Report of my veteran (own experience and also difficulty) playing style

[MadSkunky]

Because of some discussions how to start and play the game on veteran difficulty (for instance here: How to reach Antartica - #16 by sectoid_br) I decided to report regularly from my new campaign. This hopefully gives unexpierienced players some insights of game mechanics and also describes what I think what is essential to survive the first stage(s) of the game without to much problems.

Own conditions for this campaign:

• Veteran difficulty level.

• No classic save scumming, but I reserve the right to restart missions if things go really bad.

• No ‘abuse’ of the game mechanics, i.e. little to no raids at all, stealing research, ‘permanent’ trading of resources, mutual sabotage missions to push the reputation for everyone and so on. I will do some of these things as needed, but I will not “take advantage” of them.
  Edit: I already have done some “exploits”, see below in the reports, but I still don’t want to do something repeatedly … if I can resist ;-).

• … (will be expanded if questions arise)

[MadSkunky]

First report, date 07.01.2047:

Things I’ve done in the first week:

• The starting area in Southwest Asia is favorable, many Synedrion and Anu havens in the vicinity and at least one NJ haven found:
  

  
  
  As shown with the yellow arrows I already have Synedrion supportive. They were attacked once, just as Anu once had to be defended. I have not yet destroyed the Pandoran nest, on the one hand I wanted to do the 25% mission for Synedrion first and on the other hand this way there is no long pause for the next attack on a haven from this nest.

• Diplomacy overview:
  

  
  
  As said above, one haven defence for Synedrion and also for Anu. I also had a Point of Interest (POI) where I chose Synedrion (Anu or NJ would also have been possible), with which the 25% limit to be supportive was reached. Then I selected the Terraformers and completed their mission.

• I haven’t built or produced anything to save resources for 1 factory, 2 scarabs and a manticore. The factory is ready and the 3 vehicles are in the production queue:
  
  All of this should be ready in the end of the second week or little later.

• I already split my team after the first haven defence to train my “A-Team” faster:
  

  
  
  I’m experienced enough to do the first missions with only 3 soldiers, but I definitely can’t advise this for inexperienced players.
  This A-team will be completed with the first Scarab and then there are only a few problems in the early stages that this team could not solve alone.
  The second Manticore, second Scarab and the two (Edit: three) other soldiers will then build the second team. Currently I have not planned to recruit one additional soldier, but I have one interesting in the PP recruiting pool, maybe I will take him.
  Edit: I took him, he is a Heavy and because of the “HAPPYHEAVYHOLIDAYS” gift I have a complete setup for him, I like it

Next report will come roughly in the second week in game … If it’s interesting enough for some readers (?). If not, I’ll end this in a moment

[1117]

Again the mechanics of the game, I find it “backwards”/counter-intuiatative not to destroy Nests to get more attacks on Havens to reap Reputation and Resources…

I understand your choise of strategy, but think it is yet a flaw in game-design.

(Sorry if you didn’t want comments, and I’m not seeking to start discussion on the topic, just saying it is hard to achive succes in the game with-out exploiting some game-designs I personally see as loop-holes. - And that in-expirienced players have no chance of. Hence good idea with your post here, only Snapshot should guide new players better in game …)

I will delete this post/comment if you wish to make room for your playthrough. Cheers.

[MadSkunky]

@1117

Again the mechanics of the game, I find it “backwards”/counter-intuiatative not to destroy Nests to get more attacks on Havens to reap Reputation and Resources…

I agree, it is somewhat counter-intuitive and I only do that when it is like in a given situation as it was described above:

• Synedrion was at 24% after their initial mission, one POI and one defence. Would I had destroyed the nest immediately without doing the blocking Synedrion mission to get supportive first I would “waste” 5 rep points for them.
• Anu was not far away to get also supportive.

I usually destroy the bases immediately, but in these circumstances, strategically speaking, it was far better for me not to.

@1117

Sorry if you didn’t want comments, and I’m not seeking to start discussion on the topic
…
I will delete this post/comment if you wish to make room for your playthrough.

No problem, I like to discuss anything and here we have some real ingame facts to see what happens in different cases. So keep on commenting

[MadSkunky]

Report from 15.01.2047:

• The most important is now ready for action, the second Manticore with also 3 soldiers and a Scarab:
  

  
  
  The A-Team is quite high levelled for this time, reducing their numbers early on has paid off. Of course, this also comes with the disadvantage that the B-Team is completely inexperienced, but I think I can compensate for that over time.

