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[The Veteran]

Ok so here's the reason I've been trying so hard to get Apocalypse running on one of my systems and additionally why it's been so frustrating trying to get screenshots to work! Anyway, all of that is now sorted, thanks to advice from members here, so here is some light reading for fans of the game!

Firstly I have to state my position on the game as I was never a big fan but then I've never really given it a great deal of time and even my most recent playthrough would have been on a far too easy setting and riddled with reloads.

For this playthrough I'm going to be following suit of the other AARs here and going for Superhuman Ironman. No loading except for continuing the game from a quit or a crash. If you haven't seen the other AARs here go and check them out now, UFO : Enemy Unknown and Terror from the Deep.

Now I'll confes to having one 'warmup' mission on this game before settling into what you're about to read but it was by no means a cheat. In fact if only I'd have been taking screenshots when I played through the first mission originally I would've done much better off! I setup my base and saved the game while I was still trying to get screenshots to work so there was much quitting and reloading and eventually (still unable to figure out screenies) I decided to just play a mission for Nostalgia's sake to get me back into the feel of the game.

The mission was in the same location as the first one I did for real so I guess it already determined location when I first saved the game. Anyway I went along with the 10 troopers I started out with and their default loadouts. Fought the blue things and loads of brainsuckers but only lost one unit to that attack and noone else at all. Final enemy count had only been 3 Bloo's and one BS! But as I had no pictures I figured I couldn't use it so I didn't even save...

Then I worked it out and went back to the first save and here's what happened when I started playing for real!

First thing I did for this was piece together a complete overhead map of the city on Superhuman ( I think I'm right that difficulty level increases it's size) so here it is. My base is the warehouse in the west, better than the poxy slums! It's surrounded by a blue square.


As I've been away from the game for so long I didn't do very much in the cityscape so I'm hoping I remembered everything (after all the forumla remains the same as the first 2 games) I started building a security station at the only good situation I could see for it and also an extra living quarters as after hiring a few more biochemists and Quantum physicists I found myself full up on personnel! Started researching Dimension gates and bio-transport units and then did some shopping to lose some of Apoc's worse weapons. Decided to stay basic and for now equip my ten man team as two, five man squads. Each squad has a sniper for long range support, 2 machine guns with 2 reloads each and 2 cannons loaded with AP rounds, 1 reload of each ammo type per trooper. I also ditched the smoke grenades (who needs cover right?!) and went along with each trooper carrying 2 HE and 2 stun grenades with personal medikits for each trooper.

The base now looks like this;


So I let some time pass while my new scientists and equipment arrived and no sooner had I finished equipping the squads as above than I got my first alert. That's one freaky siren by the way, sounds broken! It was as I mentioned in the same building as I'd played my rather successful practice round so I was confident. Especially now my troops didn't have those pathetic stun grapples and lawpistols and such! The Valkyrie Interceptor took all 10 soldiers across the slums in the city-centre and soon arrived at the megapol building to bail out the coppers.


The troops recieved a quick briefing after enjoying a light lunch on the flight over and then split into their five man squads.



Now it was time to get it on! Thankfully the building was arranged differently this time as I would've felt at an unfair advantage had it been the same as the one I'd just played but the rearrangement of components I knew was still fairly good for a first mission. The map seems to be fairly small and only 3 floors, the top of which is just empty space and the bottom of which is a sort of basement/sewer area.

In my last playthrough all of the aliens were in a small assembly-like area near the basement and the only lost trooper died because of poor pathfinding. I clicked to go up some stairs by selecting a ground floor square but instead of ascending the steps this idiot walked TO the square I'd clicked and got brainsucked due to lack of backup and TUs :S I'm playing in turn-based by the way but I'll probably experiment with both along the way to see which I prefer and which better suits an AAR.

My two squads started at opposite ends of the small map but with relatively little ground to cover I felt particularly confident about this forray. I sent the uppermost Squad1 North to find the edge of the building and they found nothing interesting for a very long time. Squad 2 at the bottom moved out of therir one-way corridor into more corridor and began some systematic door opening and room searching.


On the above image all 4 sides of the map are already visible so it really isn't that big. On only the second or third turn we made first contact as Jurgen, the Squad2 Sniper spots a strange blue creature through the plexiglass door in the corridor ahead of him. Line of sight maybe but he can't get a shot off so he takes a knee and holds position at a great distance while Squad1 attempts to flank the position from the north. A second alien is also spotted in the same stretch of corridor next turn and in the hidden movement a total of 3 are seen walking the same stretch of hall!


Squad1 is confident that they won't encounter any hostile forces in their end of the building with 3 already spotted to the south so they continue the door-opening operations with wanton abandon and continue the march to outflank the Bloos. Meanwhile the 2 soldiers holding the corridor north of squad2 take position in the room directly to their right and take positions by the next door.

Disaster strikes! Squad 2's scout team are completely surprised as the door they're watching opens on the alien turn to reveal no less than 2 Bloos and a barrage of brainsuckers commences!

There are no survivors...

The southern troops of Squad2 now find themselves flanked by their own former teammates so while Virgil continues to hold the corridor to the East the remaining 2 troopers move to cover the doorway of the now heavily occupied room to the north.


The door guard of Shigeru, armed with an MG, and sniper Jurgen attempt to storm the position and each toss grenades set to detonate on impact. The first falls right in the doorway but no serious damage is done and the second grenade finds it's target but mysteriously never explodes... Both troopers withdraw and prepare for a possible outbreak.

The very next alien turn the breakout is imminent! One of the brainsucked troopers rushes straight past the doorguard with no reaction fire and the surrounding area proceeds to erupt spectacularly! It seems this former ally has switched to incendiary ammo and the narrow corridors make the next few turns a nightmare!


Miraculously noone is seriously hurt with only 1 trooper taking slight damage. In XCom's turn Jurgen snipes the rogue Commie several times with no results and subsequently takes cover in the office directly opposite. Shigeru lays down some automatic fire with multiple hits but the brainsucked Commie appears oblivious to the multiple wounds and stays standing. Shigeru attempts to flee from the soldier and the fire and leaves to the North but doesn't quite make it round the corner.

Meanwhile Virgil who was left guarding the Eastern corridor moves to assist in the hope of preventing any further incendiary fire but while 4 AP hits from his autocannon extract multiple screams from the zombie, it still doens't fall... Further assistance arrives from the North as a detatched member of Squad1, Michiko, joins the fight. 3 aimed shots fly past Shigeru but despite more hits the creature still doesn't fall.


In the next alien turn Virgil's last wish is that he'd continued to cover the Eastern approach as no sooner has he turned his back to it he finds his brains inside out and his dinner in his pants. The other errant Commie proceeds to fuel the fire right at his feet by letting off several more incendiary rounds but again noone is hurt and the brainsucker's offspring seems to be unaffected by the smoke inhalation...

[The Veteran]

With flame and smoke now filling the corridor, Jurgen is beginning to think he's chosen the wrong office to retreat to! With only one exit he's forced to return to the doorway but despite more hits at point blank range there is still no kill so he returns to his cover inside the office. Shigeru, almost safely in cover, turns to gift his former comrade with a few parting gifts and finally, riddled with holes, the rogue agent falls. Job done, Shigeru continues to move to cover, away from the fire. He soon meets up with Michiko from Squad1 who is also seeking refuge from the heat. He now joins Squad 2, bringing them back up to 3 men.


Drama aplenty for Squad2, Squad1 is still yet to make contact but finally a door-opening reveals a lone Bloo to one of the advancing fireteams. The second fireteam is in the very next room and makes it's way to the corridor to assist while the discoverers hold their ground.


As the fire spreads in the southwest, Jurgen is forced to retreat further into the office and take cover behind a desk. The remaining members of Squad2 continue moving north to escape the fire, leaving Jurgen more and more isolated. Meanwhile the new Bloo has launched a brainsucker but it fails to attach and takes a breather by Squad1 long enough to receive an MG round to the sucker.


Grigoriy has attempted to snipe the blighter from a flanking position by now which has left his teammate trapped in the room behind him! the western fireteam proceed to follow up their successful kill with a grenade and some autocannon fire but everything misses and the Bloo scuttles off round a corner.

In the alien movement phase there is a further explosion as the dead XCommers grenades are engulfed by the flames and smoke and shrapnel fill the corridor. The stun grenades also release their gas, making Jurgen feel a little woosy but being mostly contained in the hallway with Virgil. As Jurgen stands to check out the damage he spots another Bloo just meters away from him sneaking through the flames like they're party decorations.


Thinking fast Jurgen tosses a grenade at the monster and knocks it out with a few rounds from his laser. He then feels woozy again and returns to his cover behind the desk. As the flames spread in the alien turn, the Bloo screams it's last and dies in the flames as yet another one replaces it appearing again in the doorway! 3 shots from his rifle quickly put down yet another alien and Jurgen is beginning to feel much better about his situation. Troopers in the hallway hear a distinct 'Is that all you got' but Jurgen later denies so much as a whisper.


With some progress finally being made in Jurgen's little office-bunker, Squad1 detach 2 troopers to scout the basement which takes a great deal of time and is completely fruitless. The remaining 2 troopers in the East continue to pursue the brainsucker throwing Bloo along the corridor, door-opening along the way of course.

Jurgen repeats his stand up, kill Bloo, take cover routine but this time he sees brainsucked Virgil instead! He puts 3 good shots into the traitor but is not rewarded with a kill this time. He takes cover again and fears the worst but thankfully the Commie panics, giving him another turn to deal with this particular hostile. Except this time when he stands up again there are 2 of them!


With the Commie still panicking and Jurgen seriously reconsidering his choice in aftershave he lays into the new Bloo and 4 hits from his laser bring it down. The fire is finally beginning to burn out in the office but it's still smoking out the rest of Squad 2 so Shigeru and Michiko turn tail and run for fresh air, unable to assist with the panicking traitor. With the coward going another alien turn and still failing to pull himself together Jurgen takes a few shots at him from the safety of the desk but only scores one hit.

By this point the members of Squad2 not in the basement have come full circle with no sign of the Bloo they were chasing so they deduce it's been killed by powerhouse Jurgen. The German is meanwhile busy priming however and is quick to place a stun grenade by the brainsucked soldier which puts him sweetly into sleep mode. He rushes through the dwindling smoke and strips the body of his gun and explosives just to be on the safe side then makes his escape from the inferno around him.


A lot of walking around, opening-doors and avoiding fires ensues as no more alien activity is forthcoming. Still unsure of the third suckers fate, the men are on the lookout for one of their own gone rogue. They find him soon enough in a flanking manoeuvre on the central rooms, where he was first sucked all those turns ago...


Once again it's Jurgen who is first to spot the foe and after a few rounds of unsuccessful combat the others come to his aid. It's quickly a veritable bullet-fest in the small of the baddies back but still there's no death. Just a lot of panicking and red-stuff.

Sarah shortly arrives with her AP cannon and immediately after expending all her time units she spots a live brainsucker at her feet! Luckily Yuzo is nearby and assists with lethal MG fire, killing the brainsucker and panicking the rogue agent. Outnumbered, outgunned and absolutely crapping their pants, the final enemy is soon wrapped up, suprisingly by rookie Sarah!


The mission is over and the fire is almost out. Shame about the office though...


I was very suprised by the result it gave me for this mission as although I'm gutted to have lost 3 troops it went pretty well given the concentration of opponents poor Jurgen faced! I'm not often a big proponent of grenades either but in this case they were vital, especially the stun grenade in close quarters. Anyway, I was expecting -30 for losing the agents but what exactly caused me to receive the rest of these awful scores?


Combat rating -2? fcuk off! I killed at least twice as many aliens as I lost operatives and that's not even really counting the brainsuckers! Equipment captured 0... So the aliens didn't have any weapons then no? What about the corpses? They don't count as recovered aliens? And a leadership of 2 yippee! Makes up for the combat rating at least!!!

So I ask you why such a poor result? When I played the first time (admittedly I only lost 1 soldier) I got a really good score, so what happened here? Obviously I'll carry on and hopefully with practice, advice adn experience gained along the way I won't frequent negative scores but seriously how can there even BE a negative score? I WON!!!!

[The Veteran]

I cannot believe my bad luck today! If the score on that last mission weren't bad enough I've just done a second one to try and remedy my score. This time the target was a Nanotech Appliance Factory, very strange place full of robot bodies so I imagine it's some sort of futuristic adult business...

Anyway it's the most incredibly tense mission I've ever played and it sucked! It took 18 turns to find the first alien at which point there was only one remaining part of the map that I hadn't already checked! Anyway that's not even the most annoying thing about this mission. Apocalypse stores screenshots under automatic names of Apoc0-9 and then apoca-z allowing for a maximum of 36 screenshots at any one time... I didn't delete my last lost of screens so I have a total of 4 from this mission and one was arriving at the scene, a second was deployment. None of the images I have even shows an alien! So I haven't bothered going to the trouble of uploading and linking them. Probably won't either! I HAVE deleted all the other pics now though so next mission will be fine and I'll just have to remember that problem in future.

