XCOM EW Impossible Ironman Guide Contact me at roboemperor@hotmail.com if you have questions Last Updated on 12/14/2016 Table of Contents 1.0 Maps 2.0 Classes 2.1 Sniper 2.2 Heavy 2.3 Assault 2.4 Support 2.5 MEC 3.0 Early Game (1st month) Strategies 3.1 Moving Hunker 3.2 Caterpillar Crawl 3.3 Border Skim 3.4 Mind Meld Exploitation 3.5 Focus Fire 3.6 Shoot and Smoke 3.7 Bullet swarm and hunker 3.8 Surprise! 3.9 Fall Back 3.10 Fodder 3.11 Overwatch Camping 4.0 Mid Game Strategies (2nd month+) 4.1 Hunker and Snipe 4.2 Lobbing an ungodly amount of grenades. 4.3 Mimetic Skin Abuse 4.4 Flaming MECs 5.0 Game Ending Strategies 5.1 Unending SHIV Onslaught 5.2 Two Snipers + Anything 5.3 Sniper MEC Squad 5.4 Ghost Grenade 5.5 Carpet Bomb 5.6 Assault Rain 6.0 Walkthrough 6.1 1st Month 6.2 2nd Month 6.3 3rd Month 6.4 4th Month 6.5 5th Month 7.0 Miscellaneous Tips 8.0 Alien Specific Strategies 1.0 Maps The maps you get in your 1st month will determine how easy your impossible ironman experience will be, or if you'll even get past the 1st month. The reason for this dependence on map draw is because you have absolutely no long-range capability so you will lose in every map that prevents you from safely closing the distance. After the 1st month (specifically after your 1st squadsight sniper) maps become completely irrelevant because every map becomes winnable. Check out the strategy section for more details. General rule of thumb: 1. If a map has 1 building in the middle with a low rooftop (you can see the square right under you when you go to the edge), the map is winnable and is an easy map. 2. If a map has lots of buildings with SOLID WALLS instead of MASSIVE AMOUNT OF WINDOWS the map is also winnable and is easy. If the building does have massive amount of windows, it's a hard map. 3. If a map has high rooftops (can't see the square right under you when you go to the edge) map is a medium difficulty map because this essentially makes the rooftop useless. The map may have low rooftops nearby but usually they are too far for you to reach without fighting several squads of aliens. 4. If a map has no buildings, it's a hard map, such as cemeteries, outdoors, construction sites, and bridges. Very good chance you will lose in this map and a damn right guarantee to suffer heavy losses if you do manage to win. Having said that, I do win these maps more often than not however, I always have 1-2 casualties unless I am very lucky. 5. If the map has a train, it is downright #%*@#ing impossible and you should swear out loud many, many times and restart. I'm talking about the train yard with the thousand trains and the train station with the monorail or sky train or whatever it is. God damn I hate those two maps so *$#@ing much. There is one train map that is medium difficulty. Basically the map is divided in 2, one high ground where you start with a building, and the other lower ground. That one is ok, unless for some reason one group of aliens spawn on top of the building instead of inside, then you are screwed. 2.0 Classes 2.1 Sniper The most important class. He is your salvation. He is your god! He is the single most important person in the game! If he dies, restart! Unless of course, you've reached one of the game ending strategies, but seriously, squadsight snipers are the only way you will survive until you reach said strategies. 4 missions and 8 kills will get you squadsight. You need a squadsight sniper by the end of the 1st month, or at the very least, end of the 1st mission in the 2nd month. Here is the recommended build 1. Headshot - Spam this. If a enemy has 4 or more hp, headshot because sniper rifle shots often only do 3 damage. 2. Squadsight - The defining ability of this class. This ability is the ability that literally wins you the game. Snapshot on the other hand turns your sniper into a subpar assault. 3.Damn Good Ground - Gunslinger is good. It basically turns your pistol into an assault rifle. Ultimately damn good ground is better for the following reasons. a. End-game archangel armor snipers are game enders, and Damn Good Ground benefits these snipers immensely. b. Early-Game grenades and pistols are more than sufficient. If an enemy survives an attack from your soldiers, he will only have 1-2 hp left. c. After early game snipers rarely get into close range combat. They should be at the corner of the map (literally) or on top of a cliff or rooftop. 4. Disabling Shot - Disabling shot lets you capture aliens more easily AND they STOP SECTOPOD OVERWATCH. In fact, THEY DISABLE A SECTOPOD FOR AN ENTIRE TURN, and let me tell you about sectopods, in impossible difficulty these guys can withstand 1-2 turns of full barrages from your entire 6 man squad and 2 shot everyone. I seriously get this ability just for sectopods. Seriously, after playing one terror mission where 4 Sectopods wander into you, you'll know what I'm saying. Battle Scanner lets you scout ahead, which is invaluable early game but late game you will either kill all aliens the moment you see them or have a mimetic skin soldier scouting for you so it becomes obsolete. 5. Opportunist - There's nothing amazing about opportunist. You will rarely use this. Executioner on the other hand is just horrible. If an enemy is less than 50% health, a sniper can kill him without executioner so grab opportunist. 6. Low Profile - Allows you to go to the edge of a rooftop and hunker down without risk of getting shot. Becomes obsolete before you get it but it does make snipers the best mimetic skin users. 7. Double Tap - In my impossible ironman experience, I never found in the zone remotely useful. It is only useful if you have a heavy that rockets at least 3 aliens at once and the aliens don't have massive amounts of hp. Your biggest problems end-game are heavy mutons and sectopods and even with double tap these guys are hard to bring down. In the zone-ing these guys is a pipe dream. All other aliens should be a joke at this point so definitely double tap. Generally I start training my 2nd squadsight sniper after I get squadsize one. Never have more than 1 sniper in training in your squad unless it's a small UFO crash because the risk is not worth it. 2.2 Heavy Heavies are what gets you through the 1st month. After the 1st month they become less and less useful as enemies with higher hps start appearing. They are more useful than assaults and supports but unless you're going the "carpet bomb" end game strategy, don't bother leveling this guy up. In my opinion heavies peak at sergeant rank. 1. Fire Rocket - The best abilities heavies have. Your saving grace of the 1st month. 2. Bullet Swarm - This lets you shoot then hunker down, basically allowing you to shoot once every turn without any penalties or drawbacks. Holo-targeting boosts your other squad member's shots but bulletswarm's double shot boosts your hit chance from 67% to 89% or 47% to 72% mathematically speaking. 3. Shredder Rocket - I have never used suppression in my entire XCOM career. Early game the massive 4 damage AoE cover remover is better than a 30% accuracy dropper. Late game having something that can remove cover without taking up an item slot is better than suppression especially since in Impossible difficulty aliens have no problem killing your soldiers in low cover even under suppresion. 4. Heat Ammo - Heat Ammo lets you 1 shot those god damn annoying seekers. God I hate seekers. Rapid Reaction is horrible. Heavies have horrid accuracy, and with the overwatch penalty, it's a miracle if they land a hit. Heat ammo also lets you do more damage with rockets and grenades against the more serious threats such as sectopods, mechtoids, and cyberdiscs. 5. Danger Zone - No contest. If you ever see the massive aoe of a heavy's rocket with danger zone, you'll agree with me. With tactical rigging, you have plenty of grenades anyways and even if you don't, danger zone will let you hit 1 more alien with the rocket, which is definately better than a grenade. Also, danger zone allows you to hit aliens that are on the ground when you shoot a rocket above them, allowing your heavies to launch rockets and flying floaters or from the middle of a rooftop wihtout going to the edge. 6. Will to Survive - Drones will do 0 damage to you. Not a bad ability but is rendered moot against the aliens you fight when you get this. Don't ever use strategies that rely on your soldiers to take damage. 7. Rocketeer - Additional rocket = additional long range cover blaster. Also, Mayhem gives only a grand total of 3 DAMAGE! ONLY! So... two 9 damage rockets v.s. one 12 damage rocket... 2.3 Assault Expendable Tank class. Assaults can get strong. They can get tanky enough to reliably survive one or two shots and they can get strong enough to one shot most aliens at melee range but they're not strong enough to win you the game and you can easily beat the game without using these guys which earns them their "expendable" title. Having an assault with lightning reflexes is always handy and with rapid fire their damage output is almost on par with snipers but assaults are not essential so don't be afraid to sacrifice them to win a mission. Assault Rifle v.s. Shotgun - Assault Rifle in the 1st month, Shotgun from the 2nd month, and whichever does more damage based on your weapon research. Although it is nice to see an assault run up and slaughter a mind melding sectoid, assaults almost always will trigger an additional squad. After tactical rigging however, grenades will become your "long" range attack option so shotguns are better then. 1. Run & Gun - This makes the assault the "close range sniper" because he can run a long way to blast enemies point blank, but once again, this will almost always trigger more groups so best to not use it until you wipe out at least half the aliens on the map. 2. Aggression - On normal, you could Run & Gun behind low cover and Tactical Sense can save you from the alien group you just triggered. On Impossible, not a chance. Besides this also boosts your assault rifle crit chance, making it on par with your shotgun's critical chance. 