X-Com: Enemy Unknown Ironman Challenge [On Again For 2012]
- Thread starter archnemesis
- Start date
Nope, I forgot to start researching the Sectoid Leader for a few days. Researched a Floater one instead, which at this point is completely useless except for getting research points for the SCORE. If those Psi-Labs aren't up by June 30th, I'll have to wait until July 31st to get my first Psi capable soldiers.
As for not recovering alien ships, it's fairly simple why I don't do that as much anymore. To win I need good soldiers, an Avenger, the right research, and psionic powers and Blaster Bombs are good. I have all of the above, except Psi and an Avenger, but both are coming along soon.
The only reason I have to take on the aliens on the ground anymore is to steal their Elerium. There's nothing more to take from them.
So, basically, the game is practically over. It has to go exceptionally horribly wrong for this one to fail now.
It's always possible! XCOM is a cruel mistress.
Slight understatement. Just started replaying this after many years....having a wierd game, one month the world hates me and then the next month they all love me. i'm in september and i havent managed to get psychic powers yet
Got Hyper-Wave Decoders? Every UFO that gets away uncontested is negative points for you. Even if you didn't see it. That's why getting a live Navigator fast is important.Slight understatement. Just started replaying this after many years....having a wierd game, one month the world hates me and then the next month they all love me. i'm in september and i havent managed to get psychic powers yet
As for Psychics, aren't you getting your share of Etherals by that point? Bring out the Small Launcher or Stun Rods and grab any one of those. Soldier, Leader, Commander, doesn't matter. Just catch one alive and research it.
And sorry for the delay of the next chapter, I kind of got stuck in a Mass Effect field for a while. Well, it's time to stop fighting aliens and start fighting... these other aliens again.
Every time i try to catch an etheral something goes wrong...i always end up having to kill them and i also erm...forget to save sometimes (all the time). One month i do really well and the next i barely hang on, like i'm stuck in some kind of vicious cycle. I'm almost always nearly out of the materials i need to build the good stuff also. Hanging on by my fingernails and its so damn fun that i can't think of a single game in my recent memory thats challenged me as much as this evil game
Good job with the thread btw.
Well, I think I'll reveal one of the things going on behind the scenes in my game that I haven't posted. The answer to "How the hell does McNum afford 150 scientists in May?!"
The answer is Laser Cannons. If you at any point have Engineers and Workshop space free, build Laser Cannons. Then sell them. Each cannon built is about $70,000 profit. I'm actually hurting a bit for cash in June because all my Engineers are on Project Avenger.
That and beating up aliens and taking their stuff, of course. But a steady income of Laser Cannons is great.
I'm going to downsize the science staff now that I have everything useful, too. So I can get more Engineers. If I have to delay the final mission by a month, I want Flying Suits for all. Basically, the strategy I'm using is burning fiercely in the beginning, then coast the endgame for a while.
Also, getting Psi is worth ANY cost, except losing the game. You get a fresh batch of Rookies with Small Launchers and a crashed Medium Scout of Etherals and you have a shot. If the Etherals have a base, you can even stage a kidnapping. Land at the base, stun the first Etheral you see, pick it up and run to the exit and abort. I'm almost sad I didn't have to do that, it'd been a fun chapter. But I got to show precision bombing with anti-matter weapons instead. You can also do that on other missions. Drag the stunned Etheral into the Skyranger/Lightning/Avenger and abort. You'll get it.
The answer is Laser Cannons. If you at any point have Engineers and Workshop space free, build Laser Cannons. Then sell them. Each cannon built is about $70,000 profit. I'm actually hurting a bit for cash in June because all my Engineers are on Project Avenger.
That and beating up aliens and taking their stuff, of course. But a steady income of Laser Cannons is great.
I'm going to downsize the science staff now that I have everything useful, too. So I can get more Engineers. If I have to delay the final mission by a month, I want Flying Suits for all. Basically, the strategy I'm using is burning fiercely in the beginning, then coast the endgame for a while.
Also, getting Psi is worth ANY cost, except losing the game. You get a fresh batch of Rookies with Small Launchers and a crashed Medium Scout of Etherals and you have a shot. If the Etherals have a base, you can even stage a kidnapping. Land at the base, stun the first Etheral you see, pick it up and run to the exit and abort. I'm almost sad I didn't have to do that, it'd been a fun chapter. But I got to show precision bombing with anti-matter weapons instead. You can also do that on other missions. Drag the stunned Etheral into the Skyranger/Lightning/Avenger and abort. You'll get it.
My Ironman round went pretty easy. 1st August now and I have everything I need, 10 good psionic people (+4 hovertanks, 2 plasma, 2 blaster), thinking about waiting two months though to get all of them 80+ power (have about 30 recruits training in psi-lab). All research is already done and I'm rich as hell (been selling those laser cannons all game) 
I never installed the extender however, so its on beginner.
Got me thinking though. Is beginner just that easy, or is it pure luck? I probably need to get that win7x64-version of the extender working to try a superhuman round later.
Edit: I remember terror from the deep being harder, have not played it in what feels like 20 years (and probably close to it
). I used to hate those lobsters. Think I'm going for that one
I never installed the extender however, so its on beginner.
Got me thinking though. Is beginner just that easy, or is it pure luck? I probably need to get that win7x64-version of the extender working to try a superhuman round later.
Edit: I remember terror from the deep being harder, have not played it in what feels like 20 years (and probably close to it
). I used to hate those lobsters. Think I'm going for that one archnemesis
Member
Once you learn how to play it isn't that much of a difference between the difficulty levels. I still haven't finished it on Superhuman, but the level below (expert?) wasn't that tough.
At Beginner difficulty aliens have half the Accuracy and half the Armor:
(http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Difficulty_Levels)
Tough units danger level is especially reduced by the armor halving, since they instantly die when they instead should resist more hits. So they end being more manageable than they are intended to be: a sectopod that survives multiple attacks, exhausting your TUs for that turn, can easily messes up your plans.
(This playing in ironman mode, of course).
(http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Difficulty_Levels)
Tough units danger level is especially reduced by the armor halving, since they instantly die when they instead should resist more hits. So they end being more manageable than they are intended to be: a sectopod that survives multiple attacks, exhausting your TUs for that turn, can easily messes up your plans.
(This playing in ironman mode, of course).
I'm having trouble reaching the site for XComUtil. Is it suppesed to be here: http://www.bladefirelight.com/ ?
archnemesis
Member
Yes, but it seems to been down a lot lately. If you can't find a mirror, let me know so I can put one up myself.
Okay, got a newbie question here. I got my Psi Labs up and running. (At 0:01 July 1st... *grumble*) But... um... How do I use them? I need to assign soldiers to the labs, right? How do you do that?
Also,
Woo! I'll see if I have material for one or two chapters in this. Got a new first encounter, and I have a bad pun for a chapter name if it's two...
Also,
final mission unlocked!
You'll have to wait till the end of the month to assign soldiers. Yeah that is really bad timing.
So I can assign people only at the end of each month? And it takes a month to get the results?
Might as well build a few more labs so I can scan everyone by September 1st, then...
Yep, and they are only being effective like after 3 months of training or so.
I just want the Psi Strength stat so I can see who won't be shooting at Team X-Com on Mars. I'll hand a Psi amp to whoever hits 80+ and go Muton hunting. That should work fairly well.
Also, the game is hinting fairly hard at something bad coming up. And I'm looking forward to it.
Etheral Retaliation Scouts in Europe! I'm going to have guests in July!
EDIT: One of those things I hope the new XCOM will fix is things like this. I mean at this point, I've basically won. But I have to wait two whole in-game months to know who I can take on the last mission, that I have already unlocked. Basically, the game is stalling for time. That annoys me.
Or I could adopt a more... Darwinian approach. Grab the 14 best right now, load the Avenger up with HWPs and just go for it. I know two people that are Psi vulnerable, but that could be an advantage, actually...
