Let's Play X-Com: Terror from the Deep

[silencer_pl]

You did ok there, 2 deaths could be avoided - Tengu and why on earth have you shot lobsterman first with unarmored soldier. Come on, common sense would dictate to use armoured one first :/

 

Second, you should remember to remove armour from wounded soldiers unless you have lots of spares. At this point you should sell all the spare thermal launchers: 2-3 is more than enough for whole team. Sell all the blastas - you have enough cannon clips to use it. 1 Clip per gun is also more than enough for majority of the missions anyway.

[NoXTheRoXStaR]

What alien is the most susceptible to Thermal Shok? Is the Thermal Shok an equivalent to a date rape drug?

[Zombie]

What alien is the most susceptible to Thermal Shok? Is the Thermal Shok an equivalent to a date rape drug?

 

It's a three-way (tie, hehe) between Tasoths, Tentaculats and Lobstermen. All take 110% though so I wouldn't consider the Shok bombs a date rape drug. Then again, it's really, really powerful so... if that's your thing, go ahead.

 

Happy New Year!

 

Thanks Neptune, Happy New Year to you too! Wow, RedArmy was a beast!

 

Pro-tip on Medi-kit usage: do not make the person with the kit go to the injured person, have the injured person come to you. If the injured is too far away, have him/her use up all TU running to the medic, then move the medic in position to heal. Depending on the severity of the injury, I usually make him the medic instead and keep him in back.

 

Why you let your stunned soldiers sleep is beyond me. The aliens were slowly whittling your squad down to half it's original size. When were you planning to revive them? When you had two guys left? Didn't you have two Medi-Kits? Or did someone get killed carrying a kit? I'd just like to remind you that stunned aquanauts aren't technically soldiers anymore, they are objects. Objects don't have any "true" armor or health and have low tolerances to explosive damage. Getting those guys up or moved behind lines would have been priority #1, just in case an alien tossed a pulser or shot a DPL in the vicinity.

 

Running up to a Lobsterman carrying a TSL with a wounded RedArmy was just asking for trouble. Why taunt? A solider with a reduction in health can't take as much stun damage before falling unconscious.

 

You did a great job clearing the base interior IMHO, that's always the worst part of a base defense mission. But when you hit the Access Lift and Sub Pens, strategy started to falter. Bunching men up, failure to regroup and revive stunned aquanauts, ignorance (?) of dropped alien items, not using flares in the Hangar (another pro-tip: Hangars don't have their own light sources) and far-scouting was rampant. "Victory through incompetence" as OneFJef from YouTube always says, but hey, I guess I can't complain as you pulled it off (again)!

 

In that small USO mission, you didn't see an alien inside the ship. There was basically only one area where it could be. Instead of taking it slow, setting up a perimeter, snipers and a firing line, you run forward with a scout and spot the alien. Props to shooting (and killing) the Lobsterman with a sniper, but consider applying strategy in every encounter no matter what. If you get in a habit of using strategy all the time, then it becomes second nature and the death count will drop. And at this point in the game, you should be trying your best to keep soldiers alive. Pretty soon you may get MC, and having soldiers with lots of TU and decent psi stats will basically win the game for you.

 

- Zombie

[silencer_pl]

DPL on surface mission? I think you got carried away Zombie

[Zombie]

Maybe a little, but I was trying to make the point that any type of explosion are dangerous to stunned aquanauts. A Bio-Drone has a large explosive radius too, not as big as a DPL, but big enough to cause unintended splash damage to unconscious soldiers. Neptune got lucky in that he was able to destroy all the Bio-Drones in a couple turns.

 

- Zombie

[NKF]

Why you let your stunned soldiers sleep is beyond me.

 

Under the circumstances, I don't think he would have been able to revive them. The stunned aquanauts were just in their standard diving suits, and a shok bomb to the face in that gear just about puts them out for the rest of the mission. Considering the number of aquanauts that were stunned one or two medikits worth of stimulants wasn't going to cut it. If they were in Ion or Mag Ion, then it might have been worth a try.

 

The fact they were stunned in the air lock however could have proven to be very bad for them if there was another Bio Drone. That Bio Drone swarm and massacre was amazing though. If RedArmy's Ion Armor had not held out so well, that whole scenario could have gone a lot worse. Talk about consecutive lucky rolls.

 

- NKF

[Nookrium]

You did ok there, 2 deaths could be avoided - Tengu and why on earth have you shot lobsterman first with unarmored soldier. Come on, common sense would dictate to use armoured one first :/

 

I was thinking about using RedArmy (who was standing nearby with armor) to take that shot, but since the Lobster moved I assumed he didn't have enough TU's for a reaction shot. RIP Nook...

