2nd nearly-Legendary campaign

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Psieye
Posts: 829
Joined: Thu Apr 06, 2017 12:27 am

2nd nearly-Legendary campaign

Post by Psieye »

Not Ironman
No Alien Hunters DLC

Mods:
- Commander's Choice
- Peek from Concealment (ExtraDetectionRange=0)
- LW2 Information Display

XComLW_AWCPack.ini tweaks:
- Removed Infighter from AWC perk possibilities
- ALWAYSSHOW = true

XComLW_Activities.ini tweaks:
- USE_DETECTION_FORCE_LEVEL_MODIFIERS[3] = true (extra 2% detect chance for 1st and 2nd supply drops)
- POLITICAL_PRISONERS_REBEL_REWARD_MIN=4 (from 3)
- POLITICAL_PRISONERS_REBEL_REWARD_MAX=4 (from 6)
- ProtectData, HighValuePrisoner, PoliticalPrisoners, Logistics: 10~12d (from 9~13d)


HighValuePrisoner still has the same 33% chance of offering a soldier (+PoI). The bread & butter GOps have a lowered reliance on RNG at the strategic layer. I still had to savescum the first few days as both missions didn't get detected until uselessly late. Those first missions are critical to getting a campaign off the ground and I'm not going through gatecrasher again just because the RNG threw a tantrum. Later missions getting missed is fine, but the first few are campaign-defining. I'll edit this OP with a Hall of Fame if this campaign gets long enough to grow heroes.
My three 8-man GOp squad Commander campaigns:
1st
2nd
3rd
Psieye
Posts: 829
Joined: Thu Apr 06, 2017 12:27 am

Re: 2nd nearly-Legendary campaign

Post by Psieye »

Gatecrasher wounded: 14d, 25d, 25d. One of those was an 18 Mob hero who took 2 graze shots (one from a Gunner) and was bleeding out. Everyone took risks to finish the mission before he died.

5AM Mar 4, HighValuePrisoner (Extract Engineer), 7d 3h, West Asia, Str 2, E.Light - 5-man, 3 rookies

11PM Mar 4, Prisoners, 7d 7h, West Asia, Str 2, E.Light - 5-man, 3 rookies

1AM Mar 5, switch West Asia to Recruit. Scan for BM.

2AM Mar 8, Research Complete: Res Comm (home region has 4 neighbours). Begin Mod Weapons.

Buy scientist for $120. Begin contact for East Asia (5 rebel).

7AM Mar 9, +1 to recruit pool

6PM Mar 10, Research Complete: Mod Weapons. Begin Basic Research.

9PM Mar 10 Switch West Asia to Intel.

--- HighValuePrisoner, West Asia ---
9PM Mar 10, Str 2, 110% infil, E.Light

It seemed like it'd be a semi-stealth "kill 2 pods and escape" extraction while traveling down the map edge. One accidental pull forced the Shinobi to Fleche, which triggered another pod too. The shinobi avoided 2 flank shots. The sniper landed 2 flank shots for kills.

Wounded: rookie, 24d

Notable Loot:
- Core
- Datapad
- 1st Stock

Non-Rookie Promotions:
- Sniper -> LCpl. DfA (13 Mob)
- Shinobi -> LCpl. Ghostwalker (too low spec to be a fighter)

VIP Engineer begins Debris extraction.

--- Prisoners, West Asia ---
9PM Mar 10, Str 2, 96% infil, E.Light
3 prisoners (I'd edited the wrong ini variables), evac sideways to jail

2 frags and an acid barrel kill a Sectoid. 17-3 Mob spec with shotgun finishes a Drone. 64% hack for small alloy fails. Besides those two, 3 Advent goons were killed before the squad left. A VIP rebel hunker-tanked a pod for 2 turns then died to a 51% OW shot despite AidProt.

Wounded: rookie, 16d (took 2 grazes, has 3 HP total)

Loot:
- 1st Magazine

VIPs:
- Rookie (70 aim, 10 def - totally worthy)
- Rebel (set to Intel)

Non-Rookie Promotions:
- Grenadier -> LCpl. RD (access to Flashbanger)
- Spec -> LCpl. RevProt, because this guy will shepherd rookies a lot. He's a 17-3 Mob shotgun guy, he'll handle drones the old fashioned way.

