XCOM: Enemy Unknown aka the one where Haphazard dies repeatedly

[dazedroyalty]

Well played! I'm impressed with our excellence squad management. I'lll do my best to get the save today. It's a busy one but I should be able to find time to squeeze it in somewhere. I agree with most all the comments others have made so I'll be going straight to lasers, giving Sprinter and Squad sight, etc. etc.

If the next mission is the council mission, I hope it isn't Anna Sing at the fountain. I hate that one!

[xenin]

Well played! I'm impressed with our excellence squad management. I'lll do my best to get the save today. It's a busy one but I should be able to find time to squeeze it in somewhere. I agree with most all the comments others have made so I'll be going straight to lasers, giving Sprinter and Squad sight, etc. etc.

If the next mission is the council mission, I hope it isn't Anna Sing at the fountain. I hate that one!

I think the rescue the general one is more annoying. You're funnelled into this tiny line which makes it hard to flank, and then at the far end there are a couple of sectoids with a massive high ground advantage. But they all share the infuriating "I'M OVER HERE. HELP ME" unavoidable mini cutscene every goddamn turn.

[uberfish]

By far the worst maps are the graveyards which don't have anywhere near enough space or available cover to fight in, with the Fountain Plaza and the Pier rescue mission with the contamination guy being next on the list of maps I don't want to see - I've never gotten through the pier mission without deaths.

Rescue the general can also be annoying. A well placed rocket to the other side of the trench can often solve the problem on that map though

[xenin]

bonus screenshot: why rookies suck.

[Brian Shanahan]

As regards my avatar, Irish nationality, with blue hair and gold beard (if possible).

Good job on the first mission.

[haphazard1]

The first three missions (that Uberfish and I have now played) are not too bad. Sectoids are only showing up in pairs rather than the threes they will generally have for most of the game, and there is nothing but sectoids until the outsider in the UFO -- and it is by itself. With a little luck (which I kind of got and kind of didn't, my avatar missing that flanking shot was bad but the sectoid that wounded dazed could easily have done a lot more damage or even killed him with a crit) things can go OK.

From here on out the missions get tougher. The council mission will almost certainly involve thin men, who are nasty opponents at this stage when we do not yet have any improved gear. A couple scopes could be helpful, as well as a medkit or two (at least one, in case it becomes necessary to cure a VIP of poison). This means no (or fewer) grenades, but on classic a grenade will not kill a thin man anyway so I think it is worth it.

On maps, I don't really mind the graveyards. There is a fair bit of cover (most of it low cover, admittedly), and it is open enough for a squad sight sniper (which we now have) to be highly effective. The collapsed bridge one with the general is a pain, mostly due to the enemies on the high ground at the far end -- like uberfish I generally save at least one rocket for handling those pesky aliens. The former captive lady on the map with the big fountain is not too bad, although you have to be careful not to activate groups on both sides of the central area at the same time or you can get flanked and overwhelmed.

My personal worst map is actually the first one uberfish played this game -- the bridge with the toll booth partway along it. I have played this map three times (in three different games) and have lost at least two soldiers each time. It is just too easy to activate multiple groups of aliens. Of course, each time I played those maps it was later and the aliens were mutons rather than sectoids...twice it was that game's first encounter with mutons. Nasty.

I agree with switching research to Beam Weapons immediately and not waiting on Xeno Biology to finish. We decided on getting lasers first so let's go for them as quickly as possible, and leave containment and arc throwers until later. I also agree with Sareln that we should be planning for the OTS -- with three corporals already we should be able to get a sergeant and grab the first squad size upgrade. Maybe we should start a standard power plant? Otherwise the OTS will consume all our available power and we won't be able to start anything else when we want it (probably a sat uplink next month).

[dazedroyalty]

I played this before the last couple bits of discussion so I didn't build a power generator. Instead, I built a workshop to get the engineers up in order to work towards more efficient builds (engineers lower build costs) and eventually more satellites. I didn't see the need to build a power generator until we need a power generator. Also, I built two scopes. Then it was off to do some scanning:



Three days later:



Abductions! This is good because I didn't really want to do a council misison. I'm not a fan of the council missions, to be honest. So... what should we do? Our three options were:

I was debating between the scientists or the money. I generally would have taken the money hands down, but we're currently sitting at 24 days to finish Beam Weapons which is just TOO long. Also, that brings up a question I had. Does increasing scientists affect the tech time on in progress research or only new research. I hope it's both but I've never paid close attention.



Since I was out injured, I renamed our other Assault to Sareln. It's a chick but I wanted to get the turn players in first. I tentatively selected crazy hair color. By the way, do we all have the Elite Soldier customization pack? If not, I wonder how the game will handle sharing saves. I gave a scope to the Sniper (DUH) but also to the Support. I'd rather hit more shots than use a 1-off grenade, personally. I'm a big fan of avoiding explosives unless necessary. Later on, I use them a lot to destroy cover but on classic they also kill sectoids which destroys my coveted fragments. So, I'm usually pretty okay with not bringing many. I usually only equip my heavy with grenades. I would have built a medikit if this was a council mission (THINMEN!) but it wasn't so I didn't see it being that important.



Ugh. I've played the game enough to have gotten to know most of hte maps, but I know this one REALLY well. I know all the spawn points which makes it significantly less challenging. (The lack of random maps hurts, but what hurts even more is the whole promised "random spawn points" that turns out to be pathetically not true). That's gonna make this mission a lot easier.



The first move is to just move up into cover and overwatch. I know nothing will attack but I also know I can't get into good position to reveal anythign without dashing.



Surprise! Uberfish finds some sectoids behind the shed. I would NEVER have seen that coming! I take a look at my options:



This turns out to be the best shot I can get. So, I take it.



Success!



Sareln ends up missing his (her?) 41% shot though so I have Haphazard provide extra cover:



Everyone else goes into overwatch and the silly sectoid decides to move instead of shoot:



Which is too bad for him since Ug the Barbarian Sniper is on overwatch. The overwatch penalty means nothing to Ug, and he connects!



Immediately after that, two sectoids patrol into sight. The pictures tell the story:







Nice! Squaddies hitting on their Overwatch shots is a pretty darn good thing! In fact, Sareln comes through again:







Two more Sectoids in the distance on patrol:



but Ug misses his 68% shot:



Fortunately, I've got all the troops in high cover so the sectoids don't get anyone on their turn:





This turn, Ug's 68% shot get's different results:



And Haphazard's scope powered shot brings us home:







Before we go on, I have to say we got EXTREMELY luck once again. I've rarely had so many overwatch shots hit and so many coinflip regular shots hit. Now, this mission was extra easy because there's plenty of good high cover and I knew where the aliens would appear. Also, this feels easier to me because I've been working my way through my first game on Impossible where Sectoids have higher health (4 vs 3) which makes them MUCH harder to kill. That said, I do wonder if we should step up to Impossible....

Good news: this mission unlocked the OTS:



Based on this:



"Prototype" huh? I'm not sure how we should do nicknames. We gotta come up with some cool way to pick nicknames. Suggestions?

I'll post the save in a moment. I'm also working on resizing the pictures, so if it's bothering you, they should be made more manageable soon. I prefer reports with lots of pictures but if this was too many, let me know.

[dazedroyalty]

And, here's the save!

[dazedroyalty]

Triple post, sorry! With the money from the Abduction we should be able to build the OTS if that's what we want, assuming we have enough power. I'd put it in the top left corner in that case, since that isn't an essential space for anythign else.

[Ug the Barbarian]

Well done - looks like all the good luck is being used up and its up to me to kill some of our soldiers

Got the save and will try and play in about 10hrs