EDIT: Just transferred over what few pictures I had of this mission and pasted them into this post!

So anyway there's very little excitement on this mission, lots of crates but mostly wide open spaces. I went along with 6 troopers allowing the 7th a little bed rest to heal his wounds. They went in two 3-man fireteams of sniper/cannon/MG and for the most part they stayed pretty closely grouped, each team scouting a different side of the map.

The building we went to is actually right next door to the police station we were just in so presumably a few of them managed to escape the last lockdown or something as there wasn't much activity here at all!!! Here's the Valkyrie as it arrives, note the building behind it where our last mission was...


One of the only features of this map (sorry no screenshot!) is a big room with a conveyor belt in it and lots of mannequins. There are gantries up at the 3rd level and 2 of my guys working closely together found the first Bloo up there. Here are the pics I do have. First one is the very beginning of the mission showing the very edges of the large tower structures that run along the top and bootm of the East side of this map. The second one shows the 3 southern towers and the very corner of one of the northern 3. The western side of the map consisted mostly of the conveyor room I mentioned.



Remembering my awful score from last time and expecting this to be the only alien I changed their HE nades to stunners and the blighter passed out in the hidden movement. No game over though so there was at least one more. I had one of the boys collect the brainsucker gun and single shot of ammo just in case he woke up and moved on. (bearing in mind this guy never fired it does appear that's the only weapon they have on the early missions.

After polishing off the exploration of the last few nooks and crannies I had both squads start sweeping the area again and 5 turns later I finally saw the git whizz straight through the middle of one squad and promptly disappear again. Another 4 turns pass with all 6 troops searching for the swine and finally we see him coming out of the conveyor room. Everyone takes cover and then pops off a few shots before hiding again.

Nothing brings him down and he launches a BS-pod at sniper Grigoriy who subsequently runs around a bit before finally managing to lick it off his face then stamp it to death. It didn't occur to me at the time that this alien was probably now weaponless but he had no chances for a further attack anyway so it's fairly inconsequential.

I had Grigoriy's Squad1 who were nearest the Bloo lob 2 stun grenades at the ugly sod and then Yuzo unloaded about half a clip of MG fire into it before it finally died.

Mission over, seriously, that was it...

Score was about 48 I think but of course I don't have the screen any-more so breakdown is impossible. I can however, further criticise the scoring system of this game by pointing out I got a big fat 0 for the alien I'd stunned... Sure I don't have any means of transport for it yet so it would've died but surely that means I score for 2 dead aliens? Nope just 10 points for one of them, apparently the other one escaped on the way home.

I'm also puzzled to see no alien items in my saleable inventory. Am I looking in the wrong place or do these weapons and corpses just disappear into thin air when home? My guy who picked up the brainsucker launcher still had it in his backpack back at base but the pod had vanished. And NOW I can research the launcher but I couldn't before so that means I really did recover NOTHING from that first mission!!!

I think I got better leadership this time, maybe 20? But regardless the score was still not all that great and I find myself with nothing to sell for the second time so where does my money come from? Ideally I want to replace my road vehicles and hovercars with a few more Valkyries till my research provides something better (and that's a long way off! I can't even remember the apoc tech tree!)

So to this point I'm more annoyed with the game mechanics than rediscovering the game in a new light but I WILL keep going and I'm sure my experience will improve as I re-learn how to do things and remember to empty the screenshot folder :s

Won't be doing anymore tonight but will update as and when I find time

[The Veteran]

Ok so here's the next instalment! There's actually another one to follow immediately after this too, but first it's cityscape time! In the aftermath of the stressful but not particularly challenging mission at the Nanotech factory things were pretty quiet. I built another quantum-physics lab and another biochemistry one too as it seems 5 researchers per project is completely lame if I want to make any progress. I already had extra scientists doing nothing so seemed silly not to.

Soon enough though we spotted our first UFO incursion, entering the city through a portal far to the south-east of our base. I sent the Stormdog and 2 hovercars after it immediately but after a long absence from playing I'd forgotten these guys come through in swarms.


Final count was 4 in the SE, 2 of the tinned puddings and 2 alien grenades, and a futhre pudding to the West, much nearer the base. The Valkyrie was sent to intercept the lone UFO in the West while the Hovercars continued to their original destination in the SE. The Stormdog was diverted to assist the Valkyrie in the west but it's outdated dependence on roads for transport made it a complete chocolate teapot so it was later sent back to base in disgrace wihtout any alien contact whatsoever.


The Valkyrie however soon showed it's worth by downing the Western-most pudding UFO but not before it had urinated all over the Energen power station. It then diverted to the SE to assist the hovercars with the four remaining UFOs.


Pudding number 2 meanwhile was also urinating in a public place but with no XCom officials to issue a fixed penalty notice they got away scot free and returned to the dimension gate unhampered, leaving the Nutrivend Mall in a very sorry state. The two alien grenade UFOs escorted the pudding back to the gate while the remaining pudding moved North through the city.


The hovercars and Valkyrie were hot on it's tail however and it was intercepted and destroyed with ease. Unfortunately, if I'd have been a bit more patient, it seems I would've seen the alien grenades again as after escorting the last pudding back home they had changed course to rendezvous with this one. Sadly they retreated back to their own dimension as soon as the final shot connected with the pudding and with all of my craft unable to pursue them they escaped.


Spying a Cult of Sirius hoverbike not too far away I decided to send my hovercars after it and at the same time the Valkrie was loaded with soldiers and sent to the downed UFO at Energen's power station just South of the base. I wasn't watching the hoverbike but it disappeared with no 'hostile vehicle destroyed' message so I guess it escaped. The bridge wasn't so lucky however and a few misplaced hits from the hovercars reduced it to rubble...


Meanwhile the UFO by the power station turned out to be unmanned and so it was promptly strapped to the Valkrie and brought back to base. I'm curious as to where the aliens have gone so I'll be keeping an eye on Energen's building for a while but I've not played for a while so I don't know if it's important.


Week One over! Feels like more than a week doesn't it? That's 2 days realtime to play an in-game week lol This writing stuff and all the messing round with screenshots doesn't speed things up!



Just after the week was out my research into Dimension Gates finished so I already set the guys working on UFO Type 2.


And that's it for this update, though a tactical mission is coming up, where do you suppose it could be?!

[The Veteran]

Nope it's not Energen's power plant! Remember the other one that defiled Nutrivend's Shopping Mall? Well not long after returning the crashed UFO to base we get a call that a live alien has been spotted there! So we load up the Valkyrie again and it's off we go!

This time we have 8 squad members now that Shigeru's previous wounds have healed. He joins Jurgen (my super-sniper), Michiko and Sarah on Squad 2 and Squad 1 has brought along XCom's first robo-rookie for field testing. Programmed to answer to the name 'Stefan' he's armed with an MG and joins Grigoriy, Yuzo and David.

This mission starts with both squads grouped together at the centre of a rather narrow level, though 8 levels and a decent map-length make up for that and the first enemy is spotted immediately! It's Godzilla!!!


We decide his advertising board probably doesn't count as a weapon and as it's XCom policy not to shoot an un-armed reptile we leave him be for now. Squad 1 is positioned to the east and after an initial plan to continue travelling in that direction falls through they instead decide to venture down to the basement levels and clear the tunnels beneath the megamall!


Squad2 meanwhile decide to head West slightly and move into the higher level gantries to gain a better view of the supermarket and see if GAP has any deals on. They move through the garden area and take positions at the top of the lift, covering both directions with plenty of TUs to spare for reaction fire.


In the first few turns the troops start hearing a hissing that doesn't seem consistent with the life-forms encountered so far so they're on their guard. Jurgen and Michiko take the Southern gantry while Sarah and Shigeru go north. Sarah braves the corner first and almost immediately spots a big wierd looking thing...


Shigeru moves up to cover Sarah but neither attempt to open fire as they have no idea what the wierd looking lump is. Jurgen and Michiko continue to press south and end the turn overlooking the ramp from the level below. It's lucky they were as in the hidden movement a Bloo turns up on said ramp and there are sightings of multiple worm-aliens crossing the garden below and heading to the lift behind them!


At the beginning of XCom's next turn, the only visible aliens are the weird lumpy thing in the room to the north and the lone Bloo on the ramp leading to Squad2's position. Everyone saw the worms though so Shigeru moves back around the corner to regain LOS with the lift. Somehow he manages to walk right past a worm next to Sarah, not spotting it until he also sees another two of them in the walkways. One is directly behind sniper Jurgen while the third is in the SW corner of the gantries, quite a way from anyone.


Sarah spins around, alerted by Shigeru's girly squeal, and quickly puts the first worm to rest with a well aimed AP shot from her cannon. Jurgen follows suit and turns to face his own attacker but it takes 4 shots from his laser to bring it down leaving him exhausted for this round! Having just witnessed the speed at which the worms can move, the other troopers are not keen to leave the third worm alive and chaos ensues. Shigeru takes careful aim at the worm from the North but despite 6 shots, only one of them finds it's mark and there is no confirmed kill. Sarah leaps around the corner and takes a few more shots with her cannon but this time has no luck. Finally, only Michiko is left and he primes a grenade with a sickening smile. Then he proceeds to throw it precisely 5 feet, destroying all of the glass walls around him and Jurgen but thankfully doing no injuries. He then fires 6 aimed shots at the worm with 3 confirmed hits but there is still no kill! Everyone is very tense when the turn ends...


The surviving worm makes a beeline for my hero Jurgen and inflicts a critical wound but the German refuses to fall! The northern fireteam of Squad2 watches as the Bloo launches a brainsucker pod but is unable to see where it lands. Jurgen starts off the XCom turn by applying a medikit to his badly broken arm and then returns the insult by blasting the worm to pieces with a point blank shot from his rifle. Michiko now turns his attention to the Bloo and lays down full automatic fire in his general direction. Shots fly wildly and first one side of the gantry is destroyed, followed swiftly by the other. The alien is now unable to reach the agents but he's still unhurt and having just witnessed some serious collapses the team is now very nervous! With the Bloo's glass protection removed, Michiko switches to single shots and 5 hits bring the Bloo down just like the walkway!

The Northern fireteam are still unable to locate the recently released brainsucker and with all the worms dead they now take positions on the Northern walkway and cover the small building with the blob alien in. Squad1 has meanwhile been very busy in the basement and now reports it is all clear and head back up to the surface, Yuzo and Grigoriy emerging the next turn while David and robo-rookie are some distance behind them.


As Grigoriy and Yuzo emerge from the maintenance elevator, they're quick to spot an entirely new kind of alien and Yuzo instinctively squeezes off a few rounds at the ugly monster. Hearing of the collapses to their West, Yuzo deliberately aims for the bridge structure the creature is on and it quickly succumbs, dropping the alien to the floor in a pile of twisted plasteel! Amazingly the creature has survived and worryingly a further 11 shots from the pair of troopers still fail to bring it down!


In the alien turn, Yuzo's pink alien spits at him twice and a tree behind him dissolves. This prompts him to classify the headless biped as a spitter and none of the other troopers seem to object. After making a brief attempt to escape after it's phlegm attack failed, the spitter instead decides to curl up into a ball under the collapsed walkway, most likely suffering heavy bleeding or smoke inhalation. The southern fireteam from Squad1 now descends the elevator and locates the errant brainsucker. It seems light foliage prevents proper deployment so the troopers make a mental note and give the egg a wide berth!


In the next alien turn another Spitter reveals itself to Squad 2, right back at the initial deployment zone. The civilians, after witnessing widespread collapse of unsafe gantry walkways, decide to head up the elevators and walk along the remaining structures. Unfortunately they remain stable and the idiots are spared from Darwin's law... In XCom's next turn Jurgen and Michiko take a few shots at the new Spitter but decide the range is too great for effective engagement and hide in the greenery instead.


After it moves a little closer, the soldiers wheel around and give it all they got! Jurgen lands an aimed laser bolt right in the spit-tube and Michiko follows up with 2 rounds from his MG to put another pinky to rest. Strangely there is still no engagement of the strange blobby thing to the north and another pink egg-like lifeform was also spotted in the same room but after this last spitter is killed the mission ends!


Can't pretend to be unhappy with this, lost noone, the squads proved to work very well together and my boy Jurgen narrowly escaped death by worm! Of course I still won't recover much as the bloody spitters weapons are attached to them and I still have no transporter but the score more than makes up for it!


On the Valkyrie's return to base, Jurgen was sent straight to the sickbay and another Russian was recruited as a space filler during his recovery. Dmitriy Maleev will become Squad2's sniper for the forseeable future.

The extortionate staff wages last week also lead me to sack a few extra members of research staff so I now have only 5 of each but they're the best in their field! The new labs will be finished before next week's wages are due but only just so I'll probably hold off hiring the next 10 eggheads till the next lot of upkeep is cleared.

