Let's Play UFO2:Extraterrestrials

[Zombie]

Alien Patrol Vessel

I pared the screenshots way down for this mission but I think it still conveys what went on so we can do this in one post. We land in a arctic base landscape and deploy as usual. During the aliens turn Slaughter killed a Minol with reaction fire (sorry, didn't get a shot of this as it happened so fast) and then a BoP shows up which NoX shoots at (bullet incoming):

He hits and damages it with each bullet but it wasn't enough fir a kill. The BoP didn't move or fire back so when it's our turn again Accounting Troll is going to auto shoot it:

He also hits and damages all three times which kills it (caught it in it's death throe animation):

During the alien's turn a Minol appears in the building in the middle of the screenshot above which Space Voyager shoots at (yes, he's still on the team - he's just been very quiet):

He kills it in two shots dealing 10 and then 45 damage. Yup, this settles it, he's keeping the AK rifle. Meanwhile, NoX starts shooting at a BoP and hits for 3 damage but more shots are on the way:

His next shot dealt 35 but his last was absorbed. Bummer. Now the BoP deploys a Sentinel. Not a big deal, Accounting Troll needs the XP so when it's our turn again he shoots at the Sentinel first:

All his shots connect for excellent damage killing it:

And while looking at the combat log a little closer I think the messages after the Accounting Troll stuff is the game allocating damage to the other undeployed Sentinel. So that little mystery is solved. Still not sure why the undeployed Sentinel didn't disappear from the BoP (the game would probably need to redraw the alien which would require a screen refresh). I'm also not sure why the initial Sentinel explosion didn't damage the BoP (the BoP didn't even get a damage roll for it) or why the death of the undeployed Sentinel didn't cause an explosion either. Maybe the BoP is immune from Sentinal explosions? Whatever the case, Accounting Troll is going to shoot at the BoP next:

The first bullet does 41 damage killing it:

And in a case of déjà vu, another BoP shows up in the same spot during the alien's next turn (no reaction fire from us though). This time The Veteran is going to shoot at it:

It took two auto shots worth of low-ish damage to kill the thing (caught it in the death animation again):

A couple turns later and Jman goes up a lift to check on that area where we killed the Minol earlier, and yup, there's a Minol up there too. He's going to auto shoot it:

He kills it easily. But did you catch what I failed to do? I broke the cardinal rule of not clearing the immediate room he's in. And he's also alone which is kinda stupid to do. Use the buddy system! Remember this. During the alien's turn a Minol appears from the shadows and hits him for 3 damage. Yup, see? That'll teach me (hopefully). There's bigger fish to fry though as Slaughter is currently reaction firing at another BoP on the ground. His first auto shot did 32, 20 &25 damage (with the photon beamer mind you) and there's another shot that's connecting right now:

He hits it for 3 killing it (adding up the numbers again, the BoP takes 80 damage to kill). When it's our turn again, the first priority is to see where that shot came from which injured Jman. It's a Minol right in back of him so he'll auto shoot it just for spite:

And he's still going it alone upstairs even though we clearly have backup down the lift from him:

Five turns later and Jman just cleared the next room but as he steps out from the corner he gets hit by a Minol in the next room. And it has a friend for backup. See the alien's use the buddy system but not me. He's going to shoot at the closest one first:

First shot killed it dealing 56 damage. And it didn't trigger reaction fire from the other Minol so he's going to shoot at that too:

The first shot does 28 damage but that's still enough for the kill. Meanwhile, I start to wise up a little and bring Slaughter under Jman to check on the situation there. He finds a Minol just outside the door to the lift. May as well just take snap shots at it:

The first did 23 which wasn't enough for a kill, but the next did 12 which did the trick:

Jman makes his way into the room where the two Minols just were and uses up all his APs getting there and can't get into cover now. Next round a Minol comes up from the lift but luckily doesn't shoot. Now Jman has a "gimme" kill:

Easy kill. And that was the end of the mission too. Not my best bit of strategy, but the job is done:

Miss anything? Remember that this was an alien patrol vessel which has turrets, but those never came into play as we didn't even get close to the UFO to spot them. Undoubtedly a plus as we didn't have to use mortar bombs to take them out. And we didn't have to enter the craft either which is always dangerous. And the alien bounty still keeps rolling in. Stay tuned as the next mission will be that medium cruiser!

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Lighting up the frozen wastes, that's us. Lightning death we promise, silent as the snow that falls, little do we miss, us chosen, destiny calls, in this fighting for long lost peace.

Otherworldly presences we banish, for their foul deeds, commited to the ice as a mere blemish, made powerless before us hunters, to end all distress - for "Bringers of Earth's Justice" our mandate reads.

Though we are not flawless, our path remains true, striking down all wayward lawless, these beings their life shall rue.

Liked that? Now get moving, if you don't want to be hiking outta here. In case you haven't noticed, more hoodlums await eviction from our land.

[Zombie]

Medium Cruiser Part 1

It's an airport map this time! Haven't seen one of these in a while so let's get started. After deploying and spreading out for a couple rounds we eventually spot our first alien: a Fireball in the control tower lift. There's glass and walls in the way so I'll have Thorondor shoot at it:

With a clear shot now he may as well try an auto shot. Not very good accuracy though:

He missed once but then hit for 50 and 5. Not bad! He still has plenty of APs left and with an injured alien it shouldn't take much to kill so it's time for a snap shot instead:

And he kills it with a shot dealing 28 damage:

During the alien's turn an airborne Fireball appears and Accounting Troll starts shooting at it with the first bullet dealing 13:

There's more shots on the way - one missed and the other did 29 damage. When it's our turn again The Veteran is going to shoot at it as he needs the xp more:

And he kills it dealing 33 and 17 damage:

The next round we spot a Fireball on the roof of the control tower building. Since Thorondor already had some fun, let's have Slaughter take some snap shots at it with his photon beamer:

He only connected once and the damage was absorbed too. Maybe FullAuto will have more luck:

Took 3 full auto shots but he was finally able to kill it:

A couple turns later and I remember that BombBloke still needs to mortar the control tower yet:

He hits something in there for only 25 damage which was disappointing.

