With the tutorial completed, we're brought back to the war room screen and are free to poke around a bit.
The Cohort tab is where we manage our tech-priests and troops.
Time to edit in our first two Codex brethren! Andnjord is up first.
We've got enough Blackstone to level up both of our tech-priests, so I open up the Disciplines screen.
As you'd expect, each class is geared toward a specific purpose in combat. Here are the summaries provided by the game.
Explorator: Takes on the Quest for Knowledge more than any other discipline. They reach far into the depths of unknown space searching for lost archeotech, new species, and even new worlds.
Secutor: Masters of man and machine. They wield the often-rare trait of charisma, with their inspiring leadership they are able to multiply the efficiency of Skitarii tenfold.
Tech-Auxilium: An often overlooke discipline, they take on tasks that other Tech-Priests avoid. They are the oil within an engine, keeping the great Mechanicus cog running smoothly.
Lexmechanic: Rigourous cataloguers, they compile, analyze, and run data entry tasks. They are capable of finding valuable data among indecipherable texts, maps, or other obscure forms, such as enemy weakness in battle.
Engineer: Unlike other Priests, they are found to serve on almost every Imperial planet in the galaxy, seeing to the well-being and maintenance of all things mechanical.
Dominus: Heavily trained in the art of war, using their skills to monitor and calculate highly complex battle maneuvers in the blink of an eye.
Xenarite: They seek to understand, and even use, dangerous alien technology. Their discipline can reap the greatest rewards, and the foulest corruption.
Andnjord is going to be an Explorator, a melee-focused class.
The level-up also unlocks a second Augment slot, allowing him to equip an additional weapon or piece of gear.
We've got a handful of weapons available from the outset, which should be enough to get us started.
I give Andnjord a Power Axe and a Phosphor Blast pistol. He'll be stronger in melee doing physical damage with the axe, but having a ranged energy attack also gives him flexibility.
Next up is Lukaboy. He'll be spec'd as a Dominus.
I give Lukaboy a Power Axe as well, along with a heavy duty Arc Scourge.
Much to my chagrin, I fail to notice that both of these are melee weapons until halfway through the upcoming skirmish, so the perk he just got won't be of any help whatsoever.
With the team outfitted and ready for battle, I pop over to the Tech screen to have a look.
Looks like there are a lot of weapons in the game. If we can collect all of these then we'll have quite an arsenal.
Support items, none of which are unlocked yet.
I'm impressed by the number of available troops. We just have Servitors for now though.
Ship upgrades, pretty cool.
And finally we have Canticles, which are powerful abilities (magic spells?) that we can use in battle once we've met their requirements.
Back on the Mission tab, if we click on Faustinius' portrait then we get a summary of the Xeno awakening level.
Two of the commanders have missions ready for us: Scaevola and Videx.
Scaevola wants us to kill some necrons and bring the bodies to her for study.
The rewards are a new weapon (which looks sort of meh) and a healing item which could prove useful.
Videx wants us to help him cleanse the nearby tomb of xeno corruption.
The rewards are a couple of support items, neither of which seems particularly strong.
I don't have strong feelings either way, but Scaevola's mission seems to have slightly better rewards, so we'll go with her first.
Here's our deployment screen. Looks like we'll be able to deploy up to 12 units once the dropship is fully upgraded.
I load up our Tech-Priests and Servitors and prepare to depart.
We only have one canticle available at the moment: Litany of Life, which provides a moderate heal.
Upon landing at the mission site, the path forward immediately forks.
I start by checking out the event to the north.
Our options here...
Slow and Steady: Move with caution.
Study: Try to understand the technology.
Shut Down: Attempt to deactivate the devices.
I go with the cautious approach, feeling like there probably isn't much benefit in trying to study or destroy these devices.
Well that wasn't particularly helpful. I also get a notification that the necrons now know we're here.
The southern path leads to a "glyph" with a couple of symbols.
I can't see any kind of hint at what either of these might do, so I'm left to just choose one at random.
So far we're really striking out on these events. Oh well.
The next room up ahead also has a glyph, and after once again choosing a random sigil it ends up healing the Servitor who was just injured a moment ago.
We've got several events left to go, but no enemies so far.
The next event places us at the aftermath of a battle where a few of our Skitarii have been slain.
