Let's Play UFO2:Extraterrestrials

[Zombie]

Supply Vessel Part 2

It's now three turns later and we've just spotted an alien cannon on the roof of the UFO. The Veteran goes up a lift in order to mortar it:

It only hits for 97 damage though:

And now that cannon fires back at TV. Looks like it's going to be a hit unfortunately:

Somehow it only damages him for 1 point. Very lucky! He mortars the cannon again and this time the blast does 137 damage which destroys it:

On our next turn we spot the scary central cannon. TV will again mortar it:

The blast does an impressive 157 damage which destroys it:

Next turn we spot that other cannon on the south east side. Same as before... TV, mortar, blah, blah, blah:

The blast only did 53 damage but because he previously damaged it, the thing is destroyed:

Next turn our fearless leader Pete teleports to the top of the UFO to check out our progress and get eyes on the remaining cannons up there:

Three left. Pete teleports back out of there as it's time to split the difference between the two cannons on the west side with a mortar:

The blast does 145 damage to the farthest one which destroys it, but only does 85 to the other one:

The cannon then fires back. Our three intrepid soldiers shrugged off the damage from the first blast, but on the second one FA takes 2 damage, AT takes 1 and MTR shrugs off the damage completely:

That's not so bad, right? Ordinarily yes, but the cannon has one more shot and this time it hits AT for 9, MTR for 2 and FA escapes. Nobody has critical wounds though so it's more of a formality at this point to cure the damage. FA is going to patch up AT with a stimpack:

Since he has the stimpack out, he may as well heal MTR too:

MTR returns the favor and heals up FA:

Teamwork! Silencer is going to shoot at the offending cannon:

His first bullet is absorbed, but his second does 46 which destroys it:

MTR ran out of APs trying to escape the blaze the cannon created and has to tough it out in the flames during the alien's turn. He takes 3 fire damage so FA will patch him up again:

Now TV will mortar the last cannon:

The first blast only did 38 damage. TV inspects the mortar, shrugs , and fires it again. This blast does another 75 damage, but that's still not enough to destroy it:

TV doesn't have enough APs to fire it again so we'll have to wait. On our next turn NKF tries to take a peek along the south side of the UFO but a Caretaker reaction fires at him, luckily for no damage. DragonHawk will shoot at it:

His first bullet hits for an impressive 87 damage which kills it:

And that's what makes the U238 ammo so nice. There's also a Trep on the roof of the UFO. DH still has plenty of APs left so he'll take a snap shot at it:

It hits for 57 damage which kills it:

Easiest xp ever. It's like taking candy from a baby. TV will now mortar that last cannon on the roof of the UFO:

The blast does a pitiful 69 damage, but it was enough to destroy the cannon:

Finally! Join me next time for part three where we deal with 5 Caretakers (luckily not at the same time). The we sell some stuff for extra $$$, equip our transport with weaponry, manufacture some more ship weapons and shoot down a pesky Battlecruiser which was getting a little too close for comfort.

I had some time the last few days and was able to shoot down a bunch more UFOs. Right now I'm sitting at 9382 UFOs shot down which is a good start for the month. I had a little bit of a headache with one tough swarm that showed up. The game always spawns 6 UFOs for a swarm. What sizes of UFOs are in the swarm is kinda random but as you get farther in the game it switches mostly to Battlecruisers and Massive Patrol Vessels. For my swarm event I got 3 Battlecruisers and 2 Massive Patrol Vessels over Australia and a Medium Cruiser over the Pacific heading to North America.

The part of the swarm over Australia quickly headed out over the Pacific and refused to come near any of my bases before disappearing. So my initial strategy was to send out the interceptors from Australia and Antarctica to maybe take one out or draw it back to a base to allow the defenses to help down it. Trouble was, all those UFOs swarmed the interceptors and would almost always down one or two. So then I switched my focus to that medium cruiser over the Pacific... sent the interceptors from North America to engage it. They were able to down it over land just before the rest of the swarm backups arrived. Then I let the base defenses in North America shoot at them for a while until they wandered off. I enticed them back by sending out an interceptor to bombard the medium cruiser with one bomb. Worked pretty good.

I guess the moral of the story is not to focus on the group first. Pick out any outliers, then go after any single UFO which is being fired on by the base defenses. Leave everything else because they will probably head to your activity.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

You lot - you can say it: It is but a flesh wound!

What's a few scrapes and bruises when going toe to toe with massive cannons, and still finding yourself coming out well on top in terms of the give and take of it?

These are nonetheless very noisy affairs and gives other creatures time to creep up. Caretakers, Treps, don't be shy, it's your turn... to kick the bucket. We're not giving you the initiative; remember, this is very much our turf and you're going to learn it the hard way. Squad, resume sweep!

@Commander Z: Enemy vessel kill count updated. Expert bait and switch interception maneuver acknowledged. Your finest hour shall yet come!

