Difference between revisions of "Take Cover!"

Revision as of 16:05, 26 April 2022

Battlescape Fighting Tactics - Using Terrain Features

X-Com agents on the battlescape can use the various objects scattered around the landscape to act as a barrier to:

hide behind, to limit expose to enemy fire.
running between soft-cover in a weaving zig-zag to confuse homing projectiles by increasing the chance they hit something in the way.

Cover

Anything on the battlescape can be used to shield your agent in a fire-fight. Some things are more effective than others.

Soft Cover

A terrain feature which is a weak barrier to incoming fire and explosives. Soft cover typically only survives one impact before being destroyed or losing its effectiveness as cover:

Trees alive and dead.
Building rubble.
Furniture.
Glass walls.
Derelict old-style vehicles.
Down pipes.
Support struts.
Alien devices within UFOs.
Unconscious (not dead) entities.

Some soft-cover features may not hide an agent very well, if at all.

Hard Cover

A terrain feature which is a strong barrier to incoming fire and explosives. Hard cover typically survives multiple impacts before being destroyed or losing its effectiveness as cover:

Multi-layer thick walls.
UFO hulls.
Undulating landscapes.

Some hard cover features may be multiple sections of soft-cover features stacked together. eg: walls may contain multiple-tiles-thick sections, but each piece making up the wall could be destroyed with one strong impact.

Visual Cover

A type of temporary cover which only blocks line-of-sight. It does not absorb any impacts.

Grey smoke.
Stun gas.
Alien gas.

No Cover

A moving (run in a zig-zag) target or a smaller (crawling) target is harder to hit.

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+__NOTOC__
+'''Battlescape Fighting Tactics - Using Terrain Features'''
+X-Com agents on the battlescape can use the various objects scattered around the landscape to act as a barrier to:
+* hide behind, to limit expose to enemy fire.
+* running between soft-cover in a weaving zig-zag to confuse homing projectiles by increasing the chance they hit something in the way.
 ==Cover==
-Though this 'guide' was inspired by Apocalypse, it's true that in any X-COM game, you'll want your soldiers to be taking cover to reduce the likelihood of injury and death. As a commander, being able to identify good cover locations for your soldiers and taking advantage of that cover is vital to survival and success.
+Anything on the battlescape can be used to shield your agent in a fire-fight. Some things are more effective than others.
-Cover can be fundamentally divided into two categories, along with two "sort-of" categories;
 ===Soft Cover===
-This is anything that absorbs ''at least one projectile hit of any kind'' and offers partial protection to standing or crouching soldiers. Common forms of soft cover include low walls, fences, bushes and plants, tables and chairs, bus stops, telephone poles, and so on and so forth. Sheet glass and windows don't really count since they're simply see-through walls and tend to break in a single hit, but they work in a pinch.
+A terrain feature which is a weak barrier to incoming fire and explosives. Soft cover typically only survives one impact before being destroyed or losing its effectiveness as cover:
+* Trees alive and dead.
-Soft cover like thin walls can sometimes offer protection from explosions, but don't count on it.
+* Building rubble.
+* Furniture.
-It should be noted that, if alien weapons of any kind are involved, most items that can be seen as Hard Cover are suddenly classified as Soft Cover. Keep this in mind when fighting aliens, or hostiles using alien weaponry.
+* Glass walls.
+* Derelict old-style vehicles.
-====Visual Cover====
+* Down pipes.
-This only offers line-of-sight protection - that is, it prevents enemies from seeing you - and no real protection of any kind against actual attack. To put it simply; smoke grenades and explosions make lingering visual cover.
+* Support struts.
+* Alien devices within UFOs.
-Smoke can be vital for covering an approach or breaking an enemy's line of sight long enough to find better cover if your troops would otherwise be pinned down.
+* Unconscious (not dead) entities.<br>
+Some soft-cover features may not hide an agent very well, if at all.
 ===Hard Cover===
-This is anything that absorbs multiple basic small arms hits like large columns, thick walls, UFO hulls and so on. They often impede explosive shockwaves. Alien ship hulls could be considered 'ultra hard' cover as they often absorb pretty much all infantry-portable weaponry.
+A terrain feature which is a strong barrier to incoming fire and explosives. Hard cover typically survives multiple impacts before being destroyed or losing its effectiveness as cover:
+* Multi-layer thick walls.
-As far as alien weapons are concerned, some items are still hard cover of a sort; buildings, columns and some battlefield objects are composed of multiple pieces that individually act as soft cover, so the structure as a whole can absorb two or three hits.
+* UFO hulls.
+* Undulating landscapes.
-Better than nothing!
+Some hard cover features may be multiple sections of soft-cover features stacked together. eg: walls may contain multiple-tiles-thick sections, but each piece making up the wall could be destroyed with one strong impact.
+===Visual Cover===
-===Explosive Cover===
+A type of temporary cover which only blocks line-of-sight. It does not absorb any impacts.
-The absolute worst kind of item to hide behind: one that explodes when destroyed. If you find your agents are in explosive cover, move them ASAP. These tend to be 'soft cover' as far as many weapons are concerned.
+* Grey smoke.
+* Stun gas.
-On the plus side, they can be used as improvised explosives against enemies that are near them.
+* Alien gas.
+===No Cover===
-==Dropped explosives==
+A [[Controls_(Apocalypse)#Movement|moving]] (run in a zig-zag) target or a smaller (crawling) target is harder to hit.
-Whenever you take cover, be aware of the objects on the ground around your agents. If stray shot or explosion hits a dropped weapon it can trigger a chain reaction of additional explosions from other dropped objects that can reach around cover and inflict serious damage. This is particularly common on Alien ships, as the interiors are often cramped and [[Anthropod|Anthropods]] and [[Skeletoid|Skeletoids]] will litter the ground with explosives when they die.<br>
 [[Tactics_(Apocalypse)|Return to Start]]