XCOM: Enemy Online

Link to video.

Table of Contents

MARCH, 2015
• SETUP
• MISSION 01: CRIMSON SHROUD
• Intermission 01
• Intermission 02
• MISSION 02: LAZY PARAMOUR
• Intermission 03
• MISSION 03: DEFIANT HAMMER
• Intermission 04
• MISSION 04: TWISTED HEART
• Intermission 05
• MISSION 05: SECRET GRAVE
• Intermission 06
• MISSION 06: BANISHED STAR
• Intermission 07
APRIL, 2015
• Intermission 08
• MISSION 07: BLACK HYMN
• Intermission 09
• MISSION 08: SWIFT GIANT
• Intermission 10
• MISSION 09: FROZEN TEARS
• Intermission 11
• MISSION 10: VENGEFUL THRONE
• Intermission 12
• MISSION 11: FINAL HERO
• Intermission 13
• MISSION 12: LAZY JESTER
• Intermission 14
• MISSION 13: DYING MOON
• Intermission 15
• MISSION 14: SILENT SHROUD
• Intermission 16
MAY, 2015
• Intermission 17
• MISSION 15: LOST DAWN
• Intermission 18
• MISSION 16: CURSED EMPIRE
• Intermission 19
• MISSION 17: BURNING HAMMER
• Intermission 20
• MISSION 18: DRIVING SWORD
• Intermission 21
• MISSION 19: BROKEN GOD
• Intermission 22
• MISSION 20: LONE FALL
• Intermission 23
• MISSION 21: BLACK PRIEST
• Intermission 24
• MISSION 22: FIRST HERO
• Intermission 25
• MISSION 23: CURSED CRONE
• Intermission 26
• MISSION 24: DEVIL'S STROKE
• Intermission 27

Questions and Answers

Q: What is this?
A: This is XCOM: Enemy Within using the Long War 3 Beta 9a modification and a custom generated name list, as presented through screenshots. It's sort of an excuse for me to play with Beta 9, since I left off on Beta 6, and I tend to just reroll starts in Ironman.

Q: What settings are you playing on?
A: I'll be playing on Normal, Long War's lowest difficulty setting, with the Slingshot and Progeny DLC turned off, Ironman and Reduced Beginner VO on, and the Strict Screening, World Diversity, and Liberators Second Wave options turned on. It'll still be fairly hard. I'm fairly okay at playing the game by now but you should still anticipate dying horribly. I won't be trying to get anyone deliberately killed.

Q: Hey, hasn't this been done bef—
A: Kinda, yes, sometimes.

Q: Can I customize my soldier?
A: I'll humor visual customization requests, but I can't change a soldier's gender or nationality. Anyone who doesn't request anything I'll customize as I normally do. I will not be taking loadout or perk tree suggestions simply because they tend to be pretty clear-cut and your supraclass will be picked at random by the game.

Q: I didn't opt-in!
A: You can however opt-out, in which case if you appear I will personally kick you out of XCOM. Think of it as maximally inclusive.

Q: What if I want to play my own campaign?
A: All the links you need were in the response to the first question. Disregard all of the information pertaining to how to install the mod in its description and simply run the installer. The game will probably crash the first time afterwards, that just happens. Long War will then be automatically loaded. To uninstall, verify the integrity of the game through Steam.

Q: What about the story and tips and—
A: You should watch The Definitive X-Com Commanders Guide by JadeStar and GuavaMoment (the thread for which you may or may not be able to see) for play in vanilla Enemy Within Classic (+Not Created Equally and Hidden Potential) and Beaglerush's XCOM: Ironman Impossible, Seasons 1 and 2 of which are played in vanilla Enemy Unknown, and Season 3 of which is played in EW:LW3. Beaglerush also hosts Thursday Night XCOM weekly on the Twitch.tv stream he shares with his girlfriend, and there are several videos in the history you can watch. I will entertain discussion or mechanics questions but generally these sources will answer a lot of your questions. This is less an informative LP and more about watching something bearing your name kill and die. I'll also tolerate discussion of these resources, and if you want to do fanart or stories or something that's cool too.

Q: What is the update schedule?
A: Whenever I feel like it. No promises.

SETUP

I didn't bother resizing these, I can if it becomes a serious issue.



Difficulty!



Options! Our troops will have some (but not huge) variation in their stats. Liberators means everywhere the aliens take, we have to take back before we can win the game.



Other options! I can't reroll actions because the game overwrites a single save as it goes. Also Vahlen won't whine about me blowing up alien guns.



