X-Com Final Mission Stories (end game spoilers probable)

Aphantas

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I have just finished my first X-Com game and I am overjoyed, due to how my final mission panned out. First of all kudos to all of the developers of the game as it not only kept the spirit of the series, nut also made it assessable to new players which is win-win for all involved.
anyway on with the story. keep in mind that I was playing Ironman (Normal) so I was unable to reattempt the mission.
It was the final chamber of the Temple Ship.
2 of my 6 men had already fallen to the alien army. All that remained was a Sniper, a Support, and 2 Assault units. The Volunteer was one of the Assaults.
First turn: 1 of the 3 Ethereals (left side) is taken down to prevent the Volunteer from being lost on the first round. In response the support and the other assault, both on the right side of the chamber, are Mind Controlled. Thus I lost my view of the right side of the room.
The Sniper takes a shot at the Elite Muton, her last action, and the Volunteer is taken down to 1 hp by an Ethereal. The sniper is promptly killed and 1 Ethereal disappears into the right of the room. A mind shield saves the Volunteer from being ripped apart by the Ethereal's mind.
All that is left on my side is the Volunteer, on 1 hp. My only hope was to free one of my men from the grasp of the Ethereals. However my first action is spent killing the Muton, who was the most pressing danger. The next two turns are a battle of minds between an Ethereal and the Volunteer, resulting in the ethereal being on 9 hp. Knowing that the Mind Control would wear off the following turn, The other Ethereal slaughters my enthralled men with Psionic Rift. The battle seemed lost; even if one ethereal was killed, the Volunteer would surely be enthralled by the other.
However I decided to make sure the aliens suffered as most as possible. So I cast Psionic Rift on the Ethereal which I could see. The Ethereal, now on 4 hp responded by attempting to enthral the Volunteer...and succeeded.
The alien plan was complete, they finally had the psychic they were searching for. However they had made a very bad mistake, it was still on the periphery of my Psionic Rift; and apparently so was its friend. Their turn ended and both were shredded by the rift, freeing the Volunteer from their control and ending the mission.
My final mission could not have been more exciting if it had been scripted, and is probably the most satisfying final mission I have played in a long time.
However I want to know of other players final mission victory stories.

How did you fare against the Temple Ship? Did you seem doomed as well? and most importantly how did you turn the tables on the Alien Threat?

(P.S this is my first thread on any kind of forum, so please tell me of any faux pas I may have committed)

This thread contains SPOILERS for the ending of X-Com: Enemy Unknown that have not been spoiler tagged.
 

hazabaza1

Want Skyrim. Want. Do want.
Nov 26, 2008
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Just so you know, it lets you retry on ironman on the final mission. It's cool like that.

OT: Got to the last room with my main psionic and a corporal sniper left.
You can guess how that turned out.
 

Jandau

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Dec 19, 2008
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My Temple Ship run was fairly anticlimactic, to be honest. In fact, the ending was mildly hilarious, at least to me. After shooting their way to the top of the ship, my men were faced with the leader of the alien menace. He did his speech, summoned his guards and stood there imposingly... only to get Double Tapped at the start of the first turn by Mrs. Perkins, my resident crit-happy Sniper. The other five members of the squad all turned to her and she just shrugged and said "He talked too much". Shame that the destruction of the Temple Ship resulted in the death of the Volunteer, which dampened everyone's spirits...
 

Iwata

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Jandau said:
My Temple Ship run was fairly anticlimactic, to be honest. In fact, the ending was mildly hilarious, at least to me. After shooting their way to the top of the ship, my men were faced with the leader of the alien menace. He did his speech, summoned his guards and stood there imposingly... only to get Double Tapped at the start of the first turn by Mrs. Perkins, my resident crit-happy Sniper. The other five members of the squad all turned to her and she just shrugged and said "He talked too much". Shame that the destruction of the Temple Ship resulted in the death of the Volunteer, which dampened everyone's spirits...
A spoiler tab would be nice...

Anyway, my final mission was pretty damn interesting, if also bordering on the anti-climatic regarding the disposal of the final boss.

