Hello, EXODE pilots and civilians! As some of you may know, today marked the end of the third and final week of the newly playable PvP aspect of EXODE game. Quite a few of our active players have been missing in action for some time now but there are still enough of us left to form a solid testing base for every new update. These are our most active and loyal pilots.
Raid 1 had myself along with 
I scored a solid victory against one of Nockzonk's teams but he was unfortunately absent for most of the raid. Perhaps he and his Killbot AI dedicated too much CPU to the British Baking Show. This proved lucky for us because raudell is a military genius.
Raid 2 featured an all-[MELN] team, VeryanPrime and Tyrnis vs fockyfock and LIFESAVINGS. All glory to the Market Expansion Leaders Navy! To the melon!
The third and final raid was a 3v3! This city won't be silent for long. It was probably a bloodbath. It featured Helvield, [MELN] Doubleozero, and [MELN] Sckoarn vs Bariagan, [MELN] bfc4exode, and Mr. Oddity. Yes, some of our [MELN] guild members were pitted against each other. The matchmaking was drawn randomly after all. I hope everyone fought with all their might and wits to the very last breath!
Raids are somewhat similar to the normal Colonization Challenges, example above, but with a few nuances, new rules and mechanics, and of course playing against other, real human beings. Each city has 9 sectors up for grabs. Some of them are unremarkable residential areas while others have strategic points of interest such as police stations, restaurants, government buildings, and laboratories. Each sector, if held under your team's control, is worth a certain amount of points.
Instead of a Colony Team and a Hunting Party like in normal Challenges, we have a Scout Team and a Strike Team. The Scout Team travels light, capable of only carrying weapons while the Strike Team can employ weapons as well as armour, vehicles, and starships. Both teams can only use cards that are Criminal or Syndicate with the exception of the first slot, which can be any character from any faction. They represent the individual that the criminals bribed, coerced, or corrupted; a special agent whose skills are tailored to the specific objective in the sector. There is also an ingame chat to discuss strategy with your team, but I've mostly redacted the logs. The opposition is damn good and there's no need to give them a hint at our thought process!
As you can see, I gained control of District 9, the one with the hidden cache and , yes, the one where the illegal aliens are quarantined. Just kidding, there are no such thing as aliens! Or are there? Anyways, like I was saying, A bit of Investigation skills were needed to locate the cache and none of the Syndicate members that I know of are proficient in that field. That is why we had to contract Nash, the Expert (corporate security guard, no criminal affiliation) on this job. Through our underworld connections, we also employed the hacker, Sh4rken. His home-made ground-penetrating Radar device helped in finding the treasure, but we almost missed it having only rolled two dice that were 5+, hence the two control pips below my name.
For a detailed rulebook, and if you haven't already, join Exode Discord Hub for the full 48-page Raid Protocol! It has all the info regarding Health, Armor, Initiative, etc. And don't worry, it's a picture book!
Here is a map of the situation the second week into the raid. Blockmonster came in clutch and retook City Hall but we lost one of our police stations which he is attempting to take back. I think we would not have won if it weren't for him. He deserves a Happy Soda. As you can see, at this point it is still anybody's game and the tables could easily take an unexpected turn.
After another week of nail biting, the results are finally in. City Hall was lost to the enemy but Blockmonster regained control of the police station with his strike force. Although Raudell was at a disadvantage, it seemingly didn't really affect him as he almost kicked our asses. We only won by 20 points with our combined sector points totaling 480 against their 460. What a close call! That police station really made a difference because I obviously failed at both of my attempts. Although Nockzonk was absent, his previously submitted sitting team still sent mine reeling.
What a great game, nevertheless. Rewards will be announced next week! I wonder how the other matches fared. Looking forward to hearing about in the discord chat or here in the comments. Thanks for reading!
