"That's the last time I leave you in charge!"

[Jasonred]

Actually, it's not drift. Since load and repaet did the same thing over and over.

 

Evidently, the soldier spotted the enemy with his EYES IN HIS FEET.

 

Cause crouching him made everything ok again.

 

You know, that corner which goes at an angle there?

[Bomb Bloke]

Each tile has it's own 3D map which says where bullets can and can't go through. This is why you can shoot through an open window, or just blast the frame. Never seen the game allow me to make an impossible shot, though.

 

Speaking of Sectopods, what do alien grenades do to them?

[NKF]

Only about 10 to 20 points less damage than the high explosives and the rockets on average.

 

--

 

Impossible shot: Near death soldier, snap shot, with ... say laser pistol, at an oblique angle through several map blocks of jungle foliage (which could potentially block the shot should it drift into them) and at a target other than the chosen target. Okay, so anything's possible... if it happens. But it's still a ridiculous, if overly lucky, shot.

 

- NKF

[Bomb Bloke]

I still say the most ridiculous - yet possible - shot is when it's so off target your soldier actually has to TURN to fire the gun that way...

[Jman4117]

and he actually hits something...

[sgt caedes]

back to the topic :grin:

 

My worst mission ever was an attack on a landed ethereal medium scout . I came in with 14 troops, half of them in power suits, the others in personal armor. They all had heavy plasmas and laser rifles with grenades and some had medkits.

One of my scouts approaching the ufo triggered reaction fire wich missed him but killed my captain some way behind him. I killed the first ethereal, but then my troops were being mind controled and many of them paniced and went berserk. After some hard fighting i cleared the ufo and the area around it of aliens, but i only had a few troops left. After i had completely searched the last farmhouse and killed another alien with my last two soldiers and i thought i had finally won...

 

Then one of them came under alien control and shot the other :dead:

[Solitaire]

I guess there are only so many ways a mission can go wrong, so I'll spare you the details but I have a rather unhealthy affection for heroic last stands.

So when the sh*t hits the fan, civvies are flopping around bleeding everywhere, I'm down to four men, two of whom are badly wounded and the sensible part of my brain is telling me that discretion is the better part of valour - what do I do?

 

That's right, I hole up in a garage or a shop, or anywhere else that offers some measure of cover - maybe on the oof of a tall building and start lobbing grenades and plasma fire at anything that moves, and a good deal of things that don't, my only hope that I take a few of the B*stards with me.

Then I reload - but never into the middle of a mission, I only ever make saves before and directly after missions to cut out too much cheating on my part and, even then I will only reload if I lose every single man, if one survives that's good enough for me.

 

It's testament to the way we look at these thing that this type of thread is sitting on the first page but I can't seem to find any threads about missions that have gone perectly. A potentially disastrous situation makes a good story...

[Zombie]

It's testament to the way we look at these thing that this type of thread is sitting on the first page but I can't seem to find any threads about missions that have gone perectly. A potentially disastrous situation makes a good story...

You hit the nail on the head with that comment, Solitaire. Well said! :smile:

 

Here was my worst mission:

 

I had just started playing X-COM and the first few missions went fairly well. Then I got the bright idea to shoot down a Terror Ship with Avalanche missiles. To my surprise, it worked. Now came the unfortunate task of cleaning up the crash site with just 8 soldiers. Luckily, I could wait to visit the crash site until daylight came around.

 

Things started out good. My troops killed about 6 Sectoids milling around the 2 main UFO doorways. Next thing I knew, a Sectoid peeks his head out of the Terror Ship and kills 2 of my soldiers (1 intentionally, 1 unintentionally). Unafraid, I continued on. The Sectoid which had ducked back into the UFO for cover suddenly peeked out and was promptly killed via reaction fire by 2 of my soldiers. Nice.

 

Now my 6 remaining troops entered the right door of the Terror ship and came face-to-face with a Cyberdisc the next round. How the heck is a newbie to know that those things explode after you kill them? So I shot, and I shot, and I shot, and I shot some more (my guys only had pistols) at point blank range. Finally the Cyberdisc went down, taking 4 of my troops with it. If you are counting along with me, I now have only two guys left.

 

At this point I am starting to wonder if I could even finish the mission. I send one of my guys into the main section to investigate. He spots another Cyberdisc and high-tails it out of there to save face. Time to regroup and decide on another strategy since shooting a Cyberdisc took too long and was extrememly hazerdous. My soldiers came up with the idea of using grenades. Unfortunately, they didn't have any on them, but their dead buddies did. Mmmmm, can you say "High Explosives"?

