XCOM 2 AAR - Pirates of of the European Forest

In a surprising development, the resistance informant that had helped bring us the info for the last operation sent in his request to join up with us. Getting these requests are really quite common. There's a whole backlog of them available in case we need the extra assistance, but so far we've managed with our own team. What makes this one special is he's already quite skilled, and we are finding ourselves with more injuries than I'd prefer. Another man on the team would help for when the squaddies are stuck in med bay. We get a new soldier, he gets good equipment and all the perks that go with living in the Avenger. Win/win for all sides.

A few days after he's settled in, and we get another mission update: the aliens have a landed UFO in the wilderness of Europe. Your guess is as good as mine as to why it's there, but there it is. Years of alien occupation and experience with the Avenger means we're familiar with the tech involved. This won't be a mission of exploration, but of plunder. We be pirates today mateys!

Well, they've certainly made their ships look nicer in the last twenty years. Added a sun roof and everything. Well, the richer they are, the more plunder we can grab. All we need to do is kill the crew and disable any distress calls and we can off with the loot.

The aliens have a squad of two sectoids and a codex in front. No need to make the humans feel comfortable around them out here, so they have plenty of opportunity to use all their alien variety for defense. Unfortunately for us, the codex is naturally hanging behind a tree, making the ambush harder than normal, but it should still work. Van Wezel starts us off by showcasing his sword skills with a clean sectoid kill. Health and JCan both manage solid hits on the codex but it stays up and even clones itself. Gaius finishes the last sectoid off with another clean cut.

The codex clone then does something very interesting.

The clone teleports down behind a tree, leaving the squad no chance for a good firing angle. Then it summons this vortex around Gaius and Van Wezel. The vortex looks dangerous, and also disables their weapons. They'll need to reload the guns before they can be used, but the swords seem to be working fine. The original codex makes a run for it. Health shoots after it and misses, but Spyhawk nails his shot and brings it down. Van Wezel kills the clone with his sword, leaving Gaius a chance to reload and the rest of the team to get in position. The clock is ticking on that distress beacon.

The swirling vortex looks to implode on itself behind our soldiers, but doesn't seem to have  done any lasting harm. Gaius sets herself up in front of the door, giving time for the rest of the squad to get closer and for her to be able to dash in and do her thing, except she makes a startling discovery.

The walls are see-through and don't provide the cover she thought they would.

(Realistically, I have no idea what's going on here. The walls...don't work like other walls. Rather big pain, because they're treated as walls for cover purposes, but aren't. The protrusions still act properly though)

The mec walks forward into our line of fire. Susanne and Van Wezel miss their shots, but Spyhawk injures it. Gaius goes for a skull-jacking on the defending trooper, but is forced to kill him with her blade before retreating. From the rear of the ship comes the rest of the forces. Our squad finds itself against a viper, 3 soldiers, a shieldbearer, and an injured mec. 6 v 6.

Van Wezel and Susanne try their aim on the mec again. Susanne misses for a second time, but Van Wezel makes his shot. Must have needed more time to get familiar with his new shard shotgun. JCan provides support for Gaius with his GREMLIN. The team finds itself under fire, but the ADVENT forces don't land a single shot. Susanne attempts to grenade their fortified position, but the strong materials of the UFO withstand her explosion. Grenades won't server her well here. JCan successfully hacks into console to stop the console to stop the distress beacon, and even finds a "Hacking for Dummies" PDF inside. Gaius makes her shot on an advanced soldier, doing major damage and bringing him down.

The viper recognizes her as a real threat, flinging her tongue out and grabbing Gaius, pulling her back through two walls before strangling her with her coils. Without assistance she'll quickly suffocate. JCan tries to free her, but only hits the shield from the shieldbearer. Susanne continues to fire uselessly. Van Wezel misses his shot as well and Gaius continues to lose her precious oxygen.

More shots from the aliens, more misses. Neither side seems very accurate today. At least, until JCan takes careful aim and shoots the viper straight in the head, giving Gaius the opportunity to take out her frustration with a strong sword blow. Only the shieldbearer is left alive, but I forget the walls are only fake cover, leaving Health in plain sight for the shieldbearer to land a good shot. Ouch. She shreds the soldier's armor with a grenade, giving Susanne an easy target. Which she misses, giving JCan an opportunity that he passes up. Van Wezel finally takes the kill.

Van Wezel seems to fit in well with the team, and we make off with quite a bit of plunder. Yar!

The good mood is shattered however as the resistance is hit with another retaliation attack, lead to the camp by a defector. Dark times ahead.