1. Make sure you take weapons with you that your agents are trained in as this can be very useful if you get into a firefight.

Also specialising in pistols and revolvers allows you to mod them with a silencer (a pretty common pickup from loot stashes in missions)

2. Try and train a few agents with the Paramedic ability. It is very useful when trying to escape with unconcious enemy agents.

3. If you are going into a room try and make sure you only use one movement point. Make sure you have peeked through a doorway or ordered a spotter to check the room first to make sure it is empty. If need be you can find a hiding space to wait out the next turn. This is especially important with rooms that have windows and patrolling guards outside.

4. Talking of guards. You can get away with knocking out ONE guard (make sure you hide the body). Any more that that and the enemy WILL get suspicious. Radio protocol is a thing people :). I will add a caveat that this is my personal experience. As some people have pointed out there are different tiers of guards like SPEC ops, local police etc. Perhaps there is a threshold of the different types you can KO, all I know so far is that two is the not so magic number :)

So here is an actual fact about how many guards you can KO from the awesomeballs people at Creative Forge Games who were kind enough to give my guide a look see.

`this actually depends on difficulty level:
easy 4-5 (random)
medium 3-4
hard 2-3`


5. Make full use of the infiltration phase. Split your team up and do a perimiter sweep of the grounds so you can spot loot caches and most importantly CCTV controls. Preperation is everything.
Later on make sure to spread your agents around the globe. It is VERY handy if you have had time to do a tactical recon and can place spotters.

6. If you do get into a firefight try and put your team in high positions and flank the enemy. Use the different modes like supression and headshots to tip things in your favour. Never leave home without some Frag grenades and Flashbangs !

7. When you are fairly sure that you are three or four moves away from finishing the mission order your exfil. Nobody wants to be standing about for three turns once things go sideways as it is pretty much guaranteed to turn into a `Fish in Barrel` situation. Sure there is a chance your EVAC will be compromised, but it beats getting shot to peices.

8.Ladders are your friends. Who needs the silly ol' stairs when you can scoot up onto a balcony and recon the higher floors.:)

9. Watch your route marker ! You wouldn't want to accidentally crash through a window in front of a guard, stumble into a restricted zone and back out to a safe zone now would you. Not that I would ever do that.. ahem

10. Rotate your strike teams compostion. Keeping everyone levelled up is way better than having a handful of Super Agents who then end up hospitalized !

Despite your handler advising that you `capture the enemy agent quietly if possible` this doesn't ALWAYS go to plan and you could end up in a firefight or getting shot up the butt as you run for the EVAC point

Some useful tools for making this a less painful process are :

Frag Grenade : Brilliant for dealing with any low HP enemies stupid enough to bunch together.

Smoke Grenade : Throw this close between you and any enemies to mess up their LOS or if you are close to EVAC then throw it onto the area if you know that your agents will arrive their out of step.

Flashbang : Useful for any of those pesky super guards or enemy agents if you need to mess up their awareness to go for a killing shot.

Here are some methods for dealing with different room setups and luring the enemy agent.

Firstly courtesy of Fireball900

(If you are fond of going for the KO on pesly guards which inevitably leads to the `suspicion` phase)

`once the radio check is triggered the enemy agent(s) - and *only* enemy agent(s) - will go around all the missing guards' spots (not only veteran guards). If you've hid all the bodies, then the agent doing so will make for a wonderful ambush - put your men out of view, maybe use a spotter to check his facing, and then going in for the kill/capture. It's absolutely awesome when the agent has multiple guards in his starting room.`



I have tried this method and have to say it is preferable to setting the whole map off. As long as you have all the intel and loot you can find a nice game of cat and mouse with the enemy agent is preferable to feeling like a Duck in a shooting gallery. Just make sure once you have lowered their HP to call in for an exfil so you can make a quick getaway :P

Also as long as you hide the bodies you can KO guards with glee as this will reduce your opponents numbers should (When??) things go sideways. Win/Win.


Spotter + Breach move

If you are not worried about capturing an enemy agent then breaching is the most efficient way to get into a room that is covered by the fog of war when you know the enemy agent is in there but are unsure if they have guards.

If you have had time to do a tactical recon and have a spotter in range then you have the advantage of being able to set fire targets before you go crashing in.

Just remember unless you choose suppressed weapons this is going to `make the crap hit the fan`. This is a highly technical and accurate peice of spy terminology you should be aware of :P

General Tips

However you choose to pursue your target don't forget to hide every guard or civilian that you KO or this will turn the suspicion phase into full alert.

Unless you need to peek into a room, make sure EVERY door is closed behind you as this can present a perfect `OH COME ON` moment when the enemy turns it into a line of fire.

