Operation Forgotten Line (Qingdao, China)

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 doing Operation...

Operation...

Uh, line?

RIGHT!  Operation Forgotten Line!  I knew I was forgetting something...

Anyways, this is the first mission of the Operation Slingshot mission pack, where we do spoileriffic things.  In this mission, we meet a man who has a very interesting proposition for us.

 

This is Zhang.  He's a gangster in the Triad who has something of interest to us.  He claims that the device in his briefcase is alien technology of some sort, and that we can have it if we take him with us.

Even though there's always the chance that it's a cheap Chinese knockoff of a popular alien brand, we can't really afford to pass up the opportunity to get more alien technology.  If it's a fake, we'll let the Argentinians play dice with his eyeballs.

Anyway, let's get on with the mission!  Our team today is:

Our sniper, Checkmate

Zhang, the person we're here to rescue

our rocketeer, Boom Boom

our engineer, Kostopoulos

our infantry, Zilch

our medic, Scooby

our scout, Giraud

our other infantry, Plunder

and our gunner, Crash.

We need to get Zhang over here in one piece.  He says that he's got the device rigged to a deadman's switch as an insurance policy - if he dies, the device is destroyed.  Given his background, we take him at his word.

Zilch moves up to secure a path for the squad to advance, and makes contact with a Thin Man.

Zhang sprints to high cover while the squad takes up positions to cover him.

Boom Boom steadies a rocket while the rest of the squad overwatches.

On the aliens' turn, another pod of Thin Men show their faces...

...and run straight into my overwatch trap!  Zilch and Plunder take shots...

...and Plunder plunders the kill!

One Thin Man overwatches while the other flanks Plunder and hits her but does not kill.

At the end of their turn, a couple more Thin Men drop down.

Checkmate hits a Thin Man but does not kill...

Meanwhile, Zilch hits zilch and Crash misses the Thin Man flanking Plunder.

Scooby runs out into the open to heal up Plunder...

...who takes the opportunity to hit the Thin Man who shot her.

Scooby heals her again...

...and Plunder takes it out with her next shot.

Meanwhile, Giraud holo-targets the Thin Man with the overwatch.

Zhang keeps his head down...

...while Boom Boom runs the Thin Man's overwatch and gets the kill!

Over on the other side of things, Zilch zilches another Thin Man on overwatch.

The aliens end their turn with another drop-in.

Checkmate checkmates a Thin Man...

...and Crash crashes one of her own.

Boom Boom and Giraud take point as the squad escorts Zhang along the side path.

Zhang takes cover behind a gravestone.

Scooby brings up the rear while the rest of the squad overwatches.

Plunder plunders another Thin Man on overwatch...

...and the aliens have another drop in.  Well, I think we have a solution for that.

Check...

...and Mate.  Checkmate hasn't missed all mission.

The squad moves up the path, clearing the way for Zhang.  Boom Boom steadies another rocket.

Plunder reloads.

The rest of the squad overwatches.

Checkmate hears movement.  Incidentally, the reason why I'm leaving him behind is because he has an excellent position here, and I want to take advantage of that for as long as possible.

 Giraud misses a Thin Man on overwatch...

...and the Thin Men inexorably advance on our position.  If they can box us in, Zhang's as good as dead.

Kostopoulos hits a Thin Man but fails to kill...

...while Checkmate gets yet another kill this mission.  You are on fire today!

Meanwhile, Crash flushes a Thin Man out of position, running away screaming, no doubt.  Do Thin Men scream?  We should find out one of these days.

Boom Boom misses an 84% to hit on a Thin Man...

Giraud shows off her bullet-dodging skills...

...and her bullet-shooting skills, too!  Although she didn't get a kill, she did wound that Thin Man nicely and got holo-targeting up on it, too...

...giving Kostopoulos the kill!

Zhang moves up and ducks down again.  I'm actually surprised at how well this mission is going for us.  Usually, I'd have lost at least two high-ranking people by now in Long War.

