Let's Play UFO2:Extraterrestrials

[Zombie]

Supply Vessel Part 2

It's three turns later and we've just spotted the last UFO cannons which cover the main doors. As usual, TV will mortar it:

It's a weak spot hit for 178 damage which means it's gone:

The next turn we spot the UFO cannon on the right corner. TV prepares a mortar for it:

The blast does 89 damage so he sends another which also does 89 damage which destroys it:

There's another cannon on the far corner which we are going to ignore for now as it's out of the current combat area. Plus, I don't want to waste another mortar bomb (or two!) on it. On the next round we notice the left UFO door has been opened. When AT investigates, he finds a Bonesetter inside yet. Time for an incendiary grenade:

It does a decent 49 damage which isn't enough for the kill:

That's all we can do against Mr. Bonesetter for this round so we decide to let it "roast in it's own shell". The next round the door is still opened, but the Bonesetter has disappeared. AT will "probe" the area with a photon grenade to see if it's still around:

Nope, but the blast is sure pretty:

Turns out, the thing was probably right around the corner from AT by the other door. The reason I say this is because a Bonesetter rounds the corner during it's turn which is met with reaction fire from Gimli and his trusted photon beamer. This shot looks like it'll be a hit:

It connects and only does 10 damage. The second shot is way off target, hope it doesn't hit a certain someone by accident:

Yup, it hits AT but the damage was absorbed. The last shot missed too. That's not it for the action as a Bonesetter opens a door to the building on the left and is met with reaction fire from MTR. The first bullet was absorbed:

The next two bullets hit for 10 & 8 damage. Then Nook takes over with his first bullet doing 15 damage:

The second bullet was absorbed, but the last hit for 26 damage which killed it:

Nice shooting guys! There's still that other Bonesetter by AT yet. Silencer is gonna shoot at it because there's no way a miss will hit poor AT again:

The first bullet missed while the next two did 25 & 15 damage so he'll shoot again:

The first bullet missed again, but the next did 50 which killed it:

Should've probably loaded up some U238 ammo and took snap shots instead, but it all worked out. During the alien's next turn, the Commander pays us a visit:

It comes another tile closer and is met with reaction fire from MTR. Everything was absorbed unfortunately, but were still hits which counts to XP. The thing then "shoots" some sort of cold weapon at Pete dealing 17 damage:

Pete shoots back, where the first two bullets were absorbed and the last did 7 damage:

MTR loads up the "el-cheapo" bullets into his rifle and starts shooting at the thing for xp. First bullet is a hit:

Silencer unloads on it next and now it's AT's turn:

That's enough playing around for Pete. He's still injured and just wants to go home so he pulls out the cattle prod:

He stuns it and ends the mission. Join me next time when we cover the EOM report, a promotion, research, manufacturing, bases, shooting down another UFO... a bunch of stuff.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Alpha team's lethality is really a thing to take note of at this stage.

Whatever we're shooting for we're hitting just about always bang on (errrrm, Gimli shouldn't hit the juice so hard, right?), mostly removing a threat on the very first go at it. Cannons are tough cookies to crack of course and it's not an efficient process in terms of ammo expenditure but we can usually skirt them well enough.

We're not exactly stealthy, admittedly, yet that's not our style anyway. We like our pineapples and know how to use 'em too.

Naturally, it doesn't hurt that the bogeys tend to beeline towards us one way or another, their Commander included - which we don't mind shocking whenever the opportunity presents itself.

We rest not on our laurels though and the example of continual self-improvement comes straight from the top - High Command is now officially Top 3 on the planetary scale and you can bet that's not the end of it!

[Zombie]

So here is the EOM report from this past mission:

Obviously excellent. We made a lot of cash, acquired a bunch of items, stunned the commander and Silencer was promoted. As always, let's allocate his points:

Everything went into strength and shooting to max those out. Strength is an incredible 102 and shooting is 101! Needless to say, I'm stoked. When we are back on base I was looking at his stats again and I was dismayed to see he was lower:

Both strength and shooting were lower by two points to 100 and 99 respectively. Not sure why this happens or what the cause is. (A bug? WAI?) Maybe it's because when you put one promotion point into a stat it goes up by 3 points for the soldier. If a soldier's max cap for say, strength, is 100 and that soldier is sitting at 99 pre-promotion and you put one promotion point into strength, one point will go into maxing that stat out while the other two will be lost. The promotion screen is just incorrectly showing that all three points went into the stat. If that makes any sense. Don't get me wrong, I'm fine with Silencer having 100 strength and 99 shooting as those are monster numbers. All we need to do yet is round out the other stats to make them more usable.

It's time to sell some of the stuff we received from the last mission:

That's nearly another $430k for the piggy bank. Not long after and one of the photon defenses finished construction at our base in Africa:

The other one will take an additional 10 days to complete. Three heavy rocket defenses and two photon defenses should be sufficient. You can also see our engineers are building another thunderstorm to fill out our interception capabilities. Once that's done, then we can sell the last golden eagle and manufacture another thunderstorm.

Nothing's been happening on the Geoscape as of late in terms of alien activity. So three days later our new Pegasus transport finished construction:

Excellent stuff! We've been looking forward to this for a very long time. It's got hardpoints like an Avenger so we could kit it out for interceptions. Unfortunately, with the big switchover to thunderstorm interceptors in progress, all excess missiles and shields are being utilized. Not a big deal, we'll use this as a strict transport for now:

I did have some legacy interceptor equipment stashed away so I later equipped it with that stuff in the interim.

