Let's Play UFO2:Extraterrestrials

[Zombie]

Recon Vessel Part 2

After clearing the stable, NKF knelt down along it's west wall hoping to catch any aliens exiting the UFO. He got more than he bargained for as a Gehe came out and used it's fire weapon on him (7 damage) and itself (absorbed). Not to worry though as that pale blue crystal healed him all up:

There's another Gehe up in the air so I think we'll deal with that first. Sorby is going to start it off with semi-accurate, semi-long range auto shots:

He hit a lot but damaged very little. Okay, let's get NoX some xp then:

Three auto shots in and he managed to damage it for 16. Maybe Hobbes then:

He damaged for 12, 1 and 17 which was not enough for a kill. NKF and team pulled way back into the beehive area to be safe:

Nook really should have nuked the Gehe on the ground but I couldn't justify that if there isn't two aliens near to each other. So we wait it out and take stock of the situation after the aliens turn. Now there's 3 and NKF is going to shoot the Gehe near the stable as I think that's the one we've been shooting at:

His first auto shot was all absorbed but his second did enough damage to finally kill it. He still has APs left so let's shoot at the other Gehe in the air:

All absorbed. Now that I think of it, with two Gehe's in the air I could have had Thorondor lead off with heavy photon beamer ammo as that's AOE but I only had him take some snaps with the normal photon ammo:

He damaged for 13 and 33 which wasn't bad by any means. Tammy is next:

She actually landed some decent damaging shots which finally killed it. She didn't have a shot at the last Gehe on the ground so we are going to let NoX go after that first:

After the first 6 shots he dealt 33 total damage. He still has APs left so one more auto shot is called for:

His last bullet dealt 35 damage. Gosh, this thing must be close to death now. Sorby is going next with an auto shot:

After the last bullet (all were absorbed) the Gehe gets trigger happy and tries shooting back:

Silly thing, you can't hit anyone as we are too far away (thankfully). Sorby's next shot killed the thing and that was the end of the mission (thankfully):

Nook and NKF are promoted to warrant officers! Let's start with Nook:

His throwing was kinda low so we beefed that up to 81 with his first two points then put one in agility and the last two in vitality. Better. On to NKF:

His shooting is already maxed out so we put 3 into strength to max that stat out at 95 then put a point into throwing and agility. Overall a good soldier. Whenever we have a promotion it means that soldier earned an automatic vacation for some much needed R&R. So off comes Nook and NKF. Bomb Bloke is making his triumphant return as mortar man again and JellyFishGreen gets NKF's job as kill team leader #2. Looking good:

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I finally produced a couple stun rods so those are going in the hands of NoX and JFG. Back in the Geoscape we just shot down another recon vessel this time over the Thailand/Myanmar area:

It's still dark there so we'll wait till daylight and then head out with our new squad. Stay tuned for that as it should be interesting!

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

I'm glad I was left in relative safety and given some quality time with Tammy.  I'll patch her up any time, thank you.  

[Zombie]

I pared down my screenshots to fit this in one post - hopefully it doesn't make it hard to follow but I will endeavor to describe things the best I can.

So this is yet another farm landscape with a little bit of a different setup. That's not bad. The first alien we see is a BoP (haven't seen these in a very long time) near to our craft. It tried firing on us but hit our hedge we've been using for cover. This is bad. Space Voyager is going to start us off by auto shooting it:

He does very impressive damage for once but not enough for a kill. The BoP takes advantage of this and shoots back injuring SV for 3. That's not enough to stop this killing machine so he's going to take another auto shot:

His first bullet did 18 damage which was enough to polish it off. Nice job for once! The other two aliens we see are Minols on the roof of the farmhouse. JellyFishGreen is going to shoot at the one on the left:

Easy, easy kill. Slaughter is going after the other one:

Another easy kill (you'll have to trust me on this as I decided not to take a screenshot). A couple turns later, Blade spots another BoP over the farmhouse so JFG auto shoots at it first dealing some good damage. H:e's going to do this again

Very even damage and he was able to kill it:

The next round we spot another BoP and a Sentinel on the right side of the farmhouse. NoX is going to shoot at it first:

His first shot didn't do enough damage to kill it, but the first bullet of his second shot was a critical hit dealing 71. Thorondor is going to take some aimed shots at that Sentinel:

His shots deal 2 and 4 damage respectively. Come on man, you are almost as bad as Space Voyager! Really though, this was my fault for not recognizing that he could have shot first with the heavy (AOE) ammo and damaged both at the same time. Whatever, there are other soldiers that need the xp more, like Blade:

All his shots hit for decent damage and he ended up killing it:

We notice that the tool shed is nearby so a couple rounds later we shot a hole in the side - just wide enough for FullAuto to toss a grenade in there next to the explosive barrels:

Big boom time! The big question though is: is there an alien inside? Why, yes there is:

See the red arrow? Yeah, it's just that the combat log is slow to report blast damage. But that big explosion only did 12 damage? Really? Unfortunately, the Minol can see FA now so I really don't want to risk tossing another grenade with him (or shooting either). I found out that Blade can toss a grenade near it and he's at least hidden:

And that dealt 43 damage which is overkill, but hey, I'm not complaining:

And that's how you take care of the tool shed. A turn later and a Minol comes into the fire to investigate all those big booms and takes 14 damage. NoX is by some hay bales and is in a good position to auto shoot at it:

The first bullet did 37 which was good enough to eliminate it:

The next round a Minol comes out of the farmhouse looking confused. JFG is right there behind the hedge. When I took this screenshot I was still debating what the best strategy was to deal with it. I ended up having JFG toss a grenade on it:

And this was the aftermath:

Another round later and a Minol appears by the tool shed during it's turn but Blade was itching to reaction fire at it:

And that was enough to kill it and end the mission:

That was a quickie! Some of our soldiers got some xp out of it and we got a nice big bounty of 300k plus some stuff to sell. We are now well over $43 million in space bucks so money is no object at this point in time. As always though, we can't get complacent and spend willy-nilly. There are some big projects in the pipe that are going to require a substantial investment of capital.

