Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[NUKE9.13]

Skin Crawler : An infiltrator unit capable of mimicking human form (more or less). Has 8 claw equiped 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]

So, hang on. Does this mean we could launch Recruit missions without having to send any craft on them?
Because if so, holy shit, undetectable missions.
Or do we have to send at least one non-infiltrated unit on a mission?

[Shadowclaw777]

@10ebbor10 with the ECM "deceiving" ability, can we send a Small UFO with the ECM and make it portray as a larger UFO to scare Xcom or something like that?

[10ebbor10]

@10ebbor10 with the ECM "deceiving" ability, can we send a Small UFO with the ECM and make it portray as a larger UFO to scare Xcom or something like that?

Sure.

Do keep in mind that with your current ECM, you can't actually navigate while having the system active.

Because if so, holy shit, undetectable missions.

Infiltration is not a guaranteed success.

Also, yeah, you do need to assign at least 1 non-infiltrated unit. (Otherwise my system would get quite broken).

[NUKE9.13]

Because if so, holy shit, undetectable missions.

Infiltration is not a guaranteed success.

Ah. What sort of risks are there? Can the insertion itself be detected, or is there a chance of infiltrators being discovered before the mission?

Edit:

Also, yeah, you do need to assign at least 1 non-infiltrated unit. (Otherwise my system would get quite broken).

Yeah, that makes sense. Much as I would like it to be otherwise, it would be rather unbalanced.

[10ebbor10]

Ah. What sort of risks are there? Can the insertion itself be detected, or is there a chance of infiltrators being discovered before the mission?

Slim chance of being discovered before mission.

[NUKE9.13]

Plan time.

Spend 2 UP Tokens on Skin Crawlers.

Mission Type: Recruit Collaborators.
Craft(s): 1 Small Scout (Free), 2 Medium fighter (4VP)
Unit loadout: 2 Sectoid (2xPlasma Pistols, 2xElerium Grenade) (2UP, 2EP)
  2 Skin Crawlers, Infiltrated (6-2=4UP)
Destination: Australia

This is the simplest, brute-forciest plan. Two Medium Fighters take out any XCOM interceptors, and if we're lucky Skyrangers as well (which presumably is a possibility, otherwise XCOM would never need to send Interceptors at all, since they could just wait for us to land and send in endless Skyrangers). Two squads of grenade-equipped Sectoids take care of any XCOM soldiers who do manage to interfere, whilst our infiltrated Skin Crawlers take care of the actual mission.

Spend 2 UP Tokens on Skin Crawlers.

Mission Type: Harvest
Craft(s): 2 Small Scout (1+0=1VP), 1 Medium fighter (2VP)
Unit loadout: 2 Sectoid (2xPlasma Pistols, 1xElerium Grenade, 1xMeld Container) (2UP, 2EP)
  2 Scout Drone (2UP)
Destination: Australia

Mission Type: Recruit Collaborators
Craft(s): 1 Small Scout (1VP)
Unit loadout: 2 Skin Crawler (4xPlasma Pistols) (4-2=2UP)
Destination: Australia

This is a riskier plan, which we should only do if we reckon upgraded ECM will guarantee aerial victory. The single Medium fighter and the three Small Scouts would take out XCOM's aerial presence, as with the first plan. But whereas XCOM will realise that something strange is afoot with Plan A when they receive no reports of increased Panic or missing civilians, with Plan B they will hear all about how we kidnapped people as usual, and Australia's Panic will rise- just a regular Harvest Mission, to their eyes. They would have no reason to suspect that we had also recruited collaborators.

(ebbor, would the deception of Plan B even work? Would XCOM detect two missions or one?)

[10ebbor10]

(ebbor, would the deception of Plan B even work? Would XCOM detect two missions or one?)

They'd see 2 missions, and need to send 2 different groups of planes to intercept either.

That said, I don't understand your math. Where are you getting the -2's from?

[TopHat]

Alternatively, we could split plan A into a recruit mission using the infiltrators only and a harvest with the scout and fighters, either in the same or a different location; with luck the infiltrators will be undetected and only the harvest will be seen. That or split B into three missions, one with scout + fighter (probably the infiltration) and two with scout only. X-Com probably won't be able to intercept all of them.

EDIT - the -2s come from token use, I believe.

[Shadowclaw777]

For your second mission proposal Plan B for Australia, If you want to make the 1 Small Scout even more inconspicuous so that they don't send a interceptor to blast it down than you can utilize ECM. By utilizing ECM for one of our Small Scout in the Medium Fighter platoon to make it seem like their is a bigger signature and deceive their radars that their is a larger UFO we can scare them more. Make them think we are sending a large abduction or terror ship. This might mean they will send even more interceptors and skyrangers on the first mission, or you know a possibility of scaring them outright with the threat of a large UFO that performs a terror mission or something.

I guess the Plan involves spending two Unit Tokens to give us 2 points worth of Skin Crawlers per turn?

[TopHat]

I would rather save that use of the ECM until we've fixed it, since if I remember correctly at the moment with it active we can only do straight lines at subsonic speeds, which would certainly tip off X-Com as to something fishy. I'm also not sure that pretending to have a very large UFO would be the best use, either; such a UFO would cost a lot and would certainly seem suspicious with lots of other UFOs flying around. The first use that comes to mind for me would be making small fighters look like medium ones and medium fighters look like small scouts - if only so we can add an extra layer of uncertainty into x-com' s interception decisions.

[Failbird105]

The plans did say "spend 2 UP tokens on Skin Crawlers." Frankly I agree on that idea. It means that we can get one unit of uninfiltrated Skin Crawlers free per turn if we want to use them.

[NUKE9.13]

That said, I don't understand your math. Where are you getting the -2's from?

Spend 2 UP Tokens on Skin Crawlers.

Anyway, since we cannot make two missions appear to be one, Plan B is out. Plan A will almost certainly work, but XCOM would know that something was up.
We could still do plan A, since Recruit Collaborators rolled really well, and the description suggests it will be hard for XCOM to root out our allies.
Or we could just do a regular harvest mission, and leave RC until we have stealth tech for our craft as well.

[Failbird105]

Actually I just thought of something, Ebbor how many Skin Crawlers are in one squad? Is it the same number if we infiltrate them in?

[10ebbor10]

Squads are amorphous conglomerations of units, of about 1-20 units, depending on unit type. A Sectopod comes in smaller squads than a sectoid, for example.

Is it the same number if we infiltrate them in?

Yes.

[piratejoe]

Well then, that went better than expected...I'm for the bruit force plan or the risky plan. Besides, if we keep attacking Brazil Xcom will probably build a base there, or they will get better detecting us there, or something.