Part 9: Operation Secret Bell

Operation Secret Bell

Fun things are happening in the base following the monthly infusion of cash. I had just enough left over from my plans about satellites and a thermo generator to build the Officer Training School. The first purchase of Squad Size came funded via alien corpses and the budget remains as tight as ever.

Ragnar is still benched awaiting the construction of the cybernetics lab and with the increase in squad size I bring in a new rookie to hopefully take Ragnar's place as the teams heavy.


James Dean 30 Will 80 Aim

Spoiler, I forgot to take a picture of him before the mission. So yes, he does exactly as I hoped and promotes into a heavy following the video.




Polsy



Corrections about things I said at the end of the video:
I have a special bonus video coming up next and got a little bit of the base management confused between the two. I have no cybernetics lab nor gene lab building at the end of this video. It's very likely their construction will begin before the next mission.


New Enemy Type: Seekers

Seekers are a fun new enemy added in Enemy Within. The moment you encounter them they go stealth, and they can stay stealthed for as long as they like. Seekers will float around and wait to find a soldier that is left alone or separated from the rest of the team and then strike by wrapping their tentacles around the victim and strangling them, doing two damage a turn. On their own this isn't particularly scary. When they strike at the same time as a more direct threat poised by Thin Men or Floaters then they can be very dangerous. Losing a soldier in the middle of a firefight can be bad, diverting other soldiers to save the first can weaken the front against the more direct attack.

Overwatch is almost the only way to deal with them. They only become visible right before they attack. Clustering your men together and having them all over watch can be a very effective way of dealing with Seekers. Later in the game the more advanced armors and some inventory items will also prevent strangulation. It's a rare sight to see, but if a seeker can not find anyone to strangle they will attempt to flank and open fire with a plasma weapon mounted in its face.


Disabling Shot vs Battle Scanner

A choice between two utility skills for the sniper where neither option leads (directly) to increased killing power for the sniper. Disabling Shot jams an enemies weapon and forces an enemy to use the reload command before using it again. Battle Scanner works a bit like a grenade that doesn't explode but instead gives you a line of sight coming from the scanner in all directions.

Disabling Shot
+ Very useful when attempting to capture a live alien.
+ Good stall tactic when you just can't kill an lien on your turn and you don't want it shooting you on its turn.
+ Can be used against your own mind controlled soldiers to buy time.
- Has an aim penalty compared to a regular shot.
- Does not deal full damage when it hits. Only about one or two points.

Battle Scanner
+ Risk free extension of a squads field of view.
+ Does not activate passive enemies.
+ Works great with Squad Sight
- Only get two of them a map.
- Travels about as far, if a little farther than a grenade, usually requiring the sniper to be up front for good use.

For me snipers are about killing. Shooting aliens is the number one priority in skill picks, which ever skill helps me shoot aliens most I take. Neither of these skills directly help with that goal. Both skills offer good utility though, and neither has much of a drawback. I can see Battle Scanners being a little easier to use with a snapshot sniper, as a snapshoter will be more mobile and closer to the front positions to throw the scanners from. At the same time though a squadsight sniper can throw the scanner and shoot at what it reveals with out being seen. Disabling shot can be great when trying to buy a turn for live captures. Zapping an alien so you know they can't shoot for one turn is great when having to rush an arc thrower forward. If the arc thrower is already within range zap them anyway just in case the stun fails.

I don't have a strong recommendation for either choice this time around. Both are useful, but neither are particularly powerful. Since I typically train two snipers up anyway it tends to be a 50/50 split and I will give Scanners to one sniper and Disabling shot to the other.