The minotaur situation is the same as it was earlier - we hit is a few times with heavy weapons.
Right now we're lowkey focusing on taking some pressure off the hangar side of the base. Some UAC rifle shots, and a guy is down.
Mr. Ability just peeked out and was immediately killed with a single CAWS slug. Armored vest from the front. Now, we're not getting anyone else killed by reaction fire. End turn.
Oh here we go, the captain got riddled with bullets by Ms. Zultan's macro SMG, giving us this neat picture. I like how every killed person, monster, robot, etc. turns towards the player when they die. Like, "Why, mate? Why would you do that to me?" kinda deal. Or they just look at the camera meaningfuly, because none of this is actually happening; it's just a prank, we're all being recorded.
The captain had two personal guards - one got zapped by Madame Abandonne's storm rose, the other one got stabbed by Ms. Buyer's stabby sword. Madame Abandonne is oficially my favorite soldier - 120 shooting, 98 psi strength. With good stamina, she can zap quite a lot before having to stab herself with a needle.
Get rekt, nerd! He's seen his buddy's corpse, yet hasn't checked the rooms. Rookie mistake, but the last one in his life.
That's a lot of dudes! If only we could kill them in one turn it would be so neat.
Shouldn't have said that. There are two supersoldiers with rocket launchers, one of which was hit with everything from light cannons to a Dagon's staff.
Ms. Beginning actually shot twice at the one closer to the soldiers, and hit a guard instead, killing him.
Oh, I knew it would happen! I don't remember who that soldier was. On the bright side, the other rocket guy got blown up too. For supersoldiers they're not exactly well trained in handling explosives, are they?
Look at all those dead soldiers! If I knew it would be like that, I'd have one of them hold a live hi-ex to dead man switch the whole fucking gathering.
Look at me lining up the soldiers so they can get blown up easier. Is that enouht for you game? Do you want more sacrifices? How about I just fucking give up on this base so you can go after the other one?
Huh, weird. Mr. Homework was the only one to die, and only because someone tossed a grenade at him. Ms. Beginning survived an encounter with a minotaur without a scratch.
Mr. Replacement got wounded when a guy with an SMG squeezed into the hiding place and unloaded. This being a standard BlackOps SMG, failed to do any substantial damage. Agent Art hacked up the intruder, then dropped his empty acid pistol, and furiously ran out to kill another Syndicate security guy.
Surprise, mr. supersoldier.
Reinforcements have arrives, this time to our soldiers. Explosive light cannon rounds are VERY effective, provided you can hit from outside of the blast radius. Speaking of...
Ms. Beginning is safe, all thanks to Mr. Replacement's good aim. She hasn't been hurt by the explosion, but the minotaur is dead, as all of its kind should be.
Ms. Art has been blown up, but at least the scrubs are giving up and dropping their guns. The bad thing is, it has always been the big guys that were actually threatening.
Avenged. No more rocket launchers, please.
There's no minotaur here, what a surprise.
Let's talk about minotaurs for a while. We've killed one, and wounded that one at the beginning. I'm gonna give the game the benefit of doubt and assume that one is dead by now. What about the last one? Are we about to get ambushed by a minotaur in the labyrinth of Guy Fieri HQ? Again?
This is definitely the last enemy. I think it's stuck, but I'm not waiting around to see. Mr. Drama axed it a question or two and...
The battle was so intense we've only recovered a single dead minotaur.
Again only promising-yet-not-important soldiers have been killed. I don't have to worry about assigning the correct honorific to their names now! It's a win-win situation, suck it, Syndicate!
The game is exerting pressure? How about I retaliate with the same? This may not be the Syndicate HQ, but Red Dawn is the second closest thing if you think about it hard enough. Those guys use bio-enhancement, and they're so tough they wear T-shirts in Greenland and Siberia.
We got three lads in the first turn just to keep them from shooting at us when we're still huddled together in the plane. Getting out in the first turn on this mission would be suicide.
