Why I Have 1,430 Hours In™ XCOM: Long War 1

[@PoolNoodleGundam]

"and Floaters... are idiots" My beautiful, special little boys

[@henryschneider9101]

7:40 - The way the aesthetics and mechanics in the Xcom series create that theme of moral compromise w/o overtly drawing attention to it is one of my favorite things about the series too. I love how in the og UFO Defense, strategies like "preemptively killing civilians in Chryssalid missions" or "becoming an indiscriminate arms manufacturer" can emerge solely thru mechanical interactions. When they release Xcom 3 in 2030, hopefully they won't screw that up.

[@fatrat92]

I think the best thing i heard about this mod was the Devs themselves said the base game is a "30 hour tutorial for long war."

[@Just_Lars]

It states so on the website of the Modding Studio. And even better: TakeTwo explicitely COMISSONED them to do a new mod for XCOM 2. Which gives me a whole other level of appreciation for this company. I mean, I never heard of any studio actually asking modders to make a mod. Let alone the friggin publisher of a game giving modders access to it before release so they can finish and release the mod the same day the game officially launches.

[@jaffarebellion292]

@@Just_Lars If TakeTwo aren't senselessly hostile toward a mod, it must be a pretty damn good mod.

[@civleng258]

It's good to see that EW Long War is still being played. It's my favorite game of all time.

[@CrusaderCrunch]

Ngl havent played LW 1 but played through EW, X2, X2WOTC and LW2 and I can actually see what this guy means by that having the increased squad size despite the LW's being harder making it less unfair in a way. It actually was why I played a lot of LWOTC still on and off because yes if I play my cards right and use my resources strategically I can still stack the odds better in my favor or if I want the challenge when things are going right I can pull higher risks for more rewards.

[@chrisreynolds5728]

7:23 7:23

[@aidanmagill6769]

Yep. 2 is an excellent game as well but X-Com quickly become too OP. Plus, 1 is the much more charming game.

[@GeeNo_]

@@aidanmagill6769 I wish I could take all of the customization and music (including mods) from Xcom 2 and put them into Xcom 1 Long War, that and some QoL Xcom 2 has like opening and closing doors, sightline indicators, that would be the perfect Xcom experience for me.

[@QuirkyAvik]

I play because I have a very low spec laptop and xcom run at 40fps on it when 30 would do. Most things don't run on my laptop, I tried Gears tactics but it ran like shit.

[@giacomomeluzzi280]

I want to add a couple of things for anyone who might be discouraged by the campaign length/difficulty. This is, of course, directed to people that haven't played the mod and are discourage by its perceived difficulty and time requirement. This mod is a true jewel that nobody should be put off of because of difficulty: 1) the game doesn't have to be incredibly long. There is a Dynamic War Second Wave option that can be tweaked to cut down in mission numbers and research time significantly (I think default is 1/2, but you can set it to 1/8 or whatever you want, or you could even double the length if that's what you're after) 2) the game is certainly harder than vanilla, but it's not RIDICOUSLY HARD unless you want it to be. Nobody is forcing you to play Impossible/Ironman. Play Normal with reloads allowed, use the Training Config if you want it to be even easier. You can also significantly reduce the difficulty if you can't handle the default settings with Second Waves alone: crank those Cinematic War, Durability and Friendly Skies Second Wave options on and go to town. There's absolutely no shame in doing so. 3) the wiki is your best friend. It's really well done and complete, remember to check it out and it'll solve 95% of your doubts. For anything else, our community is small but helpful and welcoming. Post on Reddit or Discord and people will always help. Remember that what you see on KZbin/Twitch is usually content made by people with thousands of hours playing at max difficulty and sometimes even modding the mod to make it even harder. If that's not your cup of tea, just don't do it. It's a game, it has to fun, and if really tough challenge isn't your definition of fun, just lower it, reload if things go wrong and learn at your pace. Hell, I have 1k hours at least and I still use Friendly Skies even when playing I/I and I know I'm not the only one. I don't like having to play Excel Sheets simulator to play the air game, and the air game gates all the fun toys I love to use, so why make life more frustrating when the solution is a simple button I can press at the start of a campaign? BTW, this applies to LWotC as well. I personally found it a lot of fun, I only have put like 100 hours in but I surprised me in a good way. It's certainly a completely removed experience from LW1, but it's not worse in any way, just different. I'm loving it, but LW1 still holds a special place in my heart.

[@Meldreth56]

Absolute banger of a comment. Thank you for the effort mate.

[@Saplingbat]

I would also say that if there's anything in particular you just truly can't abide, a lot of stuff can be edited in the ini/config files if you have a little know-how. Games are supposed to be fun, so if something isn't working for you see if you can fix it. That's the whole point of PC gaming.

[@Graknorke]

Doesn't that kill the point? People like long war because it's long and hard, if you shorten it down and soften it up you're back at normal EW

[@nicholasmize2798]

I’m so glad you brought up the individual enemy AI. One of the worst changes in xcom 2 is that almost every enemy behaves the same. The one that gets me the most is that they always run suppression where as in Enemy Within only the psycho mechtoids would do that.

[@kR-qj7rw]

Ew and it's fucked up gremlin sectoids doing kamikaze runs is amazing

[@Jorg13]

I literally started a LW playthrough again today after giving up on my last one a couple of months ago. I'm really glad you popped up in my feed

[@Tabako-san]

Not sure if you ended up figuring it out but you can have multiple squads in Jagged Alliance 3 attack the same area, meaning you can have like 12 mercs in one battle if you wish. Just have them both move to the same location and close the window prompting an attack from your first squad if they don't arrive at the same time.