I'm not going to waste another bomb on it and we can't get eyes on it so we'll let it be and maybe it'll move. During the aliens turn a Bonesetter appears up there and someone shot at it with a photon beamer but it didn't hit(?) or do any damage either:

I move The Veteran around the front of the transport to get a shot at it during our turn:

He hit twice dealing only 3 damage which caused the Bonesetter to shoot back injuring him for 6. Don't know why I didn't have someone toss a grenade up there to soften it up first, but whatever, the damage has been done. TV may as well continue shooting at it:

His first bullet was absorbed, the second did 20 and the last was a monster non-critical hit for 53 damage killing it. I caught him getting awarded the xp "live" and also the purple-ish hue of the Bonesetter's death aura:

TV still had APs left so I ran him over to AT to get patched up:

A couple turns later and we somehow spot an airborne Fireball near the UFO. It's way up in the air so AT is going to take some rather inaccurate (61%) auto shots at it:

I wasn't expecting much, but he hit every time. Not much damage though. He took two more auto shots and again hit every time with the last doing the brunt of the damage killing it:

Amazing! Join me next time as we have some fun with a lot of grenades and polish off the straggler Bonesetters in the UFO! Should be an interesting show.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Capturing the beauty of death is a rare thing indeed and yet you've done it with the parting of that Bonesetter, Zombie.

Of course, I'm more than willing to wax poetical when the very object of such gazing happens to so neatly align with our motto: "The only good alien is a dead alien".

Yes, it verily lifts our spirits to take them down. They're the invaders, so it fits, and look here, I'm wearing no frown.

Everything copasetic, lads, or do you need an invitation? Come on, we've got some trespassing of our own to partake in. Hop to!

[Zombie]

Medium Cruiser Part 2

Now we see a Fireball who comes out of the nearby hangar. Nobody has a clear shot at it *but* we do have grenades at our disposal. So I check with NoX and indeed, he can throw a grenade at it:

He tossed two normal DG1 grenades and they did 21 and 23 damage. Not bad:

Jman is the next closest soldier so he also tosses 2 DG1 grenades but they only do 6 and 5 damage:

Really? The Veteran walks a little closer to get into throwing range because he's also going to toss a DG1 grenade:

His first grenade hit for 4 damage. Oh come on now! He had barely enough APs left and tossed a second which did a respectable 41 which killed it:

Insane! Took 6 grenades to take the thing down. The DG1's aren't underpowered against Fireballs either but how can we have 3 sub-10 damage rolls in a row? Anyway, it's time to tackle that small room in the terminal which always gives me trouble. This time I decide we are going in through the outside wall instead of the door. Space Voyager shoots a hole in it and then FA steps in and spots a Bonesetter looking away from him. He'll toss an incendiary grenade on it:

 

It does 36 damage which wasn't enough for the kill so Thorondor is going to step up and toss a DG1 grenade on it:

It hits for 69 damage killing it and making a gaping hole in the room too:

This will actually work out because we can cut through and end up past the fence to get a good look at the UFO door. Once we cover the door we can clear the rest of the map and be assured that everything is inside. A couple rounds go by and a Bonesetter appears in the hole we created in the hangar which shoots at Blade but the damage was absorbed. The Veteran is nearby and he's going to toss an incendiary grenade on it, but he's just out of range:

No problem, we'll move three tiles closer:

It does 36 damage again so no kill. And he can't throw anything this round as he doesn't have enough APs:

Hmmm, what to do now? More grenades? Naw, Blade can snap shoot at it:

It hits for 31 which was a kill, and I caught it "live" again too:

Four rounds later and now there's a Bonesetter on the roof of the hangar. Nobody really has a shot on it so Blade is going to toss an incendiary grenade up there:

It does a little better damage this time at 42:

NoX is actually in a good spot to throw an incendiary grenade on it too:

It was a "weak spot" kill doing 61 damage and I caught it "live" again:

Not bad at all. We heard some Bonesetter movement close to the anteroom so AT goes charging in there. The Bonesetter shoots at him with it's AOE heavy ammo hurting AT for 3 but hurting itself for 40. Take that! I'll trade that damage all day long. TV tries shooting at the Bonesetter but misses badly and hits AT for an additional 3 damage. Friendly fire is never good. But I move AT back a little bit and we'll have TV shoot again:

It took two full auto shots to kill it and it was "captured" "live" again:

The next round the first thing The Veteran does is patch up his buddy Accounting Troll:

Then they both smartly retreat as we set up a firing squad outside the door. During the alien's turn a Bonesetter peeks out of the door and was shot by AT for 24 damage:

More shots are on the way from him and he hits another time for 5 but the last missed. Thorondor finished it off himself with a shot hitting for 67 damage, killing it. Another Bonesetter appears and exits the craft to be met with horribly inaccurate shots from TV:

Yet another Bonesetter appears deeper inside the UFO and Thorondor misses all his reaction shots:

Sad man, really sad. The Bonesetters do not move anymore so when it's our turn again TV is going to "safely" snap shoot at the Bonesetter outside:

One shot missed and the other two were absorbed. Time to kneel down and auto shoot it then:

Absorbed, 5 damage and absorbed. Not very impressive. It's up to you Accounting Troll, take an auto shot:

Two bullets were absorbed, but he dealt 28, 24 and then 24 to kill it ("live" again):

He still has some APs left so he'll shoot at the other Bonesetter too:

He kills it and that was the end of the mission! Next time we'll look at the EOM, then the aircraft carrier. It's the end of month so we'll go over funding again and then we shoot down some more UFOs. Stay tuned for that!