[Zombie]

Supply Vessel Part 3

It's the next turn and a Caretaker has appeared at the corner of the UFO. Sitting duck right there folks. DragonHawk comes around a corner to shoot at it with U238 ammo:

His first bullet hits for an impressive 51 while the second does an incredible 89 damage which kills it:

Five turns later, an invisible Caretaker shoots at Pete who is trying to set up an ambush:

The blast is absorbed by Pete's armor and shielding. The Caretaker isn't as lucky and kills itself when the blast does 80 damage. Dummy:

Normally I'd reload the game because I want my soldiers to get the kills, but this was too funny so I continued on. A little bit of wonkyness went on after this but I think the dead Caretaker's "explosion" animation was run which caused that small building to explode and do no damage to Pete again:

Pete's Pete, explosions like that are meaningless to him. Shrug it off and move on, right? He'll take a couple steps because he wants to check the UFO door. As expected, a Caretaker inside the UFO shoots at him, but he absorbs the damage no problem. He'll shoot back then:

The first two bullets do 27 & 56 damage which kills it:

This guy is unstoppable. One little problem though, there is another Caretaker hidden in the darkness outside the door. Nobody really has a good shot on it, or heck, toss a grenade on it either, so TV will mortar it:

It's a weak spot hit for a massive 180 damage:

During the alien's turn a Caretaker comes up to the roof via the trap door. When it's our turn, Silencer will shoot at it:

his first two bullets do 37 & 66 damage which kills it:

Love that U238 ammo, it's a game-changer. During the alien's next turn, a Caretaker who is inside the closer UFO door to us becomes visible and shoots at Pete. He absorbs the damage and shoots back showing where it actually is:

Not sure how much damage he inflicted, but it was enough to kill it which ended the mission. EOM report:

33 aliens killed and nearly $1million in bounty too. No promotions, but no serious injuries either. Back at base we sell the recovered components and weapons:

Nearly $300k from that. We recently manufactured some weapons for our new Pagasus transport ship so let's get rid of that antiquated Fire Arrow Launcher and swap that bad boy out for the Long Spear:

And we may as well install a hand of fate launcher too:

There, all upgraded:

Meanwhile, our engineers have been busy building another Thunderstorm to replace our aging fleet of Golden Eagles along with a Long Spear launcher:

Our base in Antarctica is coming along nicely now as we have a full squadron of Thunderstorms, one's even upgraded:

Same deal in Europe, but we need to upgrade the fire arrow launchers to long spears sometime soon:

At the main base, the thing we need the most is more U238 ammo. Before we can complete that, a Battlecruiser shows up over Africa headed to Asia. Interceptors from all over are scrambled to shoot it down, but the ones in Africa are doing most of the heavy lifting:

Or shooting. Take your pick.The stupid UFO makes a huge mistake and heads right into the mouth of the beast:

One of the normal Thunderstorms is getting pretty beat up in this fight so we'll send it back to base. Just in time as the rest of the Thunderstorms shoot it down:

Of course, we are going to visit this baby as it's going to have plenty of loot and xp for the soldiers. Let's get everything back to base first:

When the crash site is in daylight the transport is sent out:

So join me next time for that. Should be interesing... and probably long.

-Zombie

[Zombie]

Battlecruiser Part 1

So this time we are on a desert map. Haven't seen that in a while so it's a good change. During the alien's first turn we spot a Mega floating around above the walled in area next to our transport:

When it's finally our turn, it's gone. In it's place is a pGehe. Silencer is going to take some snapshots at it with U238 ammo:

His bullets hit for 6, 12 and 1 damage. One? Really? Kret's going to try the same thing:

His first bullet hit for a minuscule 8 but his second hit for a decent 41 which killed it:

There was a lot of activity during the alien's next turn. When we can go again, Silencer is going to shoot at a Mega who is floating above a tanker truck:

He hits for 16 & 40 which kills it:

The other alien we can see is another pGehe which AT will take an auto shot at:

It was hit or miss every other bullet so he had to shoot again. His second to last shot hit for 50 which killed it:

After a quick peek, we now can see two Megas at the front of the transport. AT will take some snap shots at the one in the air by the flagpole:

The damage was absorbed so now Silencer will do the same thing:

His first bullet hits a weak spot for a massive 107 damage which equals a dead mega:

MTR now spots another mega near the edge of the map. Nook will utilize aimed shots:

His first was absorbed but his second hit for 33. Still not dead so now Sorby will do the same thing:

It hits for a decent 39 damage which kills it:

As for the Mega on the ground, Pete will toss an Inferno Grenade on it:

It's a weak spot hit for a nice even 100 damage which kills it obviously:

What's this? There's another pGehe in the air near Pete. Kret will take some snap shots at it:

He hits for 12, 6 & 73 which kills it:

DragonHawk now spots a Mega near Pete. He somehow has a shot at it. Aimed so it's a guarantee hit:

It only does 18 damage. Luckily he has just enough AP's left for one more aimed shot:

It hits for an identical 18 damage, but that's enough to kill it:

We don't see any more aliens so that's the good news. 8 in one turn, I'm sure the aliens are reeling after that performance. Nope, during the alien's next turn a pGehe appears by Pete:

It shoots it's chem weapon at Pete in close range, but you know Pete, he just shrugs it off like it was nothing.