Our current transport (the Icarus) only has room for 10 soldiers which isn't a heck of a lot. It's really surprising what we've been able to accomplish with only 10 soldiers so far. Everyone comes off the Icarus and now we start to assign them to the Pegasus instead. It's got room for a massive 16 soldiers which means we can finally bring along a couple more rookies to get them experience. First up is Kret 2.0:

And next is Sorbicol 2.0:

Both will be fantastic additions to our team. And we have a couple more rookies waiting in the wings too. For now they will stay safely back at base. With the Pegasus finished, we can resume cranking out some more U238 ammo for our troops. A day later that completes along with two Thunderstorms:

With the new rookies getting on the new transport we need some new shields for them too so we'll make 4 of them for now:

In North America, we are going to build another Thunderstorm:

In Europe, we are building a long spear missile launcher:

Same deal for South America:

As for Antarctica, it's all about the Thunderstorm interceptor because we have a lot of golden eagles stationed there:

Ditto for Africa, but this time it's because they can help shoot down UFOs near our main base:

Not too long after, we detect a Patrol Vessel in North America almost over our base:

The base defenses are allowed to soften it up a little bit until we send out the interceptors:

It doesn't take much and we cause it to crash land:

I'll say it's the Knoxville, Tennessee / Ashville, North Carolina area. Probably closer to North Carolina.

With our new shields produced, I decide to manufacture the Raven battle armor upgrade we've been sitting on for a while:

We haven't used the Raven "tank" yet as I need the room on the transport for soldiers. But we do have one at the base in case the aliens invade there. Sure, I have vets like Thorondor, Space Voyager, Slaughter, Blade, Tammy, Bomb Bloke and others on-call there. But a big 2x2 unit might come in handy to block shots and stuff.

Join me next time for that Patrol Vessel mission with a new transport and two new rookies!

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Staff Sergeant Silencer has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? -=Triple S=- is on the scene! His bellowed rejoicing sure is going to turn mute in amazement a few rookies tonight.

We have other reasons to be proud too, with the much anticipated high-flying steed that is the Pegasus vessel finally entering active service. It is an honor to take it to take it out on its maiden voyage.

We're further making preparations the world over to increase our overall readiness status across facilities and achieve superior airworthiness when facing enemy craft.

Don't just stand there staring - get yourselves on board, second-generation Kret and Sorbicol! Everyone; get ready to rock and roll!!

[Space Voyager]

On 5/25/2024 at 4:17 AM, Zombie said:

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.

Wow, show them charts hell man!

[Zombie]

Patrol Vessel Part 1

This mission is on a cityscape type of map, not my first choice, but it's the only one the game would give me. Let's do this then! Not much happens for the first couple turns, but on turn 3 we peek down below to see a new type of alien! Sorbicol it going to test the waters by tossing a normal grenade near it:

It does 20 damage -not too shabby all things considered. Okay Kret, test the water some more with another grenade:

It sets off another explosion doing 56 damage to the thing but that's not enough to kill it:

Well, this new alien is called a Rarach and so far they don't seem too difficult to damage. Killing is a different matter though. For now we are going to let this one be. The next turn it's gone (of course). Four turns later we spot another one (maybe it's the same one) down below again. Sorbicol will toss a normal grenade on it:

The blast does a very healthy 61 damage which doesn't kill it (must be a different Rarach). MikeTheRed has taken a peek down there and sees another nearby. Sorby is going to throw an incendiary grenade on the other one to see how that does:

This blast does 25 damage which isn't terrible, just not enough:

Kret will now throw a normal grenade on the flame kissed Rarach:

The blast does 45 damage which was excellent, and it also set off some "cars" which are exploding too:

He still has some APs left so he will spend them tossing a photon grenade on the first one:

It does 47 damage and finally kills the alien:

Yup, we could have probably just shot at the thing and killed it too, but I was worried about them shooting back. The grenade thing seems like a pretty safe way to get some damage on them with minimal fuss. Accounting Troll will throw a photon grenade on Mr Toasty:

The blast does 34 damage and kills it:

We breathe a big sigh of relief. The first big hurdle has been cleared. It doesn't last long as another Rarach is spotted down below on the next turn. Sorby will toss a normal grenade on it to start things off:

It only does 21 damage. Kret joins in and tossed a normal grenade and an incendiary grenade on it doing 18 & 29 damage respectively. It's still alive so NKF will toss a normal grenade on it:

It does a healthy 50 damage which kills the thing:

So far, so good. But we've been using a lot of grenades on these aliens and our supply is pretty limited. Luckily no more Rarachs show up so I send MikeTheRed down the lift to keep an eye out for aliens trying to sneak up. Four turns later a Rider comes by to say hello so MTR will greet it with an auto shot:

Totally forgot he had normal ammo loaded so it took a lot of hits and shots to do enough damage to kill the thing. His last bullet did an impressive 56 damage which took it out:

The next turn there's more Rider action as another one is spotted on the other side of the transport. NKF will toss a normal grenade on it:

The blast does 39 damage and kills it:

Atta boy! Two turns later NKF spots an Iron Rattler even closer to us. That's in Mouse Nightshirt's throwing range so he'll toss a normal grenade near it:

It only does 23 damage which means Dragon Hawk will toss a grenade near it next:

It only did 12 damage but was enough to kill it:

A couple turns later a Rarach stops near the same spot so Kret will throw a photon grenade on it:

It does a pitiful 11 damage so Sorby will tempt fate and do the same thing:

This time the blast does 27 damage. NKF will now show these rookies how it's done with the coveted golden pineapple:

It's a weak spot kill for 110 damage:

Jeez, maybe I should have brought more of those along! Join me next time where there's a big gunfight at the O.K. Corral between Crazy Gringo and two "cowboy" Iron Rattlers. (Maybe this city's name is Tombstone)? Then we deal with the numerous UFO cannons and take out more Riders.

