Beginner's guide

[Edi]

well, wiki page seems to claim different.
also, i can't seem to find coilgun in the research tree in the wiki.

it looks like mind is intended to make the soldier less likely to panic rather than to make him a fast learner.

That has to be severely outdated, as my units are improving their strength as well.

This seems much more accurate. It also fits observed behavior in my games.

[nagy.m.bear]

-It seems to me that you don't need to play every mission in order to keep the factions happy. I would ignore harvesters, and terror missions in the beginning. (harvesters are the ones flying with 1100 km/h).
-Also as the terrain, and objects are not destroyable, use as much cover as possible. Even a wooden fence will keep you completely safe from grenades directly on the other side (at least it worked for me).
-If you have the chance, only hire soldiers who have a weapon skill above 30, and make a small but good squad. You can build your tactics around the kind of squad you can hire, but snipers are a must.

[Alienator]

Electromagnetic rifle (bolter) is quite useless, just needed to research for coilguns.

I appreciate the bolter much more when aliens start to wear heavier armor. The damage and armor penetration of the 3-shot is excellent and TU cost is fairly low. But this is definitely not high priority in the early game.

Laser technology is fast to research and gives the best boost at the start, in particular since your soldiers cannot shoot to save their lives, so the accuracy really helps. The laser rifle and heavy laser are the main tools in the early game, the heavy laser effectively replacing the sniper rifle. Then the priority is armor, but it takes time to research & disassemble ships for materials.

[Ufanatic]

I appreciate the bolter much more when aliens start to wear heavier armor. The damage and armor penetration of the 3-shot is excellent and TU cost is fairly low. But this is definitely not high priority in the early game.

Laser technology is fast to research and gives the best boost at the start, in particular since your soldiers cannot shoot to save their lives, so the accuracy really helps. The laser rifle and heavy laser are the main tools in the early game, the heavy laser effectively replacing the sniper rifle. Then the priority is armor, but it takes time to research & disassemble ships for materials.

Laser is awesome, Bolter is underestimated, Sniper got nerfed to the point of bye-bye.

I use the Bolters as close-range shotgun-replacement because like you said: Triple-shot will kick the shit outa the lizardmen.
Since Sniper-Rifles really suck since 2.3 the other good thing about the Bolter is, that you can keep your Snipers in training until you have researched the coilgun: They will deal out single-round fire (sniper-skill) while advancing to a range close enough for the triple-hit (assault).

[Ildamos]

Ignore anything bigger than fighters, and swarm those with multiple interceptors.

How do you know a small craft from a bigger craft? The UI makes it hard to discern size differences.

[bayo]

Yes, here we use an autoscape, it is, i think, a mistake.