How about having some kind of mech / robot fighting machine of human stature instead of a heavy weapons platform HWP? If I remember right, the father of X-Com - Laser Squad - featured androids...
I'm not proposing some 2 stories high monster, but an armoured android-like fighter which could handle heavy guns, like a minigun or heavy machine gun, have tough armour and .. of course, be expandable.
I think that by 2084 robotics will evolve that much that the best scientists in the world hired by PHALANX could create a humanoid fighting machine instead of a bulky tank, with good AI to handle battle situations.
Some features/restrictions that I'm thinking the "robot" should have:
* superhuman strength (obvious)
* fast (good TUs)
* good accuracy
* good amount of hitpoints
* limited to several specific weapons (heavy machine gun, minigun, etc), except maybe kerrblade
* no backpack (this robot wasn't intended as a mule)
* can to fit through doors
* able to kneel
* extended vision (e.g. IR)
* nanoarmor plates
* imune to panic, except blue screens (joking) :lol:
* can't be healed (repaired) on the battlefield
* shouldn't look like the Terminator
* can be built in the workshop, but costs a lot and takes long to build (20-30 days with 10 workers)
* of course, it can't be promoted, and the stats won't improve, except _maybe_ for the "mind" skill (it should be able to learn from combat experience)
* can have a name, rather than some alphanumerical ID
* maybe it could be upgradable (better weapon skills or stats)
I would like a robot that has legs and hands, instead of having some arm modified into a minigun, but it doesn't have to look exaclty like a human, either.
The drawbacks of using a robot are that your squad will gain less xp if the robot does all the dirty work, and you will have one soldier less in your squad. Otherwise it wouldl be fun and usefull to have around