---

The haven is not off to a good start, but at least the barracks is doing reasonably after that horrible Gatecrasher. Now then, time for the slightly controversial move.

10PM Mar 10, switch West Asia to Intel with Scientist advisor.

10PM Mar 13, S&G, 7d 14h, West Asia, Str 2, V.Light - 6-man (7d 10h) with 3 rookies (and 2 snipers). Swap out Scientist advisor.

5AM Mar 14, ProtectData (relay), 8d 19h, West Asia, Str 2, E.Light - 6-man (7d 11h) with 3 rookies. Bought a 73 Aim rookie for this. Switch West Asia to Recruit.

2AM Mar 15, contact East Asia: 5 Rebels, Str 3. Assign Scientist advisor, scan.

8AM Mar 17, Prisoners (3 rebel, 1 rookie), 9d 3h, East Asia, Str 3, V.Light - 5-man (6d 1h) with 2 rookies with intent to overinfiltrate. If I see HighValuePrisoner though, this mission will be aborted: I have nobody else in the barracks. Remove Scientist advisor.

7AM Mar 18, +1 rebel to West Asia - set to supply for Faceless testing.

7PM Mar 18, Excavation: $46. Start on another Debris.
My three 8-man GOp squad Commander campaigns:
1st
2nd
3rd
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SonnyWiFiHr
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Re: 2nd nearly-Legendary campaign

Post by SonnyWiFiHr »

Glad that you are back.
Are you sure that max should be 4 - it will hurt your mid/late-game . April is time for 4 rebels jailbreak
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Psieye
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Re: 2nd nearly-Legendary campaign

Post by Psieye »

It's a point - I may revert that setting back to 3~6 come May.
My three 8-man GOp squad Commander campaigns:
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Psieye
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Joined: Thu Apr 06, 2017 12:27 am

Re: 2nd nearly-Legendary campaign

Post by Psieye »

2AM Mar 21, Switch West Asia to Intel. Switch East Asia to Recruit: it's been 6 days, I'm not going to find anything meaningful now.

--- S&G, West Asia ---
10AM Mar 21, Str 2, E.Light, 100% infil
4-crate, evac is sideways to crates

Savescum 1 was from failing to count tiles properly - I should have known that escaping unit can't have moved deep into the building. The terrain happened to block LoS at the exact approach vector my shinobi took.

Savescum 2 was restarting the mission - bad pull on a Mec. Yes, there was a Mec in March - one of those "put a hard pod" RNG rolls. Even with the scumming, I accepted a rookie death to take that Mec down. I didn't have to of course, but I had 2 snipers and frag spam. Was there a way to do it without taking casualties? Sure, but it would have meant more scumming to ascertain the location of the Mec before activating it. Rookie died to keep the Mec in place while the squad killed everything else. In fact, the shinobi should have died too - Mec shot her flank for 2 (graze).

KIA: rookie. His name was Murphy.

Wounded: rookie, 10d

Notable Loot:
- 5 alloy (enables hybrid materials)
- $57
- Core
- Adv Hair Trigger
- Adv Suppressor

Non-Rookie Promotions:
- Sniper -> LCpl. Snapshot (15 Mob)
- Shinobi -> LCpl. Blademaster (access to Quick Study)

---

I should start the other GOp in West Asia as soon as I get back to Geoscape.
My three 8-man GOp squad Commander campaigns:
1st
2nd
3rd
Psieye
Posts: 829
Joined: Thu Apr 06, 2017 12:27 am

Re: 2nd nearly-Legendary campaign

Post by Psieye »

2AM Mar 21, Switch West Asia to Intel. Switch East Asia to Recruit: it's been 6 days, I'm not going to find anything meaningful now.

--- ProtectData, West Asia ---
8PM Mar 21, Str 2, E.Light, 100% infil
12 turns, 24 HP relay

Hey... I can hear another Mec. I have 3 rookies in this 6-man. A total of 3 assault rifles.

