Author Topic: Irismono's Campaign Report, Season 2  (Read 1917 times)

Online psavola

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Re: Irismono's Campaign Report, Season 2
« Reply #45 on: May 22, 2025, 08:44:34 pm »
A lot of research-in-progress for the first couple days of November. I mostly wanted to start clearing out the list of random acquisitions and interrogations, I didn't get Dragonfly access, and Osprey is still a few projects away, but I'm not sweating it.

For what it's worth, at least if you play with higher difficulty, you can't really deal with Cult Forward Bases until you get OSPREY, because there are so many enemies, so you can't really progress the cult path until you have all of Cult Operations. Of course you can't help the RNG if some cult outpost will not spawn. But this is also a reason why I never research any Cult Operations before I can research all of them. This is because researching Cult Operations disables Safe Houses (which are easy and can give good loot) and you get Forward Base spawns you can't really do anything about.

From the post below, I see you managed but took some hits.



Offline Irismono

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Re: Irismono's Campaign Report, Season 2
« Reply #46 on: May 22, 2025, 10:14:48 pm »
For what it's worth, at least if you play with higher difficulty, you can't really deal with Cult Forward Bases until you get OSPREY...

The EXALT forward base was definitely the toughest mission up to this point. Not losing the dog to that point-blank grenade was pure luck (she escaped with a measly 3 fatal wounds). I think playing on Experienced is letting me get away with a lot more than I would otherwise. For future runs I'll definitely delay Operations a bit.

Offline Juku121

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Re: Irismono's Campaign Report, Season 2
« Reply #47 on: May 22, 2025, 10:19:21 pm »
You seem to be doing pretty good! Too good, even, how are you playing entire months so quickly? :o


Hah, caves, the bane of XCF and Piratez players everywhere. :D

6 agents vs an entire base? :o

Data slates are basically free alien interrogations on a limited number of topics. Takes a while until you can start decrypting them, though.

I see your underhanded party favours are starting to pay off. Literally. :)

Werecritters are pretty bad as cryptid terrorists go. They didn't mind fuck you?

You really beelined for the Ospreys there.

Your plan for December seems fine.

Taser Cannons are a niche weapon that's very good if you really need to capture something at all costs. OICW, Arasaka, FN P-90 might be worth a look. SVDs are good, if you've looted any from the Red Dawn. Land mines, if you have any inclination for the proxy game.

Pepper Spray for training Bravery and Reactions on downed enemies. :P

Since you've got Alien Biology, Dart weapons and Knockout Grenades could be of some interest. I remember blue darts being somewhat workable as a longer-range alternative to beanbags.

Healing Sprays for quick stabilisation, maybe? They're really costly, though, and manufacturing some monster goo lotion is probably better. Wait, you don't have that yet, do you?

Longer-term – Nobelon, if you've looted any magic cigs or get them from an interrogation. There will be sanity-destroying missions soon enough.
« Last Edit: May 22, 2025, 10:20:59 pm by Juku121 »

Offline Irismono

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Re: Irismono's Campaign Report, Season 2
« Reply #48 on: May 22, 2025, 10:55:16 pm »
You seem to be doing pretty good! Too good, even, how are you playing entire months so quickly? :o
On break from school and don't have any work at the moment. Lots of free time  8)

Werecritters are pretty bad as cryptid terrorists go. They didn't mind fuck you?
Spotted the first Alpha immediately and focused fire. Second used most of his TUs moving into visual and I shot him the next turn. I recall dealing with them in previous games though. Very painful.

Your plan for December seems fine.

Taser Cannons are a niche weapon that's very good if you really need to capture something at all costs. OICW, Arasaka, FN P-90 might be worth a look. SVDs are good, if you've looted any from the Red Dawn. Land mines, if you have any inclination for the proxy game.
I'll probably grab Taser cannon before Dr. Alpha at the very least. My recollection is that I didn't feel comfortable carrying it regularly until I had at least an Osprey-sized craft. Will look into the other weapons. SVD drops have been unfortunately limited. I'll have to check if I have any.

