[LP]Hardmode Expansion - Glory or death! (Likely much of both)

[Lion66six]

Hobbes, you have so far died 5 times in my lets play. Do you wish to insert £1 and continue?

Only going to bring people back a few times and then check if they want to continue :-)

[Lion66six]

Episode 7 and 8 are up.

7 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS0LUPfyahA
8 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3awTSvPb3k

[Lion66six]

Episode 9 and 10 is now up.

[LP]Hardmode Expansion [EP09] - Time to tidy up - https://youtu.be/EFuv-Gs0lkg
[LP]Hardmode Expansion [EP10] - Could it be a clean sweep? - https://youtu.be/YX0QAtLVuoY

Double feature!

[hellrazor]

Episode 9 and 10 is now up.

[LP]Hardmode Expansion [EP09] - Time to tidy up - https://youtu.be/EFuv-Gs0lkg
[LP]Hardmode Expansion [EP10] - Could it be a clean sweep? - https://youtu.be/YX0QAtLVuoY

Double feature!

You wanna have repair for Scout Tanks?
Please fell free to use the attached and changed Scout Drone Mod, will only work correctly with Hardmode_Expansion, also contains updated Corpse BigOb for the Scout Drone.
Once you research "HWP Repair", you also get the Drone Repair in Manufacture
Just make sure the mod is loaded after Hardmode in the mods section.

EDIT: Congrats on the first casualty free mission. One word of advise do not underestimate the melee enemies, they carry alien grenades.

[Zyzyfer]

Nice use of smoke cover in last mission (ep10).
AND GO! me XDDD got a few kills there on my rookie debut XDDD (*btw try not to get me killed pls).

Also try to avoid night missions (particularly night terror missions), those usually don't end well. It's a bit cheesy but if you get a terror mission at night you can keep it targeted with interceptors/skyranger and as long as the terror site is targeted (by something), it wont disappear....then do the mission come day break.

[Lion66six]

Nice use of smoke cover in last mission (ep10).
AND GO! me XDDD got a few kills there on my rookie debut XDDD (*btw try not to get me killed pls).

Also try to avoid night missions (particularly night terror missions), those usually don't end well. It's a bit cheesy but if you get a terror mission at night you can keep it targeted with interceptors/skyranger and as long as the terror site is targeted (by something), it wont disappear....then do the mission come day break.

Aye you did quite well on that mission, already recorded upto Episode 17 but just not processed or uploaded them yet (What a slacker I am hahah). I think you did quite well in some of the upcoming missions but you will just have to see

I do tend to try and avoid the night missions where possible, and I remembered about the targeting trick. Since i have 2 skyrangers I could likely do a bit of a sneaky. If the terror mission is currently at night, send skyranger 1 at the target, and then skyranger 2 in the opposite direction. Once skyranger1 gets close, get it to patrol, and then target it with skyranger2. Should keep it around long enough that by the time skyranger 2 has arrived at the site its daytime.

Having said that I'm not that scared of terror missions, electro flares are key, throw them everywhere to remove the night issue. Some of the urban maps also have street lights which is a major result :-) Anyway better get back to work ......

[hellrazor]

i am enthusiastic to see you storm the alien base, I am wondering how you will manage that.
Its important that you kill/stun all aliens inside it or you will not get the needed items for researching the alien containment.
Since it is only a pure Floater base, it shouldn't cause you to much of a issue, but expect casualities. Also you will be heavily outnumbered, 14 vs max 46, so prepare!

One word of Tactical advise: Conventional Shotguns loaded with Alloy Ammo at close range will kill reapers easily (45x5 damage).

[ohartenstein23]

Even cheesier/gamier version of the terror mission targeting trick: the check for if a craft is on the way happens only every half hour, so you can send a single Skyranger, have it patrol most of the time, then target the site for the few seconds before and after each half hour.  Super tedious and boring, but more fuel efficient, you can delay longer, and it only takes 1 craft.

[Lion66six]

i am enthusiastic to see you storm the alien base, I am wondering how you will manage that.
Its important that you kill/stun all aliens inside it or you will not get the needed items for researching the alien containment.
Since it is only a pure Floater base, it shouldn't cause you to much of a issue, but expect casualities. Also you will be heavily outnumbered, 14 vs max 46, so prepare!

One word of Tactical advise: Conventional Shotguns loaded with Alloy Ammo at close range will kill reapers easily (45x5 damage).

Aye its going to be erm fun.

I have 2 strike teams ready, its around the middle of March and I have some experienced members in both teams. Gonna hit it with the first team, and if not successful the second team is going in. Also i'm not hitting the one near my main base, keeping that one around for milking the supply ships. The only issue is I'm not sure the race of the other base, if its muton or something hard then I may change my mind haha. If its a squid wipe or two, so be it, either way its going to be fun watching!

[hellrazor]

Aye its going to be erm fun.

I have 2 strike teams ready, its around the middle of March and I have some experienced members in both teams. Gonna hit it with the first team, and if not successful the second team is going in. Also i'm not hitting the one near my main base, keeping that one around for milking the supply ships. The only issue is I'm not sure the race of the other base, if its muton or something hard then I may change my mind haha. If its a squid wipe or two, so be it, either way its going to be fun watching!

If you find and locate the second base, if there is one, i would suggest to not storm it, but go for the floater base nearby your starting area.
You know the race, you know which terrorunits will occur. The second base already could be a Sectoid (PSI) one or a Floater/Sectoid Mix (No PSI) in both cases you would also face Cyberdiscs in close quarter combat, which can also by killed via Shotguns (as suicide solution), but the best way to kill those is 2 incendiary grenades. They vulnerable to fire.
The longer you wait with storming the alien base the better the alien weaponry will be, meaning the aliens in January will mostly have Plasma Pistols and Rifles, later on they will get loads of Plasma Shotguns which makes fighting them seriously unpleasant, since alien bases are a crowded space and tightly packed.

Also the aliens are earlier aware of your troops locations, the 20 turn rule only applies towards Very Small UFO's.
Small and Medium take 14 turns instead of 20. Large and Very Large only 10. And in Alien bases its only 7 turns.
I am just mentioning this because the aliens totally act different once they know your location.

Alien Bases do not only generate Supply Missions, there is also a chance for them to generate, Alien Research, Alien Abduction or Alien Harvest Mission for the region they are in. Those mission will also be from a different race.
So a Floater Base, can generate a Muton Harvest Mission in June or so, otherwise it will just pick one of the currently active races, which so far have shown up.

I seriously advise to research Laser Rifles ASAP, latest before June, because you will have Mutons in June, loads of Mutons!! July is Muton only!
And you needs Laser Weapons for Mutons, the new Terror Units they bring with them are hard to kill without them.
Muton Berserkers and Armored Cyberdiscs are no jokes.

Sorry for the spoilers :-/

[Zyzyfer]

Heh, the PSI should separate the boys from the real men (I usually dismiss the PSI weak guys)...vanilla PSI turns this game upside down.

[the_third_curry]

I know it's a bit late, but I can join if more cannon fodder is needed. Just use my forum name.

[hellrazor]

Demanding NEW episode NOW!!

Wanna see you getting your ass handed and the rookies killed once more.

[Lion66six]

Two more episodes up today.

Recorded last week I believe.

[LP]Hardmode Expansion [EP11] - Medibay is empty for once! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-z-f2kja0w
[LP]Hardmode Expansion [EP12] - Use the force! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IaXN9Qv_Fw

[Lion66six]

Demanding NEW episode NOW!!

Wanna see you getting your ass handed and the rookies killed once more.

Ha, thanks for your confidence in me :-)