Part 41: Operation Fanatic Bollocks

Operation Fanatic Bollocks



Polsy


Oh man.. This mission... This is a special one so make sure you go watch it first before scrolling down to read what I have to say about it.











This mission is what I commonly use as my 2/3rds of the way through the game check point. The alien base, this mission, and then the end mission are my milestones. This mission can also be a huge kick in the bollocks if you're not prepared for it. Hell it can be a huge kick in the balls if you're not prepared for it in multiple ways, not just on the ground combat part of it. To start off with you absolutely must have a firestorm if you want to shoot the UFO down. I suppose that may not be totally true if you want to burn through 5+ Dodge modules, but lets be sane here. The order of operations to approach this even can kind of be a trap that even got me my first time playing through. After you take the alien base you get this big shiny new object that comes with its own cut scenes, its own plot points, and you think 'I better research the fuck out of this ASAP' and then you build the thing it unlocks. Seems reasonable and it makes sense. What you don't necessarily know is that building the hyperwave triggers the overseer UFO if you are ready for it or not. The overseer gets score like any other UFO too, it'll pop up, fly over a country and they will be pissy if you don't shoot it down, thus increasing panic in the country and hurting your end of month score. That's pretty shit, and if you build the hyperwave as fast as possible after the alien base assault, there is a fair chance you are not going to have a fleet of firestorms ready to intercept the overseer when it shows up. It's not a massive kick in the balls, but as for advice to new players I'd offer this even if it is a little spoilery: Always have well equipped firestorms in every continent and a few air combat modules, the tracking boost especially, ready before you finish construction of the hyperwave decoder. Plasma cannons are good, and EMP cannons are better.

Once the Overseer is down, you have a whole other set of new problems. Thankfully the hyperwave kind of warns you about what you're about to face. The nice thing the hyperwave does is give you an exact head count on how many aliens are at the crash site and what types of aliens they are. This is great info to have any time, but on the overseer UFO you might not know what you are getting into if this is your first time. Assuming you're brand new to all this the words Ethereal and Sectopod won't mean anything to you other than new alien type. Also you will see Muton Elites listed, which you can rightly guess are upgraded Mutons, but to the extent of which you may not know, and it's a big upgrade. It's also possible to see Heavy Floaters here I believe, which again may be a new enemy type and shock a new player a bit. All this, with out a little foreknowledge, means you might head out into the field and be slammed in the face with a sudden spike in the difficulty of enemies and it wouldn't be surprising to lose a few soldiers to the Sectopods or Ethereal.

Other than the increased difficulty of the aliens you will see on this mission, it plays out like any other UFO recovery you've done dozens of times. The only big change here is that the Ethereal is guaranteed to be in the center room of the UFO with the shiny new plot device and two Muton Elite guards. Because of this I would recommend to sweep the outside of the map first and then be very well prepared when you go into that room. In the video however I get a tiny bit careless and the size of the shredder rocket's explosion blows away part of the wall to that center room. That could be really, really bad. If you have to fight an Ethereal then you want to do that while it has a little help as possible. It's my standard guide line of 'fight one group at a time' that should be common sense by now, but an Ethereal with back up will absolutely mess your plan and your squad up. Control the engagements, minimize your risks, and drop the most dangerous alien as fast as you can.

All that's left is to talk about the new aliens in detail, and there were three of them this mission. Can be a real kick in the balls having to deal with three very dangerous new and unknown alien types all in one mission at the same time.

Muton Elites. They are a bit of a wall of HP. They are well armored to soak up fire. They carry heavy plasma guns which can really hurt and are more accurate with them than regular Mutons. They carry grenades just like their greener lighter versions, And probably the biggest thing I hate about them is that they have an intrinsic 30 Defense bonus. As I say in the video that means if they take cover they are at -70% to hit. That is really harsh and nothing up until this point has be nearly so brutal to hit. Muton Elites can pretty easily dig themselves into high cover and spray heavy plasma at you all day long, and trading fire with them is not recommended. Even with my squad of hand pick high aim soldiers that is not a thing I'd like to do. Flank them, suppress them, explode their cover, or force them to move. You can't really with trading fire back and forth. The other option is Psionics, Muton Elites are still Mutons, which means they have below average willpower. Psionic soldiers can do a lot of damage to Muton Elites, and if you have mind control all the better. Control them, grenade them and their buddies, run them around to eat reaction fire and shoot each other. If MC isn't an option Mindfray still works great and will cripple their movement and aim for a few turns to let you get in a better position on them.


