Earth Monkey Strike Team is Go!

It all started when a friend of mine gave an end game report for his “Band of Brothers” run through playing X-Com 2.  The Band of Brothers idea is quite simple in that you name your team members from a list of willing, personal friends.  His write-up inspired me and one Facebook post later, I had a full crew of willing friends ready to go fight aliens with me! (Well, at least use their names and possibly set them up for horrible virtual death and/or mild embarrassment.) Not having,  X-Com 2 I fired up my well-loved copy of X-Com: Enemy Unknown and got things started.

At first I thought I would put up mission reports, etc for entertainment value on Facebook for everyone to chuckle over.  Then, thanks to another helpful friend, I was reminded that, duh, I have a game blog!

And, as far as intro, that’s all you get.

Yes, we’ll talk RPG’s later.  For now, we’re hunting squishies!!!

Let’s get to it.

After a report of initial contact, a new recruitment force calling itself Earth Monkey Strike Team (EMST) of the X-Com Project launched into action from their North American base against a small handful of sectoid invaders.  Rookies Norris, Niedzwiecki, Osborne and Schmelz  initiated contact and combat.  The mission was an overall success thanks to a liberal use of grenades initiated by Rookie Norris.  Unfortunately, Rookie Norris was wounded in the firefight and would have to wait to return to action for nearly a week.  It was the fast thinking of Rookie Schmelz that managed to pop the sectoid who first hit Norris.

Upon return to the X-Com base, Rookie Norris was promoted to Assault division, Rookie Niedzwiecki was promoted to Support division and Rookie Schmelz was promoted to Sniper division.

Mission #2

A few days later, several alien encounters were logged and the EMST was scrambled to intercept an alien attack in Nigeria.  Assigned to the mission was Squaddie Niedzwiecki and Schmelz, while two new Rookies, Rookie Hughes and Roberts were pulled in on the assignment.

The battle took place within a cemetery.  The reason for the alien’s presence in a cemetery is still unknown.  The team handled the initial two sectoids easily but when alien reinforcements arrived they were able to flank Sniper Schmelz.  Things went south quickly when one of the sectoids landed an amazing shot on the sniper sending him and the corner of the mausoleum he was hiding behind to the ground.  Rookie Hughes and Squaddie Niedzwiecki lost their cool and panicked.

While the support Squaddie cowered into the stone corner of the gravestone he was hiding behind, Rookie Hughes screamed in terror and began firing the rest of her clip at Rookie Roberts.   Luckily, her shots, fired in a complete panic and at long range, missed completely.

Rookie Roberts, being the only squad member left standing or not losing their underpants, began a flanking maneuver on the remaining sectoid. Within moments, Rookie Hughes had regained her composure and continue her fire at the sectoid.

Between the two working together the sectoid was eliminated with Rookie Roberts completing the final kill shot.  Squaddie Niedzwiecki rushed to Schmelz’s aid but found him unresponsive.

The team rushed to collect the alien bodies and any alien artifacts while the medic loaded the nearly dead sniper onto the Skyranger transport.  Flying back to the North American base, Squaddie Schmelz was stabilized but in critical condition.  (Actually,  because of the insane across the board shot from the alien, Squaddie Schmelz was killed in-game!  I decided to have a small amount of mercy and for now simply make him one of the new soldiers coming into the base and then not play him for approximately 4 to 6 weeks in game time to represent his critical condition.  Because, who wants to get killed in a Nigerian graveyard?  I’m still considering if this is a good idea…)

Upon return to the base and debriefing, Rookie Roberts was promoted to the Assault division while Rookie Hughes was promoted to the Heavy Weapons division.  The irony that a soldier who had panicked and fired on their own teammate would now be carrying rocket launchers and heavy machine guns was not lost on the rest of the team.