Tactics to survive early games

[54x]

Motion Scanners and Medikits are more profitable than laser weapons (until you get the cannon).
https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Manufacturing_Profitability

Granted, but you may want to research lasers early to at least get laser pistols online so that you can do some reasonable damage to early aliens.

[kharille]

In my first playthrough on openxcom I'm still relying on heavy rockets since my guys can't shoot anything smaller than a house....  Still takes a few shots, and its horrible when they go berserk...

[CarryAll]

In my first playthrough on openxcom I'm still relying on heavy rockets since my guys can't shoot anything smaller than a house....  Still takes a few shots, and its horrible when they go berserk...

There is a better weapon - standard grenades. They have unbelivable accuracy with them (much better than aim shot on knees). Often with good range.

[kharille]

True, true, good enough for floaters and sectoids... maybe I should quit making it hard for myself, but better than autocannon/heavy cannon...

[wsmithjr]

In my first playthrough on openxcom I'm still relying on heavy rockets since my guys can't shoot anything smaller than a house....  Still takes a few shots, and its horrible when they go berserk...

Do you have the "ranged accuracy" option enabled?  That makes a huge difference trying to hit things, especially with auto fire.  That said, I'm not convinced it doesn't affect the aliens a lot more than it effects the player (in terms of the AI not being able to deal with it well).  I could be wrong as the AI doesn't use squad sight but the vast majority of the damage my soldiers take is during my turns from reaction fire, not from direct alien fire during their turn.

But, back to your comment, that's why I like to use HE auto cannons with rookies with not so good aim.  Problem is, most can't effectively carry them due to the weight.

[kharille]

Yeah, I do have this new option turned on and I'm taking lots of aimed shots.  About time I did so, otherwise it was autofire every time which is unrealistic.  Now its only when I manage to sneak up on an alien. 

I don't know but it seems like weight is more of a problem now.  I recall the old times when everyone had 4 rockets.  Now they just get one and they discard the launcher right afterwards.

My laser rifle rookies can't hit anything unless its in their face.  Once I get my psi troopers I'm going to start training up the elite mob.  They'll have power armour, and I'll actually start doing some reloading if they get killed....  Until then, its comical the rate my rookies are dying.

Just got my avenger....  so much fun.  Maybe I should start an openxcom humour thread...

[pmprog]

I started again, and I've removed the cannons from my craft and have both missile systems loaded on my interceptors; I've researched laser pistols, motion scanners and medikits, and seem to be doing pretty well at the minute.

I might try and restart my LP from this game, you'll miss some of the real "early" bits, but it seems to be a nice setup.

Well, hoping I get some time to LP 

[Align]

I don't know but it seems like weight is more of a problem now.  I recall the old times when everyone had 4 rockets.  Now they just get one and they discard the launcher right afterwards.

I wondered about that too, although I rather liked how it meant I had to put rockets into the backpacks of other guys and have them throw it to the rocketeer when needed.
Turns out that in vanilla, due to a helpful bug, clips or shells automatically loaded into carried weapons by the game engine for the pre-battle Equipment Setup screen are not counted for weight. A bug which OpenXCOM fixed, ofc.
Though, a soldier equipped with nothing but overalls or armor still has an encumbrance of 8 in the equip screen, which the ufopaedia.com page doesn't mention vanilla having...

[kharille]

Ah, if only guns had higher rates of fire.  It would give me a good reason to carry more clips.  As it is, you couldn't get the action points to discharge that much ammunition.

The old laser squad had laser weapons with high rates of fire.  The Heavy laser and the ...  if I recall correctly the laser....

[Chiko]

-Take at least 1 HWP into Terror Missions. Their health and armor makes them good recon units and they usually are the first ones at the Skyranger's exit.

-Never keep squad members too close to each other. Aliens rarely make mistakes when using grenades.

-Demolition Agents/HWPs. Aliens like to pop out, fire and go back to cover so it would easier to just blow up their cover or buildings where you suspect it might contain aliens.

-Avoid Night Missions at all costs. You probably know how bad can be to fight them in night time, so Terror Missions at night only when no choice.

-Funding is nice but is never enough. Everyone I know that plays this game turns X-Com into a Manufacturer Organization because the profits are too great. Even selling corpses can give you a nice bonus.

[alienfood]

I didn't see it mentioned but start an Alien Containment and possibly a large radar immediately. The containment has a long lead time and you can't start the alien origins storyline without it. For me, the long pull on the tent is having psy-ready soldiers for mid-game, and again this can't happen without the alien research.

I also start a second base immediately, because the lead times are so long. The second base will get a hangar and store room, then after 10 days the store room is complete and I can hang on the rest of the base such as barracks and large radar. The second base will become your manufacturing base for craft, first base will be the research base.

I should add that I rarely play on the highest difficulties, maybe there is some alien retaliation or something that makes the second base strategy riskier.

[kharille]

Never had an early base defence problem but I've heard people having that in the first month.  More bases mean more money as you have a higher probability of finding more alien activity.

The visible radar is great. 

