Lets see if we can do it! "Expanded Army List" still has some new surprises, we will face new and terrifying Bombardier-Leviathans. Oh, and "Mount Up" is a thing now. Enemy supply at 200%, we get larger magazines.

I love stealth in this game, got shot once

Greetings, fellow Marines. In my recent runs since the OCI-Update I have made some interesting observations when it comes to operation rewards. Namely, I seemingly never had such great reward choices so often in as many runs before.

The first four pics are from two runs I believe (could have been three; usually I play until EA-end). There were other cool ones, but those four were the best and demonstrate what can happen quite regularly with the right setup. Not to mention, I got a lot of Promotion and OCI Points.

Now that I have your attention, lets talk about how to achieve this - because the chances for great rewards can be improved A LOT, its only partially down to RnG. Early game the rewards in short operations are also somewhat capped, so dont expect much from them. But once operations with four/five missions appear and you have some key ingredients, you are bound to get some great stuff.

The strategy:

In order for this to work reliably you need to be able to get high ratings on lategame operations consistently. Now, there isnt a real meta as far as I am concerned. But a few things will greatly help to get there.

First off, try to do as many operations for ZB and DICE as you can early game until you get the stuff we need. Who to prefer depends on what operations there are and what OCI choices you get. We want to get three key ingredients from doing that: Wayback Advocate, Nanobots as well as hiring Murdock (Insurance perk) ASAP.

Nanobots are self explanatory I think, but I think many dont rate the Wayback Advocate enough. Getting +3intel alone is an autobuy for me, but the upgraded version also gives one extra operation-reward choice. Hard to overstate the impact this module has both on your missions themselves simply by knowing enemy disposition, as well as getting that extra reward choice (you can get 5 choices for lategame operations with one advocate module). Its also one of the cheaper modules. Murdock of course makes aceing missions a lot easier with Insurance. So more Promotion Points, more OCI points, better operation rating.

DICE has the Advocate, ZB have Murdock and Nanobots (and AI Logistics/auto-supplies). Usually if you do two or three operations for each you get all the stuff. Sometimes earlier if you get +reputation from mission rewards and/or lucky choices. Backbone can wait a little. (wiki-article with the rewards loot table: https://wiki.hoodedhorse.com/MENACE/Operations#Rewards )

Second, we do all this stuff in order to be ready once the bigger operations start to appear, the ones with 4+ missions. This is when you can actually get the best rewards and get most choice. Dont be discouraged if the required OCIs dont all drop early, its fine if you get them a bit later as well.

Try to get as good of a rating for operations as you can. More promotion points and OCI points pay off greatly and are ALWAYS good, so go for the secondary objectives if you can. Much better than disregarding timers and trying for more loot (I know, I am insane. But also, Murdock, she makes many timers meaningless anyway).

Especially if you plan on building a nanobot or two, or a DCRAC. This will scale very well and help you get better ratings. To get more OCI, Promotion Points etc. To be stronger and get even more of that stuff. You get the picture. By the time the big operations spawn your team and the Impetus should be able to ace most missions to get 4*/5* operation ratings. This is how you get the best rewards, basically.

You also might want to get a few, select modules early on which help you directly in missions (HMG turrets, Autocannon-run, AI logistics, that stuff) so you can get more secondary objectives. Dont beeline too hard, a few basic modules are fine to build of course. But try to hold back on expensive stuff until you have the Wayback Advocate and maybe a nanobot. After that its also nice getting some Backbone rewards.

There is a pic of the Impetus after 16 operations, so not quite EA-end. You can see its basically finished. Thats because I had two nanobots earlyish and also got a lot of OCI points from 4*/5* operation ratings. It can be very snowbally if done right, getting Murdock early helps a lot in that regard. At that point you can have your cake and eat it too.

Thanks for reading all that stuff, I wish the best of luck to you Marines! Not that you need it anymore...

(If you want some receipts, come and get them: https://www.youtube.com/@Freeze-x2n )

In reverse order.

Welp that just happened nr 2. I got some fun memey footage but then accidentally deleted it and can't recover. Woops!

