Let's Play UFO2:Extraterrestrials

[Zombie]

Time for that other alien recon vessel next to our base. We spread out a little as usual and I have Silencer cover the back of the Transport just in case an alien tries sneaking up on us. He was in for a surprise as he killed a Nh'Teol in the first round, then during the alien's turn another Nh'Teol appeared in the same spot and shot at Silencer, injuring him. Silencer shot back with reaction fire and killed it:

Thorondor had to book it over there to patch Silencer up. Just in case, Thorondor knelt down behind Silencer just in case his healing services were required again. A few more rounds go by and yet another Nh'Teol shows up in the same area as before which Silencer killed:

NKF moved into the building to the left to hopefully thin out the herd and take the heat off of Silencer. He didn't see much inside, but when he went outside he killed an alien by the UFO door:

You can probably see there is a building just south of it (east of the UFO). I sent Space Voyager over there solo because it's a good building to camp out inside to catch aliens exiting the craft. I totally goofed up by sending him in there alone, I normally always utilize the buddy system and forgot. Well, Space Voyager got shot when a Nh'Teol came storming in there:

No damage, so a big sigh of relief there. Same round and Pete was exploring the upstairs of the building where NKF was and killed a Nh'Teol (it shot him first but only for 1 damage):

Pete was trying to withdraw and ended up stranded because he was out of action points. You can guess what happened next:

Luckily only 3 damage this time. I think there were a couple more kills by NKF from aliens exiting the UFO which I didn't catch it seems. EOM report:

Wow, Slaughter and NKF got promoted. Let's allocate those points, first with Slaughter:

He was maxed out in shooting already so I just spread the points around. Seemed like the best choice for that. Here's NKF:

He needed 2 points in shooting to max out in that stat so the rest went into agility, vitality and bravery. We get back to base and while I was manufacturing some more shields (probably for profit) our research finished:

Excellent! I'm going to start production on 3 of these immediately to swap out for the normal cannons on our interceptors. Let's take a look at that:

But what to research next? Well, we have a couple cannon defenses at the main base already so I'm thinking the rocket defense should be next due to the longer range and short build time:

That's good. Hopefully research will not take too long. In the meantime, we shot down another recon vessel in Africa:

Just barely on land thankfully. We'll be doing that next when it's in daylight.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Living dangerously is in our DNA it seems. But Lady Luck is definitely siding with you lately, Zombie. You do know how fickle she can be though...

Congrats to Slaughter and NKF for getting ahead of the pack. Now, you guys realize how top ranks get targeted by the bugs first, right? 😀

Meanwhile let's just hope that, when the time comes, our Photon weaponry can do a little better than that aircraft cannon's 30% accuracy.

[Zombie]

Africa, here we come! As usual after we load in we start spreading out. I think Thorondor spotted a Nh'Teol on a rooftop but just couldn't find a spot to get a shot off. No problem, Silencer to the rescue:

During the alien's turn we see something moving to the Northwest of us. It was a Nh'Teol so Bomb Bloke killed it with a grenade:

Cool. Not much happens in the next few rounds but we are continuing to spread out. Then Bomb Bloke spots another Nh'Teol hiding in a barn:

You know Bomb Bloke and his fascination with explosives, he killed it with another grenade. Of course. On the other end of the map we have NoX, Pete and Space Voyager who were trying to clear out that house. NoX came running into a room and spots a Nh'Teol camped out between some barrels of explosives:

I thought I could toss a grenade on it, but no, all the crates and barrels were blocking throwing. NoX moves a few tiles closer and was met with immediate reaction fire which was absorbed. He shot back and, well, you can probably guess what happened:

Yup, he missed but hit a barrel of explosives rather. I'm surprised the game counted that as a kill and not as collateral, and I'm even more surprised the blast was mostly contained inside the building so nobody got hurt. Just outside the building to the north we see a Nh'Teol come around a corner:

NKF takes it out and then tries killing a Trep in the air but even with two shots he couldn't get it done. Bomb Bloke to the rescue, this time using an actual gun. Back to the building where Pete and Space Voyager were exploring the upstairs and spotted a Trep behind the steps. Pete was running low on action points and took refuge in the stairwell and prayed. Didn't work:

No damage though. Pete took it out with an autoshot and that was it for the upstairs. NoX was exploring the outside and ran across a Nh'Teol:

No, he didn't use a grenade. But he was thinking about it. That was the end of the mission - EOM:

Wow, lot's 'o promotions! The allocation was pretty simple: put two into throwing and then at least one point in strength, the rest anywhere else:

We get back to base and get a message:

Just in time. Let's check out the entry first:

Yeah, short build time and a longer reach. Well, now we need to research something else. How about photon defense?

