Let's Play UFO2:Extraterrestrials

[Zombie]

Unfortunately, due to low fuel and a long trip time Mexico is off the plate. So back to Africa. First round and FA spots a Nh'Teol but doesn't have a line of fire so grenade it is:

Good job! Next round Hobbes spots a Nh'Teol too, and it gets the grenade treatment:

NoX is leading the team through the chokepoint and kills a Trep, then goes back into cover:

NoX hears something moving around in the clearing and it sounded to be a Nh'Teol. He went to investigate and sure enough that's what it was:

You can just barely see the thing's head sticking up from the zig-zag walls. What to do though - NoX didn't have enough action points to do anything without getting stuck out in the open. NKF to the rescue with his mortar:

Brutal. Come on aliens, please clump up for me one time please. Finally the alien activity subsides a bit so we have a chance to get out of that chokepoint and spread out a little bit. NoX spots another Nh'Teol by the UFO:

A 99% accurate snap shot, yes please. And the next round FA sees a Trep along the other side of the UFO:

A couple more 99% accurate snap shots and it was dead:

One was even a critical hit. He still had action points to get back into cover too. Then MTR moves up hoping to catch the aliens inside the UFO off guard or at least to get into a good spot to toss grenades over the roof for some easy kills. He finds one soon enough:

Same round and Pete sees and kills a Trep on the other side:

And the last alien was a Nh'Teol taken out by MTR with another grenade:

It's like clockwork. A well-oiled machine this particular team of soldiers. I missed the EOM, but there wasn't anything new as there were no promotions. Oh well. Time to check out the new base in North America:

Coming along nicely! A detection system, a "full load" of 5 interceptors plus a cannon defense and rocket defense (photon defense still needs 25 more days, ouch). Back on the globe and we shoot down a recon vessel over South America:

At least we have the fuel this time around so this mission will be next. Guaranteed!

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Pretty busy landscape in that starting area, Zombie, with lots of nooks and crannies.

Well navigated though and it could have been far more dangerous than it turned out to be given all the alien dispersion.

Peculiar looking flora too. Things should prove even more eye-catching in South America - unless we land on another farm that is... ?

[Zombie]

5 hours ago, Thorondor said:

Peculiar looking flora too. Things should prove even more eye-catching in South America - unless we land on another farm that is... ?

Your wish is my command, this mission is indeed a farm. Not much happened when we zoned in, no visible aliens and even after multiple rounds of spreading it was quiet. Hobbes eventually spotted a Nh'Teol in a building:

One snap shot was all it took by him. During the aliens turn on the opposite side of the map MTR spots another Nh'Teol:

Again, one snap shot to take it down. FullAuto and Thorondor were clearing the 2nd floor of that farm building and found another Nh'Teol in a doorway:

I wanted Thorondor to get this kill but when I sent him around the opposite way (to prevent reaction fire) he ended up being a little short on action points:

Bummer. Me being the dummy I am decided to move FullAuto until he had a clear line of fire instead of throwing a grenade. He paid for it in the end as the thing reaction fired on him causing some damage:

Thankfully Thorondor had a few TU left so he was able to patch up FA. During the aliens turn, NoX killed a Trep and then another one makes itself visible:

He didn't have a clear line of fire so it was Pete to the resue (as always):

After clearing out the 2nd floor of the farm building Thorondor went on top of the roof hoping to get a good vantage point. Well, he blasted a Trep into oblivion:

Then I realized that FA should really be doing most of the killing as he needed the xp so I sent him up there to join Mr T. Can't have enough people on the high ground. The next round a Nh'Teol appeared from the UFO:

FA had to move a little to get closer to the edge of the roof to get a good snap shot off. It went down easily. As soon as it died it revealed another Nh'Teol standing behind it a little bit:

Thorondor, you are up this time as you have unmatched firing accuracy:

Excellent. On the last round the final Nh'Teol came bolting out of the UFO. MTR was in a perfect spot for a grenade:

And that was it. EOM:

Sweet, two promotions! Let's start with MTR:

One point went immediately into bravery to get him to 62 (still a little low but there are more promotions yet to iron that out). And one went into vitality and throwing with the last 2 going into strength. It was the exact same thing for FullAuto:

It's really quite remarkable how similar MTR and FA are in stats. FA is just a tad better as he has higher max stats. Here's a screenshot of NKF and his new Mortar+bombs loadout:

So he can carry the Mortar loaded with one bomb and then three reloads. He takes a tiny hit in agility due to being slightly encumbered but that doesn't matter much if he's mostly in the back. That's my playstyle anyway: slow and steady. If it takes an extra round or two to finish that's fine as long as we stay safe.

