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Notes -
Thanks for the info!
Yup I'm playing on normal and without ironman this time, and I'm still struggling with part 3 of the xenophobic mission. I need to contaminate the breeding pools, and my vehicle can't do it. Shooting them was not the solution, I found out. The damn driver can't even spend a full turn or something on getting out and doing the action. Kinda bs. The 12 turn time limit seems pretty brutal given the number of enemies close to the pools. I've tried the mission twice and given up, although I could probably have finished with a partial success.
I'm considering bringing a small squad with the rocket launcher as that seems to be effective against the big, dark heavily armored alien, assuming the rocket hits. Maybe a flamethrower to deal with the groups of small soft aliens. I had ~265 credits to spend.
Btw will the scout ability function while the SL whos' got it is inside a vehicle?
Heh. I did the exact same thing, turns out that lead poisoning isn't quite the right kind of contamination.
I strongly advise giving up on perfectionism. Even with perfectly optimal, meta play, getting a full 5 stars is a crapshoot on any difficulty. I reliably get 4 stars 85% of the time, and that's entirely fine.
The 12 turn timer is, as far as I recall, a secondary objective. You can take your time. There are less finicky missions out there.
If you strictly need them only for the special weapon, then you can get away with the bare minimum squad size.
Do you intend for them to hoof it on foot? Which RPG are you using?
I ask because if you have them riding inside the APC, it's expensive in terms of AP to have them disembark and shoot. Most rockets need the squad to deploy first, which unfortunately ends up with not quite enough AP to fire after disembarking.
Except: Lim.
His Mobile Infantry perk is goated. He can jump out of an battle taxi and shoot twice with normal weapons, at least once with most specials. You don't even need to give him any armor, because if you play things right, he'll never end a turn outside the vic. Highly highly recommend you try that.
If I had to choose, I'd say use any AT over the flamethrower. The bugs will hard counter you, especially the Alien Warriors or the Queen, if you lack it. I never used the flamethrower, I got by just fine shooting the smaller bugs with rifles or the MMG/HMG on the APC.
265 credits will work just fine, especially for a minimal AT squad. If you don't have Lim, get them to dismount early and shadow the vic.
I don't believe so. But you can still have the squad jump out, gain vision, and jump back in. This works best with Lim, but literally all the infantry SLs can do it.
Until very late in the game, scouting is invaluable, especially if you rely on vehicles. An unexpected RPG or other AT weapon can fuck up the APC beyond repair, or destroy it outright.
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