That's it for today, more soon

[The Veteran]

Ok time for more updates, got 2 posts on their way like last time. One Cityscape, another tactical. Here's what happened in the city today...

Been a nice bit of research completed today which begs the question, how is it that these scientists can learn so much in one day? In four days I managed to do all of the following:

Brainsucker launcher was researched but my techies said it was useless to us so we move research onto the UFO we previously captured, type 2.

The bio-transport module is now also completed, leaving the biochemists to twiddle their thumbs while the workshop builds me one in quick-time. It's then bolted into the Valkyrie ready for it's next foray.

The Quantum-physisists are working overtime it seems and in a matter of hours the type 2 research is done.


At this point noone has anything to research so that's all happened in a matter of a day or so... What's that all about?

Anyway the peace doesn't remain for too long and soon our second alien invasion begins with a fleet identical to the first, though slightly differently distributed this time... We have one alien grenade UFO and the newly researched type 2 Alien Scout Ship in the West quite near to base so the Valkyrie is sent off to take care of them. A second scout ship emerges over the central slums and attracts the attention of both hovercars while a further scout and another grenade saucer appear far to the southeast.


The Valkyrie has recently had it's engine upgraded so it's even quicker to intercept the Western ships than last time. Having been briefed to capture the small UFO it engages it immediately, now aware that it will retreat if the vessel it escorts is eliminated. The interceptor takes a few hits but downs the vessel and immediately changes target to avoid accidental destruction. It then proceeds to polish off the scout that was accompanying the smaller craft and sets a new course to the 2 UFOs in the SE.


Meanwhile the Hovercars, which have also had improved engines fitted, fail to catch the UFO over the slums and it's seen urinating on one of them before being lost through the same gateway it arrived through. They instead alter course to intercept the UFOs to the SE with the Valkyrie and soon all the craft make contact not far South of the central slums. The Valkyrie proves itself to be the slower craft for the first time and arrives too late for the fight but the 2 hovercars focus fire on the scout and soon bring it down. Taking damage from the last remaining alien vessel they realise they prioritised the wrong target and just as the last alien craft crashlands so does a fleeing hovercar with 2 lives lost...


A quick look at a map of the area proves rather uplifting to the base commander and 4 intact but unmanned alien craft are swiftly recovered by the Valkyrie (which strangely doesn't need to return to bas ebetween pickups) The lost hovercar is promptly replaced and both remaining ground vehicles are put up for sale to cover the cost. The Valkyrie recieves a further engine upgrade as does the new hovercar, all now at maximum power but with basic armaments.


The scientists immediately get back to work on the new UFO that has been recovered and again in a matter of hours they unlock the secrets of the alien grenade UFO. A whole host of new troops now arrives at base taking the full compliment to 19, one short of my target for 2x10man teams in 5 man squads. After all, they have to sleep right and they haven't got a break yet so it only seems fair to give them a day off! Among the new troopers are a second android unit and XCom's first 2 mutants. Weapons and armour are ordered but they don't arrive in time for the next mission so the regulars attend again.


A look at the alien activity graph shows unwanted interest in Megapol, the gravball league and the Osiron slums which we already suspected. Nutrivend has now returned to normal levels after the successful purge by the commies but soon the base recieves a panicked call from a homeless guy with a cell-phone. He informs the troops that an alien has been seen peddling Psiclones in the recently infiltrated slums and the Valkyrie puts out immediately with 10 troopers.


The battle will follow shortly!

[The Veteran]

Ok so here we go to the slums! The troopers are worrying about dirty needles and tramps as much as they are about aliens here, none of them have ever ventured downtown before... The squads have been expanded but remain mostly the same as previous missions.

Squad one consists of Sniper Grigoriy, robo-rookie Stefan Gunkel on MG duties with Yuzo and newcomer Jacques and finally David Pearce wielding the autocannon preloaded with AP as always.

Squad two is led by super-sniper Jurgen Berger (not necessarily a super sniper but I love the guy), Michiko, Shigeru and rookie Dmitriy Maleev bringing the MGs to the battle and Sarah Pearce directing AP fire with the autocannon.

It's interesting that David and Sarah Pearce have both ended up with the auto-cannons, it really wasn't intentional but I guess heavy weapons must run in the family or something! Jacques and Dmitriy are both mutants, boasting incredible psionic defence but pretty low TUs

Now I don't recall this map even a little bit so it's really interesting to play it as if for the first time. I go in very nervous, keep plenty of spare TUs for everyone and move in groups no smaller than 2 while keeping the squads as closely bunched as possible (within reason of course) Squad 1 starts at the bottom of a medium sized 9 level map and begin moving west along the road there. Squad 2 moves North along the same road having started in the SE corner at its junction.


Squad 1 is quick to finish securing the road and they take up positions in the main gate, forming what I hope to be an impenetrable wall of fire should any movement be spotted in the courtyard area. Squad 2 continues scouting North and enters the compound swiftly. A small hut next to a graveyard is empty as, apparently, is the rest of the ground floor.


No hostile movements spotted and a lot of gross noises coming from above the team are certainly in for another new enemy here so it's good that they have the bio-transport module this time! Squad 1 move to secure the elevator while Sqyuad 2 take position at the bottom of the stairs. Jurgen spots a little worm on the first landing of the stairs and opens fire immediately, remembering how much the bugger hurt last time. There's no confirmed kill so Shigeru pokes his MG around the corner to assist but despite hits it still lives! The men take position all round the stairway but the worm doesn't move on the alien turn...


In the next XCom turn, Dmitriy steps up to splatter the worm but as he approaches it he spots one of the wierd big things that was also present at the Nutrivend mall. He quickly primes his grenade and lobs it up to the next landing but nothing dies. A follow up shot with his MG finishes the worm but he's unable to finish off the big thing. Meanwhile a further worm has been spotted on the stairway above Squad 2 but noone is able to hit it for now. Squad 1 move up the elevator with Yuzo and Stefan covering the shaft at level 4 while Grigory and David clear level 2 with Jacques in tow.


There are an increasing number of horrible sounds from the stairwell that Squad 2 is fighting it's way up and everyone is getting a little nervous. Sarah steps up to have a shot at the thing Dmitriy spotted and finds another one right beside it! She hurls in a HE nade with no kills and then tosses a stun grenade hoping to polish them off and bag a few live ones but still there's no luck. As Sarah returns to cover Dmitriy lays into them with controlled bursts and both soon end up in pieces.


Squad 1 has now finished clearing the 1st floor of the structure they're currently located in and Grigory and David now move back to the elevator. Jacques meanwhile has been slowing down the operation so much he's been relegated to cover the shaft while Yuzo and Stefan move in on the 2nd floor where they immediately run into another thing! Yuzo quickly opens up with his MG and inserts 14 high velocity rounds before the creature finally splits open!


Alien movement reveals a spitter in the stairway on the same flight as the worm that noone can hit. Sarah jumps up the next flight of steps to bring her autocannon to bear but is confronted by 2 more of the blob things blocking the stairs and therefore explaining why the worm had never come after them. She also spots the worm in question and reloads with HE rounds to capitalise on a great opportunity. She squeezes off a few rounds and one of the blobs explodes unpleasantly, taking the worm with it. Dmitriy comes to her aid and finishes off the other thing with 2 good hits from his MG.


Squad 1 meanwhile is continuing to comb the large central building in the area and are so far quite impressed with conditions in what is called a slum. Yuzo, fresh from slicing open one blob, opens a door to his left and is presented with yet another 2 of them! Remembering from the mall that these creatures don't seem to fight back, he decided to leave them and hoped that the salvage team could safely recover them alive. The rest of squad 1 continued to scour the building while in the enemy turn chaos engulfed the stairwell!


The four aliens were a big worm (Dmitriy had spotted this on the next level up last turn), a small worm, the spitter and a brainsucker and they completely overwhelmed squad 2. The brainsucker grappled with Dmitriy's helmet but was vanquished by the fiddly latch, and fell lifeless to the floor. Sarah promptly decides to fall unconscious from her own stun grenade and the little worm mercilessly assaults her until reaction fire blasts it to pieces. The remaining hostiles contribute to a heavy wounding of Shigeru but fail to injure Dmitriy.


In the XCom turn, Shigeru is feeling very rough and decides a tactical withdrawl is in order but on the way down to Jurgen (who never entered the confined space with his sniper rifle) he spots the spitter from last turn and another one beside it! He quickly passes on this information to Dmitriy who places a HE grenade right beside the pair. Unforseen circumstances see the collapse of the next stairway up from him though sending one of the Spitters falling 4 floors into an unconscious stupor and also crushing the ground floor stairs. Squad 2 is now trapped with hostiles and has no way up or down the stairs...

Dmitriy is gripped by several emotions at once but self-preservation is the main reason behind a second grenade which is lucky enough to kill the remaining spitter. The big worm is now the only visible alien and the bug-eyed freak puts 8 rounds into it with his remaining TUs but fails to kill the monster. Michiko comes to the rescue and 11 more hits slice the beast in half, revealing another of the smaller worms. He maintains his fire and hits the new contact twice before it's able to respond by hurling acidic slime at him causing minor burns. Infuriated by the hole in his brand new armour he lays down even more fire until the wall behind the worm is painted pink.

squad 1 have now cleared the 2nd floor of their building save for the 2 blobby things and the whole squad moves up to the roof area where no more hostiles are located. Sarah comes round in the tower and quickly applies a medkit to her nasty head-wound before making a dash downstairs and nearly falling down the newly created hole at the bottom. All troops from squad 2 are now safe but with no way to leave the tower or move further up it to clear the remaining enemies they seem rather stuck. Keen eyes from the injured troopers near the base of the stairwell reveal a panicked Spitter however and the squad regroups for another push.


Dmitriy moves to engage his worried foe but reveals a panicking Bloo and a non-plussed worm thing on the next flight of stairs up. Sarah is called into action and after repositioning she fires a few HE rounds into the stairs carrying the worm. Frustratingly they fail to collapse so the troops take cover for the alien turn.


In the enemy turn the big worm mysteriously falls through the floor and narrowly misses Sarah while the creature itself is stunned. Jurgen, still at the base of the stairs, attempts a tricky shot to land a stun grenade by the panicking creatures since the stairs no longer block his line of sight! Unfortunately he fumbles and the grenade falls at his feet, knocking him out immediately. Squad 1 now completes their sweep of the larger building but despite taking elevated positions overlooking the stairwell they're unable to see any contacts.

At this point everything becomes rather confusing and the spitter above appears to fall unconscious of it's own accord. It's most likely the alien bled to death as it was nowhere near any form of stun attacks, while the releasing of another brainsucker without the distinct launching sound also hints at the demise of our Bloo friend. The brainsucker pod hatches by Jurgen's unconscious form and the squad is blessed by the prior destruction of the ground floor stairs which cause it to amble around pointlessly while absorbing reaction fire like a kleenex in spit.

In the final XCom turn Shigeru attempts to kill the brainsucker but only succeeds in finishing off the unconscious spitter that had the great fall. Michiko finishes off the final hostile and the mission ends with several casualties but narry a single loss!


Very pleased with this one, especially given how close it got to a complete massacre in the stairwell. In one fell swoop it became impossible to climb further up or escape by going down! Jurgen had a VERY lucky escape from brainsucking by being unconscious as I certainly didn't expect to see a BS attack from a panicking alien! Now back to base for champagne and I think the rookies should be ready in time for the next mission. I'll also review the slower, less useful members of the A-Team too (Jacques) as some trianing may make him more useful. He is a half-breed afterall!

[The Veteran]

Lots of updates due today but can't guarantee I'll get through them all! We have 2 UFO incursions and 2 tactical missions to get through but not many pics so might get it all done Here goes anyway, picking up where we left off...

The eggheads have finished the Hyperworm Autopsy and set about work on it's offspring next, the Hyperworms.


I take some time to rearm all 20 troopers in my current arrangement of four 5-man squads each led by a sniper with one cannon and 3mgs in support. In squads 3 and 4 the cannons are given to robots and each of the 4 squads now has one of these and one hybrid to boot (though the Pearce siblings have kept the cannons in squads 1 and 2)

The biochemistry lab now finishes too so another 5 eggheads are bought in to work on the backlog of lifeforms we're currently enjoying. With relatively little for the quantum-physicists to work on, their new lab is ready but left empty for now. After re-equipping the troops I'm left with a grand total of 5k so a raid may be in my distant future but the end of week is coming so we may be ok!

Soon I get my third invasion fleet coming through the dimension gates and it's the usual suspects, 2 probes and 3 scout ships. As always 2 of them spawn way to the south and well out of reach so we ignore them to focus on the remainder nearer to base. 2 scouts are over the CoS temple and one of the probes is right next to our base so the Valkyrie quickly destroys it while the hovercars move to intercept the scouts.


