[Blarg]

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Collapsing from smoke happens too rarely for it to be a concern. Especially if your man hasn't been shot.


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Well, what I'm talking about is if they've been shot. Which happens to soldiers all the time of course.

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If he has, then the combination of wounds and the smoke inhalation may knock him out, but it's still unlikely.


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Wounding alone can knock him out, that's the problem. The smoke isn't about knocking him out, it's about dropping his health much more quickly when he's knocked out. If you're racing to get to him with a medi-kit, your chances can drop significantly.

And any time a soldier has lowered health, it means more recovery time. Having a soldier do nothing but soak up salary hurts quite a bit, as does having to train up yet another guy.

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I let my rookies die a lot. I play without reloading, so if I have to send someone through a door, it's always some unarmored newb. If he dies, oh well $20000 is chump change and well worth the benefits of knowing that there are aliens lying in ambush. Not every rookie is treated the same though. Some rookies come with exceptional stats, and I armor them up and build them. But the poor suckers with any deficiencies get labelled as fodder and always die first. I never fire a soldier for bad stats. I already paid for him. He's more useful to me if I send him through a door to die. Because my soldiers die, I always keep a few extra around as a buffer so I don't have to wait 3 days for replacements.


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Definitely a different play style. I treat my guys like I would if they were real live dudes, where bringing my guys back alive is a very important part of the mission. There's usually a better way of doing things than killing off my own soldiers. Semper fi, alien mothafuckas!

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I used to use tanks back when I used to reload. I didn't like my troops dieing so I sent the tanks ahead first. I don't usually let the tanks kill anything though unless as a last resort. They're great scouts. Tons of movement and high hitpoints.

But now, I'd rather have 4 rookies than a tank. With the 4 rookies, I have 4 pieces of fodder I can send to check corners and doors instead of just one. And the total cost of 4 rookies is 80 grand instead of whatever the tank costs which I think is more than that.

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People often either love them or hate them. I tolerate them here and there, but they are expensive and easy to lose. I used them more in Terror of the Deep, which was harder and got harder faster, and it was even easier to lose soldiers.

I also don't like the way they hog up space. Maneuvering soldiers around them, or to get a sight line around them, can be a pain, especially in narrow corridors.