Shield Troopers and Fields of Fire

A few thoughts about Tactics

What works well for me is to have 2 squaddies who each bring 2 shields to the battle (With side arm holstered).

Once they get off the Charlie they drop the extra shield and pull their gun.

I use them to scout ahead of the main group.

For a long time I would have everyone crouch at the end of the turn, but this wasn't effective because the aliens would often shoot at the troops I wanted to protect ignoring my shield troopers.

It seems the aliens shoot at the target they have the best chance of hitting.

If everyone crouches including the shield troopers alien fire tends to target the most dangerous squaddie (think heavy weapon trooper you need to protect). If however you have everyone crouch Except the Shield troopers they tend to draw fire away from the group you want to skill up. I often buy a few dud Troops each month to use as human shields.

Once their shields get depleted I usually pause my advance to have them go grab the extra shields they dropped by the Charlie.

The second part that makes this strategy work is choosing where to fight.

Cover in this game is a mixed blessing at best, in a industrial setting for example there is so much junk lying about to block or seriously degrade everyone's field of fire.

One of the first things you learn in this game is battles go best when you can bring an entire squads fire power to bare on only 1-2 guys at a time. To do this you need some fairly open terrain with long fields of view and little cover for the aliens to hide behind. I usually air strike industrial maps when I can and if I am forced to fight there I shift my advance to the least cluttered section of the map.

This strategy also makes it child splay to make sure everyone gets at least 1 shot at an alien (guaranteeing an Accuracy skill up) when advancing, so that by the time you get to the craft you can just pump stun gas inside for the easy win.

-Scorpion