The UFOs in the south which are essentially free to terrorise as they see fit, beam some troops into the Technocrats corporate headquarters so I make a mental not to check it out later. Both of these craft then retreat through the same gate they used to enter.


Up in the North the hovercars are unable to down either of the scouts and one escapes before the Valkyrie arrives and downs the final alien craft with ease. It moves to pickup the unmanned craft immediately and destroys a CoS civilian vehicle en-route. Hyperworm research is also finished about this time so the scientists set to work on the Alien Genetic Structure (sounds important right!?)


Knowing there will be an influx of alien sightings following the recent invasion, the newly formed squads 3 and 4 gear up and board the Valkyrie when the Technocrats hit a record high of alien activity! We saw the attackers beam into the building so we know where we're going and soon arrive en-masse!


Finding themselves in a large outside space beneath the main building, both squads quickly scour the area and after checking one small generator room they begin to converge on the main entrance, safe in the knowledge that their flanks are secure. Squad 3 moves from the small central room to the left side of the entrance steps but is greeted with an ugly blue dog thing in the hidden movement. After a brief exchange of fire from most of the squad, Maria the robo-cannoneer pegs it with what she's certain was armour piercing ammunition but a sizeable explosion results nonetheless. Assuming that it was caused by the creature, the ugly blue thing is nicknamed a 'Popper'.


Squad 4 continues to head South to rendezvous with their colleagues but they don't arrive soon enough to prevent 2 hyperworms flanking them. Shigeru is killed when one of them devours his midsection but Jacqueline avenges him immediately by turning the monster to paste. Danielle quickly polishes off the remaining worm in XComs next turn and they return to their main goal of securing the entrance steps. As squad 4 reach the right side of the entrance, squad 3 continues west and spots 2 Bloos.


Danielle is quick to toss a grenade at the chicken wielding wierdos but despite following it up with a few snap shots neither die so she returns to cover. Maria tosses another grenade to the freaks and despite an attempt to hide they're both blown to pieces. In the hidden turn 2 brainsucker pods hatch from the aliens corpses and gang up on poor Claude the sniper but both fail to convert him.

Over the next few turns both squads flank the entrance steps and work their way to the top of 3 flights of them! 2 Spitters are spotted, one by each doorway, and both squads lay down a hail of fire. Squad 4 lays into their target with MG fire until a lucky shot from Damien-bot's AP cannon finishes it off.


Squad 3 have less luck with countless rounds either missing or having little effect. Claude snipes the headless freak but it simply runs and hides in response. Maria-bot lobs a grenade which finds it's target but doesn't achieve a kill and the moster is finally bought down in the alien turn when it falls unconscious from a stun grenade thrown by Danielle. Both squads converge on the doorways and soon spot another 2 spitters inside, hiding behind a glass wall for all the good it'll do them!


A few turns pass with both squads covering the aliens but X-Com reaction fire fails to bring any aliens to justice. Another Hyperworm and a brainsucker appear from the right wing of the building to break the monotony of guard duty and are duly dispatched. Leonid from squad 4 puts a laser beam through the worm while Sigourney takes out the brainsucker with a snap shot.


The firefight with the spitters continues over the next few turns but the Commies never enter the building. With 6 MGs and 2 cannons trained on the aliens it's not long before their cover is reduced to dust and soon so are they. 13 kills and 1 loss later this mission is already over without even reaching reception. The rookies decide a good defensive line and a wait and see approach may well pay dividends in the future...


Soon after this mission ends so does week 1! We fianlly have enough cash to finish complete rearming and armouring of the 20 troops currently fielded by XCom and stock up a healthy supply of ammo and grenades (although we're still short on medikits) Plasma weapons also become available this week so the vehicles are all upgraded for a little extra punch.


It turns out to be just in the nick of time as no sooner was the Valkyrie home than another UFO invasion arrived! That's up next and it's squads 3 and 4 into the fray once again!

[The Veteran]

Ok time to get this thread up to date with my most recent escapades. I'm playing a few missions ahead of the AAR at the moment so this one will bring me back in line!

I left off the last post just as alien vessels once again began to probe our city but this time they weren't the small craft we'd seen before but significantly larger purple and brown ones. Looking on the bright side there were only 4 this time but nonetheless I wasn't enthused about engaging them. That said I knew at least one of each was vital for a full UFOpaedia so I got the pilots ready for some war and sent out the Valkyrie and 2 Hovercars, all recently upgraded to plasmas. One of the Brown saucers, dubbed the 'cowpatt saucer' by pilots appeared right next to X-Com headquarters so it was engaged immediately but moved quickly to hookup with a purple saucer over the slums.


The other 2 saucers were down to the south so I was able to ignore them for the duration and they eventually escaped with little observed mischief. The cowpatt put up quite a fight however but the fact it was speeding towards the middle of the map did mean it put up little defensive fire. My 3 craft took it down in due course with moderate damage to the slums (like anyone will notice) The purple craft was engaged immediately after the cowpatt and despite lightly damaging the Valkyrie and almost downing one of the cars it soon dropped next to it's escort, both in the slums.


Squads 3 and 4 were immediately deployed to the purple saucer with a full compliment of 10 men in 2 squads. Claude led Squad 3 with his sniper rifle and Robo-op Maria had the AP cannon. Danielle, Jacqueline and Nikolai
fielded the automatic weapons with the latter of the three being a mutant. Squad four was of the same layout with Leonid in charge, Robo Damien on heavy weapons and hybrid Leon on MG duties with humans Anatoly and Sigourney.

The men are astounded at the size of the enemy saucer on arrival and the so called 'battleships' of AWI seem like mere toys in comparison. Regardless they srping into action, Sqaud 3 travelling West to clear the surrounding grassland (I know grass in an irradiated slum, go figure...) while Squad 4 moved north to the large gouge that the saucer had made on impact with the ground. Squad 3 find a small underground room but it's empty save for a sozzled tramp who claims to have heard nothing outside for days and is amazed that a UFO just landed on his squat...


Both Squads continue to survey the surrounding foliage before moving to cover what appears to be the entrance to the odd looking craft. The sides of the crater are sheer so their right flank is protected at least. Soon after taking up positions, the first alien is spotted as a popper makes it way over to Damien to deliver it's explosive payload. Thankfully he chose the android and after a quickly applied medkit he stems the oil-leak and gets back to his feet. The explosion partially destroys the UFO door and several new hostiles are spotted in the ensuing hidden movement.


A vicious firefight ensues as multiple enemies appear and disappear in rapid succession. The Multi-Worm is everyone's primary target but after 2 grenades and plenty of automatic fire it still refuses to die. In the next hidden movement, the aliens reveal some of their interior and we notice a second exit to the vessel on the opposite wall! Squad 3 moves quickly to prevent any alien flankers from achieving their goals and soon spot a Bloo so assume the position. Meanwhile Squad 4 continues to lay down fire on the visible aliens inside the doorway but still confirm 0 kills and the multiworm slinks off into hiding. In the hidden movement, a Spitter exits the UFO and heads directly for Squad 4 but strangely doesn't attack. The Bloo in the West launches two brainsuckers but one is short and gets stuck in the UFO wreckage and another overshoots and begins heading for squad 4 where reaction fire promptly dispatches it. A second Bloo appears in the West and walks a round a little. It's not a very menacing display...


In the next X-Com turn, Sigourney is quick to eliminate the rogue Spitter who came to visit and Danielle in Squad 3 vents her aggression at the 2 Bloos at their flank. One grenade and a quick burst of fire stun the confused newcomer and a further stun grenade is landed on him later on just to ensure he and his brainsuckers stay down. Nikolai the mutant empties a clip at the remaining Bloo but performs appallingly so Jacqueline steps in and finishes the job. Squad 4 reform and spot the Mutliworm again now that the Spitter is dealt with but after all fire is exhausted they're largely unsuccessful. Leonid, exhausted by his squads poor performance, puts a laser beam into the overgrown slug from atop his distant hillock and replaces their previous foe with four new faster ones. The men are less than pleased with this, especially when a last ditch grenade only kills one of them!


Thankfully the hyperworms do no damage i nthe alien turn and the western flank of the UFO remains clear so Squad 3 proceed cautiously to their objective of the rear door. Sigourney, our little alien hunter from Squad 4, picks off two of the hyperworms surrounding Leon and allows him to take care of the final one himself. The rest of the squad then converge on the door and Leonid bottles a shot at a newly spotted multiworm in the rear of the UFO.

In the hidden movement, a Bloo reveals itself to Squad 4 from the shadows of the crater to their right but he clearly can't get a clear shot at them and soon disappears from view again. Squad 3 spot anotehr Bloo to the rear of the saucer and the multiworm that Leonid just spotted appears outside the rear door too. It's met with a hail of grenades in the X-Com turn but as it's slightly out of throwing range they all land short and it's practically unharmed. Squad 4 meanwhile have a whole host of hostiles to deal with in the cramped confines of the saucer so cannon-bot Damien decides a road-test of the incendiary ammunition is in order. 3 Spitters and a Mulitworm soon find themselves engulfed by flame and even the troopers have to back out of the saucer to let the inferno rage! Units are seen fleeing through the back door in the alien turn, mostly on fire.


The rest of the hidden movement as displayed in the above picture is an idiotic blur... All 5 troopers in Squad 3 have specifically been left with full TUs on snap shot as I was expecting brainsuckers soon (like that one in the picture yes) but when the spitter emerged they ALL fired at that instead... Thankfully that BS didn't manage to make it through the helmet and died at Claude's feet, they didn't learn their lesson though and continued to waste both TUs and ammo on distant targets for the rest of the mission...

Danielle in Squad 3 fires on the temporarily visible Bloo at the rear entrance when the X-Com turn resumes but is unsuccessful as always. Claude attempts to through a grenade at the Bloo, hoping to engulf the Spitter as well but decides instead to place it on the floor in front of him and blows his brainsucked armour right off. The rest of the squad save their TUs for the alien turn as they're too far to engage the visible aliens successfully and the Bloo still has at least one pod to fire. Unfortunately they all shoot at the Spitter again, consistently missing it, and Claude's lack of intelligence and recent detonation of armour makes him easy prey for the brainsucker I've known was coming for the last 3 turns...

Looking on the bright side of things, squad 3 treats this as a radom act of natural selection and set about tearing their former colleague to pieces. Just what Charles Darwin would have wanted! The squad finds the act of murdering a former teammate rather irks them and as bloodlust descends they quickly decimate their surrounding area with fire and explosions aplenty. The Spitter seems to be the only confirmed kill in the malestrom but it was worth it and any other little monsters will have a hard time breaking through those flames!


As flames now spread both inside the UFO and out, another Bloo falls to the smoke and crumples up by the central lift. The mutliworm by the backdoor is surrounded by flames and dies while attempting to escape the inferno, releasing 4 hyperworms into the fray. One is killed by the Commies reaction fire, the first successful use of the feature so far this mission! The remaining 3 manage to escape the flames and set about devouring Squad 3 but Jacqueline quickly eliminates 2 and Maria the third, after cleaning up an oil leak caused by said nuisance worm...


Squad 4 meanwhile has two remaining confirmed targets with a Spitter inside the UFO and the Bloo still wandering about the crater. Leonid lets the Spitter eat some laser but is showed up by professional Sigourney who finishes it off with a cool sidestep before returning to cover. With the inferno still raging and few remaining contacts the guys give the fire some time to disperse and simpy wait a while...


Amazingly, the Bloo from the crater then appears to have climbed out from his incendiary and grenade filled hole up to the level of Squad 4, taking them rather by surprise! Sigourney attempts to throw a stun grenade at the beast but her previous victories result in complacency and she fumbles it, knocking herself out. Leon primes an old school explosive instead and passes out just before recieving the order to throw it. Squad 4 takes more damage in this one turn from it's own troops than the aliens inflicted all mission! But noone dies thankfully, they just get ridiculed for a while back at base, Sigourney is still one of the best mind...


In the wake of widespread destruction, Leonid tries once more to stun the creature but although his grenade hits the target he's unsuccessful. Anatoly opens up his MG on the creature and Damien-bot finishes him off with some good old incendiary fire.


In the alien turn, the remaining members of Squad 4 go to pieces when a brainsucker pod hatches and they all use their TUs to run away instead of shoot at it... Thankfully it attacks Leonid and as he's brainless it dies of starvation...

Squad 3 have meanwhile been retreating from the fire they have created and it's deemed necessary to suppress it with a handy stun grenade. It's a successful deployment and the fire is put to sleep but it reveals a Spitter near the doorway which has somehow survived the heat.


Nikolai is shot in the head by the newly found Spitter but a promptly applied medikit saves his eyesight while heavy fire from Jacqueline's MG put down the final spitter, ending the mission.

