I really enjoy hearing mission stories, please tell yours here.

Here's one I was so proud of I took notes. This was about two months ago. Nothing really weird here, unfortunately, but just handled really professionally, without losing anybody.
May I present:

Clearing a landing site.
Sectoid, large scout crash, farm in california, early evening, Superhuman difficulty.
8 soldiers and a rocket tank respond.
Loosely numbered turn-by-turn, actually event-by-event.
***
0. Successfully deployed in circle around Skyranger with no sightings.
1. Tank scouts first. Alien sighting by tank. Squaddies do 2-stage alien grenade relay. Takes out a hidden alien and part of a wall as well as the target (2 kills, total 2)
2. Tank sights a second alien, fires rocket, misses. Squaddie takes armed grenade, approaches, then crouches behind tank before throwing. (Out of sight so no reaction fire.) (1 kill, total 3)
3. Scout (with RE of 60) moves in a different direction, spots one and freezes. Support sniper with rifle takes the shot (FA of 64, 87% chance) and hits. (1 kill, total 4)
4. Tank sights a third among the stables and stops. Squaddies manage to land a grenade in the area. (1 kill, total 5)
5. Aliens' turn, tank is shot at and responds with rocket fire. (1 kill, total 6)
6. Scout found one, support sniper hits but does not get a kill. A tossed HE pack misses, and no-one is in range to add a grenade. End of turn. Alien does not kill scout; sniper is successful on next turn. (1 kill, total 7)
7. Tank flushes an alien but is blocking support fire. It moves to clear the line of fire and is slightly damaged by reaction fire by doing so. Support fire takes out the alien. (total 8)
8. Team finishes sweep and gathers at UFO door for a breach. At the start of the breach turn, the tank fires a rocket into the diagonal walls forming the inside corner of the cross. This kills one alien (total 9)
9. Craft is filled with smoke. Two additional corpses are seen. The second squaddie in has enough TU's to push forward into the hollowed out centre; he sees an alien at the bridge of the ship and freezes. Third, fourth, and fifth breachers take up kneeling positions inside the door and start shooting at the alien through the smoke cloud; the third shot drops it. (total 10)
***
Alien kills registered - 9
Corpses - 9
Captured aliens - 1 (soldier rank)
Artifacts - 41
Alloys - 31
Nav consoles - 2
(Engines destroyed in crash)
Final score 275.

I played through superhuman mode without loading once. I recorded how many troops I lost per mission, but nothing else, trusted the rest to memory. I was going to turn the whole thing into a fic, you see, and I still might.

I lost an average of two troops per mission, lost a couple of craft, and in the end, the whole game.

But I'll spill what I remember.

The first mission was against a large scout full of sectoids, on a farm during the day. I destroyed all of them without a single casualty.

I spent as much money as I possibly could, and soon had the base kitted out with heaps of scientists and engineers. I was constantly making alloys and selling them, as money hovered around the $0 mark due to my huge staff and production costs.

As I said, it was more then uncommon to loose more then a couple of troopers per battle. At the start, it was tempting to just reload, but as I continued, it became easier...

Untill I went to another bog standard snakeman terror mission in the dark (I say bog standard as the last two missions before hand were exactly the same), only to have a stun bomb go right into the skyranger.

This was not good.

The tank started firing, but by a massive fluke sent it's missile to the wrong side of a parallel wall, killing three civilians in one go, as opposed to the snakeman on the other side. Soon I lost the tank.

So I bought another ship, and a whole new crew for for it. The next mission was also a night time terror mission in the dark.

Ever sent a load of rookies to a night time terror mission, filled with sectopods and etherals?

I hate etherals.

Half the map got set on fire by who knows what. Rookies ran around screaming. Those who kept their head tried in vain to heal up those who were standing, but either got shot down en route or had their charges die before they could make it...

The final two head for home, but ended up running off into the night never to be seen again.

By this stage, I was tempted to reload.

I didn't.

The month ended. I had negative funds, and a dreadful score. The council of funding nations was not amused. Not at all!

There was little for it. I had to get a commander. I grabbed another team of eight (as I could not afford ten) and sent them off to a base, armed with whatever I had in stock. This meant that some of them were only carrying stun rods.

But they were re-equiped as the aliens fell, and before I knew it, I had my commander.

Dragged the thing back to base and stuck it on the table. However, much to my annoyance, this did not result in the location of Cydonia.

So off I went to find a squad leader.

The month ended, and to my infinite surprise, I was still in business.

Got the squad leader, a new squad, and a new base to raid. So off I went.

It was an etheral base.

So in I rolled, grabbing ammo as I went, bee-lining the core center. There was NO WAY I was going to be able to clear out the base, I just had to grab the commander and RUN.

So I did.

Plasma bolts whirled past my troops from unseen places, all I could do was send of a rocket or two and hope. Sectopods roamed through the corridors as my iron clad warriors neared the center of the base. Some were forced to break ranks and turn on their comrades; I could do nothing but shot them down as they did so.

