Part 7: March Monthly Review

End of March Progress Report

March went by fast and provided a lot to do at the start of the month. So much so that the first ten days of this campaign will likely shape the rest of the game. We have a lot of good soldiers, and had a lot of money to spend through the month. I'll cover what each of those situations look like at the end of month. First let us start off with something a little more mundane we picked up in the middle of the month.


Xeno Biology

Polsy

The cut scene we get here sets the stage for the start of plot. Sort of. Anyway a big deal is made about capturing a live alien and then interrogating it. This is actually completely necessary to advance the game, on top of the actual effects interrogating live aliens get you. We need to build one of these thing ASAP as well as research and build the capture device mentioned in the cutscene, an Arc Thrower (Alien Taser).

Moving on, at the end of every month the Council grades your performance. For the most part it serves as nothing more than a score card tallying how many missions and research projects you completed, how many missions you failed, the X-Com monthly finances, and whether or not any funding nations have left the X-Com project. It is important to note that getting a failing grade two months in a row will cause the X-Com project to be canceled and cause the end of the game. Let's see how we did for March.



So we did really well here. We stopped all the alien activity we could, got some research done, and earned a boat load of cash. Seriously, 786 X-Com Bitcoins at the end of march is insane. That is the most I've ever seen. Global panic levels are also looking very good. Only 4 countries in the yellow is great. Before the end of the month came I covered all of Africa in satellites for the All In bonus which is a huge advantage to have. The last remaining satellite went over China. I plan on launching another three satellites at the end of April so having one already in position over China means that if I don't need to use these planned satellites to quell panic I can cover all of Asia at the end of April and secure the Future Combat bonus.

So how about the rest of the base? Well it's worth noting we have 21 engineers now on staff. That's a huge huge number for the end of march. I would have been happy with 10 to 15 in a normal scenario. This many engineers puts us way ahead of the curve needed to build satellite uplinks every month. If I had the tech and resources we could even put up a Nexus this month, but that would require several functioning UFO navigation pieces and the time to research them. As is we are way ahead of even my most optimistic projections for a start on classic.

The Yin to Dr. Shen's Yang here is that research laboratory is badly understaffed in comparison, housing only 7 scientists at the moment. This isn't crippling, but I might have honestly wanted the March 26th abduction mission to have rewarded me with scientists instead. Research can be very slow at the start of the game and now that we have a surplus of engineers I would really like to pick up the scientists to match.

The beginning of the month is the best time to spend a lot of money. A lot of the money I earned from March is already reserved however. Every month about 275 X-Com Bitcoins need to be set aside and reserved for expanding satellite coverage. 100 for the uplink, and then about 60-70 per for three satellites. That takes away about half our spending money for the month. The rest is largely invested in the cost of digging out and setting up a Thermo Generator. That will cost 200 for the building alone, plus excavation costs. That leaves me about 125 extra left over, suddenly I don't feel so rich. That money is just enough to build an officer training school. Just the school though. I will have to find some missions and earn some money or sell alien artifacts to actually pay for any of the abilities unlocked in the OTS.

This still leaves me with out an Alien Containment, Gene Lab, Cybernetics Lab, or a Foundry. All of these are very important buildings to get built as soon as possible and I will have to scramble to get them up this month, if I can at all. Come the end of this month and the expected income I will earn from having 8 satellites up I should at least have all the money I need at the start of May. Despite the amazing start March gave us, it still leaves us with needing more money to pick up the slack we lost by not building these other buildings earlier.

This is how the base looks on April first;


The OTS is being built in a corner because it doesn't get any adjacency bonuses. The steam is being excavated for the Thermo Generator, and the square under the first Satellite Uplink is being excavated so that I can build the uplinks in a square, and get the extra adjacency bonus from the fourth uplink rather than waiting for the fifth if I built this months uplink on the upper level. Three satellites have already been purchased and are being built, and the remaining 299 XCom bitcoins are reserved for the cost of the uplink and Thermo Generator.

Things are looking good but I really need more money to get started on the buildings we are missing. On top of that I will need more money to build anything else this month, such as laser weapons or armor if I get those researched in time. This whole month is going to be a bit of a cluster fuck. There is so much to do and even with my accelerated satellite start there isn't enough money to do it all. Not even close. April is going to be frantic, just no way around it.

Let's go take a look at our troops and see how they have come around this month.

Sergeant Tony 'Voodoo' White - Support
5 Missions, 7 Kills
HP 6+1 Will 73 Aim 95
Sprinter + Field Medic
Tony White needs a better nickname than Voodoo. I'm counting on you people to give him one before the next video.

Corporal Nittien Stomperud - Sniper
4 Missions, 6 Kills
HP 4+1 Will 44 Aim 91+10 (Scope)
Squadsight

Corporal Ragnar Tiny Turtle - Heavy
3 Missions, 7 Kills
HP 6+1 Will 44 Aim 69
Bullet Swarm
Given Tiny Turtles average aim, the slow growth rate of heavies, and the heavies class ability when converted into a MEC Tiny presents and ideal candidate for the first MEC suit as soon as it becomes available.

Squaddie Ricky Gunderson - Sniper
2 Missions, 3 Kills
HP 4+1 Will 51 Aim 83

Squaddie Catalina Sprahl - Assault
2 Missions, 3 Kills
HP 4+1 Will 39 Aim 80

Squaddie Hilda Kartal - Support
1 Mission, 3 Kills
HP 5+1 Will 37 Aim 76

Squaddie Finn Terne - Sniper
1 Mission, 1 Kill
HP 5+1 Will 33 Aim 77


These are only the seven I have renamed and seen combat since the opening mission. I still have five more sitting in the barracks in case I need them, and I may recruit more given the need and spare income to hope for a good batch of high aim rookies. Everyone is in good health and awaiting the next mission.

Lastly come the medals we earned during March. There was a lot of talk about the first medal, several naming suggestions as well as discussion on which power to assign it. It seems everybody except one person forgot about the second medal that was awarded. So here are our medals going forward from here;



I renamed it just a little, but I thought the Bonus Beuenos Aires Air Medal was clearly the best suggestion. It currently awards +4 aim to a solder and will gain +2 aim as more continent bonuses are secured. We have one of them awaiting your decision on whom to award it to. Please make your suggestions or discuss who you want to have it so I can have that done for the next update.

Veloxyll was the only poster to voice an opinion on the Urban Combat Badge, so I took his idea and made it a little less stupid.



I think that is an acceptable modification to his original suggestion to name the bade TacosTacosTacos. Veloxyll also chose the defense power which is the correct choice. We have one of these badges awaiting to be awarded to a soldier.


That does it for March. Please vote if you want to award the medals and to give Tony White a better nickname. Please vote any time a new soldier hits Sergent while I am at it. I think we can do better than the default generated nicknames.