I need some advice on strategy for early, mid, and late game.

[Moon_Dew]

What research should I focus on at first?  Which vehicles should I use as soon as they're available?  Which factions and mission types should I focus on first?  When should I start building new bases?

Also, how do I start hunting down ships in the early game (before I have access to the mercenaries' fighters)?

[niculinux]

Dear Moon_Dew see here 

[Moon_Dew]

I knew about that, but I was hoping to get answers to specific questions (just a general idea of what to do, doesn't have to be highly detailed) without have to dig through a wall of text, or IDing what's associated with the latest version and what may be outdated.

Call me lazy, if you wish, it just seems like a little too much effort on my part.

[Surrealistik]

Been a long time since I've played the very early game.

Don't sell your charger laser and imposing bulk (whatever it is). The former will allow you to down civilian craft with a jetbike early, and the latter will allow you to make pretty much the best starting transport in the game.

Try to fill your laboratory and extractor to capacity with staff ASAP.

Research X-Grog and Black Powder bombs ASAP; from there get smoke and HE grenades ASAP. These are important force multipliers which will allow you to defeat enemies with minimal/no losses (you throw explosives at the enemy over obstacles and from smoke). X-Grog allows you to generate loadsa money and will be your staple source of income for a big chunk of the game. Electroflares and magna lights are important for night missions (honestly don't try to take advantage of your 'superior' night vision; it will end in tears).

Your first interception vehicle should be a jetbike with a charger laser; this will enable you to take down most civilian traffic. Though the bike and extra hangar are expensive, you'll recoup your investment fairly quickly. Capture, don't kill civilians (use Handles and Rope).

Build new extractors/workshops whenever you can afford to create and staff them. You want to build a big industrial infrastructure in order to makes loadsamoney per Henry Enfield. Note you'll need to research Apples in order to able to construct Stills for your secondary bases.

Use the Bonadventura ASAP (that's the thing you make with the imposing bulk item).

Generally you should build a new base whenever you can afford it and there's nothing that's a greater priority for your cash. Your base will probably take a couple of months to score a return on investment but the sooner it's built, the more money it will contribute in the long run. As in IRL, the sooner you build wealth the better and compounding is your friend. A good set of facilities for a new base would be a radar/hyperwave + barracks/large barracks + extractor/workshop + still. Expand with (large) barracks and extractors/workshops as you get the money for it. Remember to have enough money to staff with Runts and a garrison.

[ivandogovich]

I'll take a stab at this:

Generally: You will want to exhaust prisoner interviews and interrogations, as well as all the books you can add to your library.  Start early, research often. 
- Build your infrastructure to accommodate more than 15 prisoners.   Add another prison to the HQ, or salt some around in other bases. 
- Early intercepts can be effected with the Air Car (Cunning>Car Dealers).  Mount the Charger Laser on it, and just farm Civilian Traffic for the first few months.
- Add capacity for more stores and more barracks space soon in your HQ, probably before making a new base.
- Work up to support 15 or more brainers.  Without research, your progress will be stunted, and eventually research costs go up.  I like to get a second research base up in the first year that I build up to 20 capacity, though I have layouts available that allow up to 40.
- You will want a fast global interceptor  as well as greatly expanded coverage of the globe.  For interceptors, the Shark Jetbike is great.  Very fast and can keep up with almost everything and nimble enough to take down some small craft.  I like the Pachyderm for an early long range transport.  Use this to bring more hands to the battle before you get the bonny sorted out.
- For expanded radar coverage, bases are great (with overcharged radar, then HWDs) but early on, its often easier to get recon vessels out: Pigeon and Zeppelins.  I usually create my second base for this purposes with 6 hangars, and extra stores for places to put things so my main base doesn't get clogged up.  Just be sure to keep Chemicals on hand to fuel the Pigeons when using them.
- I like to prioritize Armor and Weapons for research, over Vessels and their armament, as it allows my gals to survive.
- Manufacturing for profit.  This is a key component of the game, as Protection money will never really cover all the costs of your effective Piracy Enterprise.  Merchandise, and Alcoho are the two main money makers.  Its often worth it to convert looted materials into cash (ie Apples to Chateau la Morte).  Later counterfeiting can be worthwhile, but eventually the biggest money maker is making and selling craft (Battle Tanks).  I find that 2 extra manufacturing bases are useful, one with a printer and one with a factory.  At endgame these help with creating the final craft for the last mission. https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Hideouts_(Piratez)#Hideouts  Check out this page for more info on hideout variants. 
- Training base. Wounded gals need a place to recover so I often set up a base to ship the ones that need long term convalescence to.  This is a great place to hire rookies and screen them too, if you do that ( ie. firing low braver or low voodoo, etc).  Once I have dojos, I set it up to train about 20 at a time, and screen voodoo too here when I can.  This gives me a pool of decent troops to rotate back into my main force when I need them, and can also be a good place for a dedicated "B" team.  I actually have a Mansions only crew here that is geared up for the mansion mission with mansion friendly outfits and weapons. 
- VIPs.  In the end, the overall campaign progress is marked by capturing and breaking the top leaders of 4 factions: Academy, Guild, Church, and StarGods.  Some of these may be fairly easy if they build bases, while others may be much more rare.  Often Crackdowns are required, and those can be challenging missions.  If you need a particular faction, try shooting down its vessels to provoke crackdowns.