This is going to take some time, but at least we'll get a start on it. A few days later and we shot down another UFO in Africa yet again:

Lots of activity there all of a sudden. That'll be next obviously.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Africa is it? I'm finding it very verdant indeed, tough not exactly tropical in the vegetation department. It'a a very well kept property we landed on, so it's probably down to that; everything neatly trimmed and all.

On the other hand, it still represented a very high risk of flammability. As fortune would have it everyone went home very happy (except maybe for NoX who didn't get to blow stuff up), the cider fumes probably helping a little in that department too.

In fact, everyone liked it so much that a return trip is just about the best news the newly promoted bunch could get.

Let's just hope the eggheads didn't mess up the new Light Rocket Defense targeting systems as we're the first thing to be found flying around the thing this soon.

[Zombie]

I think I forgot about what my main base looks like now:

The defensive systems are in a state of turmoil because I thought that I should have columns of the same type instead of rows. It probably doesn't matter in the long run. So the "remains 2" modules are light missiles and the other two are (obviously) the cannon defenses. Yes, I realize that the efficiency drops with more of the same type, but I need enough of something, anything to help take down UFO's and right now these are the only two available. Anyhow, we go to this new site and it was an airport map. Kinda strange as that's not the first thing I think of when I hear the word "Africa". Bomb Bloke killed a Trep nearby and when Thorondor came out of the transport he noticed a Trep in the control tower:

First round so I figured I could shoot the glass and desk away and have a clear shot at the alien, right? Even after shooting the obstacles away nobody had a clear shot (grenades were a no-go too). Darn. I left Space Voyager on overwatch just in case and wouldn't you know it but the Trep tried to come at us. SV wasn't having any of that though:

A few rounds go by and we continue to spread out when Mr T see's a Nh'Teol close to the UFO:

One snap shot in a weak spot was all it took for Thorondor to down this baddie:

Silencer was leading a 3-person sweep team along the fence line and wouldn't you know it but a Nh'Teol came barging out the UFO and entered his line of sight:

Not smart. The next round a Trep comes out of the darkness:

You can figure out what happens next. Then a lot of rounds go by. Mostly we were systematically sweeping the terminal to make sure there was nothing hiding in there. And eventually three brave souls get the job of clearing the UFO. Thorondor spots a Nh'Teol inside:

He has a grenade in his hand and used it. More alien movement and door opening sounds take place and when we check inside it's another gimme:

Thorondor easily took it out with a snap shot. He backed out of the UFO and the door somehow remained open during the aliens turn which gave Slaughter the ability to use his perception (aka reactions):

A couple rounds go by without much going on. No door sounds, no alien movement sounds - it was quiet. I send Mr T, Slaughter and NKF inside to check out what's going on. A Nh'Teol must've snuck up on us from the door on the left side somehow as it shot NKF:

NKF obviously had first dibs on killing it and the mission was over. EOM:

No news is good news. We take off from the site and get a message:

About time, let's check out the base now:

Perfect. That's a big sigh of relief because that means we have a decent chance of taking down UFOs without the need for interceptor intervention. If a UFO is heading straight for my base though, you can bet those interceptors are going to come out and help. A base defense mission is not what I want right now.

Next post is probably going to be a little short as it's coming up on the end of the month (game time) so we have to tie up some loose ends before April 2108 arrives.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Kicking behind and chewing bubblegum for the most part there, Zombie.

Pretty hard-hitting one-shot I managed too. Achieving 71 mechanical damage strikes me as a lot of oomph, though I get it we're taking a somewhat calculated approach in sticking with the more pushover aliens for the time being.

Bring 'em on then!

 

[Zombie]

5 hours ago, Thorondor said:

Pretty hard-hitting one-shot I managed too. Achieving 71 mechanical damage strikes me as a lot of oomph, though I get it we're taking a somewhat calculated approach in sticking with the more pushover aliens for the time being.

Yeah, it's still the weaksauce aliens (Treps and Nh'Teol's) so it's not too bad. As soon as we research the Alien Recon Vessel is when we'll start to see the Bonesetters and Giant Birds of Prey (and Sentinels too). Might have to resort to Photon Beamers (pistols) for the Bonesetters though as they shrug off mechanical damage like you wouldn't believe. My intention is to delay researching the Alien Recon Vessel until my soldiers get to the next promotion level. That way when the time comes everyone will be strong enough for better armor and the Photon Beamers (which weigh a ton).