I've focused on a cluster of guys to the south, but I've completely ignored Red Ops snipers on the other side of the ravine. This might end badly, or at least painfully.
Maybe I should talk about the map itself. It's a barren glacier with no cover whatsoever. There's a huge chasm cutting a part of the map off, and a small wooden bridge connecting the parts. The map is also peppered with small shelters, most of which, if not all, have stairways down to the HQ proper. The chasm has entrances to the base too.
The HQ is a series of tunnels and rooms filled with dangerous russian street thugs juiced up on Krokodil.
Tactical grenade launchers were a good investment. Mr. Enquiry has shot an aimed, killing a soldier, then a quick snap, killing another soldier and a lad, plus destroying a wall. At least nobody will try to hide in there now.
I was wondering how much use the HMG will use in this mission. It doesn't do well in a maze of unbreakable walls, but when there's no cover or the walls are made of mere bricks, there's no stopping Mr. Hatkat's volleys.
That's what I'm talking about. Mr. Hatkat did NOT have a line of sight on this lad; he had to break through a wall to get to him, and he did.
Nobody in sight. X-Com has officially taken over this base, whether its inhabitants agree with that or not. We've got so far, and there's no turning back. Well, unless something goes horribly wrong, that is.
Mr. Chest! Right, high-ranking Red Dawn grunts are very grenade-happy, and they're coming from underground from all sides.
I have no Idea how Mr. Drama managed to get that shot in. The grenade flew through the door and a hole in the wall and hit directly. I fully expected the game to give me "can't make that arc" message.
Couldn't get a good screencap. Oh well, Mr. Hatkat machinegunned a coordinator. It took like five bullets to bring the terminator guy down.
Shit! Mr. Gene is not coming back to the base with us.
This was a good rocket! Three or four guys taken down in one fell swoop. Or rather the good part was that there was no need for a swoop. Maybe the rocket swooped? What does it even mean?
Uh-oh, we've lost somebody important. The game wasn't nice enough to show me who that was. Mr. Silly had to heal up Ms. Opinion, and if she survives the enemy turn, she's running to the Drive-in & Dive at once.
At least Mr. Hatkat managed to kill another coordinator. Without their leaders, Red Dawn will be less coordinated, and maybe at least the chumps will make the mission easier for us by dropping their goddamn guns.
We need to get Mr. Silly to safety! Ms. Opinion is dead, but that's not important right now! Goddamn cheap grenades.
Madame Abandonne was doing the medic duty in this mission, but that's okay, because she's been doing tremendous work.
Those assholes somehow managed to grenade her too. I'm glad I haven't had her drop Mr. Silly, or else our top soldier would have been dead.
A VERY risky maneuver. I had three agents drop down the chasm to kill the third coordinator. Those bastards are closer to Syndicate supersoldiers than to any other cult elite.
A... a fourth coordinator? Come the fuck on! I really do hope this is the last one, so the rest just surrenders.
Mr. Hatkat and HMG are coming to the rescue! Now if it turn out there's more of those guys, I'll be seriously pissed.
Good thing I had Madame Abandonne stay in the plane with Mr. Silly. Mr. Silly became overstunned and needed to be stimmed or else he'd have been beaned big time.
Finally. Everyone was bleeding and running low on ammo, a lot of our stuf has been blown up inside of the plane, and there was the HQ to explore and get slaughtered in. Fortunately we managed to wait it out.
This mission has made our soldiers into MEN, even the women. Mr. Silly is alive against all odds.
Goodnight, sweet soldiers. Again, they were promising, but not exactly supersoldiers.
The UAC pistol is for killing zombiemen, imps, and if a chainsaw isn't available, also pinkies. Wait, no. It's a strong pistol that excels at snap shots. It's aimed shot leaves much to be desired, however. Its main thing seems to be the fact that it works in space.
New rookies. I know Mr. X desn't follow the theme, but I need to capitalize on this Resident Evil 2 thing before it dies down. And Mr. T is just a cool dude overall, so why not reference him.
