Eyes on FF Plays XCOM: Enemy Within!

[Skyblade]

So, my last XCOM Let's Play was very successful, but I had to quit it due to stressing over the strategic game too much, to the point that I basically psyched myself out of playing for fear of getting a Game Over. This would have been especially bad, since the Let's Play was basically focusing on the tactical game, and you can only actually lose on the strategic level, so it wouldn't even have been that interesting of a loss.

Still, after picking up the expansion pack, Enemy Within, I've decided to give it another go. They have tweaked the strategic game to make it easier (mostly by introducing alternatives to Abduction missions, which are the only things that can really screw you over), they've tweaked the tactical game to make it harder, and they have added a host of new features that will allow for even greater interactivity with the forum members taking part. There are more weapon options (EXALT weaponry looks awesome, pity they don't get Plasma). There are more appearance options. And there are more ability and specialization options.

I'm also quite willing to cheat for resources to take the edge off if it starts to wear on me again, because, as I said, it's the tactical game that's the focus of the Let's Play, and how our brave EoFFers do on the field of battle.


At this point, I'll be accepting sign ups again, so feel free to post.Anyone who shows interest will be given a soldier to customize how they see fit. You can put as much or as little effort into it as you please. Take note, however, that the more interest you show in the playthrough, the more likely your soldier is to be used on a mission.

As the missions progress, I will offer summaries of combat, details of character deaths, promotions, kills, and MVP status for each mission.




What follows is a brief list of things I will offer you control over during this playthrough:

Character name
Character nickname
Class
Gender
Customization
Equipment
Specialization (MEC Soldier or Genetically Engineered)
Abilities
Genetic Modifications
MEC Loadout

Show an interest, and you'll get a Soldier. But you can provide all of the above if you so desire.




A detailed explanation follows:




---Character name: The game allows customization of first and last name, and spaces are allowed if you want to set up middle names (provided they aren't too long).



---Character nickname: Upon promotion to Sergeant, your fellow troopers award your character a nickname. This too can be changed to what you desire. In combat, it's displayed above a character's name, in the Barracks, it's displayed between the first and last name, as in Skyblade "nickname" Darkstar (and, yes, the quotes are included, so you can't just use it as a middle name).



---Character class: Each Recruit is randomly assigned a class, which is not revealed until that Recruit is promoted to the first rank (Squaddie). I'm quite willing to burn through Rookies until we find a class that fits you, but until we get the automatic promotion, it may take a battle or two to find a unit of a particular class.



- Sniper - My personal favorite, devoted to dealing death from long range. It is also the class most likely to use pistols, as the main Sniper Rifle deals less damage as enemies get closer, and cannot be fired after moving (unless you grab a particular perk, which I'll cover later). So the Snipers will likely switch to their sidearm if enemies get too close or they get a really good flanking opportunity. But, in general, they'll be in the rear, nailing things from a distance.

- Support - Don't let the name or Medkit perks fool you, Support is far more than just a medic. One of the most versatile classes, Support has access to smoke grenades (which act as extra cover, and can be buffed with higher ranks), improved medkits, and improved Overwatch and Suppression, which are some of the most tactically versatile abilities in the game. You can play as a medic if you want, but Fire Support is an important job, and these guys are fantastic at it.

- Heavy - The demolitions expert. This guy is the primary area of effect damage dealer. Three main focuses are rockets, grenades, and Suppression. While Support gets a more versatile Suppression, Heavies can get a more powerful version, and can buff it to affect more enemies. They also have the ability to wield rockets, dealing heavy damage and destroying cover, as well as expanding the number of grenades they carry and the range of said grenades.

- Assault - The shock troopers. These guys can wield one of two primary weapons, the standard Assault Rifle, and the Shotgun. They favor a very high risk-reward mechanic. They shine in being up close and personal, but if things go bad, they can die quickly. They get several perks that increase crit and survivability when in close range and facing multiple enemies, as well as abilities that let them rush up close to easily flank and still shoot when they're done.



---Gender: Character gender, similar to class, is randomly assigned, at about a 50/50 ratio, so I'm also willing to burn through troops to get a particular gender + class combo.



---Customization: You will get to control how your character looks. Describe overall looks (hair color, skin color, etcetera), armor color, whether you wear a helmet, all the good stuff. I'll provide pictures and try to oblige as much as the game will let me. You can also give me exact instructions if you have your own copy and know what the options are.



---Equipment: What equipment is available will be determined by how my research progresses in the strategy game, and to some extent what I can capture by stunning aliens instead of killing them. But whatever I have available, you can pick.



---Specialization: As we play through, we're going to acquire Meld. This can be used to either give Soldiers Genetic Modifications, adding some powerful new passive abilities to them, or to build them MEC suits that turn them into living tanks. The choice will be yours.



---Abilities: Each class has an ability tree. When they are first promoted to Squaddie, they get a set perk (Sniper gets Headshot, which increases Critical Hit chance, but has a two turn cooldown. Support gets Smoke Grenade which increases the evasion of units in the smoke cloud by 20%, but can only carry one per mission. Heavy gets a Rocket Launcher which blows stuff up once a mission. And Assault Soldiers get Run and Gun, which lets them dash [take two moves] and still shoot). Every rank after that, with the exception of Major, the second to last rank, gives them a choice of two perks. You can take one or the other, and which you take is up to you. I'll provide a link to the full list of perks for each class later. Please note that changing to a MEC trooper eliminates your previous tree and gives you a new one, though you do gain a special passive ability depending on which class you were when you changed to a MEC trooper.



---Genetic Modifications: There are five types of gene mods, and each has two choices. So you can choose which mods you want to pick up to buff your Soldier.



---MEC Loadout: In addition to getting a new ability tree, MEC Soldiers get MEC suits instead of standard equipment. These suits are custom built, and can have up to three abilities. You can choose what your suit can do (and you can later switch to another suit if you don't like it).

Things I will not be offering control of: Country of Origin (randomly assigned from about 30 diffrent countries, not going to wait for a particular combination to show up, odds are about 232 to 1 to get a particular class/gender/country setup, assuming even distribution of genders), Psi Powers (these aren't discovered until late game, and are really rare. If you have Psi proficiency once it's uncovered, yay for you. Otherwise, tough patooties [though if I have a spare Psi soldier not in use, I might let you switch to it]).

If your soldier dies, you can sign up to get a replacement if you so desire. And remember, participation is the key to making this fun. :D

[Psychotic]

Character name
Psychotic McWalrus
Character nickname
Psychotic
Class
Heavy
Gender
Male
Customization
Generic looking white dude in light blue armour. Can have brown details on the armour too.
Specialization (MEC Soldier or Genetically Engineered)
Tank me up, baby

[Quindiana Jones]

I know sod all about this series, but this is very much a game I wanted to play but never got round too. I'm thoroughly looking forward to following this! :D

[Slothy]

Stick me in as a Sniper please. Just a generic white guy, green armour preferred.

[Iceglow]

Character name
Iceglow Avernius Maccaroth Stark (the 3rd)
Character nickname
Iceglow
Class
Sniper
Gender
Male
Customization
White dude, brown mo-hawk (if possible if not generic white male) Black/Dark grey armour with light blue/grey markings

The rest I leave up to you.

[DK]

Guess I will post a more detailed profile here! But yeah I'm down again.

Character name: Ronnie Coleman
Character nickname: Meaty Thigh
Class: Assault all the way baby
Gender: Male
Customization: http://www.celebritymeasurement.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Ronnie-Coleman-Body.jpg

Pink and black armour if possible, helmets are for babies so none of that mess
Equipment: Shotgun, preferably a big angry one
Specialization: Whatever it was you had that punched things across rooms

[Skyblade]

I feel I should warn you, DK. While becoming a MEC Trooper does make you incredibly powerful, and the most intimidating class in the game, it also requires getting your limbs hacked off and replaced by cybernetic bits. :D

Anyway, we have enough for a starter team, so here we go. Since we have some people unfamiliar with XCOM, I'll be starting with a summary of what's going on.



XCOM Mission Files
July 12th, 2014

The XCOM Project is a multi-national initiative meant to combat threats to humanity as a whole. Evidence collected during the 1960s indicated the possible presence of unknown entities attacking various nations across the world. However, as the XCOM Project was developed and planned, the identified foes vanished as quickly as they appeared.

Recently, however, there have been a string of further attacks around the globe. Far less subtle and more direct than the previous encounters, these new attacks appear to be a part of an extra terrestrial incursion. With the new threat on the rise, the Council of Nations has unanimously approved to activate the XCOM Project to counter this threat.

Funding will be drawn from the Council as supplied by its member nations, each of whom is free to distribute their support as they see fit. Soldiers will be drawn from the elite combat forces all over the world, to be assigned and deployed at the Commander's discretion.



With the Project approved, a base was constructed in North America, and the initial soldiers were gathered and assessed. Shortly thereafter, our first mission arrived. A local news broadcast in Baltimore indicated alien activity and abductions taking place. Our first team stepped into the Skyranger and took off, ready to locate and eliminate the threat.



-Operation Cursed Apollo-
Baltimore, Maryland, Unite States
3:19 AM


Our soldiers moved on a small diner, the bodies of civilians wrapped in a strange green fiber clear around them. Moving forward to the windows, the immediately encountered hostiles. Four small, gray, humanoid entities. Each was carrying what appeared to be a personal firearm. This was confirmed, as shortly after contact, the foes fired. Plasma tore across the battlefield, striking both Ronnie Coleman and Psychotic. Only two of the foes fired, however, with the others repositioning around the diner's service areas.

Our soldiers were quick to respond to the foes who remained visible, and the hail of gunfire tore into them. Psychotic, proving himself the veteran under fire that we all know him as, returned fire on the one which had shot him, splattering the little grey man's brain across the walls of the diner.

As Vivi moved up to eliminate the second foe, he caught sight of a small, orange canister on the battlefield. Clearly of alien origin, but also clearly not one of the abduction pods we had seen. Though of some interest, Vivi remained focused on the fight, and eliminated the second foe.

However, as our first foes fell, one of the others who had retreated came around the side of the building. The foe seemed somehow stronger than the others, but its fire missed, instead blowing away a wall of the diner. Fortunately, the Council has decreed that any and all collateral damage is acceptable. Our fourth soldier, a lady of no small intellect, noticed energy flowing to the alien from the rear of the diner. Wasting no time, she hurled a grenade towards the rear exit. When it exploded there was a scream as the foe fell, then a second as the energy that had been empowering the other visible foe seemed to reverse and tear into it.

With the battlefield secured, our forces claimed the canisters that had been left behind, noting that they had apparently been left on a time delay that would have rendered them nonfunctional had they not been removed from their housing. With the canisters and corpses secured for research, our foes headed back to base.



MVP: Psychotic, for staying calm under fire and earning a kill while lesser Rookies would have panicked.

Promotions:
Psychotic is promoted to Squaddie and dons his Heavy Machine Gun.
Vivi 22 is promoted to Squaddie, and trades out his lousy Assault Rifle for a precisionist's tool.
Paula Jones (whose name can be freely changed if anyone wants to play as her) is promoted to Squaddie and becomes a Support trooper.

Wounds:
Ronnie Coleman is out for 7 days with severe plasma burns.
Psychotic is out for 5 days with moderate plasma burns.

Sorry, guys. I used the grenade because I realized I was one turn slow on getting the Meld, and that stuff is valuable, especially once we learn some gene mods or unlock MEC troops. I couldn't see the alien that had initiated the psy-merge, so I just chucked a grenade in, which killed him. And killing a foe who has used Mind-Meld also kills the one it Melded with. Which is why Ronnie didn't get a shot at making a kill.

On the plus side, we now have several teammates ready, and more waiting. I might take some Rookies on the next mission to get some backups ready, if our two brave soldiers are still recuperating from their hangovers wounds when the next mission comes around.

[Christmas]

Character name: Christmas
Character nickname: Santarina
Class: Assault
Gender: Female
Customization: Generic female?
Pink and white armour if possible, helmets that look cute.
Equipment: Machine gun, rapid firing baby! No swords I guess?
Specialization: Mastery of the force? I am not sure. Just something generic I guess?

[Skyblade]

Character name: Christmas
Character nickname: Santarina
Class: Assault
Gender: Female
Customization: Generic female?
Pink and white armour if possible, helmets that look cute.
Equipment: Machine gun, rapid firing baby! No swords I guess?
Specialization: Mastery of the force? I am not sure. Just something generic I guess?

Well, we have a ton of females to go through (for the first time ever, I started with more females than male). So I'll happily get you an Assault female.

If you want to go Assault, your weapon choices are actually going to be between Shotgun and Assault Rifle (short range power, versus medium range reliability). There are no swords, but you can engage in melee if you choose to become a MEC trooper.
Mastery of the force would pretty much be Psionics, but they're rare, and unavailable until mid game. We'll have to see if you can get them.

Don't worry, I'll present you the other customization options you can get as you level up, and we'll see how your character can shape up. Don't forget to pick a last name too!


Anyway, back to the game, and sure enough, 3 days later, we get a new mission.


-Operation Crystal Whisper-
Brisbane, Australia
1:28 AM

Our forces set down on a major freeway. Cars and more civilian bodies littered the visible terrain, but there was as yet no sign of our foes. Our newly appointed squad leader, Vivi, had the others advance, knowing that he'd be relegated to his pistol if a foe was encountered.

We found another Meld canister before even encountering any foes, and our forces collected it to provide our research team with more samples. Paula then encountered two more of the little grey aliens (whom our soldiers have decided to call "Sectoids" until R&D gives them an official name). Not wanting to face them as the lead soldier, she fell back, and the rest of the squad turtled up into Overwatch, ready to attack anyone who came into view.

However, the foes chose not to attack, so our squad advanced cautiously. Paula spotted the first one again, this time choosing to extract a few pounds of flesh with her assault rifle. Vivi moved forward, but missed with his pistol. As the alien took a wild shot that passed clean through the windows of a police car, Vivi put his pistol away and took out his shiny new Sniper Rifle, and demonstrated his skilled technique by drilling a shot straight through the critter's braincase.

The second Sectoid came back into view, but merely tried to reposition without taking shots at anyone. Paula drilled a few shots through its face, and the rest of the team moved up in formation, with the Rookies taking the lead, eager to show they could stand with the rest of the force.

This proved to be a slight mistake, as they immediately stumbled into four Sectoids. The team was in solid cover positions, but they'd ranged too far from Vivi for him to offer effective support. The first plasma bolt sailed harmlessly overhead, but now the team had to adapt to an uneven battle.

As Vivi dashed into a flanking position, our Rookies fell apart, missing with their shots, and Paula did the same. The aliens, however, finally scoped in on the force, and a plasma shot ripped into Paula, her basic body armor barely slowing it down, though it was enough to keep her in the fight.

Though the aliens had shifted around, forcing Vivi to move to flank them again, he proved that was no deterrent, and calmly popped the Sectoid that shot Paula with his pistol, clearly trying to make up for his early failure.

Our previously over-enthusiastic Rookie (who I think was being trained as Ronnie's apprentice) rushed out of his solid cover within a semi-truck, getting a clear view on another Sectoid. While he startled the creature enough that its reaction fire missed, and he was able to put a handful of slugs into its body, ending its threat, he was left wide open for the final Sectoid.

Cursing the thoughtless fool, Vivi moved forward and fired off a couple more shots at that Sectoid, wounding it, but not taking it down. Its return fire at the errant Rookie, while it easily struck the wide-open Soldier, were fortunately of minimal effectiveness. The Rookie, realizing his idiocy, took cover behind a second Meld canister, collected it for the team, and then finished off the final threat.

MVP: Vivi, with two kills, including a very nice flanking pistol critical hit.

Promotions:
Ronnie Coleman is promoted to Squaddie, becoming an Assault soldier with his one kill, and grabs a Shotgun (I decided to use him instead of the original Ronnie, because he reached the Assault class sooner).
Marcel Wozniak, despite his idiotic charging ahead, is promoted to Squaddie as well, and becomes a second Heavy soldier.

Wounds: Paula is out of commission for seven days, as is Marcel.

Also, the team earned an Urban Combat medal. Medals are awarded to XCOM for team performance, who can then chooses who gets the individual medals. Each medal has a benefit for its recipient, which we can also choose (and we can rename the medal if we want).

Urban Combat has the choice between +5 Defense while in cover (reducing enemy chance to hit) or +5 Aim against enemies in cover (increasing our own chance to hit). Once chosen, this benefit will apply to all Urban Combat medals we get and award.

Also vote on a name for the medal. I won't award this one for a while, to give you guys time to give input.

58124

The team so far. I'm really glad that color customization now also affects weapons. :) Let me know if you don't like Ronnie's hat. Additionally, I have to point out, that while that moustache being the closest I could get to Vivi's avatar, it's also facial hair customization number 22. :D

I just finished researching S.C.O.P.E.s, so I equipped them to everyone, because they are far better than grenades, in my opinion. But if you guys want to carry grenades or medkits, let me know!


Raven 1 just shot down a U.F.O. It crashed in the US, appearing to be within a few hundred miles of XCOM HQ, which is a little worrying. But that's where our next trip will take us!

[Madame Adequate]

Character name: Daley Thompson
Character nickname: Mr. Adequate
Class: Assault
Gender: Male
Customization: As close to this beautiful man (https://encrypted.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=daley%20thompson&tbs=imgo:1#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=1Ekaewt4UJKU2M%253A%3BDNutoJaFcipE1M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.2uptop.com%252Fsites%252Fwww.2up top.com%252Fuploads%252Fimages%252FArticle%252520Pics%252Fsuperstars%252Fsuper_50.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%25 2F%252Fwww.2uptop.com%252Fnews%252FA-look-back-at-SUPERSTARS%252F%3B300%3B588) as possible
Equipment: Shotguns and armor
Specialization (MEC Soldier or Genetically Engineered): MEC

Abilities, Genetic Modifications, MEC Loadout: Everything that makes me more shotgunny and harder to kill.

[Slothy]

Additionally, I have to point out, that while that moustache being the closest I could get to Vivi's avatar, it's also facial hair customization number 22. :D

:smug:

Kicking ass and taking names. Can't wait to choose between gene tampering and hacking off my limbs. Hacking off my limbs sounds pretty sweet I must say.

If memory serves I believe there's a brighter shade of green in there somewhere. Could we change my armor to that brighter shade. I may be a sniper but camouflage be damned. A man wants to look good while he's killing aliens.

[DK]

ahahaha that hat is the best. also I approve of Ronnie picking up exactly where he left off last time and promptly getting burned to shit. the glory days are back son.

[Skyblade]

-Operation Secret Summer-
United States
3:00 AM

Another early morning mission for our brave soldiers.

Our forces advanced towards the crash site, but rather than stumbling across the aliens, the aliens stumbled across us. Four Sectoids strolled into our forces range. Vivi, already at point, had a clear shot at all of them, and didn't hesitate to show off his marksmanship, immediately downing the furthest foe with his fancy shooting (a 7 damage critical, without using Headshot, to an enemy with only 3 health).

Christmas jumped behind a tree to grab full cover, and mowed down a second Sectoid, while Psychotic strode purposefully up to a rock formation and ripped the third apart with heavy machinegun fire.

Not wanting to be outdone, Ronnie decided to Run and Gun as close as he could get to the final Sectoid (who was the only one behind heavy cover), and managed to shred it's body with a blast of 12-Gauge pellets.

