Sell me on better weapons & better strategies!

[FiendishDrWu]

As someone who played the original X-Com as a kid, I'm totally loving X-Piratez!  It's quirky and fun, and the variability it brings to the table makes the 25+ year old game engine feel fresh & new again.  In original X-Com, I'd invariably end up with a Skyranger full of soldiers in Powered Armor, with Heavy Plasma, except for a few who had Psi-Amps or Blaster Launchers.  I'd scout the enemy, mind control the baddies, use them to find more baddies, mind control them, then march the whole lot out somewhere and shoot them with a blaster bomb.  Not in this mod!

Right now, in Sept 2602, I'm using a Shadowbat for most of my ground missions.  I typically have a mix of gals in Camp Paint/Guerrilla Gear, with Hunting/Auto/Battle/Las/Dragoon rifles up on the wings of the bat, along with Rogues with hunting bows and fire arrows, while my scouting is Barbarian/Amazon gals with Barbaric swords.  I've been using this basic approach for almost a year in-game and it works pretty well.  I GTFO immediately if I'm up against lots of Marsec/Megapol/Mercs, unless there's several near the Shadowbat I can get to with my sword Gals, but otherwise this approach works pretty well.  I relied on grenades a lot in my earlier days, and I still keep some on board, along with shotguns, but I don't use grenades or shotguns much anymore, unless it's a really close-quarters mission, like an Archeological Dig.  I've yet to really use the heavy weapons or explosives much; though I did use a grenade launcher against a Megapol landed ship to mixed results. 

On underwater missions, I'm using my "B" team I keep for defense purposes at a manufacturing base, and my typical approach is to have them swim up to level 4 or 5, and slowly patrol.  They're high enough so that they have clear lines of sight every direction and can't be easily surprised.  They all have X-bows, which works fairly well - I've noticed the baddies I meet often take 5-6 X-bow shots to take down, but hey, low-risk ranged weapon training! 

I managed to find a single space suit in a warehouse raid, so I typically have that on someone, armed with a heavy laser, during space missions.  Those pods are terrible.

Any advice?  What do you do differently? 

[Bloax]

I GTFO immediately if I'm up against lots of Marsec/Megapol/Mercs, unless there's several near the Shadowbat I can get to with my sword Gals, but otherwise this approach works pretty well.

Ah, a connoisseur of the tactical retreat, how unusual.

[JDCollie]

I'm partial to the heavy slugthrower at the moment. That 80 piercing can punch through lot of armor, and up to their optimum range, they are very accurate. I have a couple of gals who run seductress armor at the moment as well for when I run into power armor (these are the same gals who used to be my archers.) Armor rating does very little against charm damage

I also have an advance team, but they're armed with Riot Shields and Electro-whips/Zappers or a Bardiche, or Arena Flak Cannons depending on their specialty. Most are wearing Tac Armor(H).

I also keep a mortar, rotary grenade launcher, and recoiless rifle around for big nasties, and some super-chargers for low impact missions where I'd rather conserve ammunition.


Tactics wise, I'f I'm not doing what you do, I tend keep a sniper near my ship if applicable (sometimes in a grav harness if I'm expecting dense terrain), and then move the remaining gals in groups of twos and threes. One with a Heavy Slug Thrower/Flak Cannon, one melee oriented, and one Seductress (who also is armed with a zapper so it isn't so fatal if they go bezerk) I have the groups methodically clear on side of the map, while the sniper makes sure that nobody tries to move into the cleared areas.

Overall it works pretty well. Marsec and Megapol have very little defense against charm, and the sheer firepower of the Slug Thrower and Flak Cannon can punch through most of the non-powered armor I've come across with little-to-no effort. I switch to my backup loadout of Battle Rifles and Super-Chargers for reticulans, since they can't take much punishment.

The only group to give me trouble so far is the Ghouls, since they can take enough punishment to survive my alpha damage, though the Flak Cannon still sends them packing. I haven't met Raiders or Dark Ones yet. I'm in March of 2602.

[ivandogovich]

A few thoughts on your stated tactics and what I like in my current campaign. 

