Let's play Incubation - Battle Isle Phase 4 (Completed)

[GarfunkeL]

3b!

 

[Ashery]

Just started playing the game last night thanks to this LP.

Don't underestimate the usefulness of the flamer as it's the only weapon available that can really do any type of crowd control. Pretty much requires an ammo box, though. Mode B incinerates everything in a 3x3 grid, leaving burning ash that blocks shit for a couple turns. Uses up two ammo.

Same can be said for stims as you'll be able to grab the light variant on every unit that gets a servo system. Pretty low on the priority list, however, and not something you should base skill investments around.

ACG's are pretty much a required first buy (Unless you're specializing in HW, but even then, the rapid fire machine gun you get later requires 2 LW), but after that you're a bit more free. Personally, I'd suggest an ammo box for most units, but this early on some armor would likely be more useful (You can recruit individual troops later (60 EP, if I recall correctly), but these will likely be positioned in such a manner as to avoid any contact with enemies early on, so you can focus entirely on firepower for them). After that, I'd go for the sniper rifle as there's nothing that skills better early on than the SR. Heat does, however, become a problem with it as you can only get one shot off per round once you max its heat out. Guess I went for armor first on all of my units up to this point, going for the ammo first was the plan for my next recruit. Getting the armor first caused me to completely overlook the 2 BE requirement. So you'd either need to invest two for a more useful AR, or invest three to get standard armor, an ammo box, and be only two points away from a servo system.

Also, some equipment boxes contain implants that give permanent skill bonuses to the unit that opened'em. Got one that gave +1 LW and +1 HW on my HW unit (Put him at 4 HW, 1 LW, just one LW away from that wonderful RFMG).

My vote goes for the two marine mission just to see how it differs from my playthrough.

 

[Azira]

3b, more meatshields

 

[Krraloth]

Mh, vote for 3b, and let's go with the standard rifle..a.k.a. MOAR blind shooting.

 

[spekkio]

Rise and shine, soldiers. It's another beautiful day on Scay'ger infested Scay-Hallwa.

As requested, I bought 1 x Light Armor for lightbane and 1 x Standard Assault Rifle for Krraloth.

Unit Menu:

All votes were for Mission 3b, so here it is:

Mission 3b - Street Fight Area

I deploy my 3 units.

One ventilation duct and one gate open up.

Gates work like ducts (new aliens appear through them) but they cannot be closed / blown up. Sometimes we can block them but that's all.

Turn 1

Starting position is as follows:

Overview map:

View from NE corner:

Bakee (equipped with LCD) and Lee (equipped with ACG) start in the southern part of the map, close to the open ventilation duct and gate.

But before we start the mission, it's time for more C&C.

This is first mission that can be executed in different ways:

1) We can play safe, blocking 2nd ventilation duct (SE corner, closed ATM) with a barrel.

Advantage: Less Scay'Ger will appear one the battlefield. We will still have to deal with 1 open ventilation duct and 2 gates that we can't block. We have 5 guys, 1 Ammo Crate and must survive 12 turns.
Drawback: Less experience.

2) We can play offensive, leaving this barrel alone.

Advantage: More experience.
Drawback: More Scay'Ger.

Alright, team. How is it gonna be in this mission? Team decides.

Bonus image: Private Krraloth holding his new SAR

 

[Ashery]

Close the duct.

XP isn't *that* important as you'll cap out on the low aliens after a while. Mainly need to ration the higher level aliens as they're in shorter supply.

Anyone know how, exactly, commendations are awarded?

 

[dragonfk]

When there will be place for new recruits count me in.

 

[Azira]

Ashery makes a compelling point. Then again, the only good Scay'ger is a dead Scay'ger..

Keep the vent open and blast them to tiny bits! :twisted:

 

[Big Nose George]

No safe play. I wanna end up on that roster of fallen heroes too.

 

[lightbane]

As the medic of the party, I say that as more enemies we have, more casualities we'll have and less job I'll have and more will have the forensic surgeon, so... KILL THEM ALL!!!

In other words: the most offensive path possible.

 

[Annonchinil]

Re: Let's play Incubation - Battle Isle Phase 4

Others, such as Kasavin, felt the game made some steps in the right direction but lacked the depth and challenge needed for a great strategy game. Writing for GameSpot, Greg Kasavin notes that "Most weapons at your disposal carry limited ammunition and can overheat rather quickly, forcing you to fire only when you must."

I hope you noticed that Greg Kasavin dissed this game for being too hard - proof that he was never good and Gayspot decline started probably more than 100 years ago.

It’s kind of amusing to insult gamespot for essentially being rearded when making stupid mistakes yourself.