If a lot of your Agents are in the infirmary and you need to make up numbers just take an agent on a mission and use a medpac. Much more efficient :)

Mind windows or any cover that highlights blue. Nothing like getting spotted out a second floor window or behind some pallets to ruin your day.

You want to make sure that you take a good range of equipment with you on missions, so make sure to build items in the workshop and fill up all your available slots.

Try not to duplicate any equipment and make sure to take a mixed loadout of guns.

Here are the items I have used so far, and what I think they are best for.

Lockpick - Pointless imho. Careful scouting will usually reveal a workaround.



Frag Grenade - Very nice for taking down low HP enemies like local police or chucking into a nice confined environment with several targets.

Smoke Grenade - If you are near your Evac point and still have one round until it arrives just chuck this on top of yourself and the enemy wont be able to see `bugger all` as they say in the spy biz.

Flash-bang - Personally My fave for making sure some stupid Agent doesn't dodge a 9mm parabellum round from 5 ft away when they have their back to me. Yes, that has happened.

First Aid Kit - If (when?) things go sideways this can be a useful last resort tool to help all your agents escape.

Blister Gas Bomb - Who doesn't love to chuck a grenade that lets off a noxious green cloud and does DOT to your enemies? Very useful :P

Booster - Brilliant if you are literally one square shy of making it to cover or to the evac point as it increases your movement distance. A total lifesaver.

Light Armour - I always put this in my travelling agents, just in case they get exposed an ambushed. Openly Hostile ? You bet Baby ! Also gear up with as many as possible when attacking a conspiracy hub >:)

There is nothing subtle or pretty about these scenarios.

Whatever you do DON'T STAY INSIDE.

Most importantly : don't assume your evac has been called for. I mean, that would just be silly right? ahem, cough, ooh what's that over there....

Find the nearest window and get outside to the ground level. Move your team in leapfrog formation (ie two forward, then one forward, repeat).

Make sure you use overwatch to cover your front, sides and rear and be careful of any doors or windows (especially second floor windows). Enemy agents will have no problems jumping out the second floor and shooting you up the butt.

If possible stick close to the walls or make sure you have cover on the side facing to the windows just in case some over eager enemy spots you out the window.

Although speed is preferable to get to the EVAC point don't get sloppy. This is not a mission you are going to win throught overwhelming firepower. If you have any grenades use them to tip the odds in your favour.

Good luck and remember it's not RUNNING AWAY, its a pre-planned high speed tactical retreat :)

Here is a lovingly handcrafted customised video just fo you, yes YOU. I know right? All the effort and expense I went to. Don't even get me started how much the extras wanted paying for a twenty second walk on cameo.

Sheesh..

One thing I dislike about TBS games is that `oh come on ... let me have a turn` feeling you get sometimes.

In order to speed things up might I humbly suggest setting these options to `on` in the Gameplay menu.

Accelerated movement Animation

Always Run = Everyone

Instantly Open World Map

Autosave enabled

Personally I would leave `Always use shortest path` off. You wouldn't want to crash through a window into a restricted zone in front of three guards now would you (cough).

Honestly it's not like they seem to see windows as `obstacles`, rather they seem to see them as a normal means of transit as it is.

Don't even get me started on civilains who see sliding across a table as a perfectly normal part of everyday life :)

Another useful option is `show civilains on enemy bar`. Personally I see civilians as my personal nemesis sent to test me by some willful and cruel god.

I have seen a few comments about issues with finding intel and loot so here are a few screenshots that I prepared earlier. Thankyou Blue Peter :)

If you send your agents in opposite directions you can scout the ground level, then the first floor, second floor etc of any buildings. By looking through windows, peeking through doors and using ladders you can get a pretty good idea of what you will be facing and where the loot is.



Here good old Agent Ignition. (Well, I say good old, honestly though you don't want to get her started) can see a lovely CCTV control in the corner as well as the awareness radius of the two civilians. Not forgetting the `!!!!!!` area which shows the trespassing Zone.

Any objects of interest will have a faint `glowing` effect so keep you eyes peeled.



In this shot there are some lovely secret documents just begging to be copied. However there is a cone of vision from a civilian nearby, and a guard has just gone behind the shipping crates. better to wait and check the patrol route, whether the civilian moves and make it so I can copy them in one action point and then get back in cover during my turn.

It is not a good idea to use up 2 AP in similar situations as you will not have any option to retreat if needed.



By moving one space and waiting I can now see that the civilian is staying put and the guard will be out of sight soon allowing me to sneak in and copy the intel without detection. Soflty, softly catchy monkey.. er sorry documents.



Well, apparently the game frowns heavily upon copying documents upside down, so I need to hide in this container so that I can successfully do the `The Two-Step Sneaky ™` or TTSS for short as I like to call it :)



Ker-Ching. Job done, nobody any the wiser. Eat your heart out James Bond !