XCOM 2 - War of the Chosen

[Dreylin]

We head off to Templar HQ and start to heal the team.

Soon the Psi chamber completes:



We recruit this rather spiffy looking gentleman to stick in the can:



He starts to show us his "guns". 

Unfortunately it'll be a while before we can afford the upgrade - or to staff an Engineer there to speed up training.

Muton Autopsy completes:




I think that first breakthrough is the report from the previous Covert Op. I start on the interchangeable Upgrades and queue up Plasma Grenades behind the current Heavy Weapon build, which has a couple of days left. Again, an Engineer would be nice in the Proving Ground, but can't be spared.

I decide to stay at Templar HQ healing until the Covert Op completes, but first we get a double dose of bad news:



Ouch, right in the Engineers!

I'll miss that Core as well. 

The Op completes and we have level II on the Warlock and a new Order option:



Dreylin picks up enough XP for a promotion:


As for the next Op; with our Captain unavailable and a Retaliation imminent I don't really want to send an experienced team after anything so I end up running this mission:


oledavy joins the squad and heads off with his mask-partner and the designated Op Scientist to help speed up our Infirmary. It'll be a while before we've dug out the space for it, but this'll be useful nonetheless.

Time to switch back to finding the next Engineer; we spin for a while expecting the Retaliation, but before we get that another tech completes:



With at least one Ruler out of the can it should be useful, and it's only 2days to research with the boost.

Aha, here's the Retaliation:


Let's suit up a squad ... a big squad:



Kelly & Mardoc hit the field together for the first time in a while (taking bets on which ends up injured this time ) and Yuris & DP101 bring their Snipe & Kaboom combo. I can't find a good pair to fill the last slot due to injuries and Will drops, so end up with singletons Whosit & shallow_thought (who incidentally have v. low compatibility and therefore won't be Bonding anytime soon).

[Dreylin]

We start (as we always do) in a corner and out of cover - thanks Firebrand!


Although that's a nice Winnebago to park a Sniper on if we get a chance.

shallow_thought moves forward into cover and:


I forget to remind myself that "at least it's not Chrysalids" and am quite bummed by this development. Whosit suggests that the answer may be a rocket:


DP101 counters that Acid has a more lasting effect:


Yuris opines that firing Fire from atop a Winnebago is more fun:


Mardoc (secure behind his Cactus) favours his Rifle:


shallow_thought tunes out all the bickering, realises she's the one on the frontlines and decides that an untimely death is not something she looks forward to:


Putting in the acid seemed smart to maybe catch one of the Mutons (the other burned up before getting his turn), but he just flanked and shot; the Berserker milled about:


Oh, and then these guys patrol in to join the debate:


A shuffling commences to bring the back lines closer in. Mardoc starts us off by upgrading his Cactus for a nice sturdy tree /just/ outside the Acid cloud and neutralising the Muton:


Kelly steps up to apply the Shotgun to the Berserker, but she's a bit rusty and misses. shallow_thought shows how it's done:


The Berserker's left on 1HP, so Whosit takes it out


Guaranteed with the Stock, but he lands the hit regardless.

That leaves DP101 and Yuris to see what can be done about the Advent pair:


Cover gone and Yuris gets the crit on the Shieldbearer:


That leaves the Officer free and - oh, Death from Above triggers for Yuris.

Hmmm ... aha!



Sorted. <dusts off hands>

We got out of that one unscathed, but let's play this next bit smarter:



That sillouette doesn't look /quite/ human.

DP101 is the only one who can "see" it for a shot, but he misses and it remains untriggered. The rest Overwatch and catch it on the inter-turn:



The fog gives a hint of what's to come:


and then smacks us in the face from the other direction:

[Dreylin]

At least it's not a Chosen, amirite? 

Well, let's see if we can get past this lady again:


No messing about with Deadeye this time, he needs to land the Dragon Round, and does.

She runs towards DP101; can't miss at this range:


But neither can she:


Eeep. 

