Your best X-Com moments.

[Thanie]

^ as title.

Well? Mine was just now, in Apoc. I realised that as just entering the Alien Dimension would anger the little grey ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥s. I scrambled my fleet; five or six retaliators, a swarm of hoverbikes, cars and a couple of hawks and placed them all in random buildings around the perimeter of Megaprimus.

Soon enough, they attacked. Two battleships and a mothership. Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesus. Gogogogogogo! The five retaliators were to be the heroes of the day; disruptors, shields and the alien missiles took the mothership and the battleships down quickly.

All three of the UFOs were downed. Not one escaped, not one destroyed, and none of them deposited any aliens :D

yum, alientech.

[anss123]

Discovering how effective those vibro blades are against lobstermen.

Vrom vrom.

[EnergyFlash]

After 3 or 4 decent attempts (since the game was first released) i finally completed Terror From The Deep without screwing up the tech tree. :) Very satisfying. The last level was a bit 'meh' but finishing it was nice.

I will miss the sound of a heavy thermic lance cracking open fresh lobster. :D

[tb87670]

The week after I started playing XCom and found out about grenades and HE packs. Instead of my tank I ran a much cheaper to replace rookie up to an alien around a corner who snuck off two kills and snuck back around the corner each time at this farm area crash site. But, unknowingly to this Sectoid, who thought he would blast this rookie standing next to him too the moment I clicked end turn, this rookie had an HE pack in his hands. And, his last TU's were used to prime the HE pack for 0 turn delay, not even enough TU's to toss it away. I click end turn, heard a 'boom' then that horrid alien death cry that sounds like a cheap hooker moaning.

[Freyar]

When I first met a Chryssalid.. That ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ took out my entire squad in one-and-a-half ****ing turns. The second time I met this thing, it didn't go much better finding out that half the civilian population was 'infected'.

[huskyapeman]

I think the Tentaculat got to me much more than the Chryssalids. I first ran into them at my first Alien Activity site. It was dark, I only had Gauss weapons and plastic armor. Anyway, I basically lost half my squad clearing the surface and when I found out I had to clear the base too, I figured it was time to throw in the towel and try again...

[Dancing Muton]

Meeting the Lobster man for the first time. I had Gauss weapons. I don't think I took down a single one.

[dterror]

Jumped my best scout/sniper through the door of a downed UFO, fired off a burst with the plasma rifle, and took down 3 sectoids with that one rather wildly fired burst.

[nisha40]

:Dx-com 1

having one guy scout out a huge 3 level ship and then when he found the remaining three floaters they knocked themselves out (along with my guy) this got me a floater medic, leader and soldier (the stupid idiots):D

[sharkbait]

I am scouting an alien base and look through a window in the wall. Through it I see a cyberdisk and three sectoids.

I shoot the cyberdisk causing it to explode and kill all the sectoids :D

[Berzeger_]

Everytime when I land at a Crash site and immediately there is at least one alien looking right into my Rocket Tank's gun barrel. "Air show!"

[Fenrakk101]

UFO Defense: Securing crash site. Send my troops around the map. One of them is securing the southern corner by himself. No aliens anywhere, so I shove him into a second-floor window. All my troops gather around the UFO to the west. Alien turn. Floater comes out, nobody moves, but my awesome trooper in the building sniped it with reaction. My turn > mission success.
My favorite trooper by far :D

[sharkbait]

Just had another lol moment...

I've swept the entire town during a terror mission on UFO Defense. The only possible place this last alien is somewhere in a three story apartment building that the only staircase has been destroyed on.

My team spends about ten turns lobbing grenades and shooting at the walls trying to find the damn thing. The building was a mess, rubble everywhere.

All of our attention was on the bulding when at the end of what was about the 10th turn, instead of a "Hidden Movement" screen I see a chryssalid run up to one of my men surrounding the building from behind and turn him into a zombie.

I thought I cleared the place?!!?!?!?!?

Guess not :(

[Zaul93]

my best moment was in terror from the deep what happened was i had sent my sqaud in at my first alien base when i got to the device you have to destory i had one guy stun 6 or 7 lobstermen hidding in the room because they charged my guy 1 or two at a time with there combat attack and not one did any damage to my unit in aqua plastic armor

[gejsiv]

Minor ending spoilers...

So I just finished superhuman for the first time (i did not know about the difficulty bug, so my previous superhumans were all beginner without me knowing it) and when I went to Cydonia, the elevator pyramid was right outside the Avenger. Which was both convenient and somewhat frustrating, since my plan had been to use laser weapons against the sectoids in the first stage and then salvage some plasma to handle the ethereals with (lucky me two sectoid commanders were in the elevator so i took their guns).

Then stage 2 had the brain's chamber right next to one of my elevators, so between my launcher tank, the one guy who had a fusion missile launcher, and the two ethereal soldiers who kindly donated their launchers, I took the brain out in turn two. Probably the easiest Cydonia I've ever had...

[Mut]

I was doing mop-up on a terror mission, and I send one of my best men to check out a small alley that I thought had been cleared. Alone. (It was late, and I wasn't thinking clearly.) Surprise, surprise, there's a Muton standing at the other end.