Back in the Geoscape and we shot down a patrol vessel in Russia and it's daylight there right now:

So stay tuned for this next as we are going to be heading out there ASAP.

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

13 hours ago, Zombie said:

The BoP takes advantage of this and shoots back injuring SV for 3.

CHEEKY BASTARD!

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That's not enough to stop this killing machine

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Come on man, you are almost as bad as Space Voyager!

Really? REALLY?! Just as I was beginning to feel good after the previous quote!  

 

Crap, how do you divide the quote now?

[Thorondor]

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Crap, how do you divide the quote now?

@SV: By using the rather large Quote button on the post editor, immediately to the right of the chain link button/icon?

 

== Field Report ==

There's something fishy going on here with these aliens. How they stubbornly and resolutely stand their ground seemingly merely not to be parted with the apples.

Have they doctored them to make themselves some heady brews of their own? Have they discovered the mesmerizing fun of picking up apples bobbing in water with their mouth?

Somehow, they appear to have gotten smitten with them or something. Not even the annoyed bees are enough to keep them away.

And what is it about our cattle they no longer care about? Notes on this uncharacteristic behaviour will be passed on to the research personnel.

Next up in field experiments: stun rods.

Volunteers for close proximity usage: NoX and JFG.

= EOFR =

 

Going from Thailand to Russia is always a bit uncomfortable to our metabolism. Just don't let your hands cramp up and you'll be fine. Time to rotate outta here!

[Zombie]

Patrol Vessel Part 1

This time it's a polar landscape which was a good change for once. During the alien's second turn a Rider appears near some snow covered trees which Space Voyager shoots and kills:

Good job! During the alien's next turn something shot at NoX (for no damage) sorta where the last Rider was but we've got bigger problems as there's a Bonesetter on the roof of the building next to us. Slaughter took an auto shot and did 43 damage with the last bullet and the Bonesetter retaliated by shooting back for no damage. Time for another auto shot:

He's able to do a little damage on his first two shots which was enough for the kill:

Ok, now we need to deal with whatever is shooting at NoX. Blade took one step forward and spots not one, but two aliens: a Rider and a Iron Rattler. JFG is going to shoot at the Rider first:

He killed that easily as the first bullet did a massive 57 damage. He couldn't shoot at the Iron Rattler without moving but I found out that Thorondor could so snap shot it is:

He killed it in one shot too dealing 64 damage:

Blade takes one more step forward and spots yet another Rider. Mr T and JFG don't have a clear shot on it but guess who does? FullAuto:

The first shot killed it dealing 31 damage:

That's 4 aliens dead in one turn. Because the UFO has cannons on it's roof, I move up Bomb Bloke to get him into range to mortar them when they are spotted. That kinda takes a backseat as a Rider shoots at him during the alien's turn (luckily for no damage). Mr T is going to take a snap shot at it again:

And kills it with the shot dealing 37 damage:

Blade inches forward and eventually spots the corner cannon on the UFO along with a Bonesetter on the ground. Too bad it's not in the air because we all know what's next... a mortar from BB:

It was a critical hit for 162 damage:

Now we have to deal with the Bonesetter somehow. FullAuto can shoot at it but his auto shot accuracy is only 64% which isn't great so he's going to do snap shots instead:

And he's able to kill it with his 4 snaps as each did damage:

That's some serious shooting right there. A couple turns later and we see an Iron Rattler close to where the first group was and FA is going to shoot it:

It took two bullets this time instead of one, but hey, it is dead:

On our next round Blade spots a Trep and a Bonesetter near the UFO. We only really have a decent shot at the Trep so Space Voyager gets the nod to take a long range aimed shot:

One hit for 28 which wasn't bad. Full Auto's long range auto shot accuracy is rather lousy so he'll try some snaps instead:

He kills it with two and the last did 56 damage:

We have to pass on that Bonesetter as it's in an area we can't really shoot into decently and if we could get closer it might cause the UFO central cannon to shoot at us. When Blade checks on it next turn he sees it still floating there. Might as well toss an incendiary grenade on it:

It does 53 which isn't enough for the kill:

Then it goes missing for a bunch of turns. It eventually shows up on turn 27 and by now FullAuto is in a position to shoot at it:

His first bullet does 3 which was enough for the kill:

I was glad that Bonesetters don't regenerate their health, otherwise we'd have to do this all over again. Anyhow, in the next part we'll deal with the central cannon, another Trep straggler and a few more Bonesetters. After that it's a peek at the sell screen to see how much we make off a mission, so stay tuned for that!

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

What's in a name? Sometimes it's all there is to it, sometimes not: Bomb Bloke clearly knows his stuff on the sky-high temperature improvement department, while FullAuto can tone it down when really necessary and squeeze off some snaps to good effect too at times.