[@minimalgrammar1276]

I'm not sure if I've ever heard the MEC death voice lines... Man I need to play More Long War.

[@Duchess_Van_Hoof]

They are so hilariously overpowered in vanilla that I never experienced it.

[@bengt-goranpersson5125]

6:12 - Excellent sound bite. Love it.

[@OrpheusOverdrive]

Thank you for making an enjoyable, well thought out, and articulate video. I especially enjoy how you, unlike about 90% of KZbin, sprinkle in memes as a nice comedic punch rather than shitting memes all over because if one meme is funny then, you know, a turd pile of them will be hilarious, right? Also, big props for leaving in natural voice over speech rather than editing out any spaces between words making it sound like you are doing it all in one breath like a lot of KZbinr's do. Thanks.

[@cassius_scrungoman]

i see another person has gotten sick of pyrocynical editing

[@user-xsn5ozskwg]

It's wild to find a channel that objectively has the best taste in and takes on games. I especially like the point about action economy spiral. Weaker strategy games require near-perfection and great luck otherwise the battle is FUBAR, something even more damning in a long-form campaign. Anyway, now I'm gonna start looking into The Campaign for North Africa.

[@cassius_scrungoman]

thanks! this is really sweet. do be careful of Stellaris fans. they could be anywhere.

[@Just_Lars]

@@cassius_scrungoman Hey, could you repeat what you just said infront of my mega warforms and Planetcracking Colossus, please? :) Jokes aside, I get you. Strategy games from Paradox are objectively flawed and the dlc policy is a ripp-off at this point, so having what basically is a free expansion for a game like XCOM is just fantastic. At least it gives me a short break from the stockholm syndrom the Stellaris player base has collectively developed ;_;

[@freyamiles3718]

7:59 breaking the ice with enbies is always so easy. Ask them what their ideal robotic body and you have an hour long convo stacked up

[@mirrorslash028]

Noted

[@Duchess_Van_Hoof]

I was about to object, but Ghost in the Shell is my favourite anime.

[@ProtomanButCallMeBlues]

With Longwar what I like is that there is a sense that rookies are in a position where they can be expendable and it's encouraged that you actually use them that way rather than save scumming, or keeping them back.

[@RepChris]

The larger troop count is why I prefer the original XCOM: UFO defense to a lot of modern XCOM, certainly to XCOM 2; you can bring up to 14 soilders with the initial troop transport, and up to 26 with the avenger, if you actually want to do that is a different question. You can also bring various HWPs (Tanks and alien tech equivalents) using up quite a few crew slots each, but not needing to grind up from private making them disposable and tanky. Of course Being able to bring more than 2 squads worth of troops does lead to issues, both in having to actually control them, max item count issues (open XCOM fixes those), and of course the fact that you probably dont (in fact you basically cant) have 26 elite soilders and one panicked (or MCed) rookie with an explosive can wipe the entire landing craft before you get to disembark, or even a panic cascade from the mind controlled rookie shooting the XO, which leads to everyone firing wildly before even disembarking, leading to mass fatalities before you even see the first alien. Although to a certain degree that is part of the charm. It also has you managing multiple bases, with the ability to intercept multiple craft at once, and dealing with possibly multiple combat missions at once; that allows you to make specialized bases for say radar / hyperwave decoder coverage, research, engineering, intercepting craft and launching ground missions, although you really dont want any that just do one or 2, and if your launching interceptors you want a troop contingent on base to fight off possible retaliations, at which point you might as well use them for ground missions too. All that is of course a double edged sword, since managing bases all around the world, and multiple combat missions can be very mentally taxing and frankly sometimes tedious. The greater degree of possible destruction also is great. There is a much greater weapon selection, not limited to arbitrary classes, even just the basic weapons include great stuff like an autocannon that can fire incendiary and HE shells, allowing you to do stuff like just burning down the barn instead of having to send out a fire team over an open field next to the alien craft and plenty of cover to clear it. Even grenades have much higher flexibility, by being able to set a timer, instead of them instantly blowing up, allowing stuff like sending in the rookie into the alien craft with the grenade already ticking, so if they predictably get shot the second they go through the door, they just drop the grenade on the floor, which will probably kill a good chunk of the aliens that killed them, and the resulting dust and debree will give whoever gets to go next some concealment. Another thing you can do is a bucket chain where you pass along the hot grenade along a line of troopers from the one guy that still has a relevant grenade (incendiary, smoke, high explosive, you get your moneys worth) to where it needs to go. Chryssalids also have never been more scary. All in all its a flawed game but incredibly enjoyable, and it holds up to this day. I have no clue how many hours ive played it since open XCOM isnt through steam, but it certainly is many. Long war is great too but thats not where my autism took my train of thought

[@deadspace4755]

The original XCOM were and still are full of freedom in tackling various problems. That is how a game should be made. Give the player various of ways of solving a problem or problems. It is so enjoyable to have full freedom, you can go full rocket squad at the first missions and decimate any alien as along you throw smoke grenades and keep them at a distance. Or have soldiers with low aim, carry ammo and guns to others soldiers when needed, like having a donkey around. XCOM Apocalypse also applies the concept but l haven't play it a lot. Still, looks very interesting given how it follows the original but with flavors of taking care a big city with various factions. That concept has never been seen before, or maybe very few games ever managed that. I could go on and on about the old XCOM or just old games in general. Their freedom of solving problems is so beautiful. l remember in Thief you can solve problems by just stacking boxes to climb or even hide from. Such small details are missing from modern games.