Facepalming for realizing that I hadn't left him enough TUs to attack, I duck my man into one of the buildings, a small convenience store, and pray. Turn ends, the Muton walks up to the window and fires. He misses. My turn, and I shoot him dead.

I start walking my guy towards the door when another blast comes from a window on the same far wall. A very near miss. Seeing that things are quickly becoming a standoff, I duck my guy behind the staircase and spend the next half dozen turns playing peek-a-boo with three Mutons.

At the end of it all, the Mutons are dead (as well as an accompanying Silacoid), my operative is completely unharmed, and the convenience store looks like the aftermath of a John Woo film. God, I love X-Com.

[Bfox]

Had amazing luck today, a snakeman used reaction fire on one of my scouts..
his shot missed.. went into the darkness, heard alien scream.
:eek: MY MIND BLOWN.

took down 3 sectoids with that one rather wildly fired burst.

Now that is lucky! :cool: PROMOTION to that man!

[eric_son]

My best X-Com moment was when I captured my first live Ethereal, which finally opened up Psionics to my team.

[Wolfedge]

During a base invasion when all my troops were on a transport out of base, all i had were a few rookies i never used, a few pistols and assault rifles and no armor. Those rookies were the damn finest men i ever had under my command in all the years i've played this game. Those glorious bastards died after killing what seemed like billions of mutons. One soldier was left, she had like 30 kills from that one invasion. So awesome. Put my alpha squad to shame.

[Bfox]

This is more of a blooper than a best moment, but I was trying to fix up an injured agent with a medkit for the first time, but I forgot what everything did so I ended up puming him full of stimulant... while he was concious..

I'm not sure if that's what killed him.. can it?

[Balious]

X-COM Enemy Unknown
I had one while doing a recording. I was playing and near enough from the beginning to where I was 1 hour near passed. No UFOs by my base and then out of the blue a base defence mission appears. And after I was doing so well in it nearing the end to about two aliens a cyberdisk shows up and defeats my whole squad.

[Amalyte]

UFO Enemy Unknown.
Night mission.
UFO Mission: Alien infiltration in capital of one the countries that gave most money in donation.
UFO: Ethereal Battleship (hadn't had much experience with either Ethereals or battleships at the time I played this mission).

My men were underequipped. And they couldn't see anything in the dark, but got under alien control over and over. Haven't had much experience with Ethereals, and gamewise it hadn't been that long ago they activated, so I had no research on them either.
In the end I was giving up, as the only troopers I had left were two men fainted and one with two serious wounds standing near the UFO entrance. I never got inside that damn thing. The wounded soldier autoshot the last alien by reflex as it exited the battleship. He might have had 6-7 turns left to live in.

As much as a disaster that mission was, I kept it and played on, and was happy about it.

[lastarchon]

my favorite moment is from the 1990's when the game was originally released, but the memory stuck with me all that time...

during a terror mission against snakemen, my commander ran out of TU's near a darkened alleyway. during the alien turn, a snakeman stepped out and was looking him right in the face, point blank, and surely would have fired: except for my sniper, the far and above best shot in all of my forces, who did an interrupt snap shot on his remaining TU's and one-shot-killed the snakeman from a couple blocks away :)

[Original182]

X-Com UFO Defence

Seeing that huge robot monster at night. I was like WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?!??! All my shots also can't dent it, making me panic.

[Urh]

The following is a moment most certainly shared by many (if not all) veterans of X-Com Apocalypse. I'm kinda surprised nobody else has brought it up. I am, of course, talking of the very first time I equipped my squad with Toxin Type C - or as I like to call it, bug spray. The first mission in which I used it was also the first mission in which I saw a Megaspawn panic. Good times. My second favourite moment came the first time I sent my own fleet into the alien dimension for a party. Is it me, or is 10 fully-armed Annihilators overkill?

[Dancing Muton]

Yes, yes it is. Five are more than enough. :p

[Ackeron]

X-Com UFO Defense
Just yesterday I was doing an Night mission of a landed Sectoid Battleship. i had Electro Flares tossed out everywhere so i could see. Well there was this barn and on the second story a very helpful window.

I end one of my turns and then my 2nd most in experienced person sees a Sectoid sticking his head out the window to shoot at me she fires and hits him. He doesn't die but instead retreats before firing. I think to myself well these guys are dumb ill hit end turn and he will probably come to the window. I was wrong. This Sectoid instead chose to throw a grenade only problem was im guessing that hit he took from the heavy plasma lowered his throwing accuracy. The Grenade hit the wall next to the window and bounced back at him. The aliens turn ended with a bang and the oh so sweet sound of a little gray man biting the dust.

Another time same game only today.
Muton Battleship just landed in Nigeria. Its Turn 4 for some odd reason all the blaster launcher Mutons are coming out of the ship and walking right into my line of fire. So I'm happy with this outcome. Next turn my mood changes drastically. They fire a blaster launcher from inside the ship it comes down and hammer one of their own guys standing at the elevator and kills about 3 mutons and a terror unit or 2, so now I'm laughing my ♥♥♥ off. About 10 seconds later a second Blaster shot rings out .... this one hits my group of soldiers head on and killed 5/7 with the last 2 panicing and critically wounded. To this I was not amused.

