You know, as much as it pains me to say this, it's the missions that go bad that end up being the most fun--if I can recover. The tension and sheer tactics at play are remarkable stuff, times where
everything matters.
Like losing an entire team in a blacksite mission and having
one guy limp to the finish, being fired at on all sides. Or a guerilla raid gone wrong where half of my elites are slaughtered, and it becomes a desperate struggle to survive. Or even a VIP escort mission where I'm revealed at the very worst time, lose 4/6 of my squad, and still manage to limp to the finish like, VIP in tow. It's some of the most intense gaming I've had and I can't get enough of it.
XCOM's mastery of randomness is a beautiful thing.
Never underestimate the power of Aid Protocol.
So I nearly made a blunder that cost me my best Ranger - I moved him forward up a roof to get a better vantage point - and three Advent soldiers were waiting at the top. The rest of my team wasn't in a good position to get to him. The soldiers didn't scatter and my guy had Implacable with a decent chance to one-shot Slash one of them, so I figured I would kill one and then retreat back down where the other guys would run after him into the waiting ambush at the bottom of the building.
Turns out, the Slash didn't kill the soldier, so my Ranger ended up standing in the middle of three soldiers like a doofus with no help - except my Specialist can send up an Aid Protocol with the Gremlin. I go to the alien turn and hope for the best - and my Ranger pulls off three successive Matrix dodges on the rooftop from all three soldier attacks while standing smack dab center in the middle of them.
Next turn I wiped the floor with the soldiers as their adjustments put them in range of my snipers, and my Ranger finished off the asshole that originally survived his first Slash with a shotgun to the face.
XCOM, baby.
Specialists are absolutely invaluable. It's why losing all of them has been so heartbreaking to me; they always die saving everyone else. (see above)
XCOM pls
I'd like to see the "recruits" you get at the end of a month tweaked a bit. They are way too expensive, often the cost of your entire month's supplies early on.
There's a continent bonus reducing the cost from 25 to 10, I think. I wish I had it... so bad.