Beyond Cydonia

[The Veteran]

Haha! Finally I've fixed Civilisation 2 to work on my computer and play the legendary X-Com : Assault scenario! That means I'm about to launch on a campaign of extermination across the face of Mars which will take the brave boys and girls of X-Com from their initial landing site of Cydonia to the far reaches of the planets unexplored wastes!

 

Our story begins shortly after the fall of Cydonia as the Veterans of the mission return to Earth for some well deserved rest. The war is far from over however as a great deal of activity has been detected on the red planet since the death of the alien brain. Intel suspects that there are in fact multiple alien installations present on the planet and Cydonia was but the first.

 

Sure enough, no sooner does the victorious team return from Cydonia than an alien battleship descends upon their base. The troops are low on supplies and caught totally unawares. With the alien brain dead, how can there still be an alien presence on earth? It soon becomes apparent that these attackers are but a shell of their former selves, a poorly coordinated splinter group with no psionic capabilities whatsoever.

 

The forces assaulting the X-Com headquarters are swiftly eradicated but over the following months there continue to be rogue UFO sightings and it's clear that the alien threat remains present, if significantly less potent. To this end, X-Com launches a bold mission to Mars. They will return to Cydonia and claim the alien base there as their own. From here, veteran Commanders of the Alien War will coordinate a planet-wide extermination of any remaining aliens and their facilities.

 

Three of X-Com's bases remain operational on earth to combat the diminishing alien threat and each one commits an Avenger to the operation. They are loaded with enough troops and provisions to secure the former alien base at Cydonia with further supplies being delivered from Earth at weekly intervals. The commanders in charge of the operation name their craft according to their mission and the Judge, Jury and Executioner soon make their way for Mars once again. The war on the red planet has begun...

 

With approximately 60 troops on hand, the 3 commanders leading the assault have no idea what to expect but everyone remains cautious. Once Cydonia has been made habitable, the three Avengers take their final positions as forward bases and each deploys it's compliment of 20 soldiers. The first mission is to expand the X-Com held territory to include both polar regions. These will be heavily fortified and prevent any alien flanking manoeuvres.

 

The southern pole is reached very quickly by a small contingent of scouts and heavy weapon teams and it's discovered that a gigantic chasm seems to surround this location so no alien advance here is possible. The scouts continue to push forward into the unknown and soon Earth's greatest fear is realised as an Ethereal is spotted. The troops are at least safe from it's mental powers but it is a daunting site nonetheless. The scout falls back and a squad advances on the monsters position.

 

The same scout is soon on the airwaves again, reporting contact of a Snakeman unit in the South. He manages to retreat a second time but with noone in the area to assist he may not have run far enough. Another scout is also very close to this beast and to lose any of these nimble troops at such an early stage would be catastrophic for the Commanders.

 

As exploration continues, a small land bridge is found to the west but the abyss seems to run for a considerable distance. Disturbingly the troops locate some sort of alien defences on this bridge however so for now it remains closed to X-Com and open to their foes. Nearby a small squad of Mutons has been located in two squads. The troops are nearby so they move out to exterminate them.

 

It's unfortunate that none of X-Com's heavy troopers are close enough to engage the mutons but there are some members of the Elite Alpha Squad nearby so they move to engage. Tragically the first unit to arrvie is exhausted by a long march and fights with little left to give. The Muton's easily hold their ground and X-Com takes it's first loss... No other troops are close enough to make the same journey without suffering a similar fate and so they hold their ground and watch for the Mutons' next move. Meanwhile in the North a mass of alien activity has been detected!

 

The troops continue to spread out and secure a perimeter but disaster strikes when an Ethereal ambushes a lone soldier right in the centre of our 'safe' zone! The M.O.U.T troops were trained for urban environments and brought along for help in clearing out any facilities encountered. On the open plains of Mars, he stood no chacne but fought valiantly till the end! An Alpha Squad Veteran finishes the job and our lost trooper is avenged...

 

No sooner has the Ethereal fallen than a contingent of Muton's is spotted North of it's location by anotehr Urban trooper! He falls back but there are no other troops nearby to assault the new foe, having mostly dispersed for the borders already. We end the turn with 3 hotbeds of alien activity. A rag-tag firing line is beginning to assemble in the north to fight the horde there while the Mutons to the West are nigh on surrounded. In the Southeast troops are moving on the position of our first two enemies spotted while a bulge is forming in the eastern flank where the abyss does not protect us. The stray Muton in the centre is mostly unopposed and very near to a wounded veteran. That along with a few scouts in the wrong places will certainly see some losses...

