XCOM SG Signup and Rule discussion?

[Meiz]

I used to play xcom a lot as a kid, and I remember countless of different ways of getting my troops killed and generally running out of money Nice to finally see how this _should_ be played (no pressure guys). I'd be glad to enlist as a recruit and getting a horrendous death

[Serdoa]

Ha, Serdoa acting as always: Aggressive and hurried

[Ug the Barbarian]

antisocialmunky :

Ok suggest you do actually edit an earlier post to show results of mission 5 - just drop a post to let everyone know which one to look back at.

dazedroyalty :

Well done with mission 6. I've picked up the save and it looks fine. Will try and run through next mission today.

[sunrise089]

I'm trying to figure out these mission numbers...

Mission 6 just happened and was on the crashed UFO with no human casualties, right?

Was mission 5 the total party wipe that antisocialmunky never made a report for and mission 4 the terror mission?
_____

You guys are doing great with this thread...while the lurker learning curve is steep due to the pacing of the game it's still a blast the read and a good mix of styles. That said keeping the index up to date and adding an in-game players roster and death list would take it to the next level...

[Ug the Barbarian]

I'm trying to figure out these mission numbers...

Mission 6 just happened and was on the crashed UFO with no human casualties, right?

Was mission 5 the total party wipe that antisocialmunky never made a report for and mission 4 the terror mission?
_____

You guys are doing great with this thread...while the lurker learning curve is steep due to the pacing of the game it's still a blast the read and a good mix of styles. That said keeping the index up to date and adding an in-game players roster and death list would take it to the next level...

Basically we're operating on a 'handover after each mission' approach.
The confusion seems to have happened where antisocialmunky has posted results of his mission 4 (the monthly terror mission) along with a handover save. He seems to have also done an extra mission which he hasn't yet posted yet.

So the total casualties of my turn pretty much eclipse whatever casualties we sustained in our early skirmishes:
Terror Mission - Everyone but Amelia dead ( 8 ) and the loss of 90% of our equipment for a paltry 5 kills(a person with a primed grenade died and blew up in the middle of everyone).
'Small' Medium Scout - 7 Poorly Armed Recruits, we hardly knew yee

I'll be working on mission 7 today & hopefully antisocialmunky will post the write-up of mission 5 before then.

[Ug the Barbarian]

Ok looking at the save, we aren't too badly positioned. Its 18th Feb game time.

We have 15 soldiers available for missions, 70 scientists working on alien alloys (Good progress) and 25 engineers building laser rifles (to see at this stage). Living capacity is available for 150.

For equipment, we have 17 laser rifles, 5 laser pistols and 10 medikits already. Four Heavy Plasmas are available but only 6 ammo clips for them so far. Whilst the stores are only 67% full currently, this won't last as we accumulate gear.

Alien activity seems focused on SE Asia this month.

First action is to sell surplus equipment and alien corpses. Main item I get rid of is most of the plasma rifles (leaving two). Remember we've started research on a lot of items (with no scientists) so you don't need to leave one of each of those items in stores.

Also started a third General Stores.

I'll hire another 5 soldiers / 30 scientists / 5 engineers taking us to 20/100/30 which will be using our facilites more efficiently.

[Ug the Barbarian]

Delayed the purchase of the extra engineers until Personal Armour available for manufacture to save cash. Sold a few surplus laser rifles for cash and start manufacturing more.

Changed Skyranger weapons loadout :

Now 2 laser pistols / 10 Laser Rifles / 2 Heavy Plasma and includes medikits and the stun rods. Currently no tank available and will need sales from another successful mission to fund one so we're going with new recruits as a lot cheaper scouts (14 soldiers).

[dazedroyalty]

I'm trying to figure out these mission numbers...

Mission 6 just happened and was on the crashed UFO with no human casualties, right?

Was mission 5 the total party wipe that antisocialmunky never made a report for and mission 4 the terror mission?

It can get a little confusing because the game actually will track UFO's and assign them numbers. So, the first UFO we detected was "UFO-1," the second was "UFO-2," the third was "UFO-3" and so on. When the ship lands or crashes, the battle becomes against that number UFO. So fighting the battle against "UFO-12" could actually be only battle number 6 if we six other UFOs were ignored, got away, crashed over water, etc.

Then, the game counts terror and base missions separately. As a team, we should probably be a bit clearer on how we describe which mission.

I think it might be helpful to screenshot our soldier page at the end of missions. Then you can see who's alive, wounded, what ranks, etc.

[dazedroyalty]

Four Heavy Plasmas are available but only 6 ammo clips for them so far.

Yeah, that last UFO was so badly damaged we didn't get hardly anything from it. I don't think there were any surviving Heavy Plasmas at all!

[antisocialmunky]

Mission 5 - The Dark Times

Everyone was dead, except for Amelia who based on the criteria of being alive was promoted to Sergent. We won't soon forget the Cairo disaster.

I had previously requisitioned 5 recruits as a B-Team. Now I immediately spent 75% of our remaining funds on 12 replacements. A fully loaded Sky Ranger can uncomfortably seat 14. Previously we had been bringing along one tank for the heavy fire power. However, tanks are expensive. People on the other hand are relatively cheap and more importantly give the aliens 4 things to shoot at instead of 1.

The recruits were named after the list haphazard posted but I ended up running out and having to improvise.

