Let's Play UFO2:Extraterrestrials

[Zombie]

Swarm Leader Part 2

It's the next turn and we've just spotted an airborne Trep which MTR will take a snap shot at:

The bullet did 47 damage which didn't kill the thing so he took another which dealt 45 and killed the thing:

Four turns later and now there's a Rider by the side of the UFO in the usual spot. Pete is going to take an auto shot at it with his 96% kneeling accuracy:

The first bullet does 30 damage and kills it:

All his other bullets would have been hits too had the thing not died. The next turn we see two aliens. The first is an Iron Rattler which MTR will auto shoot at:

The first bullet hits for 44 damage and kills it:

Easy stuff. The second alien is an airborne Trep which NKF will take a long range snap shot at:

The first shot only hit for 20 damage but his second hit for an impressive 63 which killed it:

A couple turns later we spot a Bonesetter behind a wall. Nobody has a shot on it but MTR can toss an incendiary grenade at it:

It only does 20 damage so his next grenade will be a sludge:

That does 42 chem damage which kills it:

During the alien's turn an airborne Trep shows up along with an Iron Rattler on the ground in the usual spot. When it's our turn, MTR will auto shoot the Trep:

His first bullet hit for a very decent 55 damage which killed it:

He wanted to kill that Iron Rattler too but there was that support column in his way. He moved around a bit and found a spot where he could at least toss a DG1 grenade at it:

The blast only did 20 damage so now Pete's going to have to mop up the mess by shooting:

His first bullet hits for a pitiful 10 damage but it was enough for the kill:

During the alien's turn, an Iron Rattler shows up in the usual spot by the UFO. It shoots at CG for no damage, so he shoots back at it hitting for an incredible non-critical 74 damage which kills it:

Excellent! During the alien's next turn another Iron Rattler shows up in the same area but shoots at MTR this time. The damage was absorbed so he shoots back:

The first bullet hit for only 2 damage, but the second hit for 56 which killed it:

A couple turns later there's another airborne Trep which MTR will take a snap shot at:

That hit for 17 which wasn't enough so he took another snap shot which did identical damage and still didn't kill it. May as well take an auto shot at it this time:

The first bullet hits for, you guessed it, 17 damage, but that was finally enough for the kill:

In the next episode, it's gonna be more Treps and Iron Rattlers. And I didn't care one little bit as it's easy xp for the soldiers.

Edit: I'm currently #8 on the Steam global leaderboards with 4010 UFOs shot down. It's only 52 more to get to #7 which shouldn't take too long. After that though, it'll take 425 more to get to #6 (at my current rate that's mid-April sometime). I will mention that the min number of UFOs I need to shoot down everyday to reach #1 has dropped to below 30 (~29.8 or so) which means significant progress has been made.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

It's like the tumblers in slot machines: Trep, Rider, Iron Rattler. No match for us. You're going down!

Incendiary, sludge - it's a bust and you're fresh outta luck maggot.

And yet they still fancy their chances going ahead and calling our game. They make their play only to be put to shame. Bring 'em on!

Have 'em crash'n'burn, Zombie. Past the 4000 mark and hurtling towards greatness. Don't let up.

[Zombie]

Swarm Leader Part 3

It's now two turns later and there's yet another Trep, this time it's floating above the UFO. MTR will shoot at it:

One auto shot was not enough to kill it and the second was a stretch too as there was two bullets that only did 1 damage. But he killed it in the end:

Two turns later and now there's an Iron Rattler along the south side of the UFO. Silencer is on the roof of the building just next to it and he can toss a grenade down there somehow:

The first DG1 only did 15 damage while a second did even less at 11 damage. Tough critter! Silencer's backup is Nook who is just a little bit closer. He's gonna try another DG1 on it:

The blast does 32 damage and finally kills it:

Two turns later and we caught a glimpse of an Iron Rattler rustling around some small trees. Crazy Gringo has to move a little to get into position but his long range accuracy sucks on auto shots so he's gonna try a snap shot:

It's a non-critical hit for a mind-blowing 96 damage:

From one extreme to the other. The next round there's two more Iron Rattlers spotted in roughly the same location as the last one. The problem this time is that there's a tree in the way of shooting at one so MTR will shoot at the obstruction first:

With the tree out of the way he can now shoot at the alien:

One auto shot was not enough again and two was just barely enough to kill it:

This other Iron Rattler is in pretty good cover so CG is going to shoot at a tree obstructing his shot:

The tree is gone and now CG has a choice between auto or snap shot:

He decides on an auto shot. The first bullet hits for 11. The Iron Rattler somehow shoots back and damages CG for 3. CG's next bullet does 37 damage and kills it:

Pete's gonna patch him up, luckily it's only a leg wound:

CG is standing on a big equipment pile right now from all the killed Iron Rattlers that happened to end up in the same spot:

That's a nice stockpile! The next round we spot an alien cannon on the corner of the UFO so TV will mortar it:

The blast does 142 damage to the cannon which destroys it. The blast is big enough to reach another cannon which does 52 damage to it:

Unfortunately, that alerted the cannon to TVs position which shot back at him damaging him for 10. AT ran over to help patch him back up. The scenario isn't as bad as it sounds as the damage is spread around everywhere except his chest:

The next round CG is able to spot that hidden cannon and the big, scary central turret. This time when TV is going to mortar something he's in cover. He'll send one right between the two:

The blast does a massive 164 damage to the central turret which destroys it, but only 65 to the other:

There's been a lot of injuries so far this mission and I don't really feel like putting someone else at risk shooting at that surviving cannon so TV will waste another mortar bomb on it:

This time the blast does 139 damage which destroys it:

The next round there's a Rider straggler at the corner of the UFO which MTR will shoot at:

His auto accuracy isn't exactly great but all the bullets hit and did damage which killed it:

Join me next time for part 4 where we deal with the last few alien cannons on the roof of the UFO along with more Bonesetters, a Rider and of course another load of Iron Rattler spawns. Should be interesting!

Update: I got to #7 on the Steam leaderboards with 4224 UFOs shot down. It's about 200 more to get to #6. All's going to plan. One little hiccup I ran into was that my base in Africa didn't have a detection section there anymore for some reason. Must've accidentally built a defensive system there by mistake. Funny thing was I didn't even miss it being there as all my other bases picked everything up. With it up and running now I feel a little bit better.

Currently I'm toying around with an idea on a strategy to protect my main base a little more. My original plan was a "safety in numbers" approach where multiple bases help to protect the main base equally (Europe, aircraft carrier and Asia). All the land bases had 5 interceptors with the last four blocks taken up by workshops originally, and defensive systems now. That's a solid setup and it served me well.

If I ever replay the game, I might just create a "dedicated protector base" like Accounting Troll is to The Veteran: AT carries extra mortar bombs and has good accuracy to shoot at anything that tries to mess with TV. Same kind of idea on the dedicated protector base: 6 hangars with 6 interceptors with the rest of the space space going to defensive systems and detection. All the other land bases will have 5 hangars with workshops.

I've mentioned this before, but aircraft carrier bases are basically garbage. Don't build any. The worst thing about them is the max of 3 hangars. They just don't have enough firepower to cover an area decently. Thinking of selling it? You can't. The theory of them are good, but the implementation is horrid.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

At least there is some beauty in the dispelling of these creatures' mortal coil.

A fleeting moment in the midst of chaos. Flora as well as fauna shall have to suffer the ravages of conflict.

We rain down destruction, part of the storm, so as to reclaim our lost peace. Endure we shall!

Haven't yet convinced the otherworlders that our planet is a no-fly zone? Well, try and try again, Zombie. For us there can only be salvation through victory. Stand resolute!

[Zombie]

Swarm Leader Part 4

It's the next round now. Accounting Troll just got eyes on the North cannon on the roof of the UFO so The Veteran is going to mortar it:

The blast does an impressive 148 damage which destroys it:

Three turns later, Crazy Gringo teleports to the roof of the UFO to get a good look around. He spots the last two cannons up there:

Teleporting does not alert a cannon to your soldier's position, so CG is safe as long as he doesn't move. The cannons also do not notice if you teleport away and out of view, which he does. Now TV can send a mortar between them:

He hits one for 88 damage and the other for 93. Neither is destroyed, but it's close. Instead of wasting another mortar bomb on them, Nook is going to take a long range auto shot at the farthest:

The first bullet was absorbed while the next two bullets both did a paltry 9 damage each. The cannon fired back and only managed to hit him for 2 damage. No biggie. But hey, why is he using the AK1 Ultra Ammo when he has the depleated Uranium-238 stuff? Oh, that's right, accuracy really suffers:

The first bullet managed to hit for a nice 27 damage which destroyed it:

Nook still has plenty of APs left so he'll shoot at the other cannon too:

His first two bullets hit for 19 & 63 damage which destroyed it. Here's where he was shooting from:

It's a good overwatch position as my team hasn't made their way over this far yet. Silencer runs over to him to patch him up with a Stimpack:

Ten turns later and Pete finally joined CG in watching the doors to the UFO. When he entered from above (more on this some other time) he fell down below where he spots two Bonesetters. The closest to him is only a couple tiles away which means he'll crack out the U238 ammo to shoot at it:

The first bullet hits for 62 damage and kills it:

CG will shoot at the other Bonesetter:

His first bullet hits for 69 damage which is a kill shot:

CG can get back into safety in the anteroom, but Pete's almost out of APs so he'll have to stay put and cross his fingers that it's the right decision. As expected, during the alien's turn a Rider exits the middle room and shoots at poor Pete:

The photon beamer shot was absorbed and when it's our turn again, Pete's in a perfect position to shoot at it:

The U238 ammo does 43 damage which kills it:

Pete teleports the heck out of there, and when CG goes in the door to glance around, he spots a Bonesetter in the middle room and an Iron Rattler a couple tiles away which he'll shoot at:

The first bullet hits for a nice 88 damage which kills it. After that he decides to put his tail between his legs and retreat like Pete did by teleporting to the roof of the UFO:

Glad he did, because he spots another Iron Rattler right where he was before:

The thing doesn't come out to play for another 3 turns, and Accounting Troll will shoot at it because he's in a perfect position:

The first two normal Ultra ammo bullets do 23 & 19 damage which kills it:

Nothing happens for 4 turns so CG teleports in to investigate what the holdup is. It's just a normal Bonesetter which he'll shoot at:

The first bullet hits for 78 damage and kills it:

Love this U238 ammo! The other alien is a Iron Rattler outside which nobody can shoot at so we let it be. It comes along the side of the UFO where that other one was before:

When it's our turn again, AT gets back into position to shoot at the thing:

He hits all three times for 15, 1 and 37 damage which kills it:

In the next part we'll deal with another Bonesetter and a whole boatload of alien hibernation spawns as well as an alien "cannon". We'll get into this more the next time.