[@gorrazin7983]

The story of Dr. Vahlen is an interesting one. She was ALWAYS a crazy mad scientist that would look past her own morals just to sate her curiosity. She basically admits it herself in XCOM 2 with one of her voice lines. "Commander, sometimes I wish you were still here to keep my ambitions in check." The only reason she didn't do anything TOO psychotic in EU or EW was because XCOM reined in her more crazy tendencies. On a somewhat related note, I always found it funny how XCOM uses stereotypes. You have the serious American soldier (Bradford), the eccentric mad scientist that happens to be German (Dr. Vahlen), and in the first and second game you have the techy Asians (The Shen family). The stereotype for Dr. Tygan is much harder to find but if you dig deep enough, he's a Black American that lived in Chicago I guess? Kind of weird that he doesn't really fit neatly into any particular stereotype considering pretty much every other character does but I enjoy his character anyways.

[@profeseurchemical]

magic black guy maybe? can think of the one black kid in various american cartoons and things being a techy nerd, not sure if its a stereotype tho. (danny phantom, ned's survival guide)

[@tpd1864blake]

That Chinese mafia guy was so cheesy with his delivery “if you take me with you, it’s all yours~” nobody talks like that, and the way he shoots a Sectoid in the cutscene and tosses the pistol at the corpse, like couldn’t you have kept it for self defense throughout the mission like the covert ops missions?

[@XLZock]

As a big fan of Long War i wholeheartily reccomend playing the campaign with a friend. Me and a few buddys of mine play the game through parsec where everyone "Owns" certain characters, it really helps take off some of the fatique you mentioned in the video and obviously, every game is better with friends. What i particularly enjoy about this "Multiplayer" is the inevtiable clashes and emergent stories this setup creates, such as your friends inevitably making moves you disagreed with or making builds that you yourself would never run. Its quite fun, for everyone that has acsess to insane wierdos in their friend group thatll say yes to a long war campaign, try it out!

[@Lecheconqueso]

I just started playing XCOM and have been enjoying it a lot. I can't exactly say what I find so appealing and interesting about the game, but I know that I have a lot of fun playing it. Great video!

[@lekoe961]

I got this video in my recommended 2 days ago. Last night I had the thought that I'd play Long War. You sold me on it. Today, I just 5 minutes ago beat the landed large ship early in the game. I've never had an XCOM experience like Long War 1. Thank you for making this video, and thank you for introducing not just me but many other people to this fucking masterpiece.

[@yari4046]

im a big LWotC fan, i do own xcom 1 but didnt play it nearly as much but ill probably go back to it just for long war

[@anabsentprofessor6120]

As a person who's never actually managed to finish a game of XCOM, LW is completely terrifying in scope to me. Maybe I'll give it another crack.

[@NiacinWaterTaffy]

Save scum: there's no bragging rights but you get to enjoy the whole game.

[@aidanmagill6769]

Play in short bites. One or two missions at a time. I've fluffed so many Ironman campaigns by playing too long in one sitting, losing focus and making silly mistakes. Slow and steady is the key. And probably most importantly - always, always, always go through all your options for your turn before taking any actions. Sure you might have a guy with a guaranteed kill on a dangerous alien but maybe he's the only one in the squad that can deal with another alien and you shouldn't waste that opportunity

[@Omn1c1d3]

@@aidanmagill6769good tip!

[@danielsurvivor1372]

Just finish it man, use second wave options that make it easier if you have to(like randomised character stats in beginning, which might sound bad but usually if you're willing to wait incase you get unlucky, you can find someone with higher stats then normal and then let em evolve and rip) Also DW about save scumming, do it if you must. Especially at the beginning cuz beginning of the game can be a slog and hard

[@viciouswaffle]

Long War is about the journey, not about the destination, so don't worry if you don't complete it.

[@ApostleOfDarkness]

Hey, not sure if anyone has ever brought this up, but there is a mod called "Squadrons Unleashed 2" that helps change the air combat to something more enjoyable if you prefer more content. Last I played (around a few months), it was integrated with LW well enough without many bugs or soft locks to function properly, just be mindful of hitting the ESC key when engaging UFOs.

[@jdb47games]

I have been playing computer games for 40 years, and Long War is my absolute favourite. I have probably racked up over 2000 hours on it, the equivalent of an entire working year! I have never managed to complete the game without save-scumming at least once, even on the lowest difficulty setting.

[@mhasemore]

The thing I like about Long War 1, and after playing LWOTC for XCOM 2, is that the experiences are different enough where I can see myself playing them both sequentially back to back. The only problem is the huge time investment - such a thing would probably take two years.

[@giacomomasi8718]

Despite some flaws I have fond memories of XCOM 2 and Chimera Squad i guess I will give the first a chance and the mod too

[@theunmobablespes6582]

Agree ! Ive never completed a single long war campaign but played more than 800 hours, probably more. Finally when muton elites show up my game starts spiraling down and i loose too many missions, objectives or soldiers. But the game itself is so much fun, so rewarding and yet so challenging. I did the early game so often i pulled off Portent without getting shot several times. Its really nice to see somebody else thinks this mod is jut simply amazing.

