XCOM 2 - Ironman Again

[Brian Shanahan]

I was actually hoping for "egg" as a nickname.

As in the old ad where the line goes "I'm rock I am" "Like egg you are". Can't remember what was being sold, but the line stuck in my head, mainly because it became a big catchphrase at school

[WarriorKnight]

You're cutting it very close, but you should pull through. You can go straight to the facility once you make contact with the new region. All that's left is making sure you have the squad to succeed.

I'd also recommend building a Skulljack and doing story objectives revolving around that (once the initial crisis is over of course), you can reduce Avatar Project status through that task as well. With plasma weapons in hand you should have absolutely no difficulty in doing so, just pick a easier mission without a timer to be safe (Supply Raids and Facility missions are ideal).

Kinda curious what the Berserker Queen corpse can do for you. Is there an autopsy for it?

[Jowy]

Base Management: Last Minute Improvements

Poison rounds! Great pick-up.



Can't afford the Skulljack atm I'll get it when we can. For now, more grenades!
Mechanized Warfare is another project I want to get done, so we can have our own MEC's.



Plasma Lance research finished in time for the Alien Facility assault, but we can't actually build them.. Need 1 more Engineer and about 300 supplies.
Since we failed the second Retaliation strike, it took us this long to get more than one Faceless corpse. I will now do their autopsy and then build us a Mimic Beacon or two.
And yep WK, there is an autopsy for the Berserker Queen.



It's done! We've contacted Brazil, and now..



We'll go for the mission. It's our last chance to save the campaign.



I wanted to bring some new faces to train them up (like a second Specialist) since WK told me this would be easier than the Blacksite, but the VERY DIFFICULT tag scares me too much.
Brick got the new Venom rounds. I also noticed she has a nickname now, though it's nothing to write home about.

[Jowy]

Mission 16: Operation Star Shadow

It's a new mission type. Having "Escape" as an objective makes me think there'll be unlimited reinforcements like at the Blacksite.



Wheeeeee. We started concealed in the jungle. The place we have to bomb is just a few tiles inside the facility.



We started on top of a hill. To the left there is some infrastructure, but we can stay on the hill till we reach the facility.



Found some enemies after a few turns of advancing.



After the grenade, we landed a valley of shots on the enemies.



All three were killed. And yeah, that's a soldier with Phantom on overwatch. I'll remember some day.



We checked the left side, nothing there. Then threw a scanner towards the facility, it was clear too. Finally located some enemies on their turn.



It was another pod that bumped into us. We only got off one overwatch, which missed.



Viper and two Sectoids should not be a big problem at this stage of our campaign.



Apparently the walls are pretty tough around here. They were highlighted, but didn't break down when we fragged them.



Even through cover we had 70-80% shots with our snipers and Jkaen. They took down the aliens.



The objective is a few tiles inside the building. I think we can stay on the hill and have David run down to bomb it while concealed.
We threw a Battle Scanner inside. No-one on the ground floor, but on the roof there was a pod of three enemies, including a Muton and a Shieldbearer.



The car blew up, now we can take cover behind it if needed.



There's the objective. It's not something we can just destroy with our guns or grenades. We need to move next to it to set down the explosives.



David hears movement, but it's not from the rooftop pod.



Speak of the devil, the Muton showed its ugly head and we took shots at it from the hill.



Two misses, but still enough damage to take it down. Where did the other two enemies go?



These are not the two, but they did bump into us too. I think it's a separate pod from the one we heard. Must be crowded inside the facility.



We took a shot with Brick, she did 7 damage to one of them. Old Harry set up the Kill Zone and others overwatched. I didn't want to break David's concealment yet.



First Sectoid made a run for it. Old Harry missed, but Sunrise hit it for 7. Now two of them are down to 1, but both are still alive.



We didn't have great shots at the guy, but Jkaen can finish him off. I had moved him and Sunrise down from the hill since they didn't have the range to hit enemies from there anymore.



We also opened a nice route to the bomb site, though we were 1 tile off from getting there on a blue move this turn.
The other Sectoid lived through our turn, but died from being poisoned before it could do anything.