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Here's the end of mission screen:

Nobody was promoted which is disappointing, but on the plus side nobody was wounded by the game standards either. Nearly $400k bounty and some more stuff to sell = we are rolling in the cash. Back in the Geoscape and our cannon defenses finished construction at our aircraft carrier:

Let's check it out for giggles:

It's just there as an interim defense and it looks like our two rocket defenses will be ready in a couple days too. It's the end of the month though so let's see how the governments like our services:

Actually not that bad at all. Antarctica is slowly coming around and Austrailia too. Asia is a little miffed but you can't please everyone sometimes. We didn't sell as much stuff this month, in fact it was $3 million less than last month but all we really had for UFOs were small to medium cruisers except for that lone patrol vessel. I probably have some more stuff I can sell, but it's good to keep a stockpile of stuff for emergencies. We did a lot more manufacturing this month too, but most of that was due to the aircraft carrier which is crazy expensive.

Our light rocket defenses have just finished construction at the carrier:

That's good news as it gives us a little help in Europe shooting stuff down. Plus we have two Golden Eagle interceptors with the best kit here and we are manufacturing more. In terms of bases, my original plan was to build a few more carriers to get the steam achievement, but seeing as they only end up landlocked in the caspian sea it doesn't make much sense. I think I'll build them to get the achievement, then reload. As for the other slots, we do need more coverage in Asia and Antarctica especially. I'm going to wait a little bit on this as I want to have some time to absorb the residual costs of the carrier.

Back in the Geoscape again, and we just engaged a Medium Cruiser and are now dragging it closer to our bases to allow them to fire. Yup, the carrier is shooting too, albeit slowly:

The cruiser stopped dead in it's tracks so the interceptors engaged:

Unfortunately we shot it down over water so there isn't a crash site to visit. Not to worry as there was another medium cruiser that showed up a little later. We injured it a bit and are dragging it closer to Europe to get our defensive systems there to fire:

Ah, heck with that. I don't want to risk downing it over water again so I engage the interceptors and shoot it down:

Well, it's near our main base and should be in daylight so we should probably head there next. Stay tuned for that next time!

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Have you been 'pre-cooking' your grenades or some such nonsense, Jman? Whatever it is, stop it! And don't lend any of yours to TV. It's doing jack all for us, fool.

Good thing we had a bunch of serviceable incendiary ones at hand. A good roasting frees them maggots from the corporeal realm, and we even got the pictures to prove it.

By the way, do you know what Suppression Fire is? It's when your superiors miss on their Reaction Fire.

Even with TV shooting AT, and other such shenanigans, we still wiped the floor with them in the end. We stick together and deliver - that's all that matters at the end of the month. The rest is above our paygrade anyway.

Here's another one for you: Do you know what carries the day? Not that carrier!

Alright, enough gest. Someone actually shot down something in a useful location. Let's go play knock-knock.

[Zombie]

Medium Cruiser Part 1

This time it's a farm map, but it's slightly different from the type we're used to. I didn't know if I triggered something via research so we take it slow and easy when deploying. Accounting Troll has spotted a Bonesetter so he'll auto shoot at it:

He hits all three times but damages only once for 44. When The Veteran tries to get into a position to fire at it he spots a Fireball:

We should probably finish off this Bonestter first though so he takes an auto shot at it:

First bullet dealt 14 which was enough for the kill. Since that's gone NoX is going to auto shoot at the Fireball:

He ends up taking two auto shots at it. Everything hit, but the damage was low:

Two turns later AT reaction fires at a Fireball hitting it once for no damage. He'll take an auto shot at it when it's our turn:

And he just barely kills it with three auto shots:

The next round there's a Fireball by the roof of the farmhouse so Slaughter is going to risk auto shooting at it:

The first "bullet" was absorbed, and the second hit for 23 but there's another shot on the way yet:

It only hit for 5 more damage. His next auto shot dealt 35 total which was not enough for the kill. The Veteran is going to shoot at it an hopefully polish it off:

Yup, the first bullet hit for 30:

We continue to hear Bonesetter movement sounds from within the farmhouse though. Where exactly we don't know. I wanna try something different so I'll have Jman toss a normal grenade by an upstairs window to go fishing for aliens:

Nothing. Aw shucks. Ok, you twisted my arm, how about BB sends a mortar there too:

Still nothing:

We still can't see all the way inside so it's possible it's upstairs or maybe downstairs? Too soon to tell. The Veteran spots a Fireball over the combine again so he's going to start auto shooting at it:

It actually took three full auto shots to kill it as the damage wasn't very impressive:

The next turn we spot a Bonesetter in the haybale field and for a change of pace Space Voyager is going to shoot at it:

He didn't even need all three shots as he dealt 38 and 30 which killed it:

Good job! Looks like the change back to the normal rifle is working out. Five turns later and we finally spot a Bonesetter in the second floor of the farmhouse so BB is going to send a mortar in:

It was a nice robust kill hitting it for 130 damage. Way overkill, but oh so fun:

In my next post we'll toss a lot of grenades to kill a Bonesetter. Accounting Troll gets a couple more kills after Thorondor and Jman soften up a couple Bonesetters. Back in the Geoscape we'll cover more manufacturing and researching and shoot down another UFO so stay tuned for that!

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Medium Cruiser Part 2

Five turns later now and nothing much is going on. We're still hearing Bonesetter movement sounds from the farmhouse but can't see it upstairs. Maybe it's downstairs then, so Slaughter shoots a hole in the wall, and there it is. Time to throw an incendiary grenade on it:

And the damage was absorbed:

Slaughter backs off and takes cover. We'll let this Bonesetter stew in it's own juices during it's turn. When it's our turn again Slaughter peeks in there and it hasn't moved. Let's step this up. This time Slaughter is going to toss an inferno grenade on it:

It did 35 damage, which wasn't bad.

Slaughter backs off again and the next round it's still there again. Okay, we'll try another incendiary grenade on it as maybe the last one had a low damage roll:

Nope, the damage was absorbed again. Not only that but the Bonesetter isn't taking any damage when it's standing in the fire during it's turn. Odd.