No shortage of different things to shoot at here and we're bringing them down left and right. The cold may be making them extra brittle or it just might be our awesome precision so setting them free.

Either way, keep your eyes open and don't get too cocky - we don't want to become cannon fodder!

[Space Voyager]

On 3/3/2023 at 6:08 PM, Thorondor said:

@SV: By using the rather large Quote button on the post editor, immediately to the right of the chain link button/icon?

 

 

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Oh.

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Oooooohhh.

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I get it now.

?

[Zombie]

Patrol Vessel Part 2

After killing that last Bonesetter it was decided to try to get eyes on that big UFO central cannon. Blade inched forward and was hit by it for 28 and then 7. We patch him up the best we can and the next turn BombBloke is ready to mortar it:

A weak spot hit for an even 200 damage:

A couple turns later and we hear UFO doors opening and a Trep comes out. Space Voyager is going to try a snap shot:

It dealt 52 which killed the Trep:

Well, that was unexpected. That's almost enough to make me want to have him continue to use the photon beamer. Anyhow, there's a small building to the North of us and I think there's a Bonesetter inside due to the alien movement sounds. We aren't getting anywhere near that building as there are explosive barrels inside. So Mr T and FullAuto kneel down a "safe" distance away and FA starts shooting out the wall to get eyes inside. Once we can see in there FA is going to shoot at a barrel hoping for some splash damage:

After the explosion the Bonesetter was still not visible. We're fine kneeling right here and decide to wait it out as camped out Bonesetters will usually reaction fire at you. During it's turn the Bonesetter becomes visible and Mr T reaction fires on it:

It hit for no damage, but at least now we can see it as it conveniently moved closer. FA is going to start it off with an auto shot:

Out of the three bullets he hit all three times and damaged twice for a total of 53 damage. This thing must be nearly dead now so he'll take another auto shot:

His last bullet dealt 5 which was enough for the kill:

Excellent! I'm glad we were able to take care of it without resorting to using another mortar bomb. The next round two Bonesetters exited the UFO. Blade is still in the thick of it and decides to get some xp by tossing an inferno grenade on them:

It dealt 17 damage to one and 42 to the other. Well, how about a quick game of toss the golden pineapple? I know he has an incendiary grenade on him yet but the DG2s are so much cheaper to manufacture it would be stupid not to give it a try:

It didn't damage the first but dealt another 43 to the second which was an immediate kill:

The other Bonesetter still has some health left so Space Voyager is going to press his luck and take a snap shot:

It dealt 17 (lots of 42/43 and 17 damage rolls all of a sudden). Might as well shoot at it again:

This time he deals an even 40 which killed it. Not much happened at the alien's turn except we hear UFO doors opening. The next alien turn a Bonesetter ventures out into the still burning snow and JellyFishGreen reaction fires on hit hitting for 22 and 8:

I'm not sure how much the last shot did but it was enough for the kill as the mission was over:

We did a good job except for Blade getting injured which was kind of a necessary evil as the cannon needed to go. Back at base he's in the hospital:

He averages 2 kills per mission which is an insane stat if you think on it. But he'll be healed up and ready to go shortly so there's nothing to worry about. Might as well sell some of the stuff we recovered from the last mission. It comes out to $355k:

As you can see, I have a stockpile of 50 of each of the normal UFO components to sell in case we need a sudden influx of money. I'm sure we'll be fine with our current cash reserves, but it's always nice to have a little "insurance plan" in place. And by "little" I mean a $9.4 million insurance plan.

There are now 2 UFOs on the map: a light cruiser over our main base and a medium cruiser in Antarctica somewhere. We just shot down the light one:

It's close enough that I think if we leave right now we'll still be in daylight so stay tuned for that next!

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Good thing Blade stays sturdy as well as sharp or it would be hard to take off the edge of that cannon blast. Went right on ticking regardless.

Still, this was a serious hit and even SV stopped horsing around long enough to deal the kind of damage we need to see from him for once.

They thought they were in Bonesetter country, didn't they? But in the end we showed them who's boss around here.

A Light delight follows. Let's make it short and sweet then!

[Zombie]

Light Cruiser Part 1

This time it's a desert landscape - at least it's during the day though. During the first alien's turn a BoP comes into view and Slaughter starts reaction firing on it hitting twice so far for 11 and 31 damage:

There's one more shot on the way which deals 61 damage killing it:

Atta boy! Four turns later a Bonesetter appears and yet again Slaughter starts reaction firing. His first shot was absorbed unfortunately:

He damages with his next two shots dealing 22 and 24 damage. NoX then fires but one shot missed and the other two were absorbed. Finally Thorondor starts firing:

The first was absorbed, the second missed and the third dealt 3. Not very impressive guys. NoX is in the best spot so he'll shoot at it first during our round:

Everything was absorbed except for the last two shots which did 1 damage and then 20 killing it:

A couple turns later there's a BoP and a Sentinel along the other side of the transport. Space Voyager is going to take some snap shots at the BoP this time:

His first shot dealt 38 which was incredible. But then the BoP reaction fired back and damaged him for 13. SV's last two shots did 35 and 15 which killed it:

That's a good showing from him for once! JellyFishGreen is going to shoot at the Sentinel:

He deals some massive (non-critical) damage with each hit killing it in the end. But then the game goes through it's wonky (and utterly buggy) attempt at assigning AoE damage to the BoP and Sentinel which are both dead:

Well, it's gone and that's all that matters. Time for Blade to patch up SV as he's injured all over his body - even in the crotch (ouch!):

He's back to full health though so there's no ill effects. A couple turns later and yet another Bonesetter shows up on the left side which NoX is more than happy to take some auto shots at:

He only needed one auto shot as everything hit and two for decent damage (60 total) which was a kill. Then the game allows the dead Bonesetter to reaction fire back but luckily the damage was absorbed:

There's also another BoP along the right side of the transport and JFG is going to shoot at it first:

He did ok damage but the BoP shot back with it's AoE ammo hitting both him and BB (luckily the damage was absorbed). Fingers crossed, JFG will continue shooting at it:

All his shots hit for low-ish damage but he was able to whittle the BoP's health away till it was dead:

Five turns later and FA reaction fires at a Bonesetter on the left for very minor damage which then shot back but the damage was absorbed. Time for NoX to take an auto shot at it:

Make that 4 full auto shots worth as nearly everything was absorbed - but the shots that did damage did so decently which ended up killing it:

Three turns later and there's yet another Bonesetter at the front of the transport. Me thinks it's time for NoX to take an auto shot at it:

The first bullet was absorbed, but the second did 19 and the last was an incredible 62 which was an immediate kill:

Join me next post as we deal with yet more Birds of Prey and Bonesetters, a promotion (I think you can guess who), shooting down a medium cruiser, researching and manufacturing plus the end of month summary (it's that time again).

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

It's easy to be judgmental when you've got your rump sittin' plump on a cushy AC'd corner office. Come and sweat bullets with the rest of us in this here frying pan amid a salvo of enemy fire and we'll let you talk then, right, pals?

Not only that, we know how badly rigged things are against us in the grand scheme of things and still we prevail!

All in a day's work. And the day isn't over, which means: hold on to your sombreros as we're going to make some more sorry space trespassers hit the dirt.

[Zombie]

Light Cruiser Part 2

Along the left side of the transport we see a BoP deploying it's two Sentinels during it's turn. FullAuto isn't going to stand for that and starts shooting at one of them:

His next shot wasn't much better dealing only 3 damage:

He shot at the other Sentinel too when it came into view, but his damage rolls were horrendously low. I guess it's just some xp and not much else. When it's our turn I have NoX shoot at the closest one:

Yet again, terrible damage rolls. I'm starting to get worried at this point and decide that I'll have NoX shoot at the other Sentinel instead as we don't have any soldiers who have a shot at it:

He somehow killed it and on his last last auto shot at the remaining Sentinel killed it too:

A couple turns later and there's a Bonesetter at the front of our transport somehow. After moving into position NoX is right there ready for shooting duty:

The damage started off small but he finally hit for 44 on his second-to-last shot with his last hitting for 16 and that means one less alien to worry about:

During the alien's turn a BoP shows up in the same spot. Busy area. JFG starts shooting and hits for 10:

He then hits for 23 and now Blade joins in on the action:

All of his shots hit but did low damage. When it's our turn NoX is going to shoot at it:

Not bad damage rolls and he kills it which was the end of the mission:

Well, we all knew NoX was going to get promoted this mission. He was in the primary killing spot and all the aliens came to us. Time to allocate those points:

Obviously, we have to max out his strength with 3 points to get him to 90, then one in bravery to get him to 70 and the last into throwing. Much better. Final mission pick? Probably not. I just wish there was something that would set him apart from everyone else like a high bravery or unreal reactions.

Back in the Geoscape and our radar picks up a UFO in the Indian ocean. Our interceptors come out to greet it with a quick barrage:

We then drag it back to base until our defensive systems start firing at it:

And now it's time for the full on attack which we take it down easily:

Still dark at the crash site so we patiently wait. It wasn't long and our research finally finished:

Now we're talking! First up, the new Icarus transport:

The nice thing about this is we can cram 2 more soldiers on it. Why is this important? Well, I have some new recruits back at base I'd like to train up, but we need our current squad roles too. Plus it has more fuel, higher armor and better speed. The drawback is the insane price tag of $880k which is why I've been saving up for it.

Obviously our next research project is the CAF mobile base:

Hopefully we can get that pretty soon as it would be nice to have a little more firepower to shoot down UFOs. Before that we gotta get moving with manufacturing the new Icarus transport. All our hangars at the main base are occupied so I moved one of the interceptors out to a different base to free up a hangar, then started production:

Don't ask me why it now costs $1050k instead of $880k, it's still expensive. And even with 40 engineers it's still going to take 6 days and 6 hours to finish.

Oh, and it's the end of the month so let's check out our progress:

Okay, I'm happy about this. Australia is finally starting to come around and even Antarctica gave me a little bump in funding. We made a decent profit this month too as our equipment sales were a million more. So a $45+million balance is a good place to be. Stay tuned as next time we are going after that UFO.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Spamming us with BoPs amidst the shimmering heatwaves and expecting to win against us braves? Don't get your hopes up, alien trash!

NoX here cut'em down to size and now it's his time to rise. Cheers!

On the subject of ascent, the new Icarus transport shall definitely lift more than our spirits when deployed. Even our esteemed technicians consider it "Intense", so that's gotta count for something.

