Considering that this new MARS is built from the remains of the previous, I think Phoenix is an appropriate name.

I'd call the new robot Snickers :) Also: I know it's easy to say in hindsight but I think in this mission speed would have been the highest priority. Sticking to the right was a good choice but I think there was no need to centure as far into the middle as you have. If cleaners have no line of sight on you, they also can't shoot you and that forces them to exhaust their TU walking over to you which gives them a single attack at most. Also, just running away from enemies works quite well at times. They won't necessarily pursue you. You don't have to fire back on every enemy that shoots you. And if one gets really close, you'll have a lot of firepower concentrated in a small area if the team sticks together closely...

I’m doing an immediate rewatch to try to figure out why things went so horribly wrong on this mission and see what might be learned about this type of mission on such a high difficulty. First off, in hindsight, I think the mission required some very risky, bordering on reckless, forward movement, though I didn’t realise this until rewatching it. With such a long way to move to the dropship and only 6 turns until the Cleaner reinforcements arrive, it would appear that the whole squad needed to move very aggressively and directly towards the dropship on almost every turn. Not least because of the Cleaner reinforcements showing up on the right and very close to the dropship. In the postmortem, stacking all those units behind the container on turn 1 was probably a bad choice in hindsight, because their direction of movement was almost entirely lateral, rather than towards the dropship. It would also seem that simply rocket killing the Cleaner on the roof on turn 2 to get the squad moving would probably have been the better choice. As it was, killing him cost almost all of the TUs of the entire squad for one turn. It would also seem that trying to guard the flanks and especially the rear of the squad, while normally important, cost too many TUs on this mission and that these kind of missions necessitate rushing forward and hoping for the best. Placing the Assaults to cover the building cost around half a turn’s worth of TUs. This mission also showed that the ballistic weapons are already beginning to show their limitations with (too) many shots needed to take down the Cleaners on such a tight deadline. It would seem that on this type of mission, flash banging or laying down smoke and hightailing it for the dropship, rather than trying to kill the Cleaners, might be a risky, but necessary, strategy. In hindsight, the least dangerous path would probably have been to run more or less directly forward as far to the right of the map as possible, using the buildings and the shipping containers to shield the squad and the VIP from most of the Cleaners and only killing somewhere between one and three or four of them along the way. The big uncertainty in choosing that path would’ve been the first Cleaner on the roof and the second Cleaner in the building: How would they’ve moved and what lines of fire would they’ve had? But for that reason, using a rocket on each might’ve been a way to get to move on quickly. When all that’s said and done, considering that Phrosphor timed out and had to face off against a lot of Cleaner reinforcements, I’m seriously impressed that the mission didn’t end in a total wipeout (3 KIAs is not bad when facing such odds), and that he was able to salvage the MARS wreckage, the wounded/unconscious, as well as several of the magnetic weapons. The “overwatch run” by Tau was both an inspired and successful tactic, allowing reduced casualties in a desperate and terrifying situation.

Name the Mars bender, because He's back baby.

This kind of mission is where smoke grenades shine. You have to be quick and cover your group from incoming fire. Shotguns can be very usefull too. Move and swarm the enemies in front of you while using smoke to cover your back and flanks.

22:20 "I don't know how to get up here." As you mouse right over a ladder! Jokes aside, that ladder blends with the terrain pretty well.

Mars name : Johnny Five

I have been waiting for this, I have yet to find a more entertaining Xenonauts 2 lets play!

Not as terrifying as the title suggested? Amazing work salvaging the team. You have some amazing after action reports in the comments! Call the new bot Lorem ipsum 💪🏾🙏🏾

Please call new robot: Sgt Bilko!

in case you have the space to spare, I would consider increasing the bitrate of your recordings a generous notch to decrease the pixelated blur that occurs after a few camera rotations and pans :)

YES! The return of Clarkdad!!! Edit: CLARK DAD, NOOOOOOO 😢 Tough mission. But you are so good at handling these, Phros. Especially on the hardest setting lol. Give yourself some credit!

Commander we are going to need an upgrade to the memorial wall

Great content. Love the series keep it up! Names for the robot. Hal-E as in the Hal 9000 cross with Wall-E T-1 as in the robot from Skynet that has tracks and two mini guns on it. (It's like a big mars with duel mini guns so like it's close)

Even though we lost some good soldiers out there, it's frankly incredible that there weren't more. The desperate sprint at the end was extremely well executed and saved several lives. Juniper is finally showing some of that high accuracy stat you hired her for!

I’m enjoying the series! Bringing me back to original old school XCOM. Nice recovery on what could have easily been a wipe. That last shot on Lore… ouch. What a nail bitter! Suggestion for a name for the new mars… Longshot.

Nice job! Also, find the VIP mission really difficult as it should be. One thing, you actually can put science and engineering in you main base and only have interceptors in other ones.

Having never played xenonauts…but having watched some play through. These missions, you have to move and cover isn’t always going to be the best. But you have to go go go. Smoke might help, but every smoke you throw is TUs not spent trying to kill or in this case move! You started out with everyone “moving together” as you deployed and then split three ways. With no load out considerations. Oh team two used all its Grenades while team one has all theirs two buildings away… But good luck! We’ll be watching!

19:10 highlight of the video Screw you guys, I'm going home!

Thank you very much! I love you! =)))))))))) That was a hard mission! OMG!

Now that was some tense action

Just wanted to say that I really enjoy your videos :) I got reeled in by a highfleet series, stayed for the new videos :D

Call the robot Johnny5

It would be an honour to be on the list to be named a soldier against the alien scum!

