Battleships have the same range as a fusion ball launcher, this has been discussed before. Plasma cannons are a better bet against any ship, especially due to the fact that they are a one-off payment, as opposed to the Fusion Balls which are 4E each (I think), which can get quite expensive.

Also, with Fusion Balls, the most shots you will ever get is 4. Plasma cannons x2 = 200 shots, so you can take down over 10 craft on one flight. Handy, that. Works especially nicely with an Avenger with about 12 people and 2 Plasma Cannon Hovertanks, due to the fact that they can land at more than one site. So as soon as you shoot something down you land, take off and shoot down another craft, land etc. and then maybe take out a base if your soldiers are OK.

Very nice...

Your thing about spotters is correct, but you have to watch out for alien reaction shots as you come out of cover, although you could give a Blaster Launcher waypoints towards the aliens you can see. That works nearly every time.

By the way, standing over stunned aliens won't prevent them from getting up again. I still think though that they don't pick up any weapons, once they've dropped them.

Correct, but if they were carrying 2 weapons you are screwed. You really want to stun something and put it in your transport and guard them with normal pistols (stun instead of kill).

*edits* I'm not even sure if they can swap weapons, but they can't pick them back up.

Your soldiers automatically start all over the place; a few will be in the long hallway to begin with. That's fine, they can hurl prox mines down the hall if you want to do that (I don't; it destroys equipment). They are better used as spotters to look at aliens, then run back behind the wall; don't do ANYTHING other than look at the alien for a split second before running back and crouching, so they can reaction fire on aliens that walk past them. For the rest of the turn, you know where the aliens are because of the spotters. If you do anything other than step into the hallway, turn 90 degrees, and run back into hiding, that soldier may get shot at by aliens' reaction fire.

Oh yeah, I forgot... [b]you MAY want to use smoke grenades[b]. That will further reduce the range of alien vision. The way I had my one and only base defense mission go, I had used some prox grenades (I didn't realize that I didn't need them until it was too late), so there was a LOT of smoke coming off the access lift.

Then your snipers shoot.

Then click next turn. The aliens should not be able to see your spotters during their turn, since your one soldier (use only one spotter per turn; no need to expose more than one to possible reaction fire) only momentarily poked his or her head around the corner before running back behind the wall.

However, a fast-moving alien might walk so far down the hall that it DOES see your spotter. Try not to have this happen by placing your soldiers as far away from the hallway, but as close to the wall, as possible, so that aliens have to not only walk to your soldier but turn 90 degrees to the left and right to see your spotters:

This is a diagram of half of the hallway; pretend the other half (right side) also exists.

S = spotting soldier



HERE ARE YOUR SNIPERS
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S
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S
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HERE ARE THE ALIENS

Stunned aliens are generally harmless unless they are Chryssalids or something, which can get back up and eat you. Otherwise, aliens don't know how to pick up their weapons.

I usually don't carry them all the way back to my transport. I put a guard next to them, after I've checked their weapons. And I've noticed most soldiers can carry 2 heavy plasmas in their back pack, plus a laser rifle and stun rod in their hands, without losing any time units. Of course I drop the laser rifle once they're only guarding stunned aliens.

Actually I think that the Plasma Cannon _uses_ Elerium _as_its_ammo_.

i think the minimal base defense should be:
three plasma defences + grav shield, but i would built at least 4 plasmas + a grav shield.

strange thing: one time i was just bored and pressed the "one day" button, so time flew by. well, suddenly: alien attack. plasma one shots...and on and on, (actually later they managed to brake in^^).
what bugs me is, that i have a mind shield but the aliens simply remember my position

It depends of your strenght.The lower strenght you have,the greater TU and Vitality penalty will you get for having heavy weapons...
Btw,Dirty but effective tactic is save game in beginning of tactical battle, and when you lose reload and send few rockets/grenades in places where were aliens in previous game.Aliens NEVER change their positions in reloading....
A dirty,cheating and shameful tactic but when you playing on Superhuman.... :whistle: (or without resreach :whistle: :whistle: )

About the strenght thing: exactly! But apparently most soldiers are strong enough to carry all that.

I can imagine such nasty tricks come in handy at superhuman level :)
I never noticed the aliens started in the same positions.
The most annoying thing is still that your first soldiers get shot when they just walk out of your aircraft. Only for that reason, it's worth taking a single tank.