XCOM 2 AAR - Interlude

After being in captivity for so long, there's more than a little catching up to do. The world has changed drastically, and you'll have to change quickly to catch up. First things first though, best to get acquainted with the staff and the new base.

You didn't know Bradford well from your brief time in XCOM, but a familiar face is certainly welcome. He's aged, certainly, but he's still Bradford. Even better is that shiny blue globe that you spent so much time staring at back in XCOM. Familiar sights indeed.

Dr. Tygan is your new science officer who comes from a medical background. While he did initially work for ADVENT on new technology, he has since repented and joined the resistance. What really intrigues him currently is the chip he pulled out of  your skull once you were brought on board. No one knows exactly what it did, and you agree with the good doctor that learning about what was up there in your brain should be studied in depth.

Next is your head engineer. Lily Shen. Daughter of the late Dr. Shen that had been so key to your efforts long ago. She's young, but seems capable, and the people here trust her with their tech. She does seem to know what she's doing. Should work out. Those flying drones are certainly a good piece of tech. Can't wait to see them on the field.

Time to get to work. Zoomed in, that blue planet interface gives you the information you would need for strategic decisions. Sometimes you would stare at this thing for what seemed to be days at a time.

Gameplay-wise, this is your fast-forward button. In the bottom-right corner we have alerts on things happening in the future. Research, building, training, wounded soldiers, you name it. Between major events, we will scan locations; this one here takes four days to scan, and awards an engineer when we finish. In three days our current research will finish, and every month we get a supply drop giving us our income for the month (upper right).

Of course, nothing is completely predictable. Random events will fire, most of which will require our squad to roll out. Soon after our initial research on modular weapons finishes, we get a local resistance message about a cache of interrogation reports held on a lightly-defended train. The troops are sent in, with some adjustments from before:

With JCan wounded, we fill the last spot with a new soldier, The moody rookie Lovenought Morozov. Given his demeanor and rank, we give him the medpack, letting the more experienced keep their fun toys grenades.

Stucken Schmidt also changed some things up, and goes by Susanne. We all knew the gun gave it away. (I'd advise against calling it anything but Charlene when she's around, too)

And when we return, it's a good old-fashioned train robbery.