Back on the Geoscape and for the first time ever a light alien cruiser shows up right near our main base:

I'll remind everyone that I have not researched the alien recon vessel yet because I thought that was a trigger point to start spawning bigger UFO's. It's clearly not, though it may play a more significant role if you start researching it immediately. It's fortunate it spawned almost directly over our main base as we have some decent defense systems there as well as 3 interceptors. It went down very quick:

The site marker is a little hidden in our gigantic base icon, but you can probably make it out in the 11:00 position. At least it'll be a quick turn around - though it's dark out so we are going to try to wait till it's light to tackle this bad boy. And since we have a bigger UFO, now it shouldn't matter if we research the recon vessel:

So an interesting turn of events. The aliens forced me to show my hand but I still hold 4 of a kind so I'm not too sure if they thought this one through fully. We shall see.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Old MacDonald had a farm, or ten. E-I-E-I-O! ?

It's a bit harsh to only get a rating of 'Good' when all that went ever-so-slightly awry was FA getting nicked for a single measly damage point. Oh well, an apple a day as they say.

And look at NKF - talk about loaded for bear. Do keep him safe as that's a lot to go off if a grenade ever lands near him.

Now give me a view to a kill as we have new blood to spill! ?

[Zombie]

On 10/21/2022 at 6:16 AM, Thorondor said:

It's a bit harsh to only get a rating of 'Good' when all that went ever-so-slightly awry was FA getting nicked for a single measly damage point. Oh well, an apple a day as they say.

At the end of the day I don't care about the word rating at all. What is most important is finishing the mission, and of course everyone coming home alive, the money and xp/promotions.

Because this next mission was my first light alien cruiser I was really worried it might consist of different aliens. I almost brought along the photon beamers but decided to give this a go with normal weapons first. We spread out slowly not being sure what we're up against but on our second turn Space Voyager spots a lowly Trep:

He didn't have a clear shot at it and it was a fair distance away so we let it be. During the alien's turn it tried to advance and SV killed it with reaction fire. During our turn FA spots a Trep near the UFO:

Might as well go with a snap shot since it's 99% accurate, right? It went down easily with a single shot. A couple rounds later and FA spots a Nh'Teol by the UFO:

This time the snap shot was only 98% accurate, but it still connected and killed the thing. Meanwhile, SV had advanced a bit but was covering the door to the next building from a semi-safe distance (kneeling of course). Thorondor was providing backup for him. A couple rounds later during the aliens turn a Trep comes out of the door and was killed with reaction fire by SV:

A couple turns after that and a Nh'Teol comes barging out of the door with it's photon beamer a blazin', but all the shots must have missed (sure looked like the last one hit SV). Time to take this thing out:

A bunch of turns went by. We almost explored the entire map by this point so I took a short break. Pete was exploring the final building on the north east part of the map and met a Nh'Teol inside. He was almost out of action points so he had to withdraw and was shot:

Luckily NoX was there to back him up and killed the thing. During this time we kept hearing UFO doors opening so there must be some aliens left. A couple rounds later and Thorondor (who was covering the front door) reaction fired on a Nh'Teol and killed it. With a lull in the action, FA advanced to the UFO to take a position along the close side:

And killed the last Nh'Teol when it exited. EOM:

Only 9 aliens on this map (I thought it would be more due to it being a bigger UFO, but apparently not). Anyway, congrats to SV on your promotion! Here's how I allocated the points:

He needs another point in Bravery yet (I'm shooting for 70+ bravery for this playthrough but no more) but after that it'll be strength, throwing, agility and vitality and possibly might toss a token point in perception (aka reactions). At least his throwing is 80 now which is great.

Back in the Geoscape we were producing mortar bombs hand over fist to make sure we have a decent stockpile of them. When running the game ahead I decided to try using the mortar in a base defense mission and it doesn't work (apparently the two-level high hallways aren't tall enough to shoot the arcing projectile). That means we might need the rocket launcher on standby just in case we get into a base defense mission. So I purchased one of those along with some explosive rockets too.

Over in North America our base shot down a recon vessel over the Washington DC area:

We'll be doing that next.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

There you go, SV, now you can pull rank on... well not much of anyone. Nice chevrons though, right? Cheers! ?