The rewards reaped from this mission far outway the cost of one retarded life and hopefully serves as a reminder to concentrate reaction fire on rapidly approaching brainsuckers in future rather than bumbling spitters in the middle-distance. We now have 4 squad leaders in 2 squads thanks to the same person who hired the soldiers hiring the admin staff as well. The organisation is seriously chock with retards... Best of the best my arse!

[The Veteran]

On returning from the previous mission, Squads 3 and 4 were sporting 8 injuries out of a grand total of 10 troops so they were given some well-deserved R&R while squads 1 and 2 stepped in for the next mission. The rookies were rookies no more however and had managed to recover a live Bloo and a live pink sac-like alien to boot. It looked like the top of a spitter but with no limbs or ability to attack... Squad 1 had seen one of these in the Nutrivend mall but without any way to recover it they simply put a boot through it's bag-like body on extraction then fed it to the super-malls furnace.

Regardless, all the scientists back at base had their hands full as it was with over 15 projects to take care of so the new samples were chucked in alien containment for examination at a later date. Meanwhile 5 more quantum-physicists were hired to help with the backlog in the new lab but they refused to attend the base until more suitable accommodation was in place so construction of more living quarters began, filling the base's final free spot.

The Valkyrie was now arriving at the cowpatt saucer with Squads 1 and 2 onboard so the veteran's got themselves ready for action after a few well-earned days off. Grigoriy and Jurgen were still leading their respective squads with the Pearce siblings on Autocannon duties, robo Stefan backing up Yuzo and Jacques on squad 1 and Dmitriy, Michiko and Shigeru representing the Eastern countries in Squad 2. The guys were going into action in realtime today so they were a little nervous about how the boss would handle the situation but there was only one way to find out...


Starting on the eastern side of the crash site, squad 1 was quick to advance to the trademark crater where they immediately spotted a brainsucker amongst the smoke and debris. A hail of snapshots soon popped the sucker and the rest of the squad took up spots along the side of the gouge. Squad 2 began moving up to the North of the saucer, intending to move around to the west side but they took their sweet time about it and occasionally forgot to move at all.


Just as the brainsucker is gasping it's last breath, a Spitter emerges from what squad 1 assumes to be the only access to this saucer. David loads up the high explosive rounds in his cannon and starts blasting away but the Spitter refuses to die and instead moves back into the craft. Jacques takes some ineffective enemy fire and an attempt to grenade the saucer's entrance is foiled by the overhanging sides of the craft. It falls seriously short and injures nothing.


A Bloo and a Spitter now emerge from the craft and a popper reveals itself on the top of the saucer above Squad 1. They split their fire and a small explosion above them soon signal the popper's demise, while the aliens below are pounded with HE fire. The launching of a single brainsucker pod precedes the Bloo's inevitable fall and the Spitter dies from incessant machine gun fire shortly after.


Another BSpod is fired from an invisible alien by the doorway and then another one follows, falling right by the aliens feet near the UFO. The Bloo now strides out from the saucer and is met by a barrage of concentrated fire. As the various pods start hatching, the Bloo falls to the onslaught and Jacques is assaulted by a brainsucker that managed to sneak by the line!


A 3rd Bloo steps into the crater as a reload of AP ammo in the cannon sees Jacques freed from the bald chicken assaulting him. A quick switch back to high explosives and David once again commences the fireworks in the valley below them. Another brainsucker appears at the gangs feet while a 4th Bloo joins his mate in the doorway, followed by a fifth! Brainsucker pods are soon flying in every direction and it takes a lot of pausing to keep track of the blighters!


The gang maintains it's non-stop rain of bullets taking down the nearest brainsucker and 2 more Bloos, then there's trouble as an unseen brainsucker jumps at the squad from behind and 2 more pods are launched!


With 2 chickens in the crater, a further 2 by the squad and one for some reason on top of the saucer, everyone switches to automatic fire and begins to pick them off one by one. David keeps his explosive rounds trained on the 2 enemies below and one is soon denied feeding rights when it is turned inside out. The brainsucker from behind the squad is sniped mid-jump by Grigoriy and the autocannon polishes off one more below and the final Bloo in view.


The tally continues to grow as another brainsucker hatches down below and a further one errupts from a newly slain Bloo. Grigoriy now lands a successful shot on the chicken above them and MG fire polishes off the one at the troopers feet while the final brainsucker near the boys appears alive but stuck mid-jump! As David's explosives continue to qipe out the newly hatched pods below them, all automatic weapons remain trained on the 'stuck' pod until it dies of it's own accord...


Squad 2 has spent this time moving approximately 30 yards from their starting position and are now greeted by a panicking Spitter on the ridge in front of them. They dig in for a little target practice but even aimed shots soar past the creature due to it's elevated position. It's finally brought down by machine gun fire, ending the mission without a single issue...


Realtime certainly turns out to be a lot easier to play defensively than turn-based but I have to confes it seems a little too easy. There is undeniably less strategy involved in this mode as TUs are not a concern and there is no 'cliffhanger' moment as the turn ends. Put simply, if you don't want to risk a frontal assault in realtime you just don't have to. Eventually the aliens all come to you and when you have total control over your team at all times and no limit to the amount of shots you can fire, they really don't stand a chance...

I can't seem to find the end of mission report for this but I'm sure I must have it. Was average I believe, no new aliens for the containment and no new technology either. The Valkyrie returned to base where the troops were rearmed and prepared for the next assignment which followed very soon after...

[The Veteran]

Time for our Glorious 8th Mission! The scores are rather odd at the moment with the newer troops from Squads 3 and 4 only having seen action twice due to multiple injuries in the last outing. This is the 6th assignment for Squads 1 and 2 however and a good few of these troopers have made it through the whole war so far!

Anyway we're out of UFOs today so the next mission has to be alien infiltration right? Indeed it is! The saucers in the South apparently landed some troops in the Sanctuary Clinic Luxury Appartments so the veterans are off to pay them a visit and check out the new digs. It's identical teams as were fielded in the last mission so no change there and we'll be going in guns blazing realtime again too!

So we have a pretty damn big map greeting us here and everything looks pretty expensives so the troops are told to keep their safties on until contact is made. A few of the troops who have survived a whole week already instinctively disobey this order and go in weapons hot! Squad one, led by sniper Grigoriy, begin in the SW of a low 4-level map and Jurgen takes Squad 2 from their central starting position to scout the eastern side of a wide building.


Squad 1 takes the first hallway north between two appartment blocks and soon spots the first hostile in the shape of an errant braisucker. A quick burst of snapshots from the MGs soon takes care of it and the squad pauses just before the junction it emerged from, taking up defensive positions. Squad 2 moves to the East end of the map and then slowly north to the same corridor Squad 1's junction is on.


It's not long before the boys are proved to have made a wise decision in setting up camp as first 1 and then 3 multiworms appear in the junction ahead of them! A grenade is thrown but the 0.75s fuse is way too short and explodes midair.


In a matter of seconds, total carnage ensues as all 5 troopers lay down a wall of fire on the alien monsters. A 2s stun grenade finds it's target and is used as the template fuse for a further 3 HE grenades that follow in quick succession. A Spitter appears in the junction and promptly vanishes again while the grenades tear open one of the multiworms and decimate all four of it's offspring immediately.


The Spitter returns just in time to be claimed by another well-placed grenade and is immediately replaced by a BSpod wielding Bloo. The Multiworm at his feet proceeds to pass out from the fumes while some hyperworms from an unknown location further north are engulfed by more grenades. 2 survive the destruction and manage to reach the troops where they proceed to savage robo-Stefan but concentrated autofire from the gang saves his servos.


As the smoke begins to clear, a Spitter appears in a room near the junction and strides confidently towards the minibar before slinking back off to the bedroom. An observation which will later confuse research on 'the alien life cycle' no end. Meanwhile the Bloo has begun tossing brainsucker pods with gay abandon and within seconds the hallway is littered with the buggers.


Squad 2 has only now rounded the corner of the main central corridor and is still a long way from providing any useful reinforcements but they do spot a breeding centre containing an egg and a chrysallid in a swanky pad to their north. Another egg is later spotted in this room as well but as usual the troops leave them for the recovery team.


The chaos in the central junction continues apace while Squad 2 take their sweet time to arrive. The troops in Squad 1 are literally surrounded by brainsuckers and their unhatched pods but they manage to keep their composure and one by one they pick them off. Jacques thinks quickly and stuffs one into the side pocket of his backpack so tightly there's no chance of escape and several more are popped mid-jump while yet more are launched!


The trial is still far from over as the offending Bloo finally falls only to be replaced with another, full on BSpod ammo! More brainsuckers are hatched and promptly dispatched while Jacques fills his other pocket with a second unhatched pod. A spitter that had been in the junction vanishes and the one from the nearby apartment now shows itself only to be nailed by heavy automatic fire almost immediately. Jacques is surprised by another Brainsucker behind him but pops it in the face before it reaches him.


Yuzo finds himself in a love embrace with another brainsucker now but is soon freed by trigger-happy teammates and the Bloo at the junction finally falls to heavy fire as the gang begin to run dangerously low on ammunition! Not ready to give up he squeezes off one last pod in Yuzo's direction but the trooper follows Jacques lead and stuffs the pod in his backpack before it can catch his scent. Stefan spots a Bloo who has outflanked them and follows it into the apartment to their rear where it hides in a corner.


At this point, Squad 2 finally spot a hostile in the shape of another Multiworm but are still a long way off so they close the gap before taking up positions. Stefan spots the errant Bloo as it attempts to flee past him and makes short work of it with some good old fashioned full-auto fire. He quickly checks the corpse and as suspected finds a BSpod which he's quick to stash away in a cramped compartment about his person... Squad 2 now engage the multiworm with well aimed fire but Squad 1 spots a Bloo on the way to assist which seems to have woken up unexpectedly!


Some heavy fire soon put down the turquoise terror and Yuzo is now officially out of ammo (that's 3 clips in 1 mission!) While Squad 2 decide they don't want to face hyperworms and so switch to stun grenades instead. This puts the Multiworm into a nice deep sleep and ends the mission with no fewer than 6 live aliens for the journey home!



The mission has gone very well but it has highlighted the massive cost in ammunition of realtime encounters. Bearing in mind my suppliers never seem to have extra clips in stock I'm going to have to be careful with future missions to avoid running out completely. Still, a good result for the vets and we managed to add to our alien menagerie with a live Multiworm!


Job done, though there are a few high infiltration levels so I hope Squads 3 and 4 are ready to get back into the action soon!

[The Veteran]

Ok time for an update today and it's coming in 2 parts, 1 per mission! Yep been busy this time but as usual it's not gone far to progress the game, just been a lot to take care of

This time we're greeted by an alien sighting at the Thomas More tower, one of the slums but I forget the owner's faction. Squad 3 and 4 are still rife with injured troopers from their last outing so squads 1&2 are going in again, taking the tally to 7:2. The new troopers will need to get back in the action soon if they want to stand any chance of closing that gap!!!

As we begin, Yuzo and Stefan are still lightly wounded but I figure it's nothing they can't handle and decide to risk taking all 10 of them to maintain a full compliment of troopers. It's worth noting that the boys and girls of XCom have attended 2 UFOs and 2 cityscape missions in the last 24 hours as of right now so there's not been much chance for medical attention, food or even sleep! They'll be glad to get a bit of downtime when the alien activity finally levels out but a lot of invaders managed to land in the last incursion so it's not over yet.

As the troops arrive at the scene of the sighting they face a gigantic map, most of which is occupied by a large carpark. The 2 squads cover the open ground quickly and spot nothing out of the ordinary until they reach the entrance to a building at the far North of the combat zone. It looks more like a reception than an appartment block so clearly it isn't the slum they'd been expecting... Squad 1 remain outside and move north up an alleyway until they hit the edge of the map. Spotting a lone brainsucker, Grigoriy takes to a knee and quickly puts it out of it's misery. Squad 2 are meanwhile covering the entrance to the only building in the combatzone and soon spot a multiworm inside. Some concentrated fire soon pops it open for 4 new targets.


All of the multiworms manage to reach the troopers in Squad2 through a ahil of automatic fire and Michiko is injured before they are all taken care of. Meanwhile Squad1 has cleared the outside area and moves to support their colleagues assault on the ground floor.


No sooner are the first 4 hyperworms eliminated than 3 more are spotted inside the building, though their origin is unknown. A popper is also spotted behind them and the troopers have a hard time prioritising their fire. They concentrate fully automatic rounds on the closest hyperworms first, killing one quickly, but then change to target the popper as it speeds towards them. A stupid civilian who is intent to file a lawsuit repeatedly runs in front of XCom fire but her plan is foiled when the popper is detonated right beside her, turning her to people-porridge. Fire is then returned to the Hyperworms and the remaining two quickly fall to the elite troopers.



Immediately following the explosion, the fourth hyperworm is spotted and promptly shot to pieces, followed by a brainsucker of similarly unknown origins... Squad 2 now move to cover an eastern entrance to the building which has been spotted in the firefight while Squad 1 move to take their old position.


