WARNING: WHAT FOLLOWS MAY SPOIL THE "FUN" FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T YET PLAYED THE ENEMY WITHIN MISSION THAT TAKES PLACE AT A FISHING WHARF, SO IF YOU WANT TO BE KEPT IN THE DARK, READ NO FURTHER...




The special mission I'm talking about doesn't seem to be randomized, since it depends upon a homing beacon and aliens bursting out of dead fish and a whale at a wharf, so I'm assuming it plays more or less the same for everyone. What I want to know is, is it just me or is this mission pretty much designed to decimate your ranks? Since you can't know what's coming, there's no way to plan for it (for instance, by deliberately leaving one guy back by the exit area so you can "bug out" just as soon as the homing beacon is activated), and with the chryssalids' insane movement radius, jumping skill, and ability to pretty much autokill anyone they end up next to at this point in the game, that means your guys are sitting ducks no matter how carefully they try to use cover and interlocking overwatch tactics. To make matters worse, once one of your guys IS ganked, he becomes a zombie and gets turned loose against you, too...

I did manage to "successfully" complete the mission, with one guy left alive. I started the battle with two captains, two lieutenants, a sergeant, and a corporal. I ended it with one lieutenant. And although I've thought about it and thought about it, and I can't see how I could have done very much differently to alter the outcome. (I did have 26 chryssalid kills, which I'm pretty proud of, considering the circumstances...) The soldierette who flipped the beacon switch in particular seems to have been a goner no matter what, since she couldn't outrun the bugs, even with her genetically modded jumping ability) and one had begun spawning anew every turn right in her best and quickest escape path besides.

So, again: is this mission deliberately designed to ruin all of a player's hard work up to that point (I only had three "nobody" casualties over twelve or so missions beforehand), and demoralize him to the extent that he is no longer excited about continuing the game? I wouldn't think so, but that's exactly what it's done in my case.

Can anyone give me pointers on how to properly approach this mission? I prefer not to exploit pre-existing knowledge in order to do it, if possible, but if I have to I will lol...

It's been years since I played this mission so this might not be all that accurate now.

I believe my strategy for succeeding was basically to send one trooper to activate the beacon on the bridge and have the rest waiting by the buildings north of the ship. Then when the countdown starts have everyone race for the evac zone.

The first few times I tried this mission my team got destroyed because I kept shooting the chryssalids on while retreating.

Gandalf knows all... Fly you fools!

Excellent strategy, though I still think it lacks the answer to OPs point that original runner is more or less doomed without an extremely specific setup.

It really does speak volumes of the design decisions in later expansions that this was considered even remotely balanced for release

This mission scared the heck out of me the first time I played it, and that is the intent. Yes, it can be brutal if you don’t know what you’re getting into - which IS the point.

It comes randomly as a counsil assignment, last time I had already had psionics which worked just dandy.

Use the Support (most movement) to get to the controls on the upper deck, and then there is a shortcut to jump down, bypassing the whale. While your Support is getting to it, have everyone camped around one side of the whale. The C’s only have one strategy, and that’s to charge right for you! So set an overwatch trap to catch them point-blank. But also, have a little bit of spread so everyone doesn’t waste their overwatch on the first spawn. And snipers should be further away, of course.

When escaping, I alternated with half the troops dashing, and the other half moving & overwatch.

This scenario was very well done and, IMO, made much of the game seem a bit blah by comparison.

Good advice, but I think it misses the point.

As the OP said, this mission does seem to depend on the player already knowing what will happen to avoid losing most of the squad. And while it's perfectly realistic that some missions really are suicide missions, it's not good game design to wipe out cherished characters unless the player save-scums to try again with hindsight.

The way one deploys for the moment of triggering the chrysalids (and hasty retreat) is not a reasonable all-purpose deployment for attacks that could come from anywhere - especially as enemy entries are basically by "magic" in this scenario.

It is fun enough the second time through, because it's an interesting challenge once one knows what is coming. But going in blind and using ordinary sensible tactics is death, and that properly leads to frustrated players.

Not sure if this was directed at my post, but I addressed that up front. EW was a DLC upgrade and I thought the mission was perfect for people who played EU and thought they had the game all figured out. Then this mission. It was beautiful. My team was half wiped out, and it did not feel cheap, it felt like I got cocky and paid a price.

This is X-Com. If you have “cherished characters” you are likely already save scumming.

Again, as far as the surprise element, it absolutely was intentional, so you’d lose half your squad because you didn’t know. And beautifully done. Much better than some “oh there are now ELITE elite pallet swapped troopers with non-missing aim” or some such.

Disagree. I went in my first time and lost only the soldier I sent up to the bridge as they were overwhelmed when they hit the dock. Again, I wasn't in there with rifles, had lasers. A few squaddies had simple armor (not that it would matter). From a game play perspective I think they give you every indication of whats coming. There is even the scripted event with the shark carcass in case you miss all the other signs.