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I know there isn't alot to go on,but from watching the gameplay video and other information available,do you think your old tactics will work?

There seemed to be alot of HWP in the videos,though that may be just to showcase them.I know i never bought or built HWP's after the first couple times i played the game.They took up too much space in the aircraft and the soldiers were just more versatile.One thing i also got into a habit of doing was in breaking the squad down into three 4 man fireteams.Each with 3"riflemen" and one heavy weapons "specialist".Normal loadout would be a standard Rifle(Laser,plasma,etc)one smoke grenade,two frag grenades,a medkit,and two spare clips for each riflemen.On non-base assault,non-terror mission a proximity grenade eachwould be added.That was to be used to secure the doorway to a UFO while the squad cleared the map.The specialist would carry their normal heavy weapons,plus a pistol and one spare clip.AP ammo for Terror missions and HE and incidenary for others where there wasn't a chance for colleteral damage.[;)]

Each fireteam would advance in support of the other with one moving foward while two covered them.Until all three would clear an area.For city missions two teams would secure the outside of a building while the third entered and cleared that building and repeat the process.It took a while but it was better than running around in onesies and twosies was a good way to just get into a bad situation.Base assault missions were a little different and normally would end up with me pairing up "Buddies" to be able to effectively search and secure all of the corridors and rooms without leaving unchecked or unguarded areas where an alien could come from behind or from a another section of the facility and suprise you.I would also leave enough TUs for a snapshot at the end of each turn.

Through experimentation and experience i found that this was the best weapons and squad sub-structure to fit me.It also seemed more effective in reducing casaulties,because even if seperated each team had enough firepower and members to take down any normal threat on its own.I'm curious to see if this will work or if i will have to come up with new tactics.

How about yourself?

So no one else developed a ToE and tactical doctrine for Enemy Unknown that they are curious if it will stand up in the new game?

I found bounding overwatch for movement to contact, and a sprinking of heavy weapons to be critical. I didn't use pre-designated fireteams in ships and buildings, I used 'fireteams of the moment', as that seemed to work best in the MOUT environment. Oddly enough, the Marines have been doing this as well, and added it to their urban training. Basically, fireteam cohesion falls apart as you begin to do rapid breaches through buildings. That's okay, as long as the cardinal rules are follow -- protect your entrance point (e.g. place to run away too), and never breach a room with less than 2 soldiers. Throwing a frag in first never hurts either. :=)

UFO enforced this pretty painfully on the less-than careful. :=)

My alternative strategy, when I was playing human-tech only, was to crowd as many conscripts onto a transport as I could, and then human wave accross the map. That worked great if you didn't mind 50-70% casualties, per map.

I almost never used those little portable tanks.

Just suprised no one chimed in before you.

All of the other forums of X-Com i've been to loved to discuss tactics.Which is a huge part of the game.

Basically, fireteam cohesion falls apart as you begin to do rapid breaches through buildings

Or advance across uneven terrain or any number of variables.

I never thought the structure and weapons layout i came up with was perfect.More often than not the fireteams,and individual soldiers in them,would become seperated.You have to really temper and disciplne yourself to follow rules that even you set out for yourself.

But..To me such a layout was a good building block to carry out operations effiecently and with minimum loss.Barring the sometimes frustrating exit of the aircraft.

If i had to i would pull a agent from a team to help out or even mix and match...but there was always that basic building block to work off of.Without a standirdized squad and weapon layout your more like a chicken with its head cut off...just running around without no real goal or structure.

Laying out a basic squad ToO&E just lays out a foundation for success.Flexibility also plays a key.Having one soldier run here and one there with no consistency to their layout or weapons,though,would just lead to the pilot getting headshot screen.

I preferred pairs when dividing up my force once it had landed. Not really predetermined, who would be together, or anything like that, more like, "Okay, you two off the right are together...you two off the left are together..." until everyone was assigned. Everybody was packing rifles (laser as soon as possible, then plasma once they were researched, and the number determined by how many plasma clips I had). I never bothered with the frag grenades...I found them WAY underpowered. I went with the HE Demo packs, 2 per man, and mixed in alien grenades once those had been researched. Then, I tended to have the pairs spread out...one advances, the other guy covers him, and vice versa. I never bothered with tanks, especially before I had developed the bigger transports, since the Skyranger could only carry 14, and that dropped to 10 with a tank. And they weren't exactly sturdy vehicles, anyway.

I don't see why basic tactics wouldn't carry over. Actually, basic plans like that work for pretty much every squad game.

Well, I've been playing the original XCOM recently, and here are my observations.

1. I don't have a rigorous set of rules about 'fireteams' as such. I do have fairly set ways of doing each type of mission, however.

2. Early on, I don't really care how many rookies die on a mission. Therefore I usually have them 'fan out' across the map. It is common to lose 4-5 rookies per mission like this, but they only cost $40k so it doesn't really matter.