[TheOvermind]

When I saw for the first time the Chryssalid autopsy. You-got-what-you-deserved!

[Hepina]

Chrysallids tend to create situations one will never forget. Nothing like watching one running in a gas station and before you know it, the place is swarming with zombies.

Last time I finished UFO Defence about a year ago. All I needed was an Ethereal Commander, so I started to search for alien bases. One was discovered a moment later, so I send my squad in. The first turn begins, I move one of my soldiers out of the "elevator", and the first thing he sees is an Ethereal staring at him down the corridor, so I promptly shoot it in the face with a small launcher. I send another guy to investigate the body, and it just happened to be what I needed, so with Ethereal Commander stuffed in his backpack I order him to run back to the elevator and before the aliens know what happened, my squad is on their way back to the base with an invaluable prisoner with them.

By this point the aliens were quite determined to find my bases and very large UFOs were flying everywhere. Fortunately the research was completed swiftly and my beloved squad was soon on their way to their final destination.
After landing it didn't take too long to locate the pyramid that leads to next level, so I sent my troops towards the elevator. Within a few turns everyone was inside safe and sound.. Well, except for one trooper, who was just a few tiles away and out of action points. The aliens then proceeded to fill his mind with things I can only guess to be something along every horrible Internet meme combined with giant zits being popped, and the trooper panicked and ran away from the elevator. I wasn't willing to risk someone going ape♥♥♥♥ inside the elevator, so off to next level we go!

The final level didn't go as smoothly I was hoping, though. In the middle of blaster bombs flying everywhere and berserk troopers firing blidly, two of my finest men managed to get near the command room. The other one was however badly wounded and couldn't move very fast thanks to decreasing stamina, so I left him to guard the hallway. He was soon blown to dust by a blaster bomb coming around the corner.

The Ethereals couldn't break my most experienced trooper's morale, so after a few plasma grenades and quick hit-and-run strikes with plasma rifle all that remained in the command room was a pile of Ethereal corpses and the dreaded alien brain. And I can tell it wasn't hugs and kisses that awaited the brain soon after.

[mrmotinjo]

A long time ago (twelve years or so), I was playing the unpatched version (complete with bugged alien base tileset) on my 386SX and a monochrome monitor... that alone was something to behold, as few truly good games WORKED on that poor old rig :)

Anyways, my Commander, Gunter Ulbricht, with a freshly researched Power Suit (obtained painfully late in-game, as I had little knowledge of the tech-tree), walks into a Muton Battleship... He floated up the alien elevator-thingie, and his TU's ran out just in front of a door... End turn, a curious Muton opens the door, pops out a Stun bomb, and after the smoke cleared, Gunter was standing, unscathed, next to a stunned Muton ;)
I was like, 'WHOA, the Power Suit's totally worth researching!'

I continued playing for quite some time (the game actually stopped spawning Sectoids, so I had missed Psionics completely), so just imagine the shock I got when Ethereals came into play...
I remember I'd lost one of my best men, Shuji Yamanaka was his name, trying to prod-stun an Ethereal leader :(
He stunned the damn alien, but got mind-controlled by another, just as he was to board the Skyranger :(

Still, the world of Psionics, and the ability to simultaneously control just about every alien on the map (unpatched version! TU's up to 255!) was totally worth it :)

I managed to complete the freshly bought Steam version of X-COM in just over 24 hours... Knowing the tech-tree, gameplay mechanics and similar stuff made for a very fun playthrough :)

Also, some time ago, I stumbled upon a well-made Let's Play X-COM, located at
http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/XCOMUFODefense/
It's very detailed, and I found it a very entertaining read :)

[Roast Beef]

The feeling of sadness when I lost my commander Aquanaut, Victor Kurkenco, had been part of my crew since the start and had survived 30+ missions.

[Ben.EEeee]

My Captain and 2 Sergeants get nuked by a Blaster Bomb. The rest of my squad were noobs off a new base, sent to gain experience. They all panic or go berserk.

Since I'm playing with self-imposed "no tactical save", and "no quitting bad missions" rules - the best I could do was try to get everyone BACK TO DA CHOPPA!!!! I only got 4 guys back out of a squad of 12. Everybody else was either dead or kept panicking every turn.

[Bfox]

Since I'm playing with self-imposed "no tactical save", and "no quitting bad missions" rules - the best I could do was try to get everyone BACK TO DA CHOPPA!!!! I only got 4 guys back out of a squad of 12. Everybody else was either dead or kept panicking every turn.

Seriously, this is a huge reason why I love X-Com, you can screw up but the game keeps going, it doesn't awkwardly stop and force you to replay parts from 30 minutes ago.

[ryandaniels]

http://i429.photobucket.com/albums/qq12/the1trueryandaniels/xcom_ethereals.png

http://i429.photobucket.com/albums/qq12/the1trueryandaniels/xcom_panic.png

In the second picture, all those guns on the ground are my men who panicked due to mind control

[forsakenlight]

When I found "Patrick Stewart" in apoc.
I didn't hire him tho, his stats were not good enough.
I also remember one time loading up on rockets and incendiaries and completely leveling a temple of sirius.
And times getting like 50k cash off a raid.
I think apoc was my favorite even tho it was not finished.

