- Joined
- Nov 13, 2020
F for the fallen.
The next map has chrysalids, doesn't it?
The next map has chrysalids, doesn't it?
Let's Sperg Let's Play XCOM UFO Defense (Completed) - Heavy casualties expected.
- Thread starter L50LasPak
- Start date
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2018
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2019
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2018
From what I've read, the campaign takes 200-400 hours to complete. You're in for the long haul if that's true.
- Joined
- Sep 25, 2019
8. Xenophobia
Some last minute expansions are ordered before the next mission. Our soldiers are also equipped with the spare Personal Armor and the new Heavy Lasers. Six of the troops are able to carry a heavy laser into combat.
We double our budget by shipping off all of the conventional weaponry. Only the standard grenade is still of any use to us.
Command demands that Dear Leader and Friend Computer to maintain constant radio contact. They are both perplexed by this order but assure their compliance.
Snakemen. The moment Dear Leader radios to Command that contact has been made with Snakemen at the terror site, the orders are clear. Do not advance. Form a tight defensive perimeter around the Skyranger. Do not advance. Open fire only on clear targets. Do not advance.
The Snakemen are tough sure, but XCOM has been in ambushes before. The heavy lasers prove an effective weapon, though for some reason Lemmingwise's accuracy goes completely to shit while he's using his. Lemmingwise has up until this point had reasonable accuracy with both the regular assault rifle, the laser rifle and the autocannon so this is a strange turn of events.
Wait.
What was that?
There it goes again!
What the Hell is that?
Oh Jesus. Shoot at it!
What the fuck are you guys doing?! SHOOT AT IT!
Fucking aye, finally someone has some sense. It really did get that close, and all of my troops were either out of time units or just straight up choked. I had to open fire on my turn with Dear Leader.
XCOM stays in formation, the troops around the Skyranger somewhat resembling a shield wall but without the shields.
We're sitting ducks to the enemy Snakemen though. Super Sad Smile's armor shrugs off a plasma hit.
The utility of this formation soon becomes plainly obvious though.
Super Sad Smile's armor buckles under another plasma hit and he's mortally wounded, but not badly enough that he can't return fire on his assailant.
We would be absolutely fucked without the team members with heavy lasers. Whatever these things are, they're heavily armored and can soak up an average of three hits before going down. The regular laser rifle seems to do damage, but so far every one we've managed to take down needs at least one heavy laser hit to fell it.
Super Sad Smile misses every shot on account of his guts hanging out. Dear Leader eventually lands a shot and gives Super Sad Smile some breathing room to get patched up.
XCOM is confident enough to start spreading out now, but the formation is still tight. Every possible approach vector has at least soldier on overwatch covering it.
A few turns of inactivity gives us the confidence to loosen up. Nobody wants to sweep either of the two nearby structures, but the warehouse goes first on account of it only having one floor.
Reaction fire still works just as well on the murderous Snakemen as it does on their pets.
Something that once appeared to be human comes shambling out of the alley. Command advises the team not to, under any circumstances, fire upon the creature unless we are ready to follow it up with additional firepower.
Nobody is really sure what Command is whining about. It dies like anything else-
Oh.
Image Credit: Rookie Soldier by Jaekyu
Incase its not obvious yet, this is the infamous Chryssalid, a melee-only alien unit that has a very large amount of time units, sometimes up to 120. Upon making a successful melee attack, the target (if human) is instantly killed regardless of what armor they were wearing and transformed into a zombie. The resulting zombie also has a large pool of time units and an attack that is about as destructive as a Chryssalid's but lacks the instant killing power of it. When the zombie is killed, by anything, it splits open and spawns a fully formed Chryssalid. The newborn has all of the powers and strength of the adult, including the very same method of reproduction.
Unlike the remake, zombies do not burst open after a set period of time. You have to kill them all. And then kill the Chryssalids that spawn out of them. And kill the 3-6 Chryssalids that the Snakemen started the battle with. And Terror Missions can have up to 16 civillians on them. All while you're taking fire from the fully equipped squad of Snakemen accompanying the Chryssalids. If you were doing this mission at night in the original game where you still had to throw electro-flares around just to see the battlefield, you were just fucked.
My screenshots don't do the little animation of it bursting out of its victim justice either. Even in the original DOS version it probably has the most frames of anything animated on the Battlescape, and the first time you trigger it you probably will be struck by how sudden and fluid it is. Its little details like this that make this monster truly legendary in the minds of players even 27 years later.
