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Another UFO appeared and seemed to hover near our base. I scrambled Raptors 1 & 2 again and an intense fight developed. I believe I failed. I didn't notice how badly Raptor 1 was damaged until it was too late and she went down. Raptor 2 fought live a devil and shot it down over the ocean. No possibility of recovery.

Our first month comes to an end. KP duty doesn't pay well, eh Bob? (I guess you don't pay techs unless you use them, probably based on how much they work?). Finally we have money again to replace Raptor 1 and expand our new base and add interrogation facilities to this one.

On my second mission I lost the Mission due to being pelted by some kind of gun that released green vapor of some kind and splitting my team too early. I'm quitting this game now due to stupid moves and too many losses. The tank didn't have infantry support and was wiped out. I did have some moment that reminded me of X-Com. An alien shot his ally in the back trying to hit me. Shots that missed went on to down walls and cause explosions. The combat system was intuitive due to playing X-Com before. Some thoughts

Pro: Grenades are much easier to use. No priming. Throw and they blow up immediately though with low throwing skill accuracy can be....dodgy. The base system is intuitive. They parred down the human-tech weapons. Income increases from a nation when you have a base there encouraging base-building. It is easy to arm your troops. When you launch a troop transport you are taken to the squad screen automatically to make any changes you need to. The mini-pictures right above the toolbar show who has time units left and everyone's health. I do like that as you take damage you get less time units and your accuracy falls.

Indifferent: The lack of Scientists seemed maddening to an X-Com vet who wanted to buy 40 more and put them to work. I never got more but I assume they would have sent more soon. While so far I like that research is now a tough choice of options as opposed to before when you put 100 scientists on every project and cleaned out the tech tree only time will tell if the rate at which you get them will work. This will be pro or con depending on your opinion but your troops are tougher than they were in X-Com. Not once were any of my men dropped by one shot though some did go down in one round. Even with armor in X-Com one shot had a very strong chance of dropping you. Not here. Admittedly I didn't face anything worse than a plasma rifle so it might get worse.

Con: If you haven't seen it the voice acting in the intro is awful. Emotionless in battle and the radio controller sounded bored when giving orders to return to base. In 2 missions I never saw the inside of a UFO. The aliens came out and attacked me instead of me having to hunt them out. This may not be a huge con and for some people may be a plus....I'll have to wait and see if they try to hold larger UFOs or if they continue to act the way they did.

Unknown: Never tried production

Overall verdict: It's X-Com. I had a blast and it's 5:30 in the morning and I have class in a few hours....ooops [8|]

Xenocide,

Great AAR, my first game was not too different from that! Live and learn. One quick comment is that you get more scientists in UFO by building more labs. Each lab gets you 10 more scientist and I agree they are quite necessary!

Regards,

- Erik

Yeah...nice AAR (shame I can't get it! [:(])

Good to see you posting warts an all!

As a hint, i have found building 2 more labs straight of the bat helps you keep up with the tech. I've found making laser rifles and chemical grenades a must, followed by Laser turrents and Laser shields for your ships. Then i tend to try and get the Beekeeper impreoved armour for my soldiers.

Nice AAR, Xenocide. Please make another one, I enjoyed it very much.

I concur, very entertaining.  Well done.