Save Scumming 2.0. AKA XCOM2: War of the Chosen.

I've admitted it before, but I will say it again--I'm the most piteous save scummer.  I, sadly, have no qualms about loading up a recent save as a means of avoiding the outcome of my own stupidity.  In most games this isn't really much of an issue--autosave is there for a reason, right?  In turn-based strategy games part of the challenge is moving your set pieces in an intelligent and beneficial way.  If you're smart about it there really shouldn't be any reason to be scumming.  Yeah, I haven't reached that benchmark yet.  I've been teasing my weakness with the fantastic expansion to XCOM2--War of the Chosen.

I've been eyeing War of the Chosen since it was released several months ago.  Although I will admit to not being a tactical genius, I have always enjoyed the challenge present in the new XCOM games.  There's management on many levels--managing your squad while they're out on a mission, managing the Avenger--picking engineering and research projects, managing your troop roster, assigning construction and building projects....there's constantly a decision to be made.  War of the Chosen adds several entirely new layers of stressfully enjoyable decision making.

What's new/different:

The Warlock, Hunter, and Assassin comprise the ranks of the Chosen.

--The Chosen.  War of the Chosen introduces three new nemeses in the form of "the Chosen."  These uber-aliens are extra deadly and each have a different set of skills.  There's the assassin who can enter stealth and then launch devastating surprise attacks at inopportune times.  The hunter specializes in ranged attacks and can summon extra help in the form of "beasts"--which mostly means chrysalids and the faceless.  The warlock possesses powerful psionic abilities and can mind control your soldiers, launch devastating psionic attacks, and summon psi-zombies.

On their own the Chosen aren't too difficult to defeat.  The problem is that they rarely appear completely alone.  Each Chosen occupies a different territory on the world map.  Any mission that takes place in one of those territories is subject to the appearance of that particular Chosen during the mission.  Not only are you battling Advent soldiers, but now you've thrown a tricky, tough alien into the mix.  It can be a very difficult and brutal mix.

Once you've engaged a Chosen you have a few choices.  Choice #1) kill it!  This might mean shifting your focus off of your current targets in an effort to quickly burn it down.  It usually means that you're not going to come out of any mission completely unscathed.  #2) Do your best to avoid it and manage your losses.  Each Chosen has an ability to disable and then "scan" your soldiers for intel which could lead to them eventually locating the Avenger and launching an attack.  The positive side to this strategy is that the Chosen will leave the mission on the next turn and you don't have to deal with them.

If you choose to take down the big baddies they don't stay down.  They leave the current mission, but are able to resurrect themselves at their secret bases.  Locating these bases requires working with the three special factions that are another new addition to War of the Chosen.  Taking them out is almost mandatory as they will continually gather intelligence about the location of the Avenger as time goes by.  You can't simply ignore them and hope they'll go away.  They won't.  And they'll continue to deliver long, rambling monologues the entire time.

--New factions with special abilities.  Fearsome new enemies means you need some fierce new allies to help in your fight.  Three new factions offer aid in the form of special faction related benefits and special "heroes" who will fight in your own ranks.  The Reapers specialize in stealth and can remained concealed for long periods of time.  Their soldiers are good for scouting ahead and attacking from the shadows.  The Skirmishers are a group of rebellious Advent soldiers who have gone rogue against their alien creators.  They are versatile soldiers with the ability to attack multiple times in one turn, to use either melee or ranged attacks, and to utilize a grappling hook to maneuver to advantageous positions.  The Templars utilize psionic abilities and have a unique style of attack with a melee focus.  Each successful melee kill builds "focus" which makes future attacks more powerful and which can be expended to fuel other special abilities.

Each faction also unlocks special "covert operation" which are completed behind the scenes.  Covert ops require one or more of your own soldiers and have certain specific outcomes--most importantly, they are the method for tracking down and eventually permanently disposing of the Chosen.  Managing your roster gets even more complicated as you send soldiers out to complete ops.  Those soldiers are unavailable for the duration of the op and can possibly be wounded, ambushed, or even captured by the Chosen.  Successfully completing ops grants an outcome but also grants influence with each faction.  Once you've reached a certain level of influence each faction offers special benefits that vary--some help lower the time to build new rooms on the Avenger, others offer resource gathering boosts.  Each month you can choose a different set of boosts to satisfy your needs.  Raising your influence with each faction increases the number of boosts you can utilize.

--New enemy types.  You know what every game needs?  Zombies.  This is almost a scientifically proven fact.  War of the Chosen features a brand new type of enemy known as "The Lost."  Although the Lost are technically former humans who have been poisoned by Advent technology (remember all those weird, glowing green canisters from Enemy Unknown?  They were good for high cover...but weren't ever explained.  Well, ta-da!), they are basically zombies.  The Lost tend to appear in groups and can easily be killed--for each Lost you headshot and kill you are granted an additional action, mowing down groups of them isn't too hard.  On their own the Lost aren't too bad but, like the Chosen, they have a tendency to pop up at inopportune times--like when you're in the middle of a nasty fight with Advent.  The nice part about the Lost is that they don't discriminate--they'll go after anything that's alive, including Advent.  They can serve as a handy distraction while you pick off the deadlier Advent soldiers.  The really bad part is when you get Advent + Lost + the Chosen....I had that happen...and it was ugly.

--New Maps!  If you were tired of all the old map sets, there are some nice, shiny new ones in War of the Chosen.  There are sewer-like tunnels, Lost-infested cityscapes, farmhouses with train tracks (I loathe trains  they box you in and are difficult to maneuver through.  I always inwardly groan on train/subway maps), and new specialized bases for the Chosen.

My squad celebrating killing the Hunter.

--Photobooth.  This might sound menial and stupid to hardcore turn-based strategy gamers, but I am absolutely loving the posters that you can create in the game.  Each mission provides an opportunity to make a poster featuring your chosen squad.  Or you can make posters for your favorite individual soldiers.  There are a variety of backgrounds, filters, text/font options to make a unique tribute.  The fun part is that these posters will periodically appear on the walls of other missions that you are playing.

--Soldier bonds.  You can further enhance the abilities of your soldiers by pairing them up with similar squadmates on each mission.  As they learn to fight together they will develop bonds which can provide benefits as they are strengthened.  Once you've developed these bonds you can build a special training room which allows soldiers to level up these bonds and which provides extra combat benefits.  Every soldier can have a battle BFF!

If you've gotten bored with the same ol' stale XCOM2 I would highly recommend the upgrade to War of the Chosen.  It offers so much new content that it makes the game feel completely different.  My favorite part has been the quest to destroy all of the Chosen.  This is something that isn't easy and consumes a great chunk of playtime.  But, when you watch those last few bars of life spill out of one of those giant goobers, it's fist-pumpingly fun.  Not to mention the fact that you can research and equip their own super-powerful weapons on your own soldiers.  It's totally worth the extra effort to hunt them down.