XCOM: The Long War Part 7: Triple Threat

In which I learn some hard lessons in the Council mission, and play two more missions to make up for it.

(I've been sick the last few days so no D&D post this week, but here is an extra long XCOM post to make up for it!)

Council Mission time!

I think I'm taking higher ranked people this time, Lieutenant Corporals or Corporals, to make sure I have the skills I need to pull this off.

Medic: Aster Tevelyan

Infantry: Lord Belros

Rocketeer: Stand von Hats

Assault: Cold Run

Sniper: Hetad Adaar

Scout: Valdora Kacil

Engineer: Bigg Nife

Gunner: Warlock Misty

We start the mission in some bombed out ruins, possibly an office building, server farm or laundromat. Hard to tell what it's supposed to have been... My objectives are to locate any survivors of the convoy.

Not the worst starting position, there is some cover nearby at least.

I move the squad into cover, dashing Cold Run and Misty into forward positions for next turn, moving the rest more cautiously. Belros gets eyes on what looks like a Thin Man silhouette through the smoke, but he has better vision than the alien, as the alien pod doesn't activate. 

He must have infra-red vision or something. Actually can I do that in this game?

I decide to hold off on the 55% shot and hope to get better shots next turn, possibly something on reaction fire.

The aliens move closer to us, triggering a reaction shot from Belros, and at that they fall back again into cover (he missed). On our turn, Belros and Nife manage to take out the forward most thin man, just two to go.

Cold Run moves up and goes on overwatch from behind a nearby tank.

Literal tanks. Must be from that convoy? Too bad I can't drive them around, but at least they're solid cover.

On the enemy turn, Aster wings a Thin Man moving positions with his overwatch shot, and on our turn Misty flanks it and obliterates it. 

Kill it!

Valdora moves ahead by one square to get a better angle on the final Thin Man... and activates a second pod, hiding inside a building across the street. Aster manages to wound the remaining Thin Man, but the rest of the squad misses their shots. Four active then. Except now there are six I think, as two more seem to patrol into view. One of them hits Valdora despite her cover, but she resists panicking. Misty, despite being suppressed by a Thin Man, is forward enough to see bodies from the convoy. Central pipes up to say these people were not killed by alien weapons but by conventional bullets, so what happened to the convoy was not an alien attack...

Are all our soldiers wearing Go-Pro cameras so Central can see what they do?

Von Hats ends the suppression fire on Misty with a rocket. Everyone else misses their shots, and the Misty goes down to fire from two of the Thin Men (critically wounded, but not dead yet). This is frustrating. Cold Run ends up in an acid cloud, of course. We finally manage to kill a single enemy on our turn after missing another flurry of 55% to 65% shots. A Thin Man moves up and critically wounds Aster, our medic, and I decide to try this one again. Cautious approach or not, I need better firing angles, and probably high ground if I'm going to out shoot these guys, so my basic approach is all wrong this mission.

One of the difficult things with Thin Men is they can just leap from a standstill from the floor to the roof. The one that was most dangerous to me last attempt was sitting on the roof (and I kept missing 55% hit chances...) I see a drain pipe on the back of this first building that my people can climb... 

That's how we get up there.

Climb, climb, climb the convenient pipe

It will take them more movement than it would a Thin Man, but maybe if I get Von Hats, Hetad and Misty, and possibly Belros up on the roof, the height advantage will help me out... it will be a slower start up, but there's no time limit on this mission. I'll send the rest of the squad through the building underneath, so we're not split into two sections of the map. I think it will be better cover that way than going on the right side via the road with the tanks.

Roof Team

Despite my attempts not to activate them early, Cold Run manages line of sight on the first pod before I'm fully in position. I move him out of sight, and replace him with Nife to keep an eye on the enemy. Nife hunkers down, and Aster goes on overwatch behind him in case they approach.

What... what are you doing?

Nice shot Aster! He managed a hit on a Thin Man with his reaction fire, leaving the alien on 1 HP.

Misty moves to the edge of the roof and fires down on a Thin Man who was suppressing Nife. I much prefer this 89% shot, which eradicates the alien.

Much better hit chances from up here.

Belros takes a shot and murders a second Thin Man. It's not a shot I think he even should have had, but sometimes the computer calculates Line of Sight in odd ways. I knew it was possible because the alien shot at him last turn.

