More time to play, got my laser weapons researched and started building, nothing much detected, but on the charts, a lot of activity in South America. I kept rotating my two interceptors (one from each base) and the Skyranger from the US base on patrol down there, never caught anything on radar. Then, on February 23rd, caught a landed small in Russia, to discover Floaters. Didn't lose anyone, they obliging shot the Guardian tank for the most part, but there were only a handful of them. Then, a few days later, the February terror mission, for the 26th. By the time the Custodian got there, it was daytime.
----
Reaper Rage in Rio
Landing in daytime to a terror mission in Rio, dropping the ramp, and there's a unknown huge furred monster a short distance away. At least it's facing the other way. Our tank moved out and immediately took fire from the right, but shrugged it off. Rotating the turret that way, one of the Floater aliens was a few meters away, looking right at us. Worse, two more of the big ones were spotted off to the left of the ramp, and another on the right, closer to the front of the Custodian. Popping the front doors and looking around, it quickly went from bad to worse. Yet another was to the front, on the other side, as well as another Floater. Time to get to work. (Custodian facing to SW, some directions given in clock directions oriented from it).
Turn 1, a volley of laser and machine gun fire was landed on the one to the front, the tank put a shell into the one on the ramp's left. A grenade and more laser fire was directed to the one at the Custodian's 9, and Harald put down the Floater on that side with his new laser rifle to score the first kill. Mick jumped down and scored the second kill with laser rifles on the other Floater, the one that had fired at the tank. On the other side of the Custodian, Maya put a few laser pistol shots into that one, but the first kill of the new beastie was by ZK's rocket launcher. As per tradition, he immediately earned naming rights and dubbed them "Reapers". Panga tried his luck with the Reaper at the Custodian's 4, but it didn't appear fazed by the HE shell from his heavy cannon. Pervin's heavy cannon was loaded with incendiary rounds, and she came out the starboard hatch and pumped one into that same Reaper, which put it down as well. Unfortunately, troops deploying from the port hatch spotted yet another Reaper on the far side of a low building at the 11 angle, and there wasn't much left to throw at that one. Delling tried to lob some autocannon grenades at it, but all were off target. Plus, the Reapers at 5 and 6, and the one at 9 were both still up, although the grenade under the latter might still do some good. Captain Enzo armed a prox and pitched it out in the gap between buildings, hoping it would slow the aliens down. Maya had also dropped a smoke grenade to cover the troops that spilled out to the front of the landing. Now it's their turn.
The grenade was shrugged off by the one, but perhaps confused by the smoke or hurting from the wounds, it moved away. The one first spotted also moved out, out of sight around a building. However, alien weapon fire and civilian screams were heard from that direction, and another Floater moved into view inside that building. The Reaper from the 11 charged towards us, but stopped short of the prox. Not sure if it noticed the mine, or just ran out of speed. More alien gunfire rang out from that side, and another Floater drifted into view. The big furry biped Reaper from 5 charged our tank and tried to take a bite out of it! Again, the stout armor of the guardian tank ignored the damage. We survived the first turn, although a few civilians didn't.
Turn 2
Mick opened the turn by sniping the Floater in the building. Panga waited for our tank to get clear and then put two heavy cannon HE shells into the Reaper at the ramp, killing it. Maya then got the other Floater in sight, for the first laser pistol kill. Viktor put some laser blasts into the Reaper at 11, and then moved back towards the ramp to get clear. Suddenly an alien fired at him, luckily just missing. Turning around, he spotted the Floater past the building to the south (10 from the Custodian). A few troopers fired that direction, finally Enzo (still in the craft) used his higher position to score hits on the alien and put it down. Next to him, Adam finished off the close Reaper after others had put more laser blasts into it. Delling was on-target with his next burst of mini-grenades, killing a Reaper in the street to the southeast. In the same street, further to north and east, our tank spotted another Floater, but no one got a clean shot at that one.
Alien turn 2 - three more civilian death screams, including the Floater in the street turning around to kill a civilian behind it. Yet another one appeared in the building in front of the Custodian, floating down the stairs. Amazingly, another civilian came from the same stairs, and got into our smoke, not sure how he evaded the Floater, and another civilian is visible in the windows up there. Maybe I'm wrong about where that Floater actually appeared from. None of the Reapers in sight did much, shuffled around some, but that's about it.
Turn 3
Harald put down the Floater in the west, wherever he had come from. He and Mick fired on another Reaper across the street to the southeast, without much luck. Delling fired his last HE rounds at the same Reaper, with only 1 hit. Pervin then set it on fire with another incendiary shot, but it was still standing. ZK got another Reaper with a rocket, in the north, and Eliana got the Floater in the street to avenge the civilian it had killed. Rangi pitched a grenade at the Reaper in the garden behind the Custodian, and Makeda made a long range one to drop one on a Floater that the tank spotted on the other side of the street.
Alien turn 3, the grenades did their jobs, two more kills. Incoming alien fire from the north east was targeted on the guardian tank, whose armor held up. Then two strange hissing noises lead to explosions in the distance across the street, but no screams, guess the aliens may have their own rocket launcher or something similar. (he might have panicked, but not sure you can reload a launcher while panicking?)
Turn 4
The tank moved up to see a Floater in the street, a few long range shots failed to bring it down. Enzo put the burning Reaper out of its misery. Took a few more shots at the Floater in the street, and finally Harald killed it. The tank then moved further to the north to try to find the source of the fire from there, and located another Floater. Viktor brought that one down with a carefully aimed shot from long range, he was nearly the furthest trooper, but had a clean angle. Unfortunately, that wasn't the last alien, so the remaining troopers moved up to try to locate it.
Two turns later, Harald spots it behind a house to the south west and finishes the job with a laser bolt.
Victory! No XCOM casualties, 5 civilians saved (7 lost). 18 aliens killed (one was taken unconscious, I think a Reaper, we do not have a working containment facility yet and were not able to keep them alive - is not counted on the score screen, not did I get a corpse for it). 11 Floaters killed, 8 Reapers killed.
A few pictures, from turn 1 to see all of the Reapers around me! (landing1 through landing4, the last picture is after the first rocket killed the reaper in picture #3) Turn 2 Start shows the two reapers that closed in (near tank/ramp and just left of center), the two floaters in view (far left and middle right inside building) - the floater that takes a reaction shot at Viktor that turn is just below the "end turn" icon, not currently spotted. Viktor is the blonde trooper closest to the Reaper, right near center of the photo. His long range shot is the next picture, his target was just north of that tree, it just fit corner to corner on the screen! Then the victory screen picture, and a couple of days later, the end of February score page.
