Year One Report:Started the campaign a few months back, I think under F1 as my first run on max difficulty. I saved scummed a bit on my last campaign mostly to save my Escaped Lunatics whenever possible, but I've turned my back on that practice this run, and am playing the mod the way it was intended to be played. I've just completed my first in game year, and thought I'd post a campaign update.
My first mission of the campaign was a very rude introduction to Zombie troopers. 2 KIA, 2WIA, and 1 effective had to abort from that first encounter! Soon the campaign fell into the familiar cycle of Temples, Towers, and Outposts. Temples and Towers are routine, but the Drones in the Outposts keep things interesting for quite a while. As a general rule all missions were conducted at night to maximize the gal's spotting advantages. That said, exiting the craft is almost always the most dangerous part of any mission due to the craft lighting, and the ability of the enemy to spot and react to our movements. Warehouses and Crackhouses, have been often challenging urban fights. I love the Save a Sister missions for the chance to rescue a Castaway who will join our ranks. Once I got a solid interceptor, I've been pretty much farming Civilian Traffic. (Love the new intercept graphics!) I just recently started an Underwater second team, and got the nice Personal Armor Parts stash from fish, but I've not researched the Organ Grinders and Mansions so far.
I did get a couple Dr X. missions, with a nearby landed Ambulance before I had interceptors, and the early ambulance mission was a cakewalk compared to those in recent updates. Most enemies had stunrods and tranq guns, so I was able to get my rookies up close to deal with them. Now with 3 drones per mission and nurses toting shotguns, they are a bit trickier. After the first ambulance, I got an early crackdown of the Dr. X team with some researchers, nurses, etc. Not a difficult defense, and though I've research both mission orders, I've not gotten further in the plot line.
I did tackle an early landed Govt Gunship from my intrepid Airbus, and had a brutal fight in the darkness with much cat and mouse, and explosives being generously shared. Lost some gals but captured a pilot, and the craft. This is about the toughest faction fight I've worked through, so far.
Some of the missions I've "Nope"d out on: Zombie Troopers (first mission of the campaign) Merc Contract Gunship, Pyramid of Pain Deep Ones, an Early Reticulan Mission. Often, I've left the LokkNars to their own devices as the ninjas have just not been worth it. I've skipped some Ratmen Rodeos too, because the dogs on Jack Sparrow are really brutal. I did recently head out with a prime crew for a spider hunt and ran into a really tough bunch of Nomad Raiders. Their extremely accurate snap fire on their rifles really did a number on the team and few made it out unscathed.
Over all, I've taken wounds on just about every mission. I've often had to skip missions due to having too few troops to make it worth trying. I've also had the intercept pilot switch over to help get us op to a half crew to tackle others. The messhall is great, but couldn't handle the strain, and I'm thankful for the recent sickbays installed.
Science: 17 scientists,
Multiple interrogations to get Old Earth Books. Putting the Library behind the Mutant Alliance and the Pogroms definitely ramps up the challenge. The only captives I've had that I could "break" are the Academy Medics from the Science Outposts. No engineers so far has kept a lot of things out of reach like Hyper Wave Decoders.
Tactics:Weapons,
Shotguns have been a much bigger part of this campaign. So many squishies early on crumple to these valuable tools. Double Barrel, Heavy and Military Shotguns did a lot of work. Even bigger the second half of the year have been the mega pistols. Magnums and Desert Eagles are a primary or secondary weapon on most troops. I started using these as core weapons as soon as I was able to make their ammo. This time around I've also made a lot of use out of the Automatic Grenade Launcher, mainly because is so easy to shoot and scoot with them. I've picked up Slugthrowers and have at least one trooper with these beauties in the crew, and just started fielding some Custom Blunderbusses.
Armor
Early Outfits were almost total Rogue outfits for Weather abilities. I now have one melee trainer in Chainmail, a couple tacvest gals, most in Guerilla, and usually one Nurse and one Sniper Outfit.
Craft
I upgraded to a Pachyderm about halfway through the year and with Green Codex picked up a Scarab. The Scarab got my Charger Laser, and a leased Jetbike is using 25 mm cannon for scouting and light interceptions. I've only picked up a turtle for the "B-Team" to do underwater/bad weather missions this last month.
The stats are kinda funny. Human Citizens are the deadliest: Shows how much I've been milking the Civilian Traffic. Also, the Hunting Bow shows the huge early reliance on Flaming Arrows.
