Rebalance Tactics Options

[Lurker]

For the longest time, I have been curious to know how many people are currently playing Rebalance 6.7. This thread is dedicated to them.

As those of you who have been playing the Rebalance 6.7 already know, the Cudgels and the Morelmen are sometimes packing Super Weapons, weapons like the LurkerGun or the BFG that can drop your soldiers dead in one shot.

One of the biggest complaints I heard against the 1.2 version of UFO:AM was that it was too easy or that you didn't need to use tactics in order to win.

Well if you go up against a BFG, or a Popper, or a MiniLauncher, or a LurkerGun in Rebalance 6.7 and your soldiers only have UZI's, you have to develop and use some new tactics in order to keep your soldiers alive in order to capture that LurkerGun or BFG, or to kill that Popper.

I would like the players of Rebalance 6.7 to sound off and post some of their most favorite experiences. Share with us the new tactics that you have employed or learned since playing Rebalance 6.7. We all know about the save and reload tactic, and I must admit that I have had to reload and replay a number of missions since starting my latest game with Rebalance 6.7.

But, there are also special moments of sending my soldiers running in different directions to draw fire while one soldier makes a Kamakazi run with a Grenade towards a MiniLauncher carrying Morelman. Though I had to try that mission a couple of times, I managed to perfect a tactic and work out a scenario that just happened to keep all of my soldiers alive. I never thought of running towards an enemy before. I used to always run away if the enemy had greater fire power.

So, this thread is dedicated to those who are currently playing the Rebalance. Let us know if you are playing. And if you are playing the Rebalance and care to share your most memorable experiences, please do, so that we all can enjoy and learn from your recent experiences and ideas.

I wanted to create a thread where you had to be playing the most recent Rebalance in order to be on topic if you post in that thread. This is that thread. If nothing more, I want to know how many people are actually playing the latest Rebalance. I'm curious to know if you are playing the Rebalance, and if so, I'm curious to know what tactics you used to keep your soldiers alive.

Thank you.

[AxeWound]

I love the rebalance mod but did find it hard until i got bigger guns i adopted a start every man with a grenade in his hand tactic and used alot of duck and cover but i still fear the "hive" or "mary bellows" as we like to call her!

[Aralez]

I developed some good RB-Tactics (duh!) , but there were some ideas proposed by RBMOD-users which even i didn't think off.

-Use Nukers, Hovers and WTD to clean out lifts in base defence missions
-Trap Aliens with the longlasting flames from the A2Gun
-BFG's are splendid for missions where you have to secure the landing area.
-Lurkerguns against those longrange-plasma-turret retis.

My favourite tactic in the early game is to stun those enemies with the flashbang and then kill them with knifes (saves ammo). And make sure your crew spreads out when attacked by a Popper, as it will use it's bite attack then. Otherwise look for a new crew. Mutons are almost immune against Plasma, Incendiaries and "soft" ammo, use that to your advantage.

The Berzerkarmour is immune against toxins, if you are surrounded by aliens simply drop a toxingrenade at your feet

The "new" enemies like Spitter and popper are weak against the RBmod-ammo for the standard weapons (UZI and Pumpgun).

The "disco-reti" is very vulnerable when attacked with incendiaries.

Nanogrenades are awesome to make an unconcious soldier recover QUICKLY, especially important when under fire.

Lure aliens around a corner and kill them with a tntpackage positioned there. This is a bit dangerous, but looks awesome when it works. You can almost hear the alien curses

And of course: Use the good old shotgun around corner tactic.

[Lurker]

I started this thread, and I intended to eventually include a couple of my most favorite tactics and/or experiences with the latest Rebalance 6.7. So, here they are:

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During my current play of the UFO:AM game using RB6.7 and a fresh install, I encountered a Cudgel with a LurkerGun around my fourth mission. He promptly killed all of my soldiers, and I was left with nothing except a reload of the same tactical mission. Or, I could admit defeat and send an empty chopper back to base. I reloaded and tried again.

I tried different tactics like rushing the LurkerGun Cudgel or running or hiding, and I kept losing my soldiers and the game. The only solution was to stay away from the LurkerGun for as long as possible. While trying to stay away from the LurkerGun, there are Spitters and Poppers incoming simultaneously. It was impossible for me to win, or so it seemed. Luckily, it was a City Mission, and I could resort to the use of cover and set up an ambush.