The missile silos in both bases are done too. I wonder if they'll help with the Syndicate raids at all.
Assassination? How about no? We were forced to take rookies to this oh-so-important mission, but I have trust in them. Mr. Dingo has already killed a man using his flame glove.
Ms. Relationship has been killed by a supersoldier who's hit with all of his reaction shots. We blasted him with a grenade so he doesn't think he can just go around murdering people.
Here I was hoping there would be no minotaurs.
The council woman almost got 'naded. We've naded some supersoldiers in retaliation, blasted a minptaur, and shot a bunch of regular guards.
That was Mr. Growth. Now he's just a handful of ashes. We need to get that rocket launcher guy, but he's not even in our sight range.
Two minotaurs killed, hopefuly none to go.
There's just too many! I had to savescum out of this mission. Unless we have super-explosionproof armors and guns that can reliably kill a supersoldier in fifteen hits, we can't save a council member from the Syndicate.
The council member has been assassinated, but we've got a consolation prize - an actual flight simulator so that our soldiers don't have to tain by playing German plane sims.
All those 12 scientists have to get us fighter plane procurement research done.
So it's the Syndicate that was after the Zamboni outbreak in Team Magma lab. And they outsourced the sabotage service to Cyberweb. We have already questioned so many Syndicate security officers and scientists; we shouldn't have any problems extracting more info.
Guys, It's him! Daddy X himself! He's weak, can't shoot, but stabs well. Too bad a soldier who has 22 strength isn't a prime stabber material.
Black moon, cat furry infestation. I've been told there would be a psychic alpha around, which makes me rather nervous. I had all agents who had live grenades in their hands hide those into quick draw slots so they don't drop them when a cat furry tickles their brains.
You've heard of Korean roof snipers, now prepare for Sri-Lankan roof furries.
The yiffmeister himself has appeared. He's got an ability to brainwash our soldiers with his seductive gaze. We can't allow that to happen, but capturing an alpha live would be good for business.
Mr. Trade Wind got him, but not before some idiots decided it would be a fantastic idea to reaction fire with explosives. Mr. Dingo will have to go there to heal, while Mr. Hatkat will be providing covering fire.
Possibly the last one. That's why I don't like those kinds of maps; a lot of crummy buildings and fences, tiny windows that are hard to shoot through.
That wasn't the last cat at all.
Neither was this one.
Jesus Christ, where are they all hiding? Motion scanner would have been useless because of all those civilians, so all that's left is waiting for the bug hunt mode to activate.
Or not. I was certain we'd lose Mr. Trade Wind, but in the end the furries will lose another yiffmaster.
A full clip of stun darts was not enough. Mr. T had to intervene and blow the whole building up with a rocket launcher. The cat is still alive, and there are still more of its kind on the map.
Let me guess, there's no actual entrance to that corner of the map, so we'll have to make an entrance. That's how it usually is on those maps.
Now that's what I call breaking and entering!
The last cato. We're bagging it and going back home.
Oh yeah, they attack through windows. Mr. Idea was ripped apart, but he had a grenade in his pocket, so he almost took Ms. Buyer with him.
Could have been better, could have been worse. We have recovered not one but two alpha werecats.
Young Shen has immediately informed us that new guns are available. Unfortunately that means multi-launcher and heavy sniper rifle, not BFG 9000. A Syndicate security captain can tell us about cooler guns.
MONATERS! Radscorpion infestation seems to show up every time I even think about training missions. This time it's a small one.
Time to poke the Hybrid Network! They're peacefuly farming veggies that their mutant digestive systems will be able to handle, but we can't allow that. X-Com has a reputation for raiding farms for lesser reasons.
Hey, it's recolored Academy drones! And the old, hideous hybrid sprites!
They really should just yoink Reticulan hybrid sprites from XPiratez like they did with
hybrid soldiers. Those look way more crisp and way less crusty.
