XCOM: The Long War Part 4: Mistakes were made

In which I attempt to do two missions in a row, and am not as patient as I should be...

I have a few new names to add today:

My so far unnamed Assault becomes Cold Run, and one of the unnamed Scouts becomes Chill Walk, both for my friend Cold Run who requested he be someone who is likely to run up front and get killed. I can't think of anything better than an assault for that request. My second unnamed Scout becomes Gnife Gnife, named for Bigg Nife's Numenera character from that one time he joined us for Numenera.

On to the mission!

Joining us for this mission will be Cold Run, Gnife Gnife, Hat Stand, Almaeron Sianna, Aeril Valin, Aster Tevelyan, Bigg Nife and Warlock Misty. I've given most people ceramic plating to boost their survivability, but also included HE Grenades on my engineer, battlescanners on Scout and Engineer (this let's me toss a device that reveals the fog of war in an area for a short time) and Aeril gets a shredder rocket, which will add a vulnerability debuff for subsequent shots on any alien it hits.

I'm expecting this to be a tougher mission, it's been the first serious challenge in all my test campaigns when I get to the first council mission.

Ok, we start inside a building with the scientist we are escorting, and have to get out to an evac zone to escape. The scientist has been studying the alien flight paths, attempting to determine where they came from. It sounds like they figured out he was up to something though, and they're coming for him, so we need to get him back to XCOM HQ.

I like the telescope

I moved cautiously on the first turn, but then on the second turn sprung 2 pods of sectoids. There is also a new alien that dropped down onto the roof across the street from our starting building, a thin looking man in a suit. Dr. Vahlen thinks it may be an infiltration disguise.

The new aliens in town

Hat Stand takes out the first Thin Man with a long ranged sniper shot, and the alien explodes into a cloud of something that looks terribly corrosive! It's a cloud of acid, according to the debuff that hurts the sectoids that subsequently run through it. Unfortunately, another Thin Man then spits the same cloud at Misty, who has to hunker down in a fit of coughing, and a third Thin Man sends Aeril the same cloud. Bigg Nife retaliates by taking out the entire front wall of a warehouse the aliens are hiding in with a grenade.

Indiscriminate acid

Acid is nasty

Yeesh, one Thin Man jumps two stories to the roof of a building in one go. Unfortunately for it, Hat Stand had also climbed to the top of the observatory we'd started in, and she snipes him. Cold Run finishes running up the flanks and shotguns one of the sectoids at point blank range, killing it outright.

She's a good shot, I'm not sure she missed once this mission

After another few turns of the firefight, Gnife Gnife has taken to shots, but is still on his feet, and all but one alien is dead, so it's time to move the scientist. He dashes forward and hides behind a convenient truck, and my soldiers move to take up defensive positions and finish the last sectoid.

We move quickly but carefully to the extraction point, a single Thin Man dropping from the sky onto a building behind us, but it's too late to stop the scientist getting away. Our mission changes to eliminating remaining enemies, let's flush this guy out! Aster moves and gets eyes on the alien, but his shots go right over it's head. However the squadsight is all Hat Stand needs to take a shot at 54% and finish the mission.

Escort success!

Well done everyone!

Operation Red Mother is a success! Promotions for everyone! Although Gnife Gnife is out for 2 weeks with his injury.

Almaeron gets to choose between Executioner (which gives him a ton of bonuses against enemies below 50% health) Covering Fire (which lets his overwatch shots trigger on enemy actions other than just movement) and Steadfast, which will prevent him from panicking from enemy actions or allies being wounded or killed (and also boosts his Will, which might be nice, he foiled two sectoids attempting to mind fray him this mission already...)

So it looks like I can try to build resilient infantry, overwatch infantry, or pure DPS infantry based on the tech tree. I think I might try a few different approaches. And to start with, Almaeron is going to go overwatch, that seems like his jam in my head. Covering fire it is! I have several other infantry in the works, so I'll go more DPS or resilience with them.

Aeril's options as a rocketeer include HEAT Warheads, which make her reockets especially effective against mechanical units, Ranger, which gives her +1 damage on her guns and rockets, and Will to Survive, which give her damage reduction in cover as well as boosting her willpower. Consulting with Aproustian we decide Aeril will be anti-mech and gets HEAT warheads.

Aster gets to choose between suppression (allowing him to suppress enemy units), Steadfast (as above with Almaeron) and Field Surgeon, which reduces the amount of time my wounded-but-not-critically wounded souldiers are out recovering after a mission. Considering Gnife Gnife is out for 16 days the latter could have been really useful this time around... so let's go with that for now. I suspect other medics will go for Steadfast to keep them from panicking when we need them healing.

Hatstand gets to choose between Low Profile, which turns half cover into full cover, Deadeye, which gives bonuses against flying units, and Lone Wolf, which gives her bonuses if she's out on her own, over 7 tiles from a friend. Consulting with Hat Stand herself we go with Deadeye.