Mardoc tries to distract her:


Doesn't work


DP101 is still alive, but Disoriented and can't survive another hit. We have to try to drive her away on the next action. Seems like a job for a Ranger, but the risks are high ... shallow_thought volunteers for the job:



Phew.

There's still an active Muton out there, so we can't spend additional actions trying to get her and she runs off:


Next time Gadget!

Neither Kelly nor Whosit can get a Grenade as far at the Muton, but Whosit can get close enough to land the Flashbang:



Meanwhile the other Berserker is busy killing civvies in the building behind, so we'll try to avoid triggering it this turn:


Now Whosit can move up and land the Grenade to strip armour & cover:


Yuris & DP101 miss their shots, but shallow_thought hits hers:




Mardoc takes the guaranteed kill:


Then Kelly advances a touch to throw the second scanner to pin down the Berserker and reveal the rest of the pod:


Shuffle (leaving Mardoc & DP101 next to each other) & Overwatch:





shallow_thought pauses for a selfie before executing it. 


Leaving a Trooper and a Purifier. The latter is more dangerous, so let's see if we can deal with that.

Mardoc pauses to spray DP101 with wake-up juice:



Whosit finishes it off:


Yuris reloads and Kelly overwatches, then DP101 places smoke under his feet (using the launcher, naturally):


The Trooper dodges the Overwatch and holes up in the slightly exploded looking remnants of the building:


Yuris breaks the Overwatch:


Then Mardoc mines its skull to end the mission:




10/13 saved is pretty good, and only one injured:


Surprisingly only 6days for a Grave injury, but DP101's close encounter with the Queen has also left him scarred:


Not quite sure why the repeated beatings from BQ has caused a fear of Vipers; maybe it's a "Female Thing".

Promotions:




Central's really insistent that I upgrade Ref & Dreylin's Bond:


Whoa, does everyone keep crazy hair underneath their headgear!?

But they are in reserve for the next mission, so Kelly & Mardoc get to Bond some more instead:

[Dp101]

Awww, but I love snakes! Glad I'm not dead yet.

[haphazard1]

Glad you were able to save Dp101 -- things were looking bad there for a while.

Lots of moving parts in this game, with the expansion adding more and more. I have trouble keeping it all in mind at times.

[yuris125]

You know.. I wouldn't mind if missions were less exciting

winnebago in the back = best place though

[Dreylin]

You know.. I wouldn't mind if missions were less exciting

You & me both, these last two especially have been a /tad/ stressful!

Glad you were able to save Dp101 -- things were looking bad there for a while.

Lots of moving parts in this game, with the expansion adding more and more. I have trouble keeping it all in mind at times.

I think that spending the last 6months playing Long War 2 (approx. half a campaign) has helped develop my strategic approach to the combat situations. There you run many more missions with a wider variety of low level troops (as here) and there are generally more enemies on the map (verses vanilla) so it takes a more methodical approach to solving the puzzle than the Vanilla (and my standard playstyle) brute force approach. I see that coming through with the similar high-injury / low death profile.

[Dreylin]

OK, back out onto the map and wind onwards:


We'll head for this one next:


But on the way we'll swing past the Black Market and clear out a few excess corpses:


Flamethrower completes and the Plasma Grenades are up next:


And Experimental Weapons completes:


No inspiration, so I finally dial up Elerium. Each weapon costs a bunch of Supplies (25-35) and 5days in the Proving Ground; no point starting any of them until the Grenades are done so I'll keep the Supplies in hand.

Excavation finishes and the Comms are started; they'll finish around the middle of next month:


The excess Engineers are reassigned to the next room clearance and to speed up the Covert Ops.

Kelly & Mardoc finish their lvl2 Bond, so it's Dreylin & RefSteel's turn:


And Alhambram finishes his first round in the tank and starts on his next training (Insanity):


Monthly montage:




Looks like I might get another chance to counter the Loyalty Among Thieves event.

Resistance cards:


Pulled in the instant contact card and switched the timer cards around.

