XCOM: Enemy Unknown aka the one where Haphazard dies repeatedly

[Ug the Barbarian]

Also, has anyone downloaded and tried the latest save? I have no reason to think anything is wrong with it, but if there is better to know before I leave and can not re-upload it.

I've checked I can download and open the save ok so have a good break

[haphazard1]

Thanks for confirming, Ug!

Have a great week, everyone, and if you observe the holiday have a very happy Thanksgiving.

[dazedroyalty]

Hey guys! I'm playing now! Sorry for the delay again. I had a small medical emergency come up over the last few days that I had to take care of. Everything is fine now.

[dazedroyalty]

So, I opened the save and looked around to reacquaint myself with my fellow RB soldiers. Our base had grown, our soldiers were more efficient (though I was stuck in Sickbay), and overall things were going nicely. I was disturbed to note that we were researching Precision Lasers but only had 6 alloys in our stores--not enough to build the sniper rifle once we researched. I immediately decided my goal would to rectify the situation.

I have a few soldier promotions to take care of. First of all, Haphazard is not Captain! Congrats buddy!



This is perhaps the most difficult choice for a support soldier. I like Dense smoke becuase it's more useful pre PSI aliens. The will promotion is nice but it's not enough to prevent a soldier from being mind controlled so I'm not so convinced that's better. I think I saw that there was no strong opinion on this one so I went with Dense Smoke.

We also had a new soldier to promote from scratch and name. He was also Support, so here's what I did:



I gave Gustaran the other smoke grenade promo just for variety's sake but all the other promos are the same because I think they are by far the best. Once the soldier promotions were done, I needed to get back to my real goal: get us some alloys! Fortunately, the aliens and I were on the same page today:



Landed UFOs are the BEST for recovering alien tech. This was just the type of mission we needed. Operation Hot Crone, here we come (apparent paradox not withstanding!)



I've been watching Beaglerush's Impossible Ironman videos and learned a few tricks from him that I implemented. So I moved our soldiers slowly in a group using overwatch (except for Ug who went for the high ground). Fortunately, we were close to the UFO so it didn't take long:



Two floaters popped into view right away:



Ug takes the first one down from the high ground with over 100% accuracy:



Meanwhile, no one is getting good odds on the second floater. Everyone was below 50%, some below 30%. Uberfish misses. Sareln misses twice (rapid fire. I read an article by a math geek about when it's better to use rapid fire vs regular. Basically, unless the starting odds are super low or super high, rapid fire is always best if you only need one hit.) Fortunately, Gustaran comes through:



Don't worry, guys, I wasn't just risking your lives on low risk shots while hiding safe in med bay! I had a back up plan:



After killing those floaters, the troops hear something to the other side, so they stay put and overwatch/reload:



And what do you know, but they show up!



BAM! The Barbarian comes through! (Love Opportunist!)



As Beaglerush taught me, I check to make sure we have a kill plan:



If all else fails, I'll send a rocket to kill them both. Fortunately, no need. Sareln comes through first:



Then, Gustaran:



Immediately after that encounter, MORE floaters coming back from the same direction as the original group:



Barbarians, however, really hate floaters and Ug comes through once again on overwatch:



Again, I check that I can kill them with a rocket if needed and move forward with more weapon fragment friendly methods. Sareln, comes through again:



Then, Uberfish:



All three groups killed I reload and start moving forward since three groups on patrol is about all I'd expect on Classic. It's slow process with lots of sounds on the wind along the way:









Then, finally, two thinmen show up:



So, I set up to overwtach if they come back through:



But nothing happens, so I send Sareln out to check (Sareln is our only Lightning Reflexes on the crew so I want to avoid overwatch if possible.)



Flanked? No problem:



So, as I'm moving other units out to find thinman number 2, I discover some stupid LoS stuff happening:



Why the heck can't Sareln see that one? STUPID! Neither can Haphazard! Since Thinmen explode into poison, I just send Gustaran out next to the sucker (he's got a medkit so can't be poisoned) and shot him point blank. Dead! Must have missed that picture though.

Troops line back up for the Outsider who is sure to be in the command room and they aren't disappointed:



Sareln takes an automatic shot becuase the Outside was within 4 squares and immediately kills the poor guy before he can even finish taking form.





Someone needs to explain this one to me though:



No offense to our dear Mardoc but how the heck did he get a promotion? Did he gain experience by watching aliens die?!?!

Anyways , my initial goal was to get us some resources, and I did!



Unfortunately, I did manage to save over my personal Impossible game because I forgot that I only had an Autosave of that game (bad habit of only using Autosave except for very occasional intentional saves), which set me back a month in that game. Sigh...

...but here's the save for our game!

[Sareln]

It's undocumented until you use them, but smoke grenades with combat drugs also improve aim by 10 iirc. I still prefer dense smoke though.

Mardoc levelled because you get XP for kills and surviving missions. It's just you normally only notice the kills .

Good show; and yeah, LoS can be really screwy in this game.

[dazedroyalty]

It's documented that Combat Drug Smoke grenades add extra chance to Critical, but not to Aim. It it WERE to aim, I'd like it a lot more.

Way to go Mardoc! Let's get him to Colonel without a kill, then! :D

[Sareln]

It's documented that Combat Drug Smoke grenades add extra chance to Critical, but not to Aim. It it WERE to aim, I'd like it a lot more.

Way to go Mardoc! Let's get him to Colonel without a kill, then! :D

I remember reading on the forums (not these ones) that it is indeed aim. I haven't really had an opportunity to test it though.

[dazedroyalty]

Huh! Good to know. We should test that since we have it now. WE can just wait till the end of a mission when it's a done deal, and if the grenade is still available, take befoer and after pics to see if it really helps.

[Mardoc]

Way to go Mardoc! Let's get him to Colonel without a kill, then! :D

But I like the pretty booms!

[Sareln]

Dazed, those videos are pretty fantastic. He does a fantastic job of picking the right scenes in each mission while cutting the unimportant stuff IMO.