XCOM 2 - Till The Last Man Standing

[haphazard1]

Sign me up for a body bag duty! Loving this so far, Jowy, thanks for doing this. I have not played XCOM2 yet, so this is very interesting.

[Bobchillingworth]

I'd like to be a character too, please!  I'll probably get the game during the next sale after reading this, although I'm still less than thrilled about how it looks like the game rushes you through missions.  Kind of seems like a cheap way of working around an AI which can't deal with methodical players.

[RefSteel]

Okay, I've got this!  Fire in the hole!
((worst possible grenade outcome))
...uh... I mean ... Pindicator's got this!  What a ... uh ... team!

((later...))
This one's for David Corporeal!  And picklepikkl!  And ... wait, that guy could run up here and slug me before I finish listing names.  Better take the shot!
((Advent commander goes down))
Yeah!  Thanks for the assist, Rook!

((and finally...))
You're safe, Dr. King!  Let's get you outta here!
Okay, our engineer's clear!  Pindicator?  Rook?  ...
((poisoned choking))
Oh ... no.  I can't be our best guy left, can I?

'cause if I am, if I know me, I'm pretty sure we're dog food.

[AdrienIer]

Signing up to be sacrificed on the battlefield

[Jowy]

EDIT: Oh yeah, and never pick Phantom. Okay, maybe pick Phantom if you know what you're doing with it.

Phantom is amazing for scouting pods without triggering them. You do need to break concealment if you want it to participate in firefights, but if you can kill a pod without that soldier it helps with recon a lot. (plus the alternative, +2 sword damage, get worse as the game goes on)

The first move onto the roof is a scary one. Nobody there this time.

The ADVENT trooper autospy lets you build battle scanners. These are a throwable item that let's you scan the area safely. If you had one in this case you could throw it on the roof first to scout if there are any units up there without risking unit lives. I think they might prove useful in your case.

Also rushing research at the black market doesn't give you the full tech, it only halves the cost. For plated armor though, it is still probably worth it.

Sounds good, I think we can try the scout strategy once we have increased our squad size. Right now we need all the soldiers we can get for the engagements.

Ah battle scanners, good idea! They should be a bit stronger now with procedurally generated maps in play. I think I only used them to reveal the invisible enemies in EU.

Halved cost only? That's going to be a problem. We don't have all the requirements to research it yet. Though I suppose that means we wouldn't be able to build the armor either.

I'd like to be a character too, please!  I'll probably get the game during the next sale after reading this, although I'm still less than thrilled about how it looks like the game rushes you through missions.  Kind of seems like a cheap way of working around an AI which can't deal with methodical players.

Yup that's exactly what it is there for. Without a turn limit, the "one true way" to play the game is to be slow and methodical. In EU the only thing that mattered was the pull. You pull one pod at a time while in good cover and you'll succeed. It's too early for me to say if XCOM 2 is a better game, but in theory it is a good thing that they are forcing you to go faster.

If anyone has 3 hours to spare...



Will give you an idea on how to play the previous XCOM at a high level.

[Jowy]

Base Management: Guerrilla Tactics School

Our new Engineer Holly King was put to work at the construction site of our Guerrilla Tactics School. She speeds it up by a half.

We found a Locator Beacon. That is the second DLC. That, too, is not recommended to be played early. Kinda weird that they'd fuck up the DLC like that, in EU they did it just right, where the missions would show up right on curve.

Welcome to the team Lewwyn, you are now our Specialist. I also recruited 3 extra rookies. We have 6 soldiers in total. Only RefSteel is still alive from our old squad.

I changed research to ADVENT Trooper Autopsy for the battle scanner. Completed it. Next I picked Resistance Radio. I think we need to build those radio towers and only then spend intel to contact other regions. It'll be cheaper this way.

I purchased the Plated Armour research boost. We'll research it when we can.



Second month is over. Mr Councilman is not too happy with us, though we did complete more missions than we failed.
I went to pick up the supply drop after this.



New dark events. The third one was hidden, but I spent 25 intel to see it.



Resistance Goods were refreshed. I bought the Gather Intelligence scanning bonus.
Buying a Soldier doesn't seem like a good idea when we keep losing them at an alarming rate..



Guerrilla Tactics School completed. We can't increase our squad size yet, we need to level someone up to a Sergeant first. I'm not used to getting my ass kicked this hard!
We can also train a rookie to a class of our choice, for free! It will take 5 days and they can't fight during that, but it's a really sweet deal. I set one of our guys to be a Sharpshooter.



A new Guerrilla Ops mission popped up. Once again we have to choose between two missions and dark events.

East Asia. Moderate. Reward: Scientist. Counters: Reinforcements in Guerrilla Missions.
New Arctic. Easy. Reward: 155 supplies. Counters: Increases cost of recruits by 100%.

It's an easy choice right? Okay, a scientist is tempting, but New Arctic is easier and expensive recruits would kill us. I went to New Arctic. Let's not get cocky.

[WarriorKnight]

Next I picked Resistance Radio. I think we need to build those radio towers and only then spend intel to contact other regions. It'll be cheaper this way.

You're half right. Yes, radio towers make it cheaper to contact other regions, but they are primarily for reaching far off locations from HQ which you are a long way from doing. There should be at least one more region you can contact at the base cost of 40 intel and a radio relay won't make the cost any lower then that. Can't give you a good example since I don't know what your map looks like, but you don't need radio relays until you have a resistance communications facility (or specifically enough to contact more than 3 regions).

[Old Harry]

I'd like to be dog food too.