Chapter 17: The Ultimate Craft
Jun 20th to Jun 30th 1999
Overheard in Workshop B at Forge base:
"Avenger assembled!" "Oh, god. You did not just say that..."
We had heard of these so called Etherals from our interrogated... friends. Referred to as the masters or leaders. So if the Etherals show up in person it means one thing: We really ticked the aliens off. Which is good. Anger causes anyone to make mistakes.
However, our first encounter with the Etherals didn't reveal much to us.
Immediately off the Skyranger, an Etheral was spotted inside a house. It looked like it was just a massive hooded cloak holding a gun. Still not as silly as the purple aliens in green tights, but still a bit odd.
Sustained fire broke down the wall, and PKrockin took the first Etheral kill.
The Hovertank spotted one and shot it cleanly.
Note: I like this image. See how the Etheral crumbles against the unexplored background.
Finally, Narag stormed the UFO and took out the lone survivor of what looked like a bad crash. Mission Complete.
The Science division put the plans for a new invention on my desk. While humans did have minor psionic potential, most of the time it would not be enough for combat use. Except if it was amplified with a Psi Amp.
Several minor UFO encounters were recorded, and most of them shot out of the sky with little fanfare.
However, a few got away in North Africa, they all had the same in common. Scouts on Alien Base missions. We theorized that the aliens were scouting out locations for a base. Something we would have to keep an eye on. That said, the idea of having another Floater Base so close to home and away from any funding country was interesting.
Meanwhile, the science team had been up all night watching the Alien movies. Geek humor, gotta love it some times. They did, however, manage to make motion scanners, much like those used in the movies. They also cut up a Chryssalid to see what it was, and produced a new weapon for the Interceptor. Fusion Ball Launchers. A heavy weapon, but not much better than the Plasma Beam in action.
On June 22nd, we got a Terror Ship alert. UFO-64 was a Floater mission to terrorize somewhere in South Africa. Our Firestorm was immediately scrambled and it took down the UFO before it could reach any population center.
A recovery mission was sent out, mainly to give some of the Rookies a chance to shine, and with little trouble, the UFO was secured.
Taking down a Floater Terror ship was almost becoming routine, but the destruction of any Elerium in the crash was a disappointment. We were beginning to need more of that. An intact UFO would be great to catch at some point soon.
The Etherals were beginning to get curious. We shot down several scout ships looking for Vanguard base in Europe. Sooner or later, we imagined that this would turn into a fight. Something we were not looking forward to, as the rumors of the Etherals were still quite bad. We may just have been lucky in out first encounter with them.
Mutons were also searching for Twilight base, but that seemed less of a worry. We knew we could take on Mutons.
The science team had come up with an odd invention. They call it a Gravity Shield, and it can "bounce" an incoming Battleship so the base defenses will be allowed to shoot twice. Which would be useful if we had anti-air base defenses.
Then news came from Forge. Project Avenger was complete. Avenger-1 was ready for deployment.
It was armed with twin Plasma Beams and sent to Twilight. Now Twilight had a landing craft, but would need Elerium supplies to keep it flying.
And that pretty much wraps up June. Plenty happened, but not much to tell. It was about here we learned that yes, defending the world against alien invaders can, in fact, become routine.
Classified Information!
Not to be publicized as part of operation Blue Sky!
Do not distribute outside X-Com.
Notes: I've been skipping a few shootdowns for this chapter. It's getting a bit monotonous, so I'm giving you the good parts version. X-Com is stalling a bit right now.
I also want to show this screenshot.
Note the top of the image: "Cydonia". I unlocked the final mission. A first for me!
And I had horrible luck with the Psionic Labs. They did not complete in June, meaning I have to wait until July 31st to train any soldiers and August 31st to get their Psi stats. So even if I have Cydonia unlocked and ready to go... I can't really go until September 1st at the earliest. Unless I want to risk it with unknown Psi values on Mars. Not a good plan, mind you. Plus, part of the point of this is to demonstrate X-Com, and I should give a Psionics demo before finishing the game.
Also, since I have pretty much all the good tech, I fired 100 of my 150 scientists. That saves about 2.7 million each month. Scientists are awesome, but expensive. Tore down two labs, too, made room for a Mind Shield and a Workshop. If I have to stall, I'm going to spend time building stuff.
I'll post some stats next, then try to get July and August over with. The game is kind of at a standstill now. I don't need any more live aliens, and I have all the good tech. So the only reason to really go after a UFO recovery is for Elerium. Maybe I should hold out for a Battleship, I think the aliens send one for the Alien Base missions. An intact Battleship is worth 200 Elerium. They're kind of nasty to fight, though.
Having the Avenger at Twilight does mean one thing, though. I finally have the second attack team lead by Thnikkaman. Just need to transfer a few people and guns over there. So, Thnikaman, I hope you're ready to lead Avenger-1.
Jun 20th to Jun 30th 1999
Overheard in Workshop B at Forge base:
"Avenger assembled!" "Oh, god. You did not just say that..."
We had heard of these so called Etherals from our interrogated... friends. Referred to as the masters or leaders. So if the Etherals show up in person it means one thing: We really ticked the aliens off. Which is good. Anger causes anyone to make mistakes.
However, our first encounter with the Etherals didn't reveal much to us.
Immediately off the Skyranger, an Etheral was spotted inside a house. It looked like it was just a massive hooded cloak holding a gun. Still not as silly as the purple aliens in green tights, but still a bit odd.
Sustained fire broke down the wall, and PKrockin took the first Etheral kill.
The Hovertank spotted one and shot it cleanly.
Note: I like this image. See how the Etheral crumbles against the unexplored background.
Finally, Narag stormed the UFO and took out the lone survivor of what looked like a bad crash. Mission Complete.
The Science division put the plans for a new invention on my desk. While humans did have minor psionic potential, most of the time it would not be enough for combat use. Except if it was amplified with a Psi Amp.
Several minor UFO encounters were recorded, and most of them shot out of the sky with little fanfare.
However, a few got away in North Africa, they all had the same in common. Scouts on Alien Base missions. We theorized that the aliens were scouting out locations for a base. Something we would have to keep an eye on. That said, the idea of having another Floater Base so close to home and away from any funding country was interesting.
Meanwhile, the science team had been up all night watching the Alien movies. Geek humor, gotta love it some times. They did, however, manage to make motion scanners, much like those used in the movies. They also cut up a Chryssalid to see what it was, and produced a new weapon for the Interceptor. Fusion Ball Launchers. A heavy weapon, but not much better than the Plasma Beam in action.
On June 22nd, we got a Terror Ship alert. UFO-64 was a Floater mission to terrorize somewhere in South Africa. Our Firestorm was immediately scrambled and it took down the UFO before it could reach any population center.
A recovery mission was sent out, mainly to give some of the Rookies a chance to shine, and with little trouble, the UFO was secured.
Taking down a Floater Terror ship was almost becoming routine, but the destruction of any Elerium in the crash was a disappointment. We were beginning to need more of that. An intact UFO would be great to catch at some point soon.
The Etherals were beginning to get curious. We shot down several scout ships looking for Vanguard base in Europe. Sooner or later, we imagined that this would turn into a fight. Something we were not looking forward to, as the rumors of the Etherals were still quite bad. We may just have been lucky in out first encounter with them.
Mutons were also searching for Twilight base, but that seemed less of a worry. We knew we could take on Mutons.
The science team had come up with an odd invention. They call it a Gravity Shield, and it can "bounce" an incoming Battleship so the base defenses will be allowed to shoot twice. Which would be useful if we had anti-air base defenses.
Then news came from Forge. Project Avenger was complete. Avenger-1 was ready for deployment.
It was armed with twin Plasma Beams and sent to Twilight. Now Twilight had a landing craft, but would need Elerium supplies to keep it flying.
And that pretty much wraps up June. Plenty happened, but not much to tell. It was about here we learned that yes, defending the world against alien invaders can, in fact, become routine.