Update: I'm now #6 on the Steam leaderboards for UFOs shot down at 4498. It'll take 753 more UFOs shot down to get to #5 which will be a slog. I estimate that'll take till May 9-ish, assuming I have the time that week due to Mother's day that weekend. Might have to step up my efforts in the coming weeks to make sure I can keep up the pace.

Oh, and remember when I mentioned that a UFO created a terror site in an ocean recently and thought that maybe it was a glitch? Well, it happened to me again today and this time I saved the game in a different slot and then sent in the team to see what would happen. Turns out it is a legit mission and has a new unique map type associated with it. I did take a couple screenshots in the first few turns for you guys to check out, but I'll wait on posting them. Do you want me to do only that or the whole mission? If you want to see more than the immediate LZ area I'd like to know beforehand as I have to take more screenies.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Crazy Gringo throwing caution to the wind and loudly daring cannons to shoot him? Yep, gonna happen! Fortunately he was ordered to stand down (though you could still hear him cussing).

The reward, to assuage him, comes with the allowance to be among the first to breach the UFO. He's come to play and so he did, racking up the kills.

Scarcity of targets for the squad is seemingly not about to be an issue though...

Speaking of aiming for the sky, over 750 UFOs is quite the gap and it's going to take you some doing alright, Zombie. Regardless, I say you're the man for high #5!

As for the oddity of an actually playable terror site in the ocean , I'll admit it's tempting to have it fully documented here, but you have permission to just present early pictorial evidence for the record. You've got bigger fish to fry! ?

[Zombie]

7 hours ago, Thorondor said:

As for the oddity of an actually playable terror site in the ocean , I'll admit it's tempting to have it fully documented here, but you have permission to just present early pictorial evidence for the record. You've got bigger fish to fry! ?

Sounds like a plan then. I only took two initial screenshots just to get an idea of what the map sorta looks like. We are at the corner of the map and the Southeast side of the transport is solid ground with some bridges or gangways connecting areas together:

To the Northeast of the transport is all water baby:

I didn't include a screenie of this yet, but the wall that rises up out of the water goes up another couple levels. This puts the team at a real disadvantage because the aliens hold the high ground. It's only Riders so far though, so there's not much of an advantage for them anyway.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

There's no question we're very neatly cornered on this map.

And maybe I'm being slightly influenced by all the water and nice wave effects around but our transport is suddenly giving me manta ray type vibes, given the shape of its wings.

Visibility is perhaps not the greatest, yet we're not particularly terrified here and we might be roasting something more than marshmallows in a minute...

[Zombie]

Swarm Leader Part 5

It's 11 turns later and not much has been going on. We hear doors opening a lot so there must be a few aliens left somewhere. When Crazy Gringo sticks his head in the UFO and looks down a long hallway he spots a lone Bonesetter. Time to shoot at it with depleted uranium 238 rounds:

The first two bullets do 43 & 51 damage which kills it:

Love this new ammo! Three turns later CG peeks in the other exterior UFO door and spots... what the heck is this? It looks like a Rider attached to the wall. Let's shoot at it:

The first bullet hits for 58 damage which "kills" it.

And the game thinks this is a cannon, not a Rider. Um, okay. And the game now thinks the inner door is open when Pete peeks in. Well, if it's open, there must be an alien present nearby so he'll toss a sludge grenade in there to probe the darkness:

The strategy pays off as the gas cloud kills a Bonesetter for 73 chem damage:

Three turns later and the chem cloud dissipated, but MTR spots another Bonesetter in there again. He'll shoot at it with Ultra ammo:

It was a little back and forth shooting, but in the end he prevails:

The next round Silencer sees a Trep at the end of the hallway which he'll shoot at:

The first two bullets hit for 40 & 45 damage which kills it:

The next round Nook looks in the left exterior door and sees an Iron Rattler in a hibernation spawning room which he'll shoot at:

The first bullet hits for 33 which kills it:

Subsequent bullets destroy the pod which creates a pretty purple cloud of gas:

The next round there's another Iron Rattler midway down the left hallway. Nook will shoot at this one too:

He hits for 28 & 34 which kills it:

Six turns later and during the aliens turn a Trep shows up in the hibernation cubby on the left side. We reaction fire back but only manage to explode the pod:

It looks like one of the bullets hit, but the game refuses to acknowledge that:

The Trep then comes to the door where we're at and proceeds to hack at MTR but the damage was absorbed. He'll shoot at it then:

Took two auto shots but he managed to kill it:

In the last part of the mission we'll deal three more Bonesetters with one being the commander. MTR is promoted "again". And we finally recover our advanced ship parts.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Depleting aliens like it's 1994!