 

Why you let your stunned soldiers sleep is beyond me. The aliens were slowly whittling your squad down to half it's original size. When were you planning to revive them? When you had two guys left? Didn't you have two Medi-Kits? Or did someone get killed carrying a kit? I'd just like to remind you that stunned aquanauts aren't technically soldiers anymore, they are objects. Objects don't have any "true" armor or health and have low tolerances to explosive damage. Getting those guys up or moved behind lines would have been priority #1, just in case an alien tossed a pulser or shot a DPL in the vicinity.

 

I probably could have tossed them back a bit, but I wasn't too concerned yet. My soldiers without armor haven't been lasting long, and I was about to move out into the large, open, and dark, sub pens. I wasn't sure how many Lobsters or Drones were out there waiting to snipe me, and if I really needed to I had Zombie nearby with the medi-kit.

 

Running up to a Lobsterman carrying a TSL with a wounded RedArmy was just asking for trouble. Why taunt? A solider with a reduction in health can't take as much stun damage before falling unconscious.

RedArmy was insurance in case he was itching to throw a grenade, plus, I had a non armor wearing Kaazak nearby. Better he stun 1 than a group. In the end it worked out perfect, the other Lobster shot a stun at an injured RedArmy, stunning him and the adjacent lobster in the process.

 

In that small USO mission, you didn't see an alien inside the ship. There was basically only one area where it could be. Instead of taking it slow, setting up a perimeter, snipers and a firing line, you run forward with a scout and spot the alien. Props to shooting (and killing) the Lobsterman with a sniper, but consider applying strategy in every encounter no matter what. If you get in a habit of using strategy all the time, then it becomes second nature and the death count will drop.

 

I was really wanting to keep my episode length at a reasonable time (and not split into 2 eps), and figured I could take out the XSmall in 10 minutes. So I was a bit "hasty" in there. Probably not the smartest plan, if someone had died, I would have felt really bad.

 

At this point you should sell all the spare thermal launchers: 2-3 is more than enough for whole team. Sell all the blastas - you have enough cannon clips to use it. 1 Clip per gun is also more than enough for majority of the missions anyway.

I do a big sell-off on my next episode, I was just quickly running through there to get my soldiers purchased. I don't remember if I get rid of all the blastas, but I'm up to being fully equipped with sonic cannons... I'm finally ready to take on some lobstermen now

[Zombie]

Under the circumstances, I don't think he would have been able to revive them. The stunned aquanauts were just in their standard diving suits, and a shok bomb to the face in that gear just about puts them out for the rest of the mission. Considering the number of aquanauts that were stunned one or two medikits worth of stimulants wasn't going to cut it. If they were in Ion or Mag Ion, then it might have been worth a try.

 

Possible. Though, you don't know exactly how much stun each solider received. It never hurts to dump a full load of 10 stimulants on a soldier to see if that helps. You might get lucky and be able to revive one of them with an injection or two if they received just enough stun to knock them out. But yeah, there is a very high probability they took too much stun to be able to revive with one or two Medi-Kits. Could always wait it out in a closet/room somewhere, and you'll probably run into the turn 20 "free look" the aliens get so... meh.

 

RedArmy was insurance in case he was itching to throw a grenade, plus, I had a non armor wearing Kaazak nearby. Better he stun 1 than a group. In the end it worked out perfect, the other Lobster shot a stun at an injured RedArmy, stunning him and the adjacent lobster in the process.

 

If an alien carries a TSL on a base mission, it'll never get a sonic pulser too. (Aliens sometimes get a sonic pulser or two on Hunter/Battleship missions so you have to watch out). Your "insurance policy" was unjustified for two reasons, first, the alien wouldn't have had a sonic pulser anyway (not that I would have expected you to know this), and secondly, you had Dark Angel in the same armor and no health reduction in a position to be bait. He might have survived a direct hit, whereas RedArmy was basically removed from the fight entirely. It's better to stun 0 than 1, correct? Your idea of "perfect" seems slightly skewed to my eye.

 

- Zombie

[Nookrium]

If an alien carries a TSL on a base mission, it'll never get a sonic pulser too. (Aliens sometimes get a sonic pulser or two on Hunter/Battleship missions so you have to watch out).

Ah, that's good to know. I have noticed a lack of grenades on the dead Shok carriers now that I think of it.

