Sell me on better weapons & better strategies!

[Ethereal_Medic]

Supersoldier can panic but just like marsec bootyguards it takes a huge number of casualties in one turn to drop the moral of a soldier to 0-20.
Also certain maps and spawn points can be absolutely annoying to deploy upon like the instance of spawning in the center of the map or on an ISLAND.

It's possible to spawn somewhere in the down-right corner with the river seperating your squad from the facility. Better bring a pair of flying armors too.

[RSSwizard]

It's possible to spawn somewhere in the down-right corner with the river seperating your squad from the facility. Better bring a pair of flying armors too.

Sooo... unless you're on a supermutant game... its well worth it to save the game right before you get to the site, and if it lands you in a bad way just reload it and have it re-roll the map placement.

[Ethereal_Medic]

Iron(wo)man rules even without the option enabled.
If you roll a bad deploy you can just give it a damn.
It's absolutely possible to do the run without nuclear lasguns and just go for XG gauss / SG gauss and plasma.

[FiendishDrWu]

Am I one of the ONLY players who plays defensively?
Are you using your cover?

First few rounds you need to be ducking out of the ship, taking shots, shooting rockets, looking for the underground entrances. Maybe have somebody with high TUs to go out there and hide in the structures to do some spotting. Then make a break for the underground entrance and just rush it. Stay on the surface exposed and you'll get owned by the tanks and some of the other dudes.

Once you're underground you can just resolve most of that, and wait until the end for dealing with the Surface. In which case you're going to be ducking up to take shots at the tanks... rockets, grenades, and heavy laser type of thing, then drop back down to cover again.

Another tip - you probably want to shoot Snap shots or fire from out of view (even with your rocket launchers). If you use too many TU in your attacks you're going to run the risk of the Tanks being able to reaction fire on you (reaction fire, as explained in the bootypedia, is not a random chance - the more TU you use the more likely someone will be able to react).

This is a good map to bring Baby Nukes to, since you wont have to fight this mission again.

(without a doubt they will Not Surrender in this mission, so dont bother with that tactic... im not sure the supersoldiers can even surrender)

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Edit - Also in a recent pogrom mission with ratmen I had a tank that took an entire series of melee hits from a lowly ratman, from behind, probably with a cutlass. And it clipped over 40 health from the tank.

So keep it in mind that if you've got a Tech Blade, Mace, with a hand of peak strength you can take down one of these tanks.

(im also thinking that if you can Surround a tank, one hand on each of the sides so that it cant move... it may not take any actions at all because its main weapon is explosive and it doesn't want to fire it at point blank range)

Ah.  I haven't had much of a chance to scout the map much, so I didn't know there was a big underground component to it - I thought the bulk of the mission was dealing with all those guys (and fucking tanks) on the surface.  My problem is that I might be relying too much on Amazons with Bardiches - they can take out tanks or supersoldiers OK, but then they're stuck out in the open and get chewed up.  I'll try heading for cover/underground right away instead of trying to get in a big gunfight to secure my landing zone.  Although, with upwards of 10 enemies in visual distance as soon as I have someone leave the Fortuna, simply dashing to cover might be dicey enough!

[RSSwizard]

Ah.  I haven't had much of a chance to scout the map much, so I didn't know there was a big underground component to it

Siberia Base is definitely a ranged weapon map, you use the melee downstairs, you use heavy ranged out in the open.

I got dropped sorta on the north end of the map and there was a structure near there that I hid in. And got shot by some guy there, but there was stairs going down that I was using for an alternative to dealing with the surface, and thats how I found it. So I knew right away pretty much.

I believe my primary weapons were Death Blossom/HVAP (...60 frigging damage), Advanced Launcher with Plasma Rockets, and I had a grenadier loaded down with hellerium grenades.

I didnt have anybody with flying armor, and near the end of the map I was trying to use the stairs on the southwest trench to duck up and toss grenades at the last couple tanks and supersoldiers above ground. I only got dragged over there because there were a couple dudes in the trench that had to be removed. The water in those trenches is a PITA.

The last tank reaction fired on my grenadier and hurt her, but more importantly blew up the stairs and I ran off the edge without looking first and couldn't get back up there. I had to use a Nuclear Heavy Laser I grabbed off of someone to finish off the tank.

[RSSwizard]

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.

Crap if they have no Mind damage resistance then there is a very dangerous weapon that will destroy them... Demonic Essence (200 mind damage, maybe no armor divisor but that should be enough to one-shot them since 100ish armor + 96 health is a good 50/50 chance)

Only thing is that the bootypedia article about stun damage said that robots and zombies typically have a good resistance against mind and daze damage. So the sectopod is a very clear exception to that (its got an actual brain in the robot?)