Pete shoots back at it, hits all three times but only manages to damage it once for 13 damage. It's now our turn again and Pete is going to try and finish it off with an auto shot:

His first auto shot does a total of 28 damage which isn't enough to kill it. On his second auto shot his first bullet hits for 18 which kills it:

Join me for part two where we deal with a few more pGehe's outside and then focus on taking out those pesky cannons on the roof of the UFO.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

An invisible Caretaker drunk with power blows itself up? We're up with that!

And, Pete, being himself, unflinchingly just went on downright demoralising the opposition all the way through to the end of the affair. How do you like them apples?

HQ sure knows how to express appreciation too, kitting out our transport vessel with the latest and greatest weaponry. Upgrades even extend to the new interceptors being made available in a number of our bases.

On our way back out we're told packing some sunscreen would be adviseable. You know what that means...

It's nice and toasty alright with the alien reception committee intent on a very warm welcome wherever we look; one might go so far as to say suffocating and a little toxic behaviour overall.

So what do you say we start venting?

[Space Voyager]

Drunk Caretaker... I mean, we have all the powers needed to fend off an alien invasion in our hands today! Introduce them to alcohol and BAM, they won't know what hit them! Now excuse me while I train my body to deal with this poison.

[Zombie]

Battlecruiser Part 2

During the alien's next turn a pGehe shows up where Pete is. He's in cover and can't reaction fire at it, but DragonHawk has a clear shot and takes it. The first bullet hits a weak spot for a massive 107 damage which kills it:

You can probably make out where the shot connected as it's just below the gas cloud and to the right of the fire. A couple turns later and we just spotted the close cannon on the roof of the UFO. TV will mortar it:

The blast only does 52 damage. We may as well nuke it again:

This time it hits a weak spot for 163 damage which destroys it:

Such inconsistent damage rolls. There was some activity during the alien's turn and we now see two pGehes. First up is one by the flagpole again. Silencer will take some snap shots at it:

His first bullet hits for an unlucky 13, but his next connects for 81 which kills it:

The other pGehe is above the tanker truck and DragonHawk will take some snap shots at it too:

His first hits for 16 and his next hits for 65 which kills it:

Nothing really happens for 3 turns so Pete's going to find some work for TV. Mainly cannons. He teleports to the center of the roof and spots all of them:

TV will mortar the one on the right first:

The blast does a very decent 143 damage which destroys it. Next up is the cannon on the left:

This blast also does a decent 137 damage which destroys it. That same blast also set something off inside the UFO which damages one alien for 4 but the other shrugs it off:

Gotta love that. TV barely has enough APs left to mortar the last one:

This blast does 147 and destroys it:

Kind of an impressive weapon if you just look at it from the last three bombs. We know better though. Three alien turns later and we spot a Mega by both doors of the UFO:

The closest one to us moves closer to it's friend:

TV pulls out his mortar during our turn to put one between the two:

The one on the right takes 38 damage and is killed while the other only takes 19:

Really? 19? At least this alien is closer to the action so CG will auto shoot at it:

His first bullet was absorbed, but the second did 41 which kills it:

Five turns later and we've uncovered most of the map with no sightings. Everyone converges on the doors to the UFO. DragonHawk walks to the close door and is immediately met with reaction fire from a trigger happy Mega which injures him for 1 in his right leg. He makes a hasty retreat and Kret will patch him up with a Stimpack:

MTR will throw a normal grenade at this pesky Mega:

The damage is absorbed, so he steps it up with a Cryo grenade. This blast does an impressive 85 which kills it:

Yeah, these cryo grenades is where it's at folks. And we can manufacture these babies instead of only recovering them from the battlescape so I think we may need to make some more of them the first chance we get. Join me next time where it's more Mega action, and even two Commanders come out to play which we stun, but not before we train up some soldiers by shooting at one with el-cheapo ammo.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

After slapping around a few pGehes we follow up with TV's drumming session, laying waste to the cannons up above. Totally tubular, dude!

DragonHawk's encounter with the Mega was of a rather unsavoury nature but he managed to leg it out of there, if a bit hopscotch. Apparently these aliens need to chill if we're going to get this done the right way.

Let's not leave room for any further surprises - from here on in they dance to _our_ tune!

[Zombie]

Battlecruiser Part 3

It's four turns later and now everyone has made their way to cover both doors to the UFO. Pete goes inside and spots a Mega by two power sources so he'll toss a photon grenade between the two hoping that the explosion will be decent:

Very pretty explosion but it only did 18 damage to the thing:

During the alien's turn the Mega smartly books it outta there, but we still have eyes on it:

DragonHawk is planning on tossing an Inferno grenade near it:

But if he steps inside the door he can toss it directly on it:

That's the better strategy, maximize damage. It does 53 fire damage which kills it:

Nothing happens for a very long time. After 11 turns of that the team is getting very restless. Luckily we spot a Mega in a corner of the ship and this time Kret will toss an Inferno grenade on it:

The fire hits a weak spot dealing 77 damage which kills it:

During the alien's next turn a apparent Mega sneaks up on NKF and shoots him with it's chem weapon. He shrugs off the damage like Pete and fires back at the invisible alien:

He hits for 25 & 87 which kills it. When it's our turn, Pete spots a Mega Commander at the door to the central room. CG is going to attempt to stun it:

The poke does 79 stun which knocks it out cold. During the alien's next turn, another Mega Commander shows up:

It shoots it's chem weapon at Pete which does 3 damage. You're slacking Pete, normally that kind of damage rolls off your back. When it's our turn the Mega is right in front of some team members so they load up el-cheapo ammo. Sorby will shoot first:

Any damage was absorbed so now it's time for NKF to get some revenge (and xp):

After NKF, Mouse and Knan shoot at it too. Everything was absorbed. Before we go too far, Silencer will patch up Pete with the Stimpack:

And now you can shoot at the commander too Silencer:

After Silencer. Kret even gets in on the action. Not a single bullet from anyone damaged the commander. That's as far as I want to push it so now Pete pulls out the stun rod and gets ready to poke it:

It must've did enough stun damage to knock it out because the mission ended. EOM report:

Three promotions! Time to allocate Knan's points first:

That's right, max out strength and shooting. 9 missions and only 3 kills and he's kicking butt and taking names. Mouse is next:

His strength is kinda low at 90 but that stat is maxed out already. Let's max out Shooting first, then dump the rest in throwing. He's gotta have something to fall back on. Finally we have Kret:

One point goes in Strength to max that out, one goes into shooting to max that out too. I tossed one point into agility to make that kinda even with vitality then put the last two points into throwing. He's a real beast. As far as loot, we are selling some more and will make an additional $473k:

Join me next time for an all-Geoscape episode where we mostly crank out some research projects in the downtime, and eventually shoot down a few more UFOs. Should be interesting!

- Zombie

[Zombie]

We just got back to base from this last mission and our scientists have finally finished researching the Positronic Beamer handheld weapon:

Let's check out it's description next:

It does great damage (U238 ammo only does 100) and the accuracy is much better. The biggest drawbacks is the weight of the weapon (35), the weight of the ammo (10, total weapon weight loaded is 45) and the small clip size (12). 4 auto shots and you'll be reloading already. Plus you can only use what you gather off missions - no manufacturing these. We may have a couple soldiers carry these to start and then slowly increase that. It all depends how many hardened bonesetter missions we need to go on. In the meantime, we need to research something else, like maybe the positronic grenade:

Yup, let's do that. I'll put all the scientists on it:

Nothing going on in the Geoscape really, and 3 days later research completes:

Before we do anything else, let's check out it's description:

150 damage is just insane. For comparison, the next strongest grenade is the cryo which deals just 100. The most powerful grenade which deals only mechanical damage is the coveted golden pineapple (DG2) which only does 85. That's a 75%+ improvement. But again, we are going to have to ration these babies because we can only use what we recover on missions. In terms of research, the choice is pretty clear - all efforts are going into the Positronic Ship Cannon:

The photon cannons just aren't cutting it anymore as we've been dealing with a lot of bigger UFOs lately. Back at base, let's check out our stockpiles of weapons and grenades and mortar bombs:

Pretty happy with the quantity of mortar bombs, but I'd really feel safer with at least 100. With the huge variability in damage, we may need to use quite a few of the bombs to take out cannons and such. Back to the globe, not much has been happening on the geoscape lately. Six days later and our interceptors in North America shot down a UFO Recon Vessel west of the Galapagos Islands:

And I'm totally fine with it crashing into the ocean. The small UFOs don't really give much of anything and with the crash happening on the opposite side of the world from our main base it would take our transport forever to get there anyway. Good riddance. Just about an hour later our research into the Positronic Cannon completed:

Let's check out it's description first:

It's a huge upgrade over the photon cannon, the biggest drawbacks being capacity and price. For comparison, here's the photon cannon:

As for what to research next, I'm curious about that Hardened Bonesetter so let's put everyone on that:

And now we finally can produce one of the Positronic Cannons in Africa since our engineers are ready:

It's gonna take nearly 4 days though. Will the UFOs hold out long enough is the big question. Turns out, the answer to that question is a resounding "NO", as we spotted two UFOs. First is a Light Cruiser over Russia. The interceptors from my main base are scrambled to intercept:

It's already half damaged by our defenses so this shouldn't take too long:

It is downed easily. We aren't going to bombard this one as it'll be a quickie for our soldiers to mop up. The other UFO is a Recon Vessel over the Pacific Ocean:

I scramble the interceptors from North America to take that out over water:

No way I want to wait around for it to get near land. With lots of heavy missiles inbound, the UFO will not know what hit it:

Five minutes later and a Battlecruiser is detected over India:

Every available interceptor nearby is scrambled to intercept as it's headed to our main base:

The thing stops short and is concentrating it's fire on an interceptor from Europe. Fine with me, as that means everyone can fire at will at close range:

Plus it's situated between our main base and the aircraft carrier which means the base defenses can fire at it too. Doesn't take long and it's down:

Geez, big enough explosion animation. Since the Light Cruiser will be in daylight first, we'll do that first. So stay tuned for that next time.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Burning aliens from outer space, always a feast for the eyes, and we didn't even pay a ticket!

In the aftermath, a no doubt jealous sight unseen Mega resorted to chemical warfare but got nonchalantly thwarted by Pete.

This cowardly conduct couldn't be left unanswered of course, so CG promptly subdued a Mega Commander in shocking fashion.

