Let's Play UFO2:Extraterrestrials

[Thorondor]

NKF is turning out to be quite the show-off, who knew...

And, FA, what's up? Listen, you've gotta clean that helmet visor once in a while, maaaan! That really doesn't count as camouflage and you know it.

Yeah, well, leave it to the rest of the squad to pick up the slack every once in a while, right? Wiseguy.

Suddenly we're all blinking our eyes repeatedly as it almost seemed TV had turned into something otherworldly and back again. Damned alien mind games!

Let's wrap things up before things get any nastier. Watch your corners and stay sharp you lot!!

@Commander Z: potential Final Destination special mission parameters understood. Foreseeing every endgame scenario falls very much under your direct purview, Sir. Say when and we shall deliver victory unto thee!

[Space Voyager]

Oh no no no, Z, you NEED to come, too. Not because I like you, I just want insurance that it's not a suicide mission. Just kidding, just kidding, it is for the story-telling purposes! We need to go into the fray together.

[Zombie]

Battlecruiser Part 3

After that Rar encounter, I reloaded from an earlier save and went at it again. FA opened the door and took an auto shot at a Hardened Bonesetter with heavy ammo in his photon beamer. First blast was absorbed. The Bonesetter shot back at him but it's damage was absorbed too. FA's second blast did 13 while his last missed. The Bonesetter should be relatively safe as it's low on APs so Knan will shoot at it at close range:

He took two auto shots: the first did 29 total damage while the first bullet of his second did an identical 29 which killed it:

On our next turn, Knan comes out of hiding to spot that pesky Rar. He doesn't have a lot of APs to spare so he'll throw an incendiary grenade at it (it's not in his hand anymore as he just threw it - you can probably see the fire has started):

It only did 12 fire damage. So that seals it, he must shoot at it now:

His first two bullets do 67 & 50 damage which kills it:

Four turns later and we just spotted one of the alien cannons on top of the UFO so TV will mortar it:

The blast does a very healthy 155 damage which takes it out:

A couple turns later we spot the other cannon on the closest side to us. Same deal as before, TV will mortar it:

This blast did a decent 138 damage which destroys it:

Four turns later and we spot part of the cannon on the far side of the UFO so TV will mortar that too:

The blast hits for a very healthy 153 damage which destroys it:

On the next turn we spot the last cannon. TV to the rescue again:

This time the blast did 127 damage but that was enough to take it out:

Now we can relax a little bit as there aren't any cannons left to impede our progress searching the rest of the map. Thirteen turns go by and we've mostly searched out some of the last areas of darkness. Nothing has been found except for this Hardened Bonesetter where that last cannon was. TV will mortar it:

This blast does 147 damage which kills it:

Impressive damage rolls make the mission go fast. Wow. Silencer goes up a lift in the building to the right of the UFO only to spot a Hardened Bonesetter at the far side of the room - so he'll shoot at it:

His first bullet hits for 73 which kills it:

Surgical guys. On the next turn, the team on the west side of the map finds a Hardened Bonesetter which must have come out of the UFO door. Loonie is in some great cover so he'll throw an incendiary grenade on it:

It only did 7 fire damage. Ok, let's see how it handles a chem grenade then:

That did 57 damage which takes it out:

During the alien's turn another Hardened Bonesetter comes out of the UFO only to end up standing in the gas/fire cloud. It takes 41 damage from the chem but absorbs the fire:

DragonHawk will toss a cryo grenade on it now:

It does 43 freeze damage which kills it:

During the alien's turn, another Hardened Bonesetter comes out of the UFO and ends up in that soup too:

This one absorbed both the chem and fire. In a very rare instance, The Veteran will drop his mortar in order to toss an incendiary grenade on it:

It did 25 fire damage which wasn't bad. Loonie tossed a normal grenade on it, but the damage was absorbed. So now Loonie will toss a cryo grenade on it:

That did enough damage to kill it and end the mission. Join me next time as we allocate points for some soldiers who were promoted. Then I show what our stores look like in terms of the new positronic tech. We deal with some manufacturing and researching too and end it all off by shooting down another battlecruiser UFO.

Update on shooting UFOs down: Right now I'm at 10,623 so I'm way ahead for the month. My hope is to get to 10,800 this weekend. I had a UFO I wasn't able to shoot down the other day and it created a terror site in the Indian Ocean. I didn't bother running that mission but it's just surprising the game programmed this in. Granted, it seems like a rare occurrence, but they still happen every once and a while. Swarms have been few and far between happening maybe every 3rd month or so. But I'd get a couple mini swarms sometimes with tons (like 5-6) of small UFOs popping up just after we start shooting down a biggie. If these little ones are near a base, I've been leaving them go as our defenses are more than capable of shooing them down on their own. Of course, I bombard the crash site to keep the "states" happy with me.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Going toe to toe is how we like to roll - our way come what may!

The aliens have the number, but we've also got numbers working for us, like Knan and TV made sure they see. No lull dulls us either.

It's our skin in the game so we toss it all in after losing the pin; we're cooking without gas to claim the fame, no stress, they're ever dafter - we win!

@Commander Z: it's their error to try and seed terror. Know that in you strong is our belief. Keep turning and burning, chief!