Anyhow, back at base our research into photon defense finally finished:

These take a long time to build but at least their rate of fire and damage potential is more than the cannons. What to research next though? Hmmm let's just do:

Photon grenades should help with the new upcoming alien types. And I do plan on using these over the vanilla DG1 hu-man grenades if the need arises. The only issue is that the photon grenades can only be looted from missions so quantities are limited. With the research out of the way it's time to tend to the base:

Gone are the normal cannons and in are the photon defenses. Boy, those didn't last long. Oh well. About a week later our research into the photon grenades finished:

Nice! Let's take a look at the entry:

Ah ha! Can be used against Bonesetters! At least we'll have something that works to damage them. A couple days later and it's the end of the month so time for the report:

Well, it's better than last month, right? There just wasn't much alien activity in the areas other than Russia, Africa and Canada (Polar League). Nothing I could do there besides being more aggressive in interceptions. What I mean by this is shooting down a UFO as soon as it's detected so it can't fly over areas and pi$$ them off. In terms of money I didn't really sell too much stuff except for some Photon Beamers and a few personal shields. This will change next month when research topics fizzle out. Oh and April Fools:

We'll be doing that next. Luckily it's in North America so that may sweeten my likeability and increase funding for once.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Looking forward to seeing BB field testing the quality of delivery of those ultrashort-wavelength coherent clusters. Preferably not in the vicinity of any cider casks this time of course. 😋

Those Photon Defense systems take forever to get online. We'll have to rely on rocket science in the meantime and have those interceptors well fueled, armed and at the ready around the clock if we are to have a chance at protecting our base.

Those aliens are fooling with us a bit all over the place but we shall fight for the Brotherhood!

[Zombie]

Time to visit that crash site in North America. We spread out a little bit from the transport and don't spot anything. After the alien's turn though NoX spots a Trep in the air:

NoX killed it with a single snap shot (see next pic) and then a few rounds later Pete spots a Trep in the air close to him:

No kneeling necessary as Pete's accuracy is fantastic, but it took 3 snap shots to take the Trep down:

A few more rounds pass without any activity, but we kept hearing human doors opening so more aliens must be around where the last one was. A little exploring and Pete found the culprit:

One shot, one kill. A couple rounds later and Pete sees a Nh'Teol:

Yet another one shot, one kill scenario. A couple more turns pass by and we caught a glimpse of the UFO so Pete made a mad dash over there to see what he could do. Unfortunately not much as he ran out of action points but he did spot another Nh'Teol lurking:

A broken record, but yet another one shot one kill. Pete needed the xp and I figured I'd beef him up with as many kills as possible. He certainly has been earning his stripes this mission so far. A couple rounds later BB was exploring and got hit by a Photon Beamer but only for 1 damage:

Pete was guarding the door to the UFO but huffed it over to where BB was. Took him a round to get situated but he eventually killed the Nh'Teol with one shot yet again:

Space Voyager had to move up to sorta cover the door to the UFO and reaction fire killed a Nh'Teol and then spotted another one:

Ok Pete, you know what to do right? Grenade time! Didn't do much so he had to finish it off with a snap shot again:

Then the final alien came out of the UFO to visit. Space Voyager got camera shy and forgot how to reaction fire though:

Pete just snap shot the thing to death and that was the end of the mission. EOM report:

Nothing doing. No promotions. Oh well, as least Pete got some decent XP out of it. Between the funding from last month and the missions so far we have quite a bit of cash on hand again:

We are going to need it for expansion, so I'm trying to keep spending down to a minimum. I even did a fire sale and sold a bunch of Photon Beamers to help the cause. Thankfully our Photon Defenses are 19 days away from coming online. Up till then we are going to have to make do with the missiles. Not much time passed and our research into the Trep finished:

Not much left in research anymore except for the alien recon vessel UFO. Since I'm ignoring that topic to halt progression, the scientists are just going to have to sit there and twiddle their thumbs and wait. In the meantime though we shot down another recon vessel over Africa again:

Busy place this Africa. Who would have thought the aliens like to go there so much. Before we do this next mission I hired 3 more recruits with decent stats, so welcome FullAuto, Hobbes and MikeTheRed to the fold! These 3 are going to act as rear commanders and sit in the craft for most of the mission since they are guaranteed to get a promotion just for showing up. Makes no sense to put them in harm's way until their stats are better. NKF, NoX and Pete are going to be sitting the next few missions out for some well deserved R&R someplace hopefully nice and warm and sunny with a beach view and plenty of beer.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Well, good to see Pete was on fire out there, taking point and dishing out the pain to the nasties. He deserves his seaside rest. ⛱️

I feel a tad cheated by that Trep research entry, honestly. They really only go skin deep and don't even mention means of locomotion (I mean, look at that thing!), let alone go into genetics, origins or anything. They're twiddling their thumbs at the lab alright.