[Jowy]

Mission 8: Operation Dark Calm

We rolled out with 3 rookies and Lewwyn (Specialist). I gave Lewwyn the Nanoscale Vest.



This is a small map. We can see about halfway to our objective already.
I expected contact early.



We got vision on a pod but we couldn't get more than 1 safe shot on them.
Enemies patrolled inside and on top of the train on their turn.



We moved up and got sight on the Stun Lancer. I could easily set up an overwatch trap here.



This move is safe, says the game. Except it was not, we were spotted. Was that a bug or working as intended? I don't know.



Nevertheless we got spotted, then a second pod activated by itself. Now we're fighting two pods at once. Kinda expected in a small map, but I still feel cheated for how it started.
I hadn't set anyone on overwatch yet. If we had, we could have landed hits on them while they were in the open. Now we do at least get a chance to choose our targets. Still probably worse off but it's not all bad.



We threw a frag at the Stun Lancer, breaking his cover. Couldn't hit both him and the viper.



Renee then killed it. One down, three to go?



We failed a coin flip against the viper. I could have overwatched, but I actually don't want to pin it behind the full cover. It's better for us if he binds someone than if he fires at us or poisons us.



As you can see we are kinda fucked. Everyone but Lewwyn is in a bad place. Lewwyn used the Aid Protocol on the rookie who's on the bridge. She'll have the best shots from over there so I want her to survive.



That was a flanked shot. We got lucky this time. The officer marked the other rookie (nice teamwork idiots) and the viper trapped the rookie up on the bridge.



We started by moving a rookie up there behind full cover. He'd have a great short range flanking shot on the viper. Might even kill it.



Emphasis on "might". It did free our rookie though.



I moved Lewwyn back to the rooftop. From there he had a 92% chance to hit the viper. He did, and even got a crit, but it only did 6 damage and the viper lived with 1 HP left.

Next I moved the marked rookie into Lewwyn's vacated full cover. Even he had a flank on the viper, but only a 70% chance to hit. He did though and killed it.

We didn't quite achieve what we wanted this turn. Ideally we would have killed the viper in one or two shots, then used a frag + an attack to kill 1-2 Advent Soldiers.



The viper dropped an Elerium Core which the rookie automatically picked up as she was already standing there.
Then I moved her inside the train to full cover. Also partly to prevent the enemies from taking that cover on their turn.
She landed a hit on the 4 HP Advent Trooper, but she rolled low and only dealt 3 damage.



Lewwyn and the rookie both got hit for 3 damage each despite their fairly defensive positions. At least they didn't die yet.



We threw a grenade at them, killing the Trooper and injuring the Officer.



This would be a nice spot for us, we have a free shot at the enemy, and we'll have full cover if we spot anything new.



It's a new enemy type. A turret. Change of plans. We'll kill the officer with another unit and let this one start killing the turret.



Got it on first try.



Lewwyn used Aid Protocol on the rookie just in case. The rookie fired at the turret. He rolled a 4 on damage, but 3 was blocked by the armor.
The description on our frag grenades says we can shred armor with it, but I wasn't in range of it yet.

On his turn he attacked the rookie and missed. We then threw the nade at it, only shredding it for 1 armor. We were out of nades so I guess our only option is to shoot through the remaining armor.



We ran everyone to full cover even though it took both our moves on two guys. I think we want to be safe against this thing.
It attacked and missed again. We shot at it and missed. Renee couldn't get behind full cover and in attacking range last turn, so I moved Lewwyn to another spot so she can take his.



AND THE TURRET KILLED LEWWYN. It attacked last turn. It shouldn't be on overwatch. What a cheater.
Okay, now I know that they can attack and also overwatch. There was never an overwatch text pop-up. That's a bug I swear to god I didn't miss it.
However I did learn something new while looking for that text in my screenshots. There's an eye icon on a unit if they are on overwatch. That would have been handy to know a minute ago.



Two rookies panicked. The third did make her way to Lewwyn's old full cover, rolled low damage (3) and damaged it for 1.



Then it killed the rookie too. Didn't do much good that full cover spot that we gave Lewwyn's life to free.



Of course the two went back into panic. 



Next turn we managed to kill the turret. But it was also the last turn to reach our objective.



We re-looted the Elerium Core, called in evac and dragged both bodies back with us. Lewwyn will at least get a proper burial. And we get his vest back 
I guess what we should have done with the turret is to just ignore it and run for the objective with one guy. That said, without the losses (one due to lack of experience and the other due to luck) I think we would have killed the turret and still made it to the objective in time.
If we see turrets in future maps, I have a plan for them now. We've got something they don't: Legs.



We failed the mission. As a consolation prize we at least got two promos (Sharpshooter and Ranger) and that Elerium Core. We might want to stock up on rookies before that dark event goes live.

[Jowy]

Next I picked Resistance Radio. I think we need to build those radio towers and only then spend intel to contact other regions. It'll be cheaper this way.

You're half right. Yes, radio towers make it cheaper to contact other regions, but they are primarily for reaching far off locations from HQ which you are a long way from doing. There should be at least one more region you can contact at the base cost of 40 intel and a radio relay won't make the cost any lower then that. Can't give you a good example since I don't know what your map looks like, but you don't need radio relays until you have a resistance communications facility (or specifically enough to contact more than 3 regions).

Ah, I'll grab the 40 intel one next time I play. I think it's our last cheap one.

Happy to see we're still getting an influx of new RB'ers joining the XCOM project. I would stay the hell away