Our troops advanced forward, spotting the UFO, and Ronnie rushed into it. Unfortunately, a new foe was waiting inside. A glowing orange crystal formed into an entity we hadn't seen before, and quickly moved to flank Ronnie.

Not wanting to leave her headstrong companion in jeopardy, Christmas rushed forward and let off a hail of shots that ricocheted harmlessly into the spacecraft. Vivi followed next, pulling out his pistol and putting a round into the creature, though to no noticeable effect (1 damage, woohoo!). Scoffing slightly, Psy lifted his machine gun and demonstrated how one properly dismantles an alien.

With the last foe silenced, our squad collected the Meld and called in a research team to analyze the artifacts from the ship.

MVP: Psychotic

Wounds: None

Promotions: Lucy (need a second name for you, Christmas!) Christmas became a Squaddie, and picked up a Sniper Rifle. Oh well, we'll get you another Rookie to play with. Plenty more to go through to find an Assault, trust me.

This mission started pretty much perfectly. Vivi scored with a 65% shot, Christmas with a 55%, Psy with a 57%, and Ronnie finished it off with a 67% blast (Shotgun close-range accuracy boost outweighed the heavy cover). Seriously awesome luck early on.

I never saw the Meld canisters, so I was in a bit of a hurry. I rushed Ronnie in specifically to uncover the Outsider. But he still had his second move, in case everyone missed, so I could shoot with him or run away (I probably would have taken the chance at the shot). But Psy's shooting meant that we didn't have to worry about that.

Unfortunately we didn't get a female Assault Soldier, so I have to go through another mission with Rookie Christmas (I can't wait until I can unlock New Guy).



The next few days passed without incident, allowing our Research team to finish their studies on Meld Recombination. This allowed us to finally unlock the potential of Meld, and begin building the Genetics Lab and Cybernetics Lab, the facilities we need to Genetically Engineer Soldiers, and craft the might MEC suits.

lfZAuDcWmc0

I began construction of the facilities immediately, so that we can begin building up our troops with the utterly game breaking benefits Meld can give us.

PS: I've given a hat to everyone now. Vivi has a beret, Christmas has a balaclava, and Psy has a simple knit hap. :D


Edit:

58125

My best Daley Thompson.

58126

Yay, hats. Except for Mr. Thompson. He gets actual hair instead.

So, new mission, another abduction.


-Operation Bleeding Hymn-
Manchester, United Kingdom
11:44 AM

Convinced we would eventually get a mission in the afternoon, our soldiers headed off to the UK, to stop some abductions in progress.

The Skyranger dropped our team off near the edge of a cemetery. Apparently the aliens though that the places we store our deceased also make the best places to collect the living.

Daley Thompson immediately spotted a Meld Canister, and demonstrated his fine running ability by dashing off to it. Unfortunately, he failed to spot the four Sectoids around it, so they had some time to get into cover. Vivi put a few quick pistol rounds into one, but it survived until our new Rookie Christmas managed to follow up the attack with her Assault Rifle.

The remaining Sectoids split up and retreated. Daley nabbed the Meld Canister and fired a few shots at one, but failed to kill it. Vivi tried again with his pistol, but missed by a wide margin. Ronnie, on the other hand, lowered his shotgun (too far away for any reasonable accuracy) and popped the Sectoid, finishing it off.

Another Sectoid retreated past the wall of the cemetery, while the last one joined two others inside a small shack. Vivi moved into position near the cemetery wall. Finally having a position stable enough to support his Sniper Rifle, he pulls out the big gun and fires a beautiful shot between two headstones and right into the alien. High cover means nothing to the Sniper.

Christmas and Ronnie closed on the gravekeeper's shack, perplexed as to why the aliens were staying inside. The two that were already there had never noticed us, but surely the one that ran away was warning them, right? Or were they just playing cards in there?

The alien card game allowed Daley to nab the second Meld canister, and allowed the entire team to close on the shack. Ronnie and Christmas flanked it, while Daley and Vivi approached head on. Finally catching the notice of the foes (I seriously never got the "we've noticed you" scene with these guys), one of them broke out the back of the shed while another dove into cover. Not that cover means anything to a well trained Sniper, as Vivi finished off that one quickly.

Daley took a long shot at the Sectoid remaining in the doorway, and managed to eliminate it as well, leaving just the runner left to go. Ronnie and Christmas closed on the doorway, hoping to catch the creature before it could get away and flank the team.

Vivi heard noises coming from the rear of the cemetery, and pulled back incase we had been outflanked. Ronnie, eager to nab the final Sectoid, rushed outside the back of the shed, getting into a good high cover position... Not noticing that the Sectoid was waiting on Overwatch just behind it. Despite being a large target, the Sectoid missed the might Coleman, who then placed his shotgun to the creature's fragile skull and squeezed the trigger, ending the mission.

MVP: Daley, for nabbing both canisters and getting a kill on a 35% shot.

Wounds: Again, none. Woohoo!

Promotions:
Vivi 22 is promoted to Corporal
Daley Thompson is promoted to Squaddie, and becomes a Sniper (dangit, need a new Daley)
Christmas is promoted to Squaddie and becomes a Heavy (and a new Christmas. Unless she really wanted to wield Machine Guns)

Vivi gets the first ability choice. At Corporal, Snipers can choose between Snap Shot and Squad Sight. Snap Shot allows a Sniper to move and then fire, the way most Soldiers can automatically, but take an Aim penalty of 10 (which is much better than the -20 it used to be). They can also move and then enter Overwatch, which is quite handy. Squad Sight allows them to fire their Sniper Rifle at any foe that any squad member can see (provided that no terrain blocks the shot), which is another absolutely fantastic ability.

Also, we have our second medal! The International Service Cross. We also got a second Urban Combat Badge (which you guys still need to vote on).

The International Service Cross can provide either +2 Will for every different nationality on the team (leading to a maximum bonus of +12 if all six are different), or +2 Aim for each continent bonus XCOM has secured, leading to a maximum possible +10 Aim.

What bonuses do you want the Urban Combat Badge and International Service Cross to carry? And should we leave them named that, or rename them to our liking?

Finally, I just finished the Cybernetics Lab and Genetics Lab. Next time we'll start modifying our soldiers!

[Loony BoB]

Character name: Loony BoB
Character nickname: BoB. If that's too short, then Newbie.
Class: Assault or Heavy, depending on what you prefer using and what positions are most available.
Gender: Male, please xD
Customization: Brown hair/eyes, caucasian, armour can be blue/grey/green/black, I guess. Any of those.

Equipment: Your choice.

Perks:
If Assault...
Corporal: Tactical Sense
Sergeant: Lightning Reflexes
Lieutenant: Rapid Fire
Captain: Close Combat Specialist
Major (no choice): Extra Conditioning
Colonel: Resilience

If Heavy...
Corporal: Bullet Swarm
Sergeant: Shredder Rocket
Lieutenant: HEAT Ammo
Captain: Danger Zone
Major (no choice): Will to Survive
Colonel: Rocketeer

Genetic Modifications:
Assault: Neural Damping (if early game), Neural Feedback (mid to late game) / Hyper Reactive Pupils / Secondary Heart / Bioelectric Skin / Adaptive Bone Marrow
Heavy: Neural Dampening (if early to mid game), Neural Feedback (late game) / Hyper Reactive Pupils / Secondary Heart / Bioelectric Skin / Adaptive Bone Marrow
MEC Loadout: I have no idea.

[Psychotic]

Hell yes MVP!

[Slothy]

Squad sight is OP so of course I'll go with that.

[Pheesh]

Character name: Hingle McCringleBerry
Character nickname: "The Pringle"
Class: Support
Gender: Male
Customization: like this (https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-CiCKyPtuW7o/AAAAAAAAAAI/AAAAAAAAABk/8SJYHqWkmaw/photo.jpg)
Equipment: Red armor with a bit of white, no helmet.
Spec: Genetically engineered

and when the time comes I'd like him to be fire support, so do whatever you gotta do to make him like that.

[Christmas]

Haha, I don't seem to be wielding any weapons in the picture but who cares. I got promoted!! lol. :kaoclove:

[Madame Adequate]

Daley Thompson is exactly as beautiful as I had hoped

[Skyblade]

Character name: Hingle McCringleBerry
Character nickname: "The Pringle"
Class: Support
Gender: Male
Customization: like this (https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-CiCKyPtuW7o/AAAAAAAAAAI/AAAAAAAAABk/8SJYHqWkmaw/photo.jpg)
Equipment: Red armor with a bit of white, no helmet.
Spec: Genetically engineered

and when the time comes I'd like him to be fire support, so do whatever you gotta do to make him like that.

Fire Support is my second favorite class. Too many people see them as medic, but a class that has both Suppression and can take multiple shots in Overwatch is really quite powerful.


Haha, I don't seem to be wielding any weapons in the picture but who cares. I got promoted!! lol. :kaoclove:

You're holding an Assault Rifle, but you're holding it alongside your leg, so it's kind of blending in.



Anyway, it's time to begin the first of the new customization options.

We're going to start with Ronnie, just so that you guys can get an idea of what a MEC trooper entails.

Ronnie is going to get his limbs hacked off, which sort of makes him no longer an Assault Trooper. However, he does bring his Assault knowledge to his MEC trooper status, which allows him to gain a special passive ability. This ability "Shock-Absorbent Armor" means that the MEC trooper receives 33% less damage from any enemies within 4 tiles.

Amputating his limbs and installing cyber-suit interfaces takes 3 days.



For Genetic Engineering, we'll be using Loony BoB as a heavy, just so that we can give a feel for the process (since I have no male Assault or Support guys currently, except for Ronnie, who is getting his limbs hacked off as we speak).

Although there are a fair few genetic mods available, we only start with a handful. We get immediate access to both Eye mods, and we have one of the two leg mods.

The choices for Eyes are between Hyper-Reactive Pupils and Depth Perception.
Hyper-Reactive Pupils grants +10 Aim after the Soldier misses a shot. Depth Perception grants +5 Aim and +5% Crit chance if the soldier is higher than the foe (it's really good for Snipers, and not of much use to anyone else, as there is rarely that much of a height difference with the limited range of the other classes).

Loony BoB chose Hyper-Reactive Pupils, so we'll put that option in.

The Leg option we have right now is Adaptive Bone Marrow. It grants regenerating health in combat, up to 2 HP per turn. But it only heals up to the Soldier's natural health, not boosted health with armor. It also gives a massive 66% reduction to the time spent in the infirmary after being wounded (I don't know why Loony BoB is expecting to get hurt :shifty:).

The other Leg option (which we'll unlock by autopsying other aliens later) is for Muscle Fiber Density, which allows soldiers to ignore terrain height when moving, as they can jump to any height instead of needing to find a place to climb (also great for Snipers).

Each mod takes 3 days to put in, so since we can only give BoB two so far, he'll be out for 6 days.


The next few weeks are completely uneventful. We manage to finish up the month with our council report, build a ton more facilities, get the Foundry working, all with no incident. Biggest boost to the Foundry: We can now get Tactical Rigging, which let's every non-MEC soldier carry two items instead of one. We also have access to a ton more items, including Flashbang Grenades (reduce enemy Aim) and Reaper Rounds (20% extra crit chance, but reduces accuracy the further away you are, basically it turns your weapons into shotguns).


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Iceglow

Sorry, but "Iceglow Avernius" was too long for a first name, though "Maccaroth Stark" did barely fit for a last name. If you like, I can make "Avernius" his nickname? Or make it the first name, with "Iceglow" as the nickname. Up to you.

That's the closest I could get to a Mohawk, unless you'd prefer this one:

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We get another mission the day before Ronnie is due back with his new stumps. Abduction mission into Argentina, as the aliens are attempting to stop them from winning the World Cup by ruining team morale.

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The team for this mission. Ronnie is out getting his limbs removed (actually, they're probably in the process of putting on the cyber-bits at this point), Loony BoB is undergoing genetic experimentation, and Vivi still hasn't chosen his abilities, so this is our team for the mission. Hopefully we'll get some matching promotions this time.


-Operation Lost Hawk-
Mendoza, Argentina
6:30 AM

Another morning mission. This time our soldiers are dropped off on the edge of a bank. Since they're heading through the drive-up service section, the teller facilities provide plenty of cover..

Daley runs forward into cover, spotting three Sectoids. Two dash inside the building, while a third remains outside, at the edge of engagement range. He squeezes a few shots off at it, hurting it, but not killing it. Christmas runs up and fires off a few more. Also a relatively weak shot, but it manages to end the weakened alien.

As Daley and Christmas nab the first Meld canister, Daley spots a new foe. A strange, floating, robotic entity, with numerous tentacles. No sooner do they see it, however, than it appears to fade from vision. Setting into defensive spots, they also realize that the entire bank is filled with Sectoid tellers. Iceglow takes a couple of shots at one that keeps running back and forth through the bank, but manages little except to utterly destroy the front wall. Psy manages to take out two, and nab the second Meld container.

Before Daley and Christmas can begin to outflank the ones inside, the strange creature reappears and grabs Daley, incapacitating him. Christmas steps back and fires into it, doing decent damage and making it release Daley, who takes a moment to catch his breath, as the robot was choking the life out of him (which incapacitates the target until it's interrupted, and can kill a unit outright if the choking goes on too long). Daley then finishes off the broken down droid, while Christmas steps back up to the bank itself.

Psy takes a moment to reload, which lets a Sectoid loose a plasma bolt at Christmas. Badly wounded, but not yet out of the fight, Christmas also takes a moment to reload while Daley continues flanking, killing another of the aliens inside, but draining his weapon of its ammo reserves as he does so.

A Sectoid's plasma fire tears into Daley, wounding him and causing him to panic. He rushes around the car he was using for cover, and runs straight into a second tentacle bot, which was apparently cloaked nearby. It grabs him, and the resulting trauma kills him outright.

Continuing around the building, Psy downs a Sectoid that was mind-merged with another, racking up two kills with one shot, and leaving our forces with just a Sectoid and the last Seeker bot left to go. Iceglow moves in to back up Christmas, who manages to put a few more bullets into the Seeker before it vanishes again. The final Sectoid repositions, and tries to deal with Psy, launching some plasma rounds that tear into our faithful heavy trooper.

Never one to be discouraged by a little incoming fire, Psy continues around to the rear of the building and takes a perfect flanking shot, eliminating the final Sectoid.

Christmas, knowing that she won't survive another attack by the Seeker, retreats past Iceglow and sets into Overwatch (as does Iceglow himself), hoping that the strange mechanical foe will go for Iceglow first. Her faith is rewarded, as the creature pops into vision right on top of Iceglow. Christmas, however, was expecting exactly this, so before it can even begin to choke the poor Sniper, Christmas unloads a clip into the bot, destroying it and saving her bait friend.

Mission Accomplished


MVP: Psychotic. Four kills, five if you count the Mind-Melded one. Psy was a beast in this level. He was just proceeding around the opposite side of the building from Christmas and Daley, and managed to get a ton of really good shots in.

Wounds: Psychotic is out for 4 days with plasma burns, while Christmas is out for 9 as doctors attempt to extract shards of the destroyed ATM she was hiding behind when the plasma bolt came through it (seriously, there is no way that shot should have hit).

KIA: Daley Thompson

Promtions: Christmas is promoted to Squaddie, and grabs her Shotgun as an Assault soldier, finally taking her proper place in the squad.

Well, Daley Thompson is dead, and he didn't even reach his promoted class yet! But we'll find another. Christmas is finally a female Assault (yay), but is out for 9 days in recovery. We'll have to see if we can get Ronnie and Loony BoB back into play while she's recovering. Nine days is huge, one of the longest recovery times I've seen, and yet she still had two health left!

I totally forgot about the second Seeker, and Daley didn't stand a chance when it popped out. I'm so glad my Iceglow bait tactic worked the way it was supposed to, or Christmas would have been dead too.


On the plus side, we got a new medal? Defender's Medal. I've never gotten this one before, I think it's awarded when you lose a Soldier (and I'm normally a save-scumming OCD perfectionist who never lets anyone die). Anyway, it's benefits are to prevent the soldier we give it to panicking when allies are wounded or killed, or to increase the amount that Medkits and Restorative Mist (the MEC version of Medkit) heal to the soldier it's awarded to by 2 HP.

[Psychotic]

I love that I am the Sectoid Murdering King. :)

[Skyblade]

Before we can even get Ronnie back on the field, we get another UFO contact (seriously, one day left, WTF XCOM?!). This one is a larger contact in Canada, and Raven-1 only barely manages to shoot it down (one more hit and Raven-1 would have been vanquished).

With four of our troopers out of commission for injuries (either inflicted by enemies or by our doctors), and Daley dead, we're force to ready a new squad.

Vivi 22, as the only Corporal on the team, takes the Squad leader position, having recently acquired his precious Squadsight (worth noting, you can no longer crit an enemy targeted with Squadsight unless you're using Headshot, which makes Squadsight slightly less useful, but basically just serves to make sure Headshot actually gets used, since Snipers can crit a ton anyway).
Iceglow, as the only Squaddie ready to fight, is up next.
Daley Thompson is brought back, this time bearing his proper British Union Jack (hey, I had a British male soldier in my recent recruit shipment, so might as well try him out until he promotes to the wrong class)
Hingle McCringleBerry takes the third slot (I think he came out rather well, though there is no red and white customization, only red and yellow or red and black).

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The new team.

Both the Rookies are taking Arc Throwers, because I want to catch me some Sectoids. Let's go!


-Operation Unceasing Knife-
Canada
6:04 PM

Finally, an evening mission!

Our troops, well rested and refreshed since they finally get to sleep in before the mission, begin exploring the Canadian wilderness, looking for a U.F.O. shot down by Raven-1 (I believe we can rename Interceptors too, we need to give these guys some names).

Several hours later (Canada has a lot of wilderness, ok?) they actually make it to the engagement zone, and our mission begins.

When we finally stumble upon the crash, we encounter a new foe. A tall, thin entity that looks for all the world like your typically G-Man. Pressed suit, arrogant demeanor, sunglasses, and a plasma rifle.

Never liking the feds, Vivi puts a bullet into the first one, which explodes into a cloud of vapors. The second poisons Hingle and runs away. Hingle and Daley then chase it all over the crash site, intent on capturing this new foe for our scientists.

Right as they finally lock down its position, however, we encounter more new foes. This time we're facing flying enemies with a very emaciated physical form, but with engines and armor grafted right into their bodies. These new "Floaters" move to back up the Thin Man left. Not to be discouraged, Daley stuns the Thin Man, while Hingle, not wanting to go back empty-handed, stuns the first Floater.

The second Floater, discouraged by watching its buddies fall, waffles around it's position, instead of taking the clear shot it had at Hingle, who wasn't in cover and was already half dead from the poison. Vivi moves forward and grabs a Meld canister, while Iceglow moved back towards the Rookies, hoping to give them some support with the Floater.

Iceglow's pistol and Hingle's Assault Rifle both rip into the beast, but fail to bring it down. The beast fires at Daley, bringing our poor Brit down to his last HP, but leaving him in the fight, and Iceglow unlimbers his Sniper Rifle to shoot the Floater clear off the UFO, where it had been resting.

