XCOM - Terror From the Deep SG

[haphazard1]

OK, played some turns....

Researched The Ultimate Threat -> Lobsterman Commander -> Final Sub (Leviathan) -> T'Leth -> M.C. Generator -> Bombardment Shield -> Lobsterman Corpse -> Aquatoid Corpse. The last few were just for points, and to keep our scientists busy while we built the Leviathan (22+ days ).

I finished the additional Displacer Sonic, then built more Magnetic Ion Armor for T'Leth. Filled time with some medkits for profit, then started the Leviathan.

MC screening for July...we got a couple 60's from the 10 recruits at the Atlantic base, nothing special. Better luck at our main base, with some strong results:

Fire & Ice 98
Ug the Barb 94
Anitsocialmunky 92
Rego 91

On the not so strong side...

Dicorion 4
Sandover 4
Tatan 0 Did not know that was possible, actually. Thought you had to get at least a one. Maybe they hooked up the implants wrong? Or is Tatan's skull just completely empty?

Counting the new recruits with 60+ MC scores, we have exactly 14 troopers. Add the three displacer sonics and the Leviathan has a full load.

During the nearly month-long wait to complete the research and build the Leviathan, I amused myself by shooting down alien subs and then ignoring them. We shot down:

7 small gillman subs
6 small aquatoid subs
1 gillman supply cruiser

We had a shipping attack (landed and took off, only -90 for 3 dead civilians?), and then 2 dreadnoughts appeared over India on alien infiltration missions. I was not about to try to fight them with the Leviathan less than a day from being ready, so assume India will go over to the aliens.

Also, for the end of July we had 2450 points and got +578 000 in funding. The USA was unhappy due to alien activity and reduced funding by 131 000. But again, it doesn't really matter at this point.

As of August 4th, the Leviathan is ready to go to T'Leth. I have 3 displacer sonics aboard and 14 troops in magnetic ion armor, all with at least 60 MC strength. Everyone has a medkit since we can not get those from killed aliens. I am a bit unsure of the rest of the equipment load. I have 4 DPLs and 4 rounds for each; sonic cannon for the other 10 troops; some sonic pulsers (about 10), sonic pistors for each of the DPL troops so they can shoot if they have to, and about 10 heavy thermic lances for lobster fillet.

Anything else I should have? Flares? (I don't remember if the T'Leth areas are lighted or not.) MC of some kind? (Not that any of our troops have much skill, even if they have MC strength.)

Also, I renamed our MC-strong recruits who will be going on the final mission. haphazard v5 (not sure what happened to v4?), Uberfish (not sure of version?), and dazedroyalty v3. I was trying to get active players into the final mission, but did not have a spot for Catwalk. Sorry. It didn't seem right to rename an active soldier.

If anyone thinks we should NOT attack T'Leth now, please post. Any advice for final equipment load would also be appreciated. I will play the first section of the finale in a few hours, so this is your chance to be heard.

[fire&ice]

Fire & Ice 98

I think that means I get to live

[Ug the Barbarian]

If anyone thinks we should NOT attack T'Leth now, please post. Any advice for final equipment load would also be appreciated. I will play the first section of the finale in a few hours, so this is your chance to be heard.

I think you've got it well covered. Only comment I'd make is 'Mag Ion Armour for all 14 troopers' as we've got to go through three levels vs lots of DPLs etc and the extra protection can make all the difference.

[Ug the Barbarian]

I think that means I get to live

Not really - that means you get to come along on the final mission which means you probably get to die

[haphazard1]

Everyone on the final mission is at high risk of death.

I should have mentioned it, but yes, we have magnetic ion armor for all 14 troopers. OK, I am off to T'Leth -- wish me luck!

[uberfish]

Three of those 90+ MC scores were there because I left them in training from last month, in case we wanted to use MC ourselves. Seems we can do without it though which is something I doubted at the start... good luck everyone!

If we're splitting the mission, don't forget to save BEFORE the end of part 2 as you can't save in part 3.

[antisocialmunky]

I think that means I get to live

The force is strong within this one.

[haphazard1]

With the capture of lobsterman commanders from the raid on the aliens' base in the Arctic, X-COM was able to determine the location of the ancient submerged alien city of T'Leth, as well as a few bits and pieces of information about how it might be infiltrated by an X-COM squad.

Resistance to alien MC attacks would be crucial, so the squad assembled for this all-or-nothing mission was missing many familiar faces. Instead, only those the MC lab techs had determined were strongest with the MC implants would go, whatever their experience. The squad was an odd mix of skilled veterans who had scored dozens of alien kills and complete rookies who had never even seen an alien in combat.

Each solider was equipped with the best gear X-COM could produce: magnetic ion armor, medkits, the most powerful weapons in the arsenal. This mission had to succeed -- interrogation of the lobstermen commanders had revealed that the aliens' plans for awakening their long-dormant leader were almost complete. There would not be time to mount another attack -- everything depended on these 14 soldiers.

The Leviathan travelled swiftly from the main base to the Gulf of Mexico, heading into the depths to reach T'Leth. Using security codes obtained from rigorous interrogation of the lobstermen commanders, a small hatchway was accessed and the squad entered the alien city....

Round 1

This section of T'Leth consists of two levels. Our squad starts mostly on the upper level, in two rooms which have only an elevator down for exits. Fire&Ice and Brian Shanahan start on the lower level, and are joined by the displacer tanks for initial scouting.



All is quiet as the squad begins to deploy -- our entry seems to have gone undetected.

Round 2

We seem to be at the northern edge of the map. I send the tanks east, west, and south with soldiers covering additional doorways and corridors. There are some 1-tile elevators in many rooms, which will have to be checked out by soldiers as the tanks are too large.

The eastern tank spots an alien in the darkness to the southeast.



The tank has to move a bit to get LOS, but it blasts the aquatoid with its powerful sonic cannon. We note that the alien was carrying a DPL.

IBT there is an MC attack on haphazard v5. And an aquatoid drops down one of those small elevators right next to Fire&Ice and the eastern tank!



Fortunately that seems to have exhausted its TU. Or maybe it is unwilling to blow itself up with its own DPL.

Round 3

The tank blasts the aquatoid at point-blank range. (I used the tank rather than Fire&Ice because the tank has lots and lots of ammo. Sonic cannon clips may be scarce, so why not conserve the limited ammo?)

The squad is spreading out, and our tanks have reached the eastern and western map edges. As we start to sweep south, we encounter a lot of very nasty rooms like this one:



Four doors and an elevator, also known as "the way you came in plus four ambushes". There were several of these on the map, plus lots of those little one-tile elevators -- some in the open, some within small rooms. Lots and lots of places for aliens to hide, and to pop out of to attack. Sweeping the map will be a slow and careful process.

IBT we are hit with multiple MC attacks on several soldiers. So far everyone is holding up well -- the MC Lab techs apparently knew what they were talking about.

Round 4

We continue sweeping the map. In the west, Serdoa v2 tries an elevator but can not go up -- this means there is an alien already in the tile on the level above. Unfortunately we can not shoot up these elevators. But on the positive side, the aliens can not shoot down. We will keep watch on this elevator.

IBT we catch glimpses of a couple aquatoids moving around. There are also several more MC attacks.

Round 5

We can not spot the aliens, but have a general idea of their locations. Zakalwe2, Rego v2, and dazedroyalty v3 put their DPLs to good use and annihilate the target areas, producing a couple of alien death screams.

"It's too bad Captain Pling didn't pass the MC testing." Dave V 2.0 remarked. "A triple DPL launch? She would have loved that!"

"The Captain loves anything that goes boom -- the bigger, the better." JKaen agreed.

IBT we get several more MC attacks, and an aquatoid pops out of Serdoa v2's elevator. Again, it either ran out of TUs or was not willing to blow itself up by using its DPL.

Round 6

Serdoa v2 shoots the aquatoid with his sonic pistol, not wanting to blow himself up by DPL any more than the alien did. Antisocialmunky2 goes up the elevator and confirms the room above is now clear.

Our middle tank spots an aquatoid to the south.



The tank blasts the alien, who like all his comrades is carrying a DPL. I had to adjust my usual tactics on this map due to the aliens all having the DPL. Rather than my usual approach of forming overlapping lines for mutual fire support, I focused on keeping soldiers out of sight -- anyone in view is a target for a DPL. Where possible I kept them separated from one another, but trying to keep line of sight on all corridors, doorways, and elevators so no aliens could escape our sweep and get behind us into the "safe" areas. It was not easy, and made for very slow progress, but it seemed to be working so far.

In the east, Uberfish spots an aquatoid a long way to the south:



It is facing him and he has poor odds on the shot, so instead he goes up the elevator he happens to be standing on. This clears the path for Rego v2, who "services" the alien with his DPL:



Another satisfied customer.

DPL early. DPL often.
When in doubt, DPL.
Leave no DPL unturned.



But seriously, with both sides having this kind of firepower, it really is a matter of getting them before they get you.

IBT there are 7 MC attacks, 6 on dazedroyalty v3 and one on Serdoa v2. So far, none of the MC attacks are doing anything. And I am perfectly happy with the aliens spending their TUs on pointless MC attacks rather than firing DPLs at us.

Round 7

The middle tank spots another aquatoid a bit further south of the previous one:



It takes two shots this time, but the result is the same: dead aquatoid. I could really get to like these displacer sonics.

There is a big room with stairs up to another area with lots of pumps. It makes a great place for an ambush, so Serdoa v2 hits it with a DPL and gets a death scream. Several troops move in to clear it and -- carefully! -- check upstairs.

