XCOM: The Long War Part 2

Time for our first real mission. 

I've entered some names from comments and included two for myself.

Here's who's coming on this mission:

Coras Valin – one of Aproustian's alts

Lord Belros – this one is one of my alts

Hat Stand – for Hatstand4510

Bigg Nife – this one is named for my brother-in-law who mentioned it over dinner

LK Aproustian – Aproustian's main

Cereth Mahariel – what can I say, I needed names and Aproustian supplied them.

Aeril Valin – also Aproustian

Almaeron Sianna – my other character so far (I have some other names in mind but I'll get to them later if I need to)

Here's the squad!

Plus 2, only 6 fit on the screen at a time

I did a little customization (I happen to know Aeril and Coras are two of aproustian's Final Fantasy XIV characters, so I changed hair color, I gave Belros a beard because I have a beard, and Bigg Nife gets a cool pair of sunglasses and a hat)

Let's see if I can keep everybody alive here.

We start off in a devastated are of the woods, in the path where the UFO crashed. Lots of fire, not a lot of cover. Let's start by moving left of the screen (the map corner is that way, so we'll have fewer directions to defend from)

Belros and Aeril will take overwatch from behind a log near our start while the rest of the squad dashes up a hill.

We approach cautiously, and as we approach the crash site, Almaeron is the first to spot alien activity as a pod of drones emerges from the ship. However the three drones are quickly taken out from shots taken by about half the squad. Aeril and Belros now take the rear guard positions, going on overwatch in case of a flanking pod of aliens.

Almaeron takes a shot at a drone

Bigg Nife approaches the ship, and spots a new alien, a sort of translucent creature formed around some sort of crystal. Dr. Vahlen says the readings they received at base indicate this alien is made from energy. We will dub it an “Outsider”. This alien is tougher (and harder to hit) than the others, and only takes 3 damage from Hat Stand's shots. I hope our cover is good enough, or this could hurt...

An Outsider in its spaceship

For some reason the alien decides its biggest threat is Coras in the back of the squad, and misses its shot, but then regenerated all the health we had knocked off it last round.

Three lucky hits at under 50% from Hat Stand, Mahariel and Aproustian are enough to take the Outsider down. Moving into the ship, Almaeron sees a pod of 3 more of the Sectoid aliens we encountered on our initial mission.

One of the Sectoids uses some sort of mind ability that appears to boost it's comrade, who then hits Almaeron (4 damage, that's going to hurt) but the third sectoid misses it's shot and Almaeron survives the turn. Who did I give medpacks to again? Aeril and Coras team up and take down the boosted Sectoid. An impressive long range shot from Hat Stand takes down a second, but the squad is running low on ammunition and will need to start taking their turns to reload soon. I pull Almaeron out of the ship so the last Sectoid can't finish him off.

The Sectoids support each other

The Sectoid finds new cover and lays down a stream of suppression fire on Belros (his aim is reduced and if he moves the Sectoid gets a free shot at him while he is suppressed)

Hat Stand starts the turn off by using her medkit on Almaeron, bringing him back into the fight. Other members of the squad take up better firing positions, and Aeril finishes off the Sectoid. 

Good shooting Aeril!

We reposition expecting aliens now to come from the surrounding woods, and we are not disappointed! 3 more Sectoids hurry down the hill to the north, with one falling to a reaction shot from Mahariel who had taken up a forward guard position. We are quickly able to take out the remaining two Sectoids, and then Belros gets a ping on a meld canister. These canisters will self-destruct if we don't get to them fast enough, so we'd best head into the woods to look for it.

The squad splits in two, half heading north into the woods and the other half heading back east towards the landing zone. There are still hostiles in the area. The eastern squad is soon set upon by another drone coming out of the northeast, but Aeril is able to take it out, which ends the mission. Good job team!

I like the random operation names in this game. This was Operation Morbid Future.

Almaeron is out for 11 days, but it wasn't a grave wound at least. The rest of the team is fatigued, but everybody gets a promotion!

Promotions:

Hat Stand goes into the sniper specialization

LK Aproustian is a rocketeer, as is Aeril Valin

Bigg Nife is my first Engineer

Belros, Coras and Almaeron all get to be infantry

Cereth Mahariel is my first Assault

I also renamed most of the soldiers from the first mission and promoted them, and added a few more of Aproustian's alts:

Serevad Aeducan is a scout

Aster Tevelyan and Kelvas Amell are medics

Hetad Adarr is another sniper

and Enhara Lavellan becomes my first gunner

I also have 3 as yet unclaimed promotions, 2 scouts and one assault (all men).

I've added: Valdora Kacil (one of mine, after my hunter in Destiny), Malika Cadash, and Mira Abasa. I still have another 20-odd soldiers that can be claimed, and may need to hire some more (I can have at most 100, but will probably want around 50 total so the experience gains aren't too watered down while maintaining enough soldiers that I can field full squads without breaking into my fatigued people).

It's a good thing some of our promoted soldiers have returned to active duty from the first mission, as we now have a mission to stop alien abductions in Buenos Ares... Next time!