XCOM: Enemy Unknown aka the one where Haphazard dies repeatedly

[dazedroyalty]

It all sounds good to me! SHOW ME A MISSION REPORT, SOLDIER!

[haphazard1]

Sounds good so far, Sareln. Field Medic for my avatar -- I love triple medkit supports. An extra smoke grenade would be useful, but it just does not compare (at least in my view) to the extra medkits.

One each way on the assaults sounds good. Both are useful bonuses -- I mostly take defense as an extra 10, 15, or 20 defense can make a big difference if you find yourself in a messy situation. But the extra critical is also nice and can really help deliver massive damage against big opponents.

Nice work on calculating our upcoming spending -- I usually just kind of eyeball it and make a semi-informed decision. Your approach is better.

I have to say I do not much like the panic situation. 3 countries in orange and 4 more in yellow and it is still the first month. Blech. With the USA being at minimum panic maybe we should be thinking Russia for our one sat this month?

Good luck on the mission, whatever it turns out to be.

[Sareln]

Sounds good so far, Sareln. Field Medic for my avatar -- I love triple medkit supports. An extra smoke grenade would be useful, but it just does not compare (at least in my view) to the extra medkits.

One each way on the assaults sounds good. Both are useful bonuses -- I mostly take defense as an extra 10, 15, or 20 defense can make a big difference if you find yourself in a messy situation. But the extra critical is also nice and can really help deliver massive damage against big opponents.

Nice work on calculating our upcoming spending -- I usually just kind of eyeball it and make a semi-informed decision. Your approach is better.

I have to say I do not much like the panic situation. 3 countries in orange and 4 more in yellow and it is still the first month. Blech. With the USA being at minimum panic maybe we should be thinking Russia for our one sat this month?

Good luck on the mission, whatever it turns out to be.

Mission played. Pictures uploading. Will take the opportunity to bike home and make the report from my desktop instead of the laptop (There are a lot of things to be said about how little game prerequisites have increased over the years. The fact that I can play this without any trouble on my 4 year old laptop makes me very happy - why it chokes so hard on CIV5 I don't know.)

Abduction mission spread over Germany/China/Egypt - hoi.

[Sareln]

Commander's Log: March 26th - April 6th, 2015

I assigned the promotions as mentioned above.

We finished research into Beam Weapons and Alien Materials. I made a mistake though, as we do not have enough alloy to research carapace armor, so I put us toward Xenobiology which has about a day left on it. The research went really fast to say the least.




We launched our 2nd satellite over the USA, since that way we would guarantee that we would have enough money to manufacture our new laser weapons, build 3 more satellites, and get our next satellite uplink in place. I also transferred one of our two interceptors to North American airspace so that we can do interceptions there as well. The monthly report came in and our sponsors were very pleased indeed.




With our monthly payroll in hand, we went ahead and manufactured 3 laser rifles. Sadly we did not have enough alloy to manufacture a laser pistol for Ug, but hopefully he won't need it. My math was slightly off, but hey, it was off in the harmless direction so no harm/foul.







The Aliens are running abductions again! We're faced with the unfortunant situation of having to save Germany in order to keep Europe happy. The $200 is nice, but honestly I'd rather have the engineers.










With heavy heart, we dispatch our squad to Germany decked out in our new laser weapons. I thought I had taken a picture of squad setup, but I hadn't. Haphazard, Sareln, and Dazed all get Laser Rifles for this mission, so we should be in a good place if we have to deal with thin men or floaters.




Can I say that this must be the unluckiest part of Germany? This is the same map where we rescued Anna.




Dazed moves forward to the bus and triggers two groups of two sectoids each, you'll notice there are only 3 in sight, that's 'cause Haphazard made an awesome shot to kill the sectoid behind the bench from his location behind the monument. Sareln and Uberfish could only make the bench, and rather than risk exposing themselves to more aliens, hunkered down. Ug, is just south-west of the police car, prepping his sniper rifle.

Dazed sets himself up in overwatch, the sectoid in heavy over down the bus being a 30% shot.




This pays off immediately as Dazed catches one of the sectoids trying to move to better ground. Great shot! Have a promotion!




The sectoid behind the bus took a potshot at Dazed but misses. Ug is in position though and manages to make his coinflip to remove the sectoid.




The rest of the squad advances slightly and continues to either hunker or overwatch depending upon the cover they find available to them. Sareln moves forward to the fountain in order to expose the last sectoid to Ug's squadsite; but the Sectoid is on overwatch and manages to land a crazing blow (2 HP).




However, this reveals a pair of floaters, our first this game I believe since Dr. Vahlen is talking about them.




They take cover behind the cars on the far side of the Map, so the first order of business is that Sectoid. It's another coinflip and Ug comes through again to score another kill and pick up a promotion along the way.




One of the floaters rocket-leaps and tries to flank Ug, but Dazed is available to run & gun, flanking the floater and blowing it away with a 100% shot.




The remaining floater is in high cover, and as we advance under smoke and hunkered light cover, it tries to suppress Uberfish, destroying Sareln's cover in the process. With no good way to advance on the floater without risking exposure, Uberfish preps his shredder rocket.




The saying goes: "close only counts in Horseshoes and Hand Grenades" but it also applies quite nicely to rockets. Even though Uberfish "technically" missed where we was aiming, he got a car, and therefore the floater; so good job!




We advance and uncover another pair of floaters. I try to get a kill for Sareln but she (we'll just go with that for this character since otherwise confusing) misses her 72% shot. Haphazard steps up and lands the shot, leaving the last floater in partial cover. Not wanting to risk a turn of fire, and noticing that Uberfish has another rocket to use, I have him take out the floater and the monument. They can always build another, they're only 20H after all right?




