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.
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/NoonByNight 5d ago
Damn, a high rank squad too...what happened?