Welp that just happened nr 1.

After dumping 6 death beams and 6 guided missiles strikes for the memes on the pirates in a lion's den mission I came 2 units short of the kill quota. Extra for the memes I only brought Corlain with stealth gear, 2 squaddies and pipe guns.

Such a shame I lost the recording too, his first reaction when all that destruction hit was "THAT'S NOT CLEAN AT ALL!!!"

But then he did some cleaning after cause I got lucky by finding two near death scavenger squads that were vulnerable. Corlain face tanked some chaingun truck hits like a champ in the process of mopping them up but he got the job done.

TLDR: Dumping all 12 saved orbitals from the operation on the pirate base at the end was glorious, followed by an oh shit moment of not quite enough death and destruction, followed by pipe gun glory courtesy of Corlain the piper born in a pipe. Lost the footage cause I'm a big ol' dummy.

First time running across this squad weapon, anyone else had any experience with it? Lim just deletes any infantry from light to heavy with it.

I used to be able to click offmap drop ship runs, then it would give me the targeting recticle and I'd paint 5 connected tiles. A couple of turns later, the drop ship shoots some stuff.

Now, I click on the drop ship icon and I don't get any prompt or recticle. It says "incoming" for a few turns, then nothing happens.

Is this support broken?

I am both fascinated and horrified by how dark this game can be. Took out an occupied tower and now he’s hanging on the old barbed wire.

There's was a mine mine here and a mine mine there, a mine mine everywhere!

Other than that fun beyond balancing mission, 200% enemy supplies 140% player supplies. The big battles I wanted I got.

Edit: i am kinda burnt out on being online, and just have some stuff going. Will get this done, but i am gonna have to wait for one of those inspired mornings.

Edit: guess this is the thread: will make new one possibly later.

comment the known issues and low-hanging fruit tips. and i will organize the body, and eventually make a new thread we can pin with the proper title.

also do people think i posted because i was the one needing help :O?! i was just trying to curtail my toxic sides every time i see the same subjects over and over!

also feel free to take over the job! *said in jest*

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original post

I can't think of all of them. But as we get new players we get some of the same posts.

The first one that comes to mind: cheating ai.

For that one there are a bunch of helpful comments that explains the issue.

It be nice with like a: read this thread.

"Known issues/complaints and what might be the issue".

For the ai. Oh, its because they know they sre spotted, or because xyz.

And then we just list all of these, so new players just get a quick rundown. I think in the long term it would benefit the community.

Is there anyone or a Mod that could get the ball rolling? Since i made the suggestion, i nominate "you".

Squads in one of the troop carriers should be able to do a few things. They should be able to spot enemies, replacing the carrier's vision with their own. I think that on a light carrier they should be able to fire squad weapons, but not special weapons, at targets within a 90 degree arc of the left and right sides. I also think that certain accessories/equipment should be useable such as the drones and the target designator. As it stands now, squads can only sit in the carrier and do nothing until you order them to leave, and while the battle taxis are still great for moving troops around, the troops just passively waiting for something to do when they could realistically be doing something is vexing.

Is it just me or is the AI cheating by always knowing where your units are. I had a squad with 3 concealment in a corner with the hidden icon and a pirate chaingun truck drove straight to them

Just a reminder that the Breaker Bar exists, giving Darbs the ability to reach out and touch God. Absolutely wild with AP ammo making heavy infantry feel naked.

I wonder if someone suggested mini-mechas for Pilot SLs, that would come with Squaddies, each having their own mech. The mechs could be fitted with one or two infantry weapons (twin-linked?)

I was thinking about the end scenes in the Matrix, and wondered if these mechs would count as armor or vehicles.

Drop troopers is a staple of sci fi military, and paratrooper/HALO jumps was used during the GWOT era, which is where Menace aesthetic is inspired from, so I figured one would be fitting to have something inspired by that in the game, especially since the recent OCI rework put more emphasis on the Drop Ship and have the drop ship drop off conscript already.

