llll BlackFlag wrote:During my recent 1.3 campaigns I've been struggling to find a balance between stealth and assault. Although 1.3 was aimed at increasing the effectiveness of medium sized squads I don't think I've been able to utilize these changes optimally. I can still cheese 2-3 man stealth missions, and going in to kill everything is just as easy. My problem is when I try to use medium sized squads of 3-5 and try to strike a balance between stealth and assault. I always seem to complete missions without activating any pods, or I activate the entire map in 1-3 turns. Does anyone have tips for trying to go in, clear a pod or two, complete the objective, and evac? This seems to be the style of play 1.3 was pushing for but I've been unable to reliably execute it.
I did quite a few Smash and Grab as semi-stealth. I usually do this when I am out of gear but I have some soldiers to spare. My setup:
- 2 shinoby min CPL - first 2 skills from stealth three
- 1 technical flame/tanky build - CPL is fine
- 1 OW specialist with HACK PCS - CPL is ok; SGT is ideal for cool under presure
- 1 support grenadier - LCPL / CPL (ideally officer)
Gear req: None.
Nice to have: A decent Assault Rifle on Spec; Venon rounds on spec; Some tanky vest on Technical
AWG req: Phantom on Technical
Nice to have: Rapid deployment on Shinoby / lightning reflexes.
The way it works it's like this:
- You start with splitting your Shinoby (one left side of the building - one on right side. There is always one pod outside the building and 2 inside. The one from outside you have to kill with the other 3 soldiers. To kill the pod outside you thrown a flashbang (enemy doesn't scatter if he doesn't see you) + burn them from concealment with Technical + take shots from OW specialist. After the ayy is disoriented , burned and potential poisoned - it's like shooting fish in a barrel.
- By the time you finish with the first pod, your shinoby should be each close to a chest and have at least a good idea where the pods are. Leave the closest chest to the evac to the 3 man group.
- Move the 3 man group to the closest chest from evac. If you trigger a pod; pop fortify, aid protocol + smoke on technical and dash to the chest. With 60+ defense even a flanking shot has 15% chance to hit. You can also command the technical and launch a rocket just to make some noise / easier for shinobys to get to the chests. Ideally you reach to the chest with Shinoby concealed. It's not so difficult since you have SMG + radius detection + ghost walk. Unless the enemies sits like 3 tiles away from the chest, you can get there with no problem.
You can tipically pick 3 out of 4 chests. 1 for each Shinoby and 1 for the 3 man group.
You need a specialist that is able to hack a drone.That's why you go with the HACK PCS. It's also useful if there is a MEC on the first pod; depending on the Technical's level / Grenadier level , you may not be able to do anything about that one. If it's a heavy MEC not even the specialist can hack it,so you might need to avoid the fight entirely and simply get the chests only with Shinobys. If you manage to HACK a drone, you may even get 4 chests since the enemy focuses the drone and they are simply not able to kill it.
Later in the game, you get grapple on Shinobys and you can do whatever you want. I had 2 Shinoby with 20 movement speed. (17 + 3 PCS). With 20 ms, you can simply enter in the building, triggering all pods. Pick the loot as free action, grapple on the other side of the roof -> dash out. The enemy cannot really do anything about that.
I even managed once to finish a mission in 3 turns with 3 shinobys. It was ridiculous.
Early game you have to be careful on lancers. They are the only ones who can take you shinobys out since they can dash + hit so they can keep up with you. Otherwise, it's a pretty safe mission regarless of enemies.
Final note: don't forget medikit or hazmat on technical. With so much stacked defense, all vipers will poison you.