Wildermyth: Lizard Wizard

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Emboldened by their new dragon "savior", whom a lizard wizard used magic on to speed up the hatchery and growth process, the lizard folk restart their raids in earnest - this time taking treasure to add to the dragon's hoard. Jainlof and his axe guard of Raine, Les and his brother Even help in keeping them at bay, while Rick and company make their way to the Mythic Canyon where they face the dragon in person!

It is a short scuffle before the dragon takes flight and flees against Rick's cheating ways, leaving the lizard wizard that raised him to cover his escape by collapsing the canyon on top of them all - flattening Tymric and the lizard wizard in the process.

The angry dragon then begins burning the land in fire at which point Rick nopes the hell out of there with his family using his portal gun (game wise they all aged out/retired), but not before leaving the Cocks some venom Beth milked from Jerry's scorpion appendage to give them a fighting chance.

Wildermyth: Circus Freak

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Stuff like this happens all the time.

Having armed his family with inappropriate weapons like futuristic bows, an oversized sword, and a usable scorpion tail that somehow attaches to Jerry's butt, Rick and the Cocks chase the lizard raiders to the borders of the lizard lands where they then use superior numbers to force the Cocks to flee - but not before they learn that the circus freak was some sort of lizard prince who was now being used to unite the lizard tribes.

Knowing war would soon be upon them, Trynne rallied allies in Tymric the Bold (who quickly gets in on with Summer) and Levyel the were-wolf (one of Jaymriel's victims) to assist in fighting back the lizard forces who seem intent on enslaving villagers and making them dig for... something.

It would take some time but the squad faces and defeats prince circus freak twice, with Morty landing the killing blow on the monster on the second outing. Hyped up by the feat, he is encouraged by his grandpa Rick to go live it up with the local ladies as fame is a fleeting thing. The loss of their prince is a painful price to pay but the lizards retreat with an unearthed dragon egg in tow.

Wildermyth: The Cocks

[Part of the Cursed story line]

"Thanks for bringing us this time Dad," said Beth as she sat on the bleachers next to Rick, flanked by her husband Jerry eagerly taking in all the sights of Fairday like a little kid.

"Yeah, yeah," muttered Rick, twisting the cap of his always ready flask as he spotted his grand kids Summer and Morty arriving late. "What the hell happened to you?" he asked Morty, noticing the largish bump on his head. "Single combat tournament," Summer answered for him, "And that's what he gets for leaving me on a virus infected planet to die!"

"Shhh, the show's about to start!" hushed Jerry, barely able to contain his excitement.

There on the stage was a captive lizardman, and after making a big show of how fierce their race is - the Fairmaster opened the cage to hold a clearly staged mock battle and to the shock of everyone the lizardman kills him for real! Chaos erupts as lizardman raiders arrive to break this circus attraction out and Rick can't help but blast a few before they ran off again. "WHOA -burp-! This is way more interactive than I thought it would be."

"You there," called Trynne nearby. "You are clearly skilled! Join the Cockatrices in hunting down these raiding knaves so that we may deliver justice upon them!"

"The Cockawha?" echoed Jerry while the children snickered. Beth looked pleadingly at her father who knew she was just aching for a good quest. "Fine," replied Rick folding his arms. "But only if you -officially- shorten your groups name to The Cocks."  

Trynne didn't have time to argue.

XCOM 2: Arms Race

[Part of the XCOM 2 story]

As ADVENT begins deploying more advanced units like the annoying shield bearers who can protect all allies around them, so we also start fielding more advanced tech: stronger magnetic weapons and the more durable Predator armor, but even these aren't enough as Lory is burned alive by the splash of a grenade, and Ex-Red Talon soldiers Beebo Bee and Chavez are ripped apart by an enraged (muton?) "berserker" when they misjudged how far the hulking monster could sprint.

