Operation Vengeful God (UFO Landing Site, Canada)

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 a UFO landing site in Canada.  We're sporting new suits of Phalanx armor and a MEC, so it'll be interesting to see how this all works out.  With that, on to the mission!  Our team today is:

Our infantry, Plunder

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

Our sniper, Checkmate

Our engineer, Ahonen

Our gunner, Crash

Our Marauder, special contributor Klein

Our other infantry, Zilch

And our assault, Geronimo.

This map is one that gives me nightmares.  It's a forest map with little cover that isn't easily flankable, doesn't provide much on the way of good assaulting avenues on the UFO, and it's dark out.  We're not at the standard starting location, so maybe it won't end as badly as other missions I've played on this map have been.

OK, I take it back.  We're all going to die horribly.  Plunder takes point and makes contact with a Mechtoid pod first thing.  Fortunately, we've got a MEC of our own now.  Let's see how it stacks up.

Firstly, however, the best way to deal with a Mechtoid pod is to take out its Sectoid support so it can't get shielded by them.  Crash reduces a Sectoid to a smear on a tree that, apart from the bullet holes and the fact that alien blood seems to glow in the dark slightly, might be indistinguishable from lichen if observed from a distance.

It was about this time that I realized I hadn't given Crash the autolaser.  This will be interesting.

Checkmate moves up and steadies aim.

In the aliens' turn, Plunder kills a scouting Sectoid on overwatch.

The Mechtoid itself charges in next, right into a hail of overwatch fire.  Klein himself managed to get a good hit on it, too.

Almost as an afterthought, one of the Sectoids decided to juice up its Mechtoid pal.

Plunder picks off one of the Sectoids.

Crash opens up on the Mechtoid, to little effect.

However, Checkmate was able to get a bead on the last Sectoid from Squadsight, and blew it away, breaking the Mechtoid's shield.

Zilch and Ahonen get good hits on the Mechtoid.

Geronimo takes a shot at the Mechtoid with his laser pistol, but misses.

Plunder, however, does not miss, and brings the Mechtoid down.

She then takes a well-deserved reload.

Zilch, Klein, and Vixen all reload as well.  It seems that the minigun only has two shots in it, so I think I'll be giving my MEC Troopers high-cap mags from here on out.

That sudden Mechtoid pod activation leaves me wanting to play this next turn cautiously, so Ahonen and Geronimo take a reload.

The rest of the squad advances and overwatches.

Ahonen hears movement coming from the UFO.  With any luck, it won't be something too horrible lying in wait.

There's a hill that makes a decent place to shoot from on the other side of the map that we could get to in a turn or two, so we're going to make our way over there.  Klein spots a Meld canister, and can get to it next turn if he hustles.

Checkmate steadies aim.

The rest of the squad overwatches.

Checkmate moves position and steadies aim.

The rest of the squad crosses the trench and overwatches.

Crash hears movement coming from the left of the UFO.  Not good.

Plunder also detects Meld in that general direction.  It would be nice if we could get it, but I'm not about to risk the team if we know there's hostiles in the area.

Klein secures the Meld canister he found, and then makes his way back to the squad.

While he does so, he makes contact with a pod of Seekers, supported by a Thin Man and a Sectoid.  Great.  At least the worst thing they can do to him is shoot him.  MEC Troopers can't be strangled, and acid only debuffs their aim.

Okay, maybe the Sectoid can Mindfray or Psi Panic him...

...but only if it survives contact, which it didn't.  Klein just tears the thing apart with his minigun.

The rest of the squad overwatches.  There are cloaked Seekers about, and we don't want them to get the jump on us.

Of course, my deployment isn't perfect, and a Seeker strangles Zilch while simultaneously avoiding my overwatch trap.

Fortunately, Ahonen kills it in one shot.

Checkmate moves up to full cover on the high ground, but takes a hit from a cloaked Seeker on overwatch.

Plunder advances to full cover as well, and triggers a pod of Mutons and a Berserker.  Just what we need.

Fortunately, Plunder kills the other Seeker.  There's probably a third one out there, though.

Meanwhile, Crash flushes and shreds a Muton...

...which goes for cover as quickly as possible.

Vixen patches Checkmate up, then retreats to cover.

The squad overwatches.

On the aliens' turn, the Berserker charges us.

Zilch manages to get a hit...

...Klein misses it...

...and no one else gets a shot on it.  One of the Mutons uses Blood Call to boost its comrades' stats.

One Muton overwatches...

...while another takes a shot at Klein, and misses.

The only Floater I can see, however, kills Crash outright.

The Thin Man misses Geronimo.

Meanwhile, the last Seeker goes into stealth mode.

Now, to take care of this Berserker in our midst.  This would be much easier if Crash were still alive, as she'd be able to shred the thing.  Plunder gets a hit on the thing.

Checkmate blows the Floater out of the sky, avenging Crash.

Vixen misses the Berserker.

Geronimo hits it.

Klein needs to reload.

Zilch hits the Berserker...

...and kills it with his second shot!  Excellent!

Meanwhile, Ahonen grenades the Mutons...

...and Plunder finishes off the turn with an overwatch.

Plunder kills the first Muton on overwatch without trouble.

The second Muton shoots at Klein and misses.

The Thin Man, on the other hand, hits Klein for minimal damage.

However, the Seekers are back, and one of them strangles Plunder.

And with one fatality and who knows what else lying in wait, that's where we'll leave this update for today!  Join us Friday for Operation Vengeful God, part 2!  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!