Base Defense (Apocalypse)

How to defensively build and protect your base when under attack by an invading ground force.

Important: Immediately defend a newly purchased X-Com base by moving a heavily armed X-Com agent(s) to the building. They will be visiting the building and must carry all their equipment and bulk ammo when acting as a base garrison.

Hostile Intent

An X-com base targeted for destruction by any hostile ground force will immediately start a battlescape Base Defense mission. Agents and any technical personel will come under attack. If all your units are neutralised (panicked, stunned, mind-controlled, killed, or escaped), the mission is a failure and the base is destroyed, including the available 'base slot'.

Invaders

The main entry into a base will be through the access lift. If vehicle repair bays are present, invaders will also appear within.

• Aliens will be inserted by a UFO hovering above the home-cell in the same fashion as any other infiltration attempt. The infestation squad will be similar to the aliens typically aboard the type of UFO. The larger the craft, the larger the infiltration force!
  
• Hostile organisations will attempt to destroy an X-Com base without any warning! There is no way to stop such action. A defensive layout of security stations and facilities will reduce X-Com losses, if any.
• Any organisation attempting an base assault will use their own defence forces.

Megapol will use Police.

Cult Of Sirius will use Cultists.

Gangs will use Gangsters.

Mega-Primus organisations will use Corporate Hoods instead of their own Building Security.

Hoods are hoodlums, thugs, junkies, criminals, hustlers, homeless bums, hookers, drug dealers, pimps, gang-bangers, street trash, hooligans, vandals, goons, villians, punks, someone named ester, crooks, mobsters, bandits, etc.

Layout

Disregarding the Cityscape aspect of location and building type, the layout of the corridors surrounding the Access Lift determines the ease of defending the base, and its most suitable operational objective. Large open areas surrounding a centrally positioned access lift will be more difficult to defend (limited effectiveness and cover of security stations) than a layout with an access lift located in an isolated area or single corridor.

Security Stations

Using Security Stations is vital to limit the invaders chance to explore your base for vunerable personel and damage to facilities. A single base is limited to using three security stations at any one time. More than three, the active stations are randomly chosen at mission start. As a battlescape mission progresses, a station may be so significantly damaged that the lower section becomes a crater from multiple large explosions, blocking all movement for all ground-based entities.

Access Isolation

Invaders will gain entry to the base via facilities which open out to the cityscape: the Access Lift and Vehicle Repair Bays. Security stations placed adjacent to the lift in a choke-point fashion or cross-fire orientation may inflict heavy damage quickly on invaders, destroying their morale.

Personel Limits

A base defense battlescape has a total X-Com unit limit of thirty of the maximum of thirty-six slots.
If a base has a large population, the pool of agents and technical personel are chosen randomly: agents are assigned a third to half of the unit slots with the rest being filled until the total limit. An agent will always be available from the population.

Stand-Off Tactics

The security stations are your first line of defence. Leave them to deal with any hostiles.

• Do not garrison the security station with your own troops on the upper platform section. The whole room may suffer extensive damage.
• Wait for hostiles to make it past security stations. Don't attract their attention until the turrets are no longer firing or have been disabled.
  
• If the security facility has sustained damage to the walkways and stairs, hostiles may be prevented from moving past.
• Hostiles moving throughout the base take the most direct path to wherever they are going. Placing armed proximity mines in these areas pre-emptively could eliminate any stragglers who made it past the security stations. Mines placed in doorways will detonate when flying units come down to get through. To avoid proximity mines with your own agents: micro-manage their movement to 'take the other door' or 'move up the far side of the corridor', etc. If Boomeroids are used, that thoroughfare is now off limits to X-Com - plan your movement carefully around such devices since they will move about (overhead view, purple dot).
  
• When hostiles are approaching from a side corridor, throw boomeroids forward (set bomb, don't RMB-throw) into the corner to get the bomb to jump immediately towards approaching entities ...otherwise don't since your retreat and regroup will be painful. Don't Get Hurt!
  
• Enhance the power of a live proximity mine by thowing an unarmed high explosive next to it, but within its detection range.
• A Power Sword can make one-wide shortcut through the concrete walls. Cut away high up to stop enemy ground forces using the new corridor. The only threat will be Skeletoids since they can fly.
• If the layout allows or your base is sparse, multiple unused corridors in a line is a death zone for hostiles since manual fire (select agent, hold shift) past the unseen hostiles towards a far wall (depending on the weapon over-shoot) will hit anything in the way.
  
• Destroying ramps and stairs inside the repair bays completely stops ground units one-way, but your ground-based troops must now jump off the ledge to preceed the other way.
  
• Defensive craters in a corridor to remove flanking opportunities for enemy units is a very desperate tactic.
  
• Hostiles grouped around their dead friends is an easy target for a thrown grenade to set off the dropped ordinance.
• Scientists and Engineers are helpless when faced with a hostile unit. Avoid exposing them to any deadly threat whatsoever (eg: weapon overshoot) by moving them into the farthest sections of the base away from the access lift or repair bays. Destroying the route towards their hiding place (explosives or cutting) to isolate them will prevent the advance of hostiles.
• If the base layout allows and there are multiple paths to the access lift, avoid the main fight to reach the access lift to attempt an escape ...is a dangerous and desperate tactic to save some technical personel.
• Trying to save those dropped exotic items for new research or to sell, is not the priority... it is Base Defense!.

Theft Of Funds

Funds may be stolen due to the presence of invaders. Base facilities damaged are automatically repaired at the end which may further impact funds into a negative amount.

Building Garrison And Transfers

Troops moved to newly purchased base (see above: Important) will still be visiting after the living quarters is built. To allow these defenders to become members of the base, they must be transfered to it (by using Transfer Screen or by manual delivery).
If a living quarters has available space, any manually delivered agents (ie: use your own craft to transport the agents, then move them off and into the base) will automatically allow them to become members of this base however, if an agent has walked to this base (used the people tubes), this agent will be visiting irrelevant if living space is available. They must either be specifically transferred to this base or use a vehicle for manual delivery (as mentioned above).

• Agents who are visiting do not use training, medical, psi-gym, etc. They don't belong to the base.
• Using your own craft (ie: manual delivery) instead of using Transtellar's Autotaxi service, will lessen any risk to your agents and is faster.
• Technical personel cannot be manually moved with a vehicle. They can only be relocated by using the Transfer button, and only by walking or using a taxi.

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