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Lawful Stupid

2018-04-30T10:10:24Z

2601:285:100:FC60:B546:455B:1C5F:E921: /* Examples of Lawful Stupid */

[[File:Obligatum VII.jpg|300px|thumb|right|[[Inevitable|Obligatum VII]], the definition of Lawful Stupid.]]
{{Topquote|You wear your honor like a suit of armor, Stark. You think it keeps you safe, but all it does is weigh you down and make it hard for you to move.|Lord Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish to Lord Eddard Stark, informing him that his Lawful Stupid ways will get him into trouble.}}

'''Lawful Stupid''' is gamer slang (derived from the [[Dungeons & Dragons]] [[alignment]] system, but can easily be applied to [[character]]s in any [[role-playing game]] as well as fiction in general) for a specific way of playing a [[Lawful Good]] or, especially, a [[Lawful Neutral]] character, most infamously a [[Paladin]]. It is characterized by lack of common sense, following the rules arbitrarily without actually understanding them and just generally being an annoying prick. He's [[that guy]] who will stop a chase scene because he has to chastise someone that was jaywalking. Lawful Stupid players are one of the main reasons (along with asshole [[DM]]s) why people dislike the Paladin class. It can also be a jab at the fact that Intelligence is a common [[dump stat]] for Paladins in 3.5, since their [[MAD]] mandates high Charisma and Wisdom, the traditional dump stats of combat classes.

Although the iconic Lawful Stupid character is a poorly-played Paladin (Alignment requirement: Lawful Good), non-Paladin depictions are almost invariably [[Lawful Neutral]], since this kind of characterization is a disappointingly logical extrapolation from a character alignment that can be summed up as "[[Derp|the Law is the Law and all that matters is that it is the law; whether or not it helps or hurts people is irrelevant, the LAW must be upheld!]]"

Compare to [[Chaotic Stupid]], [[Stupid Evil]], [[Stupid Good]], and [[Stupid Neutral]]. There really are a lot of ways to be stupid in fantasy games, aren't there?

== How to avoid it while playing lawful good ==
Required Reading: [[Discworld]] by Terry Pratchett, in particular anything having to do with the Witches of Lancre or the Ankh Morpork City Watch, especially Sam Vimes and Carrot Ironfoundersson. Carrot might not be very savvy when it comes to subtlety, but he is very much a good man, if a bit odd and literal at times. Some folks would argue that Vimes is Chaotic Good rather than Lawful Good, but fighting over alignments is for the [[alignment]] page -- the point is that he and Carrot are decidedly ''not'' Lawful Stupid (and it's heavily implied that Carrot's 'dumb innocence' is mostly a ploy to make people underestimate him).

Another way to play lawful good is to play your paladin like a modern soldier: able and willing to do anything needed to win, but still bound by the laws and customs of war, for example the Geneva and Hague Conventions. Those laws still restrict the actions of a soldier but he is still expected to act with common sense in order to achieve victory and not follow orders that violate those laws.

== How to avoid it while playing lawful neutral ==
This is arguably even harder than avoiding it whilst playing Lawful Good; at least Lawful Good types are ''supposed'' to balance their calling to law & order vs. their calling to good. Lawful Neutral types are categorized by their firm belief that law and order are the only things of importance, with morality being dismissed as insignificant next to maintaining of order. The primary key to doing so is to keep a proper perspective; traffic laws, for example, have their place in the scheme of things. When you are racing to prevent the nuclear annihilation of a city is ''not'' that place. Don't get so bogged down with legal minutia that you allow far greater acts of destruction and anarchy to occur in whilst you attend to the little things.

[[Judge Dredd]] can be a good example of this. For example, in the opening sequence of the 2012 ''Dredd'' movie, he pursues a car full of criminals but does not shoot at them until they collide with and kill a pedestrian, and even then only shoots to disable the van's tires. He doesn't shoot to kill until one of them threatens to kill a hostage and refuses to accept an offer to surrender. Also, when he sees a vagrant sitting outside the crime scene Dredd tells him not to be there when he gets back instead of arresting him because he has better things to do at the moment. Of course, when he's just doing the rounds on his birthday, he'll issue noise citations to children who sing to him because he is The Law (and then donate the presents he receives to an orphanage because he's not [[That Guy]]).

This is not to say that a Lawful Neutral character doesn't recognize when they break the law or go against the general sense of law (Law) when called to; they do, and they're likely to be annoyed by it.

== Examples of Lawful Stupid ==
* The [[Inevitable]]s, divine [[golem]]-like beings with the duty to enact laws and enforce contracts. There's a story of one named "Obligatum VII" (the seventh in its line because six times prior people had the common sense to stop him) who trying to free the [[BBEG]] in a campaign. The story goes that some mages summoned an eldritch abomination named Pandorym to blackmail the gods, making a contract with it to destroy the universe when it was summoned. The wizardss imprisoned Pandorym instead of finishing the ritual to let it loose so that it wouldn't destroy the universe before they were ready, but the gods just smote the stupid wizards the instant they were done imprisoning Pandorym so he's stuck. Well, Obligatum is here to set things right, and make sure that poor, imprisoned death machine gets the freedom it was promised to carry out its goal, which through some warped sense of honor it is willing to do. How exactly this does not bring him into conflict with another type of Inevitable, the Varakhut, whose job it is to prevent deicide is a whole other box of worms.
* The [[Harmonium]] from [[Planescape]]. ''"The Harmonium believes that peace is a better end than war. [...] If it takes thumping heads to spread the truth, well, the Harmonium's ready to thump heads. Sure, there may not be peace right away, but every time the Harmonium gets rid of an enemy, the multiverse is that much closer to the universal harmony it was meant to have."'' This attitude is how the third layer of [[Arcadia]] shifted into [[Mechanus]], and the gods of Arcadia had to start over. Whoops. What's more, don't forget that they exterminated all non-lawful ''good and neutral'' species in the world where their faction originated. Some good.
* The [[Modron]] race, similarly to the Inevitables above, due to being extraplanar mechanical lifeforms who embody Lawful Neutral. Except they somehow have even less personality. Imagine a poorly-written chatbot with arms, legs and the ability to beat you over the head; that's basically a Modron. They can't even understand the idea that their assumptions may be incorrect.
* Helm, the Lawful Neutral God of Guardians and Watchmen from the [[Forgotten Realms]] has earned this kind of reputation in-universe. Nobody will ''ever'' let him live it down that, during the [[Time of Troubles]], he killed Mystara, the Goddess of Magic, for trying to get back into the upper planes after Ao kicked them all out, despite the fact he knew that this would severely damage the fabric of reality in the process. As a result, [[wild magic]] zones and dead magic zones are commonly called "Helmlands". He also catches a lot of flak for the role his worshippers played in the massacres in [[Maztica]], but that's not so much Lawful Stupid as religious bigotry and the priest's only daughter being sacrificed by one of the natives.
* The stereotypical [[Space Marine]]. Stealth is cowardice, frontal assaults are the only way to go. On the occasion they do utilize tactics like stealth, feints, and flanking, it's all to help the frontal assault succeed rather than the other way around. Retreating is never an option, even if it's to gain more cover. Some will never field [[psyker]]s, ignore [[xenos]], and some won't even cooperate with other [[Space Marine Chapter]]s. A special case being [[Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine|Leandros]].
* The Starks from [[A Song of Ice and Fire|Game of Thrones]]. When Ned Stark finds out that Joffrey and his siblings are incest born bastards, he does the most asinine thing possible and tells Cersei, instead of going to Robert directly. He also tells his daughters of his plan, which causes Sansa to blab to everybody. His son Robb Stark has even more fuck ups, namely executing one of his top generals when he should have kept him around (though said Karstark general undeniably disrespected his authority), failing to communicate with Edmure (though Edmure is incompetent), and blatantly breaking his promise to Walder Frey because he felt bad he screwed some other chick and decided to marry her in order to keep their honor intact (though Walker Frey is admittedly a backstabbing opportunist who might have betrayed him anyway as Robb was undoubtedly losing the war. Also, Walder’s choice to violate one of the most valued rules of honor that even pirates, thieves and murderers keep, simultaneously fucked over his own side by becoming the group absolutely nobody on any side wants to be associated with. Not even the people he betrays Robb in favor of). This kind of shit ends up with the Starks practically destroyed.
* The Jedi from the Star Wars Prequels are this, as [[Ultramarines|they followed the Jedi Code - which was meant as a mere guideline - as a set of unbreakable rules]] and set out to completely repress all emotion in somewhat unfounded fear of those emotions leading to the dark side, when they should have acknowledged that which makes us human and simply taught how to use them positively. Such arbitrarily following of the code leads the Council to turn a blind eye to the various problems Anakin Skywalker was having, thereby unintentionally sealing their own downfall.
** Works set before the Prequels shows that this is hardly a new problem for the Jedi Order. Knights Of The Old Republic features a Jedi named Atris who's incredibly obsessed with following the code to the letter and wiping out the Sith. This leads to her being filled with bitterness and remorse after her best friend the Exile is kicked out of the Order, but also leaves her too arrogant to talk to anyone about it. Instead she starts to hide herself away in a temple filled with Sith holocrons to be alone and meditate, and since Sith holocrons literally exude Dark Side-tainted Force energy, she gets unknowingly corrupted into a Sith. Yes, she was so Lawful Stupid that it ''turned her evil''.
* The [[Dwarfs (Warhammer Fantasy)|Dawi]]. They are obsessed with the concept of revenge, as '''all Grudges must be answered for.''' This causes them to wage many unnecessary wars, which is especially stupid since they are a dying race. The fluff speaks of two dwarven lords who were fighting each other in a generation-spanning War of Grudges, even while they were being invaded by an Orc warband. The two lords eventually got together and realized that neither of them remembered what their clans were fighting over, forgave each other, and resolved to ally against the Orcs beating down on their gates. Both sides were promptly crushed by ''the gods themselves'' for failing to avenge their respective Grudges and the Orcs got to loot another Karak without difficulty.
* The [[Azorius Senate|Azorius]] from [[Magic: The Gathering]]. The guild makes so many laws that they can literally arrest ANYONE, and then justify it by finding one of the myriad of pointless laws they've passed that the individual has undoubtedly broken. They'll even arrest someone for merely ''thinking'' about breaking a law (see the card [http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=270794| Psychic Spiral] for proof.)
* The Sangheli, or Elites, from the [[Halo]] franchise. With a ridiculously rigid Bushido-style code of honor that makes the Ultramarines seem like pragmatic chaps, the Elites have often lost battles to humans they could have otherwise won, if they weren't so blindingly "honorable" (Ignoring for the minute that they had no problem turning a planet into slag.) Full frontal assaults, suicide charges, blindingly following three shady testicle-looking douchebags, and a stupid insistence on fighting the enemy fairly are all par for the course. But the most glaring example of their stupidity has to come from the fact that they consider it a [[What|dishonor to either get their own blood shed off the battlefield or become involved in a medical practice]]. Even Klingons aren't that stupid. The only reason they even win against the Jiralhanae (Brutes) is because the Brutes are more Stupid Evil than the Sangheli are Lawful Stupid. [[Humanity Fuck Yeah|Well, that, and the fact that they had allied with the Humans by that point.]]
* The Nugganite religion, from Terry Pratchett's ''Monstrous Regiment'': the decrees of the Borogravian god Nuggan forbid everything from the smell of beets to the color blue to ''babies''. Many citizens of Borogravia privately acknowledge that most of Nuggan's abominations are completely ridiculous (and let the most extreme Abominations slide, because they're virtually impossible to enforce anyway), even while fretting about which Abominations they're currently committing.