Ok, thats a quick wrap up. Hope it helps.

[Surrealistik]

I strongly advise against Zeppelin Recon bases. Playing on Ironman Jack Sparrow, I find that 8 strategically placed bases each with a Hyperwave provides adequate coverage, even if there are tiny gaps.

You're much better off investing that money in your industry and economy. Personally I find that industry/wealth (like in SMAC) is more important than research so long as your HQ has a good number of brainers; take care of the income and it will take care of you. I typically have 1-4 Brainers in my secondary bases to research documentation like Govt Papers, Data Discs, Gun Almanacs and other such things which provide extremely time (and space/cost) efficient discoveries albeit at the price of randomness; in turn, said randomness is substantially offset by the number of times you end up rolling the dice with this configuration.

[Meridian]

1. buy booze
2. buy dakka
3. have fun

[nrafield]

I recommend using Domestic Shotguns with Rubber Slugs to capture civillians early on.  Sure, they aren't very effective for a real fight, but they're still better than the awful stun grenades (don't even bother using them seriously just do not), and they will excel at what you'll use them for - using them to capture unarmoured enemies early on while training up your gals' accuracy.

But in a lot of cases it will still be better to just walk up to a civillian and knock them out with a handle. It's just somewhat more dangerous.

Once you are a few years in, you will start seeing regular Crackdown missions on you. (at least 1 per month) It's not as bad as it sounds, you should be able to shoot most of them down and not have to deal with many more unless they come in a particularly awesome ship. But for these that will inevitably break through, I suggest trying out the Quad Launcher with a Chinese dragon. Put your base layout so your barracks are next to a Hangar, where most of the enemies spawn, fire one in the corner of the Hangar, and enjoy carnage. Of course this won't help you bag any important personnel your enemies may have brought, but if that is not your goal, it will make defending a base much easier.

[Arthanor]

I strongly advise against Zeppelin Recon bases. Playing on Ironman Jack Sparrow, I find that 8 strategically placed bases each with a Hyperwave provides adequate coverage, even if there are tiny gaps.

You're much better off investing that money in your industry and economy. Personally I find that industry/wealth (like in SMAC) is more important than research so long as your HQ has a good number of brainers; take care of the income and it will take care of you. I typically have 1-4 Brainers in my secondary bases to research documentation like Govt Papers, Data Discs, Gun Almanacs and other such things which provide extremely time (and space/cost) efficient discoveries albeit at the price of randomness; in turn, said randomness is substantially offset by the number of times you end up rolling the dice with this configuration.

A zeppelin base can easily be turned into an interception base later in the game, when you are trying to force retaliation missions to get the VIPs and finish the game. I did not build a zeppelin base early on, but I am now building a craft base any ways, on the north pole for best access to the most land regions to intercept.

As for money, more money than you need isn't much help, but there is never enough tech to support the gals in the field until the end game. Casualties always hurt, especially when gals can become such monsters with enough training. Take care of the gals and they will take care of you.

And finally regarding disks and similar items: You pick randomly from a list, but you can only get tech that you haven't gotten yet. So it's not so much a matter of rolling the dice often enough to get lucky as just exhausting the list. These are the real "if I play long enough I will win" things, unlike playing slot machines.

[ivandogovich]

I strongly advise against Zeppelin Recon bases. Playing on Ironman Jack Sparrow, I find that 8 strategically placed bases each with a Hyperwave provides adequate coverage, even if there are tiny gaps.

Agreed.  If you have HWds, zep bases make no sense.  I like them for the initial coverage when I don't have HWDs, and yep, Like Arthanor said, they become an interceptor base later.