Since more supplies are required for further upgrades, squads are sent on raiding missions which resulted in the loss of more soldiers: Old Mary was out sniped by a Codex, Helena and Beth were exploded by a grenade, Douglas was impaled by the spear of an archon (flying robot that looks like just the upper torso of a man), and Downey had the misfortune of discovering an Andromedon. These aliens only exist in a hazmat battle suit and despite managing to kill the alien with her shotgun, the suit powered up all on its own and proceeded to pummel her to death. Thanks to their sacrifices, the rest of their team mates now wield even more powerful plasma weapons and Warden powered armor.

I really dislike these things.

The arms race is enough of a distraction to almost let the aliens complete their Avatar project (the countdown timer that replaces the doom track is a nice touch) but luckily this can still be set back by destroying one of their research facilities. Rashida gains an extra medal of heroism for managing to extract with an unconscious Squidman Dan after her was KOed by a ninja.

Tales of the Blight II: Band of the Hawke

[Part of my Dragon Age 2 play through. Spoilers ahead!]

One of the tasks Hawke's team undertakes is to be the unsuspecting assassination target in place of elven ex-slave and mage hater Fenris. This results in Hawke and company killing their smuggler employer and moving onto the more lucrative task of clearing out some baby dragons nesting in the local mine. Soon after, Hawke finds Fenris' counterpart, ex-Grey Warden mage Anders who hates all the things that oppress mages and is willing to donate some maps for the Deep Roads expedition.

Finally ready with a heavy coin purse, Hawke and Beth join the dwarves on their expedition - spelunking with Varric, Bianca (his crossbow) and Isabella, an ex-pirate captain and tavern regular with low morals who is on the lookout for some special relic. During this time Varric's brother finds a cursed idol and abandons the team in a bad spot, resulting in Beth's demise but the rest of the party return richer than before... so much so that Hawke buys a mansion in the posh high town over the next three years (another time skip!?) for his mother.

Isabella is a klepto.

During this time, Aveline is promoted to guard-captain, Merrill now fully exiled from her clan moves into Kirkwall's elven alienage in the low town slums, Anders continues being paranoid in the dark town sewers, and Isabella and Varric waste all their earnings at the tavern. Before he can get too out of shape, Hawke is summoned by the viscount of Kirkwall for a most important task: to keep the peace between the populace and the Qunari who have been given an encampment down at the docks district.

Insight: If you play a thief, get stealth ASAP. Without it you get smashed easily. With it you are OP as you can just wait for your potion cool downs or even run off to abuse enemy leash mechanics, meaning you can come back to pick off piece meal what was once a big group.

Tales of the Blight II: Kirkwall Refugees

[Part of my Dragon Age 2 play through. Spoilers ahead!]

With darkspawn coming from all sides, Hawke flees with a handful of other refugees into the wilds and is saved in the nick of time by a huge red dragon, who turns out to be the witch Flemeth. In exchange for delivering an amulet of hers, she helps them reach the harbour where Hawke and the remaining survivors sail to Kirkwall (and not to Dunwall, too many Dishonoreds there) to meet his uncle at the gates. Alas said uncle has squandered the family fortune, so he sells Hawke, his sister Beth, and traveling companion Aveline into a year of indentured service to some smugglers while taking Hawke's mother through the city gates.

One handy time skip later and a year has passed, during which time the Hero of Ferelden stopped the blight. Knowing this is the prime time to enter the Deep Roads (home of the darkspawn) in search of treasure, a dwarf named Varric and his brother begin setting up an expedition to delve below. Hawke is welcome to join if he can front the gold as a partner, and knows this is the opportunity to change his family's fortunes now that he's no longer a slave. With zero coin to his name it's time to look for work, starting with his old friend Aveline - now part of the Kirkwall guard who is so good at her job, she finds proof the current guard-captain a corrupt scum and gets him fired.

Guess who is back to eat more of her daughters?

With Beth, the trio can finally also deliver Flemeth's amulet to the Dalish gypsy camp up the mountain where apprentice in exile Merrill performs some blood magic at a mountain top altar, revealing the necklace was a phylactery. Her spell revives a thankful Flemeth, who transforms again into a dragon and flies off. Since none of this really helps his financial situation, the trio soon head back to the smugglers to look for work - at least this time they'll get paid!