IBT more MC attacks....

Round 8

Brian Shanahan enters a long narrow room and spots an aquatoid at the far end, facing away fortunately.



He takes his time and lines up the aimed shot, and hits it in the head.

IBT four more MC attacks...the usual suspects, dazedroyalty v3 and Serdoa v2. Occasionally haphazard v5 will get one for variety.

Round 9

Amelia2 has made it upstairs into the pump area, and finds an aquatoid:



She blasts the alien and then ducks behind the wall, in case more are lurking.

Our middle tank has advanced far enough south to see the map edge, and there is a 4-tile elevator there. This is almost certainly the path to our exit.



IBT there are three MC attacks on Serdoa v2, who panics and drops his weapons. One panic out of all these attacks is pretty good. Hopefully he will recover, but panic attacks cause a big drop in morale and that can really cascade.

Round 10

Brian Shanahan has reached that elevator in the long narrow room and goes up, finding an aquatoid immediately in front of him:



The veteran calmly shoots it in the face, then confirms the room is clear. "And that's how it's done, rookies!"

IBT there are more MC attacks, and dazedroyalty v3 goes berserk! Fortunately he just shoots wildly with his sonic pistol, hitting nothing important. Note that this is the reason I ALWAYS shift my DPL troops so that the pistol is the active weapon at the end of the turn. Berserk DPL-wielding madmen tend to be very bad news -- don't let it happen to you!

Round 11

TheShiningOne v2 is helping Amelia2 check the upper level pump area, and spots another aquatoid:



He kills it with an aimed shot.

Our western tank has swept the southwest corner and now reaches the middle south; it goes up the 4-tile elevator and confirms this is our exit area. It also finds an aquatoid waiting:



A point-blank sonic cannon blast reduces the alien to mush.

I start moving troops towards the exit area, using the cleared paths and keeping flankers covering passages to areas not yet checked (mainly the southeast). We do not actually have to clear the whole map, just get everyone to the exit area. The troops stop to scavenge alien corpses on the way -- you can never have too many DPL bombs on hand when raiding an ancient submerged alien city.

IBT an aquatoid commander goes berserk!

Round 12

Troops continue moving to the exit area at full speed, not reserving any movement for reaction fire except for the flankers.

IBT there are more MC attacks and dazedroyalty v3 falls under alien control!

Round 13

And all the MC strength/resistance had been going so well.

Here is the situation:



dazedroyalty v3 is under the cursor; he is right in the middle of several soldiers. I do not have any stun weaponry, as equipment space was limited and we can not capture anything here anyway. But I do not want to kill one of our own, especially when most of the MC attacks have failed. So I decide to scatter the nearby troops and hide everyone out of sight of dazedroyalty v3. Hopefully he will break out of alien control and everyone can make it to the exit area.

Dave V 2.0 gets shot in the back by our MC control victim, but fortunately it is just a pistol and does no damage.

IBT an aquatoid solider and an aquatoid commander panic -- dazedroyalty breaks free of alien control.

Round 14

We got glimpses of the panicking aliens' locations, and our eastern tank moves and kills one of them.

dazedroyalty v3 shuffles his gear and puts all his weapons in his pack, so he is carrying a DPL bomb (but no launcher). He should be safe even if MC-controlled again.

The squad is moving into the exit area and taking their places; a couple more turns should do it.

Round 15

More of same....

Round 16

The eastern tank spots another panicked alien:



It blasts it, and this turned out to be the last alien so we advanced to the second part of the T'Leth mission. I have actually uploaded my save from just after shooting the alien, as I suspected it might be the last. This will give the next player a chance to go through the set up screen and arrange all the equipment the way they want it, rather than being stuck with my choices. Just hit end turn and you will advance to T'Leth part 2 - nothing else happened.

Note that I had the soliders carrying a lot of scavenged gear, especially DPL bombs. Many of them were over-encumbered and slowed, so you do not have to take all of them when you choose equipment. There are a couple extra DPL launchers as well, beyond the 4 I originally brought with us.

Good luck!

[haphazard1]

It occurs to me that having the soldiers carrying the extra scavenged equipment may have exceeded the 80 item limit. I think that still applies to the setup screen, even when you are between mission levels and not launching from an X-COM base?

If so, and you seem to be missing critical gear in the next section, just have the soldiers in the exit area drop unnecessary stuff before hitting end turn. Most of them have plenty of TUs so they should be able to do so if necessary.

Maybe it is not a problem, but I realized that I saw some odd stuff in the setup before I quit out of the game.

Sorry if this causes trouble. I was just trying to make sure we had a generous supply of DPL ammo for the next section.

[Ug the Barbarian]

Ok well played with no casualties - so pressure is on for me to keep that up

I'll try and play this evening