Xenonauts: Hopecenter

[Part of the Xenonauts story]

UFO's have once again been detected in the atmosphere and so the hero Commander from the previous invasion arrives at "Hopecenter" base in the Ukraine to lead the defense against these new invaders. Unfortunately the old facilities (like the flying fortress) are gone and most of his active soldiers are also doctors from the science division who can't hit a barn door from twenty feet but at least the few planes available to him have competent pilots who shoot down a few small scout craft.

Ridiculously poor shooting? Check!

Securing the first crashed vessel guarded by the typical looking Martian Men results in the deaths of Hurt Builder and Clutch Pinya as they stormed the ship! Greater care is taken to capture the second vessel piloted by lizardmen who still manage to flank and kill sniper Quincy and the third... is just airstriked safely. What!? Yes! There's an option to just obliterate downed alien craft. While it doesn't give you XP or components, it does give you lots of money. I think I'll be using that a lot!

Since there's loads of new things to study the Commander expands the base and goes on a recruiting spree, ending the first month with three condor planes, one MIG, 12 soldiers, 15 engineers and 60 scientists all paid with funding from the global council. Should five members of this council leave, the game (and the world) is lost. No way that's going to happen... right?

Decluttering Day 20: Remotes for a TV we no longer have.

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).

State of Decay 2: Team Sanctuary

[Part of the Diary of Zombies]

At some undisclosed location, Red-Talon soldiers desperately try to hold their position against hordes of zombies while their tech works on the relay to the AI code named CLEO to provide support against the growing undead illness. It does not go well for them.

Shouldn't have used all those wall repair kits earlier on...

At Providence Ridge, an odd group of survivors makes their way to a nearby Firewatch tower to serve as their base. Military girl Val, Dr. Hurt, Downey and her brother Jamaar decide to stop here as Jamaar has been infected by the new blood plague which is being spread by infected zombies recently. At least they are easy to spot, having blood red skin and glowing red eyes instead of the glowing yellow eyes the "regular" zombies do.

Luckily Dr. Hurt knows how to produce a cure if he can get his hands on some plague samples from the infected zeds, so Downey goes to work and finds another group of survivors that want to destroy the nearby plague heart which causes this infection. Joined by handyman William, old Dorothy and female soldier Parker they locate and destroy the horrible looking construct with melee weapons even as it calls waves of zombies to defend it. Fortunately the infection rate here is very minimal (easy mode) and everyone survives.

The next day there is already unrest at the camp as to who should lead. Downey's idea of taking control by force is outvoted immediately while Val blows her chance at becoming "sheriff" when she tries assist another pair of survivors against some thieves. Harsh words and gunfire are exchanged, after which Val takes survivor Douglas back to camp. By default, Dr. Hurt becomes leader as his plan is simply to build a big, self reliant base. His first mandate though: destroy all the remaining plague hearts in the area, because the best defense is a good offense. Thus team Sanctuary is born!

Insight: In Daybreak horde mode, your tech needs to survive seven waves of baddies which was clearly intended for multiplayer. Solo wise best I've done is reach the half way point of round 5. You can buy a lot of time if you fight outside the barricade, especially in the earlier rounds. It pays to learn the dodge counter (C forward through an attacking zed then E its back) as that helps in the main game too.

It's been a long time since I played State of Decay, but its nice to see that my tips for that game still mostly work for this one too! Settings wise I'll be starting from the easiest of easy modes and working my way up slowly using custom difficulty sliders through this story.

Fallout Tactics: No Reactor

[Part of the Fallout Tactics story]

In lieu of the tank, the team is provided with a rebuilt and reprogrammed squaddie - HR1205, made from the pieces they retrieved months before. It proves invaluable on the next mission to destroy a robot repair facility as Hurt - the team doctor - is melted into a pile of shit by a gauss round early in the piece.

While the other human members can recover hit points, the more major injuries sustained are untreatable. Being a machine, HR can still be repaired by Jo and thus takes the lead in most of this map. Despite this Malice's bomb skills make him the MVP to destroy all the self repairing generators simultaneously.

