Mixed ship terror missions.

[Tsathoggua]

Mission in progress, strike teams responding to reports of an attack underway upon a cruise ship, relatively early in.

 

Aquatoid, tasoth are what I'm facing.

 

The tasoth first showed up here, and just now spotted an aquatoid sneaking about with a thermal shock cannon with it's back turned. Tasoth are using bio drones as their terror unit, is it possible to tell from this what nasty little pets the aquatoids have on their leash from the tasoth terror units? since both can use calcinites, does this mean the aquatoid will definitely be using them? because they can bring along xarquid for the ride can they not? or are the two terror units whilst working together, not actually linked as such?

 

If its xarquid then there's going to be trouble and no mistake since I'm playing on genius level difficulty and they are going to be heavily armored. Calcinites on the other hand aren't such a challenge, I've faced a few of them and sent them to be sucked back shrieking down the plughole into the great U-bend of the hereafter:D

[magic9mushroom]

Aha, a question I actually helped solve! (If only by providing save-games for Zombie.)

 

Tasoths don't bring Calcinites when they're on their own. Tasoth/Aquatoid shipping lane mission should have Bio-Drones and Triscenes as primary terror units, plus a Calcinite or two.

 

Triscenes are like Xarquid, except they have twice as much front/side/rear armour and 50% more health. I hope you brought HE or a Thermal Shok Launcher; their only real vulnerability is their Under Armour of 8 (which combines with their large size to make a Sonic Pulser a guaranteed kill and a Gas Cannon HE shell a very likely one). They are outright immune to Gauss and AP, and highly resistant to Sonic (although emptying a full Sonic Cannon clip into a Triscene has some chance to kill it). They're vulnerable to drills, but they have both an innate ranged attack (second-highest accuracy in the game, and high reactions) and an innate melee attack (about twice as strong as a Lobster Man's claw; quite capable of piercing Magnetic Ion Armour) so pulling that off may be difficult, particularly since their huge armour and health make it very hard to kill them in one turn.

 

I will note that Triscenes sometimes have a hard time spawning, due to their large size, so I'd at least play until you find one.

[Tsathoggua]

Play until I find one? Actually I was hoping to go head hunting. And I don't mean for the duty roster.

 

Just as well I recently upgraded the primary squad's general purpose slugging weapons from heavy gauss for everybody bar when taking torpedo launchers for more than one guy in which case one of them got assigned a gauss rifle and the other one a heavy gauss. And one other guy got a gauss rifle for a sidearm when carrying one of the hydrojets. Now its sonic cannon with a few heavy gauss taken along just to make sure one cannot TOTALLY run out of ammo, but only have two or three on board, for the weaker soldiers, the rest of everyone is coming along packing for bull elephant.

 

So what DO the tasoth bring with them on terror missions, its the bio drones then? I was wondering if it were possible for the mixed missions to have both xarquid with the aquatoid AND triscene? because if thats the case, its safari time. And I want them ALIVE. That gauss immunity for the triscene, is it total immunity or just very, very very reduced damage? because I've nothing really weaker. Bar the tank and its AP bolts of course. Which suits me just fine, want something to grab and keep their attention if they do show, whilst the rest sneak up to stick a few tazers up its rear end. (and thinking of that how does TFTD handle multiple-tile critters getting zapped with the tazer, rather than the shock launcher? because unlike the latter of course the tazer is a point source of stun damage (and of rookie aquanauts getting disembowelled by triscenes)

[Bomb Bloke]

Yes, it's possible to get mixed missions with Xarquid / Aquatoids / Triscene (on land, at least).

 

Truth be told, no, Triscenes are not immune to gauss - they get a mere 20% reduction (as opposed to the 10% reduction they get from just about everything else, including AP). As with most multi-tile units, explosives are your best bet. The taser, for example, can only hit one part per shot; a shok bomb can hit all four.

[magic9mushroom]

Play until I find one? Actually I was hoping to go head hunting. And I don't mean for the duty roster.