[[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]][[Category:Alignment]]

XCOM

2017-05-13T07:14:17Z

2601:285:100:FC60:B546:455B:1C5F:E921:

{{/vg/}}
{{Oldschool}}

[[Image:Xcom_2.png|thumb|right|]]

This is a [[Dan Abnett|rare treat]]. '''X-COM''', or as it's called across the pond, ''UFO: Enemy Unknown'' is a turn-based strategy game that is, to put it simply, about as close to a game of [[Dark Heresy]] as one can get in isometric 3D. Note that X-COM is significantly older than [[Dark Heresy]], and older than all but the first edition of [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]], so it'd be better to say [[Dark Heresy]] is a lot like X-COM on the tabletop. Dating back to the much-lamented Microprose, it set a gold standard for atmosphere and playability that has, frankly, not been breached in ages.

The game is [[Dwarf Fortress|old as balls]] and in isometric view, which, paired with the Dark Heresy similarities, makes it more /tg/ material than /v/.

==A General Gist==

A general synopsis is that in [[grimdark|the not-so-distant future, there is war - and aliens]]. Aliens are arriving, and they are most assuredly hostile. It falls upon the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit, or the eponymous X-COM, a multi-national task-force, to deal with the invasion by blasting the fuck out of the Aliens, stealing their shit, researching their technology, and using it to fucking kill them off, all the while fighting off terror attacks and trying to figure out where in Uranus these fucking things are coming from (as it turns out, from Mars, and if you win, the final mission involves you going to Mars and dropping an [[Exterminatus]] on their asses).

It kicked ass. It was good enough to spawn a sequel, which was basically the same game, but underwater and infinitely harder. It then spawned a second, somewhat different, but still appreciated sequel, which was decent, if not overwhelmingly good. Then Microprose was bought by [[Hasbro|that which must never be named]], who proceeded to nose-dive the IP with games like [[AIDS|X-COM: Interceptor]] and [[Shit Twinkie|X-COM: Enforcer]].

Fucking [[RAGE|Hasbro]].

Anyway. Combat is a lot like Dark Heresy's in that it's exceedingly lethal; at the game's outset, you have no armor beyond jumpsuits with Kevlar stuffed into them, and your firearms are the best and msot powerful weaponry that chemical propelled explosives can provide only moderately capable against alien forces (though quite diverse). In order to properly take these fucking things on on anything remotely resembling their own terms, you need upgrades. Upgrades come through research, and research comes by shooting down UFOs, landing a ground assault, killing the surviving aliens, and stripping the UFO like the [[Blood Ravens]] do other chapters' shiny bits. Once brought back to base, your researchers can look into what makes the alien's gear work, research your own weapons and tech, and develop technologies to help in the fight against the Aliens. Eventually, you can load your forces up with [[Space Marine|Power-armored bad-asses]], but starting out, your forces are fragile, and fighting smart is ''vital''. You ''will'' suffer casualties early on - guaranteed - but such is war, and you must press on, allowing the survivors to grow into [[Colonel Greiss|manly badasses]].

The Aliens themselves are diverse, ranging from the Sectoids (conventional "gray" aliens), to Chryssalids (horrifying abominations that inject targets with eggs that turn them into mindless drones which will explosively birth new Chryssalids thereafter). Nightmare fuel = yes. The game manages to be exceedingly creepy for one so simple, and is one of many reasons that X-COM works so well.

==Tales of Heroism==

In accordance with /tg/'s love of war stories about [[your dudes]], several examples of awesome have been compiled:

''Instant'' death doesn't ''always'' happen. Occasionally, one Rookie will be touched by God and succeed against all odds. After that, he will die horribly. [[Just as Planned]].

X-COM agent of note: [[Marc Lecointe]]. Lecointe survived numerous missions, got the highest kill count on most missions, killed a Snakemen leader and his bodyguards (despite losing over half the squad), and got shot in the face and back with plasma and lived. He eventually was hit with return fire in an alley and began bleeding. He returned fire and killed the Snakeman, but bled to death before help could arrive. Lacointe lives on in our hearts.

Another agent of note is Gristle McThornbody, a Rocket-Toting Team-Killing asshole who refuses to die OR be mind-controlled. He's so badass, that even when he has 85% or more to hit on a 2x2 alien, he'll still hit the wall twenty tiles to the left.

== New Stuff and Things ==
According to things [[/v/]] likes to watch on the Internet, a new X-Com game is in the pipes, set to be made in the gameplay and spirit of the old games, with new graphics and updated for the new generation of gamers to be introduced into the X-Com game style. It lost the dash along the way someplace, and got re-named ''XCOM: Enemy Unknown''. This new game, which has spawned joy boners in many on /v/ and /tg/ alike, is believed to stem from the utter, burning [[RAGE|fury]] that was originally spawned from 2K's simply-titled ''XCOM'' game, which, near as we can tell, is an FPS that takes place in the 1960s and has exactly ''nothing'' to do with the actual X-COM franchise. Seriously, don't look into 2K's game if you're a fan of the series on any level - it will cause veterans to spontaneously transform into [[Angry Marines]] and/or [[Khorne|Khornate Berserkers]]. Apparently, those in charge had the wherewithal to note that if they didn't make a ''proper'' X-COM game, [[/tg/]] (and by extension, [[/v/]]) would [[Anal Circumference|leave their asshole in ruins]]. They even went ahead to declare the two games take place in separate universes. If only [[Games Workshop]] had [[Matt Ward|that much sense]]...

== XCOM: Enemy Unknown by Firaxis ==
[[File:XCOMGameplay.jpg|200px|thumb|An in-game screenshot of the new game.]]
And Firaxis came to the rescue, promising to return to the roots of XCOM (note the lack of a hyphen this time around, although the logo ''does'' have a horizontal stripe taken out of the "COM"). Since Firaxis has a lot of ex-MicroProse people, a lot of them have had to do with the original as well, and the original musical score will make a return. Although it's changed a few things like removing time units, cutting down on your maximum amount of squad members (4 at the start and 6 maximum) and limiting us to one base (though each base location gives its own unique bonus), the game lives up to the original, xeno-killing TBS (Turn-Based Strategy) series.

If you haven't bought the game and you're a TBS fan, everyone in /tg/ that isn't [[That guy]], would highly recommend you give it a whirl at the modest price of <strike>
$39.99 </strike> $16.49 for all the good remade XCOM games because of our father Gabe Newell on PC,
still is 39.99 for console/Non-Steam or $9.99 on mobile/tablet devices.

If anything, this edition of X-com is more in the lines of a traditional board game than the previous ones. One might even be so bold as to compare it to Necromunda and Mordheim on its similarities.
Like always, we have footage for vidyas: https://youtu.be/qDhuZ4b51hA https://youtu.be/-SKoS5BYVuY https://youtu.be/bxuzLyR-000

===XCOM: Enemy Within===
[[File:MectoidMEC.jpg|200px|thumb|Did we mention melee combat with exosuits?]]
''Enemy Within'' is an expansion pack (And it's been a long time since anyone's used that name for additional content.) for the game that completely re-defines how the game progresses, compared to the original one. The game's story still progresses like the original game, but expands on it for a more entertaining experience.

It adds the "meld" resource to the game, a type of alien organic/synthetic-hybrid nanomachine that allows you to unlock two powerful technologies: MEC and genetic modification. MEC allows your troops to interface with a Mechanized Exoskeleton Cybersuit, a heavy exoskeleton that brings the heaviest of weapons to the field (Including the option for a powerfist equivalent called a "Kinetic Strike Module". Yes, make your own faux [[Terminator]] squad! Especially when the Tier-3 Paladin upgrades bulks up your suit's armor that you look vaguely similar to Termies.). Genetic modification allows you to augment your troops using data gathered from dissected aliens, making them killier than ever before. Infact, you can create your own equivalent of an Imperial [[Space Marine]] with the list of available modifications you can do (Two of these specific upgrades are a second heart and the ability of self-regeneration) .

