XCOM: Enemy Unknown

[therother]

Does anyone find a use for the more upgraded versions of the power room or satellite nexus, when you can just get to a steam area for power or link satellite up-links together? I only ever built one nexus...it was expensive and getting enough satellites and materials was just a pain.

They are more useful later in the game, when you are running out of room for new facilities, and the extra energy and satellites/per slot makes a difference.

I'm just about to complete my second run through, am almost ready for the final mission but want to have 6 psi operative colonels in my team so am playing on for quite a while after I could have completed it. One additional benefit is that I have the time and resources to play around with my base.

Foundries can be moved, but you lose the already completed projects. Same goes for the Officer school. You can get rid of Alien containment once you've interrogated the alien necessary for the "plot" and if you don't care about the research bonuses interrogations allow, and can scale back on labs entirely once you have enough scientists/research bonuses. For instance, with no additional labs I researched fusion in two days. In terms of planning to group facilities, squares are better than lines, and I prioritise uplinks then power then workshops then labs.

I was beginning to get a little blasé about the missions until I assaulted a cargo ship laden with 20+ aliens including muton elites, beserkers, cyberdisks, sectopods, heavy floaters and an ethereal. Twice I encountered serious firepower activating all at the same time. Nearly lost two (stabilised them just in time) and all 6 spent time in the infirmary after that encounter. Have changed my tactics and loadout ever since, moving away from titan to ghost armour for the ground crew and archangel for the snipers, and thinking about restricting having two snipers to only those missions where I know there will be mostly open ground or where the second sniper is a gunslinger (up to 7 damage with their plasma pistol). Definitely not two snipers for large ship assaults.

Similarly, I was happy enough with EMP-armed Firestorms, one per continent, but an encounter with a battleship has more than persuaded me to construct some fusion lances. I now have a relative abundance of resources, but losing a Firestorm would still hurt, and it was only a bit of luck and the dodges from the defence matrix that saved it. Now I'm begging for another battleship because I want another fusion core to construct another blaster launcher. Those things are serious weapons.

Oddly, though, I've not had an alien abduction mission in months, so world panic is not an issue. Don't know if this is because I'm ready for the final mission, I have worldwide satellite coverage, there are only a set number of them, I've been extraordinarily lucky or it's just a bug...

The Psy lab remains the most unlikely building I thought I would have a use for...until I saw how OP some of the psy ability's can be. Even the most basic attack saved my bacon, when we run out of ammo and couldn't waste a turn reloading.

Psi abilities are extremely useful, plus are required for the final mission, where you get some seriously powerful psi powers. All of them are useful, although I tend to go with panic over inspire and MC over telekinetic field. There is nothing more satisfying than MCing an ethereal...