I am currently running 2 support(med packs), 2 heavies(nano weave), 1 assault(arc thrower), and a sniper (frag grenade). I'd love to switch out a heavy for another assault, but I am worried that the rookie would have serious trouble playing catch up. A friend suggested I rotate in a squaddie or rookie every mission to make sure I have a decent bench of back ups, has anyone tried this method, and had some good luck with it? Does anyone have the balls to run 1 or even 0 support, or spec their support something other than 3 med pack carrying powerhouses?

My method of training rookies is pretty much sending five of them along with my beefed up Sniper. Whichever ones survive being cannon fodder for my sniper can join the ranks of the elite. Probably not the smartest method but something about being the lone rookie survivor with a vet guardian makes a good story. As for my general loadout I have 2 Snipers, a heavy, an assault, and two supports (one specced in smoke grenades the other in medkits). This squad pretty much relies on good positioning that allows my snipers line of sight over everything while everyone else keeps aliens occupied. Only disadvantage is fighting in UFOs since there aren't many opportunities to bust down walls so my snipers have to keep on the move (which in turn prevents them from taking action). As for your last question I like rolling deep in smoke grenades since it prevents damage from occurring in the first place. With medkits you run the risk of letting a guy take a hit that one shots them.

2 Assault, 2 Support, 1 Heavy, 1 Sniper.

Funnily enough, the Heavy is the one getting all the kills (she's got 20+ last I checked). Just got promoted to Colonel tonight. I've kept a S.C.O.P.E. on her since they first rolled out of the workshop, seems to be working wonders.

I use the same squad for every mission. The Supports make sure no one is hurt too bad and I managed to buy all the squad upgrades in the Off. Training. If wounded, none of my guys stay benched for more than 3 days and I've been lucky enough to where everyone is always in fighting shape come deployment time.

I've become pretty attached to my squad now and it'd be real rough to lose one.

Well, I only played on normal, so it'll probably change for my next run on Classic, but I played with 2 snipers, 3 assault and 1 support for most of the game (all with scopes and arc on support). The idea was just to blast everything to pieces before it could touch me, using the assaults to break overwatch and good coordination of run'n'gun and squadsight.

So far it's been1 Sniper, 1 Heavy, 2 Assault and 1 Support. Seems to be working well.

1 Assault / Arc, 2 Heavy / Nano Weave, 1 Sniper / Scope, 2 Support / Medkit / Arc

Works for me.

I moved through a bunch of different rotations, and then late into my first full playthrough, I found my magic group. Two Assaults (both alloy cannons/run & gun), three supports (plasma rifles, and all "sprinters", one with dedicated heals, the other two with rifle suppression), and a sniper with squad sight. We became a very mobile, quick, and deadly group. Steamrolled through the rest of the game with that rotation. Was certainly a different pace as it became more about being super aggressive and staying on the move. Worked wonders.

2 snipers with squad sight, 1 - 2 Assault, 1 support, 1-2 heavy.

I have a basic rule of having at least one of each class as my base to work with. The other 2 slots are flexible to take one of some other class each. I never roll with 3 of a single class ever. Adopting a flexible approach means I'm used to all the basic variations on it and never out of my element with a weird squad setup.

Snipers are amazing precise long range killers, and later in the game become great (safe) scouts with stealth armor and sensor grenades (forgot the actual ability name). Get a leveled sniper the jetpack armor and they're wrathful gods, combine with a stealthed sniper and you have a 2 man team that will take out enemies before they even get their free turn to seek cover, which almost feels like cheating.

Heavies are there for massive area of effect damage when shit gets tough, or when you need to get rid of enemy cover, and their suppression has many synergies with other abilities and later on works great against certain types of enemies. Hitting a sectopod for 20 dmg non crit is hella nifty. Or the fact that suppression can become a guaranteed 6 points of damage (regardless of range or cover) on any mechanical on top of all it's debuffs and a later opportunity shot. Berserkers are funny to exploit with suppression as their counter move instantly triggers it.

Support are great at well support, eventual 10 point heals with 3 medpacks, 2 item slots, great mobility, and buffed up smoke grenades when you find yourself facing a nasty counterattack. I also frequently give them an arc thrower because of the extra slot and fast movement.

Assault are the rock solid front line, with their defense bonuses, hp buffs. Give these guys titan armor and chitin plating and you have dudes with more hp then a Muton Berserker. A Chrysalid will barely scratch them. Run and gun is the bread and butter of flanking with marmalade. Flank an enemy point blank and unload a double shotgun burst to the face, gg.

1 sniper with Squadsight and all the accuracy boost he can get. 1 Assault with Lightning reflexes. 1 Support with triple Med kits and rifle suppression. 1 heavy with Suppression. my 5th varies by mission by type (crash sites get a 2nd heavy, city/interior get a 2nd assualt, etc) and my 6th is ALWAYS a rookie with an arc thrower. a dozen + hours in and I haven't lost a man yet.