Besides, from what I can tell, we keep milking these invaders right and they'll pay for their own demise. On to the next crashed nugget then!

[Zombie]

Medium Cruiser Part 1

This mission is on a cityscape map which we haven't been on in a while. We deploy as usual and don't see an alien till round 6 when FullAuto spots a Fireball off to the left of the transport. JFG will do an auto shot as it's not blocked:

Unfortunately he wasn't able to do much damage to the thing except for a couple times. Not too impressive:

Well, NoX is right next to him so maybe he'll fare better. Yup, first bullet deals 45 which killed it:

The other alien we have spotted is another Fireball in the air above the transport. Since NoX still has APs left, he'll take an auto shot at it:

It took two auto shots but the damage numbers were very decent which was a change for once. Easy kill:

The next round there's another Fireball that shows up in nearly the same spot as before. JFG will start us off with an auto shot again and this time prey that the damage gods will have pity on his soul:

He required all 4 auto shots and only managed to do damage on the last salvo dealing 5, 46 & 47. But that was enough for the kill:

Three turns later and now there's a Fireball at the front right of the transport. Wow, lots of Fireballs. NoX is going to shoot first this time:

He managed to damage it for 46 with his two auto shots so now it's time for JFG to shoot:

And he takes it out with his first auto shot:

Four turns later and FullAuto spots another Fireball above the transport. Time for JFG to shoot at it:

On his first auto shot all the damage was absorbed, but I was very impressed with his subsequent auto shots as almost every bullet hit for some damage which killed it:

That's a lot of Fireballs folks, but we took them all out safely. Nothing happens for 10 rounds until we spot a Gehe off the platform to the left of the transport. JFG will start things off with an auto shot:

When his auto shots didn't do enough for a kill Blade took two snap shots with his photon beamer. Both damaged but not enough for a kill either. FullAuto is standing there looking at it thinking he can do better:

Not really as all the damage was absorbed except for the last bullet which hit for 39, killing it:

That's one tough Gehe. Now 16 rounds go by without even a peep from the aliens. We've been hearing UFO doors opening so there must be some Gehes inside there, but outside I'm not too sure. We do a pretty good sweep of the map and don't find anything so yup, they are all inside. There's a lot of explosives near the entrance of the UFO and I don't want a Gehe to set any of that off with an errant shot so Blade is going to shoot at a barrel:

And of course a big boom ensues:

After the flames die down, the breach team arrives at the door and peeks inside to spot a Gehe by the anteroom door so NoX is going to take an auto shot at it:

On second thought, this could go pear shaped really quick if the Gehe reaction fires on him. We better not, sorry NoX. Everyone pulls back and the next round Space Voyager ventures to the door and opens it which was met with reaction fire from the Gehe. The damage was absorbed thanks to his Hellfire armor:

Since SV is right there he may as well take a knee and auto shoot at the Gehe:

He actually did some decent damage but it wasn't enough for a kill. Well, how about our fearless leader Thorondor goes next since he has Hellfire armor on too:

He takes it out and has enough APs left to close the door and retreat. SV is going to have to risk it alone by the door as he's out of APs:

He absorbs the fire damage like a champ and there aren't any alien newcomers to the party so the team advances to the door making sure to stay out of the fire:

Five rounds later and we think there's a Gehe in the room to the right as we hear movement sounds in there. Mr T goes just inside the door and tosses a DG1 grenade in there which did 14 damage to it and revealed it too after destroying some alien things in the room:

Mr T barges in there the next round and is met with reaction fire from the Gehe. He doesn't care and takes a step closer just to make sure every shot will be at point blank range:

Crap damage rolls again. Well, he's a sitting duck unless... ok, against better judgement I'm sending in SV and he kills it:

Good job! Join me next time as we finish off the rest of the Gehe's which got really harrowing at times but we pulled through with some ingenious quick thinking, then back to the Geoscape to check on research and shoot down another UFO.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Goodness gracious, great balls of fire!

And there we have it - more evidence that nothing's too hot to handle for SV. He's lit!

Throwing Fireballs at us, of any kind, is something we don't mind. Beyond that we'll do our best to kill all the Gehes we can find.

Let's fully sanitize this can of worms now, shall we?

[Zombie]

Medium Cruiser Part 2

After killing the Gehe in the right room it was time to end the turn. Thorondor was still in the flames because he was out of APs but his armor mopped up any damage he would have taken. There's a Gehe in the left hallway now and NoX is going to take a couple auto shots at it:

He hit all 6 times and damaged it twice dealing 30 and 21. Not enough for a kill. He had barely enough APs left to huff it back into the "safety" of the anteroom. Time for JFG to shoot at it then:

Kinda the same result for him only he dealt 24 and 5 damage. He huffed it back to the anteroom and ended the turn. Again Thorondor's armor absorbs the fire damage, and when it's our turn the Gehe is still standing in the same spot. Strange. NoX gets right up into it's face and pulls out the ol' stun rod to see how it performs:

The zap knocked it out easily (one of the best sounds in the game IMHO). You have to remember that these rods have a max of 5 uses per mission so it makes sense to equip a couple soldiers with them just in case. One zap is normally enough to incapacitate but damage rolls are always iffy. Anyhow, we've been noticing that the door at the end of the left hallway is sometimes open but no alien is visible. NoX is going to "feel out" the area by tossing a DG1 grenade:

And lookie what magically appears after the grenade goes off:

Cheating again I see, eh? Now that I know the trick you don't stand a chance. NoX retreats and JFG comes to the hallway to shoot at it:

His first bullet deals 12, the second was absorbed and the last missed. And now the Gehe fires back at him:

Silly thing, your fire can't reach that far. JFG retreats and Slaughter shows up to shoot:

All his bullets hit and only the last one did damage for one stinking point. FA managed to hit once for 6 damage but that was the end of our turn. Next turn the thing was still in the same place so FA is going to shoot at it again:

He took two auto shots, two bullets missed, the other 4 hit for 2, 1, 2 and 18. Time for JFG to shoot:

The first bullet connects for 47 damage killing it:

A few turns later we see a Gehe in the left room somehow:

We found out that the Gehe really wasn't in the room after all, in fact it was right outside the anteroom door. JFG shoots at it and kills it dealing 12, 2 and 10:

Why did it die with only 24 damage? Well, my guess is that I actually damaged it a few rounds ago and then it retreated into the left room and another Gehe took it's place. Five turns later and we came into the UFO to cover the left hallway and a Gehe shows up by us (probably through the door at the end of the hallway). JFG shoots first:

One bullet was absorbed, the second did 9 damage and the last hit for 25. Wait a minute, JFG has a stun rod on him too. Might as well pull that out of the backpack and give the Gehe a little poke with it:

Weak spot for 90 stun damage, take that! During the alien's turn a Gehe shows up on the right side where our esteemed leader Mr T is guarding intently. He reaction fires at it:

See the Gehe in the room on the right? Well, it wasn't there. It was actually on the right side too and bathed Thorondor in flames twice dealing 14 damage to him. Ok, since you want to play dirty Mr T breaks out the heavy photon beamer ammo and prepares an auto shot:

His first two shots deal 11 to one Gehe and 7 to the other. Not too good, but there's more shots on the way:

His next shots did very good damage to both of the Gehe's and he even managed to kill one of them. Time for one more auto shot:

And that was the end of the mission as he killed it. EOM:

Mr T avoided the hospital somehow even though we never got a chance to patch him up. No complaints here. It shows we stunned one Gehe instead of two. No idea why that was. All in all it went pretty good and we got another $360k in bounty rewards too. Back in the Geoscape after selling and we have $45million in spending cash:

In our research screen we now have a "Live Aliens" topic available now:

I'm not going to switch gears and go for that as I think the Mobile base is more important. We have to send out the interceptors at South America to shoot down a medium cruiser:

I sent out the transport immediately to hopefully do the mission during the day. While it was en route, we shot down a recon vessel in South America too:

Don't think we'll be able to get to the recon vessel so we are probably going to nuke it with the bunker buster bombs. We shall see. So stay tuned for that medium next time.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

A little sauna never hurt anyone, eh?

Kind of whet my appetite though, so I served up some alien BBQ in case you're hungry too.

Kidding aside, the squad handled itself brilliantly here. This is the sort of close quarters hell that can't help but mess with your head. Depth perception is affected, your actions are hampered in unpredictable ways and what you were sure you had just done turns out not to have occurred.

One thing's for certain, we've bagged a Gehe here and we're bringing it along for further recreational activities. Probably a bit woozy when it comes to upon delivery but that's easily fixed, I should imagine, with the right kind of wake up call.

For the moment, we're perfectly content with just accumulating some more Frequent Flyer credits and continuing our big game hunting tour. No time like the present for trophy gathering!

[Zombie]

Medium Cruiser Part 1

It's a non-maze desert landscape this time which is probably one of my favorite map types so let's make this count. The first alien we see is a BoP next to the transport so JFG is going to auto shoot it:

First bullet was a critical hit for 74 and the second did 16 which killed it:

Insane! On our next turn NoX spots another BoP along the right side of the transport. JFG is along the other side but gets into position to shoot at this one with an auto shot too:

He hits for a non-critical 63 damage, then 2 and 20 which killed it:

Unreal shooting! The next round there's yet another BoP along the right side and this time NoX is going to auto shoot it:

It actually took two auto shots worth, but decent damage overall:

The next turn it's more of the same with another BoP on the right side in the air. This time JFG is going to auto shoot it:

It took two auto shots to kill it, but all the bullets hit and did damage which is refreshing for a change:

There's another alien spotted and it's a Minol. NoX will shoot at it:

He killed it with the first two bullets, but the thing shot back after dying not that it mattered as the damage was absorbed:

Five turns go by and NoX sees a BoP which tried to sneak up on us from the right side again. He'll auto shoot it:

Took two auto shots again and the damage was decent too:

The next turn there's a Minol at the front of the transport and NoX will shoot at it:

Easily killed with the first two bullets. At least this time it didn't reaction fire back after dying:

A bunch of turns go by as we investigate the rest of the map. There's nothing outside anymore, that's for sure. The breach team makes it to the UFO and enters the anteroom with no issues. When JFG peeks inside the next turn there's a Minol close to the door so he'll shoot at it:

Its a quick and easy kill. A couple turns later and JFG is shot at by a Minol as he entered the UFO. He's going to toss a DG1 grenade on it for a change of pace:

And he kills it. No problems so far, hope this keeps up. Join me next time as we finish off the rest of the Minols, then in the Geoscape we'll deal with manufacturing and introduce some new team members. Should be interesting!