It also adds new aliens to the xenos' side, like a cloaking squid robots that chokes your troops to death and their own brand of exosuit troops. It also introduces another enemy into the game: EXALT. EXALT are a bunch of power-mad blokes who sees the alien's invasion as a way to gain power by adapting their technology for themselves, inching them closer to world domination. They see you as an obstacle and are determined to undermine your efforts to defeat the aliens by disrupting your operations through a number of ways and sowing panic amongst XCOM-member nations, generally making your already hectic life even more hectic. You must now defeat this new threat through a combination of [[Ork|cunning brutality and brutal cunning.]] They have most of your technologies to go toe-to-toe with you (Except for their own exosuits) and they are well hidden, so bringing them down won't be an easy affair.

=== XCOM 2 ===
[[File:People%27s_reaction_to_XCOM_2%27s_Vipers.png|200px|thumb|Turns out they ''are'' poison glands. Hee.]]
A direct-ish sequel to EU/EW, XCOM 2 seems to decide that what's canon is not: "you killed all the aliens, now here's more aliens", but "you know that Impossible Ironman game you played for a laugh and got utterly stomped? That's the canon ending". (The utterly stomping part takes place in the base assault, and it is so bad that two of the most important things got taken: The Commander, and more importantly, central officer Bradford's sweater). The aliens won before humanity even got to laser weapons, taking over the world and unifying humanity (read: ruling over them in a pseudo-utopia "Brave Neuuw World"-style), and basically preparing to turn them into another of their slave races (not that most of humanity knows this).

XCOM refused to back down even after the Council of Nations ceased to exist and instead went underground, hijacking an alien supply ship to act as a mobile base for hit-and-run operations against the alien occupiers, in the hopes of toppling the ADVENT (the puppet government aliens've set up) and exposing the true purpose of their supposedly ideal society to the world.

New features include:
The Assault class has been given a makeover to focus even more on [[Rip and Tear]], replacing the sidearm with a sword and changing title to the Ranger. The Sniper has been renamed the Sharpshooter and given a pistol-focused skill-tree-route that turns the soldier into Clint Eastwood (literally, like you can have a stand-off by firing 3 pistol-shots in the same turn). The Support class has been renamed the Specialist and been given a drone to hack, heal, shield and/or zap shit remotely. The Heavy has been given a nice grenade launcher to act as your cover-stomper, and been renamed the Grenadier. Psi-operatives are their own class now as well, and get hate-hair and purple eyes because that makes sense and all psychically talented people look like neo-punks. Troops can be captured, and then rescued, which also reclaims any expensive gear they had on them (but it's never the captured troops you actually need back).
New enemies (without spoilers), including human ADVENT security troops (who really love to say "bitch" and pointing towards your soldiers) with magnetic weapons who look like humans till you get their armor off, sectoid-human hybrids with teeth, thumbs, and belly buttons (which can be really creepy if you '''really''' think about it), and transsexual Snake-women called Vipers (which is what the Thin Men actually look like without their disguises). Yes, there were snaketits on the thread that announced this to /tg/. Yes, /d/ has drawn porn of them. Yes, it will be added to the gallery.

Moving on.

XCOM 2 also contains an in depth explanation for the aliens' motives that many fans felt was lacking or too ambiguous in Enemy Within. Apparently, the Ethereals have some kind of fatal disease they can't cure, so they've been trekking around the galaxy culminating genes to form the ultimate bodies for themselves, while amassing a genetically supreme army. When the Ethereals found humanity, they found their genes to be so awesome and powerful that just adding some of them to a lowly sectoid turned it from a pathetic 3' tall creature you could kill with basic weapons, to an 8' tall psionic rape machine that could raise the dead and withstand salvos of bullets to the face. They then set up an alien government on Earth so they could discretely process humanity's best genetic material and slowly form new bodies for themselves that don't die called Avatars. And by don't die, we mean have copious amounts of health, teleport every time they're injured, regenerate like crazy, are guaranteed to successfully mind control anything, and are immune to any of your psychic abilities. And the boss fight involves killing three of these dick-butts and an endless wave of alien reinforcements. Using human DNA is also where their ADVENT troops came from, they grew armies of human spliced with unspecified alien to act as their public face to the humans. But humanity wins anyway, because humans are just that fucking awesome.

The game is also notable for abandoning the usual conditions for losing. The norm for the series is for your funding to get cut if too many countries lose faith in XCOM. Since you're fighting a guerilla war and your support are humans fighting to survive outside the aliens' control zones, that isn't happening. Instead you lose if the aliens complete the Avatar Project, their goal to mass produce the bodies for the etherals. If they do you get treated to a scene of almost all resistance being crushed because the Avatars are dangerous enough in small numbers and army of them would unstoppable. You can slow progress, but can only stop it by finishing the game.

So far there have been three DLCs for XCOM 2. "Anarchy's Children" added new customization features for your soldiers, most of which you wouldn't ever really use. "Alien Hunters" adds a new mission, weapons, and alien rulers who you have to hunt down. The alien rulers get to take an action every, single, time, one of your soldiers does. This is even more infuriating then it sounds. Some more customization options are added too. "Shen's Last Gift" adds another mission and the SPARK class soldier. SPARKs are robots you have to make in the proving ground that wish they were half as cool or good as the MECs from Enemy Within. Hopefully, someone in the modding community will fix this soon. You also can't add modifications to their guns, which is stupid, and their guns, while much larger and more powerful-looking than the other squad specialized weapons, don't do more damage than the rest of the squad's specialized weapons. This is also stupid, as an auto-cannon would naturally do much more damage than a SAW. And here comes the fun part; if you read the developers blog, their idea of "balance" is to actually nerf plenty of stuff...so the game is harder after having a buffed-up alien lord chase your dudes all over the game. Was old-school really this hard?

=== XCOM: Long War ===

What, the new XCOM wasn't complicated enough for you? There's a mod called "Long War" which goes into lots more detail, a bit more like the classic game. Now, the aliens will advance their plans and escalate their forces and assaults based on their own progression system, and the game is rebalanced around the expectation that you will not succeed at every mission (and you won't -- the aliens are plenty tough to see to that).

=== XCOM: The Board Game ===

From [[Fantasy Flight Games]], there's a board game adaptation of XCOM (in fact, ''XCOM: Enemy Unknown'' was quite inspired by board games, with the two-actions-per-turn system instead of the old 'time units'). There's a companion app for smartphones, tablets, and computers which controls the aliens and informs players of events, a bit like a [[Game Master]], but without exposing the players to too much bookkeeping. Amazing what games can do with computers these days -- just imagine if such a thing had been available for [[FATAL]]! On second thought, don't.

Players (1-4) take on different roles in the XCOM organization. The Commander keeps an eye on the budget and allocates interceptors. The Chief Scientist directs research efforts. The Central Officer works the app and solicits input from the others (if there are any) to make decisions (many of which are time-critical). The Squad Leader manages troops and base defense. Together, they need to allocate their resources, judge when to push risky but rewarding avenues (inviting retribution from the aliens if they fail), and defend humanity. Like the games, successes are rare -- a die only has a 1/3 chance of coming up with a success, and tasks may need multiple successes. There is also an "enemy die", a [[d8]] that is rolled against the number of times that task has been attempted. If it rolls equal to or under that number, something bad happens. So, do you pool resources for critical tasks (neglecting anything else, and hoping that your priorities are correct), in order to most likely be successful before the threat level climbs too high? Or do you stay flexible but push your luck? Your call, commander.

=== XCOM 2: Long War 2 ===
If you thought XCOM 2 was ''already'' hard, thanks in part to the involvement of the original Long War modders in the game's development, said modders come back with a sequel mod for the game. Not only does this go even further than the first Long War in going into a lot of detail, such as new graphical touches, significant rebalancing and completely overhauling the global map to be more reminiscent of classic X-com. But the difficulty is amped up even more, with missions even requiring you to send in potentially fatal scouting parties to make sure your ''other'' squads don't die on the spot. Also, rather than launching parties directly into battle, missions spawn on the geoscape with an expiration timer. The player ''can'' launch immediately, but the enemy presence will be drastically increased! Instead, the idea is that the squad can spend time infiltrating, to let ADVENT get complacent and draw troops elsewhere. Having more Resistance folks working Intel increases mission expiration times, but the bigger and heavier the squad, the more infiltration time is require. And vice versa -- short-staffing a squad can allow a player to infiltrate to high percentages on short notice...but now you've only got like four guys on the ground, and that might not be enough firepower if activations go badly...

Also, the Shinobi is the most overpowered class below the Psi-Operative. Making missions easier then they should be as he can [[derp|bypass Overwatch]] and has a very low impact on infiltration. Unlike the Psi-Operative he is available after promoting a Rookie.

== The Bureau: XCOM Declassified ==
Despite having the name XCOM in the title, the game really has little relation to the series. The reason behind this is because 2K passed this game on to the lovely people that brought you Bioshock 2; meaning it was made by a studio that makes more or less decent games. It's supposed to be a prequel, set in the 1960s during the Cold War era. The protagonist, William Carter, was a CIA agent just delivering a suitcase of classified "documents" until an Outsider disguised as a female agent got ahold of it. Not long after that, an alien invasion commenced!

The Bureau is a RPG that plays like Mass Effect, but not as good for a variety of reasons. One reason is in the dialog scene, you're given choices of what to ask/say. They really don't impact the game, nor changes it for the most part, so you can skip a majority of it if you want to. The agents in your squad are pretty dull, sure you can change their names and how they dress, but really doesn't offer any friendship/foe engagements. If they die, you will need to recruit another agent and start him off from scratch, but really, leveling them up isn't fun and customizable, so just restart a checkpoint if they do die.

The agents in your squad have bad AI if you don't babysit them and give commands on what they should do, and their skills at fighting Outsiders are... Well, okay. The best they can offer is their abilities, so spamming them and you taking care of the killing is an effective way to go (Some recommend starters to start their first mission with a Recon to cause critical damage on certain enemies and a Commando for [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX|taunting the grunts and make them easy picking for you.]]

