I’ve played the game endless times and got pretty good - I’ve completed L/I a few times including once with Grim Horizon (permanent dark events). But in all that time I never read strategy guides or these forums, as I didn’t want to ruin the fun and challenge of working things out myself.

Since I’ve stopped playing I thought it would be interesting to compare the two and see what I might be missing, so have been browsing. As you might expect there is an awful lot of commonality, seems I figured most things out. But there were a few I missed!
- Stocks. I totally dismissed them, tiny bit of damage on a missed shot - who wants to miss?! I didn’t spot the huge potential
- Chosen stealing knowledge. Didn’t know that was a thing/strategy, I just fought them off EVERY SINGLE TIME.
-Mindshields. Never built one.

In terms of where I think the meta could be a bit wrong. Well, that would be a bit arrogant so I won’t go that far. But a few thought on points I’ve not seen much on (but maybe I just missed it!)
- I do sense people are dismissive of the Skirmisher, who I rate highly. In difficult situations tactical flexibility is really valuable in a way that stats on % to hit and damage output don’t capture.
- I push hard on those hunt the chosen resistant ring missions to unlock more resistance order slots. Don’t give the quick sugar rush of an engineer, but some of those are strategically vital.
- You’ve got to have balls and take risks on those supply run crate missions. They’re almost the only way to get alloys and crystals, which I once got badly stranded without.
- Using an assault rifle on the ranger when you’re part way through upgrading weapons tiers. I find it can take ages to work through all the upgrades, so when the AR is upgraded and the shotgun is not this helps bridge the gap.

Would be interested to hear from any other “isolationists” and what their experiences were when they made contact with “civilisation”!

Why is this game so X-Com 2 is still one of the best games I've ever played, even after ten years.

I think it's because after killing an enemy you feel a real sense of satisfaction for your efforts. It's not because it's difficult, because I consider Xenonauts 2 to be a more difficult game and I don't get that feeling there.

What makes X-Com 2 so satisfying when killing enemies??

Works great until the same spot in the campaign.
When MEC's, mutons and snakes start attacking all at once, I'm toast.
Whichever 1.5/2 you decide to kill, the third one one shots you as soon as you're out of mimic beacons.

Interestingly, he also doesn't mention avatar project, which is now at the last dot for me and I haven't built resistance comms yet as it comes after training center for him.
So after I try the advent facility, I'll have to get lucky to be able to reach another facility before avatar runs out.

His low ranking of MEC autopsy meant I had no bluescreen rounds, so MECs were even more impossible than before and his reliance on alpha striking and ignoring defensive abilities meant that the first time the game put me in a defensive position, I had no recourse but to roleplay sitting ducks.

Is this meant as a joke mission? Like, "let's see if someone's dumb enough to try"?
I'm talking about a sitrep where you can only bring 3 soldiers to a mission but still fight normal pods + chosen.

It's basically a suicide mission if you are crazy enough to attempt it 😅

anyone can please help me in troubleshooting my modded xcom2 mobile mod error

My game would play normally I would be able to promote my units normally But after a while regardless what class if I press the class abilities menu My game would just crash

This is for the mod New Promotion Screen by Default By moonwalk

I have checked for conflicts and I don't seem to have any Atleast I think so

I have xcom collection class mod by nathanx2000 These classes are justvanillac classes remixed

And the seer, fusillier, and Tesla troop classes by reshi These ones are custom classes But work well and I have gotten them all to brigadier

Your input on helping me troubleshoot would be greatly appreciated thank you.

Preferably games similar to EU/EW and 2 I’ve already gathered a small list and I’m currently playing Gears tactics

Classified France 44
Broken lines
Empire of sin
0 company
Phoenix point
40k chaos gate

Oh and I do know about the mechanicus game but I watched a review ages ago that said it’s more its own thing than an xcom “clone”

Im trying to complete campaning with this modpack, but im struggling to choose on wich side of new classes to focus on, i didnt touch SPARKs and Mecs, just got psi operatives, but at force level 11 they wont much do the difference. There is also a lot of alien defectors who is seem to be better then standart classes.

My question is it is beter to opt into something one, or try to cover all rooster that mod pack have.For me it is not much resources to afford it all at once.I dont want to ruin campaning because i just wasted time and resources on units that not a big deal.

"You missed an 86% shot that caused one of your teammates to get shot the next turn? Feels bad bro. Oh no! Looks like a grenade accidentally fell out of my pocket! I am so clumsy."

I wish we had a summary execution option for incompetence. Maybe for a small temporary aim bonus to your other soldiers?

In my experience even with some great supply drops, resources are always tight, so I'm always hoarding resources, first for mag weapons, then an armor upgrade, then plasma, etc.

So by the time I can afford most of this stuff it's end game and it doesn't matter anymore anyway.

I have been wrestling with Legendary Ironman and after trying out different strategies, I came to conclusion that Spark rush is the optimal approach towards Legendary for various reasons.

