Help me enjoy X-Com

Taking a break from defending the world Tamren? miss the story updates of our digital counterparts.

Yeah I've been pretty busy. Some family stuff, some holiday stuff. And of course all the shiny new games I've been getting from the steam sale, which isn't over yet.

I'm hoping to get back to my daily mission schedule in the first week of the new year.

Tamren wrote:

Yeah I've been pretty busy. ....all the shiny new games I've been getting from the steam sale, which isn't over yet.

Same thing happened to this thread last year, IIRC

And were back. To recap our main objectives are:

1. Capture a live navigator so we can start on the road to Cydonia as well as get Hyperwave Decoders.
2. Capture a Psi capable leader alien to begin researching Psi tech.

To commemorate the new year, until we accomplish at least one of the above, we will be deploying with all the redshirts we have! Everyone gets a stun rod, everyone is expendable! While I was reorganizing the roster I added rankings based on skill. Pretty much the only real important stat other than psi strength is firing accuracy. Troopers with an accuracy of 50+ have been given one star. You get an additional star for every 10 skill above 50. In the unlikely event that someone reaches 4 stars they will be too valuable to use and benched until the final mission.

Wandering Toaist Tanker

MrDevil Heavy **
Redwing Sniper **
Davet Heavy Tanker **
Milkman Medic
Ataraxis *
Cleverid *
Prozac Sniper ***
The Judge Sniper **
Nathanial Sniper **
Spacedog Heavy **
Winkgun Heavy
Feeank Medic *
MrTomaytohead Assault
Psych Assault **
Pursuedbybear Medic **

Or deployment plans are as follows. All 12 redshirts, 1 commissar to keep an eye on things. And I'm there to scan the xenos and act as a medic.

Tamren ***
Rat Boy Commissar **
Nightmare Rambo **
Bighoppa R *
Cayne R ***
Tanglebones R *
Ubrakto R *
Blacksheep II R/Tanker ***
Dreamer R *
Alkaline R **
Moondragon R 10 **
Hypatian II R *
Mixolyde II R
Feralmonkey R **

On the 9th of april we spot a tiny scout UFO. Our interceptors now have plasma beams and one hit obliterates the UFO. Pwned. The next day we detect another UFO. Its a battleship, its flying low, and its right overhead! Osh*t. After waiting for it to fly a bit farther from our base we launch our interceptor. It puts up a brave fight and charges the battleship! Our interceptor is heavily damaged but it manages to down the beast!

We deploy immediately. Everyone will have a stun stick except for Tamren, and he will be carrying a stun launcher we just finished researching. Also researched are alien grenades, much more powerful than the earth standard frags we have been using. We will swap out for them whenever we have enough supply.

Mission begins...

First off the ramp is Hypatian. We have landed at the southeast corner of a vast farm. To the northwest sits the huge battleship. With nothing but open fields between us an the UFO, we have little to do except pop smoke.

New turn. Under cover of smoke Mixolyde advances and... spots a cryssalid. sh*t just got real! Thankfully the evil bug is standing in a far field with its back turned, better get rid of that... Hypatian shoots and scores a single hit to the back of the head with his heavy cannon! But the bug shrugs it off! Next off the ramp is Alkaline, she opens fire with heavy plasma! Her first burst of shots misses twice and scores a hit. But the bug shrugs it off! She shoots again and the damage proves to be too much. The bug falls! Goddam, were going to have to advance really slowly. Cryssalids are fast and they could be around every corner, behind every door...

New turn. Bighoppa advances and spots a second cryssalid standing in a field! He opens fire and lands a shot to the chest! Ubrakto shoots next but hits a fence. Tanglebones shows them how its done and down the cryssalid with a shot to the neck! We creep forward a bit more.

