Protecting the Future

[silencer_pl]

Hey all.

 

Last time I did X-Com Interceptor AAR which is pre X-Com Apocalypse time. Now I'll try to save Earth once again from the evil aliens. But this time it will not be sectoids and etherals. This time something more devious came to us.

 

Now I know that there is another AAR here led by Veteran himself but since his last update I guess it is abandoned though it is pinned and "hot".

 

In this AAR I will try to penalize myself with using ONLY Human armament except for ships maybe and NO Toxigun. This weapon is by far the most powerful weapon in the game and the most cheesy one. I'll be using plasma guns, laser rifle and Auto Gun. Though If I meet bigger aliens I will then see what can be done. Of course I will be bringing heavy ordinance like rocket launchers too. In case I will run out of ammo I might grab those alien tech weapons if I can.

 

Also I am looking for brave soldier to protect our home. Of course the difficulty is super human and there surely be some deaths.

 

So let's get to business.

 

This is our HQ. It's location is in the slums and we get a pretty neat layout.

 

 

Our first steps in this base is add additional training center, because we will have more brave souls and they need the space. Additional quarters also will be required.

 

Let's meet our Rookies that we get by assigning in a role of X-Com Commander.

 

 

If by chance there are brave men here please choose your soldier. Although we are 30 years after the second alien war our cloning capabilities have been taken away by those human rights activists. So replacements will be limited. And of course first comes first gets.

 

Now we shall look at our vehicles.

 

 

We have 1 Big interceptor, 2 hoover crafts, APC and small armored car. Our standard armament is Lancer laser. It's main advantage is unlimited supply of ammunition and that is it. We will not use missiles for now since missiles tend to miss more than often and we don't want collateral damage.

 

Time to go to the market and buy more equipment.

 

First we will sell our ground vehicles. They are useless to me. Too slow and can't get everywhere.

Second we buy more grenades,

 

 

Some laser guns and auto cannons. They will be our primary weapons.

 

 

Next we get more medikits, some motion scanners, stun grapples and additional mind bender. Yes I will be using PSI later when those psi talented soldiers will be available. Humans got their brains damaged somehow and are very poor psionics now. There are exceptions but still they will be mediocre at best.

 

Next our vehicles get an upgrade. We buy All Rendor plasma guns. It is quite good gun. We sell other ones that are less usefull.

 

 

Also our crafts will get better engines too.

 

 

Next let's check who we can hire. He looks great and I claim him as ME. The other 2 ladies are rubbish.

 

 

Next bio-researchers. She looks great

 

 

He looks crap - off you go - get some skill

 

 

No better quantum researchers and engineers. So let's check our research labs.

 

Our quantum physicians can start analysing those strange things in our sky

 

 

And our bio chemists start their work on some safe mobile containment module.

 

 

I also forgot to buy some armor. Megapol armor is very bulky and our soldiers will be penalized but we must protect our brave men.

 

 

First preparations done. Now we wait for something to happen. And not to soon.

 

 

We must investigate something in nearby police station

 

 

In this game I will be all doing in Turn-Base mode. Although I play it in RT always - this time I will do it differently since TB is more friendly for AARs (you happy FA?).

 

 

Our teams will be of 10 soldiers max divided into 2 squads. I may change it to 12 men and 3 squads with 4 men. I will see later.

[silencer_pl]

Here is our team squads. They don't look impressive yet.

 

 

Our starting positions.

 

 

Nearest offices look clear. You can never be too sure.

 

 

Showers also empty

 

 

Sweeping room by room - nothing so far, yet I hear them breathing down our necks.

 

 

Suddenly...

 

 

That was too close for comfort one of the soldiers survived an attack from the yellow face hopper.

 

And we find first of blue aliens...

 

 

We scared him off but only fools follow blindly.

 

 

One of the yellow bastards tried to be sneaky - but our men are on their toes.

 

 

It's very clumpy here.

 

We have spotted their hanging place. Now we need to kill them.

 

 

One hid inside an office.

 

 

We failed to kill them in this turn but men are protecting each others back so the yellow aliens can't face hug us.

 

 

Not possessing real threat they are eliminated one by one.

 

 

Another of those... kill it ASAP men.

 

 

Damn it... kill IT.

 

 

Phew...

 

 

But that is not the last one... hmm let's check our scanner...

 

 

Nothing...

 

But never hurts to check.... oh here are your, strange that he sits on the escape block.

