Operation Purple Throne (Terror - Puebla, Mexico)

Gentlesophs, I am your host, the Kid With A Pen, and welcome to XCOM:  War Interminable - my playthrough of XCOM:  Enemy Unknown, with the Enemy Within expansion, the Operation Slingshot DLC, and most importantly the Long War mod.  Links to all of these can be found on the "What is XCOM:  War Interminable?" page below this post.

Today, we're going to intervene in an alien attack on a cemetery in Puebla, China...

...wait, that's not right.  Puebla, Mexico.  I was confused for a moment there because it's our first Terror mission that's not in China.  My bad.

Anyways, the Mexican Army's been doing a job of keeping the aliens out of the city, but a group of them dropped in a cemetery behind the Army's lines.  Apparently, today was a big day of national mourning for everyone who has died in the invasion thus far, and so the place was full of civilians.  Most of them managed to escape, but a lot of them are still trapped in there.

So, vaya con dios, muchachos!  Our squad today is:

Our rocketeer, Boom Boom

Our squad leader, medic and Patreon contributor Lynne "Vixen" Triplett

Our infantry, Zilch

Our engineer, Chilong

Our Marauder and special contributor, J.R. Klein

Our sniper, Checkmate

Our other infantry, Plunder

And our assault, Geronimo

There's a large mausoleum at the center of the cemetery that blocks line of sight and is the main provider of full cover on this map.  Until we can get there, we'll have to rely on the crypt entrances and gravestones to keep from getting splashed by alien fire.

So, the squad advances.  Checkmate steadies aim while the rest of the squad overwatches.

Off in the distance, we hear a civilian die horribly.

Boom Boom gets to position and steadies aim.

Klein moves up and makes contact with a pod of Chryssalids.  Oh, dear God, please don't let this be a Zombie map.

I mean, I don't have anything against Zombies.  They're pretty easy to outmaneuver and kite, and the ones that spawn in pods don't turn into Chryssalids.  I just don't like running into Chryssalids on Terror missions.

At least Klein got a couple good hits in with Close Encounters.

Plunder's first shot was a kill.

The second was merely a maiming.

Well, that's why we brought Zilch along.

Lacking in targets, Checkmate steadies aim.

The rest of the squad overwatches.

Contact!  A Cyberdisc!  Well, we've gotten better at fighting them recently, so it should be fine.

Zilch misses a Chryssalid on overwatch.

Vixen's overwatch shot kills it, though.

Boom Boom smacks the Cyberdisc pod with a shredder rocket...

...and accidentally activated another pod, this one of a Berserker and a couple Floaters.

Checkmate kills the Floater that was dumb enough to get into his line-of-sight.

Klein runs the Cyberdisc's overwatch to get into Close Encounters range of the Berserker...

...lands a solid hit on it...

...and reloads.

Plunder hits the Berserker from range...

...drawing it into a position where Geronimo could get the kill.

Zilch misses the Floater behind full cover.

Chilong's attempt to flank around the Cyberdisc ended up triggering another Cyberdisc pod.

One of the Drones decided to shoot back.  Great.

Plunder hits the Floater hiding behind the crypt.

Vixen lands a hit on the Cyberdisc.

Chilong leads the squad in a round of overwatches.

One of the drones from the other Cyberdisc pod kills a civilian.

Another wounds a civilian but fails to kill.

The first Cyberdisc just grenades Klein and Geronimo.

The last Floater tries to make a run for it...

...and Zilch brings it down.

The other Cyberdisc advances, and Chilong misses his overwatch shot against it.

In the distance, another civilian cries out in terror, and then is suddenly silenced.

We can't take on two Cyberdiscs at once.  Boom Boom applies her explosive remedy to this problem.

Checkmate hits a Drone, but fails to kill.

Klein gets up close and personal with the first Cyberdisc, and while he misses the first 88% shot...

...his second one is a kill.  One Cyberdisc down, one to go.

Plunder reloads.

Chilong grenades the other Cyberdisc, but its effect is minimal.

Zilch misses a Drone.

Vixen moves up to support Chilong and Klein.

Zilch reloads.

In the aliens' turn, one of the Drones repairs the damage Chilong inflicted on the Cyberdisc.

The Cyberdisc opened up on Geronimo, but missed.

Another civilian dies in the distance.

Boom Boom drops another shredder rocket.

Checkmate kills a Drone.

Zilch hits the Cyberdisc.

Klein gets close and misses the Cyberdisc.

Vixen moves up and patches Klein up a bit.

Geronimo pops Run and Gun...

...and makes contact with another pod, this one of two Seekers and a Thin Man.  Exactly what I didn't want.

All Geronimo had to show for it was one hit with Rapid Fire.