Remember the two who disappeared? Well, they're back. One jumped down from the roof to charge at us. Lewwyn had an overwatch shot but missed.



He ran right past David who was still concealed. Well, looks like the ADVENT guy did see a glimpse of him on the way.



Not that it helped him much when David got to shoot him in the back for the kill.



The Shieldbearer took cover behind the objective and overwatched. First we broke his overwatch with a flash bang.



Then we tried to kill it, but it had High Cover from the bomb site pillar, which happens to be unbreakable.
Old Harry was the only one to hit him. Wasn't enough to kill it, but on enemy turn it did burn to death.



We were alerted of reinforcements coming in behind us. It's at an awkward place, would be trouble if we activated a pod in the facility.
So we threw a Battle Scanner inside the facility and found nothing. Just to be sure, David took a blue move to full cover behind the objective. Didn't spot anything.



I had Sunrise, Jkaen and Lewwyn on the ground level. Brick and Old Harry were at an awkward angle, but I think they'll get overwatch shots from here.



They are here! I love this shot. We managed to kill one of them and take one down to low HP.



David planted the explosives.



Then I called in evac and left  



Facility went boom!



Mission complete! Was pretty anticlimactic TBH. Maybe there were a shit ton more enemies in there, but we did a hit and run instead of fighting them all.



Got some promos too.



A hidden ability procced for Jkaen. That's actually insane. I need to get him Extended Mags.
For his normal perk, he got Holo Targeting.



Old Harry is our first Major. Picked Steady Hands since that one will be in effect all the time, while Aim rarely would.



Sunrise got a boost to his Aid Protocol, which I haven't been using that much since we've generally avoided leaving one unit vulnerable, but now there's more reason to use it.



David Corperial was given Run and Gun. It's one of my favorites from Enemy Unknown. Shotguns become much more useful when you can orange move and still shoot, plus hopefully Close Combat Specialist is one of the last three perks.
Ranger has been the most disappointing class so far, which was a bit surprising considering how many timed missions there are in this game. Maybe they'll be strong once they have more of their arsenal.



Whew. We have some breathing room now. Next Alien Facility will be at least two regions away.

[Dp101]

I think you realised this, but just to put in perspective how amazing of a grab Guardian is for Jkaen, that perk is normally a colonel perk for specialists, and you got it halfway through the ranks. GJ on the mission, nice clean sweep. Given all the firepower you have now, I think you can safely attempt to advance the story via skulljacking now (once you have the skulljack of course).

[Jowy]

I think you realised this, but just to put in perspective how amazing of a grab Guardian is for Jkaen, that perk is normally a colonel perk for specialists, and you got it halfway through the ranks. GJ on the mission, nice clean sweep. Given all the firepower you have now, I think you can safely attempt to advance the story via skulljacking now (once you have the skulljack of course).

Yeah will do. Probably have to wait for the next supply drop to afford it. I have the other story objective also on the list of things to do. I think it's a research project atm.

[Fenn]

Nice work on the past two missions!

These promotion abilities are starting to get crazy - I guess when you only have six soldiers they've got to be powerful.

[Jowy]

Base Management: New Friends

Newest rumor is nice. We are needing more and more of the alien materials for projects and items.



Bad news: The other two Alien Facilities are both 3 regions away! Might be cutting it close again.



Faceless Autopsy finished, we can now build Mimic Beacons. I went for the Berserker Queen one next since we can't afford to build the new weapons or armor even if we were to research them.



End of the fourth (I think?) month. Was a good one.



With a new month comes new Dark Events. I didn't reveal the last one because we're low on intel. We have just enough for another region if we build a radio tower first.



From Proving Ground we received a new grenade. Acid one this time. Seems great!



Berserker Queen autopsy gave us this project. Gotta save it for later though: We're building the Skulljack story item.
For research we're also taking the story route with Alien Encryption research.



I named our newest two squaddies. For now we have no more rookies (they cost double due to a hidden dark event we didn't counter last month).
RefSteel joins as a Specialist.



And so does Haphazard1. We currently have 3 Grenadiers, Rangers and Sharpshooters, and 4 Specialists.



