I agree that it's unfair for wraiths to teleport and shoot in the same turn. Instead, I think wraiths should show a tendency to teleport in as a pair (or maybe more) when there's a trooper that has been separated from the pack. For example when a scout has ventured too far forward or a heavy weapons specialist is lagging too far back from the squad (e.g. mathematically wraiths should target the soldier that has the largest standard deviation from the average distance between troopers).
When faced with a pair of wraiths the lone soldier would have the following options:
The soldier can kill one wraith only to get killed by the second one on the next turn
Run away until the rest of the squad can be brought closer for support
See if a sniper/heavy weapons can take out one of the wraiths from a distance first, then have the wraith-targeted soldier decide between the above two options.
The aggressiveness of wraith behavior can also be scaled up by difficulty in the following manner:
On easier difficulty settings wraiths could always teleport in adjacent pairs, giving the lone soldier the option of getting an easy 2-for-1 grenade kill. This behavior also teaches the newbie player the dangers of having squads too close together.
On higher difficulty settings, 2+ wraiths (increase number with difficulty) can teleport in but show up more spaced apart (surrounding the soldier using their own squad tactics) to reduce the effectiveness of area of effect weapons and cut-off retreat paths.
If setup in the xenopedia as a race specific behavior (i.e. on veteran wraiths always show up in 3s), another atmospheric element can be introduced if you only see 1 wraith teleporting in (with the other ones always teleporting into locations not in the soldier’s line of sight; e.g., a nearby building). The soldier knows that the lone wraith has companions, but doesn’t know where. This could really add to the tension in night terror missions.
The above wraith behaviors would set wraiths up as a unique challenge that requires sound squad tactics to overcome (e.g. adequate mutual cover).