Squad backtracked after finding a pod behind them. What should have been a flamethrower ambush didn't work out because the pod came too close. Instead, a frag rolled ludicrously and oneshot 2 Sentries. The remaining 1 HP Trooper died from SMG-to-face after a rifle missed. A pod with a Sectoid lost the followers quickly (lucky SMG hits). Sectoid fled to join up with Mec's pod. Because it scampered backwards, Mec had to walk to a perfect kill zone before suppressing. A rocket, a frag, an SMG and a rifle killed it. Sectoid had been hit by a frag, a rocket and finally died by rifle-to-face after it raised a zombie while at 2 HP: it never figured out where the grenadier was (right above it) that was blowing everything up from the high ground.

Flawless.

Notable loot:
- +5 Def PCS

Promotions:
- Ranger -> LCpl. Walk Fire.
- Grenadier -> LCpl. Needle.
- Tech -> LCpl. Roust - low aim, 14 Mob, 7 HP. She flame.

A 15 Mob, low aim rookie was made into a grenadier. I guess I'm committing to trying out Needle grenadiers this campaign.

PoI is 1d, Alloy/Elerium.

---

4AM Mar 22, Supply Drop #1 - West Asia has Faceless. Assign Scientist advisor to West Asia.

10PM Mar 22, HighValuePrisoner (soldier), 4d 4h, East Asia, Str 3, V.Light - no. There goes a HighValuePrisoner cooldown. Not the end of the campaign.

11AM Mar 23, Supply Raid, 7d 22h, West Asia, Str 2. Uh ok... I'll take that. 6-man, 2 squaddie specs (I still have more specs).

5PM Mar 24, Lib 1, 6d 17h, West Asia, Str 2. I need to get the spec out from East Asia's GOp.

Note to self: remove the Scientist advisor soon.
My three 8-man GOp squad Commander campaigns:
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3rd
Psieye
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Re: 2nd nearly-Legendary campaign

Post by Psieye »

--- Prisoners, West Asia ---
5PM Mar 24, Str 3, E.Light, 123% infil
18 turns, evac is sideways to jail

I hear Snek. It went down to 2 frags and SMG-to-face. Shinobi who did that then got orange-shot in the flank: she'd been lucky to avoid a Trooper shooting her flank earlier (it broke her stealth). She took 5 from the Sentry doing it. She has 7 HP, she'll live. Mind, she revealed a solo Drone while Fleching the remnants of the pod that shot her. Thankfully, Mr Shotgun Spec (17-3 Mob) saved her.

79% hack for small intel fails. RNF lands too far away to bother fighting - a 34% shot missed a rookie as the squad got out.

Wounded: LCpl shinobi, 24d

Notable Loot: +1 Mob PCS
VIPs: 3 rebels, 1 rookie (16 Mob, 66 Aim)

---

Send 5-man to Lib1 in West Asia.

5PM Mar 24, keep East Asia on full Recruit. A drastic decision, but finding a good Lib1 and an amazing Supply Raid means I can't field any more missions from East Asia this cycle. I will swap back to Intel around Apr 4, I expect this haven to have gotten about 4 recruitments.

10PM Mar 24, Prisoners (2 rebel 2 rookie), 8d 4h, West Asia, E.Light - need to wait for wounded. Swap out Scientist advisor.

11AM Mar 25, Lib1??, 2d 18h, West Asia, V.Light. Uh hey, that's a UFO precursor. Hmm, switch West Asia to recruit.

9AM Mar 26, Excavation: $46. Floor 2 Debris go. PoI gives 8 alloy, 9 elerium.

Send 5-man to Prisoners in West Asia.

11PM Mar 26, buy Scientist for $123.

6PM Mar 27, +1 rebel in East Asia.

7AM Mar 28, +1 rebel in West Asia.

1PM Mar 28, switch West Asia to Intel. West Asia now Str 3.
My three 8-man GOp squad Commander campaigns:
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2nd
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Psieye
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Re: 2nd nearly-Legendary campaign

Post by Psieye »

--- Lib 1, West Asia ---
7PM Mar 30, Str 3, E.Light, 100% infil

Frag & OW opener, kills an Officer and 2 HP Engineer runs away. Orange-zombie gets ladder-denied as squad flees to roof - except for shotgun spec and shinobi. Next turn, shotgun spec shows up on Sectoid's flank to flash it. When going for a flank on Sectoid's pod, activate the next pod on flank - forces a retreat and shinobi drops stealth.

