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<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Eagle of Fire @ Sep 26 2004, 07:09 PM) [snapback]15047[/snapback]</div>

OK, here are the most common advices that I can give you. I'll try not to give any spoiler, and if I do without realizing it I give permission to the admins to censor me.

First, you need to build your base. That's the first thing you do in this game, and thus you need to do it from the start even before thinking about battles. The thing is, the first base supplied to you is a big free base, and is kind of nice for the eye. However, it would be more than a pain in the ... to defend would the Aliens decide to attack it, because it has hangars from both the bottom and the top of the base and the access lift if in the middle with other adjacent rooms.

In the best of worlds, all your base layout should generally be the same: your hangars at the very top or the very bottom of the base, then the access lift completely alone somewhere on the third line (the one directly above or under your hangars) then you begin to build your base on the fourth line after the access lift. That way, if the base get attacked, you will be able to defend it with ease with only a handfull of squaddies and a lot of grenades since the Aliens always come in the base from the access lift and the hangars. The third "free" line will act as a "chokepoint" preventing Aliens to invade the base too fast. If one or two aliens managed to get out from the access lift before you get there, kill them. You can be sure all the others will be ahead.

Battle and squaddies: obviously, you need to always try to keep your men alive. Moreover, you need to give your squaddies the best chances to overcome their target. The key points on this in tactical battle is visibility, speed and protection.

Visibility: I personnaly always go out with 12 squaddies and then break them down in three squads of four. The purpose of the squads is to always have at least two squaddies at "key" point when they advance in the black area so you have a good chance of seeing the alien before he do (or most of the time, at the same time he do so he don't have time to fire at will on your men) while the other two squad members advance faster (always keep enough time for a snap shot) and then they switch turn. Once an Alien is spotted, turn your four squaddie attention to it but do not forget to "scout" around for other Aliens, be in front, on the flanks or even in the back if that particular squad did not clear out the area behind them.
In night missions, you will have a very hard time trying to spot the Aliens because it's dark, while the Aliens will have a easy time spotting you because they have a way better vision at night. In that case, you need to use flares. I always bring in my Skyranger at least one flare per squaddie, just in case I run into a night mission. When you send your Skyranger, follow it and look at the map when it lands. If the map is at night (dark), then you'll need to equip the flares to your men. Would you forget, it is very important that you make them all take one flare before exiting the Skyranger (all the weapon you don't assign to your men before a mission are stockpilled at the entrance of the Skyranger).
To use a flare efficiently you only need to throw them far enough so the fartest visible spots are light. That way you will be able to spot aliens around the light just like if it was a day mission.
Use the flares liberally. They will save a lot of your men lives. And don't forget they can be reused; pick them back up and throw them away again.

Speed: never ever overload your men! It seems to be a very common newbie mistake. Your men need all the time units they can spare! I personnaly think that any squaddie under 60 TU is in danger because they lack mobility should they fall into an unexpected trap or need to clear out from an area quickly instead of keeping TU for their snap shot reaction time (like when spotting two aliens near him at end of his movement). If you start a mission and you notice one of your squaddie with less than 100% of his TU, then he's overloaded. Remove as much equipment from his inventory as you can spare, and you'll notice that next turn he'll have more TU to spare (if he did not recover them all). I also advise you to only take riffles (and/or handgun if you feel suicidal or want a challenge) in the first few missions until one of your men have enough strenght to take the bigger weapons without losing any or not too much TU. Most of the Aliens are easy to kill with a riffle anyways.

Endurance: research armors ASAP! I won't spoil the tech route to the first armor, but I'll tell you it's very easy to produce them by the end of the second month, should you know what you are doing. Once you have some armor, research the MediKit tech ASAP. The MediKits will allow the men who did not fall in one hit but are grievely wounded to survive the day and become stronger with time. It's always utterly annoying as a Commander (you) to lose men only because he had a fatal wound of 3 and dyied from blood loss after X turns because you had no medical support on the field... Especially if the man in question is your best soldier! <_< Before having all your men outfitted with armor, the chance of having a squaddie alive after he get hit will be extremely short, but with armor this will happen most of the time. I always equip all of my soldiers with one MediKit at the start of every battle but can part with one if the soldier is not strong enough to carry one and his equipment without TU loss.


I feel this is the biggest lines of the game. If you follow this to the letter you should have an easy time defeating Aliens... But it probably doesn't follow every style of play. I know some people love grenades, other use only Alien technology... I'll leave all those details and the leading of your squaddies to you.
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