 

The alien turn is disastrous as one of 3 tanks deployed last time is destroyed by Mutons like it were made of paper! Further casualties included no fewer than 5 of our scouts, 2 urbans and 2 Alpha squad veterans. In return we killed only a single snakeman and a King Ethereal. The latter is a great achievement but neither of these kills were worth the lives of 9 men and a tank.

 

A multitude of alien units has emerged from the Southeast region of our LZ so it seems safe to conclude there is a landbridge over the chasm there. Two Ethereals have a tank surrounded in the West but have not attacked and on closer inspection it's possible we killed a second snakeman in defence last turn as well. The aliens in the North are no longer visible but the 2 Mutons from last turn have been joined by 2 more to make matters worse. Everything is quiet in the NorthEast...

 

Now I'm assuming the F means fortified which I really could have done with using myself last turn but what can I say it's been a long time since playing. I'll remember it for this turn though at any rate!

 

First things first, we have some nice easy revenge kills to make and there are plenty of half dead aliens around for the taking. The south east is a good place to start with 2 half dead foes and a further 3 healthy ones. Sadly I have to choose wisely how to use my single heavy trooper as the battle last turn took it's toll on my units down here.

 

He's sent to relieve the surrounded Urbans in the south first and eliminates an unfortified unit of Snakemen with ease. On returning North he's exhausted but after a short firefight he manages to finish off the injured Muton that claimed one of our own last turn. An Alpha squad veteran moves south to finish off the injured snakeman before being joined by a colleague and digging in to prepare for the next wave of attacks. In the far south, the freed Urban attacks a fortified Snakeman position but falls just short of eradicating it. A colleague assists from the west and finishes the job but it's too late to save the trooper...

 

In the east, some scouting behind enemy lines reveals a lone Muton and an enemy installation which most likely explains the rush in the Southeast last turn. A heavy trooper finds himself face to face with the Muton and utterly annihilates it without a single shot fired in return while an Alpha Squad Vet eliminates a Sectoid squad in the north with equal success.

 

With 4 mutons and an Ethereal in the West things look grim so the heavy troopers are called in to assist. The fortified Ethereal puts up quite a fight but not as much as the heavy who dispatches him swiftly. A scout to the north relocates a Snakeman and another Ethereal, both of which are dispatched by 2 nearby heavies.

 

A move north by an Alpha Squad Vet is met by an injured Snakeman and a fighting fit Muton now and though it's very close the Snakeman falls just before the trooper is about to succumb himself. Another Vet comes to backup the trooper and eliminates the Muton with little damage in return. A scout soon discovers a sectoid party further north but disobeys an order and attacks it, narrowly losing the fight.

 

In the vicinity of the judge now, a heavy trooper opens fire on an injured Muton and finishes it off. Spurred on by multiple confirmed kills, the other troops follow suit and 2 more Muton fortifications are easily overrun by determined Heavy troopers. By the Western landbridge, the tank shrugs off it's fortified captors with ease and the area begins to look a lot more X-Com friendly than it previously was!

 

With only one Ethereal visible in the SE now and the injured Sectoid to the north, nothing remains but to dispatch the final Muton in our midst. Unfortunately the only troops available are the urbans but they willingly oblige and finish him off with minimal damage. The turn ends with just 2 casualties, the Urban in the south and my disobedient scout in the North!

 

The next alien movement is much more pleasant as well with only 3 casualties taken. Sadly I had a screen open which prevented me from witnessing the action but the units lost were 2 Alpha Squad Veterans and one scout. Judging by the appearance of a Snakeman in the north I believe he was responsible for at least one. There are now two fortified Ethereals to the southeast near the alien base codenamed Sierra 5 and a Snakeman and Muton near the western landbridge.

 

With the LZ finally cooling down a little and the northern border almost reached we haven't done too badly after the first turn. We'll be moving on the alien base over the next few months and also trying to secure the western landbridge by destroying the weapon emplacements there. The primary objective remains to secure a North-South strip of the planet however so we'll continue pushing to the pole before the troops spread out any more. It seems the abyss in the west runs most of the map with only 2 bridges so far so we'll most likely advance east while these chokepoints contain the enemy attacks.

[Jman4117]

Excellent! What changes were made to the units in the original game? Looks like they can move a lot more than the usual land units!

[The Veteran]

They certainly can! I'll post up a stat list of some of them later. Tank has 20 attack compared to something like 8 for mutons but only 3 defence which makes it one of the worst in the game! Sectoids are scouts and 1 hit from any non-scout unit of my own is an instant kill. My misclick earlier (moved a scout into instead of round the newly discovered Sectoids) proves that they're pretty evenly matched! My scouts have a movement of 7 which equates to 21 tiles without fighting! The tanks are high too I think but most troops are only 3 or 4.

