Design: XH1 Railgun Rifle (Alien Equipment Token)
The XH1 Railgun Rifle, being based off of the advanced power supplies we don't know much about yet (but enough to use), is a miniaturization of modern railgun technology. The reverse engineering of alien equipment is the final change we needed for this to happen.
It's semi-automatic and is intended to be used by marksmen and snipers - we've decided to not bother trying to implement an automatic firing mechanism or decrease the length of the barrel even further in order to keep difficulty down.
Hard : 2 + 1 Buggy Mess
Element 115, also known as Elerium, appears to be the core of all alien technology we have so far captured. Remnants of the alien ship makes indicate that they also use it to power their vessels, though such can not be confirmed conclusively given the devastating state the ship was when it was exploded.
Nonetheless, our research team was quick to see the possibilities when shown this amazing energy source, and quickly set to work. A short scolding later, and they started to work on weaponry for the XCOM project, instead of various utopic technologies. The result is the XH1 Railgun Rifle, an advanced and powerful miniaturized rail gun, powered by an excellent stable Elerium core.
It just has a few tiny flaws. The first is the rather significant kickback of the gun. Held inappropriately, it can easily dislocate shoulders or cause other injuries. The second is the railgun itself. The rails are not particularly durable, needing replacement every few shots lest they disintegrate, often violently. And because the rails are hot from resistive and inductive heating, replacement is not an easy operations.
The last issue is known as a rail-arc. Under some situations, a plasma arc can form after firing that keeps both rails connected. This short circuits the weapon, rapidly increasing temperature until the soldier either successfully disconnects the powersource, the powersource fails, or the rails melt and shatter violently.
Mission Type: Combined Arms
This mission emphasises the synergy of air assets and ground troops. While our troops conduct the ground assault, aircraft overhead fire extra missiles into the grounded UFO, breaching a hole for our troops to storm it. Additional fire, either in the form of missiles or strafing runs, can be called down on enemy positions by commanders on the ground, who have direct communication to HQ and the pilots for better coordination. If the reconnaissance UAV is still airborne, it is used by command staff to update ground commanders on the tactical situation.
Basically get air support, and breach that UFO. Hopefully those missiles aren't nuclear? Also kind of fixes the recon UAV idea from earlier, as I thought it would help our battle tactics to have aerial recon, but it doesn't seem to be doing that.
Easy : 4 + 4 + 1 (Unexpected boon)
Combined arms is a thorough re-evaluation of our previous down and capture system. By integrating air and ground into one coherent strategy, it should be feasible to assault a UFO while making the most of air support. Such an action requires carefully aimed air to ground fire, lest it result in either friendly casualties or destroy the very target you're aiming at.
In support of this strategy, our engineering team has created an modification package for the Raven to give it greater capability for ground support, though this comes at the expense of air combat capability.
Vehicles
Raven (Interceptor) : Way beyond the bleeding edge of technology, the Raven is far beyond any other jet fighter ever build on Earth. With upgraded avionics, adjusted tracking, and advanced pulse detonation engines, the Raven is capable of pursuing even high speed alien craft. If needed, it can use it's avalanche missiles to shoot down any intruders. Cost : 2 VP
- Ground Combat Package : Replaces half of the Raven's Avalanche missiles with high tech air-to-ground SMART missiles
Skyranger (Troop Transport) : World's first supersonic troop transport. The Skyranger is high speed, heavily armored troop transport, capable of deploying and retrieving a single squad of soldiers in various situations. Cost : 1 VP
Equipment
Basic XCOM Rifle : XCOM's standard rifle. Cutting edge, custom designed, yet still affordable. Part of standard equipment.
Cost : 0
XH1 Railgun Rifle : A railgun rifle powered by an elerium core. Prone to dislocating shoulders, exploding or catching fire, and exploding while catching fire.
Cost : 1
Basic XCOM Grenade : A simple grenade. Activate, throw, explode. Part of standard equipment.
Cost : 0
BASIC XCOM PISTOL : A simple, highpower pistol. It packs a pretty heavy punch, making it an effective if chalkenging sidearm Part of standard equipment.
Cost : 0
Training Program
Rookie Training Program : A basic introduction to the entire Xcom project. The absolute minimum that any soldier needs to know to operate successfully at XCOM. Cost : 1 Unit Points.
NOTSOFTER training regimen : A hard, effective international training regime, that gives our soldiers the tools and capacity to deal with aliens. Trains forces to a standard marginally higher than that attained by most special force units Cost : 1 Unit Points.
Inter Agency Cooperation teams : As part of ties developed through the NOTSOFTER training regime, we now have the capability of drawing upon special force teams. They're not as well suited to fight aliens as we're however, and nations will object if we keep losing them. Cost 1 Unit Point [SPECIAL : Can't use XCOM GEAR, No vehicle needed for deployment when used in North America or Europe]
Mission Profiles
Interception : A simple mission profile that focuses on intercepting an alien vessel as soon as it's detected, destroying it before it can do any damage to any innocent people.
Down and Capture : A more complicated mission profile that focuses on downing an alien vessel (or waiting for it to land), and then storming it with ground forces.
Combined Arms : A mission profile that integrates air and ground forces to storm UFO's, using aerial bombing, reconnaissance and strafing runs when available to take out enemy strongpoints or UFO armor.
XCOM Resources
Island Mountain HQ [An isolated, hidden underground base on a remote island in the Aegean]
Aereal reconnaissance program : A simple program that allows us to requisition drone reconnaissance on suspected UFO sites.
6 VP
3 UP
3 EP
1 VP token, 1 Alien Alloy Token
Africa
---> Egypt
---> South Africa
---> Nigeria
Asia
--->Australia
--->China
--->India
--->Japan
Europe
--->France
--->Germany
--->Russia
--->United Kingdom
North America
--->Canada
--->Mexico
--->United States
South America
--->Argentina
--->Brazil X
Revision PhaseAABBCCDD