 

I tossed one underneath the Cyberdisc and ran for cover. BOOM!... BOOM! With the Cyberdisc gone, my 2 soldiers finally head upstairs. (Remember, no armor). One soldier peeks his head out of the elevator room and was instantly killed by a Sectoid looking around the right corner. One soldier left. Figuring I have nothing to lose, I send my second soldier out to take a look. Nothing happens. Since my guy had a primed HE pack on him yet, he threw it at the Sectoid. Nothing happens. I quickly duck back into the elevator room and wait. BOOM! (Multiple death screams heard, and mission ends).

 

So there you go. My worst ever mission: 7 out of 8 soldiers killed. The good thing about this mission was I learned some valuable strategies concerning Cyberdiscs. In addition, the Terror Ship was completely undamaged from shooting it down, so I recovered plenty of Elerium from it. :smile:

[Bomb Bloke]

Wait... That's your worst mission, and yet you still won?

[Zombie]

Sure. (And who says that the worst possible mission always ends with all your troops dying on the battlefield)? "Multiple casualties" is my definition of a bad mission. Win or lose, it doesn't matter.

 

Since I was unable to visit anymore UFO's for a while because of troop replacement, I eventually lost the campaign. That is questionable bad mission which had terrible repercussions.

[Solitaire]

Multiple casualties with a victory against all the odds is much more interesting than "...and then I needed to buy a new Skyranger."

[Jman4117]

I lost 8 elite troops and a rocket tank to a night time floater terror site once... :S

 

Stupid reaction fire and grenade attacks from rooftops... >.>

[sir-roosio]

I need to tell someone of my disastrous mission yesterday, if fo no other reason than to help me come to terms!

 

I had a terror attack taking place in Singapore, so I scrambled 10 troops (majority of them battle hardened due to losing about two people in the last dozen missions) and packed them off with a HWP cannon.

 

Arrived inm Singapore, first turn the tank came out to find THREE cyberdsiks on close proximity to the site. I decided to take it steady instead of aborting, and threw a smoke grenade into the area immediately outside the skyranger and waited for it to provide cover.

 

First alien turn, four civilians die, one cyberdisk starts demolishing the petrol station its using as cover instead of hittig my tank.

 

Turn two, 1/2 of forces deploy, fan out in the area behind skyranger, using buildings for cover. tank starts shooting petrol pumps around cyberdisk to avoid return fire from "hey" i think "this may work out alright". My hopes are soon dashed. . .

 

Alien turn two: Some attempts at psi attacks take place "thats my captain you fools" think I "he's nails, you wont touch him! and one more psi attack takes place on the skyranbger, hmm slightly more worrying, not a lot else happens.

 

Turn three, someone onboard ship is now under alien control. They dropped a grenade, luckilly only killing one. Captain Austin Dodge has panicked. . .and run straight towards the cyber disk and out of the smoke cover. Cyber disk auto shoots and kills him, second shot destroys petrol pumnp next to my tank, third shot gos over wreckage of petrol pump and kills an unlucky trooper. onboard ship i send a man with a stun rod, who knocks out the controlled trooper, leaving three people upright onbard the skyranger. Troops and tanks outsode start bringing serious fire to bear on the cyber disks, grenades prove innefective, luckily so do the cyber disk reaction fire, apart from the shot that destroys my tank. . that was quite effective. At this point i decide i need to cut my losses and get the hell out of Singapore, however i need to wait till next turn., no worry, the smoke is still good cover.

 

Alien turn three. Some bastard lobs an alien grenade into the space outside the skyranger, it kills everyone who isnt onboard. one of the last three survivors is mind controlled, he promptly lays in to his companions with a laser pistol, killing both in the best display of shooting hes ever put on. game over, lost skyranger, disaster!

[Bomb Bloke]

There, there. It could have been worse.

 

It could... um... it could have....

 

Ah! It could have been raining!

[Zombie]

I feel your pain, sir-roosio. But a Sectoid Terror site with a hot LZ comprising of 3 Cyberdiscs? I assume you are playing on Superhuman, but even on beginner I'd be dusting off in an instant. That is, unless I had a Blaster Launcher along.

 

- Zombie

[Bomb Bloke]

My personal tactic would have been to scramble as many units as possible outside the craft whilst maintaining enough TU to fire, and gun down everything hostile in sight.

 

... But I start every mission that way.

 

I mean, a smoke grenade provides cover, but an explosive grenade removes the need for cover.

