• Xcom Enemy Within Training Roulette
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• If you have an enemy that has 1 or 2 HP Flush is great for cherry-tapping them over death's door. Or just, you know, use Rapid Fire and shoot twice because gently caress ammo conservation. Flush is terrible and should only be considered if it comes up against something like Covering Fire on Training Roulette.
• An XCOM: Enemy Within-inspired training roulette mod. Randomizes the abilities gained by soldiers with the four basic classes and three faction classes; Sparks are unaffected, and their abilities are not in the pool. Still very much in beta. I'm still new to modding.

The Second Wave Content Pack is DLC for XCOM.It offers a series of advanced gameplay options that create a new level of depth and challenge (or an annoyance) for players who felt Classic Mode was.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Enemy Within are easily my favorite game(s) to come out in at least the last 3 years. There were other honorable mentions along the way, but none of them drive me to play again and again in the way that XCOM does, has, and will continue to. With the announcement of XCOM2 to come this November, I’ve been itching to make an attempt at the longest version of the game published: Marathon Mode. Though Impossible is an option I’ve been eyeing, its not likely to come to fruition.

I’ve beat Classic, and Classic Ironman, so I figure the next, honest, step is that to Classic Marathon Ironman.

Of course, spoilers beyond, though I assume you know that, as I walk through the options I choose for my Marathon Game

XCOM is kind enough to give you a plethora of, for lack of a better term, developer mods that are accessible after you beat the game the first time. Additional options are unlocked after beating the game on classic, and again on impossible. I love these mods, called second wave, more than I really should. My first couple of goes at Marathon mode had my trying all sorts of insane combinations and trying to just use everything at once. That did not end well. This is my current setup.

Here are my assessments of the Options, along with why I’ve picked them, and why not.

Damage Roulette – Weapons have a much wider range of damage

• This Sounds good at first, but proves to be too much of a burden. I’m not against having, and loosing, more soldiers over the course of the game, but this was insane. Over the course of about 6-10 attempts at using this, I never made it out of the starter mission with less than half the squad dead. it definitely felt as if there was a significant lean towards lower, rather than higher, damages, making the whole of the situation less fun.
• Recommended: No.

New Economy -The funding offered by individual council members is randomized

• I tried this one on a few games, and have ultimately come to enjoy it. Changing the status quo of the council and their funding lets you see a radically different world state. the hardest part about this is that the starting nations for each continent are not set at the highest income level. without this, you start with the most money you can for a given continent. With New Economy, you may start out in the poorest country in the world by random chance. This makes getting your first satellite up and running even more important in order to achieve the funding you need in order to be able to continue the XCOM project. You need to determine your income flow, and get satellite coverage over those countries that will contribute the most to the funding of XCOM. Sorry USA – your only willing to put in 70 Xcombucks, you’re on your own!
• Recommended: Yes.

Not Created Equally – Rookies will have random Starting Stats

• This one is hard to determine exactly what it does for you, because I never really paid attention to the stats of the rookies as they came in to start with. I am a staunch fan of having every soldier that is under my command being a unique and different person, so I’ve taken strongly to this option. In hard number terms, it allows you to spend more money to ensure your rookies are awesome right off the bat. 80 Aim is nothing to sneeze at, though you will be flooded with poor, terrible 55’s more often than not.
• Recommended: Yes.

Hidden Potential – As a soldier is promoted, their stats will increase randomly

• As above, this one is hard to figure out the exact benefit, as I don’t know the numbers of the standard classes. As stated above, though, I do like each soldier to be their own unique person, so even though this could be a detriment, I turn it on every game. Seeing that rookie with the 80 aim promote into a heavy and then get a massive aim bump, becoming extremely accurate with a LMG or Heavy Plasma is pure joy.
• Recommended: Yes

Training Roulette – Each soldiers training tree will be mostly randomly generates. Does not apply to MEC Troopers

• Look, What can I say. They had the same love of uniqueness in their soldiers that I do. Enabling cross-class skills that can make each and every solider I see a unique and characterful individual – Do I really have to say I like it again?
• Recommended: Yes

Save Scum – Loading a save game will reset the random number seed, so taking an identical action may yield different results

