My squad, let me show you them.

[DiDiT]

okay, in my little 8 member team consists of:
2 flame-troopers armed with flame throwers and machine pistols.
2 snipers armed with, you guessed it, sniper rifles, as well as Smgs.
A 'support' trooper, which is really just a heavy weapons specialist who flicks between heavy weapons, mostly her machine-gun and her rocket-launcher.
and finally, 3 riflemen, normally armed with laser rifles (which are surprisingly good!) with Smgs as backups.
All of my squad are equip with medical kits and at-least 3 Nades, 6 in the case of my flame-troopers.

my tactics with this squad normally is that my support trooper and snipers suppress my target while my flamers storm in the front, throwing in a few incendiary Nades though the windows for good measure before busting in and torching everything while my Riflemen provide general fire-support were ever its needed, this often means flanking targets.

Now, my 'team' has some strengths as well as some short falls. e.g. my flame troopers are great at clearing out rooms, both filling a room with fiery hell very quickly before moving on, but often they get pinned down and such, and for some more open fights, they get more kills with their machine pistols than anything else. also, my snipers tend to get, for some reason, involved in C.Q.C a lot, also flicking back to their pistols to defend them selves.

now, Iv got some ideas on what to do and I'm wondering if they are worth trying...

1. My 'support' trooper seems to get the lowest kill count, so I'm temped to turn her into another rifle-woman. four riflemen would allow me to make two fire-teams, one sniper and two riflemen to a team or I could make her a sniper, then I could have three teams of one sniper, one rifleman.

2. I need something a little more powerful than machine pistols as a secondary weapon on my flame-troopers, but I'm not sure what. I don't want it to be too heavy or large, so I'm thinking... plasma pistols? or Smgs?

3. my snipers are great and all, but I REALLY want to give them nano-carbon-armour like the rest of my troops, as they could benefit from the extra armour if they run into any unwanted company when I send them into vantage-point buildings, but wont that effect their speed and such?

4. I _{fucking love} Am really quite fond of my flamer troopers, they are VERY effective members of my team, even more so with fire support while their moving in, but they are somewhat useless in long range fire fights, e.g on that 'druglord' map with the river running though it, that was a nightmare for my flamers, only just getting over the bridges, before needing to take cover and patch each other up. should I keep an extra two riflemen to the side, and swap out my flame-troopers during those times, or have some extra equip and just change the flame-troopers load out? both seem logical...
 
Yeah, that's about it. any pointers and constructive criticisms are welcome.

peace out, people!

[Viento]

Nice post.

Just a question: Which difficulty are you playing at?

[DiDiT]

thanks, Its my first post here, so I tried to make a good impression.

oh, and I play standard. I like a more relaxing game.

[Sarin]

So...as handguns, you can't go wrong with laser pistols. They perform excellently on any range, I had my flamer soldier spot a taman across a small map, draw it and actually kill him all within one round on more than one occasion. Plasmas do outperform them on close, but have nasty spread over any significant range.

I'd suggest replacing your support soldier's weapon with Heavy Laser. In fact, I'd get at least two of those in your squad, they're better snipers than normal sniper rifle, but good heavy weapon specialists are rare.

I really don't fancy SMGs as secondary, because you have to drop your main gun to use it since you need both hands. Again, laser ftw...

Armor does not affect speed as far as I know. Just give them the best.

Again and again...yea I know, I love laser pistols. They definitely solve your flamers' range problem.

And I'd suggest you get at least one Grenade Launcher in team. Especially with plasma grenades, they are excellent tactical weapons, capable of indirect fire.

[DiDiT]

thanks sarin for you input. yeah, like you said, i have given all my personal laser pistols, it was pretty fast and easy to make 8 of them, and the work like a charm!

I'v tried a heavy laser in the past, and well, i didn't like it. it chewed though df packs way to fast and, while powerful, i was unable to get any good response shots because my laser-riflemen always did it first. but, as for the grenade launcher, it complements my rush and flush style so I'm gonna use it from now on.

My current problem is churning out all the DF packs I'm Gonna be needing. 

[Sgt. Hatter]

thanks sarin for you input. yeah, like you said, i have given all my personal laser pistols, it was pretty fast and easy to make 8 of them, and the work like a charm!

I'v tried a heavy laser in the past, and well, i didn't like it. it chewed though df packs way to fast and, while powerful, i was unable to get any good response shots because my laser-riflemen always did it first. but, as for the grenade launcher, it complements my rush and flush style so I'm gonna use it from now on.

My current problem is churning out all the DF packs I'm Gonna be needing.  

Have particle-beam enemies started appearing in your campaign yet?  Laser pistols are great, but once particle beams and medium alien armor start showing up, they tend to suffer a bit.  The best counter is particle beams of your own.  The particle beam pistol is pretty much a straight upgrade from the laser pistol, with the bonus of a stupidly-low cost of only 7 TU for a snap shot (1 more than a plasma pistol), and 11 for a 3-round burst (which is often enough to drop an armored Ortnok in a single round of fire if all three shots hit).