 

 

Oh well, look like we have our first victory and no major damage was done.

 

 

And our first promotions.

 

[silencer_pl]

Our men return to base to celebrate first victory. But as the day comes to an end some UFO's appear in the sky.

 

 

Looks like I've caught one inserting some aliens inside our buildings. We need to check it after the UFO's are dealt with.

 

 

Out of 5 Ufos only 1 gets away while 1 is totally destroyed. We pick up the down ones and head towards the infiltrated building.

 

 

Solmine is our only supplier of Elerium so we need them safe and on our side.

 

 

The team is ready.

 

 

 

 

[Space Voyager]

Alright, APOC AAR!

 

Any special rules you're implementing?

[silencer_pl]

In this AAR I will try to penalize myself with using ONLY Human armament except for ships maybe and NO Toxigun. This weapon is by far the most powerful weapon in the game and the most cheesy one. I'll be using plasma guns, laser rifle and Auto Gun. Though If I meet bigger aliens I will then see what can be done. Of course I will be bringing heavy ordinance like rocket launchers too. In case I will run out of ammo I might grab those alien tech weapons if I can.

 

Also I am looking for brave soldier to protect our home. Of course the difficulty is super human and there surely be some deaths.

 

Also I forgot to ask - is there any normal rank editor ? Since in this game it is not possible to obtain commander rank and I don't want to hex edit the saves because I don't longer remember where the rank is located.

 

And was there a fix for TB Psi-control so the captured alien resets it's TU's? I remember that if alien did move and you capture him his TU's would be the number he left after end turn.

 

Edit: Forgot about XED... but that psionic thing would be nice.

[Space Voyager]

Sorry, I was looking at them pictures too much. Good ruleset. I'm up for it!

[silencer_pl]

Because in normal way it is impossible to gain the rank of commander I will after a month nominate one to agent who will score the most kills as long as I will find volunteers

[Thorondor]

Did I hear anyone say volunteers?

 

Mr. T reporting for duty, Sir!

 

Just hand me some Megapol grenades and Auto-cannon and we'll talk business...

 

::

 

As for the rest, you'll probably have to wait for BB to pop in and assist.

[silencer_pl]

Let's see what infests the offices. Our starting positions.

 

 

Offices aren't big so we start close enough to each sqaud.

 

This room looks clear

 

 

And we found one.

 

 

Looks like dead end.

 

 

God damn it those buggers. Fortunately he survives and the other rookie missed from point blank shot. Oh those rookies.

 

 

We nail him.

 

 

And fast check if he has any more of those pods. Yep he does and we are taking it. Don't want any of those little buggers to jump on me.

 

 

Also don't be a noob like me and never leave your soldier in half running position at the end of turn because he/she will lose whole stamina and recovering this is hard.

 

 

That would be dead-end isn't that end nor is it dead. I've noticed opened doors at the lower bottom and tried to see if I can spot something there.

 

 

Allright - I know there is one more there and few others as I hear they screams of whatever the sound is. But where are they.

 

Duh... this is awkward... why the civis don't run away like they should...

 

 

Let's try not to kill civilians but I will have to make hole in the wall.

 

 

This is good situation to use HE ammo but if I shoot far back still explosion hurts civilians - damn it.

 

 

We have them surrounded let's throw some grenades.

 

 

Oh thank god those civis have moved now I can pepper them with some HE rounds.

 

 

This worm has very powerful acid spit and on death it releases even more deadlier weapon...

 

 

We stunned it, but there are those little fast worms too and laser fire is not very wise against them. Bugger I will have to use HE again.

 

 

And the stunned worm released it's offspring... grr more HE

 

 

And they are dead. And we win.

 

 

More promotions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[silencer_pl]

And Mr Wolfgang - you shall be known as Space Voyager now.

 

 

7 kills in 2 missions. That is HE for you.

 

 

Day comes to an end.

 

 

Let us see who we can hire. Only women appear on the recruitment list. Does women have more balls than you guys? She has good accuracy so we hire her for now.

 

 

Next scientists are changed

 

 

 

 

Our first step to victory

 

 

Because we pay them they have to work.

 

 

This will be our first mean of income.

 

 

So they are called brainsuckers...

 

 

Let's make as much as we can afford.

 

 

And looks like they are aiming straight at the senate, our main source of income.

 

[Veki]

Very nice AAR, Silencer.

 

Can I get a laser rifle and a nice spot in the back, pretty please?

[Azrael Strife]

Ahhh, great game, and the one I made an AAR of! I don't remember where I left it off but I had fun! (note: it's not here, it's in the xcomufo.com forums).

I want ghallagher! I like the Sniper Laser Rifle and dual Stun Grapples for close quarters.

[Space Voyager]

Wolfgang?! Well, this is an improvement! I'm all for those HE, just give me a target! Ehm, do try to give one that is not close to comrades, please.

[silencer_pl]

Wolfgang?! Well, this is an improvement! I'm all for those HE, just give me a target! Ehm, do try to give one that is not close to comrades, please.

 

That is hardly an issue since HE has not enough power to punch trough Megapol and Marsec Armors and I definetly will not send agents unarmored. Of course it can wear down its durability but I would have to waste whole clip and some.

 

Very nice AAR, Silencer.

 

Can I get a laser rifle and a nice spot in the back, pretty please?

 

There is plenty room for all, except when I run out of men "ladies"

 

Ahhh, great game, and the one I made an AAR of! I don't remember where I left it off but I had fun! (note: it's not here, it's in the xcomufo.com forums).

I want ghallagher! I like the Sniper Laser Rifle and dual Stun Grapples for close quarters.

 

Allright "lady" but how about 2 power swords

[silencer_pl]

Before we go to the Senate. Let's meet

 

Azrael:

 

 

Thorondor:

 

 

and Veki: (sorry mate but most of snipers are women here )

 

 

I've decided to make a small change for now. There will be 3 squads with 4 people in it. For now there are 2 snipers and 2 cannoniers per squad later if proper people will be available there will be 1 psi guy per squad.

 

 

Here is our starting positions. The 3 squads covered whole length of the Senate building

 

 

Of course don't be fooled that starting positions are safe. Right from the start little worm spat at Azrael wounding him slightly.

 

 

We feed him with some AP rounds and proceed. Looks like team #3 has found where are the aliens.

 

 

Oh no... I wasn't expecting him to appear so soon :/

 

 

And we lost her

 

 

First casualty. But we must move on. Of course civilians don't make easy on us. There is this green worm and I can't use HE to kill it and using AP will unleash even more dangerous worms.

 

 

So operation bum rush with stun grapples and some stun nades. Fortunately our armor withstood the damage from the spit.

 

 

He thinks he can brainsuck us?

 

 

No...

 

 

A quick nade because hitting with AC would require luck.

 

 

And as lucky you can get. She actually hit him.

 

 

Killing the blue one was the last one.

 

 

More promotions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[silencer_pl]

Time to replace to casualty

 

 

Our physicians finished analysis of the Type 1 ufo:

 

 

They can start on Type 2

 

 

Day comes to and end

 

 

We now know how to operate this gun not that we want to.

 

 

Also a bio module is finished and we equip it to our interceptor

 

 

And Type 2 UFO is known

 

 

This was actually quiet day and I don't like quiet days so early.

 

 

But today aliens decide to drop another squads

 

 

 

It's time to suit up and clear the infestation.

[silencer_pl]

It's strange that when I arrived at those 2 places there wasn't any aliens. Don't know how that can happen. So we return to base and wait till something new popups.

 

New day dawns.

 

 

We have new living quarters so we can hire additional people but we must also keep money because this is important.

 

 

Day comes to an end but aliens decided to pop up again.

 

 

They drop payload at some slums building. And one of the UFO's gets away just barely.

 

 

And so the team is send to investigate. This time we found something.

 

Squads set up as usual.

 

 

This is one of the old American slum type building.

 

 

Slowly proceeding to the entrance SV spots an egg. Because we have bio module we don't have to kill it as it doesn't poses any threat.

 

 

My team and SV's will be entering through main entrance while Azrael's squad will be using old fire exit route. When securing ground floor we spot the blue one.

 

 

Upon reaching 2nd floor of the building and dispatching the blue one another alien is spotted and killed

 

 

While moving forward this brainsucker is found in the corner and quickly eliminated.

 

 

Also another of these is found so we take opportunity to capture it.

 

 

Now is the tedious work to search the remaining rooms and find rest of the aliens but lucky Thor finds those two.

 

 

He is able to eliminate the first one, but while entering the room the second one runs to the other corner.

 

 

Meanwhile Azrael team finds the green worm and we also put it to sleep. Because it has tons of HP some additional fire from firearms are required.

 

 

On next turn Thor runs to the alien and spots another one. He kills the first one and the second gets further away but is killed on the next turn.

 

 

And that was the last of aliens.

 

 

Congratulations Thor - you are not a rookie now.

 

[silencer_pl]

Upon returning to base our scientists can get back to work. Lets start with the brainsucker pod.

 

 

We exchange few engineers.

 

 

 

Time flies and another day dawns.

 

 

New training area is completed and 2 soldiers were assigned there. They were training psionics just for the sake of training something.

 

 

Checking the recruitment list we find this very nice looking (stats wise ) secto-human.

 

 

She will be our first team psionic.

 

Another physician is swapped.

 

 

And we know something more about this pod

 

 

Now let's try to learn more about the creature itself.

 

 

Day comes to an end and so does the week 1 ends. Here is the summary of our progress.

 

 

New stuff is available on the market and we want it. Mainly the plasma gun, Hawk Air Warrior and Marsec Armor.

 

 

No new psykers , but we hire her as she has quite good skills and we need few backup soldiers.

 

 

Another engineer is swaped.

 

[silencer_pl]

Now let's do some shopping. Firs we sell our bio modules. I hopped for more produced but well, next week we should have more I think.

 

 

Next we are buying all the elerium there is. We will be eating elerium like it was some kind of drug.

 

 

Next we need that Hawk Air Warrior - the best ship we can have, unfortunetly we need plenty of those and they aren't cheap.

 

 

We then re-supply our ammo stock and buy some armor.

 

 

I've decided to have those missiles. Because plasmas eat elerium plenty.

 

 

And add some accuracy modules for them.

 

 

Stuff has arrived and we can gear up.

 

 

We now know more about this sucker. This is apocalypse equivalent of the chrysalid (feel the horror already?)

 

 

And let's check his insides

 

 

New week, new ufos, but uh, they have shields already?

 

 

And they have pretty tough escort not to mention this time one of the gates spawned near our HQ... we don't have poroper firepower to take the UFOs and it requires lots of luck to at least down one of the transporters with just 2 crafts.

 

 

Fortunetly we are lucky to down one of the transports but our crafts were heavily damaged and we spot this one to drop it's cargo at this warehouse.

 

 

After the UFOs said goodbye we sent our men to said building.

[Thorondor]

Congratulations Thor (...)

 

Yay, made it to Squaddie!

 

Very lucky indeed, considering I wasn't expecting to be able to hit anything, let alone on first try.

 

::

 

Things sure are heating up fast for us, though, by the looks of it, so I'll go prime my grenades...

[silencer_pl]

One question - should we Raid Cult of Sirius ? If so how often ?

[Veki]

Stun grapple raid every day.

[Space Voyager]

Silencer, you have some nerves to play these huge maps in turns... Never could force myself.

 

As for the Cult, as often as possible.

[silencer_pl]

Right now the battle is somewhere up to 10 turns so the fights are pretty fast as you can see. Of course there are locations that are quite bigger like the Mall or Grav Ball league...

[silencer_pl]

We proceed to the Warehouse.

 

 

It's open terrain on the ground floor.

 

 

My team and SV's will follow ahead and Azraels will go up. Soon we spot aliens.

 

 

And he manages to survive pooper blow.

 

 

SV team goes to the corner and spots few other aliens with his Auto Cannon SV is able to dispatch few.

 

 

On upper side Ludimila kills this green worm. Me and Thor go to the next room.

 

 

Seeing that aliens are coming from the bottom - Azrael and two of his team runs to the bottom of the warehouse and spot two more of this blue ones. Too far to kill but few hits do connect.

 

 

They try to bum rush SV's team and one lucky blood sucker gets it's victim.

 

 

SV stuns the nearest blue one and kills the other one, while Veki helps kill now alien controlled X-com agent.

 

 

On the bottom floor Azraels team kills one of those.

 

 

And on the top floor another one pops in.

 

 

While there was action where SV team was Ludimira decided to take one pot shot at aliens but after that she was sneak attacked by this thing and wounded. Good thing medkits are more advanced now.

 

 

Let's check if there is something else down on the bottom. And look what we have found. SV swaps its ammo to HE and pops few rounds killing brainsucker and stunning the other.

 

 

There was also this green worm which Azrael killed and its offspring was blasted by AC-HE rounds