XCOM 2 SG - It Continues?

[Lewwyn]

Tomorrow I can.

[Jowy]

Tomorrow I can.

Any progress or should someone else claim it?

[Lewwyn]

Sorry, I got stuck doing something else! Anyone can take it.

[WarriorKnight]

I am stepping out of this SG. The turn pace in recent times has been, quite frankly, disappointing and RL will prevent me from playing any more turns in the not too distant future.

Best of luck for the rest of the campaign and my apologies for leaving before it finished.

[Jowy]

Aw. To be honest the SG has been way too easy, the Long War one might be more like what I had planned this one to be. I wouldn't mind calling this done, anyway I was going to have to rush my SP campaign if we continue this so I can stay ahead of this and not get spoiled.

[Dp101]

Could someone please play a turn.

[Dreylin]

I might be able to play tonight, but no guarantees. I feel like we might have been hurt by the lack of a fixed rota, which has meant I've been looking for a block of time where I can both play and report without holding the save up, rather than taking an evening to play and then report the next.

I also kind-of agree with Jowy that I wouldn't mind letting this one go.

[Dreylin]

Played & will report tomorrow.

[Dreylin]

Base Management:

OK, so I'm picking this up after a break and need to run down the to-do list:

Promotions: Sareln gets Guardian, I take Steady Hands, & Lewwyn Untouchable.
Facilities: We have an unused Gremlin in the Proving Ground (no Cores ), I upgrade the Power Conduit to give it something to do. Shadow Chamber is dialed up in the bottom-left; not sure how much else we'll need since we have lots of open contact slots.
Supplies: With those expenses out, I also have enough to upgrade the Grenade Launchers.
Research: 8days to Powered Armour. Nice, but right now we have no Intel so I switch to a Data Pad.

Dark Event goes live and I start to "look forward" to a Retaliation Mission:


Our scanning speed bonus has meant the map is pretty clear, so I take the 3days lead for Alloys and then end up back at HQ scanning for Intel.



Data Cache completes and with 7days to the next Supply Drop, I head off to contact New Brasil.

Before that completes though, something else does:


Which gives us some new Research Objectives:


We'll wait until the Armour is completed before doing these though, as there's no urgency on the Avatar Project currently.

Before the Brasil contact is completed or the Retaliation Mission drops, a message comes in from Creepy Bald Dude:


Consulting the Shadow Chamber rundown, this should be a varied mission. Maybe some AP rounds would be useful if we had any.

Here's the squad:


I dropped Jowy since he's already a Colonel and there's no great need for remote hacking; Johnny 5 brings along his Rocket Launcher & outdated weaponry.

Mission:

It's raining in the NW US:


Dreylin heads for high ground at the top of the map while the rest fan out to advance left. We quickly spot the first pod:


I set up the Long Watch, and then Johnny sends in the Rocket to shred the Armour. Advanced MEC stays in place, but Dreylin scores hits on the others & the Officer goes down. Dp101 Lightning Hands & Face-Offs taking down the regular MEC, but WK misses the shot on the Advanced MEC.

However, IBT the AdMEC moves and WK's Holo Targeting lets Dreylin score the final kill. And then another pod wander into the cone:


That's a missed shot on the Muton, but the team take down it and the Shieldbearer with little difficulty ending with a Shadowkeeper coup-de-gras to re-Conceal Dp101.

Lewwyn (still concealed) crept forward and found this funny-looking Turret with a radar dish on its head:


(Notably not on the Shadow Chamber listing) After failing to take it down at long range, Dp101 then wasted the concealment to throw out a Mimic that was ignored (or not visible) in favour of shooting Sareln. Oops. Dreylin takes it down after the others chip at it.

A turn of reloading & Sareln healing herself happen, and Lewwyn creeps forward to find the next pod:


IBT they patrol towards us and trigger while most of the squad is off overwatch. 

I can't get a Flashbang onto the Codex, so Dreylin starts things of ... with a miss. However Clone & Teleport is almost as good since both are now in 1-shot range. WK lays down the Acid on the Vipers, and then Dp101 does the Lightning Hands / Face-off combo to take out the original 3 enemies. Sareln snipes the teleported Clone and we're down to looking for the last pod.


Johnny picks up the Loot:


Nice, we needed some of those!

Bring up the stragglers and spread out a bit looking for the last pod and...


Joy. 

They patrol in on the Alien turn and with enough movement to get shots off. Unfortunately Lewwyn proves to be on the one piece of railing that doesn't provide cover and is spotted, exposed, and shot (Ouch) but only by one of the 2 handmaidens. Johnny gets of an overwatch shot at BQ and ... why does she have full armour left? Did no-one shred any of it off in the first two meetings!?  

Anyway, she's blocked from both of our Snipers and WK is out of position. Lewwyn is still exposed but if he runs away then she'll probably just chase after him. Maybe that's what I should have done, but instead Johnny tries to distract her with another shot (& 1pt shredded armour). Shot lands, but she's after Lewwyn ...

...

...

...

...

Missed! <Phew>

WK sends in the Freeze Bomb, which let's Dreylin connect to set her on Fire and Dp101 gets the kill (I think). OK, all's fine here now; Lewwyn runs away and Sareln heals her up and ... wait, 2 more Mutons!?

Uh-oh:


Grenade took out Sareln's cover and pinged Johnny, and then the second scored a Crit on Sareln as well leaving things a bit tenuous. Dreylin can't see either so sends over the Flashbang, Sareln retreated & healed, I took a couple of failed shots at them and then WK threw in the second Mimic.

This time she did her job and drew fire away from the troops so the next turn it was just cleanup.

Not the most glorious mission, but everyone survived and we downed another Ruler:


AWC is not staffed at the moment, so those injuries should be healable before the Retaliation comes down.

Lots of Loot:


Suddenly rolling in Elerium Cores!

Dp101 gets Fan Fire:


Not sure about Johnny:


Neither seem especially useful; I think I've had Intimidate trigger once - and fail - and not sure whether we need a mini-Sectopod on demand...?

To do list:

We need to take one of the Engineers away from clearing and staff up the AWC, and I think we have enough Power cushion to move one of the Gremlins back into the Proving Ground. Big decision is how to spend our Cores?

We've probably got the Ammo & Grenades we need for now and we'll want to save one for the Burger Queen armour. We could commission a second SPARK or some experimental Heavy Weapons? With Powered Armour so close we probably don't want an EXO-suit, instead waiting for W.A.R. if we want extra heavy weapons slots (although BQ does give us one). There are also Advanced Grenades on the horizon, so maybe just go for a Heavy Weapon and wait to see?

Map-wise, we should get another lead, but should finish contacting Brasil before the Supply Drop. Still pretty short on Intel though. New Brasil gives us the South America bonus which is extra slots on the Weapons; next player should take a pass through those & PCS to see what we have available and who to assign them to.

[Dp101]

I thought I mentioned I was saving the supplies for the armour over getting the grenade launcher? No matter, we should have enough money regardless. Nice work finishing off a ruler.