There would be more to go on, but if you want to know more about the game, you can search up reviews of XCOM Declassified. In short, it's a decent prequel that fans can find some enjoyment, but it's not as good as Enemy Unknown. Still worth looking into if you can find it for cheap or rent it.

Interestingly enough, turns out that the universe in XCOM Declassified is the same as that of Enemy Unknown/Within's. After the events in The Bureau, all records were wiped. This explains why the player had to start from scratch at the beginning of Enemy Unknown. When the Ethereals of Unknown/Within spoke of their [[Derp|own failure to ascend,]] they really meant that they wanted to be like the Ethereals from The Bureau. Either way, only time will tell exactly [[Grimdark|what the hell they were preparing humanity for.]]

== Xenonauts ==
A faithful remake of the original X-com, with time units and all that. Changes a few things (like lack of Psionics on your side) and adds vehicles (yes, blowing up half a building with a rocket jeep is awesome) and controllable dogfights.

Other differences between it and the original include:

Maps are mostly pregenerated, not fully procedural.

Fewer weapon and ammo types. Seriously, you've got the big five (pistol, shotgun, assault rifle, sniper, and LMG) and a rocket launcher. No variant ammo types, although the weapons do have researched tiers (which are simply damage-ups). This means no unfairly powerful weapons like the Rape Launcher or the Stun Grenade Launcher.

More basic inventory control. You don't micromanage individual missiles, and you can have as many magazines, grenades, and med-kits as you want.

Smaller team sizes. Max troop count on a mission is 12, with the best drop-ship.

Fewer oddball items, like the motion scanner or psi-ball, but there is now an assault shield, so your dudes don't immediately die when popping open a UFO.

Rookies are better out of the gate, but are still shit compared to your colonels. Still, they have a decent chance of killing an enemy in a turn.

Explosive weapons damage items, lowering the amount of money you receive from selling. This is for the best, because explosives are stupidly powerful and are probably the most reliable way of putting a fool down.

Saveable, customizable loadouts for all of your troops, and obviously no engine-based limit on the amount of items you can bring into a mission.

Aliens don't really hide in corners or really hard to find spots, which makes flushing them out a lot easier.

Troops remain vulnerable a lot longer. You are never at the point where you can float an invincible army of death-dealing demigods over a cowering cadre of snakemen, raining death and destruction down with maddened glee.

Country relations are more important than after-mission loot.

You can kick or pistol whip an enemy to death. Cue surrounding an annoying alien marksman and beating him to death with riot shields.

You can call airstrikes to cancel boring UFO raids.

=== Xenonauts 2 ===

Now with 3D graphics! A demo is available through GOG.com, with the release planned to be later in 2017.

== UFO: Alien Invasion ==

The most detailed opensource version of XCOM based on the Quake 2 engine.

Buildings are not destructible and it doesn't have a great fog-of-war. It doesn't have unmanned vehicles like the current iterations and sadly doesn't have any sort of Chryssalids yet.

Has a better world map than any other XCOM in that you can fully explore it like google-earth, even showing ship movement on the globe in real time. The campaign is more forgiving in that it does not force you through Acts like Enemy Unknown where you can't possible keep everybody happy, or has nations constantly bitching at you for radar coverage like in Xenonauts. Instead you get to bid captured UFOs and give preference to unhappy nations that feel neglected or where you haven't been saving civilians frequently.

The camera is completely free in battlescape mode just like in Enemy Unknown, complete with zoom capabilities. Lots of different weapons, though you will find yourself a fool if you don't immediately start using alien weapons. Also levels tend to have more floors than other iterations, such as one mission in which you're going through an office building or another where you're entering a subway.

The only major problem with the game is that the smoke grenades are so overpowered your guys will be coming out of your drop ship like Snoop-Dogg out of his trailer. Otherwise you'll find aliens are more than happy to shower your guys with plasma from across the map.

After a general huge update smoke is now useless and aliens are much, MUCH more powerful.

Oh, and its free.

== Phoenix Point ==

A spiritual successor by Julian Gollop himself. As of the time of this edit, being crowdfunded on Fig. The basic idea is; some kind of strange virus has been dug up in the permafrost and has mutated everything in the oceans. Now it's invading the land, most of the humanity is gone, and you must defend the survivors.

The virus morphs all life into Lovecraftian horrors. Literally Lovecraftian; it is implied that [[H.P. Lovecraft|Howard the Great]] was inspired by ancient findings describing an outbreak of the same virus a few million years ago. It even came from Yuggoth. Some of the people, by the way, seem to like the results; there is an entire faction based around a religion [[Chaos Cults|worshiping the mutations]], while another is [[Tau|commie pacifists trying to find a balance with the virus]]. A third faction [[Imperium of Man|just wants to destroy them all at all costs]].

So far, the game has managed to gather the required half million dollars and is moving toward the stretch goals. A few of the contributors have even bought the right to design a character (a leader of a survivor group).

Expected; large bosses, your own mutated soldiers with blasted off limbs, and the option of saving a group of people by [[Dawn of War II|landing on a giant creature and injecting it with poison]].

Oh, and there are [[Flamer|flamethrowers]]

== XPiratez ==

What Xcom 2 was to Xcom Enemy Within, Xpiratez is set after the aliens win in X-Com UFO Defense. Made of pure [[Awesome|awesome]], you lead a crew of female mutants on a quest to kick ass, gain riches, and fuck bitches. A mod made for the original X-Com, its free and gets constant updates. Go check it out! Nothings more satisfying then crushing a pureblood's head in with a sledge hammer and then mowing down his mates with your [[Dakka|custom Boarding gun]]. To say more would be to spoil its unique atmosphere and feeling of exploration as you uncover what has happened to the world.

== See Also ==

*[[X-Com Play By Post]], experimental rules for playing X-Com on a forum.
*[[XCOM: Tomorrow's War edition]], a conversion of [[Tomorrow's War]] for playing X-Com on the tabletop.

== Gallery ==
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</gallery>

== External Links ==

* [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Main_Page UFOpaedia.org], a wiki dedicated to X-COM (and sequels, and mods, etc.).
* [http://openxcom.org/ Open Source engine for the original game]
* [http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite.asp?eidm=269&enmi=XCOM:%20The%20Board%20Game Fantasy Flight Games's official X-COM game.]
* [http://www.nexusmods.com/xcom/mods/88/? Long War main page.]
* [http://ufoai.org/wiki/About UFO: Alien Invasion]
* [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BqoEJUWKVRFSKXOA2Ks3Ce7Kvphmg0kAFKcuXJHgmr0/mobilebasic?pli=1 Things X-COM operatives are not allowed to do], a list in the vein of Mr. Welch's list. Occasionally hilarious

[[category:Video Games]]
[[Category:Software]]

XCOM

2017-05-13T06:49:21Z

2601:285:100:FC60:B546:455B:1C5F:E921: /* A General Gist */

{{/vg/}}
{{Oldschool}}

[[Image:Xcom_2.png|thumb|right|]]

This is a [[Dan Abnett|rare treat]]. '''X-COM''', or as it's called across the pond, ''UFO: Enemy Unknown'' is a turn-based strategy game that is, to put it simply, about as close to a game of [[Dark Heresy]] as one can get in isometric 3D. Note that X-COM is significantly older than [[Dark Heresy]], and older than all but the first edition of [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]], so it'd be better to say [[Dark Heresy]] is a lot like X-COM on the tabletop. Dating back to the much-lamented Microprose, it set a gold standard for atmosphere and playability that has, frankly, not been breached in ages.

The game is [[Dwarf Fortress|old as balls]] and in isometric view, which, paired with the Dark Heresy similarities, makes it more /tg/ material than /v/.

==A General Gist==

A general synopsis is that in [[grimdark|the not-so-distant future, there is war - and aliens]]. Aliens are arriving, and they are most assuredly hostile. It falls upon the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit, or the eponymous X-COM, a multi-national task-force, to deal with the invasion by blasting the fuck out of the Aliens, stealing their shit, researching their technology, and using it to fucking kill them off, all the while fighting off terror attacks and trying to figure out where in Uranus these fucking things are coming from (as it turns out, from Mars, and if you win, the final mission involves you going to Mars and dropping an [[Exterminatus]] on their asses).

It kicked ass. It was good enough to spawn a sequel, which was basically the same game, but underwater and infinitely harder. It then spawned a second, somewhat different, but still appreciated sequel, which was decent, if not overwhelmingly good. Then Microprose was bought by [[Hasbro|that which must never be named]], who proceeded to nose-dive the IP with games like [[AIDS|X-COM: Interceptor]] and [[Shit Twinkie|X-COM: Enforcer]].

Fucking [[RAGE|Hasbro]].

Anyway. Combat is a lot like Dark Heresy's in that it's exceedingly lethal; at the game's outset, you have no armor beyond jumpsuits with Kevlar stuffed into them, and your firearms are the best and msot powerful weaponry that chemical propelled explosives can provide only moderately capable against alien forces (though quite diverse). In order to properly take these fucking things on on anything remotely resembling their own terms, you need upgrades. Upgrades come through research, and research comes by shooting down UFOs, landing a ground assault, killing the surviving aliens, and stripping the UFO like the [[Blood Ravens]] do other chapters' shiny bits. Once brought back to base, your researchers can look into what makes the alien's gear work, research your own weapons and tech, and develop technologies to help in the fight against the Aliens. Eventually, you can load your forces up with [[Space Marine|Power-armored bad-asses]], but starting out, your forces are fragile, and fighting smart is ''vital''. You ''will'' suffer casualties early on - guaranteed - but such is war, and you must press on, allowing the survivors to grow into [[Colonel Greiss|manly badasses]].