• Even when I got lucky with my start location (see my first report, all 3 factions not far and a big cluster of havens nearby), something went on more unlucky, because the second outbreak of mist happened on the other side of the world in South America and also near a cluster of Synedrion Havens (with whom I prioritize an alliance). The third mist then appeared in North America and it was clear for me that I have to activate my first base in Central America, also to create a way there (North America was already accessible):
  

  
  • The yellow arrows are two destroyed Synedrion havens, I had no chance to get there at the time they were attacked.
  • The red arrow is my A-Team on the way to this region.
  • The green arrow is the first mission for the Living Weapons side missions, that’s why I go with my A-Team there instead of the B-Team.

• Around my starting base anything is going on as it should. After two additional haven defences, again Anu and Synedrion, I finally destroyed the Nest what brings me to the supportive mission for Anu. Now I can see also all of their havens, what will help a lot in the near future:
  

  
  
  B-Team is ready to go, I will first explore anything that is left there and maybe do the one scavenging site there.

• Diplomacy:
  

  
  
  As I said above, Anu is now also supportive, NJ still down a bit, but maybe I do a sabotage mission for them to get them also at the same level. Unfortunately it would go against Synedrion and as first priority I still want to be alligned ASAP with them. So I will wait until I have achieved this goal.

• What also happens in this week:

  • The Pure appeared, but I refused their "Humble Request", mainly because I don’t want to diminish my reputation with NJ (the mission would “cost” -8 reputaion).
  • After the Symes Retreat mission and exploring the “Rise by sin, by virtue fall” story POI I instantly researched “Project Glory” and immediately do the “Saving Helena” mission afterwards. This mission is rewarded with 900 research points what is really a lot in the early stages. This “shortcut” is of course a bit abusing the system, but it helps so much that I couldn’t resist doing it that way.
  • With the help of this exploit I have now researched a lot that normally takes much longer. Including the PP shotgun, the Goliath grenade launcher and also reverse engeneering of the Bulldog AR, the Pythagoras SR and the Hephaestus pistol.

Edit, 16.01.2047:
Only one day later, the game decides to make me very lucky again.

The Pure selecting a Synedrion haven for their first attack:

I’ve also got one haven event that provides a little reputation gain for Synedrion, currently:

A successful defence could probably let me aligned with them, much earlier as I would have expected …

I will edit the result in here after the mission is done …

Edit, the result:

The defence was a cakewalk even for my inexperienced B-Team, thanks mostly to the Scarab with its rockets and the Heavy for jump in, bash and shot the last one in the next and last turn:

Two of them levels up, I’m very pleased with that.

And now I can go for the 2 alignment missions for Synedrion:

Next edit will follow after the two missions, I’m curious how it will turn out that early in the game …

Edit, both missions done, Synedrion is aligned now, date is 18.01.2047:

I joined both Squads, it took two days to get my A-Team from South America to Africa for these missions but it was worth it. All soldiers get a good amount of EXP and some also levels up. The Heavy of my A-Team is now level 7 and get dual classed with Infiltrator (I know, it’s OP, but I like it ):

The A-Team will completely dual class into Infiltrator, all of them have the Thief perk and I will make a full stealth team out of them. For this I have to build Styx armor and also Crossbows etc for them. This will take a while and of course also a good amount of resources.

[MadSkunky]

Third week, date is 22.01.2047:

• Not much happened since the my last report, just the usual routine:

  • Repair of the base that I got from the Synedrion alignment mission “The Man Who Would Be Pirate King” and building a satellite uplink.

  • Another synedrion haven defense on the way from the B-Team to Central America.

  • Exploring some POIs in Africa and South America, 2 teams exploring at the same time is really much more effective. So I got enough resources to start building my first Helios that should be ready around 26th January.

• My plan is to man this Helios with my A-Team and the second Heavy from the B-Team, who also has the Thief perk. That should then be THE A-Team, completely invisible and very dangerous. At some point this will be completed with a Priest with the Frenzy mutation head and that should then form my usual OP superman team. So far I have always created at least one of such a team in my campaigns, simply to be able to quickly and easily complete the sometimes very annoying and never-ending missions in the middle to end part of the game.

