Once I get Laser Rifles, though, I try to sneak one or two ground assaults on small craft, at most.
There's a difference between a ground assault and a recovery, I should have been more specific. I shoot the craft down to minimize risk.
I prefer a more reliable solution of shooting the stuff down first, -then- assaulting, since I'm never Elerium-starved. Elerium isn't as important as it seems, it just looks a lot more important because
You need to collect as much as you can early on until you have completed reasearch to take advantage of manufacturing.
Doesn't take that long to get laser cannon.
You will find you will expand more quickly.
Expand? ::blinks:: What's this expand thing? o.o
I don't even -try- to defend the whole world. I never build more than three or four bases: Europe as my first base (conventional), the Antarctica research-manufacturing base, and if I care to bother, strike bases in East Asia or North America.
Any action that doesn't in some way contribute to your goal is meaningless. Your goal is to smack down Cydonia. What do you want directly for that?
Cydonia or Bust
An Avenger
A squad of Rambos in powersuits, backed with a couple HWPs.
Indirectly, you want to keep your score survivable (not too difficult unless you waste too much time), you want to make enough money to get to this point, you want the tech to get to this point and you want to keep your bases from being raped (which, till you get a Grav Shield and at least Plasma Defense, involves more prayer than skill).
It doesn't take world-wide coverage with strike teams for every UFO.
The rocket launcher is conspicuous by its absence, does that mean that you do use RL's?
No. I don't normally use Earth-tech weapons except for special situations. (Stun rods, prox grenades, effects that I can't replicate with alien tech yet.) I've tried Rifles in the early game on shot-down (not grounded) UFOs with some success, but once you get the Laser Rifle they obviously go by the wayside.
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