[NGTM-1R]

You could stun the civilians and then move them, while they're stunned, out of the way to keep them safe. Or just stun them period, as aliens don't recognize stunned civilians as targets and would have to grenade them to hurt them while they're stunned anyways. (Stunned is dead is stunned, as far as how you're tracked is concerned; it turns you into an item on the battlescape and items can't be shot with guns, only blown up with explosives.) It might also be necessary for simple crowd-control if they jam doors or passageways; on the Ascension Island mission TrashMan had to stun a civilian for blocking him from checking out the big south bunker. Of course there's a bug where if the civilians wake up after stunning they're counted as hostiles.

A similar bug applies if you mind-control civilians to make sure they don't charge into your lines of fire. Civilians don't actually count as a side, you see. There's a single-bit flag, 1 or 0, for side. Civilians don't have it. When a unit is mind-controlled, the bit comes into existence for a civilian, and when they fall out of mind control, the bit flips...so suddenly they count as aliens and you have to kill or stun them.

But there's no reason to ever interact with dead civilians.

[NGTM-1R]

We have an alien sub downed off on the Grand Banks people, saddle up!

At some point I'm just going to give the Barracuda pilots a license to destroy any ship they find dumping and blame it on the aliens.


Contact, finally, on Turn 3. Kill goes to TrashMan, who also spotted. Sectoids again.


Contact, we have the ship. It's damaged.


A single alien is encountered to the south, and let me tell you, Sectoids look stupid with these huge Sonic Cannon.

BloodEagle removes his cranium, which in any case was actually smaller than stock of his gun.

That was it. We've seen crews of seven or eight on these before, but apparently the two we killed and the two bodies we found were the entire crew. Odd. It's also possible, though exceedingly rare, for the entire UFO's crew to be killed on impact.


Xenowatch off Japan just received its Barracuda, so we're activating our reserve pilot, Dragon. It's not armed yet, unfortunately, but it will be soon. But mentioning Japan brings us to the bad news.

The government of Japan has attempted to sign a pact with the aliens. I say attempted, because once it came out what the Diet was trying to do, the country went nuts. Large portions of the military, including nearly the entire JMSDF, mutinied. The population is rioting in the streets after the Tokyo attack. While there are currently a number of JMSDF units crashing on our couch at Xenowatch, the aliens have effectively neutralized the country by provoking a civil war. They, and their funding, are out of the picture.

We have got our Transmission Resolvers up at both bases. Their first detect: A craft carrying “lobstermen” to the Mediterranean. Scotty brings it down off Port Said. Triton 1 is outbound now. (We still haven't replaced  all our Gausses, so this is going to be fun.)

Didn't take long to find the UFO.


And...what the hell are you, sir?


Okay people, take him down! One hit from MP-Ryan, no effect. Five hits from StarSlayer, still no effect. Seventh hit is to TrashMan. Alien drops. Jesus Christ on a pogo stick. Another one emerges from sub. IronBeer, the tank, and BloodEagle all engage him and hit with all their shots. One Sonic Cannon, three Gas Cannon, and one Gauss Rifle round later, the alien takes a badly aimed shot at Ironbeer and goes back inside the sub. And you want to know what's best?

The bastard who took seven Gauss rifle rounds isn't even dead!


He's really extra special not dead, too, as he got up the next turn and tried to kill IronBeer with his apparently fully functional claws. Fortunately IronBeer dodged it, and then didn't crap himself as nearly the entire rest of the squad opened fire on an alien he was standing next to; StarSlayer fired twice, MP-Ryan once, and BloodEagle twice. Of those StarSlayer struck home with both rounds and BloodEagle finished the thing when his second Sonic Cannon shot hit. Nine Gauss Rifle rounds and a Sonic Cannon shot. IronBeer understandably moves the hell away from the thing even if it's really dead now.


IronBeer opens the door and confronts a pair of aliens. His response is an “OH **** NO!” and he dives out of the way.


BloodEagle to the rescue; he drops one with a Sonic Cannon hit and reveals...jesus there's ANOTHER one.


MP-Ryan manages to spread some hits around between the two still standing and drops one with Gauss fire. BlueFlames takes four hits to get the last one to fall, though nobody's counting on either one staying down. And...mother of god, there's still one more!

It takes a crappily aimed shot at BloodEagle. He takes a couple of crappily aimed shots back. MP-Ryan sprays out six shots with his Gauss and hits once. StarSlayer adds a couple more. BlueFlames manages to miss all four of his shots.