Whoever isnt in the hospital/dead

I usually have rookie or low level guy in, unless I think its gonna be tough and I roll out the a team. 2 support 2 assault 1 sniper 1 heavy.

1 sniper, 2 assaults, 1 heavy, 1 medic, 1 random depending on what suits the mission. I've got about 2 full squads worth of high-ranking officers, even if someone gets injured there's always a good backup. Just wish my heavies and supports had the psi-powers, instead of the snipers and assaults :/ Feels like such a waste on them since they do so much dmg with weapons anyway.

1 Assault/arc thrower + lightning reflexes, 1 Sniper/scope, 2 heavies/ grenades + suppress or shredder, 2 supports/ medikits and healing skills. Sometimes I trade a heavy for a SHIV. One of my best supports happens to be psionic, too. Haven't found any others yet.

"The new guy", or whatever that officer training option is, has been clutch for training up new recruits. Squaddies are far more useful than rookies. Even a fresh squaddie heavy can do decent damage to a berserker or cyberdisk with a rocket, and squaddie assaults make good cannon fodder.

I either go 1 of each class and 2 rookies, or 1 of each class, a S.H.I.V., and a rookie. I'm just too afraid to lose too many of my good guys if a mission goes real bad. I'm playing with Ironman turned on.

@Iodine: Hilarious, this is how I do my rotation as well! If you're alive and not with the dr, you get to fight aliens.

I feel a bit guilty for dismissing people from certain countries, but there is a no french policy in effect as my first 2 deaths were french.

I have alien grenades on my supports as their second accessory, but I have yet to see it available in combat. Can supports not use them? Why is it equippable.

@Iodine said:

Whoever isnt in the hospital/dead

So far, this has been my story on Classic difficulty.

In my first playthrough, it changed a lot, too. My preferred A Squad was 2 Snipers, 2 Assault, 1 Heavy, and 1 Support. This second time around, I've usually had 2 Heavy, 2 Assault, 1 Support, and 1 Sniper. I may swap that extra heavy for another Support. I really love using the rocket launcher in sticky situations, and I've found Holo targeting to be extremely useful. I'm not losing units anymore, so I may just stick with what works.

Remember that you don't lose gear when you lose a soldier so always equip your rookies with the best stuff you've got to give them a chance to survive and level up.

Q: What's your squad loadout?

A: Whoever is still alive

2 Heavies with Arc Throwers

1 Assault with a Grenade

1 Sniper with a Scope

1 Support with a Medkit

2 assaults with scoped rifles, 2 support with scopes and medikits, and 1 heavy and 1 sniper.

Heavies and snipers are specialty classes that have very narrow roles so I don't wanna have more than one of each. Heavies have really low Aim, while Snipers are more vulnerable on indoor maps.

Provided they aren't recovering, my go to squad is 2 assault, 2 support, 1 heavy, 1 sniper. Specializations are: assaults are for close combat, support for healing, heavy for suppression/rocket and sniper for squad sight/archangel height advantage.

2 Heavy 1 Assault 2 Support 1 Sniper for most mission for terror missions 2 Assault 1 Heavy 2 Support 1 Sniper need the extra shotguns for them :D

I finished up with my best team being 4 snipers 1 support (main psionics guy) 1 assault this let me skip all making the heavy weps also 4 snipers on over watch with plasmas and imp scopes kill anything that moves

2 Assaults with shotguns and arc throwers/grenades.
2 Supports with medikits and scopes.
1 Heavy with a grenade (thinking about giving him a scope, too).
1 Sniper with grappling hook armor and a scope.

This is what I used for my NORMAL playthrough:

1. ASSAULT with shotgun, arc thrower (carapace or mindshield end game), been using archangel armor, but might try ghost for close range assassinations with rapid fire.

2. ASSAULT with rifle, grenade, archangel armor. Using flush for either high accuracy for killing low hp troops (sectoids, drones, weakened enemies, etc) or force enemy out of cover and sometimes used with another's supression. I only have one of these in the whole base and he goes on every mission (I don't recall him ever being injured).

3. SNIPER with scope, ghost armor. Using squad sight and battle scanner, although I find battle scanner useless when you can stealth.

4. SUPPORT with grenade and medkit, or just medkit if one slot, titan armor. Mostly max on healing/revive skills (left side).

5. SUPPORT more or less same as above. Has suppression, but still has the 3 medpack skill. Having 2 troops capable of suppression really helps survivability vs multiple targets.

6. HEAVY, more or less the items are unimportant, just go for the best of the best. I use scope until I can carry 2 grenades. I have 2 heavys that swap out. One has splinter rocket, 2 shot standard rocket 2 grenade and just blows shit up and occassionally suppression support. The other is more about AOE supression with the +2 range on supression and explosives. Either seems to be useful regardless of situation, so I just use one until it gets injured or max rank :p

Of course, once I start a Classic Ironman game, none of this probably applies.