Well, there's assuredly not a dearth of them inside their infested vessel, so let's get on with the righteous killing.

Everything in this place conspires against us. As usual. But we're not miffed - bring it on!

[Space Voyager]

23 hours ago, Thorondor said:

Depleting aliens like it's 1994!

LOL!!!

[Zombie]

Swarm Leader Part 6

During the alien's last turn, some of our soldiers caught a glimpse of a Bonesetter above the UFO somewhere. So Pete's gonna teleport up there to take a look around:

Nothing. Well, that's odd. Maybe it was a game glitch? Whatever the case, he will stay up there as overwatch. During the aliens turn the (invisible) Bonesetter Commander hits Pete with it's freeze weapon for 12 damage. He fires back doing 4 damage, and the second bullet looks like it'll be a hit too:

It hit for 6 damage and the last did a decent 26. Now we have bigger problems as a regular Bonesetter shows up on the roof of the North side of the UFO:

When it's our turn, the Commander can be seen so Pete will poke at it with the stun rod:

It's a weak spot poke for 125 stun damage. Nightie-night commander, you're coming with us!

See that hole in the roof next to Pete? There's a door in the roof where aliens can enter/exit. That's why the commander appeared out of nowhere. We are going to have to station one or two soldiers up there from now on just in case. Anyhow, CG teleports up there to patch Pete up with a Stimpack but finds that instead of 12 freeze damage, Pete only has 2 in his head:

Not sure what's up with that. Maybe the Pale Blue Crystal absorbed that damage again? Not complaining one little bit. Pete still has plenty of APs left so he'll shoot at that other Bonesetter with U238 ammo:

The first bullet hit for 50. 50! The second is on the way and it looks like it'll be a hit too:

It does 11 damage and kills the thing (free death aura and all):

Atta boy Pete! The next turn another Bonesetter comes up to check out what all the fuss was about:

It shoots at CG but the damage was absorbed. When it's our turn, Pete will shoot at it:

It was a quick kill with this great ammo and that was the end of the mission. Phew! That was a long one. But fun too. EOM report is excellent:

Nobody seriously injured, a commander captured, 60 aliens killed and MTR has his promotion again, same point scheme as the last time:

What's different this time is MTR had 12 more kills and earned himself 85 more xp in the process. Not bad at all. The real reason we redid this mission was because we didn't recover all the advanced ship parts as a reward last time. This time, we got em:

And to verify, they are in our stores too:

Much better! We'll be equipping these to more Thunderstorm interceptors when they are built. In the meantime, we have to visit that Light Cruiser UFO which we shot down recently (seems like ages ago after this past mission). So stay tuned for that next time!

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Blink and you'll miss him, cowardly striking from a secret passage, but now we have a bone to pick, so your Commander will be coming along for an extra round of fun and games later on. Once we're done wiping the floor with you that is...

We're not going home empty-handed in a number of other ways too - flush with cash, some great tech and braggart Staff Sergeant MTR!

Live it up while you can, gents, 'cause - wouldn't you know it - there's more work around the corner.

[Zombie]

Light Cruiser Part 1

This mission is on an arctic map which will be a change of scenery for us. On turn 3 we spot a Rider by the corner of the UFO which Nook will shoot at:

The first bullet hits for 24 damage and kills it. The other bullets would have hit too:

The next turn Silencer spots another Rider in the same area and Nook will shoot at this one too:

He hits it for 45 damage which is obviously a kill. A couple turns later Silencer spots a Bonesetter in the usual location and it's Nook who will take the shot:

Three full auto shots later and the thing is still alive:

Of course, he isn't using the U238 ammo so it's understandable there will be lots of absorption going on. But all the hits add up to more xp which he's after. The first bullet of his last auto shot hits for 45 and finally kills the thing:

Free death aura. Eight turns later there's more Rider activity in the usual area by the UFO. Nook will shoot yet again:

The first bullet hits for an impressive 55 damage and kills it:

During the alien's turn, Silencer reaction fires at a temporarily hidden Rider behind those two columns in the center of the screen. The first bullet hits for 10 but more are on the way:

The second did a decent 40 and killed it (at least the corpse is visible now):

Honestly, I'm not sure how Silencer had the angle on that, but I'm not complaining one little bit. Four turns later Silencer spots another Bonesetter by the door of the UFO. Nook has one bullet left in his clip so he'll take a snap shot at the thing first:

It deals a surprising 38 damage. Time to switch to U238 ammo for the auto shot:

The first bullet hits for 50 and kills it:

Then nothing happens for a number of turns. It sounds like maybe a Bonesetter is near the small building in back of the pillars so I have Full Auto shoot at the wall with his photon beamer to open things up. Bingo, it's right there too:

I don't want to risk reaction fire from it in order to get Nook into a position to shoot so he'll toss an Inferno Grenade as close to it as he can:

The blast didn't even register damage on the Bonesetter. Nook then threw a DG1 grenade at it which did no damage either. But the blast did open up the wall more and this gives Silencer a chance at tossing another grenade on it:

The first hit for 20 and the second was absorbed:

Disappointing showing guys. Accounting Troll shoots at it and hits for 43 damage which kills it:

You can see that the crew is covering each other fairly well. There are usually multiple soldiers in a position to help in case someone gets into a pinch. We've also uncovered most of the map now and haven't found anything of interest.