A bad shot from Lemmingwise, who is apparently still having trouble with his laser, punches a hole straight in the wall and gives a nearby Snakeman an arrowslit to fire out of and support one of the creatures. Great. Enough troops are able to concentrate fire with their rifles to bring the monster down though.
Well, that's ironic.
Whatever rank that other Snakeman is he's made of a lot sterner stuff than the Navigator. He manages to get a shot off and mortally wound Dear Leader!
The hunt isn't on for very long before the armed Snakeman is taken down and the cowardly Navigator is located. We already have a live one, so this one is unceremoniously waxed.
I'm in shock as the mission ends. Four dead Chryssalids and no dead XCOM soldiers, just two wounded. Even as they wheel Dear Leader in on a stretcher behind Super Sad Smile, he's still conscious enough from the stimmies to ask the waiting suits what the big deal was about that last mission. Before the director has a chance to fumble the response the painkillers take effect and Dear Leader is out cold on his way to emergency surgery.
We're flush with cash. America gives us more than a few winks and smiles when they increase our budget this month, and its coincidentally about time we established a second base.
Store space and workshop space are expanded first.
I'm not up on my Jace lore so forgive me for taking a random guess and putting it in Florida. It starts with literally nothing except an access lift so it won't be much to look at for awhile.
If our team of badasses could handle a Snakeman Terror Mission with zero casualties, surely this routine UFO assault will be no issue.
Things start out normal enough. Friend Computer and Forgetful Gynn exit the Skyranger and take up their usual positions. One Snakeman goes down.
Or not. He stays on his feet... foot... upright, and returns fire, nailing @Forgetful Gynn twice and killing him.
He's not going down. What the hell is Lemmingwise's problem with that thing?
We're taking fire from the south now, and Friend Computer goes down for the count!
Lemmingwise gets the one in the north finally, and Bathroom Attendant tosses a grenade into the one to the south. He doesn't go down either! What the Hell is going on?
Finally NerdShamer blows a hole in the bastard the size of a soup bowl. World of Shit gives Friend Computer the good stuff and he snaps back to his feet. Bathroom Attendant senses more fire coming and steps in front of his Commander.
The newbie might not be standing in the right place, but his instincts were dead on. We get more fire from the east. I have @NerdShamer try to move up and get a look at the enemy, but he draws reaction fire and faceplants into the side of the hill.
Bathroom Attendant and World of Shit bravely charge the hill they just watched their comrade die on to draw fire away from their Commander. World of Shit catches one and goes down.
The only other soldier off the Skyranger right now is Kane Lives, who moves up to try and reach World of Shit before he bleeds out. @Bathroom Attendant is not so lucky and is killed instantly.
This hill is already a bloodbath and I exhaust Kane Lives's time units trying desperately to just see the fucking enemy that already killed two of my people. World of Shit is left in a heap on the ground as any attempt to treat his injuries would just get his rescuer killed.
We finally get a good look at the ugly son of a bitch, and Lemmingwise doesn't have a clear shot at him. Kane Lives is exposed at the top of the hill, with only the small bonus kneeling provides for cover, against an enemy that has killed two of his comrades. His sacrifice is a neccesary one, since either Friend Computer or Lemmingwise being killed could turn this disaster into a rout.
Make that three. @world of shit bleeds to death.
Kane Lives has balls of steel, that's for sure. Four or so plasma shots whizz past his head, on a hill that is already soaked in the blood of three soldiers. Eventually he holds it long enough that his fellow soldiers can back him up. Its dubbed Kane's Hill for the duration of the battle.
Despite the vantage point, neither Kane or Lemmingwise can draw a bead on the enemy, so Friend Computer shows us why he's in charge by bombing the bastard with an expert alien grenade throw. He gets a kill, but another Snakeman behind the first is revealed. Rookie Llama King nails him with an impressive conventional grenade toss.
Son of a bitch. Only this pack of retards can ace a Chryssalid Terror Mission with no deaths and then take 35% casualties on what was supposed to be a routine UFO retrieval.
Oh fuck off.
After a frustrating chase through much of western Russia the Jace Interceptor actually loses the UFO. At the very least he gets in close enough to confirm that the 50mm Cannon is completely useless. The Interceptor is called back to base, and a second Avalanche Missile Launcher is ordered to replace the useless cannon. Kiwi Farms is shortly bristling with a stockpile of 40 nuclear warheads between the four Avalanche launchers on either interceptor.
The Plasma Pistol research is completed and work immediately begins on the Plasma Rifle. Shortly after, the science staff is expanded to full capacity and interrogation of one of the live Snakeman Soldiers begins.
