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[Shadowclaw777]

A few things, we already spent two unit points on the Skin Crawlers, we get a free bunch of Skin Crawlers we can deploy, or were those points wasted and now we don't get a instance of another Skin Crawler batch? Secondly, I believe we have a token that can be utilized everywhere...

Anyway, congratulations NUKE9.13, as you won the contest. Have a free token (that can be used to get 1 free point worth of any tech you currently have), and this short snippet.

Why aren't we spending this token? It can be utilized to give a Small Scout another Light Fighter, in which I recommend we put in the Japan Mission. (Recommending actually putting this Joker Token on a Medium Fighter, and subtracting one of the other scout mission

Also I guess I didn't realize that tokens are one-time things, unless they aren't? No wait it states [2 UP FREE] for the Skin Crawlers, I am very confused...

[NUKE9.13]

We do have 2UP worth of free Skin Crawlers, yes. I suppose we might as well deploy them.

We aren't spending the Joker Token cos there ain't nothing worth spending it on. 1 extra VP won't get us a medium fighter to go with our 5 Small Scouts, Sectoids are not something we are always going to want to deploy, nor are grenades or Meld.

...although, I suppose we should be able to find a use for a single unit of Sectoids for most of the game. So I guess spending a UP on them isn't a total waste.

Alright, I'll go with TopHat's version.

Triangulate the Signal V2: (2) SamSpeeds, Kashyyk
Triangulate the Signal: ()
Triangulate the Signal V3: (1) NUKE9.13

[TopHat]

If I recall correctly, meld is not a requirement for obtaining DNA tokens, it just means we can get more or something. Also, it auto-sterilizes and I doubt they are advanced enough to bypass it and successfully capture.

Look over the previous turns:
Turn 1
Turn 2
Turn 3
Turn 4

It seems that a successful harvest gives 1 UP, 1 DNA with Meld, and 1 Panic if it's not intercepted. Additional craft probably increase yields, though the only time we've tried that we suffered heavy enough losses to bring the gains back down to normal levels. On the capture front, I strongly suspect the snippet we got from Nuke's story win refers to human scientists performing experiments with captured Meld; though in any case the gains of use outweigh the risks in my opinion.

@Shadowclaw777 - I believe you are correct; see my previous post. I left the wildcard token unassigned in my plan, though, as I didn't know if people would prefer to spend it on VP or EP.

EDIT - my personal preference at the moment would be using it as a UP for a free small scout, then add a light fighter to the decoy to make it more threatening; we probably won't be phasing out the scout for a while. That or save it.

EDIT 2 - I'll vote to save that token for now. Speaking of which:

Triangulate the Signal V2: (2) SamSpeeds, Kashyyk
Triangulate the Signal: ()
Triangulate the Signal V3: (2) NUKE9.13, TopHat

[Puppyguard]

Triangulate the Signal V2: (2) SamSpeeds, Kashyyk
Triangulate the Signal: ()
Triangulate the Signal V3: (3) NUKE9.13, TopHat, Puppyguard

[piratejoe]

Triangulate the Signal V2: (2) SamSpeeds, Kashyyk
Triangulate the Signal: ()
Triangulate the Signal V3: (4) NUKE9.13, TopHat, Puppyguard, Piratejoe

[Kashyyk]

Triangulate the Signal V2: (1) SamSpeeds
Triangulate the Signal: ()
Triangulate the Signal V3: (5) NUKE9.13, TopHat, Puppyguard, Piratejoe, Kashyyk

[Wizgrot]

I believe we need to focus more on widespread infiltration to detect their bases before they build them. In time, this should net us a wonderful resource net once we up our infiltration.

Mission: Harvest
Area: Brazil
Ships: Small Scout (increasing its radar signature to a Medium Harvester)(free)
Troops & Equipment: Sectoid (1UP)

Mission: Harvest
Area: Australia
Ships: Small scout (Increasing its radar signature to appear a Medium Harvester)(1VP)
Troops & Equipment: Sectoid (1UP)

Mission: Recruit Collaborators
Area: United Kingdom
Ships: Small Scout (1VP)
Troops & Equipment: Skin Crawler (2UP)

Mission: Recruit Collaborators
Area: China
Ships: Small Scout (1VP)
Troops & Equipment: Skin Crawler (free)

Mission: Harvest
Area: Germany
Ships: Small Scout(1VP) (Increased Radar signature to hide the Medium Fighter)+ Medium Fighter (2VP)
Troops & Equipment: Lesser Mutons (2UP) + Meld Container (1EP) + Drones(1EP)+Sectoids (1UP)

[Failbird105]

I don't think we're allowed to send units we haven't designed yet on missions.

Also where would we be getting the space for three units even if we did have the mutons?

As it is your plan, as much as I would like to spread infiltration, requires us to both design the lesser mutons AND revise increased unit capacity onto our scouts. Both can be solved by removing the muton from the plan but still.