Wretched forgetfulness makes me savescum - I'd forgotten I hadn't seen that 2 HP Engineer again. I knew where it ran to, so there must have been a pod there, but I forgot and Fleched.

53% hack for small supply failed. 35% lamp hack fails, calling RNF. Squad out before any of that mattered. The critical moment was the Officer-Engineer pod from the side: without FitH (squaddie) I can't rely on a rocket to do anything besides hit the main target. By removing the Engineer, the Officer had a chance to just run away - that's what I should have done before the savescum, instead of trying to be cool and hit all relevant cover. I'd succeeded the hack before the scum, it's a light price to pay.

Undeserved flawless.

Loot: Core

Promotions:
- Sniper -> LCpl. Snapshot (15 Mob)
- Shinobi -> LCpl. Lone Wolf
- Tech -> LCpl. FitH
- Spec ("CQMedic") -> Cpl. CF - I'm going to make a shotgun medic this time round
- Grenadier ("Defcon") -> Cpl. Protector (access to Flashbanger)

---

11PM Mar 30, Research Complete: Basic Res. Begin Hybrid Materials.

12AM Mar 31, Protect Data, 5d 19h, East Asia, V.Light. Oh really? I'm going to oblige: 3-man. The above squad without the Tech or Sniper. 2 SMGs, 1 shotgun (on "Defcon"). I'm not expecting success, but I am expecting a good getaway. Can infil to 127%. I got this mission detected from Avenger scan alone, now I know exactly when to flip this haven back to Intel.

4AM Mar 31, +1 rebel in East Asia. Now at 10.

--- Supply Raid: West Asia ---
3AM Apr 1, Str 3, Light, 100% infil

It begins with a 6-man pod. Ok... Pod leader is Snek, dies to snipe, frag and Walk Fire. 10 Def ranger takes a crit for 3 because I didn't realise there was a flanking position. A pod from the flank activates despite moving the squad away from them the turn before. That results in a graze to the sniper (could have been killed). A spec takes a needless hit because of OW instead of hunker - but then again better her than the gunner get shot. He's my only gunner. Sheer perseverence (unlimited hunkering) then kills that pod of 4. Hairy moment when a spec had to run 4 OW with Smoke+AidProt to avoid getting flanked: took 1 ablative for it all.

Shinobi got wounded during a critical turn where I had to expose (read: not hunker) both him and the gunner. Enemy Gunner landed a 16% shot for 5.

Wounded:
- LCpl Shinobi, 31d
- Ranger, 14d
- Sniper, 11d
- Spec, 16d

Loot & Bodies:
- 2 Core
- Adv Hair Trigger
- 11 Trooper
- Snek
- Officer
- Sectoid
- 9 alloy
- 9 elerium
- $47

That secures enough elerium for laser needs.

Promotions:
- Shinobi -> Cpl. Shadowstep.
- Spec -> LCpl. Sentinel (access to CM and HI)
- Spec -> LCpl. CP (destined for SMG: 14 Mob, Ghostwalker)
- Gunner -> LCpl. CM (75 Aim now, access to LW & EV)

---
My three 8-man GOp squad Commander campaigns:
1st
2nd
3rd
Psieye
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Re: 2nd nearly-Legendary campaign

Post by Psieye »

--- Prisoners: West Asia ---
3PM Apr 1, Str 3, V.Light, 100% infil
Evac near jail

Wait, I brought 3 SMGs, 1 rifle and 1 shotgun? Uh...

That was so scrappy. The opening move was rocket to a pod next to a van: 2 instantly died. 3 Drones and 1 Sentry activated. Fleche Sentry dead, fail hack on Drone so shotgun it. Remaining 2 Drones taze, then die next turn. Squad regrouped and met Snek leader pod, which died to double max roll flame and frag. The last pod joined the fight early so the showdown was against 4 Advent goons. I could see no way to do this safely so took risks, ended up with less than expected wounds but the 7 HP flame tech should have been wounded (she killed 2 with a single flame). RNF got tanked by the flame tech while everyone ran for evac.