Slaughter backs off again, but during the alien's turn it now moves closer to the barrels in there. Slaughter then really backs off and is going to allow Jman to toss a photon grenade in there:

Big boom as expected and that kills it:

I didn't realize this before, but for each barrel that exploded and caught the bonesetter in the blast, he got 1 xp for the hit. Interesting. Now we hear nothing for a long time. Jman, Slaughter and a few other soldiers completely search the farmhouse and it's empty. AT and TV move closer to the UFO doors. Eventually a Bonesetter comes out and Thorondor is going to toss an incendiary grenade on it:

It hit for 53 damage, not bad at all!

Accounting Troll is taking cover by the combine and he has a clear shot at it so he'll take an auto shot:

The first bullet hit for 56 damage, killing it:

A couple rounds later and Jman has moved up to the UFO's corner where he spots a Bonesetter leaving so he'll take an auto shot:

He hit for 17 and 38 with the last being absorbed. Accounting Troll time to shoot then:

And he kills it with the first bullet dealing only 17 damage:

Two Bonesetter come out of the UFO during their turn. One immediately goes in the air while the other opts to stay on the ground. Mr T reaction fires at it but all the damage is absorbed and then it shoots at Jman instead. Odd. Jman isn't going to stand for that and fires back killing it:

The Veteran is going to take a shot at the one in the air when it's our turn again:

Took a couple auto shots but he killed it and that was the end of the mission:

No promotions again, but the cash is still flowing in and that's the most important part right now. Back in the Geoscape and our heavy rocket defenses finished building at our aircraft carrier:

So let's take a look at that "base" now:

It'll still be 6 days till the detection section is ready to go but at least we have some robust defensive systems. And the photon defenses are way off on the horizon taking another 25 days to complete. About a day later and our research into the Tundra Walker armor finished:

Here's the description for it:

It's got better armor against mechanical than the hellfire armor which is nice. But there's 0 protection against everything else except for cold. We haven't met any cold aliens yet so there's no rush on this but we should probably start production on it sooner rather than later. We need to research something else now so I think we should go with the live aliens topic:

We need to get going on this as I'm assuming we'll need to capture some commanders. How we are going to do that is unknown. Back in the Geoscape again and an alien patrol vessel shows up near our main base in Russia. Luckily our defenses at the aircraft carrier also join in shooting and when I send out the interceptors it's mostly damaged:

It's in the dark though so we have to wait till it's light before going there. We have plenty of AK1 Ultra ammo as I just finished manufacturing a raft of it but we're probably going to need more mortar bombs after this next mission, so stay tuned for that!

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Hey, Slaughter, fancy shooting looks good on camera but that Fireball wasn't much impressed. Besides, you're letting The Veteran steal your thunder, man.

Look at BB - that's the way you do it. When he sees something chances are that something is never going to be seen again. Not even a trace of it.

Slow roasting 'em is okay I guess - just not that swift, if you catch my drift. And Jman beat you to the punchline again there.

At least we wrapped it all up for good outside. I call that another happy hunting mission for us!

Fortunately it's alien open season and pratice makes perfect. Ain't life grand? ?

[Zombie]

This is a cityscape map and it's kinda in darkness. It looked like the crash site was in daylight though so...? Whatever conditions it's in, we're here so lets start. We deploy as usual and nothing happens for 13 turns which I think is some sort of personal record for me. It's a Bonesetter along the transport so Accounting Troll will auto shoot at it:

He hits for 41 and then 50, killing it:

Jeez man, relax a little bit. Save some of those damage rolls for later would ya? Three turns later and now there's a Fireball where the Bonesetter was before. Same deal - Accounting Troll will auto shoot it:

It took two auto shots as some bullets were absorbed, but it's dead:

Two turns later and more of the same: Fireball in the same spot and AT and his auto shot:

All shots connected with one being absorbed but all the rest did damage and killed it:

During the alien's turn Space Voyager reaction fired at another Fireball at the back of the transport dealing 43 damage total. Great, it's pre-damaged fpr someone else to kill, say, The Veteran with an auto shot:

Yup, he hits for 32 and 20 and didn't even need a third shot to finish it off:

Then it's more of nothing for a number of turns. Eventually I tire of waiting and start to spread out. Space Voyager and Blade venture down the lift on the platform where they find an Iron Rattler right in front of them with 2 Treps farther back. SV is going to auto shoot the rettler:

After killing it easily, AT still has APs left so he'll shoot at one of the Treps:

He kills it very easily and then wisely books it out of there just in case things get out of hand. There's still a Trep left and Blade doesn't really have a shot on it due to the door/window so he's going to toss a DG1 grenade as close to it as he can:

Forgot there was a "car" in the shadows so the resulting explosion startled me causing me to tap the F12 button for a screenshot:

Ten turns later and Slaughter goes down to help his friends where he spots a Trep. No reason to get excited about that, he'll just take some snap shots at it:

Easy kill again. Four turns later and we finally spot a turret for BB to mortar:

He kills two unknown aliens in the darkness but only damages the turret for 119 damage:

One more bomb and he destroys it with only 43 damage this time:

Two turns later and we spot an airborne Bonesetter so Slaughter is going to snap shoot at it:

He only hit once for 48 damage because his snap accuracy is not very good. Blade's is better so he'll try next:

It took 3 shots to kill as the first two hardly did any damage at all, but the last did 41:

We do spot the central UFO turret and for a second there BB almost mortared it:

We'll let it be for now. The next round we spot a Bonesetter by a lift in Slaughter's territory so he'll do the honors with an aimed shot this time:

The first did 19 and the second did 9. So it's up to Blade to take some snaps at it:

He kills it and that was the end of this mission. Next time we'll cover the EOM and then head to the base to sell and finally shoot down a bunch of UFO's Stay tuned for that as it'll be a surprise!