[samhode]

Recently... A night mission. I caught a ship on the ground in farm country. rookie (Meatbag #7) just stepped past some hedges when he was shot. I couldn't see where exactly the alien was and had him kneel where he was while I moved more troops to his position. It took a few turns, #7 was my advanced lookout, but in that time he took out 6 aliens (all on the alien turns) before succumbing to his wounds.

Man that awesome to see this guy pick aliens off as he slowly lost consciousness. Sadly he died from his wounds.

[Greasybaz]

Years ago I sent my B-team off to deal with a landed UFO. Skyranger lands in the dark. One of the few squadies lucky enough to have been issued armour cautiously steps out of the door. One step out and a blaster bomb whooshes past his ear, straight into the back of the skyranger. Bang. B-team gone. Skyranger lost. I never even found out what kind of critter let the thing off.

[forsakenlight]

Years ago I sent my B-team off to deal with a landed UFO. Skyranger lands in the dark. One of the few squadies lucky enough to have been issued armour cautiously steps out of the door. One step out and a blaster bomb whooshes past his ear, straight into the back of the skyranger. Bang. B-team gone. Skyranger lost. I never even found out what kind of critter let the thing off.

Um this was your best moment? um...you into bdsm and just generally torturing yourself or something?
Or you just like to kill off your team? I don't think I would like to play any kind of multiplayer with you :eek:

[JQueue]

Bad moments are fun too.

Sometimes what I do is arrange all of my soldiers in a battle line in front of the only entrance of a UFO and spam the "End Turn" button rapidly until they come out. (They almost always do). This is usually a good way to improve reaction abilities as SOMEONE will probably end up firing (and hitting).

But sometimes, the alien throws a grenade... and you know the rest.

[Crimeodile]

Bad moments are fun too.

Sometimes what I do is arrange all of my soldiers in a battle line in front of the only entrance of a UFO and spam the "End Turn" button rapidly until they come out. (They almost always do). This is usually a good way to improve reaction abilities as SOMEONE will probably end up firing (and hitting).

But sometimes, the alien throws a grenade... and you know the rest.

Haha, that might be the worst strategy I've ever heard. At least divide your guys into fire teams of 2 or 3 and fan out so one grenade doesn't kill all of them.

[JQueue]

lol well i only do this when I know I've won.

I usually save my game before hand, and just load if I get nuked.... Basically its just a time saver because it's really fast to set up.

Edit: Oh another thing thats good is when you find out that super soldier you've been building turns out to have a Psionic Strength of 5 or so and forces you to retire him on account of mind controls and berserks.

[Ben.EEeee]

Edit: Oh another thing thats good is when you find out that super soldier you've been building turns out to have a Psionic Strength of 5 or so and forces you to retire him on account of mind controls and berserks.

OH LOL! That makes me so sad. Seriously.

Oh dear Sgt Sniper 3, looks like you're going to be Pistol/Medic from now on.

[CapnKill]

OH LOL! That makes me so sad. Seriously.

Oh dear Sgt Sniper 3, looks like you're going to be Pistol/Medic from now on.

They're still useful, they're mind control sponges, keeping the mind control attempts away from your real soldiers :) I wouldn't arm the guy, at least not with anything lethal.... give him a melee weapon or something.

My problem is I keep walking over my own proximity grenades, I'd think they must've blown up by now, or just down right forget about them... not only does it suck cause your soldier is dead and you killed him, but its also scary as ♥♥♥♥ when you are walking and all of a sudden BOOOOOOM!!! ... especially when I play at night with the lights off and headphones on... sheesh... terrible :(

[etherealtroll]

My two most memorable moments.

When the gamer first came out for the PS i had a terror mission, cleared the entire map except for one small alley on the bottom, my men had fanned out to try and locate what i assumed was one last grey midget, walks around the corner and lives just long enough to see 5 midgets and two terror discs.....

Another time, went to attack an alien base, its snakemen, so there are chrysalids, turn two..everyone but one rookie is dead, somehow the rookie managed to kill EVERY LAST alien, i was so thankfull for the lazer rifles unlimited ammo...

[Caboose_Nor]

I'm reading all these stories about Blasted Launchers (and I have my fair share of them as well). This is why I nerfed Blaster Launchers from 200 damage to 120.

[Pastshelfdate]

Years ago I sent my B-team off to deal with a landed UFO. Skyranger lands in the dark. One of the few squadies lucky enough to have been issued armour cautiously steps out of the door. One step out and a blaster bomb whooshes past his ear, straight into the back of the skyranger. Bang. B-team gone. Skyranger lost. I never even found out what kind of critter let the thing off.

Ouch. :eek: Sorry. I remember what that felt like, and that was over ten years ago. That's the sort of thing that made me always toss out a smoke grenade, first. Usually, that was enough. I think I got that idea from playing Avalon Hill's tactical war game, Squad Leader. In that game, you don't ever want to cross open ground without smoke.