Most weapons at your disposal carry limited ammunition and can overheat rather quickly, forcing you to fire only when you must. Likewise, weapons are carefully balanced such that only with a variety of specialists will your squad succeed. Rapid-fire machine guns and double-barreled assault rifles are great all-around weapons but won't do much good against some of the tougher Scay'Ger. You'll need flamethrowers, minelayers, or even a Multi-Target Destroyer to deal with their likes. Such heftier weapons also sport secondary attack modes whose effects are significantly more powerful at the cost of additional ammunition. Guns aside, your troops will be able to purchase armor, jet packs, medical kits, combat drugs, motion sensors, and more - but they'll need to develop the appropriate skill levels before these can be of any use. Your troops get tougher and faster as they survive encounters, and you'll be able to specialize them as you see fit with the skill points they earn in the field.

Now this sounds like he is actually praising the game's weapons and not complaining that the game is too hard. I guess context and wikipedia are bitches.

 

[Krraloth]

As our medic says, we're in this to save people and alienate...aliens.

Offensive play.

 

[Ashery]

You guys also have shit for ammo, so unless you want to rely on your bayonets that cannot be used in defensive mode, block the fucking grate off ;p

 

[spekkio]

offensive

offensive

Your eagerness brought a single man-tear to my eye.

Let's hit'em hard.

block the fucking grate off

Don't worry, I have those ready:

Turn 1

I expect trouble (check screens #2 & #3 in this mission if you want to know why) so I move Bakee north + DM, Lee NE + DM.

Krraloth opens up 1st door. Bratt moves west to open Equipment Crate and close 2nd door. lightabne will cover east.

Enemy turn

Second gate and second duct open up.

New species of Scay'Ger joins the party with a bang:

Turn 2

It's Ray'Coo.

Fast unit with a gun who can jump over walls, but cannot move after jumping. It can fire up to 2 times in a turn.

Action points : 4
Hit points : 6
Front/Rear armor : 1/0
Weapon : sting thrower
- Range : 1-20
- Accuracy : 5%
- Damage : 4
- Defensive mode : no
- Action points to fire : 2
- Ammo : infinite

First ranged enemy. Can jump around the battlefield and shoot. Cannot jump and shoot in one turn.

Of course we won't use DM against him, because first thing he's gonna do in enemy turn is shooting us in the face. We'll deal with him right away.

Bratt uses bayonet and hits Ray'Coo for 5 HP. He stabs the fucker once again and kills him. He levels up. I move him west.

Current situation:

I move Krraloth south + DM, lightbane SW and no DM - enemies in SE corner should not reach us in next turn.

Now the guys in the south. The plan is to close the western door and open Equipment Crate. Let's hope there is no more Ray'Coo here. :wink:

I move Bakee west and close western door...

...then move him back. We will use him to open the crate - I don't want to endanger him in combat because of his shitty LCG.

Lee moves north + DM.

The general plan for this mission is to gather all units in the middle of the map near the duct and stay there till 12th turn. Let's hope we can make it.

Enemy turn:

Krraloth kills one Ray'Ther with his new SAR.

Turn 3

Current situation:

Now, who came up with the idea of leaving the SE duct unblocked?!

Stay tuned for more of Turn 3...

 

[Adelphi]

Long-time lurker, first time poster, congrats to you, fellow codexer, for being the first one to draw me out of Lurkland with your devious LP Battle Isle ! Indeed, this is one of my favourite games of all time. I've been playing it again and again from 1995 to 2000. For that, my good sir, I want to make sweet, sweaty love to you, make you pregnant, and then, make sweet, sweaty love to our children.

As previous posts mentioned, many missions are basically tedious puzzle games, especially in late game. Now, I don't want to spoil the fun for the other posters in this thread, but if you are as quickly bored of puzzle games as I am, you should focus on a small, highly experienced team where everybody is equipped with a jet pack.

By the way, does any of you, long timers, know how I could get an animated gif for avatar ?

 

[spekkio]

Because my 7th sense tells me that there should be one more Ray'Coo on the map, I carefully advance north with Bakee.

Lee stays in place + DM.

Krraloth goes south + DM, lightbane stays in place + DM, Bratt moves east + DM.

Enemy turn

• Krraloth kills 1st Ray'Ther
• lightbane kills 2n and 3rd, weapon overheats

Turn 4

Bakee moves west. Surprise, surprise - Ray'Coo is indeed there, plus 1 Ray'Ther

Bakee kills nearby Ray'Ther and levels up, shoots Ray'Coo but misses

Lee moves north, hits Ray'Coo for 4 HP

Krraloth moves 1 square west, kills Ray'Coo & levels up. He moves south.

lightbane follows Krraloth to the south.

