Let's Play UFO2:Extraterrestrials

[Thorondor]

Prior notice: reply not yet counting with Stage 5 and post-mission - just spotted it after your recent airing of it.

Obviously, you've gotta go Crazy to deal with this damage absorption thing at Stage 3 start.

Then putting our pieces in the best of spots, like Nook in the right nook and Pete most discrete in absolute height advantage are the kind of moves for outright alien fleeces. And true team play rules the fray, of course.

Having a little lucky star helps too, but TV with his mortars does bring on the hurt up a level. You want toxic levels of destruction? You've got it!

Probably soured the mood of that testy bonesetter that clipped Sorby where it hurts but that really rubbed DragonHawk the wrong way so retribution was swiftly delivered.

It all seemed to escalate from there in a number of such dick moves on the aliens' part. Well, in these parts we lay down the law - no quarters for you we're going all the way in hard!!

@Commander Z: noticed that Steam achievement and wondered how that may have come to pass. Outright pacifism, that's how.  Proceeding with leaving #2 in the dust adviseable. No time to rest on one's laurels just yet I'd say.

[Thorondor]

Stage 5 started with hidden movement in the darkest recesses but if you think glory the bold blesses that's not always the case. Prudence can also avert bereavement.

After Silencer's little mishap everybody pools their respective skillset towards a decisive joint effort, ultimately resulting in victoriously going out with a boom. Pretty, too!

Mouse, you nut, you've earnt yourself a little vacation away from tribulation. Fortunately there's a certain someone *cough* who'll fill in your spot for the next outing, only too happy to kick some serious alien behind on your behalf - packing some real heat as well.

Before heading out we mull what went wrong, right and just weird in our last battle. There was some funny business going on with a bonesetter on the far side that we've gotta figure out and factor in. I'd possibly suggest employing judicious teleports to assist in screening for this particular issue when we get the chance.

Now get on moseying, you heartbreakers and troublemakers!

@Commander Z: that's you, Top of the list, King of the hill, A number one. Keep it that way, Sir!

[Zombie]

Battlecruiser Part 1

We land on a train station map this time, which is a refreshing change actually (still not my favorite map type though). After spreading out we wait. Nothing. Next round, more of the same. Still nothing. Finally on round three we have a nibble. We can see a Rider and a Rar inside the train depot through the clear doors so Nook (who is occupying the first room), opens the door to shoot at the Rar first:

The first bullet hits a weak spot for 130 damage which kills it instantly. Since Nook has a lot of APs left he'll shoot at the Rider too:

The first bullet doesn't hit a weak spot but does an impressive 78 damage which kills it too:

The last bullet in his salvo flies off into the darkness, hits something and causes it to explode:

Not sure what that was, but it was funny and a neat animation. Nook closes the door to get into cover again, but he's nearly out of APs so someone is going to have to check the other door which leads to a "no man's land" between the tracks above and the station. The man for this job is Thorondor. When he opens the door he finds a Rar there which he'll shoot at with his positronic beamer:

The first blast is going to be a hit and it's a cool looking animation too:

It does 42 damage which is very good. His second blast misses badly (I guess that's understandable because with a new weapon comes a little, oh, how shall I put this, "performance anxiety"). His last is a doozie as it's a weak spot hit for a massive 158 damage which kills the Rar:

Impressive. Normally there isn't anything inside "no man's land" because the only two places you can enter it is a door here and father down, so it was fortunate that Mr T was in a position to use his new weapon and able to get back into cover again after. Up above on the platform is also another Rar. We really can't shoot at it due to the railing around the edge, but DragonHawk can toss an Inferno grenade up there:

It only does 28 fire damage. Okay, how about we put some ice on that fire with a Cryo grenade from him next:

It only does 16 freeze damage. AT will throw a normal incendiary grenade up there next:

The blast only does 1 stinking point of fire damage. However, all those non-"explosive" grenades have managed to remove the railing and now Loonie has a clear shot on the Rar:

His first bullet hits a weak spot for 134 damage which finally kills it:

On our next turn, we spot a Rider on a porch of the building to the south of the transport. Sorby somehow has a shot on it through the railing:

His first bullet hits for 69 damage which kills it:

A couple rounds later and we can see two aliens above. One is a Rar inside the train which Knan will shoot at:

His first two bullets hit for 37 & 70 which kills it:

The other alien is also a Rar on the far side of the tracks. Knan still has plenty of APs left so he'll shoot at this one too:

His first two bullets hit for 37 & 57 which kills it:

Very dependable Knan, now go down the lift to the station below! We also noticed that we can see part of an alien cannon on the roof of the UFO so TV will mortar that next:

The first blast only did 109 damage so he mortared it again which did 81 and destroyed it:

A couple rounds later we spot another Rar inside the train. DragonHawk comes up the lift to shoot at it:

His first bullet hits a weak spot for 109 damage which kills it:

That's amazing! Join me shortly for part two where we have a little trouble clearing the train and tracks above, then kill a few more aliens before employing strategic mortaring to move things along quickly with minimal fuss. In fact, this was so successful that we never even needed to enter the UFO to clear that out.

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Battlecruiser Part 2

Flash forward to turn 17, and Nook just spotted a Rider inside the train:

He retreats as far away from it that he can due to low APs and prays. During the alien's turn, the thing comes closer to him but doesn't fire. When it's our turn, Nook will shoot at it:

His first bullet hits for 56 damage which kills it:

Big sigh of relief there. Three turns later Nook spots another Rider in the train. DragonHawk comes up the lift to shoot at it:

He hits for 21 & 76 which kills it:

Fourteen turns later and we've managed to clear our side of the map without finding any aliens whatsoever. Pete is at the far south side on a porch overlooking the train. We can't really see what's on the other side of the train so Pete is thinking of teleporting there:

Like, right here as he would be in cover yet:

Bingo, he spots two Riders on the ground and an alien cannon:

TV will nuke those Riders first:

The blast hits one for 65 and the other for 103 which kills them both:

Sorry to break up the party aliens, but we have stuff to do. TV figures he may as well mortar the UFO cannon too:

The blast only does 76 damage which isn't enough to destroy it. We could let it be, but Pete has an itchy trigger finger so he'll shoot at it:

The first bullet hits for 57 and takes it out:

The next round Pete goes to the lift as he wants to take a peek downstairs:

On second thought, he'll stay right where he's at as he would run out of APs if he needed to withdraw. Next round he goes down and finds a Rider camped out which he'll shoot at (snap shot for more tension or drama):

He hits for 32 which kills it:

Sixteen turns later and we've made great strides clearing out the right side of the map. But we see an alien cannon on the roof of the UFO which would hinder our progress so TV will mortar it:

The blast only does 115 damage though:

And TV is out of APs so we'll have to let it be for now. Four turns later and we've just spotted a Rider in the building in the north corner of the map. Loonie will shoot at it with Thorondor looking on as backup:

He hits for 42 damage and kills it. Next turn and we spot another Rider near the UFO doors where Pete is. Aw heck, let's have him toss a photon grenade on it:

It only does 14 damage so CG moves closer to take a snap shot at it:

That did 23 damage which killed it. The next turn there are two more Riders standing near each other in the same area so Pete will toss an Inferno grenade between them:

The blast did enough damage to kill both of them which ended the mission. Excellent work everyone! In my next post I'll go over the EOM report as well as shoot down another Battlecruiser, upgrade a Thunderstorm on the aircraft carrier, upgrade armor for one soldier, shoot down a light cruiser UFO and send the team out to visit the crash site. Busy, busy, busy!