Classified Information!
Not to be publicized as part of operation Blue Sky!
Do not distribute outside X-Com.
Notes: I've been skipping a few shootdowns for this chapter. It's getting a bit monotonous, so I'm giving you the good parts version. X-Com is stalling a bit right now.
I also want to show this screenshot.
Note the top of the image: "Cydonia". I unlocked the final mission. A first for me!
And I had horrible luck with the Psionic Labs. They did not complete in June, meaning I have to wait until July 31st to train any soldiers and August 31st to get their Psi stats. So even if I have Cydonia unlocked and ready to go... I can't really go until September 1st at the earliest. Unless I want to risk it with unknown Psi values on Mars. Not a good plan, mind you. Plus, part of the point of this is to demonstrate X-Com, and I should give a Psionics demo before finishing the game.
Also, since I have pretty much all the good tech, I fired 100 of my 150 scientists. That saves about 2.7 million each month. Scientists are awesome, but expensive. Tore down two labs, too, made room for a Mind Shield and a Workshop. If I have to stall, I'm going to spend time building stuff.
I'll post some stats next, then try to get July and August over with. The game is kind of at a standstill now. I don't need any more live aliens, and I have all the good tech. So the only reason to really go after a UFO recovery is for Elerium. Maybe I should hold out for a Battleship, I think the aliens send one for the Alien Base missions. An intact Battleship is worth 200 Elerium. They're kind of nasty to fight, though.
Having the Avenger at Twilight does mean one thing, though. I finally have the second attack team lead by Thnikkaman. Just need to transfer a few people and guns over there. So, Thnikaman, I hope you're ready to lead Avenger-1.
I think muton were intended to resemble Hulk; that green suit is a second (armored) layer of muscle and skin, like an organic version of Crysis' nanosuit.
I also like their smooth, colorful design; details could've been added but I still prefer it, conceptually, to the new "strogg-ogre" redesign of the incoming Firaxis remake.
I also like their smooth, colorful design; details could've been added but I still prefer it, conceptually, to the new "strogg-ogre" redesign of the incoming Firaxis remake.
I know, but it still looks a bit silly. The red one in the opening looks pretty good, though, but he has trimmings and is, you know, red.
Also, why does the intro have a Muton Commander, when Mutons do not have Commanders in the game?
X-Com Monthly Report - June 1999
Funding:
Bases:
Research:
Production:
Active Soldiers:
NONE (Yay!)
Soldiers KIA:
So... July. I know the Ethereals want to visit Vanguard and the Mutons didn't get enough of Twilight last they were there, so I won't be bored, yet... There's almost nothing left to research, I get 3000+ points in a lazy month like this one, and as long as I keep the Terror Ships down, there's not much the aliens can do to prevent me from getting more months in the 2-3000 class. Well, they could stop invading Earth, but they won't.
So basically, July and August are going to be stockpile months. More Hovertanks! More armor! More Blaster Bombs! More guns! And, of course, much more cash. I might as well, you know. Not much else to do than become rich and hunt aliens now. Cydonia awaits. It'll have to wait a while more. I do hope I get to raid a Battleship in July. That'd be neat. Plus I could send Avenger-1 down to harass the local Mutons. Need to get that ship in action, anyway.
I'll be rotating in some of the Rookies staged at Forge. Just so everyone gets their turn at shooting aliens. If nothing else, I can make Squaddie the lowest seen rank in X-Com.
Oh, the 33 day construction at Twilight? That's a Mind Shield. It makes the Battleship get lost when it tries to raid the base. Usually.
Funding:
Bases:
Research:
Production:
Active Soldiers:
- Commander Rentahamster - 27 missions, 15 kills
- Colonel Thnikkaman - 15 missions, 23 kills
- Captain Narag - 27 missions, 8 kills
- Captain PKrockin - 18 missions, 20 kills
- Captain Rhomega - 19 missions, 13 kills
- Sergeant Adnor - 10 missions, 10 kills
- Sergeant Brashnir - 8 missions, 6 kills
- Sergeant CappyFish - 25 missions, 7 kills
- Sergeant Deraldin - 14 missions, 8 kills
- Sergeant perfect free - 13 missions, 5 kills
- Sergeant Tunesmith - 9 missions, 3 kills
- Squaddie Belgorim - 1 mission
- Squaddie Boogalogist - 17 missions, 5 kills
- Squaddie Bufbaf - 6 missions, 2 kills
- Squaddie DennisK4 - 8 missions, 2 kills
- Squaddie fanboi - 11 missions, 9 kills
- Squaddie fresquito - 2 missions, 3 kills
- Squaddie gutabo - 2 missions, 1 kill
- Squaddie inky - 1 mission
- Squaddie Keikaku - 7 missions, 4 kills
- Squaddie Myke Greywolf - 14 missions, 5 kills
- Squaddie Orgun - 1 mission
- Squaddie Raphier O'Niel - 1 mission, 2 kills
- Squaddie ruttyboy - 1 mission
- Rookie archnemesis
- Rookie geedundee
- Rookie Haunted - 1 mission
- Rookie Jintor
- Rookie Mashing
- Rookie Mattdaddy
- Rookie Phoenixazure
- Rookie SappYoda - 1 mission
- Rookie SovanJedi
- Rookie Tempy
NONE (Yay!)
Soldiers KIA:
- Rookie TheJollyCorner
- Rookie Sinatar
- Rookie frontieruk
- Squaddie LuffyZoro
- Rookie ThoseDeafMutes
- Squaddie NinajHeartless
- Get global Hyperwave Network running
- Capture Psi capable alien - COMPLETE
- Research Psi-Labs - COMPLETE
- Research Mind Shield - COMPLETE
- Research Cydonia or Bust - COMPLETE
- Build several Psi-Labs - FAILED
- Measure Psi Strength of at least 14 soldiers - FAILED
- Construct Avenger-1 - COMPLETE
- Establish Twilight Strike Team - COMPLETE
- Raid Muton Supply Ships headed for Alien Base-2 - ONGOING
- Prepare for final assault in August - POSTPONED
- Construct enough Psi-Labs for everyone
- Convert Vanguard from science base to production base
- Rotate teams to give Rookies a shot
- Capture at least 200 Elerium
- Mass produce Flying Suits
- Mass Produce Hovertank/Launcher for base defenses
- Gather resources for Avenger-2
- Establish listening post in South America
- Establish listening post in Australia
- Prepare for final assault in September/October
- Times reloaded: 3
- Total reloads: 43
So... July. I know the Ethereals want to visit Vanguard and the Mutons didn't get enough of Twilight last they were there, so I won't be bored, yet... There's almost nothing left to research, I get 3000+ points in a lazy month like this one, and as long as I keep the Terror Ships down, there's not much the aliens can do to prevent me from getting more months in the 2-3000 class. Well, they could stop invading Earth, but they won't.
So basically, July and August are going to be stockpile months. More Hovertanks! More armor! More Blaster Bombs! More guns! And, of course, much more cash. I might as well, you know. Not much else to do than become rich and hunt aliens now. Cydonia awaits. It'll have to wait a while more. I do hope I get to raid a Battleship in July. That'd be neat. Plus I could send Avenger-1 down to harass the local Mutons. Need to get that ship in action, anyway.
I'll be rotating in some of the Rookies staged at Forge. Just so everyone gets their turn at shooting aliens. If nothing else, I can make Squaddie the lowest seen rank in X-Com.
Oh, the 33 day construction at Twilight? That's a Mind Shield. It makes the Battleship get lost when it tries to raid the base. Usually.
i'm in JULY of the year 2000 and have now shot down well over 350 alien craft and destroyed 9 bases....I've finnaly got good psyonics and have unlocked the final mission....
Stupid question, where do the screenshots hide? I want to post screens of my final effort to finnish of my epic battle against the alien scum.
Stupid question, where do the screenshots hide? I want to post screens of my final effort to finnish of my epic battle against the alien scum.