Strangely enough, UFO: Extraterrestrials taught me to spread out more, instead. As much as I love that update of UFO Defense, smoke didn't work as well in it. In a way, it was more realistic. We still need to spread out.

[Pastshelfdate]

It's been over a decade, but I will always remember what happened when I sent a football bomb through a window in the second story of a farm house, with its last way point sending it into the floor. The floor was destroyed, all the walls of the first floor were destroyed, live and dead aliens dropped to the ground floor, and the walls of the second story remained hanging in the air above. I thought that last bit was hilarious.

As this was the most effective way I could imagine for clearing a farm house, I did that whenever I had enough smart missiles to spare one.

[Pastshelfdate]

Also, some time ago, I stumbled upon a well-made Let's Play X-COM, located at
http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/XCOMUFODefense/
It's very detailed, and I found it a very entertaining read :)[/QUOTE]

Thanks. I've bookmarked that page. I can tell just from the table of contents that I'm going to enjoy the sense of humor.

By the way, I played UFO Defense on a 386DX, with a math co-processor, my first computer, bought used for $350 in the early 90s. I loved that system, and it booted up soooo fast. :)

And for a while, I had to use a monochrome monitor while playing Terror from the Deep. I had to pay close attention, but it was manageable.

[mrmotinjo]

Hot damn, you had a DX... My first X-COM experience was on a 386SX, a sluggish but nigh-indestructible machine :D

I had played the unpatched version back then, where my guys could have more than 200 action points, and control all the aliens on the map simultaneously :D

Good times :)

[Radical_Danny]

A nice moment is when alien commanders blow themselves and there command centre up with a blaster launcher when my soldiers walk through the inner door of the alien base command centre.... XD

[Loppy96]

After finishing the game a few times and then once on superhuman, i decided to see what it would be like bringing an avenger full of soldiers with nothing but blasters and ammo, and then raining out the love on all of cydonia... use the blasters to make some smoke on turn 1, load out everyone, turns 2+3 bombard the entire map with blasters (move 1 level above the target then go down) finish off most of the aliens then head to the pyramid since it's boring hunting down just a few. Won on turn 1. Moused over to find the brain and blastered my way to victory ^^

[Pastshelfdate]

In Apocalypse, the Dimension Missile Launchers are so nasty, :o it's especially satisfying, though rare, when the aliens are in too much of a hurry to fire, :rolleyes: AND in a tight group, and one of them fires a Dimension Missile into their group. :D

Seeing and hearing that huge explosion, and finding that it's on them and not my soldiers, is a relief and great satisfaction, together.

The only down side is that we will recover less alien gear to use or sell. :( Yet I'll take that over critical wounds or (at best) loss of tennis racket shields, which early on are very slow to accumulate. :)

By the way, in the beginning, it's better (and faster) to manufacture toxiguns than shields. Armed with toxiguns, your people can harvest enough shields, by killing aliens without destroying shields. Toxiguns don't damage shields, as far as I can tell.

[mcsproot06]

For UFO Defense:

Unlocking PSI for the first time and realising just how much easier it makes the game.

Having a Snakeman Terror Mission start going kinda wrong, so I made to retreat. But instead of loading up and taking off, I decided to grab as much salvage as possible. With the majority of my soldiers crouching at the transport with Laser Rifles at the ready, I ended up winning the mission while still gathering up salvage.

[Radical_Danny]

A good moment was when one of my sectoids managed to get into the Skyranger....

Oh wait that's UFO:TTS... XD

[Pastshelfdate]

For UFO Defense:

Unlocking PSI for the first time and realising just how much easier it makes the game.

Oh, yes. Some agents have disappointing psi stats, but most do not. Toward the end of the game, it's about all I did. :)

Having a Snakeman Terror Mission start going kinda wrong, so I made to retreat. But instead of loading up and taking off, I decided to grab as much salvage as possible. With the majority of my soldiers crouching at the transport with Laser Rifles at the ready, I ended up winning the mission while still gathering up salvage.

That is a nice surprise, going from defeat to victory. :D Good job!

[crispynoodle]

First time I met Sectiod Leaders. Took down a Harvester, Skyranger pounced on it ready to loot. Two teams formed up near the door, sniper in a near by barn covering them. Guess who gets mind zapped first. Spent the next few turns scrambling for cover and trying to kill my own sniper.

Actualy managed to stun the leader, I suspect he looked rather bruised by the time he got to the cell back at base ;)

[Zaxxon]

Back in the 90's I was in a normal farm, downed UFO mission. As far as I could tell there was one alien left. I had a blaster bomb and some incendiary rounds in a machine and a few riflemen spread out trying to hunt down the last alien. Then suddenly, one of my guys gets picked off on a reaction from the alien but I didn't know where he was (I rarely pack motion detectors). So alien's turn, another goes down. 4 soldiers left. I unload incendiary rounds towards the barn walls where the shot was coming from and things catch fire, then I toss grenade in and hear the death sound. YES! But no victory message...Next turn 3 guys go down (the grenadier and the gunner).

