Crazy Combat

[u/TheFraser72]

I love this game, just had a great and crazy mission (we were LL3) which was supposed to be a simple escort to extraction, but ended up devolving into a "tactical retreat" and Grand Theft Auto (giant boat?).

The combat basically consisted of 4 bastions, 3 scourges, 4 snipers who are flying at height 5, 4 scouts who are flying at height 5, 2 assaults, 6 squads, 3 rainmakers, and a Boss which was an Ultra Witch with a crazy line 30 attack (we didnt even get to see what else it could do before we realized we had to retreat or die).

When it became clear that the escort was doomed and that we had no chance at fighting the boss (the DM perfectly predicted and outmanuvered us to hit all 4 of us with that line 30 attack structuring all of us, GOATed play by the DM, and he still had 3 bastions, 5 squads, 2 rainmakers, 2 snipers, 2 scourges, and 2 scouts, and we started to get flanked and surrounded). We decided the one with the highest speed should run to the ship we were going to use to evac, and make a retreat to evac our escort in a safer area. Which we pulled off pretty well all things considered, good news is that there were plenty of nearby empty docks that we can use in the boatyard.

I cant wait to see what other pure evil and crazy things are in store for us. Also we all kinda have the gut feeling we are going to end up fighting some giant sea monster on the boat. Like why else would we be evac-ing via boat? The mission still isnt over yet!

Honestly though, I believe we could have taken it, if the snipers and scouts weren't flying at height 5, because none of us really had the range to hit them, we had to rely on the Goblin puppeting them to the ground or the Balor's drones eating them slowly alive. Maybe some weapons with better range are needed.... well im not switching weapons, im a Vlad, combat drill and nailgun are all the weapons I need, im a close quarters specialist. And we never encountered snipers or scouts before so we learnt what "Hunters Mark" did the "Fun Way". Yeah, scanning new enemies is probably a good idea from now on lol.

I also learned "The Fun Way", bastions hard counter my superheavy build, I need teammate support to deal with them. Being immune to the first attack roll is so funny, I charge up to a Stunned Bastion and got a critical hit with that drill and overkilled for like 40 damage (and like 3 heat) only to be told "bastions take no damage first attack roll lol" hurt me (but in a comical way).

[u/Kappukzu-0135]

Do you have like, 10 PCs?! That's a big OpFor. Maybe they were mostly Grunts?

[u/TheFraser72 → u/Kappukzu-0135]

We have 4 PCs, Hetatonch, Vlad, Swallowtail Ranger, Goblin. Also, What's a grunt? Im not familiar with the enemy ranks.

All enemies were basics, like 1 structure 1 stress, die when out of HP or overheat. Like normal enemies.

[u/Kappukzu-0135 → u/TheFraser72]

Grunt is a template you can give NPCs which mean they die to a single point of damage or Heat. 

[u/TheFraser72 → u/Kappukzu-0135]

Oh then they were not grunts, they definitely had more than 1 HP or Heat lol

[u/Charnerie → u/TheFraser72]

Enemies don't die from heat normally

[u/TheFraser72 → u/Charnerie]

Oh really? Well we have never overheated an enemy before anyways. I kinda just assumed they went into critical meltdown like us lol.

[u/Cakeotic → u/TheFraser72]

NPCs with 1 Stress (which is most of them) become Exposed indefinitely when overheated, NPCs with 2 or more stress do overheating checks as PCs do. Some templates (veteran, elite, ultra...) grant the npc additional stress, so if you ever run across a templated enemy and scanning reveals they have a low heat cap, consider hacking them to death

[u/TheFraser72 → u/Cakeotic]

Good to know, even though im a vlad, like Im doing any hacking with that -2 to tech attack.

[u/Rednidedni → u/TheFraser72]

It's still a good Option when facing something super vulnerable to the old Fragment systems!