III Chronicles of Phoenix Point: Phoenix Alone

[Blathergut]

Commander’s Diary: Phoenix Alone

The world, what’s left of it, is a fragmented place. The factions so distrust each other I would not be surprised if they ended up making war upon each other. Perhaps a million humans left on Earth and they are more likely to kill each other than work together to survive.

So here we are, a tiny group in the wilderness. We’ll make do with what we find out there or what we steal from the factions since they refuse to use their knowledge for the benefit of all. Hopefully this diary won’t end too abruptly!

[Goals:

-not ally with any faction (i.e., don’t do any faction missions since in this version of events they’d not actually offer them to us)
-no trading with factions for resources (since they wouldn’t)
-yes, do haven defences (since Pandorans are the enemy)(and in truth, anyone who would attack a haven is the enemy for that moment)
-only faction tech is stolen or retrieved from field
-only Phoenix base recruits or those found in the field (including the rare faction dude who comes along)
-geoscape events: whatever choice seems to benefit Phoenix at the moment]

[Blathergut]

First contact is with an Anu haven. They weren’t outright hostile with us and seemed to have a problem with some worms. Anything Pandoran deserves destruction so we offered to help them out. Right now we’ll take anything they offer us as payment.

[Sniper + Heavy head to the high ground. Both assaults stay right back, hopefully picking off worms as they approach. The chiron will hopefully overshoot if lobbing at the assaults and/or likewise if chucking at the two operatives up on the beam.]

T2:

We knew one worm would get close but figured there was enough machinery between us. Luckily we were correct! Sniper moves to the beam. Assault overwatches kept very short to help with accuracy.

Indeed, the chiron targets Lars up on the beam and two of the three worms fly off behind the heavy.

Blathergut + Miss Atomic keep killings worms (one grenade required so far). This turn requires reloads so things will be slightly trickier. The chiron continues to overshoot for the most part. Lars and Striker up on the beam have the beast down to half health or so.

The last round in the canon kills the chiron.

The assaults continue to kill worms.

The last worms die and experience is gained!

The Disciples start yapping about putting faith in the Exalted. Exalted Schmalted!

[First time ever picking that option!]

Rumour has it that word got to New Jericho about our wormfest and the Commander’s ‘Exalted Schmalted’ comment. Not quite as good as “Nuts!” but close.

[Blathergut]

Initial research shows the Mist returning to the world. Two patches, both relatively close to us. Oh joy!

The squad heads to another potential site, despite some exhaustion.

[Blathergut]

Looks like we’ll be dealing with the Disciples! Oiii!

[What are the odds of getting this one at the start of this Phoenix Alone campaign? As much as I’d like to choose the last option, we’ll take him since he’s seen the true light of reason!][And, any gun is a good gun!]

Okay, enough with Anu!

[Blathergut]

To the south we finally came upon a lone Synedrion haven in a sea of Anu worship. They too had a bit of a problem so we offered help.

[Unlike worms, these dudes shoot (and one of them is particularly nasty). We’ll use the building as cover while the sniper stays back and tries to nail a couple of the bandits as they move on us.]

Start of 3rd Turn:

[This seems to highlight the main problem with how the AI is moving. Bandit turn 1 saw two of them (the dead ones) run out into the open (sniper ow the far back one). PP turn 2 sees assaults + sniper kill both of them. Bandit turn 2 sees another one run out into the open. Please, dev team, if any of you ever see this, improve how the AI moves its units. They should always try to end in cover.]

There’s an infiltrator out there with a poison crossbow. Miss Atomic has taken hits twice. Thankfully she had two medkits with her. But we need to get to that infiltrator before the medkits run out! The Heavy + our new Berserker are poised to run out towards the threat.

A: Suspected location of the poison crossbow. B: Yet another annoying bandit. We’ll move to kill the bandit if our sniper and assaults can’t do it. Otherwise we will rush the crossbow location and hope to kill it before anyone dies of poison.