We work in Europe for reasons. For the record, in Long War, Europe is best, Asia is second, North America is a distant third, and Africa and South America are way far in the back for being terrible.

MISSION 01: CRIMSON SHROUD

And we're into the fight! I swear there's something wrong with that Bradford guy, might as well have called it "BLOODY COFFIN" or something.



We're fighting on the famed Marseille Dam. It looks a bit shabby. Hopefully there isn't a base full of nerve gas at the bottom.



Oddly enough I'm on the first mission. I swear I totally didn't rig (you can't) or reroll this, this happened on the very first go. It's like a 5% chance. Providence? An auspicious start? Note to self: avoid getting self killed.

I'm joined by Matt0088, mrrandomplayer, The Farow, Justokre, and pole475, PFCs all.



We get into cover and start to move up. Half-cover is actually okay in Long War.



And we keep moving up. It was around this point that I realized all the enemies were going to be in the back half of the map. I move PFC pole475 up to the dumpster in the top-left and we make contact with damn near everything.



He then manages to snipe a Drone out of the tower on a 63% chance shot or something like that.



Unfortunately, PFC Matt0088 eats an unlucky plasma round to the face and we weren't issued any Medikits (first mission gear is random), so it's a race against time to save him...



... Also unfortunately, half the team panics as he's downed. A shameful display.



Things aren't helped when PFC mrrandomplayer misses a good flank shot. With PFC pole475 the last man standing, I order him up in the face of enemy overwatch fire into grenade range. I didn't expect how many overwatches he'd have to defeat.





No, really, this guy ran three overwatches without any damage. Dude's a champion.




He then takes out the mind-merged Sectoid he has a flank on with a critical.



We eat a lot of psychic attacks and PFC mrrandomplayer panics on the left flank. Hero PFC pole475 also takes 3 damage from a plasma shot and panics, but stays up.



Despite fearing for my own life, with little alternative left I run up to pitch a fragmentation grenade. It's less than effective.





But I do prove my mental fortitude. I send PFC mrrandomplayer up and...



Looks like they sent their trickshot team. "Hey, guys, look at this sweet no-scope mailslot!"



Never gamble on a montage shot, Sectoid!



PFC The Farow starts a pattern of missing 60% shots.



The People's Champion PFC pole475 racks up two more kills off a fragmentation grenade.



We're sadly too slow to save PFC Matt0088 in the face of entrenched enemy opposition, and he bleeds out, Earth's First Martyr.



PFC Justokre finishes what PFC The Farow can't.




With a final push and an HE grenade, PFC mrrandomplayer takes out the last two holdouts in a blaze of glory.




Operation Crimson Shroud ends with some cool swag, PFC Matt0088 in a body bag, and both sides' appetites whetted for vengeance.

INTERMISSION 01

Operation Crimson Shroud concluded, we start in on our inaugural research. First priority: MORE DAKKA.



More facilities! Each Satellite Uplink only services 1 Satellite in Long War, with 1 per adjacency bonus.



On the plus side, everyone pays us.



Apparently forum guests are flying the planes.



We'll at least pretend they're people. And finally, the part everybody cares about: who's on deck.





PFC <No Name> is concerning. Maybe he forgot who he was...? We'll soon see.

TUNE IN NEXT TIME FOR THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF XCOM!

Poor PFC Lord of Elves.

What's left of his country needs him...

Apparently I'm the Russian. How fitting that I forget my name -_-

ChiefDesigner said:

Poor PFC Lord of Elves.

What's left of his country needs him...

Click to expand...

Somethingsomethingsomething Ukraine?

Korean?

This game is so dated, ukraine is independent.

Also, i am not a real Brit. I am merely a convict in disguise infiltrating the motherland.

INTERMISSION 02

Given his amazing ability to dodge fire, SPEC pole475 becomes a Scout, enabling him to do so even more. Also he gets a shotgun to erase faces with, and a helmet!



SPEC mrrandomplayer becomes an Assault, also receiving a shotgun and helmet.



SPEC Justokre gets two rocket launchers with his helmet, possibly leaving the others somewhat jealous.



We hire more mans.



We build a MALP SHIV and an Autoloader for it (not pictured).



Our new troops come in, PFCs DC123456789, andis-1, Owen Glyndwr, ork75, Silverman6083, and CivOasis. PFC <No Name> remembers his name is PFC Nuke (not pictured).



The call comes in again!



Apparently Bradford can't count in addition to being macabre.



