History VideoGame / XCOMLongWar

** Overwatch-focused builds tend to lose usefulness in the lategame, when many EliteMooks have Lightning Reflexes making their Overwatch shots much more likely to miss.

* CantCatchUp: Played straight but at the same time rigorously opposed by the game itself; soldiers that never see use will never get stronger, and overdepending on your elites can leave you crippled if they [[FinalDeath die off]], leaving you to recruit newbies who can't compete against the just-as-powerful enemies. ''However,'' the game introduces a "fatigue" system that weakens and wounds soldiers if used too often back to back, so players are encouraged to mix up their rosters between missions.

** In the original game, [[TheQuisling EXALT]] could be a challenge early on, due to starting with decent gear and some unique powers, and the [[ScrappyLevel Covert Ops missions]] could occasionally be a pain, but whereas the player started developing better equipment and more capable soldiers, EXALT [[CantCatchUp never grew beyond their initial level of power,]] meaning that they quickly became {{MoneySpider}}s and little else. In ''Long War'', they grow and gain upgrades at the same rate as the player, and can even field their own versions of your super-elite top-tier soldiers; watch in awe as EXALT Snipers OneHitKill you from beyond your visual range, EXALT Heavies demolish entire swaths of cover with Blaster Launchers, and EXALT [=MECs=] run down your squishy fleshlings. [[FromBadToWorse They also get larger numbers]], AND [[UpToEleven can appear alongside aliens in any missions they'd normally appear in - including Terror Missions!]].

* TheAIIsACheatingBastard: The entire point of "Yellow Alert": if, while stealthed, you do things that attract attention, ADVENT may go into an alerted state without explicitly being aware of you; if they DO detect you while in this state (made worse because they move faster and get boosted sight ranges) some of the units in that group will get free turns to overwatch or take potshots. It can lead to such things as a group of enemies stumbling into your flank and getting free shots at your exposed troops without you ever getting the chance to prepare.

* InNameOnly: The so-called Ranger in ''Long War 2'' has more in common with the original's Infantry than the one from vanilla ''2''.

* NecessaryDrawback: The Infiltration mechanic now encourages Commanders to vary their squad deployments. Unlike in vanilla where the metagame is to always deploy the largest possible squad with the heaviest, newest gear, doing so here will mean lower Infiltration percentage and thus more and tougher enemies. There are thus many times where deliberately sending an understrength squad with light gear in order to get weaker enemy forces is not only viable but preferable.
* OptionalStealth: Stealth receives a greater emphasis in this mod compared with the base game, but it is still possible to operate very loudly and aggressively. However, this often results in huge numbers of enemies swarming your squad, since large squads with heavy weapons have a hard time infiltrating. It is often much more effective to sneak in with a smaller squad of lighter, stealth-specialized troops, at the expense of having little heavy firepower if they do get detected. Some missions can potentially be completed with only a single Shinobi trooper, although getting detected can be an instant mission failure as the Shinobi gets gunned down by an entire squad of enemy troops.

* ZergRush: If the Infiltration progress on a mission is low, you can expect large numbers of enemy troops. Because of the troop distribution of each pod, many of the enemies you'll fight be lower-ranking infantry, but there will be ''tons'' of them.

* CripplingOverspecialization: Technicals' abilities are mostly built to enhance their rocket and flamethrower and they don't offer much beyond that.

* YouHaveResearchedBreathing: XCOM needs an entirely new building, which you don't start out with, just to repair small objects. May be partially justified as you only use it to repair alien technology.

*** Oh, and remember those [[ScrappyLevel Covert Ops?]] EXALT get to keep all their nifty toys for those missions, while the player is still limited to an unarmored, undergunned Covert Operative (that starts on the far side of the rest of your squad, and [[EscortMission MUST survive or the mission is a failure]]) and a fraction of the troops you could normally bring. These can EASILY be some of the hardest missions in the game.