[Surrealistik]

A zeppelin base can easily be turned into an interception base later in the game, when you are trying to force retaliation missions to get the VIPs and finish the game. I did not build a zeppelin base early on, but I am now building a craft base any ways, on the north pole for best access to the most land regions to intercept.

As for money, more money than you need isn't much help, but there is never enough tech to support the gals in the field until the end game. Casualties always hurt, especially when gals can become such monsters with enough training. Take care of the gals and they will take care of you.

Using this strategy, I've never had issues with insufficient tech. Once you've basically broken the economy and have more money than god, you can of course repurpose your industry to research, but early-mid, you'll want to ramp up the economy, and it will pay off exponentially (allow you to hit your base cap earlier, give you the funds you need for interceptions and to repurpose to research, to buy early Mercs, buy resources/good weapons via the contacts you gained via document spam below, etc).

And finally regarding disks and similar items: You pick randomly from a list, but you can only get tech that you haven't gotten yet. So it's not so much a matter of rolling the dice often enough to get lucky as just exhausting the list. These are the real "if I play long enough I will win" things, unlike playing slot machines.

Yes, it's technically not the same thing as rolling actual dice or playing the slots, of course. You always win in that even if you 'lose' you eliminate a useless/marginal tech from the list of outcomes. Bottom line, you churn out so many discoveries that when combined with the fact that you can't retread old techs you end up getting massive research value for minimal brainer, time and resource investment.

[BetaSpectre]

Zepplins can carry 20 people in them, have a roof, and side doors you can use to safely shoot from. Also when you send it towards a pogrom you have as long as it takes to arrive, so it can effectively be used to delay the pogrom, or to ensure you'll have the forces to take out anything.

Generally you'll want to pack some explosives incase of mercenaries or stronger enemies not that they'll be likely to show up until a few months after.

As mentioned before smoke grenades will be amongst your best friends to avoid reaction fire, and to hide line of sight etc.

When farming civilian ships bring handles to capture them, same for temples, armor tactical vest, bandages will be sufficient to take them all out with just four people from the aircar.

You can get tactical vests from beating warehouse missions forget the chain to get that research, but it can be gotten pretty early.

Melee is very useful even endgame it's generally better than your ballistic rifles with say a sabre, with constant low TU to attack. With a blade it's possible using one gal to clear a room with like 5 people in it.

Civilian engines are worth 100K, more if you can disassemble them into their fuel and other parts, and often you'll find a money purse worth about 65K after your get the extraction research. 60K if you don't bother. you'll need to open 12 bags for it to be worth researching btw. Early game sometimes that immediate 60K is more IMPT. I generally focus on getting lots of researchers, but it costs money you might not have.

The bonaventura is very good, but generally I get the thunderhorse before the bonny, and there's not much you can't do with the normal interceptor that they merc and shop items can't do.

I haven't found a reason to use the Jet bike yet. Any civilian car can be taken out by the air car. Medium civilian cars can be shot at once, then you can return to finish it off more often than not. Always check pictures and take out the civilian ones, and run from the ones that aren't probes or scouts with the civilian craft.

Right now I'm not sure why I'd ever use the sky ranger (500 which is still slow), when I can use the zeppelin (yes 1/5th the speed) instead which IMO is more awesome (Better spawn, more people), there's not time limit for most of the drops aside from the green spots.

Right now I'm doing a playthrough without researching the mutant alliance (Needed to kick start most good upgrades, but also makes pogroms mandatory) for as long as possible.

[Moon_Dew]

Quick question about those magna-lights, do my gals actually need to hold it in their hand in order for them to work, or is just carrying them enough?

[ivandogovich]

Quick question about those magna-lights, do my gals actually need to hold it in their hand in order for them to work, or is just carrying them enough?

Light sources will give light when they are in the hand or on the ground.  In the belt, backpack, etc, consider them shut off, unlit. this goes for torches, flares, etc.

[Surrealistik]

One thing you definitely want to do if at all possible is get an early Mercenaries Contacts.

This will allow you to hire an early Mercenary Commando who will solo/robocop pretty much everything up until Gauss weapons start showing up (which he is merely highly resistant to) while your Gals provide background fire support with aimed shots and grenades.

If you hire him on too late, his value drops off a cliff though. Also never use him where enemy VooDoo is present (large Academy and Church ships/Star Gods obviously/Hideouts) as he is hella vulnerable to mind control.