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XCOM 2: I Have No Clue What I'm Doing, Earth Is (Probably) Doomed

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Operation Outer Bell Part 1 - How Not To Do An Ambush 101
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    • Operation Outer Bell
    Part 1    ​


    Right, first mission without being railroaded by the tutorializing! Yaaaay everyone is going to die.
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    There was a desert here. It's snow now.​


    Our brave heroes drop out of the Skyranger onto the ground, and the camera pans to get us a good look at our objective.
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    See? Glowy green thing!​

    Apparently we only have so long before the contraption explodes due to a self-destruct, I think is the reason given. Oddly enough, none of the enemy troops seem worried about this whatsoever, and are apparently content to let the thing explode. I dunno, maybe they're just that brain-dead.
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    "Woah! You sure this is safe?" "Eh. It's fine."​

    (Much as I'd like to go into full detail about this one, my Picture Uploading Muck-Up appears to have lost more than a few screenshots,as well as put them out of order. Or I'm just that bad at taking them at the moment. Any case, there will be some skimming and retelling from memory without pictures involved here. Sorry. :()

    Anyways, here we see the beginnings of my tactical derp. My foreknowledge of how to play almost entirely comes from watching - and playing some of - XCOM: EU. What this means is my first choice of tactic is ingrained to be "move to blue border in cover, overwatch" repeat ad infinum. XCOM 2 is much more... timed than EU. That and various other changes means that by the time I find enemies they are out here:
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    Would love to know why they think I'm gonna attack them via an empty field when there's a cluttered, cover-full highway just off to the side. Or how they missed the Skyranger.
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    While my troops are generally scattered off to the east(?) in positions that render my attempt at an ambush quite sloppy. The generic trooper dies
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    Pictured: Very Certainly Dead.​


    but the captain only triggers one reaction shot that misses.
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    One job. All you had.​


    So in exchange for killing one generic trooper our cover is blown with no other real advantages, because I couldn't set up a good ambush.

    The captain shoots at a trooper I had on the truck he took cover behind but misses, while the trooper's aim is unexpectedly deadly for a complete rookie.
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    Spoiler: I'm pretty sure this guy wound up practically carrying the rest of the team to victory.
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    Then the truck that guy was on exploded. He was fine, though. Cool people don't look at explosions, after all, though screaming in panic about them is fine.
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    I'M OKAY!​


    Next the force moved up a little and found another trooper and another captain. They collaborate and kill one of the troopers.​


    You were NOT INVITED to this party!


    First proper casualty of the war, Mook With A Dishtowel On His Face, Day 0-Whenevertheheck, RIP​

    Somehow the only person on the team with any prior combat experience winds up panicking. She proceeds to deal with this in the appropriate manner: shotgunning an ADVENT trooper in the groin and lower torso.
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    *wince*
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    The ADVENT captain is shot to pieces ignominiously off to the side, so far as I can tell.
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    Nobody remembers how you died. Or particularly cares. Don't work for ADVENT, kids; stay in school!​


    The Only Trooper With Prior Combat Experience gets over her panic attack and hacks the glowy green thing so that it won't explode, nothing special there. Bradford says to kill all the other enemy troops in the area, so I move up and find this:
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    Stood In The Far Back When The Good Looks Were Handed Out.
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    THIS is a Sectoid now! They were not meant to have human DNA in them.

    It has a lot of health at 8 bars, which down here at the 3 bar Trooper and 5 bar Captain level might as well be a bloody tank. So I do the logical thing and feed it a few grenades.
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    Two, to be exact.
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    How d'you like THEM apples?​
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    • Operation Open Bell Part 2 - Wrapup, Aftermath, And Meet The Team
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    • Operation Outer Bell
    Part 2    ​

    And the thing is still bloody alive. It runs around the side of the truck the glowy green thing is on...


    Not shown: the plasma blaster on its wrist, the murder weapon.​

    ...and kills the Only Trooper With Any Prior Combat Experience. I'm brilliant at this, I am.

    The team MVP panics - understandable - and for a minute I think I'll lose him too.


    Sectoid: Extra Crispy.​

    Then I find out that my grenades managed to set the thing on fire when it burns to death, so that works out.


    My blood! He shot out ALL of my blood!​

    My only other trooper takes a hit that she is very lucky to not die from, but the rest of this mission is pretty much just mopping up.


    Shown: The XCOM definition of "mopping".​

    So, yeah.

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    Overall? Probably could've gone better.


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    Probably.

    Shen is very happy with the glowy green thing, and after her introduction cutscene and me having her make a medkit, she get's the Helicarrier Avenger up and flying. I swear I took a picture of that, but apparently that was one of the pictures that was lost in the Muck-Up. Have a reaction pic to it instead:


    The heck are they going? And why'd they just leave us behind all, y'know, unprotected?​

    Bradford immediately talks about a mission to protect a relay to establish contact with the resistance or something, and has us go there straightaway. This means we fly straight from somewhere in China (I guess I was being kept in Beijing or something?) to bloody Mexico.


    Crossing the Pacific? In this thing? In one flight? In this fuel economy?!? No wonder we're broke.​

    The team comes out, and we have three rookies and the MVP (he's a Specialist now; the other one's a Grenadier? I think is the name) from the last mission here.


    This seems mildly familiar... One person with combat experience and three rookies? Hm...​

    But now, though, I can customize them!

    *half an hour later*

    Ladies and gents, behold!


    Team RAINBOW 1!​


    Assigning positions based on order in the list, we have:


    Has had reconstructive surgery on his pelvis thirteen times this week. /in-joke​

    Specialist Missing Jimbo!


    Go ahead. Laugh at his pink heart gun. He dares you.​

    Rookie 1 Adam OfHelel!


    Hopes to not live up to his namesake.​

    Rookie 2 Cannon Fodder!


    Is a boat. Really.​


    And Rookie 3 Cmmdfugal! (He requisitioned a fedora and shades, but I, uh, forgot when I was customizing decided to give him an incentive to come back safe! Yes! Someone bug me about fixing that after this mission is over, assuming he survives...)


    Don't bring back burritos, we're all stuck in here with you in an enclosed space after all.​

    Here's hoping for an improvement over the current 50% survival rate.
     
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    • Well, at least it wasn't broken due to Sneks. And I would've been mugu-mugu'd if I went that low.
     
    Operation Unceasing Peak Part 1 - Accidental Savescums and Sectoids
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    • Operation Unceasing Peak
    Part 1    ​
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    I'm just kinda impressed the aliens haven't noticed them by how colourful their armor is. New headcanon: the aliens are colorblind, and the invasion and DNA splicing is an attempt to fix that.
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    RAINBOW 1 sets down right in the middle of a suspiciously silent streetway stealthily, the Skyranger's supremely shiny and suspect self notwithstanding. (That was a fun sentence.) The mission goal is apparently to reach this thing:
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    How can you get satellite TV when your dish is inside when I can't get it if there's so much as a tree branch in the way?!? Tygan! I have a new project for you!​


    and keep it from being shot to pieces. To this end Rainbow 1 starts to fan out along the street. I make sure to put them in cover whenever they stop; most amusingly when both Cannon Fodder and Adam share a garbage bag for such.

    (Note: There's actually a quick thing I want to confess to here: I wound up save-scumming largely by accident. I ran Adam too far ahead and got him spotted, and while I originally intended to fight through my mistake I accidentally set a soldier on overwatch (Fun fact: that function is, in addition to the methods of selecting it described in the tutorial, also bound to the 'T' key!). In my then further attempts to find an 'undo' key for that (he hasn't even moved, surely I can undo that! No you can't) I stumbled on the reload feature. Finding myself back at the start of the turn,I asked myself a question: do I care more for integrity or success? Success won, though I do not intend for this to become a habit by any means. Anyways, onwards!)

