Gangplank (EU2012)
Description
Confounding Light is an Council mission. This mission will be available sometime after the player completes the mission Confounding Light. Like all Council Missions, the mission is initiated by the player being contacted by The Council.
Mission Objectives:
- Destroy or disable all the ship's power conduits (6 total).
- Eliminate all alien defenders.
Start
Tactics
This mission takes place inside an airborne Alien Battleship which means the map layout is nearly identical to that of Battleships that can be encountered on UFO Crash Site or UFO Landing Site missions but with the unique exceptions of the six power conduits placed inside and the Chinese cityscape that can be seen passing below this Battleship. Additionally, the map "ends" shortly before the door to the bridge, so the large room before it is actually the final room of the level, as well as there being a few more of those "elevator beams" around the ship.
The alien forces in encountered in this mission consist primarily of Thin Men who are present on the map at the start of the mission and who will drop into the map as the squad advances. Additionally Sectoids and Chryssalids are encountered as the mission progresses; near the end of battleship there is a Cyberdisc and a Muton appears.
The power conduits can be deactivated, similar to the Power Nodes in bomb disposal missions (there is no time limit, so feel free to take your time), or simply blown up. Plus the Cyberdisk; a Heavy, especially with HEAT, and grenades, are reccomended.
End
Reward
Additionally, completing the mission awards the player with the "The Bigger They Are" Achievement.
Notes
- This mission will happen not too long after the Confounding Light mission (if both Slingshot missions were completed the first time around: the second month).
- You will receive two Fusion Cores from the battleship: while you could research the Blaster Launcher and Fusion Lance weapons this early, the Research Times required for them make it unfeasable. Considering that the Lance can only be installed on the Firestorm, and high HP enemies that would call for a Heavy with the Launcher won't appear for a few months, and that so much else should have priority for research, it's better to sell one Core, and save the other for when you've got the time for it.
- Additional spoils include a massive supply of Elerium, Alloys, Computers, and Power Sources. As you will problably have much more than you can actually use at this point, you problably should sell some portion of these, keeping XCOM funded for quite some time (base excavation and facilities, for example, would be a good expenditure this early in the game, as most facilities have a constant price throughout the game). Anything you do sell you will problably make up from regular UFO Assaults by the time you have anything to use them for.