2 support (triple medkits/arc throwers)

2 snipers (scope)

1 hover SHIV / 1 alloy SHIV

My Snipers are the backbone of my strategy and of my success (Classic, not ironman). I've been training a new sniper because I wanted to use a full psi enabled (I know that's overkill, but...) team, but having run with a pair of snipers for quite a long time now - I've found that it's really efficient.

So, 2x Sniper (Scope, Skeleton/Archangel armor), 1x Support (Medkit, Arc Thrower), 1x Heavy (Scope, Titan armor), 1x Assault (Shotgun, Arc Thrower, ghost armor), 1x Assault (Rifle, Scope)

I'm pretty annoyed about the Heavy, as I realize I should probably have picked HEAT ammo now, and he's my strongest Psi (101) soldier... so not really sure what I'll do with him. I'll probably just stuff him in Psi armor and head to the final mission. Also planning to replace the rifle on my second assault and equip her like the other assault.

Also debating with myself which armor suits I should put on which classes. Specifically what to put on Support, Assault and Heavy (Snipers are pretty obvious, as long as they have squadsight).

I've been running 2 assault, 2 snipers, 1 support, and 1 heavy. The snipers make short work of about anything. The assault tend to mop up. The support keeps everyone alive. And the heavy is usually useless and can't hit anything. If it wasn't for 1 time I actually found the rocket to be extremely useful in taking out 8 chrysalids in single shot (oh and that one poor civilian), I'd have dropped him for a support. But, sometimes you end up in a situation where an AOE attack makes everything easy.

Normal is 3 Assaults, 1 Sniper, 2 Supports. 4 Assaults if I can field it.

Classic is 2 Assaults, 2 Heavies, 1 Support, 1 Sniper. You NEED somebody to bring the pain when Sectopods drop down from the sky and are all "sup". Or when you accidentally trigger 3 groups of Mutons and you're like "FUCK" and fire a rocket right into their dumb faces and mop up with the rest of your squad.

I normally go 2 Snipers, 2 Heavies and 2 Assaults. I prefer going for massive damage, and have been pretty lucky so far with hitting things with my heavies.

2 Snipers with a S.C.O.P.E, (both with squad sight and double tap) an Assult with a plasma rifle or Alloy Cannon (depending on where we are fighting), 2 Supports with Nano-fiber vests and medkits with one of my supports having Psi abilities, and a Heavy with heat ammo and a nano-fiber vest. This squad has gone though some shit and has come out of some pretty tough situtations on top.

2 snipers, 1 support (med kit and arc thrower or stim), 1 heavy, 1 assault, 1 SHIV

-or-

2 snipers, 1 support, 1 heavy, 2 assault (one with alien grenade or arc thrower, one with medkit)

The assaults are almost always equipped with rifles. Shotgun calls for too specific a scenario to be useful for the style I play. Armor has been all skeleton suit until just recently. I am just now getting into the advanced armor types (titan, ghost, fly). Always take at least one Psi capable soldier. Currently I have two: a sniper and a support. I have enough of a discount on engineering purchases now to where the cost of a SHIV is negligible. I no longer see a need to train rookie humans. SHIV's are really handy if you invest in their upgrades. (playing on normal)

O classic difficulty I like to have:

2 snipers: both with squad sight. They are just too powerfull, they are my main killers.Plus having 2 disabling shot makes stunning enemies a lot safer.

2 heavies:1 goes holo targeting/shredder rocket, the other goes bullet swarm/suppression. Heavies are juste incredibly usefull in all situation. Holo targeting helps everyone, suppresssion can save a life, multiple rockets for your big "I'm dead if those two aliens dont die immediatly" moments or just to blow up alien cover or to blow up walls to give a shot to your snipers who is all the way in the back. Way too usefull all around to only have 1.

1 assault and 1 medic

In my first play through by the end I was rolling with these

For normal, outdoor missions:

• 2 Snipers. 1 was squad sight with archangel armor. 1 was snap shot with ghost armor. Both had Double Tap. Would use the arch angel one and just put him up and not move him and move the ghost one around a bit as need be. Honestly was experimenting and IMO squad sight is superior. I think snap shot loses its usefulness later when you have better pistols and if you have a PSI sniper. My Squad sight sniper had PSI abilities so if I needed to move and attack I would just use Mindfray most often.
• 2 Assaults. One was PSI with PSI armor and one had Titan armor, both had alloy cannons. Also the reaction shot in close promixity is one of the best abilities in the game I found. Absolutely wrecks melee enemies like Chrystallids and Bezerker Mutons.
• 1 Support Medic/Scout with Ghost Armor. With the sprint range perk, would go invisible and scout out areas and rescue civilians on terror missions.
• 1 Heavy with a rocket focus and Titan armor

For UFO, Special indoor missions I would swap out a sniper and take either 3 Assaults (equipping the last one with a plasma rifle) or 2 Supports. I also never messed with SHIVs on my first play through. Kind of glad so now I have something new to try in my second one.

Heavy and Support certainly have their uses and I'll always take one of each but to me Sniper and then Assault are the best classes in the game.

Has anyone had any luck with Jeff's "All Heavies No Medkits" build?