3. Lightning Reflexes - Unlike you, enemy's overwatch shots have a very good chance to hit. This is the only reliable way of canceling enemy overwatch shots in short of killing them, allowing you to move your troops up to grenade the enemy. Close and personal would be good if and only if it worked with Run & Gun, but it doesn't, so it's crap. 4. Rapid Fire - Hands down, no contest. Doubles your damage output, and you can use it after you move or Run & Gun. Flush isn't bad, it's main use is when an alien is in full cover, you put your entire squad on overwatch and flush him. It's just that Flush can't compete with rapid fire. 5.Bring Em On - Rarely would an enemy get within 4 tiles of you. Almost always it'll be you who approaches the aliens at that close range. Bring Em On synergizes well with your crazy high shotgun crit rate and your crit rate boosting abilities. 6. Extra Conditioning - Don't let this fool you, this still does not make this guy tanky enough to tank more than 1 hit. 7. Resilience - Resilience is the safer choice. Assaults with resilience can survive up to 2 hits from powerful aliens, and getting flanked by an alien is not that big of a deal anymore, but without killer instinct, you cannot land a critical hit reliably on robot aliens. So make your choice, if you're good enough to kill all aliens before they can shoot back, go killer instinct. Otherwise get resilience. 2.4 Support Fodder class. Completely utterly useless fodder class. In fact, these guys are literally marginally better than rookies. I throw these guys away like trash. If someone has to take a bullet, it's this guy. Check the "fodder" strategy on how to properly use these guys. They are however the best ghost grenade users (can carry 4!), so it's not the worst idea to have 1 in your squad late-game, but early game definitely treat them like the trash they are. 1. Smoke Grenade - Basically allows your entire team a free shot at the enemy, provided that all your soldiers are behind full cover. Check early game strategies for more detail. 2. Sprinter - Overwatch shots are a hail mary. They almost never ever hit so covering fire is out. Sprinter lets this guy flank and scout better. 3. Smoke and Mirrors - I don't use medkits. They take up valuable inventory slots which are better used for GHOST GRENADES, scopes, or chitin plating. Smoke and Mirrors don't take up inventory slots, and Ghost Grenades are infinitely better than medkits because invincibility trumps healing anyday. Also, if 1 smoke grenade = 1 free shot for each squad member, 3 smoke grenades = 3 free shots for each squad member. 4. Rifle Suppression - Don't get revive unless you have secondary heart on all your squad members because your troops die more often than getting wounded. That and the will loss makes this not viable. On the other hand, colonel assaults with secondary heart will make revive amazing as half their hp is more than what a medkit can heal, and this allows you to send in your assaults in with reckless abandon. 5. Dense Smoke - No contest. Full cover when in no cover? Hunkered down cover when you're just shooting? Combat Drugs is absolutely pathetic. You should have no will troubles at this point in the game with the officer training school upgrade "lead by example." The 10% crit rate bonus is a joke. 6. Deep Pockets - Makes the support the ideal arc thrower and Ghost Grenade user. This is literally the only ability that makes supports worth a soldier slot lategame. 7. Sentinel - Again, I don't use medkits so sentinel. Don't expect sentinel to do anything because like I said overwatch shots are hail maries, unless of course, it's from a sniper. Why are medkits bad? The game is designed so that not taking hits is better than healing after hits. If a soldier gets hit, he will be in the infirmary for an astronomical amount of time even if you completely heal him with medkits so its better to use your precious item slots for items that prevent damage rather than heal. Grenades helps you kill an entire squad of aliens which prevents them from hitting you. Smoke Grenades prevent your squad from getting hit, and each hit they prevent is much more than how much a medkit can heal you for, especially later in the game. Endgame ghost grenades provide a turn of invincibility for your entire squad which is better than a 10 or 12 hp heal. All these facts put together conclusively demonstrates that medkits are the worst items you can put on a support at all points of time in the game. The sole exception is when most of your squad is made up of assaults with secondary heart. Why are supports bad? In XCOM early game, offense is the best defense. Killing an entire alien squad in one turn is the best way to keep your soldiers alive. Assaults and heavies can kill an alien in their turn. Supports can't. Bringing a second assault or heavy in lieu of a support can give you enough firepower to kill an entire alien squad in one turn. Supports are only worth the space they take up in your squad when you get ghost grenades. In all other cases SHIVs, Heavies, MECs, Assaults, and Snipers are immeasurably better which is why Supports suck early game and you should trash them for a second heavy or assault at the first chance you get. 2.5 MEC Trooper Body Shield - Best ability. It's nothing amazing but the rest of the abilities are worse. Distortion field - The best way to use it is to put your MEC out of line of sight but next to a soldier in full cover but a 10 defense increase won't save you so it's still better to hunker your soldier down than rely on this ability. Platform Stability - In order to utilize Platform Stability you need to take a hit first so this is not optimal. Shock-Absorbent Armor - This ability is just bad. You should never, ever, ever get hit by a melee alien, ever. I can't remember the last time even a chryssalid landed a hit on me. I usually turn my supports into MECs because snipers, assaults, and heavies are just too precious to turn into MECs. I turn snipers into MECs if I have like 4 of them in my barracks. I don't need that many snipers, and squaddie snipers are deadweight. 1. Collateral Damage - Amazing! Blows up cover AND CARS!!! Too many times I blew up cars with 2 grenades, killing 6 hp thin men with 12 damage but not anymore with this guy. Also blowing up cover makes focus fire strategy amazing, and is practically a guaranteed sniper shot. Only problem is it's insane ammo consumption. You won't pull it off more than once in a fight. Good thing MECs have a ton of abilities other than their main weapon. 2. Advanced Fire Control - Automated Threat Assessment is just bad. The only time I found it useful is when my body shield kinetic strike MEC fell a few tiles short of an alien in full cover. A shot would definitely miss so I use this to increase my chance of not getting shot, but then a MEC should have other options like flamethrower, grenade, etc so never ever get Automated Threat Assessment. Also, Automated Threat Assessment ends when the MEC takes an overwatch shot. 3. Vital Point Targeting - Let's see... 2 more damage on everything, or 2 less damage on the 2nd shot you receive. I generally don't get hit more than once so you shouldn't either. That and the 2 damage can be the difference between 1 shot kill and 2 shot kill. 4. Jet Boot Module - This ability lets your MEC get on top of rooftops. One for all turns your MEC into a bullet magnet who can't use arm weapons. I think this is a no brainer. 5. Expanded Storage - Restorative Mist heals 6, 8 if you have a medal, and is AOE, so there is no benefit of repair servos here. Grenade Launcher users would also prefer an extra grenade over 6hp. 6. Overdrive - MECs who used to be Colonel Snipers thrive off this ability. Using either restorative mists or ghost grenades (or both!), they can shrug off a barrage from an alien squad and retaliate of overwhelming force. 7. Reactive Targeting Sensors - I usually go 1 MEC or 6 MECs. If I go 1 MEC, I can afford the MEC-3 which makes Absorption Fields useless. If I go 6 MECs, I'm doing the Sniper MEC Squad in which case Reactive Targeting Sensors is much, much better. If you are however, ridiculously short on Meld due to heavy genetic mod usage, then get Absorption Field MEC-1s or MEC-2s. MEC-1 Early Game Flamethrower - Get this for your mid game MEC. Kinetic strike requires foundry upgrades to be superior to the flamethrower. Having said that, end-game make your new MECs kinetic strike even if you're going the carpet bomb strategy. You can get Kinetic Strike early game and still do fine if you don't plan on switching MECs, but flamethrowers are much better and safer earlygame because a. At melee range, no alien can survive your minigun blast so the extra damage from kinetic strike is pointless b. Flamethrowers have longer range and AoE, allowing you to approach and kill 2/3 aliens in a group. c. Like shotguns, getting in close range with for kinetic strike will almost always trigger more aliens. The only thing Kinetic Strike does better than flamethrowers early game is killing Chryssalids and zombies. MEC-2 Grenade Launcher - XCOM's game mechanics make it a necessity that you build your team so that they kill all aliens before they have a chance to shoot you. Grenades help that by destroying cover while doing AoE damage while Restorative Mists don't. If however your MEC used to be Colonel Sniper go Restorative Mists because your MEC will do so much damage with his gun at 100% accuracy even against full cover aliens, he should never waste a turn throwing a grenade. MEC-3 Proximity Mines - Both suck but at least this can be combo'd with grenades from other MECs or heavies. Only robotic enemy I have trouble with is the Sectopod but