Insight: Inventory space is limited so always sell the junk treasure and buy the bag that increases the holding capacity. Also, geez - what a decrease in quality from Dragon Age: Origins!

State of Decay 2: Hamlet Squad

[Part of the Diary of Zombies]

Despite all their talk, Rev maintains her leadership and finds more ammo thanks to the assistance of Red-Talon over the radio. David and Little Joe join her army and warn about an opposing army entering the area and much like the bandits that Val dealt with - Rev takes Joe to get information from their scouts (violently) then attacks the stupid leaders who unlike the bandits, have no backup and are meeting in a shed? Rev softens them up by luring a speedy feral into them before executing the trio to secure her legacy (map victory).

"Tell me what I want to know and I'll shoot!"

A trading team named "Hamlet Squad" composed of squidman Dan of "Team Humanity" and "Stragglers" Lory and Beth are then sent to Meageher Valley where the starting house is AGAIN almost a carbon copy of the other starting houses. Lazy much? Dan is elected leader while Team Sanctuary again provides utilities Team Humanity delivers a HUGE stockpile of weapons, ammo and grenades (benefit of winning as warlord) to them. This, along with the fact that pretty much every neighboring enclave is some form  of military group, makes the plague hearts in the region a piece of cake.

Squidman Dan wastes no time in recruiting soldiers Zeb, Rocio, Hailey and Kraken and establishes a trade summit among all the remaining soldiers. Some idiot thieves try to crash the party and get themselves killed easily. The zombie horde that comes to checkout the gunfire afterwards takes longer to clear out but are not a problem for a room full of armed and trained soldiers (on this difficulty). Once Zeb and Dan kill the final juggernaut in melee, the summit is a success and Dan secures his legacy (map victory). These successes have let the survivors expand the territory greatly, but now find their borders next to zones where the blood plague is more intense.

Insight: Trader leaders seem to be rare, and that's possibly because their legacy quests are super easy. Also without fail, every single game one survivor is going to have a prepper aunt whose quests eventually provide a jeep and a .22 silenced rifle.

State of Decay 2: The Stragglers

[Part of the Diary of Zombies]

Splitting into pairs, all the plague hearts turn out to be easy to destroy without any particular tactics (easy mode), and team Sanctuary gains new recruits cowgirl Maddie and Des. With that done team Sanctuary moves base a few times over the next few days while Dr. Hurt tries to work out how to plug in electricity. Eventually this is sorted out when they move into the local fire station which has its own power supply. Soon enough, other people come to request entry into the team and while Dr. Hurt accepts bad girl Rev and good girl Goose - he is forced to turn away others.

This group of unwanteds eventually returns in a pitiful attack which gets them all killed, but the gunfight does draw in a lot of zombies including freak types of bloaters (poison gas), screamers (summon more zeds) and a juggernaut (fat tank). The base holds easily and with that, Dr. Hurt knows his legacy is secure (map victory)! It isn't long before Val and Downey want to run their own place though, so they and Downey's bro Jamaar head on to Drucker Country where they establish a base in a nice house, with utilities supplied by Team Sanctuary (benefit of winning as builder).

Dr. Hurt advises a buckshot diet to this juggernaut.

 

Val and Jamaar go assist new neighbors Rachel and Beth against thieves, "the Furies", and this time Val tries to make peace. The Furies seemingly accept handing over the goods, but immediately go hostile once Val picks them up. The ensuing fire fight draws zombies in and some of the Furies escape while Jamaar is turned into a blood zombie. Val shoots him in the face and takes the two new girls back to base to break the bad news to Downey. Not only did Val kill her brother, by default she is voted leader of this group: "the Stragglers". To reinforce her position, Val also quickly recruits Lory and ex-cop Katz before planning out how to clear the many plague hearts in this area.

Insight: Apparently, to learn electronics you need to read computer books, which is completely different from electrics - for which you need utility books. For me that was very obscure. Also if you recruit one person from an enclave, the rest of the enclave disbands so choose wisely whom you pick, or if its more beneficial to have a friendly enclave around (especially on harder difficulties).