Unique Tactics

[SickBoySid]

Something that makes this my favorite mod and in general favorite x-com is the freedom and diversity of strategy you can use to accomplish your goals.

And I Wana hear people's entertaining meme strategy's for the game

Some of mine are
1. Pepper spray, it's good in general but knock out nades take awhile to make or I won't have them yet, so sneaking behind then pepper spraying sectiods and Floaters in the back of the head is just very humorous to me. It's very very effective on cultists

2. Dogs and grenades, make them scout with primed nades, with good movement and reactions you can have them rush down dangerous targets and knockout grenades like an RC car strapped with C4, Smokes also work, or high exe if you feeling cruel and wasteful lol

3. Markers and zombies at night runs. For memes ill throw a bunch of like 2-3 turn tnt or grenades at a marker at night , turn on the light on the marker and if the maps open enough all the zombies will rush down the marker then if you time it right, boom lol

[Rag]

My favourite tactic is using a tank to literally tank, in the base game they usually aren't expected to survive more than a few hits so you need to treat them carefully, but against most cults recklessly parking a laser tank in the middle of open terrain and letting the enemies shoot it hundreds of times while barely denting the paintwork never gets old, The Colecanth also bounces Sonic weapons off it making the supposedly harder things easier with the main threats being the early Gillmen and melee Deep Ones

Dogs barking at 1 tile wide chokeholds is sometimes even more effective than reaction killing, while you dont get to shoot every enemy that comes through having them all stuck behind their friend and unable to move up is useful in its own way

My favourite cheese is bringing flying suits to the late Zombie missions, making 90% of the enemies harmless and requiring the only dangerous ones to land direct hits rather than getting splash damage, its fitting payback for all the pain the earlier zombie missions can be

[betatester]

- Dogs having grenadier commendation is one of my joy in game.
- Bringing landmines and gas mines and putting them in front of doors.
- In the Black Lotus HQ mission with the Osprey you got 2 groups of eight soldiers to guard the 2 elevators. 2 Soldiers for each sides Open the elevator door without moving,  kill what you see, bring loot in, throw mines, click next turn, the door close, you hear some detonations, repeat until you lack mines , for 1 group go back to equipment pile from time to time.
- For the zombie in the hospital I like to solve it turn 1 with a 2 Flame Gloves and 2 hits (One for the wall and one for the zombie) and everybody gain the Cavalier Commendation.
- Digging new ways in subterranean  to solve map problems
- make the last enemy panic and it's time for reaction training for the whole team
- Crazy Hassan reinforced weapon boxes for supplying machine guns before the licence
- Lots of land survey debriefings
- Stunning civilians for loot (chainsaw, pickaxes, boomer boxes, pepper spays)
- being voluntary hit for the battle scar and patient commendation and the extra bravery experience for the medic (useful for qualification for bio Enhancement)
- having a low psi unarmed unit to act as a psi attack decoy for enemies
- having weapons that on average can't harm your team as a safety measure
- Fire cover, Dogs barking to stop advancing unit, possibly in the fire and reaction fire

[SickBoySid]

- Crazy Hassan reinforced weapon boxes for supplying machine guns before the licence
- having a low psi unarmed unit to act as a psi attack decoy for enemies
- Fire cover, Dogs barking to stop advancing unit, possibly in the fire and reaction fire

Never thought about having a lil low psi goober as bait that's not a bad idea, and rushing crazy Hassan for lmgs is nice too,

[Amoebka]

Maybe not all that unique, but I like pre-priming grenades for 2 before the battles. Lets you throw them out on your turn 2 without spending extra TU priming, and has no risk of backfiring if someone shoots into your transport turn 1.

On certain missions I would also prime grenades for 1 and throw them at doors. During cult mansions and such you will almost always have enemies pour out of the main doors and end turn there.

[Rag]

and rushing crazy Hassan for lmgs is nice too,

If not wanting to use savescum mode to change whats in the boxes you open you can always buy some "cheap" ramshackle weapon boxes from him and use them to cycle whats in the next important box you open, keeping ammo boxes around for it is much cheaper though, it can help if you need an alien multitool or alloy welder or more alenium shards from Osiron boxes but the game is refusing to give you any. Similarly for changing the bonus topics you learn from research if not wanting to use savescum mode you can add +1 extra current research to change the bonus topic, both take way more effort and time than just using savescum mode but is a good way to do it "legitimately"

Depending on the craft camping near or around it can be useful, the Van is the earliest useful cover vehicle since being on the other side counts as tall cover so the enemy has to come around to see you, effectively bringing your own wall to the mission, the Skyraider has its sidedoors to open and shoot from without leaving the craft, the Kitsune has kneeling at the sides of the ramps to shoot anything that tries getting close enough to see you as well as the interior door which if you bring only a few agents to the mission can be a good reaction fire hiding spot, and Lightning has the lifts that can give you the same free sightlines as parking a car in the middle of the map but without the huge downsides of being a sitting duck

[betatester]

Just used this one, stunning a civilian with KO grenade because he's surrounded by enemies that you couldn't kill on this round because monsters tend to ignore sleeping civilians