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

JFG dealing toxic amounts of damage right out of the gate and in such a sustained way, is my kind of kickoff!

Like the well oiled machine we are, steamrolling the opposition is our game. Ever keen to bring on the pain.

We've got 'em cornered now; which is when things get nasty. You know what to do should they get testy. Get ready for the showdown!

[Zombie]

Medium Cruiser Part 2

If you noticed in my last post there was a door open in the UFO in the last pic. The door closed the next round so we waited a few more rounds and the door opened again. There must be an alien inside there somewhere. JFG is in the right room and decides to toss a grenade in there blindly to "feel out" the situation:

The explosion detonated the alien "stuff" in the room creating an ominous purple cloud, but more importantly there is an alien in there somewhere:

During the aliens turn a Minol came out of the room on the left and headed to us, but NoX killed it with reaction fire:

The next round NoX prepares to toss a grenade in the left room to feel things out in there too:

There was nothing in there - or maybe an alien was on the other side of the room. We didn't have a chance to find out as an alien came out of there to the team on the left and another alien came to the right where JFG and FA were. FA was shot but the damage was absorbed and now he's face to face with a Minol. I think we know the usual response to that:

He killed it with two bullets and now NoX is going to do the same to the other Minol on the left:

He killed that too. But that was not the end of the mission yet. The door at the end of the left hallway was open though so SV took a peek around the corner and spotted a Minol there. Time for a grenade:

And he killed it no problem and the mission was over:

Keep that cash rolling in. No promotions unfortunately. Back in the Geoscape and two Golden Eagles finished production at the same time:

We equip them immediately and half a day later our production of the Icarus transport has finally finished:

About time! Since we have some recruits and a couple spots open on the new transport I figure we can bring a couple newbies along. Who to pick though? So many choices:

So we have The Veteran, Azrael Strife, Gimli, Accounting Troll and Crazy Gringo. I pick The Veteran and Accounting Troll, give them Photon armor and some V2000 shields and stuff them in the back of the transport:

I have a change of heart though. If they are in the back of the transport they will never get the chance to shoot at anything or even help the team. So I put them in the front with TV on one "team" and AT on the other. The other team members will back them up and hopefully keep them safe with these tougher aliens we've been dealing with lately.

We just shot down another Medium cruiser UFO on the coast of Africa across from Madagascar:

It'll be daylight there soon so we'll wait a little and then send out the new transport with the two nervous rookies. So stay tuned for that next time!

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

We've got you covered wall to wall, let that be a lesson to you Minol.

You've gotta be careful with that purple haze stuff though. You never know when you start seeing rainbows or having trouble figuring out who is who. Wait, is that you, Crazy Gringo? Nah, he's The Veteran he'll tell you.

Well, get it together, rookies. Because once you step out of our shiny new Icarus you better not blink!

[Zombie]

Medium Cruiser Part 1

Airport map this time and the LZ was kinda hot with a BoP staring right at us. I think our rookies are crapping their pants but we have a job to do. Accounting Troll composes himself enough to take an auto shot and his last bullet hits for 31 which causes the BoP to fire back with it's AOE weapon hitting AT, TV and NoX but all the damage was thankfully absorbed. AT then took another auto shot hitting for 34 and then a massive 58 killing it:

See? You just need to get the stressful part out of the way first. We deploy as best we can and finally get eyes on the control tower. BB has just enough APs left to send a mortar in there:

It hit a Boonesetter for 72 damage which killed it:

Not bad. During the aliens turn a BoP deployed it's Sentinel then fired at BB hitting him for 17. When it's our turn AT is going to auto shoot at the BoP:

He was able to kill it with some decent shots that did damage and had just enough APs left to shoot at the Sentinel but those hits barely scratched it:

The Veteran was hiding along the far side of the transport so he moved to the front to get a shot at the Sentinel:

His auto shot accuracy is pretty horrendous but he somehow hit all three times and dealt 25+ damage on the last two bullets killing it:

There's another BoP we spot in the air so FA is going to shoot at it:

All three shots hit and did damage killing it:

Simply amazing shooting guys! On our next turn JFG spots another BoP in the air by the hangars. Time for an auto shot:

All the bullets hit and all did decent damage killing it too:

Unreal. I haven't ever seen shooting this good. On our next turn a Bonesetter is spotted by JFG on the ground by the hangar. Auto shot time:

His first two bullets were absorbed so he had to take a second auto shot. But he took it out with the last hitting for 43:

On our next turn a BoP is spotted way up in the air by the hangar again so TV is going to auto shoot at it with his 50% accuracy:

His first shot hit it a couple times for a little damage but it reaction fired back, missed TV completely and hit AT instead for 6 damage. Not sure how it could miss that badly but whatever. TV takes some more auto shots and slowly whittles it's health away till it died:

Four turns later and a Bonesetter exits the hangar and reaction fires at NoX but the damage was absorbed. He's going to try an auto shot:

He dealt 48 with the first bullet but the next two did basically nothing. FA got into a position to throw a DG1 grenade on it but that only did 5 damage:

Nobody else was in a position to attack it so we have to let it be. During the alien's turn another Bonesetter exits the hangar and joins it's buddy. FA is going to throw an Inferno grenade on these two lovebirds:

He killed one dealing 66 to it and 31 to the other:

Our "eye in the sky" NoX is up in the control tower (or what's left of it anyways) and tries to get a little closer to the edge to get a shot at the Bonesetter but it reaction fired on him and the damage was absorbed. He'll try an auto shot now:

His first bullet hit for 27 killing it:

Join me next time as I have "Trouble in the Terminal" and then clean up the rest of the Bonesetters. Both our rookies get promoted so we'll allocate their points. And then I'll give an update on our base facilities, shoot down another medium cruiser and then give another soldier some better armor. You don't want to miss this!

