The Exquisite Corps: XCOM: Enemy Within - Part 07

We're seven episodes in and they still have not figured out how to use the sniper yet.

And please please please stop wasting money!

Yeah, not to have a lack of faith in Abby but I started this video expecting the playthrough to end. It's a common place for it to happen if you've been limping along through the start. I also haven't played on Normal tho.

Dan's inexplicable southern drawl while reading the report is ridiculous and I love it

I think y'all should take more shots, rather than staying in Overwatch when you have the enemy in your line of sight.

Remember:

• Overwatch only pops off if the enemy moves
• Overwatch doesn't crit
• Overwatch shot has an aim penalty

Basically, if you aren't going to shoot at the enemy in your line of sight, your better option is to hunker down.

The whole of Australia thanks you, Abby. Fair Dinkum, mate.

Great job Abby! Also, it's still pretty funny.

A good session, or at least as good at it will get around here.

Did the satellite that got finished get assigned anywhere?

@profhowell: Yeah that was my thought, that the game does have some LOS issues but the shadow was clearly there and once they play a bit more they'll better learn to circumnavigate rooms with visual obstuctions in them. To be fair the game never openly communicates much of this. I suspect if Vinny or Abby check that moment again they'll see it even if they still aren't happy about it.

All and all that was a very good job Abby!

I know no one will ever learn their lesson about Dan who hasn't already (90% of people probably wouldn't be complaining if Dan wasn't playing the heel AND ALSO playing very, very poorly in his first episode) but Dead Daniel Ryckert, Dead "Dan Ryckert", cryo-freeze Lang and the Abomination is such a great addition to the series and a direct result of Dan doing what Dan does best (which unfortunately does not include being great at X-Com).

Also, watching this series reminds me how impossibly shitty X-Com is about telling you why you would want to do almost anything in this game. I sympathize with everyone in the comments who already knows what to do but man, oh man, is the game terrible at communicating.

At least, Canadian Brad died defending his homeland.

ABBY SAVED XCOM.

Was completely having a meltdown over them not immediately buying the nano-fiber vests, made worse when they decided to research the next level of armor right away. So glad Vinny pointed it out and they got some.

I need to see a picture of a cat dressed up like an XCOM heavy given the success of Dirt Bike. Appreciate some of the narrative adjusting around the body horror of last week's command but I honestly wish he was still just Langzone. I suppose that's just a scar on this series that will never heal. Worth pointing out that the amount of money in the Council report is your gross income for the month. Several facilities and your air force require monthly upkeep costs, I forget if soldiers also accrue those costs. Great job on the missions from Abby/Vinny. Your play is far from impeccable but anything to keep this series going is a win. Thanks and keep up the good work.

Nooooo not Brad!

Abby kicked ass on that terror mission! That bought them a bunch of time until the next big thing happens. Brad got super screwed by the line-of-sight in the laundromat because I guess nobody can look over a bunch of washers and dryers.

Man their sniper is essentially useless without the move+shoot ability. I made the same mistake on my first sniper, but never again.

Also had the same thing happen in that laundromat map with aliens hidden in a corner and thinking it was an empty room because the shadowed area was so tiny.

Can't wait for the Exalt missions! Just kidding they're boring and slow and annoying.

@feckless: I wonder if the game makes the first terror mission easier if it sees that you are about to lose several countries.

What Giant Bomb staff haven't shown up as squad members yet? I forget who's died, Alex? We still need Jeff and Rorie right?

Squad line of sight is SO, SO much better than the move and shoot. The problem is they aren't getting to high ground and thinking about that and setting up their sniper well. They are just using him like any other unit.

XCOM 1 isn't balanced that well with character upgrades and the sniper tree is a good example because Squad Sight is way better. You get that, plus the high ground bonuses and stuff and that sniper is the best unit in vanilla for sure (haven't played EU). Not that the move and shoot and pistol stuff is useless (it can be useful and fun) but if you get the grapple, then later the jetpack and kit your sniper for Squad Sight and long range actual sniping, they kill guys and get free turns left and right and do insane damage.

I was actually bugging in the earlier episode watching them almost choose move and shoot. Since then they have not used the Sniper very well though.

In that second mission, they should have moved the sniper across the street right when they started the mission and let them set up as high as possible to cover the whole thing. They could have taken out the Mutons real easy and covered against jetpack guys, for example. You shouldn't be moving your sniper that much.

To all players but especially Abby small differences are big differences in XCOM! Very few items are “not worth it” if you desire some effect along their capabilities. The one exception is honestly grenades because rockets are so much better and on most missions you don’t use them! The best upgrades are better weapons. Scopes are extremely useful as well and every shot fired will be markedly more likely to hit, be maybe having a chance to deal damage with a grenade (much shorter range and less versatility than rockets which can shred enemies and I believe have a much larger radius).

