All the time. They are great for snowballing (a vehicle is cheaper than 3 soldiers). With a bit of luck in exploring a Junker can be bought on day 1. IMHO they are essential for certain missions. They are needed to reliably survive ambushes after early game (= after mid January), at least on Legend or Etermes.

Originally posted by mar.sch:

All the time. They are great for snowballing (a vehicle is cheaper than 3 soldiers). With a bit of luck in exploring a Junker can be bought on day 1. IMHO they are essential for certain missions. They are needed to reliably survive ambushes after early game (= after mid January), at least on Legend or Etermes.

Yea, I bet ambushes are much easier if you can get inside and drive around. I focused on getting 2 teams of 6 early and cant fit a vehicle anywhere atm, got an Aspida but its not worth it atm.

Agreed, an Aspida isn’t the vehicle to snowball, to rule early missions. The secret is: explosives FTW. Be it Junkers, Scarabs, Goliath Grenade launchers, Missile launchers, hand grenades*. This is a reason why I play with the recently introduced hand grenades scatter. Don’t be afraid: it is hugely satisfying watching Scavengers or Arthrons missing their grenades.
* To tell the truth: this isn’t the only way to success.

About team count: it depends on difficulty. Getting to a 8 slots team on Etermes difficulty is highly recommended. Then there is the dreaded -2 soldiers VO. You might want to visit the TFTV discord channel

Originally posted by mar.sch:

About team count: it depends on difficulty. Getting to a 8 slots team on Etermes difficulty is highly recommended. Then there is the dreaded -2 soldiers VO. You might want to visit the TFTV discord channel

Ah yes, I got that VO atm (right as I got said Aspida). I dunno, I feel like soldiers are much better long term investment so far, that's all, lvl 7 soldiers are extremelly valuable, hence I would have made vehicles cost 2 slots instead of 3 if I was balancing this.

Also, I have no clue how people can play on Etermes! I was playing on hero, and boy, the difficulty spikes were insane. Most missions were on the easy side, and then you got missions with 15 high end pandorans with snipers, 2 sirens + acheron, and a revenant that makes enemies take half damage from first shot. Dialed it down to veteran after that and it's been too easy again.

You only need 7-9 soldiers (depending on your chosen ending) for the final mission. So you don’t need many soldiers to pour SPs into. Let’s assume an A-team (5 soldiers + vehicle in 2 Manticores) and a B-team (5 soldiers + vehicle in 2 Manticores) and a couple of soldiers at bases which might get attacked. BTW, base defenses are among the hardest missions in TFTV. Lowering the difficulty if you think it is too hard is perfectly fine. In the end you should have fun playing a game. TFTV provides a lot of mod options to tailor the playing experience. The predefined difficulties are a starting point. You may chose a different difficulty for tactical (default is the same as for geoscape). You may check “Stronger Pandorans“ (default is OFF on Hero and lower difficulties). etc.

Originally posted by mar.sch:

You only need 7-9 soldiers (depending on your chosen ending) for the final mission. So you don’t need many soldiers to pour SPs into. Let’s assume an A-team (5 soldiers + vehicle in 2 Manticores) and a B-team (5 soldiers + vehicle in 2 Manticores) and a couple of soldiers at bases which might get attacked. BTW, base defenses are among the hardest missions in TFTV. Lowering the difficulty if you think it is too hard is perfectly fine. In the end you should have fun playing a game. TFTV provides a lot of mod options to tailor the playing experience. The predefined difficulties are a starting point. You may chose a different difficulty for tactical (default is the same as for geoscape). You may check “Stronger Pandorans“ (default is OFF on Hero and lower difficulties). etc.

I think Pandorans are far stronger than anything else already. Probably cause I struggled economically and didnt counter their nests so they evolved way too quickly. Will check that option though out of curiosity.

Re “Stronger Pandorans“: you may want to check the Steam mod “Phoenix Rising Better Enemies“’s description. It was the basis for “Stronger Pandorans“. For example you will encounter Pandorans with guns on day 1.

Originally posted by mar.sch:

Re “Stronger Pandorans“: you may want to check the Steam mod “Phoenix Rising Better Enemies“’s description. It was the basis for “Stronger Pandorans“. For example you will encounter Pandorans with guns on day 1.

Ooh, that would have been cool, early pandorans are weak, once revenants and sirens and viral ones appear, the problems start.

Either you like the game or not. If yes you will start many more runs.
You may want to join TFTV’s discord channel to have more opinions than mine.

Originally posted by mar.sch:

Either you like the game or not. If yes you will start many more runs.
You may want to join TFTV’s discord channel to have more opinions than mine.

I have finished it twice normally already, and this is my second time playing TFTV, so I like it quite a bit. Just wish vehicles were better or cheaper cause I never use them even in the base game.

Just consider vehicles as a tool. They are great at allowing to do certain missions ASAP. IMHO time is the most valuable resource in the game (be it Vanillas or TFTV).

I use cars for ambushes by this combo: 2 cars + 2 units

If I'm lucky, I like to make the Scarab as early as possible in the early game - it's not that hard to get an extra Manticore to transport it. It's very nice to have real rocket artillery, which with some luck can kill or seriously injure 2 or 3 enemies in one attack.
Then, closer to the second half of the game, vehicles fade into the background, alas - pumped soldiers are much more capable, but I still leave a few ironclads and/or scarabs to support the garrison troops of my bases. I just keep a Sinderion fighter with a speed module to quickly deliver vehicles to the assault site.
Alas, but defense is the only place where you can use vehicles in the late game, because they start to suck.