Sepulchral: The Unorthodox XCOM AAR.

[Unorthodox]

Taking the money from the mission, we do some more base building.  The second workshop is for more engineers so I can build more satellite uplinks.  There is an increasing requirement the more you build, and I'm getting scientists monthly, not engineers due to how I have my satellite coverage presently.



Light plasma done.



More catching up.

(this would actually unlock research in the foundry, but I haven't unlocked the foundry yet.)


I've never been too fond of the item slot bonus armors, but cryssalid plating unlocked.


So, our present situation.  America and Japan panicked, Australia gone.



Continuing to scream up the tech tree with our bonuses, the next couple days.



Mexico immediately wants some of those vests...I need the engineers, so sell off some crap to fund them.


New armor researched.


Damn, it's just a small...



In preperation I sell off every ounce of unneeded items and create some armor.



We're also packing HEAT this time, thanks to the superfluos captures. 



Only enough for 4 armors, so I leave the sniper unarmored, and take a little time to customize some colors so it's easier for me to distinguish who's who.



Immediately run into Mutons.  Unfortunately, they disappear so I have to take a defensive stance. 



Great, floaters too.



But, that muton just does his blood call.
(which shows me where the other one was hiding)


Ice misses a reaction shot on the second Muton, and the Muton returns the favor by failing to hit Socks, who again has some kind of guardian angel.



My plasma rifles do up to 6 damage, Mutons have 10 health.  Socks has the solution.  No captures needed, but I DO need weapon fragments.



Routine scouring of the forest/UFO follows. 

Ice is promoted, and gains the ability to disable an enemy's weapon.  This will make captures a lot less dicey. 

[Unorthodox]

With the workshop done, we need more satellites, so another uplink is started.



With that, we get notified we're in the red.



Like the old game, things have a maintenance fee.



Fortunately, I have a couple satellites.  The US, for the killer money, and to stop it's panic.



And, South Africa to reduce panic and get the second African country. 



The new situation:



Probably the worst possible trio of abductions for my situation of COURSE pops up. 



I have no choice but to go for Africa having invested so much there, and losing that large satellite making it still dicey instead of stable. 



Ice up rooftop covering the squad at ground level.



Trying to sneak up on me...HAH!



Ice just dominates the alley.



But eventually we have to go in...(just before Holmes get's one shot by the Muton he's hearing.)





UK, Germany, China and Japan are all panicked now.  And, I've lost enough of these games to know this is looking BAD. 

[Unorthodox]

I'm not letting another large UFO by again, it's caused half the trouble here. 



With that, I start research toward a bold plan to hopefully delay the global panic.  But more on that later.

Council mission pops up, a bomb.  Great...bombs go off, they tend to immediately remove the nation from the council, no waiting till month end.  No choice. 

Bomb missions are a pain.  You're forced to constantly and aggressively advance to stay ahead of the time limit, turning off little nodes as you go. 

OF COURSE I draw the bridge map as well...


Covering my ass with smoke causes the thin men to miss.



Explosive cover...hate cars.



Damn $%^& thin men. 



Tectonic gets NAILED.  Thank god for armor.



[progeny of unmarried parents]...



Rookie I brought panics and does about the best possible thing when panicked.



Reaching the bomb, oh, we're not done, NO!  More on the way, prepare yourselves.



They start dropping, my guys start shooting, chaos everywhere.



Thin Men abilities just because.



I HATE THEM.



In a strange bug, one landed ON TOP OF ICE.  If I move Ice, however, he will surely reaction shot her.  So, moving socks to use up his reaction shot so I can move her to safety then kill him.



Yeah. 



Socks now gets Automatic reaction shots against anything and everything that gets close to her.



Panicky rookie Patil gets promoted to Heavy.



Medic "Smokes" improves his smoke. 



Tectonic becomes a tough broad, could have used this BEFORE the mission...

[Unorthodox]

Ah yes, my plan...

I've been wondering if the progress bar here is supposed to be a joke or not.



Selling EVERYTHING I have, this is an all out sink or swim maneuver.



More prep, squad size 6. 



I normally wait another month and prepare further, but given the panic levels...





I just need to take it NICE and SLOW. 



Damn Thin men, Panicky Patil plasters them.



Cryssalids!



