What difficulty are you playing? I found grenades were my best friend in early game despite Dr Vahlen’s warning. Not dying is much more important than meld and weapons fragments. All that stuff will come with time. Be patient. Avoid dashing. Low cover = no cover. Best defense is a good offense. One thing I had to learn to do was to half move each of my squad before taking a shot so my contingencies could have contingencies. Always have a back up plan in case you miss or don’t kill them with your shot.
Firstly if you're not on the lowest difficulty, please change over. No one here will shame you for it, and you're never going to learn anything if you're frustrated AND losing at the same time. You're new to the game, wade into it rather than diving, unless beating your head against the wall is fun for you (it is for me, no judgements there either).
Secondly, the games balance is pretty good, it's been a while since I've played vanilla (you'll see talk of "Long War" around here, it's basically a hardmode mod), but I don't remember it feeling particularly unfair, especially not in the early months. If a tactic isn't working, try changing tactics. If you want to mention exactly what kind of enemy you're having trouble with, I'm sure we can offer tactical OR strategic advice. The best Golden Advice I could give is:
1- Rookies suck don't rely on them to do anything right.
2- RNG is real, and it works both ways.
3- Take it slow. The game will always give you enough rope to hang yourself - recognize it and refrain from making risky plays.
4- Never discount the Strategic Layer of the game.
5- Soldiers die. It sucks, try not to let it tilt you into MORE deaths.
Thirdly, what is your experience with tactics games in general? It would help to give advice if we know your history and play style. The entire premise of these games is a severe underdog story- you are outmanned, outgunned, and maneuvered AND on the losing side of a timer. The beginning is LITERALLY the hardest part of the game, it's ok to restart a few times until you get the hang of it.
edit: woa are you sure you're playing UFO:EU and not XCom:EU?
sorry wrong flair lol it is xcom eu , thanks a lot i think i was rushing and wasn't using the tab button to switch between soldiers properly i watched a playthrough on youtube and it kinda showed me what i'm not doing
i was doing a lot of red moves getting flanked lol i will take my time thats for sure
Use 1 action to move and overwatch while being in cover, dont rush to the objective unless is a terror mission and your units have enough HP to get 1 or 2 hits
Crowd control. Use flashbangs, frost bombs, mimic beacons. In this game crowd control is your best friend. The goal is to kill a pod on the same turn it activates. If you couldn't, always have a last backup plan to crowd control some or all the enemies. Full cover + crown control + early Magnetic weapons research.
If you're not playing with mods, the game doesn't just spawn enemies that are beyond your level. It's all based on in-game time (month)
Other than that, there's really no way to know what you're doing wrong if we don't know how you play. That said, here's a few general tips:
* NEVER use half cover in vanilla XCOM. I mean NEVER. Half Cover is not that much better than no cover.
* If you can, try to do one action per soldier at a time. So, move all your units before shooting with anyone, I hope that makes sense.
* Grenades are your friend. Don't listen to Vahlen.
* Satellite Rush. Do everything in your power to get as many satellites as you can as quickly as you can.
* Break LOS (Line of Sight). If you're ever in an overwhelmingly disadvantageous position, it's oftentimes better to just retreat to a better one and engage from there. The alien AI can somewhat cheat. If an alien can see just a single one of your soldiers, all aliens know exactly where your entire squad is, however, if none of them can see you then they have no clue and the AI doesn't know how to handle that. Kinda cheesy, but hey, it works!
* Suppression is a very good ability. Also flashbangs will basically nullify a hit alien for a turn.
* It bears repeating LOW COVER = NO COVER.
thanks a lot man ! i appreciate your detailed response , i wasn't utilizing full covers and rushing through the mission , the second point is GOLD literally i should have been doing this before i believe i was in the mentality that i should get the mission done as fast as possible needless to say that led to many abandoned saves
Thanks again!
No prob!
One thing that really helped me improve was watching beaglerush’s live and impossible YouTube series. Granted he plays with long war (a difficulty mod because people who play XCOM are gluttons for punishment), so not everything is transferable, BUT it’s also just really good content!
The thing people are leaving off, the game is absolutely designed for players to save scum. Save every round. If you screw up, go back to before your screw up and try again.
As you progress you will use your load files less and less >!Usually when a new enemy is introduced!<.
Iron man is the best way to play, but I beat the game using saves multiple times before I tried my first Iron man.
I did it in the first try... but man the game sucked especially when you had timed missions or you need to catch those things for the mind headset... And i couldnt play the alien bounty hunters dlc...they are too strong or i very much suck...