 

I think the alien forces consist of sectoids, snakemen, mutons, ethereals and king ethereals. Like I say I'll find stats shortly but not right now There's no research but there is the ability for the 3 Avengers to replace battlefield casualties. We're at something like 15 losses to 21 kills so far which is pretty good if you don't count the five scouts I sacrificed before I remembered how to play this game again Things will only get better as we uncover more of the terrain anyway and find their bases. Anyone know how many they have?

 

Cheeky buggers eh, and we thought it ended with the brain

 

Quick Q. If I take injured units back to the 'cities' will they heal over time?

[Jman4117]

If they go back to a city with a barracks they heal in one turn. It also makes new units veterans from the get go, so if they changed the names of everything and you're getting veterans from one of the cities, then you have a barracks there. Unless of course you have Sun Tzu's wonder which would give all new units veteran without giving the heal bonus of the barracks.

[The Veteran]

Well we don't have any of that complicated messing around with buildings and all our research was done on Earth during the war so it's much simpler than a normal Civ game! There is a Training Centre in all 3 Avengers which trains veteran units and completely heals everyone in one day and there is also an HQ building in the Jury but for the sake of the story that's in our Cydonia base for this playthrough I don't know what it is or what it does either but I don't really care to be honest...

 

Here are some stats for units while I have the game open... It's rated Attack/Defence/HitPoints/Firepower/Move

Human units as follow;

Scout Platoon - 4/5/3/1/7

M.O.U.T Team - 5/7/4/3/3

Alpha Squad - 6/6/4/2/3

Heavy Section - 10/5/4/4/3

Reinforcement - 10/5/3/4/3

BAU (tank) - 20/3/3/5/3

 

And aliens have these at their disposal;

Sectoids - 8/5/1/3/1

Snakemen - 6/6/4/2/5

Mutons - 8/6/4/3/5

Ethereals - 5/8/4/2/5

King Ethereals - 14/6/3/3/16

Angry Sectoids - 5/3/4/1/1

Turrets - 6/8/5/3/0

 

I've no idea what the reinforcements are but maybe I'll get a relief force sent to help out at a certain date or something? The amount of time it'll take to build any new troops is long enough that it'll probably never happen anyway so reinforcements would be nice! I'd like to think of this as a true to X-Com scenario so although the game treats each soldier as a unit I'm treating them as individuals. After all we have 3 Avengers and 60 troops, they MUST be individual soldiers right? Similarly I don't know what these angry sectoids are but I'll remember not to be too scared when I see them! They're probably only angry because we killed the alien brain and took away their l33t psionic powers lol

 

As you can see the King Ethereal is a monster so hopefully there aren't too many but we've alreay put one down without any trouble so this is certainly a winnable war! Oh and I'm playing of the toughest setting by the way (Deity) so if at any point we start losing then that's why! I'll update as and when I can, doing a few turns at a time. It was tough starting out today as quite a lot happened in that first alien turn and it's not that easy a game to document really! We'll win though, rest assured we will

[The Veteran]

3 months into the cleansing of Mars, losses have been far higher than expected, with many scouts finding themselves too far into enemy territory to safely extract. The loss of a Heavy Weapons Platform has also taken it's toll on X-Com's expansionary forces but after a series of counter attacks in February, alien resistance in the LZ is finally beginning to decrease.

 

Here's a recap of the current situation in the south where we have a heavily defended landbridge in the west and an alien base to the South East.

 

In order to leave the tank free to assault the alien weapons installations on the land-bridge, a heavy weapons team takes out the Snakeman platoon in the vicinity while an Alpha Squad veteran finishes off the exhausted Muton troop to their south. The HWP then moves west and destroys the southern alien installation though not before recieving serious damage. The heavies who took care of the snakeman squad defend the tank while remedial repairs are made but it will retreat for a full service next month. More units move to the West but soon another Snakeman is spotted fleeing the now destroyed alien turret.

 

The brave Vet assaults the fleeing hostiles but using the smoking ruins for cover, their foes defeat them. A further heavy weapons team moves to defend the HWP and no further forces move west this month. In the north there is a visible squad of Snakemen and the heavily injured Sectoid expedition that was encountered by the scouts last month. The whole line begins moving northward as the polar region is still a primary objective for the troops.