Pepper Spray for training Bravery and Reactions on downed enemies. :P
Haven't been able to find any unfortunately, otherwise I'd be using it already

Since you've got Alien Biology, Dart weapons and Knockout Grenades could be of some interest. I remember blue darts being somewhat workable as a longer-range alternative to beanbags.
May look into that. I recall bringing in darts towards the end of my last campaign and finding them pretty useful. They're behind workshop though so I won't

Healing Sprays for quick stabilisation, maybe? They're really costly, though, and manufacturing some monster goo lotion is probably better. Wait, you don't have that yet, do you?
No healing gel yet. Will probably go for it pretty quick. I don't mind spending a few grand on healing sprays for one high-risk mission.

Longer-term – Nobelon, if you've looted any magic cigs or get them from an interrogation. There will be sanity-destroying missions soon enough.
Noted. I've got cigs, but haven't taken the time to research them yet.

Offline Irismono

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Re: Irismono's Campaign Report, Season 2
« Reply #49 on: May 23, 2025, 09:09:26 pm »
December 1997

Calendar:
- Dec 1: SunChild hires 5 Scientists. MannCo hires 9 agents to bring us up to 40 total. Sold both Carnwennan and Galatine, replacing them with an Osprey and a Dragonfly, designated Durendal and Joyeuse respectively. The swords this time are those of Roland and Charlemagne. Caliburn remains as our primary covert ops craft, and Almace will mainly serve as a backup vehicle. Durendal will be our designated Cult Killer until we get the Kitsune, assuming Kitsune comes before all four cults are destroyed.
- Dec 1.a: Spent roughly $500,000 on new equipment, with four Auto-Snipers being the largest chunk of that. After all day-1 purchases we've gone from 2.9 mil to 1.3. I could have saved a lot by not replacing Galatine, but I decided it would be better to bite the bullet sooner rather than later.
- Dec 1.b: Operations messages from Red Dawn, Church of Dagon, and Black Lotus, right on schedule.
- Dec 2: Since SunChild is about to have an active Intel Lab I transfer a number of low-profile prisoners over. This means I should be able to replace the prison cells at MannCo at some point with something more useful, though it's hardly urgent.
- Dec 3: First mission of the month is an SLF. Almace gets the honor of facing... another Reaper? This is becoming a real trend. Not that I mind, Reapers aren't difficult to take down on their own, but it's rather funny. Cavalier earned.
- Dec 4: Intel Center is up. Scientists, Agents, and Craft arrive at designated bases. MannCo welcomes Agents Fo-hai, Gallagher, Nemsadze, Jinnai, Leone, Agarwal, Matias, Tyler, and Melo.
- Dec 5: For the first serious mission of the month we get Monster Terror in St. John's, Canada.

It's well outside of Durendal's range, but within Joyeuse, so a crew is loaded up, and our Dragonfly makes her first transatlantic flight in the name of saving the world. They fly into the village to find... Shadowbats!

They're pretty easy to deal with, but they're also pretty good at killing civilians. We end up with a slight positive score, but more importantly two live captures.
- Dec 5.a: Black Lotus forward base in Hawaii. I don't think I'll be able to get that one... Caliburn checks it out, but aborts immediately. This was an amusing sight to pull up to.

- Dec 6: Information Upload finally scored from a farmer. Now we can investigate the alien language.
- Dec 6.a: Another hunting party! Joyeuse again seems the best pick for this, as an Osprey crew would simply be too large for such a small op.

This explosive miraculously did no damage and we actually managed to stun one of the aliens this time.

This one snuck up from behind and attempted to melee. Our melee was better though, so we end up with two live Anthropods.
- Dec 12: After a very quiet week, we get an Industrial Investigation in Washington D.C., a perfect target for Caliburn, which is now equipped with Spypistols. It's a very brief mission, with one pioneer as the only real threat. We take a small hit, but get out with three briefcases.
- Dec 12.a: LO WO'S HIDING PLACE FOUND!

One of my favorite missions personally. Always a little tricky to catch him. Would have liked it to come a little later, mostly because I don't yet have an X-Rat, but Joyeuse will manage with a dog. Incidentally, I think I figured out where the manor is.

