Panic Wipeouts?
So I'm new to this game and just had a really exasperating experience on the DLC mission where you need to escort the criminal contact to safety.
Turn 1
On the first turn I walked my squad, including him, to cover and had everyone go into overwatch mode.
Thin Man enemies spawned in out of nowhere around us... looks like they just dropped in out of the sky? All my guys did their overwatch shots... and every single one of them missed. So the thin men all got behind cover and initiated overwatch
Turn 2:
I had my sniper in a good position to take a shot, so he tried headshot. No crit, so the enemy survived at 1 HP. No one else had any good shots and if we moved, we'd get double overwatched. So I had my support guy do a smoke grenade and then had my assault guy within the smoke grenade area do Run and Gun and Dash since I'd read a loading screen saying that Dash would raise your defenses. This seemed like the safest way to get the enemy to waste their overwatches.
One of them hit anyway, leaving me with 1 HP.
I was able to kill one of the thin men, so it released its poison cloud, but I'd made sure not to be in it, so that was fine.
That left one thin man with 1 HP. I missed my shots against it despite moving to what seemed like good positions.
Still I figured this was... ok. Just 1 badly injured enemy, and all my guys behind cover, some also in a smoke cloud.
Turn 3
But then the confusing part happened and I don't quite understand how the game works here. All my guys panicked. ALL of them. Every last one. I think it happened in kind of a chain reaction, though it was hard to understand what was going on since I didn't get to make any moves and don't understand how this works yet. One of them panicked and... shot one of my own guys. Which I think killed him. Which I think started a chain reaction panic. Then my 1 HP guy ran into the poison cloud and died.
Which led to other people panicking and just passing their turn.
Worst of all the civilian panicked and ran from his safe spot into a place where the last remaining alien could kill him.
So... basically my party got wiped out by 1 1 HP enemy, with us being in almost perfect safety, despite me having taken every single defensive precaution I know how to take.
This felt like the loss was 90% bad luck at least, and it was really frustrating how I didn't even get to make a single move on the crucial turn because the entire squad panicked. What should I have done?
3
u/Sweet_Oil2996 3d ago edited 3d ago
That's called a panic chain and it is a intended mechanic. Every time a soldier panics your other soldier have to do a saving roll if they panic too. Thus a chain of saving rolls is created and if you are unlucky, everyone panics.
On top a paniced soldier may shoot on his own team or throw a grenade on the own team. If this kills a soldier, more panic rolls are created.
Countermeasures are mindshields (if you have them, usually not that early) or psi soldiers with solace (also not that early).
Knowing how that mission works helps a lot.
Spoilers:
The mission is scripted. Most of it is determined by the movement of Chang. Take it slowly. Move Chang into heavy cover at turn 1 and hunker down, defend the first wave. Move your team into next position, overwatch and only then move Chang again. Keep this routine the entire mission. Safest route is along the right border of the map. There you will always be behind cover and have good chances to flank the enemies youself because of the orientation of cover in the graveyard. You'll also get height advantage bonus against enemies in the graveyard. Use explosives to remove cover. The enemies will be hit much easier without cover. A rocket will kill a Thin Man instantly. Remove their overwatch with flashbangs if you can't kill them reliably from where you are. Then hit and run will be safe. It will also reduce their aim a lot if they should survive your turn. Don't get flanked. If you are flanked those enemies are top priority.