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where is this mod, the only place I can find it is a pay site that wont let me DL unless I pay to join the site

 Formosa wrote:
where is this mod, the only place I can find it is a pay site that wont let me DL unless I pay to join the site

That is the only place to download, and its like a pound something in a fee for joining the site. Well worth it

----------------------

Down at the firing range in the bowls of the Xcom headquarter.
"When you are engaging E.T with your bog standard LMG, you need to keep one thing in mind. That is the limitied stopping power of a conventional round, no matter the caliber. However when you are laying down cover fire or engaging a enemy with the new weapons, keep in mind that your round will travel at the speed of ligth and will not stop for a loooong time. So short sharp bursts and make sure to keep a eye out for chances to use enfelading fire!" Throndheim said to the assembled recruits from Legion.
The man whom commanded 4th squad gazed at these selected few that had sworn to forgo their old lives. He felt pride swell up in his chest but also a grim resolve to see this horrid war to the end.
"Now then! Lets move on to fire drills!" he barked and once more lost himself in the swirl of daily duty outside the deployments that seemed to be comming ever more often.

 Trondheim wrote:

 Formosa wrote:
where is this mod, the only place I can find it is a pay site that wont let me DL unless I pay to join the site

That is the only place to download, and its like a pound something in a fee for joining the site. Well worth it

You just select none of them and carry-on.
It makes you think you must pay but no, it is free.
I play the game now and paid nothing.

Frankenberry wrote:Not sure if bodies are still needed, but count me in.

"My family, my whole family lived in Samara, sir. You give me a chance and I'll burn every last one of these bastards."

(Class doesn't really matter, gunner would be nice but whatever you need. Barring that, a white guy would be an ideal avatar.)
(Edit: read the whole thing, start to finish and am completely drawn in. This is awesome.)

Sgt_Scruffy wrote:

 Frankenberry wrote:
Not sure if bodies are still needed, but count me in.

"My family, my whole family lived in Samara, sir. You give me a chance and I'll burn every last one of these bastards."

(Class doesn't really matter, gunner would be nice but whatever you need. Barring that, a white guy would be an ideal avatar.)
(Edit: read the whole thing, start to finish and am completely drawn in. This is awesome.)

LCPL Frankenberry made quite a name for himself in the Legion before being elevated to the Dakka Corps. Welcome to 2nd Squad, 1st Platoon. We've taken the liberty of forwarding your blood type to the ICU and making arrangements for organ donation in the event of your demise. I would suggest updating your will and living will as well as buying most of the medical command a few beers.

chaos0xomega wrote:ROFLMAO, welcome to 2nd squad Frankenberry, thr name is going to be quite fitting soon enough ;P

Frankenberry, I have only one rule. Everybody fights, no one quits. If you don't do your job, I'll kill you myself! Welcome to the Patchworks!

 deadmeat85 wrote:
Frankenberry, I have only one rule. Everybody fights, no one quits. If you don't do your job, I'll kill you myself! Welcome to the Patchworks!

Come on you apes, you want to live forever?

 Talizvar wrote:

 Trondheim wrote:

 Formosa wrote:
where is this mod, the only place I can find it is a pay site that wont let me DL unless I pay to join the site

That is the only place to download, and its like a pound something in a fee for joining the site. Well worth it

You just select none of them and carry-on.
It makes you think you must pay but no, it is free.
I play the game now and paid nothing.

Well unless one is very poor or limitied funds that fee is still worth it

yeah for a couple of quid I cant really complain, im downloading it now, cheers gents

 deadmeat85 wrote:

Frankenberry wrote:Not sure if bodies are still needed, but count me in.

"My family, my whole family lived in Samara, sir. You give me a chance and I'll burn every last one of these bastards."

(Class doesn't really matter, gunner would be nice but whatever you need. Barring that, a white guy would be an ideal avatar.)
(Edit: read the whole thing, start to finish and am completely drawn in. This is awesome.)

Sgt_Scruffy wrote:

 Frankenberry wrote:
Not sure if bodies are still needed, but count me in.

"My family, my whole family lived in Samara, sir. You give me a chance and I'll burn every last one of these bastards."

(Class doesn't really matter, gunner would be nice but whatever you need. Barring that, a white guy would be an ideal avatar.)
(Edit: read the whole thing, start to finish and am completely drawn in. This is awesome.)

