Running with Pineapples

[The Veteran]

After a massively self-destructive session of The Two Sides with Lysear last night I'm really looking forward to killing some stupid AI that doesn't know every single one of my tricks today! I'm going to play at some speed today as I have to visit the TFTD playthrough as well so here goes!

 

Right off the bat we spot a Snakeman Large Scout over North Africa which seems to be looking for a suitable terror so that's a priority target if ever there was one! Interceptor 5 launches from Orchard just as it flys by us and changes course. Once again I engage over the water so we tail it onto the mainland before slamming it with rockets.

 

Feeling rather refreshed after Silencer's tremendous base defence, my avatar is ready to lead his first foray from his new home at Orchard. He can be heard discussing living conditions on the way to the crashsite though as bed's were much softer back in Fort Cannon. Everyone on the Ranger is glad they aren't going far...

 

It turns out we have just enough armour for everyone though most will have to make do with the personal variety... I take two fresh-faced rookies with me into the field and the rest are squaddies.

 

A quick check with the pilot reveals we're quite central in the map with the Scout just to our SouthWest. Kevin Webb and Dwight Miller are first off the boat splitting left and right respectively. It's quiet out here, too quiet...

 

Jean Bouissou clears the North East of the map while Igor Korkia and Yoko 'lunchbox' Tanikawa move out as well. Munty moves to take a position above the rear of the ranger with his high tech jetpack. There is door-opening in the enemy turn but no movement leaving the troops at a los for where exactly their enemies are...

 

Next turn we clear the North, East and West sides of the map with the Southern edge visible as well. The power source has blown a hole in the roof but it can't have claimed the whole crew! Munty floats to the cockpit and leads a wedge of 5 troops to the Saucer.

 

Somehow we manage to see a Snakeman moving inside the UFO in the aliens next turn but there's still no movement outside. In our following turn we determine that there isn't a single hostil unit outside of the UFO (that's a first for me) but Munty sees multiple movement from his new 'nading spot at the end of the turn!

 

The first grenade is tossed into the open top UFO next turn and is accompanied by at least one death. Rinse and repeat for turn 4 and there is no spoon... I mean turn five...

 

Only 3 enemies all in the saucer is just what I wanted for a quick game! Here's the save for the next commander.

GAME_1.zip

[NKF]

Geoscape Segment:

 

One fine day in the middle of the night, I start on the housekeeping and have alien equipment we don't need sold off and equipment transferred to bases that need them the most. Fireworks sells off all of its small rockets in favour of the large rockets since they hurt Mutons better.

 

I then restock a few small consumables at the various bases - Orchard's been using up most of its smoke grenades so I bring it up to 20. Fireworks also gets enough large rockets to replace the small rockets it sold off.

 

Since all the cool cats are heading to Orchard lately, Norm Krumpet puts in a request for an exchange. Orchard's Jean Bussiou chooses to switch places with him.

 

The next day Listener's new general stores module is built and the old Large Radar is taken down.

 

The next day a snakeman small scout is spotted near Fireworks. Orchard's interceptor launches to intercept (since it has a plasma beam). The Orchard interceptor chases the small scout over the Mediterranean and gets into attack range near Casablanca. It fires two plasma rounds but neither hit and the small scout flees. The interceptor catches up with the small scout in a matter of minutes and vapourises it with a single shot.

 

The scientists finish with UFO Construction and start work on the Small Launcher to give the Fireworks team a bit more variety in their weapon configuration.

 

A few hours later a Floater Battleship is spotted flying into Siberia on an alien base mission.

 

 

4 Electro flares are loaded into the Orchard Skyranger and it targets the Battleship. The Battleship leads the Skyranger around in circles until it lands moments after the above screenshot was taken. By then it was in full daylight, so we won't need the flares after all.

 

Battlescape segment

 

Everyone pulls out a grenade of some description except for Kevin Webb and Munty. Kevin has his scanner, while Munty drops all of his grenades and picks up the plasma pistol and the last remaining plasma pistol clip. He hangs onto his laser pistol even though he might not use it.

 

Turn 1

 

 

The Skyranger's landed on the eastern edge of the map. There are woods to the west of it and hills to the south. to the north out the ramp we can see some low foliage. Dwight Miller can see a floater soldier to the north west.

