XCOM SG Signup and Rule discussion?

[uberfish]

Yeah the laser rifle is a fine weapon against sectoids/floaters. It conserves heavy plasma ammo (which isn't in unlimited supply until later) and takes slightly less TUs to fire.

Another underrated weapon is the rocket launcher, I like having one around for blowing up buildings in farmland/terror sites if there's no rocket tank with the squad. Yes, grenades can blow up buildings too but you can't follow up a grenade on the same turn.

[antisocialmunky]

Yeah, but I don't think your armor becomes strong enough to shrug off rockets and you're going to be fighting in increasingly tighter quarters. :\ Unlike TFTD where your gas cannon becomes a very good late game melee weapon. (Equip a person with it and some other weapon since accuracy doesn't matter - yell rocket punch when attacking with it)

You should demonstrate the utility of the rocket.

[haphazard1]

I agree that the rocket launcher has its uses. Especially early before you have plasma weapons or alien grenades it is the biggest direct damage weapon available.

Our tanks have had a tendency to die in their first combats but we still have a supply of tank rocket ammo in stores. So you could combine using HWP with using rockets if you wanted.

[antisocialmunky]

We're probably going to need some high explosives once we hit the snakemen terror missions. Those Chryssalids will only come out in the open if someone has no TUs, isn't covered, or is too far away so killing cover really diminishes the chances for a zombie outbreak.

[Ug the Barbarian]

Dazed - hard luck with the landing zone. I still think it would be nice to use Skyranger pilots for the 'first in the door' role. Might persuade them not to land so close in future

antisocialmunky - UP
Ug - on deck
Uberfish
haphazard1
dazedroyalty

[haphazard1]

Ug,

I believe ASM indicated he should be skipped until the weekend. So you are now up, assuming you have time to play before the weekend.

[Ug the Barbarian]

Ug,

I believe ASM indicated he should be skipped until the weekend. So you are now up, assuming you have time to play before the weekend.

Ok I'll see if I can find time later today to play

[The ShiningOne]

ShiningOne steps out and finally takes that bugger down! No more troops move out, leaving shiningOne and Cyneheard kneeling by the wheels for coverage.

Interturn:

Alien fire takes down ShiningOne.

Noooooo! Well, at least I sent some alien scum to an early grave before I met my ultimate demise. In the grand scheme of things ShiningOne 1.0 barely made a scratch in the alien ranks, but I foresee him being just the prototype of a long line of killing machines.

Feel free to send my avatars out to die horrible deaths as often as required.

[Ug the Barbarian]

A sadly mis-used lunch break leads to :

Ok a quick review of our situation - its now 22nd March 1999.
Our Base


Once the living quarters to the right is complete, we'll need to build something above or below it. The reason is we'll be
deleting the two radar arrays to save maintenance once the Hyperwave decoder is complete. We can't do that if the living quarters
isn't linked to the rest of the base. I'd suggest an extra general stores unless we happen to research something else (e.g. Plasma
Defence, Psi Lab, Grav Shield) soon.
Our current monthly costs


As you can see, our science research is expensive but extremely useful at this point in the game.
I see off some extra bits & build our third base in mid North America. Funds still healthy at $3.3m
Update Skyranger loadout again to 14 soldiers. Equipment allows for 2 Grenadiers, 4 Heavy Plasma soldiers and remainder on laser
rifles. All now in Personal Armour.
Picked Serdoa and Meiz as grenadiers; Dazed, DaveV, ManbehindMask and Regoarrarr for heavy plasmas - all based on attributes.

Advance time and I get unlucky again - terror strike


At least I get there in daylight this time
We start at the NW end of the map

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Fire&Ice v2 off first and spots two sectoids immediately


He fires a burst and a snapshot at the sectoid between the buildings but only wounds it. Rotating further he spots another sectoid
with its back to us west of the Skyranger and a cyberdisk in the little park to the south.
Uberfish disembarks next going east. No aliens spotted that way.
Cyneheard jumps down and shoots the first sectoid dead but misses the wounded one.
Serdoa follows Uberfish and primes an alien grenade. Dazed follows Cyneheard and snapshoots both sectoids down.
Others move up to disembark - we'll have to risk the cyberdisk between turns

Hidden - multiple alien movement south of the building to our west. Shot from there kills Uberfish. Alien Grenade thrown into
building to our east, exploding & killing civilian.