56% hack for small alloy failed.

Wounded: Sqd Spec, 14d

VIPs: 2 rebel, 2 rookie

Shinobi no longer Shaken.

Promotions:
- Shinobi -> LCpl. Blademaster (70 Aim)
- Assault -> LCpl. LR
- Grenadier -> LCpl. Needle
- Spec -> LCpl. Sentinel (70 Aim)

---

East Asia now Str 2. Sell 3 of 5 cores and other surplus items. Begin GTS construction. Now at $45.

10AM Apr 2, Scientist advisor to West Asia. I do worry how much I'm cutting into my research time, but I do need good mission timers to make progress with soldiers on Legendary. On the other hand... there are no HighValuePrisoners available anymore: too much Vig.

5PM Apr 2, "Counter Strategic DE: hidden" (recover item), 16d 23h, West Asia, Str 3, V.Light
5PM Apr 2, Lib 2 (Engineer from jail), 5d 14h, V.Light

Ok... I have 7 wounded and 13 healthy (of which 4 are rookie). Looks like the game's trying to tell me not to worry about finding missions. I really need the intel. I'm not desperate for this Engineer.

Send 5-man to stop the Strategic DE. Swap out Scientist advisor from West Asia - I don't have manpower to do any GOps here anymore. Switch West Asia to full Recruit.

4AM Apr 4, +1 rebel in East Asia. Switch East Asia to Intel. When did it reach Str 1??

1PM Apr 4, Research complete: Hybrid Materials. Begin Laser (9d).

5PM Apr 4, HighValuePrisoner (extract Scientist), 18h, West Asia, Str 3, V.Light. WAIT WHAT. No really, if it'll expire at 1AM Apr 4 then it must have spawned between Mar 23~25. Checking my logs, I did a GOp at 5PM Mar 24, so it must have spawned on 1AM Mar 25. What was I thinking? Ah I see, I detected a Lib 1, a UFO precursor, a Prisoner GOp and decided there weren't any more missions. Yeah I fucked up that one: I switched West Asia to recruit at 11AM Mar 25 so of course I didn't see this. Fuck me. Oh well, I got a good Supply Raid done instead so it's not campaign ending.

--- ProtectData: East Asia ---
10PM Apr 4, Str 1, 107% infil
3-man Recover Item from train!

Frag and shotgun a drone that got in the way. Evac flare and camp: couldn't throw it on the critical turn so smoke + flash + low cover will have to do for 1 turn while waiting for Firebrand to show up.

43% hack for Watch List succeeds, flashbang hits all of the 3-man pod that was guarding the objective. Snek misses at 12%, Trooper misses at 1%, Lancer camps. A 2nd Drone was the biggest threat as it came on the critical turn and was too far to shotgun. 2 frags killed it. I should have played safe and deliberately let the shinobi get flanked so it wouldn't stun.

Flawless. I don't know where I got the 2 Hair Triggers as loot.

Promotion: Shinobi -> Cpl. Shadowstep.

PoI is 2d for supplies.

---

The following week in the strategic layer was erased by savescum:

Code: Select all

3AM Apr 5, assign Scientist advisor to East Asia.

7AM Apr 5, +1 recruit from West Asia. 70 Aim, 13 Mob (my do I get a lot of sniper candidates).

4PM Apr 6, S&G, 1d 7h, East Asia. Yeah that's the other GOp expiring from last time. Swap out Scientist advisor from East Asia, fly to PoI. No point super scanning until both GOps are around.

7AM Apr 9, PoI gives $64. Assign Scientist advisor back to East Asia.

7AM Apr 8 (oh, I must have crossed over the timezone for that PoI), +1 rebel in West Asia.

12AM Apr 9, a UFO landed - West Asia now Str 4, East Asia now Str 2.

4AM Apr 9, Prisoners (2 rebel 2 rookie), 6d 22h, East Asia, Str 2, E.Light - send 5-man, 2 rookies. "CQMedic" will watch over them.