• The two manticores will then be manned with one scarab each and initially only one soldier. This should be enough for exploration, ambushes are no problem thanks to the Scarab and even easy haven defences could be feasible. These two teams are gradually being filled with new recruits to make them complete again.

• Then I will see how far I can go with these, at least one more aircraft is definitely necessary for mining the LotA resources.

No pics this time because not much changed since the last big one

Edit:
Because it is enough for today a little summary at this point:

• 0 aircraft stolen, 0 raids, 0 research stolen, 0 sabotage missions, no trades
• Recruit one additional soldier from PP for food only
• Gaining resources only by exploring POIs, haven defences (not really much, to be honest) and missions
• With that I’ve build 1 fab, 2 Scarabs, 1 Manticore, 3 Mercy SG, 1 Syn SR, 1 Syn pistol, 2 Goliath GL
• Activated one additional base in Central America, repaired all facilities there and build a satellite uplink
• Repaired the base that I got from the Syn mission and also build a satellite uplink
• Completed the first two missions from the Living Weapons sidequest, so I have the armor and the AR
• Anu supportive at 38%, NJ friendly at 10%, Synedrion aligned at 65%(!)
• Population at 88%
• 4 havens were destroyed by the Pandorans, 1 Anu, 1 NJ, 2 Synedrion

Edit:
I forgot to mention one important thing, Lairs, Chirons and Sirens are introduced now …

[sectoid_br]

So, that’s what we were discussing in the other topic: by the 2nd week you did not have 25% with all (you said “pretty sure”), and by 3rd you didn’t have a helios built, even though you went all in on syn.

That’s why I said those claims would heavily depend on RNG! It’s not really pretty sure to reach 25% with all by 2nd week, specially if you don’t start up in a great place like you did. All, of course, playing the way you played until now:

@MadSkunky

0 aircraft stolen, 0 raids, 0 research stolen, 0 sabotage missions, no trades

It makes the game harder, but also more fun, in my opinion. You can still achieve great results (like you did) this way if you play it right / is an experienced player. It’s also more tense / stressful, but playing abusing things is boring and repetitive, which is much worse.

Great topic and it’s really nice to be able to compare step by step the playstyles! I think the thing I usually do most different is that I activate more bases. Well, I’ve never began in middle Asia, so I had to or I would be too far away to rest but I also wanted to activate bases that were about to be overrun… I see now with your example that this is not worth it, bases are too expensive to activate repair and build additional buildings. It must’ve taken up a lot of my resources, even though I tried to activate only the ones that were crucial to enable better exploration for me.

Edit: also, my last campaign was before I got the advice here on the forum to use 2 ships with smaller teams from the beginning. I think I started with an 8-man team with 2 manticores. Too much for the beginning, this led to:
1 - it was a cakewalk in the tactics part until mid-february
2 - my soldiers took too long to level up
3 - the soldiers in base while I was building team B lagged behind, specially because I had only one TC

My previous campaign before that was in July/2020 I think (forgot the patch name… just before DLC2). In that time the game was not so easy in january, you already got all kinds of enemies and not only melee ones, and the habit of building a strong initial force stuck with me. Since this changed, it makes no sense anymore, it’s much better to split into smaller teams!

[MadSkunky]

@sectoid_br

by the 2nd week you did not have 25% with all (you said “pretty sure”), and by 3rd you didn’t have a helios built, even though you went all in on syn.

@MadSkunky

After 2nd week?
Then I’ve already build the second Manticore + 1 Scarab and pretty sure all 3 faction on 25% …
… probably even the first Helios is build in the third week …

After the 2nd week, not by
I think can probably get NJ to 25% and the Helios in this week.
I could have a manticore earlier, I had the resources but just didn’t build it because of the way it goes up with Synedrion, so I wait to get the Helios
The focus on Synedrion has also hold me back for NJ, otherwise I would have done one sabotage for NJ to get them also on 25%.
(Edit: I thought about it earlier on, look at the report from 15.01., NJ was on 9%, one sabotage and I would have them on 24%, exactly the value to get them supportive but I was greedy to get Syn aligned ASAP and the sabotage would decrease their reputation)

Anyway, it is still very random and here again I got lucky with my starting position but somehow unlucky with the second mist. The two not defended and destroyed Syn havens “cost” -6 rep …

I also run in problems in my first campaigns until I realised that it is not a good idea to recruit so many soldiers when the vehicles are much cheaper (compared 3 soldiers to 1 vehicle) but very effective in the early game. The same with bases, you need maybe one or two additional bases in the first weeks but not much more. It is simply way to expensive.