The options are...
Eulogize: Say a prayer for the fallen.
Expropriate: See if we can salvage any gear.
Examine: Study the scene for data about the battle.
I choose Expropriate in hope that we'll find some useful equipment. There's not much to be found, but we do pick up a couple of CPs.
The necron level also rises again. I guess each time this number goes up, the necrons get more advantages in the upcoming battle.
Two more events remaining before the final chamber.
This time we spot a few scarabs.
Options...
Acquire+: Try to grab many of the scarabs.
Ignore: Keep moving.
Acquire: Try to grab just a couple scarabs.
I figure there's no reason to stop and take action here. However the scarabs manage to pounce on one of our Servitors, inflicting another injury.
The necron level jumps again, reducing their respawn time.
One more event to go.
Our options are...
Execute: Kill it.
Extrapolate: Take sensor readings and try to acquire data.
Extract: Try to capture it for return to the ship.
Suffer not the infidel.
Well, none of that was terribly useful or exciting, but we've finally reached the main chamber.
The enemy force is only two necrons, although I think there's decent chance we'll have some adds to deal with.
I deploy a couple of Servitors to start the action since we've already got a full CP gauge.
Our servo-skulls reveal the necrons' stats. They've a bit beefier than the ones we faced earlier.
I've positioned our team behind a pillar and a CP totem to provide cover from the necron ranged attacks. If we sit here the enemy will have to move up to get a shot.
After a couple of rounds, another necron pops out of one of the nearby structures. I deploy a third Servitor to distract him and keep his attention away from our main force.
This is the part where I notice the Arc Scourge I gave Lukaboy isn't a ranged weapon. He still manages to score a hit on two necrons though.
I move our two Servitors into melee range. They can't hit hard to damage the necron through his armor, but he won't be able to fire his weapon as long as he is engaged.
Andnjord moves up to strike in melee. His axe deals 3-5 physical, so we need to roll a 4 or 5 to get a KO.
The dice cooperate, so Andnjord is then able to employ his energy pistol to finish off the downed necron for good.
The necron level increases again, so we may have some more adds coming.
Meanwhile on our flank, our Servitor is in a desperate struggle with a necron. The bad guy has absorbed two hits, but without scanning him we don't know how many HP he has left.
Thankfully our Servitor's machine spirit is charged, so this next attack will have quite a bit of extra oomph to it. If we're lucky it'll be enough to score a KO.
The attack connects and puts the necron out of commission, for now.
Our two Servitors on the bridge each close to melee range on the last remaining necron, doing scratch damage.
However a couple swarms of scarabs have appeared, and they quickly move in to heal the necron's wounds.
The necron takes a step back and eats two AoOs for his trouble, taking severe damage, but he's then able to land another hit on a Servitor. We've got our whole team in the field now, and each of the Servitors is only one hit away from death.
It's Lukaboy's turn, and the Arc Scourge is charged and ready to unleash.
Luckily the weapon has a usable range of 2 squares, and we're able to attack from behind our Servitor line without causing any friendly fire.
I missed capturing the animation, but the Arc Scourge nukes the necron and one unit of the scarabs, leaving the other scarab unit the only threat still on the field. Big success!
There's a nearby terminal with a "scan" icon that I've been meaning to investigate, and it's now safe enough for Lukaboy the check it out.
The result is 75 Blackstone, a nice haul.
Andnjord's energy pistol has a machine spirit, and he turns the gun on the final scarabs.
We get the kill, signifying victory and the end of the mission.
With the dust having settled, Scaevola notes that the necrons' bodies disappear when they are killed, and is puzzled as to why.
We have one final event for this mission.
Options...
Abandon: Return to the ship.
Analyze: Search the chamber for anything of value.
Archive: Document damage caused by the necron weapons.
I choose Analyze to see if we can salvage anything useful for what is otherwise a pretty lackluster mission.
We manage to retrieve a Scanner, which allows us to extract 1 CP from an enemy every 3 turns. Not sure if that's worth an Augment slot, but we'll see.
And that's a wrap.
Faustinius isn't thrilled with the mission, but there's not much we could've done to achieve a better outcome.
Debriefing
We also managed to unlock a new canticle that gives a +3 physical damage buff to a single attack.
Hopefully the next mission yields a bit more positive results!
