Legend/Ironman Strategic Help

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Rusherific
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Jan 08, 2022 10:14 pm

Legend/Ironman Strategic Help

Post by Rusherific »

So I've beaten LW2 on Legend several times now using the occasional reload, but have had the darnedest time trying to do an Ironman run. It just seems completely random whether a campaign gets very far or not, even though I know that's not the case as obviously there are players who can win somewhat consistently (and certainly not 0% of the time like me). But it feels like at least 50% of the early game I get boned by short mission timers and have to choose between skipping to save up intel for the 3rd region or spend intel to keep my guys promoting and getting rewards but then my regions get to 4+ strength and it's May and still have not gotten my 3rd region and it's all downhill from there. The other 50% of the time I seem to just breeze through, playing the exact same and can get to my first HQ without even a casualty. So I struggle to see what it is in the way I play that is not optimal when my outcomes can be so all over the place. The times I fail beyond early game it's usually playing a big mission poorly or other things I know where it went wrong. But the fact that I can't even make it through into 4+ regions the majority of the time on Ironman seems pretty bad to me.

If I could attempt to distill my struggles into concrete questions it would be:

  • Is there something wrong with my scanning strategy that is producing more unplayable missions than there should be? (generally I try to have at least a day or twos scanning before current region missions are completed, then keep scanning until the next ones pop, then move to another region)
  • Should I be able to win short timer gops consistently like at less than 100% or against very light or even light enemies, or whatever compromises like that to save intel? Again, I can some of the time when I attempt them, but seems completely random whether I breeze through or just get totally boned trying it)
  • When the first liberation missions pop they always seem to be right on the line in terms of available time, which I'm sure is by design, and I struggle doing them consistently at only 100% with only 4 guys, so I often skip until I get better infiltration time but then I find skipping even once it can be way too late by the time I get up to the Network tower mission. Should I be able to complete those the first time they pop no matter how bad the timers?
  • The thing I hate the absolute most about this game is getting a supply raid or troop column with like a 22 hour timer and knowing it's going to ruin the current ops I have infiltrating so not only do I not get the supply raid, but also strength goes up and I have to pull out of my current infiltrations, or else have to spend a bunch of intel. So I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do when that happens (which seems to happen extremely often, like 50% would have to be less than 100% infiltration, 50% of those are 2 days or less more or less) So am I supposed to play a <1 day supply raid at moderate-heavy with a few squaddies and lance corporals?? Be ok with intercepting maybe only 1 out of 4 or so reinforcement missions? Or again am I not scanning enough at the right times or something?
  • Lastly, overall on average how much should I be spending on boosting missions? Like ideally only once or even none before getting the 3rd region, or as often as is needed to keep running missions? I think getting a sense of what my target should be for how much intel good players find themselves spending on infiltration would probably help me greatly on its own because I could figure out what needs to change then from there.
TLDR it just seems like I can play the exact same way and have no troubles through early/mid game at all maybe 1/3 of the time but the rest it feels impossible. So I'm not sure whether it's because I'm not good enough tactically to be completing more awful-timer missions, or if I'm not managing the strategic layer well enough, or if even good players find themselves restarting also beyond just the first couple missions? Like maybe I'm playing through bad rolls that I shouldn't even bother continuing, or should I be able to play through any kind of luck no matter what happens once I have two regions going?
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