I can't get in range to use Electro Pulse without getting hit by an overwatch shot, and even if I land one, I am in range of the Sectopod's death explosion, and moving out of range of the explosion will result in the MEC getting hit by another overwatch shot, so this ability is truly worthless. Personally I never get MEC-3s. The benefits are not worth the MELD cost. NOTE: Electro Pulse does not break invisibility from ghost grenades, but that doesn't change anything. If you use a ghost grenade, then your entire team is invincible meaning you don't need to land an Electro Pulse, and next turn you should have enough firepower to kill the Sectopod with Overdrive which means once again Electro Pulse is worthless. ***IMPORTANT*** What new players don't realize is MECs and SHIVs' strength is in numbers. Because they can't use cover, MEC's only defense is an overwhelming offense. Either blast every alien or none. Because of this, comboing MECs with soldiers who don't rush the aliens is a bad idea. You want to wipe out all the aliens before they get a chance to shoot you back. That's why 3 SHIVs are amazing while 1 SHIV is dead weight because if your soldiers fail to kill the aliens because they missed their shot, the SHIV will die on the alien's turn. So get a lot of MECs/SHIVs and flamethrower/minigun all the aliens before they get a chance to shoot back or don't use MECs/SHIVs at all. If you are dead-set on getting only 1 MEC for your squad, then wait until you get a squad-size upgrade. 3.0 Early Game (1st month) Strategies Your options are very, very limited and as such these strategies are not anything special however, utilizing these strategies is your best chance at making it to the 2nd month. 3.1 Moving Hunker It's obvious what this is but it's good to have a word for it so I don't have to describe it every time. You just move your entire team from heavy cover to heavy cover and hunker down. Important! Your entire team must hunker or do an action. Never hunker if one of your squad members does an action because aliens will target him. You're only strong as your weakest link. The exception to this rule is that if the guy who did the action is at the back of your squad and out of range. Then your aliens will not advance into range due to your wall of hunkering soldiers. 3.2 Caterpillar Crawl First you move all of your soldiers in a line. Then the soldier at the front moves forward without dashing, and the rest of your soldiers follow behind him. This is how you will be moving the entire game. Do NOT form your troops in a square. The purpose of this crawl is so that the 3 soldiers tailing behind the leader only moves into "safe spots" that don't trigger alien groups. 3.3 Border Skim. 1st turn dash all your troops to the nearest edge of the map. 2nd turn start catterpillar crawling until you reach a rooftop, back of a building with no windows nearby, or you trigger an alien group. If there is a low rooftop on the map I exhaust my entire explosive supply on the first or second alien groups I encounter. Don't need explosives to win fights while on a rooftop while fighting not on a rooftop will most often result in your loss. 3.4 Mind Meld Exploitation Basically you trigger a group, do the moving hunker, and next turn grenade/rocket the mind melder. If the group of aliens is 3, pray to god your other squad members kill him or he doesn't kill you on his turn. It's not as bad as it sounds though, often times they run away out of your sight and come back a few turns later. Do not underestimate this strategy, as this strategy is your salvation in the 1st month when you trigger multiple groups at once. I once had a heavy kill 8 sectoids at once with this strategy when I accidentally triggered 3 groups at the same time. I generally always use this strategy against every group I encounter because if a sectoid mind melds, then they are basically halving the number of troops they have. A 4 v.s. 10 fight becomes a 4 v.s. 6 fight, 2 grenades kill 2 sectoids, and you get weapon fragments. 3.5 Focus Fire Have your entire team shoot an alien in low or no cover. More often than not this will kill him. Combo with moving hunker. Only use this in 4 vs 1 scenarios or 4 vs 2. 4 vs 2 is risky because if you fail to kill, you might lose the map. Don't use this against an alien in full cover unless on a rooftop. 3.6 Shoot and Smoke Basically you have your entire team behind full cover, shoot, then pop a smoke grenade. Nothing fancy. I use this if I'm out of rockets and grenades. 3.7 Bullet swarm and hunker Usually your second long range combat option next to shoot and smoke since your heavy will get more kills than your sniper. Just move your heavy to full cover and hunker, shoot and hunker x3, then move out of line of sight to reload. Hopefully with all your grenade and rockets, you only need to use this strategy against only 1 group of sectoids. 3.8 Surprise! Best used on maps with buildings without massive number of windows or maps with rooftops. Basically have 3 soldiers hide behind the backdoor or on the roof, have one soldier trigger the sectoids from the front, and once the sectoids take cover, open the back door or drop down behind them and splatter them. They should be flanked. If not, grenade them or proceed to use Mind Meld Exploitation before opening the backdoor. Be very careful not to trigger a 2nd group. If you think you will, don't use this strategy unless you have enough grenades to blow all of them up. 3.9 Fall Back You move your entire squad back into another row of full cover. It's ok to dash in this situation because you have already cleared the area behind you and the enemy in turn has to dash to you in order to get in range. I generally spam hunker until the aliens show up unless I am absolutely sure the aliens can't move into cover at the edge of my vision. 3.10 Fodder Move your support or assault to low cover and fire or throw a grenade, don't hunker. In impossible difficulty the AI is smart and will kill your sniper first, no matter what. If you do this though they'll kill your support or assault instead assuming your sniper is in full cover. I do this when my sniper misses a critical shot or I am out of smoke grenades and need to focus fire against 2 or 3 aliens. Also, overwatch triggering. Enemy is in overwatch and you're in dire need of repositioning? Move the fodder. Whether to dash or not is your choice. 3.11 Overwatch Camping Basically you get your team behind full cover or rooftops and overwatch for 30 turns. 40 if you have to. I do this when I am in some horrible map like the big cemetary. If no patrol wanders in for 30 turns, I advance to the next line of heavy covers and overwatch for another 30 turns. The main purpose of this strategy is to Force the enemy to fight you in lower cover while you're in high cover while at the same time not triggering more than 1 group at a time. Don't expect this strategy to do much though. It's more of a Hail Mary than anything else, but if you get a horribad map then... Hail Mary? NOTE: Spamming overwatch without moving will shuffle all the aliens on the map. The aliens actually teleport around when undiscovered so keep that in mind when you decide to finally make the first move because no alien wandered into you for 40 turns. IMPORTANT! I know some people think triggering a group with 1 soldier, and having him run back into an overwatch trap is a good idea but the thing is, IT'S NOT! It used to be awesome in enemy unknown but in enemy within, AI got smarter or something because the aliens are omniscient and knows exactly how to get into cover right at the edge of your vision, thus not triggering overwatch, and splatter your soldiers all over the pavement. I never got the overwatch trap to work in enemy within and even if I did, overwatch shots are hail maries. If 4 overwatch shots miss when a patrol rolls right into my face, what chance does overwatch traps have? 4.0 Mid Game Strategies (2nd month+) These strategies should keep you alive until you reach an end game strategy. 4.1 Hunker and Snipe Have your squadsight sniper in the back, move your squad forward behind full cover and hunker. Your enemies will not advance because of your wall of hunkering soldiers, they will never land a hit on your hunkering soldiers, and your sniper will kill all of them afar. This is your only way of beating long narrow maps. In fact this strategy makes long narrow maps easier than the ones with rooftops. Be careful not to get flanked though, and make sure the heavy cover is indestructible. You really only need 1 spotter, the rest is just to discourage the enemy from flanking. If you use this strategy in conjunction with the others, there is no mission you can't beat. 4.2 Lobbing an ungodly amount of grenades. My favorite mid game strategy. Requires Asia start. In my 1st month I rush experimental warfare, build a foundry and upgrade tactical rigging. Then I lob an ungodly amount of grenades against the aliens. Any survivors (if there are any) are then slaughtered through flanking, shotgun assaults, or with the Hunker and Snipe strategy. This strategy is awesome! It practically guarantees I'll survive until I get my alloy SHIVs. Also, it makes rookies not useless! I can beat every abduction mission on the 2nd month with 1 sniper and the rest rookies. Needless to say this strategy will make training additional squadsight snipers a breeze. I can get 3 squadsight snipers by the end of the 2nd month if I wanted to. Also, grenades are reliable damage. That means RNGESUS can't screw me over. Once mutons appear though, this strategy starts to fall flat and you should switch your inventory to scopes and nano-fiber vests, or get alloy SHIVs. You can see that this strategy transitions well to late game because tactical rigging is never useless. 