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 have a UFO Crash Site mission. For those who are new to XCOM, a Crash Site mission is generated after one of your interceptors shoots down a UFO (and in Long War, doesn't hit it hard enough to generate a cash bounty instead of a mission). The objective of a Crash Site mission is to secure the downed UFO, eliminate all aliens in the area, and recover as much alien technology as possible. In addition to several pods, there is also a command pod that spawns in the UFO and doesn't leave it until it's activated. Usually, the command pod consists of one or two Outsiders, but later on in the game it can have Sectoid Commanders or even Ethereals.
Our team today is:
our scout, Georgiy Vorobyov
our gunner, Kaori "Crash" Yamazaki
our engineer, Barbara Ulrich
Patreon contributor rookie Marshall Reeves
Patreon contributor rookie Colin Wells
our sniper, Hulan Tong
our medic Miranda Lawson
and Patreon contributor Lynne Triplett
It looks like the UFO plowed right through a small town. Do places like this actually exist this deep in northern Canada?
First up, Reeves secures the right flank.
Tong takes position and steadies her aim.
The rest of the squad advances, with Vorobyov on point, and then the squad overwatches.
Contact! One pod, two Sectoids. Reeves hits and wounds one on overwatch.
Crash moves up to support Reeves.
Reeves kills the Sectoid he previously hit on overwatch.
In the meantime, Vorobyov scouts ahead and secures the main road.
Lawson flanks and kills the other Sectoid.
Tong gets onto the roof of a gutted structure to get a better view of the area.
The squad overwatches again.
Something pings Vorobyov's Meldar.
Reeves takes a well-deserved reload.
Tong advances and steadies aim.
More advancing and overwatches.
Vorobyov spots the UFO, but doesn't see any occupants yet. He moves on to find the Meld he detected earlier.
Meanwhile, Triplett and Ulrich peel off to secure an independently-discovered Meld canister.
The squad cautiously advances and overwatches.
Vorobyov spots his Meld canister.
Meanwhile, Triplett and Ulrich get into position to secure their Meld canister next turn.
Everyone else advances with great apprehension and overwatches once more.
Vorobyov hears movement out near his Meld canister.
Triplett secures the Meld, adding another 10 units to the supply.
While going to secure the Meld, Vorobyov makes contact with another Sectoid pod.
Triplett advances to support Vorobyov.
Ulrich takes up an overwatch position to limit the Sectoids' maneuvering options.
Crash goes to the roof and overwatches in the hope that she'll spot a Sectoid.
Lawson also overwatches, to draw the Sectoids into a trap.
Tong overwatches as well. I don't normally overwatch with my snipers, but in this case it felt like the right decision.
Over on the other side of the map, Wells and Reeves overwatch in case something comes out of the UFO.
A Sectoid takes a potshot at Lawson, but thankfully misses.
The other one overwatches.
Vorobyov secures the second canister, getting us an additional 10 units of Meld.
Poor Sectoid, thinking that its overwatch will prevent Vorobyov from running up to point-blank its comrade in the face.
Of course, Vorobyov's heroics trigger the Outsider. This will end well...
...especially since Vorobyov failed to kill the Sectoid he rushed.
Fortunately, we have Tong here on cleanup duty.
Ulrich advances and shoots at the other Sectoid, to no avail.
Wells advances on the UFO and makes contact with yet another Sectoid pod...
...and retreats to better cover to avoid being flanked.
Triplett also fails to hit the Sectoid...
...but fortunately, the Sectoid also fails to hit Vorobyov, despite being at practically point-blank range.
NOOO! GEORGIY! That Outsider shot came out of nowhere and just killed him in one hit!
Well, that's XCOM for you...
Crash flushes a Sectoid out of cover, but curiously manages to Shred it without doing any damage at all.
Ulrich lobs an AP grenade at the Sectoid, with disappointing results.
Triplett, however, isn't having any of this, and almost kills the Sectoid with an HE grenade...
...leaving Reeves the opportunity to flank it for the kill.
Lawson and Wells advance and overwatch, to engage the last remaining Sectoid pod.
Wells gets an overwatch kill on a fleeing Sectoid...
...but is promptly one-shot by the Outsider! WELLS! I'm sorry, but there was nothing I could do!
After seeing two of her squadmates die in front of her, Ulrich has decided that it's time for Operation I'm Tired Of Your Shit, Outsider. Step one: land an HE grenade directly on top of the Outsider to maximize damage to it and also to remove its cover.
Step two: Reeves kills the thing in one shot with an improbable critical hit. No, he actually just misses an 84% chance to hit on a target in no cover.
At least Crash was able to strip 5 HP off the thing from across the UFO...
...and Triplett gets the kill! Wells, Vorobyov, you have been avenged!
A cheeky Sectoid flanks Crash and hits her, but thankfully doesn't manage to kill her.
Tong hits the Sectoid but fails to kill it...
...however, no one else manages to hit the thing that whole turn. We definitely have the best and brightest here at XCOM.
In the aliens' turn, the last Sectoid takes a potshot at Ulrich, but thanks to Red Fog (where non-mechanical units suffer stat debuffs the more damage they take), it misses.
Finally, Lawson gets the kill!
Operation complete. With two fatalities on a Scout UFO crash, I'm not about to call it a victory.
Strike One returns successful, but with heavy hearts.
Two of their own - a rookie with untold promise and the best scout they had, returned from the mission feet-first.
