I got this game when it came out, and played up to the alien base mission before I put it down because the bugs were killing me (bugs as in glitches in the game, not the Chryssalids - zing). Now, I'm back and started a new game to play through the DLC. Both times, I thought I had a pretty badass XCOM team, but boy, once you attack that alien base, the aliens stop playing around and this game gets tough.

For some reason, I like the game more now. I like that halfway through it challenges your established strategy.

Predominantly the first few missions can be challenging/luck based depending on the difficulty level and then once you get a good, well equipped team the game is easy as long as you know how to play it. Doesn't stop it from being fun though.

There's not really any spoilers in this thread, so its weird you spoiler warned.

But since you did, ya this games gets nuts. I save scummed because I didn't want to lose my people- I personally have played many games like this and I hate losing people so I reload and do it again.

The last mission, though, I did not. I let the chips fall where they may. It was a suicide mission after all.

Most of the team did not survive the last mission.

Yeah, the base is a long mission, so it can wear you down if you let your guard down.

However, as Fredchuckdave alludes to, Classic and Nightmare are where the game doesn't fuck around. Even Classic gives the enemies just enough advantages here and there, and bumps up the number of enemy combatants per missions, to the point that you have to be quite smart in how you play. But really, regardless of difficulty, the worst thing is when you send a guy forward, and it turns out that like 3 enemy squads were all in the same area. And then on the enemy turn, a 4th squad stumbles across your battle.

Sorry, game on Classic Ironman difficulty, but it turns out my early-mid game team can't deal with 7 fucking Mutons and 2 Floaters, half of them in high cover. Assholes. Even beam weapons really just aren't good enough in that scenario, unless you had like 2 colonel snipers (I didn't).

@bisonhero said:

Yeah, that's what I meant. I specifically meant after the Alien Base. That in itself isn't that hard or different than what came before, in my opinion. I usually nanny saved because I didn't like losing anybody, but the first time I attacked a shot-down either supply barge or abductor (don't recall at the moment), I stormed the cargo bay only to discover there were literally like 20 aliens standing in the back room, mutons, cyberdiscs, sectopod, etc.

The first encounter with the Etheral was hard, too, I thought.

@kevink: Thing with ethereals is that your soldier's Will stat dictates their ability to hit it so something like Combat Drugs smoke helps immensely; apart from that your first encounter is usually going to come down to luck or explosives.

I just encountered the creepy bug aliens for the first time and my whole team got wiped......ON EASY! I guess there were some crucial upgrades that i didn't get before that mission. It's funny how the game keeps track of how many times you've restarted the game, this was my 7th go and all the runs before that was me just trying to figure out the game mechanics.

If you're squad dies does that cancel out all the civilians you rescued? I managed to save 11 and i thought i would at least get some diplomatic points even if the squad dies.