Celebrate now. We live dangerously. Next up, and as the song goes: Amerika ist wunderbar!

[Zombie]

Last mission was kinda short so let's do another one. This time it was a desert map.  The team just starts to explore and Thorondor spots a Nh'Teol amongst some walls. He couldn't do anything because of line of sight issues, so it was NKF to the rescue:

Really? Only 27 damage for a mortar? Seems kinda low, but at least it's dead. During the alien's turn a Nh'Teol was shot and killed by FullAuto:

On the other side of the map Space Voyager sees a Nh'Teol but doesn't have a clear line of fire on it. Grenades don't have this problem though:

A couple turns later and most of the map has been explored already. There's just the spot where the UFO is at to clear yet:

A few turns later and for the most part the map has been locked down by our troops. We've been having trouble organizing a defensive perimeter around the north west side due to some mis-clicks on my part, but on the south east side there was no way something could sneak past. Thorondor set up a good sniping spot a fair distance away so when we spotted an alien on that side he could fire on it:

And a couple turns later a Trep came out too:

Three turns after that and a Nh'Teol was also shot by Thorondor:

Showoff! You can just barely see him kneeling down in the lower right of the screen. MikeTheRed has also moved up to along the SE side of the UFO hoping to get in on the action. Little did he realize... because he reaction shot a Nh'Teol and then was met by a Trep too:

Which he killed:

And then the final alien left (a Trep) does the same thing:

Not too smart. EOM:

Finally a promotion for Hobbes! Let's allocate those points:

Maxed out firing accuracy for him is a staggering 101. Move over Thorondor! The last two points went into Strength and Vitality. Bravery and Throwing are going to need to be addressed at some point soon because he's still a little low in those stats, but otherwise he's right on track. Back in the Geoscape and the photon defense in our base in North America finally finished:

Fantastic! And not too much later it was the end of the month again. Time to see how we did:

Much, much better! I think the extra base was key to push the aliens into other areas where the UFO's could be shot down over other "states". I still miss having another base close to my main base for shared protection. Now that we have more cash it's time to expand to Europe. And soon thereafter we shot down another recon vessel

That'll  be next. Before we head out our research into the recon vessel finished:

Just monitoring our activity and scouting locations for an alien base. That's it, huh? Me thinks they do much more than these two roles as that's the only type of UFO I've been seeing so far. Since our scientists are idle, it's time to research the last topic we have available:

Hopefully we can crank this topic out quick because it leads to new armor and we need this badly due to new alien types on the horizon.

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

16 hours ago, Thorondor said:

There you go, SV, now you can pull rank on... well not much of anyone. Nice chevrons though, right? Cheers! ?

Celebrate now. We live dangerously. Next up, and as the song goes: Amerika ist wunderbar!

He he he, thank you both for the congrats! I will celebrate, as we actually do live dangerously. ⚔️

[Thorondor]

Well, Hobbes I welcome the alien-drilling competition! So now that you can shoot we shall have to do something about actually knowing what to shoot at, facing and all that. You'll get there, eventually...

Oh, man, great way to end a month - photon defenses online and funding on the rise. Show us some fiber, Eggheads and we'll go on displaying ever more of our own.

[Zombie]

Another desert map, we just started deploying and MTR spots a Nh'Teol hiding behind some walls:

No clear line of fire so it was grenade time (which killed it). The next round Hobbes spots an airborne Trep:

Gotta love standing 99% accurate snap shots. With Treps though it usually takes 1-3 snap shots to kill (in this case 2). Anyhow we start to make our way to the UFO and come across the Maze™ again. Only one tile wide in most spots which is a bottleneck and a big headache. In this case Hobbes was the first one in so he was "the guy" for killing stuff. Took us a few turns to get situated and then Hobbes sees a Nh'Teol:

No line of fire at it but grenades can still be thrown over these "security" walls so that's what he did. The next round Hobbes poked his head out of the maze and sees a Trep:

It took 3 snap shots to kill though:

He didn't have a lot of action points left to get back into his nook hideout but the area ahead of him was just cleared so he should be fine, right? During the alien's turn we first hear and then see a Nh'Teol and Trep trying to create a crossfire situation (Treps can't shoot though):

So I had to think on this a little bit to decide on a course of action. The Nh'Teol had to go first because it can reaction fire, but Hobbes didn't have a clear shot without moving and exposing himself. That means grenade. (I suppose I should have had one of the other two soldiers try to throw a grenade which would have freed up Hobbes to focus completely on the Trep, but blinders. An alternative was to mortar the place but that seemed like a bad idea to me). After the Nh'Teol died Hobbes auto shot the Trep, killing it too. He was out of action points again so he had to hunker down in the corridor:

During the aliens turn a Nh'Teol took a shot at Hobbes but missed so he was free to shoot back without fear of reaction fire during our turn.

