Impossible Ironman – Tips & Insight on How to Begin

Overview

INCOMPLETE.I planned to have a full blown guide for this but due to how slow I am at this I realized that by the time I actually finish it, everyone would have probably either finished or moved on from the game. I will try and update the guide whenever time (and the silly external things like people and work that would keep me from completing this) would allow. So for now, not a guide. Just… tips and insight. :DI hope this helps you even in some small way.________________________________________________________________________________________________

I – Introduction: Assessing Successfully the Success of that which can be Successedness

In my experience of going through and completing Impossible Ironman 4 times, the first month usually will take you through hell and whether or not you can even come out alive is most often based on luck. On my first playthrough of it, I personally went through the first month more than 3 times before I successfully got through only to die in the early stages of the second month because of my lack of experience at the time. If you’ve already played the mode, you will also notice that the #1 reason for defeat is because you can never safely close in on your enemies for a good shot.
Here are a few things to keep in mind during every field assessment – might give you a general idea of what you are in for:

• When encountering a map with 1 lone climbable structure in the middle with a low rooftop (one where you can actually see the square right under you when you go to the edge), the map is generally an easy and should fair very well with minimal casualty.
• When the map has lots of buildings:
  • – with walls that only have a few windows, the map should be fairly easy.
  • – with a lot of windows, it’s a hard map and you should be very careful in this one.
• If a map has high rooftops (can’t see the square right under you when you go to the edge) map is a medium difficulty map because this will most of the time make the rooftop useless in Ironman. The map may have climbable rooftops nearby but more often than not, they would be situated too far for you to reach without fighting several squads of aliens.
• For maps that have no buildings- cemeteries, outdoors, construction sites, and bridges, Very good chance you will lose in this map. Having said that, I do win these maps more often than not however. Two casualties is usually what it equates to unless I am very lucky.
• Train maps. Impossible train maps are impossible.

  The train yard with the trains and the train station. Ah. Too many are the times that I encountered this map where all my carefully trained vets just lied down and died. This should be a cemetery by now. Expect a very high rate of failure or death here; though there is one exception -I found one train map that supposedly is of a level anyone can take on. The map would be of 2 parts: a high ground/building/elevation where you start and the other half would be a lower area. I encountered this type of map three times and won 2 of 3. I was screwed by the game on the last encounter when it had me start at the lower area and the aliens on the elevated area.

II – The Casualt- err… Classes

In this section, I will refrain from getting too much into the details as the chances of you already being a vet yourself and having completed the game on other modes are high enough to ever want to even take this mode for a spin. Classes that generally were very good in other modes turn into fodder quite easily in this mode. Therefore we need to understand that casualties in this mode are norm and slightly impossible to NOT happen. You will need to actually throw a lot of lives away… you filthy, soulless animal.

Below is the list of classes that I would always use. Any skills that are left unmentioned just means that you can decide for yourself whether you want to take them or not.

• The Sniper

  – (have 1 or 2 fully ranked in a squad, 1 is usually enough though)
  The IMHO, the most valuable and essential class to have in the game. Never let him die.

  • Core skills
    • Squadsight is the only way you will survive in the early stages of this mode. Get a sniper ranked fast – You’ll usually get this through 4 missions with a minimum of around 7-8 kills.
    • Headshot is a must. I’d do it even if I don’t want to.
    • Damn Good Ground – because going with Gunslinger doesn’t benefit you later on through end-game. I would personally just throw a grenade rather than waste it on Gunslinger in this mode. You will want your Sniper as far away (at the other end of the map at the highest elevation possible) with an Archangel Armor – he will become your angel of death from there.
    • *Special* Disabling Shot – It disables Sectopods for a full round. YOU CAN HAZ NEED.
• The Assault

  – (have 2 of them- 1 shotgun, 1 rifleman)
  The credibility of the assault class is very low in the beginning. Get him to Captain though and he will start making you smile. During the first month, you will want him to have assault rifles until he is on the high end of his rank. Once he gets to captain, and depending on your research choices, the shotgun is where he shines. Don’t let me fool you into thinking that Shotgun is the only way to go though because I always have a Rifle Assault as a buddy to go with my Shotgun Assault.