New turn. A snakeman emerges from the darkness and walks over the dead cryssalid. Bighoppa attacks with laser, but only succeeds in shooting the already dead cryssalid in the head! Must have missed the memo. Tamren scans with a mind probe, its a soldier, safe to kill. Tanglebones shoots next, his laser bots stitching a line across the ground, ending with a shot to the snakemans hip. A further shot to the chest and the alien falls! Mixolyde advances to scout further. Past the downed snakeman he spots another standing in front of a barn. (battleship maps are huge). The alien spots him and shoots! Plasma splashes against the ground by his feet and another bolt wizzes past his head, narrowly missing the rest of the squad! The curve of the UFO blocks his shots and Mixolyde can't shoot back! Dreamer crouches behind a stone wall and opens fire with his laser pistol. Laser bolts spray all over the area, mostly hitting the barn! One of the bolts hits the snakeman on the chin, so we'll call that a pass. Next up is Blacksheep with a heavy laser, much more suited to long range shooting. He takes aim... and his shot impacts the snakeman in the chest! But his armour stands and the snakeman is still standing! Feralmonkey is next in line and lands a great aimed shot to the snakemans arm, it shrieks and falls dead!

New turn. We push west, scouting out the barn further. Tanglebones advances and spots another snakeman on the roof of the barn. Dreamer is the first to attack, his first 2 shots are duds. But the third shot hits the snakeman in the ass and takes it out! Bighoppa moves closer to the barn. But suddenly gets shot in the back! Bighoppa falls unconcious! Tanglebones tries to spot his attacker but the alien is hidden in a wheat field! Tanglebones stops to batch up Bighoppa who is bleeding badly. Ubrakto moves up to cover them. The rest of the squad starts to toss grenades into the field.

New turn. 2 things happen very fast. First the grenades in the wheat field detonate, flattening huge circles of crop. But a snakeman appears in the field just past the edge of the blast radius! It shoots Ubrakto! Ubrakto is down! Next a snakeman appears in the UFO grav lift. It shoots... a blaster bomb! Thankfully the blaster round misses and hits a nearby wall, the explosion wrecking a huge swathe of ground. Tamren scans and... its a commander! We need him alive! The snakeman in the field remains hidden, Bighoppa struggles to his feet still groggy on meds. He reaches into his pile of dropped gear and picks up a grenade, lobbing it into the field where we last saw the snakeman! Meanwhile Hypatian, Dreamer and Mixolide creep up on the snakeman commander. Everyone else dives for cover!

New turn. The alien commander realises he is outnumbered and flees back into the lift! In the field Bighoppas grenade detonates and obliterates the hiding snakeman!
We advance on the UFO. As well as the central grav lift two of the engine rooms have been breaches, giving us 3 entrances into the UFO. We spread out a bit to cover the lifts. Hypatian moves to the south engine room. Mixolyde moves to the north. But suddenly spots a snakeman in the smoke! Its the commander! That bastard tricked us and switched grav lifts! Cayne tries to shoot him but can't land a shot! Desperate measures are needed... Mixolyde charges and gets in the commanders face!
IMAGE(http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/8243/53139371.png)

Dun dun dun... To be continued!

hmmm, 7 TU remaining, but the Commander is armed with the Blaster Launcher... not exactly his best choice for some close combat. Maybe he wont actually fire (self preservation and all that), I suppose he could simply go up the lift, and fire down at you, receiving no damage to himself (X-Com explosive damage is limited to its "plane").

Don't leave me hangin', Bro!

For the record, the first thing I'd do before anything else is kick him in the nards.

That's right, Snakeman has nards.

Mixolyde wrote:

Don't leave me hangin', Bro!

For the record, the first thing I'd do before anything else is kick him in the nards.

That's right, Snakeman has nards.

Well we want him incapacitated but alive. So... I guess that meets the objective.

Woohoo, completed construction of the Avenger, arming it with 2 Plasma Cannons, and transfering a large pile of (recently aquired) Elerium to fuel it up (used up my stores there just to build the darn thing).

I just cleared out another alien base, this time in (looks to be) Washington state. The only reason I found it was that a supply-ship outran my interceptors, landed, it took too long for my Skyranger to reach the site, and was discovered while my birds were circling. The ship took off at tremendous speed before the Skyranger arrived, and the interceptors had no hope of catching it, so we decided to take out the base instead.