[Wizgrot]

Okay, plan revised. I have deleted the Mutons from the premises. And I have tried to use the extra point to buy another Meld container

EDIT: I have decide to rotate a Meld Container to the Australia mission, in case they decide not to go for the it.

Mission: Harvest
Area: Brazil
Ships: Small Scout (increasing its radar signature to a Medium Harvester)(free)
Troops & Equipment: Sectoid (1UP)+Meld Container (1EQ)

Mission: Harvest
Area: Australia
Ships: Small scout (Increasing its radar signature to appear a Medium Harvester)(1VP)
Troops & Equipment: Sectoid (1UP)

Mission: Recruit Collaborators
Area: United Kingdom
Ships: Small Scout (1VP)
Troops & Equipment: Skin Crawler (2UP)

Mission: Recruit Collaborators
Area: China
Ships: Small Scout (1VP)
Troops & Equipment: Skin Crawler (free)

Mission: Harvest
Area: Germany
Ships: Small Scout(1VP) (Increased Radar signature to hide the other Small Scout)+ Small Scout (1VP)

Troops & Equipment: 1 Meld Container (1EP) + Drones(1EP)+ 3 Sectoids (3 UP)

Triangulate the Signal V2: (1) SamSpeeds
Triangulate the Signal: ()
Triangulate the Signal V3: (5) NUKE9.13, TopHat, Puppyguard, Piratejoe, Kashyyk

Harvest & Infiltration:(1) Wizgrot

[Shadowclaw777]

Triangulate the Signal V2: (1) SamSpeeds
Triangulate the Signal: ()
Triangulate the Signal V3: (6) NUKE9.13, TopHat, Puppyguard, Piratejoe, Kashyyk, SC

[NUKE9.13]

You accidentally cut off Wizgrot's vote there.

Triangulate the Signal V2: (1) SamSpeeds
Triangulate the Signal: ()
Triangulate the Signal V3: (6) NUKE9.13, TopHat, Puppyguard, Piratejoe, Kashyyk, SC
Harvest & Infiltration:(1) Wizgrot

[TopHat]

@Wizgrot: Personally, I'd rather run solely harvest missions this turn for several reasons:
1. We're already struggling to fill craft and are about to design a new, more expensive unit - given that several missions are likely to be intercepted I'd rather be certain we get at least a couple of UP tokens to spend on it. The sooner we get these tokens the more use we can get out of them.
2. The more missions we take sectoids on the more likely we are to locate the signal (if only by guaranteeing at least one will return). This is high priority in my opinion.
3. Unintercepted harvests generate panic, so we should be able to get another couple of countries to start panicking this way - something for X-Com to worry about, at least, and giving us more options if we decide to pile the pressure on.

As a side note, your plan spends 3 EP, so you'll need to ditch the drones or a Meld canister.

Reposting those old turn links got me wondering about what X-Com have been up to. So here's a quick attempt to look over what we can guess about their designs:

Spoiler: X-Com intel (click to show/hide)

Start:
Interceptor (1VP), Skyranger (1VP), conventional weapons (probably free),
Turn 1: Recon drone (probably design, possibly starting equipment or revision); unknown revision / design.
Deployed: 2 Ravens, 1 Skyranger, 1 squad troops w/ recon droid. (3 VP)

Turn 2: Unknown design, unknown revision.
- Possibly troop types or training. Maybe recon droid stealth considering we never see them after turn 1.
Deployed: 2 Ravens, 2 Skyrangers. 2 squads troops. (4 VP)

Turn 3: Railguns (?? EP), unknown revision.
Deployed: 3 Ravens, 1 Skyranger. 1 squad troops w/ Railguns. (4VP)

Turn 4: Air-support mission profile, Railgun air weapon for Skyrangers and Ravens.
Deployed: 2 Ravens, 3 Skyrangers, 3 squads troops w/ railguns. (5 VP)

Note: UP / EP costs almost impossible to calculate. They may also have gotten a 'free' design, like our new mission profile after turn 2.

Conclusion: This was a fairly useless exercise.

[Wizgrot]

In my plan I would be spending Nukeīs toke for an EP, although yeah, no need to do it right now. Anyway, good work with your plan. It is really good and the intel you have collected might help us plan the next turn.

However, next turn, we need to start infiltrating more. I suggest as possible objectives Australia (since we already have an infiltration there), China (as having a high ranking party leader on our side would be invaluable) and Nigeria (oil runs the world and so will we).

