This went by a lot smoother than I had expected.  It certainly helps that I have plasma weapons, and pretty much all the weapon damage breakthroughs (+1 damage) unlocked.  I’ve generally lucked out when it’s come to breakthroughs and covert ops, truth be told.  I’ve only had 1 that was related to base building.

Since it was a Chosen mission, I took the A squad – reaper, skirmisher, templar, sniper, ranger, and grenadier.  I am still having a challenge finding a use for the specialist.

The first floor layout was simple enough.  Mostly just advent regular forces, that go down in 1 to 2 shots each.  Even the Andromedon at the end was an easy kill since the sniper does about 18 damage per shot.  The trick to this was not using the 1-per mission skills (grenades, stealth) as I wanted to save them for the 2nd floor.  This was made a bit easier due to 3 melee (templar, ranger, and skirmisher) who deal a crazy amount of damage and will attack when someone moves.  3 bladestorms are deadly.

Floor 1 complete, I took the ramp down, and again I was faced with 2 advent soldiers.  That was cake.  The floor layout was different here, with the middle of the map at a higher elevation.  Still had the 4 pads in the corners.  Elevation = deadly snipers.

I used my stealthed reaper to trigger the Chosen spawn.  He was brittle (more melee damage) but also had the ability to teleport after taking damage.  My templar took the first shot and hit for 19.  The Chosen popped a slight distance away with a teleport, but thankfully my ranger has 15 movement and finished him off with a 2nd swipe.  This left my sniper, reaper, grenadier, and skirmisher with free attacks on the sarcophagus. It was a pile of damage, about 75% of what was needed.  Round ends.

Codex and Advent Priest show up.  Sniper 1-shots the Codex.  Grenadier takes first shot and the Ranger finishes off the Priest with a melee strike.  Of course, the Priest ends up in stasis.  Rather than have the templar shoot the sarcophagus, I move him to the nearby pad.  Still a bit of damage to the sarcophagus, but not yet enough to destroy it.

Next round has a Chryssalid and MEC Advent showed up.  Unfortunately for the Chryssalid, he showed up next to my templar, who 1-shot him with a melee strike.  MEC advent went down with a single sniper shot (bluescreen rounds FTW).  The priest also woke up, but the ranger took him out with a bladestorm.  Sarcophagus is finally down.

Chosen shows up, I have 3 guys on overwatch and he walks by my templar. That was enough damage for my sniper to take him out with an 85% hit shot.

Overall, I think I really lucked out on this mission.  Enemies were really weak, and the Chosen himself was extra weak to melee damage.  The spawns themselves were low HP enemies, enough to go down in 1-2 hits.  Had I had an Andromedon, Sectopod or a Gatekeeper, things would have gone wrong.

I also think that the Hunter is poorly suited for the tight map as compared to the Assassin (close up damage) and Warlock (super range, AE, summon damage).  With a large investment in mobility for my soldiers (average is 13 for the A squad), as well as bonds that increase the number of action points, it is much easier to close the distance.

I’m still a month or so before I’m ready to take on the Warlock.  And all of this is before I’ve completed the ADVENT Blacksite mission.  Still having a ton of fun, and it’s getting easier to recover from mistakes.  We’ll see how long that part lasts as I encounter more Sectopods.