26 June 2015 – Guadalajara, Mexico
I sent my team to stop alien abductions in a city I can barely pronounce. Fairly straightforward operation – touch down, wipe out the aliens, head back to base. Colonel Ruben “Richter” Marquez and Major Zahara “Pox” Manana took shots and were out of service for a few days. My fault, I rushed the op and they ended up taking some fire. Thankfully, I had spent some of our cash on better armor for them, so they have a few days off instead of a permanent leave.
28 June 2015 – Outside of Munich, Germany
We had a fairly large UFO flying over Europe. I sent an ill-equipped interceptor, RAVEN-1, after it. Didn’t go well, but I pulled it back in time for it to limp back to base. Sent RAVEN-7 to finish it off. Barely managed to shoot the thing down before it was in the same condition as RAVEN-1. I’m sending a team to secure the crash site so we can use and study the wreckage.
29 June 2015 – Outside of Munich, Germany
These aliens are getting ornery. With three of my regular soldiers still down for a few more days, I sent in a few less experienced, but still battle-proven, soldiers in their stead. Got a little ambitious with Lieutenant Emily “Prototype” McKenzie and Lieutenant Abraham “Angel” Amar and moved them up too quickly to get them some kills so they could move up in rank. Instead, I got them some shore leave to recover from their injuries. Wasn’t expecting the resistance they encountered and now I’m paying for it with less experienced troops.
2 July 2015 – Saint Petersburg, Russia
Thought the aliens might take a few more days off and I’d be back at full strength. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. They launched a terror attack and I couldn’t let their show of force pass without our own. We encountered a new enemy type that decided to blow the head right off one our new recruits, Squaddie Leah Walker. They would’ve done the same to Squaddie Flynn King if not for a flanking move by Lieutenant Ying “Flash” Xu, who took some heavy fire and will be out of commission for nine days. Captain Arpit “Engima” Sarin took a beating up close when an enemy flanked him and will be resting on base for a few days. Colonel James “Claymore” Hill won’t fit for a duty for nine days as he recovers from an alien grenade and a few laser blasts. Colonel Jason “Twitch” Arriola (I can’t be the only who puts themselves in a game every chance they get) took a few rounds as well and will be out of commission for a three days.
This op effectively wiped out my team for a few more days.
_____________________________________________________________
After reviewing how I handled the previous op in Saint Petersburg, I decided to load up a save file and try again from there. I could, knowing what’s coming, plan a little better and get out of there with some minor injuries instead of the ass beating I took. Unfortunately, I learned the last time I saved, in my arrogance, was the last time I played and turned off the game, which was just before the events of 26 June 2015.
Nearly two hours of play all for naught. If you decide to pick up XCOM: Enemy Unknown (and you should because it’s wonderful), make sure you’re saving often and with multiple save files. You’re going to have to backtrack eventually after a blunder or series of them. Don’t have an entire play session turn out to be nothing outside of a tough lesson to learn. Guess I’ll be turning back the clock to 26 June 2015.