The hybrids aren't very dangerous on their own. The chem-pistol guy got stunned, the two hybrids with hunting rifles weren't so lucky.
The drones are cyberdiscs lite. Their defensive capabilities are impressive, but Arasaka can pierce their armor.
Welp, Ainsley Harriott HQ hadn't lost a soldier for a long time. Mr. Grain got zapped by a drone that we couldn't destroy in one turn.
The good thing about drones is that they're not particularly strong or accurate. And both are down at the moment.
Two hybrid shotgunners who should be easy to hit now that we've wrecked the building. One got shot with Arasaka, the other one with a dart rifle.
The last hybrid has passed out when we minigunned him. We've also found a few chempistols that we could probably use agains some of the more problematic enemies we face.
Syndicate security squads actually means Syndicate death squads. Just like the fabled Coca-Cola death squads. We're Pepsi to their Coca-Cola, in case you were wondering.
The captains are pretty much the same as grunts in terms of armor. Maybe they're better at shooting, but I can't see anything about that.
I want a zamboni implant virus examined, and a heavy sniper rifle designed. Both will lead to cool stuff, no doubt about this.
A Syndicate scientist has told us about a woman with huge badonkers and alien MIND BULLETS. Hollywood knew about her being a hybrid, but since she slept with the right people, nobody has ever found out until now.
An upgrade for our magnums. It's faster, more accurate, just a bit heavier. Kinda like the BlackOps magnum was to the standard magnum. We're gonna need advanced robotics if we wanna manufacture those.
A sectoid soldier has told us about his favorite pastime - being brain-tickled, but in a good way. Kinky bastard.
We're at a point where putting two or three scientists on a research topic isn't doing it anymore. I've redistributed the nerds around the research I've already started.
We've learned how to identify UFOs. Are they still UFOs after they get identified, or do they become IFOs? If we identify them wrong, do they become MFOs?
There's a mission with Team Magma auto-tanks, but I'm not gonna do it. I want laser before engaging anything mechanical.
Cult of Apocalypse missions are crazy. I'll show you just how much.
Is this it? Just a woman with a baseball bat?
No, but it's not much worse. Two troglodytes with MAC-10, and a behatted person with a UAC rifle. The Cult of Apocalypse isn't as organized as other cults, but usually they make up for it in sheer numbers. We're pretty much killing civilians here.
Oh look, a hooker from XPiratez. In these missions you need to search every nook and cranny, because there is supposed to be an excessive number of poorly equipped enemies. With our tech level, even a guy with a baseball bat may be dangerous if we're unlucky.
We've beaten up a hoe. She had a UAC SMG, and was actually a Pinky Devil, whatever that means.
Another enemy, a really buff dude. He's a luchador, but instead of trying to suplex us, he was trying to chop us up with a katana. A few small darts, then an SMG bullet, and he's no threat anymore.
Ow, I have no idea what happened; I was tabbed out because the enemy turn lasts so long. Looks like a grenade, and I don't think anyone besides that cave girl got seriously hurt.
That might have acually been a UAC rocket launcher. You know, the kind that efficiently disposes of cyberdemons. Even a crackhead can do al lot of damage with that.
You know, right now it's hard for me to look at the sprites and not think about what they represent in XPiratez. This guy is a drifter, pinky devils are hoes, luchadores are brutes, some other guys are half-ubers, cavegirls are smoothies, cavemen are slave soldiers wearing tunics, other dudes are highwaymen... I'll probably end up calling them by their XPiratez names.
It was just a run-of-the-mill shootout, nothing notable to document. Got a bunch of UAC weapons, and of course captured enemies. Most are going straight to jail, but we'll keep one of each type for interrogation.
How come my visit didn't have any catastrophic repercussions? It's always Team Magma fucking up badly.
It's just a standard lab? Not the big underground one? That's good, very good even.
We can just wait here for them to get hit by our reaction fire, Great jub, Team Magma, at least this time you've given us an easy mission. It was just 105 points though.