* CantCatchUp: Happens to ''XCOM.'' In addition to getting better unit types as the game progresses, in Long War 2, ADVENT will also get permanent combat upgrades and perks via Dark Events that not only never expire, but can stack indefinitely. While they CAN be countered like any Dark Event, they're intentionally made much harder to do so, and even the best players will see them start to pile up as the game progresses. No matter how much momentum you can build, if you don't take every advantage to progress towards finishing the game, the aliens will eventually outpace you and combat will reach a point where easy fights become slogs, and slogs become nearly unwinnable.

** It also goes back to requiring individually-manufactured weapons and armour instead of squad-level upgrades.

* MasterOfNone: Technicals. A single (inaccurate) rocket, and a flamethrower that is 99% of the time too short-range and underpowered to be worth using. Their upgrades can ''slightly'' alleviate one of these two flaws, but beyond that, they're simply slightly-better rookies. There's very little they can do that other classes can't simply do better.

* OptionalStealth: NOPE. Go into missions with a heavy squad guns-blazing, and prepare to be annihilated by literal armies of enemy troops. While missions CAN be won with low infiltration, since most of the time you don't get any extra rewards for killing so many enemies, it's a ton of extra risk for very little reward.
** Potentially played straight with the missions themselves. Since ADVENT's behavior while undetected has changed, and since there are new perks to make stealth more viable, it's possible (if very difficult) to complete missions with only one or two units, without ever seeing or engaging an enemy.

** The ''Long War 2'' experience is a bit more like how a guerrilla movement would operate, prioritising speed and stealth, with trying to go in too heavy likely to get you crushed by Advent's superior resources.
** The new Infiltration system ties this into the way extraction works; since you no longer deploy immediately, instead having squads prepare on-site for the mission over time, extraction takes several turns to arrive once called. This means you have to plan your extraction MUCH more carefully, since the dynamics of the battlefield can change a lot in 4-8 turns, and a spot that was safe at first may be much more dangerous after two or three turns of enemy activity and reinforcements.
* TimedMission: Largely averted compared to Vanilla, thanks to the new Infiltration mechanic. Rather than dropping squads off immediately and having to complete the mission under a strict time limit, you Infiltrate a squad, deploying soldiers but not starting the mission immediately. Instead, as time in the Geoscape passes, the Infiltration rating increases from 0% to 100%; the higher the rating when the mission is launched, the more favorable conditions (fewer, lighter enemies and detectors.) However, to balance this, all missions that can be Infiltrated have expiration periods, and Infiltration takes longer the more, heavier troops you send; sending a full squad with top-of-the-line equipment can result in only netting 20-30% infiltration before the point of no return hits, resulting in a much more difficult mission. It's usually a far better idea to send smaller, lighter squads to hit high Infiltration rates to make the missions much more manageable.
* ZergRush: If Infiltration progress is sufficiently low, you can expect to face dozens of enemies in a mission.

* SchmuckBait: Averted with Supply Raids and Troop Ambushes. The game beats you over the head with "High infiltration good, low infiltration bad!" but these missions can almost never be done with reasonable infiltration, and will ALWAYS have ratings of Swarming (or, if you're lucky, Very Heavy.) Inexperienced players might be intimidated and skip them. However, while they're certainly very tough, the lack of good infiltration means you can take a full-strength fully-equipped squad with little concern, and winning the mission will both award you tons of resources/research AND reduce ADVENT's strength at the same time. Veterans soon learn to see these missions as absolute MoneySpiders.

** Veterans are well aware of "Yellow Alerts" however, and it's become a fairly key strategy to use stealthed Shinobi to scout for these groups and allow the squad to prepare and avoid being caught off guard.

* DoWellButNotPerfect: Even if you can liberate every region, it's better not to liberate the very last one. Doing so triggers Advent invasions across all of them, which pretty much instantly rolls back all your precious progress.
** Played straight to a degree; while every mission has benefits to being taken, doing EVERY mission that comes your way will anger ADVENT quickly, and especially early before you've gotten the option to spread out your operations, will start to spike their activity in the problem areas. This can lead to significantly-harder missions before you're prepared. While you still need to be taking missions frequently to keep your momentum going, it's smart to pick and choose a few here and there to let go. Thankfully, tying this in to the infiltration system makes things easier, since there will usually be missions that simply don't have the time to be undertaken effectively; a significant part of learning the game is learning what you can (and can't) afford to let go.