Finally, two soldiers made it to the door to the command center. They ran in, and sent out my only two stun bombs. The commander went down cold. Grabbed him, RAN.

Furthar pyschic attacks slowed my progress no end.

In the end, I had to shoot down a panicking trooper who was blocking the commander lying on the ground... Another troop, while trying to escape the command center was shot FIVE TIMES by HEAVY PLASMAS. He took no damage. Superhuman mode, too, couldn't believe it.

Got him and the last troop (who had the alien over his shoulder) to the lift and got the heck out.

Fired Mr. Invincible (very low psy resist, even if he could catch plasma in his bare hands).

Hired another nine men, and a few tanks, took my remaining plasmas and clips and threw them on board the ship along with my blaster launchers. Sent the whole lot off to Cydonia as soon as that Etheral **** spilt his knowledge.

I had been playing for nearly a whole day straight. It was 11pm, and by this stage, my bro wanted me off the machine so he could log on to UO. He did let me do this mission, though, and here's how it turned out.

I first sent out the tanks to scout out where the lift was, unequipping my troops before hand to prevent psy chaos.

The first two tanks were destroyed. Another hit a dead end. The last found the lift shaft, which my troops bee-lined.

THEN the psy strikes started.

Half my troops were on the ground. The other half were flying above. This is the reason why only half the squad was killed when the blaster bomb was fired.

Half of the remaining freezed on the spot, leaving the remnants to break for the goal. Three of them made it. Only one actually made it into the lift, a girl named Astra. As the psy attacks increased in intensity, the remaining men ran from the lift, firing randomly as they went.

So Astra went down alone.

The second part of the mission began. Astra spent the first five turns firing plasma into random walls. I spent my time moving the cursor around the map, trying to work out from the darkened sillouttes where the brain was.

I found it.

Astra set off, carrying a heavy plasma and a laser rifle. Due to stocking here up on ammo, the plasma was still usable. She neared the brain chamber, and encountered a Sectopod!

It was a fair way away. My choices were varied; but I opened fire. A miss, a hit, and another hit. The thing took the lot, returned fire, and thus ended humanity.

Throughout the entire thing - from the first mission to the end of the game - I'd been saving regulary. I could have loaded to the start of that mission and done it again. Instead, I deleted UFO off that drive (not my OWN drive, no indeedy! ).

But I will return! I will prevail! I'll kill 'em all, no reloads, on superhuman one day... just you all wait... last time I send a single rookie off to bash the motherbrain... eh...

Oh, I forgot to mention. That first sectoid craft gave me fifty elerium. All up, throughhout the entire game, nearly all engines were destroyed by my ships cannons. I would have had less then 250 units throughout the entire game to play with. It could have been a lot easier then it was; that stuff really can be used to your advantage - when you have it.

ad Astra per aspera
Inspiring!

Gah... I took Latin for 3 years and I used to be able to translate that...

I know that it's Towards the Stars something something. Ad Astra. Could even give you all the grammar if you like.

Yeah, well, it would have been a lot more inspiring if she'd won...

JellyfishGreen: On a recent X-COM base defense mission I totally forgot about the 80 item limit which made things very interesting...

Seems that the only thing I had at the base was:

6 stun rods
plenty of proximity grenades and normal grenades
one heavy cannon plus lots of HE and IN ammo
one auto cannon plus lots of HE and IN ammo
two rocket launchers with a good supply of rockets
4 heavy plasmas but no ammo!

I thought "Oh, drat!, No firing weapons except the cannons and rocket launchers. Now what?!?" It turned out that the aliens were Snakemen and Chryssalids. Just great! My base was well built defensively, having the living quarters and general stores near the lift, and plenty of soldiers, but hardly any weapons. I armed my best soldiers with the stun rods, hid them in the General Stores next to the Access Lift, and went to work. Every round a Snakeman would appear from the Access Lift, and every round one of my soldiers would stun the alien while another veteran grabbed the body and hauled the poor alien upstairs for observation. I was laughing so hard I almost peed my pants! Pretty soon there was a huge pile of stunned Snakemen upstairs but no Chryssalids.

Having a sneaking suspicion that there has to be a Chryssalid somewhere, I prepared for the worse. Eventually found the guy in the last hanger. My soldiers with flying suits would go to the ground and stun the alien once and then go in the air until the next round. Finally the Chryssalid went down quietly and the mission ended. No alien ever got a shot off or even had an opportunity to do so!

All told, I never used the cannons, rocket launcher, or grenades for fear they might destroy the weapons. Never did get around to picking up and using the aliens' weapons either, because I was too busy stunning. Sure, I could of picked them up and used them but the stunning was going so well! It just goes to show that stun rods are a satisfactory weapon even if it was a last ditch effort! From now on I will arm each of my bases with 6 stun rods and a few vets to use them just in case. Now if I could only get myself to clean out those General Stores more often...

