[SpardaSon21]

I'll miss going out into the field and shooting aliens while I'm busy lying in the hospital as my body tries to regrow my entire skin.

[Scourge of Ages]

Did somebody say B team? Hoo-ah.

[deathfun]

Gotta love that

At least no one died. That's an impressive little tidbit

[TrashMan]

Did somebody say B team? Hoo-ah.

Don't you mean the A-Team?
I wants me some promotions... (What class am I anyway?)

[NGTM-1R]

Don't you mean the A-Team?
I wants me some promotions... (What class am I anyway?)

With no kills, you're still a Rookie and unclassed. We'll be working on that. I make a point to try and have backup people because of missions like this.

[FireSpawn]

So who's in the B-Squad? Does this mean that I will soon be using my face as a bullet shield?

[NGTM-1R]

So who's in the B-Squad? Does this mean that I will soon be using my face as a bullet shield?

At the moment, anyone below the rank of Sergeant from the list, plus a few other rookies who haven't yet acquired a name due to lack of field deployment.

[Colonol Dekker]

I call Bravo lead!!

[Gortef]

Damn... I kicked butt. But the best thing is that we all came back alive from those two missions, though the second one got pretty close.

Hospital stays for everyone except Gortef! (Who got promoted, lemme know know what lieutenant-level sniper skill you want plz Gortef.) StarSlayer is in for 14 days, The E for 13, Sparda for 11, and IronBeer for 8.

Battle Scanner please. I think that the more we see the better.

[StarSlayer]

It's too bad the snipers where injured as well.  I found it a lot easier to 'blood' the rookies when their are a pair of dead eyes ready to take a xeno's head off if things go sideways. 

[NGTM-1R]

Okay, so, housekeeping!

HLPX-COM Personnel

Soldiers
Lieutenant "Crit Miss" StarSlayer, 5 missions, 10 kills. Assault.
Lieutenant The E, 1 mission, 0 kills. Heavy.
Lieutenant "Plink" Gortef, 2 missions, 5 kills
Sergeant SpardaSon21, 3 missions, 4 kills. Sniper.
Sergeant IronBeer, 3 missions, 2 kills. Assault.
Corporal CommanderDJ, 3 missions, 5 kills. Support.
Squaddie KyadCK, 1 mission, 3 kills. Heavy.
Squaddie Scourge of Ages, 1 mission, 2 kills. Support.
Rookie Kobrar44, 1 mission, 0 kills.
Rookie Trashman, 1 mission, 0 kills.

Pilots
Scotty, Raven-1
Phantom Hoover, Raven-2
crizza, Skyranger-1

Base Personnel
Droid803, Control
Spoon, SHIV Ops

KIA
Squaddie esarai, 2 missions, 1 kill. Support. Deceased 3/9/2015.


And now, gear.

DJ is demonstrating the equippage screen for us. Everyone say hi to DJ.

As you can see there are four categories of gear that can be changed out. Armor, Primary Weapon, Secondary Weapon, and Inventory Slot.

Armor is armor. You probably guessed this. It gives you bonus HP above your own natural amount. If only the bonus HP is lost, you're not counted as wounded come mission end. Our current Kevlar suits don't count for much against plasma, so we're not getting much out of them. But I'm not letting you all run around naked, so you will take your 1 HP bonus and you will like it.

Primary weapon is your gun. Rookies and supports carry assault rifles. Snipers carry sniper weapons. Heavies carry LMGs. Assaults have a shotgun. (Though they can also use rifle-type weaponry from the laser and plasma lines.)

Secondary weapon is a pistol, of whatever pistol variety we have handy. Unless you're a Heavy, in which case your secondary weapon is a goddamn rocket launcher because that's how Heavies roll.

And lastly inventory slot! DJ is currently showing off our inventory options. We have the ever-reliable though kinda low-damage Frag Grenade, the magical mystery S.C.O.P.E., the Arc Thrower taser, and the Medikit. (Also there's a nanofiber underlay for the armor of which I've made zero, because it's only a second bonus HP.)

Grenades are grenades. Pull pin, throw grenade (not pin, this is important), explosion, hurt enemies. Yay. You get handed grenades in the event of rookiehood (they're good for first kills) or if there's just nothing else you could use better. You only get one grenade per mission, unless you have the Heavy perk that lets you carry two, but a Heavy with two grenades is mucking about because they should have the next piece of gear in their inventory slot.

The S.C.O.P.E. is, well, a scope. It grants a +10 bonus to your Aim stat meaning you shoot people in the face better. I tend to hand them out to heavies, who have not-great Aim, people who have not-great Aim for other reasons, and Snipers, because Snipers have really really good Aim but they never get close enough to the enemy to use any of the other gear profitably. S.C.O.P.E. is also upgradable to improve Aim bonus and provide an increased chance of a critical hit.

The Arc Thrower is a taser. You saw them in action last mission. They are for the stunning of aliens. At 1 HP they have a 90% chance to stun, stepping down to 80% at 2 HP and 70% at 3 HP. If the alien has more than 3 HP, however, their chance to stun drops off much faster. It can be upgraded to provide better tasing, and also to do other things involving equipment we don't have yet. As it is already the job of Assaults to close with the enemy, I usually end up giving them out to Assaults, but I've also been known to hand them out to Heavies when I'm out of S.C.O.P.E. to give them. Really you could justify giving them to anybody but a Sniper (who should not be that close to the bad guys).

And lastly, the Medikit. Medikits heal 4 HP and are single-use, unless you have the Support perk that lets you use it three times. They can also stabilize critically injured soldiers (or revive them with the right perk) and cure poison. Holding a Medikit renders you immune to poison automatically, too. Via research they can be upgraded to do more cool stuff, like improved healing amounts. Medikits can be used by anyone, but only Supports get the perks related to them, so they're usually handed out to Supports.