[LuigiWhatif]

I was surprised too but the Sectopod examination has no entry for Mind, which should mean normal damage.  I am still running 0.99H, but I didn't see anything in the patch notes so I assume it is the same.

[RSSwizard]

I was surprised too but the Sectopod examination has no entry for Mind, which should mean normal damage.  I am still running 0.99H, but I didn't see anything in the patch notes so I assume it is the same.

(personally id think that such a thing would do Warp damage to just dissolve someone down into slag, reminds me of the Destruction cleric spell from d&d. But Mind damage also works for the description of the demonic essence as well)

Mind damage is a new type or a renamed type from before, I believe demonic essence did plasma damage in previous versions.

So this makes it worth it to capture demons and possessed soldiers and go on the doom pogroms/imperial probe missions and bite the bullet for it. Because you'll get demonic essence and you can use it as a superweapon to destroy things like sectopods when you really need to do that. Usually and I stress that, destroying something isnt such a big deal, but critters like that are one of the few cases where taking them out really is a problem.

[Bloax]

Mind damage is a new type or a renamed type from before, I believe demonic essence did plasma damage in previous versions.

Mind is a new damagetype, and essence used to do acid damage. : )

[FiendishDrWu]

So I went back and tried this mission twice more, this time with two Gals with rocket launchers, each with a Baby Nuke and some regular rockets.  I started firing at the two largest groups of tanks and foes, and killed quite a number that way.  But the first time, I made the fatal mistake of trying to have a gunfight with the rest of the folks on the surface - big mistake!  Even the two tanks and one supersoldier were able to tank my Gal's laser shots and kill Gals quite effectively. 

So I reloaded, started again, fired the nukes, and then had everyone dash for the center of the map so they could fall down into the trench and get inside the underground complex.  That worked much better - against the stormtroopers and regular soldiers, my Amazons rocked face.  I cleared one portion of the map, then moved on to the next, and then used a cowardly but effective approach of popping up the stairs, shooting, and going back down to take out the tanks.  Two supersoldiers came down after me, but getting tag-teamed by Amazons in close quarters took them down without too much trouble.  Travel in packs and do it from the back - how else can you get to the booty? 

Thanks! 

[RSSwizard]

Situations like this remind me of the expendability of Slave Soldiers combined with the firepower of a Chinese Dragon (an actual nuke, im guessing probably as strong as a MOAB). Im not sure if the transport hull will block the explosion damage (of which 200-400 points of it might still be baring down on the transport) but its I guess worth it to not have to deal with the BS. Of course I think that will also wipe off all of the loot from the surface too, at a price of 900,000 bucks plus a slave soldier.

[Ethereal_Medic]

Never thought about big-nuke the surface.
You shouldn't try that on iron(wo)man tho. Also you just need to roll lucky for getting 1x russian files.
Once you got one file you can pretty much abort since there's not too much further value to get from this trenchwar.

[comrado]

For Sectopod problems or any other tanks I highly recommend Lascannon, it's super accurate when kneeled and the dmg is very good. Especially if you manage to hit one from the side or rear. I've managed to one shot Sectopods with Lascannons. Recoiless Rifle is also very good against any mechanical threat. And if you manage to get close the Rail Driver can blow them up very easly.

Right now I just got my Thunderhorse. My A team is running 2 Guardian, 4 Defender, 2 StormMarine, 4 Assassin and 2 Loaders as well as some early game armors for backline. I don't really like most of the early game shotguns, the good stuff starts with CAWS, the AP slugs can be really accurate even on quite long distance. And there's the Hv Slug Thrower, which can murder almost anything that you can get close to. I also use the mentioned Rail Driver as a shotgun in missions with tough enemies like Mercs. Assasin armor is a godsent if you want some accurate auto fire from any HMG type weapons in the game, though it's rather flimsy in the later stages of the game.

Can somebody tell me how to get more Mansion missions? I've researched the tech, I have some maid clothes prepared and have vessels that can take me there. I need the Rubys for the Moloch Armor and I read the only reliable source is the Mansion missions. I think I had maybe one Mansion before and 2 in-game years have passed since I think.

[Ethereal_Medic]

Mansion shedule is totally random and several months can pass until the next mansion pops up.

A 2nd source for rubies is an imperial probe mission: The deep one (maya)pyramid. Inside the main structure are several rubies to get.
Like the mansion it's sheer luck to get this mission. Watchout for fartbags and don't get close to lobsterbobs.

[Mechanique]

Speaking of which, where are the chests located in mansions? I never ever found one within time limit and resorted to just looting the rooftops, before abandoning this completely because mission preprarations are bothersome, unless there is a separate craft and a team for just those.

is there a way to get diamonds and other gems anywhere, besides mansion and galleon wreck? I know there are possible emeralds on organ grinder, and apparently rubies but I never got one from pyramid of pain (admittedly, I have only done it once).