We wait a turn and move out, keeping a line with the dog up front. The old fool walks right into our trap.

After that it's a waiting game as we slowly reveal and stun-rush the assassins and warriors. Lord the Dog took one knife, but otherwise we get out unharmed. A perfect mission.

- Dec 12.b: SLF near Katmandu. Almace's purview. A single Spikeboar is brought down and sent to SunChild.
- Dec 14: Some random EXALT mook had the cure for cancer this whole time. Free 100 points.
- Dec 14.a: Our first X-Rat, Lisa, joins the team.
- Dec 14.b: EXALT Forward Base in South America, again out of our range. Caliburn checked and left.
- Dec 15: In recognition of our strides in being an equal opportunity employer (Rats and Bats are just as good as Dogs), the council awards us $200,000.
- Dec 15.a: SLF in Africa. Almace again. This time it's lots and lots of zombies. It goes like any other zombie mission. Dog did good work.

- Dec 16: Cult Outpost, nice and close to home, Dagonite. I decide to load up Durandal for a test run. As I'm doing this I take the time to mark the 16 I intend to bring to EXALT HQ.

The large squad size is nice, but my luck this mission is pretty awful. A fire nade causes Fo-hsing to take some pretty heavy damage, and also makes him panic. Glad he didn't go berserk considering he's got the minigun now.

Lots of missed shots, even at decent ranges against clear conditions. A little rough overall, but we make it through and score 7 briefcases.
- Dec 17: Our first X-Bat, Tezrian, joins the crew.
- Dec 20: EXALT Search Warrent. Fun mission type from what I remember, and one that won't be available once we eliminate EXALT. Joyeuse is in range, so it's the natural choice. Mission is dark, we start working. One of the Liquidators manages to pour a light minigun into Captain Rangihaeata, who somehow survives.

The simplest solution ends up being to run in and stun-stick the minigunner. The cops and EXALT barely interact with each other. At some point I realize that there's just nothing happening, so I got back to the first corner of the map to check if there are any enemies I missed. Eventually I find a counter-terrorist firing into a back corner, which tells me somebody is back there. We run down the last liquidator and bring him down. In total 2 Liquidators and ~50k in ledgers and wads of cash. Cavalier earned, somehow.
- Dec 23: With the Assassin interrogated we've narrowed down Lo Wo's potential outputs to things that will be useful to us. We've also unlocked the path to Parapsychology, and thus Ninja Arts.
- Dec 24: Illegal Requisition Files gives us Golden Dragons, unlocking the path to Nobelon.
- Dec 25: Master Lo Wo tells us about Alien Infiltration as a Christmas Present. Simultaneously I review the team slated to take on EXALT HQ. A couple agents, most notably Fo-hsing, are out of action due to injuries, so I find replacements. Chosen agents are marked with stars, the craft is loaded up, and the transfer is initiated.
- Dec 25.a: The Council gives me info on the FN Minimi as their Christmas present. How thoughtful!
- Dec 26: Right as we leave of course...

Black Lotus Forward Base will have to wait. Too many of the vets are at SunChild for me to feel comfortable dealing with this.
- Dec 26.a: Almost simultaneous...

This one I could handle if I had competent snipers. The penalty is only 10 points however, so not worth the risk.
- Dec 27: Lotus is really trying this week.

This one we can definitely handle. Good training mission for some of the lower ranked agents. No injuries, really just a glorified cult apprehension.
- Dec 29: Citizens vs. Monsters in North Africa. The citizens are going to need to pull some weight here. It ends up being snakes, and we do surprisingly well at first. There's a lot of them though, and a few of them survive the barrages of shotgun and LMG we send at them. We take a couple small hits, then start hunting the ones in hiding. The civilians eventually get the last kill. Rough mission, but a positive score in the end. 165k selling all the corpses. Good note to end the month on.
- Dec 31: Council Report.



