X-COM XCOM 2 + War of the Chosen Expansion Thread

[ArchAngel]

I'm about to kill my second Chosen and the game is getting pretty easy, except if I'm really unlucky or do something stupid. I'm Power Armored and full Plasma, with a Colonel and a couple Majors. BUT the infamous "Gatekeeper" hasnt' appeared yet. So, my question is: How to deal with these bastards? Does Bluescreen hurt them? EMP? Flashbangs? etc? Can it one-shot my soldiers? I only seen it on youtube vids and never faced one myself.

Thanks bros.

They are easy. You just find high ground, shred their armor and shoot with everyone.

Keep the frost bomb/mimic beacon/stasis guy for last in case it survives.

 

[Alienman]

I'm about to kill my second Chosen and the game is getting pretty easy, except if I'm really unlucky or do something stupid. I'm Power Armored and full Plasma, with a Colonel and a couple Majors. BUT the infamous "Gatekeeper" hasnt' appeared yet. So, my question is: How to deal with these bastards? Does Bluescreen hurt them? EMP? Flashbangs? etc? Can it one-shot my soldiers? I only seen it on youtube vids and never faced one myself.

Thanks bros.

Get the psi-feedback card from one of the resistance groups and watch the Gatekeeper suicide

It is useless. I have only seen it damage them if psi attack fails.

wut? They do their gateway attack and if it hits several people the Gatekeeper dies.

 

[ArchAngel]

I'm about to kill my second Chosen and the game is getting pretty easy, except if I'm really unlucky or do something stupid. I'm Power Armored and full Plasma, with a Colonel and a couple Majors. BUT the infamous "Gatekeeper" hasnt' appeared yet. So, my question is: How to deal with these bastards? Does Bluescreen hurt them? EMP? Flashbangs? etc? Can it one-shot my soldiers? I only seen it on youtube vids and never faced one myself.

Thanks bros.

Get the psi-feedback card from one of the resistance groups and watch the Gatekeeper suicide

It is useless. I have only seen it damage them if psi attack fails.

wut? They do their gateway attack and if it hits several people the Gatekeeper dies.

Maybe the Order is bugged, I would not be surprised. As far as Gatekeepers, I have never let them do this attack. Like Sectopods and Andromedons, they are high priority targets.

 

[Alienman]

Yeah maybe. I try to avoid taking damage, but when they do manage to do their attack I have surprise for them. Same goes for those Codex types. When they do their warp thingy that disables weapons they suicide 90% of the time

 

[ArchAngel]

I managed to "finish" my L/I run yesterday. I used the modification that gives you 2x timer on missions as I hated those mission in my previous run. I wanted to have cool tactical battles, not rush most maps against timers. And I say "finish" because I killed all Chosen, got Colonels and upgraded all armors and weapons. Now all I would need to do is do those 4-5 story missions and it is done. It is pointless, those missions are easy when you got all this and with Chosen weapons and Training Center and permanent bonuses from Covert Ops my end game troops are stronger than ever.

But it is gnawing at me that I did not reach end game without 2x timer mod so I immediately started another L/I with no modification (without using Lost & Found). Since I started with a Reaper and immediately got an Order that makes timers not start until you break concealment, the game should work better this time and I hope I can reach end game without making it easier with pre game modifications. I am rushing SPARKs in this run, put Proving Grounds as my 3rd building.

 

[Galdred]

Play Beta Strike.

I tried this, found it bad. Mostly because you start with no good ways to manage longer engagements, so the whole thing just turned into a popamole simulator.

It probably gets better as game goes on, but early on it is mostly boring imo

Though to be precise, it's not that Reaper eliminates the frustration of pods because of shadow cloak, since that's what a phantom ranger can do and you can get one theoretically after mission 2. It's the high level mark all seen enemies ability that really sells it, since you don't need further scouting and can have the Reaper break concealment freely then.

In any case that's not really the biggest issue for me since I play with Dynamic Pod Activation so concealed scouting doesn't matter much when the pods I so carefully avoided are going to converge on me next turn anyway. If there is ever a LWOTC and we are back to the yellow alert system I really shouldn't get back into the bad habit of pod scouting.

Do you use mods to buff XCOM to make up for dynamic pod activation? When I played with all pods active, I founded it very hard without expanding the starting squad.

Nope. Maybe I should? Dropping down to commander is the simplest though unattractive option, but cheesing the game is even worse IMO. Expanding squad size like LW-style makes sense but might be too much of a buff.

