Hobbits and hell hound monkeys ;-)
Ha! Never seen those guys! They don't look too bad so far. Pistols and shotguns means they are sort of short ranged as well and it didn't look like their equipment was much better than yours (although their armored guys are definitely tougher). A few things from watching the episode:
1 - Ivan's pogroms were from before Dioxine introduced "intro factions" which are easier factions that do the first few pogroms. It looks like you got one of those, which is a very good thing
Of course, we know it turns bad eventually.. :/ Still, expect the "grown men pogroms" with real factions to be a fair bit harder.
2 - It's good you finally built that extra barracks. A fully crewed Bonny is a much better way to start, as you get more gals for supporting fire (and can afford a few more casualties).
3 - Melee is indeed inferior tactically to ranged combat, especially because it is hard for multiple melee to support each others. So the order of your moves is really important. Once all the support gals have already used their TUs to take out enemies, do tiny scout moves (to make sure there's nothing around the corner/3 steps away in the smoke), then move back and hunker down/setup ambushes (see #5). No real scouting when the support is busy.
4 - I'm impressed by your success with thrown explosives. I barely use them. Well done! It looks like that's really useful for long range support since the guns aren't that great.
5 - There is melee reactions, so never step in front of an enemy, or shoot them point blank in the face. Conversely, you can setup ambushes by doors with your melee gals as the AI tends to just step through doors, which puts you in their side and in perfect position for a few sword hits (more risky against the church, because chryssalids).
6 - Never be afraid of aborting. Besides the points, it looks like these guys don't have anything great gear wise, and you're not really in a shape to stun them for interrogations. If you do abort, try to grab a body of each kind for research.
Oh, and that first enemy turn was hilarious. Never heard so much shooting!