Initially I was going to throw a grenade at it first, but then decided I should reserve it for closer aliens. Snap shot it is (only took one shot too). Hobbes was finally able to get into his nook for cover and a couple turns later and we see a lot of alien activity (2 Nh'Teols):

Here again, no shot on the closest alien so a grenade was used. This allowed Hobbes to move to get a shot on the last alien:

And that was it for this mission. EOM:

It didn't really bother me letting Hobbes get all but one of the kills because he was a little low on xp entering into his promotion last mission so this allows him to catch up to some of the other soldiers. Back in the Geoscape and a UFO landed in Australia:

Typically a landed UFO doesn't take off again very soon so we are going to wait a couple hours before sending out the transport to assault the thing in daylight. Stay tuned!

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Nothing like finding oneself in a tight spot to strut your best stuff.

Hobbes acquitted himself well but I don't know if I would have shied away from employing mortars to widen that bottleneck and so be able to have better team assistance.

Coordinates set for down under. Engage!

[Zombie]

7 hours ago, Thorondor said:

Hobbes acquitted himself well but I don't know if I would have shied away from employing mortars to widen that bottleneck and so be able to have better team assistance.

Silly kid, them are security walls soldier! Joke aside, I don't think you can actually widen The Maze™ by shooting away or blowing up those particular walls because they are protected by metal. (Normal grenades don't work and neither does our AK ammo). I'm not 100% positive on this so next time I'm on this map I'll test it out with a barrage of mortar bombs. The other issue then becomes cost and also wasting bombs on inanimate objects instead of aliens. We'll just ignore this last part until we find out if it works.

Well, this is another desert map (no maze thankfully). FullAuto rolls out of the transport and spots a Trep in the air. I wanted him to continue scouting so I got MikeTheRed into position for a long range shot:

Pretty amazing accuracy as the alien was over 25 tiles away. Snap shot it is. Hobbes covers the other side of the transport and during the alien's turn he kills a Nh'Teol with reaction fire and then sees a Trep come closer:

He kills the Trep with two snap shots then continues to hunker down where he was it. In hindsight I probably should have withdrew him a few tiles back because another Nh'Teol shot at him. FullAuto scouted the area and found the thing:

First shot by FA does 5 damage. That just annoyed the thing causing it to shoot back but only for 1 damage. Then FA hits for a monster critical dealing 67. With the threat neutralized, NKF emerges from the transport and advances to get closer to the action:

It's a good idea to get the mortar guy as close to the fighting as possible in order to give him a chance to fire in an emergency. You better provide backup for him because he'll be a sitting duck. FA finally can move from his cubby in the wall and spots a Nh'Teol in the distance:

A single snap shot took it down. A couple turns later and Hobbes sees a Nh'Teol trying to sneak past the weak perimeter along the transport. Oh no you don't! Hobbes was able to throw a grenade but one tile short:

Should be good enough and it was. Two turns later and another Nh'Teol shows up in the same area, spots NKF and hits him for 11 damage:

Darn it all, But he was easily patched up and was ready to go. Hobbes just killed the thing with a snap shot this time:

And a monster critical hit too. A round later and another Nh'Teol appears along the other side of the tanker truck. Hobbes kills it with a snap shot again:

The last alien was a Trep that showed up near FA, but Hobbes had the best chance of hitting it:

And that was it, EOM:

No promotions this time. I thought Hobbes earned one, but hey, no complaints. We all survived. Back in the Geoscape and our base in North America shoots down yet another recon vessel:

At least it'll be a different landscape. Or maybe not.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Demolishing the competition is the name of the game. Even if first volleys are not always connecting to best effect.

Can't complain about those follow-up criticals though.

Familiar places and familiar faces? Ready to dish out the punishment in North America!