[djemon_lda]

I'm playing on genius (probably seem to be a newbie among all the guys playing superhuman), and the third UFO that came to earth was a sectoid battleship, that attacked my base I have even captured a commander, but he died because my alien containment was few days short to finish building...
I always was on low cash, because I think that banked money is wasted money. I spent as much, as I could if it didn't get me into loans.
what I've done is:
a) get some good soldiers -> I prefer reactions over fire accuracy, and that made me profit really well. I just hired some soldiers, fired everyone below 45 reactions, and hire some new guys. I quickly got some nice guys for the start with reactions above 50 each, and not bad shooting skill. I took 8 of my best soldiers to the skyranger, counting their value as 3*reactions + fire accuracy
b) took rifles for each of my guys except the person with the rocked launcher
c) got laser rifles equipped - this is almost all I actually needed so far throughout the whole game
d) the better armor you have, the easier it gets
e) I always used the least powerful weapons that do the job - you need to get more hits to kill the aliens, and have more chances for reaction fire, skills go up really fast. an exception is when my base is attacked, or when I attack an alien base.
f) I've made 2 additional bases quite quick, but I doubt any of them in the first month
g) at night you need tons of flares ( I had 3 per soldier )
h) grenades are a blessing. smoke grenades, high explosive and proximity grenades are really helpful, but I always used them as a last resort (except for smoke grenades, which are helpful if you don't want to get killed while getting out of the craft. when your reactions are nice ( for genius this is like 85 and more ) you don't need the smoke's anymore.
the rest I've done probably as everyone else. in my game it's july, and I have had a score like 13k.

[sender]

My early game:

- Select my two best Accuracy recruits. They are my Snipers. What is the sniper weapon of X-Com? The Rocket Launcher, of course. A crouched recruit with high accuracy will easily hit around 90% hit rate with these, and quickly reach 100% hit rate. Even missing, you're probably going to take out anything early on, and you can easily hit enemies around corners or place a rocket through a window, cleaning out any area you don't want to deal with. These soldiers should never be near the frontlines and should never even have an alien see them. Put them on a corner of the map with a good vantage, lay waste to everything, have a big stack of rockets in the skyranger with someone throwing more ammo over constantly.

- Select all of my recruits with good Reactions (50+). These are my capture crew/grenadiers. They take pistols and off-hand grenades or stun rods. They are kept in reserve when out in the open, being used for throwing their grenades over the backs of my front line and for gunning down aliens when I don't want to use explosives (i.e., when another alien has been dropped and I don't want to destroy the loot). Obviously, they are used for capturing aliens as well.

- Everyone else gets a heavy cannon with HE ammo. For the most part they are dispensable. The HE Heavy Cannon is a superb general-use weapon even throughout the mid game. These are on the front line and are the typical cannon fodder. Have some extra AP ammo to be given out if the soldier can carry it, for usage whenever explosives aren't a good idea.

- Bring a tank. A rocket tank. This is your primary scout. It has a ton of TUs, and its front armor is pretty god damned tough against Plasma Pistols and even Rifles to a lesser extend. Ideally this should be the first and last thing any alien should see before you call in the close air support sniper team. Once you've taken a good position outside the skyranger it's perfectly reasonable to spend turns 5-15 just moving around the map with your tank to scout while your soldiers provide cover. Also this thing can fire 2 rockets in a single round. Pretty awesome when push comes to shove (say, you land and multiple aliens are facing your skyranger entrance). When breaching UFOs to capture aliens, have this thing out in front to draw fire from aliens exiting while your troops hang to the sides, and make sure to exhaust its TUs so it doesn't reaction fire at your squad or aliens you are trying to capture,

For research my priorities are Medi Kits, Armor, Motion Scanners (manufacture and sell), plasma cannons and the hyper wave decoder (once you've got the hyper wave decoder and plasma cannons you've basically won the game). Research the mind probe if you find one and you don't have the alien navigator captured yet. I ignore laser weapons early on since frankly they just aren't needed, especially in openxcom where their infinite ammo is a lot less desirable thanks to the removal of the 80 item limit in the skyranger. I also skip early plasma weapons, going straight to Heavy Plasma. Stun launchers are cool, research them and capturing the navigator or psionic aliens are a piece of cake.

At first I invest just about everything I can into research. Build a lab, storage, living quarters, Large radar and Containment facility, then build another living quarters when possible. Ideally you'll be able to have a total research team of 80+ scientists early in February, if not the full 100. From there I invest in manufacturing. Ideally around March I'll have plasma cannons and Hyperwave Decoders, at which point I go back and get Laser Weapons, churn out the laser cannons to pay for bases everywhere on the map and around mid-April the entire globe is under perfect UFO defense. Everything less than a battleship has no chance and even battleships can usually be killed with 4 plasma cannon-equipped interceptors without taking losses (and usually you don't even need to engage battleships, merely shooting down their earlier UFOs will make them fail their missions). At that point the world is your oyster.

[Hobbit Lord]

The HWP is definitely the biggest difference you can make in the early game

$400k is a great investment

Apart from scouting (let your soldiers snipe for the kills) you can also hide behind them, or move it between enemies and your troops and take 6+ shots. Finally if you really need to you have an extra heavy weapon you can use.