4.3 Mimetic Skin Abuse I do NOT recommend this strategy until lategame. This strategy is very powerful lategame but is utterly horrible midgame. The gist of the strategy is you send one mimetic skin soldier to scout out enemies far away from your squadsight sniper, who will then spend the next 999turns killing them slowly. The problems that make this strategy horrible midgame is: 1. Mimetic skin is expensive. If you lose your mimetic skin soldier, game is over. 2. Mimietic skin does not increase your direct fighting power. 3. Enemies are PACKED in most missions. This means before you even get to use this strategy you will have 1-2 aliens roaming into you. It's a lot worse than it sounds. Lets say you have 5 soldiers. You send your mimetic skin soldier out to scout and he finds a cyberdisc. You proceed to shoot it with your sniper but because the cyberdisc is so close to your landing zone and because cyberdiscs can move across the entire map in one turn, he wanders into you and kills one of your soldiers. Then, while you're blasting the cyberdisc and drones to pieces with explosives, a mechtoid wanders in and kills another soldier. At this point if you retreat, you lose your mimetic skin soldier so it's gameover. If you don't retreat, you lose your whole squad. This has happened to me three times in UFO landing missions at which point I gave up trying to do this in month 2-4. My advice: don't do this until lategame. 4.4 Flaming MECs Get a flamethrower MEC, preferably support. You will throw this MEC away later unless doing the carpet bomb strategy. MECs can 1 shot floaters and thin men. MECs can blow cover away infinitely (only once per fight though because they don't have ammo). MECs can blow up cars so that you can use your grenades and rockets on the aliens not next to cars. Flamethrowers are basically close range rockets, but they have enough range that you don't risk triggering additional groups of aliens. A viable strategy, not as good as lobbing an ungodly amount of grenades, but I use this strategy just for fun. Much more viable than mimetic skin abuse because MECs are cheap. If you lose one, doesn't matter, you can get another one cheaply. An advantage over lobbing an ungodly amount of grenades is that you can afford officer training school and cybernetics lab on the first month, and without Asia start, where as trying to get both officer training school and tactical rigging is very hard. 5.0 Game Ending Strategies Basically once you get one of these strategies, game is over. Not even 5 sectopods can stop you, unless you are extremely careless or unlucky. 5.1 Unending SHIV Onslaught Easiest and best end-game strategy as it is completely soldier independent. Basically if you take this route, the game ends once you kill your first drone, which is month 4. There is nothing in the game you cannot kill with 6 alloy SHIVs with sentinel drones. 6 Shivs blast and kill one group, wait a few turns to heal up, and repeat. It only takes 2 SHIV shots to kill anything other than sectopods, so at best 1 alien will survive your first attack, and against sectopods, your Alloy and Hover SHIVs have enough bulk to survive its barrage and heal up afterwards. You don't need to have SHIV laser or SHIV plasma researched for this to be a game ending strategy because at that point in the game, you don't need them. You don't have to go pure SHIVs if you choose to go this strategy. My setup is usually 2 snipers and 4 SHIVs. Hover SHIVs are not a priority as you can beat the game with only Alloy SHIVs. Hover SHIVs take a while to research and require an insane amount of weapon fragments, and Plasma Weaponry gives way more benefits than hover SHIVs do. Be sure you get your 1st drone corpse in month 4 otherwise the game will become significantly more difficult. Best thing about this strategy is that there is lots of room for mistakes! You can take hits without consequences and if you do fail a mission and get squad wiped, no problem! It only takes 4 days to rebuild your entire squad. On a side note, laser alloy SHIVs will one shot everything weaker than cyberdiscs which makes your game too easy until you reach plasma weapons. Proper SHIV strategy 1. Normal Alloy SHIVs Just run up and melee them (be sure to be 1 space apart from the target otherwise they get half cover bonus from your shiv!). Alloy SHIVs can one shot the target almost all the time if they're flanked but because their aim is only 10 better than rookies, try to melee. Unlike rookies however, these guys can take a massive beating before dying and their damage output is phenomenal. 2. Laser and Plasma Alloy SHIVs Meleeing is no long required, just flank em though being close is always better. Move your SHIVs parallel to the enemy and attack. !!!IMPORTANT!!! Aliens right in front of your Alloy SHIVs will have low cover! So make sure there is at least one space between you and the alien. Otherwise you lose all your flanking bonuses and your shot can miss! 3. Hover SHIVs. In addition to everything above, you can just fly to the highest possible elevation and attack. That's 95aim + 20 = 115 aim though flanking will net you significant bonus to critical chance. IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT SHIVs can NOT join you in your base defense mission! I learned the hardway. 5.2 Two Snipers + Anything As the title says. I have beaten the game with 2 snipers and 4 shivs, 2 snipers and 4 MECs, 2 snipers and one assault, heavy, support, and mec, and even 6 mimetic skin snipers. As long as you have two colonel snipers, you can beat the game. In fact I beat the base defense mission with only 2 snipers. I only had the 2 snipers and SHIVs on my roster, and SHIVs can't join you on that mission. Admittedly one of my snipers died and I got lucky with a mind control attempt. Mimetic Skin Abuse shines in this strategy. 5.3 Sniper MEC Squad You 6 MECs who were formerly colonel snipers. Ultimate move and shoot squad. You move, you shoot, and then you heal up with mists. MEC-2s and MEC-3s do NOT increase your MEC's offensive potential, so get all your snipers to MEC-1s first, then MEC-2s for the healing mists. MEC-3s are too expensive and unnecessary. I beat every game I go this strategy with only MEC-2s because I win the game before I could amass enough MELD for MEC-3s. I suggest only getting 4 Sniper MECs and keeping 2 archangel snipers as they are. This setup is the strongest setup in the game. 5.4 GHOST GRENADE Ghost Grenades confer invincibility upon your entire squad. So the gist of the strategy is: 1. Keep your squad huddled together out of cover 2. Put ghost grenades every item slot on your squad 3. 5 soldiers shoot, 1 soldier tosses a ghost grenade 4. Repeat. Major Supports can carry 4 ghost grenades and when they run out they still have 3 Dense Smoke Grenades which makes them the best ghost grenade carrier and a great addition to any team, especially the Sniper MEC Squad. 5 Sniper MECs and 1 ghost grenade support is arguably the second strongest setup in the game. 5.4 Carpet Bomb 6 heavies and MECs, maybe a support. Basically you wipe out the entire map with rockets, mines, and grenades. In my opinion the best setup is 6 heavies with 2 ghost grenades each. Basically you blast away cover with the rockets, double shoot with bullet swarm, and have one heavy ghost grenade all 6 of your huddled heavies and repeat. Realistically speaking however, there is no way you are going to get enough Seeker corpses to create that many ghost grenades so it's probably best to bring a support with ghost grenades and fill your heavies with scopes. 5.5 Assault Rain 5 lieutenant or higher assaults with mimetic skin, secondary heart, and archangel armor OR titan armor with Muscle Fiber Density and a support with Field Medic, Revive, and Savior. Basically you mimetic skin your team as close as possible to the enemy, then the next turn, Run & Gun and rapid fire right into their faces. I personally don't like this strategy because it's really hard to get 5 lieutenant assaults. Unlike snipers they have a high mortality rate and unlike SHIVs, are not expendable. This also means if you make a mistake and you lose 1 assault in a mission, you are screwed. 6.0 Walkthrough This walkthrough will be focused on going the lobbing an ungodly amount of grenades mid game strategy and the Unending SHIV Onslaught end game strategy as this route is the easiest. If you want to try something fancy or fun like using MECs, I will make a few notes throughout the walkthrough telling you to adjust accordingly. Also, I do not attempt the alien base assault until late game as I like to take my time, and it's easier because every dollar and research time spent on the alien assault stuff could be spent on combat related upgrades. I also do not bother myself with meld as SHIVs are superior to all forms of meld technology and I am tight on funds. Short Version of the walkthrough 1st month 1. Start in Asia 2. Perform the strategies listed in section 3.0 in the guide to win your fights. 3. Get Scientists 1st, engineer 2nd. This month is the only month where you can attempt to get scientists as a reward, and they half your research time. 4. Research weapon fragments, experimental warefare, alien materials, carapace armor 5. Build a foundry and upgrade tactical rigging 6. Make sure to have phoenix cannons on both of your interceptors (My squad composition is 1 sniper, 1 heavy, and 2 miscellaneous.) 2nd month 1. Lob an ungodly amount of grenades at the enemies and kill the survivors off with your squadsight sniper. You may use this opportunity to train more squadsight snipers. This strategy should carry you all the way to month 4. 2. Build 3 satellites and 1 satellite uplink. Prepare the base for a workshop (to be constructed next month). 3. Build officer training school and get the squad size upgrades and rapid recovery a.s.a.p. The rest are luxury though Lead by Example is more important than the others. Iron will is too expensive for now and will is not an issue in this game. I have beaten the game without iron will. 4. Research beam weapons. If you didn't get the 4 scientists at month 1, you will still be researching carapace armor. See why scientists 1st is important? 