Edit: I'm still currently #3 on the Steam leaderboards for UFOs shot down at 5889. That's ahead of schedule which I'm happy about. The other day I had a "marathon" month shooting down UFOs. At the beginning of the month was a swarm which my bases took out quickly without any interceptor intervention. A few days later a group of 6 smaller UFOs spawned in and before we could take them all out another group of 6 medium-large UFOs showed up. We shot them all down and a few days later another group of 6 various large-very large UFOs showed up to cause some havoc. We carefully downed them all. That's all before mid-month. Then there were some smaller UFOs sprinkled in there until the 31st when another swarm spawned in. Unfortunately we were only able to take down half of them before the end of month report, but we finished the rest off and all was good. It was well over 50 UFOs for that month which was uncharacteristic for the game. Not complaining one little bit. 

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

The lesson for today; grenades are always a good option... Must say I agree wholeheartily. 

[Thorondor]

We even let a rookie have first crack at a new invader. That's how generous we are right from the start.

Them Rarach nuts seem to be on the tough side but nothing a little joint effort can't handle.

Further parting the darkness we eventually find easier prey to snuff out as well.

We've built this city, but we don't mind tearing it down a little if it means more pests will be erradicated. Let's see to it then - check your ammo and move up!

Meanwhile: High Command finding the skies are bountiful? Looking at those beautiful numbers and ramping up the countdown. Let it rip, Commander Z!

[Zombie]

Patrol Vessel Part 2

It's three turns later. Crazy Gringo is just minding his own business down below and during the alien's turn an Iron Rattler shoots at him with it's photon beamer but the damage was absorbed:

He then shoots back with the first bullet hitting for 20 damage. The second looks like it'll be a hit too:

It did 1 point of damage and the last bullet missed completely. Then another Iron Rattler shows up next to it's buddy and proceeds to shoot at CG too:

Luckily the damage was absorbed again. CG shoots back and the first bullet is going to be a hit:

It does 32 damage and kills the thing. The next bullet would have been a hit too, not that it matters now:

Wish it would have missed and hit that first Iron Rattler instead - that would have been funny. Now a photon beamer shot from an Iron Rattler hits CG on the left side of his head out of the blue - luckily doing no damage:

He turns and shoots back hitting it for 8 damage with the first bullet. The second looks like it's going to be a hit too:

It does a massive (non-critical) 60 damage which kills the thing! When it's our turn finally, MTR will shoot at that first Iron Rattler:

The first bullet does 42 damage and kills it with the subsequent bullets hitting some fuel drums in back of it:

There was a pretty big firestorm going on there for a couple rounds, which gave us time to find the first alien cannon on the UFO which The Veteran will mortar:

The blast does 141 damage and destroys it:

Two turns later and there's two Riders near the UFO:

Mike The Red killed the one on the left when his first bullet hit for 28 damage. CG will now shoot at the one on the right:

It's hard to see, but the first bullet looks like it's going to be a hit:

It hits for a massive 61 non-critical damage which kills it:

And we've just spotted another alien cannon which gives TV a little job:

The blast does 79 damage which doesn't destroy it:

One of our rookies (Kret) decides he wants to try shooting at the thing even though his accuracy is only 37%:

He takes two auto shots and managed to hit it once for 8 damage:

Then the cannon shoots back at him:

Luckily it misses. He shoots again with the first bullet being absorbed:

His next bullet also managed to hit but for no damage again. Now Sorby will do the same thing only difference is his accuracy is a little bit better at 41%:

He hits 4 times but only managed to damage it twice for 4 & 9. Oh well, still was a good training exercise for these rookies. Let's have Mr Reliable (NKF) shoot at the cannon now:

His first two bullets hit for 10 & 39 damage which destroys it:

He's so good! Join me next time for some more Iron Rattler action, an elusive Trep (haven't seen one of these in a while), and then go inside the UFO for a self-guided tour killing multiple Riders around every corner.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Iron Rattlers are getting a little too full of themselves, aren't they?

Whatever gave them the impression we'd be impressed was surely misleading. Crazy Gringo knows a thing or two from the school of hard knocks and has no problems delivering a little lead-supplemented lecture on demand.

Bottom line? Whatever doesn't kill us makes us stronger and meaner. Scorched earth style.

We do allow the greenhorns some more aiming practice but are otherwise engaged in pursuing additional steamroller action here. Watch your six, people, this ain't over yet!

