Guerrilla War contains a full tactical overhaul of XCOM 2. The objective of the overhaul is to fundamentally change the nature of XCOM’s firefights to resemble modern infantry tactics and concepts. Of course, it’s merely an abstraction, but that’s the base.
Modern infantry doctrine has a saying,‘fire without movement is indecisive, movement without fire is disastrous’. One of the core goals of our overhaul is to make this saying hold true within XCOM as well. Modern infantry tactics is about posing problems and dilemmas to the enemy. Problems are situations where there is a right answer to avoid disaster. Dilemmas are situations where there are no right answers, usually posed by multiple problems made with combined arms.
In order for these situations to develop, core things need to change. 1 turn destruction on sight of both sides needs to be removed from the game. At the same time, effective tactical development must allow for quick destruction of the enemy with the right weapons and units applied at the right place.
Timed missions must be removed in favour of more gradual pressure, such as reinforcements. At the same time, pods can’t be allowed to be gamed like in XCOM 1, so existing pod mechanics such as the line of play will need to be abandoned for a more active AI setup that genuinely acts with objectives both defensive, offensive, and to seek and destroy intruders.
More options must be provided to the commander so that they can respond to situations without relying on dice rolls alone to succeed, however the roll of the dice must still be accounted for, and risk is still present in many of the engagements you take. The options must not be diversified merely by damage and range, but fundamental differences in usage and application, be it explosives, suppression, rockets, etc.
Note: none of these ideas are fulling playtested so they should not be taken as gospel, but rather an intended direction. If the feature suggested ends up NOT contributing to the overall goals of the tactical overhaul, it will be cut or changed.
Entering the Battlefield
Battle can be entered either on foot or via the Skyranger. Skyranger drops can be placed anywhere but always alert the local garrison on arrival, resulting in earlier reinforcement arrival and an offensive party to investigate the LZ. Entering via foot does not draw the attention of the guard, allowing you to scout the garrison before attacking.
Some special missions will have different rules, such as ambushes of supply convoys or defending ADVENT offensive actions, but otherwise expect to have time to weigh up your options before attacking.
Scouting
With the entire map waiting to spring into action, it’s important to be able to scope out your enemy better than before. With the pod activation game no longer acceptable, we give the player more scouting tools so they can know what they’re getting into.
Binoculars will be added as a utility item, allowing for a massive boost in sight range for the user for 1 turn. This will allow for forward thinking planning rather than stabbing in the dark, which makes absolutely no sense thematically for guerrillas. In addition, Gremlins will be reworked to be less like spell casters, and more like reconnaissance and hacking drones, to be used as independently mobile scouts that are harder to detect.
Both scouting methods cost precious AP in a firefight, but are invaluable in the lead up to contact.
Concealment
Concealment is heavily weakened compared to vanilla XCOM2. Rather than allowing for a very close approach, concealment only affords an extra 2 tiles of cushioning below sight range before being spotted. Being inside the red radius is still safe provided your soldier is in cover, and as a boost, any unit not sighted or performing for 2-4 turns will return to concealment. This allows for units to disengage to work another approach or withdraw from the AO.
Day and Night
The time of day at the AO should have some tactical effect. Daytime will largely treat sight ranges as they currently are, whilst night time dramatically reduces them except for space in the presence of light sources. In addition, firing during the night will illuminate units making them visible at greater than usual distances. The intent here is to allow forces to close much more during the night, but once the engagement starts be far more flexible with spacing due to fire lighting up the positions.
Enemy positions will typically be well lit to prevent the player abusing the low sight ranges for stealth purposes.
On Stealth
The concealment interpretation of stealth is not a playstyle to be encouraged or optimised for by the design. All enemies are alerted by the psionic network so there is no such thing as a silent takedown, and core defenders will position adequately to prevent ghosting of most objectives the player chooses.
Stealth in GW is merely about movement and misdirection at the edges of sight, in between firefights, not MGS style ghosting.
Enemy Roles
The line of play will be removed, and pods will be given roles in the map instead. Core Defenders will hold key objectives. Snipers will hold post. Patrols will wander the perimeter.
On contact enemies will react appropriate to the force encountered. They'll press the advantage if they believe they have fire superiority, or fortify the objective and call for reinforcements if they feel outnumbered.
Either way, the enemy WON’T sit on their hands waiting for XCOM to kill them, and will actively try to work for suppressing and flanking positions when engaged.
Fire and Movement
Currently low accuracy shots are never worth taking unless you were already in a superior low-risk position. Furthermore flanks are never worth pursuing if they are not‘on the way’ already, given timer pressure and the weakness of overwatch to pin down enemy movement. To encourage more of a‘fire and move’ mentality, the mechanics will be reworked to facilitate infantry based tactics.
Entering the Battlefield
Scouting
Concealment
Day and Night
On Stealth
Enemy Roles
Fire and Movement