When LW2 1.3, 1.4 came out, I tried another campaign. Because I wanted to use the squad features, I decided to increase my starting soldier size via INI to 30 soldiers from standard 20.
It worked!! I was able to create specialized squads. Because of this, I tried different perks and different playstyles that I had never done so before.
I had a Squad that was specialized in jailbreaks and VIP extracts. These soldiers had no explosives, just guns to attract less attention from advent. 3 run and gun assaults, 1 sword shinobi for scouting and chopping, 1 specialist for hacking the jail, 1 move and overwatch ranger.
I had a squad that was my emergency response team (for haven defense, network towers, etc). These soldiers had lots of explosives, since they didn't care of attracting more enemies, with 2 technicals, 1 grenadier, a shinobi, a Spark, 1 sharpshooter. These guys would come in quickly and BOOM anything that got in the way. Spark with overdrive and shinobi could quickly get to civilians or rebels protecting data taps.
I had a squad of 2, sometimes 3, for assassinations and destroying alien relays. 1 stealth shinobi, 1 snapshot/damage sharpshooter. I would scout with the shinobi and if the mission seemed doable, I would do it, if not, I would retreat by a corner. This way I was able to do several 2-3 day infiltration missions I would normally not be able to.
I had a squad that was my go to for troop columns, supply raids, and anything that had NO reinforcements. These guys would take their sweet time with 1 shinobi for scouting, 2 long watch sharpshooters to kill stuff, and 2 gunners "the wall" to suppress and destroy cover of anything that got close.
Well, you guys get the idea.
I had the most amount of fun I've ever had in X2 with different squads. It made me branch out, try different builds, and try SQUAD builds. I found a place for sword AND stealth shinobis. I found a place for executing AND overwatch rangers. I found a place long range AND snapshot sharpshooters. etc. Squads had their specialization, their history, their tactics, and of course, their own DressCom styles
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif)
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My feedback is that 20 starting soldiers is too low IMO, 30 ish would encourage squad building more. In LW 1 we started with 40 which was enough to get started, since normally you had to hire more later (and use SHIVS).