As this fight is going on, Vivi nabs the second Meld canister, but two more Floaters are seen exploring the edge of the crash site. Unsure if they have been spotted or not, Daley and Hingle try to move to better cover. The two hadn't spotted the team, but it wasn't long before they came into view. Vivi had not yet had time to regroup, and Iceglow was restricted to a pistol shot, but still managed to ding one of the two Floaters. Daley, sick of these aliens moving around so much, decides to show why hanging in midair with no cover is a bad idea, and burns the second Floater from the sky, while Hingle finishes off the one which was in cover that Iceglow had wounded.

With the team reunited, nothing seemed to remain except the crashed ship itself. The two Rookies took point over the Snipers, hoping to get a third capture if this ship also contained an Outsider the way the last one had. As our forces trek through the craft, they spot both a working flight terminal (woohoo, second one, time for Satellite Nexuses!), and a working power source for the alien vessel. When then spot and Outsider, who tries to duck into cover, but stays a little too close to Daley, who just strolls around the corner and stuns it.

To his shock, however, it doesn't collapse to the ground, but instead breaks apart and vanishes, leaving only a crystal behind. Which our team collects to present to the Science Team.

MVP: Daley, with 2 stuns and a kill, despite being down to 1 HP.

Wounds: Hingle McCringleBerry, out for 6 days as the scientists try to work out what the poison is doing to his system. Daley Thompson is out for a massive FIFTEEN days, definitely the longest time I've ever had a soldier out, as the doctors attempt to repair his body from the massive damage that had been done it by the alien plasma rounds.

Promotions: Hingle and Daley are both promoted to Squaddie, and both take up Assault weapons. So Daley is finally in his proper position, but we'll need a new Hingle, as the current one is cycled into a backup Assault position (should we lose another soldier).

We also get a third Urban Combat Badge to award to one of our survivors.


Finally, Ronnie comes out of the MEC Lab, ready for a new suit of armor. So I get to explain MEC suits. By giving up his limbs, Ronnie gains the ability to equip a MEC suit, which serves as the only equipment he can carry. Each MEC suit must be built, costing extra Meld, but no extra time. Once built, it can be upgraded twice as we unlock the further upgrades. Each level of MEC suit adds an additional ability choice.

The first ability choice we get is between the Flamethrower, and the Kinetic Strike Module. The Flamethrower I have honestly never used (though I have a few suits equipped with one). It's a medium range weapon that does damage in an arc. The Kinetic Strike Module, however, is the most powerful weapon in the game. A melee hit, it never misses, and seems to do a consistent 27 damage, enough to one shot anything (even a frelling Sectopod, which it has a unique animation for). It also increases the MEC soldier's range, so that it can close easier with foes (or outflank them easier). That massive damage might be only for a third-tier suit though, I haven't used any lower level suits yet, Ronnie will be my first.

All MEC troops also come equipped with a weapon. Essentially, they use a tier higher than the current tech level. Right now, they're equipped with a minigun, which does Laser-tier damage. When we research Lasers, they get a Railgun, which does Plasma-tier damage. And their final weapon, the Particle Cannon, is simply more powerful than even our Plasma weapons, much like the SHIV's weaponry (only way more awesome).

MEC troops also get their own ability tree. As a Squaddie, Ronnie immediately gets the Collateral Damage ability, an ability which uses a lot of ammunition, but tears down all cover in an area and does a consistent 3 damage to any enemies within that area.

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The new Ronnie.

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Ronnie in his new suit. I gave him a KSM, because he wanted to punch things across rooms. There are some customization options for paint patterns. We can cut the blue out completely, make blue camo patches across the armor, or have a different geometric pattern for it, if you want. Once we get Tier 3 MEC suits we can make pink and blue zebra pattern, which will just be eye-searing.

[Madame Adequate]

The new Ronnie.

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Hahahahaha this is the most beautiful thing I have seen since I first laid eyes upon a young sailor named Barret Wallace.

Also RIP Daley Thompson I :( Long live Daley Thompson II!

[Loony BoB]

If you run out of people interested in taking up positions in this thing, Sky, please bring in a girl and name her Ripley and give her an Aliens-esque MEC suit.

[DK]

hell. fucking. yes. this is destiny. look at that glorious abomination. superman my arse, ronnie is the true man of steel. this is going to be hilarity. mind you, watch him die in his first run out now xD

also i highly approve of the iceglow bait tactic and think we should use this in every mission

[Skyblade]

We next get a mission from the Council. This is one of the special missions involved with the new story included in Enemy Within.


-Operation Severed Hawk-
-Portent-
Lyons, France
8:40 PM

A French military convoy was caught in an ambush. The convoy's current status is unknown. Investigate the area of operations. Locate and secure any survivors, as well as the convoy's cargo. Eliminate any remaining opposition.

With this briefing, our troops were dropped into Lyons. Arriving near some bombed out warehouses, our troops split up. Vivi climbed to the top of the nearest building, while Ronnie and Psy cleared the inside. Iceglow scoped out the far side, spotting our first foe, a lone Thin Man. With only his pistol to use, he couldn't take it down.

Ronnie burst out the side of the building and tried to reach a place where he could attack the Thin Man, but only succeeded in spotting another on the roof of the next building. Using his powerful minigun, he tore apart the cover the roof provided, and allowed Iceglow to finish it off. The first Thin Man, however, fired some plasma rounds at Ronnie, eating into his mechanical armor. The cover the Thin Man was hiding behind proved to be no match for Vivi's heightened position, and the Thin Man's life faded away at the hands of our master sniper.

Moving forward, our team encountered foes who were killed by conventional rounds, not plasma fire. Unsure of what foes they may encounter, our team prepped for anything.

Iceglow caught another Thin Man in view, too far away for him to draw a bead on with his Sniper Rifle, but Vivi's position again allowed him to splatter it before it even knew he was there. Ronnie crashed through the second building, spotting another Thin Man, but his minigun tore the creature apart in a hail of bullets despite its cover. Our forces then caught sight of a survivor. A foe in a casual suit, with a red bandana covering his lower face. Clearly not one of the French military team. Intent on getting this survivor back for questioning, Ronnie approached him. The survivor told us to kill him, but our forces nevertheless began herding him back towards the drop point.

Two more Thin Men dropped into view as we began escorting the civilian back. The first was out of sight on the second building, while Iceglow and Vivi both fought for who would get the reaction kill on the second which dropped between them, a battle Iceglow one by a mere second. Psy sprinted up to the roof of the second building, allowing Vivi another Squadsight shot. Vivi missed, however. In order to prevent the defenseless Psy from getting taken down, Ronnie fired up through the roof, destroying the air vents up there, and driving the Thin Man away. It dropped off the roof, directly in Ronnie's face, and unloaded more Plasma Rounds into his armored, hulking form. Psy jumped down and tried to take it down, but his shots tore harmlessly into the crumbled brick of the building.

With his minigun needing to cool after tearing through the roof and no other reasonable recourse, Ronnie does the only thing a sensible muscleman can do:
x0b9iWozrdk

With that foe out of the wall, I mean, out of the way, our soldiers press on towards the departure point (sorry about the low quality, apparently YouTube doesn't recognize .avi files properly). Psy joins Vivi on the roof, and Iceglow and Ronnie advance with our escortee.

Two more enemies drop onto the roof with Psy and Vivi. A Sectoid and a Thin Man. Psy captures the Sectoid handily (apparently Psy is just the perfect anti-Sectoid soldier), while Vivi tears down the Thin Man.

As the detainee moves closer to the Skyranger, another Thin Man drops down, this one falling straight into the sights of Psy's massive gun. With that, we load the prisoners onto the Skyranger and depart back for base.

MVP: Vivi, for knowing how to maximize the use of high ground.

Wounds: None this time. Yeah, Ronnie got hit twice, but he only took 6 damage. You note that +8 next to his health in the personal picture? That's all extra health from the MEC suit, which counts as an armor bonus. Armor damage is repaired immediately, you only go to the infirmary for wounds to actual health. Which is why I have yet to wind up with a wounded MEC trooper.

Promotions:
Vivi is promoted to Sergeant.
Iceglow is promoted to Corporal.
Psychotic is promoted to Corporal.
Ronnie is promoted to Corporal.

Promotions all around, woohoo!

Vivi now has the choice between Gunslinger, offering +2 damage to Pistols, or Damn Good Ground, offering +10 Aim and Defense when in higher ground than his foe.

Iceglow can choose between Snap Shot and Squadsight.

Psychotic can choose between Bullet Swarm, which lets him fire and still take a second action, including moving or firing again. Or Holo-Targeting, which makes any soldiers who fire at a target Psychotic has shot or suppressed get a +10 Aim boost.

And lastly, Ronnie can now choose between Advanced Fire Control, which means that his Overwatch shots no longer take an Aim penalty, or Automated Threat Assessment, which gives him a +15 boost to defense while on Overwatch (handy, since MEC troops are too big to use cover). So basically, offense versus defense. I'm guessing Ronnie is an offense guy, but the choice is yours.



Our team has brought in the interloper, but we don't know much about him, or who he works for, at this point. We'll have to find out more if there is a new threat rising.

I've also started a new Foundry project that increases the force of the Kinetic Strike Module by 50%, which will make Ronnie's punches even stronger. The Foundry also completed advanced S.C.O.P.E.s (increases Crit chance by 10 with one equipped) and Tactical Rigging. Everyone can carry two items now. Take your pick!


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Squad photo. Being genetically engineered, Loony BoB gets to show off his arms.

[DK]

Yes. Yes yes yes this is what Ronnie was put on this world to do. What a magnificent hero he is. That is even better than my expectations. As an aside, did you manage to see how it compares to the third tier suits you mentioned?

Also actually for this one I'd lean more towards the defence boost one, but i'll leave it up to you, whichever you think is the best go for it.

[Psychotic]

Bullet Swarm me up.

Awesome wall smashing video! Full on destroyed him.

[Slothy]

+10 aim and defense on the higher ground please. I shouldn't be getting close enough to use a pistol in a post squad site world.

[Loony BoB]

I look ready. I feel ready. I must be ready! *probably isn't ready*

[Christmas]

Hooray! I lived and promoted to an Assault!! :bigsmile:

Iceglow won't mind dying for me. So no hard feelings. :kaoclove:

[Pheesh]

Red and black is fine with me. I just can't wait till Hingle gets his support role.

[DK]

someone needs to sign up as "eeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeee" to give Hingle someone to roll with

[Iceglow]

I'll go for Squad Sight. I know it's been marginally neutered but frankly, what I remember of that ability is beastly.

[Skyblade]

+10 aim and defense on the higher ground please. I shouldn't be getting close enough to use a pistol in a post squad site world.

In Enemy Unknown, this would be true. However, there is a new mission type in Enemy Within, called Covert Operative missions. A soldier is selected to go on an infiltration mission into EXALT's bases. One soldier is sent away for a time, and then we get an extraction mission. Because the covert operative is going undercover, they only have a pistol during the extraction mission. A Gunslinger Sniper thus works very well as an undercover agent, because they keep the +2 damage boost. Snipers also get Low Profile, which is absolutely broken with Mimetic Skin, and ensures the agent can move pretty much anywhere invisibly. So Snipers are essentially the best covert agents, and Gunslinger helps with that. But, for main missions, Damn Good Ground is definitely better.

Alien Terror Attack in Moscow!
Which is great, because Russia was at Level 4 Panic. As long as we do well here, it will pull things back into shape as we finally get some more Satellite Uplinks set up.

We also finished researching two new armor types (Carapace and Skeleton), so take your pick. Do you want a grapple and extra movement, or more health?


For this mission, I'm changing things up slightly. First, in my haste to grab a fifth soldier, I forgot that Hingle was supposed to be a Support, so I grabbed the Assault version again. Sorry. Loony BoB and McCringleBerry are both getting Skeleton Armor, for the increased movement. Since I have a second item slot, I'm also adding in some new items. Psy is going to try out the Flashbang, as making Chryssalids move slower sounds awesome. Vivi and Hingle are also now carrying Reaper Rounds. Hingle's shotgun should work well with an extra crit chance boost. And I'm testing to see if the Reaper Rounds cripple the Sniper Rifle (unlike other weapons, the Sniper Rifle's range penalty increases as you get closer to an enemy, so Reaper Rounds shouldn't affect the long range shots).


-Operation Silent Summer-
Moscow, Russia
9:40 PM

The Skyranger touched down on the edge of a Russian military base.

We immediately spotted the first of a new breed of foes as McCringleBerry charged the left flank. Two insectoid creatures of unsettling appearance. Pairing up with Psy, McCringle managed to take one down, while the second retreated behind a crate, near a civilian. One tragic scream a few seconds later, and we knew that civilian was no more. The Chryssalid managed to attack Hingle as well, but the star's new armor managed to keep him alive through the hit. The poison the blow inflicted then finished him before anyone could react, however, putting another star out of the action (fortunately, poison death doesn't spawn zombies, or we'd be frelled). Psy managed to mow down the remaining Chryssalid as the civilian arose as a zombie. Turning his gun on the aberration, Psy tried to kill it again, but failed. Sensing his friend's trouble, Vivi swiftly repositioned around a tank, and snapped off a fatal shot with his pistol.

Ronnie and Loony BoB, meanwhile, went up the main stretch, encountering two Floaters along the way. BoB tried to shoot down the first one, but found the swift aerial target to be too much trouble. Vivi, however, supplied a helping hand by nabbing it with his Sniper Rifle.

The second Floater managed to get a shot off at Psy, before he was pulled down by the combined cross fire of Psy and BoB's heavy guns. Ronnie, meanwhile, began exploring the outer edge of the hangar facility to the rear of the base, encountering two more Floaters. His minigun tore the first from the air, while the second flew inside the building and began executing the civilians inside. The only one in a position to reach the Floater, Ronnie followed the alien inside and blew it apart with a hail of fire, ending the threat to the civilians.

MVP: Vivi, for catching two nice kills and utterly saving Psy's bacon from the zombie.

Wounds: Psy is out for 5 days for plasma burn treatment.

KIA: Hingle McCringleBerry, though it's really his own fault for coming along when he wasn't the correct class.

Promotions:
Vivi is promoted to Lieutenant.
Psy is promoted to Sergeant.
Ronnie Coleman is promoted to Sergeant.

So Ronnie now gets the choice of Vital Point Targeting, which increases damage against any foes we have autopsied by 2, or Damage Control, which reduces all damage by 2 for the rest of a turn after Ronnie takes damage (so, full damage once, then all remaining damage cut by 2 the rest of the turn). Another offense/defense option.

Psy gets the choice between Shredder Rockets, which do damage and make enemies take 33% more damage for 4 turns, or Suppression, which reduces enemy Aim by 30 and lets him take a reaction shot if they move.

And Vivi gets to choose between Battle Scanner, giving him a 2-use-per-battle device that reveals places outside Fog of War without alerting enemies, or Disabling Shot, which disables a foe's primary weapon until they reload.

We also got another Defender's Medal, because the fake Hingle died.


Vivi's promotion lets me purchase Rapid Recovery, but unfortunately it only applies to new wounds. So Psy is still out for 5 days, and Daley is still out for 8 more.

[Slothy]

Battle scanner has always served me well. Forgot they added those covert missions too. I picked up Enemy Within in the summer sale but haven't had the chance to play it yet.

Ah, just saw your rep notice. Slap gunslinger on me then. I'm already a badass sniper. Might as well be a badass spy too.

[DK]

do we autopsy? if so i'll go that. if you never bother with it, then go defense again!

i'm excited to get a rail gun, I hope that happens soon. rail guns are the best guns oh yes. mind you i also quite like being able to shred walls and holes in the roof to open up shots for everyone else. this robot body is awesome.

[Skyblade]

Oh, I definitely autopsy. In general, I'm a research obsessed maniac in most strategy games. Enemy Within made Autopsies even more important because they unlock most of the gene mods.

Anyway, another Council mission, this time from the Slingshot DLC.


-Operation Hidden Shroud-
-Friends in Low Places-
Shanghai, China


Our mission this time is to meet with a defecting member of the Chinese Triads, who is offering some alien technology for safe extraction. Our team meets up with him easily, and begins the exfiltration of the city.

Ronnie's Overwatch shots disintegrate the first Thin Man to drop into the combat zone, and Iceglow's Sniper Rifle eliminates the second. With the staging area clear and no Meld to seek out, our team begins an orderly procession to the Skyranger.

As our team advances, they spot another Thin Man, which BoB quickly eliminates. A fourth Thin Man drops into the area and is stopped by a close range blast from Christmas's Shotgun.

A Chryssalid is then spotted near the extraction zone. After Ronnie's Overwatch rounds tear into it, a second fire of minigun rounds puts an end to the insectoid menace.

As we finally reach the breakaway point, we find it guarded by a Thin Man and a Sectoid. The Thin Man falls to a shot from Vivi, who was still chilling with Iceglow near the mission start point, while BoB finished off the final Sectoid, clearing the way for the contact to reach the Skyranger.

MVP: Ronnie, for his masterful removal of the Chryssalid.

Wounds: None.

Promotions:
Ronnie is now a Lieutenant
Iceglow is now a Sergeant
Loony BoB is now a Corporal

Man, this mission was way too easy. Except for the Chryssalid, every enemy was a drop down, and their pacing is based on Zhang's progress through the map. No Meld means no reason to rush, and it is way too simple to just march through and kill everything immediately. At least we got some good promotions.

Iceglow can now make the choice between Gunslinger and Damn Good Ground.

Ronnie gets to choose between Jetboot Module, which lets him jump to any height, and One For All, which lets him turn into a chunk of High Cover for other soldiers until he moves or attacks.

BoB gets to choose between Bullet Swarm and Holo-Targeting. But he already picked Bullet Swarm, so we'll just go with that.


We also picked up the Council Medal of Honor, which we can customize to allow a +1 Bonus to Aim and Will for each mission we complete without losing a Soldier, up to +10 (I've lost track of where we're at, though). Or we can customize it to provide +10 Aim and +10 Crit Chance when the soldier to whom it is issued is at least seven tiles from any other squad members.

Additionally, we got a fourth Urban Combat Badge, which I believe caps us on those until we assign one of them. We really need to pick a power and name for it. Remember, that's +5 Aim when attacking enemies in cover, or +5 Defense when in cover yourself. Not huge either way, but worth having.

I think it would be a good idea to rename the medals as Ciddies. Urban Combat could become the "Cover Master Ciddie", or something similar.

Anyway, we just splashed a small UFO, which will be a good training opportunity, letting us get Hingle back up, though we might be able to find a Muton there. This mission was boring enough I'd like to do it soon, but there are several ability choices for people to make, so I'm going to hold off for a bit.

I also finished researching Light Plasma Rifles, so we can get those equipped onto some of our troops pretty quickly, at least those who can use standard rifle types. Which is Christmas, Daley, and Hingle, I think.

[Elite Lord Sigma]

Since Skyblade finally brought this to my attention I finally decided to look at my inbox for a change, I'm rejoining the cause.

Character Name: Connor MacLeod
Character Nickname: Sigma
Class: Support
Gender: Male
Customization: I'd like dark brown hair with a full beard, and I'd prefer my armor to be dark orange. If a golf/Paddy/Irish cap is available, please give me one.
Equipment: Skeleton Suit. Any other options I should know about?
Specialization: Genetic modifications, please. It seems Ronnie is doing well enough as a MEC trooper.