Research this Month:
MannCo Surplus:
EXALT Infiltrator (Dec 2), Westman (Dec 2), Abducted Farmer (Dec 2), Workshop (Dec 3) -> Light Cannon (Dec 5), Biological Warfare (Dec 6) -> Contact: M.A.G.M.A. Corporation (Dec 13) -> Healing Gel (Dec 8 ) -> Shadowbat (Dec 12), Giant Rat (Dec 11) -> X-Com Rats (Dec 13) -> X-Com Bats (Dec 15) -> Alenium Shard (Dec 17) -> EXALT HQ (Dec 19) -> Alenium Shard Awakening (Dec 21), Illegal Requisition Files (Dec 20), Spiderweb (Dec 21), Ancient Katana (Dec 20), Throwing Knives (Dec 21) -> Alien Language Investigation (Dec 22) -> Tank/Scout (Dec 23), Alien Engineering (Dec 24) -> Illegal Requisition Files (Dec 24), Master Lo Wo (Dec 25) -> Parapsychology (Dec 26) -> Engineer Access Card (Dec 26), Hostess Access Card (Dec 26), Medical License (Dec 27), Rosary (Dec 26), Police ID Card (Dec 26), Durathread (Dec 28) -> Metapsychology

SunChild LLC:
Muckstar Corpse (Dec 3), Big Bone (Dec 2), Monstrous Tooth (Dec 2) -> Council's Power Chain (Dec 5) -> Abducted Farmer (Dec 6) -> Contact: Crazy Hassan Weapon Store (Dec 8 ) -> Shadowbat Corpse (Dec 11), Westman (Dec 11) -> Red Dawn Pioneer (Dec 13), EXALT Infiltrator (Dec 14) -> Beastman Formula (Dec 17) -> Ghoul Corpse (Dec 17) -> Black Lotus Assassin (Dec 23) -> Zombie Parasite (Jan 1) -> EXALT Liquidator

I could probably have waited an extra day or two before transferring Durandal. In my defense, the game says it takes 72 hours to transfer, whereas when I actually did the transfer it took 24. I also neglected to Bio-Enhance much of the team, but I don't think it'll be too big an issue in the end. I didn't get a base up. My threshold is 3 million and I never quite hit that.

I won't be bringing a rat to EXALT HQ, and I left the bat at home as well. Both will see deployment at Black Lotus HQ in all likelihood. I can't get a scout tank yet due to the lack of a workshop, but the research is done at least. Had I gotten a flying drone chassis from Osiron crates the way I did last campaign I would likely have prioritized one more. Same applies to healing gel. I did buy some healing sprays specifically for Durandal, so we're not completely primitive medicine-wise.

No luck this month on alien, deep one, or shambler captures. Lo Wo was a nice pickup, though his scroll is actually the better item and I won't get use out of that until I get a Ninja Scroll. I suspect the most powerful place to get him would be before getting a Witch, since he's another path to Black Lotus Operations.

Priorities for January:
1. EXALT HQ Assault, followed by eliminating the cult. I don't think there's anything I could need from them at this point besides maybe Gun Kata.
2. Durathread Factory location to open up Red Dawn kill.
3. Asia manufacturing base.
4. Continue watching for cult forward bases, capture options for Promo III.

Online psavola

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Re: Irismono's Campaign Report, Season 2
« Reply #50 on: May 23, 2025, 10:09:21 pm »
I could probably have waited an extra day or two before transferring Durandal. In my defense, the game says it takes 72 hours to transfer, whereas when I actually did the transfer it took 24.
...
I won't be bringing a rat to EXALT HQ, and I left the bat at home as well. Both will see deployment at Black Lotus HQ in all likelihood.
..

The transfer time in craft stats means the time it takes for the craft to arrive if you purchase one. Transferring a craft like HELI or OSPREY to another base across the globe depends on the distance. In practise this is something like 12-14 hours if I recall correctly. So you definitely overprepared for EXALT HQ. There is plenty of time to transfer between bases once it pops up. It might also have been wise to deal with Black Lotus Shrine, because it's the easiest option to catch avatar (Footmen don't have grenades there, and no invisible assassins to worry about). It's true that decent accuracy is helpful there. But in EXALT HQ you don't need sniper skills that badly so you could have prepared to have the worse ones there.

