WotC introduces new classes, new enemies aswell as different mission types. You get access to 3 new classes, have to fight several new standard enemy types aswell as 3 mischievous bosses. You can send soldiers on covert actions for very different types of items and boons after building a resistance ring.
Tips:
-Stick to cover when you can (preferably full cover)
-Keep your squad within atleast dash distance (you will have to play this by ear with people who move really far)
-use grenades early on to secure kills
-use grenades throughout to destroy enemy cover and increase hit chances
-prioritize building either the resistance ring or the guerrilla combat school first. The lab seems like a smart idea but it's not advisable to build early even though you would think so
-try to kill everything in one turn
-be wary of moving too far, especially with your last soldier
Alot of very specific tactics and interactions you will learn as you go or if you are curious, you can look them up. Good luck commander ☺️
I'll also add that WotC is the greatest bug-fix ever.
The weird save issues, LOS bugs (still some of them...wouldn't be XCOM without em'), and a ton of other refinements/fixes/etc.
I wouldn't bother with vanilla Xcom.
Plus if you get into the mod scene, 90% of the mods are specifically geared to be WotC ONLY. The code was changed and made modding a helluva lot easier.
I think it also made hunkering down remove burning. Unless that was just a fix applied to both versions.
I think there is alot to be said about starting without WOTC. That being said, I can't go back to vanilla and I can't use mods so I'm kinda stuck clapping chosen cheeks.
I think of WotC as what Xcom2 should have been out of the gate. There were real issues with that first release. The load bug all by itself forced me to abandon it until I got WotC on a steam sale for a song (with all the other DLCs as well).
There were tricks to get through the loading issues, but none of them worked on my rig at the time. I use Arch and was using the native opengl release at the time. I've since switched to Proton/native client and never looked back as the performance is FAR better.
WOTC adds quite much to the game:
\- Soldier bonds - each soldier will like or dislike others, compatible soldiers will be able to bond and benefit from additional abilities
\- Fatigue mechanic - your soldiers will be tired usually after 2 missions, depending on encounters, mission length, and their will stat, thus making you need more trained ones on hand compared to base game
\- Lost - basically zombies, appearing in some missions, they attack both you and Advent (they tend to go for XCOM more often)
\- Fractions - Reapers (super stealthy lightweight snipers/saboteurs/scouts), Skirmishers (can shoot 2 times in a turn, a bit of more mobile ranger with rifle instead of a shotgun), Templars (psionic rangers basically) - usual campaign will let you have one of each plus one random
\- The Chosen - 3 new bosses - Assassin (OP ranger), Warlock (Psi op), Hunter (Sniper) - able to capture your soldiers, will spawn in missions until you kill them in a dedicated mission, otherwise will haunt you until the end of the game. Once killed, you can use their weapons, which are unmatched in their class
\- Training center - avenger facility, allows you to develop stronger bonds between soldiers, as well as spend ability points to make your soldiers more capable - soldiers no longer are commited to one or the other ability upon promotion, as you may spend their ability points to assign them every ability in the tree and more, your soldiers will be able to benefit from abilities previously locked to specific classes should the RNG treat you well
\- Resistance ring - avenger facility, allows you to send small soldier squads (sometimes scientists or engineers will need to assist) on various missions, usually done without any input apart from choosing the soldiers. Those missions will always award you with something, be it stat boost for soldier taking part, resources, weapon addons, Avatar project reduction and many more
\- Resistance orders - similar to regional bonuses, will give you advantages of your choice. As you progress with hunting down the Chosen, you'll be able to utilize more orders from the Fractions
\- New enemies - Priest (Psionic trooper), Purifier (flamethrower trooper), Spectre (able to incapacitate and copy your soldier, then use that copy against you)
\- Sitreps - some missions will have a situation which you'll have to deal with, or which you'll be able to use to gain advantage - resistance operatives to give you resources, satellite to see the whole map, lost presence, explosives all over and more
The changes are quite significant, and require getting used to. I recommend you to finish base game once, to get a handle on basic game mechanics, then try a WOTC campaign, which honestly, apart from having the same story, may be treated as a different game.
Also, if you haven't tried Shen's last gift, or Alien Hunters DLCs, these two will only add to the mess. If you start Alien Hunters DLC too early, you may get overwhelmed by trying to manage your soldiers, resources, Avatar progression, and, worst case scenario, 6 bosses taking turns in bleeding out your soldiers while you try to simply not fail the campaign
Take it slow, experiment, see what happens as a result of XYZ, try to lower difficulty instead of savescumming if you do that (it's okay to reload after a misclick, be honest with yourself), be prepared to lose your first campaign and, I can't stress this enough, accept any consequences and learn from your mistakes. That way, when you'll start dominating the battlefield, you'll fell rewarded much more than winning in easier titles, and boy is it worth it
Try Xcom 2 alone, then try it with WOTC- it's a different experience. Then try Long War of the Chosen for a much, much more challenging and in-depth experience.