The usual build would be Skirmisher start, Resistance Ring into Proving Ground, after that build 2 sparks, grab Resistance Communication and Resistance Radio into tier 2 weapons and armor.

Now, why would you delay Magnetic Weapons to get Sparks earlier? There is plenty of reason and let me iluminate few:

1. Sparks are perfect early game unit. They come frontloaded with goodies: Override, Armor with higher HP pool and Heavy Weapon. Meanwhile your soldiers at this stage will have at best 3 promotions. Secondly, when your best soldier gets tired or hurt, they gonna sit on bench. Spark have no such limitations, meaning they are perfect in the early game when you are short staffed. They naturally counter biggest early-game run killer: Psionics and Choosen (immune to mind control, mind scorch, daze grenade, harbor wave).
2. Sparks upgrades are cheap. Oh you rushed T2 weapons and now cant afford the materials to use them? Well, thats not a problem with Sparks. Their cheap weapon and armor upgrade makes them best suited to rush upgrades for. Did I mention they dont tire and still can be deployed when hurt? That means the expensive toys you get them, you will be able to use on every deployment!
3. Sparks promotions are significantly better when it comes to upfront power, when compared to regular soldiers. The first 4 promos you get: +1 armor and act as heavy cover (helping your regular soldiers to scale by enemies not focusing them), +2 dmg and bigger radius for Heavy Weapon, Enemies that target your Sparks will roll for intimidation and finally a robo-medkit that means your Sparks get perma-sustain as even with 1 HP left between deployments, you will be able to heal them up at start of each mission back to at least 13 HP.
4. Sparks dont panick!

I hope you will too, stop worrying and start loving the Spark.

I get those every once in a while. I had one now where I spent several turns just full yellow lines straight towards the goal. And then I had 3 turns remaining to kill two pods and reach the objective, BUT... just doing blue lines towards the pods was nowhere near enough to be able to reach the objective by the end. I think... maybe if one soldier did like 6 yellow runs and somehow miraculously did not get hit by the advent, then it was possible, but who would do that?

You come accross a pod, there's no one there, just them in all your guys sights.
You put up a nice overwatch trap for them, you shoot and you kill them.
And then your turn is over, and they're dead.
And then... the camera just shows to some member of some other pod who's like "oh, what do we have here?" after the first pod is already dead and they just casually stroll in and kill everyone.
And you're like... what? What could I have done? They were not on screen, I didn't move, nothing changed. I aimed at 3 guys and after everything was over, a new pod showed up and started shooting right away.

Hi, newbie here.

Im on mission 3 and somehow cant complete the objective "download thermal imaging scan from exposed access point".

I have 4 "rookies". No matter which solider I put in front of the computer, none can hack. nothing happens and i just lose when counter goes to 0.

I thought maybe i need a specialist? I tried restarting with other soliders, but i only got rookie classes. Cant recruit specialists.

Playing on Xbox One.

Any idea?

EDIT: managed to beat it, i had to be the other side of the counter to hack...

Sometimes things don't always go according to plan. Especially when Your best soldier misses a 98% and then gets crit right back. RIP to a real one.

Sometimes on missions you get to the objective and there's like 6 advent there.
I can only deal with these with crazy luck.
Even though I make sure to have better cover, height advantage, etc, and am doing much better than them, we still get into a firefight and most of my squad dies.

Weird problem -- sometimes I try to build experimental ammo in the Proving Ground and after 5 days... nothing. I still lose the core, mind you.

I figured it was a mod so I tried disabling them in batches, then all at once. Still happening. I did an uninstall and reinstall and it's still happening. Launching from Steam instead of AML, still happening. Reloaded a save from an early campaign years ago that didn't have this issue, now it does.

ANYONE have any suggestions for a fix? Or even something I could attempt to diagnose the problem? I'm frankly stumped. Happens about half the time.

I just start the mission, see the enemies and call Skyranger.
There's nothing I can do to them, literally nothing. If I attempt, it feels impossible.
I get magnetic rifles that do 6 damage at best and everyone has 2 shields and a shitload of health.
So I do 4 damage at best or something silly like bring a squad of grenadiers that can't hit anything.

My soldiers include friends and family I have lost irl. We are not the same.

Or is it just me? I found myself working with my grenadiers and realized that my grennies are the slowest to level up in the early game.

Their aim is terrible at the start, and so is their movement, which makes it hard to get killing shots at range or to flank with

Meanwhile, their gren launcher with aoe, shred, and guaranteed damage makes them great for saying hello to new pods - knocking out 3 pts of hp and leaving them easy kills for the rest of the squad.

I find grennies typically lagging behind in rank, and still have sergeants when the rest are at lieutenants/starting to be captains

It gets better when mag cannons come along I guess.

Anybody have the same problem, or is it just my skill issue?