In a usual bout of trickery another MC tries yet some more not-so-funny business but it's our turn to really drop the hammer, repeatedly poking it with assorted weapon fire discharges until downed up close and personal. Lights out, pal, mission over!

It's party time for the three amigos Knan, Mouse Nightshirt and Kret as they simultaneously reach the coveted SS echelon.

In the background other kinds of progress are made, using invader tech (the new Positronic stuff) to eventually bolster our firepower even more to give us a better fighting chance up in the air and on the ground.

Speaking of which, another UFO bit the dust. Let's not let it settle for long!

[Zombie]

Light Cruiser

We land and immediately can see a Rar. CG is just going to take a knee and auto shoot at it:

He hits for 67, 18 & 77 which kills it:

That's a good start for once. A couple turns later a Rider shows up alongside the moat where the UFO is (below). Knan is going to shoot at it then:

His first two bullets hit for 12 & 28 which kills it:

A couple turns later a Rar jumps out from behind a building, so Sorby will shoot at it this time:

His first bullet hits a weak spot for a massive 109 damage which kills it:

Atta boy! Too bad the game doesn't create a big bloody mess when you score a critical hit, that would be kinda funny. Three turns later and there is a Rar by the moat where the Rider was before. Since Sorby did such a good job with the last one, let's see how he does here:

He hits for 10, 65 and 76 which kills it:

We have a small contingent of soldiers inside the building and during the aliens turn a Rar comes up a lift. Nook is in a perfect spot to shoot at it when it's our turn again:

He hits for 82 & 70 which kills it:

Overkill? Maybe. But the more damage you can put on target, the lesser the chance they can do something back. For the next 11 turns we don't encounter any resistance whatsoever. We take the opportunity to clear most of the map. Heck, Pete and CG have even teleported to the roof of the UFO to keep an eye out for any movement. A Rider finally comes out of the UFO only to shoot at Sorby which damages him for 7:

He could get some revenge, but he's our scout for that side of the moat. How about we let Loonie throw an Incendiary Grenade down there at it (sorry, took the screenie before putting the grenade in his hand first):

The blast hits a weak spot for a monstrous 105 fire damage which kills the poor thing:

With that gone, FA rushes over to Sorby to patch him up with a Stimpack:

A couple turns later and most of the team as assembled by the inner and outer doors to the UFO. NKF opens the inner door to see a Rider in the room to the left which he'll shoot at:

His first bullet hits for 26 which takes it out:

His third bullet sails off behind and hits something else for 4 damage. Nook intends to get eye on it but is distracted by a Rider who shoots at him from down the hallway. Luckily for no damage, so he'll shoot back:

His first two bullets do 22 & 44 damage which kills it:

Nook wisely retreats. When it's our turn again he finds that hidden unit in the left room. It's just a Rider so he'll shoot at it:

Sorry, for brevity I cut too many screenshots and forget how much damage he did. Does it matter though? It's dead anyway. Three turns later and we have occupied that room to prevent more aliens from entering it again. When we open the far door another Rider is spotted which Silencer will shoot at:

He kills it which ends the mission. EOM:

Only Good? We have two promotions this time and that's excellent. First up is Sorby (quite fitting, isn't it):

Max out his strength at 102, check. Max out his shooting at 100, check.The last point goes into throwing to get him to 79. Silencer is next:

He had maxed out strength and shooting already so I put 3 into throwing to get him to 81. The last two points go in agility and vitality. Easy. We head back to base for a quick shower and change of uniforms (and undies in the case of Sorby) and head out to the Battlecruiser next time.

- Zombie

[Zombie]

As an update, I'm still #2 on the Steam leaderboards for UFOs shot down at 9964. My plan is to get to 10000 tomorrow if I feel up to it. As of right now though, I need to shoot down 2273 more UFOs to hit #1 by the end of the year. 101 more days till that which means I need to equal or exceed 22.5-ish UFOs shot down each day. So as you can see, I made some good progress this month so far. Gotta stay ahead as I'm worried I might not have too much time in December.

During this past run through (a run through in this instance is shooting down every UFO and swarm until I get into negative balance territory and the game shuts me down), I decided to finish all the research topics. Took a lot of time as there's a crap-ton of "filler" projects that really could have been combined into one topic instead (I'll get into this at a later date).

Nothing really seemed to change much in terms of UFO activity after all research topics were completed, however, all of a sudden out of the blue the aliens took control of the Polar League (the only place I don't have a land base if you recall). I reloaded the game and sent out every interceptor and even a pegasus transport to patrol over the arctic when it was slated to turn, but the interceptors were unable to detect it. Thinking that a base was already present due to previous undetected infiltration, I sent my interceptors and pegasus out days earlier and didn't find anything either. So the aliens just took it out from under my nose. How rude!

Up to this point I never had an alien base even form, so that leads me to think that there is some mechanic in place which perhaps triggers "funding states" to get taken over. Maybe the aliens will take over everything which would cut off funding completely? Dunno about that, or even if I could get a state to "return to the fold" so to speak, but it's an interesting observation.