It takes the team a few turns to converge on the UFO and start the breaching process. The door to the right room inside the UFO is open so Silencer will toss a photon grenade in there:

Four turns later Crazy Gringo opens the other door in the room looking back into the center and sees that the two far doors are also open. The one going to the bridge has a Bonesetter so he'll throw an Inferno Grenade at it:

The blast does 47 damage. We'll just roast it in it's shell for a little bit. In the meantime Nook will "explore" the other small room by tossing a normal grenade inside:

Nothing. Well, I guess the Bonesetter came out of there and ran into the bridge like a scaredy cat.Join me next time for part two where we start to get into it with the bridge crew, but Nook, Silencer and Pete get ambushed by a sneaky (glitchy?) rogue bonesetter. We persevered with multiple layers of reaction fire and then deal with the last bonesetter holdout. After the mission there will be 2 promotions, and back in the geoscape we finish our research and deal with manufacturing and shoot down the next UFO. Stay tuned for that next!

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Light Cruiser Part 2

After the scaredy cat bonesetter ran off in a huff to the bridge, we didn't see it after dousing it in fire. Dead? We didn't hear a scream or see a body. So it's still alive somewhere. When CG opened the door to the bridge and took a step inside he was hit once with reaction fire from a bonesetter. Same one? Maybe. Well, he's gonna shoot at it:

The first bullet looks like it'll be a hit:

It's a weak spot kill for 117 damage, and somehow the corpse ends up in the central area by us:

Strange. Nothing happens during the alien's turn and we stay put as well. During the alien's next turn a hidden bonesetter shoots at Nook, Silencer and Pete with heavy photon beamer ammo. Worst case scenario. Luckily, Pete was the only one injured for 5 damage:

If that wasn't bad enough, the thing materializes and shoots at the group again. This time it injures Silencer for 19 damage but was absorbed by Pete. Nook starts the reaction fire proceedings out by hitting the bonesetter but the damage was absorbed:

The next two bullets hit for 19 & 3. All of Silencers shots were absorbed. Pete's first two bullets hit for 34 and absorbed. His last bullet is going to be a hit as well:

And that killed it (sorry, no screenie). Three turns later and we now have layers upon layers of backup just in case things turn buggy again. Silencer has been healed and we've made our way into the bridge where during the alien's turn a bonesetter exited the middle room with haste:

What's the rush? Nook's going to greet it with an auto shot of U238 ammo:

The first bullet does a decent 52 damage with more on the way:

That killed it and ended the mission. Buggy! Probably should have reloaded somewhere to clear it, but we made it through in mostly one piece. EOM report:

Yup, it's all good. No lasting injuries, we killed 11 (maybe 12 with that bonesetter we flame seared) and had two promotions. Nook obviously as it was almost all him this mission, but that critical hit kill from CG was enough to earn himself one as well. Let's allocate Nook's points first:

I put 3 points into strength and 2 into shooting to get him to 97 in both stats. It looks like we can put one more point in shooting for his next promotion along with maybe 2 in strength (probably only one). Let's do CG next:

A lot of his meaningful stats have been maxed out already so I put two in agility and 3 in vitality. Seemed like the right thing to do. He has one promotion left and I think I'll do the same thing again when that happens. Back in the geoscape, our research into the Pegasus transport finally completed:

Let's take a look at this bad boy:

It's all around better. And the best thing is that it carries 16 troops which means we can bring along more soldiers for rear-commander training (like my soldiers ever really sit idle in the craft, they always help somehow). It's gonna take a while to manufacture this and cost a fair dime too, but we have the means right now. Before that happens let's see what other topics are available for research:

Just a live alien entry? Think I'll pass for the time being as I don't want to trigger any game events. Plus the money I save from not using them will go to the cost of that new Pegasus. We need an empty hangar to construct the thing so I transferred one of the Thunderstorm interceptors to a different base for the time being. I'm halting production of more U238 ammo too, everything is going on manufacturing that Pegasus:

And here's what the base looks like:

That's a big transport! It's really not that big, the devs just exaggerated the size in the hangar. We are going to hold on to the Icarus transport until the Pegasus is completed as our soldier still need to visit crash sites for xp. Speaking of such, we just started to shoot down a supply vessel over Europe:

It doesn't take too long to down it with multiple Thunderstorms and Golden Eagles plus base defenses firing at it:

We'll wait a little bit till the crash site is in daylight, then send out the team. So join me next time for that.

Edit: I'm still #6 on the Steam global leaderboards with 4766 UFOs shot down. It's slow going but I try to shoot some UFOs down everyday. ETA to get to #5 is still mid-May sometime, that hasn't changed. And probably mid-June to get to #3 with #2 being late June to early July.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Nook has the best way of warming up. You'll feel no cold in an instant, aliens and you'll look good as it happens even.

Silencer plays tag-team with him to good effect - you know, for things to remain colorful in this oh-so-bleak place.