Socks gives them a face full o plasma as they approach.



Ice covering at range.



Rest of the firing Squad.  Patil gets a promotion.



After a break (this base took me 3 play sessions), Creeping deeper.



Squadie Isra is a killer aim assault class. 



Reloading and devising our strategy to head deeper.  More aliens crawling around.



The blue mist reminds me of Alien.  The canisters of Prometheus.



Floater DESTROYED by Ice as soon as it popped it's head.



Drones.  Unusual to see them alone...





Isra continues to impress.

81% at full range for a unit behind cover.



More damn floaters. 



Isra leaves no doubt when she flanks!



Reloading and waiting for the sniper, and taking a break before breaching the next room. 

[Unorthodox]

Breaching the final room...







Smokes catching another drone...



Not the engineer joke.



It was at this point, preparing for the final assault, knowing I want to CAPTURE that I realize, I woefully prepared for capturing.  Socks is the only one with a stun gun. 



Sectoid leader. 



whittling him down for capture.  Socks can't get there, I just have to hope he shoots, not mind controls, or we'll have to kill him instead of capture.



Fortunately, he does.  (Socks hiding out of his sight just behind him.)





Woot!







No Idea how Smokes did not get promoted...



Socks gets more health.



Ice no longer has a reaction shot penalty.



Panicky Patil can now shoot twice per turn (provided she doesn't move)



Majid.  +3 move is just massive, I'm not even sure what the other side of the tree offers. 



Isra, I normally take the extra defense (to get the guardian angel effect like Socks), but with her aim, the bonus to criticals and working from more of a range is appealing.



With all the crap from the base, I'm making sure we can shoot down those large UFOs.



The laundry list. 

[Unorthodox]

Selling off base crap, we get going on yet another Satellite uplink.



Rearming the fighters.



Experimental Warfare unlocks the Foundry... 



So, get that going...



May's report.



More research...The Skeleton suit offers 1 point less 'armor' (XCOM's version of armor is bonus HP) than the carapace, but you get a native 10% defense (chance to dodge), a grappling hook, and +1 movement range.  I don't think there's even a competition. 



Foundry completes, and we begin research on a SHIV.  (note 3 satellites started construction as well)



Ah, Medium UFO...good, I need some elerium and alloys.



With only enough alloy for 1 skeleton suit, Socks is the natural choice. 





Immediately spy a pair of Mutons.  But, what's this?  That's a regular plasma rifle.  MUST steal/capture. 



Takin up defense since the Mutons will be getting the first shot.



Muton 1 bloodcalls.



Muton 2 misses.  My turn.   

Panicky Patil wounds them and removes their cover.

[Unorthodox]

Ice takes aim to disable one so we can safely leave it to move in and stun next turn.  Muton abilities shown for fun.



Bag one plasma rifle...er I mean Muton.



And then the mission goes all to hell....

Setting up to breach the UFO, Mutons come barrelling out.



And bring floaters.



5 aliens...that's a tall order for 6 soldiers to take down without any chance of getting wounded.



But Tectonic can take out 3 with a well placed rocket, right?  That'll make this an easy capture situation.



Oh, $&!*.  The blown wall reveals a cyberdisk.  ;



AND, 2 sectoid leaders...I'm in trouble.  I quickly waste the 2 mutons, and do what I can to slow the leaders. 



But there was no way I was going to prevent the cyberdisk from greeting Tectonic. 



I hide and back off, hoping to draw them  out.





Aw hell. 



Socks goes all Sigourney on that sectoid to free Isra.


 
Then catches the other as it scurries too close. 



Isra gets named "Desperado".  Patil "Road Block".



The memorial wall is filling up...

[Unorthodox]

With the ship's alloys, I build enough skeleton suits to outfit the entire squad and begin production on an Alloy SHIV.  It allows me to use it as cover, which is handy for some maps.



Also build a dodge matrix just in case we do get a large this month.




Research complete on the plasma rifle.



Interrogating the damn sectoid leader.



Unfortunately, I don't have enough to start psi labs/training yet.



Autopsy pile up.






Alloy SHIV completes before new missions.  Excellent. 



Another medium UFO. 



Note, Ice was wounded last mission.  So, bringing a rookie...Desperado was given our sole Plasma rifle. 