9AM Apr 9, Tactical DE: Tac. Sense goes live. Swap out Scientist from East Asia. Set one rebel to Supply in East Asia (it's Supply Drop in 3d).

7AM Apr 9, +1 recruit from West Asia. 57 Aim. Debris extraction complete. Assign Engineer to GTS construction.

I think I fucked up a bit - the recruit bucket is only ever checked at 7AM. 1 soldier + 9 rebels meets the optimum recruiting of 3d. I've set aside a few to do intel and sure enough I still get a recruit roll every 3d. Oh and a S&G was found in West Asia thanks to this, it'll expire on 2AM Apr 13.

3AM Apr 12, Rendezvous, West Asia. The RNG really does toy with thoughts of savescumming - I shouldn't be surprised by East Asia not finding something immediately.
The great lesson here: NEVER expect every GOp to be detected. So what if a couple recruit rolls are missed? If the intel rolls are bad, even an unstaffed barracks will be idling away. Better to have too many missions detected than too few.

After scumming back to Apr 4, fly to PoI. IMMEDIATELY afterwards...

S&G, 7d 23h, West Asia, Str 3, V.Light - Send 6-man with 1 rookie.

My brain dissolves. Seriously, people complain about an incendiary's burn chance when the course of a campaign can be determined by extreme RNG in the earlygame strategy layer.

8AM Apr 5, +1 recruit from West Asia. 58 Aim, 7 Def, 15 Mob. Promising assault. Fly back to PoI.

8PM Apr 5, switch West Asia to Intel.

3AM Apr 6, assign Scientist advisor to East Asia.

9PM Apr 7, PoI gives $64.

10AM Apr 8, ProtectData (relay), 9d 19h, West Asia, Str 4, E.Light - send 6-man with 2 rookies including "CQMedic". Swap out Scientist advisor from East Asia.

11PM Apr 8, Switch West Asia to Recruit. I'm not going to get Lib 2 done at Str 4, not with my tech at this level.

Tactical DE: Tac. Sense goes live.

10AM Apr 9, HighValuePrisoner (soldier in van), 6d 21, East Asia, Str 2, E.Light. I'll need to get that counter-StrategicDE mission done to go on this.

I hate this Apr variance so much. Still, a LCpl isn't a bad thing when I'm short on manpower - Legendary brings in extra missions much faster so I'm stretched really thin.
My three 8-man GOp squad Commander campaigns:
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Jacke
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Re: 2nd nearly-Legendary campaign

Post by Jacke »

Hadn't read the previous in detail, but tried checking out your latest post.
Psieye wrote: 10AM Apr 2, Scientist advisor to West Asia. I do worry how much I'm cutting into my research time, but I do need good mission timers to make progress with soldiers on Legendary. On the other hand... there are no HighValuePrisoners available anymore: too much Vig.
I can never hope to have the knowledge of the internal workings of LW2 as you do. I'm alarmed you think it necessary to go with a Scientist advisor in April to get good mission times. And that a significant mission type gets locked off by Vigilance from your missions.
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SonnyWiFiHr
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Re: 2nd nearly-Legendary campaign

Post by SonnyWiFiHr »

If you hit above Vigilance 6 - there is no more Scientist, eng and solo soldiers missions
If you hit above Vig 7 - there is no more jailbreaks

This is max Vigilance for them spawn. S&G excluded
Same Mission will not spawn again until cooldown is expired - roughly 2 weeks. Not that important - but if you know what spawned you can save squad for better missions or just abort one of your missions. Two regions are more important

Switching scientist is easy. Finish all missions - switch.
April is not factor when you need to switch but liberation 2 / 3 are. If you want bigger squad put scientist but don't forget - RNG can give low timers even with it

@Psieye
I m glad that you did not cut off Soldiers from rewards. They are good early/mid reward on Legendary
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Psieye
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Re: 2nd nearly-Legendary campaign

Post by Psieye »

2AM Apr 10, Lib 1, 8h, East Asia, Str 2. Nope.