Once I had looted the Supply Drop for the month I upgraded our Power Relay before I waste the money somewhere else.
I think it might be a time to get a Workshop built soon. We only have 3 Engineers and it would be handy to staff more rooms.



Started installing a Radio Tower in Western Europe.



Alien Encryption research gave us another building to add to the queue.
Next tech I chose was the one that gives intel when completed. We'll need it for the last region.
Then Guerrilla Ops popped up:



Choice 1.



Choice 2.



Choice 3.

The Viper Rounds dark event scares the crap out of me, but we really need intel so I went for the third mission.



I'm taking two squaddies with our regulars to train them up: Pindicator the Ranger and Rho21 the Specialist.
I also built a Mimic Beacon, just the one for now because we ran out of supplies.

[Jowy]

Mission 17: Operation Wailing Shroud (part 1)

It's a "Recover the Item" mission Last one didn't go so well (last mission of the previous campaign).



Well we start pretty close at least. Just follow the road.



Found a nice tower to hack, but didn't do it yet. Ideally we'd hack it just before picking up the item from the truck.



Found a pod to the left of the road. WTF is that thing?!



It's a miracle they didn't see us yet. I set up the Kill Zone and an overwatch trap for them.
Except they didn't walk into it. Well, fuck. I was so confident that they would.



I set up our snipers to overwatch again and then pulled in the enemies. As I'm writing this, I notice my mistake: Jkaen def should have been overwatching with his new Guardian perk.



Closer look at the new enemy. No idea what it does.



Old Harry and Brick hit it for a combined 17 damage, and burned and poisoned it.



Poison deals 1 damage a tick, burn deals 1-3. There was a 66% chance that the Archon (which is what it's called) would die, but I was cautious of the unknown threat and had Sunrise finish it off.



Rho missed against the injured Muton. Pindicator would have another coin flip, but..



To be on the safe side, I had him throw out the Mimic Beacon. Surely the pod with the new enemy type will be the most dangerous one we'll face this mission.



The healthy Muton landed a hit even though the Mimic was behind full cover! Probably a good thing we used it, cause our guys were only in half cover.



The injured one went to punch it in the face. Now he was out in the open for us to kill!



Brick used her Lightning Hands to kill it. Maybe I could have given the kill to a newbie, but I kinda think we need to get a move on.



Jkaen tested his new Acid Grenade on the other Muton. Sadly it didn't destroy the full cover and didn't even make it into half cover. The armor is gone though!



Old Harry used his Lightning Hands to damage the Muton. Then I sent Pindicator to flank it for the kill. Well, that was the plan anyway. He missed.
Sunrise had to jump in and use his second Combat Protocol to kill the Muton (it's way too close to us to leave it alive).



Enemy Reinforcements on the way. Would be nice to sit here and set up a trap, but we're running out of time to get to the objective.



Battle Scanner spotted some enemies. I moved Rho a little bit closer so she could get a shot, but she activated the pod  



This sucks. Probably could have handled them if we got overwatch shots off while they were in the open, but now they all have cover.
Old Harry started us off by hitting one, but Brick missed her shot.



We have 4 more characters to move. Rho already used up her first move, and so did Jkaen, he was the one who threw the Battle Scanner. Now he's flanked by one of them.



Sunrise managed to flank the flanker and killed him. Now Jkaen can probably shoot cause I don't think the other two will move from their current positions.



Especially because Rho is going to flash bang them. Nailed the timing on this screenshot.
Jkaen used overwatch to make use of his Guardian. If those enemies won't move, well he should get shots off at the reinforcements too.
Pindicator is also overwatching because he couldn't move forward to a new cover with a blue move.



Reinforcements have arrived. Now I regret using up our Combat Protocols. Hopefully after this mission we'll have two Specialists with that perk.



Pindicator technically didn't miss, but the enemy had their dodge chance proc.



Jkaen missed and Guardian didn't even get to do any work.
Next the two disoriented enemies made their moves: One took a near impossible shot and missed, the other was smarter and overwatched.

Continued in Part 2.