 

Just as well I recently upgraded the primary squad's general purpose slugging weapons from heavy gauss for everybody bar when taking torpedo launchers for more than one guy in which case one of them got assigned a gauss rifle and the other one a heavy gauss. And one other guy got a gauss rifle for a sidearm when carrying one of the hydrojets. Now its sonic cannon with a few heavy gauss taken along just to make sure one cannot TOTALLY run out of ammo, but only have two or three on board, for the weaker soldiers, the rest of everyone is coming along packing for bull elephant.

 

So what DO the tasoth bring with them on terror missions, its the bio drones then? I was wondering if it were possible for the mixed missions to have both xarquid with the aquatoid AND triscene? because if thats the case, its safari time. And I want them ALIVE. That gauss immunity for the triscene, is it total immunity or just very, very very reduced damage? because I've nothing really weaker. Bar the tank and its AP bolts of course. Which suits me just fine, want something to grab and keep their attention if they do show, whilst the rest sneak up to stick a few tazers up its rear end. (and thinking of that how does TFTD handle multiple-tile critters getting zapped with the tazer, rather than the shock launcher? because unlike the latter of course the tazer is a point source of stun damage (and of rookie aquanauts getting disembowelled by triscenes)

 

The Triscene is totally immune to: Dart Gun, Jet Harpoon, Gas Cannon AP, Gauss Pistol, Gauss Rifle, Heavy Gauss, Sonic Pistol, Thermal Tazer, and Coelacanth/Gas Cannon.

 

The Triscene cannot normally be attacked by: Hydro-Jet Cannon (any), Torpedo Launcher (any), Disrupter Pulse Launcher, Coelacanth/Aqua Jet, and Displacer/P.W.T.. This is because it is on land.

 

The Triscene can be damaged by: Sonic-Blasta Rifle, Sonic Cannon, Vibroblade, Thermic Lance, Gas Cannon-Phosphor, Coelacanth/Gauss, and Displacer/Sonic.

 

The Triscene is weak to: Gas Cannon-HE, Thermal Shok Launcher, Magna-Blast Grenade, Particle Disturbance Grenade, Magna-Pack Explosive, Sonic Pulser, and Heavy Thermic Lance. Gas Cannon-HE, Thermal Shok Launcher, Magna-Pack Explosive and Sonic Pulser in particular are likely to kill/stun in one direct hit, with the Sonic Pulser and Thermal Shok Launcher guaranteeing it.

 

 

Tasoths bring a mix of Triscenes and Bio-Drones if they're on their own at a terror site. Underwater, they use Tentaculats.

 

Yes, it's possible to get mixed missions with Xarquid / Aquatoids / Triscene (on land, at least).

 

Truth be told, no, Triscenes are not immune to gauss - they get a mere 20% reduction (as opposed to the 10% reduction they get from just about everything else, including AP). As with most multi-tile units, explosives are your best bet. The taser, for example, can only hit one part per shot; a shok bomb can hit all four.

 

20% reduction from resistance, and then a reduction of at least 121 from armour. Heavy Gauss' max roll is 112 damage, before resistance. Dealt damage is always 0; thus, the Triscene is completely immune to Gauss fire.

[Tsathoggua]

In the case of the gauss, the only purpose of firing one at a triscene if they present themselves, is wholly, and only, to enrage it. To keep its attention where I want it.

 

How can they be invulnerable to being zapped by the tazer but very much so to the shock launcher, they use the same damage type.

[NKF]

Large terror units have more surface area, so area effect weapons affect them more severely than normal sized units. Technically they are treated as having x4 bodies that all share the same stats, so an area effect attack will affect each quarter independently. It's not quite x4 damage as all damage away from the point of impact reduce in damage by 10 damage per tile, but close enough I guess.

 

Thermal Shok Bombs are also ridiculously powerful compared to a tazer.

 

- NKF

[magic9mushroom]

In the case of the gauss, the only purpose of firing one at a triscene if they present themselves, is wholly, and only, to enrage it. To keep its attention where I want it.

 

How can they be invulnerable to being zapped by the tazer but very much so to the shock launcher, they use the same damage type.

 

Because the issue isn't one of damage type, but of which armour facing is hit.