Are you playing the Steam DOSBox edition?
If so, they're at \Steam\steamapps\common\xcom ufo defense\capture wherever you installed Steam to.
You may want to bind another key to capture, but the keybinder in DOSBox is a bit annoying to work with.
Chapter 18: Now that's what I call a close encounter!
July 1st to July 4th 1999
From the July X-Com material request form:
One (1) Independence Day DVD - Special Edition
Ah, yes. July. Well, we had planned on perhaps taking it a bit easy, letting some rookies get real battle experience, and generally harassing the aliens and stealing the Elerium we could get our hands on. Of course, no plan survives contact with the enemy. The aliens were not in a laid back mood. Perhaps June had made them arrogant or more confident that they could take us. Or perhaps they were only just now beginning to show what they are capable of.
In any case, on the first of July, the Hyperwave decoder had several incoming ships. First a couple of scouts. Snakemen looking for an X-Com base in south-east Asia and Etherals looking to terrorize Australia. Both were shot out of the sky.
Then a Scout, a Supply Ship, and a Battleship appeared. All on Alien Base missions in Northern Africa. Of course, where one can see disaster, one can also see opportunity. If the Battleship was founding a base, then it would have to land. And if it landed, we could raid it. It is a risk, of course, alien Battleships are more or less a flying alien base, but showing the aliens that not even their Battleships are safe from us would be a powerful message.
So Skyranger-1 was launched to shadow the flying Battleship. As soon as it landed, so would the Skyranger.
(Game mechanic - Raiding a flying UFO: You can't, and yet you can. If you see a UFO that you have a reasonable suspicion will land, order a troop carrying Craft like a Skyranger, a Lightning, or an Avenger to intercept it as if it was an Interceptor. The Skyranger will follow it and land, while a Lightning or Avenger will start a dogfight. Minimize the dogfight and let the craft follow the UFO until it lands.)
The assault on the UFO started out hot. Two Floaters in ambush position at the ramp of the Skyranger. They were dealt with by the Tank and Adnor.
Then the UFO was spotted, which was pretty easy... Battleships are huge.
The troops fought their way to the ship, taking out Floaters and Reapers as they appeared.
The Tank got hit by a big explosion, but sustained no damage.
The entrance to the UFO was in the center of the ship with doors big enough to fit the Tank through.
Inside, the team split up and took on both floors a the same time.
(Strategy: Take both floors at the same time unless you like hostile Blaster Bombs! There's two aliens on the top floor and usually one in the middle floor who have launchers! So hit both floors and move fast!)
The middle floor was a labyrinth of unused space and redundant doors. It is speculation, but perhaps the size itself is needed to make a ship as powerful as a Battleship. The aliens still could have used that space better. But I'm not going to give the enemy ideas.
The top floor housed the bridge, but when Andor and Rhomega breached the bridge, the Commander had practically given up.
And so, X-Com had their first Battleship. Broken down into a ton of alloys and, of course, 200 units of Elerium.
This would go far in our manufacturing and fuel needs. Immediately, more Flying Suits were ordered, so everyone would have at least Power Suits or better.
We shot down an alien supply ship, not intending to raid it, but to search the local area for any traces of an alien base, and sure enough. The Floaters had made a new base on the southern border of Egypt. We would have to take care of that at some point.
On July 4th, the alarm went off. An alien Battleship was heading towards Vanguard. Etherals. Immediately, all non-combat and spare equipment was sent to the other bases. We had company.
Now Etherals are nasty things. But even the most powerful psionic enemies have a weakness. And with few modifications, the usual base strategy could work. That is Tank, Ambush Team, Corridor Team.
(Strategy - Etherals: Let's talk Etherals! Etherals are all bastards. If any ONE Etheral can see any ONE of your troops OR a tank, they will attempt a psionic attack on your weakest soldier. All of them. Mind Control or Panic, one or more shots from each. It is very, very difficult for troops to fuly resist a whole Battleship's worth of Psi attacks. But there's one hope: They will only do Psi attacks if they can see your troops on the alien part of a turn. So the base defense I use that denies them line of sight on the alien turn works well. However, you cannot out-camp Etherals. Remember the Turn 20 rule? On turn 20, the Etherals can see you, basically meaning you lose. They're a nasty fight unprepared...)
After the first wave died down, the Tank was sent scouting and found... This.
The aliens have walkers. Standard protocol was to annihilate it with the biggest gun we have. And we have big guns now.
More Etherals and another "Sectopod" as the walkers are called was spotted and Blaster bombed.
The base was safe. And on fire. But safe.
The troops spent the rest of the day cleaning up and watching Independence Day on the control room big screen. Fighting aliens for half a year has given some of them an odd sense of humor, I suppose, but when it's something like this, I'll allow them to indulge themselves. Good for morale. Even if I had to endure quotes from the movie for the net couple of weeks. Kind of amusing how much that movie got right, though... Their aliens are close enough to Etherals to be freaky. And plasma shots are, in fact, green.
Anyway, July had come to quite a start.
Notes: Battleship! Etheral Base invasion! Snakemen hinting that Forge will have Chryssalids coming! New alien base in Africa! And here I was worrying this would get boring...
The new alien base is perfectly placed, by the way. It's in desert environment, which is easy to fight in, it's Floaters, who are weaklings, and there'll be a lot of Supply Ships to replenish my Elerium stores. Got a new base to milk, in other words.
Also, I think I might have hit the psionic jackpot with some of the soldiers in Vanguard. Several of them got hit with a storm of psionc attacks in the base defense. No reaction at all. I'm thinking I have at least a couple of 60+ strength troops there, and most likely nothing lower than 25. But I have to wait until September to know...
July 1st to July 4th 1999
From the July X-Com material request form:
One (1) Independence Day DVD - Special Edition
Ah, yes. July. Well, we had planned on perhaps taking it a bit easy, letting some rookies get real battle experience, and generally harassing the aliens and stealing the Elerium we could get our hands on. Of course, no plan survives contact with the enemy. The aliens were not in a laid back mood. Perhaps June had made them arrogant or more confident that they could take us. Or perhaps they were only just now beginning to show what they are capable of.
In any case, on the first of July, the Hyperwave decoder had several incoming ships. First a couple of scouts. Snakemen looking for an X-Com base in south-east Asia and Etherals looking to terrorize Australia. Both were shot out of the sky.
Then a Scout, a Supply Ship, and a Battleship appeared. All on Alien Base missions in Northern Africa. Of course, where one can see disaster, one can also see opportunity. If the Battleship was founding a base, then it would have to land. And if it landed, we could raid it. It is a risk, of course, alien Battleships are more or less a flying alien base, but showing the aliens that not even their Battleships are safe from us would be a powerful message.
So Skyranger-1 was launched to shadow the flying Battleship. As soon as it landed, so would the Skyranger.
(Game mechanic - Raiding a flying UFO: You can't, and yet you can. If you see a UFO that you have a reasonable suspicion will land, order a troop carrying Craft like a Skyranger, a Lightning, or an Avenger to intercept it as if it was an Interceptor. The Skyranger will follow it and land, while a Lightning or Avenger will start a dogfight. Minimize the dogfight and let the craft follow the UFO until it lands.)
The assault on the UFO started out hot. Two Floaters in ambush position at the ramp of the Skyranger. They were dealt with by the Tank and Adnor.
Then the UFO was spotted, which was pretty easy... Battleships are huge.
The troops fought their way to the ship, taking out Floaters and Reapers as they appeared.
The Tank got hit by a big explosion, but sustained no damage.
The entrance to the UFO was in the center of the ship with doors big enough to fit the Tank through.
Inside, the team split up and took on both floors a the same time.
(Strategy: Take both floors at the same time unless you like hostile Blaster Bombs! There's two aliens on the top floor and usually one in the middle floor who have launchers! So hit both floors and move fast!)