Bratt moves west, he'll try to open Equipment Crate and close western door.

Situation at the end of Turn 4:

Enemy turn

Ray'Ther emerge from both gates and SE duct, fortunately not from central duct (yet).

Turn 5

We should be really careful in this turn:

lightbane kills one Ray'Ther and uses DM.

Krraloth stays in place, uses DM facing NE.

Bratt moves west and uses DM facing south.

Lee moves north + DM, Bakee moves east (we want to open Equipment Crate).

Enemy turn

• Bratt kills 1st & 2nd Ray'Ther
• lightbane kills 3rd, levels up, weapon runs hot

Turn 6

Half of the mission and nobody died yet? Are we good or what?

Bakee moves close to the EC, opens it, goes back.

Lee opens next EC...

...and uses DM.

Krraloth kills Ray'Ther that emerged from central duct, uses DM facing west.

ligthbane stays in place, heals himself, uses DM.

Bratt opens 3rd EC...

...and closes nearby door, moves east.

Enemy turn

• Lee kills 1st Ray'ther, levels up
• lightbane shoots 2nd but no kill
• 2nd Ray'ther hits ligtbane twice: -2 and -1 HP

Turn 7

At least 8 Scay'Ger on map, lightbane is in panic.

Bakee moves NW, shoots at 1st Ray'Ther and misses.

Lee finishes 1st Ray'Ther with bayonet, blows up 2nd one and moves north

Krraloth kills 3rd Ray'Ther, the one that fucked lightbane up...

... and uses DM facing west.

lightbane uses medkit.

Bratt moves east + DM.

Enemy turn

• Krraloth kills 1st Ray'Ther
• Bratt kills 2nd, shoots at 3rd but misses

Turn 8

Somehow, we're still alive:

Lee kills 1st Ray'Ther with bayonet...

uses DM facing N.

Bakee hits 2nd for 1 HP, then finishes him.

Krraloth uses DM facing W.

lightbane uses medkit.

Bratt moves E + DM. I was thinking about blowing up this barrel, but decided to go with DM instead.

Enemy turn

• Bratt kills 1st R'T
• Lee kills 2nd and levels up
• Lee kills 3rd
• Bratt kills 4th, weapon runs hot (WRH)

Turn 9

Phew, I think the situation is pretty much under control now:

Bakee kills 1st R'T

moves west (weapon hot, 1 bullet left).

Lee moves N + DM, Krraloth use RFTNT, lightbane heals himself, Bratt closes nearby door & moves west to use Ammo Crate.

Enemy turn

Lee kills one R'T

Turn 10

We're almost there, soldiers!

Bakee hits 1st R'T for 1 HP, runs OOA.

Lee moves S, kills wounded R'T with bayonet and blows up 2nd one.

Krraloth uses DM.

lightbane uses RFTNT. He's fully healed but still in panic. WTF you may ask?

Bratt moves W near the AC, no DM this time.

Enemy turn

Krraloth kills one R'T

Turn 11

Only one more to go!

Lee kills his 10th R'T in this mission, running OOA.

Krraloth uses DM (3 bullets, 3 aliens approaching)

lightbane uses DM too. He's no more in panic after resting for the next turn - that's how you "heal" panic status.

Bratt uses DM.

Enemy turn

• Bratt kills 1st R'T
• Krraloth kills 2nd
• Bratt misses 3rd and goes OOA
• Krraloth kills 4th

Turn 12

Alright people, last mutherfuckin' turn!

Bakee, Lee & Bratt are OOA, Krraloth has 1 bullet, lightbane 2

Lee:

butchers 1st R'T, levels up, moves E, slaughters 2nd.

That's the spirit, soldier.

lightbane and Krraloth use DM, Bratt opens Ammo Crate.

and uses DM.

Enemy turn

• Bratt kills 1st R'T and levels up
• lightbane kills 2nd
• lightbane hits 3rd but no kill, runs OOA
• Krraloth finishes off the 3rd, runs OOA

Mission ends.

Mission report:

Kills in this mission: Lee 12, Krraloth 10, Bratt 8, lightbane 5, Bakee 3.

We can either take next mission or go shopping:

And what a shopping that's gonna be!

But first, let me fix this screen for ya...

Two new meatbags join the team:

Pussycat669 (previously known as Lee)

and Bluebottle (previously known as Bakee)

Shopping order: Bratt , Pussycat669 (MVP, greenhorn), Bluebottle (greenhorn), Krraloth, lightbane.