Through the skylight and also through the wall down there? How is this even a shot?

Nife moves forward and knocks 4 of the remaining Thin Man's 5 HP off with a well placed grenade. 

Fire!

We fail to finish it off however, and then the patrol of two Thin Men wander into sight and take cover. And then the other three Thin Men walk up too, even though I'd been trying not to activate them early. Oh well, let's see how this goes... And of course the Thin Man Nife almost killed hits Nife in return and panics him. At least he hunkers down instead of running away. Von Hats kills the alien in revenge.

The roof is helping a lot, Belros moves forward and takes out a Thin Man in one shot. Misty hits another for 3 of 6 damage. This one may be the pod leader. Cold Run activates Run and Gun, dashes to full cover behind a nearby tank, and finishes off the pod leader. I hope the remaining two Thin Men don't make me regret that.

I finally got a screen shot of this!

Damn! The second pod leader, from the first pod, spits acid on Hetad, so my sniper is out until the acid dissipates. Annndd Nife gets killed, despite full cover and hunkering. Shit.

Well, I liked my strategy better this time. But I'll be even more cautious next time, and I'll send more people to the roof I think. Unfortunately two or three of the people on the ground still had terrible shots this whole fight, and didn't do much to help.

Take 3!

I feel like I can handle one pod, maybe two at a time. All three is a bit much, especially when two show up in the same turn I haven't the firepower to take enough out to keep my people alive.

Ok, so Belros runs to the roof and immediately activates that one pod of two Thin Men, who were apparently up there this time (random spawn points are a thing in Long War). I'm not even going to try.

Take 4!

Nife joins the roof squad, leaving only Cold Run (shot gun) Valdora (scout) and Aster (medic) on the ground floor. It's always nice to get an actual sound ping (Belros hears something from the building across the street) instead of stumbling blindly into the enemy.

Misty moves up to the edge of the roof and activates two pods, one of 3 and one of 2. This time she misses her 78% shot. Belros scores a critical hit on one pod leader, dealing 6 damage, the alien's 1 armor the only thing saving it. Nife follows up with a well placed grenade from the roof, shattering cover, killing one Thin Man and wounding another. Von Hats's rocket scatters too much and does nothing.

The aliens miss several shots, suppress Misty and put acid on Misty and Von Hats (as I suspected they would, but I wanted to try that rocket). But nobody is dead yet! On my team I mean. On my turn, Hetad snipes the alien who had jumped onto the roof, Valdora and Aster miss their shots, and Belros again wounds but does not kill one of them. Cold Run uses Run and Gun to dash and then take out the Thin Man attempting to flank him by the tanks. Only two remain, each on a single HP, but of course one of them puts Acid on Hetad and the other hits Valdora through full cover. (I'm getting frustrated with their accuracy and our lack of the same. Can you tell?) Aster finishes that one off, but with half the team hunkering down until acid wears off, and Belros needing to reload, I can't finish the final Thin Man. It runs away from us. I don't want to accidentally activate another pod without my full strength available, so Valdora tosses a battle scanner into the next building. I can't see behind the middle wall in there but the first room is empty at least.

Belros volunteers to go first, and makes a long dash onto the second building's roof. 

Rooftop to rooftop

No enemies in sight. Aster heals Valdora up, and Nife takes Belros's place on the first roof. I take a risk and dash Cold Run to the first floor of the building... and of course activate another pod. 

Were they getting drinks at the bar or something? It's on fire you guys!

Three new Thin Men are now taking cover. The fourth, the wounded one, runs further away. Two of the enemy Thin Men then run forward and go on overwatch, with the third attempting to flank us. Unfortunately for them, most of the squad is still on the roof of the first building. One of the new Thin Men finds itself in Cold Run's sights, and at a 48% chance to hit Cold Run blasts him to shreds.

Oh my mistake, the wounded pod leader jumped onto the roof. Where Belros was waiting, and promptly shoots it down.

The enemy suppresses and then wounds Cold Run, which I was a bit afraid of. Assaults have to be vulnerable to be effective, unfortunately. Cold Run resists panicking though. Aster saves Cold Run from suppression, hitting the suppressing alien for almost but not quite enough to kill it.