I'm still early 2602, and I'm loving the Shadow Bat.  I use a lot of the same, Guerilla gear, with some snipers on the wings. Usually my sniping gal (in a Sniper Suit) is up there for Firing Training, so I give her the Machine Gun with the tripod and let her crouch and blast away.  The snap shots are great for reaction, and flinging 5 slugs in an auto burst is great for training.  I'm using Starving Poet's stat Training custom Stat Strings, so I tend to focus on getting the gals trained up on things they are weak on.  Early on, I trained firing accuracy heavily.  A grenade launcher with WP was great for training, as it had nice AOE.  When I got the Assault Grenade Launcher,  I put that in the hand and the GL with willie pete in the back pack.  I still pull it out and use it for Illumination and enemy morale supression.  I have my Hover Suit gal set up with an LACC with WP ammo for similar reasons.  AOE gets me a greater chance to hit, and I can fire 3 rd bursts if I want to.  Great for training accuracy.  The one thing that everyone carries this time around is Hallucigen Grenades.  So many of the early foes are weak to smoke and these just take them out of the fight and leave them surrendered.  Most of my recent missions have my gals needing melee and throwing training.  That little grenade is great for the throwing training.  Everyone carries throwing stars and a few are sporting bows with flame arrows.  But right now, the handle is king.  I'm pretty much going for captives every mission.  I use the handle alot, but will go at them with Fisticuffs too, if I have the opportunity.  Everyone keeps a shiv for melee training on folks that can't be slaved.  I even put my Officer who only needs Melee training in my first looted Defender Suit and sent her into a Church Bootcamp with just the shiv.

My B Team is my Air Car team (25mm) they shootdown and clean up Civvie shipping.  The Auto Shotgun from the bounty prizes with Rubber Shot Ammo is perfect.  These gals suit up in Warrior armor to mostly ignore enemy fire and then reaction fire all the civ crews for ransom and slaves.  Nice way to train up extra troops. 

I have a C Team for Underwater only.  Chiller Suits, Harpoon Carbines, Spike Balls.  Sweep and clear.

I just set up a D team (in an Air Van) for infiltration only missions.  They stay in Ganger Attire with a combo of Smart Pistols, Mini SMGs and Mini Shotguns.  Spike Balls, Hallucigen Grenades, etc.

I"ll switch the A-team to Mesh for the Organ Grinders but I've yet to fully take one on. With Guerilla and Gasmasks we were taking too much damage on the first mission I tried.

[sinisteragent]

Throw that shit before you walk in the room!

[Marza]

Dynamite!
Dynamite!

[FiendishDrWu]

I also have an advance team, but they're armed with Riot Shields and Electro-whips/Zappers or a Bardiche, or Arena Flak Cannons depending on their specialty. Most are wearing Tac Armor(H).

Why the bardiche?  I've built some and experimented with them, but I find they seem to hit less reliably.  Do you find the extra damage worth it? 

Raiders are tough, but not really any tougher than your Gals.  Dark ones don't seem to have any special armor, though the Imp's attack is REALLY annoying.
 

But right now, the handle is king.  I'm pretty much going for captives every mission.  I use the handle alot, but will go at them with Fisticuffs too, if I have the opportunity.

Why the handle?  I tend to have a cattle prod as a backup for my sword gals.  I guess the handle could do more damage if wielded by a gal with really high stats, but it's way cheaper in TUs to use, I guess. 

@Marza & sinisteragent: Shh!  You'll wake the rest of the Gals!

[sinisteragent]

I'm tempted to recommend you don't give the handle a chance, because once you do you'll likely find it renders all other non-lethal weapons obsolete. It's cheap, light, small, very fast, fairly accurate, one-handed, and highly effective. It's also rare for it to overdo thing and kill your target.

[Ethereal_Medic]

The good ol' wood remains one of the most efficient mostly-non-leathal tools to take hostages. Light, 1x2 for quickdraw slots and just right to bash heads with it.
Cattleprod is a 2-h weapon and costs alot of TU for the early usage. The stun baton is somewhat more efficient as it is another 1x2 item with different stat-scaling and allows nearly double the amount of swings a cattleprod could do.

Yet the handle remains a tool send from the earth's heaven to bring all the captives home with only slight injuries.