The Aliens themselves are diverse, ranging from the Sectoids (conventional "gray" aliens), to Chryssalids (horrifying abominations that inject targets with eggs that turn them into mindless drones which will explosively birth new Chryssalids thereafter). Nightmare fuel = yes. The game manages to be exceedingly creepy for one so simple, and is one of many reasons that X-COM works so well.

==Tales of Heroism==

In accordance with /tg/'s love of war stories about [[your dudes]], several examples of awesome have been compiled:

''Instant'' death doesn't ''always'' happen. Occasionally, one Rookie will be touched by God and succeed against all odds. After that, he will die horribly. [[Just as Planned]].

X-COM agent of note: [[Marc Lecointe]]. Lecointe survived numerous missions, got the highest kill count on most missions, killed a Snakemen leader and his bodyguards (despite losing over half the squad), and got shot in the face and back with plasma and lived. He eventually was hit with return fire in an alley and began bleeding. He returned fire and killed the Snakeman, but bled to death before help could arrive. Lacointe lives on in our hearts.

Another agent of note is Gristle McThornbody, a Rocket-Toting Team-Killing asshole who refuses to die OR be mind-controlled. He's so badass, that even when he has 85% or more to hit on a 2x2 alien, he'll still hit the wall twenty tiles to the left.

== New Stuff and Things ==
According to things [[/v/]] likes to watch on the Internet, a new X-Com game is in the pipes, set to be made in the gameplay and spirit of the old games, with new graphics and updated for the new generation of gamers to be introduced into the X-Com game style. It lost the dash along the way someplace, and got re-named ''XCOM: Enemy Unknown''. This new game, which has spawned joy boners in many on /v/ and /tg/ alike, is believed to stem from the utter, burning [[RAGE|fury]] that was originally spawned from 2K's simply-titled ''XCOM'' game, which, near as we can tell, is an FPS that takes place in the 1960s and has exactly ''nothing'' to do with the actual X-COM franchise. Seriously, don't look into 2K's game if you're a fan of the series on any level - it will cause veterans to spontaneously transform into [[Angry Marines]] and/or [[Khorne|Khornate Berserkers]]. Apparently, those in charge had the wherewithal to note that if they didn't make a ''proper'' X-COM game, [[/tg/]] (and by extension, [[/v/]]) would [[Anal Circumference|leave their asshole in ruins]]. They even went ahead to declare the two games take place in separate universes. If only [[Games Workshop]] had [[Matt Ward|that much sense]]...

== XCOM: Enemy Unknown by Firaxis ==
[[File:XCOMGameplay.jpg|200px|thumb|An in-game screenshot of the new game.]]
And Firaxis came to the rescue, promising to return to the roots of XCOM (note the lack of a hyphen this time around, although the logo ''does'' have a horizontal stripe taken out of the "COM"). Since Firaxis has a lot of ex-MicroProse people, a lot of them have had to do with the original as well, and the original musical score will make a return. Although it's changed a few things like removing time units, cutting down on your maximum amount of squad members (4 at the start and 6 maximum) and limiting us to one base (though each base location gives its own unique bonus), the game lives up to the original, xeno-killing TBS (Turn-Based Strategy) series.

If you haven't bought the game and you're a TBS fan, everyone in /tg/ that isn't [[That guy]], would highly recommend you give it a whirl at the modest price of <strike>
$39.99 </strike> $16.49 for all the good remade XCOM games because of our father Gabe Newell on PC,
still is 39.99 for console/Non-Steam or $9.99 on mobile/tablet devices.

If anything, this edition of X-com is more in the lines of a traditional board game than the previous ones. One might even be so bold as to compare it to Necromunda and Mordheim on its similarities.
Like always, we have footage for vidyas: https://youtu.be/qDhuZ4b51hA https://youtu.be/-SKoS5BYVuY https://youtu.be/bxuzLyR-000

===XCOM: Enemy Within===
[[File:MectoidMEC.jpg|200px|thumb|Did we mention melee combat with exosuits?]]
''Enemy Within'' is an expansion pack (And it's been a long time since anyone's used that name for additional content.) for the game that completely re-defines how the game progresses, compared to the original one. The game's story still progresses like the original game, but expands on it for a more entertaining experience.

It adds the "meld" resource to the game, a type of alien organic/synthetic-hybrid nanomachine that allows you to unlock two powerful technologies: MEC and genetic modification. MEC allows your troops to interface with a Mechanized Exoskeleton Cybersuit, a heavy exoskeleton that brings the heaviest of weapons to the field (Including the option for a powerfist equivalent called a "Kinetic Strike Module". Yes, make your own faux [[Terminator]] squad! Especially when the Tier-3 Paladin upgrades bulks up your suit's armor that you look vaguely similar to Termies.). Genetic modification allows you to augment your troops using data gathered from dissected aliens, making them killier than ever before. Infact, you can create your own equivalent of an Imperial [[Space Marine]] with the list of available modifications you can do (Two of these specific upgrades are a second heart and the ability of self-regeneration) .

It also adds new aliens to the xenos' side, like a cloaking squid robots that chokes your troops to death and their own brand of exosuit troops. It also introduces another enemy into the game: EXALT. EXALT are a bunch of power-mad blokes who sees the alien's invasion as a way to gain power by adapting their technology for themselves, inching them closer to world domination. They see you as an obstacle and are determined to undermine your efforts to defeat the aliens by disrupting your operations through a number of ways and sowing panic amongst XCOM-member nations, generally making your already hectic life even more hectic. You must now defeat this new threat through a combination of [[Ork|cunning brutality and brutal cunning.]] They have most of your technologies to go toe-to-toe with you (Except for their own exosuits) and they are well hidden, so bringing them down won't be an easy affair.

=== XCOM 2 ===
[[File:People%27s_reaction_to_XCOM_2%27s_Vipers.png|200px|thumb|Turns out they ''are'' poison glands. Hee.]]
A direct-ish sequel to EU/EW, XCOM 2 seems to decide that what's canon is not: "you killed all the aliens, now here's more aliens", but "you know that Impossible Ironman game you played for a laugh and got utterly stomped? That's the canon ending". (The utterly stomping part takes place in the base assault, and it is so bad that two of the most important things got taken: The Commander, and more importantly, central officer Bradford's sweater). The aliens won before humanity even got to laser weapons, taking over the world and unifying humanity (read: ruling over them in a pseudo-utopia "Brave Neuuw World"-style), and basically preparing to turn them into another of their slave races (not that most of humanity knows this).

XCOM refused to back down even after the Council of Nations ceased to exist and instead went underground, hijacking an alien supply ship to act as a mobile base for hit-and-run operations against the alien occupiers, in the hopes of toppling the ADVENT (the puppet government aliens've set up) and exposing the true purpose of their supposedly ideal society to the world.

New features include:
The Assault class has been given a makeover to focus even more on [[Rip and Tear]], replacing the sidearm with a sword and changing title to the Ranger. The Sniper has been renamed the Sharpshooter and given a pistol-focused skill-tree-route that turns the soldier into Clint Eastwood (literally, like you can have a stand-off by firing 3 pistol-shots in the same turn). The Support class has been renamed the Specialist and been given a drone to hack, heal, shield and/or zap shit remotely. The Heavy has been given a nice grenade launcher to act as your cover-stomper, and been renamed the Grenadier. Psi-operatives are their own class now as well, and get hate-hair and purple eyes because that makes sense and all psychically talented people look like neo-punks. Troops can be captured, and then rescued, which also reclaims any expensive gear they had on them (but it's never the captured troops you actually need back).
New enemies (without spoilers), including human ADVENT security troops (who really love to say "bitch" and pointing towards your soldiers) with magnetic weapons who look like humans till you get their armor off, sectoid-human hybrids with teeth, thumbs, and belly buttons (which can be really creepy if you '''really''' think about it), and transsexual Snake-women called Vipers (which is what the Thin Men actually look like without their disguises). Yes, there were snaketits on the thread that announced this to /tg/. Yes, /d/ has drawn porn of them. Yes, it will be added to the gallery.

Moving on.

XCOM 2 also contains an in depth explanation for the aliens' motives that many fans felt was lacking or too ambiguous in Enemy Within. Apparently, the Ethereals have some kind of fatal disease they can't cure, so they've been trekking around the galaxy culminating genes to form the ultimate bodies for themselves, while amassing a genetically supreme army. When the Ethereals found humanity, they found their genes to be so awesome and powerful that just adding some of them to a lowly sectoid turned it from a pathetic 3' tall creature you could kill with basic weapons, to an 8' tall psionic rape machine that could raise the dead and withstand salvos of bullets to the face. They then set up an alien government on Earth so they could discretely process humanity's best genetic material and slowly form new bodies for themselves that don't die called Avatars. And by don't die, we mean have copious amounts of health, teleport every time they're injured, regenerate like crazy, are guaranteed to successfully mind control anything, and are immune to any of your psychic abilities. And the boss fight involves killing three of these dick-butts and an endless wave of alien reinforcements. Using human DNA is also where their ADVENT troops came from, they grew armies of human spliced with unspecified alien to act as their public face to the humans. But humanity wins anyway, because humans are just that fucking awesome.

The game is also notable for abandoning the usual conditions for losing. The norm for the series is for your funding to get cut if too many countries lose faith in XCOM. Since you're fighting a guerilla war and your support are humans fighting to survive outside the aliens' control zones, that isn't happening. Instead you lose if the aliens complete the Avatar Project, their goal to mass produce the bodies for the etherals. If they do you get treated to a scene of almost all resistance being crushed because the Avatars are dangerous enough in small numbers and army of them would unstoppable. You can slow progress, but can only stop it by finishing the game.