I see no good moves here, so Cold Run moves out of sight and the rest of the squad goes on overwatch.

Valdora and Aster get stuck in yet another acid cloud, so two more for hunkering!

Belros moves in and gets a flank shot which somehow does not kill the Thin Man. In doing so he sees a survivor of the convoy hiding out in the back of the building. We need to move to this survivor to attempt a rescue.

Yes yes I'll get to it. In my own time.

Because the flank critical hit did not kill the alien, Nife failed to hit his 54% shot, and I hit the wrong button before moving Cold Run, Belros takes a flank shot himself. And then the second alien puts him out of the fight with critical injury. You know what? I hit the hot key "R" which makes a soldier reload their weapon when I meant to hit the "E" hot key which rotates the camera. So instead of moving Cold Run, I had him reload his gun, leaving Belros vulnerable. That was an actual keystroke error that cost me a soldier. I think I'm reloading from an auto save. I'm not losing a soldier because I hit the wrong button.

Ok, it takes me a little further back than I'd intended, but this time Cold Run is going to Run and Gun and hopefully kill one of these guys with a flank shot. 

Go ahead, knock my socks off. Oh you did!

10 damage, yes please! And this time Belros's flank shot is enough to finish the Thin Man off. 

Doing it properly this time.

Hurray, no enemies on the board! Let's... not approach this survivor just yet, I have two people in acid, and I know from test games once I reach him Thin Men start raining from the skies. I spend the next turn hunkering down to wait out the acid and going on overwatch. Central yells at me to go rescue the survivor. I spend two more turns reloading and hunkering down to wait out the acid before I decide to go over there, despite Central's prodding. Finally, I'm mostly satisfied and move forward. Belros approaches the survivor.

He doesn't want to tell us anything, but we're bringing him in anyway. Belros immediately moves away from the man and onto the roof. The survivor runs into the building under Belros's feet and hunkers down in cover. I can't let him get killed after all this.

Ungrateful little sod. You literally have no idea what I went through to get here.

Two Thin Men drop onto the first building's roof, and one is immediately killed in a hail of bullets from Misty and Von Hats. The other Thin Man gets a reaction shot on Von Hats, wounding her, as I unthinkingly move her to better cover (they get instant overwatch when the drop in), but she and Hetad kill the remaining Thin Man. On the next turn, two more Thin Men drop in, and one gets literally shot off the roof by reaction fire from Misty and Valdora. (His body lifted up into the air and fell to the ground from the force of the shots). The survivor is not very grateful, calling us a bunch of puppets in between coughing fits.

This time two Thin Men drop behind our positions, and a Sectoid drops behind the first building. Nife takes a shot from the Sectoid as he moves to get a shot on it, which somehow hits him. Most of my team is going to be in the infirmary after this. Nife retaliates with a grenade, destorying the Sectoid's cover and allowing Aster to finish it off. 

Eat high explosives!

On the other side of the map, one Thin Man dodges Valdora's reaction shot and spits acid on Belros, but the second Thin Man is not so lucky and dies to Von Hat's reaction fire. Valdora needs to reload and Belros has to hunker in the acid, leaving both vulnerable to the Thin Man on the roof with them. Lucky them, Misty sees it attempt a flank, and her reaction fire takes it out. Possibly MVP of the mission?

The survivor evacuates after one more Thin Man drops in, so we've 2 more to deal with. And our final objectives are to kill all remaining aliens. 

Yeah yeah get out of here.

Hetad makes that easier by sniping one of them. The final Thin Man jumps onto the roof, takes a reaction shot from Valdora, and spits acid on Belros. Again. Hetad takes the last one out.

Do you feel lucky?

Promotions again! And because I had Aster running around with the medkits, only Nife is actually out with any kind of wound, and only for 15 days, Not too bad considering the first couple attempts. I need to up my game to do this one I guess.

WE MADE IT! HUZZAH!

People are getting to the point where they get nicknames.

Lord “Hazard” Belros, Valdora “Black Widow” Kacil, Hetad “Fuzzy” Adaar, Aster “Maps” Tevelyan (we changed this from Atlas). Bigg “Romeo” Nife. Cold “Pigeon” Run (changed as well from the default). Warlock “Pebbles” Misty.

