Part 39: Operation Deluge

Operation Deluge



Polsy



The second in our EXALT(ish) plot line missions. This time there is trouble on a french dam! I'm not sure why a dam, other than it leads to a really cool map and a pretty creative way of putting a time limit on the mission. The difficulty of this mission really seems to depend on when you have to do it. Guava recalls getting this mission late game and it being a breeze, while I remember getting it earlier (like before titan armor and plasma) and it being very difficult. It's very possible to get bogged down in combat and have the turn timers tick away on you like a bomb diffusional mission. Letting Mechtoids get a psi shield from the sectoids that drop with them is a sure fire way to have to spend an extra turn or two in combat dealing with that, all while the mission timer on the dam ticks away. If you get the mission later like I did here, you have more than enough power, resources, and ranked up troops to mow through most of what comes your way in a single turn or two.

I find this mission pretty cool for story wise, although it has come a little too late in the playthrough to fit my imagined timeline. Getting this mission before the alien base, before you see any sort of psionic activity would have been pretty cool I think. More so for first timers to the series. I think it'd be cool for first time players to see Annette burst out of the truck, do her little Psi shockwave and be left wondering 'what the hell was that?' I think that could be a really neat twist, or maybe not a twist but a foreshadow. To tell the player there is something special about Annette and other humans that the aliens take a lot of interest in, and then have the player discover it on their own when they learn about psionics.



Psi Inspire vs Psi Panic

As I said in the video, I don't get a lot of use out of either of these skills. Guava laid out the best argument for picking Psi Inspire though; It gets rid of panic, mindfray penalties, and it buffs nearby peoples will power score for a couple of turns which is handy if a) They're psionic too so now they can psi attack someone with a big bonus or b) you want to buff your weaker will powered soldiers because you're near a psionic enemy.

Psi Panic I really don't use much. It is kind of a clutch panic button to me. A last resort from keeping a muton or something else from wrecking you because you couldn't deal with an alien on your turn. Left a muton in prime position to grenade two or more of your dudes? Panic him. It works pretty well at that, but that is about all it's good for; breaking one enemy off of the fight for a turn. Normally if things are going well, I'd rather just shoot him.

I'd do the plus minus list but these skills have so little to them. And a bunch of you have voted already.