So far there have been three DLCs for XCOM 2. "Anarchy's Children" added new customization features for your soldiers, most of which you wouldn't ever really use. "Alien Hunters" adds a new mission, weapons, and alien rulers who you have to hunt down. The alien rulers get to take an action every, single, time, one of your soldiers does. This is even more infuriating then it sounds. Some more customization options are added too. "Shen's Last Gift" adds another mission and the SPARK class soldier. SPARKs are robots you have to make in the proving ground that wish they were half as cool or good as the MECs from Enemy Within. Hopefully, someone in the modding community will fix this soon. You also can't add modifications to their guns, which is stupid, and their guns, while much larger and more powerful-looking than the other squad specialized weapons, don't do more damage than the rest of the squad's specialized weapons. This is also stupid, as an auto-cannon would naturally do much more damage than a SAW. And here comes the fun part; if you read the developers blog, their idea of "balance" is to actually nerf plenty of stuff...so the game is harder after having a buffed-up alien lord chase your dudes all over the game. Was old-school really this hard?

=== XCOM: Long War ===

What, the new XCOM wasn't complicated enough for you? There's a mod called "Long War" which goes into lots more detail, a bit more like the classic game. Now, the aliens will advance their plans and escalate their forces and assaults based on their own progression system, and the game is rebalanced around the expectation that you will not succeed at every mission (and you won't -- the aliens are plenty tough to see to that).

=== XCOM: The Board Game ===

From [[Fantasy Flight Games]], there's a board game adaptation of XCOM (in fact, ''XCOM: Enemy Unknown'' was quite inspired by board games, with the two-actions-per-turn system instead of the old 'time units'). There's a companion app for smartphones, tablets, and computers which controls the aliens and informs players of events, a bit like a [[Game Master]], but without exposing the players to too much bookkeeping. Amazing what games can do with computers these days -- just imagine if such a thing had been available for [[FATAL]]! On second thought, don't.

Players (1-4) take on different roles in the XCOM organization. The Commander keeps an eye on the budget and allocates interceptors. The Chief Scientist directs research efforts. The Central Officer works the app and solicits input from the others (if there are any) to make decisions (many of which are time-critical). The Squad Leader manages troops and base defense. Together, they need to allocate their resources, judge when to push risky but rewarding avenues (inviting retribution from the aliens if they fail), and defend humanity. Like the games, successes are rare -- a die only has a 1/3 chance of coming up with a success, and tasks may need multiple successes. There is also an "enemy die", a [[d8]] that is rolled against the number of times that task has been attempted. If it rolls equal to or under that number, something bad happens. So, do you pool resources for critical tasks (neglecting anything else, and hoping that your priorities are correct), in order to most likely be successful before the threat level climbs too high? Or do you stay flexible but push your luck? Your call, commander.

=== XCOM 2: Long War 2 ===
If you thought XCOM 2 was ''already'' hard, thanks in part to the involvement of the original Long War modders in the game's development, said modders come back with a sequel mod for the game. Not only does this go even further than the first Long War in going into a lot of detail, such as new graphical touches, significant rebalancing and completely overhauling the global map to be more reminiscent of classic X-com. But the difficulty is amped up even more, with missions even requiring you to send in potentially fatal scouting parties to make sure your ''other'' squads don't die on the spot. Also, rather than launching parties directly into battle, missions spawn on the geoscape with an expiration timer. The player ''can'' launch immediately, but the enemy presence will be drastically increased! Instead, the idea is that the squad can spend time infiltrating, to let ADVENT get complacent and draw troops elsewhere. Having more Resistance folks working Intel increases mission expiration times, but the bigger and heavier the squad, the more infiltration time is require. And vice versa -- short-staffing a squad can allow a player to infiltrate to high percentages on short notice...but now you've only got like four guys on the ground, and that might not be enough firepower if activations go badly...

Also, the Shinobi is the most overpowered class below the Psi-Operative. Making missions easier then they should be as he can [[derp|bypass Overwatch]] and has a very low impact on infiltration. Unlike the Psi-Operative he is available after promoting a Rookie.

== The Bureau: XCOM Declassified ==
Despite having the name XCOM in the title, the game really has little relation to the series. The reason behind this is because 2K passed this game on to the lovely people that brought you Bioshock 2; meaning it was made by a studio that makes more or less decent games. It's supposed to be a prequel, set in the 1960s during the Cold War era. The protagonist, William Carter, was a CIA agent just delivering a suitcase of classified "documents" until an Outsider disguised as a female agent got ahold of it. Not long after that, an alien invasion commenced!

The Bureau is a RPG that plays like Mass Effect, but not as good for a variety of reasons. One reason is in the dialog scene, you're given choices of what to ask/say. They really don't impact the game, nor changes it for the most part, so you can skip a majority of it if you want to. The agents in your squad are pretty dull, sure you can change their names and how they dress, but really doesn't offer any friendship/foe engagements. If they die, you will need to recruit another agent and start him off from scratch, but really, leveling them up isn't fun and customizable, so just restart a checkpoint if they do die.

The agents in your squad have bad AI if you don't babysit them and give commands on what they should do, and their skills at fighting Outsiders are... Well, okay. The best they can offer is their abilities, so spamming them and you taking care of the killing is an effective way to go (Some recommend starters to start their first mission with a Recon to cause critical damage on certain enemies and a Commando for [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX|taunting the grunts and make them easy picking for you.]]

There would be more to go on, but if you want to know more about the game, you can search up reviews of XCOM Declassified. In short, it's a decent prequel that fans can find some enjoyment, but it's not as good as Enemy Unknown. Still worth looking into if you can find it for cheap or rent it.

Interestingly enough, turns out that the universe in XCOM Declassified is the same as that of Enemy Unknown/Within's. After the events in The Bureau, all records were wiped. This explains why the player had to start from scratch at the beginning of Enemy Unknown. When the Ethereals of Unknown/Within spoke of their [[Derp|own failure to ascend,]] they really meant that they wanted to be like the Ethereals from The Bureau. Either way, only time will tell exactly [[Grimdark|what the hell they were preparing humanity for.]]

== Xenonauts ==
A faithful remake of the original X-com, with time units and all that. Changes a few things (like lack of Psionics on your side) and adds vehicles (yes, blowing up half a building with a rocket jeep is awesome) and controllable dogfights.

Other differences between it and the original include:

Maps are mostly pregenerated, not fully procedural.

Fewer weapon and ammo types. Seriously, you've got the big five (pistol, shotgun, assault rifle, sniper, and LMG) and a rocket launcher. No variant ammo types, although the weapons do have researched tiers (which are simply damage-ups). This means no unfairly powerful weapons like the Rape Launcher or the Stun Grenade Launcher.

More basic inventory control. You don't micromanage individual missiles, and you can have as many magazines, grenades, and med-kits as you want.

Smaller team sizes. Max troop count on a mission is 12, with the best drop-ship.

Fewer oddball items, like the motion scanner or psi-ball, but there is now an assault shield, so your dudes don't immediately die when popping open a UFO.

Rookies are better out of the gate, but are still shit compared to your colonels. Still, they have a decent chance of killing an enemy in a turn.

Explosive weapons damage items, lowering the amount of money you receive from selling. This is for the best, because explosives are stupidly powerful and are probably the most reliable way of putting a fool down.

Saveable, customizable loadouts for all of your troops, and obviously no engine-based limit on the amount of items you can bring into a mission.

Aliens don't really hide in corners or really hard to find spots, which makes flushing them out a lot easier.

Troops remain vulnerable a lot longer. You are never at the point where you can float an invincible army of death-dealing demigods over a cowering cadre of snakemen, raining death and destruction down with maddened glee.

Country relations are more important than after-mission loot.

You can kick or pistol whip an enemy to death. Cue surrounding an annoying alien marksman and beating him to death with riot shields.

You can call airstrikes to cancel boring UFO raids.

=== Xenonauts 2 ===

Now with 3D graphics! A demo is available through GOG.com, with the release planned to be later in 2017.

== UFO: Alien Invasion ==

The most detailed opensource version of XCOM based on the Quake 2 engine.

Buildings are not destructible and it doesn't have a great fog-of-war. It doesn't have unmanned vehicles like the current iterations and sadly doesn't have any sort of Chryssalids yet.

Has a better world map than any other XCOM in that you can fully explore it like google-earth, even showing ship movement on the globe in real time. The campaign is more forgiving in that it does not force you through Acts like Enemy Unknown where you can't possible keep everybody happy, or has nations constantly bitching at you for radar coverage like in Xenonauts. Instead you get to bid captured UFOs and give preference to unhappy nations that feel neglected or where you haven't been saving civilians frequently.

The camera is completely free in battlescape mode just like in Enemy Unknown, complete with zoom capabilities. Lots of different weapons, though you will find yourself a fool if you don't immediately start using alien weapons. Also levels tend to have more floors than other iterations, such as one mission in which you're going through an office building or another where you're entering a subway.

The only major problem with the game is that the smoke grenades are so overpowered your guys will be coming out of your drop ship like Snoop-Dogg out of his trailer. Otherwise you'll find aliens are more than happy to shower your guys with plasma from across the map.

After a general huge update smoke is now useless and aliens are much, MUCH more powerful.

Oh, and its free.

== Phoenix Point ==

A spiritual successor by Julian Gollop himself. As of the time of this edit, being crowdfunded on Fig. The basic idea is; some kind of strange virus has been dug up in the permafrost and has mutated everything in the oceans. Now it's invading the land, most of the humanity is gone, and you must defend the survivors.

The virus morphs all life into Lovecraftian horrors. Literally Lovecraftian; it is implied that [[H.P. Lovecraft|Howard the Great]] was inspired by ancient findings describing an outbreak of the same virus a few million years ago. It even came from Yuggoth. Some of the people, by the way, seem to like the results; there is an entire faction based around a religion [[Chaos Cults|worshiping the mutations]], while another is [[Tau|commie pacifists trying to find a balance with the virus]]. A third faction [[Imperium of Man|just wants to destroy them all at all costs]].

