Preliminary notes
Game settings :
- Difficulty : Legend. It will be my first time playing LW2 at that difficulty (played vanilla Legend once).
- No Ironman because i will reload if some LoS bug kills some guys (i'm fine with loosing someone if i make a mistake, i'm not fine with loosing someone to a bug) and occasionally if i attempt something really experimental for me (i'm not interested in starting all over but i want to be able to test new approaches). I'll try to play honestman at least.
- I have a couple of mods mostly QoL and UI. The important ones (with gameplay implications) :
- Peak from Concealment. This one really makes stealth much more enjoyable (and believable). It probably make stealth slightly easier but i disabled the "grace tiles".
- Free reload anytime and Reliable ever vigilant. I don't really understand why it doesn't work this way by default.
- Commander's Choice and LW2 A better AWC. Those 2 are special. I rarely use them but i will use them on a few soldiers from my pool to give them their correct class in case they show on Gatecrasher or i have to deploy them before i build the GTS and give them fitting AWC perks. Will mention when i use those.
- Ini edit to make all AWC perks visible but increase the minimal level to train them. This way i can plan soldiers progression but i won't have OP soldiers early with lucky draws either.
- Red Fog enabled for everyone. It makes a lot more sense to me, makes every hit point count and makes medics less useless.
- NCE enabled, but Hidden Potential disabled. I keep the "good" RNG (the one that gives you more options) and throw away the "bad" one (the one that makes a mess of your barrack)
I won't post a detailed write up of every mission, it would probably be pretty boring, just the "interesting" missions. I will however post a summary after every supply drop.
First supply drop
Right click and Show Image if it's too small. Gatecrasher : Not going into details, it went as smoothly as gatecrasher can go. Flawless and i didn't have to wasted corpses by using explosives. 3 soldiers from my pool decided to show-up.
- Amar "KB" Tan. If you've read the book, you know him. He never used any special weapon so he can be any class for me. He decided to be an Assault, works for me i'll spec him for Assault Rifle. He will be an officer if he lives long enough as he was in the book.
- Kathy Chitto. Looks like she's still hanging with Amar. She's a sniper of course so using commander's choice here. She has good aim so bonus point for her.
- Frida Klein. She's a veteran from my first LW2 campaign. She's been very useful as a snapshot sniper so gained a place in my pool. She was an Assault officer in my second campaign so she can be anything here. She decided to be a Sharpshooter once gain and since she has great mobility she's going to be a snapshotter like her first incarnation.
Immediately set everyone to Intel and started scanning with Avenger. I didn't built GTS this time, i learned from my previous campaign to not trust mission rewards for my crew so i'll keep my supplies and buy a Scientist and Engineer to start, then depending on rewards i'll by another one next drop cycle.
I quickly detected a mission to escort an Engineer that also rewarded me a PoI for the hunter's weapons. Then i detected a first Smash and Grab. I took a wound during that mission but it's OK. I switched to recruit while those missions were infiltrating and scanned for Black Market. Second batch of scan revealed another mission for an Engineer and a Jailbreak with 3 rebels to free. Another guy was wounded during that jailbreak but otherwise things went quite well.
I also did some research and excavation, contacted New India as it was size 6 and was pleasantly surprised to see it had only 1 Str and got the hunter's weapons PoI. My first haven is size 10 after the Jailbreak.
Op. Dead Man's Thunder
That mission was a bit special. Typical deployment for a Vehicle rescue, i spawn in one corner, the van is in the middle and the evac in the opposite corner I move to high ground on a building overseeing the street with the van, took me 2 turns to get there and i see a pod of 3 advent guys with an officer patrolling the streets. I try to get into position for an ambush on 3rd turn and notice a second pod (sectoid + trooper) so i decide to wait the next turn and see if i can avoid a double activation. A 3rd pod (sectoid + trooper) comes into vision and joins with the 3 advent guys while the first sectoid pod moves directly towards me without revealing anyone. On my turn i notice the RNF turned yellow and i can't move half of my squad because of the sectoid.
I took a better look at my soldiers : infiltration was long and i could bring 6 soldiers including a tech, needle grenadier and gunner. "Screw it", i put a few guys on OW, rocket the 5 clustered guys and hope the grenadier can kill a few of the wounded bad guys. Rookie grenade followed, then my grenadier and finally only the 2 sectoids and officer were left standing and i flahsbanged the officer and 1 sectoid and prayed. The flashbanged and wounded (i'm playing with Red Fog) guys missed me while the last sectoid panicked my tech, i would have preferred a mind control as i still had a flashbang grenade ready. I manged to finish 1 sectoid and the officer, banged the second sectoid and he missed my 6HP+ablative gunner on a flanking shot. He died the next turn while i opened the van for the VIP (and got a nice enemy protocol reward). After that i moved towards evac and noticed some sounds indicating the last patrol was coming from behind me. I never saw them and reached EVAC after disposing of the first RNF wave with a good OW turn without taking a wound.
Glad i had some heavy power on that mission
Barracks status
My barrack is once again dominated by ladies, works for me as they tend to survive longer. It doesn't help that i usually add ladies to my pool at the end of campaigns (since they survived unlike the guys )
I deployed several rookies to train on the field and now have 2 of every class except for Shinobi (i have 3 Sharpshooters due to Chitto being forced into that class). I'll Deploy Allessandra Nishimura on the next mission as i want her to be a Shinobi (she's also from the book). I have only 2 wounded soldiers so i think it's a solid start.
Another soldier from my pool was promoted during those early missions
- Erica Bell, a veteran from an early campaign. She was a Vanilla Grenadier and have since been a Gunner and Technical in LW2, looks like she likes heavy weapons. I deployed her when the classes available for promotion were the 3 heavy and Shinobi and she didn't disappoint me, she went Grenadier
- Jane Kelly. You know her, you love her (or not). She carried my first campaign, sometimes on her own, with a lucky Death from Above perk (as a Ranger with a weapon requiring only 1 action to shoot) and she's been present in every campaign. She's already been a sniper and a LW2 ranger twice. I'm still unsure what class i'll train her but she's a shooter at heart, unless she has good Psi offense, i'll see.
- Angela "Dying Angel" Robertson. She's a personal creation. Suffering from the aftereffects of careless experiments in a Gene Therapy Clinic where she came for a cure to her Diabetes, she's now much faster than before ... and she's dying. With nothing to loose, she's going to be an Assault always in the thick of battles. NCE didn't give her very high speed this time (previous campaign she started at 17) so i'll shamelessly cheat to give her Sprinter.