Thin men pop out of the UFO to the right.



Mutons to the left....We're surrounded!



MORE Mutons!?!?! 



This is a retreat and regroup situation, but I have nowhere to retreat TO.  It's either abandon mission or try to work it out.  It would have been nice if Tectonic was around, 2 rockets would finish off a TON of Mutons...I only have 1. 



Isra flanks a Muton, trying to get all enemies to one flank. 



Sacrificial SHIV blasts a Muton. 



Rookie manages to get a kill as well.



All said, I killed 4 mutons and wounded 2, while hopefully being out of range of the Thin Men.   



OF COURSE!



Muton gets a lucky critical on sacrificial SHIV. 


Patil does what she does best...



Uh Oh...Muton grenade incoming!



Isra panics...



And blows the Muton's head off.



Socks gets pinned down, and critically wounded.



Smokes heads over to revive Socks while Desperado and rookie handle the others.

[Unorthodox]

That's 2 bad luck missions in a row. 



Just 6 days to council meeting, 4 days to a plasma sniper.  Things are turning around, right?



let's launch some sats! 

Canada and Mexico, getting me the NA bonus.



Egypt rounds out the Africa bonus. 



Solid finances are within sight, and those sats will limit where abductions can happen.  Things are looking very positive. 


Just 6 days, what could go wrong?

[Unorthodox]

So, with what is cobbled together as what would normally be washouts, I head over to the terror mission.  Anyone with an aim over 60 come along.  Smokes gets our plasma rifle, everyone else needs the aim assists of the light plasma. 



Oh goodie....another bridge.



These guys would be fun to build for Halloween, I think.  Cryssalids.



Damn worthless wastes of barracks space...



This is what happens when you can't shoot straight morons.  At least it was a civilian.



 


Zombies.



Running out of civilian shields...time  to fall back.



Can't miss from this range!



You only need to get close with rockets and grenades





Majid, Wells, and Smokes are the only ones able to really hit anything.



But they are making new ones about as fast as I can kill em.



As if I didn't have ENOUGH of a problem. 



yeah, this is going well.



Lucky car explosion wounds 2 Cryssalids for me.  Guess someone missing and damaging the car actually worked in my favor.



Cyberdisk throws grenade, forcing me to move from cover about to explode. 



*sigh* Their own fault for not knowing how to shoot.  Majid earns the name "shield".  Smokes must have pissed someone off somewhere that is refusing to promote him.  Johansen.  Another sniper with lousy aim...well, Ice has turned out half decent...

[Unorthodox]

The good thing about terror missions is they can work well for you in the panic department.



I CLEARLY need some help. 



New soldiers on the way, we need to get them BETTER too.



Just 3 days to soldiers, 5 left to month end, 7 till a new SHIV, we got this right?  Oh the game is just TROLLING me now. 



US, Europe, and Asia targetted. 



It is REALLY, REALLY tempting to get the experienced heavy Russia is offering, but the smart thing to do here is go to Asia. 

[testdummy653]

 

Unorthodox, have you played XCOM or see XCOM played on a Xbox?

[Unorthodox]

We don't own an Xbox.  It looks better on the PS3 than it does on my laptop (most notably the soldiers), and I would assume comparable performance/looks to the PS3 version on an Xbox.  It's a really slick interface too, once you get used to it.  There's some 'quirks' to the PC interface in places, it was pretty clearly designed with a controller in mind. 

One thing I have noticed is the AI is a little different between the 2, there's a little more variety to the PC version as well.  Things spawn a bit more randomly, or move in between turns more on the PC.  I also see Aliens retreat more often on the PC, where they just tend to attempt to take as many of you with them as possible in the PS3.  Not neccessarily "smarter" one way or the other (depends on a particular situation which is easier to cope with), just different. 

(I've done a mission or two more, but haven't had time to upload pics, busy weekend)

[Unorthodox]

I was in the middle of a mission when I stopped.  First time able to even try this week.  Well, Steam is giving me errors, and I'm trying to repair, but the save may be lost.  There's no backup since this was hardcore mode.

[testdummy653]

I was in the middle of a mission when I stopped.  First time able to even try this week.  Well, Steam is giving me errors, and I'm trying to repair, but the save may be lost.  There's no backup since this was hardcore mode.

Nooooooooo