User:Amitakartok

I'm not very experienced in X-COM. In fact, I've only finished it once, using the following tactic:

• Starting base at the northern tip of the Scandinavian Peninsula, covering Europe and parts of Russia and Canada.
• First thing was to research Laser Weapons, recruit two more soldiers, build a Tank/Laser and buy a Stun Rod.
• As soon as I could, I stuffed the Skyranger with Laser Rifles. Since using the Rocket Launcher was clumsy and expensive, I relied on a Heavy Laser for fire support. Now, before you start yapping about the Heavy Laser having no autofire and weak accuracy: it's fairly accurate aimed shot is fine for fire support, mainly because one shot can and will kill pretty much anything short of a Cyberdisk, not to mention that Heavy Plasma isn't the best to use against Sectopods...
• When I was able to do so, I sold one Interceptor and started building a Firestorm. The remaining Interceptor was stuffed with dual Plasma Cannons. Once the Firestorm was complete, I sold the second Interceptor and relied entirely on the Firestorm which chased and killed pretty much anything except Battleships. As for them, I had a strict rule: never, EVER, attack a UFO unless you can kill it with impunity. That means Battleships are out of the question.
• The free hangar was used by a Lightning. Before some more yapping, let me enlighten you: small engagements such as assaulting a Large Scout doesn't need HWP support and as such, excellent for training rookies.
• After experiencing some major setbacks (such as losing the US in about June and China in August), I built a small interception base in India to cover that area. Result: 3 more alien bases!!! After rooting them, I started to prepare for Cydonia: I built a hidden base at the South Pole which housed the Avenger under construction. I also started to get equipment for everyone for the coming battle: so far I was using Lasers mainly because of the simple reason that Heavy Plasmas are a bit of overkill and Plasma Rifles are nearly nonexistent in 2001. Once everything was set, first thing to do was rooting the alien base in Antarctica, conveniently right next to mine (their second base there was already downed months ago), as a sort of training. I also attacked and downed a Battleship (finally), but it was over water so I couldn't get anything out of it. After a lenghty repair, I set off to Cydonia with 2 Hovertanks (both plasma) and as many soldiers as I can get, all in Flying Suits and Plasma weapons (except a Psi-Amp and a Blaster). This military buildup all but exhausted my Elerium stocks: one more training mission would set me back for months until I would aquire enough Elerium so time was of the essence! XD

As for now, I have started another session with the restriction that I only attack Cydonia when I have full intelligence on the aliens; in other words, full UFOpaedia, which could take a while.