The middle floor was a labyrinth of unused space and redundant doors. It is speculation, but perhaps the size itself is needed to make a ship as powerful as a Battleship. The aliens still could have used that space better. But I'm not going to give the enemy ideas.
The top floor housed the bridge, but when Andor and Rhomega breached the bridge, the Commander had practically given up.
And so, X-Com had their first Battleship. Broken down into a ton of alloys and, of course, 200 units of Elerium.
This would go far in our manufacturing and fuel needs. Immediately, more Flying Suits were ordered, so everyone would have at least Power Suits or better.
We shot down an alien supply ship, not intending to raid it, but to search the local area for any traces of an alien base, and sure enough. The Floaters had made a new base on the southern border of Egypt. We would have to take care of that at some point.
On July 4th, the alarm went off. An alien Battleship was heading towards Vanguard. Etherals. Immediately, all non-combat and spare equipment was sent to the other bases. We had company.
Now Etherals are nasty things. But even the most powerful psionic enemies have a weakness. And with few modifications, the usual base strategy could work. That is Tank, Ambush Team, Corridor Team.
(Strategy - Etherals: Let's talk Etherals! Etherals are all bastards. If any ONE Etheral can see any ONE of your troops OR a tank, they will attempt a psionic attack on your weakest soldier. All of them. Mind Control or Panic, one or more shots from each. It is very, very difficult for troops to fuly resist a whole Battleship's worth of Psi attacks. But there's one hope: They will only do Psi attacks if they can see your troops on the alien part of a turn. So the base defense I use that denies them line of sight on the alien turn works well. However, you cannot out-camp Etherals. Remember the Turn 20 rule? On turn 20, the Etherals can see you, basically meaning you lose. They're a nasty fight unprepared...)
After the first wave died down, the Tank was sent scouting and found... This.
The aliens have walkers. Standard protocol was to annihilate it with the biggest gun we have. And we have big guns now.
More Etherals and another "Sectopod" as the walkers are called was spotted and Blaster bombed.
The base was safe. And on fire. But safe.
The troops spent the rest of the day cleaning up and watching Independence Day on the control room big screen. Fighting aliens for half a year has given some of them an odd sense of humor, I suppose, but when it's something like this, I'll allow them to indulge themselves. Good for morale. Even if I had to endure quotes from the movie for the net couple of weeks. Kind of amusing how much that movie got right, though... Their aliens are close enough to Etherals to be freaky. And plasma shots are, in fact, green.
Anyway, July had come to quite a start.
Notes: Battleship! Etheral Base invasion! Snakemen hinting that Forge will have Chryssalids coming! New alien base in Africa! And here I was worrying this would get boring...
The new alien base is perfectly placed, by the way. It's in desert environment, which is easy to fight in, it's Floaters, who are weaklings, and there'll be a lot of Supply Ships to replenish my Elerium stores. Got a new base to milk, in other words.
Also, I think I might have hit the psionic jackpot with some of the soldiers in Vanguard. Several of them got hit with a storm of psionc attacks in the base defense. No reaction at all. I'm thinking I have at least a couple of 60+ strength troops there, and most likely nothing lower than 25. But I have to wait until September to know...
And of course, I'm not stationed at Vanguard. When might we know our psionic strength results?
And of course, I'm not stationed at Vanguard. When might we know our psionic strength results?
I'd say in 2 or 3 chapters. Did a few hours play last night and I'm up to July 30th without much notable happening, except letting the Avenger out for a takedown or two. The numbers will be in on September 1st. I'll make sure to take the screenshots for August's stats AFTER the Psi Stats are in, of course.
A small spoiler for the next chapter: I've been playing up your soldier sort of like a memetic badass, but I think the aliens are reading this. You'll see why in chapter 19. I've never seen the aliens do THAT before.
Also, is that Pinkie as an X-Com soldier? I wasn't aware there was enough Pony/X-Com crossover fans for that to exist.
Chapter 19: Guess who's coming to... never mind!
July 5th to July 31st
Rudimentary translation of alien hyperwave communication:
"Detected: Subject: Thnikkaman. Mission: Abort. Mission: Abort."
After that start, we worried that July would be one of those months, but really, it wasn't. The aliens just wanted to show some teeth. We did learn a few things about the aliens, though.
But first of all, we intercepted a Floater Supply Ship. Like the good old times of Elerium privateering.
The mission went flawlessly, with one squad securing the outside and one going to each floor. We quickly had the ship under control.
With our plundered booty, we could afford to expand a bit at Twilight base.
Then the Battleship on intercept course alarm went off. And immediately, Twilight base sent all its non-essential wares to Vanguard.
We waited for the inevitable attack on our base, the troops were putting on their power armor, and then... It flew away. The ship had definitely been close to the base, but it didn't attack.
The following day, another Battleship appeared, also on an intercept course for Twilight. It headed towards the base at full speed and then... it veered off at the last moment.
We joked a bit that it had to be because Thnikkaman was leading the base. We had, perhaps, "forgotten" to encrypt a hyperwave transmission where he was proclaimed the professional alien killer who now had his own team. Or maybe they just got lost.
For most of the rest of the month, we simply held air superiority while biding our time.
We took the chance to take our Avenger out for a test run, and these things are quick! I don't believe the aliens have anything that can outrun an Avenger.
Speaking of Avengers, we built another one and deployed it at Forge. As the Snakeman scouts had shown, Forge was no longer a complete secret, so it was decided to give it air-to-air and strike team capabilities as well. An Avenger covers all bases there. And since Forge is the manufacturing base, it had plenty of Elerium for fuel.
The Science team came up with a way to use Blaster Bomb tech for base defense against Battleships. Finally a defense that might actually hurt a Battleship. Still, killing the invading aliens seems to have worked fine.
A Floater Scout was picked as Team Forge's first target. A bunch of rookies and scout ship. Nostalgic, in a way.
Of course, back then we weren't armed to the teeth with the aliens' own tech, so this mission was a bit of a walkover. Good for rookie morale, though. some of them had complained about not seeing enough action. Well, now they had all seen actual living aliens. For a short while, at least.
And that about wrapped up July, except for one tiny detail. The Psi-Labs had been given to go-ahead by the medical oversight team, and thus, they were open for business.
Notes: So... never seen that happen before. Alien Battleship appears and heads straight for the target base, then veers off at the last second. Another one arrives a day later and does the same thing. Clearly this can only mean one thing! The aliens are reading this! Quickly, check the server logs for any Martian IPs!
In all seriousness, as expected, the rest of July got a little slow, but I learned something. Etherals can't swim. Fancy that. Stats up next, but these won't be as interesting as the next set. This will be the final set of stats without Psi Strength on it. So, enjoy your badass-ness while you can, because that one number will be a big part of who gets to be the final fourteen.
And sorry if it looks like I'm rushing a bit, but I am basically coasting towards Psionics and the endgame now. Two chapters per months unless the aliens do something big will probably be how August goes, too. I'll show you the Psi powers in action when I get them, of course. I'll probably be responding to every UFO then t get those Psi Skill points. Expect me to be a real jerk to a defenseless alien at some point.
July 5th to July 31st
Rudimentary translation of alien hyperwave communication:
"Detected: Subject: Thnikkaman. Mission: Abort. Mission: Abort."
After that start, we worried that July would be one of those months, but really, it wasn't. The aliens just wanted to show some teeth. We did learn a few things about the aliens, though.
But first of all, we intercepted a Floater Supply Ship. Like the good old times of Elerium privateering.
The mission went flawlessly, with one squad securing the outside and one going to each floor. We quickly had the ship under control.
With our plundered booty, we could afford to expand a bit at Twilight base.
Then the Battleship on intercept course alarm went off. And immediately, Twilight base sent all its non-essential wares to Vanguard.
We waited for the inevitable attack on our base, the troops were putting on their power armor, and then... It flew away. The ship had definitely been close to the base, but it didn't attack.
The following day, another Battleship appeared, also on an intercept course for Twilight. It headed towards the base at full speed and then... it veered off at the last moment.