Having recovered from fatigue first, I elect to lead this mission again. We have a Medikit and a mixed bag of ordinance this time. It's generally a bad idea to only bring only Shoota Boyz or only Stikk Bommas, and a mix is optimal. PFC erez87 is given the Medikit as his high will makes it less likely he'll panic when humies start dyin'



What could go wrong?

MISSION 02: LAZY PARAMOUR

what



no



No, we were just here!



No, goddammit!



<DIMENSIONAL ERROR: SPACETIME RIFT DETECTED>



<DIMENSIONAL ERROR: SPACETIME RIFT DETECTED>
<CODE WHITE>
<CODE WHITE>



<CODE WHITE>
<SEALING RECORDS...>



<SEALING RECORDS...>



<RECORDS SEALED>

INTERMISSION 03

Imgur resizing is awful. Bradford, get me some scripts!



SPEC CivOasis becomes a Sniper, meaning he can shoot from across maps as long as an enemy is visible.



SPEC andis-1 becomes Infantry, meaning he can shoot twice.



SPEC Shadowbound gets two rocket launchers just like SPEC Justokre.



SPEC SKILORD lives by the creed "More Dakka."



Heart! GOOOO PLANET!



Promoted people so far. This will get more interesting with time.



A UFO appears. We intercept it so Bradford doesn't whine.



nope.jpg



We have a robot friend. What shall we call it?



VIVA LA ROBOLUCION!



We sell three dead aliens to build a lab, like in Independence Day.



Not Baltimore! We gotta save the Ravens! Where else will we get pilots from???



Now that we've got some Specialists, we generally want to be building up a proto-officer corps that repeatedly goes on missions while also minting PFCs into proper SPECs, because specialized troops are way better than grunts. We'll be trying to take 3-4 PFCs per mission for the rest of this month. Don't ask why. Also don't ask "Why rockets?" Rockets aren't the answer. Rockets are the question.

The answer is yes.

MISSION 03: DEFIANT HAMMER

Hey, Bradford, thanks for the scripts, now go redo all the other images, ya weirdo.



Hey look, it's not a dam an auto-garage!



So we start out out as usual and I begin directing people to either side of the garage to move up along it.



Things get bumpy when it turns out the enemy is actually behind the garage. (Beta 9 added more variable enemy spawns.) As you can see, PFC DC123456789 is flanked by three enemies.



But you remember how I said rockets weren't the answer, but the question?



The answer is still yes.



The third Drone indecisively flees.



PFC The Farow doesn't care. He can hit 80% shots.



Next turn, SPEC Shadowbound moves up and triggers a Sectoid pod. PFC Popocornlord takes one down while on overwatch.



The other Sectoids ineffectually try to take revenge.



THE ANSWER IS STILL YES!



I collect some Meld. Meld's important. We haven't really seen it before in the Nega-Dam Realm. (Mental note: The Shadow Zone is what we call Shadowbound's effective range.) You'll see why it matters latter.



I also psychically take a third person selfie of me shooting another alien that stays inside Autozone. Get in the zone.



PFC The Farow misses a 60% shot. Again.



He gets missed too.



PFC DC123456789 plays peekaboo with an overwatching Sectoid.



PFC The Farow demonstrates his rifle is in fact cursed.



We ultimately wind up grenading this last Sectoid twice because it's clearly an Agent. Dodge this.



So ends Operation Defiant Hammer.



Yay promotions!



Yay stuff! You do want to sort of try and avoid using explosives to collect weapon fragments but whatever. Collateral damage? Welcome to Earf.

Oh I'm also a woman , what's the brain ? Will? I have the second highest .

Just make sure I get super powers!

Can I be Will Smith or Tom Cruise?

IT'S HAPPENING

allcaps

I think I'm just amazing at this game. That and the fact that I'm Canadian!!

It's good to know I'm consistent.

Shadowbound said:

...anyone not carrying a plasma rifle and loaded with grenades is just a waste of space.

Shadowbound - Heavy
There is no problem in the world that cannot be solved with a precise application of high explosive. The question is, what about problems that are out of this world?

Click to expand...

Daftpanzer said:

Shadowbound takes out one of the big critters, although firing hi-ex shots into a gas station with civilians around might not be such a great idea.

Click to expand...

Shadowbound said:

...I do not understand.

Click to expand...

pole475 also gets the official "welcome to erf" honor, which you forgot to mention.

Love the "noscope mailslot" sectoid. I read that section in Beagle's sectoid voice, so I think you achieved your intended goal there.

Why did I have to die first?!