I finally got a chance to rerun the mission that ended so epically for the Sniper, but so tragically for his team.
This time I decided to take some of the first line team, only the Sniper and Support members would be trainees. This should improve their overall survivability and enhance their hit chances. I added one hover drone as well. The tracked ones don’t work well in ships as they can get hung up behind bodies occasionally.
Two Sectopods, and a collection of Muton Elites were moved through without too many problems. The second Sectopod destroyed my drone, but as a mechanical I don’t really mind. It’s a firepower loss for the mission, but not a loss of training investment overall.
As I reached the control room the team managed to eliminate the Ethereal in the first exchange so without fear of mind control or reflected damage the team quickly finished off the last two Mutons for a completed mission and a lift home.
The game counts the loss of the drone as an operative loss, which I think is quite annoying. There is no where near the investment in these compared to the troops.
But a success, and the Sniper earned a promotion whilst I set about building a second spare hover drone (I have one online as a spare already).
Still another set of troops through Psi testing without success. This is getting pretty silly really. Another batch has been sent down to the lab, fingers crossed.
