Finally started playing this

[Yataka Shimaoka]

If you want early game tactics and tricks, go to kirkaneko's thread, you will see a lot of stuff useful

[KiriKaneko]

I got a lot of very useful advice

[HT]

Yeah, they're a lot of hints and tips which I'll read once I need them. I'm already using some of them.

I also decided to start a new play-through, this time at the Veteran difficulty. Thankfully it's not as ridiculously hard nor are the maps overpopulated with enemies as I had feared... Yet. Still, it's annoying that I'm missing so many civ transports. I'm at March of the 1st year and I was torn between updating the airbus with an airvan to go to places faster, wait until I build a second hangar and get a aircar/speeder to track down shippings more easily, or do something else.

I also have another question I haven't seen answered yet: How are the "manacles" supposed to be used? Seeing that they're an automatic weapon that requires ALL TU, I believe you're meant to use them to "attack" a stunned enemy to keep them K.O.ed for the rest of the mission, right?

Also, what's the purpose of the Rope? While the choking vulnerability of most human enemies is tempting, it requires way too many TUs to be useful much.

As melee weapons currently I'm alternating between handle and small knives to hurt and weaken the enemy before capturing, as well as using a few revolvers and "recovered" pistols for ranged weaponry.

By the way, should I bother with the "primitive weaponry" gear? As in the Bone Club, the Stone Hatchet, the Spear and the like. If I want to capture enemies Handles and Stun Rods do a better job to avoid killing the enemy by accident, while if I want something dead for real the standard Ax does the job.

[Ethereal_Medic]

Manacles are used against foes allready lying on the ground.
Robes are meant as a stun weapon but a less leathal version of the handle.
Just use the handle^^

[sinisteragent]

The spear is decent, the bone club quickly redundant. There's very little between the stone hatchet and an axe or swords. As ever though, the best thing is to try them out for a while and see how you like them.

[HT]

So, at the end of my first year's March I have a Pogrom by Humanists. Feeling bold, I managed to win at the expense of a few wounded and some civvies dead, but it was worth it: Now I have a ton of guns way better than anything I have, including two laser guns. Having a lass wearing Barbarian armor charging a not-nazi who futilely tried to shoot her down with a laser pistol was funny.

I also got a lot of money by selling captured enemies and unnecessary stuff, but I'm still trying to figure out what to do to with the increasingly elusive Ships: I replaced my airbus for an airvan and I was considering getting an aircar to help shadowing fast ships, but so far it's not being very successful. Should I try to acquire an Expedition "ship" and patrol the regions where the charts mention more shipping going on, or try to tech up until I acquire some gun usable on my aircraft?


Also, handles are even better than I had expected, they can even stun small robots, somehow. 

[Ethereal_Medic]

Expeditions are only useful if you have something like an enemy base close to the base stationing it.
It's way to slow and you can't 'explore' anything in Xcom. All missions are spawned by RNG.

[wolfreal]

How early can an enemy base appears?

[BetaSpectre]

Missions I find tend to occur in city areas, just make bases where you can cover as much land as you can.
If you have two craft including expeditions you can juggle to get the right time of day for the mission.

Crashed UFO's and Terror Missions don't have a time limit when selected by a craft.

[HT]

Thanks for the tips! Currently it seems I'll have to rely on missions spawning on the ground than capturing ships for making money, getting slaves/resources and research stuff, at least until I get actual craft weaponry and/or faster ships.

However, there's something I don't understand how it works for bounty hunting: What do these numbers mean next to the prizes (ie: (A1) Silver Snake pistol)? I think they show what Bounty Hunter Level you need to unlock them, but I'm not sure what's the number supposed to mean then. The number of necessary tokens? What about these bounties that aren't implemented yet? Will these require to update my save to work once they're available?

[AngelicJoker]

The Letter Prefix lets you know the unlock route for the bounties.  You have to build and research the A1 bounty to unlock building the A2 bounty.  A2 will then unlock A3 and B1 will unlock B2.

[khade]

It's possible that they removed juggling, I know it's a possibility that they've set up the code for, but I don't know if Dioxine has used it yet.

[HT]

The Letter Prefix lets you know the unlock route for the bounties.  You have to build and research the A1 bounty to unlock building the A2 bounty.  A2 will then unlock A3 and B1 will unlock B2.

But are these affected by your current bounty hunter level? Does that one change anything except getting better missions and more tokens?

Also, I finally started the awesome process known as Slavery in this game. However, supposedly having slaves around reduces the weight of your stuff at your vaults, as well as increasing the money you get monthly. What are the specifics for the latter? Can you theoretically have an unlimited number of slaves? They don't seem to consume space but can apparently be used as "resources" for several buildings and projects.

Expeditions are only useful if you have something like an enemy base close to the base stationing it.
It's way to slow and you can't 'explore' anything in Xcom. All missions are spawned by RNG.

Well, I meant in the sense of patrolling the places where the charts say there are more ships moving around, hoping to trigger an encounter. So far though I may save them for something else (such as a special party for hard missions), as until I acquire craft weaponry I can't catch most of the shippings anyway.

[ivandogovich]

Slaves have negative size and negative maintenance.  This means they effectively decrease the amount of space taken up in the vaults and yes, it can go negative (ie -23/150).  The negative maintenance means that you gain money every month you have a slave standing around holding stuff.  You are limited in number of slaves only by the amount you can capture and convert.  So basically infinite.   Stronger slaves that carry more stuff make you more money.

[HT]

So, I kept playing and survived another in-game month. Now though I've seeing what seem to be patrols of some kind, likely search parties looking for my base, but unfortunately I still lack the means to shoot down craft (although I got some cannon shells, likely for assembling later on). Can these patrols be destroyed through? Are they scripted to always appear after several in-game months? I suspect it has to do with ratmen though.

Another thing is that I was lucky to catch some landed ships with caparace-wearing enemies, which are quite a nasty surprise. Which kind of firearms would you recommend (besides the harpoon guns)? Which are better to weaken/stun these guys? If only to capture them later, I tried the spiked mace but that one kills them more often than not.

Thankfully, with the recruitment of several Veteran Gals I got multiple Warrior-type armors, which can reliably stop small caliber fire. However, the game mentions that these armors are considered large. How does this affect enemy accuracy?
Is it worth using them comparing with other low-tier armor/outfit? I like to use them for the entire squad to easily deal with civilian enemies and better survive pogroms.

Lastly, I was considering to build another base in order to start mass-producing Chateau and get more moneyz, but apparently the Still can't be built yet. Which technology do I need to do that? I could try building several extractors instead for the alcohol production, but that won't be as efficient I'm afraid.