So now that's 2 bases purged, many alien artifacts researched, a few live aliens interrogated (Navigator, Engineer, Commander, and(?) a Leader). I still need a live Psi-capable (Sectoid Commander, iirc). I've had enough of the Muton/Snakemen/Floaters already! I really want to start finding out if any of my squad are ultra-weak Psi's, and should be benched vs anything other than Muton/Snakemen/Floaters.

Wink_and_the_Gun wrote:

Woohoo, completed construction of the Avenger, arming it with 2 Plasma Cannons, and transfering a large pile of (recently aquired) Elerium to fuel it up (used up my stores there just to build the darn thing).

I just cleared out another alien base, this time in (looks to be) Washington state. The only reason I found it was that a supply-ship outran my interceptors, landed, it took too long for my Skyranger to reach the site, and was discovered while my birds were circling. The ship took off at tremendous speed before the Skyranger arrived, and the interceptors had no hope of catching it, so we decided to take out the base instead.

So now that's 2 bases purged, many alien artifacts researched, a few live aliens interrogated (Navigator, Engineer, Commander, and(?) a Leader). I still need a live Psi-capable (Sectoid Commander, iirc). I've had enough of the Muton/Snakemen/Floaters already! I really want to start finding out if any of my squad are ultra-weak Psi's, and should be benched vs anything other than Muton/Snakemen/Floaters.

Would you rather some Ethereals, Chrysallids, and Sectopods?

So far I've been pretty lucky, never having any of my team "turned" by Chrysallids, I do leave alot of time on my soldiers, and try to advance very carefully. Speaking of Chrysallids, have they got some wicked-high reaction times (or whatever determines the fact) that they frequently seem to be able to "run around and dance" in front of your team without triggering a reaction-shot?

Wink_and_the_Gun wrote:

So far I've been pretty lucky, never having any of my team "turned" by Chrysallids.

Oh you're such an innocent little virgin. Be careful, that first time is pretty painful. So are all the rest of the times.

Oh I know the pain of "soldier conversions", whether by Chrysallid infection, gotta kill the poor bastard... TWICE. Or the evils of mind-control, you know that he/she is "still in there", but you aren't in any kind of postion to KO him/her and are forced to kill them, lest they kill off a large number of your own team (alien grenade or blaster launcher armed). I played both 1 & 2 when they were new.

Tamren you said TBC... but this is silly at least start doing posts from UFO Extraterrestrials gold if nothing else, i miss knowing what my digi me is up to.

I've been busy as of late and when I can find time to play games my brain does not have the tactical acumen for a game like XCOM. UFO:XT is a lot more "arcadey" than XCOM is. You're soldiers can't die for instance. The in-game explanation is that soldier helmets have some tech in them that allows them to preserve your head as a brain in a jar.

I can finish up this one at least. We'll see how late it is afterwards.

Where we left off Mixolyde had just gotten in the commanders face. Unfortunately he doesn't have time to use his tazer! He dodges to the side and trying to save his bacon, Winkgun moves around the gravity lift and attacks with his pistol, landing a single shot! Feralmonkey is the last to fire, landing 3 direct shots to the Snakemans chest! The snakeman sizzles, but stands firm!

New turn. The heavily wounded commander elects to retreat! A snakeman appears in the gravity lift and attacks Bighoppa! Bighoppa tanks the hit like a champ and loses none of his remaining 8 hp! Blacksheep enters the lift and guns down the snakeman! In the darkness above he spots 3 enemies! Mixolyde moves up the engine room lift in hot pursuit of the commander... And he finds him standing by the main grav lift! Tamren ducks around the door and launches a stun ball up into the grav lift, it hits the commander in the face! He drops, exposing another snakeman! Mixolyde attacks but can't land a shot! Moondragon enters the lift and attacks the snakeman from below, downing in two shots! The rest of the team moves forward to the lifts.

New turn. A cryssalid appears! Thankfully he turns back and lurks on the second floor! Mixolyde advances and guns it down! We pile into the UFO, checking the side rooms and taking up position on the third floor. No aliens are sighted.

