Part 30: Operation Jagged Hot Center

Operation Jagged Hot Center

This time around we get some stuff gone on the world map and in the avenger. A supply drop gives us the materials we need to build a lot of shiny new equipment, a scan site gives us a little bit of a break, and we will be in India by the next video to strike back against an Avatar Facility. Good times.

Today's mission isn't anything super new, a council VIP capture/kill mission, but it does go to show that even though I felt like I had things under control at all times things can still go wrong. This one became surprisingly difficult at the end. Guava and I touched on this previously, but Sectopods in the wild are normally only really dangerous when they have support, and in cases like this where a sectopod's pod and a reinforcement pod activate on you at the same time, it can get bad in a hurry.

Also I'm really not sure what happened with the Andromidan shell. The best I can tell is that I killed it with out line of sight to it. It shot me though a closed doorway and Shellshock killed it with mind powers through a wall. So when they die and the shell thing happens the Andromidan actually dies, is despawned and the game spawns in a new model in the same location. Normally this works out fine, but because of some fuckery this mission it meant the shell spawned behind a wall and it must have updated lines of sight for it and decided the shell couldn't see any enemies and therefor it was in passive mode until it came to join the fight a few turns later. Really weird.


New skill choice, SPARK Champion Rank
Sacrifice vs Nova

The great Guava v Jade debate continues on this skill choice. Sacrifice is the defensive option, adding armor and defense to the SPARK while drawing fire away from nearby soldiers while Nova is a no action cost point blank area of effect attack that starts costing the SPARK health the more it is used. I couldn't fault either skill choice here, either lends itself to a particular play style. With Bulwark already selected Sacrifice really lends itself to keeping your soldiers safe. Overdrive plus Strike plus Nova though can mean running up to something, punching it in the face, and then blasting it and anything around it to death if it survives. Either power could be very powerful and great in emergency situations to either keep a wounded solder alive, or to expend a bit of SPARK health to make sure something dies immediately. The no action cost of Nova also would have been super handy versus alien rulers, but I am a little too late for that.

Winner: Depends on your mindset. Sacrifice is the defensive option and Nova is the offensive option.

I even left this one undecided in the video, so it's up to you guys to decide for Julian.