So far, the game has managed to gather the required half million dollars and is moving toward the stretch goals. A few of the contributors have even bought the right to design a character (a leader of a survivor group).

Expected; large bosses, your own mutated soldiers with blasted off limbs, and the option of saving a group of people by [[Dawn of War II|landing on a giant creature and injecting it with poison]].

Oh, and there are [[Flamer|flamethrowers]]

== See Also ==

*[[X-Com Play By Post]], experimental rules for playing X-Com on a forum.
*[[XCOM: Tomorrow's War edition]], a conversion of [[Tomorrow's War]] for playing X-Com on the tabletop.

== Gallery ==
{{Promotions}}
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Image:Get_Some_by_IronShrineMaiden.jpg
Image:Public_Display_of_Affection_by_Jaekyu.png
Image:Rookie_Shooter_by_Jaekyu.png
Image:X-Com_(1).jpg
Image:X-Com_(2).jpg
Image:X-Com_(3).jpg
Image:X-Com_(4).jpg
Image:X-Com_(5).jpg
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</gallery>

== External Links ==

* [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Main_Page UFOpaedia.org], a wiki dedicated to X-COM (and sequels, and mods, etc.).
* [http://openxcom.org/ Open Source engine for the original game]
* [http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite.asp?eidm=269&enmi=XCOM:%20The%20Board%20Game Fantasy Flight Games's official X-COM game.]
* [http://www.nexusmods.com/xcom/mods/88/? Long War main page.]
* [http://ufoai.org/wiki/About UFO: Alien Invasion]
* [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BqoEJUWKVRFSKXOA2Ks3Ce7Kvphmg0kAFKcuXJHgmr0/mobilebasic?pli=1 Things X-COM operatives are not allowed to do], a list in the vein of Mr. Welch's list. Occasionally hilarious

[[category:Video Games]]
[[Category:Software]]

Planetary Defense Force

2016-12-17T15:11:00Z

2601:285:100:FC60:B546:455B:1C5F:E921:

[[File:Tumblr_mp3teqHQKG1rneqlno1_500.jpg|400px|right|thumb|A relatively and fairly accurate representation of the PDF.]]
In [[Warhammer 40,000]], a '''Planetary Defense Force''' is, as the name suggest, an armed force that protects a single planet (as opposed to the [[Imperial Guard]], which travels from planet to planet). They have a tendency to [[Meme|try to respond, but to be killed to a man]].

The [[Imperium of Man]] is a very feudal empire; while much is made of the [[Space Marines]] and [[Imperial Guard]], they cannot be everywhere at once, and so each world is expected to be able to protect itself. On civilized worlds, the PDF fill that role, either fending off attack entirely, or holding out long enough for off-world assistance to arrive.

We never hear about their victories, partly because stories where the PDF wins are not as interesting as those where the Imperial Guard and Space Marines have to get called in, and partly because most planets make their [[Imperial Tithe]]s by bundling the best few percent of their Planetary Defense Forces into IG Regiments and shipping them off-world. It is also important to remember that sitting on a safe backwater planet for centuries means that they have absolutely no combat experience compared to IG regiments that are shipped from one warzone to another. Add to that they have even less equipment, no comm-beads for individual soldiers, and that for an entire system of planets a single [[Commissar]] is attached. Ironically, planets with a feral orks infestation tend to have a better PDF and produce better IG regiments. However, the average PDF unit tend to fold like wet paper when a significant off world threat arrives. As such, the Imperial Guard consider them grossly undertrained, incompetent, and poorly armed compared to the Guard. The irony of this is lost on the Guard itself. Better yet, it highlights just how bad it is to be a member of the PDF.

Another major problem for the PDF is lack of experience and as a result, morale. PDF from a forgotten backwater planet do not typically see a lot of action and as a result lack any combat experience. Add to this that most information sources available to them are compatible to the IG uplifting primer (and they don't have anyone around to tell them what a pile of groxshit it is) and you can see why facing the untold terrors of cosmos might go south very quickly for them.

To be fair, not all PDF are incompetent pushovers. For example, [[Cadia]]'s entire population is militarized from birth, in reserve if not in active duty, and those active duty Cadians who are selected to stay instead of being shipped out to the Guard are chosen at random instead of by lack of merit. This means that Cadia's PDF is every bit as skilled and tough as any of the planet's many exported Imperial Guard regiments, and train just as hard, just as frequently, and are just as well supplied for being on a fortress world. The shipped regiments are also rotated frequently enough meaning that most Cadian PDF actually have some combat experience. However, examples like this are the exception rather than the rule when it comes to PDF quality.

Often, when PDF aren't incompetent, they turn traitor. While an Imperial Guard unit is constantly shuffled from world to world, only resting in transit, and under the watchful eye of a [[Commissar]], the PDF may go for years or even lifetimes without seeing a planet-scale defensive effort. As such, they often also serve as local law enforcement. This can result in the PDF being more loyal to the planetary government than to the [[Imperium]]; if the planetary government turns corrupt, they can bring the PDF with them, which makes it that much harder for the Imperium to reclaim the planet later. Also, even if they did not turn traitors they are the most suspected people if heretical cults are active on the planet, and they usually are, or the planet got infiltrated by [[Genestealers]]. Thus even if a problem arose the guards would still avoid them and the authorities would still distrust them to use them so that they might gain combat experience.

The three notable exceptions to this rule are the [[Armageddon]] PDF, who often fight the Orks still on the planet, as a result of a lower than normal Tithe for a planet of its size allowing the Armageddon PDF to be well trained and funded. The other is the [[Ultramar]] Auxilia, as Ultramar has no tithe due to supporting the [[Ultramarines]] [[Space Marine Chapter]], also since they must meet the standards of Space Marines resulting in higher than normal training, generally they are still shipped offworld like normal guard and often support the Ultramarines. And the last is the Cadian Interior Guard whose members are chosen from one out of ten best men in the Cadian Shock Troops Imperial Guard regiments.

The greatest irony is that if the [[Imperium]] would only enforce the training of planetary defence forces to a decent standard (as they are so eager to get their mitts on your tithes!) then the heretic and xenos would have a damn harder time taking over worlds and the guard and marines won't have to keep running in to save them and could actually concentrate on the full scale invasions (But of course that much common sense won't be at all grimdark enough....). Not to mention the fact that if the [[Imperium]] were to require worlds to also have their own law enforcement that is controlled by, trained by, and generally indoctrinated by, the Adeptus Arbites, you wouldn't have to worry much about A) crime (pickpockets would be shot, soooo...yeah) or B) turncoat PDF (because of fanatical loyalty to Imperial law). So then you would technically have two competent fighting forces on the planet, both of which are separate enough from local affairs to remain loyal to the Imperium. The PDF and the local law enforcement. Then the Guard to concentrate hundreds, perhaps thousands of regiments on threats instead of a few dozen. Not to mention how much hurt the Astartes would be free to lay down. However, it's questionable whether such indoctrination would work. One of the reasons that the Arbites are so loyal to the Imperium instead of the planet they're stationed on is because they come from a different planet.

In general, in cases where PDF would get the opportunity to gain the experience and funding necessary to become a reliable fighting force, they don't tend to keep the title of PDF for long. However, the PDF do their jobs as well as they ca,, and typically its only confirmation bias that they get such a bad rap (If deservedly so). AS often times they are sufficent enought o keep the peace and fend off minor threats.

Also, there was one (yes, ''one'') PDF trooper worth noting. Some family man with a forgettable name fought alongside Uriel Ventris of the Ultrasmurfs during a battle against [[Tyranid|Tyranids]]. When he ran out of shots for his lasgun, what did he do? He picked up a discarded chainsword and ''charged the 'nids with it''! He actually managed to keep up with Ventris, an Ultramarines ''Captain''. When a Carnifex came to blow them to bits with bio-plasma he ran back, grabbed a missile launcher, and ''shot it in the face''! Then picked the chainsword back up and charged again. After the battle was over, Ventris visited him in the hospital and, in front of everyone announced that this man had saved his life and about how badass the guy was to keep pace with an Astartes. If you've played or seen the Space Marine game, you must realize how incredible a feat that is. Ventris then removed one of his purity seals and gave it to the man. Clearly, the mustering of the Guard missed one.

And the ones Ciaphas Cain hang out with in Death Or Glory.

[[Story:Praise the Emperor (and Pass the Ammunition)| And Private Connie Obel.]]

{{Imperium}}

Missile Launcher

2016-12-04T08:02:10Z

2601:285:100:FC60:B546:455B:1C5F:E921: /* Chaos */

The '''Missile Launcher''' is a very simple weapon, being little more than a tube capable of firing different kinds of explosive payload, similar to the [[Mortar]]. The Missile launcher is capable of firing a variety of payloads, chief amongst which are the anti-personnel Fragmentation ("Frag") missiles, and anti-vehicle Krak missiles, though anti-air "Flakk" missiles are also on the way with the advent of flyers in [[Warhammer 40,000 6th edition]]. The main advantages of the Missile launcher are that it is cheap to manufacture, able to take several kinds of munitions, and portable.

==Imperium==
The Missile Launcher is one of the most common explosive weapons fielded by the [[Imperium of Man]], employed very commonly by [[Imperial Guard]] Heavy weapons teams, and extensively used amongst [[Space Marine]] squads of all kinds. It also sees use among the ranks of the [[Chaos Space Marines]]. Its incredible versatility in payload allows it to be a potent anti-infantry and anti-vehicle weapon when the situation calls for it. Its anti-vehicle capabilities are only outstripped by the [[Lascannon]] and [[Imperial Ordnance|vehicle-mounted weapons]], and it is easy to learn and easy to use.

Back in the days of the [[Great Crusade]], these things were the goofiest looking weapons ever, with banana-shaped top-fitted magazines (as seen in some recent [[Forge World]] weapons packs). [[Dark Eldar]] laughed at how oddly shaped and impractical they were. Seriously.