Ofc you'll use less handles later once you can use stun-darts and stun-bombs but that's a very far way too go in the research tree and the enhanced early-game year(s) throw various problems your way you have to get dealt with using primitive weaponry. (things like small crew sizes, early 'armors' and 'guns')

Go big or go home

[AngelicJoker]

Ahh...the humble Handle.  I'm in year 3 of my campaign and it's still a staple of my loadouts.  The Zapper is a great stunning tool, but the parts to make it are in short supply.  The Dart Pistol has great tranq shots, but only 4 of them.  The Stun Baton never seems to perform as well as I'd hope.  Which leaves the Handle as king.  No ammo limitations.  No material limitations.  And effective enough to beat someone wearing power armor unconscious.

Besides, there's just something fun about early church raids armed with nothing but these little beating sticks.  I like to think I keep capturing and releasing the same set of civilians and they never learn their lesson.

[Solarius Scorch]

Besides, there's just something fun about early church raids armed with nothing but these little beating sticks.  I like to think I keep capturing and releasing the same set of civilians and they never learn their lesson.

"Hey, look who we have here! It's our pal Jim again!"
"Hehe, the story continues!"

[RSSwizard]

Handle is excellent. Harpoon kinda sucks, it does unreliable stunning and usually earns you a reaction shot. Dart pistol is inaccurate AF but its a good alternative when you get the tranq rounds.

Ironically I end up using my Aye Phones for doing the same thing the handle does. And with its primary function, and taking up only 1x1 slot, it outshines the Handle. Aye Phones are essential for finishing most maps efficiently.


Maces are a good anti-armor weapon. Shotguns are golden, especially the Heavy Shotgun. The UAC Chaingun and UAC Rifle are excellent, I wipe ghouls with these.

Military Shotgun with AP rounds, and the LACC with AP are almost as good as the light cannon or a heavy laser because of the armor divisor. The lower damage is more than compensated for by practicality. Though the Lasgun is a noteworthy mention since if you're worried about the damage, just get up close and burst someone.

Since Diox expanded alot of ground missions in size... if you hit a Steel Forest map you're bound to get a bunch of Boom Fruits (like 40-70 of them). These things are a wonder... its an even faster toss than Stick Grenades. But Stick Grenades are also a major boon because they're so dang cheap and easy to use, and its 50 explosive to just peel off at someone... (combine with your Hover armor!). And they do a good job of weakening a marsec dude so that you can put him down with a single shot afterwards, if it doesnt kill or take him out right away.

You need to keep around the Assault Cannon (and normal cannonballs) for the Armored Cars in the bandit pogroms. I guess the explosive cannonballs work well enough as a grenade launcher. Later on you want to replace it with the Rail Driver.

I still don't have an answer for you about Stargod pogroms... I haven't figured out how to kill the sectopods yet. I dropped two Baby Nukes on one and it kept going, I was just kinda like "whatever" and scavenged stuff and left.

"Hey, look who we have here! It's our pal Jim again!"
"Hehe, the story continues!"

This is what I like to think when you capture a VIP or leader and then sell them (because you already interrogated/researched one)... and then you find another of the same type out there somewhere.

"Hey Carly what's shaking... you know the drill"
(trader rep gulps and mutters an obscenity)

[LuigiWhatif]

My first two fights against Sectopods just used a massive amount of grenades.  It took about 12+ of a mix of hellerium grenades, Willie Petes, and high explosives but they eventually went down.  My recent fight I had my gal in Ghost armor run up and wreck them in 2-3 hits.  Apparently they have no resistance to Mind damage.

[Premier]

The good ol' wood remains one of the most efficient mostly-non-leathal tools to take hostages. Light, 1x2 for quickdraw slots and just right to bash heads with it.
Cattleprod is a 2-h weapon and costs alot of TU for the early usage. The stun baton is somewhat more efficient as it is another 1x2 item with different stat-scaling and allows nearly double the amount of swings a cattleprod could do.

In my personal and not very thoroughly researched opinion, cattle prods are excellent for taking down tough targets like yetis (whatever they're called in-game) or werewolves. Assuming you can maneuver into a situation where a few of your gals can gang up on one without getting shredded first, that is.

[Ethereal_Medic]

White Shambler = Yeti

Those werewolves and yeti's should be easily been dealt with using flying armors since melee can't slash upwards.