Sectopods. Bipedal walking tanks of death. Essentially they are scaled down, non-nuclear metal gears. You could think of them as the aliens version of a SHIV, only way more awesome but less mobile. They hold a staggering amount of HP normally, and with the Enemy Within buff giving them a flat 50% damage mitigation they become even harder to kill. Sectopods necessitate focused heavy firepower if you don't want to be dealing with them for 3+ turns, and you absolutely do not want to be dealing with them for that long. Heavy Plasma, HEAT ammo, and bulletswarm used to be the way to deal with them quickly, but with the damage reduction bonus this no longer gives you a reliable way to see them dead or seriously damaged in one turn. Heavies are still a good bet though, bringing HEAT ammo to deal with the damage mitigation. Shredder rockets can also help you break through a sectopods wall of armor. A good sniper will also help your cause with disabling shot if you need to buy time, and In The Zone to clear out drones which are now a bit more of a consideration than they were before.
That's a lot of talk about how tough they are, but they're also very lethal as well. Sectopods have two main attacks, a main cannon they can fire twice a turn much like bulletswarm that deals about 10 damage a hit, and a secondary multi-round mini artillery strike. The second is denoted by a red scanning laser and a camera zoom in on its intended target. At this point I feel I shouldn't need to tell anyone to seek high cover exclusively when fighting something this dangerous. Sectopods do not care about half cover, they will shoot you and it will hurt. If you see the red scanner indicate a artillery strike is coming, you have a window of opportunity. While a Sectopod is in this state, it's not shooting at you, and it's not on overwatch. I'd consider this the ideal time to rush them. Take the opportunity to move up on the Sectopod and get each and every shot you can on it. If it's wounded, this is a chance to kill it. If it's not wounded, don't get too aggressive and eat a pair of shots on the next turn, but still get your hits in. One final and perhaps unexpected way to be hurt by a Sectopod is by being near them when they die. Similar to Cyberdisks, a Sectopod will explode upon death and deal damage to anything too close to it when it goes. This usually isn't a problem, but it does add a little risk to punching Sectopods with MECs.


Ethereals. If you played the original game you know to fear and hate them. They could fly, they could shoot accurately, and worst off was that each and every one of them was psionic. While most of that doesn't translate into the new game they are still absolutely deadly aliens and will ruin your day. Ethereals no longer fly, but hover, and it doesn't really hinder them all that much in the new game. They also no longer carry guns, but they don't even need to. They come equipped with a small but powerful array of psionic attacks. The first of which is essentially their standard attack, possible every turn, Psi Lance. Psi Lance is a straight attack for damage, and higher willpower will help soldiers take less damage from the attacks. I personally have never seen it miss either, making be believe it a Ethereal Willpower VS Target Willpower check for damage with little or no other influences or checks. Secondly as expected they have the ability to mind control, and Ethereals have a VERY high willpower score to ensure that their attempts will almost always succeed. Lastly they have an area of effect psionic attack, Psi Rift. This rift works much the same way as the Lance, anything inside of it will take a lot of damage and is mitigated by having more willpower. Interestingly Psi Rift can and will hurt SHIVS, and they will take extreme damage from it since their will score is zero. Furthermore the Rift is a persistent effect, and will stay on the battlefield for several turns. Perhaps the most surprising ability the Ethereals now have is their shield. Every shot that would otherwise hit an Ethereal has a small chance of being reflected back at the shooter, for minimal damage. This can be surprising, though usually not very deadly in it own right. It can however nullify a critical shot, or delay your ability to bring down the Ethereal for a turn. Lastly Ethereals release a small blast of presumably psionic energy when they are killed and can cause minor damage to anything nearby them when they die.