Abby’s combat senses are pretty good but her lack of knowledge on the upgrades is severe, I would love to see her brush up a bit on that stuff as it seems she is much less familiar with the game compared to Dan and Alex.

For the love of god use scopes. So much more useful than grenades, that’s what you have heavies for: longer range more effective explosives. Vs always having a 10% higher hit chance which is huge. Scopes were mostly all I used besides the Arc thrower when needed and a Medkit on an appropriately specced support. Combining scopes with stuff like the heavy’s Ability to boost hit chance when firing at enemies, etc is huge. If you have 3-4 scopes you’re getting an extra 30-40% chance to hit enemies each round. That ain’t insignificant.

I might also recommend replacing mary’s Shotgun with a laser rifle, which gives the assault more versatility and makes it less risky to use her to her fullest. And throw a scope on it!

Oh well... at least she finally got rid of the second medkit that was doing no one any good and has “handled” dirty dan’s malarkey.

@mr_shufu: I think its more that If you let the chrysalids start killing civilians or your guys, they just spawn more and more. The mission is either a cake-walk, like it was here, or a complete disaster, especially when you go in never having seen chysalids or knowing what happens when they kill people.

That said, Great Job Abby! This series isn't dead! Now Let us all brace for how Dan can mess it up.

@unsupervised: Everyone's first missions were really bad, not just Dan's, but they have bounced back. I don't care if they are pro level or anything I just didn't want it to last like 4 episodes.

Very nice job on this. Losing who was lost stinks, but triggering aliens in places you should have already seen them was always one of the biggest problems with this game. Good to see Abbey bringing things back on track.

Good episode! I do feel though that Vinny basically just playing by proxy does go a bit against what the series is about.

Squad sight is the only way to go though. You might have to sometimes use turns to maneuver them, but the accuracy they get and the area they cover is more than worth it. Combined with Double tap it also allows them to do insane damage in one turn and just rip through squads of aliens.

This joke must have been made 20 times but Dan is the Enemy Within, right?

Maybe this is it, but she got lucky they didn't do it then when they easily could have as she was creeping around on the map. I'm not sure what the Crystallids were doing. Abby hardly even saw any civilians so there had to be tons where they were in the back.

I know the result is now moot due to events, but just for future reference, to help out:

Sprinter > Covering Fire.

The important part is not to make a perfect choice, but to understand why one is better over another, (ie overall learning of how the game works). Covering fire sounds neat, but in reality you are taking an overwatch shot that you do not control, with an aim penalty, versus someone in cover (if they are shooting at you) so even less chance to hit, when the simple alternative is instead of covering fire is to just shoot them. In essence you are loosing out (at best you are even with other synergies) instead of getting a better soldier. While Sprinter, +3 to movement is tactically very advantageous, especially if you don't want to sprint, you are able to move further and still shoot or do other actions, generally get to be more flexible with your positioning get to better cover or flanking shots. And specifically for Support class it's even better because when you need to heal somebody getting to them is that much easier in one turn.

When you start to think and analyze minor stuff like this is when you start becoming more aware of how the game tics and thus be less at a mercy of the RNG gods and more in control yourself.

@tennmuerti: you're right but they use overwatch so much that I don't think they will be broken of it. In that case, Covering fire can be fine I guess. They don't flank much so sprinter isn't as useful.I agree with you though.

I was wondering the same thing, but it doesn't seem like something they would do, or if they did it would have been a well known thing that people talk/complain about.

Yup. Pretty much my earliest memories of the game were of staring down those Chrysalids for the first time, realizing that using the stunner on them was a bad idea, and then another squad showing up to finish the job. Maybe I just had really bad RNG at the time, or was overly confident, but I definitely remember having to deal with multiple squads, and possibly more Chrysalids as well.

Great job, Abby and Vinny! This episode could've been the beginning of the end, but it turned out to be a huge course correction that has put the XCOM mission back on track.

Not to take anything away from the effort, but the RNG with the alien and civilian positions on that terror mission was extremely favorable. Even on normal, that mission is typically far more difficult.

@ottoman673: You're not wrong, but I find the Dan episodes to be frustrating to watch. Someone talked about how the GB crew determines what lives/dies by viewership, so I just figured I could ask, but I'll just avoid those episodes. I want to "vote with my view count", similarly to how i "vote with my wallet" when I buy games i like/want to support . After 2 Dan episodes I know what i'm going to get, and I don't want to watch them; so I won't. Pretty simple stuff. Other than that, this is probably my favorite series (after Game Tapes).

oh Dan is great.... too many people got bent out of shape over "Langate" loved the Intro

I remember this game being less forgiving; maybe that's just time or playing on "normal", but whatever the case...good job, Commander Russell.