Though this craft weapon is hypothetically more destructive than our Avalanche missiles, building one right now is not really worth the effort when the Avalanche can accomplish the same thing at better range. The interceptors lack the capability to stand up to large UFOs right now regardless of their loadout, so we elect to skip these weapons.
I start on Laser Defenses because I'd like to have the option open if my weird research strategy keeps Plasma Defences out of my reach for too long.
Deagle Nation's construction is rolling right along. In short order I'll probably need to purchase a defense force for it. These will probably be the first group of renamed soldiers unless I get a sudden influx of 20 volunteers after this post.
There will be a lot more rookies in our squad this time. Lets see if our luck holds out.
Some last minute expansions are ordered before the next mission. Our soldiers are also equipped with the spare Personal Armor and the new Heavy Lasers. Six of the troops are able to carry a heavy laser into combat.
We double our budget by shipping off all of the conventional weaponry. Only the standard grenade is still of any use to us.
Command demands that Dear Leader and Friend Computer to maintain constant radio contact. They are both perplexed by this order but assure their compliance.
Snakemen. The moment Dear Leader radios to Command that contact has been made with Snakemen at the terror site, the orders are clear. Do not advance. Form a tight defensive perimeter around the Skyranger. Do not advance. Open fire only on clear targets. Do not advance.
The Snakemen are tough sure, but XCOM has been in ambushes before. The heavy lasers prove an effective weapon, though for some reason Lemmingwise's accuracy goes completely to shit while he's using his. Lemmingwise has up until this point had reasonable accuracy with both the regular assault rifle, the laser rifle and the autocannon so this is a strange turn of events.
Wait.
What was that?
There it goes again!
What the Hell is that?
Oh Jesus. Shoot at it!
What the fuck are you guys doing?! SHOOT AT IT!
Fucking aye, finally someone has some sense. It really did get that close, and all of my troops were either out of time units or just straight up choked. I had to open fire on my turn with Dear Leader.
XCOM stays in formation, the troops around the Skyranger somewhat resembling a shield wall but without the shields.
We're sitting ducks to the enemy Snakemen though. Super Sad Smile's armor shrugs off a plasma hit.
The utility of this formation soon becomes plainly obvious though.
Super Sad Smile's armor buckles under another plasma hit and he's mortally wounded, but not badly enough that he can't return fire on his assailant.
We would be absolutely fucked without the team members with heavy lasers. Whatever these things are, they're heavily armored and can soak up an average of three hits before going down. The regular laser rifle seems to do damage, but so far every one we've managed to take down needs at least one heavy laser hit to fell it.
Super Sad Smile misses every shot on account of his guts hanging out. Dear Leader eventually lands a shot and gives Super Sad Smile some breathing room to get patched up.
XCOM is confident enough to start spreading out now, but the formation is still tight. Every possible approach vector has at least soldier on overwatch covering it.
A few turns of inactivity gives us the confidence to loosen up. Nobody wants to sweep either of the two nearby structures, but the warehouse goes first on account of it only having one floor.
Reaction fire still works just as well on the murderous Snakemen as it does on their pets.
Something that once appeared to be human comes shambling out of the alley. Command advises the team not to, under any circumstances, fire upon the creature unless we are ready to follow it up with additional firepower.
Nobody is really sure what Command is whining about. It dies like anything else-
Oh.
Image Credit: Rookie Soldier by Jaekyu
Incase its not obvious yet, this is the infamous Chryssalid, a melee-only alien unit that has a very large amount of time units, sometimes up to 120. Upon making a successful melee attack, the target (if human) is instantly killed regardless of what armor they were wearing and transformed into a zombie. The resulting zombie also has a large pool of time units and an attack that is about as destructive as a Chryssalid's but lacks the instant killing power of it. When the zombie is killed, by anything, it splits open and spawns a fully formed Chryssalid. The newborn has all of the powers and strength of the adult, including the very same method of reproduction.
Unlike the remake, zombies do not burst open after a set period of time. You have to kill them all. And then kill the Chryssalids that spawn out of them. And kill the 3-6 Chryssalids that the Snakemen started the battle with. And Terror Missions can have up to 16 civillians on them. All while you're taking fire from the fully equipped squad of Snakemen accompanying the Chryssalids. If you were doing this mission at night in the original game where you still had to throw electro-flares around just to see the battlefield, you were just fucked.
My screenshots don't do the little animation of it bursting out of its victim justice either. Even in the original DOS version it probably has the most frames of anything animated on the Battlescape, and the first time you trigger it you probably will be struck by how sudden and fluid it is. Its little details like this that make this monster truly legendary in the minds of players even 27 years later.
