Let's Play UFO2:Extraterrestrials

[Zombie]

Heavy Cruiser Part 1

Just to note, I severely pruned the screenshots down for this mission so I think it can be done in two parts. However, the aftermath is going to be pretty long which will probably require two more parts. We'll cross that bridge when we get to that though.

So we zone into a desert "maze" landscape this time, which was quite the surprise as I haven't seen this type in quite a while. Straight off the bat Pete spots a Rider which he'll shoot at:

The first two bullets do 13 & 8 damage which is subpar but the last shot will be a hit too:

It does 36 damage which kills it:

For some reason I'm too chicken to move anyone off the transport so we patiently wait. (I don't normally leave everyone on the transport as it can be dangerous if an AOE shot lands in there, but I just had a bad feeling about there being a swarm of Bonesetters awaiting the team with no way to use the mortar). A curious Rider comes up to the edge of the ramp and stops dead in it's tracks. When it's our turn Pete will shoot at it too:

The first bullet does 34 damage and kills the thing:

With the immediate LZ clear, Crazy Gringo takes a quick peek and spots a Bonesetter to the west of us in the air. Might as well shoot at it:

He ends up taking two auto shots. All the bullets hit, but the damage was just pathetic. We'll have NKF shoot next:

His second bullet did 22 damage and killed the thing (no screenshot, sorry, cut for brevity and all that). The next round we spot two more Bonesetters. CG will shoot at the one closest to us:

The first auto shot really didn't do much damage but still precipitated reaction fire from the Bonesetter which hit CG for no damage. He then goes on to take two more auto shots as every other bullet seemed to get absorbed. The last bullet did 33 damage which killed it:

The other Bonesetter is airborne in the same location the other one was in last round. Pete will shoot at this one:

His first two bullets did 28 & 56 damage which killed it. A couple rounds later everyone pours out of the transport hoping to flood the immediate LZ. Well, we find a Bonesetter on the ground around some walls. The only thing we can do is have NKF toss an incendiary grenade on it:

It does a decent 32 damage but wasn't enough for the kill. In an egregious case of oneupmanship, AT tossed an Inferno grenade on it which did 56 fire damage and killed it:

Eight turns later and we finally spot the next contestant: a Bonesetter who is trying to exit the maze. Pete will shoot at it:

Damage started off strong but petered out to a trickle so he took another auto shot which finally killed it:

Three turns later a Rider makes it through the maze to our side which Pete will shoot at:

The first bullet did 53 damage which killed it:

Way to go! Nine turns go by and NKF spots a Bonesetter on the far side of the maze. No way anyone has a shot at it since it's on the ground behind a maze of walls. But it's on the ground, so FA will waste a Mortar on it:

He does 53 damage to a hidden unit which I assume is another Bonesetter and it also does 115 damage to the Bonesetter NKF spotted which killed it:

FA should have probably nuked the area again to get rid of the other Bonesetter, but I wanted someone else (like Pete) to get the kill shot. Besides, mortar bombs are expensive. A couple turns later NKF had to take a peek to see what was the holdup was. The Bonesetter reaction fires at him but it was absorbed. To make matters worse, one of the alien cannons hit him but for 1 point of damage. First things first, FA will mortar the cannon:

The bomb does a pitiful 49 damage, well, I guess that means you get to mortar it again FA:

This time the blast is a weak spot kill for 173 damage:

Sometimes I wonder why the damage is so variable against unarmored targets like cannons. It doesn't make much sense to have both ends of the spectrum represented in back-to-back explosions either. Anyway, stay tuned as next time we'll deal with that Bonesetter along with a few straggler Riders and Bonesetters inside. Oh, and we have a shootout at the O.K. Corral with the Bonesetter. Well, the Bonesetter didn't do much shooting.

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Heavy Cruiser Part 2

With that cannon gone, it's time to deal with that annoying Bonesetter. JFG is hidden away in a cubby in the maze so he's kinda safe where he's at. I don't really want to move him in order to shoot so he'll toss an incendiary grenade on it:

It's a weak spot kill for 70 fire damage:

That's the stuff! On our next turn NKF spots a Rider at the door to the UFO so he'll shoot at it:

The first bullet does 27 damage which killed it:

We also spotted the outline of another cannon so FA will mortar that right away:

The blast did 115 damage but wasn't enough to destroy it. I mean, we gotta be pretty close with that much damage so I went through all the soldiers and nobody could shoot at the cannon. The only option was to have FA mortar it again. This time the blast did 107 which took it out:

With the cannons on our side destroyed, I move the team up a little bit. Three turns later another Rider exits the UFO and just stands there by the door like an idiot. NKF will toss a normal grenade on it:

The blast does 35 damage which kills it:

Granted, I took the screenshot a little early as the death animation hadn't started yet, but...

Five turns later and part of the team has entered the UFO. During the alien's turn a Rider makes a run for the door on the right but was met with reaction fire from Gimli. The first bullet does 8 damage and it looks like the second will be a hit too:

It dealt 21 damage which killed it:

Three turns later the inner door in the main room of the UFO opens to reveal 2 Bonesetters inside. I'm skeptical however as the animation during their turn was wonky. Just to be safe (and to find out for sure), Gimli will toss an Inferno grenade on it:

It does a decent 43 damage but doesn't kill it. It shot back but the damage was absorbed. As for that other Bonesetter, it wasn't hit so that leads me to believe it's not really there? MTR needs some xp so we may as well have him shoot at the thing:

His first auto shot really didn't do much except cause the Bonsetter to reaction fire but thankfully the damage was absorbed. His second auto shot did 12 & 5 damage which killed it:

During the alien's turn, that other glitchy Bonesetter entered the main room and ended the turn in the blaze which did 27 fire damage. Gimli will shoot at it:

Please note that the door is closed which means it didn't really come through there during it's turn. Anyhow he hits all three times doing 8, 23 & 18 damage which "soft kills" it, as the thing manages to shoot back during it's dying gasp but the damage was absorbed:

It's a few turns later and everyone has gathered at that door to start splitting up into the two breach teams. Pete opens the door and takes a couple steps to the left only to see the Commander at the right door. AT will shoot at it first:

Everything was absorbed, but the commander hit him twice for 1 & 2 freeze damage. Shoot again:

TV shot next, and then MTR was up. He managed to damage the thing for 11 and 1 damage which gave me hope so he'll continue to shoot at it:

All the bullets were absorbed. NKF shot at it a bunch so far and everything from him was absorbed too:

But his next auto shot killed the thing which ended the mission. I'll save the EOM report for next time as we'll have a two-part geoscape episode since a lot of stuff happened there. Stay tuned for that!

