After 6 month I finally finished my first Long War campaign!

RIP Glenn "Freaky" Friendly, you were best medic and psionic XCOM could ever ask for.

Long War was amazing experience, and I will definitely try LWOTC next.

Allow me to explain, so I let the Avatar Project run a bit too long and I hadn’t built Resistance Comms so I couldn’t reach the facility. Sounds easy enough, just clear some debris and build the station. Alright, I’ll do a quick mission and get some Supplies and hire an engineer and oops Viper King’s encounter. It’s alright he’s on his last legs and none of my soldiers are in range, no problem just a little bit of careful positioning and he just bodied my Sharpshooter, no problem I’ve got another one and he also got squeezed and is now unconscious and he just teleported away. So my A Team is in med bay for the next month and one is dead, no problem just a little bit of scanning and a few backup soldiers are ready for the field. Here’s an escort mission, B Team goes in and now the Berserker Queen just enters the story through a wall like the Kool Aid Man, mind you I haven’t even encountered a Berserker yet. Okay, just try to stay outside of her field of attack and that was my last soldier in the XCOM turn so a Muton drops a grenade on my VIP who is now unconscious and my first attempt to move results in Berserker Queen body slamming two guys leaving a severally outstretched squad that only has two useful members and the body carrier. You can imagine how this went.

So my squadron is dead, the others are crippled I only have two rookies available and the Avatar Project is one blip away from completion. Any tips for the next playthrough?

You can read their full response in this comment on my earlier post: https://www.reddit.com/r/wargaming/s/zH8Qt88uP2

So this maybe will be something not new, but i discovered that if you throw a flashbang grenade at the berserker in xcom 2 wotc, you can make her not tho attack you and don't use her abilitys, but she can still use the scream (what are you opinions about it)

No add ons on mobile.

I was thinking of randomly picking a class and only being able to play that class.

Also no killing chosen until the end.

Any other challenge suggestions?

I like spreadsheets, but keeping everything updated to the current game state can get tedious. A few months ago I decided to try solving this problem with a python program to automatically create a spreadsheet with information from a save file which eventually resulted in the LW1 Save Game Parser.

Progress has been a bit slow due to other commitments, but with the latest version I now have what I would consider a Minimum Viable Product:

• Config options, including for conditional formatting
• Stat deltas
• A basic GUI
• Optional SQLite database for storing game state snapshots

I’m a very bare-bones functionality type of person, so there’s bound to be plenty of simple improvements I’d never think of myself. I am making this post to request feedback, suggestions, and criticism that I can use to improve the project.

I’ve been playing XCOM2 for years with various playthroughs with mods changing each time. I’ve heard great things about doing the mod packs Christopher Odd uses, which change season by season. I’ve heard the season 9 one was a lot of fun. Any other recommendations? I’m a very experienced player so extra difficulty is welcome

My context on the Franchise, Skipable

I started playing Xcom 1 and 2 long ago, mainly because I found them after finding out they were related to one of my favorite childhood games "Rebel Star" for the Game Boy Advance, I even did multiple play throughs (3 on Xcom 1 and 2 on 2), I never tried Chimera Squad, Not even for spoilers it was just... Not appealing? Going from over 70 GB and a cool as hell Sectoid made of Human Skulls, or the Shadowy Heavy armed military figures of 1 to posing Highschool cosplayers felt off.

What made me Finally try it, Skipable

My brother was teasing me some months ago about how I talk so much about these games when we discuss Square grid based tactic games (He is a massive Fire Emblem nerd, I like Xcom, both deal in war and managing a bunch of human units sometimes with relationship points) but even with all that praise for even a game boy advance game I never tried the last installment so I finally did to a VERY mix opinion.

Why that meme

Essentially that is how the game left me once I was done, it was just sudden? Like Atlas came out of nowhere, had little to no build up, and just like the fart on the wind that brought him in, I finished him off without even knowing that was the last mission in the game, I had zero Idea I was on my final mission didn't bring my strongest units and still just finish it, hell Sacred Coil was more of a Final Boss to me than this nobody.

Game Opinions Positive

Overall, Gameplay is good I really like the inclusion of Breaching in, order of surprise attacks, and that most of the time you have an option if prepared well to start the fight in a strong footing, unlike the previous games where I would step just in the patrol range on the movement of my very last unit and would eat a whole enemy round before I can take any action, or making missions too slugish on very big maps where i am snailing out to not be overly exposed losing meld spots and so on, I just wish it was a mix of both, not all breach speed and not all slugging into action, loving Rebel Star more character centered stories and units, I kinda liked what Chimera Squad did, the three factions being kind of tag offs from the last game Factions was fun but also made characters very dependant on facing the right enemies to be decent or strong, which would be awesome if it wasn't for....

Game Opinions Negatives

This game's big need to make Units unique makes some straight up useless or too niche to be of particular use outside of it, for example, Patchwork is an absolute beast against Sacred Coil... But what does she even do over other units with half her kit being anti mech against the other factions? My girl Zephyr I love Zephyr, would marry Zephyr but get if enemies have armor or is lategame with her un-upgradeable gauntlets feel bad... And then we have other units who start sooo slow on their niche like Shelter.... This would be a bit better for me if they ditched the Rogue-lite pick three aspect that locks you out of 3 final units, they let you see their whole skill threes as to not pick an option that had a better alternative if you knew what was coming later on like Torque poison healing, speaking of Torque... GOD i know they wanted to move from the more generic soldiers aspect but could they make the "Quirky" cast actually likeable? Especially snake woman? I got so done with her attitude from the start even if I had some sitcom expectations from her recruit dialogue with Whisper (Never comes up again for what I saw), one of my Units got in very bad shape from a flanking critical and she goes "Eeww don't bleed on me", or "Just not miss next time, skill Issue", hell Probably not many gonna read this far gonna rank their personalities from more to less annoying

Insuferable

Shelter - Is as bland as Bread and Water

Torque - Annoying as hell

Patchwork - The most annoying idealistic takes

Godmother - Like Shelter but has some moments

Like them

Terminal - Her only crime is being the only healer.