So, I rush my rifleman back to the skyranger and pick up a Blaster Launcher. Mostly because I am pissed at this point. Next couple of turns I am behind cover of a barn pretty far away. I blast my bomb and set the way points, the maximum because of the corners and such. Bomb goes off half way into destination...a haystack I assume...

So, I have one bomb left and fire it off, same way points, except add in two more for giving the bomb some altitude (don't want it to hit fences or hay again) and then lower back down to get into the barn again. Now remember I don't know where this alien is but think he is still in the barn. So the bomb goes around first floor in a couple of places where the alien can fire from (holes in walls, etc.) then it goes up the stairs and because I didn't have way points left, just explodes at top of stairs.

VICTORY! It was also one lone grey....This is when I learned to deploy at least one tank for scout/blind firing in the future.

[Kid2255]

In UFO Defense, starting out on my second UFO, I exclaimed to my troops "Damnit, hit the flipping aliens!"

My troops proceeded to kill all the aliens in one turn, no misses. With Rifles.

[Shinwa]

UFO Defense:

Starting a standard medium UFO mission I immediately have two Floaters outside my Skyranger. Thinking to myself, "Oh! What easy easy pickings!" I open up on the first Floater and miss completely. The second floater reaction shots a stun bomb straight into the middle of my Skyranger. Five out of seven troops unconscious. The other two fall immediately to plasma autofire =\

Another was in the first Alien Base during a playthrough. Sweeping easily through a base full of Mutons at first. Not losing a single troop and having excellent firing lanes. Suddenly, the devious alien bastards fire off a Blaster Launcher. Flying straight past my rookies to kill five of my top command structure. Immediately after another one sails in and kills off four rookies on the other side of the map.

Only a single Captain I had remaining cleared the base. Single handedly took out six Mutons and a sectopod. Took four plasma rifle / heavy shots to the face and made it out with 8HP. Most epic turn based firefight -ever-

[afo70]

Also, some time ago, I stumbled upon a well-made Let's Play X-COM, located at
http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/XCOMUFODefense/
It's very detailed, and I found it a very entertaining read :)

That's the greatest Let's Play ever. Brilliant!

[RottenApple32]

The first time I hit upon the idea of blowing a hole in the top of a landed large alien ship and ambushing the enemy leaders. They can dish it out, but they can't bloody take it (mind control) :D

[Pastshelfdate]

The first time I hit upon the idea of blowing a hole in the top of a landed large alien ship and ambushing the enemy leaders. They can dish it out, but they can't bloody take it (mind control) :D

Yes, using the standard city fighting tactic of blasting a "mouse hole" to create an unguarded way in is great. I don't remember why I tried that. I may have read about it, somewhere.

I loved using one smart missile to blast the hole, then sending another through the hole and further into the top level: more holes in the top and some dead alien officers. Agents in flying armor, hovering just below the edge of the roof, could then fly in and clean up.

That's another method from the standard military approach: clean a building from the top down, if possible; usually its defenses are set up vs. attack from the ground floor.

Thanks for bringing back fond memories. :)

[louchy]

The first time I ever played enemy unknown (ufo defence). I was about 10, it was night time and I was on my own. I'd never played before so had no idea what to expect.
I landed at the crash site and the first thing I see is a sectoids head sticking out of the wheat field....I nearly ♥♥♥♥ my pants

[Juggler]

Renaming all soldiers to "Coward" with bravery <=20 and giving them only melee weapons, deploying them first as disposable spotters, if they somehow survive sometimes they become braver over time and live...

...if they die, sometimes it exercises the bravery of the other soldiers.

And since my cowards don't have things like guns or grenades if they panic in the dropship while I'm trying to secure the landing zone, there is a lot less blood.

So many good memories of X-COM: UFO Defense and Terror from the Deep. :) Just bought them again today and hoping to figure out how to play them in stretched 1080p...if thats somehow possible :)

[stoob]

When I discovered blaster technology can put holes in any hull/wall. Muhahahahaha.

[Radical_Danny]

Using Blaster launchers as advanced landscaping tools... =3

[stoob]

Except when the enemy is freely using blasters... that's not fun.

[Watcherzero]

UFO, first time I executed a flawless assualt on a battleship while still using first tier armor with skirmish lines, not taking a single casualty.

TFTD, sheer fun of a terror site, was like one of those FBI tactical simulators, your walking around never knowing where the next target will appear from.

[Backslider.r2]

My favorite DERP moment:

Trying to be a pro during my very first mission and setting my troops to save AP for crouch and auto-fire as they slowly left the ship. They reacted heroically when my turn ended and reflex-fired into the surrounding gloom. I was satisfied to hear screaming after nearly every frantic burst, thinking myself quite the master strategist.

Witnessing such a devastating tactic at work, one which the aliens seemingly had no defense against, I let my agents spend several turns firing at what only they could see. By turn 7 however, I noticed the threat meter/hostile unit counter hadn't changed since landing. Cautiously, I ordered my agents into the gloom after the presumably mortally wounded aliens, only to find...

Heaps and heaps of dead civilians. Oops.

[Marvyra]

OH I got one! An awesome moment I had today at an alien base in which I destroyed fairly easy.