I was going to try sending my team in to do a base mission to show you guys, but found out I was woefully unprepared to deal with something like that. First issue was that I didn't have enough suits of Positronic Armor manufactured for everyone. Second issue was that mortars cannot be used in a base (at least I think they can't) so that means I need a substitute like the rocket launcher. You can buy spare rocket launchers and explosive missiles off the open market which is good, but you need to manufacture cryo and incendiary rockets. And that takes time to do. (Wonder why there aren't photon, positronic or chem rockets, eh). Needless to say, I changed my testing save to manufacture stuff like positronic armor, rockets and even mind shields just in case a base forms so I can run one of those.

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

Damn man, defying the whole Steam community! One could question the reasoning of such a feat but, being done in the name of protection of humankind, you have my support! 

[Space Voyager]

You're also 20th by the Aliens killed! An army of one!

I don't see you in the "fastest game" section though.

[Zombie]

9 hours ago, Space Voyager said:

You're also 20th by the Aliens killed! An army of one!

Meh, that's really not an accomplishment. At least not yet. When I reconvene my playthrough it'll go up again.

 

9 hours ago, Space Voyager said:

I don't see you in the "fastest game" section though.

I haven't finished the game yet so I'm not going to be in there. At least not yet (again). Trying to finish the game in the shortest amount of time really requires a different mindset and strategy. My playthrough is to show what you could expect, not a speedrun. If I do finish the game I'll probably be dead last on the list.

Well, the other day I shot down a bunch of UFOs and ended a month with exactly 9999:

So I thought that was kinda fitting. I'm currently 10061 so that's good.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

I see Sorby has been practicing his aim, and improving his damage rolls - that Rar must've felt as if hit by a mortar round!

Others have some big numbers to dish out too, like Loonie with his fiery blast.

And, yes, wouldn't turn down some good Fallout-style death animations here, but I guess those could be budget-busting for a title like this.

First kill? Sorby; last? Silencer - congrats on your respective promotion lottery wins!

Speaking of winners, some are downright modest about their winnings; ever the overachiever, our very own Commander Z.

Some others are pretty evident cheaters though, as your description of how those aliens snatch the Polar League over to their side, no matter what, shows. Something underhanded is in play at that stage of the game.

Special alien base mission parameters causing the player to deal with a curveball for once is a plus for me though in the variety department.

So, 10061 and counting. Go get 'em!!

[Zombie]

Battlecruiser Part 1

Back at it, we find ourselves at a human military base of some sort. CG is first off the transport and spots a Hardened Bonesetter on a rooftop a couple levels above him. He's in a sheltered location (kinda), so he'll toss an Inferno Grenade up there:

All the damage was absorbed:

Now the hardened bonesetters shrug off inferno grenades too? Jeez! Anyhow, I thought it would be way too dangerous to start firing lines to take it out as this is only turn 1 and there are probably lots more of these critters nearby. Instead I opt to set up the troops so that we have at least 5 covering a forward scout (Pete and Crazy Gringo in this case). During the alien's first turn another Hardened Bonesetter shows up near the front of the transport:

When it's our turn again, Nook will take some long range auto shots at it:

Any damage was absorbed on the first auto shot, but on the second he damaged it for 41 & 32 which killed it:

Good job Nook! During the alien's next turn, two more Hardened Bonesetters show up. NKF reaction fires on the Bonesetter on the balcony and it looks like the first bullet will be a hit:

It's absorbed, but his second bullet will be a hit also:

It's absorbed too and so was his last unfortunately. Now the Bonesetter on the north side of the building starts acting up. Sorby reaction fires at it, hits once but for no damage. Seeing a pattern here? The darn thing shoots at CG instead which hits, but is absorbed. CG shoots back, his first bullet was absorbed but it looks like his second will be a hit too:

This bullet did 44 damage while his last did 14 which killed it. And then another bonesetter came out of the shadows in the same spot. CG reaction fires at it with his first bullet getting absorbed:

His next was absorbed again but his last did 19. Better than nothing I guess, but boy, these things are tough to kill. And now the floodgates open and aliens come crawling out of the woodwork. When it's our turn again we have eyes on four of them. One is on a balcony north of us and the only way to get at it easily is to have TV mortar it:

It only does 20 damage. Ok, that is a start actually so it's not so bad. Instead of trying to finish this one off right now, I think we'll switch gears a bit. Kret is going to take an auto shot at a Rar on the west side of the transport:

His first bullet hit for an impressive 72 damage which didn't kill it but his second did a massive non-critical 99 which finished it off:

And then there were 3 aliens left. There's still a bonesetter on the balcony above the dead Rar so Kret will shoot at it too:

His first two bullets were absorbed and now the bonesetter reaction fires at him out of sequence:

Thankfully the shot missed. Kret's last bullet did 13 so its still alive. Nook then takes over with an auto shot. His first bullet was absorbed. Seems like a recurring theme with the first bullet always getting absorbed, doesn't it? His next two do 41 & 53 which kills it:

Then there were 2. This other bonesetter on the north side of the building has got to go as it's way too close to our team. Nook has just enough APs left to shoot at it:

Keeping up with the theme, his first two bullets were absorbed and the Bonesetter reaction fires back at him out of sequence:

It missed thankfully. Nook's last bullet missed too. Silencer is going to take over from here guys:

He can't escape this trap either as his first bullet was absorbed. His second hit for 51 which did kill it:

And now there's one left. The bonesetter which only took 20 damage from a direct mortar attack. TV will mortar it again:

This time the blast only did 11 to the thing. Luckily with all the mortaring going on it removed a lot of the pipes and such which allows us to shoot at it. Silencer still has APs left so he'll take an auto shot at it:

As always, the first bullet was absorbed. His second hit for 29 which killed it:

Big enough flash of yellow light there. But that's the last one gone which is a huge sigh of relief. Not for the mission of course, as during the alien's turn another bonesetter shows up by a building directly to the south of the transport. It doesn't move so NKF will shoot at it:

His first two bullets hit for 11 and 26 (which breaks the streak of bad luck) but the bonesetter shoots back:

It hits but NKF shrugs off the damage absorbing it like a boss. His last bullet missed too though. So he shoots again. First bullet was absorbed again but the second did 33 damage which kills it:

Join me for part 2 where it's mostly Rars until we make it inside one of the buildings where there's more Hardened Bonesetters. After part two I'll take a short foray into what happens if you let Rar's get too close. In case you are curious, it isn't pretty. I originally was going to wipe these screenshots as it was just part of a test, but upon reflection I think it's important to actually see what happens.

Edit: 10193 UFOs shot down now. The last couple months were quite busy in-game. Only one true swarm, but there were like 3 mini-swarms that happened in the same month. Recall that a true swarm has a leader UFO and 5 other UFOs (normally bigger) which have a different color than normal UFOs. A mini-swarm on the other hand still has 6 UFOs but they show up within minutes of each other and are of random sizes (mostly smaller types though). They don't have a leader either.

I'm manufacturing a ton of stuff at my main base so that we are ready to handle anything. Some highlights:

• 20 Mortars
• 200 mortar bombs, both explosive and chem
• 4820 clips of U238 ammo. Go big or go home, right?
• 20 Stunrods
• 150 rockets, both Incendiary and Cryo
• 200 of all the manufacturable grenade types
• 148 Combat Medikits (These are mostly for a constant source of cash drain so I don't get into negative balance territory so soon).
• 30 Passive Mind Shields
• 41 Positronic suits of armor with more on the way
• 100 VT5000 personal shields

Etc, etc, etc. For the items with sub-100 inventory, those take a really long time to manufacture, hence the low numbers. For the most part though, we have enough to cover all the soldiers - or at least a majority of them. Heck, I could take along a whole squad of soldiers only with mortars and level a map if I wanted to, but you still need some mules to lug around spare bombs. And to take care of aliens at close range or indoors.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

They're hardened alright, that's plain to see, but ready we are for this fight, will utter no complaint and shall hear no plea.

Come as you may, plenty or few from darkness to light, we welcome the fray with all our might.

Ours is a discipline of fire, blow for blow with burning desire, we thrust upon thee our righteous ire, until you forsake life, and all endeavour here find too dire.

Our gaze you cannot withstand, before us all is ablaze, turn away and disband or with murderous craze we'll let none make amend!

@Commander Z: under your dutiful guidance we'll fulfil this oath. Let them not land, let them not plunder - go ever higher, courage instil, it will be beautiful to pull them asunder!!

[Zombie]

So I'm still shooting down UFOs like crazy. Currently have 10347, and that's on the 1st day of October so I'm ahead of the game so to speak. For this last playthrough I was researching all the topics again. And when I finished, this notice popped up:

See? Even on a separate playthrough, the aliens still grabbed the polar league from me. There definitely has to be some mechanic in place which causes the aliens to nab a "state" after all the research topics have been completed. Never detected anything there up till this notice popped up. And just to drive this point home, immediately after clicking the "OK" button I detect a Battle Cruiser on a "Construction" mission for the Polar League:

This UFO was over the Atlantic ocean so I eventually shot it down when it got near Africa. But when I sent out my interceptors and transport to patrol over the arctic, they detected a base there:

Oh, and alien bases will shoot at your interceptor or transport if they get too close. Just a heads up. In my next screenshot you can see one of the interceptors is taking some damage. Plus the base building UFO is still being shot down over Africa:

The alien base's weapons aren't super strong, but I wouldn't linger around the area for too long. Anyhow, with all the manufacturing I've been doing lately, we have an excellent stockpile of weapons and equipment to pick from for the mission. Everyone has positronic armor now, best shields, some have mind shields even. Thorondor, SV and NKF have positronic beamers while Knan gets a photon beamer with nothing but heavy ammo. TV and Sorby carry the rocket launchers. Everyone else has normal rifles with as many clips of U238 ammo as they can carry since I don't know if it'll be a multi-part mission. I think I'm set for it so I might run that mission tomorrow if I have the time.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

All things considered, we're probably lucky the message wasn't "All your base are belong to us".

The player is plainly not allowed to stop the process or even hamper the alien base's construction - let's not kid ourselves, this is clearly an insta-build situation and a specific trigger is most assuredly involved.

But with the arsenal you've amassed the tools are there to crack that nut.

Hey, just de-icing me back to active duty alongside the rest of Alpha Team's finest and packing that kind of heat should already give 'em the shakes!