Serdoa throws alien grenade next to cyberdisk. It fires three reaction shots, the third one hits Serdoa and kills him.
Ug moves west and spots another cyberdisk in the park


Dazed kneels and fires two autobursts at it. 3 hits from his heavy plasma cause it to drop and explode.
For lurkers, this is why cyberdisks are bad news at close range


Haphazard1 goes east and spots three more aliens - two sectoids and a cyberdisk


He shoots and kills the one to the north.
Meiz follows him and drops a smoke grenade between the aliens and the skyranger (it was what he had ready)

Hidden - alien grenade explodes but doesn't kill cyberdisk. It fires at us but misses. Smoke grenade goes off ok. Two aliens pop
around south side of building to our west and throw grenades. However both hit the building and bounce back exploiding at the end
of the turn and killing at least one of them.
DaveV gets attacked by psionics and panics, dropping his weapon and running east towards the aliens.

Dazed shoots the damaged cyberdisk which falls without exploding. Meiz throws an alien grenade over the smoke cloud.

Hidden - grenade explodes and alien death scream heard. Still alien movement south of west building.

Cyneheard moves south trying to spot the alien around the building. He does but it shoots him twice, critically wounding him. His
return automatic burst kills the sectoid.
Others move up to assist him. DaveV has recovered from his panic but I'm not about to give him a weapon. I advance him east, re-
aquiring the cyberdisk there and spotting another sectoid.
ManbehindMask engaged the cyberdisk with a heavy plasma burst, downing & exploding it. Haphazrd1 misses the sectoid with two aimed
shots (needs more practice obviously). Regoarrarr does no better, missing with three snapshots @60% so ManbehindMask finishes it
off as well.

Hidden - DaveV attracts more attention. A grenade is thrown at him but falls short and explodes without harming him. A shot from
the east misses him (and luckily everyone else behind him). Cyneheard falls unconcious from his wounds.

Ug moves over to Cyneheards prostrate form and applies first aid whist fire&ice, dazed and ASM provide cover.
ManbehindMask snapshots alien to the east. DaveV advances further, skirting the smoke from explosions.

Hidden - alien pops out from behind smoke and shoots DaveV in the chest but his armour stops the plasma completely.

Haphazard tries two more aimed shots, hitting with one. Regoarrarr tries three more snapshots and finally gets it. Cyneheard
regains conciousness, picks up his laser rifle and painfully limps back towards the Skyranger. As DaveV is a good distance from
the others, I finally allow him to pickup a heavy plasma from one of the dead aliens.

Hidden - no visible action - hurrah

South end of map spotted so likely remaining aliens likely to be in SE corner. Fan out to investigate.

Hidden - grenade and shots from SE. Ug and Dazed slightly shaken by blast but otherwise unharmed.

Sectoid spotted to SE. Ug misses it twice so Sullla burns off the top of its head with an aimed laser blast.
Haphazard1 advances SE and spots another sectoid. Regoarrarr shoots at it twice. The first shot hits it but the second gets
Haphazard1 in the back & kills him. ManbehindMask picks it off with another snapshot.

Hidden - no visible aliens

Fire&Ice spots a seemingly unarmed alien as he advances.


However...

Hidden - it pulls out a heavy plasma and shoots at fire&ice, luckily missing both shots. Reaction laser fire from various soldiers
puts him down and the mission ends.



Recruited three replacements and set manufacturing to Medikitsx4. We'll need more personal armour after that.
Cyneheard is actually slowly turning into a reasonable soldier - pity he's now wounded for 33 days.

[Ug the Barbarian]

Haphazard - apologies for slaying your avatar. I took a slight risk with a shot and it 'backfired' so to speak.

MVP for this mission - definitely ManbehindMask

Also noticed that we captured a Small Launcher & stun bomb on the mission - more research projects to be fitted in somewhere.

When UFO Power source completes, research needs switching to Elerium-115 to allow power suits.

Save attached below