 

Dwight was going to arm a smoke grenade this turn, but Yoko does this for him since she has a smoke grenade on her and is not in view of the floater. Kevin Webb kneels down and Yoko throws the smoke grenade over Kevin's shoulder. Next to Yoko, Igor "Yeth marthter" Korkia arms his smoke grenade and drops it at his feet. The leaders at the front may have power suits and flying suits, but better safe than sorry!

 

Now for that floater...We ignore it.

 

Turn ends

 

The smoke grenades promptly go off and conceals the troops from the floater outside.

 

Doors inside the battleship menace us.

 

Turn 2

 

 

Kevin detects movement 8 tiles to the north and 8 west from the top of the Skyranger. Hmm, what to do? Igor arms an alien grenade and throws it forward to Dwight Miller. Dwight simultaneously drops his unprimed smoke grenade while grabbing Igor's hot potato, runs down the ramp, throws it in the approximate direction of Kevin's movement readings, and finally runs back in the Skyranger. He reclaims his smoke grenade.

 

turn ends

 

The alien grenade kills the floater Kevin detected.

 

Turn 3

 

 

Kevin scans picks up nothing, but when he drops down the west side of the ramp he comes face to face with an angry floater. Yoko sneaks down the ramp on the other side and attempts to throw her grenade past Kevin - but her throw is too high, it lands on the of the Skyranger. Whoops - at least it will explode harmlessly.

 

Carl Webb tosses his grenade forward to Igor, who catches it and runs down the ramp. He takes a step further than Yoko and lands the grenade near the floater.

 

Munty floats out and, staying level at his current elevation, flies around to the right side of the Skranger. He'll pop up over the Skyranger later to provide long range laser and plasma fire for the ground troops.

 

I suddenly feel a little embarrassed that I had not scanned the floater before going through such a performance. It has no TUs left to attack. Anyhow what is done is done. Carl readies another grenade.

 

Turn ends.

 

The grenade goes off and kills the floater. The one on top of the Skyranger goes off but does nothing to the Indestructo™ Skyranger-Plate

GAME_1.zip

[Lysear]

On assuming my command i let the Orchard ranger dock at its homebase then sell off all the goodies it brought back, for a total of around 6m which gives us a grand total of 15m-ish in the bank. Couple of days later UFO-89 (Floater Abducter, on an abduction mission funnily enough ) is spotted in the airspace around orchard. I decide to send out the intercepter to tail it.

 

It flies around N Africa for a bit before landing at around 5am in the morning - Orchard ranger is loaded with 10 Troops (Pat is still in sickbay but there is plenty of experienced troops to send out)

 

Orchard Ranger lands at the UFO just as day is breaking

 

 

Tactical Battle (Landed Abducter, Floaters)

 

Turns 1-2

https://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g53/han1604/XCOM/tactical_000-6.png

 

Smoke deployed, Pilot has dropped us in the SW with the abducter located to the NE of our position. After the smoke gives them cover, Yoko and Dwight head north, while Igor and Scott deploy east with getting to the UFO their priority.

 

Turn 3

https://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g53/han1604/XCOM/tactical_001-6.png

https://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g53/han1604/XCOM/tactical_002-7.png

 

Igor scouts eastward and spots a floater in the barren field NE of him, Norm probes it and lets him know it has no chance to react, Igor takes the opportunity to fire 2 snaps at it but all he succeeds in doing is destroying 2 parts of the fence. Scott helps him out by putting a grenade under its floaty self. Dwight also scouts north and also discovers a floater directly ahead (agin Norm probes and it cant react), Dwight puts it down with a single hit from his burst. (Aliens Turn - Grenade vaporises the floater leaving its weapon behind, and another floater is spotted moving around the grenaded area).

 

Turn 4

Norm gets probing on the floater (6hp left so the grenade must have got it), Igor finishes it with an aimed shot. Tatyana and Neil head to the southern edge of the area and move east along the edge heading for 2 barns. Yoko and Dwight push north towards a stabling area while Munty takes the opportunity to get up on the rangers wing to provide sniper cover. (Aliens Turn - Another floater is spotted heading towards the grenade blasted area probably looking for its friends).