That was inspiring .
Far better than my "~40 plasma cannon base defense".
It was my first base-defense,and I forgot to keep enough
lasers in-base.And in the equipment screen I see ~40
plasma cannons.I armed everyone with one,and put them by the
door,waiting for the unfortunate chrysalids to come out.

You should know what happened then,I would be surprised
if you don't.

Hmm, sounds like a "rifle butt to the face" scenario to me...

Heh, I have a fondness for base defense scenarios...

Zombie - I have a picture of a Snakeman with a pillowcase over his head, zipcuffed arms behind his back, being heaved into a darkened storeroom on top of his buddies. "Right, that looks like the lot. 20K each, and a 1K cut for me, and 5K for Big Dave as a gift."

MHoz - 40 heavy plasma - that hadn't been researched yet, I'm guessing, like one of my mistakes? "Hey, does anyone know where the ON switch is for these things? No? Anyone? Because someone's at the door..."
Plan B: "rocket tank, wounded veterans, and antique pistol" defense worked, luckily.

My bet is he didn't have any clips.

JellyfishGreen - You really seem to hit the nail on the head here! A hog-tied Snakeman stuffed into a burlap sack and gagged with an old sock is always strangely satisfying, especially when it wakes up and finds itself in the same boat as his buddies! Pretty soon NATO will show up saying there are reports of "mistreatment of POWs", and the local humane society will try to rescue the brutally neglected animals. Hey - all in the name of research, right? Send me that picture and I will frame it and place it next to the one of a whole family of Mutons getting a face-full of a red hot blaster bomb!

After successfully defending my base from that Snakeman attack (the same one which I only used stun rods) a curious thing happened. The aliens decided not to attack my base anymore. They probably were freaked out that I won the mission with only cattle prods! I guess they must have put their base attack missions on hold to reevaluate the situation. I can hear their discussion now:

Commander: "So you mean to tell me that those soldiers successfully defended their base only using stun rods?"
Leader: "Yeah, these guys are good"
Commander: "I believe we better rethink this whole idea of attacking their bases. What would happen if they had actual guns?"
Leader: "Let's not find out! I vote not to go back there for awhile."
Engineer: "I second that motion."
Commander: "All those in favor of holding off attacks say AYE"
[All the Snakemen in the room say AYE, and the Chryssalid just grunts (Ha, Ha!)]
Commander: "Well, the 'AYE-s' have it. The next order of business is... "

I always found that they just keep sending battleships until you lose the base (or end the game)...

Must have been a Chysallid Commander.

Bomb Bloke - Yep, usually that is the case. But two months later, still no attacks on my base (or any of my bases for that matter)!
I always found that these raids would continue even after successfully defending your base.
This time, they just suddenly stopped. That was unusual.

Ahhhh... You're right! A wacko Chryssalid Commander would explain things nicely! :wacko:

It's more likely you were able to fend of each and every alien group that was targeting your base, and have been successful in not attracting any more attention to your base.

You can have multiple groups of the same race of aliens seek out your base and attack it at the same time. Once they find your base, the group that found it will not stop attacking the base until they at least get a chance at inserting troops through your defenses (no, I don't know where their endless supply of battleships come from). What happens to the troops in question doesn't really matter. As long as the troops are in, the attacking group will completely forget where your base is, or was, and never attack again. (Yes, they're a bit dim in that respect )

You will, of course, have to defend yourself against any other groups that have found your base too, which can give the impression that you're having a continuous series of attacks. But once they're all gone and you manage to keep a low enough profile (i.e. don't shoot down ships too close to a base), the attacks will come less and less.


- NKF

Have you ever wondered what happens to the masses of fallen battleships after your base blows them out of the sky?... Unless your defenses actually disintergrate them completely there would be a pile of them a mile high

I've got a possible answer to that one Pumpkinhead... the alien alloy is of course 'alien' in nature... which is why when it gets broken up our earth's climate causes it to decay away. It would certainly explain away why alien crash sites 'disappear' if you don't hit them right away. And since the entire craft is made of that alloy... well it makes sense that a thousand battleships falling about your base could logically happen without seeing huge walls of debris if its decomposing rapidly. Besides which... if I was an alien and saw a huge pile of spacecraft debris around a spot in the middle of nowhere... well let's just say that I'd be nuking it... enough said. :evilgrin:

Given that your ship cannons often entirely destroy ships, it seems quite reasonable that your base defense cannons would be quite capable of achieving the same...

That would take some major fire-power to vapourise an entire battleship

And as for the crashed UFOs disappearing: Maybe the surviving aliens call for help and strip the wreck for spare parts

You would have known if it had been a Chyrsallid commander, the battle ship wouldn't have headed straight for your base, it would flown towards your base, then away, then back, then away, then back, then away, then.....