Abby did a great job! Keep it up!

I really want to see a photo of real life Dirt Bike.

I get the impression that Abby understood the description to mean that the Support would get +3 to their sprint distance, but the half turn of movement you get remains the same, which would be way less useful. Although in that case having it on the medic is even less useful, so maybe not.

It's been a while but I remember Jeff/Rorie talking about it & pretty sure "the metrics" show both (and whether or not you finished it, etc). You don't have to try and game the system, just do you & it'll show.

@ethanielrain: Great, thanks for the info!

I look forward to this every week!

@artisanbreads: @odinsmana: I really haven't understood how that skill works until I read about it on the wiki just now. But for example, where would you put the sniper on that second mission? All the high ground would have obstructed the shots on the aliens that were inside (most of them), and even on the ground it looked like Abomination never had a shot on anything he wouldn't normally have.

I think I'm just hardwired into the "get in range of enemy and fire" strategy. I'll give squad sight a shot in my on-and-off playthrough sometime.

Good work and good hunting there Abby.

I was legit cheering at the success of that Terror mission since I knew it would bring down the panic levels across Asia. XCOM's funding remains safe for now until it's Dan's turn.

Dan is now the Liquid Ocelot of XCOM.

Pretty sure it was more like my 3rd or 4th terror mission, but that map made me incredibly worried when it loaded up because in my game it was filled with chrysallids, a cyberdisc, and a bunch of zombies.

I just hope they don't get the council mission with the endless chrysallids in the fishing village. I had that mission right before the aforementioned terror mission and the two combined wiped every good unit I had.

Squad sight is incredibly OP in this game. You definitely should try it because it can make a well positioned sniper an unstoppable killing machine.

It's very unintuitive until you've actually seen it in action, so I don't blame you for being skeptical. I struggled with this choice when I first played the game as well, and I'm sure other people have too.

I'll leave answering your specific question to someone with more recent experience with the game, but the thing I'll say is that the line of sight rules in this game are insane and plain buggy most of the time, which is partly why Squadsight is so broken. Remember that shot Swery made when the Mutons first appeared that went through an entire building? Okay, now imagine that happening any time aliens show up anywhere on the map. It's not uncommon for snipers to even land reaction shots through multiple bulkheads of a spaceship.

But even without the wonky LOS issues, having 2 snipers with squadsight in a good vantage point all but guarantees that whatever spawns in their line of fire will take a ton of damage before they even get into cover.

I wish my first terror mission went that well last night. Instead I lost two units almost immediately, got scared, retreated, found out that means you don't save the civilians you already tagged, and lost all of Africa. Then I learned that you get fewer aliens on your first terror mission on the lower difficulties and that I totally could have turned it around.

But after my session last night, it's not the terror mission that I want to see them try to work with, it's Site Recon. They've been investing in firepower, which is smart, but if they don't smarten up their squad movement tactics they're gonna get worked over pretty badly

I also realised this for myself as I kept getting wounded soldiers, but now that they have some good units and a squad of six, I think they'll really want to start hiring rookies and bringing a rookie along every time so they aren't caught having to take two, three, or even four rookies on a mission at once because a couple of units got clipped in the previous mission. If I'd had all my good units, or a majority of even slightly promoted ones, available for my terror mission I probably would have been able to handle it.

@jiggles said:

This is 100% true if you have an understanding of the tradeoffs and how the maps generally work (where pods will spawn and stuff like that). Once you understand the rules, you know when it's OK to break them. (I mean, I spend half of my XCOM 2 games out of cover, especially in WotC.) But you have to understand them first. If somebody is playing the game like it's a black-box oracle, as these folks are (letting meld expire, not using rockets on groups, etc.), it is a much better idea to just never dash.

Looking at their base layout always frustrates me
Even tho Dan (it was Dan, right?) wrecked some stuff and rebuild to account for adjacency bonus, he didn't do it properly. Adjacency bonuses applyvertically and horizontally

They apply to the following room types: Power Generator (+Thermo/Elerium Generator), Uplinks (+Satellite Nexus), Laboratory and Workshops (+Foundry).

Planing properly where to build Generators/Satellite Uplinks can save you building a whole extra one of them and because there's only a limited number of countries you can plan pretty good how many Sat Uplinks you gonna need in the end.

I'd usually prioritize adjacency bonuses for laboratories early game after that most of the heavy research is done replace them with workshops, to cut down on manufacturing costs of stuff.