I give Gnife Gnife holo-targeting so he will grant bonuses to allies if he shoots first, rather than Damn Good Ground (bonuses if he has height advantage on his target). Big Nife gets to choose between a free smoke grenade, Holo-targeting, and Sapper, which lets his grenades do extra damage, and all his weapons do extra damage to the environment (so he'd be more likely to destroy enemies's cover... and also our own if I'm not careful...) I'll go with Sapper.

Cold Run can choose Steadfast (again, as above) or Flush (which lets him force an enemy out of one cover and potentially into another) or... Close Combat Specialist, which gives him a reaction shot against any enemy that closes within 4 squares, even if he's not on overwatch. Definitely going with that, yeah, it's almost no contest.

Finally, Misty gets Flush (we've already seen gunner level ups with Lavellan last time).

With the cash from this mission I can begin construction of the Thermo Generator I wanted on that Steam vent. Hardly any time passes before a medium sized UFO shows up on the radar though. Let's send an interceptor, but I'm not expecting we can shoot down something this large yet.

We were able to shoot it down! But I had to send all three interceptors, and two of them will be out for about a month... that's not sustainable. Still, new mission, inbound! The UFO has crashed and surveillance shows the crew is still moving at the crash site.

Let's bring Lord Belros as Infantry, Valdora Kacil will be my scout, Stand Von Hats will carry our rockets, Kelvas Amell is our medic, Titan Ephrael is our Engineer, Hetad Adaar will be our sniper, Enhara Lavellan our gunner, and Cereth Mahariel is our assault.

Sniper rifles get in the way of other people

Let's see how this goes!

I start out cautiously, but not cautiously enough, and Ephrael spots 4 sectoids to the right of our position after most of the squad has already moved. This could be a bad start... fortunately only one sectoid decides to do anything to us and just suppresses Ephrael. Von Hats discovers that the rest of the aliens wet on overwatch when she moves closer, but the reaction shot at her misses. Valdora then moves up and draws the remaining overwatches, relying on her lightning reflexes to keep her safe so that Belros and Lavellan can get flank shots and take two of the sectoids down. Unfortunately one wrong move from Amell at the end of the turn (I shouldn't have moved him that one square closer) spots both the alien ship and another whole pod of sectoids and drones. As I shifted my focus to deal with the first pod, this new pod is once again on our flanks. Belros takes a hit from the drone flanking him, losing 3 HP but he holds steady. The remaining aliens miss their shots or move out of our line of sight. Amell makes up for his misstep by shooting the drone down. The sectoids on the other flank also go down, so once again the quad shifts to take cover in the direction of the crash site.

Then a pod of sectoids patrols into me from the direction of the first pod, and once again I have 4 sectoids on my flank. Wonderful. At least they're only sectoids! Luckily they were idiots and didn't take cover. Unluckily, Valdora's shot only wounds the sectoid she flanks, and Mahariel manages to miss her shot. Adaar gets a shot in this turn thanks to squadsight though, and takes out one of the new sectoids. The rest of the squad attempts to get better positions and goes on overwatch.

Von Hats accidentally activates the two outsiders inside the spaceship as well, and then gets hit by an overwatch from them as she repositions the next turn, taking 6 HP damage in one shot (she survives on a single HP...) the only breakthrough is when I remember Mahariel has a grenade, and she finishes one of the sectoids along with its cover. I can only hope that Von Hats survives the turn, so I can get Amell to her with a medkit ASAP next turn... and no. A sectoid pops out the other side of the UFO and kills her outright. Hmm, do I reload? Let's see if I can pull off a victory first, if I lose someone else I'll reload the mission from the beginning, but if I have just one casualty, well I can always bring in Stand Von Hats Jr. Although it's not a good position, as Ephrael is panicking from Von Hat's death and Amell is suppressed.

Two turns later, and Mahariel is bleeding out and Ephrael is dead. Let's try this one over again shall we? I need to not activate all the enemies at once (and I need my sniper to hit more than 1 in 6 61% shots!) It restarts me in a different position on the map, and the enemies will also have been set out differently. My only advantage this time is that I have some idea what I'm up against.

I move forward having my scout and assault dash forward to decent cover, and move the rest of the squad behind the box they create, trying not to activate any aliens at the end of my turn like I did last time. This time I actually get a sound ping as aliens move around outside my view, so I know which direction they are in. Come on, don't mess it up this time... I move Valdora towards the sound and toss my battle scanner (“Big Brother is online.”) But I don't see anyone over the ridge with the battlescanner. Maybe I can get a few overwatches in position in case they move through the area? I also see the debris leading to the UFO, but I want to stay as far from that as I can until I'm ready to face its occupants.

I finally find the patrolling pod of sectoids, but they're a little too far away for most of the squad to shoot this turn. I'll try to lure them back towards my position and get some overwatch shots, but the sniper at least makes a hit on one of them. His target is finished off by the medic on reaction fire.

Unlike last try, our soldiers are hitting their targets this time, although it's taken several combined shots to take any of these sectoids down. I wonder if the aliens have already managed to upgrade their armor...