--- Counter Strategic DE (recover item), West Asia ---
2AM Apr 10, Str 4, V.Light, 117% infil

Originally, I savescummed a number of times on this mission but there just isn't a way to do it without outright RNG manipulation. Str 4 brings RNF too fast, there's one too many pod getting in the way all the time. Mistakes included:
- failure to count: I know it's V.Light but I didn't count how many enemies I had seen. Got ambushed from behind.
- failure to keep track of where the flashbangs were, in case of mind control. Fuck I'm in a bad state today, this should be basic.
- failure to keep the spec running towards objective. Got bogged down with pods. Why did I give this guy a rifle instead of an SMG? He really doesn't have time to hang around and shoot.

But even without those mistakes, I don't see a reasonable way to get the mission done on time. As such, I come back with Enemy Readiness at Vulnerable - it still says V.Light but now the schedule is one notch lower.

Sure enough, the schedule is different: a MUTON showed up (force went up). GG game, you got me with this one. Oh sure, I killed the Muton without it doing any attack. But that just cemented the message: this is not a mission to win. So I retreated. Took some graze wounds while doing so. It's only narratively fair.

Kills: 8/14 (RNF dropped, zombie)

Wounded:
- LCpl Shinobi, 11d
- LCpl Grenadier, 9d

Notable loot:
- Adv Laser Sight
- +2 HP PCS

Strategic DE: Resistance Informant (harder to detect full Retals) goes live. That's it? That's what I spent 3 hours trying to prevent? Something irrelevant?

---

Send 5-man with 1 rookie to HighValuePrisoner, East Asia.

2PM Apr 11, excavation complete: $64. Assign Engineer to GTS.

7AM Apr 12, Supply Drop #2: there is Faceless in East Asia. +1 rebel in West Asia. Switch West Asia to full Intel.

Sell Snek body and 6 Troopers. Buy Scientist for $138, now at $70.

10AM Apr 12, assign Scientist advisor to East Asia. I want to catch that Lib 1 for intel.

Tactical DE: Laser Sights goes live.

2PM Apr 12, Prisoners (3 rookie 1 rebel), 6d 14h, East Asia, Str 2.

--- S&G, West Asia ---
2PM Apr 12, Str 4, V.Light, 100% infil
4 crate, evac near start

I hear turret. I really need AP rounds, this'll take some turns. Oh wait, I had CP.

That... was the scrappiest S&G I've done ever. Force is at 3, that makes Mutons a regular sight. The Muton here never got killed. A rookie, then later the LR assault just stared it down while 3 crates were pillaged by running around it. Everything else died, half of them killed by the sniper.

Wounded:
- Cpl Shinobi, 25d (he got busted and shot in the flank)
- Rookie, 25d (became a spec - I never seem to have enough specs around)
- LCpl Assault, 12d (nanovest saved him 13+ days)

I might have to build the AWC for its original purpose if this keeps up.

Loot:
- 7 elerium
- 12 alloy
- Magazine

No supply, but having the rare resources keep coming in is good: I can build lasers and armour.

---

Too many wounded, cannot deploy a squad for 3d (when the next soldiers come out of bed). Hopefully Lib 1 will be found in that time.

2PM Apr 13, Lib 1, 7d 2h, East Asia. Swap out Scientist advisor from East Asia.

I'll have to decide how to react to this - Laser is 7h away, ProtectData in West Asia is 65% infiltrated but needs another 2d 12h to hit 100%. Even then, with Mutons and Lancers now running about, I think that squad is ill equipped to cope.
Jacke wrote:I'm alarmed you think it necessary to go with a Scientist advisor in April to get good mission times.
Call it PTSD, my 1st Legendary campaign crashed hard because of some bad rolls. More practically, I'm trying to get 6-man timers in the earlygame so I can graduate my rookies faster. I'm also trying to nail the two Lib 1 missions for the intel: I'm so starved of it on Legendary. I'm at 95 intel now so I'll have some breathing room soon (even if I have to scrounge up Intel drip by drip). The hope was to get a scientist from HighValuePrisoner but well... I fucked up royally and missed that one. Buying a 3rd scientist from the BM hurts a lot.

On Commander, I'd be on the 3rd region by now - the extra intel cost makes a big difference.
My three 8-man GOp squad Commander campaigns:
1st
2nd
3rd
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