Matias Must Die! The critical sniper shot…

Matias Ain’t Dead Yet! The sniper shot hit but not enough. The assaults cleared everything else further up but remain back in positions. Can Lars do it? What are the odds of the canon actually hitting? [Why do I know all of you are shaking your heads?] He aims…squeezes the trigger…

WOOOOOHAAAAAA! He hits! Give that man a pepperoni pizza! (We regret to inform you that Matias is indeed dead (and resting in relatively small pieces)).

The Berserker peeks around…and spots the dastardly crossbower. Grenade…grenade…who forgot to pack the grenade?

Actually, he had one. But can he throw??? Oh, the suspense…

The answer: NO! The dummy almost drops it on his own foot. Arrgghhh! Maybe we should have gone with that last option!

The Heavy, Berserker, one assault, all rush the position. Luckily the bow had to be reloaded. Blathergut took the poison hit this time but had one medkit to fend off the stuff. Striker takes aim through a broken window…

WOOOHHAAAA! Hits AND disables arm!

Miss Atomic takes the final kill:

[Blathergut]

We stop off on the way back to base to scout one last potential site in the south. Our second scan works towards western Africa and the second Mist location instead of north towards the next suggested base location. It’s more important to go where the Mist is.

Resources are scarce to say the least. We managed to rangle stuff out of Syn for services rendered, but materials are scarce. We need to find some sites we can scavenge.

And find another Anu haven, of course. But again:

We opt again for a never-before-used option: The world can get better, just not the Synedrion way. Surprisingly, that is almost better for results than going the Syn route.

[Blathergut]

One really nice thing about gaining two recruits from the Anu havens: They both came with equipment! That is a godsend when playing on Legend! [Now, that NJ rifle will need to be researched once we run out of ammo, but we’ll deal with that then.]

[Blathergut]

Commander’s Diary: It’s been three days but it feels like it’s been 3 weeks. Anu seems to be a popular guy/girl/it around here. Let’s hope our relations with them don’t get too rough! My main worry is supplies and materials to keep us going. If we don’t find a source soon, this whole rising from the ashes might just end up another heap.

Sending the team to the peninsula to search a couple potential sites. I’ll scream if they report back more **** Anu havens!

[Blathergut]

First Site:

Better Abandoned than Anu!

Second Site:

Guess what? Another Anu haven! And yes, we can handle it. Bring it on!

There ya go! Don’t mess with us!

Okay, now, like, ummm, there ARE actually humans out there somewhere who aren’t mutated, right? So, we’re placing bets here back at the base as to whether that fourth site is an Anu haven. So far, no one is betting it’s not.

Site the Fourth:

Turned out to be some old buildings, abandoned servers supplied us with a nice bit of tech.

[Blathergut]

The team will wait where it is until a scan is available. That should get us within reach of the Mediterranean. Once that is activated, time to head to the southwest still in search of any sites we can scavenge resources from. Gotta be some out there, right? Right?

[Blathergut]

Received a message from some twit calling himself Agent 24 or something. (I know the true meaning of a two-four!) Realized he was asking us to do a hit on NJ. Agreed so he’d give us the location of our first known NJ haven! Hehehehe.

[Blathergut]

Finally! An Anu haven called, begging for our help from Pandorans swarming all over them. Time to calculate fees!

Til Barsip

Have never seen a squad deployment quite like this. Three on top of one building and 3 in a different building across the map.

As we dropped from the top of the one building, to go activate a defender, we realized there were 3 civilians on the floor below us. One made a dash for the evac zone but stopped short. Smarmy little triton down there. Probably more.

It took a bit of tricky maneuvering + some heal kits (including one used on a poisoned civilian who took a spit full of spit from an Arthron) but we managed it. Anu haven defenders were a big help. Fee collected.

[Blathergut]

Strangely, all the factions like us, despite our best attempts to not side with any one in particular! Go figure.

[Blathergut]

First Nest

A Pandoran nest was revealed during the defence of the Anu haven. We’ve decided to remove it now while it is still ‘small.’

Had wanted to start building a second lab (since we are not critically short of weapons and ammo yet so passing on a fabrication plant) but that would mean no materials left for ammo and such. So, not yet. Sadly, the nest will provide little material goods. We’ve heard tell of mythical sites where you can scavenge all the resources you want.