Covert Ops. Before the end of Month oledavy & Jowy returned from their jaunt to speed up the Infirmary:


I spend a long time looking through the options for the next mission and eventually settle on this one:


Two Captains is better than just one, and Yuris has been recently promoted so will get good benefits from the forced promotion. Fenn went with him since both their partners are out of commission for a while.


Kill Zone:


And I'm sending him straight out again. 2 reasons, one is that Dragunova is a half a day from being healthy again; second is this:


I want to send her out as the Reaper on this mission to negate the risk of a Wound.

So we'll improve the Bullpups as well as the Pistols:


And then the Council comes calling:


We're off to nag (or stab) an Advent VIP. I remember to upgrade the Grenade Launcher first:


Note all the other upgrades are left un-bought because the Conventional Weapons boost that I scored early on makes the Mag & Gauss weapons largely irrelevant - just an additional upgrade slot - so I've skipped most once I realised.

We're taking a high level squad this time:


Well, as high-level as we can get. Let's see if this can be that "easy mission"....

[Dreylin]

Up & over this building, down through a ditch and up into the next building, grab the dude and run into the next ditch - easy peasy:



Here's the view into the ditch:


Our first Archon. Joy.

And a Purifier in the second pod:


We line up behind this handsome dude (maybe he's an Advent movie start or something):


Claymore will only get two, but that should do. Dreylin & Fenn overwatch while the rest stay uncommitted for flexibility:


Of course that doesn't trigger them because of her super Stealth! Well Fenn's on Overwatch, so who has the Rocket ... that's Dreylin (& it's a Flamethrower).

OK then, haphazard, shoot that Archon!


Still not triggered!? Well then, surely they can't ignore a woman running up and stabbing their friend?



Err, maybe they can! I don't want to send RefSteel down there as well, so I'll have her Overwatch.



Oh great, Blazing Pinions /and/ shooting haphazard. At least it's on 1health and Burning.

Now what's that Lancer got up to:


Uh-oh.

Well, let's see where that second pod is and what we need to do:


Hmmm, I can double up a takedown of the Lancer with a "Bondmate moves adjacent" effect, so:



Nice!

The rest of the team gets off that building right smart and moves into cover with Overwatch when possible. Dragunova sends a scanner to check out the VIP:


Hmmm, another Archon & a Sectoid; could be trouble.

Before that though:



KABOOM!



Sub-standard Overwatch this turn, but they are at range limit and higher altitude.

Let's see what we can do with this Purifier then ... at range!



Still haven't seen it "jump" between units yet.

I'll use the "no risk to Stealth" shot from Dragunova to finish it off:



KABOOM!

Time for Dreylin to go to work:



Lands both shots, and the lower one is at 1HP, burning so no need to worry.

Fenn finishes off the other:


haphazard heals himself and checks out the Tower:


Hmmm, nice options, but I don't want to risk an enhanced Archon. I leave it for later (... & then forget about it).

IBT, the burning Trooper dies:


We advance to collect the Loot and position for the next pod:

[Dreylin]

So 2 pods down and probably just the one to go. Dreylin moves up to trigger:


So there's a second Sectoid. This seems like a job for the Mimic Beacon, but first let's see what we can get done with guns:




Not enough, so Ref throws the Mimic and Storm goes in for a Rend:


Dragunova doesn't have an angle on the Archon, so targets the nearby Sectoid and stays in Stealth:


The Mimic Beacon takes a beating as intended:


Hmmmm, is that a car next to the Sectoid...?

But let's deal with the Archon first:



Now Dragunova takes out the car:


KABOOM!

Ref takes down the Sectoid:


With the coast clear, it's time to grab the VIP and run; haphazard gets the job:


Reinforcements are called in, so we position and Overwatch:



Fenn gets the Overwatch kill on the Mech.

Dreylin & RefSteel deal with the Lancer:



The Purifier is a little more troublesome, but an Acid grenade, Combat Protocol & stealh flank deals with him:




hap had to drop the VIP to take out the Purifier, so Storm grabs him everyone evacs:




hap & Storm are a bit banged up, but both get promos, as does RefSteel:





I think that probably counts as an "easy" mission these days.