Abilities
Squaddie: Smoke Grenade (only option)
Corporal: Sprinter
Sergeant: Field Medic
Lieutenant: Rifle Suppression
Captain: Combat Drugs
Major: Deep Pockets (only option)
Colonel: Savior

Genetic Modifications
Brain: Neural Feedback
Eyes: Hyper Reactive Pupils
Chest: Secondary Heart (Seems appropriate from a flavor standpoint)
Skin: Mimetic Skin
Legs: Adaptive Bone Marrow

I have yet to play Enemy Within, so if anybody thinks an ability I've chosen is not optimal, please say so.

As for the Urban Combat Medal, I vote that it be named the EoFF Political Debate Ciddie, which should bestow +5 defense while in cover upon its bearer.

[Iceglow]

Gun slinger time baby :D

What? someone's gotta get prepared to save Vivi's ass or avenge him when he undoubtedly dies on his first covert op ;)

[DK]

jetboots all day! we don't want static. we want mobility! also fuck yeah MVP.

i would personally go for the +5 to aim medal.

[Loony BoB]

Oh yeah: Gonna go with aim for the medals. I think we'll be outnumbering our opposition in a lot of the situations (and when that happens, aim > cover) and with MEC soldiers unable to get themselves into cover it makes it even less useful.

[Slothy]

Gun slinger time baby :D

What? someone's gotta get prepared to save Vivi's ass or avenge him when he undoubtedly dies on his first covert op ;)

You're so sweet. :love:

[Skyblade]

Ok, so I went ahead and applied the +5 Aim benefit to the Urban Combat Medal (which I realize I misread, it's actually +5 Aim when facing enemies in HIGH cover, not any cover). I also renamed it the EoFF Political Debate Ciddie, and I have awarded it to three of our soldiers.

58208

Loony BoB

58209

Vivi 22

58210

Ronnie Coleman (who didn't wear his hat for the ceremony, unfortunately)


With that out of the way, and the various decisions made, it's time for the next mission. As we splashed a small UFO, it's time for some Rookie action!

58211


-Operation Bloody Engine-
United States
6:29 PM

Our squad readied themselves for action. Another UFO shot down just a few miles from HQ. After the brief and uneventful flight on the Skyranger, we touched down in the hills and began looking for the crash site.

As Loony BoB advanced at the point position, he spotted two Seekers, who immediately dropped into stealth. Knowing what was coming, the entire rest of the squad lagged slightly behind, readying their weapons for the attack that was soon to come. Sure enough, the Seeker dropped out of stealth, ready to strangle Loony BoB, only to be enveloped in a volley of bullets and light plasma rounds from our ready troops (Light Plasma Rifles are done researching, so I equipped those we had). The second Seeker chose to remain hidden, for now, but our team was more than ready should he appear.

Our team, advancing cautiously, caught sight of two Floaters, who immediately tried to jump for cover within the downed vessel. Daley, however, had a clear shot, and one of the Floaters never made it to the safety of his vehicle (I LOVE the +10 Aim from Light Plasma rifles, we are so game-breaking at this point). The Seeker chose that distraction to reappear, but BoB's machine gun roared to life, and the tearing lead reduced the droid to scrap metal.

With the UFO in sight, Christmas advanced and shot down the second Floater, which was cowering against a console inside. Moving forward, Hingle scoped out the Outsider, and reduced it to glowing ash, completing the mission.

MVP: Daley, for that fantastic Overwatch shot. It threaded between two rocks and over a downed tree, this perfect little window to strike the Floater. Otherwise, everyone got one kill, so all even?

Wounds: None

Promotions: Hingle to Sniper. Starting a new one, leaving Hingle in case something happens to one of our Snipers.

We also got an International Service Cross, giving us 2. We still need to decide on what to name it and what power to give it, though.

Sorry for the lack of updates (and rather boring one this time). Had to write a paper for class. With that done, I should be able to pick back up slightly.

[Pheesh]

This game is trolling me with the lack of support class now D: Maybe rename the international service cross something to do with Eyes on the World and I vote we go for the +10 aim mostly because I don't know what will does.

[Skyblade]

Will helps prevent soldiers from panicking when things go bad, but also helps resist Psionic attacks, or boost chance to hit with a Psi-Soldiers own Psionic abilities.


-Operation Purple Hawk-
Benin City, Nigeria
2:31 PM

Our soldiers dropped outside the offices of an electronics company. The first floor lobby appeared clear, but with buildings all around and multiple floors to worry about, our soldiers were taking few chances (worth noting, apparently XCOM are the only guys who use elevators, as no maps feature them).

Iceglow immediately grappled to the roof, spotting two Floaters (who didn't spot him). Hoping to catch one off guard, he fired his pistol, but didn't manage to take one down (80% chance to crit, and it does a min damage roll). Both Floaters moved around and shot at Christmas where she was waiting at the base of the building, but both plasma rounds passed harmlessly by (likely tearing down a building a block away). Christmas finished off the one Iceglow had wounded, which was limping along the ground, while Iceglow's Sniper Rifle silenced the one which had taken the high ground.

As our forces advanced through the commercial district, they spotted two Seekers. Unfortunately overextended, only Hingle and Iceglow were able to enter Overwatch successfully, and only Iceglow had a solid line of sight to the rest of the squad. So when the first Seeker burst back onto the scene, and Iceglow's pistol shot missed, Daley was choked by the strange droid. Not letting things stymie them for long, Hingle ran up and blew the droid apart, while the rest of the squad made a more tactical advance.

Upon entering the second building, Christmas spotted two more Floaters, and managed to rip one apart with a long range plasma round, while the rest of the squad turtled up in waiting for the second Seeker. Who did not disappoint as he came back into sight, only to vanish in a volley of incoming fire so intense that BoB, Hingle, and Daley are still arguing over who killed it (and, therefore, who the other two have to buy a drink back at base).

The second building was a nice little bookstore. The remaining Floater hid behind the back wall, providing excellent cover from our soldier's rounds. Unfortunately, the building's walls did not provide much of a deterrent to Daley's Light Plasma rifle, which tore apart both the wall and the Floater with little regard for which was which.

Moving around the building side, Hingle ran into two Sectoids near the edge of the engagement zone. Iceglow sniped one, but the other managed a flanking shot on poor mister McCringleBerry, but it only managed to tear into his armor, not hurt the man himself.

Nevertheless, upset about how the plasma rounds seemed to disturb his armor's paint job, Hingle burned down the Sectoid, which had been too enthusiastic to head for cover, and brought the mission to a close.

MVP: Christmas. For excellent long range work and always being at the right place at the right time.

Wounds: None, because no damage got through the armor (kind of surprised, I expected the 4 damage crit on Hingle to have gotten at least 1 point of standard HP)

Promotions:
Loony BoB is promoted to Sergeant
Christmas is promoted to Corporal
Hingle is promoted to Sniper (again)
Iceglow is promoted to Lieutenant

Loony now gets to choose between Shredder Rockets and Suppression. He chose Shredder Rockets (not sure I've ever made that choice), so we'll put that in.

Christmas gets to choose between Tactical Sense, which increases her Defense by 5 per enemy the Squad can see, up to a max of 20 (Defense is just a reduction to enemy Aim, so it makes her 5-20% less likely to be hit), or she can choose Aggression, which increases her crit chance by 10% for each foe the squad can see, up to +30%.

Iceglow gets to choose between Disabling Shot and Battle Scanner.

Hingle gets to become another backup Sniper. Sorry. :(


We also got another Defender's Medal for some reason, even though no one died. What should we name it? And do we want to make it stop soldiers from panicking, or boost HP recovered by medkits?


Finally, as a reward for this abduction mission, we were gifted a Support Soldier Sergeant. So I guess Hingle is finally in his proper class.

Hingle gets Smoke Grenades, and then has two choices to make:
Sprinter, which increases movement by 3 tiles, or Covering Fire, which lets you fire reaction shots against enemies that don't move, but simply take shots of their own (standard overwatch only fires on foes that are moving).
The next choice is between Field Medic, which allows Hingle to use a Medkit he's carrying 3 times a fight instead of 1, or Smoke and Mirrors, which does the same thing for his Smoke Grenades.

Finally, Psy has made it out of the labs as a MEC soldier, and needs to choose between the Flamethrower and the Kinetic Strike Module for his first suit.

[Pheesh]

Yay! Well just guessing on what would make a better fire support I'm thinking Covering Fire and Smoke and Mirrors are the way to go. But you do whatever is best, leaving it in your capable hands.

[Psychotic]

FLAMETHROWER

I don't want to set the world on fire... things out of this world? Sure, I'll start a flame in their hearts.

[Christmas]

Yay, I am the right MVP! I choose Aggression baby. I am a wild untamed beast. :bigsmile:

[Iceglow]

I'll go with disabling shot, it's sometimes a squad saver as it can mean the difference between an enemy getting to attack a pinned down soldier or waste their turn re-loading

[Skyblade]

Ok, so we get through the council meeting, and we then go over a week with nothing happening. Our researchers love this, as it lets them finish a ton of projects. We finally roll out Laser Weaponry for everyone (except those with the Light Plasma Rifles). We develop Railguns for our MECs. We also determine figure out the second MEC upgrade. So now our MEC Soldiers get a new choice.

Do you guys want Grenade Launchers? They throw grenades (or alien grenades, once researched) an incredibly far distance (longer than sight distance) and lets you carry 2 Grenades by default.

The other choice is Restorative Mist. This is essentially a medkit that affects everyone (including the user and other MEC soldiers) within two tiles. You can only use it once per battle by default, but since we've researched Improved Medkits, it heals for 6 HP.


We went on with some more research, finally finished researching Firestorms, and continued on a bit further, before finally spotting a contact. There was a landed UFO, classified as a Large Scout, in India. Time to saddle up.


-Operation Purple Bell-
India
9:00 AM-ish? I forgot to check the time on this one. >.<

Our troops landed in a heavily forested area. Moving north, Daley caught sight of a trio of Floaters. Christmas shot down the first one, while Daley retreated and the rest of the squad turtled up, unable to get clear shots through the trees.

The floating fiends charged at our squad, only for the first one to be torn down by BoB's heavy lasers, while Vivi's new Laser Sniper Rifle burned through the last one.

Noting a Meld canister to the squad's left, Christmas ran to get it, catching sight of two more floaters. Not to be deterred, a quick plasma shot burned through the first. Daley tried to back her up, but his shots landed amongst the trees, starting a small forest fire that will go completely unnoticed among those started by the crashing UFO. Vivi, on the other hand, was able to get a shot off at the remaining Floater, and adds its corpse to the pile.

Stepping into the UFO, our squad split up into two groups, one for each side of the vessel. Daley took point on the left flank, followed by BoB, who was lagging slightly behind. Unfortunately, Daley was also the one who first encountered a new foe. These were large, physically imposing humanoids in green armor. Daley managed to shoot the one nearest to him, but its return shot managed to do substantial damage. The other two new enemies took positions near one of the UFO's Power Sources (No! Valuable resources!). One let out a blood curdling call that seemed to sharpen the focus of the others, but the third creature's showed simply tore down the wall Daley was using for cover, rather than hurting him.

BoB rushed forward, out of cover, and burned down the wounded enemy. Hingle rushed around the rear console and managed to tear into a second, gravely wounding it. Daley then sprinted past both aliens, taking cover behind the solid outer hull of the UFO, and fired a hefty chunk of plasma straight into the untouched foe's back, almost melting it where it stood.

The gravely wounded soldier took advantage of BoB's poor positioning to lob a plasma round into him, but his armor took the brunt of the attack. Still in a good position behind the foe, Daley closed distance and let loose a discharge from his Arc Thrower, capturing the new beastie for our scientists to poke and prod a bit.

With those new foes out of the way (and the team deciding to call them Mutons), we turn our attention to the main chamber. Christmas had rushed around to the right side entrance to the main room, in order to nab the second Meld canister, but we could hear that there were two Seekers in there. We would have to be very careful with how we breached this room, or the limited sight would keep us from hurting the robotic drones. Hingle used his medkit to patch Daley back up to full, and we got in position.

Unable to get a clear rocket shot to where we heard the Seekers, BoB led our forces in a full breach of the room. Immediately going to Overwatch, as per standard protocol, only this time, almost all of our soldiers did so with their new Laser Pistols, to reduce likelihood of destroying the precious artifacts. The first foe was downed by several rounds, though Vivi apparently claimed the final blow (or at least, he got a promotion from it). Since both Meld canisters were already ours, there was no need to rush. Instead, our forces went to Overwatch again. This time, it was Christmas who walked away with a promotion as the Seeker fell from the sky (those things should really learn to attack together in the same turn, this is too easy).

With only one room, and its likely Outsider inhabitant, our squad again reloaded and got into position. As we rushed into the final room, Hingle took up a flanking position and tore down the Outsider. Dr. Vahlen scolded him for killing it instead of capturing it, apparently forgetting that we had a captured one already waiting at base.


MVP: Daley. Because I was sure he was going to die, and he used Run and Gun brilliantly to turn it around into a critical hit kill on a full health foe, and followed it up by capturing our first Muton.

Wounds: Daley Thompson, out for 5 days for treatment.

Promotions:
Vivi is promoted to Captain
Christmas is promoted to Sergeant

Vivi can now choose between Executioner, which provides +10 Aim when attacking enemies at less than 50% health, or Opportunist, which negates the Aim penalty forces suffer when going into Overwatch.

Christmas gets to choose between Lightning Reflexes, which forces the first Reaction Shot a foe takes at her each turn to miss, or Close and Personal, which lets her take a free shot if she's within 4 tiles of an enemy, although it doesn't work with Run and Gun.

Oh, and I forgot to let Psy pick his MEC abilities, since he was a Sergeant.
Advanced Fire Control (no Aim penalty to Overwatch) or Automated Threat Assessment (+15 Defense while in Overwatch)
Vital Point Targeting (+2 Damage to foes we have autopsied) or Damage Control (after you get hit, all damage for the rest of the turn is reduced by 2)

[Psychotic]

Advanced Fire Control and Vital Point Targeting. I'm going all out for the dealing of damage. I suspect my neglect of defence will lead to my untimely death, but I'll be taking down a lot of the bastards with me.

[Skyblade]

Advanced Fire Control and Vital Point Targeting. I'm going all out for the dealing of damage. I suspect my neglect of defence will lead to my untimely death, but I'll be taking down a lot of the bastards with me.

Fortunately, MECs have a ton of health.

I don't have a mission update yet, but I felt I just had to post this. Although I've researched Firestorms, I haven't gotten one built yet, nor have I quite finished EMP Cannons. Due to some bad luck with the Power Cells on missions, I was slightly more behind than I usually am when getting those out, or I'd already have them up and running.

So we got a UFO contact, our first Abductor ship. And it had to be taken on by Raven-2, which is still completely un-upgraded, except for the Aim and Dodge boosts I had built.

58283

Success!

I honestly didn't even know an interceptor could survive that much damage. The interceptor model slowly goes from blue to red, and I thought once the tip went red, it was dead. One more hit would have killed it. Good job, Raven-2.

[Loony BoB]

Good to see we're still kickin' butt and taking names. And shredder rockets are great if only because MWAHAHAISDhgoa;ighds; I LIEK ROCKTZ

[Psychotic]

Grenade launcher of course! The more deaths, the better!

[Slothy]

I've always wanted to be an executioner.

[DK]

hell yes go with grenade launchers that sounds like comedy waiting to happen

[Christmas]

Lightning reflex for me! :bigsmile:

[Skyblade]

-Operation Flying Law-
Brazil
12:35 AM

This new ship appeared to be constructed with a different style than those that we had previously faced. Eschewing the familiar disc of the scouts, this vessel was a blocky, imposing monstrosity. Raven-2 barely made it back to base.

The increased size of the vessel allowed our Skyranger pilot to pick it out with no trouble, and our forces were dropped right beyond its hull.

Hingle immediately started climbing the roof, noticing a Meld canister up there. The rest of our soldiers began a more standard infiltration, immediately spotting three Chryssalids. Ronnie lobbed a grenade into the room with the Chryssalids, and Psy followed it up by running up to the door and torching the entire room, reducing the Chryssalids to charred lumps.

Hingle grabbed the first Meld canister, spotting the second as he did so.

Our forces spotted three Thin Men who were attempting to flank Christmas. Deciding that grenades were just too much fun, Ronnie fired another one forward, eliminating the Thin Men before they could even get off a shot (or a poison cloud).

Three Floaters jump in to crash the party. Loony BoB curses that a door is blocking his rocket shot, so instead he lofts his machine gun and kills one. Psy's reaction fire kills another, and Christmas pegs the third with a well placed plasma round.

Meanwhile, Hingle drops off the roof and nabs the second Meld canister.

BoB opens the door to the final room, scaring out and Outsider. However, it failed to note Christmas sitting right behind its chosen hiding spot, and gets killed very swiftly, ending the mission.

MVP: Psy, for toasting three Chryssalids at once. It was just so pretty.

Wounds: None

Promotions:
Psy is promoted to Lieutenant
Loony BoB is promoted to Lieutenant
Christmas is promoted to Lieutenant
Hingle is promoted to Lieutenant

Ronnie is already a Lieutenant, so Lieutenancy for everyone!

This mission could also be entitle "Skyblade discovers AOE weapons". I tend to not use those, at all, because the game often warns about explosives destroying artifacts and weaponry. I can see why they try to discourage that, because they can be really, really powerful. They're also limited use. But two grenades per launcher, and two uses of the Flamethrower, just on the MECs, is pretty powerful.

Also, this mission glitched out twice on one of the turns. First Hingle moved to the Meld canister and the game just soft locked, refusing to let me do anything else. Then Psy somehow ran beyond his actual movement range while trying to toast the Chryssalids, and the game soft locked again. I was getting really worried.



Psy gets to choose between Jetboots and All For One. Do you want better mobility, or the ability to turn yourself into a lump of cover for the rest of the squad at the expense of not being able to move or attack?

BoB already chose Heat Ammo.

Christmas gets to choose between Flush, which is a high hit chance, low damage ability that makes enemies run out of cover, or Double Fire, which is a lowered hit chance attack that lets her shoot twice (works awesome with close range shotguns, or the accuracy boosted Light Plasma Rifle you've got now). Christmas also needs more names. I've got her last name, but she needs a nickname and first name!

Hingle gets to choose between Revive, which lets him get a critically wounded soldier back into the fight with a Medkit, and Suppression, which reduces enemy Aim and lets you take a reaction shot on them if they move (or fire, since you specced into Covering Fire). As a Fire Support soldier, Suppression would make the most sense, but I'll wait for confirmation.


So, yeah. Things went awesome. Because bombs. I got another Council Mission coming up in a moment, the next part of Slingshot, but I must fix dinner first, so I'll let you guys debate your upgrades.

BoB is currently out of service getting his Bioelectric Skin turned on. Which reminds me: Those of you who want gene enhancements, we now have a lot to choose from.

For Eyes, you get to choose between +10 Aim after a miss, or +5 Aim and Crit chance when on higher ground.

For Legs, we have 66% reduced time in wound recovery (which comes with hitpoint regeneration up to the max without armor), or the ability to ignore elevation.

For Skin, we have Mimetic Skin, which lets you become invisible when in high cover, and Bioelectric Skin, which lets you detect enemies beyond line of sight or sight range, and reveal cloaked enemies.

One word of warning, I've heard that having multiple soldiers with Bio skin in one mission actually makes it less effective due to a glitch, but I haven't tested it out yet.

For Heart, we have Adrenal Neurosympathy, which lets you buff yourself and all soldiers around you temporarily after you get a kill. We have not yet researched Secondary Heart, but if you want to compare, it means you can only bleed out, so you can't be killed outright, increases the bleed out timer, and negates the Will penalty to critical wounds.

[Christmas]

Double fire for me! I love shooting! :bigsmile:

As for nickname, how about "Waldorf"? Since someone had decided it for me. :bigsmile:

As for first name, "Santarina"? :bigsmile:

[Pheesh]

All right, let's do this!

I'll go with suppression, and as for the genetic enhancements:
+5 aim and crit eyes
Ignore elevation legs
mimetic skin
And secondary heart when we get it

[Loony BoB]

All this talk of "oh but there were doors" and "couldn't get a clean shot" - create clean shots by using rockets. I have two per mission, I think, by now... destroy their walls, their cover, their lives and then let the rest of the group pick off what remains. :mwahaha: I used to go into battles with 3x Heavy (all max rank), 2x Sniper, 1x Support. That's nine rockets. Nothing stood in my way at all and whatever the Heavies didn't kill, the Snipers picked off. Was great fun. :D

Also, yay for Heat Ammo. I now pronounce myself a machine killing machine.

[Skyblade]

All this talk of "oh but there were doors" and "couldn't get a clean shot" - create clean shots by using rockets. I have two per mission, I think, by now... destroy their walls, their cover, their lives and then let the rest of the group pick off what remains. :mwahaha: I used to go into battles with 3x Heavy (all max rank), 2x Sniper, 1x Support. That's nine rockets. Nothing stood in my way at all and whatever the Heavies didn't kill, the Snipers picked off. Was great fun. :D

Also, yay for Heat Ammo. I now pronounce myself a machine killing machine.

The main thing is, since I'm so used to not using explosives, I'm having to get my mind around how to position them to use on the next turn. Grenades and the Flamethrower have the advantage of being able to move, then attack. But with rockets, you have to be in place to evade walls on the first turn. Using them as a cover destroying tool is handy, but the situation needs to fit it. Don't worry, I'll try to get you more Rocket use later on. I just need to rethink my tactics.

Fortunately, the mission we just got is the one which unlocks the special battleship assault mission from Slingshot, which gives us early access to Blaster Launchers. Then I can just go back to my usual strategy and ignore the placement rules.

[Loony BoB]

To be fair, it's not until you have 2-3 rockets that it becomes a good choice. If you have 2-3 Heavies with 2-3 rockets each, you can do insane damage without much need for entering a UFO. One heavy and one or two rockets? Different story altogether. So I completely understand any reluctance to waste such a thing. xD I'm just being silly.

[Skyblade]

-Operation Cryptic Rain-
-Confounding Light-
Beijing, China
10:51 PM

Our mission was the board a Chinese train and plant transponders designed to divert an enemy battleship that we had been alerted to by Zhang, the defector from the Triad.

Our troops advanced on the rails, spotting a number of Thin Men in the surrounding area.

The first kill went to Ronnie, who seemed to not care that we needed the train at least operable, as his rail gun shot tore down one side of one of the cars entirely.

Not to be outdone on the property damage front, Iceglow's new Laser Sniper Rifle carved a hole out of both sides of another car while eliminating the second Thin Man.

Already in cover beside one side of a car, Christmas satisfied herself with shattering a window and blowing out the other side to down a Thin Man hiding on the next track.

Daley, disappointed at having no remaining opportunities for property damage, merely set the transponder and shot down the last visible Thin Man.

A Muton dropped from the sky, allowing Iceglow another good shot before he could get into cover. This one tore straight through the car's windows, but left the walls intact.

As our troops advanced into position, another Muton dropped behind enemy lines. Vivi, who had repositioned to get a view on any forward foes, had no line of sight on the Muton, so Iceglow secured another kill (seriously, why are they dropping so many foes that far behind the rest of my troops? Iceglow is just going to kill them).

As he ran forward, Ronnie spotted another Thin Man. Wanting to add to his already high demolitions total, he blew another hole clean through the train before drilling the Thin Man who thought that the small ledge beside the track would protect him (53% accuracy FTW!).

Christmas hit another transponder, then needlessly jumped through a window on her way to the third (really, it's a clear isle, just run along it), apparently just to break as much of the train as possible along the way.

Vivi's reaction shot caught the last Thin Man as it tried to reposition on Daley, then he took a second shot to clear the Muton who dropped atop the train.

Daley placed the final transponder, then started the train's engine. Despite it's protests, the train started to move on the intercept course that would allow it to interfere with the Battleship's navigational systems. Mission Accomplished.

MVP: Iceglow, for covering the team's back.

Wounds: None

Promotions:
Daley Thompson is promoted to Corporal.

Yeah, the specialty missions can be kind of easy. To help make things more interesting, our troops decided to see just how much of the train they could destroy with their standard shots. Mercifully, Ronnie decided to withhold using his grenades to add to the carnage.

Daley can now choose between Tactical Sense (+Defense for each foe in squad's sight) or Aggression (+Crit Chance for each foe in squad's sight).

Fortunately, it's not too long before another mission pops up. This is the mission to board and capture the foe's Battleship. Fun fun fun!


-Operation Blind Dirge-
-Gangplank-
Shanghai, China
11:00 PM

So our forces set down on the enemy Battleship, immediately taking up positions around the veritable flying fortress. Our mission became to disable the power conduits distributing power throughout the ship, allowing us to take it down without destroying the valuable technology onboard.

Two Thin Men were loitering around the first conduit. Christmas ran up and sniped the first one with a clean shot from her Light Plasma Rifle (more weapons need +10 Aim). Ronnie's Railgun obliterated the second.

As Vivi got into position at the conduit, several Sectoids and a Thin Man dropped down from the roof, taking Overwatch positions before our forces.

Iceglow took out one on a high ledge across the room, while Christmas eliminated a second that had dropped onto the floor near Vivi.

As our forces moved forward, more Sectoids dropped into view. Vivi nailed one that was too close to a power conduit, blowing the conduit as well as killing the Sectoid. Ronnie tried a long range shot on another, but missed. Iceglow ran forward and capped the Sectoid with his pistol, eliminating it.

One Sectoid encroached on BoB's territory, splashing some plasma on him before BoB returned fire, roasting him with his heavy lasers.

Christmas ran forward and got another in view, getting a flanking shot. Only to be flanked herself by the remaining Thin Man, who got in a good shot on our brave Assault, but didn't pierce her armor. BoB immediately closed to point-blank range and wasted the alien, intent on eliminating any foes who dare to harm our beloved forum members.

A Chryssalid dropped into sight as our next foe. Not wanting to risk the deadly insect running rampant, Ronnie rushed forward and blasted it down with a hypervelocity slug from his Railgun.

While trying to get into position for an enemy he could sense on the other side of a wall, BoB was surprised by a new foe floating into the midst of our forces. A white disc came through the nearby door, right on top of the team on the left flank. Our forces quickly shot it down, but it then exploded, dealing heavy damage to BoB, Vivi, and Christmas.

On the right flank, meanwhile, Iceglow shot down another Thin Man, while Ronnie got into a point position to take on any new foes who might enter the area, spotting a third conduit, but ignoring it for the time being.

Despite her wounds, Christmas manages to shoot down the next Sectoid that drops onto the field. The rest of our forces regroup, while waiting for the poison clouds from the dead Thin Men to dissipate. Vivi took down the lone Sectoid who dropped in to disrupt our regrouping.

As we were finally ready to move on, a Thin Man dropped down, trying to flank Vivi, but BoB's laser fire caught it before it could get a shot off. BoB then opened the door, revealing a Muton that caught a full body blast from Vivi's Sniper Rifle.

On the other side of the ship, Iceglow opened the door to a lone Sectoid, then promptly fried it with a laser beam.

As we approached the final two conduits, a Thin Man made the mistake of dropping down right next to Ronnie. Not letting the man in the suit ruffle him, Ronnie smashed the conduit, before turning and showing everyone just how big a hole a massive slug can put in an alien body.

BoB deactivated the final conduit, closing off the ship's power flow.

Mercifully, it didn't crash and burn with all of our troops on board.

MVP: BoB, for being the unstoppable juggernaut who destroys the aliens that threaten XCOM forces.

Wounds: Christmas is out for 3 days, getting shrapnel from the Cyberdisc removed from her gut.

Promotions:
Vivi is promoted to Major
Iceglow is promoted to Captain
Ronnie is promoted to Captain
BoB is promoted to Captain
Christmas is promoted to Captain

Promotions all around!

Finally, we get Squad Size II, allowing us to carry 6 soldiers with us, and New Guy, which auto promotes all incoming troops. No more need for Rookies without a specialization!

Vivi gets Low Profile, allowing him to treat half cover as full cover, even for purposes of Mimetic Skin (which is an utterly broken combination).

Iceglow gets to choose between Executioner (increased Aim on low health enemies) and Opportunist (no Aim loss on Overwatch)

Ronnie gets Repair Servos (2 health regen per turn, up to 6 HP total per mission) or Expanded Storage (increases the number of times Grenade Launcher, Proximity Mine, and Restorative Mist can be used by 1 time per mission, and increases main weapon ammo by 50%, making it a 6 shot gun).

Loony BoB has already chosen Danger Zone, increasing the AOE of his rockets.

Christmas gets to choose between Close Combat Specialist, which takes an automatic reaction shot to any enemy that gets within 4 tiles (perfect for killing Chryssalids) and Bring 'Em On, which increases Crit DAMAGE by 1 per foe in squad sight, up to +5.

[Pheesh]

Go team!

http://rack.1.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEzLzA4LzA1L2JmL2hpbXltLjU4YTEyLmdpZgpwCXRodW1iCTg1MHg4NTA-CmUJanBn/8c719a5a/b38/himym.jpg

Also, tell me to shove it if you don't want to do this but I was wondering if before the main mission text, underneath the summary, can you start listing off the people who are in the mission?

[Iceglow]

If I remember X-Com well, then frankly low health don't mean a thing when a sniper rifle is utterly broken and deals damage like a kick from a god damn mother fucking horse! As such, I'll go even more broken with the skill of aiming by taking Opportunist. From how I think you've been playing me I seem to in open areas be the sit back and cover everyone sniper.

Also for my soldiers meld abilities can I have:

For Eyes, +5 Aim and Crit chance when on higher ground.

For Legs, the ability to ignore elevation.

For Skin, we have Mimetic Skin, which lets you become invisible when in high cover sniper class is broken, broken and glorious!

For Heart, Secondary Heart, immortal broken sniper of doom! I like it :D

[Loony BoB]

Woohoo! I did done kill stuff.

[Christmas]

Close Combat Specialist! I like to get up close and personal. :bigsmile:

Poor me! I hope I recover soon! I hope the rank of Captain comes with much needed medical benefits! :(

PS: I love the whole setup. It's like I'm playing the game but need not put in the effort to actually play it! :kaoclove:

[DK]

Expanded storage yo. the health regen thing sounds nice but also rather unnecessary. give Ronnie more explody things!

[Skyblade]

Before we leave on this next Abduction mission, we get attacked by EXALT. Our first encounter with this rogue unit drains some of our cash reserves, but it also alerts us to a cell they have operating in Germany. We send Vivi to disrupt the cell, then go on some Abduction missions.

58365
Operative Vivi. Notice the 22 Kills.

58366
The Team. With Plasma weapons and Particle Cannons in tow.

58367
Our Abduction mission. Apparently all three are in Europe, about five minutes flight time for the Skyranger. Why are we restricted to just doing one?


-Operation Twisted Scepter-
Berlin, Germany
4:24 PM
Christmas, BoB, Ronnie, Psy, Pringle, and Daley.

Our first mission with a full squad.

We started near a warehouse in Berlin. Our forces moved into cover, unhindered, until Pringle spotted a trio of Thin Men. Fortunately, he had moved into full cover, activating his Mimetic Skin, making him invisible. So they didn't notice him.

Unfortunate for them.

YOFFnkQH5LA

Moving into the warehouse offices, two Floaters came into view. Ronnie caught one with Overwatch, and Psy lobbed a grenade in to make a new main door and eliminate the second.

On his way to the first Meld canister, BoB spotted a trio of more Floaters. Christmas caught one with her Light Plasma Rifle. BoB missed with his shot, but Ronnie managed to finish off the one right next to the Meld canister.

Meanwhile, having made it through the offices, Daley grabbed the second Meld canister behind the building, while being backed up by the invisible Pringle.

BoB burned down the final Floater, while two Mutons trudged around towards Daley. Daley was too startled to get a clear shot, but his reaction fire did drive the Mutons back around the building, toward the rest of the squad. Pringle then flanked one of them and got a clean kill, leaving just one Muton remaining, which BoB expertly mowed down.

MVP: Pringle, for a solid kill and setting up that glorious grenade shot, which created the largest poison cloud I have seen in the game to date.

Wounds: None. Someone hit BoB, but I forgot who exactly.

Promotions: Daley is now promoted to Sergeant

Daley now has two promotions of upgrades to choose between.
Tactical Sense (+Def per enemy seen) or Aggression (+Crit chance per enemy seen)
Lightning Reflexes (first Overwatch shot per turn always misses) or Close and Personal (free shot within 4 tiles, doesn't work with Run and Gun)


Anyway, we nearly finish researching Titan Armor, when we get informed that Vivi is ready for extraction. Our first covert extraction mission! Woohoo!


-Operation Forgotten Stallion-
Germany
1:55 PM
Christmas, BoB, Ronnie, Psy, Pringle, Daley, and Vivi (acting as Covert Operative)


Our forces touch down outside a primary bank building in Germany. Vivi has already been busy inside, setting up a transmitter to relay information back to base, and an encoder to protect it from enemy hacking attempts.

Not wasting any time, Vivi sprints to the first EXALT transmitter, getting ready to use the codes he acquired to disable it. Disrupting their communication prevents EXALT from using their weapons to full effect.

As Vivi comes into range, the rest of our squad moves out to cover him, and to block the encoder to prevent EXALT forces from hacking it and discovering the location of the transmitter.

Stepping up to the front door, Psy immediately spots three EXALT agents, who have apparently engaged in some genetic modification of their own. They fall back, but not before Daley rips one of them apart.

Christmas, dashing up to a defensive position near the encoder, manages a beautiful shot right in between some warehouse shelves, eliminating a second EXALT agent.

Three more EXALT agents run onto the field of battle, taking cover among some cars. Some cars that are fully fueled. And sitting within range of Loony BoB. Who has missiles.

i631pJk33gc

I have no idea how that happened.

The final EXALT agent on the field gets his cover blown away by Ronnie, before Psy decides to move in and torch him.

Christmas and Pringle manage to catch three more agents out the back. Pringle misses, but Christmas brings home another corpse, as the foes scramble to evade our vastly superior fire (at this point, they only have conventional weapons. We have full Plasma).

Four more EXALT operatives drop in. Daley immediately frags one, and BoB catches another. Christmas's reaction shot catches one of the ones who ran, and her follow up fire burns him dead.

Ronnie runs around to punch one of the remaining two operatives, who fails to survive for some reason. Vivi fires a few rounds from his pistol at another, dramatically weakening him. Sensing a good opportunity, Daley moves into range and stuns the foe. To his surprise, however, the operative resists the stun long enough to jam a needle in his own neck. Thus deprived of a captive, Daley takes some pride in being the first soldier to secure a kill with the Arc Thrower.

The final foe remaining, the last one that had fled from Christmas, utterly failed to notice the invisible Pringle walking up behind him and putting a plasma barrel to his head.

Mission Accomplished

MVP: Daley. For a few good shots, and that awesome stun-kill.

Wounds: None.

Promotions: Christmas is now a Major, earning herself the Extra Conditioning Ability

Completing this mission returned Vivi to base, and earned us some intel. EXALT's base is not within one of the world's five most populous countries.


We then complete research on Titan Armor, allowing us to create the magnificent MEC-3, the Paladin.

This allows our MEC troops to choose between two additional abilities. Proximity Mines, which are fairly self explanatory, and the Electro-pulse, a short range AOE weapon that disables machines temporarily and shocks organic foes.

The Paladin MEC suit also looks awesome, so don't delay in upgrading.


We get another council meeting, telling us how awesome we're doing, in case anyone wasn't paying attention, and we get our monthly funding.

[Pheesh]

Lol, BoB's rocket shot was so satisfying to watch.

[Loony BoB]

Boom. :mwahaha:

I can't wait to get my third rocket!

[Christmas]

Holy, if only I get promoted that fast in real life! :kaoclove:

[DK]

mines for more exploding fun. also god damn that rail gun is awesome, I want one.

[Iceglow]

More Iceglow action!

[Psychotic]

I want to shock some bitches. Electro-pulse me up!

[Skyblade]

While the MEC choices were made, Daley, Psy, and Ronnie all have ability choices to make.

58427

Huh. The Zebra print wasn't as bad as I thought.


-Operation Defiant Sword-
Russia
Nighttime
Daley, Psy, Ronnie, Vivi, Hingle, and BoB.


Demon-3, the Firestorm we have stationed in Europe, was sent to intercept a Large Scout class vessel. Closing to range with negligible damage, the new Firestorm performed admirably, and its EMP cannon successfully took down the ship.

The Skyranger transferred our strike team to the area, and our forces immediately started scouting for foes and Meld.

Hingle took point, his Mimetic skin allowing him to sprint far ahead without fear of discovery or reprisal. BoB followed suit when Hingle spotted nothing, hoping his spidey senses would pick up any foes beyond the standard line of sight. But with nothing detected save some large mechanical noises in the background, our troops had no choice but to advance.

They split into two groups to better scout the terrain. Hingle led Ronnie along, while BoB led Daley and Psy. Vivi lagged behind, trying to find the best location from which to get a good vantage point.

First contact finally came as Hingle circled around the UFO. He spotted two Sectoids flanking a new foe. It appeared that the aliens copied our MEC suits, and had crafted a vastly inferior version and put it around one of their Sectoids.

Not wanting to alert the new foes unnecessarily, Ronnie pulled up behind Hingle, making sure to stay behind the wall of the UFO as he readied for the pummeling that was sure to come. The enemy's patrol path took them away from our troops. While a grenade was an option, and would certainly eliminate the Sectoids, it would also alert the new foe, who would likely survive. Instead, Ronnie sought to try out his new toy, and lobbed a proximity mine directly into the middle of the group of enemies, while Hingle went into Overwatch, still invisible.

Sure enough, the enemies decided to continue their patrol, only to have it gloriously cut short in a blast that eliminated both Sectoids, and did substantial damage to the new MEC-driving Sectoid (which Ronnie decided to call a Mechtoid). Hingle's Overwatch shot missed, however, and two Seekers caught the explosion and immediately went into stealth mode.

Ronnie's Particle Beam ripped the Mechtoid's armor to shreds, while Hingle's next shot finished off the over-encumbered Sectoid.

As Psy, BoB, and Daley continued an utterly uneventful exploration of the alien craft, Ronnie's Overwatch beam tore the first Seeker from the sky before it could choke Daley. However, a Cyberdisc soon floated into view, accompanied by two small Drones that we had not seen before. The Cyberdisc opened up, displaying a host of weaponry, and stood ready to fire.

BoB detected an Outsider within the heart of the alien craft. Not wanting to waste time, Psy just lobbed a grenade in and called it a day (normally, I wouldn't bother, but there's an achievement to get for killing a foe detected by Mimetic Skin that you can't otherwise see, and that was the easiest way to get it).

Hingle's reaction fire tore down the first Drone. Ronnie ran past the Cyberdisc, drawing some Overwatch fire that did nothing except further tear apart the crashed UFO. He then leveled his Particle Cannon at the Cyberdisc and unloaded into it, which caused it to collapse from its unfurled form back into the familiar disc. Despite the extra protection of this form, Hingle's plasma rounds managed to finish it off, leaving just the sole Drone remaining.

Vivi, cursing his inability to get a clear shot at anything (since Ronnie stole the Seeker Reaction Fire kill), tried for a long range pistol Overwatch on the Drone, but missed. The Drone then settled into place, charged a beam, and fired it at Ronnie. Ronnie was not impressed (1 damage. Ronnie has 24 HP at this point).

Sensing an opportunity, Daley ran through the craft and secured a point blank shot on the Drone, earning himself a much-needed promotion.

While everyone else was wondering why the mission wasn't over, Psy stood stock still, Particle Cannon pointing across the map. When the second Seeker (seriously, what took this guy so long?!) came back into view, it was annihilated almost immediately.


MVP: Ronnie. For excellent use of weapons at hand to eliminate a number of foes, and wound others so that the rest of the team could get kills.

Wounds: Ronnie needs to get his armor polished after that last fight. Demon-3 was repaired before the Skyranger even made it back to base.

Promotions:
Hingle was promoted to Captain.
Ronnie was promoted to Major.
BoB was promoted to Major, earning him Will to Survive.
Daley was promoted to Lieutenant.
Psy was promoted to Captain.

Hingle gets to choose between Dense Smoke, which makes Smoke Grenades add +40 to Defense instead of +20, or Combat Drugs, which make Smoke Grenades add +20 Will and +10% Crit chance instead.

Ronnie needs to choose between Repair Servos and Expanded Storage, then he'll get Overdrive immediately (which lets him fire his weapon and then take a second action, as long as he doesn't move first).

Psy gets to choose between Jumpjets or the ability to become a lump of cover, then make the Repair Servos/Expanded Storage choice.

Daley needs to choose between Aggression or Tactical Sense, Lightning Reflexes or Close and Personal, and Flush or Rapid Fire. He also needs to choose a nickname.


We also got another Council Medal of Honor, taking us to 2. We need to decide names and effects for some of these. The EoFF Political Debate Ciddie is getting lonely.



Also, if you want gene mods, let me know. I have enough people that we can afford to take the time to install them (I had to leave Christmas from this one, and Iceglow is serving as a Covert Op on a cell we uncovered in China).

[DK]

pretty sure I posted before to give me expanded storage, home boy, maybe you missed a page or something? dunno if anyone else made any choices but I think I did.

also hell yes that is some sexy ass zebra stripe and also MVP action. can't stop Meaty Thigh (tho perhaps Metal Thigh would be more appropriate)

[Loony BoB]

Ronnie was not impressed.

You don't smurf with Ronnie. And 1 damage? It's like poking a hungry tiger in the jungle.

[Pheesh]

Umm, I'm not sure which skill to pick really, we don't seem to use smoke grenades very often. I think I'll go for the +crit chance one, just because no one ever seems to be in danger of dying so defense be damned, and it could be fun to throw one in front of Ronnie before he shoots some alien in the face.

[Skyblade]

Umm, I'm not sure which skill to pick really, we don't seem to use smoke grenades very often. I think I'll go for the +crit chance one, just because no one ever seems to be in danger of dying so defense be damned, and it could be fun to throw one in front of Ronnie before he shoots some alien in the face.

Truthfully, at this point (and on this Difficulty level) we're pretty much invulnerable until Sectopods and Ethereals show up. There are a few upcoming missions that might give us some trouble, once EXALT starts fielding Laser Weapons, just because of the numbers in which we face them. And once we capture the alien base, we have the base defense mission to worry about, which is going to be a royal pain, because that's just how it is.

That said, I rarely use Smoke Grenades, just because I find them very situational. I usually find I'm better off using Suppression (which imposes an Aim penalty of 30 on enemies, which is superior to the 20 Defense from the grenades) or actually trying to eliminate a foe if I'm facing multiples. Smoke Grenades are most useful when I run into two groups of powerful foes at the same time, and I simply don't have the ability to tip the scales much in direct combat.

Most dangerous foes we have to look out for upcoming are Heavy Floaters, Muton Elites, Sectopods, Ethereals, and Mechtoids. I'm not sure why, but enemy progression has seemed somewhat slow. I honestly expected Mechtoids to show up about a month earlier (they're a new foe to Enemy Within, so I'm not entirely sure when they show up). This slow enemy progression has just made things way easier, as it let us overpower our foes with superior technology (as I said plasma before EXALT even gets lasers). We've kind of hit the stall point on technology, though, so we're just waiting for foes to catch up.

Combat Drugs will be helpful, though. Because Sectoid Commanders, and especially Ethereals, have a habit of trying to Mind Control our troops. And MEC soldiers can't carry Psi shields or get genetically engineered to resist it. +Will can help make sure that Ronnie doesn't get mind controlled.

[Skyblade]

-Operation Hot Ring-
China
10:47 PM
Vivi, BoB, Christmas, Ronnie, Psy, Hingle, and Iceglow (as a covert operative)


While performing his covert investigations into an EXALT cell operating in China, Iceglow uncovered a force of EXALT operatives moving in to his location. Despite not having collected all of the information XCOM needed, Iceglow knew he needed to call in the main team while he finished his task.

Iceglow immediately took full advantage of his Mimetic Skin to advance on the first of two communications relays that he needed to hack to finish extracting the intel. He spotted three EXALT agents, but his new cloaking ability meant that they didn't even realize he was there.

They did notice as Ronnie charged into the fray, however, laying a Proximity mine at their feet while Vivi moved into a covering fire position.

Not wanting to waste time, Psy launched a more conventional grenade into the group of foes. This explosion, while not enough to kill the EXALT forces, also detonated the proximity mine, which finished them off (5 damage from Alien Grenade, 8 from Proximity mine).

Moving closer to his first hacking objective, Iceglow saw another trio of foes. Managing to avoid direct contact this time, Ronnie laid another proximity mine, while the rest of the team moved up to support positions, waiting for the boom to start the show.

Unfortunately they were disappointed, as the first movement by the agents detonated the mine, but none survived the blast (I misread their HP, thought they had 9, they had 8 >.<).

There was then a group vote to ban Ronnie from using more Proximity Mines until the rest of the team got some kills.

As Iceglow finally got into position near the first transmitter, two EXALT agents jumped onto the boat the transmitter was located on. Unfortunately, one of them was in clear view of five of the team. The entire team was also on Overwatch.

That poor agent out of the way, Vivi proceeded to take down the second foe with a clean shot. Iceglow hit the transmitter, and the rest of the team broke up and began taking spaced out positions around the docks to watch for any new oncoming forces.

Moving on to the roof of the main loading warehouse, Iceglow hit the second communication relay with no incident, and started legging it back to the Skyranger. Two EXALT agents then dropped onto the roof with him, however, and he had no higher cover left to conceal him until he got down. This wasn't a problem, however, as Christmas happened to be on the roof as well, and quickly introduced the first foe to her might Alloy Cannon. Iceglow himself decided to show off his Gunslinger ability by blasting the remaining EXALT agent for lethal damage (With a non-crit pistol shot. Woohoo!).

As Iceglow neared the Skyranger, two more EXALT operatives strolled onto the field, with one getting torn down by BoB's reaction fire before he could even register the situation he was in. Hingle couldn't get in position to eliminate the second foe, and Vivi already had to kills, so BoB decided to just keep firing, and mowed down the second one as well.

With no more foes remaining, Iceglow jumped into the Skyranger, successfully delivering the intel.

MVP: Ronnie, for being a glory hog with his Proximity Mines.

Wounds: None

Promotions: Iceglow is now a Major, earning him Low Profile (and making his Mimetic Skin become utterly broken beyond belief)

Information Acquired: The EXALT base is East of the Atlantic Ocean.

Boring mission, but we're about to get one that is far more interesting. We have the Council calling us to investigate an incident in Newfoundland. A fishing village has gone dark, and no word has come from the initial investigators.

Also, I believe we're at our max count on Defender's Medals. Could we get a vote on name and ability? It removes chance to panic when allies die, or increases HP restored by Medkits by 2.

[Elite Lord Sigma]

For the Defender's Medal bonus, I think the medkit health restoration boost is more useful, because the risk of anybody panicking on this team is quite low as it is. Furthermore, it's looking quite unlikely that anybody important will die unless I get introduced to the squad. I don't think this is a huge decision either way, so I'd be all right with either choice.

As for the name, I suggest that we call it the Eyes on the World Ciddie; we're all looking out for each other in this game.

From the description of that last mission, it's going to suck. I've heard horror stories about the events at that village.

[Psychotic]

Kickin' ass! Jump jets, repair servos, and no panic please!

[Skyblade]

I have been planning to introduce a new Squaddie or two, just to add some tension, but I know this mission, and it's too awesome to not take our best.


-Operation Bleeding Serpent-
St. John's, Canada
6:56 PM
Vivi, Ronnie, BoB, Christmas, Iceglow, Psy.



We set down on the outskirts of the village docking area. Christmas and BoB started moving through the buildings, clearing them out room by room, looking for any hostiles or survivors.

Iceglow immediately jumped to a roof, snickering at Vivi who had to use a grapple to get that high. Both snipers were alert and clear minded, trying to find the best position from which to scope out the majority of the village.

Ronnie and Psy immediately head down to the lower dock levels, investigating the barges and crates at the water's edge.


A Chryssalid zombie burst out of the building Iceglow was sitting on, walking out into the open. Intent on getting a clear shot at the foe, BoB opened the door to the main room of the building he was in, revealing a second zombie inside.

Not to be dissuaded from his current target, BoB revved up his new Heavy Plasma repeater and blew the first zombie apart. Christmas introduced the second one to her Alloy Cannon (double 15 damage crits, woohoo), shredding the former civilian.


Knowing that we were facing Chryssalids, and potentially an entire town of zombies, our forces steeled themselves further. They knew they had to hunt out the source of this infestation, and burn it out.

As we advanced through the town, Psy spotted a shark hanging on a fisherman's hook. It seemed to be quivering somewhat. Mere moments later, the shark burst, exploding into a fountain of blood as a new Chryssalid burst from its remains. Ronnie, who had taken a ready stance, burned the beast down with his Particle Cannon. But we doubted one shark was the source of this problem. There was plenty more marine life scattered around the village, after all.

As the one member of the team with absolutely no fear of Chryssalids, Christmas rushed forward as far as she could (she has an Alloy Cannon, Titan Armor, Chitin Plating, a S.C.O.P.E., and Close Quarters Specialist, she's a beast against these guys). Her bravery was swiftly put to the test, as she caught sight of three Chryssalids and another zombie. Iceglow had a bead on the zombie, and put the unfortunate villager to rest. Vivi drilled the first Chryssalid in line.

BoB was too far behind to get a shot or even a good Blaster Bomb shot off, but Psy moved back upstairs and eliminated the second Chryssalid with his Particle Cannon. Ronnie remained on the lower floor, leaving the last Chryssalid to its own devices. It charged straight at Christmas, catching a Close Combat reaction shot to the face.

As Psy backed up the team up top, he spotted another Zombie down near Ronnie. Vivi attempted to take it out with a sniper shot, but left it barely alive. Ronnie decided to charge up and pummel the creature, only to uncover two more Chryssalids, who charged right up next to him. Unwilling to risk the dangerous position he had placed himself in, Ronnie changed tactics, dropping a Proximity Mine on the trio. The Zombie smashed heavily into Ronnie's shiny new Paladin MEC, but then the Chryssalid behind him attempted to close with Ronnie, and all three foes went up in a blast of pyrotechnics.

With those foes eliminated, Ronnie continued his advance. As he did so, he spotted a massive derelict whaling vessel that looked to have been run aground rather than docked. The sides of it were gaping open, and our forces detected a foul stench wafting from the interior. It seems we had found the source of the Chryssalids.

Christmas, still scoffing disdain at the thought that the Chryssalids could harm her, immediately breached the vessel, but noted no foes in the immediate vicinity. Ronnie continued up the side of the vessel, reloading his weapon to prepare for his own breach. A nearby zombie chose not to wait for him to prepare, and began shambling towards him, but Psy eliminated it with a long range reaction shot to cover his MEC buddy.

As Christmas charged towards the rear of the craft, she spotted a whale that seemed half mutated into a host of Chryssalid eggs. It seemed the whale was serving as a massive host spawning ground for the Chryssalids. We didn't have enough heavy ordinance to eliminate the whale ourselves however (Really? I have a Blaster Launcher, which is literally a miniature fusion bomb launcher). We needed to call in an airstrike. To do that, we'd need to use the ship's transponder to home the strike in. However, the whale was still constantly spawning Chryssalids.

Not wanting to see any step forth, Ronnie dropped a Proximity Mine to cover as much of the whale's body as he could. BoB began moving to the transponder controls, while Psy, Vivi, and Iceglow continued to try to provide cover.

The first new Chryssalid burst from the creature's head, but was in perfect view of Christmas's Alloy Cannon. One smooth blow shredded the creature before it could even move. A second Chryssalid burst out of the whale's tail, but Iceglow caught it with a shot before it could threaten the team. Ronnie laid more proximity mines, covering the beast's head and the far side of it, while Psy ripped open the side of the ship further to ensure that Vivi could get a clear shot of any other Chryssalids that spawned.

The next Chryssalid jumped out of the whale, straight into the proximity mine Ronnie had prepared, being blown to smithereens before it could even hit the ground. Ronnie dropped his final mine back where the last one had detonated, hoping to get as much coverage as he could.

Another Chryssalid burst from the whale's head, detonating the mine Ronnie had placed there. The blast, however, also caught the mine Ronnie had just laid down, leaving but one mind remaining.

BoB finally hit the transponder, and a countdown began ticking until the village was leveled by our airstrike and the threat eliminated. Our objective became to get the hell out of there, without falling prey to the Chryssalids that would continue to spawn from the whale.

Christmas stayed in the trailing position. With Run and Gun and her other perks, she still had the least to fear from the insectoid foes. Ronnie and Psy pulled back and went to Overwatch. Vivi and Iceglow were already far back, ready to take Squadsight shots at any Chryssalids who approached. BoB dropped to the ground and legged it for the exit.

As our forces began an earnest retreat, three more Chryssalids emerged. One jumped right into the midst of the remaining proximity mine, though we heard no explosion. A second burst from a shark hanging up in the whaling ship, and a third revealed itself in a shark we had passed in the village earlier in the mission, though that one didn't last long before the firepower of Vivi and Iceglow.

BoB took his chance to fire on the remaining visible Chryssalid, then continued his rush for the exit (yay, Bullet Storm, I totally forgot about it), trusting the mine to eliminate the final foe.

However, two more Chryssalids burst from the whale, and we still heard no boom. Not wasting time to worry about it however, our forces continued their tactical repositioning. A new Chryssalid emerged from another shark, and Ronnie took a second to eliminate it. Our snipers finally reached the point where they needed to retreat as well, and Vivi and Iceglow began sprinting for the Skyranger.

As another Chryssalid came into view, Christmas's long range reaction shot went wide, and it and a second set down beneath the stairs, blocking themselves from line of sight. But not from BoB's Mimetic Skin, nor his Blaster Launcher. Finally getting the opportunity to use his new toy, BoB fired a guided shot that took out the stairs and plenty of crates, as well as eliminating both Chryssalids. Their way back into the village may have been blocked, but the team didn't plan on going back anyway.

Vivi was the first to make it to safety, with Ronnie and Psy shortly behind. Iceglow remained in a position to cover the main path Christmas and BoB were on, and Christmas stayed next to BoB to ensure his explosive fun didn't get him jumped. Iceglow was next into the Skyranger, with BoB and Christmas bringing up the rear.


Mission Accomplished.

MVP: Christmas, for good positioning, and excellent use of the ultimate anti-Chryssalid build.

Wounded: None

Promotions: None

25 kills and no promotions (still, less than the 33 kills that is my max from that mission). Thank goodness for MECs, as Ronnie was in a lot of trouble with those three heavy hitters on him. That was an ingenious use of the proximity mine, if I do say so myself (it literally blew up right in his face, but he was just outside the blast radius).

Yeah, I didn't want to run Squaddies on a mission that awesome. Next time, maybe?

[Loony BoB]

That sounded rather epic. :D Glad we all made it out in one piece, excellent work.

[Pheesh]

Yeah, that was a really good read. Nicely done!

[Slothy]

All kinds of actual fishing villages in Newfoundland and they choose the city of 200,000 people. Well done Firaxis. :exdee:

[Psychotic]

Sounds like one hell of a war went down. Good stuff!

[Loony BoB]

All kinds of actual fishing villages in Newfoundland and they choose the city of 200,000 people. Well done Firaxis. :exdee:
It was a city. Then the aliens arrived. It's a village now...

[Skyblade]

Yay, finally days off.

Ok, so we finished all the rest of our research, leaving us without much to do except assault the alien base. However, I didn't want to do that quite yet, as we've progressed really quickly so far. We haven't even seen Berserkers yet, or gotten a Colonel. So I'm just building up some resources, trying to make more Firestorms.

I decided to try this mission a bit differently. I've paired one of our Majors with one of our lower-ranked units, then given them one Squaddie of each class to fill out the roster, and I'm going to send them into the mission alone. This should provide some chance at people dying, let us get some new units in (since we might not even get a Psi soldier from our current squad, which would mean that we couldn't beat the game), and hopefully still be engaging.

58682

If you guys don't like the way this mission turns out, let me know, and I'll go back to standard stuff, and more progression with story objectives.

Landed UFO spotted in the UK. Classification: Small Scout


-Operation Shattered Throne-
United Kingdom
10:18 AM
BoB, Psy, and the Squaddies.


Our new Sniper, lacking both Snap Shot and Squadsight took point. Knowing she couldn't get a shot in except with her pistol anyway, she decided it would be best for her to scout, and try to get in range for a second turn.

Sure enough, she spotted a trio of Thin Men as she took cover in a rock ravine. The Thin Men retreated back, putting them out of the range of most of the squad. Psy, with his newly researched Advanced Servomotors, was the only one able to reach a position with a clear view. His shot did manage to take down one of the hiding Thin Men, though, leaving just two left to menace the team.

Our Assault decided to push it, and chose to Run and Gun up to take a long distance shotgun blast, which successfully downed a second Thin Man (low accuracy FTW in this mission).

The final Thin Man retreated more, as a second group stomped into view. A Mechtoid, flanked with two Sectoid servitors strolled out of the side of the UFO.


Our forces regrouped to try to take on the Mechtoid, but most of the firing going both ways missed. Psy's Particle Cannon managed to severely damage the Mechtoid's chassis, however.

One of the Sectoids attempted to Mind Merge with the Mechtoid, imbuing it with a strange shield of psy energy. Our Support Soldier took out the shield, while our Assault took care of the merging Sectoid. The second Sectoid was shredded by BoB.

