Real-time combat allows you to react instantly to new situations as they develop. The spacebar will let you pause the action to issue new X-COM directives, and then let the bullets fly again once you're done. Choosing the Weapons
Since you are allowed to fire two weapons at the same time in real-time combat, equip each agent with two weapons. You'll suffer an accuracy penalty when firing the two-handed weapons with one hand, but the single-handed weapons yield no such penalty. I find that six to eight agents are about the most I can control at the same time, but your control ability may vary.
Combat Tactics
Real-time combat is straightforward. You place your agents a few squares behind a door you know the aliens have to use, and wait for them to appear. When an alien pops into view, it gets toasted. This works because the aliens are programmed to seek out your agents. You can do some fancy moves - for example, float your agents in the air to escape from poppers - but the principle does not change.
