XCOM: Enemy Unknown aka the one where Haphazard dies repeatedly

[Sareln]

@ Ug, I'm terrible at remembering to spread experience by bringing rookies. Though how many rookies do we have? I think it's something like 5 or 7. Might it make more sense to just stack XP on our guys until we can grab the OTS auto-squaddie upgrade?

[uberfish]

Assessment on opening save:

We're 1 day from finishing Xenobiology.
Unfortunately we have no good place to build Alien Containment as yet. There's one open slot on the first level but if we use that we won't have any remaining power to build lifts downwards.
In fact we are forced to build a power plant and lift in order to expand our base further, a quick check shows that our satellites are covered for the month so I do that.

Xeno finishes. We can't research armour or build more lasers at the moment due to lack of alloys, so it's on to arc thrower for now.

Anyway a medium UFO shows up over the USA. Our interceptor Raven-2 engages it in a dogfight but in the grand tradition of XCOM aviation the pilot is terrible. He repeatedly misses the alien craft.

The UFO is losing the battle anyway, and starts running for it, It almost manages to break out of range before the last Avalanche missile brings it down.



We really need more levelled troops so I decided to do the mission with Uberfish babysitting 4 rooks.

[Sareln]

Assessment on opening save:

We're 1 day from finishing Xenobiology.
Unfortunately we have no good place to build Alien Containment as yet. There's one open slot on the first level but if we use that we won't have any remaining power to build lifts downwards.
In fact we are forced to build a power plant and lift in order to expand our base further, a quick check shows that our satellites are covered for the month so I do that.

Xeno finishes. We can't research armour or build more lasers at the moment due to lack of alloys, so it's on to arc thrower for now.

Anyway a medium UFO shows up over the USA. Our interceptor Raven-2 engages it in a dogfight but in the grand tradition of XCOM aviation the pilot is terrible. He repeatedly misses the alien craft.

The UFO is losing the battle anyway, and starts running for it, It almost manages to break out of range before the last Avalanche missile brings it down.

We really need more levelled troops so I decided to do the mission with Uberfish babysitting 4 rooks.

Good Luck!

[Ug the Barbarian]

We really need more levelled troops so I decided to do the mission with Uberfish babysitting 4 rooks.

Now thats brave - slightly more than the 1 or 2 I was thinking of

Maybe try for an arc thrower capture even though we have no containment just for the plasma weapon ?
Otherwise I'd assume lots of frag grenade use.
At least it should give us some alloys

[uberfish]

Operation Burning Hymn

Brackard, Mardoc, Pling and Amelia: welcome to Xcom!

Brackard lost the weekly barracks poker game so he got stuck with the regular assault rifle. The other three recruits all had lasers, and everyone carried a grenade.

We drop off in a random forest. It's fairly dense so we can advance in close formation and still have easy cover if a fight breaks out



The squad is crossing over a small piece of higher ground when 3 sectoids are spotted patrolling on alien turn



Pling nails one with an overwatch shot as Amelia misses and the other two aliens scatter.

We know roughly where they are so Brackard and Mardoc hold the right side of our advance with overwatch and the rest of the squad dashes to the edge of the high ground.



Aliens confirm their position next turn with overwatch.

Amelia goes up the ramp to this new piece of high ground to spot and is rewarded with a flank on the mind merge initiator. She is rewarded with a double kill.



the UFO is close and the next encounter is just outside it when a floater patrol spots us. Everyone takes their overwatch shots resulting in this:



Typical. Pling advances to the next tree to get a better look.



Pling takes a shot at the floater out of cover at 75% and... misses

I've had enough of all these inaccurate shots so Uberfish breaks out the rocket launcher on the two in the back



The rocket hits and the explosion satisfyingly sends the alien corpses flying a couple of hundred feet.

Mardoc shoots the last floater, which is in low cover at 45%, and unsurprisingly misses.

With two moves left and no one being able to hit I decide to have Amelia and Brackard double-grenade it which will get Brackard a promotion.

We move into the UFO, the room's clear so I can dash people into position. Shen warns us that the suspicious green thing might be explosive, and Vahlen is impressed that the UFO is still mostly intact.



Note this door breach formation with everyone clustering in front of the door is very dangerous if any aliens are active on the map. So be careful with it.

Another door later the team finds the UFO bridge guarded by another of the weird Outsider aliens.



Uberfish flanks and kills it, and that's apparently an all clear.