- Zombie

[Zombie]

So here's the EOM from the last mission:

We haven't had this type of UFO recently which comes with extra stuff to sell such as hibernation and advanced flight control & reinforced fibers. We get another $510k bounty to play around with. No promotions which was odd but then again we've been "spreading the wealth" around so to speak with soldier xp. May as well sell some of this stuff:

Between the photon beamers and UFO parts it's another $400k which brings the total to $900k+. Not bad at all! Back in the Geoscape and we suddenly get a message:

It's been a while since we've had a swarm so let's do this! The aliens also send the whole gamut of UFOs to compliment the leader. We shot all of those down but the swarm leader is over the Pacific and taking it's ever-loving time to get to land:

No worries, in the meantime we'll bombard some of the UFOs too far away. We can't get to everything, but if it's close by we'll swing past and mop it up later with the team. Luckily the swarm leader came over to Russia so when it triggered my main base defenses I sent out all the interceptors in Europe:

It didn't take long and crashed:

And now we have $43 million in cash. It's just that simple! However, while it was under fire it tried to run out to the Indian Ocean. We downed it just in time:

I think we'll head there first as soon as it's in daylight. Before we go I think we should start manufacturing one of those new Tundra Walker suits of armor:

Luckily we have a nice stockpile of mortar bombs and AK1 ultra ammo. Zombie and Hobbes each have a stunning rod and most of the team have incendiary and inferno grenades in case it's bonesetters. I say we are ready. So join me next time as we tackle this swarm leader crash site!

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

"Have you run your fingers down the wall
And have you felt your neck skin crawl
When you're searching for the light?
Sometimes when you're scared to take a look
At the corner of the room
You've sensed that something's watching you

Fear of the dark, fear of the dark
I have a constant fear that something's always near" - Iron Maiden, Fear of the Dark album, 1992

Thirteen turns left in the dark, fear burns then there's a spark. Luckily we are unphased and Blade wants to go loud, thinking of thinning that hidden crowd. We know how that turned out.

More and more indeed we do. Why BB spares the large central turret we have no clue. What a bore, but at least a load of cash this way we did score.

Looks like the critters had some retribution in mind. Boy, did that backfire. We've got us a swarm leader to fleece - lock and load, people!

[Space Voyager]

With the insane success rate of Z's leadership I'm surprised the aliens havent packed yet...

"Just not worth it, guys, let's go to Mercury, it is far more hospitable!"

[Zombie]

Swarm Leader Part 1

This time we zone into a new type of map. Hard to say what it's supposed to be (military base, factory, oil refinery? - your guess is as good as mine). It's got some different flora too (tropical)? First round and there's a Rider on top of one of the buildings which NoX hits twice with snap shots but for only 4 damage each time. Time for another shot:

That shot did 30 damage which killed it. During the aliens turn another rider shoots at Jman from the side of the transport dealing 3 damage. He reaction fires back killing it:

I honestly think this a case of UFO:EUs Lightning transport where it's walls are like swiss cheese with all sorts of LOF templates missing. Maybe that's the same thing here. Whatever the case, we have to keep this in mind from now on as we can't use the whole thing for protection. When it's our turn there's an airborne Bonesetter nearby so Jman is going to take some auto shots at it:

Everything was absorbed for the first volley so he took another, did decent damage and killed it:

There's also a Bonesetter where that first rider was so Slaughter is going to shoot at the pipes in front of it hoping to destroy them with... heavy photon ammo:

Not only did it destroy the pipes but the blast propagated through them hitting the bonesetter (for no damage):

He still has APs left so I figure what the heck, let's have him shoot at it with the heavy ammo:

Not very good accuracy, but he hit it once but the damage was absorbed. The AOE also took out a hidden unit (which I have to assume was another rider as it went down with 26 damage):

Well, that was nice, but the bonesetter is still alive. Okay, let's have NoX take some auto shots at it:

Only took two auto shots to kill this time:

Another bonesetter appears during it's turn and NoX shoots back but the damage from the first bullet was absorbed:

More bullets are on their way though. The 2nd did a massive 54 while the 3rd was absorbed. Too bad, he could have killed it with 6 (technically it's like 5) more damage points somewhere. Of course the darn thing shoots back at him but luckily the damage was absorbed. When it's our turn, Accounting Troll will take an auto shot at it hoping to kill steal:

Yeah, the first bullet dealt 14 which killed it:

Easy xp for a "rookie", or should I say "trainee"? When it's our next turn there's another bonesetter along the side of the transport where that other rider was but this time it didn't fire at us. NoX thinks he can take it out with an auto shot:

Absorbed, 7 and 10 damage does not equal enough damage. And of course, it fires back at him but it was absorbed. NoX's next auto shot did 4, 9 and 38 which was just enough for the kill:

More bonesetter action on that part of the map and this time Space Voyager is going to try out his normal rifle again:

He hit all three times but only damaged it once for 40. That's not bad actually as it only has 20 hitpoints left. The Veteran needs the xp more so he'll take some snap shots at it due to his auto accuracy being on the low side:

The first was absorbed but the next two were just barely enough to kill it:

The next turn there's yet another bonesetter in the same area but this time it's on the ground. Our friend Slaughter is close by but is in no position to fire at it, but that reminds me, he'll use an incendiary grenade on it:

A weak spot kill for 74 damage:

Atta boy! A few turns go by and now there's a bonesetter straight in back of us in the air. Space Voyager has an itchy trigger finger and starts reaction firing at it. The first was absorbed, I wonder what happens next:

His next does a nice 45 damage:

Somehow the bonesetter is able to weasel it's way in SV's reaction firing sequence and shoot at him for no damage and then at NoX for 3. SV's last bullet was absorbed but continues to fire again:

This time it's a goner. Sorry no screenshot of this, slipped my mind. Join me in part 2 as we have a lot of mortar and grenade action against more bonesetters and riders!