3rd month 1. Build 3 satellites and a workshop, then a satellite uplink 2. After EXALT does it's thing build 3 alloy SHIVs 3. Alloy SHIVs make exalt missions a cakewalk, and slowly transform your squad to 4 SHIVs and 2 Snipers or 3 SHIVs, 2 Snipers, and 1 assault if you have a high ranking assault. If you don't, don't bother. 4. Research heavy lasers before precision lasers. Laser SHIVs will one shot everything weaker than cyberdiscs. 4th month 1. Build however many satellites you need to cover the rest of your countries +1 (spare in case a battleship shoots one down), a workshop, then a satellite uplink. 2. Build alien containment facility and capture a muton so you can start your plasma research. It HAS to be a muton because they skip light plasma rifle and halve your plasma research time. It's ok if you fail to capture a muton this month. Laser SHIVs are really powerful. 3. Build 4-6 laboratories. Plasma weapons will now only take a week to research. 4. IMPORTANT! Make sure you get a drone autopsy this month! There is nothing that you can't kill with sentinel drone SHIVs. Game effectively ends here because sentinel drone SHIVs are insanely powerful. 5th month+ 1. Continue plasma research, you can attempt alien base assault this month, though I like to wait until I have plasma alloy SHIVs and 2 plasma sniper rifles. 2. Once you get 2 snipers with plasma rifles and 4 plasma alloy SHIVs (with maybe 2-3 more for backup), you win the game! 3. Research towards new fighter craft, EMP cannon, and archangel armor, and be sure to get all the foundry upgrades related to SHIVs! 6.1 1st Month This is the hardest part of the game. On a side note, I usually make it past the 1st month about 70% of the time. It's not that hard, just a lot more dependence on luck than the other months. Start in Asia. You don't need Europe's bonus until month 5, You can make do without South America's bonus (although it is nice to have), you save more money starting in Asia than in Africa because you'll be spending all of your money not spent on satellites on foundry upgrades and the officer training school, and north america bonus is a joke. I generally only try to save U.S. for the money in north america. Restart the 1st mission until you get an easy map. Then hope to god your 1st abduction mission is not a hard map. Try your best complete the 1st month before you restart if you fail. You need the practice. Just do the strategies I mentioned and you should be fine after 1-3 attempts. As I have said, I have about 70% success rate in the 1st month, and 90% game success rate after that. Always border skim. I generally border skim behind the building, blasting any aliens I encounter with explosives, and then go up to the rooftop. General Strategy There are 4 groups of sectoids. Either 3:3:3:3(very difficult) or 3:3:2:2(difficult). Fact: You can wipe out a group of sectoids with 1 rocket or 2 grenades Fact: You have 4 grenades and 1 rocket, so you should be able to wipe out 3 groups with your explosives and somehow kill the last group. Do NOT underestimate the last group. 3 sectoids at long range wiped out my entire squad several times. You just cannot win a long range fight, heavy cover vs heavy cover, with no way of flanking them. In these cases refer to the fall back, smoke and shoot, and focus fire strategies Don't be afraid to just fire and hope for a miracle. XCOM is very luck based and you might get lucky. I just do my best and more often than not I complete all 3 missions with my sniper and heavy at corporal or sergeant rank. I usually have 2-3 casualties however. Engineers v.s. Scientists v.s. Money v.s. Sergeant Recruit First abduction mission HAS to be SCIENTISTS or ENGINEERS. I usually pick the one labeled DIFFICULT. If they are both labeled DIFFICULT or both labeled VERY DIFFICULT, I choose Scientists because they halve your research time. In my opinion, you want both engineers and scientists in the 1st month so might as well get Scientists first since you receive their benefits immediately where as Engineers start benefiting you NEXT MONTH. In fact you can get your first engineers in month 2 and still be fine, though this is a little risky. If you do go scientists first, keep in mind that there is a small chance that the next two abduction missions won't give you an engineer reward, at which point you are screwed. In the later months, get 4 engineers once, then pick the nation that needs the panic control the most. Sacrifice a continent bonus if you must to secure those 4 engineers. You want 4 engineers every month until you get 4 satellite uplinks. To those of you who disagree with me that you should get scientists first, consider what is the determining factor that ends your XCOM playthrough. If it is because you lose abduction missions in the 2nd and 3rd months then you should definitely go scientists first. If it is because of lack of engineers for satellite uplinks then go engineers first. The playthroughs where I am engineer starved I produce as many workshops as I can and it works. I was panicking and my grey market was completely bare but I managed to build 2 workshops and save myself. Panic Strategy I generally prepare myself to completely lose North America and the 3 Asia countries since North America's bonus is worthless and I already got Asia's bonus. I do my absolute best to get Africa's bonus and the other two bonuses are just luxuary. Depending on which abduction missions give you engineers however, sometimes I find myself saving North America and abandoning Europe and Africa. The best strategy in my opinion is to cluster all the panic into a single continent, and either save it all at once with your 3 satellites per month or just let it die because an ignored abduction mission raises panic across the entire continent, including countries that have satellites, making you lose them to panic. I generally never lose a game because of panic mismanagement but it does happen if RNGESUS wants to murder you. Interceptors Get Phoenix cannons at the end of the month. An interceptor with phoenix cannon can take down all small, medium, and large scouts solo. Anything bigger and you need to do some heavy investment into interceptors, which you can't do because you're tight on funds just getting the satellites up. Compare the cost of outfitting interceptors will all those fancy temporary boosts or... having a satellite in reserve. Outfitting both of your interceptors with phoenix cannons is more important than officer training school otherwise you are leaving the success of the 2nd month to luck as you have a good chance of losing a fight against a medium scout with avalanche missiles. If you didn't get the foundry in the 1st month then your only other choice is doubling your interceptors per continent or praying to RNGESUS until you build your foundry. Grey Market SELL SELL SELL! I sell everything, and I mean EVERYTHING except weapon fragments and alloys. In emergencies it's ok to sell some alloys but not the weapon fragments. When I do the alien nav research, I am well into month 5 and get a ton of them after 1 UFO crash/landing. Keep selling elerium until you reach plasma research. I generally stop selling elerium when I can afford to or when I finish my laser research. Pick a mid-game strategy You have 4 choices here: foundry, officer training school, cybernetics lab, and genetics lab. Refer to the above strategy sections on which to choose. I choose foundry for tactical rigging. I generally can't afford to build officer training school this month but that's fine. I can beat the 2nd month with 3 rookies and 1 sniper with tactical rigging. If you do decide to go mimetic skin, get officer training school first. You can't get mimetic skin until after you kill a seeker anyway. A note on officer training school, you only need the squad size upgrades and rapid recovery. The rest is just luxury. I get squad size upgrades and rapid recovery as soon as possible, then lead by example, wet work, and finally iron will. I never found will to be an issue late game. Mind controllers die to my snipers immediately after a successful mind control. Research 1. Weapon Fragments - Scope on squadsight sniper is essential 2. Experimental Warfare - Only if you're going lobbying an ungodly amount of grenades strategy. Otherwise skip or get Meld Recombination. You get 40 meld after you complete this so it's a guarantee that you can get at least 1 MEC in the 1st month. In fact you can do Meld Recombination before Weapon Fragments if you're set on going MECs. 3. Alien Materials - Required for Carapace Armor 4. Carapace Armor - The only armor you'll have for a long, long time, as you really need to start researching weapons after this. Also you get alloy SHIVs, which puts you half way of completing the Unending SHIV Onslaught end game strategy. 5. All laser research, heavy before precision if using SHIVs, otherwise skip heavy lasers. Some people say they skip lasers for light plasma rifles, I say don't. Plasma takes an insane amount of time to complete in impossible (like 3+months), and also requires an insane amount of weapon fragments, which you won't have. Go ahead and skip laser if you want, and when you learn that all of your units do absolute crap damage against the impossible aliens' massive hps, you'll know better next time. I don't buy any laser weapons because EXALT 
gives a ton of em unless I get 4 scientists in the 1st month. You can't use 
EXALT laser weapons if you didn't do the weapon research so don't think you 
can skip lasers for plasma. 
6. All plasma research - plasma sniper rifle is just awesome. You only need 2. 
Get heavy plasma 1st if you are using SHIVs. 