LCPL Frankenberry made quite a name for himself in the Legion before being elevated to the Dakka Corps. Welcome to 2nd Squad, 1st Platoon. We've taken the liberty of forwarding your blood type to the ICU and making arrangements for organ donation in the event of your demise. I would suggest updating your will and living will as well as buying most of the medical command a few beers.

chaos0xomega wrote:ROFLMAO, welcome to 2nd squad Frankenberry, thr name is going to be quite fitting soon enough ;P

Frankenberry, I have only one rule. Everybody fights, no one quits. If you don't do your job, I'll kill you myself! Welcome to the Patchworks!

Sir! Thank you sir!

Eager to drop and show these extraterrestrials what it means to have an 'out of body experience' courtesy of 'external forces enacting strenuous trauma on their physical forms'.

OPERATION FADING SUMMER: 14 May, 2015. Vladivostok, Russia.

Long War Beta 15 is about to drop and it TOTALLY changes Long War to be even more in depth, more crazy, and more awesome. However, I'm committed at this point to Beta 14 and I don't want to have to re-learn the game as I'm still basically learning Long War.

No one knows why they singled out Russia in the early months of the war. Perhaps they wanted to knock out a powerful council nation. Of course, no one really knew if the aliens were even aware of the council at this point. Maybe they just chose cities that they felt were near the center of the planet's largest land mass. Maybe they were targeting the Russia's Pacific Fleet. Regardless, Russia was subjected to constant alien attack throughout the month of May. Vladivostok was quite a ways from XCOM HQ so even travelling by Skyranger it took 4th Squad quite a while to make it to the stricken city. When they arrived, the terror attack, as XCOM was calling them, was already in full swing.



LT Trondheim and his squad shortly before boarding the Skyranger.



2nd Platoon's 1st Squad would be accompanying 4th Squad as they were currently under-strength with three of their members in sick-bay. 2nd Platoon was already forming a reputation as front line shock troops and would be welcomed in the coming fight.

The squad is inserted behind a paper supply company in a suspiciously American looking section of Vladivostok. Official XCOM press releases in the coming decades would spark a wave of "false flag" conspiracy theorists.


4th Squad stack on the door to the warehouse and freezes, gun raised as the sounds of chryssalids skittering down the halls reaches them.


"Chryssalids aren't so bad - if you're ready for them. They invariably charge right at you so good fire discipline is key. They come at you fast, and they take a lot of killing, but if just make sure you place your shots and you'll be all right.
-- LCPL Motyak coaching new operatives on the training ranges.



Motyak and the rest of the squad are true to their word and almost kill the two smaller 'lids as they charge XCOM.


The Lids charged through a storm of fire. As they closed, LCPL Hordini opened fire on the doomed Lids. The Alpha Lid continued to drag itself to towards the squad until Motyak put a bullet in it's head.



Demented Wombat saves the first civilians of Fading Summer.


The paper company's warehouse was being used by civilians as shelter from the alien terror raid. It had been a safe place until the 'lids found it. Now the shell-shocked survivors were stumbling aorund the blood-soaked rows of paper products. 4th Squad makes it's way through the slaughterhouse.


"As we moved through the warehouse, we could hear the screams of civilians further ahead. I know I wanted to run on ahead and kill the aliens for what they were doing, but Trondheim restrained us. 'We will do no good if we get ourselves killed. That's plasma fire ahead and you can hear the floater packs.... We need to stick together.' Remembering to clear your corners to the sounds of women and children dying is a skill I regretfully learned that day."
-- LCPL Motyak on Operation Fading Summer.

More 'Lids charge 4th Squad just as they hit the administrative offices.


"It's the strangest thing. You wouldn't know it, but Chryssalids smell like After Eights - you know the chocolate mints? Yeah, they smell like chocolate thin mints. It's the small things that save your life. Those 'lids could have caught us out, but luckily that first pack died right in front of us so we all got a big whiff of them. For all their horror, they smell rather nice don't they? Way better than Floaters anyway.
--LCPL Motyak describes Chryssalids for the XCOM historians


Flaming Killamajig flashbangs the 'lids as they close on XCOM positions.