A Thin Man hits Giraud but does not kill, thankfully.

Aliens' turn:  Thin Men advance...

...a Chryssalid drops down because screw you...

...and the Thin Men overwatch to pin us in place.  One of them spit acid on Plunder (not shown)

Checkmate needs a turn to reload...

...and Zilch zilches another Thin Man.

Plunder hunkers down because she's covered in acid

Giraud runs two overwatches to get back to Scooby...

...and is not hit by either of them!

Scooby patches her up fine.

Zhang stays low.

The rest of the squad holes up and overwatches.

Remember that Chryssalid?  Yeah, me neither.

 Another Thin Man drops in, right behind me.

Checkmate hits the bastard that shot Giraud, but fails to kill.  I'm beginning to think that this magazine of bullets is defective.

Crash gets another Thin Man kill.

Giraud runs back into the fight (and the overwatches) to take point and reload.

Kostopoulos bags another Thin Man.

Plunder is still covered in acid, so she hunkers some more.

Zhang keeps his head down because he is easily the squishiest member of the squad.

Boom Boom steadies again.

The rest of the squad overwatches.

The Thin Men advance.  The ones to the front of us get to better positions.

The one behind us...

...is not so fortunate.  I think the reason why the aliens are dying in droves might have something to do with the fact that they're desecrating a human burial ground (kinda turning that tired horror movie cliche on its head.  Kinda).

Next turn!  Kostopoulos advances and reloads.

As does Scooby.

And Boom Boom.  At least we have some overwatches.

This little Thin Man tried its luck...

...and was met with disappointment.  Remember that a journey of 100,000 lightyears can end really, really badly.

Crash needs to reload.

Boom Boom steadies once again, in case I need an accurate rocket on a moment's notice.

The rest of the squad advances and overwatches.

Giraud hears movement from up ahead.

Despite the Thin Men advancing and dropping down, I think we're doing pretty okay.

Checkmate misses a Thin Man.  Yup, these bullets are defective.

Plunder hits a Thin Man, but doesn't kill.

Giraud, escorting Zhang to the extraction zone, holo-targets another Thin Man.

Plunder shoots wide again.

Kostopoulos tries to take out the Thin Man with liberal application of high explosives, but when the dust clears it is still standing.

Boom Boom misses it.

Zilch runs its overwatch to get into a better position...

...and still manages to miss it.

Same with Scooby.  What do I pay you guys for, again?

Crash overwatches in the hope that the Thin Men will try something stupid.

The Thin Men miss Scooby and Boom Boom, both of whom were flanked.

Checkmate really needs to get better bullets.

Zhang's nearly to the extraction zone, and he hasn't so much as been shot at yet.

Finally, Boom Boom gets the kill!  About damn time!

Plunder takes out another Thin Man from range.  Nicely done.

Zilch reloads.

Kostopoulos leads the squad in overwatch.

And this is when things get interesting.  Remember when I left Checkmate behind to cover the squad from a good position?  Well, now he's surrounded by Thin Men.

At least we got Zhang to the Skyranger intact.

Boom Boom makes the Thin Man's position go boom.

Meanwhile, the rest of the squad sprints up to support Checkmate, hopefully before it's too late.

...and for reasons passing understanding, the Thin Men who had flanking shots to kill Checkmate decided to suppress him and close instead.

 Well, I think that works out rather nicely for us.  Don't you agree, Kostopoulos?

With the Thin Man suppressing him out of the picture, Checkmate runs to a position where he's not flanked.

Boom Boom readies another rocket...

...Giraud sprints to the front...

...and the rest of the squad overwatches.

Now, this is when the Thin Man literally makes a fatal mistake.

It runs out into not one, but two overwatches, and those are the ones it made it to.  I promise you that I had more waiting.

With that, the mission is complete.  Op success!

