Defending civilians with weapons... like rookies. You have to survive 10 turns. But every turn there is one more pod with three advent soldiers, stunners, captains... In turn 7-10 my 4 soldiers and the 4 rookies were overrun. I don't know what happens after turn 10. Maybe the rookies join your guerilla. It's no fun now.

The game type takes in place of a retaliation mission (I think you can still get regular retaliation missions normally, though not sure what the odds are) You are holding out on a map for 10 turns. There are pre arranged pods already positioned on the map and Advent reinforcements coming every turn starting from turn 9 as I recall. Once the countdown reaches 0, you have to neutralize all enemies still on the map. You get 4 'free' rookies in addition to your standard squad. As far as I can tell, the rookies are NOT from your roster and are randomly generated, so whether the get promoted or survive doesn't really matter as they disappear at the end of the mission. For me personally, I encountered 2 berserkers, along with about 6 advent troopers and 4 stun lancers total (not at the same time) as pre positioned pods for my very first retaliation mission. Thus it is very hard, and you need all your standard squad to be at least squaddies, preferably at least 2 to be corporal rank. Of course as time progresses on the campaign map, the pods will get stronger and so will the reinforcements.

Originally posted by flinker:

I don't know what happens after turn 10. Maybe the rookies join your guerilla.

In my game, I think not a single haven-rookie joined Xcom.

To be honest, I think that's fair... I mean, they probably shouldn't join Xcom, because they have to stay at the Safe Haven protecting it from future attacks.

"Farewell, brave combatants"

No, it doesn't give any rookie rewards, though the author specified in the description for this mod that it's on his to-do list.

by the time i did my first one of these i had teir 2 weapons and amour, i was killing em all before they finished running from there drop point, nothing better then seeing 9 overwatches killing 3 guys ^-^

I wanted to try this & hoped it would be tough but fair, but... no. I got a Haven Defence for my first retaliation - Difficulty: Easy it says - and it was absurdly over the top. It's a great idea and I wanted to like it, it has good production values for a mod, but it's not balanced to match the rest of the game, even proportionally, & w/ improved AI mods that unrestrict enemy engagement it's a complete clusterf__k.

To begin with, Haven Siege is not structured like EW's Base Defense, which JUST spawns generally manageable waves of enemies; it started out w/ more enemies on the map than you'd see in a mission up to that point, which were all active within 3 turns, THEN started spawning full strength reinforcement pods (Captain + 2 Troopers). In fact, I'd already KILLED as many enemies as I'd seen in one mission so far (9) when I found myself facing 12 active enemies, more than I could fit on one screenshot, & enemy reinforcements dropped in directly behind my barely defensible position. Lowest threat level, but w/ sectoids panicking ppl & persistent zombies, captains marking for 6 troopers to take potshots, overwatch, & move into flanking positions, then reinforcements drop in already flanking me. I was killing 2-3 enemies per turn even w/ a string of bad luck, but I was completely surrounded anyway and finally lost 3 people in one turn (one already injured in half cover, one flanked, one crit in full cover), including two of my own - and this was before the new pod behind me got their turn. For the first 3 turns, each turn added roughly 6 enemies, and let me reiterate: this was the 3rd mission of my campaign, lowest threat level, squad of 4 (I only have 5 trained soldiers) plus the guys they give you which reinforce at like a 10:1 ratio to enemies and are rookies.

I could understand if it started out w/ a 1 or 2 pod advance party then reinforced every couple turns from there - if it fit w/ the balance of the game - but it just throws enemies at you to a sadistic (or masochistic) degree, and it's like 'see if anyone can survive.' It's a random mission type that's harder than the final story mission. So much nope.

If you don't use many gameplay-altering mods(I only used other types of classes and enemies, got none up till that point of either, had it as first retaliation too) it is manageable without losing anyone(although I sacrificed a Rookie...or tried to, at least XD). The problem seems more to be that this mod gets exponentially harder by mods that make the enemies better.

i played this mission with a bunch of mods most notable being increased starting squad size, double enemy count, advent ascention (starting advent troops on the map are rediculously hard) and unconventional warfare(new classes mod, not applicable to my scenario as most of the troops were rookies). this mod is really incredibly fun as the 10 people squad is needed to fend of the 6 strong army that drops every turn, and the incredibly resiliant pods of advent special ops. i didnt get any loot from the mission tho which is dissapointing, but still would highly reccomend this conbination on a mod extravaganze. (the other missions are highly difficult as the reinforcements start active letting 6 advent shoot at you as they continuously advance towards you)