Good work people, 4 sectoids down, and we can regroup a bit. Let's try not to get split up this time.

I approach the crash site very slowly, and manage to activate the drone/sectoid pod on its own, and with only my first move. I'll be able to get some shots off on them this time...

The sectoids attempt to play it cautiously themselves, retreating into the ship, but when any one of them pops their head through the door I'm able to take it out with sniper rifles or overwatch, and soon I've wiped their whole pod. Let's move into the ship ourselves now, there should be better cover in there at least... but I need to be careful to keep an eye on the rearguard in case there's another pod patrolling around...

This is where I started remembering to take screenshots again...

We find the Outsiders in the center of the UFO, where we also find their flight computer. Dr. Vahlen wants us to bring the computer back in one piece, so no explosives I guess. In a lucky break for me, both outsiders opt to simply suppress my people. I live in fear of their ability to hit my people for massive damage, so mere suppressing fire I can live with. 

Inside an alien spaceship! Ooooooohhhh!

We are able to take one out under combined fire from most of the squad, and the second one decides just to suppress poor Belros again. Fine and dandy, Mahariel will just run up and shotgun it in the face. Not quite enough to kill it though. Adaar finishes it off with the sniper rifle. Alright, that's one more pod down. Much easier when I take them on one group at a time! But we're not done yet... Ah, and the sniper gets a sound ping from outside the ship, the direction we came from. They're going to sneak up behind us if they can. Time to shift formation again!

What are these guys running away from me? I keep moving (slowly, in cover) towards the sound pings but I haven't seen them yet and it's been 3 turns! … so I get overzealous and activate them towards the end of my turn. But at least it's just 4 sectoids. Let's hope they're not like super sectoids and actually hit me...

Ephrael gets mindfrayed, and her aim is thrown so she hunkers down. One sectoid tries to flank us and goes on overwatch, but apparently didn't see Amell hiding behind a tree. He hits but fails to kill that sectoid.

Valdora is able to move up and flank one sectoid, killing it. Combined fire from Lavellan and Belros finish a second. Adaar snipes the sectoid Amell wounded. The final sectoid dies when Mahariel flanks it with her shotgun. 9 damage critical hit vs. a 4 HP Sectoid, overkill anyone? Satisfying though, she avenged her own death in an alternate timeline.

Close range shotgun just destroys sectoids.

All in a day's work... sometimes?

I should have paid attention to the mission name. Operation Patient Moon! If only I'd been more patient the first time I might not have had to do it over again... lessons learned for next time.

I unlock the officer training school facility, so I think this means someone could be promoted to officer ranks. And once more, promotions for everyone!

Let's start with the ones I've already done. Ephrael is going for holo-targeting, to be more of a support type engineer. Von Hats takes Ranger, to get +1 damage on all her weapons. Adaar will be a low-profile sniper, he had a lot of trouble hitting the first time around so I want plenty of good options to hide him in for better shots. I'm going to try Valdora with Lone Wolf, if I use her to scout ahead of the main squad, she gets bonuses to both attack and defense when over 7 squares away. So if she activates a pod and the squad is too far away to back her up, she'll have a better time of is. I'm not convinced on this yet but we'll see how it goes. Belros gets Steadfast. I think he might promote to officer ranks first, and I don't want him panicking. Mahariel gets Close Combat Specialist. I just can't imagine picking something else for my assaults.

Now for the Lance Corporals promoting to Corporals... Amell the medic gets a choice between Rapid Reaction (extra Aim, and can take up to 3 reaction shots when on overwatch), Smoke and Mirrors (extra support grenade charges, basically extra smoke grenades if he wants them) and Revive (if someone is bleeding out and he stabilizes them, they get back up at 33% HP instead of being out of the rest of the fight). I don't know about smoke and mirrors. It looks like the free smoke grenade upgrade is next tier, but it compete for Paramedic, and ability which lets you use a medkit as a free action... so I'm not sure how much I'll actually put smoke grenades on my medics. I confer with aproustian and we go with Revive. He also gets a nickname: Kelvas “Spud” Amell.

Lastly is Lavellan. Gunners get to choose between HEAT Ammo (which lets their guns do 50% extra damage to mechanical units) Opportunist, which eliminates the aim penalty on overwatch shots, and Shredder ammo, which applies a debuff on any enemy she hits which allows subsequent shots to deal more damage. She also gets a nickname: Enhara “Crash” Lavellan.

Alright, let's see if I can get a day to pass so we can finally launch our first (well, second, we start with one) satellite! And we can! Russia has specifically requested it, and right now I need more engineers (the promised reward) so Russia will get the satellite. I'd also better send some interceptors to protect the satellite there. I'll need to build more soon (when I have money again...) I send my two least damaged aircraft to Europe to cover the new satellite, but I'll keep my only undamaged one in Africa where our base is.

And less than a day after the aircraft arrive in Europe, we get a new mission. Alien abductions are occurring in Mexico!

Next time: Stopping those abductions!