So, I went back far enough in the game and reloaded so that when I first see the Cudgel with the LurkerGun I can run for cover. I run two of my soldiers into a concrete enclosure that is next to the open area where the Cudgel is hiding behind a car. I run a third soldier to cover behind a basement walk-in. The fourth and remaining soldier, I run away from the Cudgel, yet I leave her in the open to where she can still see the Cudgel and the Cudgel can see her. Then the fun begins.

The two soldiers hiding behind concrete use grenades to kill the incoming Spitter and Poppers, while the soldier who can see the Cudgel keeps running away from the Cudgel as the Cudgel walks towards her trying to get her in range of the LurkerGun. I keep running her away each time the Cudgel starts to lift the LurkerGun in order to shoot her. And, the Cudgel keeps coming into the trap.

When the Cudgel is in range of the two soldiers hiding behind the concrete fences, I run them forward to the corner of the fences and have them each toss a grenade at the Cudgel with the LurkerGun. The Cudgel goes down before he can shoot them with the LurkerGun, and now I have my first LurkerGun in my arsenal.

I think that is my most favorite trick to do with UFO:AM. I use one soldier as bait to draw a superior enemy out of cover and into a waiting ambush. If the aliens have superior weaponry, they will move towards the bait in an attempt to get into range for the easy kill, which eventually brings them into range of your inferior weaponry that’s waiting in ambush. I’ve employed that trick a number of times before using UFO:AM.

--

Now for another example where I have found no cool or macho solution! During the opening missions, I would find myself out in open fields or open forest with three soldiers, and there would be three chompers and three poppers all incoming simultaneously along with Spitters and Cudgels shooting from a distance, and there was nothing I could do to win those missions. You just can’t concentrate enough UZI fire power one at a time to bring them all down one at a time. There’s not enough time when they are all incoming And, I also tried the grenade trick, and once again, if you bring down one Popper, there are three more to take his place and they are on top of you before you can toss another grenade. In open wilderness, there’s nothing to stop their fast pace as they are incoming. So, one of my early RB6.7 game tactics is to choose only City missions and pass on or delegate away the Wilderness missions. In a City, you can set up an ambush on a bridge or behind a fence or behind some cars, and take down each Popper one at a time using your UZI’s and concentrating your fire power. The cars make the Poppers and Chompers have to stop from time to time as they try to change direction in order to move their way through the debris. It gives you time to pump a lot of lead into them. In that situation, you spread your three soldiers out a bit so that the Popper isn’t tempted to explode just in case the Popper does get to one of your soldiers. In the city, the opening games of the Rebalance are winnable if you use cover, concentrate fire power, and setup ambushes. But, they are very long missions, sometimes two hours long in order to come out victorious and not lose anyone. The Spitters are particularly difficult in the opening missions, because they have twice the range of the UZI. I found that to take them down, I had to run towards them with a grenade in hand, and when in range, hope that the grenade will take him down in one shot. I used up a number of medical packs rehealing because of Spitters in the opening missions of the game. When you get a fourth soldier, you can have one soldier carry a ShotGun, and then if anything gets close to the point of Ambush or the position of your cover, the ShotGun will take the alien down more quickly. But, if you only have three soldiers, I found that three UZI’s with longer range can usually start chewing up the Chompers and Poppers as they try to work their way through obstacles, and then you switch the UZI’s to burst mode for greater effect as the critters get close and are in range of burst mode.

--

On my sixth mission, I had a Morelman with a MiniLauncher there at the landing zone dropping grenades in the middle of my soldiers right from the start. After losing everyone and then replaying the mission, I found that the only tactic that worked was to have every soldier run in a different direction. And, one soldier ran towards the Morelman trying to keep a car between him and the Morelman until the soldier was close enough to switch to and throw a grenade. It was particularly challenging since there was another Grenade tossing Morelman nearby and three different incoming Poppers. I just happened to luck out one time and my Kamakazi grenade carrier was able to get off his grenade and absorb the final MiniLauncher grenade without completely dying. It took awhile to kill off the remaining Poppers with the remaining three soldiers, and then it was a massive usage of medical packs to bring everyone back. The Kamakazi Grenade thrower spent a couple of days in hospital, whereas, the others lucked out and didn’t have to spend that time recouperating.