They then proceed to the manufacturing facility where they encounter and defeat a massive behemoth robot and a multitude of the squid security types who previously killed the other brotherhood team that was sent in. Toni is melted during their ambush.

The behemoth is a walking tank.

Making use of their longest range weapons and the interior cat walks, they clear the rest of bots and destroy the facility. Specifically, destroying a nuclear reactor. Somehow it doesn't explode and kill the lot of them right there.

Fallout Tactics: Tank You

[Part of the Fallout Tactics story]

Upon arriving at Newton the team finds mechanic gal Jo waiting for them with a tank! While the main gun has no ammunition, it provides ample cover for the team to fire from - especially against the new zerg-like spider scurry bots who bury themselves and wait in ambush.

It makes this mission so easy.

Jo's skills are more than enough to repair any damage to the vehicle, and soon the Reaver leadership is saved - one of whom taking an immediate romantic interest in Malice. As a reward they share their EMP weapon tech which the robots are weakest against.

With this technology secured, the brotherhood then advances West to the next forward operating base. Annoyingly, the tank can't be taken into any future missions as it is held in reserve for defense. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

Fallout Tactics: Heavy Metal

[Part of the Fallout Tactics story]

The robot pieces are studied while the team is sent out to apprehend thieves who have stolen brotherhood power armor. The task is simple, but sees three more recruits die in the process. Afterwards Frances, Malice, and Hurt are sent to the Great Bend to fight the robot presence there.

To assist in this, three super mutants are assigned to them - Toni, Chuck and Pump all of whom are strong enough to carry the heavy caliber weaponry that is usually vehicle mounted. These guns literally blow apart the multitude humanoid bots present, as well as the floating security squid robots.

Like the ones in the Matrix!

A third class, the load lifter robot is much more durable and one such machine impales Chuck through the chest - killing him. Despite the loss, the team manages to clear the remaining robot forces in the area and is tasked to continue the fight to Newton and to save the Reavers besieged within.

Fallout Tactics: Possession

[Part of the Fallout Tactics story]

During the day, the vehicles are more easily unstuck but the APC is abandoned. After thanking him properly, Riddick takes the two seat scouter and goes on his way while Frances takes the humvee to Bunker Delta which isn't a bunker at all, but more an above ground fortress.

Dekker wants her to scout out the reported robot threat in the region, starting at a town who claim to have defeated one such adversary. Frances rebuilds her squad with Doc Hurt, Creeper the creep, one handed Stumpy, and heavy weapon supports Pain and Malice.

It turns out that the tech worshipping cult known as the Reavers also want the robot corpse, and aren't going to leave without a fight so Frances leads the assault against their makeshift farmhouse base. Despite their weak armor, the Reavers are carrying powerful weapons. There's also an unexpectedly huge number of them inside and around the little house.

Shooting through the town hall windows.

A grenade launched from the balcony eliminates Pain (who dies in his name sake), Creeper is exploded by a booby trapped door and Stumpy takes a lazer through the eye, frying his brain to ash. Eventually, enough blood is spilled and Frances, Hurt and Malice leave with the robot parts in their possession. 

Fallout Tactics: Vengeance

[Part of the Fallout Tactics story]

An ex-raider medic named Hurt is found back at Bunker Gamma and she manages to fix Jo and Frances' wounds from the disastrous previous outing. There is not much time to rest as Dekker orders her to take the offensive and attack a super mutant facility being powered by large generators.

Brian and Frances opt to take four deathclaws who for some reason have decided to work for the Brotherhood, and these beasts quickly show why they are feared - closing distances quick and applying continuous knock downs to their super mutant foes. Unfortunately a grenade gets all of them while they are all clustered together, leaving Brian and Frances to complete the mission.

Effective melee, but weak to grenades.

Brian did manage to find a speedy, two seater scouter which does let them bypass the main roads, and gets them to a spot where they can infiltrate the main facility - finding it is a research lab where a super mutant scientist is trying to solve the sterility problem all super mutants have.

Despite his begging, Frances and Brian torch the place as vengeance for the fallen brothers - scientist included. Surprisingly, Dekker is not happy with that decision. Perhaps he's not as loyal to the Brotherhood as people believe him to be...