Squad composition

[Halajda]

In my current, first playthrough (I'm at middle of Oct 79), I tried taking Hunter AC on my missions, relying on it especially when I had to advance through open terrain to provide cover. But despite its 150 HP, it seemed to me as really fragile. Couple of hits took it out.

ATM I'm leaving ACs in the garage, trading it for two extra troopers. So my current mission composition is 1 LMG, 1 sniper, 1 assault trooper, 1 dedicated medic and 4 riflemen. I have couple extra men at base to supple for wounded and occasionally 2 rookies in training.

LMG for pinning down enemy in open areas, preferably killing him in the process. If sniper can take advantageous high ground, he will, but rarely have I come across map and circumstances where that was possible and doable in time, before I eliminated the enemy some other way. Otherwise he acts as regular rifleman, sweeping area, providing fire-cover and just shooting at whatever moves. Assault-guy with a shotgun comes to play when I'm entering buildings and UFOs and can expect encounter at minimal range.

What I considered deeply and eventually found very useful was a dedicated medic. She wields a medkit in one hand (pistol in the other) and can thus easily make it to the wounded soldier and stop his bleeding in a single turn, and heal him back to current max HP in a sec. This is a real time-saver, comparing if I had a regular soldier with medkit in his backpack, so he has to switch it with his rifle first. And she has additional medkit in her backpack.

I'm wondering if you can give me any tips, or what combo are you guys using...

[SteelSoldier]

Dont worry bro, Tanks are going to receive a massive upgrade.

[Tobbzn]

I generally split my squad into groups of 4 until I get a dropship upgrade, allowing for flanking tactics.

Pistol & Shield, excellent for using grenades, medikits and flares, and it even fulfills an Assault role if you can get close and unload a clip of snap shots.

LMG if I have predator armor, otherwise normal rifle. With Predator armor, carries extra shield for the Commando in case the first breaks.

Normal Rifle.

Sniper if I have Laser tech, otherwise normal rifle.

For squad tactics, Commando goes first, throwing flares if at night. If cover is sparse, kneels in the open, providing cover for soldiers behind. The LMG then suppresses or destroys enemy cover, then kneels next to the Commando, providing some cover with his armor. Then the sniper and rifle soldiers fire over their heads. This also works to "extend" other types of cover, which is particularly useful during the early game, where you can't risk your unarmored soldiers firing from out of cover.

When breaching, squad group up for a concerted effort, then open a given door with Predator armors and Commando Units in a crouched line, with other soldiers firing above them. Reaction fire is usually caught by my cover line, and the compact formation allows for easy use of medikits. The Commandos then either move in to execute lone aliens, or throw grenades to suppress and blow up cover. Uncovered aliens are then easy pickings for the rest of the squad.

Another tip: Instead of putting your rifle in your backpack, drop it on the ground when ready to use the medikit. This saves a lot of TU. This also holds for throwing grenades; If you want to throw more than one grenade, just drop your gun, as it doesn't use any TUs, and leaves you with free hands and reduced grenade TU costs.

Hope this helps =)

[henri5]

I use 2 groups of 4. As many as possible use armor, except for the two snipers, who always stay in the rear so they cannot get fired on but can snipe easily from afar. Usually one LMG and one rocketeer, the rest riflemen. I use no shotguns and vehicles at all, and no stunrods. A variety of grenades including stun grenades when they become available (stun rockets too). I avoid night missions. I don't hesitate to bring a soldier back some distance when he spots an alien if the soldier is vulnerable. I avoid moving a soldier forward by his full movement, unless he has excellent cover and/or I am fairly sure there are no aliens nearby.

In terror missions, it is important to spot aliens quickly, because they can see and shoot farther than your soldiers. Sometimes is is worth waiting a turn or two in cover, because with 19.6, aliens move more than in previous versions. In base attacks, a rocketeer is useful to get the difficult aliens, but in the early game, a rifleman is usually more useful.

