XCOM 2 SG - It Continues?

[Jowy]

Base Management:

Gave DP Aim as requested.

Destruction of the Alien Facility dropped the counter by three pips, now we're 5 away from death.

Next Retaliation Strike is estimated to be in 1 week.



Here's the map. First I went to grab the free Scientist, after that I would go for the monthly Supply Drop.



Alien Data Cache Encryption finished and gave us 50 intel. I chose to research the Viper King Autopsy next. I don't know what armor it'll give us, I only just killed the Viper King in my own playthrough

I set the AWC Engineer to excavate a room instead. Most of our injuries were healed up and the rest would be gone in time for the Retaliation Strike.



Experimental Ammo project gave us Talon Rounds. I ordered up another one.

After looting the Supply Drop, I took us to New Indonesia to build a Radio Tower there.



Finished the Autopsy and switched the Proving Ground project to the new Serpent Suit. There's a handy queue that I didn't know about.
For our next actual research project I chose Alien Encryption which will allow us to build the Shadow Chamber.



Our engineers finished excavating a room, we received 118 supplies and 20 alloys. We went on to work on two more rooms. The Power Coil is where I reckon we should put the Shadow Chamber.
I upgraded our Resistance Comms so we can contact the next region after the Radio Tower is built.
We can also upgrade the Workshop and put another engineer there, and send one Gremlin to the second Comm station and one to the Power Relay.



It's time for Guerrilla Ops. The other rewards were supplies or a unit, and a hidden dark event or slowing down the construction of the next facility by 2 weeks.



Went on a shopping spree and upgraded all our DLC weapons, and bought a Mind Shield and a Flash Bang to fill some empty slots.



Our two Specialists were still chilling in the sick bay. My bad on that one, didn't think we'd get a mission before the Retaliation.

[Jowy]

Operation Dragon Fire:

Only 8 turns makes me a little nervous. This mission was marked as "difficult" as opposed to the other two that were only "moderate".



Found enemies but we were too far to fight them this turn.



They walked into the deep shadows behind a car We set up the Kill Zone and had WK on overwatch. The unnamed NPC then lanched a grenade at the enemy group.
I chose to keep our other units free to act. Any survivors will go to cover, but we have ways to deal with them that are stronger than just an overwatch shot.



WK hit an officer and Willowbark finished it off despite it being a grazing shot.



Willowbark injured the second enemy. He missed the third. Which you might think to be a bad thing, but while you are busy playing checkers, Willowbark is playing chess. His shot hit the car, which burst into flames, taking down the third enemy



Dp took down the final enemy with Shadowfall in order to go back into concealment. There's some loot on the ground, we'll grab it next turn.



Feylyn scouted ahead and found the next pod for us. We ended our turn.



WK first took cover behind the car to check for enemies on the right. None in sight, so our unnamed NPC ran for the loot.
We received an Advanced Scope and an Advanced Conditioning PCS. Not a bad haul!



We obviously didn't want to start a fight when we had a soldier standing on the open, so we didn't stray too far.



Opted to not set an overwatch trap. I moved WK up to a full cover and had her use an Acid Grenade on a Viper.
That was kind of a mistake, I had a recollection that the other Viper was inside the building and I could get both.



Aw they didn't take cover behind the gas tanks   I guess we'll have to do actual work to kill them.



I've learned that Flash Bangs will prevent the Codex from cloning itself. Dreylin Willowbark had one of our two and he was chosen for the task.
He moved up, used Lightning Hands on the close-by Viper to take it down to lethal range, then did his assigned duty.



Unnamed NPC launched a grenade at the Codex, which then gave Feylyn a 100% chance to kill it.



Dp had this sniper shot to take to kill the full health Viper. First though she used Lightning Hands to kill the injured Viper, cause Acid Burns deal 1-3 damage, which means the 2 HP Viper would have a 33% chance to live.
Except it wasn't a Lightning Hands shot that I used, it was a normal pistol shot. Oops.



Jkaen could either take a spot in the half cover without a full flank, or a spot in the open with a full flank. Went with the risky strat this time. I'm using Run & Gun so I can still act after an orange move.



Sweet odds! But to skew them even more to our liking, I threw the axe at it first.