 

Turn 5

Norm probes it aswell (just a soldier used up all its time), sniper Munty hits it in the chest with an aimed shot from elevation but it doesnt drop it - he asks Norm to scan it again, norm does so and tells him he barely scratched the alien and didnt even cause it to bleed. Kenji from the foot of the ramp gets on his knee and finishes the job with an aimed shot that catches it in the chest and punches through the area that munty hit and it goes down. Yoko spots a floater to the north of the stable area but misses with 2 bursts and decides to hide behind a tree. Tatyana and Neil in the south reach the cover of the barn wall.

 

Turn 6

https://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g53/han1604/XCOM/tactical_003-7.png

https://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g53/han1604/XCOM/tactical_004-7.png

 

Dwight heads into the stable to get a jump on the N floater but it seemed like the floater had the same idea and he comes face to face with it inside, He needed 3 hits from 2 bursts to bring the beast down. Yoko covers the stable opening incase anyone tries to get a drop on Dwight. Igor Pushes towards the UFO whilke Scott heads slightly south to get through the narrow passage between the 2 barns, he catches a glimpse of a floater to the east of the abducter while glancing through a window. No one can take it so they ignore it for now. Tatyana walks round the southern-most barn while Neil makes a hole in the wall near the stairs. Munty moves to support Igor, While Norm and Sarah clear the LZ and head north to help out Yoko and Dwight. (Aliens Turn - igor is shot from what looked like the barns 1st floor to his east)

 

Turn 7

 

Tatyana rounds the barn and gets a visual on the floater previously spotted to the east of the Ufo - She hits it in the chest and head with 2/3 shots from her pistol burst and hears it moan as its innards are pasted to the hull of the craft. Neil runs upstairs in the barn and reports it free of any nastys. Scott covers the ufo door from his position slightly south. Igor is bleeding from a plasma hole in his chest but gets into cover against the barn wall while munty heads over and patches his wound up with his various cartoon character bandages. He puts a Batfink one on igor. Norm is ordered to proceed to the Ufo to help with the breach team.

 

Turn 8

https://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g53/han1604/XCOM/tactical_005-7.png

 

Neil jumps out of the 1st floor of the barn through a hole he made and links back up with Tatyana and they both Cover the ufo door from the south while Scott pushes up and gets to the E of the door, Igor feeling a bit better at having a cartoon bandage on heads up and covers the W side of the door. Munty floats up and covers it from above (anything deciding to walk out of that door will be swiss cheesed), Northern team keep sweeping up to the NW corner and up the west of the ufo hull.

 

Turn 9

 

Dwight reports NW all clear and Yoko heads round to the rear of the ufo. Munty scans the ufo from above the entrance and has a blip immediatly in fron of his position but not knowing which floor, Scott is given the nod and he charges in but finds no-one in the entrance area so he ducks back out. Kenji is asked to get into the barn that the shooter of igor was seen in.

 

Turn 10

https://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g53/han1604/XCOM/tactical_007-5.png

 

Yoko continues scouting round the back of the ufo and spots a barn in the NE corner of the map, Sarah and Dwight are sent to support him in getting to it. Igor and Scott breach the ufo and cover the inner door and Munty and Norm take back-up positions. (Alien Turn - Ambuuuuuushhhhh, Yoko is hit from the NE barn but his suit holds up, also Norm is hit in the back from the first floor of the barn he spins round and hits his assailent with a raction shot but doesnt kill it. Kenji also reacts and puts a different floater down in the same barn.

 

Turn 11

https://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g53/han1604/XCOM/tactical_008-4.png

 

Norm kills his attacker and munty heads over to patch the 3 hoies in his back up (Transformer bandages for this fella), Yoko is unscathed and is able to put down his attacker with 3 shots connecting from 2 bursts. Scott heads into the central ufo room and is faced with 2 floaters looking at him, Calmly he places a burst into the one on the left and it goes down and again putting a burst into the other one brings that one down too, he steps back out of the door.

 

Turn 12

https://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g53/han1604/XCOM/tactical_009-4.png

 

Scott and Igor cover the door to the rear of the ufo while munty comes in and hides under the table.