Woo, more XenoPhros! Wow, that was... Interesting Also, my suggestion is Iceni

Aww yiss.... I was trying to avoid playing Xenonauts too much before release but it's just so damn addictive!

1:37 Please do. it will be for income making and radar. i have cool name for the base. The *Nozzle* (also you can name the mars unit "the nozzle") Please wait while we calibrate... THE *NOZZLE* . Please do not look away from... THE *NOZZLE*

Just gonna drop a preemptive 'oh no' based on the title, will like and be back to watch later.

And after all that fighting. You only got a single scrap

The best option for the new Mars obviously is "Revenge"

Xeno-Gear Rex

You can right-click on the target to schuffle through different shot types, when holding shift

MARS suggestion is Zombie. Game hint says unconscious solders can be revived with the medkit which should mean that Corazon-Ray could be jump started back into action. Will have to test this in my game since I think many of us saw the game hint and thought that would work on soldiers which have lost all their HP, and clearly it doesn't. Just works when they are napping...😴 Well done considering the circumstances once all heck broke loose.

For the MARS, call it (say_hello_to_my_)little_friend. Thesay_hello_to_my_ is optional.

3:16 don't forget the two people who were riding the mars unit ;))

New Mars unit should build off the name of Lore, so perhaps something like "Lore-M Checksum"

That was An insane and very tense mission, Rover names: Johnny five, Leroy

I'm re-suggesting Tinny for the mars!

Great video. Name thr MARS Johnny 5

Xenonauts in tight spaces! 😂 I am finding it more and more useful to bring a shield or two, that i can suggest maybe.

I suggest that the new MARS should be called Kane, because even in death he lives.

That was very tense!

New robot name GUN-R

I'd appreciate the new name to be planet themed, so maybe MERCURY (Mechanical Extraterrestrial Remover Created Using Robust Yanks/) or NEPTUNE (Never ever pardon truly underhanded, nefarious events).

42:40 the amount of fear in this phoros voice had me dying😂

Robot: Johnny 5

A good name for the mars... How about: Rocket orchestra Or Rocket Master ?

Vip extraction is easy, just take 9 shields and blast everyone with granades

Name for new robot would be: Firecracker

MARS name suggestion: Joker

GET TO DA CHOPPA!

Focus on soldiers with the highest accuracy only. Sack rest

26:04 Nope. Nope nope nope. 37%x3 does not in any way mean you've got a guaranteed hit. You've got an 8/27 chance of missing entirely, a little less than one in three. Of course, you also have a 6/27 chance to hit twice, a little less than one in four. Given the short range of that shot, that's honestly pretty disappointing - I could definitely see buffing the accuracy on burst fire as being a good idea, it seems to very rarely be preferable to shooting once except maybe for the suppression effect. All the math is pretending that 37% is precisely 1/3 since I don't have a calculator right next to me at the moment Below we have edits, and spoilers 28:28 Perhaps name the new MARS "A Drone I Can Send Forward"? On a more serious note, I do think it would be really interesting to have a Ukraine-war-style pocket drone for scouting and grenade-dropping in this sort of game 29:11 You probably could have thrown some grenades, THEN done the scouting. That way the cleaner, who you knew didn't move much, would likely be dead or wounded. Either way less likely for your scout to get shot 32:55 Oof. IMO should just warn you that you won't get the full barrage and then fire both instead of just... not being able to shoot until the gun goes click I do wonder if at some point you should just abandon fighting and full sprint for the dropship. It'd inevitably be a bloody mess, but maybe not so bad. ...as I type that you say it's time to run for it. Go figure. And finally (probably) I propose the new MARS be named Hello World Guess it wasn't final. I'm hesitant to recommend team compositions since you play this sort of game very differently than I do, but I would probably run something like 1x Mars, 2x Sniper, 1x Medic, 2x Shotgun, 1x Rifle Grenadier, 1x HEVY Grenadier, with the Shotguns and Rifle Grenadier both prioritizing grenades and demo charges. Between the demo charges, MARS crashing into things, and the grenade launcher, you can open up sightlines (and pathing routes) for the snipers and to rescue people. You are not financially responsible for property damage.

Name suggestion for the robot: ED209 (from RoboCop)

19:10 Just what I would have done

I mean, since it's rebuilt, it should still be called Lore. Or Lore 2.0.

It is your fault that I started to play this again. This game needs lot of flesh over its bones and new mechanics to keep interest but it got it's own charm. I recommend Terror from the deep with newest modpack - they are still updating those.

I think you spent too much time trying to kill the Cleaners you see rather than running toward the dropship. The round where you walked your soldier through smoke and ended up with him going unconscious, for example. You could just flashbang the Cleaner and run past him and then flashbang him again the next turn so the Civilian can run past him. There are similar situations elsewhere too.

Extraction missions are about speed. use a small, fast team. snipers are no good here, it's run and gun baby. bring as many smoke grenades as you can carry, and cover both your route forward and behind you. only stop to kill threats to your target, avoidance is faster than killing. since you brought the vehicle, just leave it to act as bait and cover your behind.

since you rebuild/repaired lore, shouldn't it still be caller LORE?

Not covering your track on the late turns with smoke was a great mistake.

Name it PHOBOS or DEIMOS

you should develop your science base BEFORE your manufacturing base. will save you LOTS of cash and supplies longterm, as you will be able to develop advanced weaponry sooner, and thus not have to replace another generation of mediocre stuff later. cannot tell you how many times I have played these kind of games over the last 30 years.

Your tactic sure sucks, there are really a few fatal mistakes you made.

The Mars shall be named...Mr Worf