"The next five minutes will stick with me only because I can't quite recall them. The things that stick with me are the smell of cordite, semtex, thin mints and the ozone smell of plasma burns. Floaters, seekers, those infected humans the troops are calling zombies, and 'lids just charged us. we kept trying to get to the civilians but it.... (several moments pass as Motyak composes himself)... it's like they were thorwing themselves at us just to give the seekers more time to murder those poor people. I reloaded three times just trying to cross the cubicle farm in the offices. Blood was everywhere. These creatures may be technologically advanced, they may travel the stars on ships we can't even begin to understand, but they are barbarians. Make no mistake. There are barbarians at the gates and we are all that stands on the walls. I won't stop until those beasts are dead. Not after Vladivotok."
-- LCPL Motyak transcript of post mission debrief with XCOM psychiatric evaluation committee
Wombat earns his stripes sometime during Fading Summer

Motyak engages a seeker

Malfred destroys a Seeker as the office complex is torn apart in the most intense firefight of the war to date


"One of the keys to fighting Seekers in close quarters is to look for the little things. Their repulsors... their jets... whatever it is they use to hover don't make a sound but they do flatten the grass or ruffle papers in a notebook. They can't teleport although it does look like it. You see a door come flying open with nothing on the other end means you've got a seeker coming for you. In Fading Summer we used AP grenades to flush them out of their cloak. If you've separated out a LP/OP or part of your squad is covering a vulnerable flank -keep an eye on 'em. Seekers are hyenas - they prey on the isolated and weak.
LCPL Motyak flushes out a Seeker as it disturbs office furniture in it's cloaked state.


Legion 10 calls in local ambulance and MEDEVAC crews as XCOM mops up the aliens. 4th Squad would spend the next 6 hours applying first aid to wounded civilians.


Promotions abound as 4th squad returns from what would become known as the Massacre at Vladivostok. 4th Squad along with 2nd squad would develop an intense hatred for aliens although for different reasons.


Phew, seriously this mission was intense. After I hit that first wave of 'lids, there wasn't a single turn I wasn't in heavy contact. I think I took over an hour to play this one mission.It was classic XCOM. The story just sort of created it self. 4th squad did me proud. In Long War, Aliens seem to be focused on killing civilians - sometimes at the expense of getting themselves killed. It was a bloody mission. For a good 3-4 turns I would have half the squad firing with the other half reloading. 15 enemies isn't too too much for long war, but most of them were either the ever hardy 'lids or the very damage resistant Seekers. Still, we did well and moved at a good pace. I had a Floater pack and a zombie that just didn't want to engage - they kept going after civilians.

Next Time: 1st Squad settles into it's role as the training squad. Can they bring the rookies through their cherry missions?

You sent that damned Ukrainian back to my Russia??!?

It would appear so, and what a good way to start the weekend I dare say. Dead aliens all around, well done squad, Im proud to be your leader in these dark days

chaos0xomega wrote:You sent that damned Ukrainian back to my Russia??!?

Da, we are all in this together, no? Don't worry, you'll get a heaping helping of 2nd squad in action soon along with a little bit of schadenfreude.

Trondheim wrote:It would appear so, and what a good way to start the weekend I dare say. Dead aliens all around, well done squad, Im proud to be your leader in these dark days

Dark days indeed, lieutenant. Steel yourselves because there is worse to come.

Good work against heavy resiatance.

Sgt_Scruffy wrote:

chaos0xomega wrote:You sent that damned Ukrainian back to my Russia??!?

Da, we are all in this together, no? Don't worry, you'll get a heaping helping of 2nd squad in action soon along with a little bit of schadenfreude.

Trondheim wrote:It would appear so, and what a good way to start the weekend I dare say. Dead aliens all around, well done squad, Im proud to be your leader in these dark days

Dark days indeed, lieutenant. Steel yourselves because there is worse to come.

Agreed there can be no mistake, we stand as one or we all fall. I hope we will prevail, no matter how dark it may seem, and remeber. Its always darkest before dawn boys & girls

Sgt_Scruffy wrote:
Next Time: 1st Squad settles into it's role as the training squad. Can they bring the rookies through their cherry missions?

They're learning from the best of the best, I'm sure they'll be fine.

I did not know 'lids smelt like chocolate mint....

 KamikazeCanuck wrote:
I did not know 'lids smelt like chocolate mint....

Well now you do know, and really. Anything that smells that foul must be evil by default

Promotion, eh? "Santa..." well I guess I will be giving the aliens lots of presents in the form of little bundles of joy (in AP and fragmentation varieties).

Why does it always have to be Chryssalids? I saw those bastards the last time I was out too. Good thing I decided to practice my grenade skills. And those civilians back in the offices...I just wish there was more I could have done. Trondheim was right though. There's no use running out and getting myself killed (and maybe the rest of my squad too). Why does that not make me feel any better? This makes it even more clear that we have to use any means necessary to find out why these aliens are here; and make sure they can never do this to anybody else ever again. There's just so much we don't know about them. Take the Chryssalids for instance. I don't even know if they're intelligent or just some kind of domesticated war animal. For that matter why are all these aliens not attacking each other? Something has to be behind all this. Maybe once we get one of these aliens alive we will have some answers. I'm guessing the subject will not survive interrogation.