 

I wonder how much smoke a high explosive pack leaves?

[sir-roosio]

hmmm, interesting stuff. not superhuman level zombie, 'just' veteran.

 

The annoying thing is I had decided to turn and run. and the gits shot me on the back! sods!

[JellyfishGreen]

Cold-blooded aliens, eh?

 

I wonder how much smoke a high explosive pack leaves? 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You reminded me of a Snake/Chrys terror mission that started out well ("Hey, at least the two flying suits are safe from the chrissies"), got worse (snakes sniped both flying suits which dropped like the proverbial sack of spuds), and ended with two guys crouched in the Ranger with heavy plasmas throwing out anything they could get their hands on. ("High Explosive" "Do it" BOOM) I tell ya, a chrissie standing on explosive-cratered earth, at night, after explosives have taken out the streetlights, flares, and electricity, is fairly black.

[Praetoris]

My worst yet most entertaining mission:

Early in the game, terror mission, superhuman or genious (can't remember), 8 unarmored soldiers, almost evening -Do I really have to finish this story?

 

Ramp goes down, the mission starts and my first man takes a step outside.

-zap-

..one man down.

 

Next man steps out in his place.

-zap-

Another man down. Seems we have a stubborn alien.

Let's try the other side?

 

Third man tries the other side.

-zap-

 

Fourth man tries too

-zap-

..not doing good at the moment am I?

 

5th man

-zap-

oh come on!

 

6th man

-zap-

... please?

 

And it continous. By the 8th dead man (yes I'm serious) I hadn't even seen the enemy yet. Seems like they managed to spawn on both the left and the right side of my ship and picked me off as soon as I tried to exit.

 

Now the last man steps out and... -zap-

-but he survived! (though fataly wounded ofcourse).

 

As I turn him around I get one of those bad feelings as I behold 1 sectoid and 2 cyberdiscs in front of him. How Lovely..and that's just one of the sides!?

 

But one should never give up! So I order him to fire a snap-shot (with the "allmighty" pistol) at the greyhead..

Hit without effect, the alien return fire and my last man fall to the ground.

 

 

- Sometimes the odds just aren't with you!?

[Bomb Bloke]

Grenades. If there are enough aliens out there to kill your first three units, give up on soldiers and start throwing bombs out the door.

 

It isn't a surety that you'll kill anything with them, but the blasts will at the very least make a bit of smoke.

[Gimli]

That's why I always like getting a Laser Tank as early in the game as possible in higher difficulties. Then each time I start a mission, I first end my turn without doing anything. In the worst case, the aliens will kill my tank, and maybe one or two soldiers. Though that happens rarely, usually they don't do anything.

[Praetoris]

I learned quite a few things by that mission...except that Skyrangers cost to replace that is.

 

Anyhow it was quite a hilarious sight, seeing my men drop one by one without even spotting the enemies.

[Catwalk]

Awesome thread, thanks for all the stories

[Knan]

Lost 11 guys to one sectoid on a small scout night mission. Last man standing was badly injured. It was just a mess. No friendly fire incidents just that one sectoid picking me off from all over the place. Sniper on the roof, send a team find out he went out the back door and is no tossing gernades into said building. Pissed me off cause the thing was super smart and carried on wasting my squad with 1 man ambushes.

 

In a recent farmland mission I had a rooftop sniper sectoid jump down off the roof. Never saw that before.

[Catwalk]

Ugh, and I have a story to share now

 

Just finished a night mission against a large scout. Went well, sweeping 3 aliens outside the craft in short order without casualties. Entered the sub and took out 6 aquatoids with a single casualty, advancing steadily through the rooms. Almost done, I got reckless and amassed my troops outside the final two rooms. An aquatoid pops out, lobs something at me and is shot with reaction fire. BOOM 13 aquanauts dead. Total loot of 2.2m from the sub so it wasn't a complete disaster, but now it's back to training rookies.

 

UPDATE

I then got a terror mission which I had to respond to with my remaining 3 soldiers. Managed to kill 6 aliens before losing a soldier, then decided to bring back the loot and abort. Lost another soldier trying to get the loot and decided to just run away. Lost the last soldier running away. Massive dissatisfaction and 10% drop in funding at month change. No missions all February, except a terror mission. I didn't buy another skyranger because I wanted to see if I could manage with the interceptor instead (XcomUtil mod, 6 crew slots) as I was strapped for cash. It didn't have fuel to get to Midway Island.... End of month, they canned the project.