Another intermediate report, this time not really short, in-game date 19.03.2047:
In the time Syndrion need to get the Moon Launcher Site ready I almost sit around waiting for new bases or an haven attack in the vicinity where I can react in time. I let other havens far away simply go, population is still OK so that I don’t bother about some lost havens.
Now I thought to myself, this is a good time to try something that I always wanted to test: The conquest of an ancient site with only one soldier, of course fully levelled and with what I think is the most OP build in the game.
Because I have absolutely no idea about video creation, it will be another picture story with text descriptions and, as well as I managed it, step by step, but not every single move, just the important ones.
Here the mission:
It is day light, so no problem to spot the guardians early enough.
The “Squad” selection:
I wanted to test this with an Assault / Infiltrator because I think this is the best build for this sort of mission.
This squaddy more in detail:
I already described this build in the past (see above this report), here some additional infos:
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Now full levelled, Speed is 24 with all of his equipment and personal skills and also 100% stealth thanks Thief.
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With IMO the best equipment in the game for this build, Scyther, Crystal Crossbow and Shardgun, all of them ancient weapons and on its own already very strong if not OP. He also has the Self defense specialist perk so he could use the Gorgon Eye A but in the last missions I didn’t used it so that I switched to the ancient crossbow with lower damage but much more accuracy. The Vidar light grenade launcher is only a tertiary weapon and also pretty seldom in usage. Main weapons are the Scyther and the Shardgun, mostly for overwatches, because it can kill an Umbra with one hit.
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The motion detection module. Although the name suggests it would detect “motion”, it is actually able to detect also the sleeping guardians as the description also indicates:
Locate all nearby enemies, even behind obstructions
“Locate” or “detect” means that you get the red blips as when one soldiers hears something close by. AFAIK this module is the only way to detect the inactive guardians, hearing seems to not work because, I guess, they don’t do something and the Priests Mind Sense also doesn’t work, I assume because these guardians have no “mind”.
Now let’s start this:
My initial plan was to first spot the upper left corner as well as the most part of the upper side, I should have a good vision to the the whole area. After this move I want to go into the direction of the plateau and from there along this plateau in the direction of the upper right corner.
On the way to the first position I spotted the Cyclops on the other side of the map as well as 2 Hoplits on the way up to the plateau.
I used the second turn to move closer to these 2 Hoplits:
One of them is lying on the ground level and the other on the first elevation, that implicates for the next turn to kill first the upper one and then jump down to kill the second. I assumed that my movement points wouldn’t be enough to get them the other way around and I didn’t want to use more WP for a Dash, Vanish and Rapid Clearance already cost 9 but here I can get “only” 4 back by killing these two Hoplits.
At the end of the 3rd turn these two were cleared with enough movement left over to go to the lower right corner on the plateau:
Nothing there, so the next moves are along this Plateau in the direction of the Cyclops and looking if there are some Hoplits on the way.
It took me 3 additional turns to spot the whole plateau, but nothing was there, it seems that all the guardians are grouped together by the Cyclops, except the two near my spawn.
In the mid of my move in the 6th turn I spotted one Hoplit and got another 3 blips from other Hoplits nearby, perfect circumstances for a Rapid Clearance move that I can start immediately:
Vanish would bring me close enough to the nearest target for a Scyther attack and so 2 additional AP for all the rest.
The end of the 6th turn:
In the area of the red circle were all in all 5 Hoplits and so enough to move closer to the Cyclops and spotting 2 additional Hoplits.
For the next turn I planned to kill the one Holit further away as first, then moving a bit closer to the Cyclops to kill the second Hoplit and finally I should have enough AP to kill also the Cyclops.
It worked out with one Dash to close the distance to kill the first Hoplit and after moving in melee range to the Cyclpos, killing from there the second Hoplit I got the 4 AP needed for the final strike:
The last srike …
No more guardians left, mission done:
A little review:
Assault / Infiltrator with Thief, Vengeance Torso and Scyther is OP as hell. POINT!
IMO it is currently the most OP build in the game, at least for my play style.
Now, was this challenging?
I would say it was at least a good thrill, because when the soldier gets only one time spotted and for this revealed, it would maybe end in a disaster. Losing only one soldier isn’t normally a real disaster but for me in this campaign loosing THIS soldier by only 9 soldiers all in all would mean at least a major setback.
And it was fun, more a tactical puzzle ala “Mutant Year Zero” and a welcome variety from all the routine missions of this last phase of the campaign.