[@zenkichihitoyoshi9513]

I just started long war of the chosen like this week. I've done a full long war 1 campaign and there are things I like about both. There are also things I don't like about both but I've still to go deeper in LOWTC, merely scratched the surface. As for long war 1: I found my personal issue with it, the biggest gripe I have, to be the absolute OP omnipresence of assaults. You live and die by the shotgun. Exalt missions with 5/6 assaults, full on close combat specialists, one fast boi who stops their weapons with the relay. And it's a beautiful day. The first like few times. But assaults are just about the best classes for most situations. Yeah they won't do much on armored cyber disks at first maybe, but whatever. When they can take care of most threats in one shot... eh. They get the strongest base class ability, which ensures you can deploy a battalion of them and run straight into the enemy's face. There's me trying to setup a long range sniper from across the world and then there's the assault just running it down, being faster, more efficient, more versatile. And if a couple die? No biggie, even just a base level assault can be relevant. Losing a high level MEC or PSI soldier is devastating, losing an assault is just another day on the battlefield. My scouts never die and they get really good action economy and battle scanners are op, but every single time I think about a combat scenario, there are way too many situations where an assault would be "the preferred choice". When you mentioned that there isn't a correct choice, I have to disagree on this. Too often an assault flanking an enemy is the solution. Guaranteed hits, high base damage, high crit. A base shotgun can OHKO a Muton with 11/12 HP. Try that with anything else... just a couple things to setup for the assault and boom. I prefer LWOTC's approach so far. Using the mod jam collection of mods, there are so many that integrate so seamlessly I really don't have a better choice. Assault? Yeah but what about the buccaneer? There's a heavy here, but I also have a grenadier, or a dragoon or seven other viable options for every role. Hunter, shinobi, recon? Covered. Need some hacking? We got that. While I still prefer long war 1's style and gameplay, I'm finding LWOTC to be more strategic and deep on a technical level, where choices matter a lot. I think it's partially due to how BS ufo fights can be in XCOM EW, where sometimes you just have a billion back to back to back. Scout after scout after terror mission after research after double trap ufo fuck you too. Not to mention the aerial fight isn't the best, with dodge modules being very much required to have the slightest consistency to make good pilots. Cause you're gonna need them for them carriers and battleships. Thanks for the insightful video!

[@DragonInstallEnjoyer]

4:23 "the banner saga" - PEAK story based game- if anyone was wondering, HIGHLY recommended but beware because after you finish all 3 games you won't find ANYTHING scratching that itch as of may 2024.

[@tiendaweii]

LWotC is the GOAT, my man. The. GOAT. Still being improved, tweaked, gradually reworked by its biggest fans years after its first beta release into the consummate tactical shooter. My bet is that we won't see a better one until the 2030s.

[@Snoupity]

It is amazing, but if you didn't like LW2, you won't like LWoTC. What he really needs to play is LWR ;;) I was resistant to departing from regular Long War for the longest time, but once you go black, you never go back.

[@danielsurvivor1372]

​@@Snoupity Nope, in his sequel video to this one he LITERALLY said he does not want to play LWR cuz he didn't like green fog second wave option and said "but I guess my opinion isn't popular in the community *shows LWR* " And I can't blame em, who tf makes mod around green fog choice, masochists that's who 😂

[@aidanmagill6769]

After a few years hiatus, I just installed this on my Steam Deck yesterday. Mainly I just want a save before Newfoundland and another just before Base Defence so I can play those two over and over. God I love LW Newfoundland.

[@luk7269]

Long war rebalance is a lot better imo, and it's still being actively worked on and improved, it adds a whole lot of things from other mods (like squadron's air fights) while also making long war more balanced over the course of a playtrough rather than super hard at the start and rather easy by the end

[@cyrneco]

Modded jag3 has the problem you mentioned sorted out. Lw1 is superion because the fights are semi random generated.

[@BarthWarth]

Jagged Alliance 2 is a good pick for another strategy game that lets you get "Alot of bodies on the field" because you can deploy 2 full seperate squads to the same mission which is 16 people if memory serves

[@zerkon2]

S-tier video man, keep it up, I beg you LOL!

[@cassius_scrungoman]

thanks :>

[@JorD11121]

@@cassius_scrungoman "Why I Have 1,430 Hours In™ XCOM: Long War 1" Answer: Because its a long war. Its in the name! Real Answer: because Xcom EW Long War is one of the undisputed kings of its genres. Question: Are you playing with other mods, I have a long war from nexus and I am seeing features I am not familiar with. XP display, red mutons, outfits. Being honest with the outfits though I force conformity to each class with helmets to reduce attachment to play it like I would UFO.

[@H457ur]

The sad thing is that I’d pretty much forgotten about this game. You reminded me about something that I used to love - I think I’m going to reinstall it and try Long War One.

[@ethanladwig4292]

video version of pretzels without salt is such a good way to put it

[@Will_jetz]

I love EW But being able to blow exalt with Duke nukem while predator runs around with a plasma katana being covered by MGS quiet with a kak98 is priceless

[@SamirHusainy]

To this day, beating Long War 1 was one of my favorite achievements in life, even better than graduating med school. I picked it up during my final year of med school and played throughout the year. Every day, coming home to play a mission or two was one of the highlights of that year.

