I never managed to win the game fair and square...

Surround them with Proximity Granades then shoot the living daylights out of them. :sniper:

To deal with muttons use the shock weapons anyway the funniest its to deplete your ammo in a mission, i feel beter when i have to send someones to the back cuz they are out of ammo. I got always a guy or a pair only to carry the heavy amunition in the middle of battle to the cannon. ....When a trooper without more rifle clips runs into the enemy fire to take the ammo of a dead one or when soldier isloated and without more ammo, runs with an activate HE inside the Ufo. This is the best part of game.

Ironically, early in the game I don't hit the UFOs with my Skyranger, just my Interceptor. This is when I've just got conventional weapons, mind.

Now, I may be the only one who's like this, but I -never-, -ever- use Heavy Cannons or Autocannon. Why? Too heavy. I like my troops to travel light.

Once I get Laser Rifles, though, I try to sneak one or two ground assaults on small craft, at most. I use Elerium for only a couple of purposes: Armor and Plasma Cannon. I don't -need- a huge stockpile of the stuff, since I don't use Blaster Launchers (okay, I do on occasion, but I never make my own blaster bombs), and Heavy Plasma Clips are strictly salvage.

As for score? I don't worry about it unless I'm on notice from the Funding Nations. The funds you get from them are insignificant, money is made by selling captured stuff and manufacturing, so just keep the XCom going.

But if they are displeased with you they will dicontinue sending funds and sign pacts with the aliens and you will eventually fail in your mission...

Not true.

Pacts are signed due to "Infiltration" missions being completed by the aliens. Top priority should go out to stop these, even at the loss of all of your fighter craft.

Ironically, early in the game I don't hit the UFOs with my Skyranger, just my Interceptor. This is when I've just got conventional weapons, mind.

Now, I may be the only one who's like this, but I -never-, -ever- use Heavy Cannons or Autocannon. Why? Too heavy. I like my troops to travel light.

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The rocket launcher is conspicuous by its absence, does that mean that you do use RL's?

I also see only limited use for the autocannon, as they do not pack enough HE power to blast open brick walls, but they are very useful for clearing obstacles in the jungle, or firing illumination/incindiary rounds at night. However, I may be biased by my fondness for the combination of HE and autofire.

The heavy cannon is a very useful weapon, even given its weight. Many aliens are killed by near misses and it does knock holes in walls. Blowing open buildings is among its uses, as it is difficult to kill an alien firing through a window, but the heavy cannon will make the window bigger for follow up shots. I only load HE into heavy cannons.

The TU loss for heavy equipment is only a problem for the first few missions, as carrying heavy loads is what improves a troopers strength.

I agree with your post on the heavy cannon. I use it for the same reason.
I find that an alien likes to linger on the top floor of a farm building just at the top of the stairs. It is to risky to send a squaddy up there as he won't make the first step. Instead I fire a couple of HE's through the windows to clear the room out. If the alien does'nt die he sometimes drops to the bottom level if the floor gives out from the explosion.

I tend to only use the auto cannon on terror missions as the HE ammo is less devastating than the heavy cannons. I try not to kill what I have gone in to protect.

Early in the game, these two weapons are your best friend and I will use them to their full advantage.

Your methods seem all wrong to me. How are you selling stuff if your rarely collecting it. :blink:
You need to collect as much as you can early on until you have completed reasearch to take advantage of manufacturing. You will find you will expand more quickly.

Once I get Laser Rifles, though, I try to sneak one or two ground assaults on small craft, at most.

There's a difference between a ground assault and a recovery, I should have been more specific. I shoot the craft down to minimize risk.

I prefer a more reliable solution of shooting the stuff down first, -then- assaulting, since I'm never Elerium-starved. Elerium isn't as important as it seems, it just looks a lot more important because

You need to collect as much as you can early on until you have completed reasearch to take advantage of manufacturing.

Doesn't take that long to get laser cannon.

You will find you will expand more quickly.

Expand? ::blinks:: What's this expand thing? o.o

I don't even -try- to defend the whole world. I never build more than three or four bases: Europe as my first base (conventional), the Antarctica research-manufacturing base, and if I care to bother, strike bases in East Asia or North America.

Any action that doesn't in some way contribute to your goal is meaningless. Your goal is to smack down Cydonia. What do you want directly for that?
Cydonia or Bust
An Avenger
A squad of Rambos in powersuits, backed with a couple HWPs.

Indirectly, you want to keep your score survivable (not too difficult unless you waste too much time), you want to make enough money to get to this point, you want the tech to get to this point and you want to keep your bases from being raped (which, till you get a Grav Shield and at least Plasma Defense, involves more prayer than skill).

It doesn't take world-wide coverage with strike teams for every UFO.

The rocket launcher is conspicuous by its absence, does that mean that you do use RL's?
No. I don't normally use Earth-tech weapons except for special situations. (Stun rods, prox grenades, effects that I can't replicate with alien tech yet.) I've tried Rifles in the early game on shot-down (not grounded) UFOs with some success, but once you get the Laser Rifle they obviously go by the wayside.