--

Speaking of luck, during the mission from which I got the second LurkerGun and the BFG4500, it was purely a matter of getting lucky during the replay of the mission that brought victory there. I had used TNT to blow open another entryway to the base. I didn’t know that there were BFG and LurkerGun carrying Morelmen nearby. They both came at once and wiped out my whole team. In any combat endeavor, surveillance and foreknowledge are always your greatest weapons. If you know where the enemy is and what they are carrying, your advantage increases a hundredfold. There’s nothing like time travel or being able to predict the future to give you an advantage. I just so happened to have a saved game just after I blew the hole in the wall with the TNT. I knew what was behind the wall soon to appear. Even with all that foreknowledge, the BFG4500 and/or the LurkerGun were chewing up my crew. I tried everything, except giving up. I finally settled on grenades. You would get one Morelman or the other with grenades, but never both of them, and the one remaining Morelman would wipe out a couple of your crew before you could get more weapons into play. When you replayed the mission, you just never knew where or when the Morelmen would appear from behind the wall. Finally, during one replay of the same scenario, it just so happened that one soldier brought down the wall with one grenade, and another grenade launched from the MiniLauncher arrived just a split second later in the same spot and exploded right in the middle of the two Morelman that had just barely been exposed when the wall came down. They both died right then and there, pure luck and nothing more, and suddenly I had another LurkerGun and a BFG4500 and none of my soldiers were wounded or dead. Sometimes luck is the only way to win.

--

When I got my latest LurkerGun, the third one, I had two soldiers at two separated doors leading into a huge room inside the base, four soldiers. I opened the door, and there waiting for me was a Cudgel with a LurkerGun, and I had nothing with enough range to touch him, and if anyone showed his head around the corner of the wall, down he would go dead with one shot from the LurkerGun.

Anyway, this scenario was once again, nothing more than reloading and retrying different experiments until I found something that didn’t result in the loss of half the team.

I finally had one solider, the BFG4500 carrier, running for cover behind a wall because he didn’t have enough range to get off a shot, so was useless and was always the first seen and the first to die. Meanwhile at the other door nearby the LurkerGun, I had a soldier drop her ShotGun and switch to a Plasma Grenade. Then while the Cudgel is shooting at my sacrificial BFG4500 carrier, I’m running forward and exposing my Plasma Grenade person and tossing the grenade. During one such replay of the scenario, I happened to get lucky and the LurkerGun Cudgel completely missed the BFG4500 carrier. Pure luck, and simultaneously, the Plasma Grenade tosser actually threw the grenade at the right spot, and down went the Cudgel. Again, pure luck! No skill or brains at all. Then it’s just a matter of fighting off the Balloon Fish, the AK47 carrying Cudgel, and the Spitter using the other two soldiers (at the entryways) who were hiding under cover.

Anyway, as you can see, I do use the replay of unsuccessful missions so that I can experiment and try new scenarios, and I did discover that with the Rebalance 6.7 set at Hard, I did have to reload and replay a lot more UFO:AM missions than I ever did before the Rebalance. The challenges are kind of fun, I must say.

So to end, I must say that I had a lot of fun trying new tactics and experimenting to see if there were ways to win the unattainable. And, now that I’m not using the ALLITEM’s cheat, I can more clearly see all the fun I was missing. I imagine that Aralez has at least ten times the number of similar stories to tell. And, if you dust off your UFO:AM CD and download the Rebalance, then you too can and will have additional tactics and stories to tell of your own. I look forward to hearing from you.

[Sabreur]

Shoot it if it moves. And if it doesnt move, shoot it anyway, it might move later..


After losing COUPLE teams, i changed to the heavy stuff, if the enemies use it, then i will.

As for te first missions, i prefer one granadier, one with shotgun and one with uzi, no armor to anyone.

As when going throught those walls, ALLWAYS throw granades OVER the wall so that they land behind it. Byebye for those wanting to ambush you..

[Aralez]

Quick lesson i learned yesterday: Re-check that the unit, which you told to change weapons, actually is finished changing them before you attack an enemy. I blow three of my Berzerk-guys into pieces when one of them used a BFG9000 as a closecombat-weapon

And that is in a "hardcore"-session where i don't allow me to save during the game...

[Lurker]

It always interests me to hear about tactics.

I very seldom use smoke grenades. They never lasted long enough in the unmodded game to be of worth. In the modded game, I never liked not knowing where the aliens were, when I used smoke.

Of course, as you all know, I walked a completely different path. I used ALLITEM's with the Rebalance and Combo Mods so that I could see and use the new weapons immediately in order to give them a good testing.

But, as some of you know, using ALLITEM's or getting to the end of a regular cheat-free game increases the number and frequency of Aftermath crashes.

I played the Combo-Mod for awhile using ALLITEM's cheat, so that I could see and play with the new weapons, which I liked a lot. I played until the Geoscape put up five or six missions all at once and then crashed to desktop. And, I stopped playing the Combo-Mod when Aftermath hung 1/3rd the way through the loadup of the Geoscape.