Almost as devastating as the near loss of the squad in Cairo was the lost of 90% of our equipment. We were down to 4 rifles and 5 laser pistols in reserve. Luckily, Laser Rifles research was completed shortly. These new weapons would hopefully help us in the next encounter with its 60 damage. For comparison, the tank's rocket does 75 AP damage, the laser pistols does 46, the Autocannon does ~44 Damage depending on the shell, and the rifle which was our main stay up to the Cairo mission does a pitaful 30.

That's a 200% increase and would allow us to reliably put down any alien.

I ordered an initial production run of 10. Of course we weren't going to have enough for everyone and rather buying obsolete rifles, I loaded up on grenades which are very cheap and would put down the types of aliens we would be facing in a single blast.

I put research on Heavy Plasma (which by comparison is basically the BFG and does 115 damage - which allows it to shoot through UFO bulkheads - because this game has 1993 balance) and went back to the geoscape to wait...

A few days past and the radar was suspiciously clear when suddenly reports of a landed 'small' ship were reported in Iceland. Why Iceland? It has no strategic purpose. Whatever the reason, XCOM had a job to do. Steeling our hearts, we loaded up into the Sky Ranger with all the equipment we scavenged up. We were surprisingly able to arm 12 of our men. Our engineers working over time had created 5 of our new laser rifles. That meant however, two of our men would only be armed with grenades. Sunrise90 and Barb Named Ug were confident in their throwing arms and volunteered.

T1...

We landed on a desolate glacier. This would mean there would be no cover other than the landing gears of the Sky Ranger. David Corperial and Cyneheard were at the door. Cyneheard immediately saw a Sectoid and brought it down with a burst from his rifle.



David threw a smoke grenade. I kept everyone on the ship and ended the turn.

T2...

David jumped down taking cover by the landing gear. He sees the ship. It is a medium scout - not what I would classify as 'small.' More importantly, he sees a sectoid, shoots, and missed.



Cyneheard runs into the smoke for cover. He successfully kills the sectoid. We have a promising recruit it seems.



I end the turn and both Cyneheard and at least two sectoids ambush David and Cyneheard from around the ship. They bow down both David in Cyneheard with a barrage of more shots than I could count. I guess its a good thing, I only had two men on the ground.

The aliens shuffle back and forth behind the cover of their ship. I think there are three.

DaveV throw another smoke grenade to try to block line of sight and I try to scramble our men off the ship into the smoke. I end the turn

A sectoid wanders into vision and kills one of our soldiers. I didn't even get his name.



T3...

Serdoa takes David's position and kill the alien seen above with his new Laser Rifle. ManBehindTheMask and DaveV take up positions to cover the 3 aliens that keep darting out form behind their ship. More people disembark. I have several men prime smoke grenades so if they die, atleast they will provide cover for everyone else I end the turn.

2 Shots miss David and MBTM kills one alien that was behind the craft.

T4...

MBTM kills another one of the aliens behind the UFO. I think they are all dead. MBTM seems quite good at this game.

Serdoa moves south and sees an alien. He shoots and the alien returns fire. Both are wounded Brackard tries to kill the alien with his dinky pistol and wounds it. DaveV turns around and finally kills the stubborn thing.

Amelia is the last one out of the ship and covers Serdoa. End Turn.

2 More aliens wander out from behind the ship to inspect the bodies of hteir dead friends presumably. One of them exchanges fire with MBTM and both are wounded.

T5...

Novice arms a grenade, passes it to DaveV who chucks it at the two aliens. MBTM for good measure empties two burst and one snap shot at the aliens, wounding one. Amelia sets up another smoke screen near the front landing gear.

Rest of the men start moving to the door of the UFO.

End Turn.

An sectoid charges through the smoke, kills Serdoa and is killed by Brackard.


T6...

WarriorKnight advances into the smoke and sees another alien.



He fails to hit it and kneels.

Amelia tries to kill the alien by shooting over WarriorKnight's head but inadvertantly shoots WarriorKnight in the back. The sectoid dies to another shot. The laser pistol is very inaccurate even with snap shots.

T7+

We begin sweeping around the ship and it becomes clear that there is nothing more outside. We stack up by the door and the slowly dying (wounded soldiers bleed out slowly unless you medkit them) MBTM volunteers to take point. We enter the ship and take position by the two doors that lead to the control room.

MBTM who is nearly dead opens a door and is shot down. Sunrise gets out a grenade to lob into the control room is shot down as he tried to throw it around the corner.

SECTOIDS. ARE. CAMPERS.

Krill, novice, and Brackard watch the door.

In an attempt to flank, Ug and Sullla enter through the other door. Ug, ever brave goes through the door first. He sees two aliens camping the other entrance, unaware. Quietly, he pulls out a grenade and throws it at the sectoid who (presumably) looks the most important. Ug watches the explosion tear through the alien but as the dust clears. Two plasma bolts lunge at Ug. Ug dodge both, pulls out another grenade and kills the last sectoid.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

It was a costly battle. We took down 11 aliens at the cost of 7. However, the alien vessel was completely intact so XCOM will get a treasure trove of data. We even capture 50 bricks of Elerium-115, Alien's mysterious power source that allows their ships travel through the stars.

Hardly back from our mission, the monthly review board is called with all of XCOM's funding states. They are generally happy with XCOM's successes but the Egyptians are annoyed that the aliens rampage through Cairo unchecked.

Funding is increased by 30,000 so no one is particularly broken up about the ungrateful Egyptians.