, from about halfway through I really kept the squads together. Kind of fun because they evolved differently, each had different ways to fight.
This is a long post, could share/write so much more given all the experiences in this long campaign, but will leave with two of my favorite moments in the campaign:
The first, on a "protect the datatap" mission mission my stud "kill from above" sniper just could not get shots and missed the few he did get. Just useless, meanwhile the haven rebels are turn by turn getting closed in (killed) and my xcom squad dead in the middle of a 3 pod ambush (love those!). Anyway, the sniper does not do anything all mission, I am literally cursing at him for how useless he is, the datatap is down to a final pip of health and a full strength muton rushes the building. No one has a shot on the muton as he is now inside the datatap building except...lo and behold...from completely across the map through a window the sniper has a beautiful yellow alien head icon on the muton...a flank shot cross map! Not only did he hit, he low-probability critted and one-shot killed the muton saving the mission and preventing a retaliation. Was just a beautiful sniper moment, out of the blue.
The other was on the final network tower mission, the one you do to get to the endgame. My team rushed forward, trying to get to the shut down console before reinforcements started spawning, I really hate late game reinforcements with 105 aim. Anyways, there are two pods to the rear, one close and one a move outside sight range. My technical rockets the close pod, destroying all cover and my team mops them up with grenades and rangers. Then my gunner - who was born and raised to be a kill zone gunner - sets kill zone on the entire area where the second pod will advance into. Which has no cover btw since it was just rocketed. 92 aim gunner, plasma cannon, elite magazine, elite hair trigger. It was just gorgeoous, "flight of the valkyries" should have been playing. One by one, the entire pod advanced into the kill zone, all of them, into the open and got a taste of plasma cannon from a guy who knew how to use it. I think he took a shot on the whole pod one by one, hit seven and outright killed four. It was a complete massacre of what was otherwise an elite advent pod, by one guy, when they otherwise would have flanked us from the rear. Probably my best long war 2 moment ever, still makes me smile.
Final thought is that this is the first game I can remember where I really HATED individual aliens. Where I really wanted specific aliens to die, and was happy when it happened. It became personal. Muton Elites, Advent Vanguards, and Gatekeepers, I really hated those guys. Nothing like getting critted from behind full cover by a guy who was suppressed.