Campaign 140
► Show Spoiler
Foreword
too long; didn't fucking read
The Campaign Settings
It's always March...
I'll be playing on Brutal for this Campaign. Even playing on the easiest difficulty is no slouching matter. At the tactical level, Brutal includes stat buffs to certain castes of enemies. Psionic enemies and alien grunts get higher will for more powerful psi attacks and greater resistance to panic, specialist aliens get bonus aim, and many enemies get bonus HP. At the strategic layer, countries will provide less funding and I start the game with more global panic. I'll elaborate more on some of this shit on a day when nothing happens but it isn't too important right now(Soon™). Overall, fucking up or mismanaging the strategy layer will have greater consequences and the enemy at the tactical level will be tough.
Operations Progeny and Slingshot will be disabled. These static story lines are hard as fucking balls in Long War, guaranteed to show up if I don't disable them, and in the case of Slingshot, can break progression by giving easy access to endgame materials early. Experiencing them once was enough for me and I have no interest in doing them again.
Ironman will be Enabled.
Second Wave options are campaign modifiers that can be used to tweak certain aspects of the game. They can be as simple as stat adjustments or the introduction of whole new mechanics. I'll be choosing the following; Strict Screening, The Friendly Skies, Perfect Information, and Recon. If you don't know what these do and you feel like knowing, open the following spoil. The TLDR is that only 2/4 effect gameplay. The first makes all soldiers have the same base stat lineup. The second makes the air component of the strategy layer easier with slightly higher aim for my jet fighters.
In Long War, your starting country bonus has a lot of variety. I won't go over them because it's a shitload of information that isn't relevant at all for this playthrough, but I have a strong love for France's Quai d'Orsay bonus. This makes Council Members put in requests for junk more often and gives more benefits for doing so. Council Requests are trade ins for any number of things asking for dead aliens and anomalous materials. Fulfilling these will give base personnel, money, leveled troops, and also increase that country's ability to resist alien influence later on which is further buffed by Quai d'Orsay. Intel scans are also cheaper with this starting buff, but that isn't important right now and won't be for a couple months.
A couple notes about this starting location.
Starting in Europe means I have to defend a very large airspace. Sometimes I will lose interceptions or easy shootdowns due to my jet fighters having to fly across a big ass continent, giving the UFO enough time to spool their engines to shoot off into space. Starting on other, smaller, continents can remove this risk but the benefits of starting here are enough to make this risk worth it, in my opinion. If I get satellite coverage over every Council Member in Europe I will get even more money for my end of month bonus. Additionally, putting a satellite over Russia provides a bonus hitpoint to all Rookies promoting into Assault or Infantry. This bonus is not retroactive, so getting it early is critical to me. Assaults and Infantry are work horses for me, and Assaults specifically are going to need every point they can get for the more... clandestine operations the campaign may get into if I survive that long.
The First Mission
Ah shit, here we go again.
The first mission of the campaign takes me to Street Overpass EWI. No, I didn't know the name of that map before I looked it up. All maps in XCOM:EW, and by extension Long War, are premade. XCOM2 would change this to be a parcel system, but there's a certain charm to the handcrafted maps. What is different in LW, is that the starting position is randomized. In vanilla you'd always spawn in the same place, so the maps would play out very samey eventually. This doesn't entirely eliminate the issue of a map being "solved", but there are new dimensions to playing a map backwards. Or sideways. The downside to this is not all starting positions are created equal. Some will suck some major balls and I'll just have to tough them out.
In the past there were certain maps that I had effectively on a "blacklist" where I would just restart the campaign to reroll a new starter map. Some maps are far worse than others and I don't get a say in what I get. I don't remember what they are now, and if I did, I don't know if I would still care right now. This one isn't terrible and presents certain advantages to me. This map is effectively cut in half lengthwise. Terrain blockers run down the middle of the map, masking movement of both friend and foe alike. This can be used to manage the engagements from the upper portion of the map to exclude literally everything from the lower half of the map or vice versa. It doesn't always work out that way, as LOS can extend outwards to the further half of the lower road, but enemies closer to the wall be unable to see upward and effectively be removed from the equation... if they aren't activated.
It is here that we meet our first squad.