As the squads reposition the spot another Hyperworm on the roof of the building but ignore it for now, knowing they've got the only exit covered.


As they continue to move towards the entrance formerly guarded by squad 2 they recieve fire from behind but the area is already clear so the troopers are rather surprised. They immediately move to investigate while Squad 2 takes up final positions by the east entrance. As they take up their new post though they spot a mystery Hyperworm chasing squad 1!


Squad 1 wheels about and poke the worm with a few snapshots, while the slow hybrid continues to 'run' away. Everyone agrees they have seen faster public transport, and subsequently realise the building they are in is a train station! Both squads move into the ticket office area where they're greeted with a lot of 'service cancelled' signs from about 40 years ago but the place is far from abandonned as they soon spot a cluster of 5 chrysalis' in a corner by the lavs...


The troopers are by now very unimpressed with the 'infestation' in the area and proceed to clear the upper platforms with ease, failing to spot a single lifeform until they relocate the hyperworm that was sighted earlier. It quickly flees the troopers who watch as it descends the stairs.


A well positioned Squad1 pops it as it arrives in reception. No ticket, no transport...


When the worm bites it and the mission doesn't end, the troopers know there's only one place left to try and that's the western track. Squad1 moves to the platforms above while Squad2 takes some stairs down to the rails in question, swiftly spotting a spitter.


The Spitter flees when the troops try to engage it but they soon relocate it further down the track, along with 4 Bloo buddies! Everyone takes a knee and lays down some bursts of suppressing fire while 2 of the troopers toss grenades at the cluster of creatures.


One Bloo dies from the explosions but is swiftly replaced by another who runs at our boys with the Spitter in tow. Brainsucker pods begin to fly but some of the enemies are equipped with the new rayguns so only several pods fall and they don't last long.


With 2 of the remaining 4 aliens being so kind as to stand right in Sqaud2s line of fire, a Spitter and a Bloo fall in quick succession.


A further Bloo seems to bleed to death as I don't recall shooting him but it may have been a lucky shot! The remaining alien panics so the troops move into closer range to polish him off with aimed fire, thus ending the mission.


Again I seem to have idiotically not taken an image of the final score here and I don't save in these missions so I can't try to replicate it either. Regardless I did jot down that it was a very good so the aliens won't be liking that one bit!

I on the other hand am rather chuffed

The next mission will follow shortly so watch this space...

[The Veteran]

Here as promised is the last post to bring me up to date. Mostly research and a quick combat.

Firstly we managed to complete research on The Alien Life Cycle which allows the research of Biological Warfare but tragically I don't have the advanced lab for that research or anywhere to build it (research isn't done yet either as it happens) so instead I set the Biochemists onto research that next.


The Chrysalis study is up next and the rest of the biochemists begin to work through the backlog of live species so we can de-clutter the alien containment which is getting rather smelly... Meanwhile the Quantum-physicists have finished research on the type 3 UFO which is catalogued as an alien transport vessel. They start work on a weapon system salvaged from an alien craft.


A quick check of the alien activity graphs show high activity in Osiron and Megapol, both of whom have plenty of properties that could be the source of an infestation. Megapol being friendly, and a far higher priority than scummy slummers, Squads 1 and 2 are sent to the Rescue Station nearest the South-East dimension Gate. It's as good a guess as any and I can't watch all of the UFOs that come into the city now can I? 2 troopers need serious medical care so stay at base, leaving me to field 2 4 man squads..


We entered a rather small map by comparison to previous missions and being unsure as to what would happen if there were no aliens present I carried on regardless for a while. The level consisted of a large structure in the west, a small one to the SE and power generators filling the remaining NE quarter. Soon enough though Jacques recieved fire while exiting the western complex so the squad moved back inside and set up positions covering the stairs.


Squad 2 cleared the SE complex while Squad 1 lay in wait at the stairs but nothing was found so they make a move towards their colleagues in the larger structure in the west.


Squad 1 now spots a Bloo on the stairs but for once their are no brainsuckers as it seems to be wielding the newly encountered raygun. A barrage of fire hits the alien but in the end it finishes itself off with a dropped explosive. The men have never seen an alien grenade before and are suddenly reminded of the horror stories of AWI and II. Nonetheless, the suicidal alien entertains the troops so they keep their composure when a Popper is spotted descending the stairs. Despite heavy fire, it reaches the troops and explodes at their feet.


David and Grigoriy recieve critical injuries from the explosion and immediately whip out the medkits, realtime makes the healing process seem very drawn out though and another Bloo is spotted while they work to patch themselves up. They drop the bandages for a moment while all 4 troopers concentrate fire on the new threat and soon it's brought down.

Another Bloo is spotted on the stairs soon after but this time the wounded continue to heal themselves while only half the squad lays down a supressive fire. A stun grenade hits the lowest landing of the stairs and sends the Bloo fleeing back up, away from the smoke. As David and Grigoriy manage to stem their bleeds however, a stray shot from the alien injures a 3rd trooper and Squad 1 are looking in a bad shape.

The alien's temporary retreat is used to stage a tactical withdrawal to allow the squad to heal all remaining injuries and hopefully avoid further conflict until Squad 2 arrives. Just as the cavalry arrives however, the Bloo returns, cut down in his prime by fire from the battered Squad1.


Thus ends a short but aggressive mission, ending the dominance of the veteran squads due to numerous injuries. The next mission will be fought by the rookie squads, whether they're feeling up to it or not...

I somehow have forgotten to snap the mission results for the third time here but again I've jotted down VG so I guess we did well! On the way home our Valkyrie destroys a Blazer Turbo Bike from the Cult of Sirius and the top story of a slum building which I hope belongs to Osiron!


I keep a close eye on the alien activity when this happens...



The Sanctuary Clinic and Gravball League drop off the charts (without the latter ever being visited) but while Megapol and the Technocrats continue to normalise there is a massive amount of activity at Osiron again. This is beginning to form a real concern and a check of the factor standings reveals them as unfriendly to X-Com already. It's time for a bug-hunt me-thinks so squads 3 and 4 are made ready.

In the meantime, more research is finished by the brainy bio-chemists. First the Spitter live-study which is replaced with an examination of an unopened alien egg.


Then the Advanced lab is completed but with no space to build one I'll have to wait till the week is up to start building one in a new base...


No sooner had I chosen a target within Osiron than the dimension gates became active again, only 3 this time but all of them far to the SE. One Alien Transporter and 2 of the smaller Scouts so easy targets at least. All 3 vehicles scrambled at base and headed for one of the scouts which was travelling North.

The vehicels managed to engage in a dogfight with this scout but the others were too far south so they both managed to unload their troops unopposed. First the scout dropped some boys in the Megapol Rescue Station that had just been purged and then the larger transport revisited the previously assaulted Technocrats Corporate HQ.



The remaining scout was shot down and subsequently destroyed before hitting the ground. The Valkyrie headed straight back to base to collect the troops. We have our next two assignments ready to attend...

[The Veteran]

Ok it seems I'm on a bit of a roll as of right now so this campaign is seeing some nice progress! After 2 more missions yesterday I have yet another 2 today so I'll get right on with it! These are the missions carried out to rectify the alien teleports into Megapol and the Technocrats, Squads 3 and 4 are back in the action, and we're doing them both together. No chance for a spread if I'm lucky...

So first up was Megapol as they're my friends and I want to keep them that way! Plus it was a very quick mission last time I attended their building so I was hoping for the same again...

Squads 3 & 4 then still pretty much unchanged with only sniper Claude brainsucked in their last mission. He's been replaced with Helga who now assumes command of Squad 3 with Robo-Maria on cannon duties. The hybrid mascot Nikolai is on automatic support with humans Danielle and Jacqueline. Squad 4 is totally original with Leonid in charge, Robo-Damien on cannon and hybrid Leon with Anatoly and Sigourney on MGs.

We're in the hangars for this mission and 2 rescue vehicles form the backdrop for the mission. Squad 4 moves to the NW of the map while Squad 3 moves south, having already found the eastern side of the building.


Squad 4 prompty enters a hangar bay and spots a brainsucker at the far end. They take up a knee and fire on it as it approaches, dropping it just a few meters from their feet. Another appears, wondering where his friend has got to, but his bloodlust doesn't save him and he's popped mid-jump.


The infestation suddenly becomes more serious now as 2 multiworms and a spitter are sighted further into the hangar. One multiworm leaves to the SE while the other 2 creatures approach Squad4, heavy fire soon drops the spitter though.


The multiworm continues to close on the troops so a grenade is thrown hoping to burst out the babies before they get too close. It's successful but all 4 hyperworms make it out alive.


Squad 3 finally finds some action to the East now as first a Bloo is spotted then 2 spitters. A well placed grenade and some aimed fire bring down the Bloo but more spitters emerge bringing the total to 4!


Tragically Anatoly is critically wounded by the hyperworms attacking Squad 3 and as the final one falls he recieves a fatal blow. He dies clutching a medkit that continues healing his wounds long after the life has gone from him... Squad 3 meanwhile has managed to drop one of the Spitters and another is fleeing towards Squad4. The remaining multiworm is spotted again by the grieving Squad 4 as they exit the hangar bay they had been fighting in.


Squad 4, now one man short, try to pre-empt the hyperworms by tossing a grenade just before the Multiworm is ready to pop but on hatching they flee in the wrong direction so a perfectly implemented tactic is foiled by the invertebrate swines...


Squad 3 now reduces the Spitter population to 2 by concentrating some aimed fire on one of the monsters that had been attacking them from the east. The southern Spitter now panics while the last returs from his stroll to visit Squad 4. The Hyperworms now frustratingly change course just after the grenade detonates, killing only 1 of them. Heavy automatic fire from Squad 4 soon finishes off the other 3 though and Anatoly is avenged...


Squad 3 polishes off the remaining Spitter from the west with more aimed fire then add insult to injury by popping the panicked alien from point blank range.


This ends the mission, with a reasonable score but the first loss in quite some time...


No rest for the wicked (and not enough space for all the screenshots in the next post) we move straight onto the Technocrats headquarters which is only a few blocks over. Leon was badly hurt by the multiworm attack so he stays with the pilot, leaving 8 troopers for this mission. Danielle is attached to Squad 4 to even up the numbers and both squads begin to explore the battlefield.

This is a very strange building, it seems to consist of glass-walled structures inside earth-covered mounds but also has two air-traffic-control type structures... The gang has immense difficulty finding a way into the building initially but Squad 4 soon spot the main-gates and a brainsucker to boot!


It's some distance away and the commander has given strict instructions to conserve ammunition so as it flees towards Squad 3's position a simple radio message seals it's fate. The boys are more than ready for it so this is a particularly short-lived brainsucker...


Both squads now regroup at the entrance and for the purpose of storming the compound, Danielle rejoins her native Squad 3 bringing them back to full strength. A Bloo is spotted exiting the structure just as the troops reorganise, catching them somewhat offguard. Any lifeform that walks into view of 8 armed soldiers is making a big mistake in any situation however and he doesn't take a single step before being blasted to pieces.


The deceased does manage to let off one brainsucker pod before falling and this soon disappears so the gang scramble to remove it from newcomer Helga when it suddenly reappears! Another pod hatches on the aliens corpse but makes little progress before being pierced with automatic fire. Robo Maria now moves into the complex to check the office block in the West but is flanked by a Bloo that emerges from a conference room behind her.


As all available troops lay down suppressing fire, Maria quickly turns and guns down the would be attacker but another Bloo is spotted in the conference room behind it. The robot recognises the new foes weapon as a brainsucker launcher and her mechanical brain gives her a nice edge against such opponents so she prepares to storm the room...

[The Veteran]

Entering the conference room, Maria makes no bones about it and strides right up to her harmless foe before splattering it's innards across the board of governors notice-board.


Then it's an easy task to pop the 2 resultant brainsuckers which stare at Maria with as puzzled an expression you're ever likely to find on a bald chicken. MAria then returns to the lobby where she and the rest of Squad 3 rendezvous for a closer look at the western office block, her original target...


Squad 3 clears the ground floor and first floor of the offices without any issues making the western part of the compound safe. Meanwhile, the conference room has been invaded again and the 3 troopers of Squad 4 spot a popper closing on their position!


Fully automatic fire doesn't seem to deter the walking bomb and as it gets ever closer to Robo-Damien he decides to flee while his team-mates continue to fire on the little sod. Eventually the Popper stops and explodes spectacularly of its own accord but thanks to a tactical withdrawal noone is seriously hurt!


Squad 3 now returns to the conference room and is unpleasantly surprised to have burst in on a spitter convention! They quickly fall back to the lobby and although they're fired upon, noone is hurt.


Not wanting to demolish the conference room with stray weapon fire or high explosives, the team opt for stun grenades and quickly fill the room with stinky green gas. Jacqueline apologises and tosses in a grenade as well.


