XCOM 2 - Ironman Again

[Jowy]

Mission 5: Operation Senseless Shriek

We were dropped off on the roof of a church building. Objective was to the top left.



We checked out the road. With the civs and the tower there, we had limited cover.
OTOH if we take the roof, we'll need to cross through an area without any cover.



Sareln looked at the tower hack. Rewards are better this time. In a desperate situation the 32% result would help a ton. He canceled the hack for now.



We could have orange moved to the half cover, but would have almost certainly activated a pod by doing that.
This way might have been risky too. I blue moved everyone and went into overwatch. We heard enemies after ending the turn.



Krill moved in to scout. We found enemies and they had no vision on us. Perfect.



Sareln and Old Harry could not get a shot without bumping into civs and breaking concealment. We'll have to ambush with just the three on the roof.
That's what I thought at the time, anyway. I was wrong about that and you'll find out why soon enough.



Adrien started us off with a frag. I made sure to get the car too so they can't hide behind it (it'll explode next turn) and we can use what's left for our own cover later on.



Good rolls. Not only did we roll high with the frag to kill the trooper, Dp101 and Krill landed their shots and killed the Sectoid. That's the first pod down.
As it turns out, we could have gotten more overwatches off because the Sectoid chose to run TOWARDS us. Well, if we hadn't killed it with the first two.



Next turn we used Krill as a scout again. He activated a second pod with that move.



Thanks for leaving the safety of the house.



Adrien punished the idiots with a frag grenade, destroying all of their cover.



Old Harry took the first shot and killed the Stun Lancer.



Dp101 was up next with this easy shot.



Second pod down. We're almost to the objective, it's inside the house.



We set everyone up, then Dp101 went to grab the loot.



A new item! Not a weapon upgrade, but a brain enhancement that simulates battle scenarios?!
Alright let's stick the thing from the dead alien right into our brains.



Oh yeah, he also activated a pod. Let's try to save Dp.



I tested Adrien's new ability. It destroyed the rock and left the trooper in the open.



At first I didn't think we could kill the Sectoid this turn, but once Sareln moved up he had a 87% flanking shot on it.



Krill launched a grenade at the two. Didn't kill the trooper, but we should still be fine.



I was confident that we had this in the bag so I had Dp shoot the Sectoid at 83%. Crit was enough to kill it.



Sareln had Combat Protocol to guarantee that we can kill the trooper, but Old Harry sniped it first.



Flawless victory! We finished every pod without even giving them a chance to return fire at us.
The mission was very easy, though we had some luck particularly with the first pod. Also great activations every time.
For comparison: We also aced our fifth mission in our previous campaign. The competition will be heating up soon.
This time we're more than ready for it, but I have no doubt that the RNGod will be out to get us any mission now. He has been uncharacteristically kind.



Did you think you'd be getting promoted after that cakewalk??  

[Bobchillingworth]

Aw, still no character :'(

[Jowy]

Base Management: Loose Ends

New rumor: Black Market! Good timing, we can maybe spend some of our excess Intel.



There is so much to do. My route:
1. Contact New Mexico.
2. Finish scanning Road Traffic ("assorted loot")
3. Finish scanning Supply Drop (it's what's left of the monthly supplies we get)
4. Start scanning Landmark (free engineer)
5. Start scanning Black Market (once we discover it we can visit it without wasting more than travel time)
We can't contact more regions after New Mexico, not before we build stuff that allows it (the building name escapes me).



Magnetic Weapons finished. The new weapons we can build are the next level assault rifle, shotgun, and pistol. We need another tech before we get better sniper rifles.



However we can't build them yet because we don't have any alien alloys. In EU you got those by assaulting UFO's (after they land or by shooting them down yourself).
We'll get an infinite amount of the new weapons for that cost, so no need to build a new one for every individual like in EU.

We cleared another room and got 55 supplies.

A rookie finished his training. Our third Grenadier. I might as well keep training more even if they'll be on the bench for now.

Hybrid Materials tech finished. I chose Alien Biotech next which I think was the Skulljack tech. Might be a good idea to use it while we still have the upper hand in the field.

The "assorted loot" reward we got from one of the rumors was just a single Expanded Magazine upgrade.

Once we finished scanning the old supply drop, the game opened up the Resistance HQ shop where we can buy scan-boosters or personnel. There's a Scientist I want to recruit, but we can't afford it atm.

The Dark Event that doubles rookie cost went up. I recruited 3 rookies before it. We shouldn't need rookies in the next 1 month but let's not get cocky.



A new mission popped up. This is probably where we can get the Alien Alloys for our new weapons.
Not shown in the picture: It's our first MODERATE difficulty mission.



Welcome to the team Jkaen. You are our third Grenadier so you might be sitting on the bench for a while.



Here's the full roster.