I eventually started with larger pods and Dynamic Pod Activation and went back to commander.
Actually, I find it more interesting than Legend.
It is more about managing fights and less about making sure not to trigger pods.
Also, the decreased build time allow much earlier variety as you can get a psy or a spark reasonably early to matter without sacrifying everything else.
I will try it with beta strike next playthrough.

 

[sser]

Makes sense

I can't get to any of these facilities which I assume is going to make me lose the game.

 

[J1M]

You will be fine, that building will just up it one pip a month or whatever. There are plenty of other ways to reduce the progress, and the next facility might spawn in a region you control.

You only actually have one facility on the map. The others are allied HQs.

 

[ArchAngel]

Has anyone ever really lost to the doom counter in WOTC? Now that you have 3 factions roll worth of covert ops available to cut avatar progress, you don't need to chase every lead.

In my last successful campaign I only needed to do 2 alien facilities to help with stopping avatar progress. I then chose to do 3rd so I can unlock the last alien ruler and get his armor. Otherwise yea, you can control is easily with Covert Ops.

 

[Galdred]

Also, the decreased build time allow much earlier variety as you can get a psy or a spark reasonably early to matter without sacrifying everything else.

I think it all (costs, ~XP, research time, build time etc) scales upward so it isn't so much that you're getting techs earlier than if you had pursued other plans, but that you're just not playing as many missions to reach a particular level of campaign advancement.

Oh, you mean, the whole campaign is just shorter then? but doesn't that also mean you have more time to develop sparks and psy before the big aliens show up (sectopod, gatekeeper)?

Has anyone ever really lost to the doom counter in WOTC? Now that you have 3 factions roll worth of covert ops available to cut avatar progress, you don't need to chase every lead.

In my last successful campaign I only needed to do 2 alien facilities to help with stopping avatar progress. I then chose to do 3rd so I can unlock the last alien ruler and get his armor. Otherwise yea, you can control is easily with Covert Ops.

Indeed, it costs you some opportunities, but getting facility leads, or downright slowing down the avatar project through cover ops is easy to the points you should not overdo it unless you are in a very tight spot.
It might be more beneficial to get some more orders, soldiers, or breakthrough.

 

[ArchAngel]

Also, the decreased build time allow much earlier variety as you can get a psy or a spark reasonably early to matter without sacrifying everything else.

I think it all (costs, ~XP, research time, build time etc) scales upward so it isn't so much that you're getting techs earlier than if you had pursued other plans, but that you're just not playing as many missions to reach a particular level of campaign advancement.

Oh, you mean, the whole campaign is just shorter then? but doesn't that also mean you have more time to develop sparks and psy before the big aliens show up (sectopod, gatekeeper)?

Has anyone ever really lost to the doom counter in WOTC? Now that you have 3 factions roll worth of covert ops available to cut avatar progress, you don't need to chase every lead.

In my last successful campaign I only needed to do 2 alien facilities to help with stopping avatar progress. I then chose to do 3rd so I can unlock the last alien ruler and get his armor. Otherwise yea, you can control is easily with Covert Ops.

Indeed, it costs you some opportunities, but getting facility leads, or downright slowing down the avatar project through cover ops is easy to the points you should not overdo it unless you are in a very tight spot.
It might be more beneficial to get some more orders, soldiers, or breakthrough.

I rushed both Psi and SPARKs in two separate L/I runs and I had useful PSI soldiers by the time you meet Sectopods and Gatekeepers. And I didn't really rush PSI, made it as a 5th or 6th building.
As for SPARKS, I made Proving Grounds as my 3rd building and I am already using SPARKS after two supply drops (so super early, I had them before 1st Mutons arrived).

 

[Jasede]

I tried to lose to the doom counter once intentionally by just rejecting every mission-

But the shady government official just closed X-COM down before the timer reached 3h...

 

[SumDrunkGuy]

Chosen Assassin is some real bullshit man. I can put up with the shadowstep and the constant retreating into concealment, by why must my boys suffer a permanent stat reduction every time they get hit by the bitch? My A-team is gonna be a bunch of useless pussies by the time I take her down. Ain't much better than them simply getting killed off.

 

[Jasede]

That's actually a bug, consider using the Brutal mod. It was caused by a typo in the code. The will-reduction was supposed to be once a mission per soldier, not once a hit.

