XCOM: Enemy Unknown aka the one where Haphazard dies repeatedly

[dazedroyalty]

Also, mission is half played. A bad situation became terrible but then became ok because of a game bug. However, you lurker's who's avatars are snipers.... it's bad form to take joy in someone's misfortune, but...

[Sareln]

Also, mission is half played. A bad situation became terrible but then became ok because of a game bug. However, you lurker's who's avatars are snipers.... it's bad form to take joy in someone's misfortune, but...

Did someone get a cyberdisk dropped on their head?

[spellman]

I hate it when that happens.

This region looks clear. Walk up HOW DID THAT SPAWN ON TOP OF MY GUYS IN AN AREA I CAN ALREADY SEE OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD

[pindicator]

Had that happen twice in in one mission today. Still dont' know how I pulled that one out without casualties, but it felt good afterwards!

[dazedroyalty]

I hate the spawning bug too but that's not what happened. This was, instead, a case of not be able to directly control a soldiers path being a problem. The goal was safe but the unit in question too a long and in front of the front line route to get there which triggered a Muton and a berserker. Sadly, looks like I won't get to finish the mission till tomorrow. So let the suspense keep building!

[Sareln]

dun dun dun!!

[haphazard1]

I am not especially interested in the DLC, although I will probably get it eventually. If it is necessary for the SG for everyone to have it, I guess I can go ahead and pick it up.

For suspense, we will have to see. Will we lose our first player avatar?

[Brian Shanahan]

Also, mission is half played. A bad situation became terrible but then became ok because of a game bug. However, you lurker's who's avatars are snipers.... it's bad form to take joy in someone's misfortune, but...

Schadenfreude may be the lowest form of morals, but it also is the second-highest form of intelligence.

[dazedroyalty]

Report time!

So the first thing I did was promote Xenin. Rapid fire seems to be the favorite and I concur:



We come to the end of the month and get, as expected, a great report card:



I do a couple of housekeeping things.





Sniper rifle is the ONLY plasma weapon that we absolutely have to build so I went ahead and built one since we didn't have one. Less than a day into the new month, we detect a UFO:



It's a small UFO so I decide to bring all units that need to be promoted. Then I realize I want a Support that can use the medikit three times, so I decide to bring along Haphazard, resulting in this squad:



Sending the troops out, I land and see this:



The squad slowly works its way forward going into overwatch and staying together. I wasn't taking pictures because it wasn't that interesting. Then suddenly things got interesting. On my second to last move of the turn, Catwalk runs the LONG way around a tree to get into cover and triggers a Muton and a Beserker:



Unfortunately, the position of the muton leaves a number of our units in potentially exposed situations. Fortunately, the last soldier left is our Support:



In the interturn, the Beserker charges:



But to no avail:



Dazed takes a reaction shot and fares better:



Commodore fails:



The Beserker ends his turn right next to Catwalk. No problem. He'll die easy next turn! But wait, there's still a Muton out there. He flanks Catwalk and takes a shot:





Crap! Crap! What can we say, poor catwalk? It was your own fault for running the long way around.

I will spare you the tedious screenshots, but when the alien activity finally comes to an end, the RB troops set to the task of clearing out that Beserker before he goes to town on a comrade. Soldier after soldier misses, however and I am starting to get really frustrated until I check F1:



I forgot that enemy troops benefit from Smoke Grenades too! And in this case, it was Dense smoke! Crap! Crap! Dazed has titan armor and could survive a beserker attack but Comodore and Xenin could easily be taken out in simple Carapace Armor. I'd been saving Haphazard's move for last. I don't think I can kill either the Muton or the Beserker with confidence so Haphazard attempts to minimize the damage that is sure to come in the interturn:



It works on the Muton:



The Beserker though...



What? He did nothing? YES! Troops saved by random alien-does-nothing bug that occurs from time to time. I've seen a few posts at 2K Forums about how it's possible to exploit this bug on purpose but I definitely didn't do that here. I was fully expecting another death. In fact, it feels a little cheap that no one died. But, it can't be undone. Dazed takes a shot and hits which causes the Muton to charge which triggers Dazed's close and personal (i think that's what it's called) for a second free shot:



Pindicator shoots the Muton and hits, but no one else can get him so I set Haphazard to Suppress again. In the interturn, the muton shots and misses Pindicator and so I run Pindicator right up for the killing shot:



Survived the first encounter with a dose of bad luck to start and then some terrible luck that was negated by a bug. Not a great encounter. Let's see if we can make up for it.

The very next interturn, another Muton and Beserker charge into view:



Commodore hits the muton for five damage! Woot! Then he pulls out the rocket:



I used shredder rocket to make it easier to kill the beserker but immediately after clicking realized I should have used the regular rocket since that would have killed the Muton completely. Fortunately, luck is on our side this time. Dazed starts with a Rapid fire hoping to hit once but manages to hit both shots!



Xenin then runs and guns to finish off the Muton. His odds of hitting are terrible and I realize he's victim of the flanking bug:





There should be 0 cover bonus and a huge Crit bonus, but it doesn't matter:



We slowly move toward the ufo and I begin to come to the conlusion that the Sectoid Commanders are all that is left. And, there they are:



Xenin is the only one in their LoS so I have him throw a grenade and plan to let him be mindcontrolled to keep the Commanders occupied while I charge in and kill them. Oddly, they don't even try to and at the next turn, this is what I see:





One Commander is really close the other far away. I work the close one down to 2 health and send in Haphazard:





Yes! Captured a Commander!

I leave Xenin exposed again to let him be Mind Control bait. He manages to hit the 2nd Commander first, though!



Dazed Runs and Guns to Rapid fire:





Mission over!





Sorry for the brevity of the report, but I'm running late tonight and want to get it to you before the night ends. Hopefully the pictures tell the story well enough to get a sense of what happened. I'm pretty sure I'm now the biggest killer of our troops with a grand total of three soldiers falling under my watch.

The Save.

[spellman]

I'm pretty sure I'm now the biggest killer of our troops with a grand total of three soldiers falling under my watch.

Oh please. Firstly, deaths make things exciting. Too many reports these past few days have involved perfect play and routine DEATH TO ALL ALIENS. I feel like you guys aren't scared of the Alien menace anymore!.

Secondly, put me on the rotation if you want to see catastrophic deaths tolls.