Meanwhile, the effects of Jacqueline's 'misfire' are being felt by the troopers and the entire squad passes out in the lobby... We wait for them to regain consciousness before assaulting the main room again with 4 troopers, the remaining soldier is awake but doesn't want to fight anymore so stays down till the Spitters are dead...


Robo Maria proves her mettle again when a well placed Stun grenade brings down one spitter and some AP rounds kill the second. The team waits for the smoke to disperse before moving en-masse to the lift on the far wall.


Maria moves to scout the upper levels while the remaining 4 troopers watch over the lift below her. Squad 4 kick back outside and enjoy the surprisingly fine weather in post-apocalyptic Toronto...

at this point I played a few more minutes before having a powercut but thankfully I'd just saved to make space for new images. A few things happened differently second time round but if anything it was worse off so it's certainly not cheating!

As Maria moves to the western 'pyramid room' she hears a confused brainsucker behind her so pops it in the head before proceeding to clear the western side of the complex completely. She returns to the 1st floor and then to the eastern 'pyramid room'.


Squad 4 are now surprised by a Spitter in the lobby who seems to have woken up grumpy (in the last play-through he had entered the lift and Squad 3 killed him instantly so it really WAS a surprise when he went this way!!!) It lays a stream of green mucus on sniper Leonid who pops it in the spout and knocks it out as thanks. Seconds later however it's up again and this time the whole squad takes part in the barrage to ensure it never walks again. Leonid is injured but alive! I declare he will recieve a promotion but tragically he does not

With the whole complex now cleared, it's down to Maria again to locate an enemy in the Eastern pyramid. Luckily for her I already have a good idea where it might be so she goes right to the spot in the eastern basement. She spots 2 alien eggs but can't see the multiworm that I located last time, just before the powercut... MAria is attacked by the eggs every time she opens the doors between them so she calls down the rest of squad 3 who flank her position and attempt to gas out the creatures.


2 stun grenades do their job perfectly but with no line of sight it's impossible to assess the impact it's had. Maria opens the door again and sees one egg stunned but another wide awake. A quick burst of AP soon remedies that and no further hostiles are visible. We know there's at least one Multiworm left though... Helga, our new sniper, creeps around the bookcases and spots a hive of activity but can't identify any of them due to their position... 1 is already unconscious but 2 remain intact so she leaves another stun grenade as a parting gift before retreating to cover.


Maria has meanwhile flanked these units from the west and now recieves fire from what must be a multiworm. She throws in the only HE grenade used in this mission and knocks down some shelves, allowing us a view of 2 multiworms and another egg. Only one worm is still conscious and it's chasing Maria so she makes a quick exit! The new gap in the scenery however bring the beasty into view of more troopers and with Helga returning to the fight as well the creature is soon knocked out.



That's the last alien and mission complete. Not too bad but now Squad 3&4 are sporting injuries as well as the already recovering 1&2... That means I'll struggle to address the activity situation within Osiron and Megapol which is bad news. Hopefully though, our prompt action has stopped the activity in the immediate area of the last UFO raids so it's not all bad.


I'm going to search all 10 of Megapol's buildings for aliens next as I know for a fact my good work against the aliens will bring them back to allied status over time. As for Osiron, I'll just start from the centre and work outwards. They have 6 buildings I think but of them only 4 are candidates and one was recently a mission of mine so only 3 targets I can think of. All close to previous incursions too and they already dislike me so what the hell? I'd rather piss them off than let them go over to the aliens anyway and as I'm friendly with the cops they'll never 'like me like me' anyway.

[The Veteran]

Well it looks like there's no rest for the wicked and it also seems that these aliens have managed to spread further into the city than I thought! It also is now very apparent just how desperate these aliens are to get their hands on the Technocrats but that's another story... I have a lot of missions to get through before we reach that new development so hang tight and prepare for the next installment!

So my first port of call today was to go and give Megapol the once over and following a few dead-ends in their south-eastern properties I turned my attention to the Southwest. There hasn't been any activity down here but there hasn't been any up north either so figure it's worth a shot!!! There are 3 buildings in the SW owned by Megapol and 2 are right next to each other. The first one turned up nothing but I didn't want to risk missing anything so I stopped into the one neighboring it as well just to be sure.

Low and behold we have ourselves a combat mission so I guess we arrived just in time to stop further spread but how the aliens appeared here in the first place is disturbingly unclear... Squad 3 and 4 are in the Valkyrie so they gear up and prepare for an encounter, only 7 troopers attend due to previously sustained injuries however...

It seems this property is a fire station (though it is simply called a rescue center) and the map is tiny so infestation is treated as minor from the outset. Shortly the 3-man Squad 4, who are circling around to the north of the map, spot a Spitter beside a power generator. They charge his position and hold fire, using the generator for cover as the Spitter also ducks behind it.


As the troops reach a good firing position, the Spitter emerges at the south end of the generator and both squads happily achieve a good line of fire. The beast is quickly immobilised by aimed fire from 8 troopers.


And that really is all she wrote... There was nobody else there so presumably we made it  to the area in plenty of time!


I'm still puzzled as to where these aliens came from so the Valkyrie attends the third and final Megapol property in the southwest before returning home. It's on the other side of the gravball league from the previous mission and amazingly there are aliens here too! This time we're in a Flyer Factory and have started on the top floor which is quickly swept and proved to be clear.


The troopers descend a large ramp into a parking garage beneath the manufacturing line and on reaching the bottom an explosion critically wounds one of the troopers but no alien is spotted. Immediately after this incident we recieve the all-clear but for the first time an alien has fled from the fight... To my knowledge it's the first time anyway, realistically I doubt it is.


Regardless it can't have been more than a small handful of aliens so while the troops are on patrol it's vital we finish them off. As the gravball league is smack-bang between the last two missions (and the gravball league WAS recently infested...) we decide to head there next and are rewarded with another mission. This time we enter with only 6 troopers in one large squad due to injuries sustained from the blast in the flyer factory.

This time the mission begins in a large gravball court which spans 4 of the 6 levels on this map. Squad 34 move south into another arena surrounded by bench-seats but decidedly uninteresting. They move back north again as there is no exit from this room to the east and huzza we spot 2 aliens. A Bloo is very close to the exit and seems to be attempting to flee again (perhaps it was his grenade that crippled our troops in the flyer factory?) and a Spitter is not far away too.


The squad take up position by the door they have just entered through and some nice aimed shots take both aliens down promptly, no known escapees and mission over.


The Valkyrie is now allowed to return to base so the remainder of the troops can heal up. Research on the Brainsucker pod is completed and in it's place the creature itself is studied next.


We currently have 11 injuries from our 20 troops, Squad 3 in worst shape with not a single trooper combat ready and one in critical condition. Squad 4 have 3 casualties with Sigourney and the new recruit robo-Leon (Anatoly's replacement) managing to remain unhurt. Squad 2 is in tip-top shape after a little R&R and Squad 1 is only suffering 3 light injuries so they are equipped and made ready to launch as soon as the doctors ok it.

The living quarters are finally finished too (longest 3 days ever!) so we hire 5 new Quantum-physicists to put our empty lab into action and immediately set them to work on the alien 'raygun'

with 5 spaces remaining we plan to recruit 4 new robots to replace the physically weak hybrids and take control of the 4 squads. Pickings are slim but soon we are able to add BombBloke and NKF to our ranks. They are placed in charge of squads 1 and 2 respectively and all 4 hybrids are stripped of equipment and sent to combat training.

At this point a quick check of the alien activity graph once again shows a rise in activity at the Technocrats HQ! We were there only yesterday!!! Osiron seems relatively unchanged which is good as my inactivity with them hasn't led to an unwanted spurt! Megapol are still on a downward curve but only time will tell if any further creatures remain in the organisation. New to the list is a little blip from Transtellar however and as they already don't like us we decide to head there directly.

[The Veteran]

As with all of our previous missions I immediately assume the hostile presence is loacted to the South-east as this is the aliens favourite portal, furthest from my base... We get lucky straight away and immediately go to action in the infested spaceport. We begin in a large open room which seems to form the eastern half of this map and spans all 4 floors of it. Should be another quick easy one, I think we've caught it early again.


It's not long before BombBloke's Squad 1 spots a Hyperworm near the western side of the room. NKF and squad 2 are meanwhile moving along the southern edge and spot no additional foes. As the worm gains ground on Squad 1 they swap from burst fire to fully automatic and BombBloke secures his first kill within seconds of active service by pegging it in the face!


Both squads continue to the West, continuing to check the centre of the room for any would-be flankers. NKF's boys reach the western most platform just as Squad 1 spot some new enemies right by the wall. First a Spitter is located and then it is tracked towards some friends in the form of a raygun wielding Bloo and a smoking Popper.


Though the aliens are much closer to BombBloke's squad they decide to direct their attention to Squad 2 and despite frantic automatic fire the popper breaks through and erupts in NKF's rookie face! He's still standing thanks to his iron constitution but both he and squadmate Sarah need some serious medical attention so they whip out the medkits and start bandaging gut and legs respectively.


With the Popper down, Squad 2 resume burst fire and soon take down both remaining targets, Squad 1 strangely fails to hit anything at all despite being closer...


NKF, heavily wounded, and Sarah sill literally bleeding out of her armour, Squad 2 decide to seek refuge atop the central structure in the room in an attempt to not die...


Squad 1 meanwhile moves through the north-west door and finds themselves in a small corridor. They follow it past a door on their left and emerge in some form of waiting room (probably the complaints department if Transtellar's awful customer service is anything to go by) It's clear so they return to the door they've just passed and BombBloke bravely volunteers his metal ass to check inside.


Inside is a popper and a chrysalis, neither of which I seem to have a shot of... We think the popper looks stuck but BB has no line of fire so he moves closer. It soon becomes apparent that his foe is NOT trapped and it proceeds to chase him out of the room, exploding by the door. BombBloke is rather hurt (mostly his dignity) but the mission is over so they rally back at the craft after a quick game of pin the combat knife on the Chrysalis...


Seeing as the previous mission had yielded fairly few injuries and the Technocrats headquarters had become an alien hotspot of late, the troops swing by on their way back to base and low and behold MORE aliens have taken up residence!!! I'm beginning to think this particular battle is unwinnable as we attended this site a matter of 12 game hours ago and no alien incursions have occurred since. Very strange game mechanic though if that's the case...

Anyway, it's the same map as I encountered on my 5th mission in this game so I know it well. Despite several injuries, all 10 troopers attend but we expect minimal resistance due to the recent sweep of the area. As the squads seperate to clear the outside area it's not long before Squad 1 spots a Multiworm.


BombBloke leads the team to better positions and lays down some bursts of suppressive fire but the alien flees around the corner. NKF is close at hand however so all 10 troopers soon bear down on the critter and a well placed grenade fromShigeru manages to kill the host and all 4 offspring in a single blow!


Once NKFs scouting mission is complete, both squads flank the entrance stairs and the mission doesn't even slightly resemble the bloodbath when the troops first attended this site over a week ago. None of the troopers here formed that mission so there is no knowledge of this until back at base but the veteran members of Squad's 3 and 4 take pleasure in letting them know on their return.


Both squads prepare to storm the main entrance and take up new positions at their base. A lone Bloo is spotted near the top but he vanishes inside shortly after.


Moving one flight of stairs at a time, the troopers reach the top and take up positions surrounding the door. A very unhelpful civilian inside insists on opening the doors so there are sporadic exchanges of fire but no confirmed hits and the Bloo soon legs it to level 7 in a bout of self-preservation.


NKF leads Squad 2 into the eastern wing of the complex while BombBloke takes up position with Squad1 just inside the entrance. Several panes of glass are already missing from the foyer elevator so once line of sight is returned, line of fire should quickly follow. As if answering a prayer, the lone alien descends from the heavens like an aquamarine angel and is promptly shot to pieces for his trouble...


With NKFs boys not even halfway round the conference room they were checking out the mission is over and the infestation proves only a minor gathering.

[The Veteran]

Last update of the day and for a brief moment we escape the endless battles in favour of a research update. The Multiworm egg proves to be just as ugly inside as out and research moves onto the multiworm itself next.


The Valkyrie has returned to base now, allowing all the weary troopers plenty of time to recover, we're still 2 robo-troopers short of fielding squads 3 and 4 though so 1 and 2 remain in action. A check of the activity graph reveals that the activity in the south-east is not over yet as a slight rise in Nutrivend can only mean the mall has pests again. We respond by sending in our Xenophobic rentokil boys...

With 4 troopers confined to the sickbay, only 6 members attend the site but it can only be a few stragglers so we're confident from the outset. The unmistakable sound of Hyperworms is heard immediately and one is soon spotted in the overhead gantries.


The troops take up positions as they watch the worm descend the lift but are horrified to see it move behind them and quickly reform to cover the new angle of attack!