New turn. Tamren, Feralmonkey, Blacksheep and Dreamer assault the bridge level. On by one we breach the doors and check the hallways. The first 3 find nothing, but Tamren spots two snakemen!
IMAGE(http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/8357/77444873.png)
He shoots! But the stun ball misses and streaks past the duo, impacting the wall behind! One snakeman falls, but the other stands firm! Tamren retreats back into the lift! Blacksheep ducks around the corner and fires a single pistol shot, but hits wide!. Dreamer advances down the corridor to flank the snakeman from behind!

New turn. Hmm... okay a couple things happened really fast.
IMAGE(http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/5807/30957497.png)
First a snakeman attacks from behind and plasma fire splashes against the wall above Dreamers head! In the corridor a blaster bomb detonates against the wall beside the lift door! Tamren barely escapes the blast radius! And here is where things get weird. See what happened last turn was that Tamren hit the corner with a stun ball. That took out one of the snakemen. But in the new picture the positions have changed. Feralmonkey is standing on a dead snakeman, apparently taken out by his own blaster explosion. But the second unconscious snakeman somehow moved over to the door of the bridge. Wierd!

Anyway Moondragon rounds the corner and spots the snakeman that attacked Dreamer! Its probably a navigator and we desperately need one alive. Moondragon ducks into a side room and Tamren advances with his stun launcher...

New turn. A snakeman hiding behind the bridge console appears and attacks Dreamer through the open door! The single plasma bolt misses his head by inches! How the hell did he hide back there!? (on close examination it seems that bridge consoles block line of sight, on smaller UFOs these consoles are placed against the wall so this doesn't happen. But on a battleship there is a cluster of 4 in the centre). Dreamer charges the snakeman and tazers it to the floor! Meanwhile up north Moondragon bursts out of the side room and comes face to face with the other snakeman! He levels his tazer and charges! The snakeman shoots Moondragon in the chest! His armour absorbs the pistol blast! He tazers the snake once, twice, and it falls to the ground!

Mission complete! 8 Aliens bagged, 5 aliens captured. We lost Ubrakto. Bighoppa is so heavily wounded hes going to be off the roster for more than a month.

EDIT: Sorry no second mission tonight, my cat just brought a mouse in. And it escaped...

Tamren wrote:

Mission complete! 8 Aliens bagged, 5 aliens captured. We lost Ubrakto. Bighoppa is so heavily wounded hes going to be off the roster for more than a month.

EDIT: Sorry no second mission tonight, my cat just brought a mouse in. And it escaped...

Yes! And no! on the cat helping you out by adding a guest to your house. Hey, make sure you check behind the consoles though for that mouse because I found out the hard way that they do block LOS. That or when I played X-COM, the computer was cheating like a mofo.

Caught the bugger!

IMAGE(http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/6606/mousem.jpg)

Cardboard box alien-containment?

Feeank wrote:

Cardboard box alien-containment?

Funding is down. Do more missions in countries with more money.

A couple days later we spot a new UFO. Its a small scout, so not very threatening. However our interceptor took a huge beating in the fight with that battleship. The other interceptor was over in Europe and didn't have the range to attack it. Luckily for us it eventually landed. Unfortunately that means a night mission.

To replace Ubrakto and Bighoppa I will be adding in rookies. People who have been cloned and need to get up to speed again. Joining us are Spacedog and Prozac.

Mission Begins. Its dark out and we can barely see 20 feet. Hypatian starts by throwing a flare off into a nearby field.

New turn. A snakeman wanders into view, Hypatian and Mixolyde attack! Their shots pepper the area and demolish a nearby shed, but the snakeman escapes! We hop off the ramp and advance. Mixolyle goes to the right and spots a snakeman to the south, gunning it down! On the other side feralmonkey throws a flare, revealing another snakeman. Alkaline shoots thrice and drops it with a hit to the shoulder! Finally Nightmare takes aim with his Rambo skills and downs the first snakeman with a shot to the head!