• This is hard to get if you’ve not played the game, or read about the Number Seed before, as it changes that aspect of gameplay in a very significant manner. As best I understand it, when you start a mission, the game generates a preposterously long string of percentage outcomes. Once you start playing the mission, you start eating through those numbers, in a very specific order. If the first number is a 99, then you are going to fail it, no matter what your percentage of success says on the screen. When you’re deep into the enemy base, and you’ve one solider left, and one alien, and you miss that 95% shot, reloading your save won’t change – that 95% shot wills till miss – because your’re still pulling that same “97” from the list, with the same results. The only way to change it is to do something different (pass the turn, say) and then the alien will have the 97 on their turn, giving you the next number in line “73” and allowing that attack you make to hit. Save Scumming gets rid of that preset list of numbers and generates a new one. When you save and reload, you can take the exact same actions with possible new results. However: The game is made this way for a reason. Don’t do it.
• Recommended: Never.

Red Fog – Any wounds taken in combat will degrade a soldiers stats for that mission

• This is a call back to the original game where your soldiers, those that survived being hit by the enemy, would have their combat capabilities reduced. Neat, but not my cup of tea
• Recommended: No

Absolutely Critical – A flanking shot will guarantee a critical hit

• This one is something I am more terrified to try than I’d like to admit. It has all the hallmarks of a solid addition to the game, but there is that part of me that knows that anything that does more damage is of a larger benefit to the enemies than it is to me. Almost always er on the side of caution when it comes to damage. you’ll be taking a lot more to your soldier than any individual alien will.
• Recommended: No

The Greater Good – The secret of psionics can only be learned by interrogating a psionic alien

• Once again, this hearkens back to the original game, where you had to interrogate live versions of specific aliens in order to learn specific skills. I remember memorizing where the Floater Navigator was in order to get the Hyperwave Decoder… I digress. Here, you have to grab and interrogate a live alien with psionic powers in order to, I assume, start psionic research. if your interested in playing the longest game possible, evoking the feel of the original or making sure you get some damned use out of that Arc Generator, here is your option
• Recommended: Yes

Marathon – The game takes considerably longer to complete.

• This is deceptively short for such a massive change. Nearly everything takes 2x or 3x longer than it does in the original version. Building, Alien Incursions, Reaserch, Foundry Projects, Engineering, Recovery – Everything. This makes the game last much, much longer, but their are upsides. First, the rate of the alien incursion doesn’t change, the introduction of new aliens simply slows down. The game will still hand out abductions at a decent rate, and council missions will still appear repeatedly throughout the month. That builds the second advantage: the shortage of materials that made funding in XCOM: Enemy Unknown so reliant on the council is now gone. Selling everything is not only possible while progressing, its almost encouraged. Finally, it increases the necessity and use of a variety of a variety of items I’d not thought about prior. Flash-bang Grenades, Reaper Ammunition, and simple hand grenades all come in vastly more useful in the longer runs.
• Recommended: Obviously

Results Driven – A country will offer less funding as its panic level increases

• I’ve not had the nerve to try this combined with marathon. I have this terrible habit of letting countries go insane with panic before bringing them back from the edge to join to cause. Reducing the influx of monthly cash due to that I feel would be completely devestating.
• Recommended: No

High Stakes – The rewards granted for stopping alien abductions are randomized

• This option has turned my standard choices for alien abduction interventions into much more difficult problems than in previous games. Normally, I would try and keep down every countries terror level while also getting the best from among the terrified countries. However, with randomized rewards providing amazing prizes for low-risk countries, these choices have become much more impactfull. Turning down a bevy of engineers who will help save the earth in order to save only Canada is a hard pill to swallow.
• Recommended: Yes

Diminishing Returns – The cost of satellites increases with every one that is built

• This is for those people who hate everything, ever. I cannot image what happens when the price for satellites increases instead of decreases over time. I have a large enough problem with keeping up as is!
• Recommended: No

More than Human – The psionic gift is extremely rare

• The first game of Xcom: UFO defense I played, I never made a single psionic solider. In addition to the single-minded focus of a 13 year old of blowing everything to pieces, the processes took my soldiers out for way to long for what seemed to be to little gain. Enemy Unknown, I think, took it too far in the opposite direction. Now, I’ve had a whole squad of psionic warriors. This may help alleviate this problem that I have and make the ending have more impact.
• Recommended: Yes

Itchy Trigger Tentacle – Upon being revealed, some aliens may attempt to shoot at soldiers instead of moving or going into overwatch

• Until I started writing this list, I’d not thought highly of this option. It came to me, however, that this would mean that, from time to time, an enemy that is revealed would not go to ground or overwatch, but would instead stand out in the open after attempting to kill my soldier. Now, I don’t know how high that’d raise my casualty rate, but I’d be willing to attempt it on my next playthrough.
• Recommended: Maybe?!