[Zombie]

Patrol Vessel Part 3

It's a couple turns later and now we've spotted an Iron Rattler by the side of the UFO. Nook is going to shoot at it:

He hits all three times for 3, 23 & 35 damage which kills it:

Easy stuff. But all goes quiet for multiple turns. Eventually a Trep is spotted along the north side of the UFO and luckily Nook is in a perfect position to shoot at it:

The first two bullets do 24 & 26 damage which kills it:

Five turns later and another Trep shows up in the same area during the aliens turn. Unfortunately, Nook has moved away but Crazy Gringo is covering it. He reaction fires on it hitting for 29 with the first bullet. It looks like the second might be a hit too:

The second hit for 37 damage and killed it:

That works! A couple turns later there's more Trep action during the aliens turn and Kret immediately shoots at the thing:

The first bullet hit for only 2 damage and the second flies off and hits some explosive stuff next to the UFO:

Sorby also gets a go at it but only manages to damage it for 12. When it's our turn again, Kret will shoot at it:

The first bullet hits for 35 damage and kills it:

Six turns later and we just spotted an Iron Rattler on the south side of the UFO. It's standing next to a "car" so Mouse Nightshirt will shoot at the car instead:

Big boom time! The initial blast deals 27 damage to the thing:

A stronger secondary explosion hits a weak spot for 71 damage and kills it. Mouse's final bullet flies off and hits some more explosive stuff setting that off too:

Nothing happens for 12 turns. Just for giggles, I have CG teleport to the roof of the UFO in order to get eyes on the last two cannons up there. TV will mortar them:

It's dual weak spot hits for 156 and 208 damage which destroys them:

That's it for the action outside. Join me for part 4 where we venture inside for lots of Rider action and a couple surprises along the way!

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Patrol Vessel Part 4

It's about 3 turns later. Not much has been going on outside, but I'm not positive if there's an alien hiding somewhere in all the buildings. No way I'm going to search all of them - that'll take too much time. Since all the cannons are destroyed on the UFO, I decide it's probably safer to bring everyone to the UFO and guard the two doors while keeping a couple soldiers looking at the unexplored areas and on overwatch. Accounting Troll goes inside the UFO, sees a lift, goes up and is staring right at a Rider. May as well shoot it:

His first bullet does 54 damage which kills it:

AT wisely books it out of there. The next round Crazy Gringo goes up the other lift but doesn't see anything. He stays put in the lift room in a corner. During the aliens turn one Rider comes up the lift and another comes from the other area in the UFO into the lift room:

CG starts to reaction fire at the one on the lift, hitting it for 8 & 15 damage with his first two bullets:

His last bullet does 41 damage which kills it. That's obviously good, but he's in trouble because another Rider comes from the darkness and stands next to the other one. The Rider standing next to him suddenly turns to look at him:

It shoots at him with it's photon beamer, but the damage was thankfully absorbed. He then shoots back hitting it for 43 damage and killing it:

That last Rider just decided to stand on the lift and look at him. When it's our turn, I send Kret up the lift to shoot at it:

His first bullet was absorbed, but the second did 28 damage which killed it:

I bring him back down the lift and set up a firing line around him with the rest of the team as protection. During the aliens turn, a Rider takes the bait and investigates this new risky strategy:

Nook then reaction fires at the thing with his first bullet doing 10 damage:

His next bullet does 39 which kills it. Excellent! When it's our turn, CG goes back up the lift to investigate the rest of the UFO. In the next room he is shot at by a Rider in the corner (for no damage) so he'll shoot back:

His first bullet hits for a massive 94 critical damage which "kills" it. Turns out this Rider was strapped to the wall acting as an alien cannon:

Interesting. During the alien's turn a Rider appears out of nowhere which CG is all too happy to reaction fire at. His first bullet does 38 damage which kills it. An Iron Rattler also comes up the lift to investigate what was going on:

When it's our turn again, CG will take an auto shot at it:

His first two bullets hit for only 9 and 1 damage:

But his last hit for enough to kill it which ended the mission! Hurray! Time to check out the EOM report:

Excellent is right, 30 aliens killed. Not only that, but all our rookies were promoted. In fact, DragonHawk, Mouse Nightshirt and Sorbicol were promoted 5 levels to Sergeant while Kret is only promoted x4 to Corporal 1st Class even though he killed 4 aliens. Go figure.

So  join me next time when I allocate their points, take a look at research, transfer something to Africa, shoot down a few more UFOs and introduce 2 more new rookies. Yup, more rookies. Gotta fill those empty spots on the transport!

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Mouse Nightshirt, you sneaky devil, you were actually paying attention during the "Responsibly destroying public property in an effective way" briefing.

Proves catchy too, as you know how jealous TV can get when someone tries to take the Most Flashy Pyrotechnics Display cake from him.

Not one to ever be left behind in the bravado department Crazy Gringo takes matters of oneupmanship into his own hands and tangoes with the aliens toe to toe in close quarters, scoffing at Kret's silly notion he might need any help.

No need to squabble, really, Nook thought, having a decent enough kill count of his own and remaining nonchalant about it all, despite getting no promotion.

And so it is that the merry 14 return from the cleansing of the maggots' tin, all chanting, by celebratory drink throats burned, veteran or green, increased fame well earned without even panting!

[Zombie]

Well, it's time to allocate points for our three new recruits. Dragon Hawk, Mouse Nightshirt and Sorbicol all got roughly the same distribution as they are all so similar. Kret was the odd man out as he's one rank below:

 

The theory is to get shooting and strength into the 80's as those two stats give you better armor, and allows a soldier to shoot straight which will give you xp. I like to bump throwing into the 70's to make that stat usable. And with the high strength it allows a soldier to carry more grenades. The remainder of the points go into agility and vitality so they are somewhat even. Basic stuff really.

