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 an Abduction mission in Kaduna, Nigeria. The aliens have begun abducting civilians in an office park in the city.
This is an interesting map - from the stock starting location on this map (near the fountain), there's not much cover until you get inside the building, which makes assaulting it without MECs problematic. That said, Long War does randomize starting locations, so we might get one that's actually good.
Anyway, on to the mission! Today's team is:
Rookie Sikafuo
Medic and squad leader Congo
Scout Shearer
Rookie Savolainen
Rookie Desjardins
Infantry Yamazaki
Rookie Barbosa
Rookie Cervantes
Right off the bat, Contact! Three Thin Men on the right!
The rookies take some overwatches. One hit, one miss. About as well as can be expected from rookies.
The squad moves into the office building, and get as far as the lounge before they make contact with another pod, this one with two Floaters and a Muton. More overwatches kill a Thin Man off-screen.
Next turn, Shearer takes aim at a Thin Man...
...and gets the kill!
As if we didn't have enough on our hands already, another pod of Thin Men jump down from the roof and take positions in the bullpen.
Still, PFC Sikafuo manages to get a hit on one of them.
Savolainen misses a Floater.
Yamazaki clears the flank by taking out the last Thin Man on that side.
Barbosa one-ups Yamazaki by killing a Floater in one shot with a laser carbine...
...and Desjardins hits the other Floater but does not kill.
Cervantes gives his fellow rookies a helping hand by popping smoke in the lounge.
Finally, Congo orders Yamazaki to overwatch...
...which proved to be a good call, as Yamazaki manages to kill a Thin Man that was stupid enough to get in her sights.
However, another Thin Man charges into the breach...
...and spits acid on Savolainen.
Next turn: Shearer runs the Thin Man's overwatch to clear the way for the squad's advance, and to take position to grab the Meld and a possible flank next turn.
Savolainen, covered in acid, hunkers down.
Yamazaki misses a Thin Man, and then reloads.
Desjardins moves up and grenades the aliens by the fountain...
...followed up by an HE grenade from Barbosa, which killed the Thin Man and the Floater.
Cervantes hits the Muton but fails to kill it...
...but Sikafuo follows up with a grenade, putting the Muton out of our misery.
Finally, Congo misses the Thin Man. So much for wrapping up the mission this turn.
The Thin Man responds by hitting Desjardins, but failing to kill him.
Next turn! Sikafuo hits the Thin Man...
...and Barbosa moves up and gets the kill!
Op success!
Promotions for everyone! Welcome back!
We got a decent haul, too. Almost 60 Meld.
Nigeria is grateful for our assistance.
However, we broke a laser carbine. Our repair bay is still under construction.
In the meantime, I suppose we should get around to building an Arc Thrower and capturing some aliens.
Also, we have promotions! Yamazaki made Corporal, and got the nickname "D.O.A." and the Aggression perk. She's going to be a crit spam infantry.
Shearer made Lance Corporal, and like with all of my scouts, gets Holo-Targeting.
Barbosa joins us as an assault specialist.
Sikafuo becomes an engineer.
Cervantes also becomes an assault specialist.
Savolainen's aim is good enough for him to be a rocketeer.
And finally, Desjardins is a medic.
Back to the Hologlobe!
UFO detected over Florida! Intercept it, Judge!
Judge was unsuccessful in bringing it down.
Three more interceptors also fail to bring it down. Let's hope that XCOM's performance in the skies doesn't influence any elections the United States might be having this year...
And there you have it: our first "B" rating from the Council. China and Germany are getting anxious, but no one's withdrawn yet aside from Japan.
We get another interceptor up to take on another UFO that's hunting for the satellite over the US, but we fail to bring it down.
The aliens, however, are successful in their mission, and US satellite coverage goes down along with the satellite itself. I fully expect the US to pull out of its commitment to this international task force in about 9 months or so.
But until that happens, they're still giving us money, so let's spend it on Shen's alien containment facility.
Also, we could use some more recruits.
Back to the Hologlobe!
Dr. Vahlen's team has finished their study of the substance we've been retrieving from those canisters in the field, and they've made a truly fascinating discovery.
Genetic modification and cybernetic augmentation? I like the sound of that!
For now, though, let's get a better idea of how alien computers work.
Back to the Hologlobe!
The repair bay is complete! Excellent.
The Arc Thrower is complete! Things are looking up.
Nigeria and Australia want Elerium? Sure, I'll take four engineers!
And we have an Abduction mission in Rio!
Rio! Rio by the sea-o!
XCOM troops and Xenos!
Oh my-o, oh me-o!
So, let's pick out our team: Medic and Patreon contributor Vixen is leading the squad today, with the standard loadout.
Trips and Patreon contributor Rascal are our infantry firebase, likewise with the standard loadout.
We're bringing Savolainen on this one because we could use the firepower, and he could use the training.
Tat is our scout, packing a laser SMG instead of a laser carbine because someone else needs it.
We're also bringing two rookies on this one. The first, special contributor PFC Brienne Frost, has the aim she needs to rate a laser rifle instead of the standard carbine I always give to rookies. She also packs ceramic plating to bolster her low HP.
PFC Luthuli brings an AP grenade for the usual reasons
PFC Varun Gupta packs ceramic plating for additional protection, but otherwise is unchanged from standard rookie loadout.
Strike One has reached the Abduction site!
And that's where I'm going to leave this update here for today. Before I go, I have an announcement to make regarding War Interminable's future.
Putting this series together takes a lot of time and effort - I'm easily looking at 4-6 hours a week for gameplay alone, and sorting through screenshots, taking notes, and putting it all into a coherent and (hopefully) entertaining narrative is every bit as labor and time intensive as a part-time job. I've been doing a pretty good job of putting up daily updates for the past couple weeks, but this rate of publication is simply not sustainable. As a result, I will be cutting back on the number of updates per week, and will be posting on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, effective next week.
Join us tomorrow
for Operation Cryptic Fall! 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!
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