We rolled out with the same team as last mission. Two changes to our items: I built a medkit and gave it to Sareln. Vipers might be appearing soon. They are hard to kill and will deal guaranteed damage with the binding or poison.
Adrien was given the +1 HP enhancement. Dreylin would have been my first choice because she's specialized in melee and will be running into danger, but she's still injured. We might find a new one to give to her in the next few missions.

[Jowy]

Mission 6: Operation Mountain Storm

We started concealed on a road. I'm going to assume that up ahead we have the convoy that we are trying to raid, and that is where the enemies will be.



Adrien was the only one who could reach this full cover. She moved in but saw no enemies.



Next turn it was DP's turn to scout ahead. This time we found a pod.



We couldn't reach them with explosives. Both Krill and Adrien were a few tiles too far.



Everyone had a shot though. Waiting has rarely worked for us, so I chose to start off the firefight this turn.
I had everyone else overwatch except Krill and Old Harry, who are in possession of our two flash bangs.



Old Harry started the engagement with Lightning Hands, which is a free pistol shot. He can still shoot or throw a flash bang after it.



Dp and Sareln both hit the officer for 5. This.. did not go as planned. It's the stun lancer who I really wanted to be dead. It's now hiding behind the tree in full cover.



Old Harry threw his flash bang at it to disorient it. Krill then overwatched. If it charges, Krill should have a very good chance to kill it.



It took a shot at Sareln while disoriented and missed.



We had various ways to kill it. I chose to have Dp frag it and Sareln finish it off with Combat Protocol.
Our shots were fairly low chance, and I didn't want to move forward and trigger another pod right now. We'll kill it, then reload and regroup.



It dropped loot and we grabbed it next turn. That enhancement is amazing.
Oh and the truck in the background of the picture blew up at the start of our turn. We were lucky that the explosion didn't trigger the car in front of it to also explode. That would have killed Dp.



Since we didn't have a turn timer, I could temporarily return to my old ways and move up slowly and carefully.



Dp moved to full cover behind the truck and activated a pod. As expected, there's our first Viper.
Btw Adrien is currently unwisely taking cover behind the "critical supplies" we are trying to protect.  



What's that thing we can shoot at? Oh, it's an explosive barrel, and an enemy is taking cover behind it.
What's the glowy thing next to the explosive barrel? Oh, just the critical supplies WE ARE TRYING TO AVOID DESTROYING.



I started by moving Krill to the only tile where he would be relevant.



From there he managed to frag the two guys not next to the explosive barrel.
Unlike rocket launchers in EU, I'm pretty sure grenade launchers will always land where you aim them. Which is a great thing when we are aiming 1 tile off from the explosive barrel.
Adrien and Dp both had great shots now on the open enemies. First though I wanted to deal with other guy, preferably without explosives.



Old Harry had perfect visibility and fired off his Lightning Hands pistol shot on target.
Sareln then sent in the Combat Protocol drone to kill it.



Adrien had a 78% shot on the Stun Lancer that would kill it with even the lowest damage roll. She hit her target.



Dp had a 87% chance to hit the Viper and a 66% chance to kill it. The Viper dodged it. I looked it up later: Vipers have a hidden 33% dodge chance.



The Viper grabbed Adrien with its tongue, bringing her to it and then bound her. Dealt 1 damage, 1 was blocked by her armor perk.



Dp moved to Adrien's old position and killed the Viper. That's two pods down! Probably a non-viper one left. I regrouped and took it slow again.



WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING?



We landed two overwatch shots on it.



Only one thousand more to go. If you're wondering about my reaction at this point:



What to do now? I'm not calling in evac and failing this mission. Fuck it. It goes down or we all go down.



Adrien started us off by shredding some of its armor. Then the unthinkable happened:



It counter attacked. Tried to grab Adrien like the normal Viper did, but it missed.



I moved in Dp so she can get a shot on it. Dp will only be in half cover, but we'll use our second flash bang on the enemy this turn.



WHAT??? IT GETS ANOTHER TURN. We didn't even attack it.



It moved forward. Okay, this thing has armor, more HP than I can count, and gets a turn every time we do something?
Everyone, it was nice knowing you. Last campaign we squad wiped against a normal Viper. Now we are facing this thing.



Nothing else to do but shoot at it. Trying to find cover is meaningless if it gets a turn when we move.
Dp hit it with a critical for 6 damage.



The Viper threw a freezing grenade at Dp and Old Harry. They were frozen solid and could not take actions.



Krill takes the next shot. Of course the big Viper also has a hidden dodge chance. That's just awesome.



Unlike the Viper, we didn't get to spam turns with one character. Only Sareln had moves left and he had no shot.
I moved him closer to the Viper.



The Viper then grabbed Krill and bound him. It deals double damage.



