Dark Deity: Fireball to the Face

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Having saved the team from defeat by cut scene, Sara and Samara convince them to help fight against a bigger threat which includes the necromancer they encountered before. The team agrees and go with the princesses to the desert to meet their contacts Corvan the thief and warrior nun Helena who lead them to a monastic arena which contains knowledge to the aspects (artifacts) of the gods, the same thing they believe the necromancer was after.

Aurima, the monk tank within, challenges them to combat for this knowledge and is only defeated after giving Benji a close call with his spear, Elias a burned finger, and Samara a fear of fire. Pleased with the result, the big monk joins them and leads them to a not so well hidden temple further in the sands where warrior priest Vesta is holding off an army of undead! The team rush to her aid and (re)slay the enemy, but not without injury. Sophia is killed by a poisoned arrow, Lincoln gets part of his soul drained, and Irving takes a fireball to the face - annihilating him from existence.

Rolling Damage List:
Irving [DEAD]: -1 Def, *-5 HP
Cia [4/5]: -1 Str
*Benji [3/5]: -2 Luck
*Elias [4/5]: -1 Dex
*Samara [4/5]: -1 Fort
*Sophia [DEAD]: -5 HP
*Lincoln [3/5]: -2 Str

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.

State of Decay 2: The Forsaken

[Part of the Diary of Zombies]

With more and more enemy enclaves appearing Kraken takes the lead and begins sending out execution squads to eliminate all of them, especially when informant Guy arrives seeking asylum with a warning that all these groups are banding together under a new coalition. Daniel manages to locate some of these and Kraken takes Guy to confront and kill them, leaving the last one alive: it's Chavez!?

He spills the beans on the coalition HQ at a nearby factory then somehow dodges Kraken's execution shot and escapes (bugged out as she fired the completely wrong way). Kraken and Guy race to the factory and kill what they think is the coalition leadership, returning to Fort Marshall in victory. Elsewhere the true leader, Ray Santos, meets with Chavez and IzzBee - saying Kraken's group have killed more humans in the past few days than the zombies. Chavez indicates Beebo Bee has already modified the Haven protocol at the base, all that is needed is for IzzBee to send the kill order against these Forsaken.

Unwilling to be part of another mass murder/accident IzzBee refuses, but Dr. Hoffman has no qualms about testing CLEO's capabilities and sends the order herself. Everyone at Fort Marshall is suddenly wracked with excrutiating pain as their brains begin to boil and one by one their heads all explode. They aren't so much different from the zombies after all, and CLEO is happy to continue to meet her mandate of "protect the most humans". Community killed from legacy screen - only Beebo Bee survives!

Heads go pop!

Insight: It was fun to revisit Trumbull again after Heartland, I just wish IzzBee's Red Talon drop quest wasn't so repetitive. Also at a guess, there's a good chance Quincy, Helena, Keesha and Isaac are dead too from the Jurassic Junction incident as those are all optional characters to play/encounter. On the flip side Captain Logan has a better chance of showing up again than those four as he is a mandatory character from Heartland.

State of Decay 2: The Gauntlet

[Part of the Diary of Zombies]

Despite how sneaky Quincy is (he's so sneaky that he lets all other companions sneak) it is new recruit Isaac, who joined to get away from his husband, who has the best solution to harvesting bloaters: he can produce scentblock, which effectively makes the users undetectable to zombies. With this, Helena and Keesha go on a harvesting spree while Quincy gains a new partner in Chavez, a Red-Talon merc abandoned in the region to help hacker IzzBee take control of the AI called CLEO to provide support drops for the team.

The girls harvesting results in 31 plague busters, while Quincy manages to make some extra ammo and masterwork rifles in preparation for the assault on Marshall back at base. Malik and Logan clear a pub near the outer most plague wall of Marshall for easy access to the gear then Captain Logan sends the civilian away to handle the siege personally.

Winners use high ground.

Using Malik's small car as a combat platform, Logan destroys the first wall but is thrown from the roof by a plague juggernaut! Luckily he has spare busters to take down the horde and the big guy (2 to down a jugg) before resupplying an working on the next three walls - all of which have great firing positions from on top of containers! It really comes down to using every single plague buster and bullet though, with some wiley-pete grenades at the end to defeat the gauntlet of plague walls - and destroying the last one seems to kill all the zombies in the area!

As expected, there is something in the middle of all of it - a CLEO drop pod which seems to be the source of the plague!? Dr. Hoffman gets to work in finding answers but none are revealed as this results in a map victory!

Insight: By now you know zombies are vertically challenged so always look for high perches to fight from. Pressing jump THEN forward lets you climb higher stuff than if you press forward AND jump.

State of Decay 2: Network Expedition

[Part of the Diary of Zombies]

Quincy and Helena arrive in Trumbull Valley in search of Ray Santos, an old friend of their boss. The first person they find is Malik though, and for the little task of clearing out his old base he is happy to provide information and so they do this, taking his small yet spacious car to Jurassic Junction - the biggest base ever! Quincy uses his stealth skills to farm up some plague samples and supplies afterwards before he and Helena head off to the coordinates Malik provides - finding Ray and his mechanic gang to be having easily solved radio problems.

Sometimes cars just fly off on their own. Best fix if you are at base is to quit and load.

One of Ray's associates, Keesha, also reveals they are having "rent" problems with Mickey - a scum bandit thug in the area who is easily scared off. Keesha decides to join their proactive group thanks to this and helps establish outposts in town while at the same time avoiding plague hearts as for a change, that doesn't seem to be the main goal here... instead that is spelled out when Keesha and Malik meet Captain Logan, the last soldier in the valley, and his ally Dr. Hoffman. They explain the military had come in and were wiped out trying destroy a new type of growth: a plague wall!

He demonstrates the resilience of one such plague wall at a downed aircraft. Only with Dr. Hoffman's newly invented "plague buster" grenades crafted from plague bloaters can the hard outer shell be exposed (temporarily) to damage the bulbous growth within. Like plague hearts, the walls also summon zombies to defend it but with the supply of "plague busters" the Captain brings, they aren't a problem (lethal to them too) as the plane wall is destroyed.

Logan then explains the town of Marshall is surounded by plague walls, and believe that whatever lies in the center is the key to undoing the blood plague. After collecting equipment to let them produce their own plague busters, the Network Expedition crew is tasked with the onerous task of harvesting plague bloaters.

Insight: Heartland has no customizable difficulty setting. All zeds have blood plague and you have a limited pool of fixed survivors, however all these survivors are pretty strong and the combat difficulty itself is below dread since you can ram your car into many enemies AND there are many cars available.