Nightmare On The Ground, And Lived To Tell...

[RyanAR15]

Ever had one of those situations where everything was going smoothly on a routine mission--downed pilot, recon, eleminiation, etc., and suddenly your squad was an in extremely hairy tactical situation, with more and more enemies popping up quicker than they are going down, but the squad survived and lived to tell? What's yours?

 

Recently, I was in a typical downed pilot mission. At some point, the game toughness increased, I've finished Area 51, but the Russian mission hasn't appeared yet. My squad has a LV13 Malcom, and the other troops between LV10 and 5.

 

Well, this mission seemed no diff than the other downed pilot missions...couple of Cudgels, a baloon fish or two...another milk run. The pilot was on the other side of the urban map, so I figured after I'd downed what I'd seen I'd go and get the pilot and out, mission accomplished.

 

Then I rounded the corner...the pilot was located just on the edge of an intersection.

 

I saw my first Car Crab (of this game). Then I saw my second.

 

I map out a plan...scatter, shoot, move, scatter, no problem...

 

A Plecton joins the mix, 180 degress off the position of the Car Crabs. Time to adjust some of my movments. The "Oh sh**" factor is increasing rapidly by this point.

 

Then, a few seconds later, a Slime Thrower is spotted between some buildings in reasonable cover. This isn't looking good. I've got 4 troops w/ Steyrs or G36s, a single soldier w/ a Super Striker, and a single sniper that can't move fast enough to execute the 'Plecton Shuffle' tactic.

 

Well, I ended up giving each soldier 45 seconds--at least--worth of a plan. Moving from one area to the next, into cover and out, trying to keep the number of enemies that could concentrate fire on one soldier down to a minimum. It looked like a massive ballet dance of lethal proportions--fire on one target, move, and fire on a different one, crossing troops, changing direction constantly, moving and ducking in and out of cover.

 

I had acid gobs criss-crossing my screen, puncuated by the odd lightening bolt from the Car Crabs. Slowly but surely the enemies went down. :sly:

 

That one got pretty hairy, and landed me 2 troops in sick bay for a couple days, but we survived.

 

Boom boom, baby.

[LT Mor]

As ducking truly ifact the Hit chance by the enemy ?

[Aralez]

>>>A Plecton joins the mix, 180 degress off the position of the Car Crabs. Time to adjust some of my movments. The "Oh sh**" factor is increasing rapidly by this point.<<<

 

Yeah, i know this part good

 

"Plecton Shuffle" . Souds nice

[BlackAlmaz]

I just played UFO AF and i'm lucky to find this forum...i was in one of those Eurapean Citys...with a river going on and on...but there was no bridge to get across....its the fisrt time i've seen that map....i just laned....seems a very small map...and i have only 5 troops....2 with HK G36, 2 with aks as well as one sniper...

(my 9 mission)(6 bases) cause i took a mission between 2 areas and got them both at the same time....happens

 

i press start boom one target...

 

i think to my self no problem...every one takes a shot...but before they could...right next to me 3 planctans appear behind the bus that gives me cover(or so i thought it quickly blows up)...i run for cover...there is a corner i turn and see a slime spiter and one of those weak jombies with a Styer....(no this is not far into the game and he has a styer...??? its on hard)

 

i have the realance mod 3.3 in so i have those lovly flash bangs....i stop those plancton but by than i have 2 down with read bars...and one that is half way to pushing up dazeaz

 

slime boy is first to go than the styer bloke gets his full...but there i have one man standing...and god knows how the rest are still alive...

 

my gal has a rocket launcher the one use ones(thank god those planktan are weak against fire) i'm saved....and so i thought they go down but the mission is not at the end......???? than out of no where comes a fish....and i'm holding a usless rocket launcher...a quick swap..( it was pointless to run or it would of taken out my best guys on the ground i took my chance....with one time left before she could shhot BOOOOOOOOOOOOm and thats it i have 2 dead and 3 that are no use cause i lost alot of good weapons on that mission...well cause i make it fun and dont save the aftermath of that mission was bad...

[Aralez]

Ouch UFO:AM without saving on hard is VERY difficult, believe me Btw, why you are using "only" the RB Mod 3.3 Version, there's a newer one available?!