[Zombie]

Surprise, another desert landscape. Funny how that happens, eh? Strap yourselves in, this will be a long one. So Hobbes files out and takes cover behind some sandbags and spots a Nh'Teol encircled by walls. No way anyone could fire at it and it was too far away to throw a grenade without being caught in the open. Mortar it is, this time carried by FullAuto:

No massive damage numbers on this one, but it's dead and that's what matters. Thee next round SV sees a Trep about 10 tiles away:

Gotta love the 99% accuracy for every shot type. Easy kill. Next round NKF tried to run to the side of the UFO but was met with reaction fire from a Nh'Teol and there was a Trep nearby too. Grenade time:

The blast killed the Nh'Teol but not the Trep so NKF had to drop it with a snap shot. During the alien's turn a Nh'Teol fired at Space Voyager (and hit, but no damage) which caused him to reaction fire killing it:

Then nothing really happened for a number of turns as we slowly and carefully explored the south east of the map. Eventually a breach squad organized in front of the UFO door hoping maybe our constant door opening every round would spur the aliens to come and investigate. It worked eventually as a Trep showed up:

Quick kill for MTR and easy xp too. A round and a half later and Space Voyage reaction kills a Nh'Teol lurking in the north west of the map:

He was in a perfect position as he could shoot through two breaks in the walls at a diagonal. Th next turn Hobbes carefully entered the UFO and was trying to look for aliens when he was shot by a Nh'Teol for 3 damage:

Auto shot it dead, then backed off. After healing him the breach team entered the UFO. Safety in numbers, right? We milled around in the anteroom a few rounds then MTR and Hobbes broke off into a room on the right and used that as an advance warning system. Eventually it yielded results:

Go ahead MTR, take it out with an auto shot. EOM:

Excellent stuff, Pete and NKF were promoted. Let's work on Pete first:

A point in throwing got him to 80 so that was good, he was lacking in strength yet so he got 3 points in that and the last went into bravery to get him to 69. 70+ is the min level for my soldiers so he'll need a point in that yet. And here's NKF:

His stats were pretty good already and bravery was 70 so I gave him 3 in strength and two in throwing. He needs at least another point in that and then we can start working on agility and vitality with the remainder in strength. Back in the Geoscape and the first hangar at our new base in Europe finished construction so I started work on building two more hangars:

And then our research finished:

Yes please! We need better armor asap as tougher aliens are right around the corner. See why strength is important? Let's get all the scientists on the job:

Fingers crossed they finish this soon! Then our cannon defense finished at our Europe base so time to put in the Photon Defense:

I have since modified my base building strategy so instead of building a cannon defense first I start with the photon defense as it takes so long. And I swapped the location of the detection section and photon cannon defense so that the photon cannon is on the right of the energetic center and the detection section is to the left of it. After working on the hangars I can start putting in the cannon defense and a light rocket defense to the left and then those 3 will come on line in succession over the course of 3 days (cannon defense first, then the detection section and finally the light rocket defense). After all those are built then the photon defense is only 18 days away from completion which isn't bad. When we get better defense modules I'll start swapping the new ones in for the old.

Anyhow, we shot down another recon vessel nearby:

Before we could get there our research finished:

Read it and weep, alien scum! Ok, it's not that much better but at least it has decent protection against chem, fire and freeze. Time to build these immediately:

Um, okay this is going to take a lot of time and they are awfully expensive too. Maybe we need more workshops? Trouble with that is the engineers cost a fair chunk of change themselves. Maybe we'll make a few of these to start for the breaching crew and everyone else can use the old armors for the time being. As time goes along we'll probably get to better shielding anyway which should help too.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

This is probably the most time we ever spent inside a UFO so far. Pretty dicey in there so it's a good thing you took it nice and slow.

And what a sight to behold SV is on the field - he has the reflexes of a rattlesnake! ?

I have to say, Zombie, lovely progression all around, what with the new Photon Armor researched and our new European base underway things are looking up.

Hadn't realized protection against freeze was a thing. I mean, either environmental damage is applied over time at sub-zero temps or we're considering the prospect of being zapped and turned into an ice cube by a weapon like that of Mr. Freeze or something.

Well, the heat is on for the production of the new armor. Make it so!

[Space Voyager]

35 minutes ago, Thorondor said:

And what a sight to behold SV is on the field - he has the reflexes of a rattlesnake! ?

?Yep, my reaction fire mows aliens, while seemingly being impervious to their fire! Just have to be careful not to jinx me... 