Shopping possibilities:

Bratt:
is BF 1, LW 1, HW 0, TE 0, ME 0, LE 2,
has 2 SPs
can buy: Standard Assault Rifle (2), Scan Module (2), Light Stimulant (1), Ammo Pack (2), Standard Armor (1), Small Medkit (1)

I was planning to go for Ammo Pack, but with -70 AP you'll have 80 EPs left . So I went for SAR instead. 140 EPs left.

So, what should I buy for my dear team members?

Pussycat669:
is: BF 0, LW 1, HW 0, TE 0, ME 0, LE 0,
has 3 SPs
can buy:

Bluebottle:
is: BF 0, LW 1, HW 0, TE 0, ME 0, LE 0,
has 1 SP
can buy:

Krraloth:
is: BF 0, LW 3, HW 1, TE 0, ME 0, LE 0,
has 1 SP
can buy:

lightbane:
is: BF 1, LW 0, HW 0, TE 0, ME 2, LE 0,
has 1 SP
can buy:

Bonus images:

First massacred Ray'Coo in Software mode:

...and in 3dfx mode with Full HD, AA32 & Max Bloom:

 

[lightbane]

Obviously, I need to kill fast, so it's time to buy a better gun (the advanced one).

Also, there's a way to minimalize/shorten the panic status when you're suffering of it besides full healing?

 

[spekkio]

@Adelphi:

I've been playing it again and again from 1995 to 2000.

Why do U lie?

For that, my good sir, I want to make sweet, sweaty love to you, make you pregnant, and then, make sweet, sweaty love to our children.

Is that you, Black Cat? Where is my upadate in SMT2 LP woman?!

Anyway:

As previous posts mentioned, many missions are basically tedious puzzle games, especially in late game.

Now, I don't want to spoil the fun for the other posters in this thread...

Why do U lie?

By the way, does any of you, long timers, know how I could get an animated gif for avatar ?

an animated gif for avatar

On more serious note: congratulations on your coming-out.

@lightbane

You don't have to heal up first, using RFTNT button is enough.
During the mission I kept healing you, beacuse with your shitty LCG you were only useful as bait for Scay'Ger & method to level up Bratt.

 

[Ashery]

Start saving up Bratt's SP as there's a damn good item (Costs him 3) that pretty much only he can use. (Others *could* use it, but you'd fucking gimp any other character.)

Beyond that, next time you're holding ground near a duct, stick a soldier or two directly next to a grate to both limit the number of aliens that come out and to allow for easy bayonet kills. And start leveling up HW for one or two of your characters as LW have a limited selection that you cap out on fairly early.

Actually, don't follow the advice re: ducts, deaths make the LP more entertaining

 

[Pussycat669]

I'll take the flamethrower. Always stick with the big guns.

 

[Adelphi]

I've been playing it again and again from 1995 to 2000.

Why do U lie?

Because I'm too self-confident to check my facts before hitting "submit", hence my demise! Ah, the hubris...

For that, my good sir, I want to make sweet, sweaty love to you, make you pregnant, and then, make sweet, sweaty love to our children.

Is that you, Black Cat? Where is my upadate in SMT2 LP woman?!

If you keep on feeding us your delicious Incubation LP, I'm willing to be anyone or anything for you, even Black Cat!

As previous posts mentioned, many missions are basically tedious puzzle games, especially in late game.

Now, I don't want to spoil the fun for the other posters in this thread...

Why do U lie?

Actually, I should have written "Now, I don't want to spoil the un-fun for the other posters in this thread..."

an animated gif for avatar

What? PLANE TICKETS, BITCH!
Obviously, my fondness for high quality flamewars is one of the reasons why I've lost so much time on the codex (since 1995, when I first discovered the site, I believe)

On more serious note: congratulations on your coming-out.

Your approval fills me with pride.

Qwinn

 

[spekkio]

Well, it seems that people lost interest in this LP pretty fast, as Krraloth and Bluebottle are taking their sweet fucking time with choosing their equipment.

To whore this LP some more I've decided to post some Bonus Material:

1) Pussycat669 with his new Flame Thrower:

2) Guns Shooting Sounds to increase your immershun:

Light Combat Gun

Advanced Combat Gun

Standard Assault Rifle

Flame Thrower

Stay tuned, people. Maybe this LP is not over yet...

 

[KickAss]

fuck them. just go on! :D

 

[Bluebottle]

Sorry for lateness.

Put me down for the LW skill for now, so I can move towards snipers, preferably.

Equipment wise, the Advance Combat gun and some meds if possible. Might as well try and stay alive long enough to get that sniper.

 

[Krraloth]

Yeah I'm late too, grab me a standard armor so I can do the first line dead man.