 

Turn 13

https://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g53/han1604/XCOM/tactical_010-2.png

 

Munty detects hostiles around, but they must be on the top floor, the blip behind him was norm creeping up but he was foiled in his scare attempt by the scanner. Scott and igor head through the door covering both flanks, Scott spies a heavy plasma on the floor. (Aliens Turn - Floater appears in the NE barn`s first floor and chucks a nade at Yoko from the window landing it dead centre and catching Sarah in the blast too)

 

Turn 14

https://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g53/han1604/XCOM/tactical_011-2.png

 

Yoko is rather pissed off and a bit singed but otherwise he is ok (Minor hp damage and a hole in his armour`s underside but no fatals), He primes his HE while sarah puts some holes in the barns first floor wall allowing him to chuck it in (sarah took the blast on the front armour but didnt do much except about 3hp in health loss, probably chipped her nails). Igor rounds the corner towards the lift and comes face to face with an unarmed floater, 1 quick burst later and the problem is gone, he drops back allowing Scott to take point and munty goes to support him assaulting the top floor. (Aliens Turn - HE destroys the top level of the barn and everything in it)

 

Turn 15

 

Igor gets back into the central room and unloads some Heavy Plasmas then sits down and contemplates a close call on this mission. Scott and Munty cover the lift

 

Turn 16

 

Both troopers proceed up the lift , Munty spots a discarded weapon to the north so he heads up that way to investigate, while scott covers the eastern side. (Aliens Turn - Unarmed floater floats past scott towards the lift)

 

Turn 17

https://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g53/han1604/XCOM/tactical_013-2.png

 

Scott bursts it in the face then moves eastward, Munty discovers nothing in the north so heads back to link up with Scott. (aliens Turn - Leader goes berserk somewhere)

 

Turn 18

 

Munty forges ahead towards the control room while Scott has a nap in the corridor

 

Turn 19

https://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g53/han1604/XCOM/tactical_014-1.png

 

Munty rounds the corner into a burst of plasma fire which scorches the walls around him but not one connects, he turns and spots a floater guarding the door to the control room and it takes him 2 bursts of his own to put the critter down, Scott hears the firefight and wakes up and moves to cover the door to the control room.

 

Turn 20

https://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g53/han1604/XCOM/tactical_015.png

 

Scott enters the control room and puts the leader down and out with 2 shots to the back of its head from a single burst of his pistol. Munty comes in and they crack open a couple of beers they stashed in their suits and toast a succesful albeit very lucky mission.

 

 

https://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g53/han1604/XCOM/geoscape_000-7.png

Another no loss mission however it could have turned out bad had the RNG gods been unkind.

 

 

Quick update from sickbay :-

Yoko Tanikawa - 20 Days

Igor "The Man" Korkia - 24 Days

Sarah Taylor - 3 Days to get her nails redone

Norm Krumpet - 6 Days

 

Save for the next commander - GAME_1.zip

[Bomb Bloke]

We now have a ton of Elerium at Orchard, so I ship it all off to Cannon (300 units = $24,555 to send... but we've got about $18mill so money is hardly an issue).

 

I put a stop to the personal armour production, finish off the plasma beams, and start on some more flying suits. We've got enough to make just thirteen more, but still, there's no other real use for Elerium at the moment.

 

Stun launcher research continues. A Snakeman scout on a retaliation mission flies near Orchard, and when intercepted, Windows 7 crashes so hard I have to hold the power button until my computer shuts off. WinAmp is of course unaffected, and so Invasion of the Gabber Robots taunts me until the machine dies.

 

Luckily I'd saved when the scout was detected.

 

 

First couple of turns I killed a couple of snakemen. Munty has his flying suit back and flies up to the top level.

 

 

Another snakeman is to the north, in front of the UFO. It dies too.

 

 

A grenade flies out of nowhere and explodes, doing absolutely nothing.

 

 

Munty flies over and neutralises the culprit, a nasty patch of darkness.

 

 

He then goes on a quick cruise around the map, while a few other troopers wander over to the UFO to kill the remaining alien inside.

 

 

GAME_1.rar

[silencer_pl]

Geoscope part:

 

Sold stuff from Orchard. Plasma cannons arrived and assigned to Interceptors, sold only A. Missiles.

 

Soon after a wave of Muton Ufos were spotted. It didn't bode well, all Interceptors were scrambled.

 

 

Interceptors caught all 3 ufos over arctic and were downed. Two bases were discovered , I have lunched Fort C. Skyranger in hope to capture V.Large UFO, but it raced over Europe and Australia and was gone.