[MadSkunky]

(Edit: Probably not so) short report, 24.01.2047:

Now another milestone is reached. After some decisions at POIs in favor for NJ and another nest destroyed I got them also supportive. Later than originally expected (@sectoid_br ) but still in good time and Synedrion is short before to get allied:

Edit, just a couple of minutes (real time) later it pays off tying to cover the mist outbreak in South America:

A successful defence will bring me to the allied mission for Synedrion. It is “only” my B-Team but I’m pretty sure to solve this with them.

Next edit will follow after I got all things done to get allied … or not if I fail.

Another edit, 27.01.2047:
I got the mission successfully done and now I’m allied with Synedrion, pretty early, much earlier than expected:

On the way to this mission I got another haven defence for Synedrion but against the Forsaken.

I rearrange my teams as described in the last report, one A-Team and two exploring teams:

Somehow the game seems to prioritize to attack Synedrion, another one from the Pandorans happens in South America and I doubt that can get there in time and even when it will be a tough fight because I assume Chirons and/or Sirens and only a Manticore with one soldier and a Scarab is there. A Lair is also shown up down there and I will try to destroy it with my new A-Team (currently in Europe after the Synedrion mission):

As shown in the picture, the Pandoran also attack a NJ haven in Asia, but luckily they will get defeated, the haven is too strong.

Now the pace ramps up …

[MadSkunky]

An intermediate report, just to show what happens when one of these small teams get ambushed:

The Scarab is a beast in such ambushes, it crippled almost any enemy and the Sniper only cleans up with his pistol. Because the Scarab doesn’t get any EXP this is a very fast way to train soldiers, but of course dependant on RNG.

@MadSkunky

attack Synedrion, another one from the Pandorans happens in South America and I doubt that can get there in time and even when it will be a tough fight because I assume Chirons and/or Sirens and only a Manticore with one soldier and a Scarab is there.

I got there in time and it took some turns but finally I won the fight. There were 2 Sirens, 1 Arthron and a handful Tritons and my one Assault was most of the time in the Scarab, only jumping out for one shot and then back in.
The result is not as good as an ambush because the Synedrion defenders has “stolen” some EXP:

[Blathergut]

Starting to miss writing up a Chronicles! Been enjoying this!

[MadSkunky]

Report, 31.01. - 03.02.2047:

Since the last report my 2 small teams explored a lot and so I got the resources to build the necessary stealth equipment (Styx armour and crossbows) for my A-Team including Vengeance Torso and Mirage Leg bionics for the two Assault/Infiltrators. Now they are really full stealth and ready to rumble almost anything. The only part that is missing for the two Assaults is a melee weapon, but after a successful haven defence for Anu they were also ready to align with me:

My 3 Teams:

The second heavy has to go a long way to also reach level 7, because the others will constantly get more XP because they are already very strong. I will try to let him do some damage and kills, but I assume it will be not really much.

One of the two OP Assault/Infiltrators, now with the newly build Marduk’s Fist:

• The crossbow is nice to shot and maybe kill some weaker enemies from some distance with its 120 damage for 1AP.
• Melee attacks with 320 damage also for 1 AP with Vengeance Torso, therefore Vanish is absolutely necessary and also speed to close the distance.
• The current WP are enough for Vanish, Rapid Clearance and 2 Dashes, but then he has to kill something otherwise he will be “empty”
• Assault rifle and shotgun for anything else.
• Styx helmet, Vengeance Torso, Mirage Legs together with the Thief perk give them 100%.
• They could be faster with different equipment, but I like it to be more stealthy.

The other look similar, but equipped with a Daimos instead of the Danchev AR and with different personal perks except the Thief. He has Quarterback, very good for the +2 speed, and Self Defense, so that I will switch the Daimos to the Gorgon Eye PDW later on (OP + OP = ?).

