Defeating camo?

[jtgibson]

For my first playthrough I'm deliberately avoiding learning anything about the game externally, and discovered that I've done some really sub-optimal things along the way, for instance only unlocking the Workshop by mid-June in my second year (having underestimated the importance of the workshop, since it is apparently and unusually responsible for being able to contact suppliers and order any ammunition at all) -- but I'm still toughing through with rifles against Osirons with gausses and I'm not above doing a little bit of scumming here or there to keep things winnable.

However, one situation I've bumped into is camouflage -- although I probably shouldn't bother with the mission and I've got saves from shortly before the encounter to fall back on if I decide to let it go, I've got a savefile from the start of a battlescape where I'm up against a landed medium smuggler vessel.  The robed smuggler chief always kills one of my personnel in the first enemy turn, without fail: there's a low-level smuggler grunt just outside the Pachyderm who needs to be killed or stunned on the first player turn, sapping up the entire TUs of a single unit to complete the deed -- and so on the enemy turn, by the time the high-level smuggler enters sight range, he is no greater than 3 tiles away from the hapless individual and no matter how I position my gals defensively, they aren't quick enough on reactions to kill him before he rather literally carves up the poor gal (and I've got ridiculously highly trained gals, too).

I've already learned that this is a camo effect, but I'm curious: is there any way to improve sight radius of my gals versus camo?  Does ThV work against camo?

I'm starting to ponder just scumming empty terrain with suppressive fire from my Spitfire until something happens... =)

[ivandogovich]

Well the good news is that you've gotten extremely lucky.  The "robed smuggler chief" is actually an Extremely Rare enemy that I've never encountered in 2 campaigns of Piratez.  And yeah, you are facing the challenge of camoflaged enemies, this one having very extreme camo at three tiles. 

There are a few armors that boost your range vs camo, (ie Sniper & Assassin suits).  Otherwise application of AoE damage in the areas where you suspect the foe to be lurking, may pay off.  Fire, High Explosive, etc can be your friend here.

Then again, sometimes there are missions that may not be doable with your current tech level, and discretion being the better part of valor, sometimes your best tactic is a tactical retreat.

[sinisteragent]

I have no suggestions (discounting covering the whole area with fire or gas), but glad to hear from someone playing it blind, as all great games should be played.

[Starving Poet]

The Armor modifier you want to look for is 'spot'.  ThV only increases sightrange in smoke, but spot is the direct counterpart to camo.  There's also sense - but early on this range isn't going to be much help.

[EricPhail]

I thought smugglers used Invisibility rather than Camoflage, and thus spot didn't do anything against them?

[ohartenstein23]

Camouflage and invisibility use the exact same mechanic (same tag in ruleset, camo is negative numbers, invis is positive numbers), and spot works the same way against both of them.