[BlackAlmaz]

the sniper rifles are stronger in 3.3...but u must of fixed that in the upgrade?! of 4.1b

[Chryssalid_Victim]

I think in 4.1b the Sniper rifles are only 150% of normal damage as opposed to the 200% earlier (This change happened in v4.0) so they're not quite as lethal although the Barrett still does well over 300 dmg which isn't pleasant

[TopCat]

My first time through the game the Russian base had just popped up but I hadn't visited it yet. I was also unaware of the difficulty jump that happens at this time.

 

A reticulan battleship descended on one of my bases (Tripoli, I think) so I loaded up for a base defense mission. I'd had a couple of them already and they'd proved to be fairly easy. Of course, I hadn't encountered reticulans armed with rocket launchers and microslugs before...

 

About a minute into the game and my team of 7 is down to 3 with no reticulan casualties. I grouped the remaining three together in a corridor and started picking off the rets as they came round the corner. Eventually managed to kill 6 of them (the mission objective) without another casualty. The 3 surviving soldiers all gained a level and a long stay in the medical bay. I gained a healthy respect for rocket launchers!

 

TC

[RyanAR15]

"Plecton Shuffle" . Souds nice 

Ya, I got that name when I took on a Plecton real early in the game, in an elemination mission. My squad was Malcom and a rookie, Malcom had a Browning HP or a G19...can't remember.

 

Anyway, he had to 'shuffle' as my fastest squad member to kill the Plecton, shoot, move, shoot, move.

 

I can imagine that this shot Malcom up to legendary status with the troops..."yeah...he's the one that took on a Plecton with a handgun...and killed it" "Woah..."

[Accounting Troll]

I'm playing a game on hard, and the Russian base mission has just popped on the map. Past experience has shown that the Russian base mission is easier if I do some alien base assaults to get my hands on psi projectors and Sky armour.

 

I used my standard alien base assault tactic - have my troops sit around with sniper rifles until they kill the 3-4 aliens on the outside, then I get then to swap over to the backup MP7s and flamethrowers in their backpacks and in I go. The only drawback is they can't move very fast in the first stage.

 

This time there were SEVEN Reticulans on the outside, and most of them had Sky armour and advanced plasma weapons. The Reticulans rushed my squad - in the time it took for my men to kill the first Reticulan, two more appeared in the front, and one in the rear. The only thing I could do was to stand and fight.

 

Somehow, four of my men survived the carnage, although three were due for a visit to sickbay. I patched them up with the medikits, then I ordered them into the base, knowing that I wasn't going to win many missions against the Reticulans without that psi projector. I hoped that anybody able to survive the first firefight was unkillable.

 

The second part objective was to eliminate 12 Reticulans, which meant that there would be at least 15 of them, and most of them would have microslugs, rocket launchers, advanced plasma weapons and sky armour! My four survivors had no chance of victory, so I got them to unload surplus equipment so they would have speed. I started hitting the aliens from an ambush and running away, so I wouldn't have about eight Reticulans homing in on me and launching another coordinated attack.

 

Happily, even Sky armour cannot stand up to four MP7s at close range, and I got hold of a beloved psi projector after killing five Reticulans from ambushes. After that, Reticulans armed with microslug accelerators started turning round and gunning down their comrades (sweet revenge), and I soon won the mission. The loss of three good soldiers was more than compensated for by the gaining of a psi projector.

[Deejax]

My most intense experience was a UFO entering mission. After a fairly easy outside part of this mission I entered the (small) UFO and looked at the objectives: Kill 10 reticulans. :o wtf???!!! At least ten aliens in this cramped space. Oh boy.

 

So there I went throwing grenades by the bushell and hoping the aliens woudn't get a chance to fire before my neostead guys could pop them of.

Unfortunately most aliens were armed with rocket launchers and advanced plasma guns. Ouch.

 

By the time I had killed 9 aliens six of my men were down, all miraculously still alive. I had already spotted contestent number 10 and lobbed a grenade when he walked around the corner. He was already heavily wounded. And he was carrying a plasma gun. If he managed to shoot before the grenade exploded he could kill at least 3 of my soldiers. Tension..... BOOOOM - one dead reticulan - mission accomplished. Whoohooo, yippie!

 

Result: seven soldiers in sickbay, no casualties!

