I was wondering exactly how the rules work out regarding fighting multiple enemies.

For example, let's say I am fighting 2 UFOs in North America with 3 Interceptors. I roll 2 successes on my three dice. Does it mean I destroy 1 or 2 UFOs? Or do my resources only engage 1 enemy at a time?

Same thing for Base Defense. Since there is no set order of battle against the enemies, am I effectively engaging all of them at once? If I roll 3 successes, and can I allocate them 2 : 1 between some of the enemies I am facing? Or I have to chose which enemy I will be fighting every time I roll?

Against UFOs, you engage as a group. Against ground troops, you engage them one at a time.

So Central and Commander can shoot down multiple UFOs with one roll (but can't use spare successes from, say, North America to shoot down UFOs in South America).

During Base Defense, the Squad Leader sends some (or all) of the pool of soldiers assigned there during the Timed Phase against a single enemy of his choice, and any spare successes he rolls are wasted. Excess successes against Mission Tasks also don't roll over to the next one.

On the bright side, you only face one enemy's special abilities on each roll rather than facing several at once.

And if you had two enemies with different icons, how would you sort out which dice were being rolled against which enemy from which soldier?

Fair enough. That makes sense.

Basically: if the combat is "generic", you spread successes.

If combat require special abilities: you don't.

Thanks!!

Last question: What happens if there's no more UFO slots available for new UFO incoming?

Last question: What happens if there's no more UFO slots available for new UFO incoming?

UFOs don't take slots - they just pile up on the continent/in orbit. XCOM's limited in how many Interceptors/Satellites can be sent to any particular fight, but the aliens can send everything they have (well, in practice, you'll end up losing to panic first unless you're very lucky, but if you didn't lose first, then you could, in principle, end up with every UFO that came with the game on the same continent...)

So basically on a mission card, you need at least three dice rolls, since they all seem to have aliens or skill checks of that number on them?

Yeah, I can see why the SHIV and Holotargeting are good to have early, you can actually keep that alien dice roll at something sane to burn through a mission in the same turn you draw it.

So basically on a mission card, you need at least three dice rolls, since they all seem to have aliens or skill checks of that number on them?

Yeah, I can see why the SHIV and Holotargeting are good to have early, you can actually keep that alien dice roll at something sane to burn through a mission in the same turn you draw it.

Yeah, all the Missions (and Final Missions) have three Tasks - either fixed skill sets or slots for enemy cards - so, unless you use something that lets you get a success without rolling, you'll need to roll at least 3 times to complete a Mission. If any of the enemies is a Thin Man with the Infiltrate ability, then you'll need at least one additional roll to deal with their replacement (barring Arc Thrower use).

There is one situation where you can ignore one or more Mission Tasks entirely - and that's when you've emptied the Enemy deck by taking lots of Salvage and not spending it. It does mean missing out on the benefits of Salvage while you're collecting it, and pretty much requires Archangel Armor to make it viable, but if you can pull it off, you can then ignore Base Defense and Missions become significantly easier. I'm not convinced it's worth doing - even if you don't get any Techs that use it, just feeding Salvage into the Laboratory offers a significant boost, and, unless things break in your favour, it'll be Round 4 or 5 before you get any benefits...