XCOM 2 - War of the Chosen

[RefSteel]

Okay! Shooting Sectoids? That I understand! Throwing a ... glowing ... holo...thingy? So the bad guys shoot it instead of us? Makes total sense to me! Clocking some dude and dragging him off to the Skyranger? Sure, with our advanced medical technology, I'm sure we don't have to worry about all the massive damage that's caused by head trauma, not to mention the risk of fatality!

As for all the rest ..... well, Dreylin seems to understand it anyway! And that's good enough for me! (We're best buddies, you know. I definitely understand being best buddies!)

[haphazard1]

Another successful mission, and the captured VIP will be "convinced" to tell us everything. A nice haul of intel and supplies, too.

Archons are nasty trouble makers, especially when they shoot me! But at least it missed my awesome hat. Too bad about the forgotten hack, but I was probably busy bleeding at the time anyway. Being distracted like that during a hack can lead to bad results. And I get a promotion! More skills to use against the aliens and their lackeys.

[Dreylin]

It's been a little while, so I've somewhat lost track of where we are. Aha, a Supply Drop pickup in progress, that must be first priority!



Right, I remember; we're putting the Infirmary in and then digging down to put the Shadow Chamber over the other Coil:



Pending urgent need, I think that Engineer is going to stay on the Resistance Ring from now on.

Ah yes, another good thing:


Nearly ready to take on the Assassin. I start the Shadowkeeper because my avatar is a Gunslinger.

Here's the next step as well:


Major Yuris is still heading down the left:



Or is it the top? I might have to (try to remember to) take Shredder before his next deployment. But that won't be immediately because he & DP101 are overdue to upgrade their Bond:


I'll want everyone on level 2 when I hit the Chosen lair. Infact, I might be able to have a pair on Level 3:


Dragunova & Fenn are very close and this mission may give them enough to get to the next level.

Spin some more:



I have the instant contact card enabled, so I can afford to wait the "1 week" for the next Facility to complete before committing to a route. In the meantime I'll get a Relay into South America:


Then the Guerrilla Ops pop up:




I decide to go to East Africa. I don't much need the Supplies, but I think that may be the only Event that's due to trigger this month. And I really don't fancy running a mission with just Sergeants!

So according to the SitRep this will be Lost only with a Hack at the end, so it's an unconventional squad:


Adrien will Hack, and Mox brings flexibility; Dreylin's Gunslinger talents should be put to good use. Ref & shallow_thought bring Shotguns with lots of bullets in the clip, and Jowy gets the good Rifle with the Reloader.

[Dreylin]

Looks like we get the high ground for this:


9turns isn't very much - especially since I have the +2turns card! (probably a good job too! )

The squad advances along the raised road until the Lost would spot them on the edge:


Actually, Mox & Adrien can get in across from the workstation:


Time to start things off - shallow_thought throws a Lure and ... I don't think they work quite the way I thought:


The Lost trigger, but they must need a target to latch onto.

Oh well, Jowy let's loose:


He runs out of targets, so Dreylin advances a touch to find some more:


And takes out a few of his own:


All told, Jowy ran through 3 free reloads, another clip and maybe a half-dozen pistol shots. Dreylin got maybe another half-dozen and Mox cleared through a clip. Adrien advanced towards the target and Overwatched, while RefSteel took out a stray hiding underneath the road. Fish in a Barrel, indeed!

Next turn, we have some more visitors:



This time Jowy only musters 3 from the Rifle and then has to reload and move. Dreylin picks off most of the rest and the others clean up. And apparently that's it!

Well, there's a moment of panic when Adrien seems to be unable to Hack the workstation:


But it turns out she can only do that from the other side:



That was the easy mission we'd been waiting for!





4.75 per turn average, but I think there were really only 2turns spent shooting - and Jowy got at least half of them for a well-deserved Promotion:



And Mox adds another Captain:


Probably should get around to spending some of those AP...

[RefSteel]

Oh no! There's zombies everywhere!

...

I think they're zombies. Are they zombies? Maybe they're just lost? Like, the aliens injected them with testosterone overdoses, and now they refuse to ask directions so they have no idea where they are? And take everything as a mortal insult, so they try to kill everybody? It's something like that, I'm sure.

Anyway, don't worry, everybody, I got one! Boom, shotgun for the win!

Hey, uh ... but where'd all the other ones go? And what are all these bodies suddenly doing on the ground with bullet holes? Jowy? Dreylin? They look like your calibers of bullets. Any idea? No? Huh. Well, maybe the lost guys were all just afraid of my shotgun and ran off!

[haphazard1]

Flawless mission, nice. A couple more promotions certainly do not hurt, either.

Hmmm, it looks like RefSteel and shallow_thought got assigned the same nickname? One would think those ought to be unique, to prevent possible confusion in combat. "Jaws, lookout, you have an Advent trooper sneaking up on you!" Wrong person reacts, hilarity ensues.

[yuris125]

Nice! Let these lost know who's boss. If they can know anything of course

[Dreylin]

Hmmm, it looks like RefSteel and shallow_thought got assigned the same nickname? One would think those ought to be unique, to prevent possible confusion in combat. "Jaws, lookout, you have an Advent trooper sneaking up on you!" Wrong person reacts, hilarity ensues.

Huh, odd. I confess to not having noticed that - probably because I think of all of them as their RB nickname rather than the game-assigned nick.

I'll have to remember to see if there's space for "Jaws: The Revenge" in the nickname field ... it's either that or "Sharknado" 

[shallow_thought]

Hmmm, it looks like RefSteel and shallow_thought got assigned the same nickname? One would think those ought to be unique, to prevent possible confusion in combat. "Jaws, lookout, you have an Advent trooper sneaking up on you!" Wrong person reacts, hilarity ensues.

Huh, odd. I confess to not having noticed that - probably because I think of all of them as their RB nickname rather than the game-assigned nick.

I'll have to remember to see if there's space for "Jaws: The Revenge" in the nickname field ... it's either that or "Sharknado" 

"Orca: the cheap rip-off".

[Dreylin]

Back from the end of the previous mission, and the Covert Op has also completed:


Fenn gets a promotion and the Bond is indeed ready for upgrade:



But over the past week I decided that what I really need to do is get the option ready for the Assassin mission:


If possible I want to have the Assassin dealt with before hitting the Blacksite so I don't have to worry about her joining in a sensitive time, so I want that option available ASAP. Dragunova & Fenn will upgrade their bond afterwards.

(DP101 joins the required pairing to shorten the mission & work on his bond with Yuris).

Alhambran finishes his next round of training and starts to work on Domination:


Proving Ground completes the Shadowkeeper & later the Axe, and the Frost Bomb is queued (no Cores to fabricate anything more exciting):



Tech-wise, Elerium comes in with an inspiration for a 1day Datapad decryption, so I dial that up:



No inspiration after that, and I'd really like one (or an extra Scientist) before starting the long slog to Plasma weapons. I go digging around in the Priest instead:


He spawns some interesting failsafe tech, and an Inspiration (just not the one we wanted):



I chase the Inspiration and decide to buy one of these new devices for emergencies with my huge stash of Supplies.


Meanwhile we finish the building Infirmary and the Radio Relay:



But the Assassin finishes a project of her own:


I'd rather not find out what happens when she maxes out that scale!

Then just as the Covert Op is about to complete, the Templars come with a mission:



Another Lost-only mission, so little point bringing Alhambram's mental gymnastics. Dreylin is still Tired from the last mission so we'll lean on Jowy again for Sharpshooting.

Of course I forgot to rename shallow_thought...