The level 7 Heavy/Infiltrator:

• IMO one of the best damage dealer and supporter especially for the two Assault/Infiltrators.
• This one has very nice personal perks together with the Thief perk, Biochemist in combination with the Deceptor is very strong and is also good with assault rifles that he can also use with Trooper (I will switch the Bulldog later on to the Danchev AR, 2 more bullets means 2 more Virus on the enemy + Acid).
• Grenade launcher in combination with Sneak Attacks double damage … I think here is nothing more to say

On the 03.02.2047 Citadels and Scyllas were introduced:

From now on it will be very difficult for my two small teams, but I also want to avoid sending them on difficult missions. Their main task is the exploration and possibly light haven defences.

My A-Team should be able to handle Citadels and Scyllas but because they are also only a pretty small team it will be not really easy.

In the meantime, a haven defence for NJ has emerged and with that plus the necessary 2nd Phase mission those are now also aligned. The 2nd Phase mission was easy with my A-Team, I should have tried it with one of my small ones, well, time is money
Diplomacy at 03.02.2047:

• Aligned and shortly before to get allied with Anu
• Aligned with NJ, still some way to go to get allied, but now with Lairs and Citadels …
• 100% with Synedrion

That is all for now, next report in roughly one ingame week … or so.

[sectoid_br]

Wow I see we play very differently in the tactical part. I like to have options and diversity, plus I’ve not played that much (only 3 partial campaigns and the game changes a lot constantly so we have to keep exploring things), so I always want to have different classes.

So I have a honest question: in this particular campaign it seems that you like playing more to win / optimize your win than to have fun with all the options the game gives (you only have assaults, infs and heavies, for example). Is it because you’re already familiar with everything? Don’t you find it a bit boring to play this way? Or is this specific run about optimizing things to see how well a player can do?

I’m asking because I love when I have a situation that is perfect for a build I have, so having lots of different builds enable me to have those moments more often, and more different ones. I also find fun in creating a build around a soldier’s random perks. I also like all classes, I would miss priests and technicians specially.

Note that I’m no criticizing anything, just curious because my brain is wired against this type of focus, I like options and diversity. I’m also learning a lot here, I would never try a team of 1 vehicle and 1 soldier, I’m a cautious person and I’ve not used vehicles much.

[MadSkunky]

@sectoid_br

So I have a honest question: in this particular campaign it seems that you like playing more to win / optimize your win than to have fun with all the options the game gives (you only have assaults, infs and heavies, for example). Is it because you’re already familiar with everything? Don’t you find it a bit boring to play this way? Or is this specific run about optimizing things to see how well a player can do?

It is some of all

• I have also a Sniper and a Technician (found recently at a POI), but these are in my “small Teams”. For this run, after the start and looking at my given soldiers, 3 of them with Thief perk, I decided to build a pure stealth team. If the starting Sniper would have Thief, then he would be in the A-Team.

• I think I’m familiar with many things in the game, though probably not all.

• I find it boring to solve one missions after another only with such an OP team, but I also find it much more boring to just have so much missions in a short time frame especially in this mid game situation when one haven attack is following by the next one and so many other missions are waiting to do (Since around 2 weeks I could do the first ancient weapon research mission, but I’m simply too busy). So the first boring part is to minimize the second boring part … looks stupid, but is that in any way understandable?

• BUT, I also have to admit that it is still fun for me to get the max out of such a relative small team. Don’t forget, the current A-Team has only 4 squaddies and will have not more than 5 and goes against Sirens, Chirons and for now on also Scyllas.

• Almost any campaign I try to optimize things, but what I optimize is different from run to run.

I also like to have different builds for different situations, but in this campaign it somehow drives me to minimal teams with one almost maximal skilled OP Team.
I don’t know, it simply happens how it happens, I haven’t planned all this except to go with these 3 Thief perk soldiers. The rest is pretty much reaction on the given random situations.

And you pointed it out in the end, it is very challenging when one of these small and unexpierienced Scarab teams get ambushed or I try to defend a haven, that is enough thrill from time to time.

[MadSkunky]

09.02.2047, this time more text and less pictures, it simply happens too much in the last few days.

As first my squads, this time I split the overview for every aircraft.