[Rag]

Just used this one, stunning a civilian with KO grenade because he's surrounded by enemies that you couldn't kill on this round because monsters tend to ignore sleeping civilians

After having civilians go to my Skyranger item pile and pick up the rocket launcher and fire it towards my agents, I have been conditioned to always knock out every civilian if I can waste the turn to do so otherwise I need to leave someone back at the start to guard the items. I'm guessing they are coded to pick up the most damaging weapon as they ALWAYS go for the Rocket Launcher if I have one on the craft, they are the most dangerous part of terror missions as you only need one to sneak behind you to ruin your day

Not sure if it counts as a tactic or just unorthodox weapons for their type, but there are some weapons that work surprisingly well in niches their type isn't designed for. At the start of the game automatic rifles like the AK-47 make for good sniper rifles maybe even better than the hunting rifle, the BlackOps Auto-Sniper Rifle works surprisngly well as a close range weapon for caves etc. as the lower accuracy at that range is still higher than most weapons on good agents. And recently I learned the Sonic Shotgun makes for a surprisingly efficient mid to long range rifle even in buckshot mode

Melee vs aliens is also a ridiculously effective tactic especially in the very early game, a landed UFO before Promotion 1-2 would be practically impossible due to limited weapons if it wasn't for the basic combat knife being able to 1-2 shot Sectoids and if they do get a reaction fire off / walk next to you in their turn you have a reasonable chance of CQCing them.

[betatester]

Dogs are Sectoids Bane
You can
- Bark at them to make lose TU
- Bite them to kill (because as said above cutting is effective)
- If you're low on Dog's TU just position the dog next the Sectoid before another unit shoot at it, it will increase the miss chance of the reaction fire a lot because the sectoid is in melee with the dog

Once I intercepted very early a middle scout with my helicopter by pure luck (was also lucky with an Alien embryo via land survey or osiron crate can't remember not so much luck because my Alien detention was still missing 8 days of construction). All my weapons were useless but my dog saved the day with some knives and electric weapons that needed close range.

[betatester]

Once I have made a team of Flying drones for zombie and animal mission
If you have no civilian to save great for reaction fire and fire training
Let the fly at level 3 and they will eventually kill every target

[Solarius Scorch]

This is a fun thread.

After having civilians go to my Skyranger item pile and pick up the rocket launcher and fire it towards my agents, I have been conditioned to always knock out every civilian if I can waste the turn to do so otherwise I need to leave someone back at the start to guard the items. I'm guessing they are coded to pick up the most damaging weapon as they ALWAYS go for the Rocket Launcher (...)

Technically it's not the highest damage, the AI doesn't do any damage calculation for this. Instead they use the "attraction" attribute on items, and the Rocket Launcher, like many heavy weapons, happens to have this set very high (24).

[Rag]

Which Sectopods do people choose if any? I have reached the point of making some but am unsure which to pick. I think I'd want to go with laser due to quicker attacks over Plasma and not needing ammo like the Gauss / Mass Driver / Minigun, even though putting a minigun on a Sectopod is a fun way to insult the aliens

This is a fun thread.

Technically it's not the highest damage, the AI doesn't do any damage calculation for this. Instead they use the "attraction" attribute on items, and the Rocket Launcher, like many heavy weapons, happens to have this set very high (24).

Ah thanks for clearing that up, I knew they somehow had to be coded for it due to how often it happened but didn't know there was an attraction attribute

[Stone Lake]

Which Sectopods do people choose if any?

Laser sectopods (to battle alien sectopods' vulnerability). Also, minigun tanks are probably the best early, not laser ones.

[Rag]

Spartan turn units really ended up changing how I played, probably for the worst, as now I end up clearing missions in a couple of turns being able to clear half the map with ease rather than needing to carefully move up a little at a time, its less engaging at this point but it does make for some funny moments when thinking of turns in real time.

Spoiler:

I just did the UAC final mission in 3 turns, 1 turn per stage due to being able to reach the lift and code book in the first turn, meaning my agents effectively landed outside their base then flew away again while setting it to explode in less than a minute, no idea how their security is going to explain that

Laser sectopods (to battle alien sectopods' vulnerability). Also, minigun tanks are probably the best early, not laser ones.

Miniguns are a weapon I never really tried due to their weight and prefering single shots, it is something I should try use next time as they are fun

[SickBoySid]

Which Sectopods do people choose if any? I have reached the point of making some but am unsure which to pick. I think I'd want to go with laser due to quicker attacks over Plasma and not needing ammo like the Gauss / Mass Driver / Minigun, even though putting a minigun on a Sectopod is a fun way to insult the aliens
Ah thanks for clearing that up, I knew they somehow had to be coded for it due to how often it happened but didn't know there was an attraction attribute

So I'm not claiming it's the prime pick but I love the sectopod minigun, it can fire 72 35 damage kinetic shots
It's what I use because it very much humors me

Also weirdly I kind of prefer the Lazer tank over the hover tank because a statted out AI can get 3 100% hit chance snap shots (base aim is higher) and it sucks letting that go