First: Pick a direction for the team to move in so they concentrate fire. A: Sniper initial position to cover our derrieres. B: Direction we will go, Heavy leading the way.

Lars (heavy) moves up and reveals a couple eggs. Blathergut (assault) dashes up, destroys one egg, reveals we are in one large area, and an Arthron awaits at the other end. He’ll move back so the rocks intervene and block. Miss Atomic will dash up, destroy second egg, and seek cover. The other two will set up overwatch in the same section as the sniper.

Sniper overwatch killed the arthron. Positioning as shown + overwatch took down another two arthrons. We also heard a sentinel popping eggs, so one must be close. There’s a facehugger and a triton to deal with, but they shouldn’t be too tricky.

In the next turn, an egg, a facehugger, a triton, and an arthron all go down to either direct fire or overwatch.

A bit of movement reveals that sentinel we heard.

The sentinel dies but there must still be at least one more. We pick a direction. Miss Atomic covers one half of our derriere. Our berserker, with an incredibly inaccurate assault rifle, covers the other.

Thank all the gods for NJ armour. Blaze took 3 grenades from arthrons that came around that corner. Lars’s canon took one down as it moved. Now, let’s see…

A: Heavy will move forward. If he has a shot, he’ll use the canon. If not, then hopefully get within bashing range. B: Blathergut with 6WP so enough for one dash. Dash forward, aim for crab legs, and hopefully kill. C: Berserker who is probably too far to move into melee range, but he should be able to hit something with the rifle at fairly close range, right? D: Blaze, having healed from the 3 grenades. Best move will be overwatch unless one of the arthrons is revealed to her momentarily.

We hear a second sentinel popping eggs. Not sure just where it is, but we’ll move slow and overwatch for now, while Miss Atomic catches up and we make sure everyone regains will power.

[Interesting note: In the previous fight, the NJ rifle was damaged. It has NOT regained health.]

We finally found the second one. Nothing else showed up. Nice experience gain.

[Blathergut]

Day 8 and Exploration West: Commander’s Diary

Well, our ‘luck’ continues. Out of six potential sites, four were Anu havens. The other two offered some resources. We’ll let the scan continue and will head up to the Mediterranean and explore a bit up there. A second base of operations would be nice.

We need a second ship. But there are none in site on the geoscape.

Change of plans. Several sites of interest have appeared on the maps in that central west section of Africa, so we’ll go there, to reveal in case of Mist attacks.

[Blathergut]

Finally, in the wilderness, there appears:

Can we pull it off? They can be so deadly…

Yes we do. Only thing that saved us was we managed to keep 3 or 4 Syn ops wounded and they spent half their turns healing each other and only shooting at us once per turn.

[Blathergut]

[Day 10 and no scavenging missions. Perhaps the potential availability of them could be increased? All the new versions are interesting but it is a bit disappointing to not find one so far.]

[Blathergut]

Commander’s Diary: With two ships and two teams we can start to cover more ground in search of the elusive, mythical scavenging sites.

A: Original ship heads back west, to continue around the Mist area. B: heads north to explore there and to eventually start a scan from Symes Retreat in search of that Mediterranean base.

Up north an uncovered Anu haven offers the locations of 3 scavenging sites for a handful of tech. We readily agree! Finally!

[Blathergut]

And over on the west coast we discover a second Phoenix base. Slightly the worse for wear, but we’ll get it back into operational shape.

We’ll repair power and get the research lab functioning and then go from there. Resources are now scarce again, but we are all hoping those scavenging sites the Anu mapped for us pay off. If not, I know where we’re getting some needed resources!

[Blathergut]

Just as we fly over and spot a haven, signs of Pandoran attack can be seen! We will help.

Oaxaca

[I do love this map! Such gorgeous colours.]

One lone triton left. We were actually hoping it would kill one of the Syn defenders and we could pick up a dropped rifle, but doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.

Experience Gained:

Fees Collected: