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.