With the worm dead, the troops proceed to check out the cafe and then move onto the garden to enjoy their savoury snacks. As they return to the centre, ready to assault the main complex, they spot a Spitter looking rather out of place among the mobility carts.


The 6 troopers move forward and set up a firing line which makes short work of the spitter.


Another mission is over and the troops return to base with barely a scratch on them. That coupled with the stash of 'liberated' pork pies leads the Commander to question whether there was really an engagement at all but a rapidly decaying hyperworm backs up the troopers story.


Research is up on the Brainsucker study now and is replaced by a study of the Bloo, X-Com's last live specimen for analysis.


The last thing I did before leaving the game to write up my mission marathon was check the activity charts and things are looking ok. The Technocrats have come down to a level again so hopefully we can begin to curb alien activity there now and Osiron still doesn't seem to be experiencing a major rise in activity so that's good too. Megapol is going way down and both Transtellar and Nutrivend have already dropped back off the list.


I'm pretty confident we have everyone clear now apart from Osiron who I'm yet to visit en-masse. They will be my next target for a purge but I'd like Squads 3 and 4 to handle that and we need more robots for that to replace the hybrids who are now in training.

I'm hopeful that Megapol is now alien free too but only time will tell as there seem to be an awful lot of small infestations which have engulfed the entire southern half of the city. Still we've made fantastic progress with about 6-8 missions just today I believe so hopefully we now get some peace before the next incursion sets it all off again...

I hope...

[The Veteran]

So after a fairly lengthy break from the AAr due to dismantling my laptop a little too much I'm back! Squads 3 and 4 are ready to go and investigate Osiron's holdings in the city in an attempt to strike them from the alien activity graphs as they're getting way too high round about now!

With the hybrids in combat training to develop their weedy guns and the new Squad Leader robos not yet available to hire, we're launching this sweep with only 6 troopers but I'm not expecting massive finds as I've visited the slums a few times already so shouldn't be too active...

Osiron owns 8 buildings in the city and 2 of them are a good distance from any previous alien contact so I start in the slums and soon find some activity there in the second building I hit.

Take note that Osiron already dislike me but are not yet hostile. I'm hoping that they will like me more if i kill some aliens for them but am unsure if they consider the aliens friends too so may be complicated!

The troops find themselves in a decent sized, 9 level map. It seems to be pretty badly overgrown with grass and trees covering patches of the road but there is only one main building visible so the gang flanks in to get a better idea of their situation. It's not long before a Bloo is spotted amongst the rubble...


Squad 3 continue to move west along the northern border while Squad 4 engages the lone Bloo. He attempts to flee to the north but soon finds himself boxed in by all 6 troopers and a vicious firefight ensues.


With the Bloos final scream comes the missions final screen and Leon celebrates finally reaching the rank of Squaddie on the flight to the team's next target.


With only one alien present it could mean one of three things. Either this was the very beginning of an infestation caught early, the end of an infestation that has run its course, or an overflow from neighbouring buildings... As the nearby osiron buildings are known to be clear and no UFO activity has been in the area recently we can't know so it's onto the next one!

With 6 of 8 buildings now effectively ruled out from the investigation (due to proximity, location and prior investigations) only 2 now remain, one of which is beside the train station we visited earlier. This is our next target and the 6 men travel there immediately.

The building is hot and this mission will leave me happy that no more threats remain in Osiron so part of me is hoping it's a fairly decent turnout but we'll soon see... It's another map I haven't played yet but coincidentally I DO recall having seen a video of someone else playing it so I recall a few details. It doesn't look to be very big but we stick to our 3 man teams and move out.

AS if answering a prayer, an alien reveals itself to Squad3 almost immediately while they travel North along the road. The edge of the map is very close but the nearby building could easily be hiding more aliens...


As the firefight begins, Danielle is quickly wounded and then crippled by the alien's raygun so she prompty withdraws in an attempt to heal. Sadly I seem to have failed to equip the troopers and there are no grenades or medkits to be seen anywhere so she must simply hide for now! Squad4 moves over to assist as the Bloo disappears into the same room it emerged from.


As the troops move in to follow the rogue Bloo, a Spitter appears above them and Sigourney seems to let off a shot on the fly, impressive as ever! Maria and Helga are moved into Squad 4 while Danielle takes a timeout and all troops assemble in the elevator, ready to storm the level above...

Robo Leon attempts to take a shot at the spitter from the lower level but although he recieves some return fire he fails to send a single shot skywards. After a temporary withdrawal, both bots are sent up together ready to spray the corridor with some nice automatic fire but the Spitter is seen in the distance, already fleeing...


The robo-ops switch to snap shots and open fire, stopping the Spitter in it's tracks and soon dropping it. The remaining troops move to cover the lower entrance in the lift and Danielle moves into cover upstairs. It seems all the panic over poor Danielle was unfounded however, as the Bloo shortly returns to face the robot firing squad and it's death ends the mission...


Not as impressive as I'd hoped but another Osiron property that has seen the last of it's alien occupants at the very least.


Now that Osiron, Megapol and the Technocrats have all received extensive extermination programs I should hope to see them drop back off the activity graph but time will tell as these pesky aliens are very persistent! For now it's back to base with the troops and time for poor Danielle to get some desperately needed R&R!

The brief pause in action is used to fully equip all the troopers so that now I'm only 2 medi-kits short of a full compliment! Of course they're sold out as usual so I'll have to wait a while before I can rectify that. For now 2 of the bots go without and then we fast forward to another UFO incursion!

One Alien Transporter and 2 scouts enter the city, mostly in the south as usual with one scout near the Senate in the North East. The Valkyrie and 1 hovercar are dispatched to the south while a remaining hovercar moves to secure the senate.

The southern scout defiles a block of Lifetree luxury appartments and then heads back for the portal just as the Valkyrie arrives and sets to work on the Transporter. The hovercar travelling to engage the already fleeing scout changes target for the priority transporter and it's soon knocked out with a little team work. It's failed to land any troops so the mission is a success!



Sadly the northern scout is also able to flee after very nearly succumbing to the Hovercar engaging it. Even worse I didn't see where it landed troops (if it did) so I may have a bug hunt on my hands!!!

No time to think about that right now though as there's an alien transport in the middle of the city! With Squads 3 and 4 still waiting on robo-ops to replace their hybrids, BombBloke and NKF lead the veterans into the fray. With knowledge of basic UFO structure now we immediately move to secure both exits, Squad1 setting up on a hillock by the Northern door and Squad2 moving around to the west to take up positions there.

NKF's Squad 2 make a dash for the West of the map, hoping they can make it past the entrance without any aliens attempting to emerge. Sadly it's not to be however and just as Jurgen moves clear of the door, a Popper is spotted by Squad2!


Jurgen and Michiko continue to flee the monster while the remaining three troopers spin around and start firing, supported by Squad 1. The popper soon does it's thing a few meters from Jurgen and, although he lives to speak of it, he takes a critical wound which he heals on the move.


Squad 2 continue moving to the South of the UFO to cover the remaining entrance once Jurgen has patched himself up and meanwhile, Squad 1 spot their second hostile of the game, a nice juicy multiworm.


David Pearce slaps some incendiary ammo into his cannon and the whole squad goes crazy. The surrounding area is soon a blazing inferno and the worm is soon inside out with no damage done to our brave souls. The 4 hyperworms that follow are quickly targetted with squad automatic fire and one by one they too fall prey to X-Com's armoured fist!


Just as NKF prepares to lead his squad to their new positions by the southern doorway, a second multiworm emerges in the north. Squad1 repeat the tactics that worked so well previously and a new fire soon covers the ground below them as another worm pops. The multiworms make it far too close to the troopers for comfort but they are soon disposed of without injury...

[The Veteran]

As the fire rages out of control and the X-Commers watch in perverted delight from atop their hillock, a Bloo sallies forth from the UFO and Stefan recieves some light fire. Most shots miss and he's not injured but it takes a moment for the aggressor to become visible to the troops. They lay down some burst fire while NKF finally takes charge and leads Squad2 around to the Southern entrance. To hell with what squad 1's doing...


As Squad 2 finally reach their objective, Squad1 wastes the first Bloo to show itself. Some very nice aimed fire pegged it just before it fled back to the safety of the UFO! Another invisible alien is still firing from the doorway however and cross-shaped items can be seen flying around just inside the craft. BombBloke is on point by the UFO and for the second time is the first trooper to spot the enemy as it walks through the fire...


Stefan and BombBloke shrug off disruptor fire from the new alien and an item it drops seems to extinguish the flame surrounding it. As it runs around, the troops realise that the disruptor fire is actually coming from the doorway and their suspicions are soon confirmed when the visible foe launches a brainsucker pod at them.


Stefan continues to take fire while the pod lands harmlessly at BombBlokes feet only to be stuffed in his backpack. He launches an offering of his own by means of a grenade but somehow manages to drop it on his feet. Regardless, the brainsucker Bloo is finally cut down by sustained fire now, just after launching another pod.


The incoming pod is pocketed by Grigoriy this time who shoves a grenade in it and throws it right back to the hidden alien still shooting from the doorway. It finds it's mark and explodes twice interestingly but there is no kill and the deadly game of hot potato continues as an alien explosive hurtles towards the gang in response.


The object lands inches from Grigory who shoves it in his helmet to dissipate the blast and although noone is critical the injuries are still getting fairly heavy in Squad1... Deciding time and ammo is getting too low to continue this game, Squad 2 detaches Sarah Pearce with some HE in her cannon. In the North, Stefan throws another grenade and then the whole squad rallies to pop a brainsucker from atop David's noggin.


The brainsucker dies of it's own accord and Squad 1 breathes a sigh of relief. Another alien scream is heard after Stefan's grenade does it's work and the body of a newly felled Spitter is glimpsed through the smoke which is now beginning to clear. Sarah now gains access to the UFO, unaware of her siblings brush with death, and spots 4 aliens, 2 of them panicking!


It's a beautiful sight and she doesn't intend to let the opportunity go without some bloodshed so she unloads a salvo of HE rounds into the cluster of creatures. After 2 shots, a spitter is down and the Bloo is now panicking but it doesn't last long as the next shot finishes it off... One of the remaining 2 spitters hides inside the saucer now while the other runs off to see Squad1.


No sooner does the monster exit the spacecraft than it is gunned down by the forewarned squad 1, leaving only one remaining spitter known to be present. An explosive detonates on the Bloo's corpse as it falls and the final Spitter must have been caught in the crossfire as this ends the mission!


Poor Squad1 took a real beating, soaking up almost every single attack from the alien forces themselves. A result of Very Good and a promotion for Grigoriy for his fine grenade catching work will make the stay in sickbay that little bit more bearable!


Now it's time to clean up the rest of the fallout from the last incursion and I'm hoping it should be easy this time round. What with only 3 ships entering the city, one being shot-down and cleared immediately and a second only dropping troops in one building, I just have to hope the third one I wasn't watching didn't do anything terrible in the north!

For now though, it's time to visit the Lifetree Appartments! With so many injuries in the roster already, I leave four troops at home and place BombBloke in charge of his first mission. He's still a rookie so he needs some experience anyway and he has 5 other troops with him so we just have to hope we catch the aliens before they have a chance to get too at home!

Unsurprisingly the building is hot and it doesn't take long for the troops to spot a hostile up in the walkways above the corridor they're situated in. It's a smallish 4 level map, like the last appartment they fought in. Hopefully there wouldn't be so many hostiles here though as they're fighting at significantly worse odds... The gang holds fire and anticipates the Bloo's next move...


The gang moves into a room not far from the sighting and take positions around the elevator shaft whilst a whole host of disgusting noises seem to surround them on every side. Soon enough a hostile emegres from above but it's only a brainsucker and automatic fire quickly puts it under. The Bloo follows right behind it and more automatic fire drop it right by the gangs feet, allowing Sarah to scoop up the remaining brainsucker pod and also spot a Megapol smoke grenade being carried by the alien...


Sadly I reached my image limit at this point so the last 3 weren't saved. They weren't very exciting but it does mean I lost the end mission report

The next alien spotted is the cause for all that noise and the grew continue on full auto fire as a multiworm descends the lift. Again, the heavy concentration makes short work of the creature and only 2 hyperworms hatch, making easy targets for the squad.

No time to relax, another multiworm appears and the gang repeat the process. Again only 2 worms hatch and again they are promptly dispatched. There is no more noise and no more movement so the team prepares to start the hunt... The area seems fairly clear, encountering 3 eggs in one room and a brainsucker in another. 2 of the eggs are left alive but then I decide to give them to BombBloke for some practice.

Shortly after the eggs are dispatched we're informed that remaining aliens have fled so our job isn't done yet but BombBloke got his first stripe so the mission was a partial success at least!

We'll get straight onto the escapees when I next load the game as they can't have gone far in 4 seconds. See you then