3. I listen during the enemy's turn for sounds of UFO pressure door or farmhouse door. Then at the beginning of my turn I look for any opened doors.

4. Later, I try to protect certain favoured characters by having them behind two or three rookies. This means that they are unlikely to be killed, but are still close enough to shoot at any visible aliens and thus improve their stats further. This is especially true for my Commander.

5. I use blaster bombs a lot to punch holes in UFOs and to level farmhouses. Not on terror missions of course.

6. I never bother about lasers. I go straight for Heavy Plasma and use it the whole game.

7. I don't shoot down UFOs. They aren't worth any Elerium, so I can't be bothered. I only raid landed UFOs.

Some interersting ideas, there, but a few I totally disagree with. anytime I tried bunching up my troops, with a few as ashields for my high ranking officers, the entire group was inevitably blown to kingdom come by some Floater with a Small Launcher, so I stopped doing that REAL quick.

I also tended to load of with as many plasma weapons as I had mags and reloads for, BUT I ALWAYS researched Laser, because you could have a little team constantly building the rifles and ship cannons, and sell them for a pretty good chunk of profit.

I basically used Arctic's tactics of the 'buddy system'. It helped cover the terrain better. Still, I always tried to keep a group of 4 (or two groups of 3) with heavier weapons, if available. Especially before I had the best weaponry. Worked well, with very few casualties.

As for the tank, it was nice a few times but took too many slots. Still, on some missions a tank is helpful.

As of this post, May 5th seems to be the day. [:D]

Yeah, early on the heavy weapons are useful. Once I've got all the plasma weaponry researched and usable, though, I don't bother with things like rocket launchers anymore. the things weight too damn much, and whoever is wielding them can barely move.

I stopped bunching guys up mainly because it tends to get you wiped off the map during the Terror Missions. Sometimes there is a lot of fire coming in, and even if it isn't a Launcher Bomb, regular beam weapons are a killer, because they'll miss their target...and take out the guy behind him.

The thing was that your guys didn't have to be bunched up to get hit by a stray round.

I'm sure we all know the feeling of having a soldier shot at,and missed,then watching as the shot sailed across the board and killing some other soldier minding his own business.On the reverse side though..How cool was that when you shot at an alien,missed,and the shot killed some other one you had no idea was around.

The absolute best was the extremely rare instance where your shot would hit a different alien that was a Cyberdisk, and it would explode after that one shot, killing your original target. I have had this happen twice in total, and it's a moment of absolute greatness.

for what its worth i sent my HWP's to secure the landing area, once secure my troops would disembark a few at a time and take up defensive positions, after the HWP would then secure the UFO door until a small squad of about 4 troopers secured the entrance to the UFO with a Proximity Grenade and these 4 men would keep it covered until the map was clear, after i would take my time getting all my troopers to the UFO and then either wait it out or just go in
 
great tactic for me that worked like a charm except for once on superhuman when somehow with the small UFO surrounded by 10 men, the map secure, about 3 sectoids managed to not only get out of the UFO but manage to wipe out my entire squad [X(]
 
embarrasing but at the same time cool that despite my best efforts i stil couldnt stop them

In order to satisfy my hunger for UFO:ET, I started playing UFO again. My first mission was a landed small ufo, so, I loaded up the Skyranger with 10 troops armed with laser weapons (the first ufo got destroyed by my fighters and the second one took its time to appear on my radar) and touched down.
My first two soldiers disembarked and checked both sides of the craft. To the north of the Skyranger was a two story farm building. So, next turn, those two would spread out and then be followed by another pair of troopers. When the third trooper exited, he was blasted in one shot. It came from the farm, so I decided to use the one trooper that was left on that side as assault infantry. I put him in front of the door, end the turn. Nothing. I keep reinforcing the other team to the south of my transport, but the third trooper (meaning, the third one for the second team) also got smeared by a plasma shot, once again originating from the farm. My soldier bursts into the farm and sees ... nothing. I'm puzzled by this time, so I risked bringing another soldier over (who didn't get shot) and they both scanned the two floors. Nada.

My other team had in the meanwhile wasted a sectoid that had appeared in an open field. When I disembarked the last trooper (bringing the southern team to 4 members), I had this idea to let him turn towards the farm. And tadaa: one sectoid visible, right at the door. One shot later and it was history.
The mission ended when 4 sectoids got nailed in exchange for two dead troopers.

What happend at that farm? It had a stairway to the roof. So, I guess the first few turns, it hovered around the roof, taking shots at my soldiers. It must have fallen off at some point, because it was there at groundfloor when it was taken down. It couldn't have taken the stairs, because by then, I had two soldiers covering those exits.

Lesson learned: roofs are dangerous. I'll bring up a rocketlauncher next time and blast it into oblivion next time. [;)]