And IronBeer? He finally kills it with two more Gauss hits. But we ain't done yet people! There's another behind the sub. IronBeer goes directly to the nuclear option: Sonic Pulsers.


It...did not work.


BlueFlames tosses another over the roof of the sub. Both landed and went off right at this guy's feet, then he moved in his own turn. They still didn't work.


IronBeer finally puts three Gauss rounds into the bastard which drop him...stunned. No death scream.


Mission Complete.

See those live aliens? I didn't stun any of them deliberately. They survived because they're stupid ridiculous tough killing unpossible death**** mcsoul****ter types.

IronBeer had a grenade out because I was going to nuke the inside of the alien sub and make sure I killed them all by blowing up their corpses. (Dead or unconscious thingies in both games count as objects, not units, and have no armor or HP. They are easily destroyed by explosions. Even unconscious. It's a good way to deal with dead aliens that might get up again.)

[BlueFlames]

This is why I wanted a Psi-Amp in the last campaign!  Aliens may come with tough carapaces, but they don't wear tinfoil hats!

In any case, if Xenowatch needs experienced personel to back up their incoming recruits, I'll volunteer for a transfer.

[StarSlayer]

Unfortunately one of the specimens did not make it to the lab.  It *may* have mysteriously found it's way into a boiling pot, then on a platter with butter and cocktail sauce.  It *may* have tasted better than Alaskan King.



A proposal to sell it on the exotic food black market and contracting to do a season of Deadliest Catch *may* have ended up in the HLPX-COM funding suggestion box.

Did I mention it *may* have been incredibly delicious?

[esarai]

Oh crap did my name get dropped from the enlistment roster?

Because that'd make me sad panda.

[NGTM-1R]

Checking.

Hmm, it must have. Oops. Added again. Ten people on the list will probably go to Xenowatch, assuming they don't get recruited to cover up losses from dealing with Lobstermen.

[NGTM-1R]

Well, Trash is dead. And Lobstermen mobbed the latest LZ. But by god we're going to kill them all, and they taste good with butter.

[TrashMan]

True Heroes never die!

The foul Xenos shall fall beneath the might of humanity.
Brothers, For the Emperor!

[MP-Ryan]

Cripes, my accuracy was in the toilet last mission.  I blame the distracting thoughts of lobster dinner...

[Spoon]

Well, Trash is dead.

oh noes
Took Karma long enough, probably got caught in a traffic jam?

[TrashMan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxZASSqP0h4

[Talon 1024]

I said a few pages back that I'd like to re-enlist...

[Scourge of Ages]

Nice work with the gauss there!

[IronBeer]

IronBeer opens the door and confronts a pair of aliens. His response is an “OH **** NO!” and he dives out of the way.

Hey, at least I didn't pull a Zacam there and managed to finish my line! Amazed I survived that mission ON POINT.

[NGTM-1R]

Okay, so, short bit. I've had some bad news so I'm not going to complete the FSC assault tonight.

So much like the emergency deployment of Gauss weaponry when the Jet Harpoon became too terrible to withstand, we've made an emergency issue of Sonic Cannon to give our troopers a better chance against Lobstermen.

Again with the dumping? This is the North Sea, actually fairly close to our base, where Scotty downed a cruiser. Cruisers aren't very impressive; they're really like Large Scouts from the First Alien War, and you'll recognize them as the manta rays or giant dicks, depending on which end you think goes first. Due to some kind of screwup, two of you didn't get weapons. Instead you're filming for Deadliest Catch 2040 and I can totally blame StarSlayer rather than myself.

This guy took three Sonic Cannon hits and he's not actually dead. Final shot to StarSlayer, but BlueFlames and TrashMan both scored hits.


Two hits. Got a kill out this one, as well, it goes to StarSlayer.


Mongoose arms himself off one of the dead aliens and the advance continues. Lobsterman on a hill. First hit to mxlm, killshot from The E. Mostly we're taking aimed shots, the Sonic Cannon lack an autofire feature, which is kinda crappy when you can't one-shot kill.


The last alien came out of the UFO, shot and killed TrashMan, and succumbed to return fire from The E, MP-Ryan, and Jack all in the same turn. Mission Complete. (I think XCOMUtil broke cruiser crew sizes in comparison to escorts rather than fixing the escort-survey ships swap...)

[NGTM-1R]

Then there was a landed fleet supply cruiser near Africa, so I sent the squad out, and they still haven't gotten a replacement for Trash in. We open the door and...crap. Two detects right off the bat.