As for new skills, Hetad is going to take Snap Shot, which lets him take a sniper rifle shot (at a penalty) after moving, or allow him to go on overwatch also after moving. I usually rely on my snipers to be able to take up a good position and use the steady weapon action to increase the aim on their next shot, but sometimes a mobile sniper is a good idea, especially when the map hasn't much good cover. I just need to remember which are my stationary snipers and which the less accurate but more mobile snipers...

Belros I think will get Will to Survive, for a boost to his Willpower, and also it gives him damage reduction when he's in cover and not flanked. The other options were Opportunist which removes the aim penalty to reaction shots, or Aggression, which increases the critical chance of a shot when more enemies are in line of sight. Last level Belros took steadfast, another defensive perk, rather than Covering Fire, increasing his chances of making a reaction shot, so I'm going with things that seem to pair well for now. Basically, Belros will be a defensive infantry, while someone else might be more reaction shot focused, or pure damage (taking Executioner and Aggression). I don't know all the best combinations of abilities, having not played much past this mission before, but I'm trying to go with some sort of overall strategy for my people's abilities.

Valdora took Lone Wolf last time, so she gets bonuses to her aim when she's farther from the rest of the squad. If she's going to be operating more on her own I think the best option for her this rank is Low Profile, which allows her to treat half cover as full cover for the defense bonuses. That increases the odds of survival on her own. Ranger gives extra damage, and Deadeye helps her shoot flying targets, so the other two options are more DPS focused. I think what I want her to be doing though is moving ahead, “Scouting” if you will, of the rest of the squad, and if she gets caught out by a pod of aliens on her own I want her to have the best chance of avoiding injury. Low Profile it is then! I talked myself into it.

Hmm, they're making the choice for Cold Run's next upgrade pretty difficult. Shotgun work on high critical chance, so I'm leaning towards Aggression giving even better critical chances, but Ranger for guaranteed plus one damage is not a bad choice either. Will to Survive is his third choice but Assaults tend to be sort of glass cannons, if I move them wrong they're dead anyway, so I may as well go all in on the DPS from them. Ok, Aggression it is.

Misty has another tough decision. HEAT Ammo makes her do extra damage to mechanized enemies, which is always good towards the end game (based on the single Let's Play I watched of this game), but Shredder Ammo might be even better, as it applies the Shredded debuff to anyone she hits. Shredded means the enemy takes more damage from all subsequent shots, which is amazing. On the other hand, Opportunist would eliminate aim penalties for shooting on overwatch, and considering how many Thin Men Misty obliterated this last mission just from standing still and overwatching, I'm tempted. Actually, her aim is already pretty good at 88, so shredder ammo it is!

For Von Hats, the options are Rapid Reaction (get a bonus reaction shot every time she hits with a reaction shot, up to a maximum of 3, pretty awesome) or Fire in the Hole (grants an aim bonus to reduce rocket scatter when standing still) or Snap Shot (allows her to fire a rocket after moving). She has Ranger already, so any of these would be great options. I decide to go with Snap Shot in the end, as that feels like a good fit for Ranger.

Aster is going to go straight medic and take Revive I think, which allows him to bring critically wounded soldiers back to their feet at 33% health, instead of just stabilizing them. He already has field surgeon, which is why only one of my people ended up injured and nobody was gravely injured after the last mission.

Bigg Nife is going to take Ranger so he can do extra damage just from shooting his gun. HEAT Ammo for his grenades would be nice too, but right now I need him more generalized. Gunners and Rocketeers get to worry about the HEAT ammo for now.

A single day passes after this and there is already an Alien Abductions mission in Canada. Here we come Canada! I played the initial mission last night, so I think I'll go ahead and play this one now. Let's see how we do!

Alright, we're bringing rookie Tigre Yalith, hopefully this time she survives the mission, and then some specialists:

Infantry Coras Valin

Engineer Mira Abasa

Medic Sclenk Seesil

Assault Gifted Matryoshka

LCPL Scout Gnife Gnife (as the only scout I have who is not injured or fatigued right now)

Gunner Warlock Ciyin

Rocketeer LK Aproustian

We start, of course, in the middle of a street. 

I know the landing zone needs to be somewhat open but who thought this was a good idea?

