Part 4: Ground Assault, part oneJanuary 9th, and an X-Com craft sent to patrol over Siberia in response to an alarming rise in reported, though not detected as I have no radar coverage there yet, UFO activity, has happened across the first larger UFO we have encountered so far. Larger is, in this case, relative. It is still a small UFO, but compared to the one-man ships we have seen so far, this one is quite big.
Due to the time spent on station, the interceptor which is out on patrol is low on fuel and thus unable to take up the chase, but our Skyranger and the remaining alert interceptor are dispatched.
While my craft approach over the next several hours, the UFO lands, but takes off again before my Skyranger can get there. I order the interceptor to splash it, but its first shot misses and the UFO accelerates out of range. Bummer. I was looking forward to getting my hands on all the interesting technology that might be found in a UFO of this size, and now it is getting away clean.
Wait. What's that? It landed again? To my great surprise, the UFO didn't make a beeline for outer space, but instead, after a short dash at top speed, resumed a slow and meandering but generally westerly course, after a while of which it landed again. And far too close to my base for comfort, at that. Not good. Whatever happens, this UFO cannot be allowed to report back to base. That meandering course looked far too much like a search pattern for my liking, and given the second landing site, it may have just found what it was searching for.
There is a bright spot, at least. Literally so. Because the UFO meandered around for so long, all the way from Siberia to Turkey, the landing site is in daylight despite initial detection taking place in the dead of night. The moment the Skyranger catches up, we are go for a ground assault.
Mission briefing for a ground assault mission. Aborting is not an option in this case, though. The consequences if the aliens learn the location of my base this early on would be far beyond what I can hope to deal with. So we have one objective, and one objective only: To find the aliens, and to kill them. No other outcome is acceptable.
I have brought a bit more gear along this time, as you can see. As long as you can fit it without sacrificing other items, it never hurts to bring along anything you think you might need. Anything that proves unneeded can just be left on the floor of the Skyranger while your agents go about their business, saving them from the extra encumbrance. Extra ammunition can also be stored in the Skyranger this way. Not really necessary for pistols and the like, but rockets are huge and, depending on the mission, you might want to keep a pile of extras at hand if you expect to need the firepower.
Speaking of rockets, it seems that I forgot to load the heavy rockets, so I have only one incendiary round per launcher. Oops. At least that isn't likely to make much of a difference in this mission, and if I find I do need to blow things up, my tank still carries eight rockets packed with high explosives.
As it happens, because day broke during the chase, I don't need the electro-flares. The two laser pistols go to my point men, Teal'c and Carter, as they are the first to follow the tank out of the Skyranger and the most likely to need something that can drop an alien fast. The nerfed rocket launchers go to O'Neill and Aeryn about midways down the line, so I don't risk losing them to a lucky alien the moment I set foot outside, but still have them close by should I need them. With more rocket launchers to go round, I might want my point men equipped with them as well so they could more easily deal with any immediate threats, but with only two available, they are not to be risked lightly.
All in all, my team is well equipped for the job. So let's get to it, then.
As seen here, the Skyranger is packed to capacity, with the tank closest to the exit ramp. This is a good thing. Being first off the ramp also means being target practice for any aliens lying in ambush, and we definitely want some armour to absorb the damage from any hits. So, tank.
You can also see that the tank takes up four squares. Hardly surprising given that it is, well, a tank, but it does mean that I have given up four agents' worth of capacity in order to bring the one tank. I consider it a worthwhile trade.
The tank rolls down the ramp and immediately spots an enemy. Different kind of alien this time - These guys are called Floaters. They're bigger than the Sectoids, but their stats aren't much better - though they do have one major advantage which I will talk about later. In this case, the fact that they are bigger is a great help, and Sectoids are short enough to hide in fields and the tank might not have spotted one in this position. But this isn't a Sectoid, and spotted it was. This guy doesn't look like he is in a position to use reaction fire against anyone -on- the ramp, as he is facing south instead of south-west, but he is sure to react the moment anyone fires on him if the first shot doesn't kill.
I could take him with the tank right now. Easily. But I have a couple of good reasons not to do so. First, tanks do not gain stats. Ever. So any kill I make with them is effectively wasted, as far as developing my agents is concerned, so I want to avoid it where possible. Second, rockets are kinda expensive, and I don't want to waste them if it isn't an emergency. And third, if I spent the tank's time units on killing enemies, it won't have any left for scouting. And since clearing a perimiter around the landing zone is important, to say the least, and I have plenty agents in the Skyranger who can take the shot instead of the tank, I would really prefer to keep the tank on scout duty.