He got a total of 3 more kills towards captain rank and we get 3 rookies promoted:



Unfortunately they decide they ALL want to be medics.

I suppose we can let pling reroll ;p

on the plus side we scored a good amount of loot from this UFO - intact power source and computers, a couple of damaged ones, and about 100 alloys and 40 elerium.

Save

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/19168036/xcom/save34

[haphazard1]

Excellent work, uberfish! Especially with a bunch of rookies.

And the RNG kicks in with three supports. I like supports, but not quite that much. Still, anything is better than rookies so this was a very profitable training excercise.

Now that we have more UFO components we also have more research options. Alien Nav computers and UFO power sources can be researched, both offering useful things we can build (sat nexus, elerium power generators). We also have carapace armor as an option, plus the more specialized laser weapons. Some autopsies are available, plus experimental warfare to unlock the Foundry (probably best left until later, given our base buildout situation).

On the base, we need to excavate on the second level as soon as the lift is done. So 2 (lift) + 5 (excavation) more days minimum before we have a spot for a containment facility if we put it on the right side next to the lift. Left side will be for the next uplink (or even nexus if we research alien nav computers). So we need to reserve at least 40 credits for starting those two excavations.

What about interceptors? Before better fighter weapons become available I usually like to have 2 interceptors on each active continent, otherwise UFOs can often escape if you get some unlucky to-hit rolls.

What about our new alloys? Do we want or need additional laser weapons? Maybe one more rifle? What about a pistol for Ug/sniper? With his perk choices it would be less necessary than for a more mobile pistol-oriented build, but it could still be useful in some situation.

I can play later today, but would like some feedback from the team on priorities especially research. I like the idea of carapace armor next to improve survivability.

[haphazard1]

OK, a bit more info on our choices. Research:

I went ahead and promoted the three new supports -- no choices involved. It sounds like Ug favors Disabling Shot, so I will assign that as well. Did dazed express a preference -- I am assuming Lightning Reflexes?

I decided to spin the wheel in Mission Control for a couple days to complete the access lift and see if anything else happened. We got a lucky roll and a profitable little request from the Council:

Nano vests cost us 13 credits each at the moment, so I immediately built two and dispatched them to the Brits for a tidy profit. It is almost like the old X-COM days. I also sold the damaged UFO components uberfish recovered, so our cash balance is looking pretty good.

After two days the power generator and access lift completed. I started the level 2 excavations, leaving our base looking like this:

Given the steam vent on level three plus the open caverns there, I am strongly tempted to start another access lift. Then the alien containment could go on level 3 to the right, leaving level 2 1R for a workshop with adjacency bonus. And we could excavate the steam tile for a thermal generator for more power. Yes, the access lift costs a bit of maintenance per month but expanding to level 3 now would make it much easier to set up adjacency bonuses and get more power.

What does the team think? If we are going to expand to level 3 early now is the time to do it.

[Sareln]

Good work uber. I think we should probably go armor up now that we've got the alloys to do so. Survivability and taking a hit without having to spend a week in the hospital afterwards are both very nice.

Strategically, keep the sats flowing. I think on classic you can get away with 1 fighter / location for a rather long time (basically pre-medium UFOs), but if it makes you nervous we can buff them up.

I wouldn't count on abduction rewards to fill out our roster, given our panic situation.

[uberfish]

I'm beginning to worry about getting another Heavy, they're probably the class I'm most unhappy about not having one on the team. We should take 1 rookie on every mission until we get a backup for Uberfish. (The unbalanced squaddie roster is also probably also a reason to go for armour now and try and keep the officers alive.)

Right now we have 9 available power and that'll let us build an Alien containment (3) + next Uplink (5) with no further additions to the base. My instinct is therefore not to build another lift right now as that would cost 2 power upkeep and force us to build another power source earlier.

Could be worth taking the NA continental bonus if we want to get more interception capability up.

[Ug the Barbarian]

I'm beginning to worry about getting another Heavy, they're probably the class I'm most unhappy about not having one on the team. We should take 1 rookie on every mission until we get a backup for Uberfish. (The unbalanced squaddie roster is also probably also a reason to go for armour now and try and keep the officers alive.)

Funnily enough I needed to boost my squad numbers on my own Impossible game last night and got three out of three Heavies. Anyway impressive turn with all the rookies in tow - well done

As for research priorities, I'd go for Carapace Armour and then maybe Heavy lasers (thinking of Laser Cannon for the Fighters as much as Uberfish)