 

<Muton Supply Ship Doubble Tagged>

 

Because I couldn't catch the V.Large one, Skyranger changed course to the downed supply ship.

 

Tactical part:

 

Ranger has landed, SW corner, we spot Muton, smoke screen deployed.

 

Boris exits, spots two Mutons, he fires auto shot and something fires back, but we can't see the thrid one. Slowly soldier by soldier exit and kill only one of them.

 

 

This heavy cluster of soldiers asked for a grenade, and they got it. One dead - captain somebody. No one took damage from it strangely.

We fire at the second muton and Tatyana manages to bring it down.

 

 

On NW part, Loopy spots another Muton, quick exchange of fire and he retaliates. Loopy gets criticaly hit, but Stefan heals him and only armor is damaged by 9 points. The team focus fire on Muton and stuns him

 

 

Following path to the UFO we spot another Muton and we pepper him with AC-HE.

 

 

NW side also contains a Muton and he also turns dead.

 

 

Looks like heavy bombardment destroyed one of the UFOs door and we spot two Mutons right in the exit. It took us two turns to kill the one with the small luncher, luckly when he used it, it missed by a mile.

 

 

On the SE corner we spot Muton that shot at Boris on the second turn. Soon he joined his other comrades.

 

 

Suddenly a muton was spotted on the eastern part of the UFO. But he was dealt later.

 

On the northern part two stunned mutons woken up and were quickly dispatched

 

 

And we kill the Muton on the other side of the UFO.

 

 

The was another Muton spoted further North so a small team heads there. Meanwhile other enter the UFO.

Boris enters and spots 3 mutons. Because it is better to be shot at by small luncher he aims at the back of the other. It survives but couldn't kill Boris either.

 

 

Troops gather and we kill another victim who dared to show its ugly face.

 

 

Again Boris peeks inside, and kill a Muton - not the one he was aiming but every bit counts. On the northen part we spot last alien that was outside - he wasn't too happy to see us.

 

 

Next we clean up the rest of the 'buttlers' and we spot another one in the center of the UFO's ground floor.

 

 

The team splits afterwards some go to the right, others go on the left. Soon on the upper floor a Muton welcomes us, and we welcome him with HE to the face.

 

 

On the top floor again we are welcomed by a Muton and he also got his present to the face.

 

 

Hoping that only navigator was left - the team again splits and we try to surround him. When we were ready the Muton popped out but was too scared to hit Gennadi and we blew his face off. But this wasn't the last one. Fortunetlly the last of the Mutons (which in fact was a navigator) was spotted in the elevator that we came from. Wierd that I missed him somehow. Well we blew him to hell too.

 

 

Mission complete.

 

 

And the overview of current situation (there is a base in the South America also).

 

GAME_1.rar

[NKF]

Geoscape segment:

 

I start off with some minor housekeeping matters. Mainly selling off junk we don't need and buying some new rockets for Fireworks. I also transfer a couple of alien grenades over to Orchard.

 

After adjusting the supplies on the Fireworks Skyranger, it's launched immediately to one of the two crash sites at the North Pole. Not a lot can be done about the time of day when the Skyranger arrives at the site as it gets shrouded in darkness. Glad I brought 4 flares along!

 

Tactical Segment:

 

Turn 1

 

 

The Skyranger's touched down in an ice field. The LZ is in a reasonably good position, the south-western corner of the map. But it's dark. There seems to be a bit of light on the edge of the visible area to the north. Strange.

 

A quick equipment check shows a number of soldiers are slightly encumbered. However they won't be for long, so I don't worry about lightening their loads.

 

First turn is spent deploying a smoke grenade out the back and inside the Skyranger as well - I'm not taking any chances deploying in the low light conditions.

 

Turn 2

 

On throwing a flare out, it's confirmed that the UFO is to the north. Seems like the we landed in front of the Supply Ship. At this stage I'm thinking perhaps the Orchard team should have gone out, as laying a siege outside on the supply ship with laser pistols is much easier than with rocket launchers. And more importantly breaching it is much easier with the lasers too. Oh well, this is part of the fun.

 

Again not a lot is done on this turn.

 

Turn 3

 

Austin Kemp and Leon Gaudin land on top of the Skyranger's main wings, each taking a different tail fin. Leon throws his flare out to a small island to the north east of the Skyranger but it lands too far into the water.