[Direwolf007]

I was in for the shock of my life twice in the game (I pulled the thing out of the box and started immediately on hard) - first when I met the Plasma Gun and lost two soldiers after two rounds, and the second is what I am describing here:

 

Russian Base Mission - a.k.a Microslug Hell

 

So I finally get to advance the storyline ! Yay. Atleast that's what I thought. I landed in the mission and found myself completely in the clear area of the map, with very scant cover. I popped a few smoke grenades (This oughtta be standard practice, since you never know if a missile launcher is getting pointed in your direction) and ran towards the left side (when viewed from the front) of the base's wall. I decided to set up an ambush near the gate and began to approach it. Then I ran into a welcoming comitee of 6 Rets, 2 with launchers, 4 with advanced plasma guns. When I was done, I had three guys down, but alive. I medikitted them back to health and set up my ambush. The tactic to lob grenades across the wall to draw the Rets to me worked.

 

Only it worked too well.

 

Soon enough I had three bastards with Microslugs rounding the corner. My SLAW toting guy let off a shot, then got shot to pieces. A Plasma Rifle shot took one down. Then another of my guys went down. Permanently.

 

I lobbed a few grenades, and lost two more soldiers. But finally the bastards went down. I ran out of Medikits, to boot.

 

The remaining three cleared it up and headed for the entrance. Then I ran into two more missile toting Rets. Joy. I figured out the base on the inside was just like on the outside. So I rushed the entrance with one guy and proceeded to the next level.

 

This was a whole new fun world for me. One Plasma Rifle against the whole freaking world. I ran past a few corridors, luckily I only ran into Laser Pistol Rets whom I dispatched quickly enough. I got to the briefcase, picked it up. Dodged a few missiles, took a wrong turn, got chewed up by Microslug at long range (Thank god it was *long*), backtracked, dodged another nasty missile and ran towards the elevator.

 

I made it.

 

End score:

 

Reticulans - 4

Phoenix Company - About 20 + Plot Item !

 

I'd reckon I won

[Aralez]

Hey really nice story telling, Direwolf007 ! You really made me feel the things you've described. I really admire your toughness, i think when two of my man or more were down i would return to base, maybe i should reconsider this way of fighting

[Direwolf007]

Thanks. I'm currently Modding AM for some more realism and I'll send the MOD over when I am done. Plus I ran into a few undocumented things on the mod forum and figured a few out (not like they were hard or anything, just undocumented) so I might write up a few notes or something, time permitting.

[Aralez]

Maybe you can add them to the Mod reference board? Helps are alway welcome there!

[Direwolf007]

I might, if I'll actually write 'em up. Let me see what else I might come across.

 

Anyways, back to scrolling listof files. eesh.

 

I wish the official tools would come out already. I'm after changing nearly every type of weapon, so that's alot of scrolling.

[Berserkir]

i was on a mission to eliminate the alien invaders in my territory.. urban hate it.

 

assembled my squad, 7 with 10 as highest and 6 as lowest, armed with alien lasers and snipers, i began my tour of destruction with getting to the neareset open place, so far so good. when i arrive i see one chrysalis, fire at will gets shouted, 2 paralyzed before the larva bites the dust, then all hell break loose.. from 3 alleys the crab bugs come, 3 crabs, okay that is gonna be a breeze. that is before i notice that 2 sporeblowers, 1 plecton and several morelmans and chompers are closing in.. growing desperate i order my men to do a suicidal, my 5 remaining troopers gets the order to fling their grenades at minimum range. BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG , 2 of my troopers are seriously wounded at once and falls to the ground. now fresh outta nades i tell em to burst all the remaining forces consisting of 1 plecton and 2 morelmen. then a chrysalis with a little life in its body paralyzes his third victim.. but manage to ice that larva before any more damage could be done..

 

the morelmen are pinning my men down and i run for it, to a corner to regroup. sadly i leave my wounded but not for long. I lure the morelmen into walking one and one into my line of fire and with my remaining forces i clear the area..

 

got 6 soldiers sent to sickbay in that mission..

[Snikers]

Getting a new base in Africa I think. I've done Area 51, and I think the biomass has shown up, but haven't gone to this Russian base everyone keeps talking about.