Aiming Angles – Units receive an aim bonus the closer they are to flanking an enemy

• Sadly, until I read this as a second wave option, I thought it was how the game played. I definitely don’t need the aliens getting better lines and shooting my exposed troopers any easier, was the initial assessment. However, after playing with it for only a short time, its exceedingly intuitive and how you feel the game plays anyway. Adding that little bit to hit based on your angle makes the games feel more compatible with the vision I had for it.
• Recommended: Yes

Mind Hates Matter- Genetically modified soldiers cannot undergo psi testing; gifted soldiers can never receive genetic modifications

• First, let me say that Gene Mods introduced in the Enemy Within expansion are freaking fantastic. Mimetic Skin is one of the easiest and best ways to blow the game neatly in twain. You can see where this is going? I can’t imagine keeping a soldier alive long enough without them against the new enemies and the Exalt Faction to get high enough Willpower that I’d even have them able to be tested, which is now extremely rare and attainable only after having interrogated a psionic alien. Geeze! I’m not doing that to myself.
• Recommended: No

Well, thats my look at Second Wave in a nutshell. Now that I’ve taken on beating Marathon mode, I’ll have my best strategies and ways to work the game so that you don’t have to try 15 times to figure something out, I’ve already lost 18 Ironman games, why should you!

Training Roulette is a Second Wave option made available on the Enemy Within DLC. When it is chosen for a game the description reads: Each soldier's training tree will be mostly randomly generated. Does not apply to MEC Troopers.

After a rookie soldier gains their first rank, they are assigned to a class and receive the starting ability. The choice of abilities afterwards will be from its own class perks, mixed with abilities from other classes. This applies only to abilities that are not dependent of class weapons, such as Rockets. Training Roulette also does not affect the Psionic ability choices.

For save scumming purposes, that soldier's entire ability tree is rolled for at the end of the mission that they gain Squaddie rank in; an in-battle save is needed to re-roll if desired. The exception is with soldiers gotten as Council rewards or after buying New Guy in the OTS, who are rolled for when you receive them.

With Training Roulette activated some abilities will still be locked to certain classes and only be available at determined ranks. All the other abilities can appear as options at any rank, with a few special rules.

• 1Class Skill Tables
• 3Random Ability Notes
• 5General Tips

Class Skill Tables

Random Ability Pool

Random Ability Notes

Offensive

• Aggression
  • Assaults and Snipers might make the best use of it due to their already high Critical Chance ability.
• Bring 'Em On
  • While a good option for any class, your Supports will appreciate this ability to compensate the limited damage output of their rifles.
• Flush
  • If there's a lot of soldiers with Sentinel/Rapid Reaction, choose this ability then use it to dislodge the alien while the rest of your squad fires on it from Overwatch.
  • More useful for Supports/Assaults since their weapons deal the least damage at long range.
• Bullet Swarm
  • Won't appear as an option for a Sniper.
  • This ability is one of the best for all other classes since it allows to Fire and Move away from trouble.
  • Can be combined with Rapid Fire, giving an Assault 3 shots if the 1st shot is a regular one.
  • Can also be combined with Rapid Fire and Close and Personal giving the Assault 4 shots: 1st one with Close and Personal, 2nd a regular shot, 3rd and 4th with Rapid Fire.
• Holo-Targeting
  • Useful for any class, even Assaults and a great combination with Suppression.
  • The Aim bonus is also applied to a 2nd shot made with Bullet Swarm or Double Tap by the same unit.
• HEAT Ammo
  • Useful ability to always have on any class, specially Assaults, Heavies and Snipers, since it increases their already high damage output.
• Gunslinger
  • Won't appear as an option for a Heavy.
  • While still very useful for Snipers, after you get the Ammo Conservation project your Assaults and Supports won't really need this ability since it will be very unlikely that they'll run out of ammunition and have to resort to pistols.
  • Perhaps useful if you want to create a trooper just to go on the Covert Ops
• Executioner
  • Useful for any class. Other abilities may be more interesting than it or not, depending on the soldier's class.