 

Shigeo Koyama and Dwight Stoddard drop down either side of the ramp.

 

Turn 4

 

Just to make doubly sure, Dwight scans the corner of the map to make sure that there aren't any Mutons behind everyone.

 

Helga Ulbricht floats out the back and throws her flare a short way out to the east. Looks like we might have to rely on the fliers to scout to the east, what with the big puddles that way.

 

Troops start fanning out the back of the Skyranger.

 

Turn 5

 

 

Helga and Micheline start making their way to Helga's flare.

 

Dwight tosses his flare to a dark area to the north.

 

Turn ends

 

Two Mutons are spotted and two soldiers react to them. Shigeru Noguchi reacts to one Muton in between the two halves of the Supply Ship, though it's not killed. Shigeo Yamazaki reacts to one to the north where Dwight threw his flare. The flare is destroyed as the missile hits, but that's not enough to take the Muton down. It kills rookie Olga Mikhailov with a single shot.

 

 

Turn 6

 

 

Shigeru spots the Muton by the supply ship on his way to find the other one that went north. The Muton by the supply ship shoots at him and hits, though does no damage. Shigeru ends up wasting his time heading north without finding the one he was searching for.

 

Austin Kemp fires a rocket at the visible Muton and hits. It remains standing. Shigeru rearms his rocket launcher and surpisingly still has enough TUs to fire an aimed shot. He does, and it kills the Muton.

 

Micheline and Helga meanwhile arrive at their flare.

 

On the end of the turn, Shigeo is shot in the chest and killed.

 

Turn 7

 

Micheline picks up her flare and throws into a clear patch of ice to the east. There's no way she can cross the thin sliver of ice that leads to the next patch so Helga will have to hover over.

 

 

Naohiro Ishii, who was next to the late Shigeo, decides to back up a bit but instantly a shot is fired at him. The Muton must be close by. He pushes forward and even after the game started complaining that he could not move forward, he manages just one more tile and spots Shigeo's killer. It was close by, but how was it possible that it could not be seen?!

 

Artillery is summoned. Leon Gaudin fires a rocket and the missile lands behind the Muton. It must've done some good as the Muton's left with a third of its health. Werner Unger, who is unfortunately as bad a shot as Leon, fires a rocket. This time rather than aiming at the Muton itself, the rocket is pointed at the ground just next to it, and the Muton is killed in the blast.

 

Turn 8

 

Dwight heads to Shigeo's corpse, as we'll need the ammo before long.

 

Another Shigeo (Koyama) starts making his way through the smoke to the flare between the Skyranger and the UFO. We'll need it.

 

To the east Helga hovers over the flare but can't land to pick it up.

 

On the end of the turn, Michelle, who should've been safe, is killed from a shot out of the darkness.

 

Turn 9

 

 

Helga lands, grabs the flare and throws it out, but nothing is seen. Back at the Skyranger, Shigeo Koyama moves and spots a Muton in the small path that runs across the nearby pool of water. That's probably what got Michelle. Austin Kemp and Werner Unger fire at it, leaving nothing left of the Muton and the water-logged flare nearby.

 

Shigeo Koyama continues to retreive his flare and does his best to get back into the safety of the smoke cloud.

 

Dwight picks up some of the late Shigeo's rockets and throws them to soldiers nearby.

 

Turn 10

 

The living Shigeo throws the flare close to the far UFO entrance to assist Helga in her search of the eastern edge of the map. Helga leaps over a small stream to get her flare and tosses it further ahead.

 

Turn 11 ~ 15

 

Troops start surrounding the left UFO entrance.

 

Thinking maybe it was a bad idea to send both of the remaining flares to the other side of the UFO, as the left entrance is now dark, Leon floats over to retrieve one, and throws it up on the overhang of the right UFO entrance.

 

Helga resumes her one-person leapfrog scouting mission. Once the north-eastern corner of the map is confirmed clear, she heads back to join Leon by the right entrance. So while the main team focuses on the left entrance, these two will pop in the right entrance and harass any Mutons they see from there.

 

Turn 16

 

 

Leon walks into the door for a look and finds three Mutons clustered by the left lift shaft. Had they all been of a lesser species it would've been a fantastic 3-for-1 rocket deal. But with them being Mutons, and one facing his way, he quickly goes back outside.

