Part 33: Operation Shambling Fire

Operation Shambling Fire

So first warning is the commentary might seem a little off. Thats just cause my video player hitched a couple of times for a fraction of a second and that may have thrown my reaction timing to the video off a tiny bit. I doubt that'll be very noticeable. Additionally Skype wasn't at it's best so there are a few times when we don't hear each other clearly. Again, probably shouldn't be too noticeable except for one time I think i directly repeat guava cause I couldn't hear what he said.


Let's talk about that UFO eh? Nice interception course. 13k miles in 19 hours. Good job aliens, ever heard of a straight line? I mean i guess it might have been a straight line, just wrapping around the globe a bit but still, come on, fix your game Jake. In any case the UFO defense mission isn't so bad, I don't think it's anywhere near as bad as the base defense mission in the first game. The ramp is nicely supplied with a lot of half cover and several high cover spots and local terrain usually provides the rest that you'll need for the mission. The enemies follow normal pod activation and reinforcement rules, so there is no more mutons out the air vents or other unexpected problems like the first games mission. It's really more of an endurance mission rather than a panicked defense mission. The mission requires you to push forward toward the other side of the map while almost always simultaneously dealing with pods and/or reinforcements. There is never a turn when there isn't something to shoot. That isn't too terrible though, the reinforcements start out pretty weak, a dropship landing an officer and a trooper isn't something that's going to cause serious problems by this point in the game. Really it's about making constant progress down the map, something I take my sweet time with at the start of the mission because unexpected pod activations happen. If I can manage to handle 3 pods at once though that is the absolute worst the mission was going to throw at me and I managed fine, despite putting Julian into the potential range of another Andromedan shot killing him. It's never particularly fun being in the range where a soldier can die from just two hits. RIP Angry Lobster. This late in the game I'd have thought all the armor and HP we had that I'd have a bit more durability.

Guava is mostly right that if you're a little more inclined to being aggressive this mission doesn't need to last as long as I took. I was enjoying just killing things as they came in through, and if some of my over watch traps had worked better then I would have had a chance at turns where there was no activate enemies on the map and I could have dashed forward at my leisure. That didn't ever turn out to be the case and so I took the cautious approach and killed everything that came my way as I inched down the map. The retreat is a lot easier though! As Guava mentioned if you dash away from hostiles they usually have to dash to keep up with you and if they dash then they aren't shooting you. As long as you don't leave a straggler as the only reachable target then the retreat is pretty easy.

In a larger picture of things, I probably should have planned ahead better. Leaving the Shadow Chamber projects alone for so long has created kind of a backlog on plot missions. A lot of the story and suspense is found in the research scenes, the resulting missions, and the unexpected troubles they cause (like the first codex showing up as you stab a dude in the skull). I regret not pacing that out better as it seems we're about to break full sprint into the end of the game by slamming out all the shadow chamber research in the course of the next month. My bad.