Ignore the fact that that image was taken after this mission had taken place. There are only a few things that are important about the first mission and the results after it.
Firstly, 4 people are coming out of it "fatigued". After every mission, everyone who went on that mission will come out of it with fatigue. This is a cooldown time where placing them on a 2nd mission before it has expired will cause them to be injured afterwards, regardless of whether they were injured in the mission or not. This is effectively an anti-snowball measure, but also in place for your own sake. If you invest heavily into only 6 people, sure, you'll have a team of bad asses. But when one of them gets injured or dies, you'll suddenly be up shit creek without a paddle in the late game. Either way, I want to try and level my starting roster of 40 people as evenly as I can. There'll still be an A-Team formed over time, but they won't be as far ahead of the guys behind them as would happen in vanilla Enemy Within.
2 people are coming out of it injured. This actually really doesn't matter much with how I specifically play the month of March. I have a roster of 40 people that I need to get promoted from PFC to SPEC in 30 days and only 7 more missions to do it in. Anyone who gets injured is already most likely not going to see a 2nd mission for the entire rest of the month, and since it's so early in the campaign, both of these guys are going to be ready by the I need them in April. March is probably the only month where injuries really won't effect me in any meaningful way. Sadly, Aurikel and Batman here got winged by plasma pistol fire from Sectoids during the mission due more to my own rustiness than anything else.
These people have weird names. I use a custom name list with, as of the time of this writing, 350 names on it in total. These names are all people I have interacted with on the internet in some form or another. A couple of them are YouTubers I really like, but there's only about 5 of those on the list. There was a time I could have told you a story about every person on the list and how I knew them, but after about 150 names the details started escaping me with each addition. Some names have more meaning to me than others which is sadly just a normal consequence of life. Some of you (yes, you!) are included on this list. If you want to be included (or excluded, I won't judge), do feel free to make a mention of it. Though, I fear the odds of your name actually appearing in this campaign are very very slim. The best chance for anyone to spawn is at the start, and even then, the odds are only about 11.5%. Sadly I did not update my files before starting the campaign, so roughly 10 names got cheated out of their best odds of appearing. My own name is on the list and has only appeared twice. Ever. In 2200 hours.
The mission itself had some suboptimal plays in it, but everyone came back alive and all initial goals were met, and even exceeded. Over the course of the mission, enough alien corpses were recovered to be able to immediately start research projects. Had I exploded too many, my start in the game could be delayed. I want the world now, now, now, so careful action had to be taken. Even managed to get both Meld canisters, which is a difficult resource to recover. Although, in March, recovering this Meld is a low priority item due to things that I'll get into once April begins.
March Metamancy
The more things change the more they stay the same.
Chapter Selection
For ease of reading.
The Graveyard
Here's to you...
too long; didn't fucking read
► Show Spoiler
Welcome to Long War 1, an overhaul mod to the totally fucking awesome XCOM: Enemy Within expansion. Long War takes the vanilla experience and adds a lot of meat to the sandwich that encompasses the XCOM experience. New classes, items, progression for both XCOM and the Aliens, new technology levels, and a wholly redefined strategy layer. True to its name, it also makes the game take place over a much longer period of time and greatly increases difficulty. In my 2200 hours of XCOM:EW I have beaten 2 campaigns. 1 with save scumming and a 2nd in Normal Ironman. I'll be the first to admit that I am only critically average skill wise.
I quite love playing Long War 1, though binging on it is so mentally exhausting and all encompassing that I can't bring myself to do it again like I have in the past. Getting older sucks and I know myself. I'll go hard in the paint for 3 days, burn out, then take 6 months off from the game and think, "Hm I should start a Long War campaign again,". :clueless: I've decided to play the game differently with an inbuilt limitation; to play at a 1 to 1 time ratio IRL. What this effectively means is, as close to every day as I can manage, I will play through 24 in game hours of Long War. There will be many days where absolutely nothing happens. I boot the game up, fast forward for a minute or two, then close the game once the next in game day wraps around.
Since ending my "I'm Stereo" terrorism campaign a few weeks ago I've needed another long form habit to occupy myself with. The game already started on March 1st, but it's only now that I am deciding to document it.
Included in this playthrough will be some additional mods to make managing the game easier.