I was camping corners and pretty much blasted my way to victory. Their Snakeman leader didn't like that though, so he shot a Homing Blaster shot (not sure what they're called) through like 4-5 corridors and right in 3 of my soldiers faces, so of course I reloaded because at this point I don't want to die with anyone.

Reloaded my save and the leader once again shot his blaster, but this time one of his own soldiers were standing in the way and got shot instead. Priceless! XD

[Radical_Danny]

Except when the enemy is freely using blasters... that's not fun.

They won't be able to, after I finish my turn they are too busy panicking... >:)

[stoob]

Mind control revenge. Again, muhahahahaha.

[UnterNoob]

Most memorable moment for me (to this day I wonder if it was somehow scripted) was when I intercepted a large/very large UFO. It was my first encounter with Ethereals and I had no psionic capability.

My troopers were moving in on the UFO. The Ethereals were concentrating their psionic attacks on my strongest (combat wise) trooper. I knew that I'd lose him in the next turn so I got him to drop all his weapons, but just ran out of action points, so he was left with a single grenade equipped and wearing power armour.

Sure enough, next turn the aliens take control of him and he disappears. Several turns pass by with me wondering where the hell my now alien mind-controlled trooper has gone, expecting a grenade to land amongst my other men at any moment. Then suddenly, the Ethereals lose control of him.

He is on the bridge of battleship, KNEELING before the Ethereal commander and surrounded by 3 other officers. I just laugh. He primes his single grenade and drops it at his own feet. BOOM! Ethereal commander and officers all dead/unconscious. My guy is unconscious but alive. Remaining Ethereals start panicking. Shortly afterwards, Victory! :)

[Pastshelfdate]

Hi, UnterNoob,

I love that story! Wow - I never had a soldier break free from mind control, on his or her own. I always had to take out the aliens who were controlling. I guess the reasons you didn't have your soldier back off after dropping the grenade were (a) he was in power armor, and could survive the blast to the front of his armor, and (b) the alien officers were armed and you didn't want your strongest (except for psi defense) soldier shot repeatedly in the back.

During that awkward period before I'd put all my soldiers through psi training and knew their psi defense, I lost an agent who was in flying armor. I actually lost him. He was mind-controlled, flew away, and was never seen again. That was sad.

After that, I switch all my psionically weak soldiers to walking power armor, took away any grenades, and armed them only with auto-cannons loaded with incendiary ammo. That ammo can't hurt anyone in power armor. And on night missions, sending those agents ahead as psi bait results in enough light to find aliens, without electro-flares, after they've made their puppet shoot up the landscape on auto fire. The aliens could never resist doing that. :)

[ZeroRawr]

I just had my first two awesome moments (bought the game earlier yesterday) I was trying to storm a cabin with 3 troops and on the top floor was a Floater, I've got no idea what happened. All I hear is a plasma rifle shot but then he suddenly explodes... Later, two of my troops were crouched, taking pot shots at another Floater on the second story of another cabin. It took like 10 minutes to do this because they were my last two guys and I dared not go inside to fight him head on. Finally, after him taking 4 laser blasts to the chest he died and it was mission complete.

[UnterNoob]

Hi, UnterNoob,

I love that story! Wow - I never had a soldier break free from mind control, on his or her own. I always had to take out the aliens who were controlling. I guess the reasons you didn't have your soldier back off after dropping the grenade were (a) he was in power armor, and could survive the blast to the front of his armor, and (b) the alien officers were armed and you didn't want your strongest (except for psi defense) soldier shot repeatedly in the back.

During that awkward period before I'd put all my soldiers through psi training and knew their psi defense, I lost an agent who was in flying armor. I actually lost him. He was mind-controlled, flew away, and was never seen again. That was sad.

After that, I switch all my psionically weak soldiers to walking power armor, took away any grenades, and armed them only with auto-cannons loaded with incendiary ammo. That ammo can't hurt anyone in power armor. And on night missions, sending those agents ahead as psi bait results in enough light to find aliens, without electro-flares, after they've made their puppet shoot up the landscape on auto fire. The aliens could never resist doing that. :)

Well, it is quite a few years ago that it happened, one of the earliest games I played of Xcom, so I'm a little fuzzy on the details. I think equipping, priming and throwing the grenade used up most of his TUs and I was also afraid moving him might result in him getting shot in the back by 4 Ethereals, instead of just the one standing behind him. But really, I reckoned he was doomed anyway, he might as well go out in a blaze of glory. I think I had named him Judge Dredd.

[Original182]

When I saw the Sectopod for the first time.
It was also at night.
My squad unloaded everything at it and it still wouldn't die. I was like what is this thing made of????

http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Sectopod

[NKF]

Had a similar experience meeting my first lobsterman in TFTD. Jet Harpoons and Gauss Rifles did nothing to it. Whole team got slaughtered, and just to one Lobsterman.

Not an all-time best, but a nice dramatic one in UFO. Early snakeman terror mission. Had a team of soldiers at the edge of the map right at the end of the main road. All armed with heavy cannons and kneeling, ready to take orders from those ahead and lay down long ranged fire.