The (mostly) full stealth Helios OP squad is now full:

I recruited an Infiltrator and got again lucky that he also has the Thief perk. I immediately dual classed him to a Priest with PP skillpoints to get the Frenzy head right away. His Thief perk is on level 6, so it will take a while to get him more stealthy, but 100% are not possible anyway because of the mutated head, which has -10% stealth. To get him as stealthy as possible I gave him also the Shadow leg mutation which provides +30% stealth instead the +20% from the Styx legs. This way he has now 65% (30% + 20% - 10% + 25% when hidden) and then with the Thief perk 90%. This value is almost as good as 100% because an enemy with 60 perception (AFAIK the highest for enemies) would spot him at 6 tiles distance and with 100% it would be 5 tiles because of the minimum reveal distance.
That’s why I called this squad mostly full stealth

The 1st Manticore squad, exploring and covering Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia:

For this “Squad” I also recruit an Infiltrator, this one without Thief and I also gave him a new name, his original was … problematic, at least in my opinion. And no, I’m not very resourceful when it comes to naming
Currently I have no plan what I will do with him, also a reason why I recruited another Infiltrator, because for me they are always useful even when not dual classed.

The 2nd Manticore squad, exploring and covering North and South America:

Here I have a not really new Technician who I found on a POI and a pretty new Armadillo from a vehicle scavenging mission, done with this team but of course the initial Scarab, this was a tough fight and I liked it a lot. The Scarab is currently to repair in the central America base, he got some serious hits in this mission.
The Tech has also the Thief perk (in this campaign it seems to me that the game push me to go stealthy with everything …), but also here I haven’t decided yet what I do with him, I think I stay simply with solo Technician.

Diplomacy is going only up, Anu and Synedrion are already allied and for NJ I’m on the way to the mission to get also allied.

Some havens are lost, there were so many attacks in this couple of days that I would need 5-6 teams to cover everything. Synedrion lost again 2 havens, NJ also one and only Anu could defend 2 attacks successfully.

I also killed the first Scylla, of course in a Synedrion haven defence. The Pandorans still focus them massively. They were attacked almost twice as often as the other two factions combined.

I also activated some bases.
Now I have 7 of them and with 5 labs and 3 fabs research and also manufacturing is in a good shape for this time. Mutation lab, bionic lab and also containment are ready and now I have to catch some living pandorans for vivisection.
I have also build 2 training centres in central America and another 2 in Asia to gain some EXP when a Sqad needs some rest and also for additional soldiers that will come later (I still have 3(!) rescue soldiers scavenging sites to go).

I think this is all for today, the current pace is insane and not really funny.

[sectoid_br]

Curious, I’ve always had a common perk too, at least in the beginning of the game… most soldiers come with the same perk! Have you had this before?

[MadSkunky]

Sometimes yes, but I wouldn’t say it is generally like this.
I think coincidences and probabilities sometimes behave as if there was a plan behind them, which is usually not the case. Rolling a 6 three times in a row is still pure random.

[MadSkunky]

This time a not so long bullet-point report, the in-game date is 21.02.2047:

Many days have passed since the last status report, I have done almost only some routine work, but some important milestones and missions have also been completed.

• The first Citadel was destroyed and research started immediately and was finished a few days later. With this I can now see all Pandoran bases as soon as they appear in the scan area of ​​my bases.

• Almost all POIs have been explored, only a few are left over.

• I was able to capture a Scylla in my second citadel. It was a long and tough fight as I only had the Neurazer. But thanks to my biochemist Heavy, the Scylla was in constant panic. Nevertheless, I had to fight the permanent reinforcements during the many turns until she was finally paralysed. As a bonus, I also paralysed and captured two sirens.

• I worked through all the missions to get the blueprints for the ancient weapons one after the other, that took up the most time. The research for these weapons are now also finished and the whole globe was scanned for the ancient sites. Next step will be to conquer at least one mine of each type and the corresponding processing sites.

• Several Pandoran bases were destroyed, so I am now 100% with all factions. The research of the Citadel has paid off, it has been quieter for a few days, there are fewer haven attacks. Still, I couldn’t prevent some of the havens from being destroyed. However, the population is still within reasonable limits at 72%.

• I’ve build one more Helios and manned it with the Armadillo, the Technician (level 6) and the starting Sniper (now also level 7). It will be a serve as a fast response team. Currently they didn’t see any action, but I’m curious how they will work together.

• The Phoenix Point story line is short before the “Seeking Dr. Symes” parts.

• The latest Pandoran evolution report brings the next hurdle to the scene, the Umbra Arthron. Also the Goo Chirons are introduced, time to capture one to get the Goo shoes

---

Remark:
There are no pictures this time, I was simply too much “in game” and forgot to take screenshots
I could make one from diplomacy or my squads but there has not so much changed since the last report (except the above mentioned new Helios).

