Game #12: Special Operations (1984)
Quote from Gubisson on 22 May 2024, 13h39Will my gunshot wound cause me to bleed out after a while if untreated? Guess we're about to find out!
I'm certain, between two chemists and a biologist, we can concoct something to prevent our invaluable photographer from bleeding out! Or at least make him feel less depressed about it.
Can we conclude that Lothlorien's designers didn't have much respect for the French resistance movement? That was waste of our time indeed, and considering that already over 5 hours has passed 9 hour time limit would have been quite impossible.
Baron's route plan seems good to me also. Hope we can keep our midget alive; I'm a little bit curious about how this game implements the midget skill.
Quote from Operative Lynx on 22 May 2024, 22h01Can we conclude that Lothlorien's designers didn't have much respect for the French resistance movement?
With the snow, forest and commando operations against secret research facilities, I'm actually picturing this happening in Norway.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_heavy_water_sabotage
Quote from Argyraspide on 24 May 2024, 12h46Quote from Operative Lynx on 22 May 2024, 22h01Can we conclude that Lothlorien's designers didn't have much respect for the French resistance movement?
With the snow, forest and commando operations against secret research facilities, I'm actually picturing this happening in Norway.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_heavy_water_sabotage
It's interesting to see how the same source material can lead people to different paths of thinking. In my case, the talk about rocket fuel made me think about V2 rockets. And since Germans built several V2 rocket facilities in France, I consequentially was picturing this happening in France.
H+10
Well, not much yet.
I explore the two empty areas, which turns out to be full of rocks and forests like the rest. I discovered that without the Cartographer skill, terrainreverts to the default "unknown" if you are not next to it, whereas terrains explored while "Cartographer" is active keep their explored status. Honestly, that's more comfort than usefulness.
Then, I found a cave.
I took the liberty of exploring the cave, but all I could find were some letters and symbols. I took them with us nonetheless.
... and I finished exploring the two areas you proposed - nothing else.
So far, this special operations have been just a trek with some combat mixed in.
I have no idea of what to do, so I propose we proceed "snail-like" going NE now, then NW, then SW. We'll get something eventually?
I also have no idea if the game is designed to let people take it leisurely - 90 hours are a lot but we're already at 80 but apparently we explored quite a bit already. Maybe being safe isn't bad.
Yeah, so far this operation hasn't felt all that special like the title promised. In 10 hours we haven't found any hint about the location of the compound, and I wonder does the game even provide any hints or is the only option to search the map and hope that you stumble upon the target.
Anyway, looking at how much ground we have covered in 10 hours gives us some idea about the scale of the strategic map. Maybe it would be better to inspect smaller clearings with more tree cover, like the pair close to our current location.
Later addition: Can the Cipher skill be used on the Small book?
It seems, what initially looks like clearings on the map, may be not so clear after all. So targeting large empty spaces specifically has little sense.
Let's try methodical approach then, as Dayyalu and Lynx suggest. Even if we don't find the compound, we'll take a nice trek, some physical excercise, and emerge a bit healthier after all (except Gubisson, of course).
H+21
Well, we talk, we talk, but there is a compound to find.
The first thing I did was to use my CIPher skill on the "small book".
We now "own" a password.
After that, I spend several hours exploring, until I find a house:
The door is locked, which means I need to use my Leadership/Lockpick a second time to open the house. Inside the house:
That's all there is. I carry on exploring, and stumble upon a road:
I follow it East: nothing. I follow it West and we cross another German patrol:
After a short combat, a German is killed and the other one wounded. He surrenders.
That's where we stand. I don't know what to do with the Germans (I tested after saving both "INTerrogator" and "DOCtor", to no avail). Doctor healed Gubbison though, so tell me if you think I should use a third time a special skill, leaving only 2 for the rest of the operation.
Well, I can think of a creative use of the Actor skill with one of the captured uniforms to trick the surrendered German into cooperation, but I don't really suppose that the game is this clever, so scratch that. Maybe, at the very least, try to pickpocket him, what do you think, guys?
Also, we could get back to the last house and try the Radio op. skill on the radio found. Don't know what to expect from that, but maybe we could intercept some German communications?
And the road must go somewhere, so I suggest to follow it after we finish with the last patrolman (and return to the radio hut, or not).
I picked up the radio (which means it is "only" a receiver) so we don't have to return to the house. On the other hand, I only have 3 "Leader" activation.
Life's too short to hoard skill activations. Wear the fancy dress, drink the champagne, eat from the good plates, and all that.
So I say let's try the radio, then try the Actor skill (I would be amazed if this worked - just make sure we sign german numbers correctly to avoid a fate à la Inglorious Basterds), then continue along the road.
H+23:
So I used in the radio skill, and receive a call from "a broken down lorry". I tested ACTOR, LINGUIST and even INTERROGATOR, to no avail. I reloaded the game to avoid wasting the 2 remaining skill slots.
Then I moved West and found the compound:
Also, I receive the message about the lorry again because the radio skill is still active. I checked and it's every movement ^^.
We can now get in the compound area if we wish to do so. Alternatively, we can explore the wilderness more.
So the compound is circled by a mine field, and has guards on top of the miradors. By experience, as long as we remain in the forest in the Compound map and don't do anything noisy, we are safe. The space between the fence and the forest can be insta-death in two ways: mines and guards seeing us. I never succeeded to get in ^^.
Here is our equipment:
We're still one uniform and pass short, so maybe try to find and loot that lorry?
Scribe could even try and repair it with the Mechanic skill (though we still lack the driver, and I'm somewhat wary of wasting both skill slots on it.)
Alternately, maybe I can snipe those entry guards from the forest square without alerting them of our whereabouts?
we'll probably need a full set of uniforms to venture inside the compound, so I don't think it's worth sniping the guards at this stage. Let's continue along the road in hopes of finding that lorry. It sounds like we still have 65 or so hours left (right?) so we can spend some time looking for more equipment.
Our experience so far has showed that our skill set is not very well suited for this kind of infiltration business. I believe we will still need leader skills inside the compound, so using our last 2 to mechanic+driver combo would most likely just doom our mission.
By the way, can the operatives move separately on the compund map? In that case 4 uniforms might be enough and we could leave the sniper in the forest to cover our infiltration. It will be interesting to find whether our password is a resistance or German password and does it help us inside the compound.
But, yeah, the safest course of action might be to keep wandering around wilderness until we encounter another patrol and get our fifth uniform.
Quote from Operative Lynx on 28 May 2024, 19h29Our experience so far has showed that our skill set is not very well suited for this kind of infiltration business. I believe we will still need leader skills inside the compound, so using our last 2 to mechanic+driver combo would most likely just doom our mission.
Who would have thought that a midget would not be useful for a secret mission!!!
H+30
Well, we go to the research of the lost lorry.
I follow the road West, but nothing (maybe I need to be ON the road to see something? Too late to test). Still, I think about activating the SNIper skill, and it proves useful when I find a patrol of Germans:
Dayyalu is wounded during the combat, but now we have more than enough uniforms and passes!
As you can see, there is a cave in here. Exploring it, I find... a dying ah well now dead Frenchman. I guess we are in France after all!
I suppose that 1 mile = 1 tile (which is coherent with 1 tile = 20 minutes), and there is indeed a cave to the North. Except there isn't much to find inside:
That's + 1 pass, so useless. We can't even loot the body. Sad. I hoped to find a Luger or something fun.
I am out of idea about what to do about the Frenchman dying intel, and in my test game he gave me the same instructions and I could not do anything with it either.
We have enough uniforms to try the compound, or we can search for the lorry more.
So, none of the houses or caves so far have proven to be all that useful. I guess the dying man's intel just points to the dead German and his pass? If the lorry couldn't be seen from the side of the road, then it might just be anywhere.
Based on this experience, would it be beneficial to keep the Sniper skill active all the time?
Since you have a save point here, I think we could first try if we can use our uniforms and walk into the compound. If that doesn't work, then we could reload and return to searching for the lorry or something else which hopefully would help us.
My gut feeling is that the dead German and the Frenchman's warning are unrelated. The dead German just happened to have his cave located at the same area.