Exalt Brainer has MC skills (usually it just panics the dogs and rats I bring along) and it may be helpful if you know your agents' PST stats before you go there, so as not to bring along 0 PST weaklings and some such. But with decent bravery this is likely not a big issue.

I would not risk bringing a bat to Exalt or Black Lotus HQ. Bats are so very precious (100% heat vision = see through smoke perfectly, 20 night vision) that you want to preserve its life at all costs and only deploy it where it matters most.

Offline Irismono

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Re: Irismono's Campaign Report, Season 2
« Reply #51 on: May 23, 2025, 10:54:27 pm »
The transfer time in craft stats means the time it takes for the craft to arrive if you purchase one. Transferring a craft like HELI or OSPREY to another base across the globe depends on the distance. In practise this is something like 12-14 hours if I recall correctly...
Lesson learned. I'll keep that in mind for the future. Missing the Lotus Shrine definitely sucks a little bit.

Exalt Brainer has MC skills (usually it just panics the dogs and rats I bring along) and it may be helpful if you know your agents' PST stats before you go there, so as not to bring along 0 PST weaklings and some such. But with decent bravery this is likely not a big issue.
Metapsychology is around the corner. May even get it before the HQ pops up. I'm not too worried regardless.

I would not risk bringing a bat to Exalt or Black Lotus HQ. Bats are so very precious (100% heat vision = see through smoke perfectly, 20 night vision) that you want to preserve its life at all costs and only deploy it where it matters most.
Noted. It's at home for the moment. I remember my bat being super useful last campaign.

Offline Juku121

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Re: Irismono's Campaign Report, Season 2
« Reply #52 on: May 23, 2025, 11:36:54 pm »
Not sure what the point of retaining Almace over another helicopter is. Slower, less space, the only thing it has is a weapon mount. You're not thinking of jeepfighting cultist choppers, are you? :o

The Reapers will start breeding soon, I tell you! :P

Agent Tyler, you say? Hmmm...

You only got two bats alive? What were you stunning them with?

The purple-haired trolling in Hawaii was hilarious. ;D

You really did get lucky there with the Anthropods not blowing up Joyeuse on her second mission. Also, told you the Dragonfly's range would be useful. 8)

Lo Wo really seemed to think this was a Kill Bill scene and he could just spank your agents. :) I remember countering ninjas by throwing incendiaries everywhere. Can't stealth when you're on fire, mister Black Pajamas!

Ninjutsu classes are the horizon, I see.

Watch it with your X-critter DEI! The Council might come down on that some day. We're humanity's best and brightest. :P

It seems you got a Light Cannon somewhere and thus unlocked M.A.G.M.A.

Spiderweb under-armour could be useful, but I don't think you've got the spiders for this?

Wonder who is going to get to carry the Elderly Weeaboo Blade?

Motion Scanner seems available to research, but I guess dogs have that niche covered already and you're not that interested in proxies? You do need it for Into the Dark, though.

Council's Power Chain is a big deal, since now you should be able to requisition veteran agents. Wonder what unlocked that, Madman diary?

EXALT HQ is the mansion, right? I've always replaced it with the Area 51's Biolab, the one with a hangar'd plane and lots of ventilation walkways. Definitely would want a rat in the mansion, it's very vertical and there's always some stragglers in some corner two stories down.

EXALT does provide Psiclones, but you can now manufacture those after destroying them. I guess the spiffy canes are the only really rare item you can't get anywhere else?

You do need to get them Workshops up and running sooner rather than later.
« Last Edit: May 23, 2025, 11:41:50 pm by Juku121 »

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: Irismono's Campaign Report, Season 2
« Reply #53 on: May 23, 2025, 11:57:20 pm »
Cool thread. 8)

Offline Irismono

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Re: Irismono's Campaign Report, Season 2
« Reply #54 on: May 24, 2025, 12:45:46 am »
Not sure what the point of retaining Almace over another helicopter is. Slower, less space, the only thing it has is a weapon mount. You're not thinking of jeepfighting cultist choppers, are you? :o
In hindsight I should have kept the chopper. Lessons learned. I suspect I have a soft spot for the Humvee from one of my first runs, where I got a lot use out of them while flailing around trying to find cultists.