I did enjoy, however,
the catalogue of alien species and why they had failed.
 

hazabaza1

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Nov 26, 2008
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Iwata said:
Jandau said:
My Temple Ship run was fairly anticlimactic, to be honest. In fact, the ending was mildly hilarious, at least to me. After shooting their way to the top of the ship, my men were faced with the leader of the alien menace. He did his speech, summoned his guards and stood there imposingly... only to get Double Tapped at the start of the first turn by Mrs. Perkins, my resident crit-happy Sniper. The other five members of the squad all turned to her and she just shrugged and said "He talked too much". Shame that the destruction of the Temple Ship resulted in the death of the Volunteer, which dampened everyone's spirits...
A spoiler tab would be nice...

Anyway, my final mission was pretty damn interesting, if also bordering on the anti-climatic regarding the disposal of the final boss.

I did enjoy, however,
the catalogue of alien species and why they had failed.
It's a thread about the final mission, the thread title saying that spoilers will be probable.
I don't like people not using spoiler tags in most cases but you have no right to complain if you're reading posts in here.
 

GiglameshSoulEater

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Iwata said:
A spoiler tab would be nice...

Anyway, my final mission was pretty damn interesting, if also bordering on the anti-climatic regarding the disposal of the final boss.
*looks at thread title: X-Com Final Mission Stories - end game spoilers probable

Yeah...

Me? I got my arse vapourised several times before I thought sod this and did something else. My people have the least control over thier minds I've ever seen.Or is mind contro lan automatic thing for ethereals? I've never seen it fail, I don't think.
 

teqrevisited

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I did it incredibly slowly so I managed to get through almost unscathed until the double sectopod encounter. I hadn't seen them much during the campaign so I wasn't aware of their artillery barrage ability. I'd positioned three guys on the lower of the two higher platforms overlooking the sectopods, ended the turn and they almost got wasted by two barrages that also destroyed the entirety of the cover on that side.

After using one of the elites to soak up plasma fire from the command room I sniped the ethereal commander from way back through the doorway and I was done.

Considering how laughable sectopods were in the original game I was surprised how they've taken the place of chryssalids for me in terms of the enemy that I least want to run into. Sectopods used to be the ED-209 of the alien arsenal, their efforts thwarted by enclosed spaces and stairs, now they're more like terminators.
 

ThriKreen

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Mode: Classic, non-ironman.

One of my assault guys got mind controlled and killed 2 squadmates in the final room, he was at point blank range and had the alloy cannon.

So I said let's have some fun before I ponder reloading my save that was right before the room.

Tried to mind control the ethereals, failed the first one, but succeeded on the second. Then I realized I could use the psychic storm in the final room - so launched 3 of them (1 eth and 2 of my guys) centered on the Big Bad -

And just waited it out.

XD
 

DustyDrB

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Jan 19, 2010
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I only lost one person on the last mission but it was a guy who was with me from pretty much the beginning. He was my primary shotgunner/tank. I always used him for high-risk maneuvers, but he always had the best armor, weapons, and also had the Run and Gun skill so I could mitigate that risk quite a bit. He was mind-controlled by the boss Ethereal and died when I killed it.

Overall, I was very happy with the results of the final mission. I divided my team into three groups of two. My snipers stayed with an assault/support/heavy at the beginning (up until you get to that central walkway that is more elevated). I then put them together on that walkway so they could overlook everything. There were no surprises in the final mission, and I was as prepared as I could be for everything. I did, however, move at a snail's pace and had at least three people overwatching at all times.

I didn't use Iron Man mode, and I'm glad. I would have lost a few soldiers due to bugs. Maybe next time.
 

Tayh

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Jandau said:
only to get Double Tapped at the start of the first turn by Mrs. Perkins, my resident crit-happy Sniper.
My final mission turned out pretty much the same. After turtling through the entire ship(damn, that took a while), I finally arrived at the last room.
Etheral makes his speech, 4-6 muttons arrive and take cover. My sniper aims, crits and instantly kills the Etheral with her plasma sniper rifle. Cue ending cutscene.
Quite anticlimatic. :/
 

Iwata

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hazabaza1 said:
Iwata said:
Jandau said:
My Temple Ship run was fairly anticlimactic, to be honest. In fact, the ending was mildly hilarious, at least to me. After shooting their way to the top of the ship, my men were faced with the leader of the alien menace. He did his speech, summoned his guards and stood there imposingly... only to get Double Tapped at the start of the first turn by Mrs. Perkins, my resident crit-happy Sniper. The other five members of the squad all turned to her and she just shrugged and said "He talked too much". Shame that the destruction of the Temple Ship resulted in the death of the Volunteer, which dampened everyone's spirits...
A spoiler tab would be nice...

Anyway, my final mission was pretty damn interesting, if also bordering on the anti-climatic regarding the disposal of the final boss.

I did enjoy, however,
the catalogue of alien species and why they had failed.
It's a thread about the final mission, the thread title saying that spoilers will be probable.
I don't like people not using spoiler tags in most cases but you have no right to complain if you're reading posts in here.
And yet on the OP's own first entry, who posted that very warning, most of it is hidden under a spoiler tag. It's simple common courtesy, you avoid ruining it for someone who didn't see the warning and it takes you all of 3 seconds. That's all I'm saying.
 

Aphantas

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Tayh said:
My sniper aims, crits and instantly kills the Etheral with her plasma sniper rifle. Cue ending cutscene.
If I had known that killing the (Grand?) Ethereal completed the mission right away I would have done the some thing. My sniper was not very high level though so she would have probably missed the crucial shot.

GiglameshSoulEater said:
Me? I got my arse vapourised several times before I thought sod this and did something else. My people have the least control over thier minds I've ever seen.Or is mind control an automatic thing for ethereals? I've never seen it fail, I don't think.
Considering that my Volunteer had a will score of about 115 (Psi Armor + Mind Shield - Battle Fatigue) and still got enthralled I think that mind control is pretty much certain to succeed. Try using suppression on enthralled men if they are an immediate danger.

DustyDrB said:
I only lost one person on the last mission but it was a guy who was with me from pretty much the beginning. He was my primary shotgunner/tank. I always used him for high-risk maneuvers, but he always had the best armor, weapons, and also had the Run and Gun skill so I could mitigate that risk quite a bit. He was mind-controlled by the boss Ethereal and died when I killed it.

Overall, I was very happy with the results of the final mission. I divided my team into three groups of two. My snipers stayed with an assault/support/heavy at the beginning (up until you get to that central walkway that is more elevated). I then put them together on that walkway so they could overlook everything. There were no surprises in the final mission, and I was as prepared as I could be for everything. I did, however, move at a snail's pace and had at least three people overwatching at all times.

I didn't use Iron Man mode, and I'm glad. I would have lost a few soldiers due to bugs. Maybe next time.
I employed a similar stragedy. I had 2 men covering each path, with my sniper on the elevated middle ground. 1 unit with suppression was with each group. I didn't have as much attachment to my units as I had already suffered a couple of wipe-outs halfway through the game.
That period of the game was quite bleak in my campaign and resulted in 5 countries withdrawing.
I also moved quite slowly as I was expecting hordes of aliens to appear at any moment.
I also thought I had lost the final mission due to a crash right after the Ethereals made their first move. Luckily the game made a backup save right before the encounter.

Iwata said:
Anyway, my final mission was pretty damn interesting, if also bordering on the anti-climatic regarding the disposal of the final boss.

I did enjoy, however,
the catalogue of alien species and why they had failed.
I thought that was a nice touch as well, however it would have been nice to have some foreshadowing about the true purpose of the invasion. It is possible that I had forgotten it as I played this over several weeks though.
I am curious about how your final mission turned out now.

EDIT: Quote tag error
 

Agayek

Ravenous Gormandizer
Oct 23, 2008
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Aphantas said:
I have just finished my first X-Com game and I am overjoyed, due to how my final mission panned out. First of all kudos to all of the developers of the game as it not only kept the spirit of the series, nut also made it assessable to new players which is win-win for all involved.
anyway on with the story. keep in mind that I was playing Ironman (Normal) so I was unable to reattempt the mission.
It was the final chamber of the Temple Ship.
2 of my 6 men had already fallen to the alien army. All that remained was a Sniper, a Support, and 2 Assault units. The Volunteer was one of the Assaults.
First turn: 1 of the 3 Ethereals (left side) is taken down to prevent the Volunteer from being lost on the first round. In response the support and the other assault, both on the right side of the chamber, are Mind Controlled. Thus I lost my view of the right side of the room.
The Sniper takes a shot at the Elite Muton, her last action, and the Volunteer is taken down to 1 hp by an Ethereal. The sniper is promptly killed and 1 Ethereal disappears into the right of the room. A mind shield saves the Volunteer from being ripped apart by the Ethereal's mind.
All that is left on my side is the Volunteer, on 1 hp. My only hope was to free one of my men from the grasp of the Ethereals. However my first action is spent killing the Muton, who was the most pressing danger. The next two turns are a battle of minds between an Ethereal and the Volunteer, resulting in the ethereal being on 9 hp. Knowing that the Mind Control would wear off the following turn, The other Ethereal slaughters my enthralled men with Psionic Rift. The battle seemed lost; even if one ethereal was killed, the Volunteer would surely be enthralled by the other.
However I decided to make sure the aliens suffered as most as possible. So I cast Psionic Rift on the Ethereal which I could see. The Ethereal, now on 4 hp responded by attempting to enthral the Volunteer...and succeeded.
The alien plan was complete, they finally had the psychic they were searching for. However they had made a very bad mistake, it was still on the periphery of my Psionic Rift; and apparently so was its friend. Their turn ended and both were shredded by the rift, freeing the Volunteer from their control and ending the mission.
My final mission could not have been more exciting if it had been scripted, and is probably the most satisfying final mission I have played in a long time.
However I want to know of other players final mission victory stories.

How did you fare against the Temple Ship? Did you seem doomed as well? and most importantly how did you turn the tables on the Alien Threat?

(P.S this is my first thread on any kind of forum, so please tell me of any faux pas I may have committed)
I'm pretty sure I have the best story ever for ending that particular mission.

I set up right outside the door, having no idea it was the final room. My whole team had survived to that point, comprised of 1 assault, 1 heavy, 2 support, and 2 snipers, with the support soldiers having ghost armor and one of the snipers had the "share vision for shots". The long-range sniper I set behind that wall right in the middle of the door, and arranged the rest around the door to prep for breaching. The next turn, I open the door and discover the ethereal on the platform. I cloak one of my supports and send her into the room to see what else is going on, and I discover the other 2 ethereals and the two muton elites. Right about then, I'm thinking "Oh god this is gonna suck".

My very next action is to use my long-range sniper sitting way back there, because he's got a clear 98% shot on the first ethereal, and he's got double-tap. I proceed to 2-shot the ethereal (<3 plasma sniper rifle) and then... I get the ending cutscene.

It was the most anticlimactic encounter of the entire game. I had been gearing myself up for probably the hardest section yet, but it ends before it even starts.
 

Aphantas

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Iwata said:
hazabaza1 said:
And yet on the OP's own first entry, who posted that very warning, most of it is hidden under a spoiler tag. It's simple common courtesy, you avoid ruining it for someone who didn't see the warning and it takes you all of 3 seconds. That's all I'm saying.
That was not to protect viewers from spoilers (although it does have that effect as well), but to avoid clogging up the first page of the thread with my long story. A different kind of courtesy to those who just want to know what this thread is about. I felt that the presence of spoilers would be obvious enough from the title.
I will add an additional spoiler warning to the beginning of the first thread entry.
 

Yal

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Dec 22, 2010
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I also instakilled the boss with a squad sight sniper. Every other alien in the game runs for cover when it spots humans, this guy stands on a balcony in full view of the entrance hallway and gloats. He was asking for it.
 