Somehow, the computer decided that this qualifies as a miss.

Chilong needs to reload...

...as does Klein.

Plunder sets herself up as our sole overwatch.

In the aliens' turn, one of the Seekers flanks Geronimo and crits him.  Geronimo panics.

The other Seeker cloak itself.  The Thin Man kills Geronimo (not shown).  Also not shown is Plunder killing the Cyberdisc on overwatch.

On my turn, Checkmate takes out the Seeker.

Vixen patches Klein up some more.

Boom Boom steadies aim.

Klein advances and opens up on the Thin Man, but fails to hit.

The rest of the squad overwatches.

The Thin Man spits acid on Klein, not realizing that acid has little effect on MEC Troopers.

Klein gets right up in the Thin Man's face and shows it the error of its ways.

Vixen reloads.

The rest of the squad overwatches.

The Seeker still hasn't revealed itself, but Klein takes the opportunity to finally rescue a civilian.  The rest of the squad overwatches.

The last Seeker decloaks, going for Checkmate.  Plunder gets a hit...

...but it's not enough to stop it from grabbing him.

However, all Plunder needed was one more shot to bring it down.

Op Success.

It went well, but we lost a damn good assault.  One of our best, too.

Still, Checkmate made it to Master Sergeant, which means that he finally gets In The Zone!

If a soldier with In The Zone kills a flanked or uncovered enemy, that shot doesn't count as an action.  Combining this with Snap Shot and Lock & Load, Checkmate can theoretically unload two whole magazines of sniper rifle fire on targets in one turn under the right circumstances, and every one of them will be a kill except possibly the last one.  In another game I played, I had an In The Zone sniper that single-handedly killed a whole pod of Seekers in one turn.  This is a powerful ability if you're building your sniper for it.

Klein made it to Corporal, and gained Close Combat Specialist and the nickname "Rhino."  I want Klein to be a terrifying area denial unit.

We got a pretty okay haul out of it, too.

Of course, the Mexican government didn't like the fact that we saw the attack coming and didn't do anything about it.  Personally, I say let them send their air force up against a Terror Ship and see how well they do.

Of course, Geronimo's suit of Phalanx armor needs to be repaired.

If only our soldiers could be fixed so easily...

Our new SCOPE came in from the shop...

...just in time for it to be rendered obsolete by the SCOPE Mk. II.  Well, at least the upgrade only requires a BIOS patch, and not an actual hardware change.

Also, Dr. Vahlen's team has finished their Thin Man autopsy.

Next up, they want to dissect a Chryssalid.

Thank you, Dr. Vahlen.

The laser sniper rifle is finished.

As is our second MEC Suit.

South Africa wants Sectoid corpses.  That's fine.

UFO detected over the United States!  It looks like it's about to land!  Scramble all interceptors!

Kill it, Hooter!

Hooter's engagement with the UFO doesn't seem to be going so well...

...and the UFO got away.  Great.

Well, Hound can do it!  Get up there!

Nope.  Not so much.

Judge, you're our last hope!  Bring that thing down!

Of course, Judge was blown out of the sky.  The UFO is now unopposed in American airspace.

That said, it looks like it bombed Bismarck or something.  No real loss there.  On the plus side, it looks like work on the Dakota Access Pipeline is permanently halted due to alien attack, which is good news for the people at Standing Rock.

Dr. Vahlen's team has finished their Chryssalid autopsy.

Next up, they want to break down a Cyberdisc.

Interesting.  Let me know when you know something, Doctor.

Another UFO appears over North America, but doesn't seem interested in doing anything.

Dr. Vahlen's Cyberdisc breakdown is complete.

Next, her team wants to take apart a Drone.

Capturing Drones for use in the field?  Sounds cool.

And, we have reports of an alien abduction attempt in progress in Nice, France.  Quick, to the Skyranger!

We're bringing Vixen on this one, because why not?

Rascal and Trips are our infantry.

Lady Grey is back, and she has a sexy new toy:  a laser sniper rifle.  Glad Yule to you, madam!

Boom Boom's back.

As is Chilong.  Still foolishly optimistic that we'll be able to capture something this mission.

Rhino's tagging along, too.  I'd like to get him up to the same level as Bull.

And Vita is our other capture engineer.

Strike One has reached the Abduction Site.  Standing by.

And that's where we'll leave this update for today!  Join us Monday for Operation Severed Stranger!  Remember, you too can join the fight by going to https://www.patreon.com/user?u=177434 and subscribe today!  Every subscriber gets to have a rookie named after them!

Can't subscribe to my Patreon campaign, but still want in on the program? Go here to see how you can get in: http://xcomwarinterminable.blogspot.com/p/join-fight.html  With that, I hope to see you next time!