Introduction

I'm Kpov and I've played UFO: Enemy Unknown (X-COM) a fair amount over the years. Recently I found the 1-Mission X-COM page by Arrow Quivershaft and it was very different and quite fun to play.

I put together the following guide on the battleship assault after playing it on Veteran a second time.

How to Capture Battleship Crew with Rookies – A Walkthrough with Screencaps

Introduction

In 1-Mission X-COM you have a single Battleship Ground assault to bring back aliens and technology home for research. The hardest part is ensuring capture of The Minimum Three. The extremely limited range of Stun Rods can mean a outdoor stun assault is a hopeless cause. Rookies will get shredded before closing the distance against aliens armed with Heavy Plasma.

This high-speed saturate-and-storm strategy that has been shown to work with modest losses, allowing the capture of every alien still inside the battleship at turn 4.

Prerequisites

Skyranger at a landed Battleship site. Most commonly you can find these on an Alien Infiltration mission in formation with another Battleship, a Supply Ship and a small UFO.
In the Skyranger, 14 soldiers, each with Laser Rifle, Smoke Grenade, Stun Rod and an Electro-flare in case it's a night mission.
Optionally consider issuing Medi-Kits or High Explosive to Rookies with high Strength.
Fully constructed Alien Containment facility.

Notes

Capturing the Commander, Leader and Navigator alive is the only priority.
Muton Battleships apparently do not contains Leaders or Commanders so dust-off if you encounter one.
Odds are 3 to 6 soldiers will be killed in the assault.
Shooting any aliens outside the Battleship is allowed and encouraged.
The high-ranking aliens are almost certain to be inside the Battleship when you follow the rush tactics here.

Battleship Layout

Ground
Middle deck
Command deck
Roof

Turn 1

Deploy one soldier to look around for nearby enemies, eliminate any seen.
In this case a single Chryssalid was spotted, taken out with several Auto shots.
Throw a Smoke Grenade outside to cover deployment of all soldiers out of the Skyranger.

Turn 2

A point man should move ahead as far ahead as possible and a smoke grenade should be used to cover this position.
2-3 soldiers should be deployed to clear the surroundings.
The other 10 should press on for the access lift after shooting any enemies spotted.
Here a Chryssalid was spotted, too far away for it to present a danger in the next turn, so it was not fired on this turn.

Turn 3

Any enemies spotted should be dealt with using the Laser Rifles.
Throw a smoke grenade forward between the engine pods. This will cover the men in their push forward.
The squad advance as far as possible, standing at the edge of an engine pod.
Continue to sweep perimeter with team, in this case a Snakeman was spotted but was not hit by fire.

Turn 4

Move the squad to stack up between the pods near the lift.
Any aliens outside the UFO should be shot on sight (they are very likely to be mere Soldiers).
Chryssalids or other Terror Units should be executed with extreme prejudice.

Turn 5 – Operation Lift Storm

Take nine soldiers and rush into the turbolift, filling the downstairs. The aliens will now be unable to exit the Battleship.
If there's any alien already downstairs in the lift:

Walk the soldier next to them
Turn to face them
Use the Stun Rod until the alien is stunned
Repeat with another soldier if required.

Move the perimeter team onward to continue clearing.
Soldiers remaining near but not inside the lift should kneel with plenty of Time Units remaining to pick off any aliens loitering around the engine pods in Reaction Fire.

Turn 6

It's stun-only from now on for the soldiers in the lift.
Dump Laser Rifles into the backpack and the Stun Rods in their hands.
Keep the soldiers at the bottom of the lift for the moment.
Slowly advance the remaining outside teams to sweep for stragglers like this Snakeman. If you find any, gun them down unless you're near enough to consider the rod.

Turns 7 to 11 – Heads Up

Time to clear out the middle deck. Aliens from this deck congregate in the four corridors and will advance towards the turbolift on each turn.
Some of the soldiers can probably already see aliens from where they are at the bottom of the turbolift.
Take one soldier and pop up to the middle deck and look down each corridor, identifying targets, and then pop down. This is risky, and your soldier may get shot when going up the lift if they appear in an alien's line of fire.
If aliens are very close to the lift, take another soldier up and try to stun.

Ensure they have enough TUs to get back down to relative safety at the bottom of the lift!

Repeat until the visible enemies are pacified with the Stun Rods.
The sheer number of soldiers in the lift means there is a very good chance to stun multiple enemies in one turn. If you have enough TUs, check to see the rank of the alien stunned by standing over them and going to the Inventory screen.
Complete the outdoors sweep with your remaining teams.

Turn 12

When you can no longer see any aliens down any of the four corridors, it's quite likely the deck is clear.
In any case, if you can't see any aliens on the middle deck, it's then safe to send your soldiers up to the command deck.
Stun any alien upstairs by the lift.
Move the entire assault team up the lift and leave them ready for entry by the sides of the doors.

Turn 13 – Snakeman Stun Sensation

With the squad by the doors, send a soldier out each door to spot any targets.

If in stun range, send as many soldiers their way IMMEDIATELY until they are pacified. The high-ranking aliens may be carrying Blaster Launchers or Alien Grenades.

If an spotted alien is allowed to play out their turn and use explosive weaponry, there's a good chance the mission will prematurely end in complete disaster.
Fan-out to get to positions where you can advance down the corridors the next term.
You may be lucky and grab a Commander and Leader right outside the lift room like this.

Turns 14-16

Advance down the corridors as far as you can each turn and storm the North and South rooms first.
A Navigator is usually right by the bridge at the South.
If you can see an alien but can't get close enough to stun in a given turn you might try throwing a smoke grenade their way to limit their sight range.
Still, you might lose a soldier or two to reaction fire when closing with the Stun Rod, which can't really be avoided if there's a single entrance.
According to Destroying Terrain the security walls on the command deck will not be breached by Laser Rifles, so don't try re-equipping them.

Remaining Turns

With the command deck sweep complete, head back to the lift.
I found a loitering Snakeman here, maybe woken up or had moved up from the middle deck.
Proceed downstairs and back to a through clearance of the middle deck.
At some point, you'll stun the last alien and the mission ends.

Mission Completed

Be sure to see the outstanding Research topics to check you got the Commander, Leader and Navigator!

Conclusion

If you read this far, I'd be interested in any comments or such!

Try the 1-Mission X-COM for a challenge if you haven't already. Kpov 17:13, 1 June 2008 (PDT)

Comments

I'd advise rushing the bridge level and grabbing the top three immediately on reaching the battleship. once you've stunned the top three, who virtually always stay up top, station a guard on each of them, then switch back to laser rifles and sweep the ship.--(name here) 04:10, 2 June 2008 (PDT)

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