Post your X-Com stories here

[Scarynerd]

The title says it all.

I would like to hear your stories, how you got lucky or pulled an amazing move.

Funniest thing that happened to me was during my first attack on a cargo (storage or smth) UFO. Half my regular crew got injured in my previous mission so i brought some rookies, a Captain assault, a Collonel support, and a Collonel sniper.

After some time i made a bad move and and got surrounded by a sectopod, 2 drones, 3 floaters, 3 muttons and a berserker. and then it happened... My rookies couldn't miss. Crit after crit the enemies fell. Eventualy, only the berserker and 2 muttons remained standing and had ful HP and it was their turn. They charged me. The furst mutton threw a grenade at my rookies, killed one and the other two panicked. The second mutton got killed by the snipers overwatch. Then the berserker started running towards my low hp assault but the rookies,still panicked, attack him and that coupled with my Assaults reaction shot killed the berserker. And the rest is history...

 

[Tom_green_day]

I did the first base assault and my squad all died. They were the ones I had been training since the beginning and were elite. The only character I had left with a role was just some sniper I had used now and again.
I trained like shit and she became my best soldier so far. One of the top levels, strong armour and weapons, with a good backing squad. I trained until I thought I was ready to do it again, and so I did. The first group of crysalids were turned into shit at the cost of my goliath. Each subsequent group I encountered took its toll on my team until I was up against the last 2 mutons with a support and assault, both on 1 health, and of course my sniper. They all shot at 1 and it was down to about 2 health, however they both attacked back and my support and assault died. My sniper killed the high health dude in 1 shot, and finally it was looking like i might finish the level... until the muton finished off my already injured sniper. He didn't even kill her, just put her in a critical condition, all alone in an enemy base, to die. She was my favourite soldier and I will never forget her.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

In my most recent run on Classic, I finally decided to try Ghost armor. I discovered that if the soldier is cloaked when they reveal a new enemy, the enemy doesn't get that 'free move' that they normally do. Better still, on the next turn when the cloak ends, if the soldier is still in cover, the enemy doesn't get that free move and you can cloak again and move. I immediately gave Ghost Armor to all of my squad member. Do you have any idea what four snipers, each with Double Tap, an assault and a heavy can do when the enemy doesn't even know they're there? It isn't pretty.

Another good one was the final mission. Again, four snipers. Two of them all the way at the other end of the long room before the final boss, one flying, and another set up around the corner (because I was stupid and didn't give that one squad sight. Never again). Trigger the boss with my assault, had that person run back through the door, and my snipers cut down EVERYTHING that came through that door before the enemy even had a chance to attack. Overwatch for the win. Nothing like watching four separate plasma beams converge on a single target.

 

[Scarynerd]

snip

Is that the reason for your name?

 

[Andy Shandy]

Ah, now let me regale you with the tale of a simple soldier sent to the XCOM unit from Israel. You might have heard of him.

His name would be remembered for all eternity...

[HEADING=1]JESUS CHRIST![/HEADING]

Admittedly Jesus, later nicknamed "H", did not have a great start, panicking in the first mission and killing a friendly. Why XCOM decided not to discharge him was unknown, but it was the most important lack of discharge they ever made.

Jesus came into his element when he was promoted to Squaddie and was designated as a Sniper. He stormed through missions left and right, saving countless civilians in countless countries, and killing the alien scum in ways people thought impossible. He was the fastest promoted soldier in XCOM's history reaching Colonel class long before any of his team mates.

Spoiler: Read on to continue... *aka possible AND definite spoilers in here

However, this quick rise wasn't all smooth. When XCOM discovered that humans could have what were being called "Psionic abilites" - partly in thanks due to Jesus' fine leadership skills and kills - he was extremely intrigued by their possibilities. However, XCOM believed he was needed in the field whenever possible, whether with experienced team-mates or rookies getting their first taste of action, they couldn't have him taking the time off just for a chance that he had these abilities.

This disheartened Jesus. The fight against the aliens had become routine for him, besides occasionally working with his Psionic allies, such as Nelson Mandela, the first Psionic human ever. Boom, headshot there, Triple kill in the zone, there.

Until finally, a lull in alien activity meant the commander relented and allowed him to be tested for Psionic abilities. And lo and behold, he had the power! And it was good! In particular he enjoyed the Mind Control ability (although he did wonder why he wasn't allowed to kill the subject of his control when they had outlived their usefulness).