Sareln then took a 100% shot at the Viper to free Krill. He also managed to crit and dealt 6 damage.



The Viper only moved back into cover. Our actual turn ended and everyone could act now, except the two who were still frozen.



Sareln healed Krill back up to full.



That didn't help much when the Viper shot him dead.



Sareln still had an action. Healing someone doesn't end your turn. Nice to know.
He took a shot and damaged it for 3. The Viper then tried to grab Sareln but missed.



Adrien finally gets her second frag off to shred the remaining armor. I should have done this before firing with Sareln, for 1 extra damage.



The Viper summoned a purple vortex gate. Should I run inside? I probably shouldn't run inside.



Since Old Harry and Dp were still frozen, our turn ended and Sareln could shoot again. We are whittling it down, after the attack it was down to around 60% HP left.



Then the Viper ran for the gate and disappeared along with the vortex. YEAH YOU BETTER RUN YOU LITTLE SHIT! Thank god it left.



We lost our first RB'er (Krill), and were lucky to not lose more. If it fired more than it moved, we'd all be dead meat.



Adrien was wounded but she'll probably be back up in time for the next mission. Sareln and Dp101 got promotions:



Sareln was given the Revival Protocol perk. I've been told Haywire gets better in the late game. Maybe we'll give it to our next Specialist.



Dp101 got the Phantom perk again. I'll have to learn how to use it effectively.



For our troubles we got a bunch of good stuff. Let's get those Magnetic Weapons ready for the next time we meet our Viper friend, shall we?

[Dreylin]

Wow, I'd heard about the Rulers, but hadn't twigged quite how bad they might be!  

RIP Krill ... this is what you get for Jowy saying things like:

Welcome to the team Jkaen. You are our third Grenadier so you might be sitting on the bench for a while.

Also that Dodge implant looks sweet for someone who tries to run up to people & Machete them to death... just sayin'. 

[Sareln]

Do you know if the ruler retreated b/c you dealt "enough" damage to it, or is it # of turns based?

[Dp101]

Can't believe I lived

[Jkaen]

Seems like you disabled the beneficial bit of that add in and left the painful bit

[Jowy]

Do you know if the ruler retreated b/c you dealt "enough" damage to it, or is it # of turns based?

Dunno. Probably damage. We did quite a bit with all the crits.

[Jowy]

Base Management: Magnetic Weapons!

We built Magnetic Rifles and Magnetic Pistols. Can't build the Shard Gun (Shotgun equivalent) yet cause it requires us to have 2 engineers first. Even then we might not build it right away: Our assaults were already using rifles over shotguns.

You might have noticed that we also can't build new Sniper Rifles or Cannons. We need the next tech for those.

New rumor with a "Soldier" as a reward. About the last thing we need right now.

Alien Biotech research finished. We had an instant autopsy on Sectoids due to how many corpses we've brought back, so I did that. The new item it allows us to build is a mind shield (does what you'd expect).

Then I started us on Resistance Radio, to work towards increasing our monthly supplies. We'll be fine with just the new Rifles for a little while.

We finished scanning for the Engineer, now we have two. Both are clearing out rooms.

A new Alien Facility was built in Russia(?). It'll be a while before we can get there.

Avatar Project increased by 1 pip. It's at 5 out of 12.



End of the second month. Not a bad one.



New Dark Events. None of them sound too horrible. Well, maybe the Intel one does. Depends if it's still up by the time we start contacting more regions.



Found the Black Market. It had some good stuff for sale. I bought Rush Research: Gauss Weapons. We will return for the Plated Armor next time I play.

Resistance Radio research finished. Now we can build Radio Towers in regions we've contacted. They will decrease the cost of contacting the next region.

First though we'll need to build a power relay and resistance comms to increase the max contacts above 3.

Started researching Gauss Weapons. With the time halved, it'll only take 6 days.



New Council Mission popped up. Let's go rescue us a third Engineer.



Welcome to the team Fenn. You are our third Ranger, and you won't be sitting on the bench. You are going on a mission right now.

The new Magnetic Rifles allowed a second upgrade to be attached. This is what I gave out:
- Repeater (5% chance for insta kill) to Sareln
- Hair Trigger (5% chance for a shot to not cost an action) to Dp
- Laser Sight (5% increased crit chance, even more when closer) to Fenn
All the old upgrades transferred over from the assault rifles to magnetic rifles.



Two RB'ers will make their debut this mission: Fenn and Sunrise. Our snipers and grenadiers were benched because they don't have the next level weapons yet (except Adrien cause you really want at least one grenadier with you).
Dreylin was still injured (2 more days!). Turns out we didn't get Krill's stuff back after last mission. Maybe because the boss escaped and thus we didn't "clear all enemies"? Very annoying because we didn't get a chance to evac and drag his body with us at the end of it, the mission just ended.