A bad shot from Lemmingwise, who is apparently still having trouble with his laser, punches a hole straight in the wall and gives a nearby Snakeman an arrowslit to fire out of and support one of the creatures. Great. Enough troops are able to concentrate fire with their rifles to bring the monster down though.
Well, that's ironic.
Whatever rank that other Snakeman is he's made of a lot sterner stuff than the Navigator. He manages to get a shot off and mortally wound Dear Leader!
The hunt isn't on for very long before the armed Snakeman is taken down and the cowardly Navigator is located. We already have a live one, so this one is unceremoniously waxed.
I'm in shock as the mission ends. Four dead Chryssalids and no dead XCOM soldiers, just two wounded. Even as they wheel Dear Leader in on a stretcher behind Super Sad Smile, he's still conscious enough from the stimmies to ask the waiting suits what the big deal was about that last mission. Before the director has a chance to fumble the response the painkillers take effect and Dear Leader is out cold on his way to emergency surgery.
We're flush with cash. America gives us more than a few winks and smiles when they increase our budget this month, and its coincidentally about time we established a second base.
Store space and workshop space are expanded first.
I'm not up on my Jace lore so forgive me for taking a random guess and putting it in Florida. It starts with literally nothing except an access lift so it won't be much to look at for awhile.
If our team of badasses could handle a Snakeman Terror Mission with zero casualties, surely this routine UFO assault will be no issue.
Things start out normal enough. Friend Computer and Forgetful Gynn exit the Skyranger and take up their usual positions. One Snakeman goes down.
Or not. He stays on his feet... foot... upright, and returns fire, nailing @Forgetful Gynn twice and killing him.
He's not going down. What the hell is Lemmingwise's problem with that thing?
We're taking fire from the south now, and Friend Computer goes down for the count!
Lemmingwise gets the one in the north finally, and Bathroom Attendant tosses a grenade into the one to the south. He doesn't go down either! What the Hell is going on?
Finally NerdShamer blows a hole in the bastard the size of a soup bowl. World of Shit gives Friend Computer the good stuff and he snaps back to his feet. Bathroom Attendant senses more fire coming and steps in front of his Commander.
The newbie might not be standing in the right place, but his instincts were dead on. We get more fire from the east. I have @NerdShamer try to move up and get a look at the enemy, but he draws reaction fire and faceplants into the side of the hill.
Bathroom Attendant and World of Shit bravely charge the hill they just watched their comrade die on to draw fire away from their Commander. World of Shit catches one and goes down.
The only other soldier off the Skyranger right now is Kane Lives, who moves up to try and reach World of Shit before he bleeds out. @Bathroom Attendant is not so lucky and is killed instantly.
This hill is already a bloodbath and I exhaust Kane Lives's time units trying desperately to just see the fucking enemy that already killed two of my people. World of Shit is left in a heap on the ground as any attempt to treat his injuries would just get his rescuer killed.
We finally get a good look at the ugly son of a bitch, and Lemmingwise doesn't have a clear shot at him. Kane Lives is exposed at the top of the hill, with only the small bonus kneeling provides for cover, against an enemy that has killed two of his comrades. His sacrifice is a neccesary one, since either Friend Computer or Lemmingwise being killed could turn this disaster into a rout.
Make that three. @world of shit bleeds to death.
Kane Lives has balls of steel, that's for sure. Four or so plasma shots whizz past his head, on a hill that is already soaked in the blood of three soldiers. Eventually he holds it long enough that his fellow soldiers can back him up. Its dubbed Kane's Hill for the duration of the battle.
Despite the vantage point, neither Kane or Lemmingwise can draw a bead on the enemy, so Friend Computer shows us why he's in charge by bombing the bastard with an expert alien grenade throw. He gets a kill, but another Snakeman behind the first is revealed. Rookie Llama King nails him with an impressive conventional grenade toss.
Son of a bitch. Only this pack of retards can ace a Chryssalid Terror Mission with no deaths and then take 35% casualties on what was supposed to be a routine UFO retrieval.
Oh fuck off.
After a frustrating chase through much of western Russia the Jace Interceptor actually loses the UFO. At the very least he gets in close enough to confirm that the 50mm Cannon is completely useless. The Interceptor is called back to base, and a second Avalanche Missile Launcher is ordered to replace the useless cannon. Kiwi Farms is shortly bristling with a stockpile of 40 nuclear warheads between the four Avalanche launchers on either interceptor.
The Plasma Pistol research is completed and work immediately begins on the Plasma Rifle. Shortly after, the science staff is expanded to full capacity and interrogation of one of the live Snakeman Soldiers begins.