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Swarm Leader Part 2

A few turns pass and we've been seeing glimpses of a rider milling around a catwalk way above. Eventually it got complacent and moved too far which it then decided to get back intio cover inside. The door is still open on our turn and Blade is right underneath. Can he toss a golden pineapple up there? You betcha:

It only did 23 damage which wasn't enough for a kill. Blade can't throw another grenade and I want this thing dead now just in case it has "heavy" ammo. In a lapse of better judgement I have Bomb Bloke try to target the catwalk with the mortar. No deal, can't be done. After fooling around for a while I actually found there's a spot right next to the catwalk he can target instead:

A non-weak spot kill for 141 damage. Wow! And it obliterated that part of the building too:

For the next 5 round or so we've been spreading out hoping to catch a glimpse of something. Eventually we spot a bonesetter in the top of a roof. In a rare case, Accounting Troll is actually in a position but he's pretty far away which makes his auto accuracy terrible but his snaps are decent:

He hit every time and almost did enough damage to kill it. Full Auto is also in the same position as AT so he'll also take snaps instead:

First shot hit for 8 which was enough to kill it:

The next turn we spot one of the alien cannons on top of the UFO and this time Bomb Bloke is close enough to the action to fire the mortar at it:

148 damage = gone. Excellent stuff as I didn't want to waste another bomb on it if it didn't do enough damage:

The next round we spot a Rider above by a door. Space Voyager is down below so maybe he can toss a golden pineapple up there:

It dealt 51 which is great:

During the alien's turn a rider shot at Thorondor dealing 5 damage to him. He got his revenge by reaction firing back and killing it with his first shot dealing 32:

When it's our turn again I have NoX patch him up:

Damn, another groin injury. We should really make better armor for that region of the body! During the alien's next turn Thorondor spots a bonesetter on the ground which he proceeds to reaction fire at:

That shot missed for some reason even though it looked like it "hit" for me:

His next shot hit but the damage was absorbed. When it's our turn again I'll have Blade toss an incendiary grenade on it as he's close by:

He kills it with a critical hit of 80!

Fantastic! Five turns later and we spot an airborne bonesetter. It has heavy ammo as it shot and missed us so it needs to go now. Nobody really has a shot on it either, but Bomb Bloke is technically close enough. Trouble is, there isn't a floor near the bonesetter to target the mortar at. Or is there? Playing around with it for a little bit I found a (glitch?) spot:

And he kills it dealing 28 damage:

Got lucky there. A couple turns later and Jman is wandering around in the buildings above looking for a place to spot the other alien cannon. Well, it found him first but the damage was absorbed. Needless to say he backed off a bit. Two turns later and Blade is in a different location and is confident that he can spot it without getting hit. Nope, hurts him for 12. Darnit! Well at least we can see it now. It has company though: there's an airborne Bonesetter nearby and a rider on the ground. BB, you are up:

It deals 90 to the bonesetter killing it, but the blast only did 66 to the cannon even though the mortar explosion was closer to it. He had to take another mortar shot and this time it only dealt 45 even though I targeted it directly. Well, let's switch gears here for a bit. Our injured Blade is going to toss a normal grenade near the rider now:

It kills the rider dealing 33 damage:

Now what are we going to do about the cannon? I could maybe get someone into a position to shoot at it but that may trigger more reaction fire. Jman can toss a photon grenade on it though:

It dealt 24 which thankfully took it out:

Join me next time for part 3 where we work to clear the outside of the UFO of aliens then get into some scrums with a few of the bonesetters inside.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

What madness is this, a new space to unleash our favourite brand of mayhem? Yes, please!

Just be careful what you equip Slaughter with out there, particularly in such fresh surroundings, as he tends to get a little excitable. You'd do well to remember he's dangerous enough bare-fisted, let alone loose cannoning with face-melting ammo.

Wait, you gave him incendiary grenades too? Oh, brother, not much shall be left for the rest of us!

Mentioning it, of course BB feels like it's time for a little mortar-seasoned one-upmanship contest. "I check and raze you some more, bud! If you're gonna do it, do it right."

We are lean mean alien smashing machines and you can't bring us down with your tiny pea shooters. Time to school you some more!

[Zombie]

Swarm Leader Part 3

I don't know about that Mr T, Slaughter has been very responsible with the weapons he has so far. I can rely on him when the

After Jman took out that alien cannon with a photon grenade it was time to see how the aliens would react. They sent two of their "finest" (if you can call them that) out to greet us. Really? Bunching them up like that is an open invitation for a grenade. Normally Bomb Bloke is strictly our "mortar man" so to speak, but he'll occasionally bust out a golden pineapple and this is such an occasion:

It deals 61+ damage to both killing them:

With those two taken care of, we start exploring the rest of the map. There's noises coming from the building to the east so I send a couple soldiers (Jman and FA) over there to check things out. Yup, there's a bonesetter inside as FA comes face to face with it:

Cheating bonesetter gets a shot off before it dies of course:

I'll remember that, in fact I'm keeping a tally. Everytime the aliens cheat I get to reload. Sounds fair, right? About 7 turns later now and most of the map has been uncovered. I'm pretty sure the remaining aliens are all inside the UFO. We do spot another cannon so BB is going to mortar it:

He hit something for 30 damage (probably a bonesetter) with the blast and then took out the cannon with 124 damage too:

Nice. Do I waste another mortar on nuking the area again? May as well send in another one. This one does 100 damage and kills it:

About 7 turns later and a select few soldiers have entered the UFO. There's definitely a bonesetter in the room to the right as we saw the doors opening. I send one soldier to pop the door open and (surprise!) there are two bonesetters in there. Sounds like a job for an inferno grenade so FA will toss one in there:

I wasn't expecting this, but the grenade set off those two purplish things in the room causing them to deal punishing damage to both bonesetters:

That worked out a lot better than I thought it would. We're going to treat the other room on the left in the same manner. Yup, there's a bonesetter in there too. AT will throw an incendiary grenade at it:

It only deals 26 damage even though it set off those purple things inside too. And of course, the bonesetter shoots back hitting him for 6. He shrugs that off and will auto shoot it:

The first hits for 15 and the second hit for 51 killing it:

Blade can still patch up AT with a stim pack even though he only has 5 APs:

Luckily it's just a head shot. Rub a little dirt on it and walk it off soldier, you're fine! You can see a soldier standing outside the UFO covering that side just in case there's a rogue alien somewhere. That's Thorondor and he's not going anywhere as there's still a live alien cannon. Keep this in mind. A few turns later and we have scoped out the layout of this UFO as best we can from opening door. I think there's two lifts going up so we split up. On the left, SV gets shot by a bonesetter for 5 damage when he opens a door. So he'll get right next to it to shoot:

And he kills it with the first bullet dealing 63:

At this point I'm fairly sure there's nothing on the ground level on the map anywhere. So join me next time as we venture upstairs to deal with a couple glitchy bonesetters and have our first run-in with a bonesetter commander. That's right, a COMMANDER!