You only got two bats alive? What were you stunning them with?
Regular tasers and blunt rounds. Apparently that was too much for them. `\_oo_/`

Lo Wo really seemed to think this was a Kill Bill scene and he could just spank your agents. :) I remember countering ninjas by throwing incendiaries everywhere. Can't stealth when you're on fire, mister Black Pajamas!
I'll have to remember that tactic. I already use fire, but more is usually better.

It seems you got a Light Cannon somewhere and thus unlocked M.A.G.M.A.
Yep, don't exactly remember where from. Most likely a Red Dawn Pioneer, though it could have been from the Osiron Op.

Spiderweb under-armour could be useful, but I don't think you've got the spiders for this?
Still missing one. I've never used the under-armor before, but I'd like to. It seems useful.

Wonder who is going to get to carry the Elderly Weeaboo Blade?
Probably Tanida. He's got better melee than most and has a couple PST ups thanks to Commendations. He's also Japanese.

Motion Scanner seems available to research, but I guess dogs have that niche covered already and you're not that interested in proxies? You do need it for Into the Dark, though.
Haven't bothered since I don't have workshops, but it's going to be a priority soon enough. Having it for Lotus and Dagon would be extra nice.

Council's Power Chain is a big deal, since now you should be able to requisition veteran agents. Wonder what unlocked that, Madman diary?
Yes, though Osiron would have provided it, as would Message From M.A.G.M.A. no. 001, which is available for research. I've not used the veteran agents feature yet.

EXALT does provide Psiclones, but you can now manufacture those after destroying them. I guess the spiffy canes are the only really rare item you can't get anywhere else?
Sounds correct. I haven't sold any Psiclones yet, so I've got ~20 in storage. Spiffy canes are cool, and I've got one, but I don't really need a lot of them.

You do need to get them Workshops up and running sooner rather than later.
Yeah, it's quickly becoming my biggest roadblock.

Offline Juku121

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Re: Irismono's Campaign Report, Season 2
« Reply #55 on: May 24, 2025, 01:27:20 am »
Regular tasers and blunt rounds. Apparently that was too much for them.
I think I only used tasers and then ran around with medkits like some sort of Flying Rodent Ambulance to keep them away from overstun. Good times. :D

Blunt grenades or shotgun beanbags are definitely too much for the critters to handle.

Online psavola

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Re: Irismono's Campaign Report, Season 2
« Reply #56 on: May 24, 2025, 06:06:33 am »
You only got two bats alive? What were you stunning them with?
...
Spiderweb under-armour could be useful, but I don't think you've got the spiders for this?

It's indeed tricky to capture bats because they often soon die of overstun almost no matter you do. Pepper spray and fire extinguisher(!!) are probably two of the gentlest methods of trying to get them alive.

Webwear (spiderweb under-armor) also requires that you have captured all four types of spiders. So it's dependent on luck. Capturing flame spiders can also be a bit risky.



Offline Irismono

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Re: Irismono's Campaign Report, Season 2
« Reply #57 on: May 24, 2025, 07:23:09 pm »
January 1st, 1998

The EXALT HQ Raid

As the staff at MannCo Surplus are still recovering from the New Year's party, a Priority-1 Transmission to the EXALT Masters is Intercepted and decrypted. It inadvertently provides the final confirmation that the intel recovered from the EXALT Master is correct. At SunChild HQ, most of the combat team is still asleep.



The briefing doesn't take long. The squad gears up, triple checks equipment, and boards the Osprey as dawn rolls over the US.

The crew for the HQ Assault is as follows:
Commissar Rodrigues, Mission Commander
Captain Tanida, Chief Marksman
Captain Goyal, Keeper of the Minigun
Senior Agents Suarez, Sastrowardoyo, Rahmawati, Richards, and Bagheri
Agents Ogechi, Orengo, Azitis, Mun, Saraki, and Kumble
X-Dogs Yeo and Bonnie

Of these, four are designated breachers with shields and SMGs, two carry grenade launchers with SMGs as backups, two carry Katanas, plus Tanida has the Ancient Katana from master Lo Wo. Non-lethal options are somewhat limited, but there's enough tasers and stun sticks that taking down the important targets shouldn't be a problem.