The scouts that were meant to relay the information, were slacking off. Drooling and dragging their feet everywhere.

Out comes a Chryssalid from the darkness. Everyone's facing towards it with full TUs, so it turns into an explosive horror fest as HE and AP rounds start flying but don't seem to have any effect on it. Bang, advance, bang, advance, bang, advance. Most of the hits were spot on or hit something nearby, but it kept advancing. It never quite reached but did stop a few paces from the lead man.

On resumption of the turn, most of the team was out of ammo, bar a few carrying spare AP clips. Those are loaded up. Most shots miss despite the range until finally one or two shots connect and the chryssalid is dropped. All at the last moment where all those that could fire were nearly out of TUs.

You don't plan to set up tense moments like this - they just happen. That's why I enjoy this game.

- NKF

[Radical_Danny]

A good moment for me is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5B1MwXpO5s8

I'm playing as the aliens, my X-com opponent recorded it.
It was a really fun battle... =3

You can play multiplayer Xcom with the multiplayer remake: UFO:TTS
http://ufotts.ninex.info/
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/TheTwoSides

[Evil Jon]

This has been a great thread, brought back some fond memories. Anyhow after the announcement of the Firaxis remake, I decided to buy it off steam and relive the ol' glory days.

Playing on superhuman with no tactical saves (adds so much more tension.)
Mission: Terror
Enemy: Snakemen and Chrysalids.
Tech: Plasma rifles

The map begins in a hellish firefight while exiting the Skyranger. I immediately lose 4 of my 12 troops but inflict heavy casualties on the enemy. I set a defensive line covering a road bisecting the map and proceed to clear everything behind it room by room, suffering no casualties. Figuring the last aliens must be on the other side of the road, I get my men in position to do a 4 x 4 bounding overwatch to cross it.

Of course, unknown to me, I had not cleared out everything behind my defensive line. Out of nowhere 2 Chrysalids sneak up and zombified my 2 best men.

4 Chrystalids vs 6 Troops.
My turn, I tried to react and kill them but my men were out of position. All I managed to do is hit a zombie once. Enemy turn...I swear I did not know they could do this, and to this day this is the only time I've seen it happen...one of the zombies equipped an alien grenade and blew the hell out of 2 of my men. The other Chrysalids zombify 2 more men.
6 Chrystalids vs 2 troops.

The 2 remaining men made a glorious stand as they proceeded to kill every last one of those terrifying bastards, the last of them dieing a mere 2 hexes away from their position.

[NKF]

That's a slight glitch that sometimes occurs where the game forgets to drop the equipment of your soldier. I think it had order in which a soldier is stunned before the 'zombifying' hit kicks in. Either way, this sometimes results in zombies that can throw grenades as you found, or Chryssalids that can shoot laser beams out of their teeth...

- NKF

[masterthehero]

Most memorable moment for me (to this day I wonder if it was somehow scripted) was when I intercepted a large/very large UFO. It was my first encounter with Ethereals and I had no psionic capability.

My troopers were moving in on the UFO. The Ethereals were concentrating their psionic attacks on my strongest (combat wise) trooper. I knew that I'd lose him in the next turn so I got him to drop all his weapons, but just ran out of action points, so he was left with a single grenade equipped and wearing power armour.

Sure enough, next turn the aliens take control of him and he disappears. Several turns pass by with me wondering where the hell my now alien mind-controlled trooper has gone, expecting a grenade to land amongst my other men at any moment. Then suddenly, the Ethereals lose control of him.

He is on the bridge of battleship, KNEELING before the Ethereal commander and surrounded by 3 other officers. I just laugh. He primes his single grenade and drops it at his own feet. BOOM! Ethereal commander and officers all dead/unconscious. My guy is unconscious but alive. Remaining Ethereals start panicking. Shortly afterwards, Victory! :)

The best part about this game is that nothing is scripted, so that is an absolute epic victory for you!

[marchofjohn]

i have to say one of my all time best moment has to be, i just unloaded most of my troops and began the mission and i had a guy with a blaster-bomb launcher standing in the rear of my ship i ended turn and an alien steps out of the ship my guy launches the bomb misses the alien it goes into the open door of the ship and killed 10 aliens that had be waiting... luckily none of my troops were killed

[postm00v]

My best moment (so far!) is when I entered a two storey UFO for the first time. It was totally intact, and even though the graphics aren't that great, I was totally impressed and in awe !

What an awesome game !

[timco35]

I have to say it's the times when everything goes wrong that I enjoyed the most.

I played TFTD first after playing the demo out of a gaming magazine 3.5" disk so long ago. I played that demo some dozen or so times and ran out to buy the game. Two things stick out the most.

A landing on a terror site. I deployed my men out the back of the ship, covering the each compass point. Might have been turn 2 or 3. One grenade from a alien on top of a building killed all but 2 of my men.

Tantrum spirals are always good for a laugh. One guy goes nuts, kills another guy, a third guy flips out and kills the first... :o Therein dies Wolfgang the 22nd. So many dead soldiers, so few random names.

[nyran125]

just turning it on makes me squeal in a positive way.

how bout ALL MOMENTS.