The stillness in the air makes it kind of strange sounding when grenades go off. Everything is sort of deadened out here, even the explosions.

Better go inside their tin can to better rattle things up and, well, improve the room temperature a smidgeon.

The creatures are initially a little uncooperative but at least they're moving around to lively effect and we can take a return hit or two in stride. We accomplish what we set out to do and that's what counts.

See? It's all so much better when we say our goodbyes. And CG effortlessly made Captain? We're never going to hear the end of it now. Best sing along!

And with the new Pegasus transport's increased capacity we'll be able to throw even bigger parties. Either way, I have a feeling sunglasses will be mandatory gear next dawn when heading back out...

[Zombie]

Supply Vessel Part 1

This map is a human base type which I'm not very fond of. But it's better than some other maps possible so we stick with it. We deploy as normal but spot nothing on our initial turn. During the alien's turn, an airborne Bonesetter shows up but does nothing. When it's our turn again, Nook will take an auto shot at it with U238 ammo:

The first bullet does an incredible non-critical hit dealing 94 damage which kills it:

Unreal! This ammo is a real game-changer, that's for sure. A couple alien turns later, another airborne Bonesetter shows up only to be met with reaction fire from FullAuto who is toting a photon beamer with normal ammo.The first blast connects for 63 damage which kills it:

And then another Bonesetter shows up in the same spot as the first one did:

When it's our turn, Silencer will take a long range aimed shot at it:

The shot missed somehow, but his next connected for 60 damage and killed it:

On our next turn we spot an cannon on the roof of the UFO so The Veteran will send a mortar in:

BOOM!

The blast does 104 to one cannon and 43 to the other hidden one next to it. Both survive so he sends another which does 55 & 113 damage which destroys both:

For the time being we have a little breathing room. 11 turns later and we eventually spot a Rider on a catwalk which FA will take an aimed shot at:

The shot only does 23 damage so he takes another shot. This one will be a hit too:

It does 37 damage which kills it:

Some excellent damage rolls so far, hope this keeps up! During the alien's turn, a Trep show up where the first Bonesetter was:

MTR will take an auto shot at it since his accuracy can't be beat (with el-cheapo ammo nonetheless):

The first bullet does a decent 19 damage and the second is going to hit too:

It only did 8 damage but his last hit for 32 which killed it:

A couple turns later Nook scouts around to find another cannon. There will be another one next to it so when TV gets ready to mortar, he splits the difference:

It's a weak spot hit on both for 146 and 151 damage respectively:

The scary central cannon is also visible so TV will mortar it too:

The blast only hits for 122 damage but that's enough to destroy it too:

Three turns later and we spot a Rider on the ground at the South side of the map. FA will take an aimed shot at it just for giggles:

The first blast does 15 damage and the second will be a hit too:

It only does 10 damage but that's enough to kill it:

Join me next time for part 2 where we kill an Iron Rattler and a few more Bonesetters, then take out another alien cannon and finally a meeting with the Bonesetter Commander outside which ends badly for it.

Edit: Just hit #5 on the Steam global leaderboards with 5271 aliens killed so far. It was a grind, sure, but I did it little by little each day after work and got the job done one day ahead of schedule. I probably would have did it sooner but the game cancelled me due to negative funds again. To circumvent this a bit and prolong the inevitable from happening, I had my main base crank out positronic suits of armor to deplete some cash. Kinda wish I kept engineers at my other bases to manufacture some expensive stuff too. Maybe next time around. It'll probably take me till Sunday to get to #4, then another week to get to #3.

Oh, I finished that terror mission in the Pacific Ocean the other day (took screenshots to document the whole thing too since it was on a different map and all). It was just Riders, so it was mostly pushover aliens, but there were alien cannons sprinkled around to make things interesting/difficult. I'll post that sometime soon. What I didn't realize is that there were no civilians present so that automatically got me the "Protector" Steam achievement for having less than 2 civvy casualties. Nice!

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

When we're looked down from up on high right from the start, we naturally tend to bring whomever tries that sort of snubbing back from such heights to a more rightly level situation.

And I do mean crashing down, as many times as necessary, until staying down is the end state of the perpetrators.

If things get hairier we bring out the bigger guns too - demonstrations courtesy of TV, until they learn to let us be.

Ground floor is finally where the action is at, with FA making the playing field a little less crowded still. We're taking on all comers - who wants some?!

What's this coming down the wire? Zombie - now high #5! Talk about the need for speed, man. They try to hit the breaks but there's no stopping you.

Terror mission: this report officially grants you a "Protector of the Pacific" status on your record. Congrats!

[Space Voyager]

On 5/15/2024 at 5:15 AM, Zombie said:

 

Edit: Just hit #5 on the Steam global leaderboards with 5271 aliens killed so far.

Alright! Should aliens ever invade, they better come in millions.

Just asking - could you win the game right now? I mean, are you dragging the game for the stats but could win long ago?

[Zombie]

7 hours ago, Space Voyager said:

Just asking - could you win the game right now? I mean, are you dragging the game for the stats but could win long ago?

