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I find the brainsucker launcher quite flavourful. It drives home the idea that the aliens aren't really thinking about this properly at the start, expecting to get little/no resistance and thus equipping their beachhead with an infiltration tool (as brainsuckers are the key to The Real Alien Threat) rather than, y'know, a weapon. There's a lot of UFOpaedia entries noting that they slowly shift away from infiltration toward combat and eventually to sheer spite with Overspawn and the Apocalypse Mission. They also keep you on your toes tactically, adding enjoyment and also blocking off certain tactical options (1-man squads, in particular, are effectively closed off because brainsuckers from launchers come from unexpected directions and frequently won't be seen/targetted until they're on someone's head).

Light Cruiser Part 1 This mission is on an arctic map which will be a change of scenery for us. On turn 3 we spot a Rider by the corner of the UFO which Nook will shoot at: The first bullet hits for 24 damage and kills it. The other bullets would have hit too: The next turn Silencer spots another Rider in the same area and Nook will shoot at this one too: He hits it for 45 damage which is obviously a kill. A couple turns later Silencer spots a Bonesetter in the usual location and it's Nook who will take the shot: Three full auto shots later and the thing is still alive: Of course, he isn't using the U238 ammo so it's understandable there will be lots of absorption going on. But all the hits add up to more xp which he's after. The first bullet of his last auto shot hits for 45 and finally kills the thing: Free death aura. Eight turns later there's more Rider activity in the usual area by the UFO. Nook will shoot yet again: The first bullet hits for an impressive 55 damage and kills it: During the alien's turn, Silencer reaction fires at a temporarily hidden Rider behind those two columns in the center of the screen. The first bullet hits for 10 but more are on the way: The second did a decent 40 and killed it (at least the corpse is visible now): Honestly, I'm not sure how Silencer had the angle on that, but I'm not complaining one little bit. Four turns later Silencer spots another Bonesetter by the door of the UFO. Nook has one bullet left in his clip so he'll take a snap shot at the thing first: It deals a surprising 38 damage. Time to switch to U238 ammo for the auto shot: The first bullet hits for 50 and kills it: Then nothing happens for a number of turns. It sounds like maybe a Bonesetter is near the small building in back of the pillars so I have Full Auto shoot at the wall with his photon beamer to open things up. Bingo, it's right there too: I don't want to risk reaction fire from it in order to get Nook into a position to shoot so he'll toss an Inferno Grenade as close to it as he can: The blast didn't even register damage on the Bonesetter. Nook then threw a DG1 grenade at it which did no damage either. But the blast did open up the wall more and this gives Silencer a chance at tossing another grenade on it: The first hit for 20 and the second was absorbed: Disappointing showing guys. Accounting Troll shoots at it and hits for 43 damage which kills it: You can see that the crew is covering each other fairly well. There are usually multiple soldiers in a position to help in case someone gets into a pinch. We've also uncovered most of the map now and haven't found anything of interest. It takes the team a few turns to converge on the UFO and start the breaching process. The door to the right room inside the UFO is open so Silencer will toss a photon grenade in there: Four turns later Crazy Gringo opens the other door in the room looking back into the center and sees that the two far doors are also open. The one going to the bridge has a Bonesetter so he'll throw an Inferno Grenade at it: The blast does 47 damage. We'll just roast it in it's shell for a little bit. In the meantime Nook will "explore" the other small room by tossing a normal grenade inside: Nothing. Well, I guess the Bonesetter came out of there and ran into the bridge like a scaredy cat.Join me next time for part two where we start to get into it with the bridge crew, but Nook, Silencer and Pete get ambushed by a sneaky (glitchy?) rogue bonesetter. We persevered with multiple layers of reaction fire and then deal with the last bonesetter holdout. After the mission there will be 2 promotions, and back in the geoscape we finish our research and deal with manufacturing and shoot down the next UFO. Stay tuned for that next! - Zombie

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