Defensive

• Tactical Sense
  • Useful for any class since avoiding enemy hits is usually better than taking damage from them.
• Lightning Reflexes
  • You'll always need someone with this to break the aliens Overwatch. Least useful in Snipers with the Squadsight ability.
• Extra Conditioning/ Resilience/ Will To Survive
  • These 3 abilities are complementary of one another since they all reduce incoming damage.
  • Getting 2 or even all 3 abilities on any soldier will turn him/her into a walking tank, capable of rivaling even with MEC Troopers. But getting all 3 on the same unit may also make it less useful on an offensive role.
• Low Profile
  • Another of the best abilities for any class, specially when combined with the Mimetic Skin Gene Mod.

Overwatch/Suppression

• Close Combat Specialist
  • Least useful for any kind Snipers, unless they are using pistols, because of the short range penalty of the Sniper Rifle.
• Sentinel/ Rapid Reaction
  • Both are exclusive; you can get either one but not both on the same soldier.
  • Both are great options for Snipers, specially those with Squadsight. The 2nd shot can compensate for the lack of critical hits change applied on the Enemy Within DLC for shots on enemy units not visible to the Sniper.
  • A squad with several soldiers with those abilities can become one deadly Overwatch machine.
• Suppression
  • Your Assault has 1% chance to hit the alien with his/her Shotgun due to distance? Use this ability to give him/her a long range option by suppressing it instead.
  • Even useful with Snipers, but there might be other more interesting choices for them instead of this ability.
• Covering Fire
  • Enemy Within altered the mechanic of this ability (the unit now fires before the enemy fires, not after) and the increase in the penalty for Overwatch shots (30% of the soldier's Aim rather than a fixed -20 penalty) can make it more interesting since the soldier will have a better Aim firing at an enemy unit in low cover rather than firing at a moving enemy.
  • Good combo with Suppression.
• Opportunist
  • With Sentinel/Rapid Reaction it can be a great combo. Or with any of the other Overwatch/Suppression abilities.

Other

Xcom Enemy Within Training Roulette

• Grenadier
  • With Deep Pockets it will give the soldier 3 grenades. Add Tactical Rigging and that's 6 grenades per soldier.
  • Least useful for Squadsight Snipers, unless you're planning to use them more in a frontline role.
• Damn Good Ground
  • A good ability for any soldier that uses elevation for better Aim and/or approaching the aliens, specially those soldiers with the Muscle Fiber Density Gene Mod, Skeleton Suit or Archangel Armor.
• Battle Scanner
  • One of the best abilities for the early game due to its ability to detect Seekers and/or generally help the squad avoid trouble by allowing to scout at map sections out of your soldiers' sight without activating aliens or to detect ambushes.
  • Becomes less useful after the Bioelectric Skin Gene Mods or Ghost Armor are deployed.
• Sprinter
  • Useful for any class, specially when used for scouting or reacting to unexpected threats, and for Assaults on Run & Gun attacks.
• Deep Pockets
  • Besides Medikits and Arc Throwers, it will also give 1 more grenade to any soldier carrying them.
  • If the soldier already has Field Medic or Grenadier, this ability makes them even more useful.
• Field Medic/ Revive/ Savior
  • It is most difficult to get the Field Medic, Revive and Savior combination on a single soldier, which is one of the most useful ones, so you should consider how to address a lack of a dedicated medic during the game.
  • Unless you're planning to deploy Medikits in most of your squad, it is better to wait to try to get Field Medic first in a soldier, before choosing either Revive or Savior. It will be most likely that some of your soldiers will be automatically assigned with those last two abilities upon reaching the rank of Major.
  • Usually the most available solution for a dedicated Medic is to have Field Medic combined with Deep Pockets, allowing for 4 Medikit uses. If you're lucky the soldier might also have Revive or Savior but it is very rare to have these four abilities on the same soldier.

Class Notes

• Snipers are the class with the least customization options since 6 abilities are locked, including both choices at Corporal and Colonel ranks. The Major ability is the last random ability you'll get and it will be automatically assigned.
• Heavies are the 2nd class with less options, with 5 locked abilities, including both choices at Colonel rank.
  • The Heavy's Danger Zone and Mayhem abilities can be less attractive since it isn't guaranteed now that the Heavy will get the Suppression perk that is usually combined with both. Danger Zone is still useful with Rockets but the choice will usually be Rocketeer over Mayhem.
• Assaults and Supports are the most flexible regarding random choice abilities, with only 4 locked perks.
• Assaults can get a lot of useful abilities to increase their mobility or damage power, but remember that they might need some defensive abilities if they are used in close assault situations.
• Supports usually get the short stick with Training Roulette, since they lose their specific Medic abilities and their weapons are usually limited in damage output when compared to the other classes.
  • To partially compensate for the previous, Supports now get access to several different abilities such as Battle Scanner, Flush or Holo-Targeting that can add several options to its usual 'jack of all trades' role.