[Space Voyager]

16 hours ago, Zombie said:

Thorondor, SV and NKF have positronic beamers

 

Oh yeah, OH YEAH, sounds like I ended up in the right group!!!

[Zombie]

20 hours ago, Thorondor said:

The player is plainly not allowed to stop the process or even hamper the alien base's construction - let's not kid ourselves, this is clearly an insta-build situation and a specific trigger is most assuredly involved.

Yeah, I'm starting to wonder what would happen if I had built a base in the polar league instead of building that worthless aircraft carrier. Would the alien's still take over a different area? Well, maybe next playthrough I'll check that out.

20 hours ago, Thorondor said:

Hey, just de-icing me back to active duty alongside the rest of Alpha Team's finest and packing that kind of heat should already give 'em the shakes!

 

17 hours ago, Space Voyager said:

Oh yeah, OH YEAH, sounds like I ended up in the right group!!!

Heh, I can't trust just any soldier on a mission of this importance. Nothing but the best. And the best need the best weaponry.

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

Wielding antimatter gun in such a great company... Send us ANYWHERE!

[Zombie]

Battlecruiser Part 2

It's now the alien's turn and we spot a Rar wandering around near the transport:

NKF isn't going to stand for that and reaction fires at it. His first bullet does an impressive 70 damage with a second shot on the way:

It hits a weak spot for 104 damage which kills it:

He's a one man army. Three alien turns later and there's another Rar on the east side of the map which FA is shooting at with his photon beamer:

All his shots miss, so when it's our turn Loonie will take an auto shot at it:

His first bullet hits for a non-critical 99 damage which kills it:

Ten turns later we spot another Rar in the middle of the map so NKF will shoot at it:

His first bullet hits a very weak spot for an unbelievable 140 damage which kills it:

Unreal! Eight turns later and we're trying to clear out the building to the south of the transport. There's a Hardened Bonesetter at the far side of the big room, but more importantly, there's a Rar in the hallway which is too close for comfort. Knan is going to toss a cryo grenade on it:

It does 49 freeze damage which wasn't enough to kill it so now FA will toss an incendiary grenade on it:

It only does 20 fire damage:

Disappointing. We aren't going to engage either of these aliens this turn anymore so we wait. During the alien's turn the Rar opens the door by FA and steps inside but does nothing. When it's our turn, Knan is going to shoot at it:

His first two bullets do 56 & 94 damage which kills it:

FA steps out into the hallway hoping to shoot at that hardened bonesetter, but it was almost on top of him and reaction fired which did a painful 15 damage. Ok, change of plans, Pete will shoot at it (and he also sees another Rar in the big room):

He killed it easily, sorry, no screenshot. When it's our next turn the Rar has come closer so Knan is going to shoot at it:

His first bullet hits a weak spot for 127 damage which kills it:

Impressive showing, guys. When it's our turn again, there's a hardened bonesetter in the hallway again. This time FA is going to shoot at it with explosive ammo for his photon beamer:

It absorbed everything. Hmmm, guess heavy photon beamer ammo is a no-go against hardened bonesetters. Lesson learned. Since those explosions destroyed the wall, Knan will shoot at it:

His first bullet was absorbed, the second did 22 and the last did 25. Not enough to kill it obviously so he shot again. His first bullet hit for 28 which kills it:

The game was acting up for me for the next few rounds. I suspect it was something on my computer vying for memory which meant lag. TV mortared an alien cannon on the top of the UFO and then during the alien's turn a Rar came out of nowhere, came right up to him and hit him with something that did 7 damage. That's not a big issue, but the hit mutated him into something:

TV's protector Accounting Troll should be fired for allowing this to happen. Since AT was there, I had him shoot at TV and the Rar and was able to kill both:

So TV was a Rar too. I guess they are like Chryssalids in practice, with fewer movement points. Not sure if we could have got him back after the mission ended, but I doubt it. At this point I decide to reload as this was just a test anyway and the lag was becoming unbearable. Join me for part three where I replay the action inside the building and continue on with a newfound respect for Rar's. Sure, they are pushovers when it comes to taking damage, but they can dish it out too if you let them.

Edit: I was going to run that alien base mission today. When I loaded the transport up and targeted the base, this pop-up appeared:

This is end-game territory folks, so I'm not going because I want to be surprised. But this explains why the base was built immediately after all the research topics completed. I just wasn't expecting the game to end on a base for part 1.

Just for giggles I was trying to come up with the final team to end the game. Some people have to be there like Pete, Space Voyager, Thorondor and NKF. By extension, Slaughter has to go too. And probably Tammy. I was looking at my namesake and honestly, I don't think that Zombie is going to be up for it, unless I give him a different role. I could see just putting him in as a support soldier of some sort which would probably work. The issue is that we need super strong soldiers for this mission as we are going to have to get the best armor and shields which weigh a lot. On top of that, we need to bring along a lot of ammo and that will weigh us down too. Not sure how convenient it would be to scavenge ammo from the aliens before a part ends. Guess that depends on which aliens are present and what weapons they carry. Zombie only has 95 strength which sounds like a lot, but is kinda on the low side once you start loading for bear. Guess I'll have to think on this some more.

- Zombie