NEw turn. A snakeman appears to the north and fires a stun ball at the ramp! It misses wildly, and Nightmare returns fire! His shots hit a nearby stable and the alien retreats. We fan out from skyranger. Mixolyde spots an alien hiding behind a nearby hedge! Spacedog moves around the corner and melts his face with a heavy plasma bolt! We hunker down and wait.

New turn. A snakeman appears to the west and shoots Hypatian! The hit gouges a chunk out of his armour, but Hypatian is unhurt! Feralmonkey returns fire with laser, but misses! Dreamer attacks next and the autocannon shell hits a nearby wall, filling the snakeman with shrapnel! To the east another snakeman skulks around a cabbage field. Hypatian opens fire and downs the snakeman in a hail of laser bolts! Dreamer and Feralmonkey move to join him. To the east Nightmare picks up a flare and throws it into the cabbage field. Mixolyde creeps forward... He spots the snakeman not 20 feet away! He can't get a shot, so he crouches behind a nearby fence! Ratboy moves to assist and caps the snakeman in the head with his laser pistol!

New turn. We sweep the map, coverging on the UFO. Dreamer rounds a corner and comes face to face with a snakeman standing by the UFO door! Alkaline attacks from inside a nearby shed. Blasting a hole in the shed wall and shooting the snakeman in the gut with a laser bolt! The snakeman falls! We advance to the door.

New turn. A snakeman rounds the corner of the UFO hull and shoots Moondragon in the face! Luckily its only a stun ball, but Moondragon is knocked out cold! Prozac advances, blows a bit of dust off his heavy laser, then blasts a hole through centre mass! The snakeman is downed!

New turn. I spend a couple turns trying to revive moondragon. It takes over 15 shots of stimulants to wake him up. And he is still half groggy! Cayne breaches the UFO and guns down a snakeman standing by the inner doors! Prozac, Dreamer and Spacedog move in to support.

New turn. A snakeman bursts out of the inner doors and shoots Dreamer in the face! The stun ball detonates and the snakeman knocks itself out along with Dreamer and Spacedog.

Mission complete! 9 Aliens bagged. 1 accidentally taken alive. We salvaged an entire small scout and 50 elerium.

Cool bananas my first kill! Unfortunatley due to the concussion I will never remember it.

SpaceDog wrote:

Cool bananas my first kill! Unfortunatley due to the concussion I will never remember it.

Also due to the giant party every soldier gets thrown for them if they bag an alien and live! SHOTS!

Aw man... you sure know how to get my palms sweaty! In the battleship, I could just imagine myself trying to zap the guy... it's not working... AAAAHHH!!! Smack him on the head with the stun-rod!

No moon dragon use the end with the electrical bits thats the handle!!

Thank you for the updates Tamren their awesome!!

You forget that I have bravery score of 10. Thinking while I was just shot in the chest is not really high on my priority list.

Tamren wrote:

We lost Ubrakto.

It was only a matter of time. Goodbye, cruel world!

I'm back at the base with my head wrapped in a bandage shouting "Put me in, Coach!" at my footlocker.

Tamren wrote:

Finally Nightmare takes aim with his Rambo skills and downs the first snakeman with a shot to the head!

Hell yeah!

Tamren wrote:

NEw turn. A snakeman appears to the north and fires a stun ball at the ramp! It misses wildly, and Nightmare returns fire! His shots hit a nearby stable and the alien retreats.

You can run but you can't hide, alien scum!

Tamren wrote:

To the east Nightmare picks up a flare and throws it into the cabbage field. Mixolyde creeps forward... He spots the snakeman not 20 feet away! He can't get a shot, so he crouches behind a nearby fence! Ratboy moves to assist and caps the snakeman in the head with his laser pistol!

Teamwork, baby! That's how we take out the alien trash!

I love these!

Nightmare wrote:

I love these! :)

Yeah. Tamren does a really, really good play-by-play.

bumpy bump, what has happened to our digital war against the alien menace?

Sorry bud, something big came up. I am moving out of this house a full 5 months before I expected. Lots to do!

When I get my computer set up at the new place I'll celebrate with some alien blasting.