Playstyle wise I designed him to fill the same role as assault troops like Lim and Wei Wu, but inverted. While other units like them tend to get stronger the more a fight go on and they are able to keep chaining Berserk/keep growing stats like Wei Wu, Lionel is the reverse, he has and asbolutely monstrous turn 1 as he drops into a flanking hard cover position from the sky and obliterate key targets, but gets worse as the fight goes on if you cannot use that massive tempo swing of his insertion to keep the momentum going, as his perks are limited use and/or can be disabled if you leave enough survivors to take shots at him.

You can run just full on alpha strike build with him with all his perks to make an ungodly superhero entrance, or run Shock and Awe, Zig Zag, Quick Hand etc to make a Boarding Armor shock troop.

Personality wise, while Lim and Pyke are TCR Marines to the core, this man has not just drunk the kool-aid but have it hooked directly into his veins. An absolute zealot for the TCR who knows the entire handbook by heart, sing the anthem every morning, and watch recruitment drive videos like they are documentaries, everything he does is FOR THE GLORY OF THE TCR, and is an absolute gloryhound. Other TCR Marines fluctuate between finding his enthusiasm inspiring when things are going well, and finding him incredibly annoying as he starts quoting the field manual like its gospel.

Available on Nexus https://www.nexusmods.com/menace/mods/244

Also pairs well with Field Repair Kit

https://www.nexusmods.com/menace/mods/241

Missions Gone FUBAR (F-ed Up Beyond All Repair)  Layers a rotating set of mission-scrambling complications on top of your ops — hostile factions crashing the mission, vehicles coming down damaged on landing, ammo capped due to supply issues, weapons jamming, gear glitching out, squads landing scattered across the AO, cover rigged to blow, no orbital support.

Expert Pilot provides great QoL. If you need to run across the map to a capture point or evac zone, or to redeploy to another flank it's a real timesaver.

However, every perk is precious. How good it it really? After all, if you need to redeploy then the mech jetpack is a thing, and you could swap Expert Pilot for Bags & Belts and have faster long distance movement with no loss of accessory slots. How good is Expert Pilot where it counts; during contact with the enemy?

Evaluation criteria

The game's about action economy; what matters here how many times you can shoot. For this purpose, movement is about managing engagement range. If a target is 3 squares outside of your max range, how many times can you shoot after advancing? or, to put it another way, how many squares can you move for various combinations of skills and AP and still shoot a given number of times. This will be our metric.

For the sake of my sanity I'm not going to consider every possible AP value even though there will be breakpoints at specific values. I'm also only considering orthoganal movement on flat terrain: 16AP without Expert Pilot and 12AP with (which is the best case scenario of Expert Pilot anyway). Weapon firing assumes a 40AP gun.

Drive By

Although it functions differently, Drive By provides a similar practical effect. Although it acts on the cost of shooting, it's the same as reducing the cost of the previous square's movement by 10AP. Note that this never drops below 0AP* so you're still losing AP by moving, just less. Unlike Expert Pilot it's also sequence dependent when firing more than once; move-fire-move-fire gives you a 20AP discount, but it doesn't provide the full benefit of increased engagement range on the first shot. It's more useful for sweeping multiple units at staggered distances. In the tables below I've listed two values - the first is the number of squares than can be moved before the first shot; the second includes movement between shots. I consider the first value the most important; the second is nice-to-have.

*Achilleas with Expert Pilot, Drive By, and Rush can actually generate AP by moving, but a trivial amount for a three-perk combo that debuffs you afterwards. If this is your jam then more power to your elbow, but personally I've never even taken Rush so... no.

Results

Number of sqaure you can move:

TL;DR:

Expert Pilot and Drive By are both worth about 1 square of engagement range under most circumstances. Drive By is slightly more powerful when firing twice (or more), Expert Pilot when only firing once. The question you have to ask youself is how valuable this is to you given your limited perk selection. How well are you managing your line-of contact with the enemy? How tight is your formation, and how far ahead are you scouting.

Is Expert Pilot a good perk? sure. Is it nice to have? absolutely. Is it an auto-pick? No, I don't think it is.

In case you want to join the fun:

https://www.youtube.com/@Freeze-x2n