Missions came and went until the final mission was finally here. September 11 2015*. With the alien mothership vulnerable to attack for only a short time, it was decided they were going to push the aliens back. But XCOM needed what they were calling "The Volunteer", someone to interact with an alien device, that would allow the humans to fight back. And they must have Psionic abilities. So of course, Jesus stepped up, not caring about any potential risks. This was to save humanity, how could he refuse! It should be known Nelson was willing to step up also, but Jesus was chosen by coin toss (perhaps seeming trivial but every other way Nelson and Jesus were equals and they both knew it).

And so began the mission, with Jesus gaining a new ability called "Rift" which allowed him to part the Red Sea create an extremely damaging "Area Of Effect" attack. It was particular helpful against those 'big laser shooting metal bastards', Mandela noted in an interview after the event. And then. There they were. The final room. Face to face with an Uber-Ethereal...

And it went down like it had been shot. Mainly because it had. Multiple times.

SUCCESS!

However, they were then told that the ship would implode creating a black hole of some sort. And with the ship's close proximity to Earth, it would be wiped out taking all of humanity with it. But there was one of those devices from before, that Jesus had interacted with. So he made sure everyone escaped to the Skyranger, and then, using all of his Psionic ability, lifted the ship to a safe distance, for Earth. Jesus had saved Earth. Unfortunately this came at the cost of his life (as you would expect from being right beside a black hole when it "happened").

There was a tale passed down through the years that another by the name Jesus died for humanity's sins. Well, now he's also died to save our asses from aliens.

*Yes, the final mission did actually happen on September 11. My words were "This day is really not going to be a good day in humanity's history if I fuck this up"

And that is the end of my tale with XCOM, at least from my first playthrough (admittedly this was on Easy so I could get used to everything XCOM) I hope anyone who read it enjoyed the tale of Jesus.

 

[puff ball]

there was a time on one of the save as many civilians as you can mission when i blew a hole in a building on my last units move reveling a horde of Muttons and one berserker two of my units were flanked. that's it right mission over everyone dead right, wrong all the muttons decided to ignore the heavily armed soldiers and focus instead on the real threat a bunch of unarmed civilians carrowing in the corner they killed three one hit another of my guys but didn't kill them and i really lucked out with the berserker he was just out of hit range on my closest unit.

 

[Gatx]

I had just shot down one of those large ships and my team was clearing it out. They took out all the enemies except for a group of Chryssalids that had run off. Thinking that I'll deal with them later, I carefully approached the bridge, not using my second move and instead keeping at least half the squad in overwatch, and eventually made it to the room right before. Up until that point I didn't see anything during the alien activity phase because they were out of a sight, but all of a sudden a Chryssalid darts past the doorway, and since one of my guys was in overwatch, it zooms in just to see that bit, like a scene out of Aliens or something.

 

[tippy2k2]

Judo SNIP!

Damn it Andy Shandy! I must know how well our Lord and Savior Sniper H Christ did but I'm only three council missions in and I don't want to reveal the spoiler! Did he win? Was it epic?!?! I MUST KNOW!!!!!

....ahem...sorry, got a little too excited there.

OT: Anyway, my first play through was on Iron Man because I am a man's man kind of a gamer. Five hours in and everyone dead....so much death.......purple zerg......the horror.....the horror.

On the plus side, my second play (again on Iron Man because I hate myself) through is going much better! It's a "Let's Play" group on The Escapist so feel free to look us up if you want in on the fight.

Spoiler: Now for my story; no spoilers

One soldier started in the second game looking like any other soldier. However, this Assaulter demonstrated time and time again that he was willing to run into the fight if that's what it took to save a comrade. A cyberdisk was threatening civilians and he dashed forward to save the two innocents, giving the squad the clear go to blow the shit out of the cyberdisk. But alas, his daring and selfless nature eventually cost him his life.....sorry, I'm tearing up. Can you...can you give me a second?

OK, I think I'm good to continue. A fellow soldier went down with three Muton's in front of him. Selflessly, SCORP ran to his fallen comrade, hoping to clear a path for the medic to get through. With a 89% success rate, this was the one time where SCORP's fear of spiders finally got the best of him. A spider on the hood of the car scared him and he missed the shot. Looking on, the Support member threw a smoke grenade, hoping to save SCORP but alas, the Muton fired and scored a Critical Hit, killing our brave soldier instantly. However, SCORP went out doing what he was born to do. His shot that missed hit the car next to the Muton, which exploded. Even in death, SCORP was killing aliens.

EDIT: Well shit...a few posts in and I'm getting spoilers! I must bow out of the thread before my happiness is ruined

 

[Andy Shandy]

Snippity snip snip!