Aphantas

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Agayek said:
I'm pretty sure I have the best story ever for ending that particular mission.

I set up right outside the door, having no idea it was the final room. My whole team had survived to that point, comprised of 1 assault, 1 heavy, 2 support, and 2 snipers, with the support soldiers having ghost armor and one of the snipers had the "share vision for shots". The long-range sniper I set behind that wall right in the middle of the door, and arranged the rest around the door to prep for breaching. The next turn, I open the door and discover the ethereal on the platform. I cloak one of my supports and send her into the room to see what else is going on, and I discover the other 2 ethereals and the two muton elites. Right about then, I'm thinking "Oh god this is gonna suck".

My very next action is to use my long-range sniper sitting way back there, because he's got a clear 98% shot on the first ethereal, and he's got double-tap. I proceed to 2-shot the ethereal (<3 plasma sniper rifle) and then... I get the ending cutscene.

It was the most anticlimactic encounter of the entire game. I had been gearing myself up for probably the hardest section yet, but it ends before it even starts.
Nice way to end the game, assassinated in their own temple.
I had never thought of using the ghost armour in that way. I was going to use it as a way to hide my sniper when she was not in use. Of course that meant I rarely used the ghost function because I thought it would end her turn and did not have much faith in its utility yet.
By the end of the mission I avoided the traditional door-breaching formation as it always seemed to end with a grenade being lobbed at my soldiers.
 

Agayek

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Oct 23, 2008
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Aphantas said:
Nice way to end the game, assassinated in their own temple.
I had never thought of using the ghost armour in that way. I was going to use it as a way to hide my sniper when she was not in use. Of course that meant I rarely used the ghost function because I thought it would end her turn and did not have much faith in its utility yet.
By the end of the mission I avoided the traditional door-breaching formation as it always seemed to end with a grenade being lobbed at my soldiers.
Yea, the more esoteric armor abilities are kinda awesome. I generally equipped my snipers with Skeleton/Archangel armor, support with Skeleton/Ghost, and Assault/Heavy with Carapace/Titan. My supports act as scouts (almost always get the "can move 3 extra tiles" upgrade), with the Assault/Heavy as the damage and the snipers stick on overwatch.

Shared vision sniping just makes Ghost armor'd scouts kinda OP. As long as you get the sniper in a good spot, There's nothing that can touch you.
 

Bernzz

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Mine got dramatic as hell. At one point, I received a Swedish soldier named Stig Hagen. Knowing who this was, I nicknamed him "The Stig" and gave him a helmet, and pure white armour.

He became my best Heavy, and eventually, psychic. He eventually became the Volunteer himself. The Stig. Humanity's saviour.

The final room happened, and the Ethereal stood there like "I'm awesome." The Stig and my other Heavy pinned him down and hurt him with Suppression, and my sniper Double Tapped him, leaving him with 1 HP. My Assault ran up into range, switched to his pistol, and capped him.

The ending gets a lot more dramatic when it's The Stig sacrificing himself for the fate of humanity.

He gave us Top Gear.

He helped us keep Earth.

Lest We Forget.
 

Ryan Minns

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Honestly... I fucking HATED it mainly due to the fact I was kicking ass. Was playing on normal but didn't need to reload due to not losing anyone... well one would look and notice I didn't lose anyone but whenever I lost an MINDCONTROLLED enemy they'd start speaking like they were kicking my ass. I lost a second mind controlled unit and they were talking like they made a horrible mistake and I was losing my actual soldiers left right and center.

The game not realising the difference between a mind controlled unit and an actual soldier of mine really took away from the game. They've probably fixed it by now but I honestly got rubbed the wrong way.
 

Mycroft Holmes

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6 psychics with extremely high will and special psionic armor, I just walked around the level mind controlling everything and making all the units kill each other. Focus fire whatever happened to be left over from the mind controlling. Landed two missiles on those walker mech enemies. Landed one missile on the ethereals at the end. Mind controlled the two ethereals and made them kill their boss. Fin.

I expected worse from classic mode.