 

Turn 17

 

Dwight gets out his motion scanner and does a simply fantastic throw from nearly one end of the map all the way to the other side of the UFO. Leon grabs it but can't use it.

 

Turn 18

 

 

Leon detects a lot of big blips, but that one small blip puts him off another breach.

 

Turn 19

 

Roughly the same blip formation this time, but the small blip has moved off a bit. Helga walk in to find an engineer facing away from her. Not a lot of TUs left for a heavy plasma retaliation shot, so it's worth an attempt. She fires and kills it instantly.

 

 

I failed to take a shot of it beforehand, but that smoking tile is where the Muton used to be.

 

Turn 20

 

Things should start getting interesting now. Leon and Helga back away from the door so the don't get caught in the blast if anything were to step out their door.

 

At the end of the turn, back at the main door, three rockets are launched as Mutons pop out the door. The first two rockets must've killed the first one, since there was only the heavy plasma left. A third one is fired but doesn't hit the second Muton that quickly retreats inside.

 

Turn 21

 

Rockets are promptly reloaded, those without rockets head to nearby bodies for more.

 

At the end of the turn a few more rockets are launched, this time killing two Mutons.

 

Turn 22

 

 

Helga walks into the left door and spots a Muton soldier. On probing it, it's exhausted. She fires a rocket. While not enough to kill it, it'll be quite messed up from it. Helga backs out.

 

At the end of the turn, two more Mutons are killed by rocket reaction fire. One Muton wanders about inside the UFO and launches a stun bomb. It only stuns the Skyranger ramp.

 

Turn 23

 

So far it seems Shigeo and Shigeru have been doing most of the work at the main door. They reload their rockets.

 

At the other door Helga does the same. At the same time Austin Kemp arrives to assist them.

 

At the end of the turn a Muton pops out door and is shot by a rocket and presumably killed. A Muton soldier goes berserk just inside doorway as it sprays the doorway with plasma beams. A stun bomb flies out but hits nothing, someone reacts but only hits the hull of the UFO. Another more level headed muton fires and misses.

 

Turn 24

 

Seems like Shigeo and Shigeru had reacted again. Those nearby who did not react throw a rocket to Shigeo and Shigeru to add to their dwindling rocket supply.

 

 

Leon goes in and spots the Muton with the heavy plasma. It can't fight back but Leon's not in a good position to attack at this stage either. He walks out and runs completely out of time once past the door. I probably should have had Helga go in first.

 

At the end of the turn, disaster strikes. A Muton exits the left door and point its gun over to the other door and shoots Leon. He's hit the side and killed. Helga reacts and kills the offending Muton. Suddenly out of nowhere another shot is fired and this time killing Shigeo. Argh!

 

Turn 25

 

With our best man down, Helga and Austin drop to their knees and face the right doorway.

 

At the end of the turn Shigeru reacts to a Muton that leaves the ship. Not sure if it's stunned or killed, but it's not seen aftwards.

 

Turn 26

 

Dwight tosses a rocket over to Shigeru. Back at the Skyranger, our probe master Robert Evans drops the probe and starts suiting up for battle.

 

At the end of the turn an unarmed Muton walks out the door and runs back in.

 

Turn 27

 

Robert grabs all the rockets he can carry and starts heading out.

 

At the end of the turn, Shigeru kills the unarmed Muton as it peeks out the door.

 

Turn 28 ~ turn 39

 

With the opposition petering off, Dwight runs up to the corner of the UFO to breach the left door. Austin meanwhile judges his distance from the right door to the main lift.

 

He then races in and plugs the main lift. Dwight enters the UFO and finds the only thing left there is a dead Muton. He blocks the supply level lift.

 

Those outside take some time to rearm as best they can and start heading into the UFO. In time the 7 remaining survivors of the 12 man team have gathered in the UFO. Three at the supply lift and four at the lift to the bridge.

 

Turn 40 ~ 45

 

The next series turns are spent scanning the supply deck. With this floor clear, the second team get ready to move.

 

Turn 46 ~ 60

 

The team charge upstairs and split into two teams. Austin and Werner take the shorter route to the bridge while Helga and Richard take the long route. During this time Dwight Stoddard from the supply deck team heads over to join the four. Shigeru and Naohiro stay in the supply deck.