  • Core Skills
    • Run & Gun is the way to go but be very careful when you close in on baddies as the mode always has another squad of aliens waiting to be triggered.
    • Aggresion isn’t much to look at by itself early in the ranks. You’ll love it by Captain rank.
    • Rapid Fire is a skill that is essential for you in conjunction with Run & Gun in this mode.
    • Close Combat Specialist is the way to go with a shotgun. The reason is simply that whenever you go into an area with baddies that are 4 squares around you, these baddies take a reaction shot every time they move.
    • Close and Personal
    • Killer Instinct

  ! After you actually get the feel of how the shotgun works, you can begin thinking about the idea that subsequent attacks do not necessarily have to be at the same target when you dash into a room and shoot everyone. The Assault can perform a normal move, potentially kill one enemy with the free Close and Personal shot, and then proceed to shoot (or Rapid Fire) a second enemy.

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• The Support

  – (having 1 doesn’t hurt)
  Fodder- AKA the class that I tend to throw into the MEC chambers. Aside from being a doctor to help keep the team alive, I can’t find much use for him in Ironman. Choose all skills at the left panel and concentrate on being a doctor. A well-timed smoke grenade can save your squad. Don’t hesitate to use it if you feel that you’re being out-“sniped” by the AI.

  • Core Skills
    Pick everything on the left hand panel of the skill selection. Play doctor.

• The Heavy

  – (essential for the first month)
  The one class that carries you through the first month. You’ll want to level the whole area where the aliens are with rockets once you see them. Use them as much as possible whenever plausible. In my experience the heavy is like a very fat and slow assault, the only thing it really excels at in this mode is bombing the whole place to kingdom come. Use him for that, his accuracy with his normal gattling gun is only good for suppression fire. If you really need to fire his gun, make sure he is near and in shotgun range – 4 tiles. If you manage on getting him the Elite Mutton’s Plasma gun late in the game, he should be a bit useful. But not really- so stick to his blowing everything up.

  • Core Skills
    • Holo-Targeting if you plan to use your heavy as an off-hand long-range support; Bullet Swarm if you plan to use him in close quarters.
    • Shredder Rocket because you want to fire them bombs to kill. Situational but useful in the first month.
    • Heat Ammo is the Seeker-killer. Drops em like flies. If you hit them…
    • Danger Zone. Boom
    • Rocketeer. Boom Boom

• The MEC Trooper

  – (not really required but treat it as a secondary objective, keep 1 fully ranked if possible)
  Now the way I use the MEC is pretty straight forward – very conventional so to speak:

  “Blunt Force Trauma. Horsepower. Heavy-duty, cast-iron, piledriving punches that will have to hurt so much they’ll rattle his ancestors. Every time you hit him with a shot, it’s gotta feel like he tried kissing the express train. Yeah. Let’s start building, some hurting bombs.”

  Now for me, the best MEC troopers are always made depending on your playstyle but in Ironman, the Support and Heavy cadets shine when turned into MECs. Support Cadets will give off that +10 def bonus to nearby allies in cover which is important in mid game situations while the Heavy ones are the ones I mainly use to take out the muttons and mechtoids. In my experience, the Heavy is the best class to go with, treating the gun as the secondary weapon and prioritizing movement to get in close to pummel their extra-terrestrial gonads while having the ability to heal the squad in times of need.

  • Core Skills
    • Collateral Damage Use this to spray the cover area of enemies. Depending on what skills your sniper has, your sniper should be able to see and shoot them once cover is gone.
    • Vital-Point Targeting is something I can’t go without in Ironman for MECs.
    • Jetboot Module helps your MEC’s mobility and is very good to get them to flank in certain maps.
    • Expanded Storage + Restorative Mist – You will need this.
    • Absorption Fields vs. Reactive Targeting Sensors – Your choice; both work and is very situational so choose one to fit your playstyle.
  • Equipment
    • Kinetic Strike Module, Restorative Mist, Electro Pulse
  • Upgrades
    • Advanced Servomotors, MEC Close Combat, Shaped Armor
  • Tactics
    The MEC rushes in for hurting bombs with either Kinetic Strike or Electro Pulse, and primarily uses its main weapon while closing in, firing 2x/turn, while still getting a 3rd free reaction shot. The MEC will have the ability to stun Sectopods and kill Sectopods and Mechtoids in one turn.

