Alec hasn’t been the same since he returned from the Long War. The celebrated XCOM mod turns the base game’s wee scrap into a gruelling war, chewing through your forces and your resolve with relentless difficulty. Some days we find him simply sitting in a chair by the window, staring out to sea, his bottom lip quivering.

The folks who made Long War are working on their own strategy game now but, also, have teamed up with Firaxis to make a few mods for XCOM 2 [official site].

Long War Studios are “currently hard at work on multiple mods for XCOM 2”, according to today’s announcement from Firaxis. These mods are due to be available from the start when XCOM 2 launches on February 5th, though what exactly they are is a mystery for now.

Surely they’ll be brewing something to make XCOM 2 more difficult? (Though Adam might tell you it’s already quite difficult.) Maybe Long War Studios want to avoid being typecast, and plan to add paintball guns. Nude skins. Colourful hats. Not base-building, but base-decorating to help your troops unwind in pleasant surroundings. Punching trees to get wood to craft wood axes to dig for stone to craft stone axes to…

If you want to check Long War out for yourself, download it over here. If you haven’t played XCOM at all, hey, it’s dead cheap in the latest Humble Bundle.

Apparently we’ll hear more about the mod tools and Long War Studios’ own XCOM 2 mods at PAX South. The panel on January 30th will be livestreamed for us who’ll be at home, brewing Alec’s Bovril and wrapping blankets around his shoulders.