 

Sending three guys. One is Nimil, a sniper who I've been using for a while. Saved my life once or twice, I think; certainly has his share of kills. Next is Whiz, this young-looking guy who has a big brain, an excellent rating with handguns and no muscles at all. Finally is Frank, who is greener than new wood and specializes in grenades.

 

Anyway. I go into the city, okay, things look fine. Hey, look, the base isn't all that far off! I start moving, unpause and BAM! - a plecton right behind me! Well, I keep running. That's the secret to everything - keep moving. So anyways, they turn the corner, and there's another Plecton down the street! Nimil crouches in the middle of the road and covers Frank and Whiz as they take a side street for the base. Well, Whiz's speed is GOOD and Frank's is like, VERY GOOD or something...so Frank pulls ahead and he's right about at the base and BAM! - there's a chain-link fence between me and the base and the only opening is blocked off by a DEATHBELLOW! (or whatever it's called) First I've ever seen! Well, Frank's thing is throwing, so he pulls out one of those funky inc. grenades, but by that time the Deathbellow is firing. Frank chucks the grenade, hits, and attempts to dodge; but is sadly caught in the edge of those bees/insects/spores/pixels. Man, those HURT! The bees now blocking off the entrance - though not for long, I know - Frank tries to run to the left, along the fence, and gets about ten feet before he spots ANOTHER Deathbellow!

 

Frank is in bad shape, and his retreat blocked off. He starts to move forward, but I soon realize I can't possibly get at that thing before he gets stung/bit/spored/pixelized to death. So, Frank turns around and throws another inc. grenade at the bees/insects/spores/pixels. That's about the time I notice Nimil is dead. What? Well, it turns out the first Plector shows up and they both shot the hell out of him. Snipers don't seem to work well against them, it seems. Anyways, Frank tries to find some sort of cover but soon falls to an attack of whatevers. Whiz - who has been hanging back until now - sees his way is clear. Frank is still alive, but fading fast, and by the time Whiz could even get halfway to him he was dead. So the kid just keeps on going, gets through the fence and doesn't stop until he's in the base.

 

So, great. I've got one laser pistol to take out...just a minute...7 transgeants?!?! I've gone into alien bases and I've only had to kill six! What's more, I haven't found a way to reload lasers during combat yet (don't think I can). So, Whiz comes across one Cudgel or something...I don't know. Uses half the pistol and the Cudgel goes down. Turns out he was carrying a rifle. It was a really nice rifle, granted, but Whiz's no good with rifles. Next he brings down another Cudgel, only this one has a MP7. Excellent! Whiz grabs the submachine gun and proceeds to enter some large room, wherein he finds a bunch of nasties and guns them down. They all die, and then a balloon fish comes out of nowhere! Like two metres away! Whiz turns, runs, goes down a hallway to find it's STILL RIGHT BEHIND HIM, then goes into a twisty turny passageway. The balloon fish doesn't seem too good at navigating corners and Whiz gets the time he needs to make it dead.

 

Aliens: 2

Humans: 8 + base + new level for Whiz

[Lurker]

When Slaughter comes back, maybe we could have him provide us a way to submit our nightmarish saved games so that others can try them.

 

The first time my soldiers encounter the Reticulans with their microslugs, their rocket launchers, and their psi projectors, that is a nightmarish game. That's UFO:AM at its best. Your soldiers don't have microslugs, alien rocket launchers, or psi projectors. They are usually in shabbly armor as well.

 

It's a real task to find tactics that keep everyone alive. If Slaughter could set it up so that each one of us could submit a saved game of our first encounter with rocket toting Reticulans, along with the starting point (America, etc) and difficulty setting of the profile, then we each could try the other person's hardest game.

 

In one game at easy difficulty, I first encountered the alien rocket launchers at Area 52, the Russian Base. But, in the current game I'm playing, I got my First Encounter at a downed planter UFO. If we could share our First Encounters against the alien rocket launchers with others on this board, it might be a lot of fun to do so. But, we would need a way and a place to submit our saved games, along with maybe a little bit of instruction. We could trade saved games like they trade maps on other boards.

 

For now, we should probably limit ourselves to trading unmodified games, until there is a Standard ALPine mod that incorporates a Standard Rebalance that everyone likes. Once there is a standard mod in place, then we could start trading saved games of those as well.