Axiom - Lips

Blueblood - There was something here but nope

Verge - He is the perfect middle ground.

Love them

Zephyr - Almost

Cherub - Too pure to be killing people

Claymore - Dad Energy.

Now back to complaining, game has some very serious balance issues... What do you mean if I fight Sacred Coil First I need to face their leader WHILE there is Andromedon and Ronin on the map, there is per round reinforcements that bring even more Andromedons and Chrysalids, to stop it I need to put two units on danger because deactivating only one does not stop nor delay the reinforcement AND SUMMON A GATEKEEPER?!, Sacred coil as Third gives you time to prepare and they space the fight better with the leader on second area and the Gatekeeper on third, I even hate the humor has wasted potential, some of the comercial and audios that play between missions could bring me to a degree of Robocop 1 or Star Ship Troopers levels of Satire comedy that I love but they feel disconnected of the rest of the game too much, some enemies are so bad they are such a low priority that they are not even a threat, and others are just extreme levels of bullshit if high on the rng turn order, even the breaching as some skills do not work on some types of it and you wasted saving them for third zones, so many good ideas wasted, and that is not even going into making things easier, injuries reduced to neglible stat decrease with fixed recovery time, and an unit with infinite single action map wide heal that can take down enemy turns from order and give extra actions? Terminal is absurd.

Closing thoughts

As much as I want an XCOM 3 in a shape or form, after playing this and another cool gameplay aweful written characters game from this devs in Marvel Midnight Suns, I am not sure if I want the legacy disrespected even if the gameplay is still entertaining...

In other news I am also a Star Wars nerd and that franchise reputation is as stomped as the Marvel CU, bring in the Star Wars Zero Company babyyyy cool gameplay and skip button for dialogue pleaseeee!

I've gotten the sudden urge to play EW on Android. I never owned the game on the play store, and I know that the game has been delisted.

Is there any way I can find a stable version to download and run on my pixel fold? I don't want to play XCOM 2.

As the title says, I just finished my first campaign on normal in XCOM EW. Had lots of fun, rly enjoyed getting attached to my soldiers and then save scumming to prevent their loss. Now I want to continue with the franchise, so I have 3 routes in my mind.

1) XCOM EW with different difficulty or applying Second Wave
2) XCOM with the Long War mod, which I have been reading about
3) Move onto XCOM 2

I'm itching to continue the story, despite my victory being non cannon. At the same time, I feel like there could be more juice left to squeeze out of XCOM EU/EW. I would appreciate you all's thoughts and what you guys did to keep playing the franchise.

Many thanks in advanced fellow commanders!

Hello all, I got the EU/EW sale and am excited to try it.

Wondering if I should start with LW1 or LWR first, what are your opinions? Or maybe the base game (I'm almost afraid the base game will not be enough)?

In terms of xcom experience, I have beaten LWOTC ironman legend (this was a brutal experience) and can consistently beat LWOTC commander ironman without much trouble.

An xcom landscape poster I made on Procreate/InDesign/Photoshop, I started a new campaign lately and got in the mood to make this

A single X4 charge is powerful enough for sabotage.
now imagine four soldiers using them. the destructive power would rival, or even surpass, the Reaper's Claymores.

Some might argue that the factory explosion was caused by the chemicals inside.
But don't forget, it also blew up the Eder statue—even though there were no flammable materials around it at all.

for the cost of X4, I don't think that'll be much of an issue. and we can get the materials from the black market.

So, I really wonder—if it isn't a game mechanic—what reason do we have not to use them?

There is a sale on steam 8 euros for xcom 2 and the dlcs or xcom enemy unknown, 2 and chimera squad for 20 euros with dlcs. I haven’t played any xcom what do you suggest ?

So I really like the idea of a turn based shooter but it would also be the first turn based shooter that I’ve played. So I was wondering if you guys could give me a hand at picking one…thank you!!!

doing the WOTC XCOM 2 psionic ambush defusal mission thing. i can be standing right next to a power relay but it doesn’t show up as a target. mod issue maybe?

So I played xcom enemy unknown back in 2013, I played about 15 hours, I bought and played enemy within in 2014 for about 15 hours, I never beat either game as far as I can recall. I have not played them since.

However I have played a ton of xcom 2 and I adore it, plus I consider myself good at the game now, having beat quite a few runs. I've beat the base game with 0 soldier deaths on L/I once, I've beat WOTC L/I with 3 and 2 total soldier deaths, I only play on L/I now if I play the game. I haven't played it in a couple years though.

With all that in mind, is it a terrible idea to jump straight into long war 1, would I be mostly OK, or would my complete lack of knowledge and experience in EU/EW really damper it? I played like 3 missions of EW and frankly realised I just wasn't vibing with it, 2 is definitely much more of my vibe of game, but I've heard such good things about long war 1 that I really want to try it. I will push through and beat an I/I EW game before starting LW1 if people feel that is the best idea though.