Archon King shows up in the middle of a standard, low-threat VIP grab-n-go. You know Archons, right, they just sorta do whatever the fuck they want. Now, after the Archon King is done with his bullshit we know we still gotta worry about these other ones whenever he leaves. (It was my first ever encounter with him).

Anyways, so we're pinned down now with Dr. Whoever TF VIP.

Fast forward.

Archon King left, with a sliver of health, thanks to my best Sniper Major.

Now, I shit you not, Rookie takes one step forward to complete his turn after the Archon King fight: Archon squad of three aggro at the edge of the fog of war. My favorite Grenadier Captain steps forward to protect the Rookie because this was supposed to be an easy, run-of-the-mill midgame Rookie farm. And we don't leave people behind.

The Archons painted the streets with my already wounded squad's blood. The Rookie got waxxed anyways because an Archon didn't like him. The Medic is having a breakdown and gets blown up by a car that was on fire. My Grenadier is surrounded by the last two. My Deadshot Sniper is on a roof, with a good view of the battlefield untouched.

Grenadier is on his last leg. He takes out one of the Archons but is sitting on little-to-no health left with the last, remaining Archon standing over him.

The Archon had little under half health but the last member of my squad that had action points left with the Sniper.

My favorite Sniper couldn't land two, back-to-back 95% chance shots from a flanking rooftop. I got her out of there. All to get back to the fucking base with a rebuke from that one dude. I didn't have any Veterans worthy of continuing since the game was already picking up. The game was wiped. (It was one of my first playthroughs so I made the classic XCOM mistake of only investing in one super squad).

TLDR:

Fuck Archons.

Don't only invest in one squad.

My favorite Sniper couldn't land two, back-to-back 95% chance shots from a flanking rooftop.