Ok, so here's the deal. Last year I played this game like, a lot. I'd do maybe an away mission every other day so I have dozens upon dozens of missions ready to be posted here. Trouble is, I can't post here everyday so they get banked until I have the time. I need to get caught up so it doesn't make sense to complete the game and sit on that for a few months. May as well keep that a surprise for myself and you guys.

In the meantime, I just shoot down UFOs everyday until I catch up. I have a few research topics left to complete which would be a couple months of in-game time to finish, and then I'd also like to get a few more soldiers fully promoted to have a  good squad for the final missions. So figure another month or so for that depending on the number of missions and the xp gained. So It would take me a little while to get the game to a point where I could go.

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Supply Vessel Part 2

It's a couple alien turns later and the team has just spotted an Iron Rattler on a porch of sorts to the east of us:

Just before our turn starts, a Bonesetter also shows up above that. Pete's gonna take an aimed shot at it because his auto accuracy sucks:

It's a non-weak spot kill for a whopping 84 damage:

Showoff. As for that Iron Rattler, it's not visible anymore. But the door up there is open so I assume it went in there. NKF is going to toss a normal DG1 grenade up there to see if it catches the alien in the blast:

It did hit something in there for no damage but the resulting explosion also opened up the side of the room where there was a Rider and an Iron Rattler a few tiles apart. Another DG1 grenade between the two killed the Rider for 39 damage and the blast was absorbed by the Iron Rattler:

After the dust settles, Silencer is going to auto shoot at it:

He hits for 28 & 16 which kills it:

The next round we spot a Bonesetter on a catwalk to the north of us. Gimli technically doesn't have a direct shot at it, but he does have "heavy" photon beamer ammo loaded up which may help:

The first blast misses and hits a pillar instead:

The second also misses and hits a tree behind the alien:

The final blast hits and deals 20 damage, it also destroys a section of the railing:

With the obstruction gone, MikeTheRed is gonna shoot at it:

He hits for 6, 2 & 31 damage which kills it:

During the alien's next turn, the Bonesetter Commander comes out of the UFO from the roof and is seen floating. MTR will take some snap shots at it:

He hits all three times but only managed to damage it once for 36. Accounting Troll will do the same thing:

The first two bullets were absorbed, but the last did 40 damage which killed it:

During the alien's turn a couple turns later, a cannon on the roof of the UFO shoots at the building Silencer is hiding in:

Ok, TV will mortar it:

The blast does 154 damage and destroys it:

Two alien turns later and an Iron Rattler comes out of one of the UFO doors to shoot at Crazy Gringo, but the damage was thankfully absorbed. He now shoots back:

He hits for 30 damage and kills it. Two turns later and there's a Trep on the roof of the UFO. Silencer comes up the lift from below so he has a clear shot at it:

The first bullet hits for 58 damage and kills it:

And that was the end of the mission. EOM report:

Accounting Troll has been promoted? All right! Let's allocate his points:

He was pretty well maxed out in all the good stats so I ended up putting 2 in agility and 3 in vitality. Probably will do something similar for his last promotion. The more APs, the more he can move. And we all know what Vitality does. I'll deal with the rest of the Geoscape stuff in my next post.

Before I go though, I managed to hit #4 on the Steam global leaderboards for UFOs shot down at 5453 today. #3 only requires 65 more UFOs to be shot down so I suspect I'll get to that by Wednesday or so. After that, #2 will require 784 more UFOs and I estimate that'll take till the late part of June if all goes to plan.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Pete once again demonstrates the benefits of actually following tried-and-tested Ready, Aim, Fire procedures instead of botching step order as sometimes happens. *Gimli, cough*

The aliens also tend to mistakenly take the odd miss as a confidence booster, like, say, the Bonesetter Commander coming out in the open and daring us to shoot him, no doubt under the further influence of some recreational alien concoction. Let's just call it short-lived boisterousness...

One more try: UFO cannon - fail. TV mortar - hit.

Endurance test: Crazy Gringo after multiple hits - not a scratch. Offending alien - RIP.

Silencer driving the point home one-hit kills a Trep that still somehow felt high and mighty.

Your lesson for today is concluded. Next class will have Captain AT in attendance.

And, in case there's any doubt, Commander Zombie has entered final countdown - stage #4 and going up!

[Zombie]

17 hours ago, Thorondor said:

...no doubt under the further influence of some recreational alien concoction. Let's just call it short-lived boisterousness...

Alien Entertainment, right?

After the last successful mission, I was selling just the stuff we recovered and found out it was a nice lump of cash:

Almost $430k on top of the bounty from the mission. At our base in South America we have one "golden" Thunderstorm, a normal Thunderstorm and 3 Golden Eagle Interceptors. The golden Interceptor has the brand new Long Spear missile installed:

We've been trying to switch over all the Golden Eagles to Thunderstorms, but they take forever to build. Having one or two at a base is a good idea to keep the bigger UFOs focused on them instead of the weaker Golden Eagles. And having an upgraded Thunderstorm helps even more. Time to install some ship parts on a Thunderstorm in North America as they just arrived:

We are short an interceptor as a new Thunderstorm is currently under construction there. New ship parts go on a Thunderstorm in Antarctica too:

That should beef up our interceptors for the time being, but we need lots more ship parts and Thinderstorms to improve our aging fleet. Almost on cue, an Alien Supply Vessel is detected near our main base so Interceptors from the neighboring bases are scrambled to attack:

It doesn't make it very far and is already half damaged:

It's heading right into the mouth of the lion as our base defenses in Europe start firing there too. It's all over pretty quick:

None of the Golden Eagles or Thunderstorms were even damaged in the encounter. The crash site will be in darkness so we are going to wait. In the meantime, our engineers have managed to construct a bunch of things:

We've switched gears from manufacturing Thunderstorms to Long Spear Launchers. Why the change in strategy? Well, now that we have upgraded Thunderstorms at each base the need for more is lessened. So far we've been handling the UFO interceptions just fine too. Look at it this way, which is more important?