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Well, here's the end of mission report:

Kinda quiet actually, no promotions, no aliens captured, just one clip of heavy photon beamer ammo and that's about it (besides some UFO components and the bounty). Back in the Geoscape and we are trying to shoot down another Battlecruiser:

So far, so good. And before you know it, it crashed into the Atlantic:

Actually, kinda happy about that as I didn't want to do another big UFO so close to the last one. I think it's time to upgrade a Thunderstorm at the aircraft carrier with some advanced ship parts:

And now we have two upgraded Thunderstorms there:

That's some great news as we need the defense and speed upgrades to help survive bigger UFO encounters. A couple days later and we finished production of a Sludge Suit of armor at the main base and a positronic cannon elsewhere:

We need this armor so bad right now it's not even funny. It's going directly on Silencer:

He's loaded mostly on rifle clips with a few grenades as backup and 3 shields. Let's pay Mouse a visit in the hospital to see how his recovery is progressing:

One more day! We need him back asap so he can catch up on xp.Six days later and we are shooting down a light cruiser near Europe:

With all these interceptors, it doesn't take long to make progress:

A minute later and it's all over for this UFO:

Since Mouse is now fixed up he rejoins the rest of the team on the transport while Thorondor quietly sulks off. Come on, it's not that bad, you are going back on vacation for a while again. Until we meet again good sir! I move some soldiers around in the craft and give Crazy Gringo a suit of sludge armor to match Pete:

Pete and CG are my two team leaders so they need all the good stuff. CG is a little weak and is encumbered a bit (hence the red 100 in AP) but it's only by a point or so. He's willing to live with that knowing he's better protected while transporting and stunning. So join me next time when we tackle that light cruiser!

Edit: Just reached 13,001 UFOs shot down. I was aiming to get to 13,236 by the end of November but fell a little short. Oh well, I think I can make that up in December assuming I have the time and lots of UFO swarms. I'm shooting for 14,000 by the end of December and if that's reached earlier, I'll go for 14,236. Aim low and you'll always be happy, right?

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

14 hours ago, Zombie said:

His first bullet hits a weak spot for 109 damage which kills it:

Aaaahhh, my dream shot... by DragonHawk, dammit!  

[Thorondor]

Hey, Nook, what's cooking? You wanna leave something for the rest of us or what?! What an intro, you show-off...

Funny thing this positronic beamer - I guess I now know how to spin that knob for the hit vector. Plenty of juice in these beauties. Not feeling so lucky now, eh alien punk?

Good thing they're not always so great at reaction firing and just sit there as we pile on pineapples of every sort to soften 'em up. One way or the other is dandy and we riddle them with shots and neuter their closest cannon with TV's lovely arching lobs.

This is our station so don't think you're gonna veer us off-track. We're coming through and that's that. In turn we're making sure it's your final stop right around here.

Don't you just love a nice clump of invader trash to blast? Then more come, likely to investigate the casualties, only to meet the same fate; silly buggers. There - scrapped in a heap!

No apples and no honey around the place. Just junk food in the vending machines too. We get out on the double and chow down back at HQ before the top brass eats all the good stuff.

It's at least heartening to see the gear we get off missions through such great hardship being put to optimal use frying interlopers up in the skies as well as on the ground.

Mouse, you naughty slouch, still asking the nurses to give you therapeutic rub downs? You're more than fine, so hop to and let them comfort Thor some, as he's back to just sipping margaritas at home base and not too enamoured at the prospect. Take some extra 5, you lean, mean, killing machine.

@Commander Z: a steady, crunchy diet of crisped UFOs for breakfast always brightens my day!

[Zombie]

Light Cruiser

This time we are on a cityscape map. The UFO is pretty close to us so we all head into the "explosive room" that's near the transport. Not many APs were left afterwards so fingers crossed we don't encounter anything:

Luckily it was all quiet. When it's our turn again, NKF heads up the lift to the roof to have a look around and spots a pBoP:

Kret needs the xp more so he'll shoot at it instead:

All three shots hit for 52, 22 & 46 which killed it:

That's some impressive shooting, soldier! The next round Loonie goes up the lift to shoot at another pBoP:

His first bullet hits for 83 damage and kills it:

On our next round we spot an airborne mega over the front of the transport so Silencer will shoot at it:

His first bullet only does 20 damage, but his second hits a weak spot for a massive 106 damage which kills it:

Sorby also spots a pBoP which he'll shoot at:

His first two bullets hit for 44 & 62 which kills it:

A neat looking death animation for sure. Three rounds later Loonie goes up the lift and tries to peer over the railing to see the door to the UFO and is immediately shot at by a Mega. It's shot hit the railing instead though:

Well, he may as well shoot back at it:

His first bullet hits for 86 which kills it:

Instead of searching out the rest of the map, this time we all huff it to the UFO hoping the aliens will come to us (if there are any left outside the UFO that is). DragonHawk has spotted a Mega in a room to the right but can't shoot at it because a vat is in the way:

Ok, let's shoot at the vat then:

With the vat gone he can now shoot at the Mega:

His first bullet hits for 26 damage, the second is absorbed and the last does 72 which kills it:

We now can occupy the room. Four turns later we open the door to the bridge and spot another Mega inside. Knan will shoot at it from the room:

His first two bullets hit for 21 & 19 damage which kills it:

The next round Silencer opens the door to the bridge again and a Mega reaction fires back at him but misses so he'll shoot back:

His first bullet only does 10 damage:

His second only hits for 17 while his last missed. The Mega reaction fired back at him and hits but the damage was absorbed:

Way to choke at a critical time! Anyway, he does retreat which was smart. This Mega has to go so DragonHawk stands in a chem cloud to shoot at it:

His first bullet hits for 41 which kills it:

On our next round we can "see" another Mega inside a room, but the door to the bridge is still open. How can that be? Bug?

I reload at this point to hopefully eliminate the issue. Seven turns later the thing comes bombing out of the bridge straight into the arms of part of the team who are in wait but it doesn't shoot at them. When it's our turn, Sorby comes out of the room to the right to take a point blank shot n the Mega:

That killed it which ended the mission. EOM report:

Again, not much going on. I consider it an excellent success as nobody was injured and we came back with some more space bucks to help fund the operation. Back at base we sell whatever advanced UFO parts we have for some more, but we are keeping the normal components in case we need some cash in a hurry later:

A few days later and we spot a Recon UFO near Mongolia. The Thunderstorms from the aircraft carrier are being sent out to intercept it:

They immediately fire some missiles at it:

It doesn't take long to crash the thing:

Do we bombard or visit the crash site though? Well, since it's going to be in daylight and near to our main base I think we'll visit it in a little bit:

So join me for that mission next. Should be interesting as we have some different aliens to deal with for a change.

Edit: As of last night I now have 13,294 UFOs shot down in the game. A couple days ago I had an excellent month with lots of UFOs to shoot down. Took a considerable amount of of effort to deal with them all but I figured it would be worth it in the end. End of the month comes around and no EOM report is given, the game just goes on as normal. I check Steam and none of the UFOs I shot down were tallied. Ran another month with the same result. So I had to reload the game (luckily I have a bunch of saves to pick from). Seems to be working again so I'm not sure what happened there. The worst thing about it was the loss of two months worth of shooting stuff down (probably closer to 100 UFOs). So I'm still behind a bit, maybe I can make that up today.

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Recon Vessel Part 1

Just to note, I pared the screenshots down quite a bit in the beginning of the mission. I had restarted once in there for some reason (probably buggy/unstable/laggy) so we'll be joining the game already in progress on round #3. We've deployed in the usual fashion and have spotted a Chem Monster on a rooftop southeast of us. Nobody really has a clear shot on it so TV whips out the ol' Mortar:

The explosion was quite satisfying to say the least:

The damage was pitiful at just 45 but that was enough to kill the thing:

We're worried about the "beehive" area to the north of us as there are a lot of dark areas in there yet so Mouse is going to shoot a hole in the hedge to take a peek:

Well, lookie what we have here: a Mega! I think the best strategy is to have CG teleport in back of it:

And now he pulls out the cattle prod to zappy-zap the thing:

It does 54 stun damage which means it's nightie-night time for this Mega:

CG has exactly 26 APs left which is barely enough to teleport back into hiding (remember that teleporting requires you to throw the teleporter to where you want to go and then it'll send you there):

Even though the throw was 99% accurate (and probably more) it missed which ate up CG's 26 APs and left him stranded:

Suddenly we don't feel so confident anymore. Can't figure out why... Oh well. The next round CG teleports a few tiles east in order to scout ahead a little. He spots an airborne Mega which Mouse will shoot at (CG is at the very left of the screen near the crates):

His first bullet hits for an incredible non-critical 99 damage which kills it:

Unreal! The next round we spot another Chem Monster where the first one was except not on the rooftop. FA (who is inside the transport yet along with Gimli) decides to take an auto shot at it with his photon beamer which has "heavy" AE ammo loaded in it, even though his accuracy is only 57%:

His first blast hits but is absorbed, the second does 1 stinking point of damage and the third misses completely. The Chem Monster reaction fires back enveloping the area in a choking cloud of purple gas doing 10 damage to him and 15 to Gimli. Knan comes out from behind a hedge to shoot at the Chem Monster:

His first bullet was absorbed, but the second did 81 damage which killed the thing:

FA is going to patch up Gimli with a Stimpack:

And now Gimli will patch up FA with a Stimpack too:

In hindsight, FA should have never even thought about shooting at that Chem Monster. His accuracy was pretty low and he was wearing Hellfire armor which offers 0% protection against chemical attacks. Not only that, but Gimli was also wearing Hellfire armor so he suffered the same fate. Luckily, neither received any critical wounds and life goes on. There's another Chem Monster visible and Loonie will shoot at it:

His first bullet missed and the second did only 13. The Chem Monster cuts in line to reaction fire back at him:

It missed badly thankfully. Loonie's last bullet hits for 57 which kills it:

A number of turns go by with no sign of aliens. The door to the "toolshed" building is open though so Pete's going to teleport over there to take a peek inside:

A Mega inside reaction fires at Pete and hits, but his Sludge Suit armor absorbs all the damage. He wisely teleports the heck out of there as Nook wants to shoot a hole in the side:

With a hole made, DragonHawk will toss a golden pineapple just inside:

The blast only did 13 damage to it though:

Kinda disappointing. He's going to try redeeming himself by shooting at the thing:

His first bullet hits for 75 damage which kills it while the second hits the corpse and is gone:

His last flies off and hits an explosive barrel which sets off a couple more:

Join me for part two where we take care of a few more Megas, finish the mission, and head back to base where we shoot down another UFO, deal with manufacturing, and shoot down yet another UFO. Busy!

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

After what can only be classified as a by the numbers stealth deployment we get the drop on the aliens. It's a nice feeling that, for a change.

Nothing survives first contact with us for a while, so they couldn't even rat us out over comms. That streak was unfortunately over when Loonie was eyeing the UFO from above though, sticking out like a sore thumb.

Changing gears we went for the proverbial throat with some rush tactics, which was not without its little thorns but we cleared out all the Megas to good effect there and called it a day without as much as a ding to speak of!

Goods offloaded, logistics sorted and we get a rundown of goings on. Nosy recon vessel got schooled and they want us to go have a word; sure thing!

As if in the blink of an eye we're back in action in far more pleasant country but in no less foul company.

TV opens up, not allowing for any toxic behaviour. CG got dangerously creative with his prodding and still lived to tell the tale.

What to say about FA? Just shoot and come what may? You're lucky to be still breathing today after that noxious spray. Luckily too Gimli was in excellent mood and stayed in play or he might've choked him himself after getting caught in the middle of that.

Things get heated all the same with Chem Monsters all over the place. Look alive, we're not losing face here!

@Commander Z: so, they're fudging the monthly numbers. This simply means you can say you're well ahead, adding "And that's being conservative" - because you really are!