The Mechtoid, now crippled and alone, could only look on as our Heavy approached it and tore it to shreds with a plasma volley. However, we uncovered an Outsider in doing so, and Psy's shot failed to connect with it.

The return fire from the Outsider managed to chew into our Heavy's armor, but didn't get through it.

Two Seekers came into view as the last Thin Man also strolled back onto the field. With Psy out of ammo, BoB chose to take out the Thin Man. The rest of the squad turtled up or reloaded, waiting for the inevitable Seeker revelation. Sure enough, the Assault's shotgun caught the beastie square in the faceplate, driving it down, leaving us with but one to go. BoB, who had ranged to the side to pick up the Thin Man, returned to the squad, his Mimetic Skin detecting the second Seeker, which he promptly fired at, downing the poor machine before it even knew it had been compromised.

Mission Accomplished

MVP: BoB. For solid kills and good use of Mimetic Skin.

Wounds: None. :(

Promotions: None. :(


Well, that was boring. Ok, inferior equipment is now going to be rolled out for the Squaddies. They can have the captured EXALT weapons, and probably basic armor.

[Skyblade]

Alien Terror Attack!

58683


-Operation Blinding Bell-
Brisbane, Australia
9:49 AM
Christmas, Hingle, and the Squaddies.


Our Assault took lead, sprinting to the nearest civilian to get them moving to the evac point, while keeping an eye out for any oncoming foes. She spotted two Chryssalids, but her new Assault Rifle missed its reaction fire, and the beasts settled into view.

Christmas, still the queen of the Chryssalid hunt, calmly blew the closest foe away. The second, however, was out of range atop an 18 wheeler. The Chryssalid dropped down, and implanted a civilian with an egg, while a second civilian was ripped apart in the distance.

Our Heavy, taking up the left flank, tried to move into position to flank the foes, only to stumble into FIVE Chryssalids. With six foes now on the field, and a zombie on the way, things just go serious.

Christmas's next shot missed, and Hingle's failed to kill the Chryssalid. Two more civvies were killed, as was our poor Heavy, depriving us of rocket support.

Our Support finished off the foe Hingle had wounded, and our Sniper took out a second one with Hingle's support as well. Christmas tried to position between the Chryssalids and our Sniper, hoping to get Close Quarters shots before they could threaten the team, and get out of range of the Cyberdisc that had just been spotted at the edge of our soldier's view.

Sure enough, Christmas shredded a Chryssalid with Close Quarters Specialist, and tore into our poor Heavy's mangled body, wounding it as it was headed for our Sniper badly enough for our Support soldier to put the poor soldier down. Our Sniper and Assault managed to work together to down another Zombie, even as another civilian fell, taking the count to 5 killed, 5 saved, and eight left in the field of operations.

Christmas reloaded, hoping to lure in more foes for Close Quarters. The remaining Chryssalid chose to attack another civilian, but the zombie wandered right into range of her newly reloaded Alloy Cannon. The Cyberdisc came back into view, and took a flanking shot at Hingle, but managed to miss our athletic Support master.

Knowing that she had to take action fast before the squad was overwhelmed, Christmas decided to Run and Gun up to the Cyber Disc, then attempted to take it down with Rapid Fire, earning her a kill, and an impressive explosion that wiped out one of the nearby Drones as well.

Our Sniper missed against another Chryssalid, but our Assault scored a crit, grievously wounding the beast, but our Support missed the killing blow, allowing it to take down another civilian. Hingle shot down the final Drone, hoping to eliminate the need for our forces to worry about taking cover amid the melee-heavy brawl that was emerging.

Each of our Squaddies wounded another Zombie as Hingle took down the only remaining visible Chryssalid. The squad hoped that Christmas was properly positioned to finish off the Zombies with her mastery of Close Quarters fighting as they passed by her to reach the rest of the squad.

A fourth zombie rose up from the recently deceased Civilian, and all pressed forward. Right into Christmas's range. And she had spent her turn reloading again. I most humbly apologize for not being able to capture video, but I think Christmas wiping out four Zombies in one turn has taken over as the most glorious sight to come out of the new XCOM game.

Hingle finished off the remaining Chryssalid, that had just skittered back into view, while Christmas ran around the 18 wheeler and destroyed the first of three Zombies that were still on the field of battle.

However, we spotted another Chryssalid, which downed another Civilian, and yet another Chryssalid roaming the back field. Cursing their luck, our squad settled in for a grueling fight (Rescued: 5, Dead: 12, Remaining: 1).

Christmas destroyed the two remaining Zombies with Close Quarters and backup reaction fire from the Squaddies. Hingle tore into one of the Chryssalids from range, crippling it, but not yet taking it down. Our Support and Sniper teamed up to take down the last visible Zombie, while Hingle finished off the wounded Chryssalid, and Christmas shredded the final one.

Mission Accomplished.

MVP: Christmas. Because without her, Hingle and the Squaddies would most definitely not have survived.

Wounds: None

KIA: Our Heavy, Beth Lee

Promotions: Christmas is now a Colonel
Our Assault and Sniper are now Corporals

That was much better. By far the worst I've ever done on a terror mission, yet it was totally epic. Thank goodness I was at least smart enough to bring along Christmas, or we would most likely have failed completely. Just so many Zombies and Chryssalids. It reminds me of the original XCOM.


Oh, yeah. Christmas, you can choose between Resilience, which makes you immune to critical hits, and Killer Instinct, which grants you +50% Critical Damage whenever you use Run and Gun. Also, I'm thinking of changing your Callsign/Nickname to "Chryssalid Queen". Do you want any Gene Mods?

[Elite Lord Sigma]

Don't we also need to figure out where EXALT's base is located and destroy it, or is that not necessary to complete the game?

[Skyblade]

Don't we also need to figure out where EXALT's base is located and destroy it, or is that not necessary to complete the game?

It's not necessary to complete the game, but I'm still going to do it. However, finding it is dependent on the number of Covert Operations we get. I'm scanning as often as I can, but I haven't found any new ones yet.

[Christmas]

Alien Terror Attack!

58683


-Operation Blinding Bell-
Brisbane, Australia
9:49 AM
Christmas, Hingle, and the Squaddies.


Our Assault took lead, sprinting to the nearest civilian to get them moving to the evac point, while keeping an eye out for any oncoming foes. She spotted two Chryssalids, but her new Assault Rifle missed its reaction fire, and the beasts settled into view.

Christmas, still the queen of the Chryssalid hunt, calmly blew the closest foe away. The second, however, was out of range atop an 18 wheeler. The Chryssalid dropped down, and implanted a civilian with an egg, while a second civilian was ripped apart in the distance.

Our Heavy, taking up the left flank, tried to move into position to flank the foes, only to stumble into FIVE Chryssalids. With six foes now on the field, and a zombie on the way, things just go serious.

Christmas's next shot missed, and Hingle's failed to kill the Chryssalid. Two more civvies were killed, as was our poor Heavy, depriving us of rocket support.

Our Support finished off the foe Hingle had wounded, and our Sniper took out a second one with Hingle's support as well. Christmas tried to position between the Chryssalids and our Sniper, hoping to get Close Quarters shots before they could threaten the team, and get out of range of the Cyberdisc that had just been spotted at the edge of our soldier's view.

Sure enough, Christmas shredded a Chryssalid with Close Quarters Specialist, and tore into our poor Heavy's mangled body, wounding it as it was headed for our Sniper badly enough for our Support soldier to put the poor soldier down. Our Sniper and Assault managed to work together to down another Zombie, even as another civilian fell, taking the count to 5 killed, 5 saved, and eight left in the field of operations.

Christmas reloaded, hoping to lure in more foes for Close Quarters. The remaining Chryssalid chose to attack another civilian, but the zombie wandered right into range of her newly reloaded Alloy Cannon. The Cyberdisc came back into view, and took a flanking shot at Hingle, but managed to miss our athletic Support master.

Knowing that she had to take action fast before the squad was overwhelmed, Christmas decided to Run and Gun up to the Cyber Disc, then attempted to take it down with Rapid Fire, earning her a kill, and an impressive explosion that wiped out one of the nearby Drones as well.

Our Sniper missed against another Chryssalid, but our Assault scored a crit, grievously wounding the beast, but our Support missed the killing blow, allowing it to take down another civilian. Hingle shot down the final Drone, hoping to eliminate the need for our forces to worry about taking cover amid the melee-heavy brawl that was emerging.

Each of our Squaddies wounded another Zombie as Hingle took down the only remaining visible Chryssalid. The squad hoped that Christmas was properly positioned to finish off the Zombies with her mastery of Close Quarters fighting as they passed by her to reach the rest of the squad.

A fourth zombie rose up from the recently deceased Civilian, and all pressed forward. Right into Christmas's range. And she had spent her turn reloading again. I most humbly apologize for not being able to capture video, but I think Christmas wiping out four Zombies in one turn has taken over as the most glorious sight to come out of the new XCOM game.

Hingle finished off the remaining Chryssalid, that had just skittered back into view, while Christmas ran around the 18 wheeler and destroyed the first of three Zombies that were still on the field of battle.

However, we spotted another Chryssalid, which downed another Civilian, and yet another Chryssalid roaming the back field. Cursing their luck, our squad settled in for a grueling fight (Rescued: 5, Dead: 12, Remaining: 1).

Christmas destroyed the two remaining Zombies with Close Quarters and backup reaction fire from the Squaddies. Hingle tore into one of the Chryssalids from range, crippling it, but not yet taking it down. Our Support and Sniper teamed up to take down the last visible Zombie, while Hingle finished off the wounded Chryssalid, and Christmas shredded the final one.

Mission Accomplished.

MVP: Christmas. Because without her, Hingle and the Squaddies would most definitely not have survived.

Wounds: None

KIA: Our Heavy, Beth Lee

Promotions: Christmas is now a Colonel
Our Assault and Sniper are now Corporals

That was much better. By far the worst I've ever done on a terror mission, yet it was totally epic. Thank goodness I was at least smart enough to bring along Christmas, or we would most likely have failed completely. Just so many Zombies and Chryssalids. It reminds me of the original XCOM.


Oh, yeah. Christmas, you can choose between Resilience, which makes you immune to critical hits, and Killer Instinct, which grants you +50% Critical Damage whenever you use Run and Gun. Also, I'm thinking of changing your Callsign/Nickname to "Chryssalid Queen". Do you want any Gene Mods?

I am on the roll! :bigsmile:

Killer instinct! Destruction all the way!! :bigsmile:

Sure, change the nick then. :bigsmile:

Mods are alway good. :kaoclove:

[Skyblade]

I am on the roll! :bigsmile:

Killer instinct! Destruction all the way!! :bigsmile:

Sure, change the nick then. :bigsmile:

Mods are alway good. :kaoclove:

Nickname doesn't fit. :(


So we find another EXALT cell, and send Vivi on a Covert Operation to infiltrate it. Christmas pops into the Gene Labs for 12 days to get some mods.

Then we wait, and initiate the recovery mission. On advice, I have reduced the squaddies to three.


-Operation Demon Gaze-
India
9:51 PM
Hingle, BoB, Ronnie, and the Squaddies. Vivi (as covert operative)


Ronnie immediately moved forward, spotting three EXALT agents. They began an immediate retreat into cover, but one retreated too close to Vivi, who pulled out his buffed plasma pistol and blew the fool's head off.

Our Assault tore down the wall with a missed shot, but by so doing, eliminated the cover one of the EXALT agents were hiding in. This allowed Ronnie's Particle Cannon a free shot straight through the unlucky foe.

Three more EXALT agents broke in, and our Assault and Support soldiers continued demolishing the building rather than actually taking out the foes. Our Sniper, however, managed to line up a Headshot on one of the EXALT agents, removing another foe from the fight.

Vivi and Hingle worked together to take down another EXALT agent sitting in high cover against the wall. Ronnie put a point-blank particle beam shot into another, but BoB's rounds missed the final agent, and their hacking of our encoder continued.

Two more EXALT agents rushed the field. However, one took up a poor position, leaving himself flanked by Hingle, who wasted no time exploiting that opportunity. The other was near the rear of the building, and we lost sight as he entered the offices. Our Sniper spotted the agent while moving into position near the encoder, those the EXALT enemy seemed to miss seeing us.

Getting sick of this whole "enclosed area" thing, BoB hefts his Blaster Launcher and fires a round that takes out almost the entire rear half of the building, including the EXALT agent. Leaving us with much cleaner line of sight for future incursions.

Three more EXALT agents stroll into the operation zone. Vivi takes the opportunity to hit one of their data transmitters, temporarily disabling their weapon linkage systems, before putting some plasma rounds through the skull of another traitor to humanity. Our Assault and Support soldiers remove the remaining side wall, taking out an EXALT agent as they do so.

The final foe is massively outgunned, but Hingle and our Sniper only manage to wound him, and Ronnie's shot misses completely. The agent tries to get in to hack the encoder, but our Support soldier is blocking him, and he had no time to take a shot (not to mention, Vivi had disabled his weapon). Hingle finally finishes off that foe, but tactical command detects more incoming.

Sure enough, five more agents came into view. Two were in plain sight at the rear of the facility. One was so far towards the deployment point that we had long passed by his position. A third unfortunate soul took up cover against the wall, somehow missing the giant pink and blue MEC sitting directly next to him. And the final foe took cover near the front right corner we had yet to explore.

Hingle eliminated one of the foes. Our Sniper shot down another. Ronnie turned his head slightly and backhanded the blind EXALT agent next to him several feet away.

Vivi disabled weapons for our foes again, forcing them to close.

Unfortunately, the one near the front closed to within Ronnie's massive movement range, earning himself a massive fist to the face that actually drove him through the length of a concrete fountain wall (seriously, four tiles long, and he broke through the entire thing).

The other EXALT operative had stepped into almost the exact middle of our forces. Though reaction fire from our Squaddies missed, BoB's heavy plasma gun did not, and as the final foe fell, our mission was successful.

MVP: Vivi. For excellent map control and some brilliant kills, even restricted to a pistol.

Wounded: None.

Promotions:
Hingle is now a Major, earning himself Deep Pockets, earning an extra use for all consumable items.
BoB is now a Colonel, earning himself the Rocketeer ability, letting him fire another Blaster Bomb in a mission.
Vivi is now a Colonel.
Ronnie is now a Colonel.
Our Support is now a Corporal.

Vivi can now choose between Double Tap, which lets him take two shots a round, or In the Zone, which lets him take an extra free action every time he kills a foe outside of cover.

Ronnie can now choose between Absorbtion Fields, which means that no single attack can take off more than 1/3rd of his health, and Reactive Targeting Sensor, which lets him autofire back at the first foe to take a shot at him each turn.

There were some shots toward us in this mission, but Ronnie was the only one hit, and only for 4 damage. Why has EXALT not started using Gene Modded troops with Laser weapons yet? :(

We also got the massively helpful clue that the EXALT base is not in Japan.


With that out of the way, we proceed to the next Council Meeting, earning ourselves more funding.

[Slothy]

Is in the zone when enemies are outside cover? Doesn't happen often but I could see the benefit when they're strategically exposed through the use of explosives.

I've usually taken double tap in my own games because I like the predictability of a sure thing, but I'll actually leave this choice to you. Pick whichever you think is most useful.

[Skyblade]

Is in the zone when enemies are outside cover? Doesn't happen often but I could see the benefit when they're strategically exposed through the use of explosives.

I've usually taken double tap in my own games because I like the predictability of a sure thing, but I'll actually leave this choice to you. Pick whichever you think is most useful.

Outside cover or flanked.

This also means that any time you kill a Chryssalid, Berserker, Sectopod, Cyberdisc, Drone, Mechtoid, Seeker, or a Floater/Heavy Floater in the air, you get a free shot. Because flying units and bulky units can't use cover.

I tend to go with In the Zone, especially in Enemy Within. I also tend to explode cover a lot, especially with the new adjustments to weapons.

[Slothy]

Right, forgot how many enemies don't use cover. Go with that then.

[Loony BoB]

DOUBLE ROCKETS YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS my fave ability ever.

[DK]

I like the sound of absorbtion fields! Ronnie seems to be enough of a death dealer. Little bit more protection can only boost that I feel.

[Skyblade]

Apparently the 27 damage punches were because the "Absolutely Critical" Second Wave option makes the punches always crit. With it turned off, they can never crit, so punch damage is restricted to 18. :(



-Operation Fading King-
Time Redacted
Egypt
Iceglow, Hingle, Psy, and the Squaddies

An Abductor class ship was found landed in Egypt. Our forces quickly gathered together to go take it down.

Iceglow and Hingle immediately took advantage of their Mimetic Skin to drop into invisibility and approach. Iceglow spotted a trio of Mutons lounging around on the landing deck of the ship. Psy and the Squaddies rolled into positions behind an outcropping, hoping to get the drop on the Mutons.

Unfortunately, the three trundled into view of Psy, and took cover. Our Support and Sniper worked to take down one of them, while our Assault wounded the other. Vivi and Psy both missed their shots, however, and Hingle decided to suppress the Muton, but when that Muton fired wildly, his reaction shot failed to hit it (seriously, guys?!).

Our Support soldier finished off the wounded Muton, but Vivi missed again on the remaining foe. Not wanting to leave anything to chance, Psy ran up and blew half the entity away entirely with his Particle Cannon (finally, a veteran hits something!).

Hingle moved up to grab the first Melding canister, and the rest of the squad continued to advance, reloading as they did so. Before they could get anywhere, however, a Cyberdisc and its drone escort appeared swinging around the side of the ship. The Cyberdisc immediately went into Overwatch just out of sight, but the Drones moved up to menace our forces from their greatly uncovered right flank.

Not to be discouraged, as he was always already in cover, Iceglow shot the first Drone out of the sky, setting an example for our younger Sniper, who soon followed suit and downed the second while getting into cover. Knowing that a Cyberdisc was on the way, the rest of our Soldiers scrambled for cover, hoping to evade the cannons, or the more likely Grenade.

Unfortunately, our team repositioning to take cover from the oncoming Cyberdisc left their left flank exposed to the two Seekers who rushed out of a rear compartment of the ship, immediately going into stealth mode. Cursing their lack of luck in this mission, our team hunkered down to weather the storm, all while hearing a strange roar and stomping in the background (crap, I've gotta find the second Meld canister).

The Cyberdisc, however, was not to be stopped by paltry cover. It roared up to the corner (not going far enough to trigger Overwatch shots) and immediately ripped apart our poor Assault. Meanwhile, a Seeker dropped out right over our Support soldier, only to have Psy burn it from the sky. Enraged by the death of his comrade, Iceglow immediately got a headshot against the...giant enemy robot with no head. Huh. Still, he downed the mechanoid disc and avenged our fallen crew member.

Hingle, meanwhile, was making good use of his Mimetic Skin to run across the top of the alien ship, scouting out new locations and trying to find the elusive Meld canister. Spotting the canister on the lower floor, Hingle dropped down, landing in cover (next to an Alien Power Cell), and spotting three grouped Mutons.

Psy, who was on a nearby balcony, was not about to let this opportunity go. Careful not to approach close enough to be seen, he dumped a Grenade right on top of the Mutons, interrupting their precious card game.

Scrambling to come to grips with this unseen assault, two of them ran to cover right below the balcony, while a third rushed up near Hingle's position.