 

 

Right after taking this screenshot, Werner takes a few steps forward and is shot and killed. There's a Muton camping just outside the door. Helga and Robert proceed to a launch angled shots from the other direction. Both shots were not enough to take it down.

 

Finally, having had enough of this mission, Naohiro, still in the supply deck, kneels and launches a rocket from underneath to finish off the Muton.

 

Mission ends.

 

 

Despite half the team getting killed and no weapons or many corpses gathered, the outcome was far better than I'd anticipated.

 

I hire six new troops just before saving the game. Here's the save for the next commander: GAME_1.zip

 

- NKF

[Bomb Bloke]

Started out with nearly nothing to do, NKF had already sold all the loot and so forth. Hired one extra troop for Cannon and that was it.

 

There were two Skyrangers on their way home, with one crash site remaining (shrouded in darkness). I sat back and waited for dawn.

 

 

Shortly a group of UFOs appeared over northern Africa, two abductors and a snakeman terror ship. The terror ship wasn't headed anywhere in particular, giving the interceptors ample time to drop both it and the other two craft as well.

 

One of the abductors landed, but as it was also in a dark area of the world, I let the interceptors refuel then caught it as it tried to leave.

 

 

By this stage, the UFO up north had disappeared, so I decided to try for the terror ship in the desert. Wide open spaces with high visibility, sniping snakemen in the sun... what could go wrong?

 

Start of turn one, a snakeman died.

 

 

Ended turn, another snakeman appeared in much the same spot. After a great deal of reaction shots were fired (laser pistols really do use tiny amounts of TUs), it was still standing...

 

Firing on it during my next turn resulted in it returning fire, killing whoever was standing at the front of the ramp. Kevin Webb, I'd assume. Revenge was swiftly taken against the avenging snakeman, who fell beside his comrade.

 

 

After killing it, I start to unload troopers. The UFO was nearly directly to the NW, and the ranger stuck in the SE of the map.

 

Many chyrssalids came to greet me.

 

 

As in, like, many chyrssalids.

 

 

And then some of the ones I'd only knocked out started to wake up. The snakemen to the west started to close in as well, and due to the way the ramp blocks troopers from firing to the sides of the craft, they made quite a mess of my forces - at least three soldiers died to enemy fire, about two to chyrssalid mutations.

 

One snakeman went wild firing stun bomb after stun bomb for about four turns, but only managed to deal marginal "damage" to one trooper - not enough to knock anyone out. He was presumably also responsible for the grenade, which maybe took a few HP off Dwight.

 

 

I attempted to spread my troops out a little, and used reaction shots to kill a few snakemen lurking in the door of the UFO. Lost another trooper in the process. There were corpses everywhere, even in the ranger.

 

During a brief lull in the plasma fire, Munty escaped the ranger and flew up behind it to a sniping position. He managed a few kills, but I don't think his accuracy stat is quite there yet.

 

It's a very good thing that laser pistols are so fast, as they do minimal damage to chyrssalids. Even at point blank range, a trooper will be lucky to kill one without support; the penalty for failing to kill a chyrssalid at point blank range means that I made sure to use every TU available to me during my turns.

 

 

Another snakeman threw a grenade, obliterating very nearly every corpse produced thus far but thankfully failing to kill any more troopers.

 

 

Finally, after a few turns of reaction fire, there was silence. I gave it another couple of turns to be sure, but it seemed I'd slaughtered everything that was going to willingly reveal itself. I had five troopers remaining out of the original fourteen; I decided to chance a couple of troopers into the ship itself.

 

This involved removing the one remaining trooper from within the depths of the skyranger. He and some other schmu- er, "saviour of the world" lined up next to the entrance to the UFO. Two other soldiers watched the dunes, while Munty remained in the sky.

 

A chyrssalid jumped out, and then there were four.

 

 

I sent another soldier to take his position - how many more chyrssalids could there be?

 

Well, at least another one, as it turned out, and then there were three.

 

The remaining soldiers turned tail and ran to the ranger, Munty descending towards them. One got caught by yet another chyrssalid, the other fell to a grenade; and then there was one.

 

 

I decided then would be a good time to evac. Mission rating? "Ok", apparently.

 

 

:)

 

GAME_1.rar