[Zombie]

So here is the End of Mission Report:

We recovered a lot of good alien weapons and have 3 promotions. Kinda no surprise who as they were all main players in the mission. Let's do Loonie first:

Basic strategy, put 3 points in Strength to max that out at a nice even 100 and the last 2 went in shooting to max that out at 99. Pretty incredible so far and we haven't even touched the other stats much. Next up is DragonHawk:

Same basic strategy: max out strength at 100 with 2 points, max out shooting at 100 with 2 points and the last point went in throwing to get him to 83. I think his max potential for that stat will be right around 99 or 100 depending on how the game handles that last point. And last, let's do the new Nook:

Exactly the same as DragonHawk: 2 point went in strength to max it out at 101, 1 in shooting to max that out at 101 and the last 3 into throwing to get him to 82. What beasts! Really glad I spent the time hiring them and bringing them up the ranks. Back at base, it's time to check out our Positronic stockpile of weapons:

We now have 25 Positronic Beamers and 19 clips. Still not enough to start equipping them on a regular basis, but if we know a mission might be tough, we can supplement our normal rifles. Oh, almost forgot about the Positronic Grenades:

Yeah, only 5 isn't going to cut it. Luckily the aliens haven't been using them on us which I think is because I set the sight range for the aliens the same as us. If they can't see us until we can see them, there's really no point in tossing a grenade for them. Back on the Geoscape and our manufacturing bases have completed the first round of Positronic Cannons for our interceptors:

That's some great news. I'm going to put these on the upgraded "golden" Thunderstorms first because then I know at a glance what interceptors can handle tougher fights. I'll show you one in North America:

This couldn't have come at a better time as we've been seeing a lot of Battlecruisers and Massive Patrol Vessels lately. Needless to say, I started manufacturing a second batch. One day later and our research into the Hardened Bonesetter completed:

Ah, ha! A new fighter shield! That comes at a great time, though it means we'll have to balance what to produce. Anyhow, time to check out the Hardened Bonesetter description:

This kinda mirrors my experiences with them so far: mechanical is iffy, fire and freeze do decent and chem is the weakest link. Just for comparison purposes, let's look at the normal bonesetter again:

The picture is that of a commander, not the normal grunts, but the stats are from the usual ones. And yeah, the normal ones seem like pushovers when compared to the hardened variety. Time for researching, I think everyone is going on the the new fighter shield:

A couple days later and we spot another Battlecruiser near South America. I send out my interceptors to get spotted and then withdraw them so my base can help take it out:

I sent out some other incerceptors from Antarctica and Europe but soon realized they wouldn't arrive in time to help. Well, since I had the birds in the air already, I had them go there just in case another UFO shows up around the area. The fight actually didn't take too long (probably because one of the interceptors had a new cannon on it) but one unupgraded thunderstorm took some damage. Huge explosion ensues:

It's going to take a while for the crash site to be in daylight so we have to wait a little before leaving. So join me next time when we tackle yet another Battlecruiser crash site.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

You there, promotees - ever heard of "the bee's knees"? That's what we're drinking tonight. Your treat!

The remainder of the personnel shall be keeping their heads nice and level as we need to keep that Positronic stuff well at hand in stores and slowly bringing it into rotation when and where needed.

Other help comes from the unlikeliest sources, such as our lab rats confided: fighter shields coming courtesy of those Hardened Bonesetter knuckleheads? Don't mind if we do come to profit in increased air force survivability, thank you.

Which brings us to the next order of business: a downed bruiser of a Battlecruiser. Enjoy yourselves now, gents - we're getting down to it at the crack of dawn!

[Zombie]

I'll post a part one on that next battlecruiser mission tomorrow. Just wanted to mention I now have 11005 UFOs shot down and it's only the 19th. The goal is to try to crank out some more tomorrow and hopefully get 232 more by the end of the month. That would be ideal. I need to shoot down 1232 more UFOs by the end of the year to be #1. That's only ~17/day which is a cakewalk.

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

Assume the throne! You sure earned it!

[Thorondor]

I would say, presume nothing at this stage - Number One may but seem oblivious to a certain fast ascending pretender to the crown...

[Zombie]

Battlecruiser Part 1

This time we're on an airport map. We deploy as usual but don't spot anything until the aliens first turn. Two Rars show up just west of the transport. MTR will shoot at one of them to start us off:

His first bullet hits a very weak spot for an unbelievable 146 damage which kills it:

Unreal, that's more than the mortar can do sometimes! Nobody can really get a good shot on the second Rar, so CG will stand up from his hiding spot to shoot at it:

His first bullet does 39 while his second does 49 which kills it:

When we peek out of the hedge that faces the hangar to the northeast Nook spots another Rar which he'll shoot at:

His first bullet is a weak spot kill doing 112 damage:

Nothing much happens during the alien's turn, but when it's ours again a cannon on the roof of the UFO must've spotted CG somehow when he moved and shot at him doing no damage. Thought he was far enough away to be safe, but that's a big no. Since the cannon is visible, TV will mortar it:

The first blast only did 80, so he fired another one. This one did even less damage at 59, but it was enough to destroy it:

During the alien's next turn, another Rar shows up where the last two were before. Loonie is ready for it and immediately starts shooting at it with the first bullet hitting for 51 with the second on the way:

That hits for 43 which kills it:

Quite impressive. When it's our turn, CG takes a peek around the corner to spot a Rider standing next to a light pole. He books it back into hiding to let MTR toss a grenade next to it:

Why not directly on it? Well, I want to keep as much of that hedge intact as I can for cover. Anyhow, the blast does 45 damage which kills the thing and makes a one-square hole in the hedge:

When Sorby peeks out of the hedge he spots two more aliens. The first is a Rar by the corner of the hangar. He'll toss an incendiary grenade at it to start things off:

It only does 13 damage so he tossed a sludge grenade next which did 52 but didn't kill it:

That's rather unfortunate. But now you can see that the other alien is a Rider by the other corner of the hangar. Well, Mouse gets into position to throw a cryo grenade at this tough Rar:

It only does 33 damage, but that's enough to take it out:

As for that Rider, it's going to have to wait as nobody is in a good position to toss a grenade on it. Sure, TV could have mortared it, but why waste a bomb on a weakling Rider? NKF is itching to shoot at it but can't either:

On our next turn, Loonie spots a Rar between the hangar and the UFO which he'll shoot at:

His first bullet hits for 89 and kills it:

When he fires, he had to turn a bit and spotted a Rider to his left. Well, he may as well shoot at it too:

The first bullet does 33 damage which kills it:

This was kinda a mistake on my part as he couldn't get back into full cover anymore. During the alien's turn, a Rider shows up by CG:

NKF reaction fires at it hitting with the first bullet which does 28 damage and kills it:

He's a monster who cannot be stopped. This allowed Loonie to get back into cover again the next round. On our next round, TV will mortar the control tower since we just spotted it:

It damages a hidden Rider (try to figure this one out) but for only 22. Again, try to figure that out. 22 damage for a mortar against a weakling Rider. Unbelievable:

At least it's visible now and there's nothing in the way of Mouse shooting at it:

The first bullet does 33 and kills it:

So join me for part two when we deal with the rest of the alien cannons and a whole raft of Riders. Should be able to get that in one part because after that will be a lot of Geoscape stuff too. That'll be a post on it's own as there's a lot to cover.

Edit: Right now I'm sitting at 11,324 UFOs shot down with 4 days left in the month. Which means I need to shoot down at least 14 UFOs each day till the end of the year to get to #1. Obviously, I'm going to keep up my pace while the going is good. I'm aiming for getting to 12237 (#1) by the end of November which will give me the whole month of December to pad the stats a little bit. If I have the time, the goal for December is 1000 more.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

MTR sure took a page off the "When you want to pick a fight" manual. Outright slaughtering a foe works just fine!

Nobody else on the squad seems to have had a problem following up on it either adding more salt to the matter, so one can't much complain when the reply comes by way of anemic UFO cannon discharge.

Don't mind if we play with some explosive ordnance and assorted pineapples, do you?

Well, apparently air traffic control authorities do seem to mind but we can't let an alien stay on your tower forever - we'll make sure they vacate the premises, don't worry. Said facilities may need some refurbishing later though...

I'm sensing we've hit a nerve here and a knee-jerk reaction by them critters is most likely to ensue. Lock and load, people!

@Commander Z: if you're gonna aim for something, aim high - isn't that what they say? By all means gain that traction. We'll be cheering you on every step of the way, Sir!

[Zombie]

Battlecruiser Part 2

Three turns later now and a Rider comes out of the door by the hangar and shoots at Loonie doing 5 damage. CG is going to patch him up ASAP:

When he's all healed up, he's going to shoot at that pesky Rider:

His first two bullets do 12 & 43 which kill it:

Eight turns later and we got most of the terminal cleared, except for that mechanical room. As soon as Kret steps inside the door he is blasted by a Rider doing 11 damage. Since he's basically face-to-face with the thing, he'll just shoot it:

His first two bullets do 22 & 15 which kills it:

The next turn we spot another UFO cannon so TV will mortar it:

It does a decent 140 damage which destroys the thing:

Six turns later and we can barely make the outline of another UFO cannon out so TV will mortar it:

Granted, the pic really doesn't show the outline at all, but we know it's there. Right? Right! The blast only does 74 damage though:

TV mortars it again with the blast doing an equally-unimpressive 65, but that was enough to destroy it:

Now MTR peeks inside the hangar and is shot by a Rider next to a helicopter of sorts, luckily for no damage. He may as well shoot at it:

His first bullet does 26 which kills it:

A couple turns later we spot a Rider trying to sneak out of the UFO during it's turn:

It doesn't go far either so when it's our turn Knan will toss a normal grenade on it:

It does a very respectable 61 damage which kills it:

Seven turns later we spot the last alien cannon on the far side of the UFO. I originally was going to leave it be, but since TV was in range he'll mortar it:

The blast did a pitiful 49 damage but his next did 103 which destroyed it:

A couple turns later we notice one of the doors to the UFO is open. No, TV isn't going to mortar the area:

Sorby gets into a position to spot a Rider which he'll shoot at:

His first bullet was absorbed, but the second did 25 which just barely killed it:

A couple turns later and I'm pretty confident that there isn't anything outside anymore. We just spotted a Rider inside so Mouse will throw a normal grenade near it:

The blast does 26 which just barely kills it:

Six turns later we spot a couple Riders milling about the power sources on the other side of the UFO:

Sorby steps out of hiding and is shot at by one of them for no damage, so he'll shoot back:

He hits for 7, 9 & 25 which kills it:

Sorby doesn't have a clear shot at the other one, but he can shoot at the power source:

The resulting explosion was powerful enough to kill the thing and end the mission. Next time we'll go over the EOM report and deal with a lot of things on the Geoscape like manufacturing, a little bit of selling, upgrading interceptors, researching, more production, more upgrading of interceptors, End of Month Report, more manufacturing, and finally shooting down a UFO swarm. Action packed!