General Tips

• The choice of abilities is a coin toss: you get can allow for some amazing synergies but also to be completely disparate abilities.
• Council awards of soldiers are even better since you can see what the choices will be up to the rank of the soldier and allow a more planned choice.
• The entire Ability tree is chosen when the unit is assigned a class. Savescumming at the end of a mission, and a Rookie gains a level, or a leveled soldier is given as a Abduction/Council reward (Zhang, Annette, or non-storyline), or if the OTS's New Guy ability is in effect and new soldiers are hired, will give new ability choices. Later savescum/leveling will not provide new choices.
  • You can, alternatively, hold off on choosing an ability and continuing to level to the next rank(s) as normal: when the new rank is reached, the new abilities will be inaccessible but visible, in the same manner as getting a leveled soldier as a reward.

The 3 most important abilities that can only be randomly received are:

• Field Medic
• Lightning Reflexes
• Battle Scanner

All of these 3 will allow the player very important options for the squad and they can be all received at Corporal rank, which can result in their early deployment during a campaign. And all 3 are useful in the later game, specially Lightning Reflexes and Field Medic.

In addition, there are several important combinations of abilities:

• Covering Fire + Opportunist + Sentinel/ Rapid Reaction
  • This will make any unit into an Overwatch powerhouse. Try putting such units just out of range of alien sight, so any that attempt to rush forward will blunder into this trap.
• Field Medic + Revive + Savior + Deep Pockets + Tactical Rigging
  • The Medic Support's combination. Though it is unlikely that you will get all 4 abilities on a soldier, any collection of the components may be worthwhile on any unit, particularly those who're less fond of the Support's lower damage capacity compared to other classes, and rather have the slot open for a heavier hitter.
• HEAT + Close Combat Specialist
  • If Seekers are currently hunting your soldiers (and no other alien types are currently engaging), and you have a soldier with this combo: place them in the middle of the pack. By default, the Seeker will not go for that soldier, but attempt to strangle the soldiers around it, triggering CCS. Heat will increase the damage. And if the unit in question happens to be a shotgun-Assault, that's a near-guaranteed kill.
• Bullet Swarm + Rapid Fire
  • An exclusive combo for Assaults, this allows up to three salvos of fire, raining pain down upon foes. Of course, this will eat up ammo like nobody's business.
• Holo-Targeting + Bullet Swarm/Double Tap
  • As mentioned above, the +10 aim effect works for both shots if taken at different targets. Excellent if you have some airborne enemies, like drones, to take care of.

Soldier Abilit Strings

• One nice way to know the abilities assigned to a soldier is to assign strings to their call signs, just like stat strings in the original game. This allows you to quickly select units when composing a squad.
• As example, imagine a Sniper with the following nickname: '1 D A RR'. 1 means it has Snap Shot (2 would be Squadsight), D means it has a defensive perk (Resilience), A it has a reaction fire perk (Opportunist), and RR that it has two movement abilities (Sprinter and Lightning Reflexes).
• One suggestion for a naming scheme would be:
  • D for each defensive ability (Resilience, Tactical Sense, Low Profile, Extra Conditioning, Will to Survive).
  • M for each medic ability (Field Medic, Revive, Savior, Deep Pockets)
  • R for each movement ability (Lightning Reflexes and Sprinter)
  • A for each reaction ability (Close Combat Specialist, Covering Fire, Sentinel, Rapid Reaction, Opportunist)
  • G for abilities involving grenades (Grenadier and Deep Pockets)
  • B for Battle Scanner
  • S for Suppression
  • F for Bullet Swarm
  • T for HEAT Ammo
  • Notice that the letters only apply to non-specific class abilities. For differentiating between a Heavy focused on Rocketeer or Mayhem use numbers instead.

See Also

Xcom Enemy Within Training Roulette Rules

Xcom Enemy Within Training Roulette Sites