Council Missions
SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP or... use them to give 1-2 kills to your sniper and 
bail. I enable the 2 DLCs so there's less chance of bomb missions. I have 
successfully completed all of the council missions in the first 3 months but 
only with 2-3 heavies and squad size 1. It required complete memorization of 
the map, rocketing the untriggered spawns, and overwatching the thinmen landing 
spots. Hunker and Snipe strategy is hard to pull off because thinmen poisons
your hunkering soldiers. 2 poisonings and they are dead, so unless you want to
risk your entire playthrough by pulling off these cheap underhanded tactics,
then by all means do the council missions but I have beaten impossible ironman
many, many times without touching council missions until I get squad size II. 

Medals
 Urban Combat Badge - +5 aim against enemies in full cover and give it to your 
sniper. End of discussion. 
 Defender's Medal - Get the +2hp. Panic no longer becomes a problem after "lead
by example." 
 International Service Cross - +2 aim, end of discussion. +2 aim is better than 
+12 will anyday, and who knows? You might get +4 or +6 aim! 
 Council Medal of Honor - +1 Aim and Will for each mission completed with no 
soldier deaths, up to a maximum of +10. Requires more work than the alternative
but who cares about that. 
 Star of Terra - Entire squad receives +5 Will and +5 Defense in battle.
Robotic units receive only the Defense bonus. +5 defense is better than 25% xp
gain because one can help you in combat, the other can't. 