We joked a bit that it had to be because Thnikkaman was leading the base. We had, perhaps, "forgotten" to encrypt a hyperwave transmission where he was proclaimed the professional alien killer who now had his own team. Or maybe they just got lost.
For most of the rest of the month, we simply held air superiority while biding our time.
We took the chance to take our Avenger out for a test run, and these things are quick! I don't believe the aliens have anything that can outrun an Avenger.
Speaking of Avengers, we built another one and deployed it at Forge. As the Snakeman scouts had shown, Forge was no longer a complete secret, so it was decided to give it air-to-air and strike team capabilities as well. An Avenger covers all bases there. And since Forge is the manufacturing base, it had plenty of Elerium for fuel.
The Science team came up with a way to use Blaster Bomb tech for base defense against Battleships. Finally a defense that might actually hurt a Battleship. Still, killing the invading aliens seems to have worked fine.
A Floater Scout was picked as Team Forge's first target. A bunch of rookies and scout ship. Nostalgic, in a way.
Of course, back then we weren't armed to the teeth with the aliens' own tech, so this mission was a bit of a walkover. Good for rookie morale, though. some of them had complained about not seeing enough action. Well, now they had all seen actual living aliens. For a short while, at least.
And that about wrapped up July, except for one tiny detail. The Psi-Labs had been given to go-ahead by the medical oversight team, and thus, they were open for business.
Notes: So... never seen that happen before. Alien Battleship appears and heads straight for the target base, then veers off at the last second. Another one arrives a day later and does the same thing. Clearly this can only mean one thing! The aliens are reading this! Quickly, check the server logs for any Martian IPs!
In all seriousness, as expected, the rest of July got a little slow, but I learned something. Etherals can't swim. Fancy that. Stats up next, but these won't be as interesting as the next set. This will be the final set of stats without Psi Strength on it. So, enjoy your badass-ness while you can, because that one number will be a big part of who gets to be the final fourteen.
And sorry if it looks like I'm rushing a bit, but I am basically coasting towards Psionics and the endgame now. Two chapters per months unless the aliens do something big will probably be how August goes, too. I'll show you the Psi powers in action when I get them, of course. I'll probably be responding to every UFO then t get those Psi Skill points. Expect me to be a real jerk to a defenseless alien at some point.
X-Com Monthly Report - July 1999
Funding:
Bases:
Research:
Production:
Psionic Training:
Active Soldiers:
NONE (Yay!)
Soldiers KIA:
I'm basically just coasting now. I'll just keep swatting UFOs out of the sky and leaving them to rot. They are little to no use to me until I get Psionic troops now. Think I'll build another Avenger, and take out whatever Supply Ships appear. Also, I'm going to lose South Africa soon. Maybe not in August, but definitely September. Maybe I should go pick on an alien base? But I like the free Elerium the Floaters give, and I'm saving the Mutons for an experiment... If I understand the game right, then that Muton base is my ticket to high Psi Skill quickly.
I need to get Jintor and archnemesis into a fight so everyone has at least one mission, too. Who knows who'll end up with a Psionic Bingo?
Funding:
Bases:
Research:
Production:
Psionic Training:
Active Soldiers:
- Commander Rentahamster - 30 missions, 15 kills
- Colonel Thnikkaman - 16 missions, 23 kills
- Captain Narag - 30 missions, 10 kills
- Captain PKrockin - 21 missions, 24 kills
- Captain Rhomega - 22 missions, 16 kills
- Sergeant Adnor - 13 missions, 15 kills
- Sergeant Brashnir - 9 missions, 6 kills
- Sergeant CappyFish - 26 missions, 7 kills
- Sergeant Deraldin - 17 missions, 9 kills
- Sergeant perfect free - 15 missions, 5 kills
- Sergeant Tunesmith - 12 missions, 7 kills
- Squaddie Belgorim - 2 missions
- Squaddie Boogalogist - 17 missions, 5 kills
- Squaddie Bufbaf - 9 missions, 3 kills
- Squaddie DennisK4 - 9 missions, 2 kills
- Squaddie fanboi - 12 missions, 10 kills
- Squaddie fresquito - 5 missions, 6 kills
- Squaddie gutabo - 5 missions, 1 kill
- Squaddie inky - 2 missions
- Squaddie Keikaku - 8 missions, 4 kills
- Squaddie Myke Greywolf - 15 missions, 5 kills
- Squaddie Orgun - 2 missionrs
- Squaddie Raphier O'Niel - 2 missions, 2 kills
- Squaddie ruttyboy - 2 missions
- Squaddie Tempy - 1 mission, 1 kill
- Rookie archnemesis
- Rookie geedundee - 1 mission
- Rookie Haunted - 2 missions
- Rookie Jintor
- Rookie Mashing - 1 mission
- Rookie Mattdaddy - 1 mission
- Rookie Phoenixazure - 1 mission
- Rookie SappYoda - 2 missions
- Rookie SovanJedi - 1 mission
NONE (Yay!)
Soldiers KIA:
- Rookie TheJollyCorner
- Rookie Sinatar
- Rookie frontieruk
- Squaddie LuffyZoro
- Rookie ThoseDeafMutes
- Squaddie NinajHeartless
- Construct enough Psi-Labs for everyone - COMPLETE
- Convert Vanguard from science base to production base - COMPLETE
- Rotate teams to give Rookies a shot - COMPLETE
- Capture at least 200 Elerium - COMPLETE
- Mass produce Flying Suits - COMPLETE
- Mass Produce Hovertank/Launcher for base defenses - ONGOING
- Gather resources for Avenger-2 - COMPLETE
- Establish listening post in South America - FAILED
- Establish listening post in Australia - FAILED
- Prepare for final assault in September/October - ONGOING
- Shoot down UFOs
- Give Rookies a shot
- Prepare for final assault in September/October
- Build more listening posts
- Build Psi-Amps
- Replace Skyranger-1 with Avenger-3
- Times reloaded: 4
- Total reloads: 47
I'm basically just coasting now. I'll just keep swatting UFOs out of the sky and leaving them to rot. They are little to no use to me until I get Psionic troops now. Think I'll build another Avenger, and take out whatever Supply Ships appear. Also, I'm going to lose South Africa soon. Maybe not in August, but definitely September. Maybe I should go pick on an alien base? But I like the free Elerium the Floaters give, and I'm saving the Mutons for an experiment... If I understand the game right, then that Muton base is my ticket to high Psi Skill quickly.
I need to get Jintor and archnemesis into a fight so everyone has at least one mission, too. Who knows who'll end up with a Psionic Bingo?
Yeah, you and some others got stuck guarding the Engineers from attacks that never came. A very important job, but not a glamorous one. But everyone is in the Psionic Lottery. If anyone gets 90+ Psi Strength, they're on the final team.
My stats are pretty solid across the board, so my Psi will be like 10.
Enemy Unknown is pretty good, but its interface has not aged well. At all. There's a great game hidden underneath it, but you really need to work at it to get to it. Using mods like XComUtil to remove some annoyances is advised. For instance, you have to re-equip your soldiers on every single mission unless you mod the game to remember it.
On the other hand, Enemy Unknown is pretty cheap on Steam, and it really is one of the great PC classics. I haven't played Apocalypse, but it has a more modern UI. Its setting and aliens aren't as interesting as the original, though. Terror from the Deep? Don't. Trust me. Just don't. It's more X-Com, but it has several annoyances and a difficulty much higher than the original. The two spinoffs Interceptor and Enforcer aren't strategy games. They're a space sim and a shooting game respectively.
Alternatively, there's a new one coming later this year, but I don't know much about it, other than it's Firaxis doing it, so it'll be good.
But yeah, if you want to see what it's all about, get Enemy Unnkown.
Rudimentary translation of alien hyperwave communication:
"Detected: Subject: Thnikkaman. Mission: Abort. Mission: Abort."
