Fenn Vs X-COM

[RefSteel]

Dear Diary,

Well, my encouragement didn't help much. Poor Lewwyn III was convicted and executed in his court martial at the High Court of Floater Scout. I guess two Floaters right off the ramp was proof enough that the Justice of the pRNG declared him guilty as charged. I'm glad Lewwyn IV won't have to live under a shadow just because the previous clone went bad though; we're going to need all the help we can get in this war! Anyway, I'm sure there won't be any more teammates shooting each other on this next mission! We've learned our lesson!

I wonder ... what exactly is an Ethereal anyway?

Yours always,
Colonel RefSteel, (Clone #3)

[Whosit]

I hope my next clone at least survives a mission.

[haphazard1]

Ethereals...could get interesting. And yes, avoiding their terror unit friends sounds like a good idea to me.

Nice to see the new aircraft and tank tech starting to come in. And progress on the blaster launcher, too -- much fun can be had with that particular toy. As well as massive mistakes and self-immolation, of course.

[El Grillo]

If the blaster launcher is anything at all like the hilarious endgame fantasy it is in X-COM 2, then I can't wait to see it

[Fenn]

X-COM Blaster Launchers must be seen to be believed - I'll make sure to show them off at some point.

Part 20.1 - Ethereals

Colonel RefSteel will be one of the two debuting the latest Power Armor. Doesn't he look just dashing?


At the same time, I've forgotten to equip most of the rest of the squad; they'll need to pick some weapons off of the floor.


After passing the first turn, the rocket tank finds two Ethereals chilling in this here house.


It doesn't have enough TUs to fire, so it just retreats around a corner while Dp102 throws down a smoke grenade. Everybody else lines up to pick a gun out of the gun pile.


Turn 3: Well, there's one of them at least.


rho and Dp score good hits, but the target seems quite unaffected by lasers and Heavy Cannon rounds.


So the tank blows him up instead.


Over to the Ethereals.


Turn 4: One of them exits the UFO and gets a reaction shot to the face, but still shoots up the tank anyway.


REM shoulders his Stun Launcher and fires hoping to capture the alien alive; the bomb goes wide, however.


rho shoots him with a regular gun instead.


Bobchillingworth runs into an Etheral facing away from him; taking a shot could be risky if it has enough TUs remaining to fire back.


Mardoc and Dp shoot him from a safe distance away, instead.


Turn 5: There's the other house Ethereal.


Old Harry's clone is off to a good start; he downs the alien in a single shot.


Time to storm the UFO; Bob and RefSteel take a look and see several corpses, so there can't be many live ones left.


The tank will scout around just in case though.


Turn 6: With the central power unit blown out, there's not much cover in the UFO to use.


So it's a good thing we saw this Ethereal before he saw us.


REM tries for a Stun Bomb; it hits, yet he remains aware enough to shoot back at; luckily REM avoids the plasma bolt.


Next turn, the Ethereal has moved close enough that Bob can run up and stun him.


Which he does. This Leader will be most helpful for research purposes.


That wasn't so bad. I am wondering if setting Psionics to line-of-sight only is going to hurt the aliens more than X-COM; usually the last Ethereal can use psionics against anyone, anywhere, no matter what. I'll have to think about this; maybe five Ethereals aren't a big threat on their own in any case.


As a postscript: the Ethereals are quick to investigate their recent losses. This scout flies a little too close to the base for comfort, so it gets shot down too.


And here a much more appetizing Muton UFO arrives.


We'll investigate this one next.

[Fenn]

Part 20.2 - Mutons

Lost my first screenshot, but on the first turn the tank and a few agents moved around and saw nothing, so Dp102 moved out and started tiptoeing south. It was at this moment that a heretofore hidden Muton chose to take a shot:


To fatal result. Farewell Dp102.


The tank inches forward and finds the shooter standing in the open. Time for Bobchillingworth to fire a rocket his way.


It's a direct hit! The battlefield is lit up by the explosion.


But the Muton is still very alive.


Turn 2: Next turn, the Muton seems to have relocated to this barn.


A rocket doesn't do much but kick up dirt and reveal the other Muton.


