Part 25: Operation War of the Llancarfan

Operation War of the Llancarfan

With our Unexpected Troubles behind us I take several of the lower leveled soldiers out for an easy guerrilla mission to help them earn some promotions. What could go wrong eh?





New enemy type Andromedon's! Andromedon's are a brand new enemy type, unlike anything in the original Julian Gollop X-Com or the first Jake Solomon XCom. They first appear as big beefy armored environmental suits, and I've heard some people compare them visually to Big Daddies of Bio-Shock. They carry a multi use weapon capable of standard fire on par with a plasma rifle but also launching a grenade like attack. This special attack lobs a glob of what is assumed to be the fluid inside the suit that the creature inside normally breathes or lives in, which comes across normal human live as terrible toxic acid. The blob will explode for damage and coat the entire area in an acid puddle, as well as inflicting the acid burn status on everyone caught up in the blast. This is absolutely terrible to be hit by. It causes a lot of damage and then more damage over time caused by the acid burn effect. Avoid getting hit by this at all costs. Other important things to note include the Andromedon's robust pool of HP, being almost as hearty as an Archon but also the Andromedon's heavy armor rating of 4 points of armor. They're going to take a fair bit of armor shredding and then will require a couple of good strong hits to bring down. A 4 armor 18 HP alien is usually a turns worth concentrated fire in their own right, and I would prioritize these guys at primary targets due to the high lethality of their area effect attack.

Things can get worse though! Once you down an Andromedon and the pilot dies the mechanized suit remains intact enough to move on it's own! The suit can not use the Andromedon's gun thankfully and is a less lethal opponent. However it becomes a somewhat suicidal melee enemy with only one objective, to punch your men in the face. The punch will hurt, a lot, but it's not super devastating on its own. In most cases it's a good idea to kill an Andromedon from far away when possible, so that when the suit takes over it is out of reach of anyone for a turn and you can safely destroy the suit before it harms anyone. Lastly the suit leaks the toxic acid it contains and leaves behind a trail of acid covering every tile of terrain it runs over. Not super dangerous, but it can make an unpleasant obstacle for a turn or two if it creates an acid trail in front of where you need to go.