Battlescape Fighting Strategies and Tactics against the Aliens.

Battlescape

The battlescape will be identical for the type of crashed UFO, but the aliens will be placed randomly at the start. eg: it is possible to have eggs spawn outside.
The terrain in which the UFO rests is not owned by anyone and its destruction does not influence the 'Damage to City' score.
Craft armaments are visible on the hull and may explode from further damage.

UFO Crashed Landscape

UFO crash-recovery battlescapes have a typical layout of:

Access somewhere at ground level, commonly in a excavated dirt trench with spot fires. One UFO has crashed into the side of a hill which has tunnels and pipes within and broken windows elsewhere.
Beam weapons are visible on the outside circumference (the skin) of the every UFO with some crafts having multiple missile weapons located on the roof within pop-up pods.
A uniform colour of the outside skin and roof, typically has small sections of skin coloured differently. These parts are windows with some being translucent.
The UFO roof may be oddly shaped with large circular darker skin 'disks' or areas which cannot be accessed due to height restrictions.
Doors, some with ramps to ground level, are always the main entry points into all UFO types.
A single grav-lift within the exact middle of the floorplan which allows access to higher levels inside the UFO.
Beam weapons are visible inside the craft near the perimeter and if capable, missile weapon ammunition is stored wholly exposed within open areas inside the craft.
If used, multiple grav-lifts and ramps allow access to all remaining parts of the UFO floorplan where craft devices such as shield modules, teleporters, cloaking devices, etc. may be stored.
All internal areas will contain multiple engines, fuel stores, and control systems.

⊗ Devices which are found inside a UFO does not indicate what will be recovered.

Destruction

Everything but the grav-lifts inside a UFO can be destroyed resulting in collapse, small fires, explosions, gas clouds etc. Fuel stores, missiles, engines etc. are especially dangerous due to massive explosions when hit from even the lightest weaponry, often resulting in complete destruction of the immediate area including breeches of the hull ...which can be an alternative entry point into the UFO.

Skin Breech

Unconventional access is prefered if faced with difficult or deadly lifeforms.
External weapons (perimeter or roof) can be destroyed to create a hole.
Roof access from a breech in the (exact) center, usually directly above the main grav-lift, allows alternative access to the floorplan, bypassing an ambush near entry doors, negating Poppers getting close, limiting Brainsuckers effectiveness by hindering its jumping ability, and allows agents to easily drop high explosives or stun grenades into the hole (the disposal chute tactic).
The 'windows' at the circumference can allow direct access to the floorplan if breeched, instead of cutting through multiple layers of thick hull at randoms area.
Detonation of the craft's internal engines/fuel store (caution falling debris) which are located close to the hull wall may produce large holes and cause possible collapse of internal platforms and walkways, etc.
Translucent windows allow an X-Com agent to peer inside the UFO.

Starting An Assault

Note: real-time discription
There are two main scenarios for battlescape crash recovery: the aliens are already outside, or the aliens are still inside!
Develop tactics that work for you! ...depending on loadout, agent quantity or type etc. This is only a basic suggestion.

Outside

The UFO crash site is always in terrain which contains alot of trees. Agents walking and cautious will fire on anything hostile and use cover, unless flying. Sweep the battlescape (including the roof when skeletoids are present) to kill off any surprises. Locate the doors...

Inside

...at first opportunity, throw a primed proximity mine near each door. Poppers love proximity mines! One door is commonly in a trench, so position your agents on the ridge on both sides of the door, however if not in a trench, position your agents in a large semi-circle facing the door and wait for the mine to go off. When the commotion starts, throw a stun grenade where the door was and kill any that try to escape the cloud. Keep refreshing the stun gas cloud to diminish any smoke grenade effect. When it the initial rush of aliens slows, kill the stunned via forced fire which are not needed for research (with agents that need experience) or stand on the alien body to 'save it' for live recovery. Careful of wounded Poppers! If no more aliens are willing to ~~get killed~~ exit the craft, use Cautious Attitude (green) and Walk then enter the UFO. A motion scanner is useful. Find the chrysalis or eggs and you should find the rest of them. Usually when there are no coccoons or eggs, all aliens will exit their craft.

No Movement?

It is possible that the route to the outside is blocked by Chrysalises or Multiworm Eggs within the corridors. If a proxity mine is active and no aliens are exiting the craft (time estimation only: 5minutes Real-Time or 20turns Turn-Based), then use a grenade to destroy the active mine so that access to the door is safe or breech the hull or roof.

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Previous: Engage The Enemy
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Strategies for Troops (Apocalypse)

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