#sectopod

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A new format for the XCOM 2 adventures of @koshkavinni​.

Before we can follow up on XCOM’s pursuit of the Chosen Hunter, a new mission comes before the organization that emphasizes just how dangerous the battle to take the planet back will be.

That large individual on the right is a Sectopod. They’re quite a bit more dangerous than the Star Wars AT-ST’s they resemble. In fact, these are possibly the most dangerous units the aliens will ever field, short of the Chosen themselves and some really nasty surprises.

On the surface, they’re already imposing: very heavily armored, massive health pools, and invulnerability to poison, fire, or psychic attacks. They are vulnerable to weapons that specifically target mechanical units, such as EMP Bombs, but Sectopods are very difficult to hack and turn to your side.

That’s when things get very unpleasant.

(Yes, there’s a hole blown in the wall).

Horrifically enough, they have three actions per turn, rather than the two that’s standard for all other units. Since their turn doesn’t end when they attack (also unique to this and a small number of other units), Sectopods can attack twice per turn (or three times if they haven’t moved).

In addition, they can raise their legs up from their crouched position to let them fire down on ground-level soldiers from an elevated position, or to eliminate the cover advantages a high-elevation soldier enjoys. This doesn’t cost an action, meaning a Sectopod can elevate itself above your soldiers to get height-advantage shots down on them three times per turn.

Thirdly, Sectopods have their Wrath Cannon, which fires a massive laser in a straight line that penetrates and destroys all structures it hits, dealing very high damage to any units hit and shredding any armor they have to uselessness, should they survive. Mercifully, they need a turn to charge this, and until it fires they can’t take any other action.

In the above image, the Sectopod is preparing to fire the Wrath Cannon next turn at the building where two soldiers have entrenched themselves.

Fortunately, I came prepared and equipped you with EMP bullet rounds, which do significant bonus damage to robots, among other effects. Hence the massive damage roll for the shot in the image above.

Unfortunately, you weren’t the one to get the finishing shot on it, but that did spare you more personal exposure to the final trick this behemoth has to offer: an explosion as it dies as a final “Screw you” to any units too close to it when the Sectopod goes down.

Surprisingly enough for how terrifying this enemy is, the mission went off without a hitch. Especially in comparison to the disaster last time.

And next time, something very important might well happen.

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