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

- Look, it's just so hot out there. The readings are crazy.
- Fine by me. Let 'em come to us and do all the sweating.
- Hey, Riders, do some riding way over here already. Hah!

At some point weight had to be shifted of course. Bonesetters rarely off themselves after all. And we always do the heavy lifting anyway, but it was good to sort of shoot the breeze for a little bit.

Engaging kill mode once again just came naturally and it was back to seeing who would rack up the most stiffs. Pete had a bit of a head start, FA had the unfair advantage of group obliteration but the others eventually chipped in.

Setting things ablaze left and right in a spectacle of destruction we show the creatures the error of their ways - even the suffocating desert can't shield them from us.

Feel free to try your mind tricks, play dirty or what have ye. You better flee as we're not stopping, you can't leave us behind.

And when the so-called commander we find we put the thing down. Our world is not for your kind! 😎

[Zombie]

Continuing on, here is the end of mission report:

Awesome, two promotions! Let's allocate MTR 2.0's points first:

Pretty standard allocation with two points in Strength and Shooting with the last into Throwing. He only had one kill this mission, but he was able to fire at the commander a lot which gave him like 90 extra XP - that's the reason for the promotion.The other soldier with a promotion is NKF 2.0. He had 4 kills this mission along with shooting at the commander so let's do his points next:

His Strength and Shooting are both maxed out at 99 so we only have to focus on the other stats. I only put 1 point into throwing to get him to 98 so the other 4 points went equally into Agility and Vitality. This guy is unreal and he still has 2 more promotions to go. Back in the Geoscape and our first Thunderstorm interceptors are almost ready. Here it is at the Antarctica base:

A little bit later and all of the Thunderstorms completed at the same time (along with a load of sludge grenades at my main base):

So all of the Thunderstorms were equipped with the best kit and then I sold all the Golden Eagles at my main base and transferred the Thunderstorms there (It should go without saying that I immediately started construction of three more new Thunderstorms). :

Why not spread them out and leave them at different bases? Well, that's a good strategy, but I'm really worried about the game suddenly setting off a trigger point which would cause bigger UFOs to either take over our main base or one of our other bases close by. This wouldn't be the end of the world by any means as my team of soldiers is really solid, but the loss of a nearby base (like Europe) would put us in a world of hurt as we'd lose the ability to send out interceptors from there or for the base defenses to fire at other UFOs.

I decided that the best strategy was to double down and transfer all the Thunderstorms to our main base to concentrate firepower there. The only drawback of course is that now my main base has no interceptor support. I'm willing to risk that as it'll only be temporary due to equipping them with weapons and shields before transferring. As if on cue, the aliens send a supply vessel - but not on a retaliation mission. Between the base defenses and Golden Eagles we took it down easily:

I decided to bombard this UFO instead of going on another mission. We need a little time to manufacture some mortar bombs and armor first. It's now the end of the month so let's see how we did:

All the states gave us excellent ratings except for Europe which was just good. In addition, we maxed out funding for everyone except for Antarctica which is just a little bit short. We had quite a few things we manufactured which chewed up a lot of cash again, but we kept it reasonable. With the addition of the extra funding from Antarctica and selling stuff our balance is a cool $80 million space bucks.

Not long after our research into the alien supply vessel completed:

Oooo, and a new ship rocket can be researched! As always we'll check out it's description first:

It has the best fire rate of any UFO we've encountered before and it does decent damage with good armor so it's a tough opponent overall. The only thing we have going for us right now is that we have three Thunderstorms at our main base and more on the way. Obviously the next research topic is going to be the Long Spear Launcher for our interceptors:

It's going to come at a bad time as we just produced a lot of fire arrow launchers. On the other hand, when we finish researching this it'll take us a while to manufacture the new Long Spears and then equip our interceptors with them. So in the interim we are at least covered and we can always sell the excess fire arrows to fund the production of the long spears.

I know we are currently in the throes of a mass construction project (namely converting all our golden eagle interceptors to thunderstorms and eventually better ship rockets). But I think it's time to build a new base in Africa:

The issue we've been having recently is lots of activity there. I'm worried that this is just going to get worse. We have decent funding relations with them and I'd like to keep it that way. The writing has been on the wall for a while and since we have plenty of cash on hand it's time:

There goes $1.55 million space bucks. As always we start this base with an energetic center to power it along with a hangar:

I figure that as the hangar space opens up here we'll transfer the golden eagle interceptors from our bases manufacturing the thunderstorms instead of selling them off. Something is better than nothing, right?

Join me for part two of a Geoscape session where we'll be covering manufacturing at my main base, an update to the base in North America, a new load of Thunderstorms and shooting down 3 more UFOs. Should be interesting!

- Zombie

[Zombie]

We've been encountering more poisonous aliens lately so I think it's also time to bite the bullet and start production of another suit of Sludge Armor:

I just finished a run of VT3000 personal shields for the soldiers so I think another sludge suit would help with chem/poisonous alien types. Gosh, we're low on explosive shells for the mortar again. And sludge grenades, and cryo grenades, and AK1 ammo. The list goes on and on. Back in the Geoscape and our 3 workshops in North America have finished construction:

I started construction on one more in the final slot which will take 10 more days:

Not long after another batch of 3 more Thunderstorms finished construction too:

So these Thunderstorms are at my bases in Europe, South America and Antarctica. I left them where they are and equipped them right away and started another production run too:

Slow but sure, we'll swap out all the golden eagles for the thunderstorms. I may need to transfer some over to the aircraft carrier at some point because that "base" doesn't have manufacturing capabilities. Back in the Geoscape again and two UFOs have just been detected: a light cruiser off the east coast of the United States and a heavy cruiser directly over my main base:

I send the flyboys out to intercept the heavy over my main base which included some Thunderstorms. Before they could engage another heavy cruiser shows up off the west coast of Mexico. My defenses in North America start shooting at the light cruiser too:

The heavy cruiser over my main base seemed to stagnate there which allowed the interceptors to start firing at it en masse:

We took that out very quickly and the base defenses in North America shot down the light cruiser over water. And now a medium cruiser shows up too:

I send my interceptors from my main base to engage the medium cruiser which has just entered Africa. They will draw fire away from my transport which is going to head out to that heavy cruiser we just shot down:

I don't think we'll have any trouble with this, though one of the golden eagles is a little damaged:

It doesn't take long for the transport to arrive at it's destination:

Join me next time for that mission.