 

One of the Alpha Squad Vets moves to engage the Snakemen and manages an admirable victory. Another squad of the monsters is spotted to their west however and no full strength units are able to respond. Likewise the secotids in the North are too far away to engage and to rush the line forward in it's current condition would be suicidal. Instead they continue to edge forward and fortify their new positions. The massive contingent of troops in the west dispatch some more troops to assist in the west including 2 heavy sections and the HWP. Scouting reveals numerous hostiles in the area, including several enemy fortifications...

 

 

In the east, scouts report a much more favourable situation, discovering multiple sectoid scouting parties and a lone Snakeman squad to the North. With only scouts in the north we're unable to engage the serious target but all 3 sectoid parties soon fall. The team continues moving east to occupy their fallen foes old positions while part of the contingent moves North to defend the scouts from Snakeman assaults.

 

In the West, some injured troops return to the Judge for medical attention while the remaining 5 Urban assault troops attempt to close the western land-bridge nearby. Their scout locates multiple hostiles but they all seem to be sectoids so a fortified perimeter is created and the pass will be held for the forseeable future to deny alien access to the Avengers.

 

I didn't take a SS of it but in the east we had 2 Alpha Squad veterans holding heavily fortified positions against 2 similarly fortified Ethereals. In the alien turn both of these squads were destroyed after prolonged firefights but again thanks to the stupid casualty timeline I was unable to witness any of the action! We lost an additional veteran somewhere but I'd estimate enemy losses during the movement at way more than human so it wasn't too bad. A massive snakeman force looks ready to stage a counter-attack on the southern land-bridge and we spot a weapons emplacement on the northern one now the sectoids there have moved. Lots of other aliens are fortified in the north now making it the area of highest resistance again this month. A Muton and Ethereal detachment are sighted in the East and my troops who waited in the Avengers don't seem to have healed for some reason. hmm...

[The Veteran]

A revisit to Cydonia in it's fourth month of conflict reveals a lot of fighting has taken place in the North while we were unable to view it. The two central heavy units in the following SS were at full strength when last turn ended so clearly both of them have fought (and defeated) at least one enemy unit each in the hostile turn.

 

Now it's time for another offensive but first there are some seriously badly injured troops who need to fall back for some R&R. The two heavies from the above screen will be sorely missed on the Northern front but they're no good to us dead so they fall back to The Judge, Northernmost of the Avenger Trio. An Alpha squad vet breaks from his teammate just West of their former position and annihilates the Sectoid that was close by. Subsequent scouting of the Northern border locates a huge alien weapons installation which seems to indicate another base is nearby while a whole army of Sectoids is located in the West.

 

Another Alpha Squad Vet dispatches a lone sectoid platoon located by a scout with poor timing, hopefully it will save him in the alien's turn. In the East there is a fortified Muton squad to deal with and a similarly entrenched squad of Ethereals further South.

 

The Heavy dquad in the south wipes out the Ethereal's gathering with minimal resistance but in the North X-Com only has lightly armoured Veterans to offer. It's an incredibly close call but Alpha Squad claims another kill as the Muton bleeds out, leaving our brave soldier to fight another day.

 

In the South, the troops continue to fall back to the Executioner having sustained many casualties and even more injuries. With the Eastern fortification lost they'll regroup before any further offensive is mounted towards Sierra 5. West of the Southern Avenger, the Snakemen are pushing a counter offensive over the landbridge however after last month losing one of their military installations. 3 squads are in attendance along with a sectoid scouting party.

 

In the ensuing firefight, all three Snakeman contingents are eliminated along with another three sectoid squads including 2 new targets that the tank located during it's flight back to base. The only remaining foe is an almost dead but heavily fortified Muton. Short of atatcking it with scouts we're out of options so we have to just hope that our defences can hold it off or defeat it in the next alien move.

 

Moving to the Northern landbridge we can now see a military installation on the other side so we'll defend it from the east for now. A Sectoid scouting party can be seen in the area but it's not alone so is approached with caution. One of the 5 Urban troopers moves to engage and destroys both units so presumably they were both scouts. Now it's time to deal with the Sectoid horde in the North...

 

With the troops in such disarray up here there's not much I can do without leaving them open to a massive counter-attack so the troops advance and fortify but they do not engage. I think it will be necessary to pull back the whole battle line here soon for some serious sickbay action...

 

In the alien turn there's a massive amount of movement but very little fighting. I count as many as 16 sectoid scouting squads moving around the place and the Southern most Heavy on the eastern front is engaged twice by Snakeman detachments but eliminates both at great cost.

 

With easy targets littering the battlefield I'd love to carry on with the next month now but for some reason my troops are refusing to heal despite being asleep in the avengers... I can't go on if my men have no way to recover so what's the story there?