Next up: A mission with some of the rookies.

[deathfun]

This is seriously making me want to play alongside with you but that'd just be copying you D:


As for the SCOPE, I've always put mine on the snipers (specially lower ranked ones)

[NGTM-1R]

Operation Purple Druid
Responding to Abduction Attempt
Fortleza, Brazil
Present: StarSlayer, SpardaSon21, Gortef, Commander Red Nammoc DJ, Trashman

It was a dark and stormy night. I'm not even joking here. It's raining. Everyone's wading in water up to the ankles because the storm drains are overwhelmed. We've got lightning flashes and thunder in the distance, and the wind is whistling across anything that could actually make it whistle. Conditions are terrible. Frankly the fact the aliens WANT to fight in this is baffling, but they do, so we're going to kill them all.


So DJ steps up to the plate because this alien, the only one we've encountered, is dumb and gave him a shot without cover interference. 78% hit chance, 60% crit chance, practical a free-

-oh **** me. He hit for 1 HP. DICE GODS, WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME?

Trashman also has a shot at 50/10 and connects, killing the alien. Congrats Trash, you're not a rookie anymore. We'll see what you become when the mission is over.


A Sectoid charges out of the darkness to see what happened to his buddy, and is shot by StarSlayer. Not a kill, but eh, one more hit. I'm sure DJ can finish them off.


And then they run off into the darkness again because oh my god it's HLPX-COM and they shot me!


It runs back out again next turn and Trashman guns it down while Sparda blows his shot. Okay, so the rookie is showing up everyone in this mission. Why not?


And JESUS CHRIST ON A POGO STICK! Five hostiles at once! Trash, watch what you find!


Three people take reaction shots as the aliens run for cover, but nobody hits. After the aliens have scattered only one is still visible. Trash himself has a thirty-percent chance so he goes overwatch to keep it in place, since aliens are terrified of overwatch.


He's shot at for his troubles, but they miss.


Sparda removes the alien on a 56/55 shot, using his Headshot perk.


And then all hell breaks loose as the Sectoids charge on both flanks, firing as they come. Nobody is hit, but the car Trashman is taking cover behind is about to explode into tiny pieces so he's going to have to move. Also, the truck DJ is using for cover has no less than three of them sheltering on the side he's not covering (and I missed screenshoting them as they moved there), so he's gonna need to move too before he gets flanked.





Gortef starts eliminating the left side of the pincer, with the guy who's furthest out on the flank.


Trashman, despite a 70/60 hit/crit chance, is slapped by the Dice Gods. (Twice, as on the next turn he misses his shot entirely despite the 70/60.)


DJ is missed by one alien, who hits the car lighting it up, returns fire and also misses, and then is shot by a second alien. He has to reposition.




The aliens continue trying to press forward. Sparda and Gortef teach this one why he shouldn't.


And then, without DJ positioned to pin them down to their spots, they push up to the edge of the truck, peek around...and shoot Trashman in the back for a 6 HP critical, killing him. Dammit.


StarSlayer is not having any of this **** and double-shots. The Dice Gods attempt to interfere, but that's why we have two rounds.



Another alien moves up to the position of the one that StarSlayer killed. DJ is fired upon but missed, and returns fire once more. Right into the alien's left eye socket, killing it. You're a Sergeant now DJ. I hope you live for your promotion to go into effect, because this mission hasn't been good about that.


Finally, StarSlayer moves up and uses doubleshot again, once more destroying the alien despite the attempted interference of the Dice Gods. At this point I'm considering changing the nickname again. Maybe "Nay Theist".



DJ uses the Medikit I gave him. On himself, because you can actually do that, and I'm not in the mood to lose the other lowbie on this mission.


Another Sectoid runs forward, and takes cover in a position that leaves it completely exposed to Gortef's fire. Seriously, check this: 100/100 hit/crit. You can guess what happens when I take the shot. (No, it's not a 1 HP hit, or I would have thrown my computer across the room.)


I think there's only one left. It shot DJ as he moved out to find it, but seeing as it's the only alien left, I'm going to try to capture it. Not because I need to capture a Sectoid, but because I want its plasma pistol.


It shoots DJ again before StarSlayer gets close enough to stun.


Even at a 90% stun chance, the stun fails. Fortunately, Sparda's got StarSlayer's back and takes the alien down hard instead.


Mission complete, though the secondary objective of easing in some of our less-talented troopers didn't go so well. StarSlayer is now a Captain Assault, Sparda a Lieutenant Sniper, and DJ a Sergeant Support. Refer to the list back here and lemme know, folks.

(Once that's done, hopefully later tonight, we've got a UFO to assault.)

[SpardaSon21]

Give me Disabling Shot so I can screw up the enemy's ability to shoot back.

[deathfun]

Ever consider streaming this to twitch?

[NGTM-1R]

Ever consider streaming this to twitch?

Nope! Honestly it's not a terrible idea, but I like doing the text commentary. I might do both at some point, emphasis on might.

[CommanderDJ]

Poor Trashman. He was so eager.
But Field Medic for me please. More healing for everyone!

[MP-Ryan]

I'd feel sorry for TrashMan, but he died defending Earth, and let's face it, every time an HLP team member gets offed I get that much further from making coffee and typing reports and that much closer to killing alien scum

[deathfun]

Well, unless they've rockets to shoot at you

[TrashMan]

... Well frak. Can't I get a break?

Curious as to why you didn't use grenades?
I know they destroy weapon fragments, but when alines are hiding behind a car 1-2 grandes can kill the lot of them.

Well... I guess TrashMan mk2 reporting for duty.
Altough I fear I'll never see action again.