[Zombie]

For a change of pace we get to play in the snow! Silencer comes off the transport and heads straight to the UFO hoping to catch the aliens napping. Jackpot! I'm going to let MTR get this Nh'Teol:

Aimed shot obviously as these Nh'Teol pushovers are weak. Slaughter kills a Trep with reaction fire during their turn and then the aliens start crawling out of the woodwork:

We gotta deal with the aliens around the door to the building first so BB tossed a grenade in there and kills the Trep with a snap shot. Aftermath:

I completely misread the combat information screen as it said there was a hidden unit in there that got caught up in the blast too. Remember this, we'll be coming back. The next issue was this Nh'Teol on top of the building next to us. Space Voyager was in a very fortunate spot to help:

The last visible alien was a Trep and MTR was also in a good place to take a snap shot at it:

Went down with one hit. So then I assumed the building at the beginning of the round was clear so I sent Slaughter over there to cover the corner but he was shot:

I almost had him toss a grenade in there but decided against that at the last minute and just had him hide around the corner. If the alien should come out we have 3-4 soldiers on overwatch which can kill it. Leave that to Space Voyager:

The final alien (a Nh'Teol) was still in the UFO which came out and shot at Silencer injuring him/her/whatever. This was a job for MTR again:

And that was it. I missed taking a screenshot of the EOM as there was nothing interesting. Back in the Geoscape and our new base in Europe is coming along nicely now:

Gotta buy two more interceptors and a couple of stingray missiles for the things. The photon cannons are already at the base. We gotta be careful at this stage as our defenses aren't up to full yet and we only have one interceptor, luckily this base is pretty close to the main base where we have the best defenses and 3 interceptors. I'll mention this again: if you decide to expand and build another base make sure you have all the weapons and shields before you start, that way when the interceptors arrive you can immediately equip them.

Meanwhile in North America a recon vessel comes to visit so we send out the welcome squad:

I sure wouldn't want to see something like this if I was in the UFO. Before we go on this mission I decided it was time to start equipping some of the team with Photon Beamers for the eventual better aliens. I didn't want to overdo it though so I just gave them to Space Voyager and Thorondor for now:

Four "clips" for each should be sufficient. And at some point I really should have more photon grenades loaded up too. Technically, Mr T and SV are strong enough to carry a Photon Beamer in one hand and a rifle in the other but I don't like clogging up the other hand for soldiers who have medikits as it becomes tiresome dropping something in order to equip the medikit and heal an injured soldier.

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

So damn proud of meself. ? Everything seems to be going swimmingly so far, the aliens obviously bit more than they can chew.

[Thorondor]

Mopped up without breaking much of a sweat and that had nothing to do with the weather, Zombie - though you had Slaughter inadvertently playing with fire a bit there. And the mind games haven't even started.

So what's this? Sweeeet new kit fresh off the oven. Heck yeah - let's rock and roll!

[Zombie]

@Thorondor I think it's more like this:

Underwhelming, but powerful (for now at least).

This mission was farm again (I swear, all of North America seems to be farm in this game). After the initial deployment and the aliens turn it was time to expand a little bit more and MTR is chosen to take out a Trep on a rooftop:

Can't complain about a 91% accurate standing snap shot, though it did take two hits to kill the alien. More slow but steady expansion and Thorondor spots a Nh'Teol upstairs in a room:

That's gotta be a game glitch like UFO:EU where some diagonals didn't have the right LOF template as I can see it but can't shoot it. Darn, guess we'll have to do this the hard way. Couldn't really do much that turn but during the aliens turn MTR was able to kill a Trep with reaction fire:

Now that we knew there was an alien upstairs, I sent Bomb Bloke over there to cover the door just in case something peeks it's head out. We hear UFO doors opening for the next couple turns and a Nh'Teol was spotted by BB. He couldn't shoot the thing with some boxes in the way so it was grenade time.