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Swarm Leader Part 4

It's a couple turns later and the two groups of soldiers have just made it to the lifts. Jman goes up first to scope things out. He's in a room with a bonesetter and he's not willing to risk shooting at it so he decides to whip out the 'ol cattle prod to give this thing a zappie-zap:

We hear the zap sound but nothing happened, and the combat log remains quiet. But now the bonesetter has moved and Jman is almost out of APs. Slaughter comes up to the rescue and gets shot at but the damage was absorbed. He attempts to target the bonesetter but the reticle is red indicating nothing is there:

Ok, this isn't going as planned. He searches with his reticle and the bonesetter is where it was before:

Slaughter shoots at it for some damage but not enough for a kill and now he's stuck up there with Jman as he's out of APs too. I'm cutting my losses and not going to bring anyone else up there. The bonesetter shoots only at Slaughter hitting him for 0, 1 & 2 damage. When it's our turn again I bring up Accounting Troll to grab some xp by shooting at it:

Yup, his first shot hits for 12 killing it. Meanwhile, Full Auto comes up the other lift and peeks out the door to spot a bonesetter down the hallway. Time for an incendiary grenade:

It hits for 31 fire damage and of course now he's stuck there because he doesn't have enough APs to move back into the room. The Veteran is going up and he's going to shoot at it:

He hits all three times but only manages to deal 17 damage to it. He books it out of there and NoX comes up to shoot:

And he finally kills it dealing 3 and 22 damage:

A couple rounds later and the bonesetter commander comes out of hiding and hits NoX with some sort of freeze weapon dealing 5 damage. He can stun it if he want's to as he's right next to it:

I decide to use my "free spin" card right here due to all the cheating that went on this mission. Besides, I want to do some testing on this commander. For instance, is the stun rod 100% accurate and will it always stun an alien in one poke? I reloaded a few more times testing that out and eventually got it to stun for only 41 damage:

Wait one cotton picking second, look how much xp he got: 10! So then I go down a rabbit hole of testing to see if shooting at it with weapons awards 10 xp per hit. I mean that's like killing 2 aliens per hit of the commander if that is true. It sure is! Now I'm bringing soldiers up there to shoot at the commander first since it absorbs most everything it seems. Full Auto got a lot of xp out of his shots so now Space Voyager heads up there to shoot too:

I gave almost everyone an opportunity to shoot at it. Unfortunately, Bomb Bloke can't get in on it due to having a mortar. He could have probably picked up a photon beamer from a dead alien but he would have never made it upstairs in time. Besides, he got in plenty of xp this mission from nuking 3 cannons and tossing a grenade. Kinda the same problem for Throondor: he's still outside and he's not going to make it up there for at least 4 rounds. Sorry man! Slaughter got a little carried away to grab some xp and accidentally shot NoX for no damage, and I have to keep Jman in reserve in case NoX's stun isn't enough. Time to drop a save and here we go:

And that was the end of the mission thankfully. I think I did a decent job overall, but there's room for improvement with AP management and such. The biggest benefit was finding out commanders give 10 xp per hit which is good for training. Commanders can also get damaged if you shoot at it enough and get lucky with the rolls. So stay tuned as next time we'll be going through a slug of soldier promotions, the swarm reward and shooting down a couple more small fry UFOs plus some other random bits.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Cheating death to fire off one more round, maggots? Even then it's not enough. We pity the fools!

This is simply not your day. Take a load o' BB here - he's steamrollin' and asking for seconds, thirds and then an encore.

Worse, that's catchy; as FA rolls the die deciding to toss a grenade to raise the fun factor in tight spaces. And SV opts to redefine the meaning of close range in a one of a kind, all in, one shot one kill show of unflinching determination.

Going up, what do we see? More cheats...

It's your vessel, but you soon find out who's really in command here. Not the Piñata Bonesetter Commander, that's for sure! ?

[Zombie]

Swarm Leader Part 5

I'll call this a part of the swarm leader crash site as we are still dealing with the ramifications. As I mentioned before, we had a lot of soldiers who got plenty of xp this mission from shooting at the bonesetter commander and therefore a bunch of promotions. Here's the EOM:

There's a lot to cover, but the reason why it took so many parts was because there were 33 aliens present (technically 34 as we didn't kill the commander - we just stunned it). And NoX is going to be in the hospital for 3 days too. We picked up 2 cryo grenades from the bonesetter too. As for promotions, congratulations are in order for Space Voyager who reached the highest rank(?) in the game (he's a Colonel here, but in UFO:EU he'd be a Commander)! So let's allocate points for him first:

His strength, throwing and shooting are already maxed out so that limits where we can put the points but I figure 2 in agility and 2 in vitality would be good and for giggles I tossed the last into perception (reactions). It didn't see any reason to put more points into bravery as Psi hasn't been a factor yet. Maybe could have put that last point into agility as that is helpful sometimes but he's still a solid soldier overall. (Mr T you better salute your superior now). Next up is FullAuto:

Strength and shooting are maxed out so I put 2 into throwing to get him to 87, then tossed 2 in agility and the last in vitality. I think he'll max out at 93 throwing so yeah, he's going to be a force to be reckoned with. Next up is reckless Slaughter:

I put 3 points into throwing to get him to 90, and here again I think he'll max out at 93 for that stat. As for the other two points, I put one in agility and the last in vitality. What a beast. Next is Blade:

Obviously 2 points went into throwing to get him to 90. Yet again, he needs one more point into that to max it out which should be 93. Then one point went into agility and 2 into vitality. Simple enough. And now for The Veteran:

Obviously we are going to max out shooting first which took 2 points to get him to 98. Unreal. Not only that, but when I put 2 points into strength that took him to 95 and he's still a point shy of maxing out there (should be 98 too). And the last went into throwing to get him to 87. His throwing potential is almost off the scale so he'll max out at either 99 or 100. And now for Accounting Troll:

Same point allocation for him but he's 100 shooting now. He still needs more points into strength and will probably max out at 97-98-99-100 area (my guess is 98 or 99). And last but not least is NoX:

Three points went into throwing to get him to 90 and then the last two went into agility and vitality. Not sure how far I'm going to take this soldier as it's almost pointless to have an end game soldier with a maxed out shooting of 91 and a maxed out strength of only 88. I mean, they are workable. Maybe if I dumped all his next two promotion points into perception and vitality I could turn him into a monster in reaction fire. Would be cool to have one of those but I think you would want someone with a higher shooting stat to make sure he could hit. Oh well.

I had to reload a bunch of times for the swarm reward as it was not giving out any personal eternal shields anymore. Same thing for the pale blue crystals, they weren't dropping at all. It seems like this was the distortion field generator list so I had my choice between this one:

With the advanced ship parts or 2 DFG's and a personal teleporter. I chose the latter as the teleporter can come in handy now but the advanced ship parts really need to go on end-game interceptors to make any sense. That's because once they are installed on an interceptor you can't take them off again. And do you really want to hold on to a mediocre interceptor in end game?

Back in the Geoscape we just got done shooting down a light cruiser near our EU base:

There's a recon vessel over the Atlantic Ocean (which you might notice is just west of Africa in the blue halo). It eventually heads to Africa but my interceptors are ready for it there and shoot it down:

So we'll probably be going to that light cruiser next as it was first to be shot down, Gotta wait till it's in light though. Since NoX is in the hospital, it's time to bring Zombie in off the mothballs as a stun man. So stay tuned for that next time!

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

YAY, I get promoted despite my constant prowess at sucking. I must have strings to pull!

[Thorondor]

Hey, Lieutenant NoX, try not to strain yourself overmuch during your paid vacation over there!

While we're on the subject, Colonel Slack...errr... SV is on deck. Salute!!

It's a veritable parade and our greatest hits are surely up to paying their comrades a few drinks to celebrate the occasion, am I right? Outstanding!

And, do my eyes deceive me? Zombie, back on the prowl. The wolf pack is back together - so let's find us some lambs.

[Zombie]

This is one of those new map types and almost right away we spot a Spitfire high up in the air. Blade is going to auto shoot at it:

It took two auto shots and he ended up killing it but the thing had to take a shot at Blade in the death animation. Luckily the fire damage was absorbed and luckily he had enough APs left to get out of the fire, and luckily he had on inferno armor:

Space Voyager now spots a Fireball so he'll take some auto shots at it:

He missed quite a few shots but out of the 5 shots that connected, two were absorbed and the other three hit for 26+ damage each which was enough to take it down:

Zombie spot another Spitfire on the same round and starts shooting at it, damaging once for only 8:

He has barely enough APs to take another shot and this time he hits for a massive non-critical 64 damage:

Well, that's three down. The next round there's another Fireball where the first Spitfire was and Blade is again going to shoot at it since he has inferno armor:

He hits twice for 14 and 51. This thing must almost be dead so let's get Thorondor in on the action:

And he easily kills it (sorry no screenshot). Seven rounds go by with no activity but now there's yet another Fireball in the usual area. This time The Veteran is in a decent position to shoot at it:

Three auto shots later and he finally was able to kill it:

There's another Spitfire on a building to the right so Space Voyager is going to shoot at it:

He hits once for 9 damage, then I wonder why am I letting him get the xp - he's already promoted as high as he can go so let's get Zombie in on this:

He killed it after 2 auto shots with his last dealing a decent 45 damage:

It's the next round now and yet again there's a Spitfire in the usual location so Thorondor is going to take some 62% accurate auto shots at it:

The first hits for 14 damage:

Unfortunately his second was absorbed and the last did 24. Not enough for the kill. Little did the Spitfire know, but Blade gets into position right below it  and kills it with two dealing 34 & 25 damage:

During the alien's turn yet another Spitfire shows up then shoots and hits Mr T for no damage thankfully. Jman is going to take a 63% accurate auto shot at it just for giggles:

And kills it when the first bullet connected and hit for 43:

Surprising, but he got the job done. A couple turns later a Spitfire comes out of the UFO right where Blade is so he automatically starts reaction firing at it hitting for 41:

The next bullet killed it and that was the end of the mission:

No promotions, but hey, we had a ton of them last mission. The cash keeps rolling in. Back in the Geoscape and our aircraft carrier is progressing nicely. The detection section has just completed construction and we have 2 Golden Eagles there with a third on the way:

It will be another 19 days till the photon defenses are operational but I don't think that's going to matter as we'll have the interceptor firepower to handle it. I send out the team to take care of that recon UFO and just before they land there's a heavy cruiser that shows up over Russia:

It looks like it's heading south somewhere so we scramble the interceptors and send them there immediately. Before they engage our transport finally arrives at the recon vessel so join me next time when we tackle that!

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Spitfires and Fireballs - what a warm welcome. We greet you in kind!

Some may mistakenly think that, right out of the bench, Zombie is somewhat of a slouch. Nope, he needn't even crouch to lay down the law.

When taking out the competition we don't mind doing it with flair, even if it's capital punishment, every time, to those that so dare challenge us.

Let's find us some more sport then. Coordinates set!