Regardless, those who survived earned their promotions. Hulan "Long Shot" Tong got promoted to Corporal, and earned herself the Precision Shot perk. Precision Shot is a special attack with a cooldown that vastly improves the critical hit chance of that one attack. With a nickname like Long Shot, it felt appropriate.
Barbara "Kitten" Ulrich also made Corporal, and got the Smoke & Mirrors perk. Smoke & Mirrors gives support grenades (smoke grenades, chem grenades, flashbangs, and battle scanners, to name a few) an extra use before they run out. I like having tooled-up support Engineers, especially since I vastly prefer leaving the job of blowing stuff up to my rocketeers.
Miranda "Congo" Larson made Corporal as well, and she got Revive. Revive turns the Medkit's Stabilize action into the Revive action, where a critically wounded soldier is not only saved from bleeding out, but actually gets back into the fight with a portion of their max HP. You can't revive someone twice in the same mission, though - if they're critically wounded again, they just die.
Lynne Triplett became a medic. Her stats were generally mediocre, except for that astounding Will. I like my officers and Psi troopers to be Medics, so there's room for advancement here. Reeves' promotion will be addressed in a moment.
The haul list, part 1: 6 Sectoid corpses, 45 Elerium, 25 Alloys, 7 Weapon Fragments...
...32 Meld, 2 damaged flight computers, and a damaged power source.
After selling off the damaged goods and a few Sectoid corpses, I pulled together enough cash to make a couple more SCOPEs. We're going to need at least 8 of them.
Reeves becomes Infantry. The main reason is that he didn't really seem to fit anywhere else due to his mediocre stats, but he certainly has promise in this role.
Pawar becomes a Medic. Her only really exceptional stat is her high Will, which will be helpful if I ever decide to make her an officer or a Psi trooper.
Yamazaki also becomes Infantry. She's better suited to the class than Reeves - her above-average Aim made it desirable, and I felt that her high HP would be wasted on a sniper.
Also, we need to update the roster of the honored dead. Georgiy Vorobyov, Colin Wells... I'm sorry. I am so very sorry.
However, there's no time to mourn. The enemy are not going to wait for us to dry our eyes before they press their attack. Back to the Hologlobe to scan for UFOs!
...And we get our first Council Report. We got an A for March 2016 because we didn't let any UFOs escape, we haven't failed or ignored any missions (including the landed Supply Barge that we're not supposed to beat in the first month), and no one other than the one Council nation that always leaves in March in the Long War campaign has left us yet. Still the war is young, and I suspect that we won't be able to maintain straight As through to the end.
So, let's take our hard-earned money and immediately blow it all on satellites!
Just kidding, we need SCOPEs, too.
After a bit of scanning, our first satellite is completed!
...as is our first run of SCOPEs! Excellent.
Not long afterward, our first Thermo Generator is online. More power to us, literally.
And the boffins down in Research have had their breakthrough in
Xenobiology. More pressingly, Dr. Vahlen has come up with a disturbing
plan for getting more data in this field...
Yikes. Capturing live aliens is not easy, especially in Long War.
So, now I need to develop the Arc Thrower, build a containment facility, and then capture and interrogate one of each non-mechanical alien species (except for Chryssalids, which I presume are simply too dangerous to keep on base). This will be fun.
Well, if we're going to have any chance of surviving this, we're going to need better weapons. Dr. Vahlen, you promised me laser guns!
Not long afterward, our next run of SCOPEs is completed...
...as is our second Satellite Relay. We have a spare satellite to put over another country...
...and it's going to Germany. I know, I know. I said that I was putting it up over the US for the money and the progress toward getting North America's continental bonus, but Germany was offering me engineers, too.
Well, if we're going to have satellite coverage in Europe, we should probably have some planes there, too. You know, if in the unlikely event an alien spaceship flies overhead. Why, that would be unprecedented.
India wants some of my Sectoid corpses, and they're offering a scientist in exchange. You're welcome to them, India. I mean, these things literally fall from the sky these days.
...And we have another Abduction mission, once again, in Germany. Well, time for Strike One to go on another mission. Hopefully people won't die like last time.
Leading this mission is Zilch. About the only real change I made to the standard Infantry loadout is a SCOPE instead of laser sights, but that's just because SCOPEs are better in every way. With Covering Fire and Opportunist, I don't envy anyone crossing into his kill box when he's on overwatch.
Patreon contributor Marshall Reeves is back, this time with a proper loadout as an Infantry specialist. Nothing special here, but then again he's just starting out. Really, all of my Patreon contributors are special to me. All of you.
Patreon contributor Lynne Triplett makes her debut as a medic. With the standard loadout, she'll hopefully keep people from dying.
Our last Patreon contributor, rookie Oliver Albright, is coming on this mission too! His loadout is pretty self-explanatory.
Vitaly Kozlov, our engineer, is set up to do one thing - blow stuff up. I suspect that he's a natural.
Carlos Miraflores gets to come on for the first time as a gunner, packing another loadout that I've already explained.
We also have another rookie, Rosalie Giraud, joining us on this mission. Again, not much to see here as far as equipment is concerned.
And finally, Rokhan "Checkmate" Khalil rounds out the team for long-range firepower. The reason why he only has laser sights and not a SCOPE is because we don't have enough for everyone, so their issue priority is that they first go to Infantry, rookies, and people who need Aim bonuses.
Big Sky has reached the abduction site, and is touching down.
Well, I guess it wouldn't be a Halloween update without an Abduction mission, a couple fatalities, and Dr. Vahlen's mad scientist act. With that, I'll leave you until the next update, Operation Glass Gaze! 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! With that, I hope to see you next time!
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