Wow, August almost turned into a non-event. Guess that's only one chapter, but I met a new UFO type, so that's fun. Writeup coming tomorrow.
But I think I need some advice now. Psionics.
How much Psi Strength is "good enough"? The numbers are in, and some of them are mighty fine, others... not so much. I got 11 soldiers with over 70, so I'm not complaining. That's almost enough to fill an Avenger. And three over 85.
But some of the higher raking solders aren't that hot in Psi. But on the flipside, having a high rank officer decreases the Morale lost in a Panic attack. So how to I spin this one? I basically need a crew of 14 that can survive bringing along a Blaster Launcher to the final mission. As in, "will not get it turned against themselves".
Basically, what I'm asking is... Should I bring along
You probably shouldn't highlight that unless you're giving me advice, I'm spoiling two Psi Strength numbers.
But I think I need some advice now. Psionics.
How much Psi Strength is "good enough"? The numbers are in, and some of them are mighty fine, others... not so much. I got 11 soldiers with over 70, so I'm not complaining. That's almost enough to fill an Avenger. And three over 85.
But some of the higher raking solders aren't that hot in Psi. But on the flipside, having a high rank officer decreases the Morale lost in a Panic attack. So how to I spin this one? I basically need a crew of 14 that can survive bringing along a Blaster Launcher to the final mission. As in, "will not get it turned against themselves".
Basically, what I'm asking is... Should I bring along
Rentahamster and Thnikkaman despite them having
Psi Strength respectively?
45 and 22
I would say that anything below 60 Psi Strength is really asking for trouble on a mission. Don't bring them along.
Put me in, coach! I can hack it!
Yeah, you're on Team Cydonia with a score like that. Not the best, but good enough to hold a Psi-Amp and go mentally "BOO!" at them.
Actually, I had a silly idea I might want to run by you all before I actually do it. I want to power-level Psi Skill. Here's my idea:
I have a Muton Base in Brazil. Mutons are weak to Psi. I enter their base, and use a Tank to find one. My strongest Psi-guy mind controls it, makes it throw away its weapon and come up to the rest of the team. They then proceed to spam Panic at it 11 times and then leave. After shooting the victim, of course. Then they return and do it all over again. For a +4-6 Psi Skill every time. If I feel confident, I'll steal their Elerium while I'm at it.
Is that a good plan? Could perhaps increase an average of 5-10 points per day. I'd be ready to rock by mid September. Or am I missing something?
If there isn't a flaw with that, we're probably three chapters, including the one for August, away from launch.
Welcome to X-Com. Where the soldiers you've carefully been raising through the entire game, who can hit an alien from across the map with a Snap Shot, and who can take three plasma blasts to the face and just need a quick patch-up all become irrelevant due to one singe randomized stat: Psi Strength.
And you cannot afford to ignore it, as Psi is a gamebreaker. One the aliens happily will use against you. On the flip side, if you get a 90+ Strength/100 Skill Psi user to Cydonia, he can solo it. That's the power of Psi. It's kind of stupid, but now I have it, too.
Chapter 20: Air Superiority
Aug 1st to Aug 31st 1999
Comment made after successful shoot-down of a UFO:
"And that makes one hundred UFOs downed with no air-to-air losses yet."
So, August. As much as I'd love to tell another big tale of heroics and daring missions to take on massive alien craft on the ground, this month didn't really have much of that. Instead, we pretty much dug in, built stuff and awaited the results from the Psi-Labs.
First order of business was to finally complete the global Hyperwave network. With Crux in Australia and Silver in Argentina, we would at the end of August have 90% coverage of Earth, with Antarctica and Hawaii as the last pieces of land we didn't monitor.
Then we kept the air clean, so to speak. Several UFOs showed up, and got shot down by Interceptors, the Firestom or our Avengers. However, this did reduce our Elerium stocks for fighter fuel, but no major opportunities to raid an alien ship showed itself at first.
Our third Avenger rolled off the production line at Forge and was transferred to Vanguard. It was a sad day, but we ended the lease on Skyranger-1, opting to only use Avengers as assault craft from now on.
(Note: Leasing aircraft. You don't actually own any Skyrangers or Interceptors. They cost a good $750,000 each month. By replacing them with X-Com made craft, you can recover the construction costs pretty fast.)
Several Battleships also showed up to attack our bases, but thanks to our Mind Shields, they failed to find them. And while an Avenger could take on a Battleship and win, it would be badly damaged by trying.
Whether it was desperation or boredom that caused it is unclear, but when Avenger-1 at Twilight shot down UFO-117, a large Muton scout, they decided to raid the wreck.
It was a night mission, but between good use of the Tank, and Thnikkaman showing how it's done with Blaster Bombs, the mission was a walkover. But the men at Twilight were getting restless, so I allowed it.
Shortly after, on the 25th, a new type of UFO was detected. "Abductor". Now that didn't sound nice, but as far as we could tell, the aliens didn't have teleportation or tractor beam technology, so if it planned to abduct people, it would have to land. Avenger-2 a Forge was sent to investigate.
(Note: The intro LIES! The aliens can't teleport!)
The crew of Avenger-2 was mostly rookies, with fanboi and perfect free leading them. The Tank was not the usual Plasma, but a Launcher with eight mini Blaster Bombs.
Now one thing you have to remember about fighting in the jungle is that it is flammable. Very flammable.
But Power and Flying suits are heavily shielded against temperature, so any X-Com unit with powered armor can ignore most natural flames, including a jungle fire.
Inside the UFO, there was a table and some Floaters. The table was damaged in the crossfire, but the Floaters fell.
As the team worked itself through the UFO, fanboi got shot, but a quick application of the Medi-Kit mean that he was back in action, and would require minimal recovery time.
The rapid progress of the team caused the Leader to panic, and after that it was only a matter of going up and finishing the job.
And so, a bunch of rookies with two veterans took down our first Abductor. The 100 Elerium was nice to have, too.
After that, nothing much happened until August 31st. The Psi-Lab team handed me a file on every single soldier in our employ. We now knew who could resist psionic attacks and who couldn't... And perhaps just as important, who could turn a Psi-Amp into the deadliest weapon in our arsenal.
Notes: And that's August. All of it. Boring month apart from the Abductor. All those Retaliation Battleships appearing, and not one base invasion. I know, I know. Shouldn't build a Mind Shield if I want invasions, but still...
So next up is the Stats post. This one, you want to see, as it'll show who has a shot at the final mission, and who, despite their awesome other stats, are psionic liabilities. Stay tuned!
Aug 1st to Aug 31st 1999
Comment made after successful shoot-down of a UFO:
"And that makes one hundred UFOs downed with no air-to-air losses yet."
So, August. As much as I'd love to tell another big tale of heroics and daring missions to take on massive alien craft on the ground, this month didn't really have much of that. Instead, we pretty much dug in, built stuff and awaited the results from the Psi-Labs.
First order of business was to finally complete the global Hyperwave network. With Crux in Australia and Silver in Argentina, we would at the end of August have 90% coverage of Earth, with Antarctica and Hawaii as the last pieces of land we didn't monitor.
Then we kept the air clean, so to speak. Several UFOs showed up, and got shot down by Interceptors, the Firestom or our Avengers. However, this did reduce our Elerium stocks for fighter fuel, but no major opportunities to raid an alien ship showed itself at first.
Our third Avenger rolled off the production line at Forge and was transferred to Vanguard. It was a sad day, but we ended the lease on Skyranger-1, opting to only use Avengers as assault craft from now on.
(Note: Leasing aircraft. You don't actually own any Skyrangers or Interceptors. They cost a good $750,000 each month. By replacing them with X-Com made craft, you can recover the construction costs pretty fast.)
Several Battleships also showed up to attack our bases, but thanks to our Mind Shields, they failed to find them. And while an Avenger could take on a Battleship and win, it would be badly damaged by trying.