Lets hope there's some cover available without activating any aliens... nope! Seesil moves to the edge of the nearby building and sees a pair of drones, which move toward us. If it's just the two of them we should be in good shape, but I no longer feel drones are not scary after what they did to us two missions ago. Well, Seesil and Abasa both miss the drones, and while I could potentially just stand in place with the rest of the squad and gun them down with massed firepower, nobody has a better shot than 60% and I don't want someone to die with no cover. So I dash a couple people into cover, and everyone else hunkers down behind a taxi and goes on overwatch. Ciyin misses the first drone as it moves in range but Aproustian takes it down with her reaction fire. The second drone doesn't move into sight of my third overwatch but misses its shot on Seesil. On my turn, Aproustian attempts to repeat her previous shot and hits! But the drone absorbs two damage and survives. Abasa misses another 64% shot, but Ciyin makes up for it by taking it out. Seriously drones are scary when it takes three of us to do 3 damage to one.

Gnife Gnife leads the way into the restaurant we find ourselves in front of, joined by Gifted. Coras is going to climb to the roof in case the high ground helps again as it did last mission. Yalith will join on the roof, having the high ground may help keep her alive. The ground team moves cautiously into the storeroom behind the restaurant, but no enemies poke their heads out there.

Coras has discovered a meld canister on the roof, but can't reach it this turn. Hopefully it lasts until next turn.

On the alien turn we get a brief sound ping before the enemy patrols into us, two pods, one of Seekers and another of a new alien race, the Floaters. Dr. Vahlen is fascinated and horrified by the Floaters, a melding of flesh and machine. 

There was a better chance for a screenshot later, but I was too into the fight and forgot to take it. So here's a vague outline of a floater.

This has gone south fast. Gifted and Gnife are each able to kill a Floater, but one survives, and the rest of the squad is barely able to damage the three Seekers, which means four flying enemies to worry about. They flank Coras and Yalith on the roof, injuring and panicking both of them, before a second Seeker comes up and strangles Yalith. 

This is what happens when we fail to avoid Seekers with our bullets.

The entire squad rushes to the roof, and is barely able to take out the two Seekers and the Floater up there. One Seeker remains, and I'm concerned it will come finish off the panicking Coras or the hunkered down Yalith. My only overwatch shot is from Abasa, who did not have the movement to make it in range and may not have a good line of sight to the rest of the squad.

Well, I don't understand it but this last Seeker keeps going into Stealth Mode and then immediately shooting someone, revealing its location. This time it shoots Seesil, who at least resists panicking. Gnife Gnife is able to take it out... and we win the mission. That was it! I guess they just wanted to introduce Floaters and leave half my team in the infirmary again. Operation Fallen Whisper indeed.

That was both more intense and shorter than I'd anticipated.

Promotions for everyone again! Coras is going to be out of commission for 40 days, Seesil 27 and Yalith actually gets off light at only 20 days.

Dr. Shen worries about us crossing a line with melding humans and machines after seeing the Floaters. What do you know that I don't Shen? I haven't ordered anything like that! Well, not yet obviously, we don't have the technology yet.

Gnife Gnife already has Holo-Targeting, helping others hit what he's already hit, so I'm giving him Deadeye, so he has a better chance to hit flying enemies. If we're going to see a lot of Floaters and Seekers I want a scout who can hit them, and then help the rest of the squad finish them off.

Ciyin is going to be a Covering Fire gunner, I like the idea of getting my gunners in a good position and then overwatching the enemy to death, and this lets them overwatch if the aliens shoot or take actions other than moving as well as the standard “when they move” trick.

Mira Abasa is going to take a free Smoke Grenade. I think I'll gear her towards support grenades like battle scanners and smoke grenades, and having a free smoke grenade will be awesome. This lets her put down covering smoke that reduces the enemy's ability to shoot us.

Gifted takes Close Combat Specialist, as all my assaults do. It's just an amazing ability to be able to take a shot at any enemy closing within 4 squares when you have a shotgun, even without overwatch.

Poor Coras, taking such an injury, is going to go with Steadfast, as this will increase her willpower and also stop her from panicking next time she gets shot.

Seesil will be my second field surgeon, I sure wish he'd had this ability already on this map so that Coras wouldn't be out so long.

Aproustian will take Ranger, that extra damage on every shot will be nice (especially considering how she hit those drones last mission).