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Even I suprise myself when it comes to how prophetic I can be. Told you, rookies!

Good thing the jetlag wore off quickly after that little unwanted reception and we moved right along to chastising the alien ground crew. We'll show them what good service is all about.

They have no permission to loiter during company time, much less in pairs. So let's break that right up.

This kind of misconduct shall not be tolerated. Termination notices will continue to be dished out as promptly as necessary!

[Zombie]

Medium Cruiser Part 2

After roasting the two Bonesetters by the hangar it was time to properly clear the terminal. Blade destroys part of the wall into the room on the left to get eyes in there and doesn't see anything. The reason for this was because we kept hearing Bonesetter movement sounds coming from in there. NoX came down from his perch in the control tower to maybe give Blade a hand. Blade decides to toss an incendiary grenade anyway just to make sure:

And what should appear after the grenade exploded? Yup, the Bonesetter:

At least the thing was damaged for 32 points. Blade really doesn't have many APs to shoot and get back out of there so he retreats. NoX advances a little until he gets into a position to shoot:

His first auto shot didn't do much except for 7 damage on the last bullet. He shot again and the first bullet dealt 44 which killed it:

Since we haven't seen any alien activity by the UFO, Accounting Troll and The Veteran make their way over to the fence between the terminal and the runway. And what should  appear over the fence during the alien's turn? A Bonesetter ripe for the shooting by TV:

His auto accuracy was 60% which really isn't that good but he hit with the first two bullets dealing 51 and 40 killing it. As soon as it died another Bonesetter appeared behind it (not a game glitch, it's just that it was visually blocked by the other alien):

Accounting Troll is going to shoot at this one but we have to open the barrade first as it's blocking his shot:

He has marginally better accuracy anyway. The first bullet was absorbed but his second did 17 and the last 44 which killed it:

That wasn't it so more soldiers joined in on the fray making sure they faced away from the UFO so they wouldn't kill steal with reaction fire. During the alien's round another Bonesetter appeared above the fence again and this time TV is going to shoot first:

And that was the end of the mission:

Excellent! Both our rookies were promoted so let's allocate TV's points first:

It was actually a triple promotion so we had 15 points to spend this time. 6 points immediately went into shooting as his auto accuracy sucks. Four went into strength to get him to 70+, then two in throwing and a point into vitality, agility and bravery to round things off. Maybe could have cut bravery in favor of more points into strength and/or throwing but it was just one point.

According to the EOM screen TV and AT were both promoted to colonel but when I went to allocate AT's points he was actually at colonel first class. I know that he started out with more experience than TV in the hiring screen and I later found out that as time goes on soldiers in the hiring pool start out with more experience to give them a "leg up" on promotions. So we had 20 points to spend on AT:

As before, 6 points went into shooting to get him to an even 80. Then I put 5 points into throwing and strength, 1 in agility and vitality and 2 into bravery. A solid soldier to say the least.

So to address the big pink elephant in the room, is it better to hold off recruiting new soldiers till later in the game in order to get them quicker promotions? I think it depends on what the hiring pool looks like right now. If there are some decent soldiers in there, I'd pick them up immediately. I'm not sure of the mechanics of this game, but in UFO:ET Gold soldiers in the pool later on are generally worse then in the beginning of the game. You might see a gem in there infrequently at best. Maybe it's different in this game, but I'm not going to wait to hire solely for more starting xp when there's a soldier available with decent stats in there now. That's my take.

Back in the Geoscape and I think it's time to do a little work on our base defenses as I haven't touched them in a very long time. The last time I did something was to build a heavy rocket defense at each base. But we still have normal cannons (the game recommends only one of each type as it's more efficient). So I decided I'm going to remove the normal cannons and build a photon cannon in it's place as it does more damage and is more accurate. First step is to sell the cannon for the same price as we built it for:

And then we can build a photon cannon in it's place:

It's going to take 35 days to build though so we'll be down in defenses for that long. I don't think we'll miss the normal cannons as they were not doing much good anyway. And if/when we get a better cannon system we can remove a photon and build a new one in it's place as we just did.

Our radar just picked up a medium cruiser over the Atlantic ocean heading to Africa. I send out the interceptors from Europe/Russia to greet it:

When they get into cannon range the UFO just stops there and takes it like an idiot:

It continues to fire on only one of our interceptors though which gets hairy at times as you have to withdraw it in advance so it has time to get back to base. We're fine in this case as we have 7 interceptors firing at the same time. After shooting it down we were waiting till the crash site was in daylight to leave but another Hellfire suit of armor completed. So far Thorondor and Space Voyager are wearing them but who else should get one too? I decide on Slaughter as he has high strength and firing accuracy too:

Blade might be next but right now we should really top off our AK1 ultra ammo as we are down to only 63 clips. As I send out the transport to head to Africa we spot and shoot down a recon vessel over Sweden somewhere:

We might have time for that after - we shall see. So stay tuned for a mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo next!

- Zombie