XCOM 2 Runthrough - A kinda sorta AAR

[undercovergeek]

I'm four missions in, gatecrasher went well, the second was a hacking mission - took 4, snuck the hacker up the side and sent the gremlin thru the window, was quite surprised to have my position revealed on calling for evac - had a great fighting withdrawal and managed to get out safe

Next mission was a jail break, took 4, remained super stealthy until one of my guys jumped through a window instead of opening a door and alerted the patrol to our presence - managed to get out without shooting but got what we came for

Fourth is another jailbreak and took 3 - had to save mid game to go to bed but it's another jail break, the VIP is stood on the extraction point on the middle floor of a building, almost like a heli pad, and my 3 guys are trying to break cover from a sectiod pod - made it onto the roof and taking pot shots as the advent come up the only ladder

[KyzBP]

I'm four missions in, gatecrasher went well, the second was a hacking mission - took 4, snuck the hacker up the side and sent the gremlin thru the window, was quite surprised to have my position revealed on calling for evac - had a great fighting withdrawal and managed to get out safe

Next mission was a jail break, took 4, remained super stealthy until one of my guys jumped through a window instead of opening a door and alerted the patrol to our presence - managed to get out without shooting but got what we came for

Fourth is another jailbreak and took 3 - had to save mid game to go to bed but it's another jail break, the VIP is stood on the extraction point on the middle floor of a building, almost like a heli pad, and my 3 guys are trying to break cover from a sectiod pod - made it onto the roof and taking pot shots as the advent come up the only ladder

I have no idea how you succeed taking such small squads.  I take 6-8 on most missions and have to battle like hell.  I've tried taking less but they tend to never be seen again. :-\

[undercovergeek]

For extract, jailbreak and hack I'm not interested in taking down all of advent, I think lw2 is set up to teach you you can't take them on unless it's a battle scenario

[JasonPratt]

I suspect the levels like "extremely light", the most minimum level, still vary according to squad size. I've almost always gone in with expected forces at "extremely light" after excellent scouting, and never ONCE have I been in any position to sneak to the target. Enemy pods are always too much in the way. I might get 4 turns in before needing to shoot. But I take 5 or 6 people.

[undercovergeek]

Isn't extremely light 8-10?

[Windigo]

Typically 3 pods of 3-4 aliens.

[JasonPratt]

Those 3 pods can effectively screen approaches, since you have to take a pretty direct approach to get there and out in time. This is a case where I'd like the mod for True Concealment to work! -- the clock only starts once any of your team breaks concealment. Of course, if I stopped messing around and started upgrading officers, I could get much of the same effect. (This is a case where holding the plot back as much as I can while I level and tech up is hurting me.)

Anyway, I've only seen one pod with less than 4 aliens so far, and those were single drones. With much larger scan radii, naturally.  ::) I'm not sure if the other pods made up the 9 to 12 total, but it's hard for me to avoid getting at least one reinforcement drop to deal with. I usually exit the mission having aggro'd up 16 foes (most or all dead).

[undercovergeek]

this was my last mission, 3 insurgents sent to extract a much need engineer VIP



Agent 1 is stuck here, hes actually stood in the detection range of a drone inside the building

Agent 2 is put on overwatch in case the drone comes through the window and finds the team

Agent 3 is also on overwatch for the same



Agents 1 & 2 are still stuck dealing with the drone

Agent 3 moves further up under cover and reveals a pod



Good news, this window breaks and that can only be the drone exiting out of the back of the building, unless theres 2 in there :-\



The pod also moves off to the right so the team move up under cover, the jail walls come into view behind the bus stop



Theres a big patch of land to the left of the prison, where the main door in and extraction point are, agent 3 moves up to take a look and uncovers another pod. With eyes on the pod he retreats to cover behind a lampost



At the same time the first pod have doubled back and are heading towards the team