Coordinates set once again to the dark continent. We shall bring light to it!

[Zombie]

Here's what Hobbes looks like (MTR and FA are similar):

I decided I'd like to give Thorondor some xp so it was all him this mission. Mr T spots a Nh'Teol so he kills it with a standard grenade:

Off to a good start already. Mr T advances slightly stopping at the edge of a hedge hoping to get eyes on an alien next round. Turns out there was a Trep standing in the corner of the hedge just out of LOS so when the alien's turn starts it immediately attacks but the damage was absorbed. That gave MR T a reaction shot at point blank range which was an immediate kill. After that another Trep shows up in the air:

Mr T couldn't get a shot off due to obstructions(?) so he had to move to a better location to take his snap shots:

Now, the doors to the barn were open so we knew something was (or is) inside, Mr T hunkered down by the hedge to wait till after the aliens turn. Nothing came out so he tossed a grenade just inside the door to flush anything out. It didn't do that but it showed the location of a Nh'Teol inside:

A 99% accurate snap shot? Yes please! It was a one shot one kill too. Space Voyager moved up to the barn to do some scouting the next round. Something shot at him for a little damage and then a Trep show up in the air sorta where the other one was earlier. This is the scenario (I changed the angle a little to show the aliens better):

Easy snap shot to kill the Nh'Teol and then 2 snaps to finish off the Trep. We start to hear a lot of UFO doors opening so I rush Mr T over there to take a look:

Holy crap! This looks like a job for one of those newly researched photon grenades:

Unfortunately Mr T only had 5 action points left and couldn't get into cover. He was able to kneel down however so he did that. Space Voyager also moved up behind him just in case he needed medical attention. During the alien's turn the Nh'Teol shot at a lot of trees mostly, but the last shot connected for no damage:

Might as well snap shot the thing, though he did have a normal grenade at the ready. And that was the end of the mission. EOM:

Yup, 3 promotions just as expected. Let's allocate points. They all got the same treatment with 3 points in shooting, one in throwing and the last in strength:

Doesn't make sense to waste points on any of the other stats as they aren't going to help in killing. We get back to base and a little bit later we shoot down another recon vessel in Russia just on land on the east coast:

That's what we'll be up to next I guess. As a side note, I was fooling around in game the other day trying to see what would happen if I ignore researching the recon vessel. The game will start to put up friendly reminders that you have a research topic yet and available scientists. If you ignore those warnings then eventually the game will spawn a light alien cruiser (the next larger UFO). This is highly variable though and may take a while even if you decide to research the recon vessel. But this gives us a time frame where we should have more help - either with more interceptors or base defenses. So as soon as I have more cash it'll be time to expand our reach by building another base somewhere.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

It's about time we got some new Privates to shape up. What's the point of being a Sarge otherwise?

Leading by example; don't mind if I do. Besides, finally giving the aliens a taste of their own plasma tech is always a joy.

Those grenades pack a punch, so it's fortunate we don't see the bugs actually using them much.

We'll eventually have to broaden our coverage, thus getting a new base makes sense. I just don't know if that won't escalate things in itself. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

[Zombie]

12 hours ago, Thorondor said:

Those grenades pack a punch, so it's fortunate we don't see the bugs actually using them much.

Trust me, the Nh'Teol's will use photon grenades (if they have them and if your soldiers are bunched up). But I don't ever give them an opportunity to pull them out in the first place. My first priority is to kill whatever aliens are visible on the map. If you are able to do that, it goes a long way in preventing unwanted grenade throws.

12 hours ago, Thorondor said:

We'll eventually have to broaden our coverage, thus getting a new base makes sense. I just don't know if that won't escalate things in itself. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

It's going to escalate anyway once I research the alien recon vessel so I doubt it matters in the long run. The main thing is that the aliens seem to be heavily targeting North America for missions and I have nothing over there to shoot down UFO's. Sure, I could send my interceptors from Russia over there, but then they are all alone with no backup (aka base defenses). I'd much rather risk building another base right now than to wait as building takes a long time.