Edit: Still #2 on the Steam global leaderboards for UFOs shot down. I didn't have it in me to get to 11,500 yesterday, but I got that done today. Current level is 11,514. That means only 723 more UFOs to get to #1. The plan is to get there before the end of the month and hopefully before Thanksgiving which is the 28th. Anything after that is just the frosting on the cake so to speak. Pretty stoked about getting there as it's been a long 10 month project so far.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

We can take the little stings in life only to then deliver death-dealing wallops of our own.

I mean, are you listening, TV? I swear he must be under-juicing those mortars on purpose just to have the team holding in wait for longer, watching his all-important action. *tut, tut*

It's time to get into the nest and clamp down on these self-replicating alien clowns. What's a few extra zaps? It kind of gets your circulation going. In return we bleed 'em dry and blow them sky-high. We've got plenty of power sources anyway!

@Commander Z: the extended build-up to reaching that top spot will only make it sweeter. Your colours will fly proud at that peak and our rejoicing shall be loud!

[Zombie]

And now, here's the end of mission report card:

Excellent is right! 23 aliens downed and I guess the best items we recovered was 2 clips of heavy beamer ammo. Not going to complain about that one bit. Back in the geoscape and the next thing that happens is that our 5 bases have completed production on the Positronic Cannons for our interceptors:

I don't start producing another run of these because not too long later and our research into the VT5000 fighter shield completes:

Let's check out it's description:

Bunch of lies, otherwise an interceptor that's heading back to base after getting heavily damaged would be immune to a UFOs weapons. But it's more armor and that helps. We transferred some of the Positronic Cannons to the aircraft carrier and equipped the interceptors with the new tech:

No more photon cannons for these babies, it's now positronic! May as well sell those photon cannons though:

Not a bad amount for just 3 of them. At our main base, it's more of the same:

I figure that if we concentrate our firepower at the main base and aircraft carrier then that can be our last line of defense if the other bases can't handle a threat. Anyway, now that we have a new shield I start production on 5. Nothing really happens on the globe and they finish quickly:

In North America, we need new shielding there as there aren't any bases nearby that can help shoot down big UFOs so project one is to upgrade the gold interceptor:

And now it's totally upgraded:

Really it's only 50 points more resistance which isn't that much, but we need everything we can get at this point. And in terms of cost, it's not that bad as we can recover almost all the cost of the Photon cannons by selling them so it's just the difference between the two. And now, it's the end of the month so let's check out the report card:

All the states are either excellent or ok, nobody was good though which was strange. I don't see any big problems that we need to address from this report. Our equipment sales were lower than last month but we had some big ticket items we upgraded and sold last month. Back in the geoscape and nothing is going on again.We just finished production on 3 more positronic cannons:

At the main base we just produced another suit of chem armor. Mike The Red seems pretty stoked about getting it:

A few days later and we detect a swarm of UFOs. It's a couple battlecruisers (one being the leader) and a bunch of small frys. Only issue is that most of them are over Russia/China so we have to split up:

After downing the biggies another one showed up in Saudi Arabia so everyone converges on it:

One of the recon vessels is over the pacific ocean near the US so I send out the interceptors there to shoot it down over water:

Before we take that out, the last battlecruiser is downed. I think we are going to bombard this one:

After taking out the last recon vessel over the Indian Ocean we can head back to base and relax a little bit:

All those recon vessels were taken down over water on purpose as I don't want to waste time visiting those things for basically no reward other than xp. Besides, most of them would take considerable time to even get there. We have two biggies very near our main base so let's focus on those. When it's light out, we head to the swarm leader:

You can't really tell where it is due to the popup, but it's directly east of the main base:

So join me next time when we tackle that. Should be interesting as it's "manned" by poisonous riders and hardened bonesetters, oh my!

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Getting some proper appreciation (and our pockets lined thanks to snatching a bunch of alien doodads) is just what we rightfully deserve at the end of the day and, of course, month!

Good thing the top brass got invested in the positronic stuff too as we're really starting to bring on the hurt up on high now, with just some dings of our own here and there - due to our refined air deployment techniques and optimal target selection.

One such raid got us a swarm leader splash no less, and since MTR here is all aglow in his brand new attire I suggest he takes point moving out and making us look proud out there!

[Zombie]

Swarm Leader Part 1

This time we are on an arctic base map. Deployment is uneventful and nothing is spotted. During the alien's turn, they are everywhere. Ambush! Luckily we are prepared for the most part. There are two pRiders to the north of us and another just came bombing out of the door from the building next to us:

Nook starts shooting with his first bullet hitting and doing 22 damage. He also sees a Hardened Bonesetter at the corner of the building. Anyway, the second looks like it'll hit too:

That bullet does 14 damage which kills it:

There must've been another pRider behind it as MTR reaction fires at it. His first bullet hits for 54 which kills it:

No more reaction firing from us, but another Hardened Bonesetter appears by one of the pRiders to the north. So 4 total aliens are visible. DragonHawk has a shot at the closest pRider to the north so he'll start us off:

His first bullet hits for a very healthy 42 damage which kills it:

Knan is going to take some snap shots at the Hardened Bonesetter to the north:

He hits for 20 & 21 damage with the last bullet missing. Loonie has a little better accuracy so he'll do the same:

The first bullet missed, the next two hit but were absorbed and the last hit for 26 which kills it:

Mouse will now auto shoot at the pRider next to it with el-cheapo ammo:

His first bullet hits for 19 damage while the second was absorbed. The pRider cuts the line and reaction fires back with it's chem weapon:

Luckily it missed, so Mouse shot again hitting for 4 damage. Well, he may as shoot at it again:

The first bullet hits for 9 which kills it:

The last Hardened Bonesetter at the corner of the building is going to be a problem. Let's get Nook involved with U238 ammo first:

Three bullets missed, 4 were absorbed and two did 15 & 28. The thing isn't dead yet so MTR will shoot at it next:

His first bullet was absorbed, but the second did 42 which killed it:

While scouting the battlescape map we make out one of the UFO cannons so TV will mortar it:

The blast only did 82 damage so he fired another one at it. This did 104 which destroyed it:

Totally happy about our second round. Four aliens dead and one destroyed cannon. The aliens didn't seem phased by all that action and sent more at us. There's a pRider by the corner of the building to the north of us and another farther north where the other two were before. That one shoots it's chem weapon at Mouse:

It does 2 chem damage to him. He shoots back:

His first bullet hits for 1, the second was absorbed, and the last did 8. Not very good damage, but he does only have normal ammo loaded so it's expected. After the dust settles, we now see four more aliens. We'll have our work cut out for us this round too. There are two pRiders standing next to each other just north of Mouse. Mouse is kind of a sitting duck right now so his backup, Sorby, will toss a grenade on them:

The blast does 66 damage to one and 35 to the other which kills them both:

With the immediate threat gone, Sorby will patch up Mouse with a Stimpack:

Time for payback as Mouse will shoot at the one he hit but didn't kill:

His first two bullets hit for 6 & 37 which finally kills it:

The last alien we see is an airborne Hardened Bonsetter so DragonHawk will take some long range snap shots at it:

His first shot hits for a decent 36 damage. The thing has the gall to reaction fire back at him:

It completely misses. DragonHawk's next shot did 56 damage which killed it:

That's 10 aliens down and one cannon destroyed so far. Can't be disappointed by that performance. Join me next time for, honestly, more of the same. These swarm leader UFOs are staffed by a lot of aliens! 

Edit: still #2 on UFOs shot down on the Steam global leaderboards with 11,807. I had one month where it was a steady stream of UFOs from beginning to end with one swarm and a couple mini-swarms tossed in between to make things interesting. Lots of action! The next month was a dud with only 9 UFOs shot down. Gotta take the good with the bad I assume. Didn't have a lot of time to shoot stuff down the last few days so I hoping to get lucky today with at least one swarm.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

What? No meet & greet?! No powwow? No kumbaya? Ambushed right away... that's cold man!

So seething and envious of our planet, I bet that's why they look green like that. We've gotta kill these negative waves, you know. Get rid of these downers who can't appreciate our beauty.

Troublesome immediate neighbours taken care of we look further afield for more fun and games. There's little question we shall be indulged now that we've broken the proverbial ice and all.

@Commander Z: after getting smacked around this much by your show of airpower maybe they're finally getting a little more scaredy. Either that or it's the calm before the storm. It goes without saying our pilots should be kept on watch and at the ready!

[Zombie]

Swarm Leader Part 2

Well, let's get back to it! Mouse is still kneeling in that chem cloud from before and he of course takes 1 damage from it during the alien's turn. We have another pressing issue though as there's a pRider at the corner of the building again. Sorby will toss a normal grenade on it:

Is does an insane 48 damage which kills it:

With that threat gone, Sorby will patch up Mouse again:

Still the same round and we just spotted two hardened bonesetters. The one near the UFO door should be taken out first so NKF will take an aimed shot at it:

The shot hit but the damage was absorbed. The bonesetter reaction fires back at NKF but misses badly:

NKF must've ruffled it's feathers so to speak. He has exactly enough APs left for one last aimed shot. It hits for 73 which kills it:

NKF is a stone cold killer. Nothing ruffles his feathers, that's for sure. We have to leave the other bonesetter because all our shots would be blocked by a piece of the building that juts out. Not a problem really. During the alien's turn two more hardened bonesetters show up next to each other along the west side of the map. When it's our turn, TV will send a mortar between them:

There must've been more aliens nearby (specifically at least one hardened bonesetter) as the blast hits 4 total (maybe it's 3, dunno how the game allocates damage from unintentional damage). One of the visible Bonesetters takes 56 damage from an exploding barrel. A hidden alien takes 85 damage and dies, suppose it could be a bonesetter but it's very possible it's a pRider. One of the visible bonesetters absorbs the damage from an exploding barrel and then takes 16. All in all, a good start:

When the smoke clears, CG will take some snap shots at one of the bonesetters:

It hits for 56 damage but doesn't kill it. It of course reaction fires back at him but barely misses:

He doesn't have enough APs to shoot again so he takes cover and patiently watches what it does during it's turn. It's on the move apparently:

That's not it, a pRider appears in the fire too:

There's a red arrow in the darkness too, and I'm guessing it's another hidden alien. This pRider comes closer to the team and when it's our turn Loonie will take an auto shot at it with el-cheapo ammo:

All his bullets hit, but the first three only did 8 total damage to it. The next bullet was absorbed again and the second did 30 which killed it:

Other than that, nothing else is visible so we take cover and wait. Yup, there's a bonesetter still milling around the area as we see it searching around in the flames:

And then a pRider shows up to help:

The pRider makes a mad dash over to us but runs out of APs. Big mistake. The bonesetter settles for sitting in the fire to end it's turn. Not very smart either, but it absorbs the damage. When it's our turn Loonie will shoot at the pRider with el-cheapo ammo:

His first bullet is absorbed, but the second does 36 which kills it. He still has plenty of APs left so he reloads his rifle with U238 ammo to shoot at the hardened bonesetter:

Exactly like his last auto shot, the first bullet was absorbed and the second did 36 damage which kills it:

We've been hearing alien movement sounds coming from inside the building next to us lately so when it's our turn again Sorby takes a peek inside and spots a hardened bonesetter at the ready. He wisely retracts and gets into cover:

The big question is what are we going to do now. I think the best option is to have Nook shoot out the wall first:

He destroys two wall segments which is fantastic:

Now what though? What's the point? Well, it allows us to keep a watchful eye on the action in there during their turn. And like clockwork, another one shows up from above:

When it's our turn, Mouse will shoot at the closer one:

His first bullet missed, the second was absorbed and the last did 51:

He shoots again with all the bullets getting absorbed. On his last auto shot the first bullet is absorbed again, bu the second does 50 which kills it:

The ever-reliable Silencer will shoot at the second hardened bonesetter:

The first bullet hits and is absorbed, but the second does 60 damage which kills it:

A very smart strategy, shooting out a wall and then having soldiers farther away shoot at the stuff inside, because that means the soldiers closer to the action have full APs in case more show up. Anyway, it's no time to gloat as the next part will consist of trying to clear out the aliens in the west part of the map. We know there's more in that area as we hear lots of doors opening up all the time, so stay tuned for that mess.

Edit: Still #2 on UFOs shot down. But I did make some decent progress the last few days. I now have 12,008 which means I only need 229 more to get to #1. Should be able to knock that out pretty quick, I estimate maybe November 22 or 23 depending on how much time I have this weekend.

Eventually I want to do a little testing on each UFO's weapon damage potential. Probably will not be super accurate as I don't have a logger for this game (where's Bomb Bloke when you really need him? ), but even if it's ballpark I think that would help to gauge how dangerous a UFO really is. Still trying to decide how I want to test this out, either I need something with lots of resistance and no weapons (like a Pegasus Transport with a Raven "tank" loaded on it), or maybe something fast and agile like a Thunderstorm with nothing on it. Gotta think on this a bit, but really the only option is an upgraded "gold" Thunderstorm as I have those on every base. You can only have a Pegasus on your main base so that limits engagements to nearby.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Sorby is all about that positivity, fortunately, not only scoring big against that pRider naysayer but also healing him comrade.

NKF too has something to say about the aliens' general lack of social skills and, unexpectedly, there's a sudden spike of warmth thanks to TV, who decides some explosive bombast is the best kind of accompaniment to lift more than just the mood.

Loonie, Nook and Mouse proceed tangoing with our awkward counterparts; that is, until Silencer thinks enough is enough and the one way to get along with such creatures is simply to stay strong and move on, no room for misunderstandings.

Pick up the pace, people, these troubles are but a passing ripple to us and other rainbows we must chase. Plow on!

@Commander Z: when one's mastery affords reaching kill counts in the thousands range, mere hundreds more to amass cast no shade on loftier goals. Dedication will surely yield the metrics you seek to ascertain too - know thine enemy, by letting yourself be probed at varying rates and distances.

The overconfident fools may believe they're winning for a brief moment there at that, and overstep their bounds to our greater benefit!

[Zombie]

On 10/20/2024 at 7:10 AM, Space Voyager said:

Assume the throne! You sure earned it!

Time to assume the throne then!

The last 3-4 in-game months were chock full of UFOs. Swarms, mini swarms, groups, streams, singles - I had it all. The last month in particular was harrowing as I had a late group which showed up about 12 hours before the EOM report. I wasn't able to get to one UFO in time, but still ended up 20 more than the previous leader (fidak).

Just think: on the 3rd of January of this year I only had 1040 UFOs shot down. And just about 11 months later I added 11216. That works out to 1020 UFOs shot down per month or 34/day. And as far as I know I didn't take a day off from this, though we shall see what Steam says for the end of year summary.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

You sure are on top of the world now, Supreme Commander Z!! Yeeeeeeeeehhhaaaaaaaaww!

There's no prize worth taking that doesn't take some doing and you clearly had the sheer drive to pull it off in grand style.

You are a veritable UFO shredding machine, Sir. My hat's off to you!!

[Space Voyager]

On 11/17/2024 at 6:22 AM, Zombie said:

Time to assume the throne then!

HOT DAMN! I bow to you, man. Also, I'm glad you're behind the helm of our anti-alien operation, obviously we're all in great hands!