[@Nolanrooney17]

2:50 why does that soldier have a slightly misspelled version of the username I used for a bunch of things when I was younger and less creative lmao

[@abd-animation-22]

I never thought i would get used to hearing the thumbing/clanking down sounds of a sectopod in the fog of war far distance

[@Marxon1134]

4:44 The moment I started using grenades to destroy cover not the enemies was when my runs in this game started to really get somewhere.

[@Duchess_Van_Hoof]

This is a good spot to mention my facourite XCOM-Trick, give my accurare characters the stun gun. As the alien doesn't die, you get their weapons. This gives you free plasma pistols, light plasma rifles and plasma grenades. Saves you up on some money, and is so satisfying every time. A fun way to dispense with floaters trying to flank your snipers as well.

[@your.Charlotte]

this is a fantastic video!!

[@cassius_scrungoman]

thank you :>

[@saraphilosophizes]

Huh, your description of "wrangling the rng with a lasso" is rather similar to how a friend of mine describes a ttrpg I'm developing. It also has a large focus on giving the player many options with no general best one, and it lets you affect the odds both of your own success and the enemy's more dramatically than most ttrpgs. Btw having body envy of a mech cyborg is a big enby mood.

[@Marxon1134]

It really says something when you look at the very first mods for xcom 2. And they were partnered efforts made by the long war team.

[@JackDanielsFTW]

JA3 recommends to hire *at least* 3, but you always end up playing with 6 mercs and you can get 6 right from the start. It's also very easy to reduce the RNG to a bare minimum. In your overwatch clip at 1:48 you're simply running into an issue with objects blocking your shots, which is annoying to figure out, but also incredibly easy to avoid once you understand what's happening. Past the earliest stages you can play JA3 on the hardest difficulty while getting 100% chance to hit on every shot/melee attack that matters, because weapon mods, skills and other bonuses can easily get in the +30 to +50% bonus chance-to-hit range. Aiming in particular allows you to avoid reliance on RNG at the cost of either an extra shot or a bit of movement. Its weapon abilities and perks also combine into fairly significant move sets. The weakness of that game is actually how much realism and excitement is lost in order to reduce the RNG, e.g. weapons doing half damage per shot in burst or how filthy strong and low risk melee combat is - presumably in order to not relegate it to niche scenarios.

[@Dar-oi3tw]

I remember when I played the Long War 1 mod on X-COM Enemy Within. It took me 350 hours to complete and over ten months from December of 2021 to October of 2022. It was worth it as I had a lot of fun with some memorable moments such as EXALT missions. Those missions were made tougher in this mod as you are outnumbered heavily and depending on the map, is outright unbeatable in conventional means, especially the ones where you have to retrieve your operative and get out. I had one such mission at the radar base where I had to sneak around the main enemy patrols to regroup with my operative and get out which led to a lot of save summing and a mission report that says despite my victory did terrible on the other objectives such as killing all enemies which gave me an F rank. I also had another EXALT mission in the ally ways area where I had to hack the jammers to get info on EXALT's whereabouts and I had to fight like guerilla forces in X-COM 2 by hanging out on the roofs and ambushing large swaths of enemies killing them all in one turn. I started Long War 2 on X-COM 2 but I could not play anymore after my first 2 missions as it was just too long for me and I did not feel like wasting 700+ hours on an extremely tedious campaign.

[@Maibuwolf]

Exalt missions are easy. Bring several assaults with close combat specialist. Park them in the relay points. Watch exalt troops charge them and die.

[@Marxon1134]

I am so glad I have never seen the andromedon casually destroying everything in their path bug.

[@seangallagher9435]

The part at 8:45 with the AI, good AI is supposed to be more believable than competent. You want the AI to make openings for the player or else it’ll just be frustrating

[@stephenfulford6227]

I play a new LW1 for each new kid I have. Just starting the campaign for #4. We will see if he survives! It is the best game of all time imo.

[@Preedx2]

hey, cool video! Have you played Xenonauts? At launch I would say it was inferior to XCOM with Long War but after few years of modding I think Xenonauts became my favourite game of this type

[@ZKP314]

Ngl, seeing a guy wear a hat with a comm headset while wearing PSI Armor is some kind of Schadenfreude, and I like it.

[@cassius_scrungoman]

not everyone is psychic, can't talk with everyone all the time (inc. central) and if they're trained using comms it makes sense they'd stick to it

[@Katvanished]

I think you would hugely enjoy wesnoth, especially some of the higher end (UMC) stuff. check out invasion from the unknown! my issue with long war was just the sheer repetativeness. every month, 4 battles, I was so exhausted that I just stopped playing even now I find battles in squad tactics games to... honestly just repel me.

[@TheRealNeonwarrior]

I'd be very interested to hear your opinions on LW2 and especially LWoTC.

