Part 32: Operation Balls World War

Operation Balls World War

Okay this one got uploaded twice because the first time something went wrong and the last 8 minutes or so of the video was cut off. Sorry about that, I am almost positive it wasn't my fault.

Today though we see the Gatekeeper, a surprise new addition to the alien forces. I'm not sure where the idea or design for this thing came from but it does seem to share a little bit of the visual design in common with the previous game's version of cyberdisks. That is to say the gatekeeper has the sleek rounded metallic look of alien techno wizardry and shares in common the two state mechanics of the cyberdisks. Not shown in this video because fuck ever letting gatekeepers do something, but gate keepers can open up their shell to show the horrors beneath, a pinkish purple spherical blob with some tendrils to wave around to cast terrible and deadly psionic effects with. Much like the cyberdisks they are more vulnerable in this state than they are in golfball mode. Guava and I touched upon this in the video as well but gatekeepers count as both biological and mechanical targets, which opens up some possibilities for dealing with them. This allows bluescreen rounds to deal extra damage to them, as well as venom rounds to poison them. They can be mind controlled (with a very strong psi soldier), but I don't think they can actually be hacked via Haywire, I've never thought to actually try that one. In general though gatekeepers are enormous dicks. They have a ton of health that is shielded by 6 points of armor and while they are in golfball mode they have the equivalent of high cover where ever they float. They are tough to kill and fuck each and every one of them. On the offensive side of things they have some seriously harmful abilities too. They have an area of effect attack that does two things, one, it hurts a lot, and two, any corpses caught in the blast range are reanimated as psi-zombies. When that is on cool down they will simply psi lance people for varying damage somewhere in the 7-12 range. As a Psi attack it of course ignores cover and the only defense you have against it is willpower.

Gatekeepers suck. Kill them all the time, every time, as soon as you can, which sometimes isn't soon enough because they're so hard to destroy. Argh.



Marksman Colonel Rank
Serial vs Fanfire

This will be another of the skill choices that is really decided for you based on earlier choices. Serial works somewhat like In The Zone from the last game. Serial refunds the action cost of sniping an enemy if you kill it. This most be done with the sniper rifle. This allows for as many sniper shots in one round as you have ammo and killable targets for. This can clean up a battlefield in a hurry when used right. It is a great skill.
On the other side of things if you're a terrible person like Guava Moment is, Fanfire lets you fire a pistol at the same target three times. This can be a fair amount of damage, and can benefit greatly from advanced ammo like flame rounds or bluescreen rounds. Each shot rolls a separate chance to hit, so it's not an all or nothing attack. This can let you put a serious hit on a big target. Guava typically likes to say fanfire plus bluescreen rounds and point it at a sectopod. It has it's uses and can benefit from other synergies like ammo and other gunslinger skills.

Winner: Serial, because why are you making your Marksmen select a skill that is a pistol version of Rapid Fire? Arghhhghh