[Dranak]

My normal split is something along these lines:

3 Snipers

1 LMG

3 AR

1 Flex (Rockets on terror missions, otherwise LMG or AR).

Interestingly enough I'm finding with the TU/Accuracy changes that having really good soldiers as snipers is a bit of a waste.

[thothkins]

My starting squad is :-

2 Rocket Launchers

1 Pistol/ Shield

2 Sniper

3 Assault Rifles - 2 with shotguns as backup weapons.

Squads in 3s or 4s depending on the map.

After a few missions strength has increased to where I find the LMG more effective (you can move around enough and fire)

So, 1 of the Rocket Launchers gets the LMG, while 1 of the others gets the second Rocket Launcher.

[maackey]

I start out with everybody being riflemen - 1 AR, 2 magazines, 1 C4 brick, 1 Medpack, 2 of each grenade in the belt. I try to keep the grenades for everyone in any role, as they come in handy.

If they survive long enough to get 70 accuracy, I turn the first two into snipers, which replace the AR with the sniper rifle, and add a pistol to the backpack. If they have good strength, they get either a rocket launcher, and cram their backpack full of rockets, or a LMG.

If I have the need for a shield guy for breaching ufos (I don't bother breaching scouts I just smoke them out with stun gas) I can turn him into a shieldbearer.

Once I've gotten some experienced guys my troop loadout looks like this:

2 snipers

2 rocket/lmg

4 riflemen

I'm not too fond of the shield as it is *really* heavy especially combined with armor, so I'm extremely limited with my offensive loadout capabilities, but it provides one helluva staunch defense.

[StellarRat]

All vehicles have major buff in 19.7

[thothkins]

The shield will keep your soldiers alive when breaching UFOs. Well worth having it, even if all you can put on that soldier is a pistol (also good for suppressing aliens in the UFO).

The guys lugging around the Rocket Launchers and LMGs generally find their strength goes up much faster. It's well worth loading them up in the early missions,. where's there's little less chance of things going wrong.

[StellarRat]

Shield bearer or two is a good idea. I don't use dedicated medic because sometimes your troops get separated. I just give everyone isn't overloaded a medic kit.

[SteelSoldier]

I would advise soldiers that you actually put your shield on, to have high reflexes and high resilience, this way, if you end with enough time units, you will be more likely to do reaction shots since they are using pistols and also be able to increase their survival chances dramatically.

[lightgemini]

I use 2 groups of 4. Team list is

-Squad leader- (sniper,medkit and c4, smoke nades)

-2 LMG guys with pistol

-rocket launcher with full rocket loadout

-4 rifles , with medpack nades,flashbang and later 1 stun nade.

No shotguns shields or fancy thingys. Raw firepower + rifles galore thats it. Guys shoot at everything that moves and rockets clear the aliens behind cover. SImple steam roll untill landing ships were things get nasty and it doesnt work that good anymore.

[xcomnaut]

Always played with 6, but now I include 7th soldier with shotgun.

2 pistol + shield (first half of the game they just scauting, later they are most deadly guys)

2 assault rifle (useful whole game, after 1/3 of the game effectively replaces sniper rifle)

1 sniper (very situational, almost useless after nerf, worst kill per mission rating)

1 LMG (useful whole game)

1 shotgun (most useful guy in the team, killer machine at the end of the game)

All soldiers have medkit + some grenades

[henri5]

The same grouping as V6 is not good with V7. I have never used shields or shotguns, but with v7 I use two shields with pistols, along with 2 snipers, a LMG, and 3 riflemen. When shieldmen are strong enough, a shotgun is more deadly than before and is a sure kill inside an alien ship. I don't use a vehicle because I don't have space enough. A shot with a sniper from any distance is almost a sure hit.

[ViniJones]

Ill be trying this for my first 19.7.

2assaults (one shotgun one shield)

2 heavies (just lmg)

2 snipers (those come in very handy later, I decided to train 2 per team because of this)

2 riflemen

All guys carry medkits nades(frag only) and stun batons depending on how much they can carry, except the heavies, who just have lmgs.