Late edit: I'm currently #79 on the Steam Leaderboards with 1279 UFOs shot down. So I made some progress in this respect.

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

18 hours ago, Zombie said:

Late edit: I'm currently #79 on the Steam Leaderboards with 1279 UFOs shot down. So I made some progress in this respect.

NIIIICE! And the end is not near it seems so you may put others to shame yet!

[Thorondor]

Feeling all blustery, MTR and NKF? Remember, rising up in the ranks are those that'll most often be found walking the planks, if you get my meaning, lads!

As luck would have it, High Command has been doing its homework and chances are our increased air power and its proper use will be delivering the goods. Even Antarctica has some fangs now.

Finances are solid too with another month in the green and a clear message is still being sent with the healthy, sustained investment in our forces, gear and weapons production facilities; and even by planting new roots in Africa - with this kind of leadership there can be no mistake: Earth will prevail!

Our eggheads have now also arranged for more implements for us to play with going forward. Not that our spears are not long enough already, eh?

Feeling fighting fit? You're going to need that edge, trust me. We've got incoming!

[Zombie]

Heavy Cruiser Part 1

Just as a preface, this will be a three parter as there was a lot of action. Not sure what's going to happen with the Geoscape stuff afterwards, maybe another episode? We shall see. Anyhow, it's an arctic base map again and nothing much happens for the first couple turns except we deploy and start spreading out. During the alien's turn a pGehe shows up on a rooftop. Gimli reaction fires at it and the first shot hits for 9 damage:

That's a start. The next two shots connect but are absorbed. Now another two pGehes appear on the ground:

TV reaction fires on the one by the building with the first bullet being absorbed. The second is inbound though:

Everything was absorbed. Well, crap, lot of good that did. And to make matters worse, when it's our turn again there are now 4 pGehes visible. When it rains, it pours. I seriously contemplated mortaring the 3 pGehes on the ground, but let's not get carried away quite yet. I'm going to have TV shoot at the one by the building again:

He ended up taking two auto shots as half the bullets were absorbed, the other half did 17, 22 & 27 damage which killed it:

And then there were three. MTR needs some xp so he'll shoot at the pGehe in the open:

Everything hit which was nice, but all but two bullets were absorbed. The two that did hit for damage did 13 & 20. Someone's gotta clean up this mess so Zombie is going to volunteer with his photon beamer:

his first bullet does 11 damage which kills it:

Two left. One is visible inside a building which poses no threat to us, but there's a new pGehe on the roof of the building next to us. Gimli will shoot at it first:

All three bullets hit and did no damage. The pGehe thinks it can hit him with it's chem weapon, even though it's clearly too far away:

Good luck with that. Gimli is going to shoot again then:

Everything was absorbed. And the stupid pGehe shoots again:

Honestly, it didn't work before, why try again? CG is standing below so he'll toss a photon grenade up there to see what it does:

Apparently nothing. Time to step things up another notch, he'll toss an inferno grenade next:

It's a weak spot kill for 64 damage:

Atta boy! That's all for us this round. During the alien's turn a Mega opens the door to the building to our left and is immediately met with reaction fire from JFG and his photon beamer:

This shot does 13 damage which isn't shabby. The next blast looks like it'll hit too:

It hit for 10 damage, but the last was absorbed. When it's our turn, Pete will jump out in front of it with his gun a blazin':

He hits for 3 and 40 damage which takes it out:

Turns out that alien inside the small building wasn't a pGehe, it was a Mega. It exits and when it's our turn CG will shoot at it:

He hits for 14 & 19 damage with the last shot connecting too:

Technically the next bullet hit for 19 and killed it, but the game thinks otherwise and allows the Mega to shoot back, but the thing only manages to gas itself for no damage. Not that it matters:

So join me for part two where we'll deal with pGehe's, Megas and alien cannons, oh my!

Edit: I haven't been playing the game to continue my playthrough as I have plenty of missions banked already. Instead, I've been just shooting down UFO's to increase my Steam ranking on the global leaderboards. Right now I'm #60 with 1,470 UFOs shot down. So some significant progress has been made. #55 is well within my grasp as that only requires 30 more UFOs to be shot down.

I had to adjust my Geoscape strategy a bit to accommodate this new style of play. Gone are the workshops at most bases and in it's place are 4 more defense modules. I contemplated adding another hangar instead as that would mean another interceptor. In the end I just decided that I'd do the defenses as those are passive and do not require any intervention on my part. The bigger UFOs can be a challenge to shoot down so interceptors will probably get destroyed in lengthy encounters. So how do I get another when most of my production has been eliminated? Save scumming to the rescue - just reload and bingo, everything is back to normal.

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Heavy Cruiser Part 2

It's now 4 turns later and we see another pGehe on the same level as the roof of the small building. You know the deal, MTR needs XP so he'll shoot at it first:

16 damage, absorbed and 19 won't cut it mister:

And neither will everything being absorbed or missing completely. TV, can you help him out please:

On his first auto shot, all the bullets were absorbed. The first bullet on the second shot did 37 damage which killed it:

A couple turns later CG spots one of the alien cannons on the roof of the UFO. FA will mortar it:

It's a weak spot hit for 196 damage which destroys it:

Too bad it's not 200 on the money. Four turns later and we've been spreading out a little bit more and exploring the building to our left. In the mean time, there's an airborne Mega that needs to be killed. MTR will try a 77% accurate auto shot:

The first bullet was absorbed, but the second did 30 damage and the last did 4 which killed it:

Five turns later and we've just searched the entire building to our left to find nothing. But there's alien movement noises coming from close by which I think is in the conjoining building. Gimli who is hiding behind some boxes above spots a Mega on the lift which he'll shoot at:

Or maybe not. See, there were signs to me that the game was having some hiccups the last few rounds, so I made the executive decision to save and reload. That did seem to clear up the issues. On a whim, I had Pete poke his head around the corner to get eyes on the Mega from before. To his surprise, there was another directly next to it on the lift which shot a chem blob at him which missed and hit the wall behind him:

The other then shot at him for no damage with no chem cloud either (did I just say the game was running better - apparently not). It's last shot... honestly, I can't explain. It must've hit something invisible which bathed itself and his buddy in gas. Both shrugged it off. Gimli is going to risk it by tossing an inferno grenade on them:

It does 53 fire damage to both and kills both:

Four turns later and Pete and Gimli discover another alien cannon which FA will now mortar:

It does a decent 152 damage which destroys it:

I save and reload again just to make sure the game is running properly. It seems to be. About 4 turns later AT spots a Mega below so he'll shoot at it:

His first bullet does 39 damage which kills it:

Seven turns later and most of the map has been explored and cleared. We did spot another cannon on the back side of the UFO earlier, which I wasn't worried about. But since nothing has been happening except door opening from the aliens inside, I figure FA should mortar the cannon to maybe encourage them to come out and play:

It destroys the cannon doing 171 damage. It also hits something inside for 4 points of damage (which is obviously a Mega Commander) and also hits something for 100:

I honestly don't know of any alien which can walk off 100 damage so it must be something else? What exactly, I don't know. Maybe another cannon? Anyhow, join me for part three where we deal with one last pGehe, a bunch more Megas (including the commander), and finally discover what takes 100 damage and doesn't die.

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Heavy Cruiser Part 3

It's now the next turn. My two breach teams are generally in place and ready to go. There's just one issue: there's a pGehe just inside the right door. NKF is all set up to fire at it:

He used up all his APs shooting at the thing with the last bullet dealing 17 which killed it:

I was curious about whether another mortar explosion where the UFO cannon was would propagate through the hull and catch the commander or other aliens in the blast. So FA is going to send another one over there:

Nothing. Well, that's odd. Six turns later and my two breach teams have joined forces at the far door of the anteroom. We open that door and the right door in the hallway to spot a Mega. Pete's going to throw a photon grenade in there not so much to kill it but to remove some of the alien "furniture" in there so other aliens can't hide in the corners:

The blast does hit the Mega but for no damage. AT is going to throw a normal DG1 farther in there to remove what's left:

The blast surprisingly does 2 damage to the thing. We aren't going to venture in there to shoot at it so AT is going to throw an incendiary grenade in there next:

It does 26 damage which was pretty good actually. I know I said I didn't want to send anyone in there to shoot at it, but now that it's damaged it's too tempting. NKF starts shooting with the first two bullets being absorbed:

His last shot kills it (no screenie, sorry). Three turns later NKF is going to throw a DG1 grenade in the room to the left:

Nothing was caught in the blast, but we did remove the vats in there which was nice. Six turns later we have plugged the lifts so JFG goes up the right lift to check things out. When he steps out of the lift room a Mega shoots him with a chem weapon but somehow it didn't register so he'll shoot back with his photon beamer:

The first blast does 43 damage which kills it:

That was surprising. Four turns later and both teams have blocked the doors upstairs so Pete does a little exploring. He finds another Mega hidden in a small hallway next to the lift room which he'll shoot at:

He hits all three times but only manages to damage it with the last bullet which only did 11 damage. The Mega shot back at him and somehow the chem cloud didn't connect with him. He wisely retreats:

The next turn he comes back, but this time he's going to toss an inferno grenade on it:

It does 59 fire damage which kills it:

A couple turns later CG opens the door to the bridge to see the commander standing next to something. I don't like the looks of this so he'll throw a cryo grenade at the commander:

The damage was absorbed. When he tried to retreat something paralyzed him:

The combat log doesn't give us a clue, but I think it's that Sectoid-looking three part thing on the wall. Whatever the hell it is. Anyhow, the game has been acting strange with chem shots from the Megas not connecting so I reload here. This time the Mega commander comes out to us. AT has already shot at it a number of times and actually managed to damage it a few times. NKF shoots next but all his bullets were absorbed. Time to shoot again:

I don't want to  kill the thing really, so after NKF is done playing around I bring in CG to stun the thing:

And that was the end of the mission. Whatever that thing was inside the bridge, it didn't need to be destroyed apparently so we are good to go. Join me next time for a geoscape recap including the EOM report, promotions, shooting down UFOs, crew changes, research and bases.

Update: I'm now #55 with 1511 UFOs shot down. I did find a newish strategy when dealing with powerful UFOs. I send out all my interceptors at a base to engage the UFO. The UFO will concentrate it's firepower at only one of the interceptors, so as soon as you see one taking damage immediately (or after the second shot connects) send it back to base. When it lands, the UFO will pick a new interceptor to fire at. Same deal as before, send it back to base. Hopefully by this time you sent another group of interceptors to help out or the UFO is pretty close to being shot down. The damaged interceptor back at base can be sent out again (nothing has been fixed on it yet, but maybe some of the missiles or cannon shells have been replenished). It's a lot of micromanaging, but this allows you to engage bigger UFOs with only a limited number of interceptors.

I would definitely recommend not constructing any aircraft carriers (either for just shooting down UFOs like I'm doing here, or for a general game) unless you want the Steam achievement. Even then, create a separate save to get that, then reload from earlier. Land bases are the way to go. Not only will they give you more clout with the country/area they are in, but land bases offer a max of 6 hangars plus defenses, or 5 with 4 more defensive modules. Both are better than the aircraft carrier, because it can only have 3 hangars with the rest of the blocks below for defensive/detection modules. Hangars cannot be built in those 8 blocks below so you are stuck with what you have. Besides, you can place a land base pretty close to other areas to help out so it's not like they aren't worth it.

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Well, let's check out the End Of Mission Report:

Four promotions? Holy cow! Well, let's allocate those points, first up is JFG:

Due to the paralyzing this past mission I decided that bravery should be bumped up just in case that'll protect. So I put 4 points into bravery to get him to 88 with the last point going in vitality. Such an amazing soldier, it's unfortunate that he's fully promoted and earned himself a long holiday along with the other Colonels. And here's Zombie:

I only put 3 points into his bravery with one point going in agility and the last in vitality. Again, another solid soldier and I'm happy I earned myself a vacation too. Make room guys and gals Zombie is coming at! And now it's FullAuto:

I put two points into throwing to max that out at 95 with one point going into agility, vitality and bravery. I don't need to go crazy on bravery right now as he still has a promotion left. Who knows, I may have other ideas for him yet. For the time being though, he'll still be our mortar man. Last up is The Veteran:

Two points go into throwing to get him to 96 and he still hasn't maxed that stat out yet (so he should max out at 99). And much like FA, the last three points go into agility, vitality and bravery. Super solid, and he still has two promotions to go.

