Talk:Alien Colony Attack Mission

Alien Colony Assault? Evil!

Don't get hurt, don't get mind controlled, do take it thorough, do throw flares like hot potatoes, do take 30!!!! Don't hand-to-hand Tentaculats, do take 14 soldiers (or more). DO NOT go unless you have Thermic Lance and MC knowledge and Disruptor Pulse Launcher, and do edit this post!

• If you don't have the Thermic Lance and/or DPLs, take Thermal Tazers. Rush the lift, taking out as many aliens as you can (particularly the lift garrison), and be very, very sneaky in the second part - avoid contact as much as possible, stay out of the Lobstermen's line of sight, and whack them from behind with the Thermal Tazers if you can. Also, Ion Armour. Bare minimum protection, Ion Armour.

OK, so I am replaying the game on Veteran with no battlescape game-saving. I've lost 10 killed so far on about 6 missions. It's March and my only alien technology is the Sonic Pulser.

I've detected Alien Colony 1 in the Barents Sea. If I want to attack this colony, I will for the first time in this campaign be going up against Tasoths, Flying Cauliflowers, and Lobstermen. My guys will be armed only with gas cannon and sonic pulsers. I have no armour.

It is probably impossible to load / carry enough GC ammunition to destroy all the aliens I'll encounter. My options appear to be:

1/ attack the top level, loot it, and retire. Repeat when short of money. 2/ attack the top level, access the lower level, ignore everything except the Synomium Device, destroy it and retire. 3/ don't attempt this mission yet.

Tactically I think all I can do is try to get into one or other of the access tunnels that leads into the exit area. This would mean the one to the north, south, or east. Once in there, any oncoming melee attackers will face four shooters, two kneeling two standing. Any attacking from behind will have to cross the minefield of PD grenades they will drop behind themselves. Of course, the risk of MC attack is there all the way through, and very dangerous in a confined space.

Once on the exit grid, I then go to the second level. I would need to send 2 or 3 guys to find the Synomium Device and to destroy it. The other soldiers would provide a moving defensive perimeter, secured with reaction fire and PD grenades. Once the SD is destroyed the whole force would then need to retreat the same way they came.

What does the panel suggest? 4th Cuirassier 09:05, 29 March 2011 (EDT)

Loot and tactics

It is possible to hunt down every single Alien in both stages and dismantle the base without destroying the symonium device. The loot is similar to a dismantled Artefact site. However this is by no means an easy feat(harder and more annoying then a ship lane mission where you can at least systematically comb the level.). The first stage(surface) which always has a similar layout can be considered a warm up. Consider putting one alien unter constant MC while you deal with the rest. Then collect the ammunition to use it during the second stage. Kill the last alien to proceed.

The second stage is the ultimate tactical nightmare. There are 4 levels. Each has a 5x5 (or was it 6x6) basic grid - 2nd stage layout is random. Some modules cover more then one square/cell of the basic grid. The are plenty of interconnections between the levels. So if you form a search line and sweep one level enemies can move in our rear by changing the level using an elevator, stairs or a hole in the ground. Clear level 1 put aquanaut in each cell and then simultaneously move to level 2? Good ideas if there were not these cells/modules which can not be declared clean by one glance because they contain small closets or secondary walls which divide the cell in away that a aquanaut needs a lot of its TU to move from one half to the next and/or secondary walls forming long narrow corridors along the wall - I think you get the picture - perfect tentaculat territory. In my experience these secondary walls limit the usefulness of DPL. It tears down the secondary walls but not everything is rubble if a DPL torpedo hits the center of a room. So even with the large supply pillaged from the first stage one finds oneself hard pressed to shell everything(in order to clean out the obstacles and an tentaculats and soften up the lobsters). This tactic also greatly diminishes you loot. So usually I find my scouts trailing behind my lobster or tentaculat pet going from room to room killing all additional aliens I come across, or switching them for my pet and killing it when its energy runs too low. Meanwhile the MCs huddle together in the staging areas only contributing to the killing with an occasional DPL strike if the situation calls for it. Which it rarely does since it is usually more efficient in terms of TU to take over the offending Alien(s) and have the scout drill it/them later or have them shoot each other. Try to reveal the entire base. Any aliens left at that time should be close to panicking which might help to locate them. However expect the entire endeavor to take plenty of time. If anyone has a good plan/system for a systematic sweep I would be most interested in it.

For the 80 starting items I would mainly pack MC disruptors, tazers/drills, medikits, maybe 2 flares. Everything else can be picked up from the alien corpses. I'm not masochistic enough to attempt a base recovery without 10 MC troopers(MCstr 80+,MCsk 80-100+, TU 75+) and everyone else featuring MCstr 70+. But there is a chance to win every battle(single soldier, termal tazer, no offensiv MC use, diving suit, no reload anyone ;) ) --Tauon 18:58, 11 October 2010 (EDT)

Can you dismantle the base without destroying the Synomium Device? Sure, you just kill all the aliens, although I don't recall ever recovering a Synomium Device as loot.

The challenging aspect of bases is that you can discover them before you have done any MC research (in fact I have won the campaign before now without MC research ever reaching the top of the priority table). This means the top level is very tough, and the survivors then face the Lobsters and Flying Cauliflowers. If you are short of firepower at this stage, the best bet is to send a handful of guys to find and destroy the Synomium Device and then bug out. 4th Cuirassier 09:10, 29 March 2011 (EDT)