Need advice for tactical battles.

[Surrealistik]

Spam lasers beyond the range of all effective retaliation.
Spam the grenade launcher, and the SMG at closer ranges.
Spam grenades, flashbangs and the SMG at even closer ranges.
Flashbang and/or insta kill with the plasma blade at melee ranges.
Foolproof.

[lordhurukan]

Greetings all peace warriors

In some missions with "heavy invasion" (i.g. aliens are two or three times more numerous than us) I find it hard to give opposition with only 8 soldiers (unexperimented overall) !!
I tried to sort off in the forums topics which could help me deposit 16 or 24 soldiers to buss the aliens up with only two fingers lol... seems to be not as simple as expected...

Anyway in this case I let "the enemy come" by taking control of a building (if any) and the "reaction fire" does the rest (trust me: I anihilated (bussed up) nuff aliens just by making things to be not hit in the back and to have sufficient sight space to see them comin' and then... kaboom !! )

Of course this is not very funny but at a time you have to go out and then "seek and destroy" the last alien hidden somewhere, that is the moment that I fear of because I can't manage my soldiers to be covered at anytime and sometimes they miss their targets and I got no more "move points" to run to cover... and one time on two I lost at least one soldier during this "seek and search" otherwise I have never had big problems but when I'm outnumbered...

Anyway this UFO version is very fun and I have a real interest in it... (don't you find the civilians stupid they run straigth to death sometimes instead of runnin' back our soldiers about to protect dem ??)

[JerryLove]

Honestly, my best arrangement for early game was 4-6 snipers and the rest flame-guys. First round I would leave them very near the drop-ship but adjust positions to provide overlapping lines of fire to most anwhere the aliens would come, turn reaction fire up, and drop them to a knee.

If there was an obvious egress (a nearby dooway from a big building, or obvious large obsticle for aliens to come around: I would set my flame guys just around the corner from that.

When I had them, I never fired a machine gun and only fired an assault rife once. Grenade launchers are more useful, but lack range and get interfeered with by roofs; so snipers have been better.

Later game, I'm 1 bolter rifle, 1 plasma rifle or grenade launcer with PE grenades (Usually put in the backpack as the stun baton comes out), 2 laser rifles, and 4 snipers.

PS I didn't realize shooting was from the hip. That is only appropriate with grenade launchers and flamethrowers (and old-school shotgunners, but not with a tactical shotgun as is shown there).

PPS Any chance of replacing that with an automatic shotgun like a Pancor Jackhammer or CAWS? Also, a shotgun with a solid or SABOT round, OIW no spread, high damage/penetration, and decent range would make that a fun gun again.

[Surrealistik]

2.3 supreme tactic:

8 soldiers with coilguns, plasma blades, and ammo. Saturate remaining slots with plasma/gas grenades and flashbangs. Equip 50-75% with laser rifle/plasma loaded grenade launcher secondary weapons.

Snipe and RF the aliens well beyond the effective range of their weapons until you win.

Kill instantly, and accurately at all ranges with coilguns.
Kill targets behind obstacles with grenades.
Kill targets in melee instantly with plasma blades.
In the unlikely event you run out of ammo for the coilguns before having killed all of the aliens, use your laser rifles.