The first and second reason above also touches upon the reason I picked a tank/rocket over a tank/cannon. To me, tanks are mainly a scouting tool. In the early game, they are noticably faster than even the best starting agent, and they are heavily armoured to boot so they have a better chance of surviving on point duty. And since they don't gain stats, if I lose one it's only a matter of money to replace it - no time investment will be lost.
As such, if I do end up using a tank to fight, the **** has most definitely hit the fan and I will be needing every scrap of firepower I can find. And in that situation, I expect rockets to prove a lot more useful than a mid-range cannon.
So, to get back to the mission, I want an agent to make the kill, not the tank. But there is still the matter of the alien's reaction shots to contend with.
The above image shows the stats of my tank. Note the heavy armour and high health and TUs, but low reactions. This is key to what I am going to do next. As mentioned, I need to somehow deal with the possibility of reaction shots from the alien I've found. Fortunately, there is a simple way to do that: Make it spend them. On my tank. The tank would have a pretty good chance of survival in that situation, unlike an agent, and with its TUs spent, the alien would be unable to respond to any agents who open fire on it afterwards.
I roll my tank eastwards off the side of the ramp, without firing at the alien.
With the low reactions of the tank, there was never really any doubt what would happen. The moment it enters the alien's line of sight, the hostile spins around and opens fire. Not once, not twice, but three times. And all three shots are on target. Fortunately the weapon it is holding is not of the heavy plasma variety we recovered an example of earlier, or even a tank would be hard-pressed to get through such a barrage, but instead what appears to be a pistol-like weapon. Even so, better check on the tank to see if it will still be functional in the rest of the mission.
Not too bad. Some health damage, but the heavy armour absorbed most of it. The damage has caused some degradation to the tank's fire control systems, and damaged the left-side armour a bit, but all in all the three hits did only minor damage, and the tank is still functional.
Note the 'Fatal Wounds' counter under the health bar. For agents, this represents continued bleeding after the initial attack, and they lose one health point per wound for every combat round that passes, until treated with a medikit. Tanks, however, do not bleed, which is another advantage they have over agents when placing them into the line of fire.
Now compare the damage done to the tank with the stats of Carter, here, and imagine what would have happened had she taken the tank's place. The tank has seventy-five side armour, which is subtracted from the damage of each and every shot that hits it, and yet lost twenty-two of its ninety health points during the attack.
Carter, wearing standard X-Com issue kevlar-reinforced coveralls, has only strength eight side armour, and a measly thirty-five health points at full strength. It may very well be that even a single shot would have been enough to reduce her to ashes, and certainly all three would have done so no matter how lucky she might have been.
Simply put, X-Com agents do not respond well to plasma fire. Leave that to the tanks.
Having deliberately provoked the first alien's reaction fire, the tank now rolls south to get a visual of the area around the front of the Skyranger, and in doing so manages to spot a second alien. Both aliens are visible as bright blue dots in the map shows above, the first one north-east of the exit ramp, and the second south-east and somewhat further away.
From the map, is is also clear that my landing site in this mission is far better than last time. Only one house is nearby, and even that is still a little distance away, with the rest of the immediate surroundings being relatively flat and unobstructed. This means I can establish a secure perimeter for disembarkation without too much trouble... as long as I can deal with these two aliens before they get a chance to act, at any rate.
Carter, being the nearest agent as well as equipped with a laser pistol, gets the job of making sure the first alien won't bother us any further. I move her out and, in a moment of optimism, move her a couple of steps closer to the alien than strictly needed in order to fit them both on-screen at the same time. She still has plenty TUs left, though, enough for both an auto shot (three rapid fire shots in a row) and a snap shot. That alien is as good as dead.
She leads with the auto shot, on the basis that the alien is likely to take at least two hits to kill, and if two of the three rounds from the auto shot are on target, she would still have the snap shot in reserve for any further aliens that might show up.
It seems she has gotten used to the new laser pistol, and two of the three shots actually strike the target. All good. Except... the target is still standing. Time for the snap shot, then.
In the image shown here, you can see all the firing options available to the laser pistol, along with the TU costs and the expected accuracy. As I have mentioned earlier, pistols really aren't great long range weapons, and this is clear from the accuracy ratings. By rights, we were quite lucky to have two of the three rounds from the auto shot hit the target, given the low accuracy of 17%. And with the slightly-higher-but-still-low snap shot accuracy of 25%, we'll need some luck for that to hit, too.