    It's not too long before we find our first ADVENT troopers walking down the sidewalk. Well, I say walking; they seem rather tense about it.
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    Have you considered a masseuse? Or possibly one of those self-hypnosis MP3 files?
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    This time I'm determined to do this whole ambush thing properly, unlike last time's botched job. It helps that there's not an immediately apparent time limit. First off, Cmmdfugal gets sent up a pillar onto a highway above the group that I didn't notice for a while.
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    The boat is up on the overpass, I repeat the boat is on the overpass.
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    Then I move my guys forwards in position, though I can't start the ambush until next turn due to a few people having used all their actions moving. Then the ADVENT troopers move, and while I realized that they were in combat setup earlier, I was still expecting the more sedate patrol pace. Rather startling.
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    Now if they were just facing the other way, this would be unfortunately good placement of them. As it is, it's just mildly amusing to see two different enemies flanked at once without me having to do much of anything.
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    A little more shifting about and the ambush is ready to go. Cannon fodder is technically in their view range, although given that he's in cover in perspective to them he's not blown our cover before we're ready, and he's also closest, so he gets to kick things off. C'mon Cannon Fodder! Don't miss!
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    ...Apparently me giving him glasses was interpreted as bad eyesight.
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    One job.

    This does however set off the whole rest of the ball rolling. The trooper moves into rather nearby cover while the captain blitzes out of the gated-off area we're in for some bloody reason, triggering two of the other overmatches and dying. As one does when shot by two different people with assault rifles.
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    Moron!​


    This also triggers every other alien group though. In particular we turn to the roof of the building the objective's in, where we see...
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    Eep.
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    ...Ohcrap. A Sectoid. Last time we went up against one of these didn't go overly well.

    This time, however,we have a proper ambush set up. And Cmmdfugal's overwatch hasn't been triggered yet.
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    I hold the high ground! - First time that's ever been said by a boat, I'm guessing.
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    That shot shaves off half the Sectiod's health, and we haven't even started lobbing grenades at it yet. This isn't going too bad, actually.
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    It spat purple at my head! Ick ick ick!
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    Then it mind controls Cannon Fodder.
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    • Operation Unceasing Peak Part 2 - A Surprising Result
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    • Operation Unceasing Peak
    Part 2    ​

    Now this is a problem on two fronts. First off, it subverts both Jimbo's and Adam's cover. Second off, I'd rather not have to kill one of my own troops. Killing the Sectoid should fix the problem, but nobody has the greatest shot and I do still need to deal with the other ADVENT soldiers.

    ...Cmmdfugal does have a grenade on him, right?


    Do it, you magnificent ship!


    And that's the first man to earn his initial promotion via killing an alien as opposed to an ADVENT trooper to Cmmdfugal.​

    Sure enough, Cannon Fodder is no longer mind controlled. I did try to get the grenade to also hit the ADVENT trooper nearby, there, but couldn't get it to work out. Only thing that would've made that better.

    Cannon Fodder then proceeds to shoot the ADVENT trooper who was with the captain killed right at the start, who set up in an Overwatch that was locking down Jimbo and Adam, for his own promotion. Adam earned his by killing the idiot captain right at the start, so that's every rookie on the team slated for promotion.


    When you're point-blank, bad eyesight doesn't mean a thing.​

    Jimbo kills the other ADVENT trooper in a move so orthodox I'm not even going to bother with a screenshot (hint: it involved pointing the bang-y end of the broomstick he was carrying at the bad guy and pulling the trigger-thingy) and I keep moving up towards the objective. I'm nervous now, though; my position should be revealed to every enemy here, and there are clearly enemies left. So I move only so far as good cover and overwatch. Except Jimbo; I can only get him to half cover. However his Gremlin (I think that's what they're called) has an ability that provides bonus defense. So I use that.


    It's either deploying a forcefield or trying to abduct him. It may have some issues with that second option. I also might, come to think of it, he's a good soldier.​

    What happens is that the door opens, the satellite dish gets shot a little, and-


    Seriously, how is that even remotely hidden? Did they just tell everyone in the office it was a room ornament, like some sort of sci-fi christmas tree?​

    In case you can't tell, that's a Sectoid running behind the satellite.

    TWO Sectoids!?!? Crapcrapcrapcrap- *ahem* So yeah. That's an issue. The trooper is just sorta shot by Jimbo without much fanfare.