[Jowy]

Mission 17: Operation Wailing Shroud (part 2)

We're in big trouble. They have us pincered and we failed to land shots at both groups while they were in the open.



Kinda wishing this wasn't a gas grenade. Anyone got a lighter or something? Let's see if we have some shots instead.



Ugh this isn't great. I think we need to kill the three enemies behind us this turn and only take cover from the other two.
Old Harry took the shot and it's a crit! Now that's going to be a huge help. One enemy down.



Brick didn't have any good shots, so I threw a flash bang at the overwatching enemy to remove it. IT DIDN'T WORK. What a complete waste of a turn.
So next I had to have Jkaen do it so we can move around. At least they are now both poisoned, which might also act as crowd control based on the Berserker Queen fight.



Sunrise could now flank one of them. While I want to focus on the other group, it's really too good of a move to not take. Plus we'll have someone closer to the objective.



Crit for the style points (lowest possible damage roll also would have done the job).



Rho turned around and took cover behind a tree. She won't flank the Shieldbearer, but I'm more interested in the MEC. She has 68% odds to hit it.



Pindicator moved closer and had a 75% shot. I chose to trust our newbies with this. If we kill the MEC, then there are only two Shieldbearers left, which aren't the most threatening enemies.



They actually did it! Welcome to the team guys.



Old Harry had no cover but the Shieldbearer still missed. The other went after Sunrise and also missed. That went great considering the circumstances.



Old Harry took revenge and hit the Shieldbearer for max (non-crit) damage. That put him down to 1 HP, which guarantees that he'll burn to death when it's his next turn to act.



Rho still had fairly bad odds against a flanked target. Part of the reason why I want to train up some of the newer soldiers is so that they can actually hit their targets when we have injuries or deaths and I'm forced to bring them along.



She's showing promise at least, that's her second clutch kill this mission Now we've killed all the enemies but we still gotta reach the objective in time.



Jkaen made a blue move, then threw a Battle Scanner to make sure that it's safe. No more enemies there!



Sunrise made the long dash forward. Next turn he should have a blue move to the objective and be able to grab it in time.



There was another pod in the fog



Brick managed to kill one of them, but that's all we could do. Pray for Sunrise  



The Muton missed! A good start.



Disaster! The Viper grabbed and bound Sunrise. Frankly I would have preferred him to tank a shot, because next turn is our last chance to grab the objective.



Rho had our only shot at the Viper. Only a 28% one. Mission failed.
Now let's hope we can save Sunrise at least.



Old Harry took a shot at the Muton and missed. End of turn. The truck blew up, but luckily Sunrise wasn't caught up in the explosion.



Really regretting not bringing two Grenadiers. Full cover reduces our hit chance by 40%.
Jkaen missed. Pindicator missed. Brick missed. Rho missed. All shots were between 43% and 51%.



Sunrise has taken 2 damage twice and now 4. After next tick he'll be dead. Oh and there's a full health Muton too.



The Muton in question threw an Alien Grenade at Sunrise and Pindicator.



I'm going all in. Jkaen is going to run to the open to flank the Muton.



It went even better than expected! He had a 84% chance to hit, but also landed the crit with a 40% chance to crit.



Last turn I had Old Harry climb on top of a vehicle. The Muton might have had the range to hit him, but I was not going to miss another fucking shot on the Viper.







If we can't shoot him, maybe we can strike him? Please save Sunrise  



Thank god. Sunrise then finished off the Viper and the mission. That was a fucking disaster.
Also I didn't hack the tower because if it fails, it might decrease Sunrise's hit rate to something like 95%, which would certainly miss against this fucker.



Three injuries all thanks to the last pod. Luckily Rho got a promotion, so we'll still have a Specialist with Combat Protocol around.



I think I'll make Brick a Gunslinger. Gave him Quickdraw. I don't think Old Harry has procced Death From Above even once.
I originally thought Death From Above would proc just from attacks that connect, but you need a kill too. Might not have picked it if I had read it correctly.



We didn't get the intel reward nor did we counter the dark event that'll reduce our monthly supplies to half next month, but we at least got some corpses.