Ok, so just a short update for this post. It's the normal snowy map type so we spread out. I even took out the 3 new recruits for some fresh air and to act as backup. We didn't see anything, but during the alien's round MTR killed a Trep on the roof next to us with reaction fire. I didn't think he even had enough action points for a reaction shot but I guess he did. BB also killed a Trep which came out of the door to the building. And then more aliens appeared:

After killing these two, it was the alien's turn again and this time they sent two more gifts: FA took out a Nh'Teol with reaction fire off in the distance and BB took out yet another Trep who was milling about on the roof:

By this point we had killed 6 aliens and I was getting a little careless due to how fast everything was dying. There's only a few left, how bad could it be, right? BB was trying to clear out the building next to us and triggered some reaction fire from a Nh'Teol for minor damage. He didn't have any action points so he had to hunker down and hope that the thing wouldn't mess with him again. Wrong. Luckily the damage was absorbed. MTR killed a Nh'Teol by the corner of the building with reaction fire yet again:

At least the Nh'Teol came right up to BB so he had an easy time killing it. The next building over needed to be cleared out so Thorondor and Slaughter were the lucky two chosen to handle that. (Seems appropriate, right)? I thought Mr T would be safe standing next to the door, but a Nh'Teol came down the lift and shot at him, wounding him for a little. He finished the thing off in our round though:

The team was slowly converging on the UFO when Space Voyager spotted a Nh'Teol standing just outside the door to the craft. Hobbes was in a good spot and needed the xp so he got the nod:

The snap shot was a little inaccurate (even after kneeling) so he just used aimed shots as he had plenty of action points. EOM:

All three new recruits were promoted. I'm not going to show how I allocated the points for each soldier as it was the same. Here's what Hobbes looked like:

Shooting is primary so I pout 2 points in that, then one in vitality (con is not a dump stat), strength and throwing. And back at base it was finally time to build another base in North America (after selling off some photon beamers and excess personal shields):

When you build a new base the only things you get are the energetic center (ready to go) and a hangar (still in the construction phase), that's it. Obviously a satellite base isn't much help if it can't detect UFO's so I built a detection station and a cannon defense too (quick build time, cheap, offers help in shooting down UFO's). I have since thought on this more and came up with a slightly different build strategy, but for the first base this is fine (more on this later).

Another recon vessel shows up over the Indian Ocean but we can't get to it in time as it heads to where else but Africa. This time it lands though:

Can't remember the last time se had a landed UFO so this should be interesting.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Doorways, ever the sweet spots to push one's luck. Good thing we can shrug off a hit or two.

And so it is that after chilling a bit and staking a claim in North America we stroll on over to that African landing spot to spoil the aliens' party. Lock and load boys!

[Zombie]

We zone in (at night unfortunately) and spread out a little bit as usual. We can't move too far because the darkness prevents us from seeing long distances (obviously). Four turns in and we see two airborne Treps:

Hobbes is in a good spot so he takes both out with snap shots:

Good job! A couple rounds later MikeTheRed kills an airborne Trep with reaction fire:

Progress is being made. Thorondor and FullAuto go exploring the building to the southwest. We blast our way through the hedge so we don't have to walk so far but FA get's stuck at a doorway without action points with a Nh'Teol inside:

Luckily it wasn't looking our way. Thankfully, Thorondor barely had enough action points yet so he was able to close the door averting a crisis. But next round he was in a perfect position to open the door once FA was in position. Another kill for him:

And since that building is secure, it gave MikeTheRed the green light to do a little exploring himself. The area just north contained a Nh'Teol which he killed with a grenade:

Easy stuff, at least the standard grenades still do damage even if it isn't much. The nice thing about grenades is that you can sometimes throw them over obstacles so you don't need a clear line of sight. Anyhow we kinda surround the UFO and FA kills two Nh'Teol's with reaction fire in one round and then a Nh'Teol comes out of the trees to see what all the racket was about:

I forget who killed the straggler, but that was it for the mission. EOM:

Wow, all three get a promotion! Time to allocate points, first up MTR:

Shooting still needs improvement so I put two in that then one in throwing, strength and agility. Here's Hobbes:

He had pretty high shooting so I only put one point in that as well as one in agility, vitality, strength  and throwing. And FA:

Two points in shooting and then one in bravery, strength and throwing. He'll need a point in agility soon and I'd like to max him out in shooting but that is probably going to take two promotions to accomplish. Back in the Geoscape, let's see how our new base in North America is coming along:

Not bad. I completely messed up when I neglected to build a hangar underneath the energetic center when the base was placed. That would have sped up the process of filling it out quicker. It turned out fine in the long run as I didn't have enough photon cannons built to kit out the interceptors, they had to be transferred as they were built. The moral of the story is to amass a stockpile of cannons, missiles and shields before you build a new base so you are ready to go when the interceptors arrive. Speaking of such, I'm still producing Photon cannons and I paused the manufacturing of shields for the time being:

You can probably see there are two things in the new production run box I haven't mentioned before: the Mortar and the Explosive Mortar Bomb. I totally discounted these as they were very heavy: 35 for the weapon and a whopping 15 for one bomb. Compare that to the rocket launcher (36) and a rocket (only 6). The biggest difference between the two is that the explosive rocket does 125 damage while the mortar does a massive 170. And the mortar only has a snap shot so you technically could fire it three times per round if reloading didn't cost any action points. Plus the rocket is 125% accurate whereas the mortar is 170%. It seems very intriguing to say the least. The only way to use it with a semi-strong soldier is to carry a mortar and maybe a couple bombs max - more bombs have to be carried by a mule. So I think I'm going to give this a whirl whenever the new base is under control.

Not much happened after returning to base for a while. How about another update on our new base:

Two new hangars and a rocket defense are in the works. That should help with shooting stuff down. The detection station is still 12 days from finishing though so we'll only have the cannon defense and a single interceptor to defend. Should be enough for what we are currently up against. To finish this off, we always end on the detection of a UFO, this time it spawned almost directly over our main base:

It tried to make a run for it after realizing it's big mistake but couldn't do much when I sent up my interceptors to assist the defenses:

We'll be doing that next time. Eventually, Pete, NoX and NKF will be back from their vacation so keep an eye out for their triumphant return.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Thing are coming along nicely in that new base, Zombie. Although, without a detection station up and running it's all a bit moot for the moment.

And, fancy that, the runts of the litter Corporals already. Next round is on you lads!

Best start warming up now, so you won't freeze on the upcoming outing.

[Zombie]

Another airport map. In Russia. In April. Everything is green. Totally believable, right?   We start spreading out and make contact with a Trep on the other side of a hedge and all of my guys nearby had little to no action points. Not a good start:

I've got a couple aces up my sleeve called Hobbes and MikeTheRed and they have some action points yet. How did it turn out?

Gotta love reaction shots! We spread out some more and notice there's a Nh'Teol in the control tower:

I have 5 guys covering that building though. It'll take us a while to clear out the lower floors so while that's going on I spread out the remaining soldiers where the Trep came from. Space Voyager has more action points than the greenhorns so he takes point and spots a Nh'Teol trying to make it's way over to us:

 

One snap shot was all it took. Since I had a group of soldiers who were close to the lift going up to the control tower I decided to send Hobbes up there solo:

No damage luckily. I really should have tossed a grenade up there since we knew an alien was present, but it worked out anyway. He took an auto shot and killed the thing. Thorondor went to the floor below and used that as high ground for sniping and spotting:

My other soldiers who were below made sure there were no aliens camped out in the rooms. My other group of soldiers led my MikeTheRed, FullAuto and Space Voyager covered the building north of the transport and wouldn't you know it but a Trep came by:

Easy kill for MikeTheRed with reaction fire. The next round Space Voyager spotted another Trep on the other side of the building. All I had to do was turn the two soldiers back around and they were ready:

Who got the kill? MTR of course with his wicked reaction fire:

MTR could have probably cleared out the entire map by himself with only reaction shots so I had to back him off to give the other guys a chance. My soldiers by the control tower had cleared out the building and found a nice spot along the fence because there was a convenient door in it overlooking the UFO. And what did we spot:

Hobbes knelt down and one snap shot later and the Nh'Teol was dead:

I moved FullAuto up to the corner of the building hoping to get a garbage time kill. Your wish is my command says the aliens and presented him with a gimme:

Can't make this stuff up. It was an easy kill:

The last alien tried to come close again but by this time MikeTheRed had moved up and stole the kill away. EOM:

Nice! First up MTR:

One point into agility, bravery, strength, throwing and shooting. I was almost tempted to put a point in perception too, but he was only at 50. Here's FullAuto:

Agility, vitality, strength, throwing and shooting was his allocation. Back at base and it's time to build some more hangars and a photon defense at our new base in North America:

When the detection station becomes operational I should have 4 interceptors at the ready and another one two days later. I'm going to leave the last hangar spot open for now as I don't know when I'll need to build a better detection module or a better defense. Before I could do that though a UFO shows up and I'm forced to take it down with my lone interceptor and the base defenses. Worked great:

Next up, North America. Probably in Kansas or Oklahoma to be more specific.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Oklahoma is calling!