I quite love playing Long War 1, though binging on it is so mentally exhausting and all encompassing that I can't bring myself to do it again like I have in the past. Getting older sucks and I know myself. I'll go hard in the paint for 3 days, burn out, then take 6 months off from the game and think, "Hm I should start a Long War campaign again,". :clueless: I've decided to play the game differently with an inbuilt limitation; to play at a 1 to 1 time ratio IRL. What this effectively means is, as close to every day as I can manage, I will play through 24 in game hours of Long War. There will be many days where absolutely nothing happens. I boot the game up, fast forward for a minute or two, then close the game once the next in game day wraps around.
Since ending my "I'm Stereo" terrorism campaign a few weeks ago I've needed another long form habit to occupy myself with. The game already started on March 1st, but it's only now that I am deciding to document it.
Included in this playthrough will be some additional mods to make managing the game easier.
► Show Spoiler
Sequential Overwatch
Overwatch in default Long War inherits XCOM: EW's nature of being "all or nothing". If I set 6 guys to overwatch and a single alien scuttles out of the darkness; it is going to get shot 6 times at the same time. Even if it would receive lethal damage, all those attacks are now busted. Sequential Overwatch means my overwatch attacks will happen against a single alien one at a time. If I set 6 guys to overwatch, and 3 aliens crawl out of the darkness, then those 3 aliens will each have 2 attacks made against them. This works both ways. The enemy will also overwatch spam me in the same way I will, and it will be harder to break that than it would be in a more vanilla setting. This is the only mod that will effect gameplay... At least in theory.
Enhanced Tactical Information
Reveals and keeps track of information during tactical play. Specifically, this mod allows me to track Damage Reduction, unit XP (alongside obscure bonuses) for promotions, and currently active aliens. Note: this mod does not give me any information I shouldn't have. It won't tell me how many enemies are on the map and what they are; only what enemies I have encountered so far in it (alongside tracking what). In the past, people would literally use tokens or notepads to track what was alive and what they'd killed.
Alien Line of Sight Indicator
Line of Sight in vanilla is only tracked with units that are standing still. There is no way to truly know if moving someone to a position will allow them to actually see it. Sometimes this is pretty damned intuitive. However, the game's terrain is at times difficult to interpret and other time down right deceitful. This mod allows me to track what aliens will be visible from what positions before I move them (minus ones I can't already see).
Training Roulette Plus
This really shouldn't actually matter since I will not be playing with Training Roulette Plus. But ever since I installed it many years ago it introduced a bug, that I will elaborate on when it is relevant.
Bug appears to have fixed itself since I last played ~2.5 years ago. :shrug:
Some INI/Config Changes
Despite having 3.5 long years of development time, the final release of Long War includes a couple bugs still. There's only 2 that I can recall fixing (using other people's solutions). Not relevant right now, but included for the sake of transparency. I also tweaked the stats on one item, but even after buffing it I have never once actually used it so this is (funnily enough) also completely irrelevant and will not influence later gameplay.
Overwatch in default Long War inherits XCOM: EW's nature of being "all or nothing". If I set 6 guys to overwatch and a single alien scuttles out of the darkness; it is going to get shot 6 times at the same time. Even if it would receive lethal damage, all those attacks are now busted. Sequential Overwatch means my overwatch attacks will happen against a single alien one at a time. If I set 6 guys to overwatch, and 3 aliens crawl out of the darkness, then those 3 aliens will each have 2 attacks made against them. This works both ways. The enemy will also overwatch spam me in the same way I will, and it will be harder to break that than it would be in a more vanilla setting. This is the only mod that will effect gameplay... At least in theory.
Enhanced Tactical Information
Reveals and keeps track of information during tactical play. Specifically, this mod allows me to track Damage Reduction, unit XP (alongside obscure bonuses) for promotions, and currently active aliens. Note: this mod does not give me any information I shouldn't have. It won't tell me how many enemies are on the map and what they are; only what enemies I have encountered so far in it (alongside tracking what). In the past, people would literally use tokens or notepads to track what was alive and what they'd killed.