Even with Windows XP and a 3ghz CPU and an updated Graphics Card and updated drivers, Aftermath has a tendency to hang somewhere on the Geoscape if you are using ALLITEM's with a mod, or if you have over forty bases with a mod, or you have used the HIREUNIT cheat a lot. Aftermath is just not that stable if you start to put pressure on it and overload it.

And, that doesn't even get to the CTD surprises that can happen during tactical missions with the wrong combination of modded weapons in the loadout.

Anyway, back to tactics. My favorite and most used tactic (which I use in place of smoke) is the Stealth Tactic. In UFO:AM, walk mode is stealth mode. I have tested this quite a bit. I have noticed that if you immediately switch to walk mode before moving your guys, you start the game in Stealth mode, and particularly with Reticulans, if you start in Stealth mode, the Reticulans seem to start the game on the other side of the map.

If you start out running, which is the default stealthless mode, the Reticulans in particular seem to immediately jump or teleport from the other side of the map to within shooting distance all at once. I have noticed particularly in respects to Reticulans that if you start in Stealth mode and stay in Stealth mode, they seemed to be programmed to walk away from you instead of walking or running towards you.

So, instead of smoke, I set everyone to walking, and I keep them that way at least until I have taken up a nice position for an ambush. Then I set someone to running in order to draw the Reticulans into the trap.

Now note, this Stealth mode is a general rule. Sometimes one or two Reticulans will spawn right on top of you at the start of the game, and if one Reticulan knows where you are at the start of a game, then they all seem to know, and then the Stealth Mode tactic doesn't seem to work all that well in that situation. So, no rule or tactic works in every situation.

But, if none of the Reticulans know where you are at the start of the game, and you Start moving everyone in Stealth (Walk) mode and you stay in Stealth mode, you will have to hunt and work very hard to see the Reticulans because they will spread out in the other direction on the map.

[Lurker]

I was wondering if I am the only one in this forum using the Zone Alarm firewall? I have begun to think recently that having Zone Alarm running in the background protecting the system from being hacked is somehow increasing the number and frequency of Aftermath crashes.

I know. The Aftermath crash bug(s) is a subtle thing that the folks at ALTAR haven't been able to solve for over a year now.

But still, I sometimes find myself wondering what the root cause might be. I have also wondered if the latest Nvidia Drivers, the most modern and new ones are somehow incompatible with Aftermath. Aftermath went the longest time without crashing on this Windows XP machine, but once it starts, there seems to be no end to it. I try to keep things up to date, and maybe that is what's wrong with Aftermath -- there's been no effort to patch it and bring it up to date since December 2003.

Anyway, I liked the combo-mod a lot, at least what I saw of it before it got to crashing too much for my liking. I liked the new weapons, the new models, and the new skins. Kudos!

--

I WANTED TO POINT OUT THIS THREAD WHERE PEOPLE WERE TALKING ABOUT ADDITIONAL TACTICS IN RELATION TO THE NEW COMBO-MOD, THE UPDATED REBALANCE MOD.

http://www.ufoaftermath.co.uk/forums/index...t=15#entry19532

QUOTING MY RESPONSE FROM THAT THREAD:

Yes, with the original LurkerGun, it changed the whole dynamics of the game. I'd have soldiers running around on the map flushing out Reticulans like pheasants or quail, and when I would find the Reticulans, they would be paralyzed with fear. Then from the top of a mountain or a hill half way across the map, someone with a LurkerGun would shoot that Reticulan dead while the Reticulan stood there helpless paralyzed in fear.

And, the funnest and most challenging missions were when your soldiers only had shotguns and Uzi's and the Morelmen or Cudgels were carrying LurkerGuns and BFG4500's. In a city, I used one soldier as bait to draw out the Cudgel with the LurkerGun while the other soldier's ran behind walls and got their grenades ready for the time that the Cudgel would be within range of the grenades. Then cross your fingers and hope that the Cudgel will miss (at least once) shooting and killing the soldier sneaking around the corner of the wall to toss the grenade.

In another mission with a Mini-Launcher and Uzi's and Remington 500 AGAINST two LurkerGun's and a BFG4500. I had to reload after losing everyone, and then from a strategic reload, I had to lob grenades and Mini-Launcher grenades at the wall and over the wall simultaneously hoping to down all three Reticulans before they could get off a shot with their LurkerGuns and BFG4500. I managed to pull it off finally, but of course, I had to cheat by reloading the game a number of times, because whenever I failed, I seemed to lose everyone. Two LurkerGuns and a BFG4500 all firing at once at your seven unarmored soldiers doesn't keep you in the game very long.

