XCOM Journey to Ironman: Getting through March

 To the girl with the mousy hair

So begins my journey to Ironman, in full earnest this time; because now I'm not going to stop until I finish XCOM on my terms with all the prestige that I deserve. (Or rather, that I will deserve. Don't deserve jack right now.) Now from a meta-game perspective, this really means that I need to progress through the gruelling early months until I've reached something of an equal footing with my alien overlords; then I can start relaxing somewhat. Ideally I want to shoot for stealth satellites; once I reach that point I think I'll be safe to take the backseat and cruise forward onto the end. However, obviously, getting that far down the research and development ladder is going to require keeping atop of growth, finance, and not losing too many key countries early on. With that in mind as a goal, let me take you through the journey of trying to get through March (the opening month) Classic difficulty, Ironman mode in 'XCOM Enemy Unknown'.

First, however, I feel the need to lay some of the ground rules that I didn't even know about, such as having to say that there won't be any Hero Units in the run. That's quite the rule to lay down considering that, until two days ago, I didn't even know Hero Units existed! I just saw this 'reminder' flash by in the Steam forums that 'naming soldiers certain things will morph them into hero units' and clicked on it for a laugh because I was certain it was a joke. "Oh how droll. So if I call my character 'Sid Meier' he'll magically become a god psionic with the impossible-to-learn rift power? As if." Only, it wasn't really that funny of a thread at all. I couldn't find the sarcasm anywhere. Then I looked it up. Tried it out. It's real. Did you know there's 6 hero units to choose from including 'Ken Levine'? (Creator of Bioshock) What's more, these units morph into specific classes with endgame weaponry and armour. I'm talking plasma gear. You can have a fully decked out plasma wielding god character whenever you want. The only consequence is that achievements get disabled when you summon one. So yeah; that's obviously banned for this run. Good god! (Can't be literally invalidating the difficulty curve of the game. Sheesh.)

Secondly, and this is something I honestly should have covered when I first spoke about this idea, I want to go over the Second Wave settings. In fact, this will be really important if anyone out there wants to try the same run I do and show me how it's done. (I'll take any help. I suck) These are special options you can tick on which really change the makeup of the run with fundamental switch-ups to gameplay aspects, thus it's important to match these up when setting a run. Because I completed the game on Normal Ironman before I've unlocked the 2nd row of Second Wave options, which I've picked from as well. First I pick New Economy, which randomises the potential funding you can get from council countries once you build a satellite there, because it adds an element of chance and strategy towards my metagame construction. I also pick Not Created Equally, which randomises rookie starting stats, because I love having soldiers that feel individual from one another. Hidden Potential randomises stat growth on level up, contributing to that same feeling. And from the second list I've picked Absolutely Critical, which guarantees a critical hit on a flanking shot, (both for the player and the enemy) because I've just always felt like that should be the cost of being flanked. (It also does something funky to enemies who can't take cover, but I forget the specifics) And that's all you need to start this run yourselves.

Now that the game has begun, my strategy is based around getting a sound metagame strategy going, and for now that's ruled by a single major principle: Order a satellite at the beginning of every month. It takes 20 days for a satellite to be made, so ordering right at the start of the month is essential. Making a nexus allowing you to launch that satellite only takes 5, so having the satellite/ammo ready to go when it's needed is more essential, even if you haven't built the infrastructure yet. And it's certainly needed for the dual benefit of keeping the credits rolling in and retaining countries in the XCOM initiative. Launching satellites in a country immediately lowers the amount of panic in that country. (additionally, countries with an active satellite simply cannot leave the XCOM program because there's a coded in 100% chance for panic to be reduced by one in satellite countries if the panic hits it's peak of 5) That means having a satellite ready to launch the day before the monthly report can very much be a lifesaver. Additionally, if all goes well and we limit the danger of them being shot down by implementing 'stealth satellites', then we can set a game stalling system in which we can stop the aliens from freaking out member countries and keep the metagame rolling long enough to research and suit-up as much as we need for the lategame. But that's really just the golden dream right now, getting there will be the tough part. 

Why? Because of the missions; oh the missions! The glorious thing about XCOM is, whilst it arguably does a fantastic job of maintaining a somewhat consistent difficulty curve so that, unless you're blazing through, you're never quite on top of the enemy; the hardest missions are always the first few. Why? Simple. Because all of your troops have no abilities, can't aim for crap (Although that doesn't exactly change too significantly) and, on classic difficulty, die instantly from getting hit. Sectoids are some of the cruellest starting enemies for this first month possible because they, comfortingly, have a ludicrously high chance to hit and can take that shot from across the map. Their overwatch hits stupidly often as well, and the only way I've made any headway on them over March is by leading them into traps. The difficulty coming from not having enough room to make a trap, or making a trap just barely outside of engagement range so that the Sectoid can sneak into range with their movement action and no-scope a trooper on their attack action. (Something almost conceptually impossible for the player to replicate, mind you) So the solution? There is none. Just keep playing this terrifying game of chess each and every encounter praying you can make it out the otherside with enough victories to justify the injuries.

And on a related note; one of the key features of XCOM has been troubling me lately. Naming my soldiers. I'm having trouble justifying that given the 6 or 7 abandoned timelines I've already blazed through. Do you know how much it sucks to customise my entire crew only to throw them away because everything fell apart? I don't mind tragically losing someone during a mission, that's what XCOM's all about anyway, but I seriously cannot be losing entire squads in the first few missions. (Well, actually I can't really be doing that ever in the entire run) Right now I'm even struggling to come up with names and personalisations to make everyone stick. (Thank god XCOM 2 introduced a handy character pool so I don't have to tear my hair out like this.) The only solider who's been a constant through every playthrough so far has been the guy named after me, because you gotta name a trooper after yourself in XCOM. (of course, that does in itself bring up the question of why the heck the commander is on the field where the danger is; but I guess we're treating this with Star Trek rules, who cares.)

But getting through those early abduction throughout March is just the warmup, the real challenge is the inevitable event that's always lined up on the way out of the month. Namely; the council mission. In the state of early disarray that each XCOM playthrough starts in, you don't really have the luxury to skip a mission on the grounds of 'too hard, people might die.' You need that money and resources. The problem is, some missions you might be offered are straight up impossible without a team of 6. (Preferably with laser weapons and carapace armour) I'm talking about bomb disposal. The fact that mission is even capable of spawning as the first council mission is honestly criminal. But that's only if you leave things up to RNGesus; I, on the otherhand, have opted to pick Operation Slingshot, the optional DLC mission, whenever offered everytime. It's consistent, doable, and rewards a Lieutenant for completion ontop of credits and staff. (Unfortunately, this does also activate two ludicrously tough follow-up missions in proceeding months. But we'll cross that bridge when we slam into it at terminal velocity. For now I'm making do)

What I've just laid out for you, in some many words, is the tactic I've used to crawl my way through month one of XCOM on Ironman, with a balance book in the black, no countries lost and only one tragic death. (Which was total bull, by-the-way; but I'd already hired her replacements anyway) Something tells me that this save I've currently got won't be the one which sees me through to the end, just because I suck at the game, but it may just form the basis of every subsequent run and, through that, maybe it'll one day be essential in my recipe for success. Here's hoping I'm not blowing too much smoke out the rear end by saying that. And with that, I have crossed the first month threshold, which leaves me another 30 virtual days to get my ducks in a row before the XCOM gods starts throwing the real threats out the door. (Pray for me)