Back in the Geoscape and we've just shot down a medium cruiser over Africa with a heavy cruiser left:

It's on a terror mission to asia:

I scramble the interceptors from North America to engage it:

One of the golden eagles is really taking a beating in the encounter so I send it back to base. No worries though, we've got more interceptors on the way from Europe and Russia to help out:

And we take it down over water so there isn't a site we have to visit yet:

Ok, with a break in the action it's time to address our soldier situation. With two more soldiers off the transport due to being promoted, that means we need two more to pick up the slack. And I know I said that FA was going to still be our mortar man, but I think he earned a rear commander spot where he can help with backup shooting and patching up the wounded. Gimli will be joining him in this role. TV is the new mortar man with AT being the mule and dedicated protector for him. Pete and Crazy Gringo are our two team leaders who will exit the craft with NKF 2.0 and MTR 2.0 being backup for our rookies. Speaking of rookies, let's meet them. Silencer 2.0 and Nook 2.0:

And it's time to say goodbye to the original Nook and Silencer:

Probably could have kept them for base defense missions, but we haven't had one yet. Or an alien base mission. But we haven't had one of those either. No, I think it's better to sack them now because if we keep them on, they will draw warrant officer wages for sitting idle.

While I'm waiting for the medium cruiser crash site to be bathed in daylight, I get a notice that the energetic center module in our new Africa base is complete:

Time to add another hangar, a photon defense and a heavy rocket defense:

A little while later I send out the transport to that medium cruiser. Before it can land, our research into the Long Spear Launcher finished:

Nothing new came from this, so let's take a look at it's description:

It's got great accuracy, decent damage and best-in-class range. Probably the best rocket in game so we are going to have to start manufacturing these in earnest. They are expensive and take forever to build though. As for what to research next, let's do the Chem Monster:

The Argo transport is just about ready to land at the crash site:

So join me next time for that mission. There's two new soldiers in the lineup so it'll be tricky getting Silencer 2.0 and Nook 2.0 some decent xp. Fingers crossed for some weakling aliens!

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

I fully support the move to base defences... With the immense number of battles you're fighting I'd be minimizing the need to my involvement, too. And did - in X-COMs I built bases with defences to stand against battleships, too.

[Thorondor]

From the frying pan to the freezer, but we're still cooking!

The venomous reception doesn't do much to make us feel all warm and fuzzy, of course, and yet we still welcome the handy target practice.

High or low, we put on a good show, everybody has a go and enjoys doing so, including FullAuto, blowing up on the scene dealing damage like nobody.

Pete too knows his way around the street but there's trouble brewing and when he gets a bit of a scare Gimli is right on the money, not skipping a beat, stopping the alien cheats.

It's team play all the way and we're holding all the sway, rocking this here 'partay'. Check it out, FA and his boombox have a crowd to please and he's intent on showing these things who's the big cheese!

We're not stoppin' 'til they're droppin'. You've been warned, aliens, so no bitchin' when we come breachin'.

Often being loud and proud doesn't mean we're careless however. We check our corners and do most of our killing at range, though this time we faced a little more than our usual dose of strange.

Their Mega commander downed we got even more renowned, as Alpha Squad and namely - FA, JFG, TV and Zombie, getting their due promotions.

And while we go toe to toe, reports are, up high, we also let fly full force with some remarkable results in the global ladder. And that's before we even field our latest Long Spear Launcher. Keep it up!

For round 2 in the news we're getting fresh blood so greet fully revised Silencer and Nook as they walk the line between crazy and brave with the rest of us.

We're heading back out there, so look alive!!

[Zombie]

Medium Cruiser Part 1

We zone into "this map" again, the notorious map with the UFO sunken into the ground with a moat around it and a huge underground labyrinth which you almost need to search out. I try reloading a bunch of times but the game seems very intent on me doing it. I reluctantly agree and keep my fingers crossed that I will not have to venture below too much. CG steps off the craft and immediately spots an ice creep. With all the trees and stuff in the way, there is no way any of our rookies can even get close enough to do anything besides toss a grenade so I think it's time to see how TV handles that mortar:

The blast only does 94 damage, but was more than enough to kill it:

Luckily the blast didn't destroy any of our precious trees because we need them for the rookies to use as cover. As we spread out we can spot a Rider off in the distance. Everyone's almost out of APs so I think we are going to leave it be:

It didn't move much during it's turn so now Silencer is going to try a 44% accurate auto shot:

The first bullet is a weak spot hit for 73 damage which kills it:

There's also an airborne ice creep near a catwalk. Somehow, some way, AT has a clear shot at it:

He only managed to damage it for 16 with that auto shot. When he took another shot, he hit for 25 damage which killed it:

Five turns later we spot another airborne ice creep where that rider was. NKF will shoot at it:

His first bullet hits for 37 damage which kills it:

Thirteen turns later. Yeah, there's no way I'm gonna spread way out with ice creeps and two greenhorns on the squad, we're staying put for a while where it's semi-safe. Anyhow, CG has just spotted another ice creep on a catwalk, and somehow NKF has a shot on it:

The first bullet hits for 43 damage which kills it:

Five turns later and MikeTheRed has just came face-to-face with an ice creep in the building to the north of us. He'll get right up to it in order to guarantee all his shots hit:

He hits for 9 and 34 damage which kills it:

Join me for part two where it'll be more of the same.

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Medium Cruiser Part 2

It's now 5 turns later and we just spotted a Rider on the far side of the moat. Nook just happened to be in a building directly across from it so he'll shoot:

He hits for 14 & 32 which kills it:

Talk about fortunate! That's gimme xp. The next round there's a Rider putzing around by the UFO and somehow Silencer has a shot on it. Not very accurate though:

The first bullet does 24 damage which kills it:

So far, so good. We're getting some xp for the rookies. About 5 turns later and there's another Rider on the far side of the moat again. Nook is not available to shoot as he's currently making his way below to the labyrinth but Silencer is still there so he'll shoot:

His first bullet hits for 13 damage, but the next two bullets miss. The Rider isn't happy and shoots back hitting him for 5 damage. Silencer shoots again hitting it for 35 which kills it:

The Veteran is going to patch Silencer up:

I mean, I wouldn't go down there if I were you TV. It takes us a while (like 13 turns) to finally get most of the team through the labyrinth below. We didn't encounter any resistance along the way, but when we make it to the UFO there's an Ice Creep just inside the main door. Pete's going to throw a photon grenade at it:

It does 20 damage, so now CG will shoot at it:

His first bullet hits for 29 damage which kills it:

Two turns later and CG spots another Ice Creep at the far side of the hallway so he'll shoot at it:

The first bullet hits for 19 damage while the second was absorbed. The last is going to be a hit too:

He killed it with that shot (sorry no screenshot). Seven turns later and we now occupy the left, right and center rooms in the UFO. There's another Ice Creep on the right hallway again so Nook is going to risk shooting at it:

Hit hits once but the damage was absorbed. CG is going to throw an inferno grenade on it:

And that killed it which ended the mission. Join me next time for the EOM report where we have two promotions (guess who). After that we go through production, research, our Africa base and last we'll shoot down another UFO. Should be interesting!