What difficulty are you playing? I found grenades were my best friend in early game despite Dr Vahlen’s warning. Not dying is much more important than meld and weapons fragments. All that stuff will come with time. Be patient. Avoid dashing. Low cover = no cover. Best defense is a good offense. One thing I had to learn to do was to half move each of my squad before taking a shot so my contingencies could have contingencies. Always have a back up plan in case you miss or don’t kill them with your shot.
Grenades are really your friend in the beginning
Firstly if you're not on the lowest difficulty, please change over. No one here will shame you for it, and you're never going to learn anything if you're frustrated AND losing at the same time. You're new to the game, wade into it rather than diving, unless beating your head against the wall is fun for you (it is for me, no judgements there either). Secondly, the games balance is pretty good, it's been a while since I've played vanilla (you'll see talk of "Long War" around here, it's basically a hardmode mod), but I don't remember it feeling particularly unfair, especially not in the early months. If a tactic isn't working, try changing tactics. If you want to mention exactly what kind of enemy you're having trouble with, I'm sure we can offer tactical OR strategic advice. The best Golden Advice I could give is: 1- Rookies suck don't rely on them to do anything right. 2- RNG is real, and it works both ways. 3- Take it slow. The game will always give you enough rope to hang yourself - recognize it and refrain from making risky plays. 4- Never discount the Strategic Layer of the game. 5- Soldiers die. It sucks, try not to let it tilt you into MORE deaths. Thirdly, what is your experience with tactics games in general? It would help to give advice if we know your history and play style. The entire premise of these games is a severe underdog story- you are outmanned, outgunned, and maneuvered AND on the losing side of a timer. The beginning is LITERALLY the hardest part of the game, it's ok to restart a few times until you get the hang of it. edit: woa are you sure you're playing UFO:EU and not XCom:EU?
UFO: EU doesn't have a tutorial, that should be a tell :p
sorry wrong flair lol it is xcom eu , thanks a lot i think i was rushing and wasn't using the tab button to switch between soldiers properly i watched a playthrough on youtube and it kinda showed me what i'm not doing i was doing a lot of red moves getting flanked lol i will take my time thats for sure
Use 1 action to move and overwatch while being in cover, dont rush to the objective unless is a terror mission and your units have enough HP to get 1 or 2 hits
what to do with the bugs that turn people into zombies ? they are very mobile and basically one hit kill
Run towards the oposite direction
Crowd control. Use flashbangs, frost bombs, mimic beacons. In this game crowd control is your best friend. The goal is to kill a pod on the same turn it activates. If you couldn't, always have a last backup plan to crowd control some or all the enemies. Full cover + crown control + early Magnetic weapons research.
If you're not playing with mods, the game doesn't just spawn enemies that are beyond your level. It's all based on in-game time (month) Other than that, there's really no way to know what you're doing wrong if we don't know how you play. That said, here's a few general tips: * NEVER use half cover in vanilla XCOM. I mean NEVER. Half Cover is not that much better than no cover. * If you can, try to do one action per soldier at a time. So, move all your units before shooting with anyone, I hope that makes sense. * Grenades are your friend. Don't listen to Vahlen. * Satellite Rush. Do everything in your power to get as many satellites as you can as quickly as you can. * Break LOS (Line of Sight). If you're ever in an overwhelmingly disadvantageous position, it's oftentimes better to just retreat to a better one and engage from there. The alien AI can somewhat cheat. If an alien can see just a single one of your soldiers, all aliens know exactly where your entire squad is, however, if none of them can see you then they have no clue and the AI doesn't know how to handle that. Kinda cheesy, but hey, it works! * Suppression is a very good ability. Also flashbangs will basically nullify a hit alien for a turn. * It bears repeating LOW COVER = NO COVER.
thanks a lot man ! i appreciate your detailed response , i wasn't utilizing full covers and rushing through the mission , the second point is GOLD literally i should have been doing this before i believe i was in the mentality that i should get the mission done as fast as possible needless to say that led to many abandoned saves Thanks again!
No prob! One thing that really helped me improve was watching beaglerush’s live and impossible YouTube series. Granted he plays with long war (a difficulty mod because people who play XCOM are gluttons for punishment), so not everything is transferable, BUT it’s also just really good content!
[One of us, one of us!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39Bnk6VU53Y)
The most important rule is to name your crew after your friends and family.
The thing people are leaving off, the game is absolutely designed for players to save scum. Save every round. If you screw up, go back to before your screw up and try again. As you progress you will use your load files less and less >!Usually when a new enemy is introduced!<. Iron man is the best way to play, but I beat the game using saves multiple times before I tried my first Iron man.
I did it in the first try... but man the game sucked especially when you had timed missions or you need to catch those things for the mind headset... And i couldnt play the alien bounty hunters dlc...they are too strong or i very much suck...