Whether it was desperation or boredom that caused it is unclear, but when Avenger-1 at Twilight shot down UFO-117, a large Muton scout, they decided to raid the wreck.
It was a night mission, but between good use of the Tank, and Thnikkaman showing how it's done with Blaster Bombs, the mission was a walkover. But the men at Twilight were getting restless, so I allowed it.
Shortly after, on the 25th, a new type of UFO was detected. "Abductor". Now that didn't sound nice, but as far as we could tell, the aliens didn't have teleportation or tractor beam technology, so if it planned to abduct people, it would have to land. Avenger-2 a Forge was sent to investigate.
(Note: The intro LIES! The aliens can't teleport!)
The crew of Avenger-2 was mostly rookies, with fanboi and perfect free leading them. The Tank was not the usual Plasma, but a Launcher with eight mini Blaster Bombs.
Now one thing you have to remember about fighting in the jungle is that it is flammable. Very flammable.
But Power and Flying suits are heavily shielded against temperature, so any X-Com unit with powered armor can ignore most natural flames, including a jungle fire.
Inside the UFO, there was a table and some Floaters. The table was damaged in the crossfire, but the Floaters fell.
As the team worked itself through the UFO, fanboi got shot, but a quick application of the Medi-Kit mean that he was back in action, and would require minimal recovery time.
The rapid progress of the team caused the Leader to panic, and after that it was only a matter of going up and finishing the job.
And so, a bunch of rookies with two veterans took down our first Abductor. The 100 Elerium was nice to have, too.
After that, nothing much happened until August 31st. The Psi-Lab team handed me a file on every single soldier in our employ. We now knew who could resist psionic attacks and who couldn't... And perhaps just as important, who could turn a Psi-Amp into the deadliest weapon in our arsenal.
Notes: And that's August. All of it. Boring month apart from the Abductor. All those Retaliation Battleships appearing, and not one base invasion. I know, I know. Shouldn't build a Mind Shield if I want invasions, but still...
So next up is the Stats post. This one, you want to see, as it'll show who has a shot at the final mission, and who, despite their awesome other stats, are psionic liabilities. Stay tuned!
As unfair as it is, it definitely fits with the cynical nature of the rest of the game. I sort of like it from that perspective. =)
Avenger! Best X-Com craft ever.
(Though Apocalypse's Annihilator is cool too).
(Though Apocalypse's Annihilator is cool too).
X-Com Monthly Report - August 1999
Funding:
Bases:
Research:
Production:
Psionic Training:
Active Soldiers:
NONE (Yay!)
Soldiers KIA:
The top 14 Psi Strength are Belgorim(91), inky(88), Boogalogist(86), Haunted(80), Keikaku(78), Mattdaddy(76), archnemesis(75), SappYoda(73), Adnor(71), Phoenixazure(71), Rhomega(71), Cappyfish(68), PKrockin(59), and Tempy(52).
These 14 will be assembled at Twilight Base and sent to practice their talets on the local Mutons. When their Skill is high enough, they will depart for Cydonia and win the war. I have enough Psi-Amps, Flying Suits, Hovertanks and Heavy Plasmas to take the fight to Mars, all I need is manpower.
So... what level of Psi Skill is "good enough"? I want the 80+ on Psi offense and the rest tough enough to take it.
Funding:
Bases:
Research:
Production:
Psionic Training:
Active Soldiers:
- Commander Rentahamster (Psi: 45) - 30 missions, 15 kills
- Colonel Thnikkaman (Psi: 22) - 17 missions, 25 kills
- Captain Narag (Psi: 28) - 30 missions, 10 kills
- Captain PKrockin (Psi: 59) - 21 missions, 24 kills
- Captain Rhomega (Psi: 71) - 22 missions, 16 kills
- Sergeant Adnor (Psi: 71) - 13 missions, 15 kills
- Sergeant Brashnir (Psi: 28) - 10 missions, 8 kills
- Sergeant CappyFish (Psi: 68) - 27 missions, 7 kills
- Sergeant Deraldin (Psi: 13) - 17 missions, 9 kills
- Sergeant perfect free (Psi: 29) - 16 missions, 7 kills
- Sergeant Tunesmith (Psi: 05) - 12 missions, 7 kills
- Squaddie Belgorim (Psi: 91) - 3 missions
- Squaddie Boogalogist (Psi: 86) - 20 missions, 6 kills
- Squaddie Bufbaf (Psi: 39) - 9 missions, 3 kills
- Squaddie DennisK4 (Psi: 46) - 9 missions, 2 kills
- Squaddie fanboi (Psi: 42) - 13 missions, 12 kills
- Squaddie fresquito - (Psi: 47) 5 missions, 6 kills
- Squaddie geedundee (Psi: 11) - 2 missions, 1 kill
- Squaddie gutabo - (Psi: 06) 5 missions, 1 kill
- Squaddie inky - (Psi: 88) 3 missions, 2 kills
- Squaddie Keikaku (Psi: 78) - 9 missions, 4 kills
- Squaddie Mattdaddy (Psi: 76) - 2 missions, 3 kills
- Squaddie Myke Greywolf (Psi: 25) - 16 missions, 5 kills
- Squaddie Orgun (Psi: 33) - 3 missions, 1 kill
- Squaddie Phoenixazure (Psi: 71) - 2 missions
- Squaddie Raphier O'Niel (Psi: 23) - 3 missions, 2 kills
- Squaddie ruttyboy (Psi: 08) - 3 missions, 1 kill
- Squaddie Tempy (Psi: 52) - 2 mission, 2 kills
- Rookie archnemesis (Psi: 75)
- Rookie Haunted (Psi: 80) - 3 missions
- Rookie Jintor (Psi: 25)
- Rookie Mashing (Psi: 45) - 2 missions
- Rookie SappYoda (Psi: 73) - 3 missions
- Rookie SovanJedi (Psi: 04) - 2 missions
NONE (Yay!)
Soldiers KIA:
- Rookie TheJollyCorner
- Rookie Sinatar
- Rookie frontieruk
- Squaddie LuffyZoro
- Rookie ThoseDeafMutes
- Squaddie NinajHeartless
- Shoot down UFOs - COMPLETE
- Give Rookies a shot - COMPLETE
- Prepare for final assault in September/October - COMPLETE
- Build more listening posts - COMPLETE
- Build Psi-Amps - COMPLETE
- Replace Skyranger-1 with Avenger-3 - COMPLETE
- Beef up top 14 Psi Skill
- Go to Cydonia, save the world
- Times reloaded: 1
- Total reloads: 48
The top 14 Psi Strength are Belgorim(91), inky(88), Boogalogist(86), Haunted(80), Keikaku(78), Mattdaddy(76), archnemesis(75), SappYoda(73), Adnor(71), Phoenixazure(71), Rhomega(71), Cappyfish(68), PKrockin(59), and Tempy(52).
These 14 will be assembled at Twilight Base and sent to practice their talets on the local Mutons. When their Skill is high enough, they will depart for Cydonia and win the war. I have enough Psi-Amps, Flying Suits, Hovertanks and Heavy Plasmas to take the fight to Mars, all I need is manpower.
So... what level of Psi Skill is "good enough"? I want the 80+ on Psi offense and the rest tough enough to take it.
Well, I just broke X-Com.
I can powerlevel Psi-Skill, and I haven't seen this technique mentioned anywhere else. So, next chapter will be the last before Mars, I think. With a thorough explanation about Psi, and how to brutally exploit the locals with it. I expect everyone to be at 100 Psi Skill by the end of the week.
I already have a bad pun ready for the title.
I can powerlevel Psi-Skill, and I haven't seen this technique mentioned anywhere else. So, next chapter will be the last before Mars, I think. With a thorough explanation about Psi, and how to brutally exploit the locals with it. I expect everyone to be at 100 Psi Skill by the end of the week.
(And for a Muton to cry itself to sleep over the bad men in power armor who come by every few hours and mock it mentally.)
I already have a bad pun ready for the title.