[Zombie]

Swarm Leader Part 3

Continuing on from where I left off, it's now 3 turns later and we've spotted a hardened bonesetter by a door to the far building to the northwest of us. NKF is going to take a long range aimed shot at it for giggles:

It was a hit but the damage was absorbed. The darn thing has the gall to shoot back at him though:

Luckily it missed. NKF's next aimed shot was also absorbed too. You're slacking man! Mouse tried his hand at it but his lone aimed shot was also absorbed. Silencer is going to show us how it's done:

His first was absorbed and the second did 28. Not enough to kill obviously. It's kinda in a sheltered location and pretty far away so we are going to leave it be. There's another threat which requires our attention: another bonesetter inside the building. Somehow, someway, the venerable Pete has a shot on it:

The bullet is a hit. The big question is whether it will do damage or be absorbed:

It was absorbed. The second did 25 damage while the last missed. Crazy Gringo is going to attempt the same thing:

The first bullet hit for 33 and killed it:

Good job guys! During the alien's turn there's some pRider action in the northwest:

It wanders closer to us and when it's our turn Nook is in an incredible spot to shoot at it with el-cheapo ammo:

He hits for 8 & 41 damage which kills it:

Gimme right there, but we'll take that all day. Pete teleports to the roof of the building next to us and spots a bonesetter inside the next building over. He has a shot at it too:

His first bullet hits for a healthy 61 damage which kills it:

The next round we spot a bonesetter at the corner of the UFO. Nook is going to shoot at this one:

His first bullet hits for 23 and the second was absorbed. The bonesetter cuts the line and shoots back:

It missed thankfully, but Nook's last bullet was absorbed again. Dragon Hawk is going to attempt a long range snap shot next:

It hits for 62 damage which kills it:

Three turns later and we get very lucky during the alien's turn as a bonesetter in the far building failed to spot MTR who was kneeling down behind a cabinet. He doesn't want to move to shoot at it and nobody else really can target it either. Crazy Gringo is going to shoot whatever this thing is on the ground to hopefully destroy it:

With that piece of "furniture" gone, Loonie can shoot at the bonesetter now:

He used up all his APs shooting at the thing with limited success but ended up killing it when his second to last bullet hit for 7 damage:

The body also moved to a new location. Normally when I see this type of behavior I save and reload. This time I waited because Nook spotted two alien cannons the next round which we should really take care of:

I'm sure you know what's next - of course, TV will mortar the one on the right side:

He hits something in the darkness for 1 damage and hits the cannon for 81. It's alerted to his action and shoots back at him:

It missed. TV's next mortar hit for 137 which destroyed it:

The next round he'll mortar the cannon on the left:

The blast does 130 damage to the cannon which takes it out and also hits a number of other hidden things in the darkness but the damage was absorbed:

Looks like perhaps the blast set off some kind of a chem gas explosion on the second level inside the UFO. Join me next time for more alien action - there's a lot more left on this map and they aren't going down without a fight, especially when we get on their home turf (aka, inside the UFO).

Edit: Still #1 on the Steam global leaderboards for UFOs shot down with 12,479. Made some good progress this past week. Seemed like every other month had a swarm, and this last month had that, plus a couple mini swarms, and a steady stream of small fry in between. Should have time this weekend to extend the lead so to speak, though nobody except #2 has any real shot of catching me.

The other day I was trying to figure out how to get an alien base to spawn. Up to this point, I've never seen one as I was way too efficient in shooting down UFOs. In a last ditch, hail mary effort, I removed the defensive systems at all my bases and ignored the UFOs we detected. You actually need to let one of your bases get taken over by the aliens. After a while an alien base will be built in the area. With that good fortune I was able to send in a squad to clean it out and get the Steam achievement. Took plenty of screenshots to document the mission and will post this sometime so we can see what this type of mission entails. Turns out, it's a lot of work!

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Swarm Leader Part 4

It's now three turns later and we just spotted a bonesetter which came out of the UFO during their movement phase:

You can see there's quite a few soldiers nearby to ambush with a number of snipers farther away. It shoots at Sorby (who is on the roof of the building next to the transport) with a positronic beamer and damages him for 20. He shoots back with the first bullet damaging it for 25 and the second is absorbed. A third is on the way:

It does 12 damage which doesn't kill it. When it's our turn, DragonHawk is going to take a super long aimed shot at it from across the map (you can see he's the yellow blip on the mini map):

It hits for 51 and kills it:

Amazing! Accounting Troll uses his Stimpack to check on Sorby's vitals and finds out he's took all 20 damage in the privates:

He patched up just fine though so we dodged a bullet there. We spent a few APs shooting out part of the wall of the small building to the northeast of the transport next to the UFO. During the alien's next turn we see a bonesetter inside:

That probably was not a very good strategy as the thing shot at Mouse with it's positronic beamer and critically damaging him for a painful 44 damage. When it's our turn, Knan is going to take an auto shot at it:

The first bullet hits for 77 damage and instantly kills it:

NKF uses his Stimpack to diagnose Mouse. In the very worst case of oneupmanship I've ever seen, Mouse also took it all in the crotch:

These hardened bonesetters are hitting us where it hurts the most: in the family jewels! NKF's Stimpack removes the raw damage caused by the hit, but Mouse needs more help in order to fix the bleeding. DragonHawk rushes over to patch him up with a Medikit:

The EKG shows green vitals so hopefully he's good to go:

There was some alien wonkiness going on during the next few turns so I closed out the game and restarted. That seemed to fix it. MTR can see one of the UFO doors is open though, which is concerning:

He opens the door he's hiding behind so Loonie can take an auto shot at a hardened bonesetter:

His first two bullets hit for 25 & 52 which killed it:

Three turns later and part of our crew has entered the right side of the UFO and now we see two more bonesetters:

We are a little bit gun-shy on engaging two of them without backup on the other side of the UFO so we back off and get back into cover. The next turn one of the bonesetters is still visible so Kret will take an auto shot at it:

It was strange as the first bullet looked like it hit something near to the Power Sources:

Not really sure what happened there. Maybe buginess again? His first auto shot only managed to damage it once for 21. He took another and the second bullet hit for 49 which killed it:

Knan now advances a little bit to spot the bonesetter by the UFO Power Sources so he'll take an auto shot at it:

His first two bullets hit for 28 & 62 which kills it:

Join me shortly for Part 5 (the last part, I promise!) which is more of the same honestly. All the aliens outside have already been killed (or so I thought) and now we are just dealing with the stuff inside. Camped out hardened bonesetters are tough enough, but when they are toting positronic beamers and you are only wearing Photon Armor, well, you are at a disadvantage (I'll be going over armor choices at a later date). A couple sneaky bonesetters try to ambush us but we prevail and win the mission. In the Geoscape we sell some stuff and do a necessary soldier substitution which hopefully will help in the next mission.