 

On Genius, a Triscene has 132 front armour, 121 side and rear armour, and 8 under armour. Yes, 8.

 

Under armour applies only against area-effect weapons, and then only at ground zero and one square away (beyond that it uses the armour in the direction of the explosion).

 

Thermal Tazer does 36-108 damage after resistance, which is not sufficient to get through the Triscene's front/side/rear armour. A Thermal Shok Launcher direct hit, however, will hit Under Armour on all four squares of the Triscene. As such, it will deal 54-162 damage on the hit square and 49-148 damage to the other three squares. After subtracting armour, that's a minimum damage of 169; this is more than the Triscene's health, so it's guaranteed to be stunned.

[Tsathoggua]

Damn. I had hoped to take the creature/s alive if I see any. I cannor USE the shock launcher, haven't researched it, partly because those highest value captures, like a deep one had mostly, bar the calcinite due to its not coming home when I should have, ,been made. Triscene are so RARE that research was just not a high priority because I never really expected to see one.

 

Is it possible to put a xarquid down without killing it using the tazer? not that I expect to see those in this terror mission, if anything, although only terror unit seen thus far is a couple of biodrones, one of which the team did manage to bum rush with tazers and down it.

[magic9mushroom]

Xarquid can be stunned with Tazers, although it will take at least three zaps and more likely five or six.

[Bomb Bloke]

Getting into melee range in the first place is the real trick. Xarquids don't mess about.

 

20% reduction from resistance, and then a reduction of at least 121 from armour. Heavy Gauss' max roll is 112 damage, before resistance. Dealt damage is always 0; thus, the Triscene is completely immune to Gauss fire.

 

I admit I completely forgot to factor in armour. Though that's variable, and you've even got the gauss SWS listed in your "can be damaged by" read-out - that should be able to punch through on any difficulty below Superhuman.

 

In any case, I fully agree gauss isn't worth using against them.

[magic9mushroom]

Getting into melee range in the first place is the real trick. Xarquids don't mess about.

 

 

 

I admit I completely forgot to factor in armour. Though that's variable, and you've even got the gauss SWS listed in your "can be damaged by" read-out - that should be able to punch through on any difficulty below Superhuman.

 

In any case, I fully agree gauss isn't worth using against them.

 

Oh, certainly, you can damage Triscenes with Gauss on Beginner, but I was taking into account his statement that he was playing on Genius.

 

I'll admit I forgot that the Coelacanth/Gauss counts as Gauss. -1 point for me. Yeah, on Genius it can penetrate the side and rear armour for up to 11 damage (roll 44-132 vs. 121 armour), though the front plate is immune (and on Superhuman, indeed, it's fully immune). Pretty sure you'd still run out of ammo before killing it (without support) given the C/G's lousy accuracy and the average damage per hit of 0.75, but point conceded.

 

A lot of people think the Triscene's under armour was a mistake, but I'm fairly-well convinced it was intentional. If only because they'd be too hard to kill otherwise.

 

 

Magnetic Ion Armour covereth many sins, and "suicidal charges with melee weapons" are #1 on the list. I don't think the Xarquid gun is stronger than a Sonic Cannon, and that only rolls 58-175 vs. 142 when hitting MIA front plate.

[Tsathoggua]

As per my safari thread, that xarquid did eventually go down, but not without an entire squad whaling on it with stun prods.

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Didn't WANT to take it down with the tank (was using conventional AP rounds), I only wanted to get the troops that were on the second floor in position to rush out of their hole, get in position, shock it as much as possible, then fire an AP slug to get the xarquid's attention. Worked, partially. in that fugly here squelched forth to take a peek, then squelched back to its original position.

 

I've a hunch that once they move, and move back, they might be able to fire backwards. Just a good roll of the dice so to speak, that only let it fire twice. One, missing, up at the first poor shmuck to jump off the balcony, and once in rxn fire after the back-squelchery when the near suicidal poor rotten bastard first out retreated. Hit it with a tank shell after shocking it, but it evidently wasn't stupid enough to fall for the heavy-caliber artillery shell going 'ptink' off what passes for a face.