And I hope I didn’t forget something

[MadSkunky]

Little report in between, because I wanted to test auto turrets.

• The test: Phoenix Point - Year One Edition - Scavenging 19 packs - #19 by MadSkunky

• Copy/paste of the little report for this scavenging mission, done with my newly created Helios team with the Armadillo, Sniper and Technician (+ Scorcher AT & Rattlesnake AT):

@MadSkunky

• The Scorcher got killed by an Arthron Umbra after he killed the host
• The Rattlesnake killed 3 additional foes in the whole mission, not really much worse than a Scorcher.
• My Sniper / Infiltrator was able to paralyse 2 Trirons and one Arthron, killed another 3 Arthrons and a Triton, but also got 2 head shots from Tritons (good to have the Technician in this really small team).
• The Armadillo serves as a bullet sponge and has received multiple hits, but for that it’s on this team.
• The Technician heals the Sniper 3 times, repairs the Armadillo 2 times and otherwise collected resources (scavenging site), took control over the Rattlesnake from time to time (not more than once per turn)
• Anything collected that was in the crates + some weapons from the dead pandorans.
• It was challenging, tense and funny. This small team has proven that it can do such scavenging missions, I like it.

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And another tiny milestone:

@MadSkunky

Also the Goo Chirons are introduced, time to capture one to get the Goo shoes

This is done and the Goo Repeller Modules are ready (pic copied from another thread, where I wrote about these modules):

[MadSkunky]

28.02.2047

See also the report above with the scavenging site and the Goo repeller module.

I did another two scavenging mission with this team and these were a bit more difficult but also nice to play because of the challenge. This two man team with Armadillo works pretty nicely together. The Sniper deals the most damage and has also the most kills while the Armadillo is playing a real tank and is, together with the Technician and his repair ability, really hard to hurt for the enemies. The Technician is the real heart of this trio. I’m pretty sure, without him I wouldn’t be able to do these missions so successful.

I have also conquered 2 of the ancient resource gathering and their corresponding processing sites for Crystal and Orichalcum with my full stealth OP team. The two Assault-Infs are slashing sleeping Hoplits and one of the Heavie-Infs Rage Bursts the Guardian. Especially in these ancient site missions a full stealth team killing with melee is simply OP because the enemies have no chance. A vanished soldier can kill a Hoplit silently and the next one only 1 or 2 tiles away still sleeps and thanks to Rapid Clearance he is just a moment later also scrap. Finally the guardian is also down with only one Deceptor Rage Burst thanks to the double damage bonus.
Is this fun? Well, yes and no, it is fast and fearless and on the other side it turns into a repetitive routine job but has to be done to get these resources.

The two good old Manticores are now stationed there to gather these resources and I already build 2 Scyther and 3 Crystal Crossbows. Next step is to conquer one Protean Mutane Field and the Raffinery to get also the third ancient resource, needed for the Shardgun (SG), the Rebuke (GL) and also the Scorpion (SR). But before this I have to do a base defence on my training base in China.

The Geoscape of this region:

The two arrows are the two resource gathering sites with the Manticores and in 8 hours the Pandorans trying to attack my base in China. I have my OP Helios A-Team there, so this should be no real problem, just another mission of the many to do.

Nothing has changed in diplomacy, all three factions are still on 100%.

The Pandorans attacked more NJ havens in the last days so that they are now down to 26 havens, Synedrion has 23 left and Anu has lost overall only two havens with 36 left. In the last days I only did haven defences when I’m already in the vicinity but focused to destroy new Pandoran bases ASAP.
And the population is with 68% still OK, at least for me.

Overall, it has become much quieter and also more pleasant to play since the research of the Citadel and thus the revealing of the Pandoran bases. The fast destruction of these bases takes a lot of pressure off the havens and so there were only few attacks, rarely two at once.
To optimize that I also activated as much bases as I can with the given resources, now I have 15 out of 19. I’m not sure if I will activate all until the end, currently I have a good cover over the globe and I think it is enough to reduce the Pandorans activities.

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That should be all for today.
Tomorrow I will do the base defence, conquering the two needed sites for Mutane and then slowly but surely work towards the end.