The second pod move straight for the jail door - arse



That makes my mind up and the team move up to the roof of the jail just as the first pod walk into their previous area



The team drop into the cell area, the door to it is open but the advent of pod 2 are still stood outside



Pod 2 go up on the roof! Good news - theyre out of my way, bad news - theyll have great sight of the team running to the extraction point! We hack the door to get the VIP instantly giving our position away



The VIP makes a dash for the extraction area but still maintains cover, the team pop smoke covering their dash to the extraction from Pod 1 in case theyre mooching around just out of sight. The drone from Pod 2 comes down off the roof, two guys hit it with SMGs and takeoff the armour and a few HP, the last agent finishes it off with a frag grenade



i mis-count one of the agents movement points and they fall short of the extraction point by one square  >:( - the team hunker down in cover and wait one more turn. The VIP extracts incase any bad guys turn up



ZZZZZZZIIIIIIPPPP - they all extract, and everyone goes home for tea and promotions

[Windigo]

I had a supply raid last night. Brought the whole damn crew. A full 10 soldiers corporal and sergeants. I knew what was coming though. Sent my shinobi's out to scout for a good over watch position and moved all soldiers in.
The first two pods of 8 aliens were easy-peasy. Two rockets from my technicals took a lot of the fight out of them.
Then it was over watch scumming and making sure I didn't get flanked and that I took out the sectoids. The big oops was when I let an alien engineer flashbang three of my troopers... damn.
In the end it was 4 pods of 8 and a reinforcement drop of 4 for a total of 36. Considering I didn't blow up any supplies, the reward of 75 supplies seemed light... but all those bodies will be nice when I render them down.

Got to admit its one of my favourite missions. Protecting a relay is cool too.Thanks to Ferret and his trusty ROV-R, the rebels inside the house held out pretty good while I took my smallish squad around the outside. I hate vipers by the way... viper sharpshooters are a tough way to learn that high cover is a necessity.

[JasonPratt]

Ugeek: your A-Team reference. I saw it.  ^-^

[Bison]

Does XCOM 2 come with a replay feature? I like to see all of the moves I and my opponents make in a game during my post gaming AAR sessions.  :)

[KyzBP]

Well done, UCG!  I'm inspired to give it a whirl.  I doubt I'll have similar results but it'll be fun trying, right?

[JasonPratt]

Does XCOM 2 come with a replay feature? I like to see all of the moves I and my opponents make in a game during my post gaming AAR sessions.  :)

Not sure about the mp or skirmish; campaign does not (so far as I know).

[undercovergeek]

Ugeek: your A-Team reference. I saw it.  ^-^

I downloaded a few teams. It ive realised you feel a bit closer and involved in the ones that naturally evolve during the game

Well done, UCG!  I'm inspired to give it a whirl.  I doubt I'll have similar results but it'll be fun trying, right?

You can do it!!

[Windigo]

Whelp, last night was ... interesting. Riding high off of two successful supply raids I throw my scientists into lasers and combat armour.
Had 3 laser rifles when I went off on a 6 soldier suppression raid.
Didn't give it much thought when my ADVENT LEVEL counter was at 2-3. When the infiltration period was over, the counter was at 6..... holy shit!!!!

It was all fine and dandy until I got sight of the transmitter I had to hack. 3 pods of 6 and no shinobi. My technicals just blew the shit out of two of the pods and it was clean up time on the third. Those barmy bastards were after you big time Frey. But I was on to them... blue move, hunker... blue move, hunker... until you could see the transmitter. Then it was hack and a monty pythonesque "RUN AWAY!"

The back up crew with KyzBP were taking turns overwatching and hucking gernades , fighting off three pods at one time... thankfully I actually was player smarter than usual and called in my EZ (2 turns) in a defensible high cover area. KyzBP carried a bleeder back and saved 'Hot Mess' life.

End of the mission it was 4 wounded and one dead... a nameless rookie who took a single BS RNG hit from a concussed trooper