The game is a buggy mess and it's kind of alarming how they haven't fixed the (many) bugs. My favorite YouTuber, NL, ran into about seven of them already, most of them pretty severe - missions not finishing, game crashing, permanent Lost dark event, etc, etc.

 

[Alienman]

I'm back to Long War 2. So many rage inducing moments but I like how it feels less GI Joe in that one. I do hope they port it over to WOTC but I doubt it.

 

[luinthoron]

The will-reduction was supposed to be once a mission per soldier, not once a hit.

Not quite. But it's supposed to decrease your current will, not the maximum.

 

[Jasede]

Oooh, yeah, I got that wrong.

 

[Parabalus]

Can really recommend A Better Advent:WotC. Didn't run into any bugs yet and it adds some difficulty and a lot of variety.

I rushed both Psi and SPARKs in two separate L/I runs and I had useful PSI soldiers by the time you meet Sectopods and Gatekeepers. And I didn't really rush PSI, made it as a 5th or 6th building.
As for SPARKS, I made Proving Grounds as my 3rd building and I am already using SPARKS after two supply drops (so super early, I had them before 1st Mutons arrived).

Made PSI around that same time in my current run. Don't think any earlier is feasible since you need GTS + RR, Psionics is almost a month of research alone so you delay weapons a lot etc.

They really should have done something with PSI, to tie it into the new systems. Kinda stupid how you just put two rookies into vats and in half a year they max everything out.
By lategame they will prob be bad compared to regular soldiers since you can't really afford to give them bonuses because they lose out on PSI Lab time. Solace is indispensable though.

Do you like the SPARKs? Only played around a bit with one after I already won last run. They seem pretty good but incredibly expensive, you probably need at least two to justify upgrades for them.

 

[Jasede]

I dunno, game is hard enough on Legendary vanilla for me. How is Commander/ABA?

 

[ArchAngel]

Can really recommend A Better Advent:WotC. Didn't run into any bugs yet and it adds some difficulty and a lot of variety.

I rushed both Psi and SPARKs in two separate L/I runs and I had useful PSI soldiers by the time you meet Sectopods and Gatekeepers. And I didn't really rush PSI, made it as a 5th or 6th building.
As for SPARKS, I made Proving Grounds as my 3rd building and I am already using SPARKS after two supply drops (so super early, I had them before 1st Mutons arrived).

Made PSI around that same time in my current run. Don't think any earlier is feasible since you need GTS + RR, Psionics is almost a month of research alone so you delay weapons a lot etc.

They really should have done something with PSI, to tie it into the new systems. Kinda stupid how you just put two rookies into vats and in half a year they max everything out.
By lategame they will prob be bad compared to regular soldiers since you can't really afford to give them bonuses because they lose out on PSI Lab time. Solace is indispensable though.

Do you like the SPARKs? Only played around a bit with one after I already won last run. They seem pretty good but incredibly expensive, you probably need at least two to justify upgrades for them.

PSI are still most powerful soldiers in the game. You can Stasis as one action and then use another power. You can give them all War Armor so they can support with Blaster Bombs as well.
Their Psi powers go through cover and armor, have huge range, you don't even need line of sight for two of their AoE powers (spot enemies with Reaper and murder them with 5 PSI troopers :D). They can Inspire other troops. or Dominate anything once per mission. And all their powers are cooldown based (except Dominate that is not lost until you successfully Dominate someone). With bonds other troops can give them more action so they can be even more awesome :D

New SPARKs are awesome. They got better base Aim and life and now you can put weapon mods in their weapon. I always loved them as they can jump on any surface, start with a rocket, can take punches and got shred and 3 attacks if you want.
And since you cannot take cover with them, you always find a best offensive position with them (be it high ground or flank). And the Julian voice for them is funny.

 

[Parabalus]

I dunno, game is hard enough on Legendary vanilla for me. How is Commander/ABA?

I played through Legendary and am now on Legendary+ABA. I think the difficulty is the same as my first run, i.e. the challenge added through ABA counteracts the metagaming you know from previous run, in terms of what go for. The aliens are really fun too.

PSI are still most powerful soldiers in the game. You can Stasis as one action and then use another power. You can give them all War Armor so they can support with Blaster Bombs as well.
Their Psi powers go through cover and armor, have huge range, you don't even need line of sight for two of their AoE powers (spot enemies with Reaper and murder them with 5 PSI troopers :D). They can Inspire other troops. or Dominate anything once per mission. And all their powers are cooldown based (except Dominate that is not lost until you successfully Dominate someone). With bonds other troops can give them more action so they can be even more awesome :D

New SPARKs are awesome. They got better base Aim and life and now you can put weapon mods in their weapon. I always loved them as they can jump on any surface, start with a rocket, can take punches and got shred and 3 attacks if you want.
And since you cannot take cover with them, you always find a best offensive position with them (be it high ground or flank). And the Julian voice for them is funny.