Thus ends operation Demon Stroke.













Even though I healed that sectoid hit in mission, it looks like I'll be recovering for the next 10 days. Drat. Time to grab another Rookie. I left that to the next player though.

Also, of some importance:







The Save

[Sareln]

According to the original order, I'd be up next but I can't get it that quickly so feel free to go now. In fact, let's just set a new order now for clarity. How's this?

Uberfish (UP)
Haphazard (On Deck)
Dazedroyalty
Ug
Xenin
Sareln (Just Played)

[haphazard1]

Nice work, Sareln! We are once through the roster (less xenin due to DLC incompatability ) with no soldiers lost. We are doing well, and getting some luck.

Sergeant promotion for dazed, Lightning Reflexes vs. Close and Personal. I love Lightning Reflexes, and regularly use my assaults to force aliens to burn their overwatch shots. I have not tried Close and Personal, which is another crit chance booster.

Lieutenant promotion for Uberfish, HEAT Ammo vs. Rapid Reaction. I love HEAT ammo, have not tried Rapid Reaction.

Lieutenant promotion for Ug, Disabling Shot vs. Battle Scanner. I have tried both, and have gotten more value from Battle Scanner. There are times when Disabling Shot is really useful, though.

Panic is definitely rising fast. We will have some sats available for the end of the month to gain a reprieve in a few countries. And maybe we will get a good placement for a terror mission, ace it, and get some panic relief. Or we could get nothing useful and lose a few countries. Have to see how things develop. Another UFO (intercepted or landed) would also be nice to get, so we can obtain some more alloys and other useful materials.

How should we spend our 200 credit reward? Use it to cover the budget gap Sareln identified without having to sell corpses and loot? Go for OTS and squad size upgrade? Save it to build containment and arc throwers since we are almost done with Xeno-Biology research? What is our power situation -- we may want another power generator whatever we decide.

Edit: Or did we get OTS and squad size 1 already? Looks like 5 X-COM soldiers at the start of Sareln's mission.

[Sareln]

Nice work, Sareln! We are once through the roster (less xenin due to DLC incompatability ) with no soldiers lost. We are doing well, and getting some luck.

Sergeant promotion for dazed, Lightning Reflexes vs. Close and Personal. I love Lightning Reflexes, and regularly use my assaults to force aliens to burn their overwatch shots. I have not tried Close and Personal, which is another crit chance booster.

Lieutenant promotion for Uberfish, HEAT Ammo vs. Rapid Reaction. I love HEAT ammo, have not tried Rapid Reaction.

Lieutenant promotion for Ug, Disabling Shot vs. Battle Scanner. I have tried both, and have gotten more value from Battle Scanner. There are times when Disabling Shot is really useful, though.

Panic is definitely rising fast. We will have some sats available for the end of the month to gain a reprieve in a few countries. And maybe we will get a good placement for a terror mission, ace it, and get some panic relief. Or we could get nothing useful and lose a few countries. Have to see how things develop. Another UFO (intercepted or landed) would also be nice to get, so we can obtain some more alloys and other useful materials.

How should we spend our 200 credit reward? Use it to cover the budget gap Sareln identified without having to sell corpses and loot? Go for OTS and squad size upgrade? Save it to build containment and arc throwers since we are almost done with Xeno-Biology research? What is our power situation -- we may want another power generator whatever we decide.

Edit: Or did we get OTS and squad size 1 already? Looks like 5 X-COM soldiers at the start of Sareln's mission.

There's no budget gap, it was closed when I launched the 2nd satellite over the us earning us another 234 (180 with our all in bonus of 30%) credits per month.

We've got the first squad size upgrade, so I don't know if we got to the right level yet for it, but we could take squad size II as an awesome pick right now if it is unlocked.

[Sareln]

As for promotions. I find Lightning Reflexes to just be too good to not take. Being able to absorb overwatch shots with no risk is just so handy. I'll be taking it for my character if she levels again .

How often is uberfish going to be on overwatch? Remember that heavies get the worst aim progression, and he needs to *hit* with it for it to trigger. Heat is going to be useful at some point, Sectopods guarantee it the bastards with their 25 HP or something absurd like that.

Since he's squadsight and immobile, I don't think the battlescanner will be that useful of a promo. Disabling shot on the other hand will make captures significantly easier.

---

Just opinions though.

[Ug the Barbarian]

As for promotions. I find Lightning Reflexes to just be too good to not take. Being able to absorb overwatch shots with no risk is just so handy. I'll be taking it for my character if she levels again .

Fully agree on this

How often is uberfish going to be on overwatch? Remember that heavies get the worst aim progression, and he needs to *hit* with it for it to trigger. Heat is going to be useful at some point, Sectopods guarantee it the bastards with their 25 HP or something absurd like that.

HEAT is much more useful - with a critical it can have give one shot kills on Cyberdisks and is a great Combo with Bulletstorm and Rockets

Since he's squadsight and immobile, I don't think the battlescanner will be that useful of a promo. Disabling shot on the other hand will make captures significantly easier.

I've tried both and they're both pretty situational.
As we've not yet done any captures, disabling shot will probably be more useful - its also good later if we lose soldiers to mind control and you need them out of action.

We'll need to get one of the Lieutenants to get to Captain to allow us Squad Size II upgrade but should take it as soon as available, even if it means selling corpses.

Also suggest we start sending a Rookie along on any easier missions (eg. crashed UFOs) - we need to start spreading the experience in case of losses & will also allow other forum members a chance to die

[Gustaran]

This kind of save incompatability is one of the less attractive aspects of the whole DLC trend.

Indeed, how hard can it be to keep saves compatible despite one player having a merely optical DLC ?