Edit: Now I'm #50 on the Steam leaderboards with 1,617 UFOs shot down! 100 more and I'll be #44 or so. I was messing around in the Goescape today while waiting for UFOs to spawn and added a bunch more detection sections to my aircraft carrier to see if multiple facilities help with detection. It doesn't look like it so far. Trying to click on the aircraft carrier is very difficult all of a sudden as there's a small black/purple square over part of it. Maybe buggy in which case I'll swap back eventually.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Some landing sites, upon offloading just elicit that "No pain, no gain" outlook. It is what it is; put 'em up and we'll knock 'em down!

TV breaks the ice with first blood well announced. The rest follow suit well enough and we're fine just letting the action come to us for a while.

But, eventually, to go sweeping we must and so it is we close in for some give and take, which does happen to Silencer, who valliantly shrugs it off unphased, despite the affected area.

He's now got an itch to scratch and he figures he'll be doing so with the business end of his weapon whenever the opportunity comes. Provided his fellow squaddies don't do so before him (which they nonchalantly do, of course).

It's time to go knocking where the enemy dwells. Crash, boom, bang - no point in letting them hang in anticipation, we are their death knells and no restraint do we show until silence their craft befells.

It's curtain call and as always we stand tall. Something tells me the rookies will be paying the mojitos tonight!

[Zombie]

On 1/25/2024 at 9:13 PM, Zombie said:

Edit: Now I'm #50 on the Steam leaderboards with 1,617 UFOs shot down! 100 more and I'll be #44 or so.

Took me a while but I'm now #44 with 1,737 UFOs shot down. It'll be another 50 before I can get to #43. But once I can get to 1820 I should be able to make significant progress again as there's 8 people in the 1800s, #34 is a distinct possibility. There have been lots and lots of swarms during this, right now I have $525+ million space bucks. And those swarm rewards just keep increasing as the months roll by. Could theoretically make a run to see how much cash will break the game. I don't think devs ever plan on Zombie testing the limits.

On 1/25/2024 at 9:13 PM, Zombie said:

I was messing around in the Goescape today while waiting for UFOs to spawn and added a bunch more detection sections to my aircraft carrier to see if multiple facilities help with detection. It doesn't look like it so far. Trying to click on the aircraft carrier is very difficult all of a sudden as there's a small black/purple square over part of it. Maybe buggy in which case I'll swap back eventually.

I sold the excess detection sections and built base defense modules instead and now the spot is bigger. So as a warning to others, don't build multiple detection sections in a carrier base as it'll be buggy. I'll try grabbing a screenie of it sometime.

As promised, here's the EOM report:

Yup, just like I thought, our rookies both were promoted. Multiple times in fact. Let's do Nook first, he was promoted 5 times and we have a massive 25 points to spend:

Seven points went into shooting and 6 went into strength with the rest being spread amongst agility, vitality, bravery and throwing. Getting him in the 80s for shooting and strength should help tremendously, and plopping a few into agility will allow him to keep up with the rest of the team. Ok, up next is Silencer who was promoted just 4 times:

Kinda the same deal except less points to put in bravery, shooting and strength. He'll catch up soon enough though. Back in the Geeoscape, we finally finish that sludge suit of armor:

Not much happens for a couple days except our next batch of 3 Thunderstorms finished production:

As a last minute change to research I took all the scientists off of the Chem Monster and put them all on the Poisonous Bird of Prey instead

I don't think it really matters in the end but I did a little testing in between and thought this would be a little bit better. Oh, our hangar in Africa finished construction now:

May as well check out the state of the base currently:

Two more hangars were built along with a photon defense since that'll take a while. No need to start transferring Thunderstorms over here yet as we don't have any base defenses to help out. And if we don't shoot anything down nearby we can keep our heads down and not draw any attention to what's really going on. There's a heavy cruiser heading to India so I scramble the interceptors from Europe, the aircraft carrier and the main base to help shoot it down:

With all that firepower, the thing went down pretty quick:

It's light out at the crash site so before I send out the transport I equip Pete with the sludge suit of armor we manufactured earlier:

I've been giving almost all soldiers one clip of normal AK1 ammo for shooting at commanders, or unfreezing soldiers, or destroying terrain. At least we can buy these off the market for cheap instead of wasting engineer time on producing a never ending run of AK1 Ultra ammo. So join me next time for that heavy cruiser mission.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

If you don't shoot for the sky you'll never reach the stars, right?  Good luck with that ascent to stardom, Commander Zombie!

Down to more earthly matters, newly hatched Nook and Silencer start inching their way up the chain of command. Good on you greenhorns.

Eggheads rethink their priorities and go for a deep dive into PBoP affairs. Fine by me.

"Bless the rains down in Africa...", as someone used to sing, and things are slowly growing to fruition in our base there. Let's hope it doesn't pour before we're ready there.

Well, blimey! Didn't see that coming: just have a gawk at Pete's new afterglow. Reads "Dazzlingly Radioactive" in the colour wheel for you, mate.

We should have no trouble outshining the competition like this. Round up, folks, 'cause we're back on the clock!

[Zombie]

Sorry for the lack of updates, work has been a real bear the last couple weeks. I should be getting back to semi-normal soon.

On 1/30/2024 at 9:11 PM, Zombie said:

Took me a while but I'm now #44 with 1,737 UFOs shot down. It'll be another 50 before I can get to #43. But once I can get to 1820 I should be able to make significant progress again as there's 8 people in the 1800s, #34 is a distinct possibility. There have been lots and lots of swarms during this, right now I have $525+ million space bucks. And those swarm rewards just keep increasing as the months roll by. Could theoretically make a run to see how much cash will break the game. I don't think devs ever plan on Zombie testing the limits.