• Having Thunderstorms with weaker missiles, or
• Having Golden Eagles with top of the line missiles?

Thunderstorms take forever to manufacture, that's a known. Long Spears take a while too, but nowhere near that time. The most bang for the buck is to upgrade weaponry first. After all the interceptors have upgraded missiles, then we can manufacture more Thunderstorms. The nice thing about doing it this way is that you need to sell a Golden Eagle to manufacture a Thunderstorm (at a full base at least), so take the equipment off to sell, then manufacture the Thunderstorm. When that completes, put the equipment right back on. This shortens downtime too as everything is going through the installation process at the same time.

Oh, and our first load of U238 ammo has finished so now everyone should have at least one clip of the stuff. That's huge.

Anyhow, when the crash site is in daylight I send the team out:

So stay tuned for that mission next time.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Cashing in a well deserved sum adds to the satisfaction of the lads after a job properly done.

Because we know none of it is going to waste under HQ's efficient supervision. All these interlocking parts must be kept in smooth operation - our successes in the field end up enhancing results in the skies while keeping manufacturing well greased and pumping out better gear, which in turn nets us more missions with better equipment at hand for all involved.

Everything done in a timely manner to boot. Speaking of boots, I have a little blip on the map that tells me they're needed on the ground. Head on out!

[Zombie]

Supply Vessel Part 1

More Supply Vessel goodness on the same map type as before. Oh well. The only difference is that this time we have  a hot landing zone. Pete has a shot at the Rider so he'll take it (no need to kneel):

The first bullet does 58 damage and kills the thing:

As we deploy we spot another Rider just north of the craft. Nook steps off to auto shoot it (again, kneeling is for wussies):

The first bullet hits a weak spot for 69 damage and kills it:

On our next turn Gimli will take an aimed shot at a Rider on a rooftop with his photon beamer:

The blast only does 27damage but that's enough for the kill:

Why is there an alien spotted icon yet? Well, it's a UFO cannon:

TV doesn't have enough TU to mortar the thing safely so we'll patiently wait our turn. We can also see a Bonesetter but first things first, let's take care of the cannon:

He hits one cannon for 104 damage and another for only 42. The closest one reaction fires back at him:

Thankfully it misses. He sends another mortar in the same spot and this time hits the first one for 33 damage which was enough to destroy it and only 57 damage to the other - not enough to destroy it:

Let's change gears and have NKF shoot at that Bonesetter next:

His insane 99% accuracy means he can take an auto shot at the thing. Obviously he hits all three times for 40, 11 & 17 damage which killed it:

During the alien's turn, a Rider walks out from between the building and the UFO to see what all the fuss was about:

When it's our turn, Pete is going to take an auto shot at it:

He hits for 12 & 21 damage and kills it:

He makes it look so easy. CG has just spotted that other UFO cannon we damaged from before so TV will nuke it again with a mortar:

The blast only does 75 damage, but takes it out. We know there's a cannon in the center of the UFO so he will send a mortar there too:

The blast does a pitiful 19 damage:

We have to wait till the next turn to nuke it twice more for 86 & 91 which finally destroys it:

A couple alien turns later and an Iron Rattler comes out of the building to the left of us. Gimli reaction fires at it with his photon beamer:

All his shots miss badly for some reason. Performance pressure getting to you Gimli? When it's our turn, Nook is going to take an auto shot at it from an impossible angle:

The first bullet hits for 57 damage and kills it:

A couple turns later TV is moving closer to the UFO to get into position to nuke some more but a Bonesetter reaction fires at him for no damage. CG will shoot at it with some U238 ammo:

His first bullet hits for 79 damage which kills it:

There's another alien spotted icon which is yet another alien cannon. Because the mortar bombs seem to be super weak, CG will shoot at the cannon himself with this fancy new ammo:

He hits all three times for 31, 64 & 24 damage but doesn't destroy it. So he'll shoot at it again:

The next bullet does 28 damage and takes it out:

Join me next time for more alien cannons, more Bonesetters and a visit from the commander outside the UFO again.

Edit: I reached #3 on the Steam global leaderboards for UFOs shot down on Tuesday. Right now I'm at 5571 UFOs shot down. I figure it'll take me till Monday June 17 to get to #2, so I'm going to try for Sunday June 16 instead. All depends how busy I am during the week and how many swarms the game throws at me. Kinda regretting I didn't enable the mod which have UFOs spawn in packs.

- Zombie