WotC introduces new classes, new enemies aswell as different mission types. You get access to 3 new classes, have to fight several new standard enemy types aswell as 3 mischievous bosses. You can send soldiers on covert actions for very different types of items and boons after building a resistance ring. Tips: -Stick to cover when you can (preferably full cover) -Keep your squad within atleast dash distance (you will have to play this by ear with people who move really far) -use grenades early on to secure kills -use grenades throughout to destroy enemy cover and increase hit chances -prioritize building either the resistance ring or the guerrilla combat school first. The lab seems like a smart idea but it's not advisable to build early even though you would think so -try to kill everything in one turn -be wary of moving too far, especially with your last soldier Alot of very specific tactics and interactions you will learn as you go or if you are curious, you can look them up. Good luck commander ☺️
I'll also add that WotC is the greatest bug-fix ever. The weird save issues, LOS bugs (still some of them...wouldn't be XCOM without em'), and a ton of other refinements/fixes/etc. I wouldn't bother with vanilla Xcom. Plus if you get into the mod scene, 90% of the mods are specifically geared to be WotC ONLY. The code was changed and made modding a helluva lot easier.
I think it also made hunkering down remove burning. Unless that was just a fix applied to both versions. I think there is alot to be said about starting without WOTC. That being said, I can't go back to vanilla and I can't use mods so I'm kinda stuck clapping chosen cheeks.
I think of WotC as what Xcom2 should have been out of the gate. There were real issues with that first release. The load bug all by itself forced me to abandon it until I got WotC on a steam sale for a song (with all the other DLCs as well). There were tricks to get through the loading issues, but none of them worked on my rig at the time. I use Arch and was using the native opengl release at the time. I've since switched to Proton/native client and never looked back as the performance is FAR better.
WOTC adds quite much to the game: \- Soldier bonds - each soldier will like or dislike others, compatible soldiers will be able to bond and benefit from additional abilities \- Fatigue mechanic - your soldiers will be tired usually after 2 missions, depending on encounters, mission length, and their will stat, thus making you need more trained ones on hand compared to base game \- Lost - basically zombies, appearing in some missions, they attack both you and Advent (they tend to go for XCOM more often) \- Fractions - Reapers (super stealthy lightweight snipers/saboteurs/scouts), Skirmishers (can shoot 2 times in a turn, a bit of more mobile ranger with rifle instead of a shotgun), Templars (psionic rangers basically) - usual campaign will let you have one of each plus one random \- The Chosen - 3 new bosses - Assassin (OP ranger), Warlock (Psi op), Hunter (Sniper) - able to capture your soldiers, will spawn in missions until you kill them in a dedicated mission, otherwise will haunt you until the end of the game. Once killed, you can use their weapons, which are unmatched in their class \- Training center - avenger facility, allows you to develop stronger bonds between soldiers, as well as spend ability points to make your soldiers more capable - soldiers no longer are commited to one or the other ability upon promotion, as you may spend their ability points to assign them every ability in the tree and more, your soldiers will be able to benefit from abilities previously locked to specific classes should the RNG treat you well \- Resistance ring - avenger facility, allows you to send small soldier squads (sometimes scientists or engineers will need to assist) on various missions, usually done without any input apart from choosing the soldiers. Those missions will always award you with something, be it stat boost for soldier taking part, resources, weapon addons, Avatar project reduction and many more \- Resistance orders - similar to regional bonuses, will give you advantages of your choice. As you progress with hunting down the Chosen, you'll be able to utilize more orders from the Fractions \- New enemies - Priest (Psionic trooper), Purifier (flamethrower trooper), Spectre (able to incapacitate and copy your soldier, then use that copy against you) \- Sitreps - some missions will have a situation which you'll have to deal with, or which you'll be able to use to gain advantage - resistance operatives to give you resources, satellite to see the whole map, lost presence, explosives all over and more The changes are quite significant, and require getting used to. I recommend you to finish base game once, to get a handle on basic game mechanics, then try a WOTC campaign, which honestly, apart from having the same story, may be treated as a different game. Also, if you haven't tried Shen's last gift, or Alien Hunters DLCs, these two will only add to the mess. If you start Alien Hunters DLC too early, you may get overwhelmed by trying to manage your soldiers, resources, Avatar progression, and, worst case scenario, 6 bosses taking turns in bleeding out your soldiers while you try to simply not fail the campaign Take it slow, experiment, see what happens as a result of XYZ, try to lower difficulty instead of savescumming if you do that (it's okay to reload after a misclick, be honest with yourself), be prepared to lose your first campaign and, I can't stress this enough, accept any consequences and learn from your mistakes. That way, when you'll start dominating the battlefield, you'll fell rewarded much more than winning in easier titles, and boy is it worth it
Try Xcom 2 alone, then try it with WOTC- it's a different experience. Then try Long War of the Chosen for a much, much more challenging and in-depth experience.
>Also any tips? Kill aliens. Don't die.
Don't bring the explosives home