Without tooting my own horn too much, I'd like to believe it was epic =P

It was certainly good fun to write anyway. =D

 

[The Sanctifier]

When I beat the game the first time on normal, it had ended up being my only survivor of the tutorial mission who would end up destroying the temple ship. And the sniper who dealt the final blow to the middle ethereal had started of as a squaddie replacement for one of my veteren snipers who had died during a UFO assault. My team was all like, "she'll probably get killed like all the rest of the rookies. But she stuck through, getting a few early promotions during her first assignment from a few lucky 25 percenter's against mutons and even a couple of sectopods.

I had some weird luck during the last mission. My volunteer managed to fail a mind control at 99% !!! But at the same time, my assault, who happened to have a kill count of over a 100, managed to get a few successful hits at under 30%.

 

[Kiyeri]

I had a team with 5 Psionics. Best team ever. Barely anyone died in that play through, so they all had massive numbers of kills. My Sniper and Support were such badasses. I miss XCOM, I need to play it again soon to try Impossible.

 

[Jfluffy]

The Squad just got back from a mission, two were KIA. Not even a day goes by after that operation when the aliens attacked China, it was a full on terror site. Forced to bring two rookies to the op, there where we no other more experienced operatives fit for duty. It wasn't long after boots hit ground that the Op went to shit. The Squad Heavy, Assault and Support were taken out by Chryssalid leaving the rookies and "Ghost", the squad sniper. "Ghost" and one of the rookies made it to the evac site, but just as the other rookie was about to make it a Chryssalid caught up with him. Poor sod didn't make it. The situation was made worse when the other rookie panicked and took cover behind a nearby car, leaving the evac site. Ghost was the only one who made it out of there. Ghost would be the only one who would made it back from the op, Ghost continued on as a part of the XCOM project. But she would never forget that tragic day when she was the sole survivor from Alpha.

Edit: Now I want to play XCOM again.

 

[Scarynerd]

Edit: Now I want to play XCOM again.

It was all a part of my master plan! I should contact Firaxis games for my cut.

 

[aelreth]

I have no drama, every time I saw an ending in every act I didn't like, I reloaded.

 

[marcooos]

Terror in dehli I think pushed up with col. Bishop and major. "The bull" huang 4 chrysalids come bounding round. Huang double taps one them with the scatter laser. Unfortunately I had already put bishop on overwatch with his lasser rifle so the remaing 3 chrysalids get their turn. First one to move *boom* bishop kills him, second one moves *boom* bishop kills him, third comes in I know hes out of shots now and *boom* my sniper I'd forgotten I left on a rooftop kills the fourth. Leaving me next turn to push up drastically further and rescue civilians

 

[Sniper Team 4]

snip

Is that the reason for your name?

Ha ha, that took me a second. I mean, I got the sniping connection, but the number 4 slipped my mind. I just lucked out on this playthrough and had four snipers.

My name actually comes from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. In the mission where you break into the nuke base to stop the launch, you turn a corner and a guy jumps out, but is instantly killed with a head shot. Over the com, you hear, "This is Sniper Team 2, we've got your back." That line always stuck with me, so I just changed the number to four because...I just think 4 sounds better.

 

[Mr.Squishy]

I had a psychic support soldier nicknamed 'santa'. He brought lazors and mindrape to the naughty little xenos and medpacks to the good little x-com soldiers. He would've had a triple-digit kill count if he wasn't effective enough to carry his team to victory against the alien threat for good.
God bless ye, santa.

 

[aivalera]

Col. Shotty was respected like a god by the X-COM rookies. With his former teammates wounded he decided to take a few rookies out with his buddy Boom Boom to show the rookies how its done. The op was taking place on a highway so the second the skyranger touched down everyone ran to a different car. Aliens came at them, but none passed Col. Shotty,truly showing the rooks how its done. They looked with awe as the Col. stood firm against the attack. Boom Boom, not wishing to be undone, tried to shoot a rocket at one of the mutons.

Tragedy struck, however, as the wind suddenly picked up and pushed the rocket into the car Shotty was using for cover. When the dust cleared, Shotty was nowhere to be seen. Struck with grief at the loss of their idol, the rookies started crying behind their cars. His secret gay lover, Santiago, commited suicide on that very spot (seriously, he panicked before suddenly dying, so I assume he killed himself). Boom Boom and one lone rookie (now a squaddie) blamed the alien god "Chawaweet" and went on to the final mission:

Spoiler

where Boom Boom gave his life to defend that very same squaddie, who became an assault class out of respect for his late idol. Boomer (now a col.) later gave his life to destroy the alien temple ship as an eternal symbol for his hatred of the god "Chawaweet".