 However the grenade didn't kill the thing but did destroy the boxes which allowed the alien to shoot and hit him. No damage thankfully, so BB finished it off with a snap shot. The next round a Trep shows up in the same spot:

BB finished that off with another grenade. A bunch of turns later and there wasn't much alien activity except for the occasional UFO door opening. I sent Thorondor around to the back of the building to gain entry in that door. BB was kinda entrenched in his spot so I sent Slaughter upstairs to check on the location of that Nh'Teol we spotted many turns ago. It was still there - didn't move at all, but now Slaughter was out of action points:

The thing just came closer but didn't shoot and ended it's turn not in cover:

A big screw up on their part. In this case Slaughter was close so out came the auto shot. The next round Thorondor came into the main room of the building on the ground floor and spotted a Nh'Teol behind some obstacles like a hay bale and barrels. Grenade time again:

I was a little worried about that giant red tank sitting there which was probably filled to the brim with some unknown but highly flammable (and explosive) liquid, but it was just outside of the blast zone:

Th next round a Nh'Teol exited the UFO and was met with reaction fire from Space Voyager:

Nice long range shooting there! The next round the last Nh'Teol exited the UFO and was again met with reaction fire from Space Voyager. First shot connected for 45 points which was unbelievably not enough to kill the alien but here comes the last shot:

That was it. In my excitement I forgot to take a screenshot of the EOM, but th only thing that happened was a promotion for Bomb Bloke. Let's allocate those points:

He needed more strength so I put two points in that to get him to 79 and a point into throwing to get him to 80. The last two points went into vitality and bravery. He's still not high enough in bravery for me so another point will go into that in the next promotion.

In the geoscape, our new base in Europe is coming along nicely with 4 interceptors and a cannon defense as an extra perk . The detection section should be good to go in 3 days along with another hangar and then a day later the missile defenses:

That's fantastic news for me as it means we'll finally have some backup protection for our main base. I don't want any base defense missions yet, though it could still happen. Time to test out our preparedness with a light alien cruiser:

Didn't stand a chance. We'll be doing this next!

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

I mean, just as long as the recoil is under control  we should be able to hit anything you point us towards and turn it into a fine particle soup - just as exemplified by SV and so flatteringly captured on film by yourself.

Now tell me there isn't real beauty in that halo of retribution. We have a planet to liberate and we take joy in our mission!

[Zombie]

I'll preface this post by mentioning that Hobbes was lagging in XP so I wanted to see if I could get him a promotion. That was going to be a herculean effort because according to my calculations he needed to get almost all the kills himself. Possible? Sure, but it wouldn't be as easy as it was in UFO:ET Gold. This was a light alien cruiser so you would think there would be more aliens present but the first mission I ran with this ship had the same number of aliens as a recon vessel. Anyhow, we zone in to a desert map so Hobbes rolls out and takes cover behind a wall. During the aliens second turn he killed a Trep with reaction fire:

That's a good start. A number of turns pass and he hears the telltale sound of squeaky leather which is the noise a Nh'Teol makes when moving. It sounded close by too and during the aliens turn he spotted something our of the corner of his eye:

Ho couldn't fire at it due to the wall but grenades don't have this trouble. Must've been a little too close to that tanker truck though as a huge explosion happened:

Good one! Unfortunately with his cover blown he needed a new hideout which he found a couple tiles away. And there was a Nh'Teol not too far away either:

The thing must've advanced a little then decided to duck into that hole in the wall and withdraw. When Hobbes went to investigate the thing shot him (damage absorbed) and then he killed it:

I felt like advancing wasn't such a good idea for him considering he had no backup so he went back into hiding in his cubby. I did bring out one soldier out of the craft just to make sure nothing was sneaking up on us (or Hobbes). A couple turns later and we spot a Trep who was trying just that. Hobbes got into position for a kill:

He took an auto shot this time which was enough to kill the thing, then he ran back into cover again. Next round a Nh'Teol was spotted by him trying to go around the other side of the transport:

I had also brought out a couple more soldiers on that side in the previous rounds but they weren't in any real danger as Mr Hobbes took out the thing with a snap shot. After this all went quiet. For a while Hobbes stuck to his spot but didn't see or hear anything except the occasional UFO door. At this point it was time to advance to the UFO but he wasn't going to do this alone he needed backup. Everyone came out and about half went with Hobbes to the UFO while the other half covered the perimeter. Hobbes was basically covering one side of the UFO himself while the group loosely covered the other side. Wouldn't you know it, but a Trep came out of the UFO, flew up and then to MikeTheRed. That's a gimme, sorry Hobbes:

A few turns later we decided to enter the UFO. By this time the whole map had been searched already except for a tiny 3-4 tile swath which was unlikely to be hiding anything. Hobbes was the main guy and the other soldiers acted as door openers or to resupply him with grenades. Eventually he injured a Trep but couldn't kill it that round, then the next round he found this:

The Trep and a Nh'Teol within a tile of each other. Grenade time:

To the north west of him is a piece of UFO furniture/equipment which he was using as cover. He couldn't shoot at anything if it was where he was currently standing but he could throw a grenade there. The last round 3 Nh'Teols flood the room where he was at. Hobbes throws the grenade and kills 2 and injures the last which then shoots back but the damage was absorbed:

With the furniture out of the way Hobbes finished it off with an auto shot. EOM:

Silencer got a promotion for doing nothing and Hobbes killed 10/11 aliens for his. Silencer first:

Two points went into strength to get him to 75 and then one point into vitality, bravery and throwing. Solid soldier right there folks, not perfect, but close. Completely missed this but his perception is only 42. Thought I had screened everyone to be 50 or better in all stats but apparently he fell through the cracks. Don't really use that stat much so I doubt it matters any. As for Hobbes:

I think I said I was going to give him one or two points into bravery but ended up putting 3 into that to get him to 72. The last two points went into throwing and strength. End-game caliber quality right there. Doesn't get much better to be honest.

Back in the Geoscape and another light alien cruiser was shot down in the Iran area by the combined efforts of my main base and European interceptors:

This will be next when it's daylight.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Nothing quite like going out with a big bang. You know, clearly that first Nh'Teol scarcely had time to register any pain before being vaporised. Pretty merciful if you ask me!

What I will bemoan is the very short duration of the fire and the lack of billowing smoke and floating particles afterwards. Took maybe two or three turns to go entirely and cleanly extinct. Had this happened in X-COM: UFO Defense we'd have lingering material in suspension for quite a while in that area.

I'm thinking this is game engine/performance related though and I must knock the developers for not doing the necessary bit of optimization work for particle FX to further contribute to the tactical side of things when we see so many map elements reused so often as is.

Anyway, mission success, a pair of promotions and the first joint venture with the new European interceptors sure brighten our day. That's how you go about winning tomorrows, gents!

[Zombie]

18 hours ago, Thorondor said:

What I will bemoan is the very short duration of the fire and the lack of billowing smoke and floating particles afterwards. Took maybe two or three turns to go entirely and cleanly extinct. Had this happened in X-COM: UFO Defense we'd have lingering material in suspension for quite a while in that area.

I'm thinking this is game engine/performance related though and I must knock the developers for not doing the necessary bit of optimization work for particle FX to further contribute to the tactical side of things when we see so many map elements reused so often as is.

It's in the desert though, sand doesn't burn. It's the same in UFO:EU: sand will remain lit for 2-3 turns with incendiary then it dies out. Farm, forest or  jungle maps are different in UFO:EU as most of the files have high flammability numbers and also cause the fire to spread. I haven't got to incendiary grenades to test out fire in this game yet, so I'd opt to reserve harsh judgement till the tests are in.

Another preface for this post: I'm going to go over just the mission as I have a bunch of screenshots for the promotions and bases and housekeeping which can be on it's own So this was another farm map, A couple turns in and Slaughter spots a Nh'Teol near a hay bale:

After killing that with a single snap shot NoX spots a Trep on a roof and takes one snap shot::

It didn't kill, but a second one did. A couple turns later and Slaughter sees a Nh'Teol up there too:

The shot didn't kill the thing so it shot back injuring Slaughter. He finished it off with another snap shot and then got patched up:

About 6 turns later and MTR spots a Trep in the air between the UFO and building:

Took 3 shots to kill but the last was a monster critical:

Thorondor had moved up to cover the side of the building and something tried to attack him out of nowhere. Turns out it was a Trep that came down and tried a melee attack. The damage was absorbed but Mr T shot back 3 times killing it:

Lucky. I really should have had another soldier covering him, but he's a big boy now especially with the photon beamer. Three rounds later and Slaughter works up the courage to explore the 2nd floor of the building. A Nh'Teol shot him but the damage was again absorbed. He decided to retaliate with:

Yup, a grenade.MTR kills a Nh'Teol with reaction fire by the UFO and then Space Voyager was caught off guard by another one:

Get out of there SV, FullAuto is going to take care of this one with his trusty mortar:

The final alien was killed by NoX by the UFO. EOM:

Three promotions this time: Slaughter, MTR and NoX. I'll be allocating the points next along with a base update, armor update and new soldier hires. Yup, fresh blood.

- Zombie

[NoXTheRoXStaR]

The only good alien is a dead alien!