* RedShirt: [[InvokedTrope Literally!]] [[CannonFodder Rookies]] get red-colored armor by default, and only1 get bumped up to the standard olive drab on reaching Squaddie status (barring the player's customization whims, of course.)

''XCOM: Long War'' is a GameMod for the tactical strategy game ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'', more specifically its ''Enemy Within'' DLC. The mod serves as a significant expansion of the base game, adding more classes, more loadout options, a wide variety of addition perks, skills, and equipment, and rebalances several of the base game's more notable {{Game Breaker}}s.

* MasterOfNone/CripplingOverspecialization: Technicals. A single (inaccurate) rocket, and a flamethrower that is 99% of the time too short-range and underpowered to be worth using. Their upgrades can ''slightly'' alleviate one of these two flaws, but beyond that, they're simply slightly-better rookies. There's very little they can do that other classes can't simply do better.

* DecompositeCharacter: Vanilla's Ranger class is split into two; the Assault gets the shotgun moves while the Shinobi gets the melee and stealth skills. The Grenadier is also split into the Gunner, who gets the cannon, and the Grenadier, who gets the GrenadeLauncher.

In addition to incorporating all the above mods, ''Long War 2'' makes some rather drastic changes to the strategy layer. Among others is the Infiltration mechanic, which allows you to send a squad ahead to prepare for missions. Higher Infiltration levels make the subsequent tactical mission easier, but require smaller and less well-equipped squads to be sent to attain.

* RealityEnsues: The ''Long War 2'' experience is a bit more like how a guerrilla movement would operate, prioritising speed and stealth, with trying to go in too heavy likely to get you crushed by Advent's superior resources.

* BoringButPractical: Infantry, an offshoot of the Assault class. No special powers, fancy flanking maneuevres, or flashy explosives. Instead, they simply shoot twice a turn if they don't move. Combined with a good Aim and a strong weapon, they can deal much more damage than nearly any other class, and will be a mainstay in many players' squads.

* InNameOnly: The so-called Ranger in ''Long War 2'' has more in common with the original's Infantryman than the one from vanilla ''2''.

* DecompositeCharacter: Vanilla's Ranger class is split into two; the Assault gets the shotgun moves while the Shinobi gets the melee and stealth skills.

** One of the ways Long War 2 averts this is by requiring time for the called-in Skyranger to arrive. Naturally, this is bad news if you have a soldier who's bleeding out and needs medevac pronto...

* InterfaceScrew: Long War 2 adds some variation on the loading screens that change while loading such as the humans of Advent's city centers in blindfolds and chains, a cut in with the Ethereals, and the true nature of Advent's soldiers. Oddly enough one such image changes Advent's symbol to that of EXALT.

* RealityEnsues: The Long War 2 experience is a bit more like how a guerrilla movement would operate, prioritising speed and stealth, with trying to go in too heavy likely to get you crushed by Advent's superior resources.

* InterfaceScrew: Long War 2 adds some variation on the loading screens that change while loading such as the humans of Advent's city centers in blindfolds and chains, a cut in with the Ethereals, and the true nature of Advent's soldiers. Oddly enough one such image changes Advent's symbol to that of [[XCOMEnemyWithin Exalt]]

In addition to incorporating all the above mods, ''Long War 2'' makes some rather drastic changes to the strategy layer.

* EasyLogistics: One of the ways Long War 2 averts this is by requiring time for the called-in Skyranger to arrive. Naturally, this is bad news if you have a soldier who's bleeding out and needs medevac pronto...

* EasyLogistics: One of the ways LW2 averts this is by requiring time for the called-in Skyranger to arrive. Naturally, this is bad news if you have a soldier who's bleeding out and needs medevac pronto...