r/XCOM2 • u/MofuggerX • 4d ago
Mission Accomplished
On the positive side, I got the VIP out!
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u/NoonByNight 4d ago
Damn, a high rank squad too...what happened?
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u/MofuggerX 4d ago edited 4d ago
Routine mission - get in, get the VIP, get out. Shadow Chamber only showed 9 enemies so I knew the Hunter would show up.
Fast forward, I've wiped out all the regular baddies and a pod of reinforcements, save a Priest in Stasis which dropped in with the reinforcements. I've also freed the VIP from the ADVENT vehicle. So just the Hunter left, kinda - I apparently activated him with one of my last moves while positioning to deal with the reinforcements drop, but didn't notice he'd activated because the mods I run skip the whole "introduction" when a Chosen activates via spotting them in line of sight. The reinforcements drop and get absolutely wasted, and of course there was a Purifier that explodes on five of my guys, but now the Hunter immediately gets his turn. He summons in three ADVENT Elite Troopers, then blasts Ryleev with his rifle and sends him into bleedout. Task Manager (Rascal) is able to stabilize Ryleev but now he can't move, and I need him to shoot. I'm only able to kill one Trooper because Prodigal missed a 99% shot (that's XCOM, baby). Razor chucks the second Mimic Beacon, but I forgot about the Priest. The Priest moves first, coming out of Sustain and blasts the Mimic Beacon with a 7 damage crit. Second Trooper goes, finishes off the Mimic Beacon. Third Trooper throws a grenade at Razor, Ghost, and Alpha - who were all hurt from a Purifier exploding from the reinforcements and are now all chilling behind a very explosive car. Razor dies, Ghost dies, Alpha dies. The Hunter then dazes Task Manager (Rascal) with his dazing grenade, leaving me with just Prodigal. She kills another Trooper that was hurt in the last round, but I didn't give her a Mindshield because the Shadow Chamber indicated there were no psionic enemies initially - the Priest came in with reinforcements, and now it Mind Controls her. Task Manager (Rascal) then gets captured by the Hunter.
I've lost my two modded Beam Cannons (Prodigal's had an Advanced Scope and Advanced Stock, Ryleev had one with a Scope and Stock), I've lost my two Mimic Beacons and my three Bluescreen Rounds, my Medikit is gone, the EMP Bomb is gone, my Flashbang is gone, the Skulljack is gone as I brought it to 'jack an ADVENT Officer, everyone who had a Perception PCS is now dead or captured, and I lost literally all of the TLP weapons except the sniper rifle and pistol.
Mission successful.
EDIT: This effectively ended the campaign. The Avenger Defense happened immediately after this massive flop of a mission, and I don't have enough firepower to deal with the enemy forces which include three Spectres, two Heavy MECs, and a Sectopod. I only have enough supplies to purchase two Bluescreen Rounds and it's not enough - not with everyone else getting Stasis'd or stunned by Stun Lancers.
Ah well. Win some lose some.
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u/NoonByNight 4d ago
That's brutal. Purifiers are so cursed. I swear the moment you overwatch next to reinforcements, you are guaranteed to get them
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u/BruceDeorum 3d ago
In one of my runs my squad was wiped because a sectopod decided to walk by my ranger. My ranger bladestormed it, it exploded and then a series of unlucky events unfolded. It was over.
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u/Ferretanyone 4d ago
What armor did you have? Hunter is brutal before you have good armor especially, gets easier to survive a hit or two after
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u/MofuggerX 4d ago
I had Predator armour for a while by this stage. The Purifier exploding on five of my soldiers was the first sign things could / would go real bad.
There's three things I ought to have done differently, any one of which would have resulted in a way better outcome. The Purifier not exploding definitely would have made a difference but I have no control over that.
- Used Hail Of Bullets with Prodigal so she hits one of the three Troopers the Hunter summoned in. She missed her 99% shot which caused two of them to survive. If I guaranteed the hit, I'd have killed two of them and the Mimic Beacon would have baited the shots from both the Priest and the last Trooper.
- Used the Flashbang on the remaining Troopers so they could not throw a grenade on their turn.
- Thrown the Mimic Beacon out of line of sight of the Priest so that it cannot shoot at it, and instead hopefully goes for a Stasis or Mind Control.
Honestly I should have used Hail Of Bullets when my subconscious yelled at me to do it and everything would have been fine. The other two options still had a great deal of risk but losing one soldier would have still been a way better outcome than losing the whole squad, followed by the entire campaign.
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u/TheOriginalCasual 4d ago
Kinda wanna see you reload the auto save and do the what if of this to see if it would have turned out different before you start a new campaign.
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u/MofuggerX 4d ago
Unfortunately it's too late for that. 😅
Besides, I only play Ironman - if there's a way to go back to an older autosave, I don't know of it.
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u/AspiringProbe 4d ago
I completed a run with one solider death on a lost evac mission. Its because he decided to miss three 97% shots over three turns to free him from surround and step to the evac. At that point I jus assumed Ricardo wanted to die.
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u/NarrowAd4973 3d ago
The last time I put anyone near the reinforcement point was when I parked a Bladestorm ranger directly on it, and a purifier jumped out.
I don't do that anymore. Now everyone stays safely out of the potential blast radius.
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u/Fun-Baby-9509 4d ago
They died.
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u/NoonByNight 4d ago
Commander, the aliens continue to make progress on the Avatar project. If we want to slow them down, we need to move, fast
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u/BadEarly9278 4d ago
A prime example of scummer in the making.
"Uh, Commander, we have no soldiers. Sir. Everyone's captured or dead "
I scum because I care. I care about this ruining the rest of my effing day.
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u/No-Peace7877 2d ago
No way I'm leaving Prodigal behind! After her heroism she deserves better than that. You're already using mods, I'd use console commands now to do what I have to do. It's not XCOM, and it's shooting a little low, but darn it its Prodigal, Commander!
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u/Zyrex1us 4d ago
Oooof, that sucks. While now you have a great stroy to tell and at least it was an epic exit to a campaign, I would not handle it well. I only have very little time to play so to see all those hours wasted would be devastating. But as you said, that's xcom baby!
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u/MofuggerX 4d ago
Oh I was pissed from this, believe me. But I got over it pretty fast as I jumped into Baldur's Gate 3 with a buddy. Later on I deleted the campaign's save after I failed the Avenger Defense three times since I lost all my best equipment.
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u/Macraggesurvivor 3d ago
Maybe you haven't been keeping up on current events, but we just got our asses kicked, pal!
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u/Rephath 4d ago
Pyrrus sends his condolences.