I have been shooting down UFOs almost every day for a while, and right now I'm #32 on the Steam global leaderboards with 2022 UFO's shot down. I should be able to get to #28 by the weekend, and with 200 more UFOs than my current total, that should get me to #23. And, yeah, the funding situation is kinda getting out of hand at this point:

As I said before, the reward for shooting down a swarm leader keep increasing and right now I get $67+ million space bucks.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

You're no longer a mere climber, Zombie - you've now graduated to mountaineer - soon to be among the top 30 in the world! 😎

It's only fitting the prize money should increase as well. This thing pays way better than golf, so stick with it.

[Zombie]

On 2/15/2024 at 3:49 PM, Thorondor said:

It's only fitting the prize money should increase as well. This thing pays way better than golf, so stick with it.

Golf is much more fun though!

On 2/15/2024 at 3:49 PM, Thorondor said:

You're no longer a mere climber, Zombie - you've now graduated to mountaineer - soon to be among the top 30 in the world! 😎

Make that #25 with 2188 UFOs shot down now! I made a huge mistake the other day and accidentally over-wrote a different game save over the top of my "shoot-UFOs-down" game. Gone is the $1+ billion account and the $67+million bounty for shooting down a swarm leader. The only save I had was from way earlier and I thought I'd have to shoot down all those UFOs again for Steam to recognize a new UFO kill. Luckily, that wasn't the case and I'm back in business! And now on to my feature presentation:

Heavy Cruiser Part 1

It's a farm map again and on the first turn we can see two Bonestters on the roof of the farmhouse. Nobody could really get a good shot at them so I think it's time for TV to whip out the mortar and send a bomb between them:

The blast does 64 damage to one and 95 to the other which killed both of them:

Great, with the immediate LZ clear we can hunker down and deploy at our own pace. A couple rounds later a Rider comes charging out of the farmhouse so when it's our turn again, MTR will toss a DG1 grenade on it:

The blast did a pitiful 10 damage so he tossed a photon grenade on it next which did 22 and killed it:

Four turns later and CG spots an alien cannon which TV will mortar:

The blast does a healthy 148 damage which takes it out:

Three turns later, another Rider comes blasting out of the farmhouse. MTR doesn't have a lot of grenades left so he'll just shoot at the thing this time:

The first bullet does 31 damage which kills it:

Easy kills. A couple turns later and I want to get Nook in on the action so he'll toss a DG1 grenade at the explosive barrels outside of the tool shed:

It's a nice blast which does 33 damage to something (probably a Bonesetter):

That's not it though, as it also hits another Bonesetter for 77 damage which kills it. The next round Nook is going to shoot at one of the barrels inside the building to hopefully catch that other Bonesetter with it's hand in the cookie jar.

No need for an auto shot, he'll just take a snap for now:

It's a nice explosion, but didn't hit anything for some reason:

So disappointing. There's another Rider that just exited the farmhouse (busy place) so NKF is going to heave a DG1 grenade on it:

The blast does 24 damage and kills the thing:

A couple turns later a Bonesetter exited the UFO during it's turn but did nothing. Gimli is going to take a long range aimed shot at it with his photon beamer:

It hits for 6 damage. The bonsetter shoots back for no damage and Gimli's last aimed shot does a decent 46 damage but doesn't kill it. Not a problem as MTR needs the xp more so he'll shoot at it next:

The first bullet does 23 damage and kills it:

We can just barely make out another UFO cannon so TV is going to mortar it just to be safe:

The first blast only does 85 damage, so he mortars it again which does 105 and destroys it:

Three turns later and there's another Bonesetter on the roof of the farmhouse. This time Silencer is in a good position to fire at it. His accuracy kinda sucks at this range so he'll take snaps:

He hits all 5 times for a total of 35 damage. Nook is a better shot so he'll go next:

The first snap shot was absorbed, but the second did 40 which killed it:

We still hear Bonesetter movement sounds from inside the farmhouse though. The next turn CG shoots a hole in the wall and spots one. He wouldn't have enough APs to shoot at it and get into cover again so TV will mortar the ground on the other side of the wall:

The blast does 63 damage and kills it:

We've been using a lot of mortar bombs so far this mission and that trend will continue, so join me next time when we mortar a bunch more, toss some grenades, and deal with the Bonesetter commander which came out of the UFO to play.

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Heavy Cruiser Part 2

The team thought this was if for the farmhouse, but kept hearing Bonesetter movement sounds nearby. CG previously tossed a photon grenade on a ledge under a window on the 2nd floor hoping it would destroy the wall so we could get a look inside. It didn't look like it worked (it did though) so now FA is going to toss a normal DG1 grenade in the same spot:

That created a big enough hole in the wall so we could see inside. There was a door open up there so CG will toss a inferno grenade near it to see if we can damage something nearby:

It didn't hit anything so the next round TV is going to mortar the wall on the right to see if that helps any:

It certainly helped to open things up, but nothing was caught in the blast either:

Ok, the Bonesetter must be in the living room to the left or in the kitchen in the back. CG will now toss a sludge grenade by the open door to see if the gas cloud helps to flush it out:

It's a weak spot kill for 61 chem damage:

A couple turns later and we spot another alien cannon so TV will mortar it:

The blast only does 74 damage:

The next blast did even less damage at 69 but was enough to destroy it:

With all the explosions going on, we flushed a Rider out of the farmhouse's lower floor. It shot at CG for no damage, but he shot back with the first bullet doing 20 damage to it:

He missed the other two times. When it's out turn again, Silencer will take a snap shot at it:

It does 46 damage which kills it easily:

Fifteen turns later (15!) and now a Rider exits the UFO. Silencer will again snap shoot at it:

It only did 7 damage, but the second was a weak spot kill for an incredible 82 damage:

Two rounds later and now there's two Bonesetters that exited the UFO. MTR is right around the corner so he'll toss an incendiary grenade on them:

It damages one for 55 and the other for 56 damage. Talk about consistency. Well, these two are teetering on the brink of death so we'll have Nook auto shoot the one on the right:

He used up all his APs shooting at the thing as everything was absorbed. Except for the last shot. He missed, hit the Bonesetter on the left by mistake which did 31 damage and killed it:

Silencer is going to try a rather inaccurate auto shot on the right Bonesetter:

The first two bullets were absorbed but the last did 21 damage which killed it:

Two turns later and the door to the UFO opens and a cryo grenade materializes out of nowhere inside and is heading to... MTR?

Which does 5 freeze damage to him. Wait, so how did the commander manage to make that throw from inside the UFO? Well, it comes outside at least:

Yeah, please stand in the fire like a good... boy? Unfortunately, the fire damage was absorbed:

Let's get some xp for the rookies. Silencer takes a couple auto shots but everything was absorbed. He has just enough APs to shoot it again:

Nothing, everything was absorbed. Same deal for Nook. Now AT will shoot at it:

Gimli shot at it with his photon beamer and the last blast damaged it for 19. NKF shoots next but everything was absorbed too. Well, there aren't too many soldiers left that can do anything, but FA can toss a grenade at it. Let's finish it off with a sludge grenade then:

That killed it and ended the mission. Join me next time when I cover the EOM report, a couple promotions, and a lot in the Geosape: manufacturing, researching, base building and shooting down another UFO. May have to break that down into two parts as there's a lot of stuff to cover.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

You almost threw away the lottery ticket with the bath water there, Zombie. Fortunately their scorekeeping method isn't directly tied to the save.

And when are these aliens going to get the message to stay off the farm? It's gloves off from the get go just for that. From TV to Nook we're all for the fireworks.

Silencer, don't you know those Bonesetters have thick skulls? You've gotta really bring on the pain, man.

Some of those creatures like to play it coy before ambushing you so it's a good thing CG played dirty with some chemical warfare as it payed off.

But it seems it takes a lot of commotion these days to make the other buggers leave the comfort of their can to come and join the barbecue.

Their so-called commander tried to cool things but it only made us turn up the heat even further and throwing in some more of that special sauce sealed the deal.

It's a wrap, guys. Let's up stakes!

[Zombie]

Here's the EOM report:

Excellent is right! MTR isn't injured from that cryo grenade the commander threw at him and we have two promotions: Nook and Silencer. Let's do Nook first:

I put one point into basically anything of use, except for agility and perception. Happy about his strength and shooting, that's for sure. Throwing is still a little low, but it's usable if he isn't throwing far. And now for Silencer:

It was a double promotion so I gave him 1 point in vitality and throwing, 2 points in bravery and 3 into both strength and shooting. He's a beast already and there's still 5 promotions left! Back at our main base, we've been producing incendiary grenades like mad. At our base in North America we've been producing some more exciting things, mainly a new Thunderstorm interceptor:

We may as well take a look at it right now:

Two days left on the last workshop is great news. That should really help with cranking out more interceptors and craft weapons. With our run of Incendiary grenades finished at the main base, we switched gears to a small run of mortar bombs and now, sludge grenades. Everything is strangely quiet on the Geoscape:

Except our last workshop finished construction in North America:

A day later, the three bases producing the long spear missile launchers finally finished construction:

Needless to say, we immediately equip them to the Thunderstorms and start construction on some more. The fire arrow launchers will be kept for a little while just in case we need to equip something in a hurry. About 8 hours later and our research into the pBoP has finished:

Seems I forgot to take a screenshot of it's description, so I'll include one here:

Exactly the same as the giant BoP except this one has 60 more armor against chem and now 20 against freeze too. Tough critters. We need something new to research so let's do the pGehe next:

A little while later a hangar finished construction in Africa:

Time to build some stuff! Here's what it looks like now:

Two more workshops and the last hangar is obvious. Once the other hangars complete we'll start to install some defenses. For now, it's more of the same. We'll keep a low profile and when the time is right we'll unleash this base for some extra protection and early warning to our main base.

Part two of the Geoscape activities will be next, so keep an eye out for that.

- Zombie

[Zombie]

It's at this point I decide that instead of staying on the pGehe research project that I'd go back to the Chem Monster. Why? Well, the Chem Monster is already 43% complete. It does lead to something else (which we'll cover in a bit) and the pGehe wouldn't finish till much later in the month anyway (low hanging fruit theory is in full effect here):

Back in the Geoscape again and our main base has been cranking out manufacturing projects like mad. Most are "one-and-done" as I was worried about not having enough consumables for my troops. First it was some more of those cryo grenades, then a couple shields for my soldiers, and now a short run of sludge bombs for the mortar. Why I bring you in is because we also completed another long spear launcher too:

And not long after, the heavy rocket defense finished construction in Africa:

Time to head back there as we want to build another photon defense:

After the sludge mortar bombs project completed, I started a run of 6 explosive mortar bombs as we use quite a few of these per mission. Well, that run just completed:

Here, let's check out my inventory of stuff back at the main base:

That's a nice even 50 explosive mortar bombs which makes me feel much better going into larger UFO missions as it means we'll have plenty of firepower available when things get dicey. Plus, we have 20 sludge bombs now, 30 cryo and 25 sludge grenades too. We'll have to beef up our supply of these soon as these get used quite often now.

Our two hangars in Africa just finished construction now:

It's a whirlwind of activity there as we are trying to build it up as fast as we can to help with shooting down UFOs. Well, with the Hangars complete we can now add two more heavy rocket defenses to supplement the existing heavy rocket defense and the two photon defenses which are quite a way from completing:

No sooner than we get back into the Geoscape and now we spot a light cruiser UFO heading straight to Africa. The interceptors from Europe are scrambled to catch it before it comes too close:

Once the missiles start connecting it's all over:

You can probably see a heavy missile from Africa's defense is inbound too. While we are waiting for the site to be in daylight our research into the Chem Monster completes:

As always, let's check out it's description and vitals:

Pretty terrifying. Completely immune (or nearly so) to chem, mechanical armor is 80 which means all but the best damage rolls will do anything. The best things against it is fire and freeze, and at range the only weapon that can do that is the rocket launcher. Luckily these things haven't been all that common recently, and in fact, I think the game is probably eliminating them from crews.

We need another research project and this time it's going to be the new Raven ("tank") Battle Armor:

Granted, we haven't used the Raven tank at all yet as we need the spots to train up soldiers. I did use it in the past "off-screen" so to speak and was not really impressed with it. The rocket on it was powerful, but because it's damage is typed as mechanical, most aliens have some sort of armor against the blast anyway. It's armor was just "okay" but I'm hoping this upgrade will fix that. Is it better than 4 soldiers carrying mortars? No way. (Same theory in UFO Defense where the Blaster Launcher was uber powerful, but at least in that game you had plenty of room on the Avenger to put a hovertank on). No, I'm thinking this may be useful for base defense missions and maybe alien bases. We haven't had either (yet), but it's better to be prepared.

Anyway join me next time for that light cruiser mission. I should be able to fit that all in one post. After that it'll probably be another two parter in the Geoscape as a lot of things happened again.

- Zombie