May is passing rather quickly. I will get 1st squads newest escapades up later tonight.

Sounds good, can I expect explosions and scantly lab techs?

 Trondheim wrote:
Sounds good, can I expect explosions and scantly lab techs?

only if you want to wake up without a kidney.. those lab techs don't get paid much.

Sgt_Scruffy wrote:

 Trondheim wrote:
Sounds good, can I expect explosions and scantly lab techs?

only if you want to wake up without a kidney.. those lab techs don't get paid much.

Well that is what I have silverMk for

My kidneys are mine! And I think I am going to have to insist on retaining my clothes too

OPERATION BANISHED CHANT: Lagos, NIgeria 14 May 2015

As the war dragged on, a certain pattern developed in the alien abductions. They seemed to be diversionary tactics specifically meant to test XCOM - at least, that was the prevailing theory around the cantina while the direct action platoons blew off steam. No one could fathom why the aliens were so interested in getting otherwise ordinary people. Most abduction encounters took place in auto repair shops, gas stations, restaurants, and office supply companies. Perhaps they chose the areas they did merely to cause panic - to let everyone know they could be a target. Maybe they did it to demonstrate to the various world governments that even the most powerful nations could do nothing to stop them. One... interesting theory was that they only were after left handed people. Whatever it was, XCOM continued to respond.
--Excerpt fro XCOM: The Long War
--Edited by C.G. Spender

This map isn't my favorite. Although there are a lot of way to flank and cover is pretty good, I've had some janky activations in the past. 2 Floaters will activate and the third floater will be somewhere else and I won't even know he's there until he comes busting through the door at my back... that sort of thing.


1st Squad would be bring many recruits with them on this mission. Hopefully, it would not prove to be a mistake.



The general plan here is for 1st squad to "set up" the kills for the rookies and the specialist infantry. XCOM as a whole is SERIOUSLY short on infantry soldiers who will become crucial in the mid and late game. We need to rank up the ones we do have and we need to hopefully get more. If the rookies get in trouble, 'Vulture' Walrus will pick off the threats while CthuluSpy suppresses. Should be a piece of cake.

First Squad encounters a pod of sectoids immediately after setting down.



I hate getting contact immediately after set down. You always have to waste half your turn getting into cover and usually you don't have any good shots because you haven't gotten your flanking elements set up. Luckily, it's only sectoids and not Mutons or Floaters. The plan will be to flank from our left with Elemental who will guide a rookie around to hopefully get an easy kill. Silver will lead the other rookie to the right. Vulture, Spy, and the infantry will set up the base of fire.

The rookie cracks under a psychic assault. He would spend the rest of this engagement sucking his thumb


CPL Elemental, now freed from trying to get the rookie a kill, holo-targets the mind merging sectoid for our infantry specialist'

The aftermath of Legion's attack


The rookie gets caught in an unexpected overwatch ambush as he manuvers

This was a mistake on my part. I thought the third sectoid had bugged out to an area where he couldn't shoot. I almost paid for it but luckily it was a somewhat long shot and sectoids are crap shots.

As the rookie comes under fire, Silver MK2 maneuvers into position (see bottom right of image

The alien pauses to reload as he continues his assault on the rookie only to find MK2 there.


The last sectoid is cleaned up by rookie grenade. This isn't IDEAL, but at this point I would rather have my rookies get the kill than have one more sectoid corpse. The encounter didn't go too too bad (as they have a potential to do when you get immediate contact on the LZ). I feel lucky that it was only sectoids because we had a hard time hitting them behind that full cover. I hear from Floaters on the other side of the shop though so we'll probably have a real challenge soon. My men move into position.


XCOM barely catches their breath before being confronted with a much more powerful threat- a muton and a floater.

3 More floaters join the fight.


Well, this sucks - the Muton is bad enough but he brought 3 Floaters with him. It wouldn't have been so so bad if I could have breached the door and gotten the drop on him, but he obviously heard the grenade explosion and now I'm stuck in a long range firefight with floaters and a muton.

One Floater from the Muton pack tries to flank around to 1st Squad's right... Right into the path of Silver MK2. Silver lines up the shot...