 

Your "insurance policy" was unjustified for two reasons, first, the alien wouldn't have had a sonic pulser anyway (not that I would have expected you to know this), and secondly, you had Dark Angel in the same armor and no health reduction in a position to be bait. He might have survived a direct hit, whereas RedArmy was basically removed from the fight entirely. It's better to stun 0 than 1, correct? Your idea of "perfect" seems slightly skewed to my eye.

Ok, so maybe "perfect" is a strong word but no one died, compared to my earlier missions I'm happy about that. lol. But yeah, Dark Angel should have been the one to go up close. My real fear was the grenade taking out both DA & Red, but it's nice to know they never carry them.

[silencer_pl]

I was thinking about using RedArmy (who was standing nearby with armor) to take that shot, but since the Lobster moved I assumed he didn't have enough TU's for a reaction shot. RIP Nook...

 

Only if you are certified Sith Lord, you can assume alien has not enough TU's for reaction shot. Or if you saw him fire one.

[Nookrium]

Only if you are certified Sith Lord, you can assume alien has not enough TU's for reaction shot. Or if you saw him fire one.

Lol, yeah... yeah...

[Nookrium]

July has been a very busy month so far...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMdiW_-Sbj4

[silencer_pl]

Ugh, I'm dreading about the thought, what you are planing on 31st of July. Now that you have 3kk cash, hire those engineers and start making those items fast.

 

You really wanted Bod Dole to die? Again scout, without armour, with blasta (why not cannon) fire at lobster first. There should be someone standing behind you and for every moment like this, you should be electrocuted

[Nookrium]

Bob Dole had to get the rookie treatment, and he passed

 

So I'm not completely sold on my crazy July 31st thought, but I think I should hit that base before the end of the month. Reason being... I'm worried my horrid start of the month Terror Mission is going to hose my score so much that I may lose some countries. I'm thinking if I clear out a base, it may be enough to save my month, but even if it's not, I'll get loads of supplies that I can sell off to keep my budget happy. Of course there's always the downside that I end up getting annihilated while there, further damaging my score and losing supplies at the same time. I guess it depends on how daring I get in the next couple episodes. I haven't recorded any further yet... I've been debating what I want to do.

[silencer_pl]

To be honest if I were you I wouldn't do it until having researched those DPLs.

[Nookrium]

To be honest if I were you I wouldn't do it until having researched those DPLs.

 

You think it's worth the risk to leave it for the month? It could really hurt my monthly income if I lose a country or two... or three...

[silencer_pl]

I guess it's more worth it than total failure, because the aliens in stage 1 will pwn you with PSI attacks.

[NKF]

A colony does something like 250 activity a month, plus any activity points generated by the supply ships that stop by. If you shot down and recovered a few subs in the area, like that last one, that usually keeps the nearby countries sufficiently happy to not throw their toys out the cot. So it's not 'urgent' urgent to deal with. You have some time to prepare.

 

While it's not impossible to deal with a Colony as your team is now, I would advise taking the time to suit everyone up in either Ion or Mag Ion Armor and get those DPLs researched. There are a lot of Tasoth guarding the exit area with these weapons, so you want to be able to pre-empt them or pick up and use any DPLs as you go.

 

On Bob Dole and any scouts in general, try to resist the urge to let them initiate combat. Get any supporting aquanauts nearby to attack first. The scout really wants to be the last one to shoot, if at all. Alternately have them carry an armed pulser. At the first sight of an enemy, toss and back up out of sight.

 

- NKF

[Zombie]

Now that you have 3kk cash, hire those engineers and start making those items fast.

 

Agreed totally, hire a bunch of engineers for the second manufacturing base and start making as much armor, DPLs, Medi-Kits and whatever else needed to fully (and I mean fully) kit out the squad to take on a colony assault. Possibly grab a SWS (tank) or two to use as a scout instead of soldiers. They are expensive, but I think it may help solve Neptunes big turnover rate for aquanauts.

 

You really wanted Bod Dole to die?

 

https://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ma0sioGZyE1rq4no1o3_r1_250.gifhttps://33.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ma0sioGZyE1rq4no1o4_r1_500.gif

 

Again scout, without armour, with blasta (why not cannon) fire at lobster first. There should be someone standing behind you and for every moment like this, you should be electrocuted

 

LOL! I'm picturing an electric shock dog collar around Neptune's neck and the remote in my hand. Every time he messes up (or is about to), I get to press the button. Learning via electroshock therapy is fun! (j/k there Neptune).

