Iron Man Tips for Mid+ game

[SickBoySid]

So I've played a few runs years ago and I'm doing pretty well, I'm at the stage of takeing down cult HQs

I've been doing night runs with deploy markers (the markers are actually very strong at night for seeing camo units and a early warning / counter black lotus ) and I've lost 4 guys a crazy low amount for my usual,

Managed this by having my 70-80 HP units go first and avoiding any throwables with night time

But I know soon ill get the invasion with gauss rifles one turn killing my elite guys ( and aliens having far superior night vision) and I'm trying not to save scum but I don't Wana enter a slow burn by slowly losing my elite units

I think later I'm going to farm "the farm" for the MiB tanks because those will be great damage soakers

But anyone have any good tips and strategies on just not loosing so many units on turn one terror missions, Ik to smoke out and everything but I really don't Wana lose so many quality units before I can get better armors

[Stone Lake]

You can win the game without a single terror mission - you can skip them as long as you can handle the score drain (and you can). Yep, just arrive and abort tough missions until you're ready.

Also, pay attention to radar coverage and airgame - terror ships ain't too hard to take down.

Big turrets (and sectopods), like those in terror missions, can one shot overkill (leaving no corpse to retrieve and repair) any armor, including tanks and sectopods. To deal with them, use cover, smoke, throwable / arc weapons (sharpnel charges, mortars), PSI puppets / expendable targets / meatshields.

Then play as it goes. In many places, game got easier compared to years ago. Generally, when played "properly", mid-to-late game is harder to lose troops than early game. Yet, you can lose (lots of) troops and still win, it's fine. Shield elites with meatshields / dogs - it's entirely possible to beat the game at ironman / superhuman without ever losing these two or three soldiers that you really care about.

[Amoebka]

Losing soldiers doesn't matter in the slightest in the invasion phase of the game. You can hire a fresh rookie, turn him into a spartan, give him 5 different boosts, and have a super-soldier perfectly capable of going on any mission the game has. The latest version even gives you 4 veterans per month if you hit 5000 score, which is trivial with all the garbage hybrid missions and landed mediums.

After you hit promo III the difficulty drops down the gutter and never recovers. Don't be afraid of the late game.

[Solarius Scorch]

There are also veteran recruits now.

[SickBoySid]

Losing soldiers doesn't matter in the slightest in the invasion phase of the game. You can hire a fresh rookie, turn him into a spartan, give him 5 different boosts, and have a super-soldier perfectly capable of going on any mission the game has. The latest version even gives you 4 veterans per month if you hit 5000 score, which is trivial with all the garbage hybrid missions and landed mediums.

After you hit promo III the difficulty drops down the gutter and never recovers. Don't be afraid of the late game.

I don't Wana lose them because I name them after my friends a d I don't Wana lose the lore, but I'd theirs no way on not eating deaths early invasion without save scumming I guess I gonna be like kingGaylord jr or mk2

[Amoebka]

Early invasion you can actually avoid deaths quite easily. Personal armor protects veteran soldiers from oneshots until aliens start fielding heavy/precision/sniper plasmas en masse. Tanks are basically invincible during these early missions as well. Dogs are easier to use for breaching because the initial map sweep is much simpler. Sectoids can't see through smoke as well.

It's the late invasion where deaths become a given. Large ships, terror sites, MiB bases, and all story missions leading to cydonia feature heavy sectopod/turret/blaster spam, so anyone can die in one hit regardless of armor. You can lame with psionics, of course, but honestly it might be more fun to just let it go.

[SickBoySid]

Early invasion you can actually avoid deaths quite easily. Personal armor protects veteran soldiers from oneshots until aliens start fielding heavy/precision/sniper plasmas en masse. Tanks are basically invincible during these early missions as well. Dogs are easier to use for breaching because the initial map sweep is much simpler. Sectoids can't see through smoke as well.

It's the late invasion where deaths become a given. Large ships, terror sites, MiB bases, and all story missions leading to cydonia feature heavy sectopod/turret/blaster spam, so anyone can die in one hit regardless of armor. You can lame with psionics, of course, but honestly it might be more fun to just let it go.

I actually found personal armor to be pretty bad last run I did a year ago I got gauss weapons on early on a lot of the aliens tho I'm not really seeing any right now so idk if I was unlucky or they had different loadouts back then

[Amoebka]

Gauss is wielded only by MiBs in the current version.