Alien Line of Sight Indicator
Line of Sight in vanilla is only tracked with units that are standing still. There is no way to truly know if moving someone to a position will allow them to actually see it. Sometimes this is pretty damned intuitive. However, the game's terrain is at times difficult to interpret and other time down right deceitful. This mod allows me to track what aliens will be visible from what positions before I move them (minus ones I can't already see).
Training Roulette Plus
This really shouldn't actually matter since I will not be playing with Training Roulette Plus. But ever since I installed it many years ago it introduced a bug, that I will elaborate on when it is relevant.
Bug appears to have fixed itself since I last played ~2.5 years ago. :shrug:
Some INI/Config Changes
Despite having 3.5 long years of development time, the final release of Long War includes a couple bugs still. There's only 2 that I can recall fixing (using other people's solutions). Not relevant right now, but included for the sake of transparency. I also tweaked the stats on one item, but even after buffing it I have never once actually used it so this is (funnily enough) also completely irrelevant and will not influence later gameplay.
The Campaign Settings
It's always March...
► Show Spoiler
Welcome to Campaign 140
I'll be playing on Brutal for this Campaign. Even playing on the easiest difficulty is no slouching matter. At the tactical level, Brutal includes stat buffs to certain castes of enemies. Psionic enemies and alien grunts get higher will for more powerful psi attacks and greater resistance to panic, specialist aliens get bonus aim, and many enemies get bonus HP. At the strategic layer, countries will provide less funding and I start the game with more global panic. I'll elaborate more on some of this shit on a day when nothing happens but it isn't too important right now(Soon™). Overall, fucking up or mismanaging the strategy layer will have greater consequences and the enemy at the tactical level will be tough.
Operations Progeny and Slingshot will be disabled. These static story lines are hard as fucking balls in Long War, guaranteed to show up if I don't disable them, and in the case of Slingshot, can break progression by giving easy access to endgame materials early. Experiencing them once was enough for me and I have no interest in doing them again.
Ironman will be Enabled.
Second Wave options are campaign modifiers that can be used to tweak certain aspects of the game. They can be as simple as stat adjustments or the introduction of whole new mechanics. I'll be choosing the following; Strict Screening, The Friendly Skies, Perfect Information, and Recon. If you don't know what these do and you feel like knowing, open the following spoil. The TLDR is that only 2/4 effect gameplay. The first makes all soldiers have the same base stat lineup. The second makes the air component of the strategy layer easier with slightly higher aim for my jet fighters.
► Show Spoiler
Strict Screening: All soldiers spawn with a basic stat lineup. Think of this as Rolling for Stats vs Point Buy in DND. The highs and lows are a roller coaster without this, but I generally find some soldiers become unusable with this turned off. Aliens shoot at soldiers they have the best chance to hit, among many other things, and Defense is a modifiable stat without this on. Getting someone with -5 defense means the Aliens will have the best chance of shooting this fucking guy specifically against anyone in the squad, and they will. Having high Aim and HP doesn't really matter if the thing that is shooting at them over matches their HP or they get railed in rapid succession. Mobility is another stat that really sucks to see get tanked since certain classes will have further movement penalties imposed upon them by the gear they have to take. Rocketeers specifically are horrible to get paired with low mobility, as carrying extra rockets impose further movement penalties and playing without those additional rockets limits their usefulness without going into weird offshoot ability set ups.
There are definitely ways to work around troops with a weird stat lineup, but I much prefer not to. At the start of the game I am going to have 40 troops, more later if things go well. I don't have the mental wherewithal to keep track of 40 individual people's stats on top of their already unique skill choices.
The Friendly Skies: Interceptors receive +15 aim. This will make the Air component of the strategy layer slightly easier. The Air Game is one of the worst aspects of Long War and I have no love for it, but I am willing to at least engage with it. Some missions are generated specifically from shootdowns, especially easier ones that are safest for training future rookies on.
Perfect Information: All combat to hit chances are displayed. This has no effect on gameplay whatsoever, it just tells you information that is hidden without it like how likely an Overwatch shot is to hit.
Recon: Earlier versions of Long War inherited the vanilla behavior of Meld Canisters being partially visible through Fog of War. While you can't outright see them, you can still see their silhouette. It was eventually noticed that people were panning their cameras around at the start of missions to look for these valuable resources. I won't elaborate Meld's use now, but it's a rare resource that can only be gained in the tactical layer required for advanced weapons. The most recent releases of Long War began to fully hide the Meld Canisters, and it was added as a Second Wave modifier to bring back the vanilla behavior. I personally don't do the panning thing because I don't give a shit, but I do think I should be aware a Meld canister is nearby as I explore the map.
There are definitely ways to work around troops with a weird stat lineup, but I much prefer not to. At the start of the game I am going to have 40 troops, more later if things go well. I don't have the mental wherewithal to keep track of 40 individual people's stats on top of their already unique skill choices.
The Friendly Skies: Interceptors receive +15 aim. This will make the Air component of the strategy layer slightly easier. The Air Game is one of the worst aspects of Long War and I have no love for it, but I am willing to at least engage with it. Some missions are generated specifically from shootdowns, especially easier ones that are safest for training future rookies on.
Perfect Information: All combat to hit chances are displayed. This has no effect on gameplay whatsoever, it just tells you information that is hidden without it like how likely an Overwatch shot is to hit.
Recon: Earlier versions of Long War inherited the vanilla behavior of Meld Canisters being partially visible through Fog of War. While you can't outright see them, you can still see their silhouette. It was eventually noticed that people were panning their cameras around at the start of missions to look for these valuable resources. I won't elaborate Meld's use now, but it's a rare resource that can only be gained in the tactical layer required for advanced weapons. The most recent releases of Long War began to fully hide the Meld Canisters, and it was added as a Second Wave modifier to bring back the vanilla behavior. I personally don't do the panning thing because I don't give a shit, but I do think I should be aware a Meld canister is nearby as I explore the map.
A couple notes about this starting location.
Starting in Europe means I have to defend a very large airspace. Sometimes I will lose interceptions or easy shootdowns due to my jet fighters having to fly across a big ass continent, giving the UFO enough time to spool their engines to shoot off into space. Starting on other, smaller, continents can remove this risk but the benefits of starting here are enough to make this risk worth it, in my opinion. If I get satellite coverage over every Council Member in Europe I will get even more money for my end of month bonus. Additionally, putting a satellite over Russia provides a bonus hitpoint to all Rookies promoting into Assault or Infantry. This bonus is not retroactive, so getting it early is critical to me. Assaults and Infantry are work horses for me, and Assaults specifically are going to need every point they can get for the more... clandestine operations the campaign may get into if I survive that long.
The First Mission
Ah shit, here we go again.
► Show Spoiler
The first mission of the campaign takes me to Street Overpass EWI. No, I didn't know the name of that map before I looked it up. All maps in XCOM:EW, and by extension Long War, are premade. XCOM2 would change this to be a parcel system, but there's a certain charm to the handcrafted maps. What is different in LW, is that the starting position is randomized. In vanilla you'd always spawn in the same place, so the maps would play out very samey eventually. This doesn't entirely eliminate the issue of a map being "solved", but there are new dimensions to playing a map backwards. Or sideways. The downside to this is not all starting positions are created equal. Some will suck some major balls and I'll just have to tough them out.
In the past there were certain maps that I had effectively on a "blacklist" where I would just restart the campaign to reroll a new starter map. Some maps are far worse than others and I don't get a say in what I get. I don't remember what they are now, and if I did, I don't know if I would still care right now. This one isn't terrible and presents certain advantages to me. This map is effectively cut in half lengthwise. Terrain blockers run down the middle of the map, masking movement of both friend and foe alike. This can be used to manage the engagements from the upper portion of the map to exclude literally everything from the lower half of the map or vice versa. It doesn't always work out that way, as LOS can extend outwards to the further half of the lower road, but enemies closer to the wall be unable to see upward and effectively be removed from the equation... if they aren't activated.
It is here that we meet our first squad.
Ignore the fact that that image was taken after this mission had taken place. There are only a few things that are important about the first mission and the results after it.
Firstly, 4 people are coming out of it "fatigued". After every mission, everyone who went on that mission will come out of it with fatigue. This is a cooldown time where placing them on a 2nd mission before it has expired will cause them to be injured afterwards, regardless of whether they were injured in the mission or not. This is effectively an anti-snowball measure, but also in place for your own sake. If you invest heavily into only 6 people, sure, you'll have a team of bad asses. But when one of them gets injured or dies, you'll suddenly be up shit creek without a paddle in the late game. Either way, I want to try and level my starting roster of 40 people as evenly as I can. There'll still be an A-Team formed over time, but they won't be as far ahead of the guys behind them as would happen in vanilla Enemy Within.
2 people are coming out of it injured. This actually really doesn't matter much with how I specifically play the month of March. I have a roster of 40 people that I need to get promoted from PFC to SPEC in 30 days and only 7 more missions to do it in. Anyone who gets injured is already most likely not going to see a 2nd mission for the entire rest of the month, and since it's so early in the campaign, both of these guys are going to be ready by the I need them in April. March is probably the only month where injuries really won't effect me in any meaningful way. Sadly, Aurikel and Batman here got winged by plasma pistol fire from Sectoids during the mission due more to my own rustiness than anything else.
These people have weird names. I use a custom name list with, as of the time of this writing, 350 names on it in total. These names are all people I have interacted with on the internet in some form or another. A couple of them are YouTubers I really like, but there's only about 5 of those on the list. There was a time I could have told you a story about every person on the list and how I knew them, but after about 150 names the details started escaping me with each addition. Some names have more meaning to me than others which is sadly just a normal consequence of life. Some of you (yes, you!) are included on this list. If you want to be included (or excluded, I won't judge), do feel free to make a mention of it. Though, I fear the odds of your name actually appearing in this campaign are very very slim. The best chance for anyone to spawn is at the start, and even then, the odds are only about 11.5%. Sadly I did not update my files before starting the campaign, so roughly 10 names got cheated out of their best odds of appearing. My own name is on the list and has only appeared twice. Ever. In 2200 hours.
The mission itself had some suboptimal plays in it, but everyone came back alive and all initial goals were met, and even exceeded. Over the course of the mission, enough alien corpses were recovered to be able to immediately start research projects. Had I exploded too many, my start in the game could be delayed. I want the world now, now, now, so careful action had to be taken. Even managed to get both Meld canisters, which is a difficult resource to recover. Although, in March, recovering this Meld is a low priority item due to things that I'll get into once April begins.
March Metamancy
The more things change the more they stay the same.
► Show Spoiler
During March there will only be 3 enemies that can be encountered. 1 of them isn't really important right now so we'll skip them for now.
The first enemy is the humble Sectoid. On Brutal they start with 3 HP. These guys aren't initially very scary looking with their tiny HP pool and skinny grey bodies, but this is a cunning deception. Their aim is equal to that of the humble Rookie's 65 and they have the same 3-5 damage band as XCOM's starting assault rifle. An unlucky crit from these guys can one shot my guys at this stage of the game. An already injured trooper is also at risk of being one shot by a non-crit. But that's not all that makes them dangerous. They are also entry level psions whose abilities give them an edge over my stand issue PFC.
Mindfray deals a guaranteed 1 damage, panics troops with low Will (damn near all of them for now), completely ignores cover bonuses, and nukes all stats but HP on a success. There is no way to avoid this attack except to break Line of Sight (LOS) or pray. In the past I have seen Sectoids spam it 5 times on the same Rookie to kill them, but I would describe this as an isolated incident that the AI has not repeated since the first time I saw it.
Mind Merge lets them give bonus health to a fellow Sectoid, increases crit chance, and increases their Will further. The heightened will makes their psionic attacks even more likely to inflict injury or ailment. Later in the game, the buffs they give with Mind Merge will become much more dangerous.
Psi Panic does no damage but forces a contested will save against the target. Against troops reeling from a mindfray or an injury, this ability can basically stun them. This ability can and will kill people dependent on how an engagement develops.
Suppression is innate to all Sectoids. It allows them to lock down a unit by lowering their aim and imposing a free Overwatch shot against the target if they move. In Long War, running Suppression is ill advised due to them receiving the Opportunist bonus. Opportunist removes the Overwatch attack penalty of -20% and allows the attack to crit. Suppression from a Sectoid is a double edged sword going both ways. On the one hand, it effectively locks down a soldier if I can't break the Suppression, putting someone in any number of perilous positions. On the other, if they are using Suppression, at least they are not using one of their Psionic abilities. It also consumes 2 of their 3 shots, so they'll need to reload soon (or if they've already shot once, they are now empty!).
At least for now, in March, a sectoid using suppression can be considered a wasted turn. Once the Campaign rolls into April, this ability will become a very dangerous setup ability for more dangerous enemies.
The other enemy of import is the humble Drone. This unit starts with 4 HP and 1 point of flat damage reduction. The drone is, similar to the Sectoid, deceptively dangerous for what it appears as. It is a small flying unit that appears lethargic at first with a rather limited moveset of Attack, Move, and Repair.
Drones get the ability to repair mechanical units, which includes other Drones. For now, this ability isn't so much dangerous as it is annoying. Drones will show up in limited numbers over the course of March, but they will become more numerous later and also accompany other, much more dangerous, mechanical enemies.
With its innate ability to fly it can, at any time, gain the benefits of low cover just by hovering 6 feet above the ground. This early in the game I will have very limited means of dealing with this beyond brute forcing 35% chance shots or throwing grenades at them. Shooting at them is very inefficient without getting much closer and grenades will only work if there is adjacent doodads since they hover higher than a default grenade can explode on the ground. The grenade method can be even less effective depending on the situation as grenades have fall off at the extremities of its range.
Drones themselves have basically no self preservation instinct and will just brainlessly fly straight at XCOM operatives on first activation, often landing on the ground in front of them. The first turn a drone (or pod of drones) is spotted is often the best chance I will have to kill them. Missing the Alpha strike against them isn't the end of the world but can quickly get tricky when they start dispersing. This lack of self preservation and seemingly braindead AI also works to the advantage of the aliens. Drones will often run interference against Overwatch shots, protecting more valuable combat aliens from fire. They also want to get very close to XCOM operatives, causing troops to often be flanked with their deceptively high mobility. Ignoring them is not an option as a Drone's critical strike can oneshot this early in the game.
To quickly recap the above spoiler; the entry level enemies in this game are already capable of one shotting my troops and possess a number of abilities that will make them no walk in the park. As my guys level up they will be easier to deal with but never completely non-threatening.
March itself is completely scripted. The aliens have a set "schedule" defined by their own resources and how much they feel threatened by XCOM. I don't particularly care to over-analyze this stuff, except in the case of the first March. It has the same 3 abductions, 3 scouts, and 1 council mission schedule every time a new campaign is started. What happens in April is also predetermined to a certain extent, but it starts branching out around then. With the first mission completed, there remain 3 more abductions, 3 more scouting missions, and the council mission later. The most important one among these is the council mission. I do not want to fail this one. It will include the 3rd alien to be encountered in March, but at least for now, it will only appear during that specific mission. I'll talk about it more later.
I'm gonna skip over the base management stuff because it's boring as fuck and this first post is already pretty long. Trust me, you're not missing anything exciting.
As this thread develops I'll start including screenshots from gameplay to give a better look at things, but I was so excited to get started that I just... got started.
► Show Spoiler
The first enemy is the humble Sectoid. On Brutal they start with 3 HP. These guys aren't initially very scary looking with their tiny HP pool and skinny grey bodies, but this is a cunning deception. Their aim is equal to that of the humble Rookie's 65 and they have the same 3-5 damage band as XCOM's starting assault rifle. An unlucky crit from these guys can one shot my guys at this stage of the game. An already injured trooper is also at risk of being one shot by a non-crit. But that's not all that makes them dangerous. They are also entry level psions whose abilities give them an edge over my stand issue PFC.
Mindfray deals a guaranteed 1 damage, panics troops with low Will (damn near all of them for now), completely ignores cover bonuses, and nukes all stats but HP on a success. There is no way to avoid this attack except to break Line of Sight (LOS) or pray. In the past I have seen Sectoids spam it 5 times on the same Rookie to kill them, but I would describe this as an isolated incident that the AI has not repeated since the first time I saw it.
Mind Merge lets them give bonus health to a fellow Sectoid, increases crit chance, and increases their Will further. The heightened will makes their psionic attacks even more likely to inflict injury or ailment. Later in the game, the buffs they give with Mind Merge will become much more dangerous.
