XCOM 2 - Ironman Again

[Jowy]

Base Management: Forge

New rumor is for an Engineer. Not sure if we need more, but might as well pick him up since the scan only takes 3 days.

Skullmining complete. Skulljack is now stronger.



It was time for a faraway shot, chose the game unwisely. I took uh, Exp. Heavy Weapon next, I think.

Radio Relay in West Asia finished construction, increasing our monthly supplies by 105.



From the Blacksite Vial we learned that the aliens are capturing and processing humans.
Our new story mission is to assault the Alien Forge.
The Codex follow-up project is up next.

The new Blacksite is in West Africa, only one hop away!

Our second Resistance Comms came online, now we can go for the Blacksite right away.

First though we finished an intel rumor for 73, then spent 80 to scan for West Africa.

Proving Ground gave us a new heavy weapon: a Flamethrower!

For our next project I chose Bluescreen Protocol, which will give us tools against mechanized enemies. I’m expecting to start seeing Sectopods soon..

Workshop finished. We have 6 engineers though so didn’t really need it in the end.



We nailed the missions this month but the council still isn’t impressed.

New Dark Events will suck! Extra Chrysalids or Extra Faceless on every mission



We made contact with West Africa and can assault the Alien Forge now. It’s too scary though, I’ll at least wait for the Bluescreen Protocol in case that ENEMY UNKNOWN is a Sectopod.

Codex shadow project finished. We need to skulljack a Codex now.

We grabbed our monthly supply drop, then started building a Psi Lab.

While waiting, we’ll work towards the Alien Facility. Contacting New Arctic next for 40 intel.

The last room in the ship was cleared for 31 crystals. Now a few of our Engineers are out of a useful job!

Bluescreen Protocol project finished. We can now build an EMP Bomb and Bluescreen Rounds to deal with mechanized enemies.

The next project will be Icarus Armor, which is what we got from the Archon King autopsy!



A Supply Raid mission popped up. We’re about to find out if this ENEMY UNKNOWN is what we feared the one at the Alien Forge was.



I burned through our supplies and bought an EMP Bomb, Bluescreen Rounds, and a second Mimic Beacon.
Quagma Blast goes back on the bench for a bit and Brick tags in. I think the rounds work best with her because she gets multiple attacks.

I might not post the mission today My own XCOM thread just kills my internet at this time because it's trying to load all the pictures and it can't.

[Jowy]

Okay I think I'll just write everything off-site and preview it once it's done.

If anyone else is having problems loading the pictures, let me know. I might have to start making them smaller, though I liked the option to get a closer look when using the screenshot tags with a full sized pics.

[Jowy]

Mission 25: Operation Massive Omen

Found enemies right away. We set up and then ambushed them. They’re behind the truck.



DP launched a rocket and got a crit on one of them (also turns out that the damage does vary!)
We landed most of our overwatch shots, but a Shieldbearer lived and got to full cover.



Brick was on back-up duty. She missed with her pistol, but completely destroyed all the cover!
Then it was easy for her to take two more shots and finish off the Shieldbearer.



We got some loot for a change!

A Battle Scanner located the next enemies for us. We couldn’t get the drop on them though, sadly:



It took a LOT of finicking to get the angle right and catch all three with the flash bang.



We started taking some shots. Jkaen missed on a 65%, but at least got holo targeting applied.
RefSteel then missed on a 69%. We definitely aren’t going to be able to kill them this turn.



To make up for the misses, Rho went for a 73% Chain Shot, landing both hits for a total of 16 damage!



Brian Shanahan finished the job and killed one Archon. Hmm, would holo targeting have stacked? Probably not..

Brick threw down a Mimic Beacon. Both enemies attacked it, which was enough to kill it. Good thing we managed to take one down or it would have gotten an attack on us.



Next turn we took a bunch of shots at the Archon. RefSteel got the kill.



I had a plan to get to the Codex.. We weren’t in range to Skulljack it, but we would be if we blew up the obstacles on the way.
A few problems with the plan:
1. The soldier who runs in might have to run through or stand on fire.
2. We’ve used most of our actions and the Codex might spawn something new if you Skulljack it..
3. There’s a very ominous clanking sound in the fog. Accidentally activating a Sectopod is very bad for you, trust me on that one.
Instead, we used Combat Protocol to kill the Codex. Story mission will have to wait.



We moved up for a few turns and then threw out a Battle Scanner. Yeah, that thing is definitely a Sectopod.



Here it comes!! We fire a barrage of plasma and laser at it. 3 misses, 3 hits.
It still had 23 health and 3 armor left after that. Holy crap!



Here’s a better look without the effects. Jkaen launched the EMP Bomb at it, dealing 12 damage.
Next, Brian Shanahan fragged it to shred 2 armor, and also to shred the Shieldbearer next to it and to destroy its cover.



Brick with the Bluescreen Rounds deals freaking 8-11 damage with one pistol shot, and she has three!



Sectopod goes down, and Shieldbearer only has 1 HP left once Brick’s finished.
That was easy but.. We really goddamn clutched the timing of that Bluescreen Protocol project.
Without our new toys, that thing would have been a nightmare to take down.



RefSteel finished off the Shieldbearer. There’s a Stun Lancer hiding behind full cover that we can’t kill.
However, DP and Rho went into overwatch. Once the lancer runs out to rush us, they’ll have better shots at it.



DP missed and Rho’s shot was dodged.. Uh oh!



DP gets hit for 9 and becomes disoriented for a turn. He survived with 4 HP left.



Jkaen softens up the Stun Lancer, then DP was given the chance to get revenge and he took it.
Rho and RefSteel healed him back up to full HP.



Some turns later, we found more enemies. It’s an Archon and a peculiar Sectoid enjoying the Advent truck.



Pretty much everyone had around 66% odds. We couldn’t move closer cause there wasn’t any cover in blue move range.
We managed to kill the Archon. We had no vision on where the Sectoid went, but it won’t be very threatening by its lonesome.



Looks like it escaped to join up with another pod. Smart move! We’re getting close.



Still not in sight, but they are very close.



Ugh, they moved so far that we can’t even hear them anymore. We spent several turns overwatched here, but they never came back in our hearing range.



HE WAS STILL IN THE TRUCK. ALL THIS TIME. :weed:



To add to the insult, RefSteel missed a 96% shot on the sneering alien, setting the truck on fire.
Now I had to move all our guys away from it in case it blows up from the next shot.



Jkaen had a 100% chance to hit, and killed the Sectoid. Now let’s go find the --- Goddammit.
Mission complete. It was just that one Sectoid hiding in the truck that I was carefully hunting all this time!



DP will be out of commission for a while. No promotions.
The appearance of the Sectopod definitely means we’re getting right into end game!
I think I understand the point about a big roster now.. There’s simply no time in the campaign to train up much more than your main squad.

Some pictures aren't working for me, but they still exist over at imgur, so I'm assuming I just failed to load them.

[Dreylin]

There are a couple of pictures not working for me either; the one before you said "here's a better look" (of course), a couple around DP101 getting sworded, and the second to last.

Good mission, rolling downhill now!

[El Grillo]

Multiple sources of holo-targeting don't stack. Bluescreen rounds are indeed great, especially for how early they're available (MEC autopsy). Now that you have the Shadow Chamber, you can keep track of how many enemies are left, which can be useful in a pinch, or when you're down to the last enemy

[RefSteel]

Missed a 96% shot and accidentally set a truck on fire when the whole squad was standing around it? ... Yyyyyeah, that sounds more like my clones than all this "useful" and "effective" nonsense I've been reading about lately.

(Sorry to hear the images are causing problems; my home internet connection can't deal with posts filled with large images either, so I end up using a kluge involving two or three different browsers, including one I can set to text only and another that only loads low-resolution image previews; then I load images individually if I want to see details. I guess this ... doesn't really qualify as a helpful suggestion though.)

[Jowy]

Fixed the report.

Completely accurate preview of next mission:

[Jowy]

Coming back to this after a small break. However this next report covers a mission I played over a month ago.

Base Management:

Research on Beam Cannons finished, now our grenadiers will have top tier weapons, if we can afford to also build them.
Since we killed a Sectopod last mission, let's break it down and find out what we can learn.

We got into contact with New Arctic, then headed down to East Asia. We're making our way to a base and the Codex brain mission.



The unique armor from the Archon King is now ready. It can.. fly?!  
Chose Battlefield Medicine for the next project. We might need some more healing on the final mission if it's a long one.



Guerilla Ops popped up, I went with the only reward that is still useful to us (don't need engineers or scientists).
There's an ENEMY UNKNOWN on the list despite the fact that we already met a Sectopod. Another new type huh? Interesting.



We had 250 supplies, Beam Cannons cost 250 supplies to build. We're broke, but we have shiny new guns!



Icarus Armor looks dope! It's earmarked for Old Harry, but since he's enjoying the office job for now, Brick will be wielding it this mission. DO NOT LOSE IT!



David equips the Flamethrower for the first time, and he was given a +3 mobility PCS so he can get right in their faces with it. Let's roll out!

[Jowy]

Mission 26: Operation Spider Shadow

8 turns to go and 11 enemies between us and the awkwardly positioned hacking station. It's the perfect recipe for a disaster!



First pod is an easy one. A perfect time to skulljack a Codex! Except.. I instinctively started assigning people to overwatch before I realized this opportunity.
Well, maybe it's not too late, they might not kill it.



Brian Shanahan shows off his new weapon with a massive overkill.
RefSteel shoots at the Codex.. But it dodges! For once that's a good thing. Only Jkaen left to shoot.



Welp. He killed them BOTH. That Codex capture will have to wait, again.



A Battle Scanner didn't spot any enemies on the way, strangely enough. However what's awkward is that there's no door on this side of the train car.



The loot drop was sweet. We were running a bit low on cores after so many projects. The intel from an Alien Data Cache is always welcome, we have nearly nothing good to research anyway.



Moved here and still no enemies in sight. I decided to employ some out of the box thinking:



We are making our own door!



Sure enough, it actually worked just as planned. We now have vision and can hack it remotely. Mission objective complete! We must still kill the aliens, but now we can take our time.



Speak of the devil.. They patrolled into us, we missed our overwatches. No worry though, just a three ADVENT pod. Easy peasy!



Jkaen started us off with a 87% flank and a kill on the Elite Shieldbearer.
Against the Elite Officer, we only had a 27% and similar shots, so Brian Shanahan launched a nade to destroy its cover.



We might have failed the Skulljacking attempt on the Codex, but we have a 70% chance to find out what Skullmining does against normal enemies.



Moving there drew another pod, and to add insult to injury, the skullmining failed!  
At least she could still move afterwards and had a 100% shot on the enemy. I held off on that for now, need to figure out what to do about the new enemies.



Fuck, I guess we need take out the Archon this turn. Should have a good shot from here.



And that, is what you call a mistake. Shit, shit, shit.



What do we do NOW?! We're facing SEVEN enemies with about half our moves already committed.
We don't even know what that ball thing does. Certainly doesn't look weak. When a turn like this happens is when Ironman becomes brutal  



In addition to SIX armor and more HP than I have the patience to count, that ball has 40 defense!! That's the same as if it was always in Full Cover. Except it can't be broken.



RefSteel went for a flank shot on the Elite Officer to thin their numbers. Needed a crit for the kill and she got it!



David threw a flash bang and disoriented the four most dangerous enemies on the field.



Rho has a 100% chance to hit, with a 40% chance to crit. Any crit would be a kill, and a non-crit is a kill 66% of the time. So overall 80% chance to get the kill.
She rolled badly.



Time for the back-up plan. Brick goes for the Lightning Hands and lands it. Whew.



Then for the actual back-up plan: A mimic beacon. That's our full turn. Please be kind RNGesus  



The ball, or "Gatekeeper" as it's officially called, hits the mimic for 11, then a Muton hits it for 5, killing it. That Flash Bang didn't do much for us.
Fun fact, if you google "xcom 2 ball", the first result is the wiki page for the Gatekeeper  



Here comes the pain. The Muton shoots at David and misses. The Archon crits Rho, dealing 9 damage to her. The Trooper hits David for 6 (that would have killed Rho!).
We survived, but it's not over yet. Not in the slightest.



Brian Shanahan open the turn with an Acid Bomb, shredding 4 of 6 armor from the Gatekeeper.



RefSteel healed Rho. If you use a drone as your first action, you can still shoot after it (or use a second drone). She will save her second action for now.



David used Rage Strike to damage the Trooper who had flanked him last turn. Then he used the Flamethrower, which is an aimed cone attack.
Unfortunately the Muton was 1 tile out of range, and the Gatekeeper was immune to fire. I was hoping to hit all four, oh well.
David had to leave cover to get the combo in, so let's hope we can kill all the enemies this turn or he too is roasted and toasted.



Jkaen launched a Plasma Grenade, which guarantees the kill on the Muton. Even if it survives, it'll be low enough to die from Acid Burns.
Brick fired her free pistol shot + Faceoff combo and missed every shot.
Don't think we can clear anymore, so RefSteel used her second action to heal David for 5.
Rho then threw down our second Mimic Beacon. Every good back-up plan needs a back-up plan.



The Gatekeeper moves to flank the Mimic Beacon and hits it for 9. The full HP Muton leaves the roof and kills the Mimic Beacon.
Only the Archon left to move now, but he's going to have a free shot at any one of us.



The Archon moves behind Rho to flank her, then it notices Brick wearing the skin of their king as her armor and goes into panic!  
In its panic, it tries to attack the Gatekeeper, but misses. That was a close one boys. But it's STILL not over.



I wasn't sure if the EMP Bomb would work on it because Disorientation did (which hasn't worked against mechanical enemies).
It did work, dealt 12 damage and stunned it for two (which in XCOM means one) turns. Sweet! Now we just gotta kill the other two enemies.



Brian Shanahan only had a 55% chance to hit, but it would at the very least apply holo-targeting, increasing the odds for everyone else.



Brian did land his shot, and Brick finished the job. Muton down, just the Archon left now.



Next I had RefSteel heal Rho to full and then kill the Gatekeeper. I think I had low odds to hit the Archon and wanted to heal rather than move with my first action.



David missed a 72% on the Archon and Brick missed a 68%  



It's our last chance effort. A normal shot can't kill it, but a chain shot might.



The first shot only grazed it, but that allowed the second hit to proc, which landed for 9. However it still had 1 HP left  



Except it was still in panic and passed its turn. David finished it off.



The self-inflicted hell is over and done with. Never uncover more fog when already in a firefight



Brick got a promotion. Steady Hands might be awesome depending on triggers. Does it add the bonus to every attack? Does flying with Archon King armor count as moving? We'll find out, next time.

[Mardoc]

Huh, the 'sees an XCOM op wearing the skin of their leader = panic' thing is surprisingly logical. But I'd never have thought to include that feature. Would you have found it if the mission went more controllably and Brick stayed in cover the whole time?

Nice save! And nice report, again .