    The Kinetic Strike Module with the “Absolutely Critical” (a Second Wave option that forces all flanking shots to) guarantee a critical hit every time. Works against you too, though. The punch does 18 damage, which can be upgraded to 27 with two uses per turn.

    Closing remark: I turned Shaojie Zhang into a MEC. I like to think that he was dragged to the MEC foundry/lab, screaming. hurhurhurhur…

III – Strategem: How to Cook Alien Scum

The first few real missions you get from the game will be pretty hard but only because:

• The aliens are overpowering.
• Your luck ran out.

! Important – do not be afraid to use grenades or use them sparingly. Your goal for this month is to live long enough to build XCOM to a state that it has a fighting chance.

The best possible thing you can do is minimize the risk involved and expect losses during this month. Now there are several ways you can minimize the risks and so thus the following:

This is the most basic and must-do move in Impossible Ironman. The best way to do this is to hunk every soldier you have down in strategic points – such as choke points or flanking areas where you have full cover. I have also noticed that if you were to hunker all but one soldier down in this mode, the enemy would target him; or anyone that isn’t hunkered down – So if you hunker 5 soldiers down and have the 6th and last one move to full cover and say (as an example) do Overwatch instead, they would go for him as he was the last that did an action plus he isn’t hunkered down. It would be best to keep this in mind for events when and if you want to draw attention or enemy fire from the enemy.

! In short, if you want to avoid having aliens focus on one soldier (which most will likely be the end of him), then be mindful of how you use it.

For example, when I do encounter a group of baddies, the first turn that I get would be used to get all soldiers to viable spots first and then hunker down. Attacking would have to come next round. There are exceptions to this of course, such as when you are moving a soldier that is out of sight from the aliens or if you see an opportunity to snipe (as in shooting them without them having the chance to counter) or bomb them all in one go via boom booms.

Generally in other modes, you didn’t really need to do this as much unless you were up against a particularly hard and annoying enemy unit. In Ironman, you will need to focus your fire a lot. The reason for this is because generally enemies in the mode have a high accuracy and you, do not. One on one is pretty much a bad thing in the first month and I would stress against that as it will most likely lead your squad to the aliens’ probing table. Also, eliminating one of three aliens quickly goes a long way to shaving their chances of hitting you. Less shots for them to shoot you back the better.

Generally the smoke is there to save you at the early stages of battle. The trick is knowing when to use them – I would personally use them at the end of my turn (or before the enemy shoots) where shots have already been fired. This is to eliminate the very high hit accuracy the enemy has. This will give my squad a bit of chance to survive long enough to return fire and finish the job.
! Very useful against Thin Men.

The Heavy as I’ve mentioned before is your go-to guy at the start and finish of every open-world encounter. In the first month, you will be overpowered by baddies so much that you would think that the game was unbeatable. Firing a rocket towards a group of aliens would reduce either their numbers or put their hitpoints low enough for the rest of your squad to pick them off for either kill or capture. Now, don’t be reserved in using his rockets, your goal is to survive; capture objectives or their corpses and equipment are only secondary and important after you have a safe lock on the situation. Grenades are also useful, never leave Heavy class personnel without them.

! There will always be the unavoidable times when you trigger 301493849028 enemies. The answer to that… is Heavy. *buh duh tss*

Also there is that very annoying sectoid situation that you will get at the early stages of the game – if you pinpoint their location, bomb them.

BOMB. THEM. GOOD.

You would think that this is useful… It is, but on a “walking on shaky ground” kind of way. Flanking in this mode is offset by the chance of triggering multiple groups. If you are about to go into a flanking position towards an area where there is no visible squad sight or cover, chances are, there is another group waiting to trigger and overwhelm you. The best way to flank in this mode is to keep your flanking positions to the area where you can see. If you see a corner with a dark area behind it, don’t go there- Use the area that you have and try not to follow retreating aliens with a single soldier. And if you can’t find a way to flank and want to just go for dark areas, check the corners first by going to the edge with a full cover– never run out in a single move, the mode punishes you for doing such things.