XCOM 2 SG - It Continues?

[Lewwyn]

When am I up?

Oh! Right now!  I'll grab the save and play it now as I have 3 hours free right now.

WK you grab next then?

[Lewwyn]

Oh and I'm totally going shotgun. 

[Jkaen]

The sword/Blademaster is decent in the early game (especially against Sectoids) but the sword quickly gets outclassed by the shotgun once magnetic weapons are reached.

To be honest i am not sure about that because mine runs about with the axes

[Lewwyn]

I am so sorry everyone...




Screenshots didn't save.

Base Management:

Okay Started by Assigning the engineer to clear debris.

SS1

I promoted Jowy to Combat protocol

SS2

The ranger to Phantom, and I claimed the ranger as Lewwyn. Pigtails please.

SS3

I also gave her a shotgun and upgraded it with the mag.

SS4

There's the Blacksite, not going there yet.

SS5

Locator Beacon mission, but I'm going to head to the engineer rumor

SS6

New research, I started Resistance Comms:

SS7

SS8

New Engineer!  I set him to clearing more debris.  Need Space and supplies...

SS9

Debris cleared. Set the engineer to more debris.
Then the second engineer also cleared debris!  To the next room with you.

SS10

Incoming mission. Was seconds from recovering cargo on the next rumor. Someone get that next time.
A scientist and Intel (84)! Looks like I'd better not mess up.
Extract a VIP from Advent city.

Battle Op:

Okay so I took our guys + 1 rookie.

SS11

Loadout looks fine to me.

SS12

We are in, Ranger starts concealed. Timer at 12.
Extraction is on a roof.

SS13

Ranger spots a pod. Sectoid and trooper.
Dreylin has a 73% shot on the trooper right off the bat. I decide to take it.

Missed....

SS14

Rookie has a 66% shot at the sectoid.


Also missed.

I move jowy to full cover and he takes a shot at 75% on the sectoid.

SS15

Hit for 4.

SS16

I have a coinflip (52%) to end the sectoid with the concealed ranger with a shotgun shot before it can do anything.

I take it.

SS17

Crit for 9! Sectoid down.  Scientist hides behind a building.
End turn and hope the trooper misses. I feel that turn was slightly suboptimal :D

SS18

Trooper moves closer and overwatches, Yay!
Ranger has 83% shot with shotgun

SS19

He's DOWN!

Now its time to move forward a bit, one pod down, sending jowy to the roof to scope it out a bit.
Rookie moves up too.

SS20

Nothing in view. I move up the VIP and Dreylin.

Nothing on the alien turn.

I checked a nearby hack. Its at 52% to give the soldier dodge. I backed off and moved Lewwyn forward.

SS21

Moved jowy up and set to overwatch.
Moved rook up to full cover, yellow move, still no aliens.

Nothing on the alien turn.

Alient turn activity! We see movement ahead.

SS22

But then a different pod (trooper and officer) runs into us from the left, I get off 3 overwatch shots, but none hit.

SS23

Situation looks like this:

SS24

Rookie moves and takes a 72% shot.

SS25

Critical! The Trooper is down.

SS26

Now I have a couple options. I want to give someone besides Lewwyn the kill so I think Melee first, but I'm also wary of the other pod I heard. I move Lewwyn closer to the officer just to see.

SS27

Ugh. Sectoid and trooper run into play, Lewwyn is exposed to both of those + the officer out of cover.

Dreylin has a 55% on a trooper. I take it.

SS28

Trooper downed! good.

I decide to take the 100% shot with Lewwyn with the shotgun on the officer.

SS29

Worst case scenario. Only 4 dmg. Combat protocol won't kill it.
I run the VIP back to full cover.

Jowy has 33% shot on the officer.

I have two options. Aid protocol Lewwyn or move Jowy closer and try to get a better shot on the officer.
My biggest issue is that he's not in cover toward the aliens atm.

SS30

Come on you can do it Jowy. 55%? no problem!

SS31

YES! Good Job! Officer down.

SS32

Loot Recovered Automatically. Another expanded mag. +2 on this one.

Alien turn:

SS33

Sectoid reanimates a Psi Zombie! YES! Let's gut this sectoid.

SS34

Rook throws a grenade and removes the cover.

Who gets the kill? The Rook and Dreylin already earned promos.

SS35

I send in Lewwyn. Crit death for sectoid.

No aliens on the interum.

Lewwyn moves to the evac.
Everyone else moves up.

SS36

VIP is evaced

I evac Everyone else.


SS37

Flawless victory, 5 turns left on the timer.


HUZZAH!

SS38


Rookie is a Specialist.

Dreylin was the only other promotion. Even though Lewwyn killed 3 guys, awww.
I left the Dreylin promotion up for the next player to decide. I lean longwatch for the later killzone.

Scientist and Intel rewards yay.

[Lewwyn]

Here is the save.

[Lewwyn]

On the to do list:

Promote Dreylin
Finish Cargo Recovery rumor


The Tactics School should be complete in the next day or so. Squad Size upgrade should be doable with the supplies from the debris clearing.

Also after resistance Comms, mag weapons? Now that we have another scientist it should be closer to 15 days to research it I think.

[WarriorKnight]

Flawless victory! Nice.

Dreylin is the sniper right? I think we want Long Watch, although neither promo is that great.

Do we have Alien Biotech? That would be the only other tech I think we could use in the short term, since it unlocks Advanced Warfare Center. Otherwise Mag Weapons for sure after Communications.

Claiming the save. I'll play either later tonight or tomorrow morning.

Incidentally, how do you save screenshots? Is there a folder they are saved in like CivIV or is it just saved to the clipboard?

[Jowy]

I lean longwatch for the later killzone.

Doesn't have any synergy with Kill Zone. Unless you just mean we want to make him a Sniper rather than a Gunslinger, in which case nvm move on

@WarriorKnight I use Steam's screenshot function (default key F12). Saves them all to a folder. After you close XCOM 2, it'll have a pop-up, choose "show on disk" to find the folder for the first time.

[Dreylin]

Good job! (Though it sounded like you were running right on the edge of a disaster there)

I'm definitely on the Sniper path, please.

[WarriorKnight]

Base Management:

I like rangers better than grenadiers tbh, but there's nothing wrong with blowing things up. Plus a experienced heavy gunner is a very fun unit so let's shred some aliens.

Promoted Dreylin to Long Watch. We also apparently have a spare Adv. Expanded Magazine. With Dreylin and Leewyn already having Expanded Magazines I wasn't quite sure what to do with it. I suppose WK would have been best, but I held onto it for now.

Anyway, with customization out the way let's see what rumor we get for completing the last mission:



Eh... I don't mind going for 1 group of rookies for backup but 6 days is a lot. With the supply drop so close I skipped it for now, but we might want to come back later.

1 day left on the Cargo Recovery rumor, so let's do that first.



Resistance comms finishes before the rumor does. Alien Biotech is only 3 days so let's pick that up before Mag weapons. Back to business... Dafuq?!?



Never seen this before, but the background suggests it's DLC material. Didn't think there'd be any DLC differences aside from the rulers, Shen's last gift mission and customization options but guess not. Oh well, it should keep things interesting at any rate.

We get some weapons of the hunt, including a bolt caster (rifle), shadowkeeper (pistol), hunter's axe (ahhh, that's what you meant Jkaen. Didn't know what you meant by axes before) and a frost bomb (grenade). No idea if those are randomly chosen from a pool or definite pickups though... For now I put them all on our squad since stats suggest they are strictly superior to our normal equipment.

With that done, let's contact the Blacksite region.



Didn't grab a pic, but GTS school completes during the 4 day wait. We don't have a sergeant yet for SS1, but I did put a rookie in to train as a ranger. Alien Biotech also completes, onto Magnetic weapons. Although at 19 days it'll be a bit of a wait...



East Asia contact is made, while it is tempting to go straight to Blacksite I'm not that suicidal.  Headed off to contact West Asia to see if we can finish that before the supply drop. We barely get started when...



Alright, let's rescue some civilians.



Dreylin and Leewyn get the pistol and sword replacements respectively. Jowy gets the Bolt caster while WK gets the frost bomb. Dunno how these bad boys will fare, but let's find out (any info about the weapons before the mission starts would be nice).

(will complete the mission tomorrow).