After allocating the points the game gives me a very nice message in the Geoscape:

Excellent! We need the ship parts badly. We've been building up our base in Africa recently so I think the ship parts will be welcomed here the most:

And since we encountered a new alien (Rarach), I think we should research it right away:

About a day later and we detect two UFOs: a recon vessel over Russia and a medium cruiser very near our base in Africa. Time to send out the interceptors there to engage:

And the two upgraded Thunderstorms at the main base are making quick work of the recon vessel:

A few minutes it was all over for that small UFO. Do I want to bombard it or return to base though:

I think a nice small UFO will give our newer rookies some quick xp to hopefully get promoted again, so the Thunderstorms return to base:

Fifteen minutes later and it's just about over for the medium UFO too:

When the recon vessel crash site is in daylight I ready the transport. We have room for two more brand new rookies so welcome Loonie and Knan:

Both are bada$$, but especially Loonie. And because we hired these two so late in the game, they come pre-loaded with a bunch more free xp. Guaranteed these two will be promoted multiple times after this next mission. Before we can head out, another UFO is spotted. This time it's a heavy cruiser. I send out the interceptors out to get it's attention, then disengage and head south to hopefully draw it closer to our bases:

Our base defenses basically took it out with no fuss:

Ok, now we can send the team out to the crashed recon vessel. So join me next time for that quickie mission!

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Our recent promotees are looking more buff alright. Maybe they'll be able to start pulling their own weight now.

They might pass for actually competent members of the squad too for a moment longer, acting smug before the rookies realize we're all in the meatgrinder anyway and everybody needs their backs watched with little room left for posing.

Meanwhile, others have been actually doing their jobs and shooting down the enemy from the skies. We're up - lock and load, people!

[Zombie]

Recon Vessel

It's an arctic base landscape this time. On turn 2 we now see a Rarach on the roof of the building next to the lift so Mouse will shoot at it (with crappy ammo unfortunately):

The first auto shot did 14, 9 &38 damage. On his second auto shot the first bullet did a very decent 42 damage which killed it:

During the alien's turn another Rarach comes around the South corner of the building and is met with reaction fire from Nook. Looks like the first bullet is going to be a hit:

It does a massive non-critical 68 damage while his second bullet hits for 50 and kills it:

See why reactions (and shooting) is important for overwatch? Nook moves to the front of the transport to cover that side of the building. The next turn another Rarach is spotted by him making it's way over to us. It stops short so when it's our turn he'll shoot at this one too:

The first bullet hits for a very healthy 60 damage while the second hits for a critical 70 which kills it:

That's amazing! When NKF opens the door of the building, a Rider just inside the door shoots at him for no damage thankfully. He'll shoot back:

The first bullet hits for 30 damage which takes it out:

Two turns later and CG spots another Rider closer to the other building along the same side as before so he'll take an auto shot at it:

The first bullet hits for 62 damage which kills it:

Weakling alien, but wow, nice shooting! Nothing much happens for a bunch of turns. Just to keep the team busy I have some of them pepper the that small building to the north as there's usually an alien hiding in ambush inside there. Eventually when the hole is big enough we spot a Rider in there which Dragon Hawk will shoot at (with crappy ammo because he has bad firing accuracy at this distance:

One bullet misses while the other two are absorbed. The Rider then shoots back at him with heavy photon beamer ammo which caught him and FA in the blast but both shrugged it off. DH will shoot back at it:

He hits for 6 & 18 which kills it:

That seems like low damage for a kill, so it's possible that all the shooting we did earlier did some damage to it. The next turn there are two Riders standing next to each other on the north side of the building. Sorby thinks that screams for a grenade:

The blast looks pretty good:

It kills the one on the right as it deals 36 damage to it. But the blast only does 14 to the other. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, so Sorby will toss another grenade on the survivor:

It does 17 damage which kills it:

Two turns later Gimli reaction fires at another Rider in nearly the same spot with his photon beamer:

The first blast hits for 17 damage but a second is on the way which be a hit too:

That killed it which ended the mission! Let's check out the EOM report:

Three promotions and none of them killed anything? Awesome! Let's allocate some points then. Knan and Loonie were promoted 6 times so there's 30 points we have to play around with so both get the same treatment:

As usual, the most points go into shooting and strength to get those near 90, then a few into throwing to make that usable and the rest into agility, vitality and bravery. On to Kret next who was only promoted once:

Five points don't go very far, but he got 2 in strength and shooting with the last going in throwing. Not bad at all, at least those stats give him the ability to do something. After getting back to base it's right back out to do that heavy cruiser mission as it's next to our main base:

This will be a muti-part mission again as there were lots of aliens (new ones too!) plus alien cannons to worry about. So join me next time for that!

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

The apparently barren, quietly hostile, chilly surroundings only seem to help us keep our cool.

We do it all by the numbers and the numbers start to increasingly add up, without much of a hitch, even with the little jumpscare episodes NKF and then the Dragon Hawk / FA duo had with trigger-happy aliens.

A process of unrelenting elimination follows, culminating with Gimli definitively restoring peace and signaling the return to the warmth of the shiny new transport vessel. Places like these always put him in the mood for a good sampling of Vodka for some reason...

A good warmup afterwards and a trio of new chevrons bestowed to the upstarts, it's best to get on with it as the clock is already ticking for a real outing.

Screw your heads on straight and be on your toes - we're going heavy duty!