Used soviet fighter planes. I'm pretty sure their mileage has been rolled back a few times, and some of them lack vital parts such as engines. Better than nothing, I guess. The problem? We still need to research them.
We have 25 nerds available right now, so it's gonna go like this:
-10 into MIG-31
-10 into the Skyraider
-2 into bone
-3 into bardiche
I know I should be working on improving combat effectiveness, not playing with human remains.
Oh, so that's how radars work. That explains a lot. Both bases need those.
Slow, two handed, and with not-so-perfect accuracy. Monstrous damage makes it rather useful for taking down heavily armored enemies. We can't buy them, so we need to keep killing those zamboni knights.
Cult of Apocalypse riots in India. This time they're fighting cops instead of council salvagers.
A big armored thug with TWO AXES. I gotta capture him and ask him how come his mom lets him have TWO AXES.
Even Han Solo has joined the rioting cult. He's not carrying his blaster, which is a clear indication that he didn't shoot first.
Can't see Two-Axe Mallone anywhere, so let's bomb his car. He'll drop to the ground crying, and we'll be able to arrest him easily.
Two-Axe Malone captured. He's just a regular ganger, whom I'm not sure we'll even recover.
So it's a swimming pool, huh? There's Two-Axe Malone's little brother, Two-Bat Malone in there. He can just open the door and kill Ms. Beginning, oh no!
Ms. Zultan just torn down wall down and killed the guy.
EZ. Yup, gangers really are just a kind of civilian, which means we already have an entry on them in UFOpedia. They're even worth $0.
Deep ones, as the common knowledge correctly points out, are vulnerable to Bon Jovi. We can learn how to play Living on a Prayer on a sonic pistol now.
To unlock some new guns, we need advanced robotics. Let's research that.
This is a very bad weapon with 40% base accuracy and a crappy modifier. Getting rid of it costs us 100 green ones.
Osirion was involved in that too? I guess if there's something they're useful for it's negotiation. Just by accident we learned that while Osirion is the Syndicate's bitch, the Cyberweb isn't.
I wonder what Team Magma will do to thank us... Oh, another message! Nerds, decypher it!
Heavy cannons, huh? I guess I did ask for more firepower. I could risk going against Team Magma tanks now, but the mission has timed out.
Turns out we can make smart magnums. They're not BlackOps product, so we have to manufacture them ourselves; that makes sense.
Despite the assassination, we're still doing fantastic. We're at $30M, so how about a third base? Maybe?
Oh, this one... It's best used by good snipers, which is understandable. A soldier with 100 accuracy fires at 105%, but a soldier with 85 accuracy only at 76%. Wait a moment, there's a 200% kneeling bonus. Yup, it's a good gun overall. A good shooter also has a great damage bonus to the already impressive power. Of course this, being an actual sniper rifle, needs some setting up before shooting. 80% TUs cost, ouch.
Our first interceptor. Too little too late, There's already a Syndicate plane flying around Guy Fieri HQ. Let's pray the missile defense system works. We have to research the vanilla interceptor next.
This gun is... eh, I don't even know. We should research ammo before passing a judgement, but that's for later.
Instead of telling us about minotaurs, a Syndicate scientist started rambling about some vague rumors about guy calling himself "The Shadowman". This is too ridiculous even for me.
One of the emerging subcultures. They're educated but incredibly dim-witted, which is why they condone veganism.
They also fight with those pieces of junk. Weak, inaccurate, and deals stun damage.
Let's research an alien laser rifle, so we don't look like primitives anymore.
A shitty bootleg crack that doesn't even work has made young people take care of themselves. Maybe the alien invasion isn't all that bad? Wait, someone uses this situation to grab those precious dollarinos! We can't allow some random asshole to get rich! We need to stop Storm trade as soon as possible!
A new mission type. It's one of the two I'm thinking about, but I'm not sure. We should do this, but there could be a Syndicate raid at any time now.
It's just teenage girls, nothing more; don't wory so much, Intel Lady.
FUCK!