Base Building
From left to right:

Officer Training School/genetics lab
Empty
Satellite uplink
Access lift
Foundry/cybernetics lab
Generator
Empty

Reason for this is layout is that you need a workshop in month 3, and if you 
don't want to excavate a ton of dirt, you will be building the workshop next 
to the access lift, which is why you're building the foundry/cybernetics lab 
next to the access lift for the synergy bonus with workshop. 

UFO Crash
This warrants special discussion because some people like to ignore the small 
scout in order to bait the medium scout and take it out. I recommend against 
this because although it will potentially double the money you get from the 
small scout, the mission is as hard as an abduction mission AND there is a 
chance the medium UFO will escape before your 2nd interceptor reaches it, 
ending your impossible ironman playthrough right then and there. It's up to 
you, because it's only the 1st month you can just keep restarting until you 
succeed this trick giving you the best start possible, but I warn you, it will 
require a lot of restarts unless you get really lucky with your maps. 

Checklist
1. Got 4 scientists
2. Got 4 engineers
3. Got a squadsight sniper
4. Got 2 Phoenix Cannons (don't ignore the importance of phoenix cannons! It's
either this or doubling up your interceptors per continent, which is risky and
expensive.)
5. Got your midgame strategy ready (tactical rigging)


6.2 2nd Month
If you went lobbying an ungodly amount of grenades strategy, this month is a 
piece of cake. Just watch out for the surviving thin man or floater in the 
group of 3. Don't be afraid to use 3 or even 4 grenades per group, you got 
plenty of them. 1 grenade per alien is fine. 