Sensing the need for delicacy among some of the remaining equipment, Psy dropped right on top of our two unlucky Mutons and unleashed his flamethrower, bathing the two in shimmering thermogel and ensuring they would not return to the fight. Hingle, with an unsuspecting Muton mere feet away, decided to forgo grabbing the Meld canister at this time and instead just put the poor beast out of its misery, as it undoubtedly was quaking at the agonizing screams of its crisped friends.

Our forces had, unfortunately, forgotten the second Seeker, and it dropped out of stealth right on top of our oblivious Support soldier, and began choking the life out of her. Hingle reactivated his nifty cloaking skin, and rushed out of the room behind the droid, eliminating it before it could detect him, and saving our poor Support from a most inelegant demise (only 2 damage from choking, really?).

Psy then ran forward into the final room, awakening two Outsiders. He then turned around and immediately ran back out, as Hingle finally collected the Meld canister. With the Outsiders repositioning inside the room, Psy ran back in, and triggered his Electro Pulse (which has a much larger range than I suspected initially). This disintegrated the two crystalline foes, ending the mission.

MVP: Psy. For creative use of his various weapons.

Wounds: Our Support is out for four days from the choking incident.

KIA: Our Assault Soldier, Analucia Chavez.

Promotions: Psy is now a Major.
Our Sniper is now a Sergeant.

We now have four Colonels, so I'm thinking about doing the alien base mission next. But we'll have the base invasion shortly after that. I was hoping to get six, but promotions are coming slow (even though I'm taking all lower-rank guys).

I'll probably do another mission a little later tonight, as I'm waiting up for the Hyrule Warriors Nintendo Direct.

[Skyblade]

Riku Kojima (gotta love the random name generator) takes over as our new Assault soldier (I didn't realize just how many of the recruits I hired were female until I was trying to find a replacement).

Our satellite in South Africa picks up a Large Scout, and Demon-5 takes it down. We grab our forces for their next mission, hoping for a few more Colonels and a Berserker to capture.


-Operation Soaring Spark-
South Africa
10:30 PM
Iceglow, Psy, Hingle, and the Squaddies


The UFO crashed down on top of a skyscraper, the building somehow surviving the encounter. Possibly some of the anti-grav thrusters managed to cushion the blow as they fired erratically due to the EMP charges that took the ship down?

Regardless, the Skyranger dropped our forces off atop the building, and we set out.

Hingle, jumping to an invisibility point as per usual (man, Mimetic Skin is so broken, I love it), immediately spots a Mechtoid and two Sectoids.

Iceglow and Psy pulled into excellent position, but our new Assault soldier got a little too far ahead, and the Mechtoid noticed him. However, the armored critter's reaction was to charge towards our Assault, which immediately exposed him to withering crossfire from Iceglow's pistol, Psy's Particle Cannon, and our Support's Assault Rifle. With the Mechanical foe all but vaporized, we turned our attention to the remaining two Sectoids, who Mind-Merged in an attempt to live longer, but which unfortunately, only resulted in Iceglow being able to kill them both with one shot.

Psy rushed too far ahead for once (trying to make up for Ronnie's lack of presence in the current missions, I assume), and stumbled into a new beast, a massive hulking Muton in red armor. Though it had no weapon, it rushed up to Psy and punched him, leaving massive dents in Psy's armor that were soon accentuated by plasma rounds from the Muton (ouchies, 10 health gone in one hit, 7 the next, bringing Psy down to 10 left).

Our Support fired on the massive Berserker, which enraged it and caused it to bear down on her. This panicked her, causing her to Hunker Down into the corner she was using for cover. Our Sniper decided to continue hitting this beast, taking a headshot at it. However, it continued unfazed, and roared at our Sniper, panicking her as well (and also causing her to Hunker Down). Hingle took a shot at the beast, but failed to bring it down as well. He, however, was unruffled by the beast's roar, realizing it was too thoughtless to pose a true threat. Our Assault then moved into place beside Hingle and zapped the Berserker with an Arc Thrower shot, capturing it for the science team.

This left Iceglow and Psy to deal with the remaining Muton. Psy cranked up his might Particle Cannon and shot apart the wall the Muton was hiding behind, ripping a few rounds into the Muton itself. Iceglow then lined up an unobstructed shot, finishing off the varmint.

With our Support and Sniper still panicked (they were Hunkered Down, which restricts vision, so they didn't actually see the way we destroyed the aliens, or they likely would have stopped panicking), the rest of our squad moved forward, pressing on to find the Meld we knew was strewn on the battlefield. Psy's handy dandy repair systems kicked in, bringing him out of the danger zone of falling to another Berserker strike should there happen to be a second deployed here.

Crossing the roof access way to the second building, Psy caught sight of two Seekers, and the alien craft itself. The rest of our team moved up in his wake, hunkering down as they prepared to fire on the cloaking foes. All save Iceglow, who merely went invisible and rushed the barely visible Meld canister.

As Iceglow grabbed the Meld canister, the first Seeker was met by a hail of gunfire. But it managed to hold on long enough to attack our Assault before our Sniper finished it off with another round.

His armor now fully repaired, Psy rushed towards the second Meld canister, hoping to reach it before it faded away. However, he spotted an Outsider, who promptly shot him, the light plasma rounds undoing all that his precious repair circuitry had just done. Realizing he wouldn't reach the canister in time, Psy instead activated his Electro Pulse, frying the foolish entity.

With the only cause to hurry lost, our forces simply gathered together and waited, knowing it was only a matter of time before the Seeker attempted to take down another soldier. Sure enough, it attacked our Sniper, only to be shredded in mid air by the combined firepower of our entire team.

MVP: Hingle, for solid battlefield control, and keeping his head under the gaze of the Berserker.

Wounded: Our Assault Soldier is out for 3 days.
Thanks to his repair servos, which healed their 6 damage before the Outsider shot at him, Psy's damage was all absorbed by his armor.

Promotions: Our Support is now a Sergeant.

That was a close one there. I was a little too overeager with Psy. I hate losing Meld though (which is, of course, why they put it in the game).

[Skyblade]

Some resolved technical issues later, our forces decided to cut to the chase and assault the alien base.


-Operation Hidden Apollo-
Alien Base Assault
Africa
4:50 PM
BoB, Psy, Ronnie, Vivi, Christmas, and Iceglow


Using the Skeleton Key our engineers had developed from the remnants of the Outsider Shard, our forces managed to breach the alien base in Africa.

Iceglow immediately charges forward, spotting two Seekers. His Mimetic Skin keeps them from noticing him, and Ronnie decides to skip the whole "turtle up and wait" aspect by chucking a grenade into their midst. The grenade, a reverse engineered alien explosive, tore both of the foes to shreds, allowing the rest of our forces to move forward safely.

Moving forward again, Iceglow spots a Mechtoid with a single Sectoid follower. As the rest of the squad gets into position behind a nearby wall, the two oblivious aliens advance, straight into the grinder that is set to devour them.

Iceglow opens with a Headshot to the mech-driving Sectoid. The plasma shot rips through his armor, all but instantly destroying the foe. The Sectoid who was following behind suddenly realizes it's being attacked, and gets into cover. Only to have Ronnie's Particle Beam shot destroy the cover, vaporizing the Sectoid as well. Unable to get into cover, the Mechtoid goes into Overwatch instead. Christmas uses her Lightning Reflexes to run by and force the reaction fire to miss. Psy then closes to point blank range and demonstrates the faults in the alien armor design by blasting a hole through it with his Particle Cannon.

Vivi takes the high ground of a nearby observation platform, and spots two Drones idling among the unfamiliar machinery below. As they move into position and take a shot that scratches BoB's armor, two Floaters come into view as well.

Iceglow follows behind, pulls out his pistol, and eradicates the first Drone. BoB pulls up beside Vivi, and tears down the first Floater, which had taken up a covered position behind some of the machinery. Psy eliminates the second Floater, which was stalled out in midair. Vivi takes down the last Drone with his pistol, not wishing to waste precious Sniper Rifle ammo on such a lowly foe.

Our forces catch sight of a Muton on the other side of the laboratory they're going through, though it fails to notice them. Our forces pull in below it, reloading and going into Overwatch in case he tromps into the middle of their lineup. However, he chooses to continue along the deck, earning himself a plasma round from Vivi's Sniper Rifle in the back of his head. It was a merciful death, as the Muton likely didn't even hear the rifle's charge up before the round struck, penetrating straight through his armor and brain in a single fluid motion.

Moving further forward, Iceglow caught sight of two more Drones. Wondering if there was a nearby Cyberdisc they were escorting, Ronnie dropped a Proximity Mine around them, being careful to keep the delicate equipment outside the blast radius.


BoB, meanwhile, catches the attention of a Berserker. The unfortunate positioning of its approach leaves it in range, but obstructed by the ramp it's coming up, so no shots can be taken at it. The massive alien rushes toward the group (catching an Alloy Cannon blast from Christmas), before winding up and smashes BoB into the floor. However, his Chitinous Armor stabilizes against the blow, keeping the damage relatively minor. Iceglow's Headshot then finishes off the Berserker, saving our forces from further worry.

Ronnie, seeing that the Drones are actually flanking Iceglow, even though they haven't noticed him, decides to take action. He jumps into their range of vision and shouts "Boo". The two Drones immediately react, which proves fatal, as their movement triggers the mine he dropped earlier, blowing them to smithereens.

The remaining Muton takes a shot that starts to melt away some of Christmas's armor. Christmas's return shot misses, but BoB, who was sitting nearby resting his gun, fires his Heavy Plasma twice, the second time catching the beast in the chest and blowing it back against the wall. A second Muton was apparently partnered with the one we just killed, and it panics and rushes into view, coming too close to Ronnie's ready Particle Cannon.

As they begin to reach the rear of the base, BoB's tingling spider senses warn him of four foes directly below him. As we've been hearing the skittering of Chryssalids for some time, our foes are slightly worried, and drop into defensive positions.

The main group turns out to be three Mutons and a Berserker, though two Chryssalids are right behind. BoB fires a Blaster Bomb that takes out the Mutons, and Ronnie deals some serious damage to the Berserker with his fist of fury. Psy tosses a grenade into the Chryssalids, and the two insectoids are finished off by Vivi and Christmas, while Vivi's pistol tore down the Berserker.

Our forces spotted a second Berserker hiding directly behind the first, and Ronnie and Vivi worked together to finish it off as well.

However, we encountered a new foe. A Sectoid with a larger, pulsing head. No sooner had we engaged it, then it submitted Christmas to some form of mind-control. Attempting to get to cover, BoB caught a Close Quarters Combat blast (I'd forgotten about that). Left with no choice, Vivi and Iceglow stood their ground and took down the new threat. Upon his death, Christmas returned to her usual self. For which Iceglow was very thankful, as he preferred Christmas trying to kill him through indirect means.

Mission Accomplished
MVP: Iceglow, for some fantastic Sniper and Recon work.

Wounds: BoB - Out for 2 days suffering from Alloy Cannon wounds...

Promotions: Iceglow is now a Colonel.

Iceglow can now decide between In the Zone and Double Tap.

I didn't get to capture the commander. Christmas had our Arc Thrower, and I was not going to try to wait out the Mind Control. She's way too powerful for that.

[Iceglow]

I'm a little confused as to who tore the beserker down with a pistol shot as it seems Vivi acted twice in the same turn out of sequence.... which was it me or him? xD

Also as for my ability, the power of a sniper to rack up the kills means I'll go with In the Zone for my ability :)

[Skyblade]

I'm a little confused as to who tore the beserker down with a pistol shot as it seems Vivi acted twice in the same turn out of sequence.... which was it me or him? xD

Also as for my ability, the power of a sniper to rack up the kills means I'll go with In the Zone for my ability :)

It was him. Vivi took the final action of the turn. The other Berserkers literally just sat there doing nothing that turn, and Vivi took the first action of the next turn. It was weird.

You were up front getting ready to attack the Sectoid Commander at the time. You were cloaked, in cover next to Christmas. When BoB took the Close Quarters shot getting out, I knew I couldn't move you, so I just had you fire on the Sectoid Commander, and finished it off with Vivi.

Also, I totally forgot that pistol kills no longer activate In the Zone. Missed one opportunity to activate it because I was wanting to save ammunition. >.<

[Skyblade]

-Operation Crystal Breath-
South Africa
11:43 AM
Operatives: Ronnie, Psy, Christmas, Iceglow, Vivi, and BoB.


An unidentified alien vessel was spotted moving fast through the skies above South Africa. Demon-5, our newest Firestorm, was sent to intercept. It sustained light damage, but its EMP cannons managed to bring down the vessel in short order.

As per Standard Operating Procedure, we dispatched a strike team to the crash site to eliminate any threats and claim any available intelligence assets.

The Skyranger dropped our forces at the periphery of the crash site, a crater barely larger than the vessel itself. Our strike team immediately began approaching. Colonel Christmas was first onto the vessel's deck, and she immediately noticed a Muton in the chamber below her, though the Mimetic Skin genetic augmentation we provided appeared to keep her safe. She was also able to detect a Berserker in the next room over, likely due to the amount of noise the hulking brute made (seriously, since when can Christmas see through walls?).

She also caught sight of a Mechtoid that was escorting a Sectoid around the ship's outer walkway, near a canister of the substance called "Meld".

MEC Troopers Coleman and MacWalrus opted to take out the Mechtoid. Coleman's first shot did heavy damage, but also alerted the Mechtoid, prompting it to take a reflexive shot at MacWalrus as he moved into view. The foe's heavy Plasma Cannon dug deep into the ablative armor of Colonel MacWalrus's MEC, but our soldier maintained discipline and finished the foe off with a Particle Beam shot as the Sectoid hid further within the ship.

As our enemies scrambled to reposition, they were joined by a second Muton, which dropped off the roof. The Sectoid was the first foe to come back into sight, and BoB eliminated it before turning his gun on the Berserker. Ronnie rushed the Berserker and finished it with a Kinetic Strike, while Colonel Iceglow eliminated the first Muton. With the final Muton around the corner (and the wall for some reason actually blocking Christmas's Line of Sight this time), Colonel Christmas Ran to the Meld canister before unloading her Alloy Cannon at close range into the unsuspecting foe (Mimetic Skin is so broken. I love it).

Moving forward onto the alien craft, Major MacWalrus detected two Floaters. While attempting to move to a position to better engage them, two more came into sight. However, these new foes appeared by be far better armored, and equipped with better weaponry. Command decided to designate these new targets "Heavy Floaters".

The two Floaters moved to the left flank, both focusing on Colonel Coleman, shredding much of his MEC's armor before they settled into defensive positions.

With the Heavy Floaters coming in from the front, and the original Floaters on their left flank, our forces were scrambling to take effective positions. However, before they could, a Berserker and Muton exited a door on the alien ship, joining the battle on our force's right flank, effectively surrounding them.

From his vantage point atop the roof, Major MacWalrus quickly eliminated both of the original Floaters, freeing up the left flank (like BoB, Psy has an ability that lets him shoot twice in a round as long as he doesn't move), though at the cost of the remainder of his ammunition.

Meanwhile, Colonel BoB decided to engage the Berserker. His first rounds went wide, but his second hit home, tearing open the beast's thick hide, overheating his Heavy Plasma weapon. The aggressive foe charged him, but was stymied by the ledge at the border of the alien ship (BoB was the one soldier who wasn't yet onboard). Colonel Iceglow finished off the foe with ease, and used the advantage provided by his superior preparation to reposition to heavy cover near the second Meld Canister (I couldn't see the remaining Muton yet).

Colonel Vivi chose this moment to make his presence known. He secured a headshot against the first Heavy Floater, eliminating it from the field. He then turned his Sniper Rifle to the second Heavy Floater, severely damaging it, but leaving it in the sky. Noting the new foe's heavily wounded state, Colonel Christmas exercised her newly modified leg muscles to leap atop the roof and come into position nearby to capture it, if the opportunity arose.

With no foes left to face, Colonel Coleman chose to aid the capture attempt. Activating his Jumpboots, he joined the others on the roof, taking a clear position to tempt the Heavy Floater into shooting at him, rather than departing, which would leave Christmas in a position to capture it. To his great surprise, not only did the plan work flawlessly, but the Heavy Floater's damaged cybernetics disrupted its aim, preventing its hastily fired shots from striking him.

Colonel Christmas wasted no time in firing up the newly improved Arc Thrower (awesome bit of research, 95% capture rate against a 2 HP enemy!), and successfully stunned the Heavy Floater. Science Team reports that the fall from above the roof of the UFO down to the ground floor did not interfere with the interrogation process.

The final Muton finally emerged into sight, below the majority of our forces who were sitting on the roof. Using the height to his advantage, Colonel Vivi eliminated this final threat, before ordering the team to regroup and reload (two were out of ammo, and they were scattered to hell and gone all over the place, mostly on the roof in plain sight).

As our forces prepared for the final push into the control center of the vessel, they were ambushed by another Berserker and two more Mutons. However, they were not caught unprepared. Reaction fire from Colonels Coleman and Vivi ripped the Berserker apart before it could manage to properly orient itself, and Colonel Iceglow tore down the first Muton.

The second Muton, however, escaped beyond line of sight. Colonel Christmas engaged her Mimetic Skin once again as she attempted to hunt this elusive foe, while the rest of our forces concentrated on the final room once again. Colonel Christmas succeeded in locating the Muton just off the far side of the alien vessel, and deployed her Alloy Cannon to ensure it did not become a threat to the mission.

The rest of our forces had prepared to take on the final chamber, however. With our MEC soldiers deployed at the doors on either side, and the front door covered by Colonels Iceglow and BoB, the decision was made to withhold engagement until the rest of the force was in position.

BoB detected two aliens within the chamber. Believing them to be the Outsiders we had always faced before, he opened the door and let loose his cannon. To his surprise, there were no Outsiders within. Instead, he discovered two of the Sectoid Commanders that we had first encountered on our assault of the alien base. His first rounds missed as the foes went into cover, one dangerously close to one of the Elerium Power Sources of the alien vessel.

Not wishing to damage the delicate equipment, Colonel Coleman closed with the foe and blew the lower half of its body away with his particle cannon (leaving the valuable head intact for research). Colonel Iceglow, meanwhile, fired at the other. His plasma round burned the creature, horribly scarring its face, but did not kill it. The rest of our forces swarmed the foe, hoping to corner it before it could escape, and secure a very worthwhile captive for our research team.

In his desperation, the final Sectoid Commander once again turned to his ultimate weapon, and attempted to bind Colonel Christmas to his will. However, he was shaken by the wounds he had already received, and she had practiced resisting as best she could in the interim between the missions, and thus was able to resist his psionic assault. One brief interlude with the Arc Thrower later, and our team had completed the mission.

Most Valuable Trooper: Colonel Santarina Christmas, for multiple confirmed kills, excellent scouting, and securing two very valuable captives.

Promotions: All of our fielded troops had already attained the maximum level permitted to field agents, so no promotions could be issued this mission.
Addendum: Major MacWalrus has not yet been made Colonel. We apologize for the oversight, and hope to correct this oversight in the review of his next mission.

Wounds: None.

Woohoo! Heavy Floaters AND Sectoid Commanders captured! Got some research to do now. Fortunately, I can get those bits done immediately. I hope I can unlock some of the resulting research before the base defense mission begins, though.

[Psychotic]

Yeah! Have some of that!

[Loony BoB]

Sounds like it all went pretty well in the end. :D Excellent work.