I decided I`d try my next mission with NO fighting at all (since the no-miss mechanic makes things really tough). I had to go and take out an enemy operative that was threatening to reveal our hidden base.

Had two people; My character, Deadpool and a female codenamed `Redhead` who was actually blonde - have to keep the enemy guessing! No time for any backup spotters.

Spent ages checking out the perimeter until i had a good idea where the patrols were and where the stairs to the 2nd floor were which would lead to our objective. Chose the route and entered...

Redhead knocked out the female guard while I found and disabled the computer knocking out the cameras. Got to the stairs, but did NOT go up them. Activated the heart sensor and it showed a guard patrolling... waited until she came right up (what is it with all these female guards in the 1980s?), then got Redhead to take her out. A little further down was another guard, - took her out silently too, but had to do a lot of hiding and waiting until she was in the right position.

Finally, got to the room and both of us entered. Redhead was out of moves to attack even though she got right behind the Target. If the Target moved next turn all hell would break loose... Fortunately, I was close enough to go in and knock her out.

Grabbed her, called evac and with Redhead spotting ahead moved to the zone. Redhead jumped out the window and down, but to my surprise I could not get down with my target (I`m too used to Xcom there). So I had to go all the way back around- and that`s why cutting the cameras saved the day.

Finally made it to Evac- got in the van and gone!

Haha! A totally success! In and out silent; took the target alive back for questioning and NOBODY was alerted or had a clue!

Then we executed her afterwards. lol.

Anyway, the game shines if you can do it stealthily, but you REALLY need to plan. Several things to note:

1. You need patience. It took me about 15 minutes just walking my people around the perimeter and looking before I knew where most of the outside guards were, the corridor/stairs and the possible computer room was before even getting to the target location.

2. Once you know where pretty much all the important stuff is, have your egress point ready, know where it is in relation to your target. Anything happens you want to be as close to the evac point as possible.

3. Keep your people togther, especially if you have only 2. If they`re split up you increase the chance of being spotted and they can help eachother if needed.

4.Stealth knocking out. As long as one of your people has more health than the other you can knock them out ( a little unrealistic but whatever). It`s key to avoiding aggro.

5. You can walk right up behind a guard and knock him out. If you`ve been observing previously you`ll have some idea where they are. Get behind something and wait for them to walk past- Walk up and knock out. Make sure you have enough AP. There`s minimum move blue border and a max (similar to xcom), but a bit hard to see because it`s all in blue. If you keep to the first blue border, you`ll have enough action for a takedown.

I went through the whole section just hiding and creeping with my two people and popping off sentries that way. If you have a sensor heart beat utility use it too, although I didn`t find it all that effective for the most part except on the stairs.

6. Oh yea, With luck your target should have lower hitpoints than you, then you can knock them out. Try to take at least one operative on a mission with high health.

7. You can`t jump out of windows with a person on your shoulder (makes sense) so be prepared to go round. This is why taking out those cameras helps. Also use your other operative to lead the way, just in case of trouble.

The main issue is that this game, like most xcoms, suffers from the 'inverted difficulty curve'. Missions are harder at the beginning, when to have few green agents and no supressors. Once you have enough agents for having proper map coverage, at least one with actor perk and supressors... You go over all missions like a breeze without ever breaking stealth. At least in normal difficulty.

But man the first few missions were hard.

Indigo is possibly my favourite agent. Got her a supressed B76 and then got her the Actor perk. She is so good it's almost broken. XD Downside is that if she gets caught in a fight she is D-E-A-D.

One time today I walked into a room with a Hitman for an Informat Rescue. Chopped him, picked him up and then jumped out the window to the Evac Point right outside his window. XD

Like you're not spying on me as well. ;P

Aren`t the names of agents randomised except the first couple you meet at start. I play CIA so maybe it happens on the KGB side.

Anyway, if you`re lucky enough you can get an evac site super-close to your objective.

Also finally got to use the breach mechanic which works very well since it takes out at least two of them in one go unlike the weird 5 turns it takes if you do it any other way. Took an agent and a guard instantly, which was nice.

I think that if you have sight into the room (Someone outside, Recon Support, etc.) then you get a bonus on breaching.
I did an experiment where I breached blind with two agents. There were two guards and one enemy agent inside. They killed the guards and wounded the agent.
Then I reloaded and used Support Recon on the room first so I saw everyone. Breached, and I killed everyone.

If a support asset detects someone in their radius and line of sight, that enemy gets +30 to dodge (i.e. it costs that enemy an extra 30 awareness to dodge attacks). Enemies thus affected have a small red icon on them, and if you right-click them it should indicate this debuff - although annoyingly, if your regular agents can't see them yet (i.e. the spotter is the only one who can see them), then you can't right-click on them to get this info for some reason - something else that needs to be fixed IMO. That and you can't tell an enemy's exact awareness, nor how much awareness is required for that agent to dodge without the debuff (they should probably add this info too - though it's possible to guess by the length of their awareness bar).

Naturally, if the enemy(ies) in question have enough awareness then they'll still be able to dodge even with the debuff - but it still means they'll have less awareness afterwards, which should guarantee the second shot takes them out. So even with only two agents breaching, provided there are less enemies than the breach value for each of the agent's weapons, it should guarantee taking everyone out if you spot beforehand.

Definitely one of the game's better tactical elements.