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Mechanically, it was interesting, but LW2 also felt really soulless to me. Plus side, there's no need to choose, LWOTC is actually out. WOTC was made for Mass appeal, and it's board game setup of strategic layers wasn't meant for thinking too hard about the logistics, it's kind of like comparing a game show and an army base. But yeah, with the soulless problem fixed, and improved performance, LWOTC is a really interesting setup. That said, it only works in that setting. Seeing the infiltrator missions turn into a missions might be a neat way to implement this, but the Xenonauts are basically responding to things instantly, they don't have time for prep, that's what makes it work. (Then it brings the question of why more units aren't sent on either side, why they didn't bring heavier vehicles, why there's no air, and any of the other "why can't we have full military porn, I like guns a lot" greatest hits. ) XDiv seems to walk the line pretty well between the two. You get heavy armor and a free vehicle, your planes are constantly trying to keep some semblance of control above, and there is no point where you don't have a goal to go after. There's lots more locals, and the battles feel very believable. Random Takeaways: Keeping the tech tree crazy over stocked seems to handle keeping the rut away. More enemy types keeps larger battles from getting tedious. Reliable armor keeps RNGesus at Bay. Also feels really good when you break a unit's armor and shred them down. Basically mostly low health and high armor, except for the tanks. Weapons changing mechanics on an individual basis keeps things fresh, LW did this too. Having a free vehicle makes it feel like your people are always doing their best. More weapon types on planes, swapped every Phase, makes the air game feel like aliens are responding to your advances.

Agreed, after having many convos with an Indie game dev I know about Steam and EGS My "Damnit I dont want anything to do with them" has turned to "Hell i'm not buying off steam if i can help it!" Still don't like the exclusive deals but I understand fully why devs are agreeing to them now.

Steam can use a competitor, and I don't mean Origin or Uplay. Thus I signed up to Epic just after a week or two. Now I have 47 games on my Epic library not counting DLCs, mostly given for free. As a bonus, epic store does not have mandatory DRM, and I heard that Phoenix Point does not come with one. It helps that Epic provided Snapshot the money it needed to improves phoenix to its current state, too. The game itself can use some bug fixes and rebalance, though, so waiting a bit won't hurt. XCOM 2 was nice (if you don't mind timed everything) but DLCs and mods make it better. That said, I think PP's base game is much more solid and interesting than XCOM (2). This is potential for a very complicated game lol.