The battle now splits into two parts unfortunately. Legion 19 and Elemental are stuck outside the auto-shop being pinned by three hard to see overwatching Floaters. Vulture Walrus is in a good position to squadsight snipe them, but three floaters is a lot of firepower. The Muton is in heavy cover and will be engaged by Cthulu Spy, Legion 7, Silver, and Legion 22. We need to keep that Muton flashbanged or pinned so he can't grenade us.
Elemental struggles to get a bead on the high-flying Floaters

[i]Legion 19 is caught in scant cover. He would move to the left to take cover behind an alien pod./i]


[i]Plasma fire converges on Legion 19 as the Floaters fully open up on him.[i]



"There was a momentary silence on the comms channel as Elemental reported the KIA. There was no point trying to save him.... he was burned beyond recognition and dead before he hit the ground. I was proud of my squad - no one panicked. We just dug our heels in and kept going."
--LT Silver MK2 on Operation Banished Chant.

The firefight starts up again as The trapped Elemental makes the Floaters bleed in turn.


The rest of the squad meanwhile had successfully closed the gap on the Muton. Here Cthulu Spy suppresses the beast while XCOM maneuvers


Legion 7 gravely wounds the hulking shock-trooper with a well placed shot.

Legion 22 finishes off the Muton at point blank range.


'Vulture' Walrus plies his deadly trade from the back of the battlefield.

... and again as the remaining two Floaters panic.

Legion 22 completes the Legion's revenge for their brother as he guns down the alien responsible. In this photo, he is shown spitting on the newly deceased alien.


It was a somber ride back to base on the skyranger. The seeming invincibility of first squad had been shattered. Everyone knew intellectually that no one was invincible. Everyone knew that anyone could die on any mission, but there was a feeling that 1st squad was always going to be all right. Not anymore. This was war.


Lieutenant Slilver MK2 reluctantly accept a promotion.


For all the heart-ache, the mission is deemed a success. Especially as 1st squad brings home 29 meld!


As 1st squad arrives back, Dr Vahlen's science team announces new armor technologies for the SHIV and exciting new possibilities for advanced armor for XCOM.

The Science team continues to expand.


Officer Bradford reluctantly places a call out for 2 new recruits for XCOM.


The aliens are strangely quiet over the next few days as 1st squad debriefs and grieves for Legion 19. Thing are almost back to normal at the barracks when The Commander arrives personally.

"I was running on the treadmill when the Commander walked by. She looked angry. Really angry. Everyone just sort of stopped what they were doing and waited to see what the commander would say. She has that effect on people, you know? She walked right up to Lieutenant Silver MK2 and just sort of bluntly stated, 'LT Silver MK2, you are relieved of command.' She turned to me. 'CPL Elemental, you are in charge. Follow me Lieutenant.' With that, she was gone. The LT was gone. Everyone was shocked. What happened?"
--CPL Elemental recounts the aftermath of Banished Chant.

XCOM takes its second casualty of the war. I consider the mission a success because we did it fast and got all the Meld. I would have been royally pissed off if I had lost a guy and gotten feth-all for resources. As it stands, the LT is no longer in charge. That leaves Trondheim as Platoon leader until the paperwork goes through. What the hell just happened?

Poor Legion, sorry 1st squad, but its about time you guys know a little bit of failure. Curious what happens with Silver... wouldnt be surprised if its an assignment to a "special" team...

Wait what? Did I miss the memo regarding my transfer? Whom will lead 4th? Why was SilverMK2 relived of command?

"Legion 19 will be sadly missed, but as with all casualties in this war for the survival of humanity his sacrifice will spur us on to final victory over the cruel invaders. We will not just survive, we will prevail, we will overcome!" - SilverMK2 at Legion 19s memorial.

"I of course accept responsibility for my squads actions, both in success and failure. Legion 19 acted under my orders and unfortunately paid the price as the enemy took advantage of the weakness in our positioning to score a fatal hit" - SilverMK2 in post mission debrief.

"Heard about 19, was dead before he hit the ground apparently."

"Yeah, that's the word."

A methodical scratching noise, metal on metal is heard nearby.

"Yo, Berry, 'chu doin?"

I stop my work and look up at them; in my hands is a rifle round and a small file reside.

"Putting 19 on this bullet, why?"

They raise eyebrows in response.

"I intend to give him another chance at killing one of those bastards, that's all."

I return to filing, the magazine next to me packed with rounds, all with names filed in the brass.

"The death of a comrade in arms is always a painful thing to experience. But instead of sucumbing to the grief and hate we will live on! And remember his actions and his fine person! May he rest at Odins side!" Lt Trondheim at the memorial held for Legion 19

Do we have a MEC bay yet?
I would like to be a MEC if I receive heavy wounds.