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NHFuZxxghs

 

Seriously though, read the last paragraph in NKF's post above and burn that into your synapses now while you still have time. It's really a simple strategy, scouts should only do these things: find aliens to kill, explore the map and lift the fog of war. I suppose it's the excitement of spotting an alien which overrides your strategy as you want to kill it asap. Resist that urge. I hate to say it, but now that you have the cash maybe start using SWS's to scout instead. Tanks can't improve their stats for killing stuff, which will hopefully force you to use soldiers instead.

 

 

 

You think it's worth the risk to leave it for the month? It could really hurt my monthly income if I lose a country or two... or three...

 

See quote below.

 

A colony does something like 250 activity a month, plus any activity points generated by the supply ships that stop by. If you shot down and recovered a few subs in the area, like that last one, that usually keeps the nearby countries sufficiently happy to not throw their toys out the cot. So it's not 'urgent' urgent to deal with. You have some time to prepare.

 

If you are worried about score, click on your Graphs button in the Geoscape, go to Finances and click on Score button. That'll show you your progress for the month. Really, the amount of points lost to an active colony is minimal when compared to doing missions - assuming you do well (which you are, but you still need to remember to dot your I's and cross your T's). It's hard to say what your current score is, so you'll need to check that out and see how low you are when you near the end of the month. Don't forget that you'll need to have a decent squad for the usual upcoming Terror site too. There's no reason to send in your squad to a colony, get them butchered and have nothing left for the Terror Site (which is more important score-wise). It's just another valid reason to wait.

 

While it's not impossible to deal with a Colony as your team is now, I would advise taking the time to suit everyone up in either Ion or Mag Ion Armor and get those DPLs researched. There are a lot of Tasoth guarding the exit area with these weapons, so you want to be able to pre-empt them or pick up and use any DPLs as you go.

 

Yup. Take all those scientists off the "Poor" Sonic Oscillator topic and throw as many of them into Mag Ion Armor to raise it from Average to Good, and if you have any extra scientists start on DPL's. Once you complete Mag Ion Armor, make a few suits for your most treasured soldiers and give the rest Ion armor, then pour everything into DPLs. Once you have those, then you can have a go at the colony. Don't be afraid to use any Thermal Shok Launchers you can scavenge off bodies too. Stunning is just as effective as DPL's (assuming a decent line of sight) as the game doesn't care whether or not an alien is stunned or dead to end a colony.

 

- Zombie

[NoXTheRoXStaR]

Don't be afraid to use any Thermal Shok Launchers you can scavenge off bodies too. Stunning is just as effective as DPL's (assuming a decent line of sight) as the game doesn't care whether or not an alien is stunned or dead to end a colony.

 

- Zombie

 

Unless the Aliens go to court and claim sexual harassment, it'll suck either way. Being tied up in court with litigation and court fee's. Genocide. Freedom of speech violations and aquatoid-racial tension. The worst part? The unjust child support payments. No... Sir... I did NOT have sexual relations with that Gilwoman.

 

[Nookrium]

Lol, with the threats of electro-shock I'm not sure how to respond. I suppose it was a bit suicidal risky having Bob take that shot, I guess my hatred of Lobstermen are beginning to cloud my thoughts. "Lives are irrelevant... Must... Kill... Lobsters..."

 

I'll have to check my score, I always assumed bases were more damaging that that. I might be reconsidering my base elimination date, mostly because I remember the last time I decided to be brave, even though I was warned about the dangers of Lobster Cruise Ships

[Nookrium]

Time to take out that Medium filled with... Lobsters

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvWsjEHi-1o

[Space Voyager]

It feels terrible missing on the action in the infirmary... With all the nurses... Ah, well, what can I do?! https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/Smiley/Rest.gif

[silencer_pl]

Sell that blastas finally. More shooting, less throwing. 3 grenades = 3 zrbite = 1 dead lobster. 1 Cannon Clip = 3 zrbite = 3 dead lobsters. Efficiency.

[Nookrium]

It feels terrible missing on the action in the infirmary... With all the nurses... Ah, well, what can I do?! https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/Smiley/Rest.gif

You are quite the captain, sir...

 

Sell that blastas finally. More shooting, less throwing. 3 grenades = 3 zrbite = 1 dead lobster. 1 Cannon Clip = 3 zrbite = 3 dead lobsters. Efficiency.

 

Faith in my soldiers ability to actually hit something when they shoot has not been completely restored yet. Plus, I have loads of grenades hanging around in my general stores just begging to find their way to some lobster's feet.