They stopped laughing after said missiles evaporated them.

Aside from the two standard Missile Launchers, the Astartes short launcher and the longer Imperial Guard version that shoots long, almost torpedo-like missiles, the Imperium also employs several other large missile weapons.

===Hunter-Killer Missile ===

A single-use fire-and-forget krak missile packaged in a launch tube that is easily mounted to any vehicle. In-game, they are a cheap upgrade for most Imperial vehicles and walkers, as a quick way to add a bit of anti-armor punch to an armored personnel carrier or other light armor. However, being one shot only you'll never actually hit anything with it as it has the incredible ability to miss everything every time it is fired.

===Hellion Missile ===
Attached to the side of the Epic Stormblades casemate was a single shot Anti-Titan missile. Designed with an adamantium penetrator, it was there to help kick in the teeth of any titan that came around the corner, but fairly pointless against Gargants.

===Manticore Missile===
The primary weapon of the [[Manticore Rocket Launcher|Manticore]], the individual missiles of a Manticore can evaporate anything that is not dressed in Power Armor.

===Deathstrike Missile===
An explosive set to [[Angry Marines|Maximum Fuck]] and strapped to a [[Deathstrike Missile Launcher]], an impact of this weapon will fucking END anything hit by it. A single ICBM made of [[Rage|FUCK YOU]] out for your blood would make anyone think twice. An even deadlier variations exists as the [[Warp Weapons|Vortex Missile]].

===Ironstorm Missile Pod===
Mounted on the back of an [[Imperial Knight]], it is used against massed infantry assaults, and it is most effective against light- to medium-armoured opponents (72" S5 AP4, Heavy 1, Large Blast, Barrage).

===Stormspear Rocket Pod===
Another pod mounted on the [[Imperial Knight]], it fires self-propelled projectiles tipped with armour-penetrating warheads and is used against heavily armoured infantry or moderately armoured vehicles (48" S8 AP3, Heavy 3).

===Apocalypse Missile Launcher===
Strapped to the back of a [[Reaver Battle Titan]], the Apocalypse Missile Launcher does just that: spraying an area in explodey goodness capable of devouring waves of infantry and tanks alike.

===Doomstrike Missile Launcher===
So huge it can only be used by the [[Imperator Battle Titan]], this is a highly accurate missile launcher with a high rate of fire. It gains its accuracy by way of leveling the entire half of the continent that the enemy is on so that his destruction is assured.

== Chaos ==
The [[Chaos Space Marines]] [[Havoc]]s use a man-portable missile launcher just like the Imperial model (presumably left over from their loyalist days). Their Titans also have the same missile launchers available, although the Cyclone, Hunter-Killer, and Manticore missiles weren't developed until after the [[Horus Heresy]], so they aren't available to the Chaos Space Marines. Apparently they couldn't steal some after they were invented, [[Derp|and none of the Chapters who turned traitor later brought any with them.]] Its just as likely that they have never gotten their hands on any substantial manufacturing complexes for them, meaning they have to use the limited Imperial Ordanance they do get from their looting and stolen factories in apocalypse battles.

===Havoc Launcher===
The Havoc Launcher is a small multiple missile pod that hooks onto Chaos vehicles (it was used on all Imperial vehicles during the [[Great Crusade]] and both sides of the [[Horus Heresy]], though it's [[Chaos]]-only now) and can fire off a cluster of long-ranged explosive shells, perfect for dispatching clusters of small enemies - it's particularly effective against [[Ork]]s, [[Dark Eldar]], the [[Tyranids]], [[Kroot]], and the [[Imperial Guard]]. The weapon has the following profile:

Range: 48" | Strength: 5 | AP: 5 | Heavy 1, Blast, Twin-Linked

It can be thought of as a rough equivalent to the Imperial Hunter-Killer or Cyclone missile launchers, as it is an upgrade easily applied to any vehicle for some extra firepower, but where the Hunter-Killer missile is meant to damage or kill a single strong unit (with only one shot, mind), the Havoc Launcher is meant to handle mass infantry and attack weaker units - and unlike the Hunter-Killer missile, can be fired all damned game long. Be warned, though; [[Tau]], 'Ard boyz, [[Necron]]s, Storm Troopers, and [[Space Marines]] can generally weather its offensive - though the Havoc Launcher will reliably cause wounding hits, its poor AP value means most forces still get their saves. It's still a decent deterrent to infantry-heavy armies (Tyrablobs, Guard blobs, and Orks), though, and not a bad investment for the points. Also, once your Rhino has disgorged its angry Berserkers and been immobilised, your opponent tends to forget that it's a threat. [[Awesome | This can result in the paralysed transport causing the final wound to a special snowflake Space Marine character when both armies in a 800pt annihilation game are otherwise exhausted, tabling the opponent.]]

==Eldar==
Unlike the ones used by the [[Imperium]], Eldar missile launchers consist of several pods of small missiles, using a cluster of small projectiles instead of a single large one to deal damage. Of note is that the number of openings on the launcher does not reflect the number of missiles that it is capable of holding: each firing tube is connected to several smaller chambers, in which the missiles are held and fired from.

===Dark Reapers===
The Dark Reapers aspect warriors use a variation on the Eldar Missile Launcher: the Reaper Launcher. Firing a hail of small missiles over a very large distance, they can do considerable damage to Space Marines and all but the largest of [[Tyranid]] organisms. Exarchs of the Dark Reapers can use either a regular Eldar missile launcher or the Tempest Launcher: a modified Reaper Launcher that shoots its projectiles in an arc, bombarding a large area with lethal projectiles.

==Tau==
The [[Tau]] also use missile launchers, albeit only on their battlesuits and vehicles -- Fire Warrior squads are instead given markerlights and are expected to designate targets for the vehicles to shoot at, rather than carry missiles themselves. This is because the hunter cadre is far more integrated, the vehicles and infantry work as one. They are generally not as powerful as their Imperial equivalents, but they can be more accurate if their targets are illuminated by markerlights.

=== Missile Pod ===
A missile pod is a small rack of miniature missiles mounted on the arm or shoulder of a Battlesuit. It isn't quite as strong or armor-piercing or long-ranged as an Imperial missile launcher, but it is an assault weapon, rather than a heavy weapon.

=== High-Yield Missile Pod ===
The High-Yield Missile Pod is large rack of High Explosive Missiles mounted on the hands of XX88 Broadside Battlesuit in place of the normal Twin-Linked Heavy Rail Rifle, designed as a Light Vehicle killer this thing fires double the normal amount of missiles compared to its lighter cousin and spells the end of any light vehicle caught in its range.

=== Smart Missile System ===
A smart missile system's munitions have even less strength, range, and armor-piercing ability than those of a missile pod, but they include advanced built-in target tracking and guidance systems. The operator must remain steady to designate a target, but can then unleash four missiles that will Robotech around obstacles on the way to their target allowing for multiple simultaneous and devastating offensive missile strikes.

=== Cluster Rocket System ===
One of the two primary weapons of the XV12-8 Stormsurge Suit, these over grown missile pods replace the Suits arms and can vomit forth enough ordnance to threaten anything with T:7 or lower, or an AV of 11, with the ability to fire up to 4d6 attacks, or 8d6 if it stabilises at a range of 48", so long as Lady Luck, and Admiral Awesome smile on you, this thing will earn back its points, and then some solely with amount of infantry it can annihilate

=== Nexus Meteor Missile System ===
Because the Cluster Rocket Pod wasn't producing a big enough boom. This ''thing'' can only be mounted on the KX-139 Ta'Unar Supremacy Suit, and boy does it show. A swarm killer of the highest order this weapon lays down one Apocalyptic Mega Blast Template that starts out as strong as a Railgun, and ends up as weak as a Pulse Rifle, with an explosion bright enough to blind anyone left standing.

=== Seeker Missile ===
The seeker missile is the Tau Empire's primary indirect fire support weapon, equivalent to the Imperial hunter-killer missile. Prior to 6th edition, they could only be activated remotely by a markerlight, which they made up for by being BS5. The 6th edition Tau Empire codex made them able to be fired like normal weapons as well - without anyone else to give them markerlight rules, they are ''identical'' to hunter-killer missiles. ''With'' markerlights it is a slightly different story. They can be remotely fired even if the vehicle carrying them would be unable to use them (because it has moved, or does not have line-of-sight to a target, for example). The Tau Empire realized that having a vehicle carry missiles but be unable to fire them itself would be silly, and so most vehicles dedicated to carrying seeker missiles, like the [[Skyray Missile Gunship]], mount networked markerlights that allow them to designate targets themselves. Other largish Tau vehicles can mount a smaller number of seeker missiles purely for infantry anti-armor support.

=== Destroyer Missile ===
Take a seeker missile, feed it steroids made of hate, and then give it something to destroy, there you've got a Destroyer Missile. Mounted on the XV12-8 Stormsurge suit in sets of 4 these missiles normally act at S:8, AP1, but can be fired at S:D by spending a Markerlight Token

==Orks==
Those of us boyz who wanna crack open da humie [[Rhino|metal boxes]] get da Rokkit Launcha an' da Tankhammer. Da Launcha got'z a button dat shoots rokkits at da tank. Even snots know dat. Tankbustas who like krumpin in melee can use da Tankhammer, its just a buncha 'splosives on a stikk. Hit da humie wagon an' it goes bang. Dem [[Mekboy]]z dat muck about wit bigga n' blastier rokkits put [[grot]]z in 'em. Humies call 'em "smart bomms". Any propa git knows deyze called Grot Bomms.

{{40k-Imperial-Weapons}}
{{40k-Tau-Weapons}}
{{40k-DEldar-Weapons}}
{{40k-Eldar-Weapons}}

[[Category:Chaos]]