Skirmish mode, Mutons with max tech, Superhuman, Base Defense with mostly starting gear only.
I sort of won with my last guy.
I played a base defense on Superhuman with fully geared up Mutons while I gave myself mostly starting gears.
I was playing with 2 mods
-Distance aim mod that makes auto shot stink.
-Alien bleed damage from lethal wounds
-aliens won't expose themselves mod
I had 3 exceptions to starting gear only.
-Everyone had a medkit
-My Commander had a laser pistol (she only got off 1 shot before dying)
-My Commander also had a mind probe (My original plan was I wanted to monitor how much damage
I was doing. I wasn't planning on having my commander do any fighting.)
Cheating: I was planning on scum saving with the mind probe only, but when I had 2 guys left, I did maybe 5 scum saves. This is why I say "I sort of won."
I armed most of my guys with rifles (1 extra clip) and grenades (1 prox, 1 regular, 1 high ex). Few who were a bit stronger got extra grenades or clips.
5 of my guys had a strength of 39 or higher. I equipped 2 mini cannons (2 HE clips, 1 AP), a 3rd with a heavy cannon , and my 2 strongest guys carried rocket launchers.
I did my best to mine the entrances to the hangars and access lift. Had a lot of success with the lower right one, a bite of luck with the top, and none with the access lift and lower left hangar.
By turn 2, my army of 30 men started dying. The first one being the guy I sent to mine the lower left hangar.
2 of my guys with heavy weapons got killed right away. They didn't even make a reaction shot. I don't know how the 3rd die (probably blaster fire). One of the rocket guys managed to get a single rocket off, killing 3 or so mutons, and then died. A guy with an auto cannon managed to get a few burst off before being killed. He managed to ko an enemy. I had him switch ammo to ap because my other men were too close to the muton.
By far, my most successful defense was the lower right hangar. Two of the alcoves were behind the enemy. One girl chucked a grenade a group of 4 mutons. Killed 1, but she was surely dead because she could move and two mutons were facing her. The farther back muton opened fire, and snap shoted the other muton to death.
I managed to get off a few mind probes. I noticed one Muton had 88 health and 8 pionts of fatal damage. I had already done some painful math. Muton soldiers have 20 armor, 125 health, and a damage reduction of 1=0.6; so my rifles only had a 35% of doing any damage per a hit, with a range of 1-16 pionts, and average of 8.5. I could unload a whole clip and likely only do 61 pionts. And that was for a soldier, not an engineer with 28 armor. It was then that I formulated by end game plan; chip away and when I lost the battle for floor 1, retreat to floor two, and hope I can eke out enough kills. I was really figuring my commander would be doing that.
By about turn 4, blaster bombs started going off. 2 of them. One killed not only 2 soldiers on floor 1, but 3 on floor 2. It also exposed my commandeer who was hiding up thier. She took her one shot, missed and fled down stairs to die a turn later.
By turn 6, 4 blaster bombs had gone off. 24 of my men are dead. Maybe 10 aliens by my hand, don't remember how many also got hit with blaster fire. All but one guy panic. He killed few mutons and then got killed. It was enough to restore most of my men. I had 3 in the middle area of the bottom row and another 2 by the lower right hanger in the upper alcove (stairs one.) I managed to kill a few more aliens.
Turn 8, and another blaster bombs kills my 3 guys. I had pretty much given hope right then. My guy panicked. I had the girl run up the stairs. The aliens launch another blaster bomb killing zero humans and maybe 2 aliens. It also exposed my girl on the 2nd floor. She's behind good cover. She starts reaction shooting aliens left and right. Killing at least one. My guy stops panicking. I have start throwing prox grenades and taking aimed shots. I kill a few aliens this way. I may have did one or 2 scum saves while this happen. I realize the aliens are reluctant to rush us because they would have to expose themselves.
Eventually alien terrorist come and managed to kill my girl. And next turn my guy. So a few scum saves later, I run my guy upstairs and throw a thing of High ex, kill at least 2 alien terrorist. I fight some more aliens when a blaster bomb blowes me up. Scum save and head up stairs. Throw a grenade. Keep fighting from upstairs cover. Eventually, I jump down from cover and run into an alcove which blows up with me to a blaster bomb. Scum save and I run to a different alcove. This time my guy survives. I save. Find an alien engineer has run to almost the same spot my commander had died. Next turn, he bleeds to death. I win, sort of.