    Thank you for the excuse to pull out the promotions again! Let me know if the wall tastes good, we need to save money wherever we can!​

    Meanwhile, Cannon Fodder is up at a window and takes offense to the Sectoid's appearance, hygiene, manners, and general existence.


    Still not letting him forget about that first miss, though.​

    Cmmdfugal comes down off the overpass and agrees with Fodder.


    Eh. expecting you to kill two aliens in the same mission was probably a bit much, anyways.​

    But that Sectoid's still just barely alive, and it probably has or can get a shot on Jimbo. It needs to die now, but Adam's not got a shot either.

    Hm... Doesn't he still have a grenade, though?


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    Grenades; never leave the Avenger without 'em.


    Do not expect to see that rating often. I'm pretty sure this was at least 80% fluke.​
     
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    • Pure Interim 1 - Tidying House
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    • Pure Interim 1


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    Ahhhh, look at the lovely lovely promotions!
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    Go for the eyes! Or optics! Whichever works.
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    Jimbo gets a level and has it put into Combat Protocol.
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    Considering that it was Cmmdfugal I had sitting on the high ground sniping, this is a little odd.
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    Adam becomes XCOM's first Sharpshooter (read: Sniper).
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    Very odd.
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    Cmmdfugal is our replacement Ranger now.

    And while the picture seems to have buggered off someplace, Cannon Fodder is now a Grenadier.
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    Pictured: Unexpectedly Badass
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    We get a few corpses for loot - useful - and also an Engineer - thank goodness we need her(? have forgot) to function.
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    We can DO things now!
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    our newest employee gets put on clearing out one of the piles of junk in here, and we get a Skype call.
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    What the heck do you gargle with to sound like that?
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    It's shadow-face council guy! he basically says that he helped get us out of the space-suit-in-jello, and then mentions a lot of missing people going to a black site of some sort that is the next thing to Deal With. Then we go back to the actual command of the base.
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    Mexico is our home base now. So I guess we really have just up and abandoned the people we had in China, huh?
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    We get a little mission pop-up saying that we need to Contact the Resistance in the Blacksite Region - you just told me that almost literally half a minute ago - and then another for a little thing to get more Rookies for free.
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    Oooh, fresh meat! U-uhm, I mean, new loyal and brave soldiers who shall lead us to victory!
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    I set that to going, then go to do something important before I forget.
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    Looks like the fedora must not be unlocked until a higher rank is achieved, or something, so I had to make do with a baseball hat for the time being. Still, you now have those shades you ordered @Cmmdfugal!

    Some research I set Tygan on about getting slightly more armor (read: health) for the troops ticks over as well.
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    Now the chunky salsa the alien weapons will turn you into have at least a chance of being contained in something we can tie off and carry back to the Skyranger.
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    I set the good doctor on the Modular Weapons before going to Shen and building as many of those vests as I can - which amounts to a grand total of two. Apparently they use ADVENT Trooper Corpses as material, and I only had so many. They will, however, still be useful.

    The Rookie-gathering thing ticks over, and I set the Avenger to gather Intel for a while. The Modular Weapons also ticks over with nothing new happening, and I set Tygan on dissecting the ADVENT Captain.
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    Pleasant.
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    Also the hunk of mess is hauled off by the Engineer, and I set her to building a Guerrilla Warfare School in that spot because to heck with having only four soldiers a mission.

    Before that ticks over, however, we get a transmission.
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    Oh good, an escort mission.
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    The team list starts with the full original RAINBOW 1, but in XCOM tradition training rookies up before the game's later stages seems like a good idea so I dive into the customization options.
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    Won "Most Lewd" Award three years in a row, then was barred from participation so that the other competitors could have a chance.
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    Meet Rookie Icy Winter! May her service be a long and prosperous one.​

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    Not sure about that equipment setup, in retrospect. Also not sure where the third vest came from. Ah well.
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    Guadalajara again? We never go anyplace interesting... *pout*
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    Try to make the ADVENT die instead of you dying, yeah? Great.​
     
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