Initial position:
Plan is to get on the building as fast as possible. Squad moves up, overwatches and spreads out due to the kind of bad cover. IBT:
Muton and trooper, lovely. Also see this:
Yet another muton. The first one dodged 3 overwatches, so I have to figure out how to deal with him. T2 Dreylin takes a lightning hands against the trooper:
It was only a 55%, but it could have instantly killed him and it is better to start the cooldown on it sooner rather than later. Both the muton and trooper have high cover, so I send up WK to shred the armour and remove the cover:
This causes the both of them to go invisible. Why is this game like this. I move up spark to get a better movement, and the trooper flashes in for a second before vanishing. JKaen finds them though, but no one has a shot still for some inexplicable reason. I move up and kill the trooper with shadowfall:
The muton is still there. Seriously, this is insane:
Only the two on the left can see the muton currently, everyone in the picture could before the grenade. I feel I have to use the axe here, I have a 80% with it followed by a 70% to get the kill with JKaen. If that fails I will need to move Dreylin into no cover to pistol the bastard to death. Of course, the axe misses:
Shotgun rolls min damage:
Dreylin moves up to shoot with the pistol, onto open ground. There is a rocket for backup, so this is safe. 100%, I'm ready to roll min damage:
Let's go!
Finally, this hell of glitches is over. And that was just the first pod! Muton plasmas another civ in the fog, not sure why I get to see it
T3 I decide to start finding faceless by checking the nearby civ. They are clean however, and that + the one I got last turn gets me 1/3rd of the way to victory. Muton is to the NW, so I start heading there. I use my concealment to dash forward:
Looks like a faceless party to me. Lose another civ. Find the pod with me:
Dreylin can hit 2 and says he can oneshot the lancer. I wait however, most of the squad is out of position. IBT STUFF HAPPENS.
Faceless shows up:
muton takes a step forward, shot twice:
Thought this one killed him:
It left him on 1. Then he activated, and died:
Then another pod from the right:
SPARK missed:
The faceless gets a turn for some reason, swipes and reveals me:
T4 I have some decisions to make. Jkaen and WK are coverless and flanked, so they need to move. I'm only flanked by faceless which I expect to kill, so I'm good. SPARk has overdrive and a rocket, both of which will probably be used this turn. Jowy starts by trying haywire protocol on the mech:
OH COME ON THAT WENT OVER THE LINE. welp, worst case scenario. I just barely avoid solo killing the faceless with my 3 total shots:
Then, SPARK lines up a rocket on the second squad. He can hit the entirety of either just barely, but the second one is larger and the close one can be frost bombed. First overdrive is used, the pixel is hunted:
You don't want to know how long that took. Then:
Next, WK, who was apparently standing in fire and is set alight when they move, frost bombs the initial pod. Or at least, that was the plan until I discovered that being on fire prevented the use of explosives. Instead, she takes out her frustration on the faceless:
Dreylin has the choice between a 92% on an officer, or two 70%s to kill either the mech or the stun lancer. I decide to shoot first with SPARK, who goes for a 65% on the officer with no bonuses or penalties. This is worse than I thought, but:
SPARK ends turn by reloading. Jkaen moves up and takes out their anger with a 60% on a stun lancer:
Crits all round today. Only Dreylin is left, main choice is between a 70% on a boosted mech or a 50% on high cover stun lancer, with the 50% regular trooper being set to the side. I pick the mech:
Feels good. Gets a promotion. IBT, the AI shows some amazing target prioritisation skills:
Stabbing thin air is all the rage (it was really a civ)
T5 (feels like T5000). WK burns for 3. The lancer is even worse than I thought:
Jkaen has no ammo, but can axe either target. WK takes a point blank range shot:
Please damage rolls, don't fail me now:
Missed the killcam. Then:
Thought I was done, but they are far enough away that they went back into the fog after the animation. I heal WK, move up with everyone for overwatch. IBT:
Not such a crack shot
better
Dammit, he had 3HP left. T6:
You picked a bad spot to stop. At this point, the choice is based upon who needs a promotion the most, and I decide to give it to myself, using a completely fair and democratic purpose called "Being the turnplayer". Honestly though, I did not know who to give it to, Jowy has most of the good stuff already, Jkaen and Dreylin are getting promotions already, WK will be out for a while, and I don't even know if SPARK gets EXP.
Pretty good!
Only missed OW (and lightning hands, which apparently doesn't count), and never got shot at!
2 day recovery is halved right now, but still good. What is this:
Why. Give this to Jowy, not to a ranger. SPARK has +1 armour and high cover to surrounding squadmates vs no recoil in overdrive. Again, why:
You can see the options he has there. I vote run and gun, death from above, and bulwark. Got a regular and advanced hair trigger for 2 regulars in total, we should give them to shotgunners probably due to the increase in total damage and the much greater potential to use them to clutch a situation. We get muton and mech autopsies, as well as +24 supplies a month. If not for the random fire spreading that I had no way of noticing (I did not use any explosives next to WK's cover) this was great.