 

[Zombie]

How about nice farm landscape for a change of pace? For some reason our transport was close to the crashed UFO so we were quickly able to set up a decent defensive perimeter (all the hay bales provide some level of protection/cover). From the next pic, the blue triangles on the mini map at the top left are my team. The lone soldier next to the UFO is FullAuto, and MTR is the yellow triangle who spotted a Nh'Teol:

The thing got off a shot on MTR (that's one of the drawbacks to snap shots is that if you don't kill the alien and it has action points left it'll shoot back) but the damage was absorbed and he killed it. FullAuto came up to cover the corner of the UFO and spots a Trep (he took one snap already):

The nice thing about high shooting is that he has a standing accuracy of 99% at 6 tiles away and 81% for an auto. After taking out the Trep another one shows up:

I moved up Hobbes to where MTR is and had him  do the killing (with time left over to kneel down behind a hay bale):

A round later and a Nh'Teol tried sneaking up on us from the other side of the UFO, but because everyone was in cover it couldn't do much except come closer. FA took it out.

My other soldiers have not moved yet because we were still dealing with a lot of aliens by the UFO and I didn't want to spread resources too thin or risk getting surrounded. Case in point: a couple rounds later and a Trep is took down by MTR:

This one came from the darkness to the southwest so it was time to carefully start exploring those areas in case there were more aliens there. Space Voyager found a Nh'Teol:

And killed it too:

The next round BombBloke spots a Nh'Teol who came out of a building (BB is the soldier kneeling down behind the hedge closest to the alien):

You know Bomb Bloke and his explosive fetish, he had to take it out with a grenade:

The next round a Nh'Teol shot at FA (damage was absorbed) when he tried to move to get a better angle on it. Fine, I'll just have BB toss a grenade on it too:

The last Nh'Teol came out of the UFO and was met with reaction fire. EOM:

Only one promotion, this time it was Hobbes (who was lagging behind the other two soldiers in his class). Point allocation time:

I just spread the points around evenly. Back at base, we shot down another recon vessel north of us:

Barely on land thankfully. But it's in the dark so we wait till morning to go after that. Before that happens though another hangar finished construction in North America, so time to take a look at that:

Right, so I now have 3 interceptors there and because the hangar is built I purchased another which should be here soon. There's a couple stingray missile launchers and photon cannons at the base already so as soon as an interceptor shows up it'll get it's weapons. Still 2 days away from the detection being ready and 4 till the next hangar and a month till the photon defense is up. And the end of the month is rapidly approaching too so we'll have to see what everyone thinks of our effort now.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

We're truly spoilt for choice in these pastoral landscapes. I suppose even aliens like rolling in the hay.

But with your ever-methodical sweep of the location they've been successfully put out to pasture. *wink, wink, nudge, nudge*

And the countryside has proven invigorating for Hobbes, so, all told, a very nice outing.

A new base guarantees only steady extra expenses, now more income must the sought. Guess who'll pay - in blood...

[Zombie]

The frozen wasteland of Siberia is surprisingly accurate in this instance as we are in the snow. First turn and FullAuto spots a Nh'Teol and he's in a perfect spot to take a snap shot:

Make that two snap shots. It's dead either way. The next round and one level up Hobbes got himself into a pickle:

He decided on a snap shot and it worked out for once. The next round MikeTheRed got himself into a pickle too:

He had 8 action points left and was somehow able to run into the corner for some cover. Lucky. The Nh'Teol didn't come to investigate so it was up to MTR to check out where the alien went:

A single snap shot was all it took. Meanwhile, down below FA finds a Trep just outside a door:

It can't get any easier than that for a kill. He took an auto shot just to be 100% sure the thing went down:

Being low on action points, I sent Silencer over to him just in case other aliens decided to converge. The next round FA went to investigate alien footstep sounds close by and found a Trep instead:

 

