XCOM: The Long War Part 13: Training Mission

In which we have a relatively easy mission, and lose a Satellite.




We start the session with an Alien Abductions mission. I'm hoping this is a relatively simple mission, I want to bring a rookie or two along to start training them up. I notice the alien activity is moderate levels though, so there will probably be a lot of enemies. I should try and diversify, a few each rookies, specialists, and promoted people, I think.

My rookies will be Gnome Elle and Cleric Talna, named for friends from the Wednesday D&D sessions. I'll bring Goblin Gilligan as medic, Tigre Yalith as sniper, and Evil Balazar as gunner for my specialists. LCPL Valris Kacil will be my infantry. Serevad Aeducan will scout for us, and finally Sgt. Ezri Blackmoon will carry rockets.

I hope that works. I remembered my laser weapons this time out, so that should help at least...

We start in the corner of the map, behind what looks like a diner and next to some large AC units. I see a meld canister on the roof of the diner, but so far I see no way onto the roof... I want to get Yalith up there for the line of sight anyway, so I'll keep my eyes open.

Look, diners need to be kept very cool.

I move relatively aggressively into the diner, and immediately regret it when Serevad is caught out by some floaters flanking her position after a dash so I can't reposition her. Well, let's try and salvage the situation with the remaining people... Gilligan moves in and takes a shot, but misses. Balazar is the only soldier remaining with a shot, and he blows up the entire far wall of the diner when he takes out the visible floater. I know there were three more of them, but they moved out of sight. Let's see how this goes... One floater does a massive jump and lands behind us for a flank, and the second misses Serevad. The third opts to suppress my scout, so I got lucky on this turn. Right up until 4 Thin Men patrol into us...

I should have known there would be floaters.

The flanking Floater was tagged by Valris's overwatch, and Valris finishes it off with her second shot on my turn. Ezri finds herself flanking one of the Thin Men, and she removes the threat with a precise laser beam to the head.

The lasers are coming from inside the kitchen!

Talna and Gilligan attempt to remove a Floater but between the two of them leave it on a single HP. Balazar misses in his attempt to remove that last HP, but does destroy more of the diner's wall. Elle is the one to finish the job, leaving a single floater remaining, but still the three Thin Men... Despite being refreshed, I opt to have Serevad move to cover and rely on her Lightning Reflexes to dodge the counter fire. Fortunately this works. I figured one shot would be better than the inevitable barrage of flanking shots from the Thin Men next turn.

The floater double moves into range, and then the Thin Men do terrible things, first putting an Acid cloud on Elle and then hitting and panicking the rookie. Sorry Elle!

Gilligan focuses past the nearby acid cloud, and removes the Floater from play. Yalish and Valris combine fire to take out one Thin Man, and Balazar obliterates a second. Ezri wounds the final Thin Man, leaving me with two shots remaining, and Talna comes through in the clutch to finish it off!

Nice shot Talna!

Serevad remains on overwatch, and I'm glad I did that because four Seekers immediately activate on the roof, and Serevad kills one of them when it flies into the diner. Valris and Balazar destroy two more Seekers on my turn, but the last one is invisible (I think...)

Yep, the last Seeker was cloaked. I moved Yalith to the roof and the Seeker immediately began strangling her. Valris and Talna rush to the roof and between the two of them are able to shoot the Seeker off of Yalith, but it's a pod leader and has more HP and armor than the other Seekers.

What a jerk.

Fortunately, Balazar is also able to reach the roof, and finishes the tentacled machine off.

And that's the mission! All the aliens came to me apparently. Success on Operation Defiant Sleep!

Success!

Poor Elle is out for 25 days from her wounds, but everyone survived. Ezri and Serevad, as my most promoted people, did not get promoted this time around, but everyone else did.

Valris reaches the rank of Corporal. I think Trixie is a bad nickname for her though... I choose her nickname of "Miqo'te" because she's a Miqo'te in Final Fantasy XIV. That works. I think she's going to go pure DPS right now, and take Aggression for +10% critical chance per enemy in sight.

Balazar is going to be my first gunner with Flush. I think this fits, because Balazar sometimes plays with his foes in D&D and Flush works to make the enemies move (hopefully) to worse positions...

Gilligan is going to take Steadfast. Field Medic is also good, but I want some medics who are not going to panic. And considering he was directly next to Elle during all the shooting and did not panic last mission, this seems fitting. Also, the extra willpower will be nice when I get psychic abilities...

Yalith is going to take Low Profile. I've come to enjoy putting snipers on the roof when I can, but the cover up there is usually half cover, so Low Profile will be nice for that.

Elle is going to be a sniper. In D&D she often climbs high places and shoots people (or taunts them) so sniper seems fitting. Talna is going to be a seventh medic. This is overloading me with medics a little bit, but if I skip an assault for a second medic sometimes, I think that's not a bad thing. Also I just can't have a Cleric not be a Medic, it wouldn't work.

I'm also going to rename that corporal I got from helping a country out a few sessions back. She will be Glaive Tanasia, after my first Numenera character ever. She's going to be an Infantry (with the nickname Arms Master because she mastered weaponry in Numenera) and I give her Steadfast and Will to Survive, because in Numenera I leveled her such that she was impossible to hit. This means I have five unnamed rookies, all male. Maybe I'll give them Final Fantasy names...

Yeah, let's do that. Welcome Sazh Katzroy, Squall Leonhart, Cloud Strife, Kain Highwind and Leo Cristophe. That means I have 7 rookies still to train up, including Jaro and Lil Mouse.

And then it's the end of the month!

I got an A from the council, hurray!

Money! I have money to spend again! I need to start building some facilities, let's see if I can get some going... I order some more excavations, and then begin building the Alien Containment facility the storyline wants me to build, and an Officer Training School, so we can start promoting some officers here. Oh, and I do an Intel Scan and start a covert operation against an EXALT cell in Mexico. I need to make sure I do that each month because I've seen EXALT just drain money from the Let's Play and I need that cash. Valdora volunteers to be my scout for the mission, and gets her obligatory Heater pistol.

I get a request from Australia for a small amount of alien alloys in exchange for straight money. I take it, and then begin another Satellite uplink.

Research is complete on advanced Beam Weapons, which means I can build laser sniper rifles, and I think I can start outfitting my Raven interceptors with Laser cannons too! Oh, and laser scatter rifles to replace the assault's shotguns. Hurray! Lasers for everyone!

Lasers lasers lasers lasers. L.A.S.E.R.s.

I begin work on Experimental Warfare next. I'm not sure what this will get me.

I shoot down a scout UFO, and then an unidentified medium UFO shows up. I'm out of interceptors! Shoot, I hope it doesn't shoot down one of my satellites... Yep, it shot down one of my satellites. That jerk.

But then I finish construction of the Foundry, which lets me do more engineering based research. I start by training XCOM HQ security personnel in use of laser rifles though, in case the aliens attack the base.

It's coming together.

And then we reach the EXALT mission to extract Valdora, and I believe I will leave off there for the day.

Next time, more EXALT!