Fenn Vs. Terror From the Deep

[Fenn]

I had to fast yesterday and wasn't up to playing or reporting for anything. So today is a double feature:

Part 8:

At long last - too late for dear old RefSteel - the scientists develop a new type of armor:

Aqua-Plastic Armor is decently strong, especially from the front where it cuts 60 damage from any attack.


Having completed this essential research, the scientists are split between Gauss Rifles and Calcinite corpses - like Deep Ones, these terror units are the key to an interesting technology.


Aqua-Plastic Armor is expensive to make, and lengthy too; twenty suits would use up 80 out of our 127 units of plastics and take our ten technicians over two months to manufacture. I can at least alleviate the second problem by hiring ten more technicians to speed things up.


A day after all that happens, the monthly report for February comes in. That last terror mission wasn't enough to outweigh an otherwise good month, and X-COM's funding jumps once again. With a cool four million on hand hiring some extra technicians and scientists is a reasonable prospect.


And now a look at our latest recruits. DaveV and rho21 are good all-rounders, though Dave's great Strength gives him the edge.


Mardoc and Alhambram have a weak area or two, but they're still fine soldiers. Alhambram's low firing/melee accuracy are an awkward combination, but Thermal Tasers always hit and another grenadier never hurts.

The aliens get an early start in March, with a landed USO detected on the 2nd. A Barracuda and the Triton are scrambled to go after it, but the timing doesn't quite work out - the Barracuda runs out of fuel while hovering over the sub, which then takes off before the Triton can approach. Luckily, the Triton keeps just close enough to follow the aliens outside sonar range to its next landing spot.

Turn 1:
img]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/ec90an6qjz48jku/T08_screen011.png[/img]
The door opens to a Gillman staring us down from the middle of a coral field. That's no problem - the Coelacanth fires a torpedo at the ground next to the alien (helps avoid misses that fly past the target), which takes care of both Gillman and coral. Still, no reason to move out on the first turn.

Turn 2:

With DaveV's help, the Coelacanth spots its second Gillman...


...And lights up the seabed with a second torpedo.


Further movement attracts a shot from this Gillman up by the dangerously close alien sub. Dreylin and rho get passed a proximity mine and grenade to throw; if the grenade proves enough to kill the Gillman, the mine will still serve as a nasty surprise for any more exiting the craft.

In the event, the grenade does slay the target and the mine is triggered by another Gillman - this one survives though.

Turn 3:

For some reason it takes Molach climbing on the Triton's wing to spot the mine-stepper. One more kill for him.

Turn 4:

Doors were still opening during the alien phase, so it's no surprise to find a Gillman hiding in the USO. rho21 and Whosit have fun with throwing a proximity mine and injuring it with a Gas Cannon.


The Gillman in the sub is knocked out after stepping near the mine, and at this point I get sloppy - there's clearly only one alien left in this cramped map, but instead of having the team spread out an search, I just have the Coelacanth sweep the perimiter and everyone else fire wildly at the darkest corners. This proves unwise when ReallyEvilMuffin II misfires a torpedo into the ground five steps away, killing himself and rho21 in the blast. Eventually somebody's Gas Cannon shell wings a Gillman somewhere and it passes out, ending this mission.


Those two deaths are on me - I wasn't thinking clearly just then.


That was a rather short and uneventful mission apart from the fumble at the end, so I go on to another - this one a shootdown, perfect for training some of the new and newly cloned aquanauts like haphazard II.


Whosit II as commanding officer gets the first suit of Aqua-Plastic armor, painted in black to represent...well, I'll get back to you on that. My first thought is to organize agents according to their role, so grenadiers get one color, snipers another and so on.


The mission opens with the closest USO yet - we're practically staring into the thing! The Coelacanth adds a couple of torpedoes for good measure (pointlessly as it turns out - that's not a hole in the hull) and we wait a turn.


Thus follows the usual storm of flares and dye grenades; Dreylin tries to plant a mine in front of the USO front door but hits the roof instead.


Nothing happens on the aliens phase, so Mardoc checks his motion scanner for any aliens in the sub - nope.


The Aquatoids seem to have gone west. This one gets a frag grenade from DaveV.


Alhambram spots a second from the Triton's roof, but it proves strangely difficult to land a grenade near this guy! First Whosit then Bobchillingworth's grenades go wide (very wide - Whosit's lands eight tiles away...), until Dreylin makes a good enough throw.


At this point the Coelacanth starts ranging far afield while the aquanauts mostly mill around the vicinity of the Triton. Consequently this Aquatoid is too far away for anyone too shoot past the various rocks, but that's a small trouble:


Since Dreylin's had a good showing with grenades recently, he has a go with Bob's grenade and makes a pinpoint long range throw.


Later a pair of Aquatoids run around this rock formation; TankSinatra shoots one and then the other as they pass by obliviously.


The next few turns go by quietly as the squad roots out the aliens.


In the end it's Mardoc who finds the last one; after backing up to break visibility, he drops the Aquatoid, finishing the mission.


Unhappily, everything of value in the USO was destroyed in the crash and none of the Aquatoids dropped their equipment, so it's slim pickings from this one - just $180,000 worth of corpses. More training for the aquanauts always helps, at least.

[Whosit]

Aquanaut's Log: Whosit II

The last couple missions were rough. We lost some good people, including my totally normal human friend RefSteel. Well, they'll probably clone him again. But with Ref gone, I've apparently been given a command! I even got one of those new suits of armor, with a spiffy black paint job. Just like one of those special operatives! The mission was kind of routine, though. Throw explosives at aliens until they die. Still, no one died under my command! I think I'm getting the hang of this.

[haphazard1]

Good to hear that I have a clone back in action. Hopefully this life will be a bit more successful -- and lengthy -- than the previous one.

Very strong monthly result for X-COM. Always nice to see that funding coming in, and the council increasing their contributions. Nice work!