The relatively short distance to the target does help with accuracy though, as the percentage listed here is for a perfect shot - even a non-perfect shot can still strike the target and do damage, and the chance of this happening is greater the closer you are to the target. Similarly, a complete miss may in some cases go right by the target only to hit a different target nearby. Friendly or hostile. So large groups of enemies means you have a decent chance of hitting -some- enemy, even if you miss the target you are aiming at. On the other hand, shooting at an enemy while one of your own agents is standing nearby means you might well hit your own agent in case of a miss.
The throw option shown here is mostly useless for something like a laser pistol. You can't hurt aliens by hurling your pistol at them, even if you have the option. But in certain very specific situations it still has a place, and I will get back to that should one ever arise.
Carter takes the snap shot and, having used up all her luck on the first attempt, misses the target. The holes now visible in the field are the result of the two missed shots - The laser pistol is fairly powerful compared to standard projectile weapons, and when it hits something it generally leaves a mark.
Because of this, the laser pistol - and other laser weapons, though mainly the laser rifle - is very handy for breaking through things like fences, hedges, walls and other obstacles that might impede you. X-Com has really good insurance and very scary lawyers, so the owners of the farm we're on won't complain about any damage we cause.
Besides simply going through obstacles instead of going the long way around, the ability to break down walls also has another use: Ambushing the ambusher. Alies love to hide out inside buildings and watching the door, waiting to fire a barrage of reaction fire at any unsuspecting X-Com agent who might enter. Breaking through a wall and attacking the hidden alien from behind is a much more pleasant option.
Of course, some walls are stronger than others. The hardened outer walls of a UFO, for example, being designed to survive atmospheric reentry, will shrug off laser rounds as if they were little more than leaves blowing against the walls in autumn. But then, lasers are not the most powerful weapons available.
To finish the job, I move out Zoe to take up position near Carter, and she manages to drop the Floater with two well-placed snap shots from her standard pistol. Given that the thing managed to stay upright after taking two laser pistol shots, I'm glad I managed to bring two of those on the mission. Who knows how many shots it might have taken if I had to whittle it down with only pistols. In most cases I wouldn't mind it taking extra shots to kill, but establishing the initial perimeter is something of a special case. Any hostiles there need to go down, and it can't happen fast enough.
Speaking of which, we still have the second alien to deal with, and this one still has reaction fire available should I give it the chance. And my tank doesn't have the time units left to pull the same trick on this alien as we did on the first. But there is another way.
The second alien is further away than the first, and as I have mentioned earlier, the field of vision for any given unit in daylight is limited to twenty squares in a ninety-degree forward angle. And units can only react against targets within their field of vision. Directed shots, however, can be taken against any unit within line of sight, which is -not- the same as the field of vision. Line of sight is only limited by any obstructions in the way. So I move Teal'c into a position where he is out of the alien's field of vision even if it spins to face him, yet still has it within line of sight. Essentially, the tank is acting as a spotter and would indeed be within the alien's field of vision should it spin around, but since it is Teal'c and not the tank that will be taking the shots, the alien will not be returning fire at all.
In the map above, you can see Teal'c in his firing position next to the Skyranger's landing gear, with a clear line of sight to the alien in the bottom-right of the map, right at the edge of the tank's field of vision. The corpse of the first alien is visible near the top of the map as a bright plus sign, with Carter (top) and Zoe (bottom) just east of the exit ramp, and the laser damage to the field is also apparent.
Teal'c opens fire with his laser pistol, and manages to drop the second Floater with two volleys of auto fire. As if there was ever any doubt. It's Teal'c. It's what he does.
This is a pretty good point to end the turn. The immediate area is cleared of any aliens, only two agents are exposed (Teal'c is in decent cover behind the landing gear), and the tank is in a forward position and likely to attract most of the fire should an alien be close enough to attack the landing zone. Before I finish, though, I walk my remaining agents to the back of the Skyranger so they will be able to exit with more TUs remaining on the next turn. But, as a precaution to keep them safe in case an alien should decide to get cute with a grenade, I keep them inside instead of walking them down the ramp. Just in case.
And with that, I end the turn.
That got pretty long, and that was only turn one, so I'll end it here and continue with turn two later. Besides, watching TV has taught me that cliffhangers are the way to go.
[Edit] Images lvlshotted.