Mardoc gets the first.


DaveV throws a high explosive as far as he can, and the charge blows lands in front of the Muton where it will blow up nicely.


Everyone else keeps an eye on the UFO to the northwest.


A Muton shoots Bobchillingworth at long range, but his armor absorbs the impact.


Moving forward, the tank finds three more Mutons! Two rockets fail to make an impression on the nearest two.


haphazard has it all under control: with two bursts, he takes down first one, then the other Muton.


Bobchillingworth rockets the third.


Molach finds a Muton sneaking up on the squad; it looks like he only has a nonlethal Stun Launcher, so DaveV orders for him to be taken alive.


Stun Bombs are therefore exchanged between Molach and the Muton; RefSteel picks up the launcher and fires a second shot, which is still not enough to drop the alien.


Old Harry catches sight of another Muton behind this fence; DaveV gives him a taste of laser death.


Turn 4: The third Stun Bomb suffices to knock out the Muton, but also RefSteel who was going in with his Stun Rod. Sweet dreams, you two.


Time to head closer. Over the next turn, Old Harry approaches the UFO door...


When suddenly, a Muton rushes out and shoots him thrice at point blank range. OH lives thanks to his Power Suit, but he's bleeding badly from the plasma wounds.


Mardoc and OH neutralize the Muton, allowing haphazard to give medical attention; OH will live (unless he's shot again).


Meanwhile, rho heard a door open somewhere; following a hunch, he finds another Muton further north. He takes a potshot but the man in green is still up, so he retreats behind the hedgerow.


Next turn, the tank takes a few plasma bolts to the fender as it rounds a corner.


But now that we know where the Muton's gone, we can deal with him. DaveV throws a high explosive and rho tosses an alien grenade his way, which together do him in.


Another Muton - the last one - turns up right about where the last one was exploded. That's none too bright of him, and a pair of hand grenades from the troops show him why exactly.


Another mission done. Mutons are more resilient than you might expect, but they're not too tough to handle.


It certainly doesn't warrant this promotion extravaganza. Must be all those unnamed rookies in the other bases...

[haphazard1]

If the blaster launcher is anything at all like the hilarious endgame fantasy it is in X-COM 2, then I can't wait to see it

The blaster launcher is at least that ridiculous, and probably even more so.

Nice missions, a live ethereal leader captured and mutons suvived. They are tough, as the three stun bombs proved.

And look at my clone, gunning down mutons and also being a field medic! This guy shows some promise. Probably means he will get blown up or shot in the head on the next mission.

[Fenn]

I seem to have neglected to put in the screenshots for the Muton mission - that's been corrected.

[Molach]

You can set waypoints with the blaster launcher, evren into the dark. If I wanted one to explode in a particular spot, I would let it fly high then crash it into the ground. Or send it into the roof by aiming at 2nd floor if indoors. It does a lot of damage too. So it is significantly better than in xcom

Aliens wouldn't use waypoints or fire unless they had visual contact themselves, so the weapon is a major boost for our side. At least in the version I used 10 yrs ago

[RefSteel]

Dear Diary,

Can't believe I got to try out the new power armor!  It looks terrific - everybody I know says I look way better in it than I did in the old personal armor suit, so I'm really pleased.  I even overheard one of the engineers explaining to the new clones why I got it.  "Believe me, we want him in that thing all the time," she said.  "If you'd seen his face, you'd understand."  Haha I'd assumed it was because I was a Colonel, not to show off for publicity shoots!  Although it's kind of weird, I don't think you can actually see my face when I'm in my new armor, so what does that have to do with ... wait a minute!

I ... guess I'd better not ask that engineer out for coffee then....

Yours, broken heart and all,
Colonel RefSteel (clone #3)

...

...

[Begin Ref audio diary recording]

Dear Diary,

Ha!  We sure got rid of those ethereals easily!  I'm sure they didn't have any other abilities that would ruin all our lives or anything, so this is going to be a snap from now on!  As long as we don't meet any more Chrysallids, I mean.  Anyway, these Mutons are going to be easy!  Watch, I'll just stun ... uh ... I'll stun...

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...