Faceless spies! Urgent help required.

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UrzuS3V3N
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Feb 02, 2017 8:08 pm

Faceless spies! Urgent help required.

Post by UrzuS3V3N »

These faceless spies are crippling me!

In my starting territory I had 14 resistance members, im now down to 4 after multiple rendezvous missions and advent retaliations and yet im still bleeding supplies!

My 2nd territory is not so bad, standing at 8 members, and my third is quite new.

At this point I cant do much of anything, im being forced to hunt spies, they NEED to be found before I can make any more progress. Advent strength is increasing in the first 2 territories (4/5) and really starting to put the squeeze on, I cant do any meaningful research, I cant upgrade weapons and armour and my contacts are full.

So... what is the absolute best way to hunt down and find spies? I need to make a swift and deliberate response to them.
laestic
Posts: 18
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2017 4:43 pm

Re: Faceless spies! Urgent help required.

Post by laestic »

Send soldiers as advisors. I only switched to engineer advisor after a region was liberated. So, for the early game, only soldiers as advisors (or Liaison in http://ufopaedia.org/index.php/Haven_Management_(LW2) )

Also you can prioritze your regions : liberated regions on full Supply for a few months (then set 1/5 to intel to detect nasty stuff), 1 or 2 regions max with Intel, rest on Hiding. I keep maximum 2 regions as "workable", 4/5 Intel 1/5 Hiding, beyond 2 regions I lack the manpower and time.

Since i was dry on supplies before liberation, I ran a couple of Supply Train attacks to get supplies, discarding inflitration and with a squad of 10. With method and patience it's worth it, before Advent starts to upgrade their troops.
Sorbicol
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu Feb 02, 2017 10:35 am

Re: Faceless spies! Urgent help required.

Post by Sorbicol »

Have soldiers as your liaisons, and make them officers - this increases the chances of uncovering "unknown sources". You'll probably play swapsies for a little while as you get this set up, but sooner or later you'll be doing the missions more often than not.

When you have a rendezvous mission, you aren't on a time so you can overwatch creep towards the patrolling group and take them out first - make sure you are out of range of the faceless pod so that you don't find yourself having to deal with all of them at the same time. If you do it right you should be able to ambush the first pod and take them all out on their reaction move before they can get a shot off. Remember, liberal use of flashbangs and grenades will help enormously. You are not there to make friends, your resistance members are very squishy.

When you are ready for the facless then try to get your shotgunners (if you have them) to the front line as they will deal the most damage. concentrate of the faceless first, flash-bang the advent until you are ready to deal with them.

Soldiers who are capable of dealing high amounts of damage tend to work best for these missions - i prefer grenadiers or heavy gunners personally. Generally speaking I play these missions like I used to play XCOM:EU and I've had far more flawless victories doing these missions than any other, using those tactics.
trihero
Posts: 1099
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2017 7:01 am

Re: Faceless spies! Urgent help required.

Post by trihero »

When you have a rendezvous mission, you aren't on a time so you can overwatch creep towards the patrolling group and take them out first - make sure you are out of range of the faceless pod so that you don't find yourself having to deal with all of them at the same time. If you do it right you should be able to ambush the first pod and take them all out on their reaction move before they can get a shot off. Remember, liberal use of flashbangs and grenades will help enormously. You are not there to make friends, your resistance members are very squishy.
Just to expand on this point further: the wrong tactic is to set your guys on overwatch, then have one of your guys shoot or lob a grenade to open and hope your overwatches kill them all.

The right tactic is to watch their patrols, then move your guys into the patrol path and then overwatch in it. This way you get your overwatch turn + your next turn immediately and they don't get any yellow alert moves. It is much safer this way because of the free turn you get to clean things up, especially when you have like 3 rebels and they're equipped with smgs or shotguns.
marceror
Posts: 137
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2016 4:47 am

Re: Faceless spies! Urgent help required.

Post by marceror »

laestic wrote:Send soldiers as advisors. I only switched to engineer advisor after a region was liberated. So, for the early game, only soldiers as advisors (or Liaison in http://ufopaedia.org/index.php/Haven_Management_(LW2) )

Also you can prioritze your regions : liberated regions on full Supply for a few months (then set 1/5 to intel to detect nasty stuff), 1 or 2 regions max with Intel, rest on Hiding. I keep maximum 2 regions as "workable", 4/5 Intel 1/5 Hiding, beyond 2 regions I lack the manpower and time.

Since i was dry on supplies before liberation, I ran a couple of Supply Train attacks to get supplies, discarding inflitration and with a squad of 10. With method and patience it's worth it, before Advent starts to upgrade their troops.
Silly question perhaps, but what is the point of the link you included? This is what that link displays:
Haven Management (LW2

Jump to: navigation, search
There is currently no text in this page. You can search for this page title in other pages, or search the related logs, but you do not have permission to create this page.
Not the most informative link I've ever looked at. :P
UrzuS3V3N
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Feb 02, 2017 8:08 pm

Re: Faceless spies! Urgent help required.

Post by UrzuS3V3N »

OK, problem solved!

I sent 3 tech sergeants to my regions and found a few more faceless. Got my first month of faceless free income! Yipee! a Big bad 35 supplies.

Went on a massive recruiting drive on my first 2 regions and pure intel on the newest one. When the first 2 regions got about 8 rebels each I switched them to pure supplies and ive just had my 2nd consecutive month of faceless free income... 239 supplies! Now THATS what im talking about, especially when I had a supply raid mission against advent about 5 days before the supply drop which gave me another 130 supplies! Massive boost to my weapons and equipment, elerium research in progress and got resistance comms online. Happy days!

This month after my first faceless free supply drop I found a dark event that the aliens would be sending faceless to infiltrate my havens. I couldn't find the source so it activated. When it confirmed activated I just stopped ALL recruitment in my havens.
I noticed I got alot more 'Prisoner rescue' missions filled with resistance members which I completely ignored.
I also noticed that I was getting '+1 resistance member in this region' hack rewards from advent towers.

Advent must think I was born yesterday.
GavinRuneblade
Posts: 178
Joined: Fri Jan 20, 2017 6:55 am

Re: Faceless spies! Urgent help required.

Post by GavinRuneblade »

UrzuS3V3N wrote:
Advent must think I was born yesterday.
Well advent are clones who may or may not understand human reproduction. In their mind being born yesterday is a distinct possibility.
UrzuS3V3N
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Feb 02, 2017 8:08 pm

Re: Faceless spies! Urgent help required.

Post by UrzuS3V3N »

GavinRuneblade wrote:
UrzuS3V3N wrote:
Advent must think I was born yesterday.
Well advent are clones who may or may not understand human reproduction. In their mind being born yesterday is a distinct possibility.
LOL. Perhaps!

Regardless, my policy of not recruiting anyone for havens during that month of the faceless dark event paid off. Another month of untouched income. 250 supplies.

Just about to hit my first regional HQ too in my newest region which has never had anyone working on supplies so hopefully another jump in my monthly income is on the cards.
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Devon_v
Long War EU Crew
Posts: 297
Joined: Fri Jan 20, 2017 3:17 am

Re: Faceless spies! Urgent help required.

Post by Devon_v »

Fun Faceless hunting fact:
The faceless infiltrator does not have a full sight range like other units. Even if you have broken concealment you can stand on the edge of vision without activating them. This allows you to hit them with your best shot while they are still in human form and essentially impossible to miss. Activating them this way will set the pod they were meeting to yellow alert, but will not activate them, potentially buying an additional turn to deal with them.
laestic
Posts: 18
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2017 4:43 pm

Re: Faceless spies! Urgent help required.

Post by laestic »

Hey people, on Haven Spies, questions :
  • Do they always contribute to their current job negatively (ie. -Intel instead of +Intel) ?
  • Do they in any way play a role in Infiltration timers in their region ?
  • Do they in any way play a role in Retalations/Invasions chances or strength ?
  • Could a XCOM Scientific/Engineer/Soldier be a Faceless, from the Market, an freed/extracted VIP, basic recruitment ?
You have my thanks.
trihero
Posts: 1099
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2017 7:01 am

Re: Faceless spies! Urgent help required.

Post by trihero »

laestic wrote:Hey people, on Haven Spies, questions :
  • Do they always contribute to their current job negatively (ie. -Intel instead of +Intel) ?
  • Do they in any way play a role in Infiltration timers in their region ?
  • Do they in any way play a role in Retalations/Invasions chances or strength ?
  • Could a XCOM Scientific/Engineer/Soldier be a Faceless, from the Market, an freed/extracted VIP, basic recruitment ?
You have my thanks.
1) yes haven spies detract from any role they are assigned to, they also increase the chance of getting retaliated against
2) nothing to do with infiltration timers
3) chance, yes
4) no, only rebels (not rookies, or scientist/engineer) can be faceless, at a 1/6 rate.
Cerebus
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2017 10:32 am

Re: Faceless spies! Urgent help required.

Post by Cerebus »

trihero wrote: Mon Feb 06, 2017 4:17 pm Just to expand on this point further: the wrong tactic is to set your guys on overwatch, then have one of your guys shoot or lob a grenade to open and hope your overwatches kill them all.
The right tactic is to watch their patrols, then move your guys into the patrol path and then overwatch in it. This way you get your overwatch turn + your next turn immediately and they don't get any yellow alert moves. It is much safer this way because of the free turn you get to clean things up, especially when you have like 3 rebels and they're equipped with smgs or shotguns.
Aaargh! I've been playing LW2 for years now, and I just stumbled across this post by accident. Seems like I always handled my ambushes the wrong way because I didn't understand the concept of yellow alert moves and that they don't apply in the first encounter. :lol: :oops: :?
Don't know if you're still around to see this, but thanks for the lesson! :)
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