Finally, Yalith gets to become my fourth sniper! Congratulations!

And we make it to the end of the month! Yay money! We get an A rank for our efforts as well, that's nice. 

I use the money to order some more facilities to be built; a third Satellite Uplink, a second Laboratory to help our research (we need better everything like yesterday!), and another Thermo Generator so I don't run out of power anytime soon.

I'm sure this is not the best layout but it's not the worst I hope

We finish our research on body armor, and I start a Thin Man autopsy because we need to know how to kill those things. Let's see how expensive this “Phalanx Armor” is... 35 credits and 8 alien alloys, that's not bad actually, although after the facilities I ordered I only have 50 credits to spend. I order one Phalanx Armor, at least someone will get better gear next time.

I hope they get paid well for this.

We let some time pass, but before we can finish our new Phalanx armor, a UFO shows up, and we manage to shoot it down over Russia. Survivors are on site, so let's go kill them all and take their stuff!

I'm going to bring in one new recruit, Valris Kacil, who I name after my primary Final Fantasy XIV character. The rest will be specialists and higher.

Spc. Belendithas Uth Droma as Engineer.

Spc. Shankar Belarius as our sniper.

Spc. Tak Dun as our Assault.

Spc. Tebiq Bal as Infantry.

LCPL Ciyin as our Gunner

CPL Valdora Kacil as our scout

CPL Kelvas Amell as our medic.

Apparently I didn't get the second screenshot of Valor and Kelvas, but they're corporals, you've seen them before.

As usual in these missions we start in the middle of a forest, but cover is a little bit of a dash from where we are. Ok Valdora, lets get scouting!

I move ahead cautiously, perhaps overly so, for the first three turns before I get a sound ping. I have located the crash site itself but I don't want to rush in there and leave our backs open to patrolling alien pods.

Dun and Bal, my spear tip up by the crashed UFO, get sound pings from inside the ship, but I expect the Outsiders to be in there. However, despite spreading out a bit, I see no other aliens until Dun approaches the spacecraft, and a single Outsider activates. The Outsider attempts to flank us, and Dun counters with a run and gun that almost – but not quite – kills it. Bal fails to back Dun up, missing his shot, but fortunately Belarius has our backs and snipes it dead. Still no sign of the other aliens that must be around here somewhere, but they may come running now that the Outsider is dead. Assuming the aliens are out there somewhere, we move closer to the ship to use it as a defense point. And then of course a pod of sectoids wanders in from the opposite side of the ship. 

I should have expected the Sectoid Inquisition.

A second pod does show up where I expected them too though, so I don't feel too badly about it. Dun shoots a drone out of the sky, but he is about to be surrounded by sectoids, so I need to rush some support to him ASAP. Bal fails again to hit his mark.

On the other side of the map, Valdora is left out in front with 4 sectoids approaching her position. Belarius misses his shot this turn, making me wish I'd had him steady his weapon for a better shot next time...oh well. Valdora moves back towards the UFO, and manages to kill a sectoid in one shot. The aliens use a variety of psychic attacks and suppression fire, and one manages to get a hit on Uth Droma as he focussed on the aliens on the other side, but I'm soon down to just two sectoids remaining. Dun once more Runs and Guns up to the final sectoid on his side of the ship, and blasts it dead. The sectoid on the oter side foolishly left itself flanked by sniper Belarius, who also gets a critical hit, and the mission is won!

Operation Dark Grave.

Uth Droma is out for a whopping 43 days recovering from that shot, but the rest of the squad is intact. Promotions abound, but we're getting to the point when Corporals will not be leveling every mission they go on, and Valdora and Amell just rack up another mission to their names.

Ciyin goes for Opportunist, to pair with his Covering Fire ability. Belarius will be a Deadeye sniper, hopefully helping against those troublesome flying enemies. Tak Dun of course gets Close Combat Specialist, and Tebiq Bal will get Executioner. Considering how often he missed this mission, the +10 aim vs. enemies below half HP will be a boon. Valris Kacil will be Infantry number 5. Uth Droma gets Sapper, so his grenades do extra damage and destroy the environment.

As I begin scanning for activity, barely an hour passes before the Council has another mission for us.

We have to rescue a criminal from the Triad syndicate it looks like. Escort type again?

Next time, Council Mission!