The only downside is that you have to loot the ammo from enemies; you can't make it yourself.  As a result, you might want to keep your laser pistols around for as long as you can; they'll help you conserve p-beam pistol ammo for important fights.

[Viento]

I prefer the machine gun as the key heavy weapon even in the advanced stages of the game (when Ortnok field medium armour and needlers). Just ignore the 5-round burst (it's useless) but use the 25 round full auto burst. If fired by a decent shooter (Skill 50+) you can drop enemies at almost every distance. The only downside is that reaction fire with a 25 TU weapon is difficult.

Since the machinegun is a bit too clumsy and slow indoors my heavy weapon guys carry a flamer in their backpacks. =)

Andy

[Sgt. Hatter]

I prefer the machine gun as the key heavy weapon even in the advanced stages of the game (when Ortnok field medium armour and needlers). Just ignore the 5-round burst (it's useless) but use the 25 round full auto burst. If fired by a decent shooter (Skill 50+) you can drop enemies at almost every distance. The only downside is that reaction fire with a 25 TU weapon is difficult.

Since the machinegun is a bit too clumsy and slow indoors my heavy weapon guys carry a flamer in their backpacks. =)

Y'know, you might be onto something there.  An armored Ortnok is going to have, at most, about 50-60 Normal protection.  A full-auto burst from the Machine Gun can do upwards of 900 damage, which is more than any other human-wieldable weapon, even the Particle Beam Cannon on Burst mode (which is only 1 TU faster and only deals 600.)  Range on it is above average for a Heavy weapon, too.  70 range is pretty good for a Heavy weapon; it ties the Plasma Blaster, and beats the P-Beam Cannon which only has 50.  Only the Heavy Laser (120) beats it (and honestly, there are better sniper weapons out there.)

I kinda disagree about the flamer though.  Since you only get four bursts per clip, I'd use that backpack space to carry a couple of extras.  The flamer isn't a bad idea, but aside from the sheer joy of watching alien scum burn, I can't think of any situation where the flamer would be more useful than the machine gun.

Now, a grenade launcher on the other hand...

[DiDiT]

can't think of any situation where the flamer would be more useful than the machine gun.

*points at first post*

but... but... I make very good use of flamers during ufo and building attacks!  

also, as a 'surprise-butt-sex' ambush weapon, it works far better than the machine gun AND the nade launcher put together...

_{Hmm... a machine-gun and a grenade launcher put together... i might not be onto something!}
 

[Viento]

Flamers ARE useful in close quarters because they allow you to run and fire whereas the machine gun is rather static. Also the flamer has decent TUs for Reaction Fire, making it the better option when moving and firing is necessary (e.g. inside the harvester at the stairs). And, of course you are right, I love burning alien scum!

Andy

[Sarin]

Just give them two or three plasma blades. Need CQB weapon? Plasma blade always served me well.

[DiDiT]

ah, the plasma blade. nothing quite like sticking that bitch to some aliens face. 

still, I'll stick to a flamer. you can use them at somewhat of range and get reaction shots with it.

[Sarin]

I recently started again on Standard diff, and found machine guns actually VERY useful. They mostly score during first round, when I shoot enemies around dropship. Good soldier with machine gun is, when crouching, actually as good at range as sniper. I've also scored several doublekills when two aliens happened to stand approx. in one line.

[Sgt. Hatter]

Flamers ARE useful in close quarters because they allow you to run and fire whereas the machine gun is rather static. Also the flamer has decent TUs for Reaction Fire, making it the better option when moving and firing is necessary (e.g. inside the harvester at the stairs). And, of course you are right, I love burning alien scum!

I've noticed that aliens seem to be very cowardly when fighting me, refusing to get within flamer-reach, or allow me to close the distance. Of course, luck of the draw seems to favor me getting troops that are rather slow, but have great accuracy.  As a result, I tend to favor longer-ranged conflicts and outfit my squad accordingly.

There's just no room for flamers in my arsenal because I can never get in range to use them before either my squad or my opponents are dead. Those precious few heavy weapons specialists I get are better served by carrying heavy lasers or machine guns.

Of course, that's not to say I don't love the smell of napalm. I just prefer to deliver it via grenade or rocket.

[starwaver]

It's my first time playing through the game so I played it on very easy. Not sure if my squad is useful or not, but it's pretty good for my tactics.
1. one heavy laser and one sniper attack from afar
always have reaction fire on
2. one machine gunner and one assault use to charge in
3. one unit with a stun rod and a plasma pistol as range to capture aliens when possible, probably will be replaced if I get a better stun weapon
4. two grenade launcher for clearing cluster of enemies or enemy in tight rooms without need to go in. Both use plasma grenade.
5. One free unit equips depends on mission or new weapon avalibility, usually it's another meele with a partical pistol
all my troops have at least two grenade of either smoke, flashbang, incenary or plasma. all meele and grenade launchers got IR goggles. all meele unit has first aid packs. I tend to leave the backpack mostly empty to pick out enemy weapons