X-Com

[Vad]

Tell me your stories of failure or success.

I managed to save Vad, but the rest of his squad INCLUDING MY GOOD SNIPER we eaten alive. =(

[Orion]

I had three characters who were reasonably ranked early in the game, but two (a heavy and assault) were injured and had to wait a week or so to heal, leaving my only other ranked character (a support) to lead a bunch of rookies on my first saving civilian run. Was doing pretty well until a floater attacked my support from above, dealing a critical hit and critically wounding him in ONE SHOT, even though he had full health. The kicker was that he was the only team member with any medikits, so I got to watch my second strongest character bleed out because of all that bullshit coming together at just the right time.

EDIT: And yet there's something very entertaining about it all.

[Super Buu]

Screenshots speak louder than words. http://steamcommunity.com/id/helixagon/screenshots/
Scroll down to 'Operation Shattered Mother' and 'Operation Empty Dawn'. You'll notice them because they're almost all red.

[Vad]

There is no possible way to fucking reduce panic in all these places. ;.;

[Jonathan Meer]

This game REALLY tweaks the part of me that hates imperfect playthroughs. It's so hard to keep everyone in the project. I usually start a playthrough, then some bumfuck country is all like HERP CAN'T HANDLE and bails, and then I'm like fuck this I'm playing LoL

[Orion]

I've lost three countries so far, almost lost a fourth, but now I'm on top of building satelittes so it's all good.

[Super Buu]

Yeah this is one of those games where you have to turn off the part of your brain which needs a 'perfect playthrough'. If you get horribly fucked in the first couple missions, fair enough, but even if things go according to plan you're probably going to lose countries. There are ways to minimise it, but the feeling of being an over-stressed commander holding back tears as the world goes to shit is what makes XCOM XCOM. Also Ironman or GTFO. I played Classic Ironman and treated it the same way as FTL, going through several games before I finally got one far enough to win it (except I still haven't won FTL but fuck you)

[Sigfried Hunin]

Yeah, perfect playthrough ain't happening. My general goal is to keep my starting squad alive as long as possible. I usually end up with at least one or two by the end of everything, but it's still really sad to watch your original 4 eat dust.

Angel: Medic from... Mexico I think?
Tank: Heavy from Great Britain
Demon: Assault from China
Spider: Sniper from Australia

Only Demon made it to the last mission. I nearly cried every time I lost one of the others. YOU CAN'T LOOK BACK.

[Super Buu]

As you can see from my screenshots, I pretty much lost my entire squad more than once. I truly believed I was screwed, but because the other aspects were going well (still had almost all countries, good research from credits) I kept going and somehow that game I completed it.

Protip: SHIVs are a godsend. Hella expensive but worth having a couple around. I actually prefer Alloy to Hover SHIVs, because you can't use Hover SHIVs as cover. Having SHIVs take the hit instead of my troops is the reason my final team stayed alive long enough to become badasses. It hurts to lose one (lots of money and resources) but not as much as losing one of your vets that took forever to train up.

[Sigfried Hunin]

I have never actually bothered using one. I'll have to give em a tryyyy

[Vad]

Piper took green plasma to the face. I lost Vad like 5 missions ago.

[Orion]

I tried a SHIV once but it blew up on its first mission and then I forgot about it.

[Vad]

I'm running out of money training fucking soldiers. I have Archangel Armor BUT IT DOESNT HELP ROOKIE BULLSHIT!

;.;

[Super Buu]

Down to rookies? SHIVs, my friend. Alloy SHIVs.

Oh wait, money. >_> Yeah ...

[Vad]

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF-uck

[Sigfried Hunin]

I like that you spent the money on archangel armor but don't have the cash left to train soldiers loool

[Vad]

I know right? I restarted the game. Couldn't go any further.

[Sigfried Hunin]

I usually stick with the xo armor and at the very end usually only have enough cash to drop one of the mega armors on my assault

[Vad]

Ugh. Vad died again.

[Super Buu]

Archangel armor ain't even that good. Buying one is good if you have money to blow. The stealth armor is imba in the best possible way.