1st Terror Mission
I sometimes succeed, sometimes fail. Doesn't really matter. This month should 
be the last month where you lose countries. Mission is not hard. Floaters and 
chrysalids will kill civilians before your soldiers so you can be much more 
lenient with your hunkering. My success or failure usually depends on whether 
or not the chryssalids stay together or completely split up upon being 
activated. If they go to 3 different parts of the map while I'm fighting 
floaters, I generally abort after exhausting all of my explosives unless I 
managed to kill all of the floaters with my explosives. Chryssalids are your 
main priority, and then it's zombies who's been infected for at least 2 turns. 

Abduction Missions
You will no longer do missions based on rewards. You will do abduction 
missions to save the continents you want to save and get 4 engineers per month.
If you have to sacrifice a continent bonus for 4 engineers, then do it. Not
getting 4 engineers from abduction missions per month will lose you the game.

Which continents to save:
Africa and Europe. Once you max out your satellites, you will be building a 
ton of laboratories (5-6) and Europe makes it a lot easier. The money bonus 
Africa gives is very noticeable and money is always an issue. My favorite 
playthroughs are when I only lose North American and Asian countries. 

Base Building
First buy the satellites! Then make money from a UFO. Then build an Satellite 
uplink. After that build a power generator and an access lift. Get an officer 
training school, you really, really need the squad size upgrade. Nothing can 
stop you if you get squad size II and tactical rigging. That's 11 grenades 
(one spot is for scope). You should be set until month 4. 


6.3 3rd Month
This is the month where you start ditching your soldiers for alloy SHIVs.
Alloy SHIVs can 1 shot everything weaker than cyberdiscs (which is everthing
at this point in the game) and can take a massive beating. 4 alloy SHIVs and 2
snipers will win you the game.

EXALT
Annoying, yet a blessing in disguise as it allows you to level up a 2nd sniper 
without any drawbacks (if you didn't start training additional snipers 
already). Missions are quite easy. Exalt may have massive hp, but they do 
pathetic damage. They will almost never 2 shot you. Getting data is easier 
than guarding data because you control when the EXALT reinforcements arrive, 
and you can time your comm disruptions really well to completely annihilate 
everyone without any risk to yourself. If you're doing a guarding the data 
mission, just overwatch like crazy, 1-2 soldiers will continuously suicide 
against you. Have your covert operative by a enemy comm at the start because 
that's when you have the highest chance of being swarmed by EXALT soldiers. A 
couple of alloy shivs will make things significantly easier as they can just 
flank and 1shot all of them with crits, and take about 5 shots before dying. 
Funny thing is lots of the EXALT soldiers just move twice without even 
shooting! Be sure to check covert operations at least once every 2 weeks. Kill 
EXALT heavies as quickly as possible, their rockets are devastating. Rest are 
jokes. I usually have 3 alloy SHIVs by this time and they just annihilate the 
mission. 

Base Building.
Build 3 satellites. After finishing your 2nd access lift, excavate the both 
sides, build a workshop under your foundry or cybernetics lab, and build a 
satellite uplink and additional power generators. You might want to excavate 
next to the access lift in month 2. Needless to say this will burn most of 
your funding this month. I usually have enough to build a genetics lab and 
give mimetic skin to 1 of my units, usually a heavy since they need a full 
turn to use a rocket. 

Council Missions
I'm comfortable with doing council missions after squad size 2 upgrade. You 
should be fine with a squad of 6 and one high ranking sniper and heavy, since 
council missions don't have anyone stronger than a thinman. 


6.4 4th Month
Base Building
Build however many satellites you need to cover the rest of your countries, +1 
(spare in case one gets shot down). 

Build the alien containment facility so you can start your plasma research. 
Capture and interrogate a muton. Shouldn't be hard at all because your snipers 
should be really capable now, with medals too! If you have the money, start 
excavating and building laboratories like mad! 

Abduction and 2nd Terror
IMPORTANT! If you are going the SHIVs endgame strategy, you must complete one 
mission that has a drone in it! Without sentinel drones, you are going to have 
to be really be careful about your SHIVs hp. Win the mission with the drone at
all costs!


6.5 5th Month
Base Building
5-6 laboratories. I fill the entirety of my left side of the base with 
laboratories. This and muton interrogation will now make plasma research about 
a week long. If you skipped laser weaponry, you'll still be here, except 
instead of laser weaponry, you have a light plasma rifle, or pistol if you 
were dumb enough to research that. 

You should be fine now if you reached this point. You'll have to screw up big 
to lose the game. With so many laboratories getting alien base assault should 
be really quick and you can end the game relatively quickly from there. A note 
in about base defense, the top 6 soldiers in your barracks list will join you.
SHIVs CANNOT JOIN YOU! Keep note of this. I have beaten the alien base assault
with 1 colonel sniper, 1 major sniper, and 1 colonel assault only but I would
recommend you get a full squad.



7.0 Miscellaneous Tips
Abandoning missions
Don't be afraid to abandon, as long as you keep your panic level under 
control. Terror mission with 5 sectopods? BAIL! UFO landing with 5 triggered 
alien groups? BAIL! Don't abandon too much though, as every failed mission 
means you get that much less income, which means you won't get stronger, which 
kind of starts a chain reaction to your downfall.



8.0 Alien Specific Strategies
I won't be covering every alien, just the ones that require special attention.

8.1 Seekers
The bane of your snipers, and the cause of 99% of your wounded soldiers. If
the seekers go invisble, you can find them by combing the map, tile by tile
until you find a tile you can't move to. It will be greyed out. That's where
the seeker is so grenade it! It will then lose it's invisibility AND it won't
be airborn so no -20% aim penalty. Check walls/covers first, if a seeker is
next to a wall or cover, you should be able to easily detect it from the
borders of your soldier's move action.

8.2 Sectopods
The only alien that you can't kill in one turn. What I generally do is I
disable shot with one of my snipers (should have 100% chance to hit at this
point) then move my SHIVs into position and blast away. Then on my next turn
I kill it. In other words, you shouldn't need more than 1 disable shot and 2
turns to kill a sectopod.

8.3 Berserkers
Move your SHIVs near the berserkers and kill the mutons. Then with one
soldier or SHIV attack the berserker, he will move towards the shooter
therefore triggering the sentinel drone reaction shot from the SHIVs you
placed next to him, killing him.



Hidden Section
Cheating
You can cheat easily by pressing alt-f4 before the end of the alien's turn. So 
if an alien kills a crucial guy, alt f4 and redo your turn. I don't cheat, but 
for some people, 1st month is too difficult so perhaps you can cheat through 
it to make your experience a little more satisfying. Maybe also use it to undo 
a grievous mistake later in the game like the death of your colonel sniper. 
Its your single player game so play how you want to but I wanted to beat this 
game legitly so I did, but I also did 2 cheating runs before I got good enough 
to beat it legitly.