I do splitting into 2 fireteam too sometimes, but not without armor, those aliens take a lot before they go down.

[Tobbzn]

For Terror missions, running 2 shields and rest snipers works excellent. Shield guys get to spam flares (real men only fight at night), and snipers handle firing through smoke grenades relatively well. Besides, since you always start with a decent cover position near your Skyranger and most of the aliens start out in the open, your snipers can support your exploring shield guys from halfway across the map without even having to move more than a few squares per turn.

[cody522]

I've tried the starter rocket launchers, the amount of damage they deal was too low for me and the amount of TU needed to reload makes it impractical on most missions when you're outnumbered.

I have 4 riflemen with shotguns, C4, and with either a stun baton or medkit on each.

One person as a shield with a pistol, or I might take 1 of the riflemen and make two shields.

2 snipers, they come in handy in terror missions when you're outnumbered 3 to 1. Loaded with medkits

1 heavy weapons with LMG also loaded with medkits.

[Xenomorph]

half rifles and half snipers up to laser. With plasma/mag, half snipers and half heavies (maxed out soldiers to take full advantage). Very expensive but very effective, works on everything.

[GizmoGomez]

I've only done a few missions, but here's what I got:

2 rifleman w/ grenades (2 of each), a block of C4 each (unused so far), medkits and a backup pistol

2 marksman (I renamed the sniper class, ) with shotguns in their packs, grenades, medkits, and backup pistols (you never know, plus I had extra weight room)

2 breachers w/ pistols and shields, and some grenades (the shield weighs so darn much, it's insane)

1 support gunner w/ grenades and a backup pistol

1 rocket launcher w/ pack full of rockets and a backup pistol

[B-Kun]

There are only a few good ways to use the hunter, in my opinion.

1. With it's speed and sight it is a very good scout. Just don't use up all the movement points scouting. You can spot aliens, let your soldiers kill them from beyond their visual range, or move back (or behind cover).

2. Early Game "Terrain Modification" - I usually use it to knock walls down, so that I can flank Aliens, or use it to destroy cover that aliens are hiding behind from "Beyond Alien Weapon Range".

However, because vehicles can't "improve" like soldiers can, I try to avoid using vehicles until I can level up most my soldiers to decent level. Usually by then, there are better vehicles.

*Edit* Almost forgot. I read somewhere that the Hunter AC has weaker armor on the sides and back. Not sure if this is still true or not.

Edited August 19, 2013 by B-Kun

[cody522]

*Edit* Almost forgot. I read somewhere that the Hunter AC has weaker armor on the sides and back. Not sure if this is still true or not.

I think that's true for anything in the game with armor. Shots in the rear should cause increased damage to everything.

[Assoonasitis]

My squad composition is always as follows: Dropship filled to capacity with rookie mooks with naught but pistols, a prayer, and enough ammunition to raze a village.

[GizmoGomez]

My squad composition is always as follows: Dropship filled to capacity with rookie mooks with naught but pistols, a prayer, and enough ammunition to raze a village.

+1 hahaha

[Waladil]

I won a run on Veteran in 19.6 with the following squad loadout:

While in the Charlie:

7x Riflemen, 1x LMG

When I upgraded to Shrike/Valkyrie:

9x Riflemen, 1x LMG, 1x Tank.

To be honest it would have been more optimal to have two more riflemen in place of the tank (I ended up leaving it in the dropship A LOT) and actually adding troops to the Valk's extra spaces, but the soldier skill growth rate was so painfully slow I didn't want to deal with *rookies*. Instead I just took my starting 10 troops from start to finish. Had to scum a few times to keep people alive but mostly it was from solid tactics and momentum.

[Gromitek]

The best team is:

8 x universal soldier ( sniper rifle + shotgun and medikit in the backpack)

weapon change cost 6 tu's for shotgun and 10 tus for sniper rifle

Sniper rifle and shotgun have the best damage / tu's ratio on deafult accuracy so the choice is very simple.

Now fight are easy on vet lvl.

Edited August 26, 2013 by Gromitek