Spending XP

[rsgong]

I would like to know decisions the veteran players make when spending XP on a new squad. I'm trying the free version, and having no idea of the best ways, am basically spending differently for each squad member. I am aware that this probably is not the best way of doing it, haven't seen anything in the rules or on this forum that helps.

Thanks.

[Lt. Hathaway]

My first priority is to maximize Action points. You want your Quickness + Tactics >= 6. Quickness is more useful than tactics, so I generally raise that first.

After that I get Ranged to 10.

Once that's done, I'll start raising Warrior and Evasion to 10.

At that point, I raise those three in 5 point blocks, mostly because it lets me see instantly where I'm adding.

[slayernz]

For me, AP is critical. So I invest in this order:
For Captain
1) Quickness until it becomes greyed out (usually max Quickness = 4)
2) Tactics until Quickness + Tactics = 6
3) I do half Ranged half Warrior until at least 10 for each.
4) Then I aim to get Tactics to 4 or 5 (can't remember the magic number, but look at max range of the special ability that your captain has)
5) Finally, I invest in the ratio Ranged:Warrior:Evasion 2:1:1 until Ranged = about 25, then I change to 1:1:3 as I strongly beef up defense.

For Knights (either Scouts or Neptune Specialists) I do:
1) Quickness until it becomes greyed out (usually max Quickness = 4)
2) Tactics until Quickness + Tactics = 6
3) Ranged until it is at least 15.
4) Finally, I invest in the ratio Ranged:Warrior:Evasion 2:1:1 until Ranged = about 25, then I change to 1:1:3 as I strongly beef up defense.

Logic:
Movement is critical for me. The more AP you have, the more chance you have to either get from A to B, or shoot, or get into position. Boosting Quickness means +1 to movement calcs, and +1 to ranged calcs, so that is why Quickness is my #1 focus.

THEN, I want to actually hit the enemy more often than not. A missed shot is not only a wasted AP, but it is also a waste of expensive ammo. When you start, you only have 12 - 16 rounds of ammo, so every miss means you're heading towards using your fists.

I beef up warrior skills in my captain because he's gotta be able to deal out melee damage, and again, a miss means a Xeno's gonna try and tear you a new one, so killing in one turn is very helpful.

Finally, once I have a reasonable hit percentage, I focus on getting defense up.

For 3 of my captains, I currently have:

	23 battles	155 battles	197 battles
Str	3	23	8
Qui	4	11	11
War	12	36	78
Rng	20	47	80
Tac	6	14	8
Eva	2	60	80

[Lt. Hathaway]

Of course, to actually get strength and quickness as high as Slayernz senior captains also require having played when the stay limits were broken.

[slayernz]

Yeah - that's why max quickness of 4 is more typical

[rsgong]

This helps a lot. Hopefully, others will put their two cents in. Although I suspect that raising AP will be every bodies priority, it is interesting to see how people diverge after that. +Slayernz since it will be a while before I can consider upgrading to elite (broke, lol), do you allocate the same for the soldiers as you do the scouts, or do you adjust your priorities?

[johndramey]

Well, I'm not a pro elite player like slayernz, but I think I've got a good build. I think I play a little different from most of the other guys in the sense that I tend to

1) Beef up AP, depending on if I'm building a ranged shooter or a melee trooper I'll choose Quickness or tactics, respectively.
2) a) If ranged shooter, bump Ranged to 5
b) If melee, bump Strength to cap -and then- warrior to 5
3) Bump Evasion to 10
4) Focus on my primary attack skill to 15
5) Bring up the secondary attack skill to 10

After that I pretty much go hog wild.

rsgong - I tend to not use scouts. I know I'm in the minority on that one, but since I boost survivabilty (with evasion) early I tend to use soldiers as walking walls. High defense and evasion means they can usually take multiple hits before actually getting damaged, and my captain is always a Chaplin for healing.

TA is a great game because, really, there is no wrong way to play it. I run around on Brutal with a strategy that is pretty different from everyone else and I very rarely lose a Templar. If I do, it's usually because I got too greedy and/or tried something silly.

[rsgong]

That is why I posted this. Give new players different successful starting strategies for XP allocation (and equipment purchasing in the other thread). This gives them starting points to develop there own strategies. It is much easier to get into a game if you have some idea about what you're doing. 

[Lt. Hathaway]

Another good fact to keep in mind is that you defend against ranged attacks with evasion, but against mêlée attacks with warrior. I think this is the single most important almost undocumented fact in TA squad development.

[ncaoa]

Jul 4, 2013 1:30:33 GMT -5 Lt. Hathaway said:

Another good fact to keep in mind is that you defend against ranged attacks with evasion, but against mêlée attacks with warrior. I think this is the single most important almost undocumented fact in TA squad development.

Holy hell, that's news to me!

[Lt. Hathaway]

Nothing I can do on either of my devices will make ProBoards search work for me, and I can't find the thread, but @slayern found it for me in another thread.

Jul 4, 2013 1:03:43 GMT -5 slayernz said:

Lt. Hathaway, here is all I found regarding armor (melee vs ranged)

Jan 9, 2013 3:14:20 GMT -5 Cory Trese said:

A couple of points that may help:

- There are no attacks in Templars that "Ignore Armor"
- Plating Protects against Attacks (FDF, Alien, Narvidian)
- Shielding Protects against Plas-Flame (both Templar and Enemy, when that is added)
- Evasion is used in concert with Quickness to defend against Ranged attacks (FDF, Narvidian Cannons, Red Cults)
- Warrior is used in concert with Strength to defend against Melee Attacks (Xeno, Narvidian Drones, Narvidian Spears)
- Quickness and Strength are limited because, ultimately, Templars are just normal humans -- they are not super-human in any way so the limitations of physical abilities was used a cornerstone for the balancing of the game

As descendants of the Zendu bloodlines, the Order of the Templar Knights can tap into generations of training and genetic knowledge to enhance their skills to incredible (nearly unlimited) levels.

Oct 28, 2012 1:55:57 GMT -5 Cory Trese said:

Plating protects against melee attacks.

Shielding protects against ranged attacks, fire, acid and narvidian weapons.

Rico's Roughnecks did some testing too - not comprehensive, but maybe useful for helping understanding. Note that in the thread, Cory has done similar testing and got different results, so you can't take these figures as gospel.
startradersrpg.proboards.com/thread/1983/armor-testing