We've got some wounds, but nobody died.  There are also a lot more promotions, which I'll get to later.

The haul we got back from that mission wasn't bad, either.

So, it turns out that the device is, in fact, of alien origin (although I agree with the Councilman that the 17 Thin Man corpses we brought back with us was evidence enough, because the aliens aren't interested in intellectual property rights), and not only that, but Zhang wants to join us as an XCOM operative!

Since he clearly had some idea that the device wasn't of Earth manufacture, I'm pretty sure he has some solid technical expertise.  So, I'm building him into an engineer that specializes in blowing things up.  Welcome to the combat engineers, Shaojie "Chilong" Zhang!

Apparently, "chilong" means "blood dragon" in Mandarin.  That's a pretty badass nickname, Zhang.

Crash made it to Sergeant, and gained Executioner.

Kostopoulos made Lance Corporal, and got the Smoke Grenade perk.

And, it looks like Giraud's near-death experience taught her to keep her head down better.  She gained the nickname "Stalker" and the Low Profile perk, which lets her count half cover as full cover instead.

Back to the Hologlobe for scanning.

Dr. Vahlen's team has figured out how the aliens' nervous system works, and they've developed a means of incapacitating it without killing the aliens.  Once we build a containment facility, we'll be able to capture aliens.

Dr. Vahlen's next project is a comparative biology autopsy of the Sectoid aliens.  Her preliminary notes:

Thank you, Dr. Vahlen.

Back to the Hologlobe!

Uncle Sam wants weapon fragments?  Take 'em!

YES!  WE NOW HAVE LASER GUNS!

Also, we now have an Officer Training School.

Let's get us some Lieutenants!

Miranda "Congo" Lawson, you're a Lieutenant now.

Same with you, Lynne "Triplett" Vixen.

And you, Carlota "Scooby" Herrera.  All three of you have made your planet proud.

Back to the Hologlobe!

The Sectoid autopsy is complete, and the good doctor has made some interesting observations that should make it easier to kill them.

Next, we should research alien materials.  I wonder if we can make a suit of armor out of these alien alloys...

Our home and native land wants weapon fragments!  O, Canada, we stand on guard for thee!

Speaking of standing on guard, aliens are abducting people in Swindon, UK!  Let's get our team together!

Leading this mission is Lt. Lynne "Vixen" Triplett, our medic, Patreon contributor, and now officer.  The only change I made to her loadout is replacing her carbine with a laser rifle.

Officers in Long War get a special ability called "Order," which they can use to give another unit that's finished its turn a yellow move-equivalent action.  It has a 4-turn cooldown, and a limited number of charges based on the officer's rank (Lieutenants get 1, Captains get 2, Majors get 3, Colonels get 4, and the Field Commander gets 5), but it can be a lifesaver.

Furthermore, Officers get a perk for being promoted to their officer rank, chosen at the time of promotion.  I like to give my officers the Stay Frosty perk, which further reduces fatigue recovery time for squad members.  Officers also get the Lead By Example perk, which means that the squad always uses the officer's Will instead of their own if they're within range.

However, Officers only get to use these things if they're in command.  If someone outranked Vixen, then she wouldn't get to use Order, for example.

Reeves is coming along for this one, bringing one of the new laser rifles with him.

Same with Albright.  It only makes sense for the infantry to get the new laser guns.

Checkmate's loadout is unchanged.

Because this is a roadway map, I'm bringing two snipers along.  Long Shot needs to redeem herself after her abysmal performance during the Terror mission in Shenzhen.

Joining us on this mission is Shaojie "Chilong" Zhang, our newest engineer.  He's there to blow stuff up.

It's an Abduction mission, so we're also bringing two rookies along - Andrew Olakitan from Nigeria...

 

...and Lauren Shearer from South Africa.

Big Sky has reached the AO.  Preparing to land.

And, that's where we'll leave this update for today!  Join us tomorrow for Operation Red Star!  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!