I know that PSI is really good, but I'm not really sure that it's as clear cut as the base game.

With bondmates being a thing, every soldier has something to use the 1st action on, so stasis loses that uniqueness. PSI soldiers miss out on the broken TC combinations - I have a Grenadier with Serial, Deadeye, Rapid Fire and Run and Gun with both good base grenadier perks when applicable, and I'm sure there's much better to RNG out.

I used 5 PSI + Specialist when I played the base game, and now in WoTC I don't think I will ever do the same, which is great.

Didn't play with "old" SPARKs, so I didn't know those features were added in WotC. Gonna def make another one.

Got a "Vulture" bonus from a card and it seems one of the best ones, basically doubles all loot you get. Swimming in cores and upgrades to sell.

 

[ArchAngel]

Yes and same bondmate can also give that action to Psi soldier. Than that one can Stasis+Insanity (take out two enemies out of the fight) and then do a damage attack with 3rd action. Still better than what others can do.

 

[Parabalus]

Yes and same bondmate can also give that action to Psi soldier. Than that one can Stasis+Insanity (take out two enemies out of the fight) and then do a damage attack with 3rd action. Still better than what others can do.

You get nothing by bouncing actions between PSI troops. Insanity is turn ending.

I'm not saying that they are weak, but they are definitely weaker relative to other soldier classes than pre-WotC, probably weaker than them with good skill rolls. You're def. underestimating how good training center is.

 

[ArchAngel]

Yes and same bondmate can also give that action to Psi soldier. Than that one can Stasis+Insanity (take out two enemies out of the fight) and then do a damage attack with 3rd action. Still better than what others can do.

You get nothing by bouncing actions between PSI troops. Insanity is turn ending.

I'm not saying that they are weak, but they are definitely weaker relative to other soldier classes than pre-WotC, probably weaker than them with good skill rolls. You're def. underestimating how good training center is.

Not sure what you are talking about. You do Stasis+Insanity. Then give action with bond mate and then do another Psi power.

 

[Galdred]

Though to be precise, it's not that Reaper eliminates the frustration of pods because of shadow cloak, since that's what a phantom ranger can do and you can get one theoretically after mission 2. It's the high level mark all seen enemies ability that really sells it, since you don't need further scouting and can have the Reaper break concealment freely then.

In any case that's not really the biggest issue for me since I play with Dynamic Pod Activation so concealed scouting doesn't matter much when the pods I so carefully avoided are going to converge on me next turn anyway. If there is ever a LWOTC and we are back to the yellow alert system I really shouldn't get back into the bad habit of pod scouting.

Do you use mods to buff XCOM to make up for dynamic pod activation? When I played with all pods active, I founded it very hard without expanding the starting squad.

Nope. Maybe I should? Dropping down to commander is the simplest though unattractive option, but cheesing the game is even worse IMO. Expanding squad size like LW-style makes sense but might be too much of a buff.

I have gone with the following:
CI: larger pod size (+25%), Dynamic pod activation. I suffered 2 TPKs shortly (the first supply run when you need to makr crates, and the mission where you need to tag the civilian, then defend 3 turns before EVAC).
LI: I am now playing with +2 Squad size, Dynamic Pod Activation, +25% pod size. I find it a bit easier than the previous CI run (but maybe I was reckless. I could not resist running to some of those juicy crates, which started an unfortunate chain of events.). I also really prefer playing larger squads. I will probably mod the cost of rookies to make it feel closer to old X-COM (I really liked the WW1 feel where you sent lots of rookies scouts to the meat grinder).

Thanks for the suggestion, DPA makes the game so much better I could not go back to vanilla. But it also allows you to cheese non timed mission by setting a trap:
you kill the first pod from a very favorable position (elevation + full cover) making as much noise as possible (some grenads will just do). Other pod comes to investigate, and get muredered the same way, then 3rd pod shows up.
I had the same problem with All pods active: they don't seem to believe in teamwork. This makes alpha strike even more important than in vanilla, because you are certain to end out against several pods if you don't dispatch the first one quickly.