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Swarm Leader Part 5

We camped out after killing those last two bonesetters as there were no sightings of aliens whatsoever. On the other hand, there were plenty of doors opening during their turn as well as movement sounds to the northwest (far side) of the UFO. After 10 turns, it's time to do something. We previously scouted part of the northwest area, but couldn't see behind the pillar which was in the way and that's where we think the sounds are coming from. DragonHawk wants to throw an inferno grenade there from his current location but can't do to obstructions:

Okay, so Sorby shot at the piece of "furniture" next to DH which destroyed it. DH scoots over one tile and now is able to throw where he wants to:

The blast injures the hidden bonesetter for only 8 damage. But now we know something is indeed hiding there in ambush. We fully intend to keep dumping incendiary or sludge grenades in the area to whittle it's health down. But there's a now another bonesetter to the east and Silencer wants to take an auto shot at it:

His first two bullets hit for 15 & 21 damage with the last getting absorbed. The bonesetter shot back critically damaging him for 25. Ouch! Silencer took one more snap shot at it but the damage was absorbed:

AT goes over and diagnoses him with the Stimpack: 25 damage, one critical bleeder:

He heals the damage but in order to fix the bleeder, Gimli comes over to patch him up with the Combat Medikit:

Enough of this! Knan takes a knee and will auto shoot at it now:

The first bullet was absorbed, but the second did 54 which killed it:

During the alien's next turn a bonesetter comes bombing around the corner into full view of the team on the northeast side. And then just stood there like a dummy. When it was our turn, Kret took a preliminary auto shot at it doing 46 damage with the first bullet and nothing afterwards. Kret will shoot at it again:

His first bullet hits for a very decent 75 damage which kills the thing:

Just so happened that Mouse turned his head to look at the door on the outside of the UFO and spotted an airborne hardened bonesetter right above him. I thought the outside was cleared as there were just a couple black tiles in the back of the UFO and it's turn 45. Well. he'll take an auto shot at it:

His first bullet hits for an incredible non-critical 95 damage which kills it:

That must've caused the bonesetter sitting in the blaze in the northwest corner to vacate and come into the power source area on the west. It shot at a soldier hiding in the corner, missed, and then the soldier shot back. The first bullet missed and hit the power source instead:

That explosion must've been very powerful as it killed the bonesetter and ended the mission. EOM report:

Mouse is out of commission for a while as he's gonna be in the hospital for 4 days. That's unfortunate as we really need him for the next mission too. I guess there's a silver lining to this as nobody else who was injured needs specialized care. In terms of items gained, we walked off with 22 positronic beamers, 15 clips of ammo for them and only one positronic grenade. Plus some UFO components and a nice bounty payout. Oh, and because this was the swarm leader we get a reward of 4 advanced ship parts this time:

Those will come in handy for sure! Time to sell some stuff! We don't need 47 positronic beamers as we don't have that many soldiers nor enough ammo. Might as well get rid of 7 to start:

And some UFO components too:

Now this past mission was intended to be a cleanup, boogie back to base, take a quick shower and immediately head out to that other battlecruiser UFO which was in the swarm. Mouse is still in the hospital for 3 more days though:

No way he'll make it back in time before the crash site disappears. So we need someone to temporarily fill his shoes - quite the tall order and most of the vets are on extended breaks. One guy was willing to do that for me, no questions asked: Thorondor! Here's his loadout:

Nothing but the best for this guy, as he gets the new positronic beamer, 3 clips of ammo and even a positronic grenade. Not to mention a whole collection of other grenades, 2 shields and of course a Medikit. The positronic weapon and ammo weigh a lot so Mr T only gets photon armor, but I'm hoping that as a backup role he will be doing very little dangerous shooting at close range. With him on the roster, we go to the other UFO:

So join me next time for that mission!

I'm going to chat about the second-to-last bonesetter we killed outside during the last mission. Where did it come from? The map was like 99% cleared and this thing shows up out of the blue just before the mission is over. Granted, TV never mortared that last alien cannon on the lower roof on the far northwest side so maybe it was hiding out there in ambush. Then again, this has happened to me before on this type of UFO so maybe there is a trap door in the back somewhere... or on the second level? Dunno, I never make it upstairs.

I think that the next time I go to a battlecruiser UFO site that I should do a little more searching on the far corner to get everything revealed. Should also probably check if mortaring cannons opens up a hole somewhere for the aliens to exit from. I don' t think it does, but you never know. The first test would be to eliminate the cannons by shooting them out. If no mortar bombs were used, and an alien shows up after the back was fully cleared, then there's gotta be a hole or door nearby. Or maybe it's a bug? That's certainly a plausible explanation too,

Still #1 on UFOs shot down, now sitting at a semi-comfortable 12,542.

- Zombie