There are actually three of them though only one is directly facing the Triton. Commendations to jg18 for having faked them out about the LZ. IronBeer and BloodEagle drop one, at least temporarily. BlueFlames actually put one down, though not dead, with a single shot. Jack, MP-Ryan, and Mongoose have to combine their fire to drop the last one, with the actual kill (this one was a kill!) going to Mongoose.



Goddammit, Turn 3 and we've got THREE MORE. jg18, I withdraw my commendations, you apparently faked them out by landing in the middle of them. Also if you landed ON any of them, you're cleaning them off the Triton. I don't have enough guns for this ****!


BloodEagle and IronBeer got this one, for good.


BlueFlames and The E, again for good.


Mongoose, StarSlayer, and Jack. It would have been just two, but StarSlayer missed. Also for good.


MP-Ryan, mxlm, kill with two hits.


Also, the Fleet Supply Cruiser? It's goddamn huge. Three levels, entrance on the top we can't use because of a current lack of a way to get up there, entry is actually on the second level rather than the first if I remember correctly. Sweeping in large enough teams for safety is going to be a *****.

It might actually be bigger than the Battleship of the first war.

Check this out. Portholes are for chumps, we're going to proceed at several thousand knots while underwater with actual open holes in the hull. Engineering sanity is for the weak! Crew safety is for morons!


Last guy outside the ship, I think. Of course, everyone derps out. IronBeer misses. Mongoose misses twice. Jack misses. StarSlayer hits...once. Not enough.

IronBeer hits it again next turn after it tried to chase after him. (Seriously it decided for some reason to spend all its TU on a charge, didn't fire.) Then he derps out. Jack misses. StarSlayer misses. Mongoose takes snaps, so two shots chance. It is unnecessary. First-round kill.

This is a Lobsterman without a gun. (Meaning he's probably a grenade fanatic, so we better kill him now.) The E and BlueFlames actually get the job done with two hits. (MP-Ryan missed.)

I should mention: Lobstermen have one of the most unique, and memorable, death screams in the X-COM games. It sounds like distorted whalesong.

This may be the second one we've spotted down on the second floor.

Actually scratch that, BlueFlames went for a shot and spotted the other one. (Dropped him, too, with one hit, though it's not dead.) mxlm goes wide for a shot under the concourse and locates ANOTHER one. He also drops it stunned with one shot.

Then the last one came up the lift, bringing it within line of sight and striking distance of the only person in the ship who hadn't yet fired: MP-Ryan. It goes down with a second hit in the face and no head.


We've got a single remaining hostile on the bottom level; IronBeer has shot them once with reaction fire but they're not dead yet. MP-Ryan, moving to attack them, has one of the stunned ones wake up and attack him; they miss and he kills it, then charges on to confront the other point-blank and kills them too.


I believe I mentioned there was a door on the top. Here it is. The Lobsterman is a victim of The E, though BlueFlames contributed a hit.

Another one, you can see it down in the corner there, was on the bridge when it went nuts and tried to use its drill on a console, then ran out and got shot in the chest by The E. Showing great presence of mind, he grabs his stun rod and brings the alien down alive on our turn.


Last one was still on the bridge, waving his claws around. Probably trying to take off. Well, he ain't doing that no more after getting shot in the front by The E and then finished with a back hit from BlueFlames.


Mission complete. Look at all this crap! The UFO Recovery Team is gonna be on-site for days.


Also before I forget, congrats to StarSlayer for being the first person to reach 70 TUs. Try not to die. We had a couple close calls; the tank got a bit shot up and one of the Lobstermen somehow fired almost sideways rather than hitting BlueFlames at three squares, plus MP-Ryan dodging three claw strikes in close combat and somehow getting the Sonic Cannon on target to kill his opponent. (Serious respect for that man, it'd be like trying to CQC with a bagpipe.)

[Madcat]

NGTM-1R, by now I assume your X-COM skills must have reached godlike level. How you manage to bring all of them through on this kind of mission is remarkable, to say the least.
And it seems The E hasn't lost a step either in his latest reincarnation. He must be out of bubblegum all the time.

[The E]

Reincarnation? Pah, same old dude!

[MP-Ryan]

Glad to see my vanguard-driven charge-melee skills are paying off in another environment too =)

[Mongoose]

At the risk of inevitably dying in the next mission, I'm actually holding my own this time around.  Sweet.