Welcome to part 2 of my Xcom Reti play through. Last time saw us blast through the early mission while riding some heavy luck. Now, I do class myself as a bit of an expert Xcom player, but this luck surely won’t last. The game is brutal and I’m doubly hindered by this being my first ever play through: I’ll avoid most the obvious mistakes but I have no idea what enemies are coming or how to counter them.

I spend the next few minutes in the game scampering around the world map, gathering supplies and researching tech, before a council mission (are they still called that?) pops up. Now these were usually quite tough in the first game, but the rewards were usually worth it (both immediate and influence wise) so we saddle up and get ready for action.

Given everyone’s stellar performances last time I run with the same team; Steph (engineer), Kev (engineer)’ Nick (ranger) and Choli (heavy). The mission: extract a valuable asset. Ok, so we can expect a fragile human to protect and waves of baddies then: got it.

We start on top of a three story building in the middle of a very clean and very nice looking city/town district. Once you gloss over the propaganda, it almost looks peaceful; with coffee bars and nice benching in ornate little greens. I’m guessing that’ll last. This being an escort mission, we don’t start ‘stealthed’, so there’s no point hanging about. The extraction point is on top another building across from this one, with some fairly open ground in between. Numerous benches and two fountains make the only cover- if we get caught there it could get sticky.

We manage to get into the park before the first wave of enemies arrive. The usual two grunts and officer. This time the battle is harder. The enemies flank, use cover intelligently and make me work for the win. After re-positioning to make the squad slightly less exposed I see a search tower (black and red tower with rotating red beams). They’re hack-able, so I send Steph’s drone to hack into it. There’s a 56% chance of success and the rewards are a boost to defence or attack. I select defence and start the hack. The hack fails and an alarm goes off; it would seem that reinforcements have been called. Marvelous.

The perennial two grunts and officer land, quickly taking cover in one of the buildings to the right (causing civilians to scatter- a nice touch). This time, Pancholi is exposed and takes a volley to the chest, losing 3 health. The other two enemies go on overwatch from within the building. In retaliation (I’ve long learnt not to piss Choli off….) I get her to fire a grenade into the building, taking care to hit the walls in the belt radius. It works beautifully; one grunt down, and the cover the other two enemies were using is now gone. My squad don’t bother to re-position (which in hindsight is not a tactic I should repeat), and they cut down the remaining two enemies with ease.

We move across the square with no other issues and start to ascend the outside of the building. This is when the next group of enemies arrive: two grunts and a Sectoid. Now, this isn’t great at the best of times, but it’s worse as Steph is half way up the building, Nick is stood right next to a window where one of them appeared and Kev and Choli are still out in the square, covering the rear. The enemy have to all intents and appearances, arrived in the middle of my squad.

The Sectoid mind controls Kev. Great; now half my squad are flanked. The other two grunts move to further flanking positions and slip into overwatch. So picture the scene. A 3-story building to the left with Steph on the second level with the civilian (the extraction point is on the roof). Nick, is by a window on the ground, with a Sectoid in the room behind him. Two grunts are to the top and the right, flanking the centrally positioned Kev and Choli. In the middle I have Nick, currently under control of the Sectoid, flanking everyone. Marvellous.

The Sectoid is clearly my priority target. Choli fires in a grenade, and Kev finishes him off with a well placed (and very fortunate) 46% shot. This leaves the two grunts, who over the next two turns further wound Choli, before they’re taken out. Nick appears no worse for the ware, from his effective possession, but is talking about goats more than usual.

Unfortunately, a final spawn emerge IN the building we’re trying to climb. Two grunts and a Sectoid. The Sectoid tries to mind control Choli, who takes affront and murders him, a lot, on the next turn.

Nick manages to do some incredible work and slashes down the other two grunts before they can get into a position to hurt any of my remaining squad.

Then it’s a quick hop to the roof (with only 1 turn remaining) and everyone’s home to have smoked-kippers for breakfast.

So far so good. Choli is out for 3 weeks with a severe injury, but everyone else is fine and its promotions all around again. Both Steph and Kev get remote aid for their drones, Nick gets shadow step (doesnt trigger overwatch) And Choli gets shredding ammo (takes out armour… which I haven’t encountered yet. So there’s armour. Great.)
Some more hopping around the map for supplies and Intel and we’re reading for our next missions. Check back soon for part 3.