User:Amitakartok

In case anyone's wondering, amitakartok translates roughly into whateveryouwant in Hungarian. It's origin: when I registered at a site several years ago, the appropriate answer for the question "What should be your nickname?" seemed to be "whatever you want" and I started to like it. I use that as a universal nick on every registering and even in Garry's Mod (though it's a pity gmod doesn't have a Chryssalid NPC downloadable, that would be awesome XD).

My philosophy regarding soldiers: keep losses at minimum. One or two rookie is OK, three sergeants isn't. In that case, reload ASAP (why the hell they didn't put loading into battlescape?!). For this reason, my armor distribution is this: rookies have to become squaddies to earn armor. Officers get the latest equipment, e.g. Power/Flying suits. Also, in Cydonia every soldier is armed with Flying suits.

Regarding game series: if I have more than one title of a series, I play them sequentially to keep with the feeling and storyline. For example, I won't play TFTD until right after finishing the first X-COM. After TFTD, I'd like to go to Interceptor (it's X-COM4, but third in the timeline) (though I have to get it first; maybe Steam can help?), then at Apoc... you name it.

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... Plus a colonel with a HL is an excellent sniper!
• 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.

I recently got attacked by a Muton retaliation battleship. Those bastards, they kept shooting Blasters onto my hovertank, wiping out half of my standing forces and severely damaging the module so I had to start over for numerous times. Why? Even if I won, I would lost about 75% of my base because of the General Store being nuked and collapsed. Finally I had enough and turned to XcomUtil. Turning blasters into stun launchers then advancing with two rookies and a hovertank is a very pleasant sight! And about the hovertank: you keep saying that the Firestorm is needed for building hovertanks, right? Well, this is my second hovertank and I didn't even begin researching UFO Navigation yet! Bug?

Present ('99 July) techs:

• Have two bases: starting one in Europe, expansion base in US under construction (no defenses yet, because without interceptions there is no retaliation).
• Team composition: 6 troopers with laser rifle, 2 with heavy laser (heavy plasma when I get there), one with super-heavy weapon (blaster when I get one, currently unarmed), one tech trooper (medkits, later psi-amp) and a Hovertank/Plasma (I don't plan on switching to Hovertank/Launcher because they're too weak: surely they have some serious damage, but very limited ammo).
• Lost one of the Interceptors to a Supply Ship (it was armed with a plasma and a laser), replacement in the exp. base.
• Repelled one base attack. Races sighted: sectoids, floaters and mutons (latter attacked me).
• Haven't lost any sponsors yet.

• Currently I have embarked to a terror mission in Chicago. I hope it isn't snakemen... Update: what the hell?! the mission ended just as it started! oh well, that's +48 points for me and 1500 less for the aliens.
• That hyperwave decoder was finally completed. Heh, the floaters are pretty pissed: they keep sending scouts to find my base and keep geting shot down by Interceptor-2. Not to mention those Sectoid scouts who are trying to build a base right on my doorstep. Fools...
• I have lost two sponsors so far: Brazil and Australia. One of the South American bases is already destroyed (it was floater, easy as pie), I have the other to tackle, plus the Australian one (which I don't know where it is, the Interceptors keep running out of fuel while patrolling and they can't keep up with Supply Ships either).
• Completely intact Sectoid Abductor: motherload! 100 ELERIUM!!! :D Really, I have about 500 units of E-115 in stores so this batch is welcome. On the other hand, my stores are overflowing but from what? Maybe from that >1100 units of alien alloys? (I hear you ask: why do I have so much? The answer is, with the mortality rate of ~0.9 soldier/mission, I need a constant stream of personal armors as well as rookies. Recently I got some extra, because officers are privileged to use new equipment; in this case, Power Suits.)
• HELP!!! I got stuck. I've got a terror site in Southeast Asia. As soon as the transport reaches Chinese airspace, I detect a retaliation Battleship heading for my base defended by two injured soldiers (Battleship parameters: max altitude, max speed, retaliation mission while making a beeline towards the base)! What should I do: press on attacking the terror site or bear the -1500 score penalty and defend the base? Battle plans:
  • Plan A: attack the terror site while defending against the retaliators (the base is undefended and the attackers are floaters; still, 2 against over a dozen, that's too much). If the base falls, the transport will be lost because I have 13 days until the secondary hangar in Phoenix come online.
  • Plan B: abandon the site and defend the base. In this case, the defense combined with two base assaults should yield enough points to negate that -1500, no?

The source is probably this: after I killed an Abductor (yet again...), I had a Small Scout snooping around the base. It overflew the base several times while I waited for the Interceptor to rearm those Plasma Cannons. Solution: always leave one Interceptor at home to defend against incoming retaliator scouts.

UPDATE: Dilemma solved. Tried to load a month earlier save, didn't help. So I ignored the terror site, but the base defense mission and two base assaults yielded several thousands of points, so I'm in Nov and had three consecutive months of Excellent rating. Hangar in secondary base got online, so I have swapped some squaddies with rookies to train them and increase my battle strength.

'99 Nov:

• Two bases, one full and one interception base.
• Currently researching Heavy Plasma. Next will be Psi-Amp or UFO Nav.
• One colonel, six sergeants, rest is mainly squaddies with a few rookies (they drop like flies). So far lost over a dozen soldiers and four tanks.
• Encountered over 160 UFOs, three base defenses and seven base assaults.
• Saw one thing I never saw before: three aliens killed by friendly fire!