So, I'm clearing things and it's the first time I see a Viper for the first time and I kinda go overboard. New enemy must be able to something horrible right. End up wasting a smoke gernade to protect people while they get in to kill the viper. Also ended up getting my ringer, NeoGAF's Jintor, poisoned along with one of my gernadires (named after a friend). I didn't realize the poison spread via contact, so a 3rd guy gets poisoned but luckily it only ticks for one.
So, I'm forced to use my medkits pretty early to heal the damage. No big deal, right. I take down a sectoid/Advent Trooper pack and head inside. Robot advent trooper is tough, but I had 2 gernadiers and a sniper so we come out alright. His lackeys get overwatched. Hey, the mission is over, right? Grab the canister and maybe take out one more pack. Wrong.
I get close to the canister and another pack triggers. 2 baton swingers and a viper. Fuck. Decide to tactically retreat inside the building because the baton swings will likely try to come after me regardless. Surprisingly, the viper acts first and consumes almost all of the overwatch, dying in the process. Baton twirler comes down from the glass ceiling like a true badass, and knocks my sniper unconcious. First thing to go wrong. I take him and his buddy out and the heavy grabs the sniper and slings him over his shoulder.
I grab the canister and the aliens get reinforcements. So I set myself up in ambush mode and we manage to get through that pack Everybody is wounded by this point, it seems like between baton advent and just pot shots and poison everybody is doing pretty bad. Ranger ends up on top of a cliff near the extraction point. Another enemy beacon drops as soon as the last guy drops from that pack. Double screwed.
So there's no way my ranger is gonna hold these guys off by herself. But I can't go back, we are all close to dead and depends on who drops we don't really have a strategic point to retreat to. Plus the fact that I have no idea if these beacons are just gonna keep on triggering or what. So I set my ranger on overwatch and everybody just high tails it for the cliff, using up all of their movement. Two baton bastards come outta the transport. The ranger misses her overwatch. Shit. Still we got a turn to mop it up, we'll probably be alright. Plus with baton guys you don't really need to worry about cover since they are just gonna run up to you anyways. So, I flank one with my specialist and -- miss. Shit. 3 guys left. My 2nd heavy runs up and hits -- not crits. Guy's at 2 bars. First heavy puts down the unconcious sniper. Run up, and misses. Shit. 3 bad luck events in a row. My assault is forced to run up and finish off the 2 health one, leaving one guy ready to go. Praying for no crit on the baton. He runs up, and knocks another guy unconscious (the 2nd grenadier). At least he ain't dead, right.
Needless to say we took that guy out, slung the 2nd guy over the shoulder and high tailed it outta there. Everybody survived, but everybody was gravely wounded.
And now, I've got another strongly recommended mission, with a squad of nothing but rookies. Wish me luck!