Psi Panic does no damage but forces a contested will save against the target. Against troops reeling from a mindfray or an injury, this ability can basically stun them. This ability can and will kill people dependent on how an engagement develops.
Suppression is innate to all Sectoids. It allows them to lock down a unit by lowering their aim and imposing a free Overwatch shot against the target if they move. In Long War, running Suppression is ill advised due to them receiving the Opportunist bonus. Opportunist removes the Overwatch attack penalty of -20% and allows the attack to crit. Suppression from a Sectoid is a double edged sword going both ways. On the one hand, it effectively locks down a soldier if I can't break the Suppression, putting someone in any number of perilous positions. On the other, if they are using Suppression, at least they are not using one of their Psionic abilities. It also consumes 2 of their 3 shots, so they'll need to reload soon (or if they've already shot once, they are now empty!).
At least for now, in March, a sectoid using suppression can be considered a wasted turn. Once the Campaign rolls into April, this ability will become a very dangerous setup ability for more dangerous enemies.
The other enemy of import is the humble Drone. This unit starts with 4 HP and 1 point of flat damage reduction. The drone is, similar to the Sectoid, deceptively dangerous for what it appears as. It is a small flying unit that appears lethargic at first with a rather limited moveset of Attack, Move, and Repair.
Drones get the ability to repair mechanical units, which includes other Drones. For now, this ability isn't so much dangerous as it is annoying. Drones will show up in limited numbers over the course of March, but they will become more numerous later and also accompany other, much more dangerous, mechanical enemies.
With its innate ability to fly it can, at any time, gain the benefits of low cover just by hovering 6 feet above the ground. This early in the game I will have very limited means of dealing with this beyond brute forcing 35% chance shots or throwing grenades at them. Shooting at them is very inefficient without getting much closer and grenades will only work if there is adjacent doodads since they hover higher than a default grenade can explode on the ground. The grenade method can be even less effective depending on the situation as grenades have fall off at the extremities of its range.
Drones themselves have basically no self preservation instinct and will just brainlessly fly straight at XCOM operatives on first activation, often landing on the ground in front of them. The first turn a drone (or pod of drones) is spotted is often the best chance I will have to kill them. Missing the Alpha strike against them isn't the end of the world but can quickly get tricky when they start dispersing. This lack of self preservation and seemingly braindead AI also works to the advantage of the aliens. Drones will often run interference against Overwatch shots, protecting more valuable combat aliens from fire. They also want to get very close to XCOM operatives, causing troops to often be flanked with their deceptively high mobility. Ignoring them is not an option as a Drone's critical strike can oneshot this early in the game.
To quickly recap the above spoiler; the entry level enemies in this game are already capable of one shotting my troops and possess a number of abilities that will make them no walk in the park. As my guys level up they will be easier to deal with but never completely non-threatening.
March itself is completely scripted. The aliens have a set "schedule" defined by their own resources and how much they feel threatened by XCOM. I don't particularly care to over-analyze this stuff, except in the case of the first March. It has the same 3 abductions, 3 scouts, and 1 council mission schedule every time a new campaign is started. What happens in April is also predetermined to a certain extent, but it starts branching out around then. With the first mission completed, there remain 3 more abductions, 3 more scouting missions, and the council mission later. The most important one among these is the council mission. I do not want to fail this one. It will include the 3rd alien to be encountered in March, but at least for now, it will only appear during that specific mission. I'll talk about it more later.
I'm gonna skip over the base management stuff because it's boring as fuck and this first post is already pretty long. Trust me, you're not missing anything exciting.
As this thread develops I'll start including screenshots from gameplay to give a better look at things, but I was so excited to get started that I just... got started.
Chapter Selection
For ease of reading.
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March 2016
April 2016
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The Graveyard
Here's to you...
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Flight Officer "Slick" Coppens - Shot down March 21st, 2016.
Specialist Jiphonwheels - Killed April 3rd, 2016 on Operation Soaring Jester.
Lance Corporal Batman - Killed April 9th on Operation Crystal Shield.
Specialist Jiphonwheels - Killed April 3rd, 2016 on Operation Soaring Jester.
Lance Corporal Batman - Killed April 9th on Operation Crystal Shield.
:doge:
