Wasteland 2: Incandescent

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

The scorpion bot is no match for the combined firepower of the Rangers, but as they fight through more and more checkpoints they too suffer casualties. By the time the squad reaches the interior it is only them and Vargas left in a showdown against Matthias and his numerous robot body guards. Ignoring self preservation - Vagras charges blows Matthias away with his desert eagle. Night Terror tries to protect Vagras from the retaliatory bullets but even he cannot withstand the high-ex grenade that follows.

Seeing both get vaporized, Pizepi panics and runs into the open where she takes a bullet to the leg. Scotchmo and Takayuki try to save her with Takayuki's axe destroying two bots before he is hit by a hail of bullets and collapses. Vulture's Cry - covering them - manages to snipe a few before being out sniped herself and taking a round through the brain. Scotchmo does better but once his guns require reloading the robots reach his position and twist his head off his body. Alone a pool of her own urine, Pizepi fights back poorly before her mutant face is stomped and squished into and through the metal grating.

With majority of the enemy still active, it falls to Pump's heavy machine gun and Malice's auto rifle to slowly and methodically take them out - which they do through good use of corners and ambushing. After the battle Takayuki somehow manages to get to his feet and the trio descend to the storage hangar where they find another operational helicopter and the nuke!

Unfortunately the nuke can only be activated by a dead man switch which Takayuki, who probably wouldn't survive his current injuries, volunteers to use. Malice and Pump pat him on the back, get to the chopper and escape to a safe distance before the whole place explodes in an incandescent, radioactive blast.

It was the only way to be sure.

And so the wasteland is saved... for now.

Insight: If you don't have high leadership (or have your high leadership characters killed), expect all the NPCs to do their own thing half the time. It's annoying.

Wasteland 2: Going Offensive

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

The coordinates where God's militia sends pilgrims to "evolve" prove to be the correct base, as the remnants of Angela Deth's chopper are found nearby. Not wanting to pussy-foot around, Malice takes the team on a full offensive strike - blowing away the weak minded pilgrims and the swarms of robots within. Their boss proves a bit trickier with rockets that knock down Malice and Scotchmo, but Brother Thomas also turns out to be a good doctor.

I'm sure getting to use this picture a lot!

Once cleared, they receive a transmission from Matthias, the leader of God's Militia, who reveals he is the one behind the robot threat and that he is already attacking Vargas at the old Ranger HQ! Worse - he's deploying a virus over the radio that will somehow turn people into synths (uh, sure)! The team scrambles on the convenient, functional helicopter left behind which Malice flies it right back home over the mountains.

Landing outside the HQ the team meet up with Vargas and the few remaining rangers. Matthias and his bots have already taken the base, but Vargas has a plan. They just need to get in and arm the nuke kept in the storage hangar below. It's the only way to be sure the virus doesn't get unleashed on the world. The Rangers grimly load up on ammo one last time before marching back into the breach. A breach guarded by a scorpion bot!

Insight: Reload your weapons after every fight. All of them!

Wasteland 2: Show Business

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

Hollywood is a massive place, and while the Rangers help out in menial matters such as clearing out animals from the graveyard and stopping a slaver ring there is a more political power struggle here - that between the city's leaders and God's militia. As the current madam mayor is pushing for a more violent resolution to leave her control of the armed forces, Frances tries to find a more moderate approach.

Who needs moderation when it comes to sexy bridges?

An opportunity presents itself in the form of one of the church leaders who is questioning his organization's righteousness as he has fallen in love with the madam mayor's assistant. Positioning him to take overall control is a simple matter of assassinating the other, easily manipulated leaders. Takayuki's energy axe makes short work of them in isolated areas of their base.

Getting the mayor's assistant enough votes to become mayor herself is more challenging as it involves a bit more footwork and some blackmail. Securing the final vote involves tracking down who is stealing weapons from the gun shop, and as the team is split up for the stakeout it is Frances who spots the store clerk selling arms to a synth! She tries to stop the deal without waiting for backup and is mercilessly gunned down in a filthy back alley before her team can deal with her attackers (violently).

Being the most veteran squadie, Malice takes charge and oversees the mayor get over thrown and a tentative peace treaty formed between the quarreling factions. He then follows up on the possible locations of the robot threat and is given the coordinates of a base by the ocean... their next destination.

Insight: There's a not-so-secret path near Matthias' TV which saves a lot of time in reaching the militia base.

Wasteland 2: Nearing the Source

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

With the microscope in hand, the doctor at Rodia confirms Pizepi's poisoned water theory. In fact, a trip down in the well even finds the source - a synth corpse. While he works on the cure, the Rangers are tasked by the mercs with stopping a nearby synth attack - from a giant scorpion bot! It takes most of their saved explosive ordinance to take down the monstrosity, but it also manages to down Takayuki - who is bleeding to death.

Pizepi staring down the scorpionbot.

Scotchmo then surprises everyone with his surgical knowledge to save the miner, and upon returning to Rodia expel the exploitative mercs and cure the town. Hailed as heroes, they are joined by Pistol Pete, Adrian the fanboy, Ertan the satanist and Brother Thomas a priest who has left his cult of body modifying zealots known as "God's Militia" based to the North.

As they may have more intel on the robot menace, Frances leads her team there next but are surrounded and ambushed at a farm by the vengeful mercs and the robots who paid them. Despite the Night Terror's great tanking, this is a hard fight with Frances, Pizepi, and Pump going down - saved only by Scotchmo. There is nothing he can do for Adrian, Ertan and Pistol Pete who are KIA.

The squad then pushes on to the massive city guarded by God's Militia... Hollywood.

Insight: In the farm ambush, push left into the field where there are less baddies.

Wasteland 2: Poor Execution

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

Angel Oracle is a strange town controlled by the Mannerites, a group that prioritizes good manners. They get along very well with the squad and are none the wiser when Scotchmo steals the microscope from their clininc, however the guards still stop the team for a different reason: a death-row convict of theirs has escaped and naturally they suspect the Rangers had a hand in it.

Frances argues that it wasn't them, and the Mannerites give them an opportunity to prove it - leave one of their own members on the execution block and retrieve the convict alive. Either way, an execution will happen. To prevent an all out battle, Glenda steps forward and volunteers to stay as she has faith in her team.

They immediately begin the hunt in the nearby area and run into a nest of giant honey badgers who rip Provost to shreds! Fortunately Vulture's Cry finds tracks to follow that lead to a nearby house but a squad of gun-bots are already there firing into it. The Rangers destroy all of them but are too late to save the convict.

Returning in defeat, there is nothing they can do as the execution is carried out via twin tractors mounting chainsaws. The cries of despair are drowned out by the Mannerites cheering as the caged and chained Glenda is eviscerated, and then her meat gathered for a celebratory feast. Turns out the Mannerites are cannibals. Short of starting a war, there's nothing to do but refocus back on the task at hand, so the Rangers depart for Rodia.

What remains from the execution.

Insight: Should be obvious but stay away from honey badgers. And chainsaws.

Wasteland 2: The Other Side

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

Since his last air unit was lost, Vargas naturally puts Frances' squad on the next chopper and sends them across the mountains which to no one's surprise is shot down too. Fortunately Malice can land the bird with only minor injury to the squad who opt to establish an away base at a nearby abandoned reservoir, fortifying the place from the wild beasts who for some reason are much stronger here.

People can actually survive this?

Once secure they try expand to a nearby industrial scrapyard too but find powerful robot workers guarding the place, and while the bots are unarmed, they still manage to knock out Glenda and Scotchmo. Luckily Provost shows up inexplicably and saves them with his heavy caliber pistol. While he opts to join the team, his foreign language makes it unclear as to why or even how he got there.

The Rangers soon meet a group of traveling merchants led by Pistol Pete who ask them to help cure a sickness spreading in the nearby town of Rodia, which seems to have been taken over by mercs who protect the town from attack by murderous Synths (robot guys) while bullying and extorting the sick residents. Pizepi works out right away that the water is the problem, but without a working microscope the local doctor can't create a cure. Fortunately, he knows the clinic in the town of Angel Oracle has one so that's where the team head next.

Insight: You will need larger caliber and harder hitting weapons on this side of the map which are easy enough to get through combat, but for the first few fights you'll need to be more cautious against the beefed up and better armed baddies here.

Wasteland 2: Grave of Airplanes

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

Damonta is a town in the middle of an airplane graveyard. When the squad arrives it is also being turned into a robot base with most of the residents killed or trapped indoors and the old warehouse having been turned into a machine factory. The Rangers rescue those they can but while pushing forward to the factory, Red is filled with holes from a surprise turret. Glenda is unable to save him.

Damn robots!

Inside the factory they encounter the robot leader "Tinker" who unleashes an ambush on the squad. Pump's heavy machine gun keeps them at bay while the rest throw grenades to clinch victory. With Damonta saved, the team install the final repeater relay on the local radio tower so that HQ can start triangulating the source of these robots. Their job done, they descend from the mountain - finding that the Canyon of Titan has gone to hell, now controlled by the forces of chaos.

Frances decides to let them wipe themselves out while they revisit the Red Skorpion prison. This time, armed with better gear and having enough robot parts and know how to build a one shot attack droid that destroys the gate turrets - the squad storms the prison and eradicates the last of the Red Skorpion gang and reclaiming their territory.

The victorious unit then marches back to the Ranger HQ with heads held high, and are immediately called to the situation room by General Vargas. On the radio they hear Angela Deth and her new squad already airborne and scouting towards the ocean on the other side of the mountains. "We found them," Angela says through the static. "A whole army!"

"We've been spotted - incoming!" yells another voice just prior to an explosion.

"Mayday, maday, we're going down! I repeat we're going down! We're ... aaaaAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH! *static*"

This the last they hear of Angela Deth.

Insight: Spread out when fighting the spider-bots, they have area attacks and can leap over your formations / cover.

Wasteland 2: Mutually Assured Destruction

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

With Red's upgraded radsuits the team continues East and while crossing an abandoned railway are attacked by wheeled, tracked and spider-legged robots! The mechs are quite bullet resistant and cause a bit of damage before being destroyed. Fortunately it's nothing Glenda can't fix. Upon reporting this, Vagras summons Angela Deth back to base for reassignment while the rest of Frances' team pushes on to the Canyon of Titan.

A soldier from the Diamondback Militia meets them early on and asks for their help in removing the mad zealots who control the region with their "god" - a nuke. Frances agrees but knows the Diamondbacks will likely be just as bad if they had such a weapon at their disposal. As such, they play nice with the polite monks first, despite each of them being strapped with a high explosive vest. Monks of mutually assured destruction.

They wear nuke S-Vests.

Their system of requiring a suicider escort keeps everyone in check, but is really inconvenient when trying to sneak into their temple so Malice shoots their assigned monk in the back of the head for a clean kill once they get close. Pizepi then manages to hack their back door code which lets the squad inside - and ensuring to kill patrols at a distance.

Eventually the team reaches the nuke silo and Pump opens the panel to deactivate it only to find...

"It's a fake," comes a voice from behind. A priest with a large group of shooters.

He then cuts the tension by asking the team for help in retrieving a live nuke from a not so nearby silo so that their god becomes "real". They are the only ones he can ask as they are among the few who know the truth. Rather than risk a firefight where they are in the open and out numbered, Frances agrees.

Reaching it is easy thanks to Vulture's Cry's tracking and inside is a single monk, the one who found the place. He is conflicted - not really wanting this weapon in the hands of his cult. Frances agrees for real this time and Pump disarms it. They then tell the monk to spread the truth before leaving and pushing onto Damonta.

Insight: A high outdoorsman skill can save you the annoyance of random encounters.

Wasteland 2: Side-Tracked

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

On the return trip from Darwin, the squad runs into more farms affected by the Ag Center virus and cleanses them and upon gaining official confirmation that the virus is no longer spreading, both Angela and Frances take the cure just in time before transformation into a pod person is irreversible!

They also clear out a nest of honey badgers from a local mine, saving a few miners and gaining another Ranger Cadet - Takayuki the bruiser. While restocking ammo and water at the Ranger HQ Vagras tells Frances of another radio tower at Damonta up on the Eastern mountains, but getting there would be tricky due to the high radiation.

Vicious critters!

Vulture's Cry knows someone who might be able to help with this, a tinkerer named Red of the Red Skorpion gang. The team travels to the outskirts of their prison base and while Red himself is rather helpful and joins the team, the Red Skorpions are clearly scum bag slavers. Finding a whorehouse of slaves is the tipping point which leads to all out warfare against the Skorps.

A slow and steady advance wins the day for the Rangers, pushing the slavers back to the prison itself. Massive auto-turrets at the gate prevent any further advancement though, and Frances is forced to leave the enemy survivors to recuperate while her squad gets back on mission.

Insight: After the first timer for Pod Infection runs out it moves to a second "Acute Pod Infection" stage that can't be cured. If you have spare cure vials, make sure to use them before that second lethal stage occurs. I believe you get more if, like me, you save Highpool instead of the Ag Center.