I could never win the latest Rebalance mods in open fields when the aliens had a LurkerGun or BFG4500. Maybe, that's when the smoke would come in handy? Who knows? I could never get in range in an open field to get off a shot, and it was thus a process of attrition until all my soldiers were gone. But, cities were doable, even though the aliens had some of the best Rebalance Weapons.

The nice thing is, though, is that if you can down a Reticulan that's carrying a BFG4500 during a tactical mission, you can pick up the BFG4500 and use it to quickly win that same tactical mission.

Lots of fun stuff.

--

OF COURSE, AS USUAL OR AS EXPECTED, I'M ALSO INTERESTING IN ANY TACTICS THAT SEEM TO WORK TO KEEP THE REBALANCE OR COMBO MODS FROM CRASHING TO DESKTOP.

I DON'T THINK ANYONE HAS MENTIONED THAT THEY ARE STILL MODDING AND TWIDDLING AND PLAYING AFTERMATH OVER ON SLAUGHTER'S BOARD. THERE'S STILL SOME REPLAY VALUE IN YOUR COPY OF AFTERMATH.

[PlacidDragon]

I know. The Aftermath crash bug(s) is a subtle thing that the folks at ALTAR haven't been able to solve for over a year now.

They must be relatively subtle, yes. Since the game was released, i have played it extensively. It has *never* crashed or caused any kind of problem with my machine (apart from a graphics problem that was fixed in the first patch). I've even held off my "customary cleaning" of the hard drive to see if i can provoke the machine into crashing Aftermath through normal use. Well, its not happening still..lol

But still, I sometimes find myself wondering what the root cause might be.

Very tricky question, and one i bet that ALTAR would be most interested in
I honestly dont know, and some form of program incompatibility might well be the reason. I've always ran Aftermath with a host of other programs running (anti virus, firewall, etc) without any trouble. Dont know if it makes a difference, but im not using ZoneAlarm, but Norton.

[Lurker]

Maybe it's the added stress of the Rebalance Mod or Combo-Mod that's causing the increased frequency of crashes? Maybe there's an overload threshold beyond which Aftermath was not programmed or optimized to handle?

How extensively have you played the Rebalance Mod or Combo-Mod, may I ask?

Maybe I need to go back to playing Aftermath without the Mods, because Aftermath never crashed on this XP machine without the mods, except for once. But, it's been a long time since I last played without the Rebalance or Combo Mod in the mix. Aftermath was kind of boring after awhile without the Rebalance Mod in the mix, in my humble opinion.

Try playing with the lastest Rebalance or Combo-mod, and then see if or when it starts crashing.

I sometimes wonder if using the ALLITEM's cheat with the Rebalance mods might be doing something to overload or destabilize Aftermath. I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing differently than everyone else.

Aftermath is crashing to desktop. I'm not making it up. And just because it doesn't crash on your machine doesn't necessarily mean that it isn't crashing on other people's machines. There's a weakness there that only Aftermath exhibits.

[PlacidDragon]

I tried the rebalance mod, but didnt test it extensively, so i dont know if it makes the machine more prone to crashing.

Any mods are removed now (uninstalled within days of installing it), so im only playing the "original" version.

[Aralez]

Well, I used the rebalance-Mod EXTENSIVELY and except with the "rushed" version with the Cyborgs (i think v.4.1 or something) i had no crashes in UFOAM. Not with mods. Not without mods.

I got the "friendly-alien-bug" in an unmodded game, the "UFO-movement-bug" always when i enter an ufo, but apart from this i have no problems. I didn't even encounter the pilot-bug yet!

[PlacidDragon]

I didn't even encounter the pilot-bug yet!

Lucky you, hehe

I've encountered that several times (5 or so). On the other hand, i have not been subjected to the UFO movement bug nor the friendly alien bug. Maybe we both have something to look forward to, hehe

[Lurker]

Here's where the topic of Rebalance Tactics resurfaces again:

http://www.ufoaftermath.co.uk/forums/index...showtopic=1541#

In particular, the first five to ten missions of RB6.8 are very hard to do, and people are looking for ways to survive and get through it.

[Aralez]

Let's see what the new ComboMod (version 2) will bring when finished, regarding tactics. BlackAlmaz adjusted all the damages of the human weapons, added several guns, and some new enemies as well. i wonder what the effect will be on my "old" tricks...