Suarez has our singular Hi-Ex. I don't neccesarily intend to use it, but it's available. Everyone has a smoke grenade, most people have a regular or incendiary grenade as well, in many cases both. Over half the team has some sort of medical option on them, with med bags and medkits scattered around. The lack of healing gel is probably my biggest equipment regret, but we'll manage.



Agent Orengo starts in the upper bedroom for some reason. He's a sniper, so the long sightlines up there will be to his advantage. I move him into the bathroom to limit enemy vision, and move everyone else to block doors for the first turn.


Most of the team start moving through the lower levels, clearing out large amounts of goons and an Enforcer or two. Hallways favor the minigun. Upstairs, agents Richards and Ogechi quickly encounter powerful foes.


The Brainer makes itself known with a whiffed psi blast, while Richards' hand-to-hand skills leave something to be desired. Ogechi takes refuge in the room with the Liquidator, and Yeo the dog runs up from upstairs to assist. On the next turn, part of the team moves to aprehend the Brainer while Yeo continues his killing spree with an EXALT Master.


Agent Saraki is the first to suffer a psionic attack, despite being underground at the time. He keeps his composure. Upstairs, the capture team is successful.

The enemy starts panicking. Suffering minor wounds from aggresive goons, scattered small teams start picking off isolated EXALT operatives as mass panic sets in. Agent Orengo is still on the roof this whole time, picking off a handful of Goons that would otherwise be difficult to get to, while suffering no return fire

By turn 8, there's a lot of screaming and only the occasional functional enemy showing up, mostly Liquidators and Enforcers. We do a lot of cornering and hunting.



These encounters become more and more rare over time. Bonnie encountered this Enforcer after about 3 turns of no sightings.


Finally, after numerous turns, an Enforcer shows himself in the room where Agent Saraki has been bravely watching over the stunned Brainer.

He fires a single shot from his dinky pistol, and is met with pure nihongo steel, folded 10,000 times to make a blade that ends the mission in a single swing. The mission is over, the Brainer is captured, EXALT is not long for this world.



Miraculously, we get out with only three injuries and no KIAs. I'm absolutely stoked by this outcome. The Brainer is transferred to HQ, the extra guns are sold off, and the squad is transferred home to resupply and rest up.


We got 13 Psiclones, a cane from the EXALT Master, and and RPG, but no other loot of note. Once the Brainer is interrogated we'll be able to eliminate EXALT entirely, barring a manor, which I don't think they've established at this point. This was a very successful elimination, and while it wasn't within Year 1, it was pretty close. I am confident that, barring absolutely awful RNG, we will be able to eliminate the other three cults by the end of 1998.

Offline Juku121

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Re: Irismono's Campaign Report, Season 2
« Reply #58 on: May 24, 2025, 07:38:13 pm »
Keeper of the Minigun
Interesting ranks you've got there. :)

Wonder why it's the Chief Marksman who carries the biggest blade?

Strange that you got so much roof action. Were the Goons climbing up there or what?

I see you fed the Brainer enough smoke to keep it down.

You got lucky with that last RPG guy, could have been a dead dog just as you were closing in on a clean sweep.

Offline Irismono

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Re: Irismono's Campaign Report, Season 2
« Reply #59 on: May 24, 2025, 08:01:39 pm »
Wonder why it's the Chief Marksman who carries the biggest blade?
Mostly because nobody's really gotten to amazing levels with melee yet and he's near the top end of what I do have. It will probably go to some more skilled psi-ninja once I have a few of those.

Strange that you got so much roof action. Were the Goons climbing up there or what?
Nope, just got a visual through the skylights in the bathrooms and took advantage of it. He did eventually go downstairs to rendevous with the rest.

You got lucky with that last RPG guy, could have been a dead dog just as you were closing in on a clean sweep.
Very lucky. I detected him on radar, but if he had more TUs or if his back hadn't been turned things could have been a lot uglier.