[@raw1175]

I am surprised nobody brought up Zenonauts it’s a great game that does a lot of the things you mentioned very well

[@bluephoenixguy1094]

I'm hovering ~500 hours on Long War Rebalance. I mostly picked it because I actually like the Overwatch change. I have a nasty habit of optimizing the fun out of games and LWR is REALLY hard to do that with. Sure, there's plenty of options to make things piss easy, but you'll have to diversify your tactics if you want a hope of survival. Examples of some OP combos: Engineers and Shivs. 2 shots every other turn, assuming they've got a battle rifle, then use the cooldown to reload. Hollow Targeting to make it easier for the Shivs to hit. XP the Shivs acquire is distributed amongst the people. -This dies the moment Heavy Floaters start replacing Floaters and the point before that where every enemy is a Thinman. -Chrysalids are horror incarnate. They Corrode, and Deal damage bypassing DR, meaning they do like... 8-10 damage each and 15+. Shivs can easily die in 1-2 hits. Squadsight Exploitation. -Seekers will SPECIFICALLY target snipers if they're too far away. If you're running Respirators, they'll just flank you and force your sniper to use pistols alone. Overwatch spam. -Muton Elites, from what I've seen, never have their hit chance drop below 40% without some shenanigans or active effects like smoke, Enh Met, etc. They also shred on hit, so you WILL lose a battle of attrition with them unless you're set up better and have more people than the pod you activated. Combine that with you having to see the pod to overwatch them and you're not doing much to them. Basically, each Class has units that counter them, so LWR has an element of Rock Paper Scissors that prevents certain elements of exploitation. You NEED at least 1-2 people from most of the classes for each mission. Assault are your "Oh shit" button. They'll run halfway across the map to catch the one alien that's suffocating your sniper... or Get close enough to that Outsider to avoid Close Combat Specialist for capture. Infantry are the ones who lay out fire as LONG as possible stick to the trenches. These are the guys who will be under suppression from the 15 Mutons you triggered by breathing wrong. Rocketeers are the stalemate breakers. 1 rocket in the perfect place will clear a crap ton of overwatches on stubbornly dug in pods. Gunners serve more of a support role than anything. Either they paint every target within a country mile with Holo Targeted, or they're laying down overwatch after overwatch on Drone pods, Mechtoid pods, or Sectopods. Engineers either function as more mobile Hazing than the Gunner or a walking "You dodged 2 99% shots in a row. I say you die NOW." equipped with up to NINE grenades. Medics Heal, and either act as smoke and concussion central or are ideal for picking off all the little guys that your other troops softened. T Scouts are the godsend that'll let you prepare for the next pod. "Sectopods ahead" will keep you from blindly walking into a team wipe. Snipers are just damage incarnate. The glass canons of your team. If it's too chunky and you need it gone NOW, use a sniper.

[@programmer3138]

how is LW2 worse? imo the LW2 is more strategic. in LW2, you can actually choose which missions to partake and choose a squad that is fit for a mission type. you can even bail your squad thats currently infiltrating if a more important mission came up. not to mention, you are also managing havens and advent strength in a region. that's why I prefer LW2 because the game is encouraging you to be proactive. LW1 is too passive for me.

[@zenmastakilla]

Bad take award

[@legonick357]

LW2 is trash. Especially the early-game. Timer hell tactical-layer and poorly paced strategy-layer

[@Saplingbat]

​@@zenmastakillaEnjoyment is subjective, no where in OPs comment did he say LW1 was worse, the most he asked is why is LW2 worse, and that LW1 is "too passive for him" which is fine. Don't be the fun police. No one likes that.

[@zenmastakilla]

@@Saplingbat Yawn.

[@williaminglehearn3581]

alright, I've gotta ask. where do you get soldier names from? because... 6:20. the dude who gets panicked. he has my old twitch username????? did I sub to you at some point??? I'm deeply confused. are you even on twitch?

[@cassius_scrungoman]

my name list is a collection of completely random Internet aliases and usernames picked from Reddit and twitch. if you showed up in Beagle's streams, I probably ripped you from there completely by coincidence.

[@williaminglehearn3581]

@@cassius_scrungoman godamn. Hell of a coincidence. Although if that was me, I feel like panicking is probably an accurate representation of what I'd do in that scenario.

[@cassius_scrungoman]

hey, if nothing else, you got the Zhang voice pack. that's a win if you ask me. sorry if this whole thing accidentally gave you a heart attack; I probably should have addressed the name list thing in the video. frankly, I didn't expect anyone to notice, nonetheless be in the video.

[@Rainer-qc2ol]

well this was neat

[@DudeWatIsThis]

You nailed it in the beginning. More characters is just BETTER. Same for RPG's, like the OG Baldur's Gates, Planescape: Torment, or Icewind Dale. I prefer running 6 characters to 4. The extra options in battle (and out of it) are just SO MUCH worth it. Probably my favourite aspect of Long War.

[@TheRevanpl]

Can you talk about diffrences between LW1 and LW2?

[@exilestudios9546]

And then compare them to the teams first standalone game

[@andreworders7305]

7:25 weird how on some screens they’ll just show up with all their limbs intact because the game forgot to account for it

[@tomkempf8460]

Bro you have listed it perfectly. I also have 1k+ hours in Xcom and ive beat chimera squad, played jagged alliance, and other titles blah blah. And theres just nothing like Xcom, I've tried so many clones and in the end, theres just nothing like Xcom. So I wait patiently for Xcom 3.

[@PanchoTheSneaky]

I love this game mode too. But the amount of times I got bullied by it made me stop playing it. Especially because I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong in order to fix it. You certainly made me think about playing it again but quite honestly, I am scared of it... and emotionally scarred by it!

[@StiveGuy]

Lost my 100+ hour long war campaign to a hard drive failure. I felt the fury of 10000 suns.

[@AronFigaro]

Long War 1 is my favourite turn based tactical game and maybe it always will be.

[@jeffredmond76]

I would love to see your recommended mod list for Long War 1. Especially hoping to see how you were able to get the camo mod to work for Long War 1.

[@roopertrooperviolencejack6281]

boosting this channel

[@skyfee86]

I've always wanted to make a video like this but for Long War 2 I personally enjoy the game way more than EW Long War, but that could be for a multitude of reasons It could also be a 2,000+ hour bias so idk

[@shodan2002]

The one issue I have with the new xcom is that losing a really good soldier hurts a lot because you literally need a soldier to be a certain rank to advance in the campaign they aren’t as expandable compared to xcom ufo defense and it takes a long time to level them up your squad is always far smaller than your enemies

[@onlywithbuts1781]

I have 400 Hours on modded XCOM 2 and 80% of that was spent in soldier customization. Let's be honest, XCOM is just so fun that no matter what you do, it will be a long run 😂

[@Argusthecat]

"How do they feel about that?" That's the great part! They don't!

[@niveknaylik531]

Xcom, titanfall and DnD ? A man of culture I see...

[@sneedfest3399]

Oh boy time to reinstall and go for my 1500th hour of Long War 1

[@danielsurvivor1372]

Interesting video although I don't get how it makes Long War 1 better than Enemy Within, if I'm not mistaken, the only differences between two you mentioned are 1) bigger squad size 2) slightly more mechanics 3) longer n more difficult. Other positives yoy mention were already in EW vanilla, like alien behaviour being not optimal and more human feeling ironically enough. Or Vahlen and Shen characterisation which was definitely in vanilla EW. Also I'm asking this cuz I feel as though I experienced what you did but not with LW1 but with base EW. Sure EW starts out sluggish with few members of the squad but when you get those first upgrades it feels as you describe LW, basically perfect tactical squad shooter, where you have several options and losing 1-2 doesn't automatically spiral down to death(unlike Chimera Squad which I found less fun then EW 😅)

[@Duchess_Van_Hoof]

I play quite a few Japanese grid-based Tactics RPGs like Ogre Tactics, FF Tactics Advance, Disgaea etc. And eight characters are the perfect number. You can have two even teams, two uneven teams, a frontline with support etc. With six characters your options feel so limited.

[@beflyaudio]

I have limited time i can spend on videogames, but i like marathon long strategies, especially tactical strategies like Xcom. So i want to play long war but cant dedicate my full attention to it. So i play it like a roguelike. I randomise every soldier's class and stats as not to spend time pondering it, and then just force myself to improvise on the fly with what i happen to get. My campaigns dont last too long until i get wiped out, because this is an objectivelly inferior strategy, if you can call it that, considering how much macro matters in here. But i dont intend to win, i intend to loose as slowly as possible.

[@simonepedetti111]

I've played a few rounds of LW1 and tried LWR (too harsh for my taste). I liked LW and I thought I would never like XCom2 as much as XCom. But now I'm really enjoying LWoTC with ModJam: tons of new enemies, 50+ new classes and infinite combinations of tactical paths. Not saying about hundreds of cosmetic mods for customization. I cannot stop playing it.

[@gutzyzz1302]

Currently 1000 hours deep into LWOTC rn and after 287 campaigns yes 287 of ironman impossible I'm currently in December! Force level 18 and looking like I'll finally beat it, goes to show how teplayable this game really is. 287 campaigns to get here, granted many were resets early on for poor mission timers and class roles etc etc but still. So rewarding my whole discord is watching the final missions haha

[@hugoapresname]

Long War V1.0 was a *nightmare* come true 😂

[@jacobfaro9571]

I’ve been trying to do a challenge of shooting down a battleship by month 3. Do you think it’s possible?

[@cassius_scrungoman]

in long war? maybe on lower difficulties, I don't super know because I don't play them, but *absolutely fucking not* on impossible.

[@David_Baxendale]

I have easily over 2500 of hours logged for XCOm EU/XCOM 2/WOTC. Why? Great games with great mods. I only stopped WOTC because my computer broke and by the time I got around to building another one the mods etc had all moved on/been developed further and it would have taken a long long time to balance stuff out as I liked it.

[@Neovipa]

You've hit on most of what made me really enjoy long war, but I'd say the motion tracker bears specific mentioning. The worst thing by far about the base game is the pod system discouraging aggressive flanking (what if I activate more enemies?). Motion tracker fixes that, lets you know when you're at risk of uncovering a new pod, so you can actually decide whether it's worth it or try to finesse it anyway. The other things was dynamic war; I could not have played the mod without it, far too many missions for me otherwise. The customizability in general is a huge strength of the mod.

[@Nukinator]

no war like a long war; i've got a buddy of mine always tinkering with the INIs and what not to alter the soldiers and feel of the trooper types we have as well as other things such as officer bonuses and more meaningful continental bonuses and/or starts. To say the least, he's done phenomenal work and i am purely the reason i got him addicted to XCOM in the first place since i was playing XCOM 2 on that discord quite religiously at the time before i ever considered a Long War in XCOM 2 or even XCOM 1. XCOM 2 was my first and i have enjoyed it for a while. But XCOM 1 and the revamping of those trees and abilities made me question WHY didn't we get more awesome shit like this in 2? Mec Troopers, Genome Warriors, were some of the most insanely awesome concepts. The 3 factions are definitely cool (Templars being absolutely a breadwinner for me although reapers and skirmishers are highly valued still) but the SPARK while i understood what it was, did not inspire much joy or want in their performance. Next go around i'll probably take a start that doesn't have a technological start but have a more immediate reward to my soldier's capabilities rather than the research. No war should be played the same way twice and each has their own layer to the overall strategy that XCOM's Long War managed to provide overall. If you'll excuse me, I have a sinister mister fister to introduce to the enemy aliens with *THE THUMPER* module.

[@culinaryspecialistsam]

i have done one campaign in ew (just vanilla) and i love run and gun so much give me a single assault with jump boosts, run and gun, and overwatch dodge and i could bring the invasion to its knees

[@Zoey--]

Have you tried UCross's Rebalance? It's so so much harder than normal Long War. Genuinely INSANELY fun to actually beat. I got to the point where I was about ready to take on the last mission, just batting command ships out the Sky to finalise my control over Earth before I went up there and then... well then I stopped. I don't even know why. Maybe I'll go finish that damn campaign! Also 3:14 was wildly visually pleasing. So much better than Xcom2's overwatch. That sequence was lovely.

[@Lolwutfordawin]

XCOM 1s overwatch is so much better. Feels much more real to have everyone frantically shoot at the first thing they see immediately, resulting in enemies getting absolutely shredded with a hail of bullets, that 2s weird slowmo one-at-a-time shooting frequently resulting in some soldiers not firing at all because other aliens not currently targeted got to keep running for some reason.

[@memoryfoam2285]

I played XCOM 2 pretty much from launch, I have over 1500 hours and 90% of that was with at least a few mods. I have finished one campaign. I have about 200 hours in XCOM EW, which I played after getting XCOM 2, and I also finished one campaign. I tried getting into OG LW, but I couldn't handle it.

[@NatsumiMichi]

The only thing I hate about this game is that I don't have the option to fedex Vahlen to the mothership, so that the Ethereals can find out what I have to deal with in every playthrough. I strongly believe they would blacklist our entire solar system and never come back. My favorite mission to this day is without question the 'Newfoundland' council mission. That shit gave me PTSD for the first few runs before I learnt how to cheese it.

[@Victimxofxprogress]

Long war is fun, yeah. The best part about it was the customisation. I remember the Exalt being way too difficult, so I halved their combat values. Same thing with the Ethereals

[@Deafturtle911]

Where does it ever say that Jagged Alliance 3 squads should have a size of 3? By the endgame you could probably sustain 3 squads of six.

[@cassius_scrungoman]

the literal tutorial

[@andreworders7305]

7:34 in the sequel she’s a villain, so yep pretty much

[@BORN753]

The Mech transformation was so f***ed up in Enemy Within that I completed the game not even trying to convert someone. Like, this is not okay.

[@garr_inc]

I personally would be very interested in more points in regards to Long War 2. I only remember one unfinished campaign for it compared to 1.5 campaigns for the original Long War, so it's a little hard for me to recall the issues that I could recall to understand your position.

[@purefoldnz3070]

just picked up Xcom Enemy Unknown for $3 and enjoying it more than games released today.

[@daveinthemicrowave]

Enjoyed xcom 1 will give this a shot looks awesome

[@gameboom7579]

i too, used to play WAY too much Xcom 2 long war of the choosen, alongside a bit of covert infiltration, and other tomfoolery of big groups vs big groups

[@olegoleg258]

As someone who only played xcom 2, xcom WOTC and long war of the chosen, could you perhaps one day make a comparison of long war 1 and LWOTC? Since you have played both, you can say a lot more about it than i can. The one thing i know is that haven defense missions are absolute wack in LWOTC due to needing to fight an army, save unadmed civilians (while they are already being shot at), AND deal with the chosen (which are more OP than ever) where I'd just wish to be able to have People fight back/run away since they're your workfirce and it feels bad to lose them

[@nikolatesla1980]

This is a really well put together video that may have convinced me to try LW1 for myself, since I've never touched it or the associated base game. I did have a question concerning your feelings on LW2 though, more specifically, why do you feel as if it's a far inferior experience to LW1? This is a genuine question born of curiosity, as I've only ever played LW2 and am curious as to some of the fundamental differences between, on paper, similar mods. I'm sure that messing around with LW1 would probably pretty quickly answer my questions concerning the contrast between the two, I'd like to hear it from you first if at all possible, partially because subjectivity is fun, and partially just because I enjoy the way you explain things.

[@mikoajciemiega8018]

My honest opinion I really like the long war mods for both xcom games and I agree that they feel better to play But I also really like the smaller, shorter xcom experience if chimera squad (it also has the snake waifu so it's clearly superior)

[@MrDN83]

I’ll try it out now.

[@MrYarmulke]

With 8 game pieces, each with a variable number of moves depending on build, your branching factor balloons astronomically compared to 3 or 4. With more permutations of moves per turn, there are exponentially more game states that can result. Comparing the branching factor of Chess (around 40), this game has a branching factor closer to Go (around 250) or SC1 Brood War (even higher). Having played LW, it always annoys when they release crpgs balanced around 4 characters instead of the old 6. In those games, you eventually build into godlike characters that autopilot you into victory, zero strategy involved, zero chance of losing. But I guess that's what sells. You basically gotta wait for difficulty enhancing mods that eventually make them playable. I randomly passed by and saw someone playing this so many years ago and immediately knew I had to have it. Since then I've played LW1, Arvius BI, and LW rebalanced without having ever played the base EU/EW.

[@Flamme-Sanabi]

I love Enemy Within but towards the end I ignored all UFO events.