OPERATION RED CHANT
When last we left our intrepid heroes, they were on the way back to XCOM HQ, fresh from a stellar success on their first mission. Extraterrestrials died, man! It doesn't get any better than that. On the way back to base, Commander Rancington regales the redshirts with tales of his hyper-weapon.
"And then I made my slave--of course I have a slave! You don't have a slave?! Wahahahah! Poor man. No wonder you're only a foot soldier."
Welcome to XCOM HQ, Commander. I'm Central Officer Bradford. My role in this project is twofold--providing tactical support for our field operations, and keeping you briefed on the current situation. My efforts should allow you to focus on the bigger issues at hand. Speaking of which, we have a soldier waiting for promotion in the Barracks. I'll let you get to it.
Mmm. A gentle, feminine warrior in need of my guiding touch. Say no more.
It can't be helped it. Can it? I have a potion--no, I'm guessing by your sudden and stoic silence that you prefer your current, hideous form. Oh well.
Another member of our growing squad. The "." is unfortunately necessary. Every soldier has to have a first and last name. The last name is the only one displayed in the tactical combat section of the game. If you only submitted a single name and want a first one too, just let me know.
Our own personal Simo Häyhä.
Paging Commander Rance. Commander to the science labs.
Hello, Commander. My name is Dr. Vahlen. I oversee the Research Labs. This is where all of XCOM's research and development takes place. We have already begun analyzing the artifacts recovered from our first encounter with the aliens. Based on our preliminary findings, we believe we can use them to develop some new equipment for our soldiers. With your approval, we will begin research immediately.
NOTHING! I approve nothing. Stop everything at once. This place is wrong. Look at all these cold, metal devices. They reek of evil and wrongness! What good could come of such deviousness?!
Ah... we could research the materials the aliens use in their technology? It could possibly help us defend our own troops, once we understand it.
New armor? VIVA LA EVIL! Everything is forgiven. Except all the large words that hurt my head. Report to my quarters tonight for punishment.
Usually, Alien Materials would only take about a week to research, instead of over 3. Marathon is starting to rear its head. I've also noticed that the price of even our first satelite is about twice as much as usual.
We decide to visit engineering while we're faffing about.
Ah, Commander. I was wondering when you'd be stopping by. Welcome to Engineering. Anything they can dream up in the Research Labs, we can build it here.
How about... a machine gun that shoots swords?
No. Absolutely not. That's impossible.
A shotgun that shoots swords?
Your negativity is dragging me down. I'm out of here.
This is the geoscape screen. Clicking the 'Scan for Activity' button fast forwards time until alien activity of some kind happens. Early game, this is almost immediate.
Tada!
Time passes as your Skyranger flies to the destination, and you have the option to abort the mission before you land once you reach the site. Say, if you brought the wrong squaddies or didn't equip the right weapons & armor.
Operation Red Chant. Commence! This ends up being the subway map, which is one of the more "interesting" (read: flank-happy) maps in the game. It can be disastrous early game if you overextend yourself. Let's see what happens!
Our squad moves up to the first cover spot, and hears some aliens nearby. That's what the orange-yellow VFX represents. Enemies moving around outside of your LoS can be heard if you're close enough, and there are unique noises for each enemy type you can learn to identify if you pay close attention.
We move forward a little more, and just barely sight a group of sectoids, who scatter back into the darkness. Being brave defenders of the planet earth, we do the proper thing: hunker down in overwatch until they show their ugly mugs.
They take the bait, and eat HOT, DEADLY LEAD! Er, wait. We missed our overwatch shot. Twice. Tigranes has an excuse for whiffing (he's using a shotgun, which has zero accuracy beyond a short range), but the rookie is going to get yelled at by Rance later.
Whiskey misses his overwatch shot, too. We can only hope these are squaddie jitters that will be fixed by a metric fuckton of medals on their uniform. The sectoid decides to spend his turn taking a pot shot at us in full cover, while he sits flanked in the open. He misses.
Ulminati! He's got this. Flanked sniper shot. Show 'em how it's done, boss.
That's not how it's done.
The next squaddie takes care of business.
There's another sectoid hiding in the fog of war, so we keep advancing to the next full cover. They blast out the cover we're in (plasma weapons which aliens use are much more likely to randomly destroy terrain than the conventional boomsticks we've got), but thankfully miss.
Ulminati gets another attempt at a good shot, but whiffs it again. He's not alone--everyone else does too, and rather than have Tigranes risk an equally likely miss, I decide to end the turn with a frag grenade so the sectoid doesn't get a chance to melt our faces off. Incidentally, this is a good reason to close (staying in cover, of course) rather than fighting at maximum range. Grenades have a fairly short range, and if I hadn't been close enough to throw a frag, I would have been left with all bad choices there.
Rather than split up to explore this fairly open map, I decide to have the entire team move back to the start, then step over to sweep up from the bottom of the subway tracks.
Not splitting up? Officially good idea. More sectoids over here.
Our rookie redeems herself by landing a reaction shot. Doesn't kill him, though.
Whiskey finishes him off, rambo style.
The other sectoid lands a hit, but we luck out (like, seriously lucked out, this could have almost killed her) and it only does one damage to our rookie.
Knowing the sectoid is on higher elevation from us and hence has increased aim, we try to outsmart the AI by hunkering down with both of our squaddies in range. Hunkering down increases their cover, making both of them a full shield. We figure we'll finish him off next turn after he gets a miss on our full cover.
...and the sectoid just rushes up into range of someone with way less cover, and pops them. Whiskey takes one on the chin, and is fairly low on health. Another similar shot would kill him.
After our entire squad takes turns missing the enemy, Whiskey gets pissed and fires off a rocket, turning the sectoid into melty bits. Note Tigranes a few feet shy of the explosion. That's the sort of majestic aim you get with a rocket launcher.
It's a wrap! Whiskey is wounded by the damage he took in battle, and won't be available to go into battle until he recovers. Normally the amount of damage he took would heal in a day or two, but Marathon says FUCK DAT, YOUR LEG IS ALL BLOWN OFF AND SHIT.
Meanwhile, back at base...
Excellent work out there, Whiskey. A mighty sorceror such as yourself should heal quickly.
Don't be sly. I saw you cast fireball back there. It was glorious!
OPERATION RED CHANT ENDS.
Next time: XCOM intercepts its first UFO, and touches down at the crash site. Some new rookies earn their chops the old-fashioned way: blowing alien heads clean off their shoulders.
(until they stretched Stargate so much it wasn't funny anymore). Rance is the Commander? Poor aliens, they never had a chance to win...