[10ebbor10]

Mission 1
Target: Egypt
Vehicle: 1x Small Scout (1VP)
Crew: 1x Sectoid, Meld Container (1EP), 1x Skin Crawler (FREE).
Objective: Harvest+Investigate Signal

Mission 2
Target: Mexico
Vehicle: 1x Small Scout (1VP)
Crew: 1x Sectoid (1UP), 1x Scout Drone (1UP)
Objective: Harvest+Investigate Signal

Mission 3
Target: France
Vehicle: 1x Small Scout (1VP)
Crew: 1x Sectoid (1UP), 1x Scout Drone (1UP)
Objective: Harvest+Investigate Signal

Mission 4
Target: Japan
Vehicle: 1x Small Scout (1VP)
Crew: 1x Sectoid (1UP), 1 Scout Drone (1EP)
Objective: Harvest+Investigate Signal

Mission 5
Target: Brazil
Vehicle: 1xSmall Scout (1VP), masquerading as a Medium-sized craft.
Crew: 1x Sectoid (1UP)
Objective: Harvest+Investigate Signal

Missions launched

Spoiler: Equipment (click to show/hide)

Vehicles

Small scout : One of the tiniest vessels at your disposal, the Small scout is both cheap and reliable. Powered by a single Elerium core, the vessel makes decent speed, while carrying up to 2 units to their destination. It's equipped with a plasma turret for self defense . Cost : 1 VP

Light fighter : Roughly half the size of a Small Scout, the Light fighter is a small craft that can be slaved to a nearby UFO to defend it. It's armed with 3 forward firing plasma guns, giving it a decent amount of firepower. Like the small scout, it is powered by a single Elerium core that gives it decent speed. Cost : 1 VP

Medium fighter Roughly 3 quarters the size of a small scout, the medium fighter is a small automated craft capable of independent operation. It's armed with 3 forward firing plasma guns, giving it a decent amount of firepower. Powered by an enlarged Elerium reactor, it's small size gives it greatly superior speed and maneuverability. Cost : 2 VP

Equipment

Plasma Pistols : A basic simple sidearm that has been used in many pacification operations. The plasma pistol is a dependable bit of equipment that is light but not particularly powerful.

Elerium Grenade : The elerium grenade is powerful handheld explosive. Cost : 1 EP

Meld Container : A container filled with the precious Meld, a substance that consists out of billions of cybernetic nanomachines that automatically capture, catalogue and analyse any foreign DNA they find. Greatly increases the effectiveness of recovery operations. If capture threatens, the container will perform an auto-sterilization cycle.  Cost : 1 EP

ECM equipped flight computer : A modified flight computer that can mimic a larger ship or deceive missiles (sometimes), at the cost of shutting of the flight computer.
Cost : 0

Aliens
Sectoid : A formerly weak species with a limited capability for the gift. Nonetheless, their simple biology allows to easily clone these creatures and deploy them in great numbers. Integration of human DNA has brought their strength up to par with human baseline.
    - Reversable Mind Merge: Merge minds with an organic, intelligent friendly or enemy, giving or drawing upon them for strength
Cost 1 UP   ( 1 Free available)

Scout drone : A small but fast scout drone armed with powerfull short range non-lethal weaponry and powerfull sensors. Effective at hunting down humans as well as spotting threats, but lightly armored.
Cost 1 UP or 1 EP

Skin Crawler : An infiltrator unit capable of mimicking human form (more or less). Has 8 claw equipped tentacles and is capable of using most handheld technologies.
Cost 2 UP (+1 UP if infiltrated [Infiltrated units require no transportation, but can not use equipment]) [2 UP worth free] 

Mission Profiles

Harvest: A simple mission profile that involves a UFO landed in a secluded area to capture humans other lifeforms for analysis in the main base.

Recruit Collaborators : A more complex mission profile that relies on the insertion of infiltrating units to make contact and recruit potential collaborators.

Alien Resources

4+1 VP
6 UP
2 EP

Nuke's Token

Dark side of the Moon base [Hidden, Industrious]

Spoiler: PANIC METER (click to show/hide)

Africa
---> Egypt
---> South Africa
---> Nigeria

Asia
--->Australia  Light infiltration
--->China
--->India
--->Japan

Europe
--->France
--->Germany
--->Russia
--->United Kingdom

North America
--->Canada
--->Mexico
--->United States

South America
--->Argentina
--->Brazil   X

Revision Phase

Turn 5

AABBCCDD

[Wizgrot]

Elderīs Scorn

While our current air battles are going  very good at the moment, we cannot allow Humanity to recover more of the Ethereal technology if we hope to defeat them while they remain foolish and primitive. They already have on their control several of our craft, which they surely have used to improve on their puny "technology".

Elerium-115, our main energy source, has shown a remarkable stability when degrading it in a controlled environment, so its energy can power our ships and equipment. However, by rising quickly the temperature and the pressure of the engine, we can make it enter into a highly radioactive and volatile state, which powered with some plasma detonators installed near should release all of their energy with an explosive blast that should make most of the components useless and deadly irradiated, greatly increasing the cost and feasibility of salvage operations and killing troops near the area of the blast.

I propose to monitor our troops life signals and automatically detonate it if the tripulation dies or becomes unconscious.

I propose this as revision