[Zombie]

Heavy Cruiser Part 1

This mission takes place on a military base map. We spread out as usual to cover as much of the landing zone as possible. On the first alien turn a new alien (called a "Caretaker") appears above a rooftop lift (look for the two blue squares at the bottom, the alien is a round thing right above). Kret starts reaction firing with the first bullet doing 20 damage and the second being absorbed:

His last bullet was also absorbed. The Caretaker fired back with it's integrated heavy photon beamer with the first blast being absorbed and the second injuring Kret for 3. When it's our turn again, Mouse will shoot at it (be aware the map is rotated now):

Now, Mouse had el-cheapo bullets loaded into his rifle as they are more accurate, but they are also less powerful. He ended up taking two auto shots: everything from the first was absorbed. On the second auto shot the first bullet was absorbed, the second did 9 damage while the last did 30 and killed the thing:

There's another alien present yet which is a poisonous Rider down below. Nobody can shoot at it, but Sorby can toss a normal grenade near it:

It does 11 damage and also destroys some trees and furniture too:

It reaction fired back but missed and the shot hit the side of the transport instead. Sorby will smarty retreat:

Kret also throws a normal grenade near the pRider which damages it for 6 and destroys more stuff:

That's all we can do this round so we have to let it be. During the alien's turn, another Caretaker appears and is met with reaction fire from Gimli and his photon beamer. The first blast hits for a decent 28 damage and it looks like the next is going to be a hit as well:

That damages it for an additional 23. He unfortunately missed the last time. No worries though, Accounting Troll picks up where Gimli left off with his first bullet hitting for a paltry 4 damage, but his second shot will also be a hit:

This bullet did 13 damage which killed it. Another Caretaker appeared near to where the first one was and it shot it's heavy photon beamer type of weapon at a group of soldiers. Full Auto and Gimli shrugged it off, but Mouse was hurt for 9 damage. When it's finally our turn again, Mr Reliable (aka NKF) will shoot at it:

The first bullet connects and damages it for 29. The thing manages to reaction fire back:

My heart sinks. But NKF shrugs off the damage, keeps on shooting and hits for 45 which kills it:

There are two aliens visible, one is a pRider on the ground (I'm assuming it was grenaded by us earlier). The other is another Caretaker which Mouse will shoot at with his crappy ammo:

With his first auto shot he damaged it twice for a total of 42. On his next, the first bullet connected for 20 which killed it:

Nook then throws a normal grenade at the pRider which does 9 damage and kills it:

Three turns later and we spot another pRider on a balcony above us during the alien's turn:

When it's our turn, Gimli is going to try shooting at the "pipe" surrounding the balcony with heavy photon beamer ammo hoping it'll create a hole we can shoot through:

The shot misses and hits high on the building:

It obviously does no damage, but it's a nice explosion:

Then we realize that NKF actually has a legit shot on the thing. His first bullet only hits for 1 damage, but the second is also going to be a hit too:

That didn't do much better and only damaged it for 2. But NKF redeems himself when the last bullet does 50 and kills it:

Join me next time for part two where it's lots more pRider action. Then TV gets into Alien Cannon eradication duty while NKF tries to roast a Caretaker with an inferno grenade.

Edit: just reached #2 on the Steam leaderboards for UFOs shot down at 6342! I probably could have got that done last night but I was too tired. Lots of alien activity lately and fairly frequent swarms too. Still sitting at 29+ UFOs to shoot down each day to get to #1 by the end of the year. With summer coming, hopefully I'll get the time to make progress to lower that number even more.

As an aside, I may just start playing the game again a little as I'd like to get more advanced ship parts to outfit my Thunderstorms. That would really help with shooting down UFOs too as you wouldn't have to babysit the stock interceptors during prolonged firefights with massive patrol vessels or Battle Cruisers. Actually, I think I could make a fair argument that the massive patrol vessel is much more dangerous than the Battle Cruiser, but we'll get into that at another time.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Well, what have we got here? A new unsightly unfriendly neighborhood "Caretaker". No Care Bear mode for you busters - it's shoot to kill!

Your brash manners are to be promptly rebuked, as NKF exemplifies when at his best. It's funny how the pRiders try to slip in a few shots of their own amidst all the commotion. You're not getting a free pass from us either!

You know the drill, gents, this will require beating some further sense into these interlopers. Let's get it done, shall we?

On private comms: #2 global rank attained! The sky is no longer the limit, Commander Z. The target is now well past the stratosphere and right out there, with you shooting for nothing but that brightest of stars. Sharpening your cutting edge (interceptors) is indeed sounding like the best way to go supersonic. Watch out, Number 1!!

[Space Voyager]

 

[Zombie]

Heavy Cruiser Part 2

Three turns later during the alien's phase two pRiders appear on the ground directly below that last:

When it's our turn, Kret will toss a normal grenade at the closest one:

The explosion is actually big enough to envelop both of them but the damage done is almost nonexistent:

Kret throws a Photon grenade at the first one next. The blast is more localized but does 43 damage which kills it:

Nook is going to throw a normal grenade at the other one:

The blast does an impressive 53 and kills it:

Four turns later another pRider comes out of that building and takes refuge next to a concrete pillar of sorts. Sorby can toss a normal grenade at it:

The blast only does 27 damage but that's still enough to take out these weaklings:

Six turns later and we've been steadily increasing our area of influence around the landing zone. Pete cam up a lift and spotted an alien cannon last turn so TV will mortar it:

It's a huge explosion which deals a critical 174 damage to the thing which takes it out:

A few turns later Pete goes up the lift to inspect the area around the UFO and spots a Caretaker just outside one of the doors to the UFO. Let's see how an inferno grenade works against them:

It does an impressive 60 damage but doesn't kill it:

I'm not getting anyone else involved with it at this point as the other alien spotted icon is an alien cannon. Time to hunker down and keep our heads low till next round. When Pete goes up to check on it, the caretaker is gone and all he gets for it is being shot at by the alien cannon. Luckily the damage was absorbed. The next round TV will mortar it:

The blast does a pitiful 78 damage:

He mortars it again with this blast doing even less damage at 55, but that was enough to destroy it:

A few turns later a Caretaker appears on a rooftop to the northwest of the UFO. Nobody really has a good shot on it except for TV who will try to mortar it:

The blast hits for a low 75 damage but that was enough to kill it:

The other alien spotted is just another cannon. This thing is on the other side of the UFO so there's no way it'll come into play unless we go over there for some reason. Just to be safe TV will mortar it too:

The blast does 127 damage and takes it out:

A couple turns later there's a Caretaker in the air above the door so Pete will shoot at it:

The first bullet deals 76 damage which kills it:

Of course, he's got the U238 stuff loaded so that makes a difference. A couple alien turns later and another one appears in nearly the same spot. Pete immediately reaction fires at it with the first bullet hitting:

It's absorbed somehow, but the next one is a hit too:

You know what? Let's just skip ahead as somehow all the shots were absorbed. Sad. And now there's two of them right next to each other. Normally we'd mortar a grouping like this, but Pete's right there so he'll shoot at the one on the left:

The first bullet hits for 42 damage and it looks like the second will hit too:

It does 64 damage which kills it. Time to shoot at the other one:

The first bullet did enough to kill it which ended the mission. EOM report:

Mouse and MTR were promoted! Let's allocate the points for Mouse first:

Three points go into strength to max that stat out while the last two go in Shooting to get him to 92.Not bad at all. MTR is next:

One point in strength maxed that stat out at 99 while one point in shooting maxed that out at 101! Impressive! The last three points go into throwing, agility and vitality. Simple stuff. Join me next time when we tackle that medium cruiser UFO. It's not going to be any easier though.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Explosives, who can trust 'em, right? Damage was kind of all over the place but flatlining the opposition they still did. It's pretty to look at too.

Leave it to Pete to buck the trend and shoot something the old fashioned way. One and done. Even blows the smoke off the business end of his weapon for extra style points.

Short-lived fame being what it is efficacy required multiple tries right after to deliver the desired results and getting the all-clear to pack it back home.

Speaking of acclaim, Mouse and MTR pony up for the celebratory refreshments this time around. Never underestimate the power of high spirits in team play, especially in our line of work!

[Zombie]

Medium Cruiser Part 1

We land at another human military-type of base and immediately are met by a Rarach. Pete sneaks off the transport so that Silencer can shoot at it:

His first auto shot deals 37, 12 & 51 damage which kills it:

We aren't going to be using the U238 ammo this mission unless it's absolutely necessary. Our stockpile back at base is quite small due to manufacturing the new transport. Anyhow, after deploying everyone we do spot a Caretaker on a rooftop to the west of us, nobody has a shot on it though:

We'll have to let it be for now. During the alien's turn another Caretaker shoots at the squad with it's "heavy photon beamer" integrated weapon:

It damages The Veteran for 5 which isn't too bad (for him at least). And then the floodgates open and the aliens start crawling out of the woodwork in every direction. When all is said and done we see 5 aliens when it's our turn again. Mouse will start things off by shooting at an airborne Caretaker near the transport:

His first two bullets deal 39 & 28 damage which kills it. Nice! Silencer will now shoot at that other airborne Caretaker:

His first auto shot only did 46 total damage but the first bullet of his next auto shot hit for 35 and killed it. There's a Rarach on the ground to the northwest of us. Due to the trees, nobody really has an unobstructed shot at it. However, Accounting Troll is close enough to toss a photon grenade near it:

The blast does a decent 32 damage. NKF is strong enough to toss a normal grenade on it now:

The blast does a decent 37 damage but doesn't kill the thing:

So NKF tossed another normal grenade on it which did 44 and finished it off. Good job! All those explosions cleared the area of obstructions which gave Sorby a shot at the Caretaker nearby:

His first two bullets deal 18 & 54 damage which killed it:

The last alien visible is that Caretaker we spotted at the end of our last turn which hasn't moved much on it's rooftop perch. The Veteran contemplated nuking it with his mortar, but after a lot of experimentation Gimli found he could shoot at it. He thought the heavy ammo would be a good choice to use against it. Unfortunately at the distance he's at, it causes his accuracy to drop to 37% for an auto shot and 61% for a snap. An aimed shot is 99% though so that's what he's gonna do:

The first shot is a direct hit with a cool explosion:

It did 42 damage too. Not enough to kill it, so he shoots again. This time the blast does 32 and kills it:

Crazy Gringo will now patch up TV who was injured for 5 damage:

Six aliens killed in two turns, they must be feeling the noose tightening now. During the alien's next turn we have some action to the northwest of us again. A Rarach comes out of a door on to a balcony and then an airborne Caretaker appears above it and to the west. Sorby reaction fires at it with his first bullet being absorbed. The second appears like it'll be a hit too (you can probably make the bullet out as it's just next to the balcony):

That hits for 17 damage. His next is also a hit but is again absorbed. Typical low damage reaction fire rolls. See, the game just wants to let the Caretaker to shoot back:

Luckily the shot missed so all is good. When it's our turn again, Loonie will shoot at the Rarach on the balcony:

His first two bullets do 40 & 48 damage which kills it:

As for the Caretaker, Loonie will shoot at it too:

His first bullet was absorbed but the second hit for 53 which killed it (you can probably make out the last bullet heading that way - it's to the left of the blackened doorway to the balcony the Rarach was on):

A couple turns later and another Caretaker appears on the rooftop above the Rarach from before. Kret will attempt a 57% accurate auto shot:

He ended up taking two auto shots as there were a few misses but three bullets managed to hit for 25, 26 & 32 damage which takes it out:

Seven turns later during the alien movement phase a Rarach appears to the west of the transport which FullAuto will reaction fire at with his trusty photon beamer (normal ammo):

The first shot hits for a huge 67 with the next on the way:

This one is even more powerful doing a critical 73 damage which kills it:

Join me next time for part two where we kill one more Rarach and two more Caretakers. One of the Caretakers does a number on Loonie and Silencer but they get patched up just fine. TV is also injured again by the other Caretaker. He comes out of the mission unscathed and three soldiers are promoted too. Back in the Geoscape, we shoot down three light cruisers and finally a supply vessel. Busy!

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

The mere sight of us upon arrival, bathed in ethereal blue light, pair after pair of harbingers of alien death, should strike awe and fear into whatever passes for their hearts.

Still, to the amazement of no one aboard the transport, the dimwits didn't seem to immediately catch on. Apparently they were entertaining the concept of overwhelming us. Are you not entertained?

Time to put on a display, both fiery and precise, for the most part. We may get a little pelted but we do not waver. In fact TV has a particularly steely gaze and it's not from the pharmaceutics.

Come on, give us your best shot, maggots!!

[Zombie]

Medium Cruiser Part 2

During the next alien turn we spot yet another Caretaker a little farther north than that Rarach next to a support pillar. Dragonhawk is currently reaction firing at it:

His first bullet does a pitiful 3 damage:

His next bullet was absorbed while his last did 3 again. Sad. When it's our turn again, Loonie will shoot at it:

It seemed like at the end of every bullet the Caretaker shot back at him. If that wasn't bad enough, Silencer is inside the blast radius too so he ends up getting caught up in that mess. Loonie somehow manages to damage it once for 50 which kills it:

Luckily Silencer was uninjured so he can patch up Loonie who suffered damage to every area of his body:

Loonie walks away from that feeling invincible. During the next alien turn a Rarach appears in the usual area and when it's our turn Mouse will toss a normal grenade at it:

The blast is very decent damaging it for 51. Mouse now pulls out the coveted golden pineapple:

It does a non-critical 82 damage which kills it:

Now that's impressive! A couple alien turns later a Caretaker appears in the air near the "lift" building. Kret starts reaction firing with his first bullet hitting for 14 damage with the second being a hit too:

It only hits for 8 damage and now the Caretaker weasels it's way into his reaction fire sequence to shoot back... :

...at The Veteran?!? Well, I suppose he's the closest person so it makes a little sense, but come on, you have a soldier firing at you which is a direct threat. Anyway, the first two shots from the Caretaker were absorbed while the last did 6 damage. Kret missed with his last bullet. When it's our turn again, Loonie will take an auto shot at it:

That killed it and ended the mission! EOM:

Nice, three promotions! I allocate the points for DragonHawk and Sorby in exactly the same way: 2 in strength and shooting and the last going in throwing:

NKF is a little bit different as his strength and shooting are already maxed out. So I put one point into throwing to max that stat out at 102. The last 4 points go equally into Agility and Vitality:

I keep saying this, but NKF is such a beast! And he still has one more promotion to go yet. Back in the Geoscape and we've been busy manufacturing stuff. Another Thunderstorm interceptor is the big one and a couple personal shields to replace the ones lost on The Veteran. The Photon Defense module at our base in Africa just completed too:

That's good news as there's been a lot of alien activity in this region lately. Speaking of such, we just detected two light cruiser UFO's, one in southern Africa and another in Antarctica. The lone Golden Eagle and two Thunderstorms are scrambled to intercept:

Before we could even start firing, a Supply Vessel appears over Africa so I start scrambling interceptors from the main base, Europe and the aircraft carrier to engage it:

Do you see why that photon defense is needed here so much? Anyhow, the interceptors and base defenses in Antarctica easily take out the light cruiser UFO. With all the UFOs flying around in the northern hemisphere, there will be no way we can visit this crash site so I opt to bombard it instead:

The interceptors from Europe have got the attention of the supply vessel so that means we can scramble the interceptors from Africa to engage to get some close range shots in:

Our interceptors in Antarctica have just completed bombarding the UFO there, but now another one appears near our main base:

The base defenses there can take this out. After that UFO is downed, we cause the supply vessel to crash land. Since all the interceptors are congregated there, let's engage the last light cruiser UFO which is headed our way:

It doesn't take much to shoot it down:

So join me next time when we visit that light cruiser near our main base first.

Edit: still #2 on the Steam global leaderboards with 6942 UFOs shot down. I also knocked out the "Colonizer" achievement which requires you to build 5 bases and 3 naval bases. I had that save ready to go and was worried with all the UFO interceptions going on that I might accidentally overwrite it by accident. I suppose you are wondering where the two aircraft carriers are placed when they are constructed? Recall that the first one I built was placed in the Caspian Sea so it's landlocked (it can be moved around the Caspian Sea though). Well, they end up in the White Sea northeast of Moscow on the arctic circle. Took a screenie:

So only one is stuck in the Caspian, all the others are in the open ocean where they have plenty of room to maneuver. They are still rather useless in practice though.

- Zombie