Though this craft weapon is hypothetically more destructive than our Avalanche missiles, building one right now is not really worth the effort when the Avalanche can accomplish the same thing at better range. The interceptors lack the capability to stand up to large UFOs right now regardless of their loadout, so we elect to skip these weapons.
I start on Laser Defenses because I'd like to have the option open if my weird research strategy keeps Plasma Defences out of my reach for too long.
Deagle Nation's construction is rolling right along. In short order I'll probably need to purchase a defense force for it. These will probably be the first group of renamed soldiers unless I get a sudden influx of 20 volunteers after this post.
There will be a lot more rookies in our squad this time. Lets see if our luck holds out.
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- Joined
- Jun 25, 2020
- Joined
- Sep 25, 2019
Honestly after that UFO run I had half a mind to hit
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2017
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2019
Chryssalids Oh sweet Sweet fucking Chryssalids. You had one lucky terror mission.
But as darkest dungeon would tell when winning a battle.
"Remind yourself that overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer." Good luck next time you meet em.
But as darkest dungeon would tell when winning a battle.
"Remind yourself that overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer." Good luck next time you meet em.
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2020
I FUCKING CALLED IT!
You did an amazing job on that Chryssalid mission - most of the times I tried these lucid-nightmare-from-hell missions I ended up having half of my force gone and the surrounding area in ruins and craters.
Chryssalid's are easily both my most detested and loved enemy in the game.
- Joined
- Sep 25, 2019
Funny thing was, I actually still didn't know myself by the time you made that post. I play almost none of these in advance because my memory just isn't good enough to keep the sequence of events straight in my head if I don't write it all down right away.
Foresight gives me a lot advantages that allow me to avoid the traps new players would fall into though. That being said, if the Snakemen were armed with Stun Bombs or a Blaster Launcher, or were less hesitant to throw grenades (as they are on higher difficulties) my shield wall tactic would have gotten everyone killed for sure.
Night time would have also severely dampened the range and reactions of my soldiers too, there are a million ways it could have gone wrong.
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2020
That is true, but regardless you handled it the best you could in that situation. Shieldwall tends to be my tactic too when it comes down to the Chryssalids - especially if I encounter a Terror-mission like that with standard weapons.
In the event of such a mission in the night, what I usually do is march out all my men into a location on the map that has chokepoints, and hope and pray they don't run into Chryssalids/Snakemen on the way there. Alternatively, I just let them wait on the skyranger with the first line crouched, the second line standing and the rest crouched and facing backwards (To avoid friendly reaction fire). This tactic works until Snakemen remember they have grenades.
Regarding the prophecy I made before your post, I would call it blind luck and say it was just a fluke. Unfortunately I think I have a hidden talent as a fucking physic since every bad thing I predict about my own turns comes true:
"This next UFO is a very large one, isn't it?"
"There's no way there's a firing squad around this corner..."
"Better hope this dude has enough TU's to reach cover..."
"Urist McHeavy is going to panic and fire his rocket-launcher in the middle of the crowded skyranger the moment he gets hit with an physic attack at the beginning of my next UFO hunt."
In the case of X-Files:
"This single rat is going to eat both my only agents trying to capture it."
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2017
Dark Edea
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2020
It means Snakemommies are close.
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2019
As expected, I did nothing useful. Except holding that hill. That was awesome. I need more of that luck, I think, if I don't want to be gibbed by Chryssalids.
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2020
To be honest, being able to hold a hill for a couple of turns in the OG X-Com is extremely badass.
As expected, I did nothing useful. Except holding that hill. That was awesome. I need more of that luck, I think, if I don't want to be gibbed by Chryssalids.
Dark Edea
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2020
You were just visiting anyway. I know you really aren't dead. After all there is still Tiberium to harvest.
As expected, I did nothing useful. Except holding that hill. That was awesome. I need more of that luck, I think, if I don't want to be gibbed by Chryssalids.
NerdShamer
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2018
At least I didn't die on my second mission. Although, you were screwed over by being flanked like that.
- Joined
- May 23, 2020
Rest in Power, fellow kangs.
Hopefully I did well enough to get into White Heaven.
world of shit
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2021
On my own playthrough, we just got to the terror attack with the first introduction of Chryssalids.
I started in India, so we are the Poo Squad.
All my pajeets are decked out with Power Armor, laser weapons, and stun bombs; and we'll fire without question on anyone that mentions bitcoin.
I started in India, so we are the Poo Squad.
All my pajeets are decked out with Power Armor, laser weapons, and stun bombs; and we'll fire without question on anyone that mentions bitcoin.