Then we shot down the snake. Bet you thought the death would happen here  



We have vision on the objective. There's probably another pod to the fog inside, so I didn't go in yet. Emphasis on probably.



Or this could happen. Well, shit. Didn't think there'd be two in a row.



We had sub-optimal positioning. The best move available was an overwatch. WK has a move too, but I have plans for her that can't be done yet.



Berserker Queen slammed the unnamed NPC. Luckily didn't knock her out, just disoriented and dealt 1 damage.



Now we can reach it with a Freezing Bomb. Not sure how it'll work with the Ruler since I banned the DLC stuff in my own game.



Jkaen had a great shot. She got a crit for max damage (12, or 9 after armor). Then her weapon procced and she got a new turn. This time she rolled lowest possible damage, no crit.



Dp landed a pistol crit and set it on fire. Wait a second, did I just say.. on fire?



Oh shit, fucking physics!

Dp had to just overwatch cause she couldn't reach the ruler with a frag grenade. At least it's burning now, maybe it won't do anything.



Unnamed NPC got smacked for 6 damage. This is what confuses me so much about the status effects. When I piled up a bunch against the Rulers they would just pass their turns.
Apparently Burning alone isn't enough to achieve that. Before this, I was sure that Burning was the essential component in my status effect cocktail.



WarriorKnight missed a 65% shot, leaving all three armor in place.



We'll never forget her name.



Willowbark set up the Kill Zone. I think it'll only work once, but that's the same as a normal shot, so might as well try. He missed the first shot.



Jkaen got smacked. She took 1 damage and became disoriented. But she automatically hit back for 6 with Bladestorm!



What scared me even more than the Berserker Queen was the flaming car next to a gas tank.



After the final burning tick, the Berserker Queen had had enough.



Dp used Lightning Hands to set it back on fire as a farewell gift, Jkaen then went on to miss this 95% shot.



Jkaen you are welcome buddy.



Um, yeah, having a Specialist would have been nice. Failed the roll, but completed the mission at least.

Jkaen has a promotion: Deep Cover or Untouchable. Untouchable seems like the choice to me, but I left it open for the next player.



I have no idea where these Stocks came from.

Dreylin Willowbark is no longer Shaken!

[Jowy]

Oh right, here's the save:


  save18.zip (Size: 1.45 MB / Downloads: 1)

[Jowy]

What a cruel tease.  

Disagree that we should aim for 4 soldiers per class. 2 per class is decent in most cases and 3 is plenty. Reason being is that it is already difficult enough keeping up with the aliens without spreading experience around (we could buy experienced soldiers but those are expensive enough that it shouldn't be done lightly). We could use another grenadier and replace whoever died but otherwise we should be ok (unless WK died, in which case we need grens pronto).

Don't really have an opinion on the other points.

Thread title? Hmmmm...

"XCOM2 SG - aka RB Russian Roulette signup thread"

Okay maybe 3 since we aren't playing on Legendary. I keep forgetting how short the injury timers are.

[Dreylin]

Stock & Scope may have come off the dead Gren's weapon, I think I've seen that before. BTW, haphazard1 was due for the next expendable trooper, but they might be OK with missing out on this one.

Also, not sure if it was specifically the burning, but in my experience the Frozen status only lasts a few reactions anyway - probably the countdown is done the same as the Burning/Acid clocks. Anyway, good recovery.

[Jkaen]

I think frozen just stops 2 reactions

[Lewwyn]

I think frozen just stops 2 reactions

Technically stops 3.  The ruler moves after every action so it unfreezes after two more players take actions. Frost bomb > move 1 > Jkaen > move 2 > DP > move 3 (unfrozen).  SO yeah not the fire rounds, just how rulers deal with effects.



I can get the turn on Friday afternoon.  That's still 30 hours from now.  Excited! 

[Jowy]

Stock & Scope may have come off the dead Gren's weapon, I think I've seen that before. BTW, haphazard1 was due for the next expendable trooper, but they might be OK with missing out on this one.

Also, not sure if it was specifically the burning, but in my experience the Frozen status only lasts a few reactions anyway - probably the countdown is done the same as the Burning/Acid clocks. Anyway, good recovery.