He had plenty of action points so an auto shot was taken, then he made a hasty retreat. A Trep comes into view to see what all the commotion was about and was reaction fired upon by BB:

He's a lifesaver. Those alien footsteps were still nearby somewhere and MTR found a Nh'Teol camped out:

He killed it easily, then he and Hobbes decided to cover the side of the building outside because that faced the door to the UFO. Hobbes killed a Nh'Teol when it exited the craft and then the next round the last Nh'Teol came out and took 3 shots at MTR. It looked like they hit him (especially the last shot), but nothing showed up on the play-by-play box. This time it was MTR who took it out:

EOM report:

Wow, two promotions. First up MTR:

Time to max out shooting and get that over with, the rest went into bravery (which was a little low yet) and throwing. FA is next and he had the exact same point allocation:

Gotta love that 98 shooting. Back at base and it's the end of the month report:

Ok, I'm happy with that. You can certainly see where we were most active as those governments gave us an excellent rating. A couple days later and we shot down two more recon vessels in Africa:

Busy, busy, busy over there. We'll be doing one of those next.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Everyone managed to stay frosty on the field, even those under fire and things were mopped up adeptly enough to earn a couple of them some more stripes to flash around at base.

A good day then and an excellent month wrapped up in the green, despite the expansion.

Snooping aliens want us to bring on the heat? Too late for retreat; we shall indulge. 😎

[Space Voyager]

FA looks better than me, dammit.  

[Zombie]

Time to check out this Mortar and bomb combo. I really should give it to Bomb Bloke, but for initial testing purposes there isn't a better choice than NKF:

Heavy! For this next mission I went with this setup and used NoX as a mule to carry a couple more bombs. (I took along all the bombs I had on hand but they take a long time to manufacture so it'll be a few weeks before I can create a decent stockpile). Later I found out that if NKF carries one more bomb he'll only incur a 3 point drop in action points which is tolerable. Anyhow, we zone into a desert map and NKF gets right into the testing spirit with the mortar against a Trep:

Huge explosion and an instant death (110 damage to be exact)! Definitely overkill, but that's the stuff! During the alien's turn Hobbes took out a Nh'Teol with a reaction shot and FA was hit by another Nh'Teol:

Pete took it out so no big deal. MTR sees a Trep standing in some walls but doesn't have a clear shot but grenades work:

Perfect throw and instant kill. During the alien's turn Pete was looking North and a Trep comes directly up to him from the West and uses it's melee attack. Damage was absorbed, but this angered Pete so much he reaction fired the thing to death:

NKF is just north of Pete by the bunker and NoX is just north of NKF for protection. On our next turn Pete spots a Nh'Teol by a tanker truck carrying gasoline and some gas pumps:

Time for the mortar again as Pete didn't have a clear shot:

Um, yeah. I don't think the mortar was necessary as a well thrown grenade or even a couple shots against the tanker would have killed it too. But it was entertaining. The next round we spot another Nh'Teol exiting the UFO. Time for the mortar again:

Critical hit for 185 damage, lol. Really OP against weakling aliens like this but I wonder what it does against something more resistant like a bonesetter or giant bird of prey? I guess we'll find out eventually but for now we can enjoy the carnage. Meanwhile FA finds and kills a Nh'Teol along side the UFO:

A couple rounds later and the last Nh'Teol shows up where the other one was, shoots and misses one of my soldiers but the shot hits NKF instead. Now, normally this would be payback with the mortar but NoX needs the kills too:

That was it, EOM:

Thorondor did squat and is promoted. Here's the point allocation for him:

100 shooting, 76 throwing and 79 strength. What a beast! He needs another point in bravery yet, but other than that we'll continue to do the same thing. Here's Hobbes:

He's doing good but bravery is still horribly low so we'll need 3 points into that eventually and shooting isn't maxed out yet either. And I'd like another point into strength, vitality and throwing for sure. Guess I just have the point allocation figured out for the next two promotions.

Back in the Geoscape and our interceptors in North America shot down a recon vessel in Mexico:

Might be southern Texas too, hard to tell. So that's next.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

@SV: now that you mention it, you've got some serious competition there alright. 😋

A very cinematic beating was delivered and the abandon with which high explosive ordinance got bandied about was soooo satisfying. This is going to do wonders for morale. It's all on tape too, I got it right here.

Just warms my heart, really. Thank you for the promotion, Sir!

Time to fetch your sombreros podnahs - we're rolling out again. 🏜️