Nope, we got the PCS and the Scope from a loot drop. The dead player didn't have anything on her, not even one Stock.
My top theory is that the extra Stock is a glitched drop from Vulture that didn't show up on the screen with the normal loot. And the reason we'd have TWO is cause we looted twice (once from the dead enemy, once from our dead friend).

I think frozen just stops 2 reactions

Technically stops 3.  The ruler moves after every action so it unfreezes after two more players take actions. Frost bomb > move 1 > Jkaen > move 2 > DP > move 3 (unfrozen).  SO yeah not the fire rounds, just how rulers deal with effects.



I can get the turn on Friday afternoon.  That's still 30 hours from now.  Excited! 

Ah, good to know. XCOM 2 seems pretty random with these things, for example if you stun someone for "2", it really means 1, while in this case "2" means 3.

[Lewwyn]

I will put Pictures in later.

Base management:

I started by giving Jkaen untouchable.

SS1

Radio Relay in New Zealand Installed.

Next to make contact with australia.

Dark Event Completes, sped up facility.

SS2

Serpent Suit Completed.

SS3

Research on alien encryption finished. Now able to build a shadow chamber.

I start research on Elerium, 7 days. But we need to decide if we want to get to Psionics or not this game...

SS4

Experimental ammo came in.  Venom Rounds.

I made contact with Australia. Need more resistance comms. Getting Australia gave us a continent bonus. 50% off all GTS tactic costs.

Oh staffed a gremlin in the resistance comms. +4 comms. No one is in the foundry atm, but we don't have any foundry projects right now. Should we build an exo suit?

Started to make contact with New Chile. Cost 80 Intel, but we can put a relay station there after and make the next couple contacts cheaper in that area.

Retaliation Mission.

SS5

Put The serpent suit on Lewwyn as it helps with dodge and such, good for a scout.

SS6

Jowy, Lew, DP, WK, Dreylin, Jkaen are going in.

[Lewwyn]

Operation Unholy Night

Lewwyn scouts. Finds a viper and a codex.

SS8

Codex ran in and took 3 overwatch shots. Lewwyn still hidden. Codex cloned.

WK moves into good cover and flanks viper for a crit kill.

SS9

Dreylin took out the clone and DP kills the other.  Pod down, no enemies in sight.

There are berserker Mutons in the fog though.

2nd pod activated. lancer, berserker, mech.
Mech moves to the roof, Jowy hacks and stuns it:

SS10

Jkaen Kills the lancer with a crit axe throw:

SS11

Then crit kills the Mech.

SS12

Only berserker in fog left.

Oops Bersker spotted lewwyn. Didn't know where he was.

SS13

Berserker gets stuned by Lew's bolt caster, Jkaen Crit kills it. Here he is mugging for the camera:

SS14

Lewwyn goes back into concealed. Scouts ahead no pods in sight.

I moved one spot too far at the end of a turn with Jkaen. 3rd pod activated. Officer, Shieldy, and mech.
Jkaen is in full cover what could go wrong.

9 crit shot on Jkaen... Shields up.

SS15

Its fine...

Discharge, Dreylin misses, DP gets light hands and face off, Lewwyn bolt casts the officer.

SS16

Jkaen taks down the mech.

WK grenades the Officer to end it.

Shield bearer is on fire, turn rolls, fire kills him.

Pod down.

That's 8 enemies.

I decied to run Jowy's scanning.
Faceless found.

SS17

WK uses chainshot and executes the faceles with an instakill.

SS18

No alien activity on the interturn... another faceless?

Nope:

SS19

2 mutons and a berserker.

Lew hits a muton. Jowy caps it with combat protocol.

I run overwatches. DP takes a shot at the Berserker and sets it on fire before jumping to cover.

Berserker runs at us gets hit by 2 overwatches. Doesn't hit us. Muton takes a shot at Jowy misses.

SS20
SS21

Lew takes out the Muton.

SS22

DP shadowfals the Berserker, goes concealed...

Pod down.  Still not over.

Everyone into over watch.

FACELESS JUMPS UP!

SS23
SS24

and everyone hits it.

Mission complete. HAHAHA

SS25

Excellent.

3 injuries. but two were light from a mech rockets. (at the same time Jkaen was crit by the Officer)

WK promoted. Salvo or Hail of Bullets?

Shucks Jkaen Shaken.

That's it for me!