Squad Organization Discussion

[marceror]

I'm curious how others are organizing their squads, or if you pay any attention to this feature at all.

I, for one, have completely enjoyed this additional element, as it takes the huge roster we had in Long War 1, and gives it some form and structure. LW2 incentives players to run squads together due to the bonuses gained from multiple missions under the same officer. It also opens up greater opportunities for each squad to have various themes that further tie them together.

I currently have 10 separate squads in my Veteran game. I'm pretty sure I will not create any additional squads beyond the 10, as thus far (in early October) it just doesn't seem like I will need them. More likely, I would expand existing squads with an additional soldier or two. Here are the key themes of my squads (I took some inspiration from Xavier on the names)

• Alpha Squad - H*****'s Heroic Heroes - My first squad, made up of my immediate family and my sister's family. Comprised of 1 of each of the 8 base classes.
• Delta Squad - Laughing Latino Locitos - Comprised of a group of fluent Spanish speakers, all who I know personally. It makes sense for folks who speak the same language to be in a squad, right? Comprised of 1 of each of the 8 base classes. And I started in North America, so it made sense to have Latinos.
• Quebec Squad - Martin's Mendacious Marshalls - Mostly comprised of former co-workers who I have a lot of respect for. It started out as something more of a Recon squad, but morphed into a full combat squad. Comprised of 1 of each of the 8 base classes.
• Recon Squad - Satan's Soulless Sneaks - Sneaky, sneaky guys, 2 Specialist officers and 4 Shinobis. They rob Advent blind of prisoners, resources, and anything else they can get their hands on. If Advent has a devil that they fear, this squad hopes that are it! Mostly random folks that I know, and don't mind hanging out with in the game.
• Echo Squad - Irritated, Irradiated Indians - A squad of folks I know who all happen to hail from India, or their parents did. I added them when I was moving into Asia. Comprised of 1 of each of the 8 base classes.
• Floater Squad - The Not a Squad, Squad - This is where I started putting leftovers, Sparks and most of my Psi Operatives. Mostly the focus of this squad is to reinforce other squads when they need additional strength, or their numbers are lacking. More recently I provided them an officer, so they can run as an independent squad when needed, but that is still not their core focus.
• Walker Squad - Blighted Biter Bigots - These guys really, really don't like reanimated corpses, and they tell strange tales of hordes of reanimated corpses they have battled in an undisclosed location in the former United States. Yep, it's the Walking Dead Team, and they are seeking to understand how the alien invasion might be linked to the undead hordes that Advent conveniently claims to know nothing about. We have Rick (Assault), Michonne (Shinobi), Maggie (Specialist), Carl (Ranger), Darryl (Grenadier), Abraham (Gunner), Glenn (Technical) and Sasha (Sharpshooter). Oh, and don't use the word zombie around them, as it seems to be completely missing from their vocabulary. Weird.
• Zulu Squad - Diamondback SEALs - Comprised of a real life Navy SEALs, this is a tribute to some of the military heroes of the USA. They all wear matching armor and colors, and look totally pro in black and green. Comprised of 1 of each of the 8 base classes.
• Tango Squad - Crows of the Dark Knight - This is where XCOM goes to the darker side. Each member of this squad is something of a misfit, and they all wear painted faces -- heck if they can't kill the enemy, maybe they can scare them! They are led by a rather unhinged Matthew McConaughey (The Crow), because I guess the acting thing went south for him after Advent took over. Yeah, he's old now. Comprised of 1 of each of the 8 base classes and a Psi Op.
• Charlie Squad - Ronan's Rambunctious Rabble - Built around a Scottish chap who I rescued from Advent, and took a liking to, this is an up and coming squad of rag tag, random folks. Comprised of 1 of each of the 8 base classes and a Psi Op.

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In general my Specialist is my first (highest ranking) officer, and my intention is generally to have my ranger as a second officer, though that is still a work in progress for several squads. In general I just try to build balanced squads that are ready for just about anything, and I will select the best squad members for a mission if not all are able to go.

So is this insane to most of you that I'm putting this much time into squads? Do others enjoy building their squads up in a similar, or different way? I'm interested in how others are doing this.

I should note that I play slowly and methodically, and thus far have not lost any soldiers. Full disclosure, I have save scummed twice, one when my real life son was killed in game (couldn't let that happen), and another time when niece (from Delta squad) was killed. Grr, I just couldn't deal with it. But normally I let things play out, and I tend to have plenty of folks in sick bay.

With Haven Advisors, I'm closing in on 100 soldiers total. Whenever they are available, I have rookies training in the GTS. I plan to stop that when I finally get to 100. And yeah, equipping all these squads is a serious pain. You'll see everything from conventional weapons and armor to coil weapons and tier 3 armor interspersed across the squads.

It has been a joy raising these squads up from nothing, and watching them come into their own.

[trihero]

Not to spoil the fun or anything, and I'm happy to hear about other people's squads, but I literally don't use squads at all. In my most recent run I quickly deleted the default squad and never made any squads.

- you can't assign haven soldiers if they're in a squad. I frequently micromanage my "best" ranking soldiers into havens to fish out faceless in between missions. I'm annoyed to have to click so many times, frankly

- I'm constantly rotating shinobis and other people through officer training, so squads are a bit meaningless if squad leaders are in the tubes

- Squads are also a bit meaningless when I'm rotating people through AWC, some are getting wounded here and there, and I actively try to spread out experience points instead of using the exact same squad over and over

I guess I could use squads as a "framework" like 2-3 core people, one of which is an officer, then add to that core depending on who I want to train and who's available, but that doesn't necessarily save a whole lot of clicking, and I don't find 5-6+ squad comps usable for the aforementioned reasons.

[marceror]

I'm probably a freak of nature, as I don't mind the clicking... or rather, it's an acceptable evil for me to have my squads. I have also created a spreadsheet of who is in each squad, so if I pull someone out for Haven oversight I know where to return them to -- not that I need it anymore. I know who is in each squad at this point.

That said, early on there were certain soldiers that I designated to be long term Haven Advisors, and I have slowly built that pool over time. I currently have more Haven advisors than I need, so that I can always have at least 1 Haven Advisor in officer training. It's taken me a while to get to this point, of course. But I currently have a barracks of 93 soldiers, so I can start being a little more organized with how I manage them.

Each soldier is listed in my spreadsheet, their role, rank, number of kills, etc. All nice and tidy. I like organization.

[Jacke]

I've cut down on my use of out-of-game record keeping, as it was slowing down my play and making it less enjoyable. I've got the mod Lifetime Stats to track what my soldiers do. Besides that, it's enough having an idea of how to build out the Avenger, what general order to follow with Research, GTS perks, and PG projects, and what soldier builds to mostly follow.

I fill in a lot in my first Alpha squad. For Brave, Charlie, etc, I just put in a Shinobi, a Specialist Hacker, eventually maybe a Specialist Medic and a couple Gunners. I'm glad you can sub in soldiers from other squads without having to remove them from their usual squad. Now I will when I do fill in a Haven Advisor with a squad soldier, it just removed them on the resistance management screen without forcing me to jump around the UI.

[gimrah]

I like the feature in theory but in practice I don't use it. Between different mission types, infiltration levels and wounds, it just doesn't work more than it works for me. Also creating a squad seems to be a guaranteed way of signing an officer's death warrant.

[darkerevent]

Also creating a squad seems to be a guaranteed way of signing an officer's death warrant.

This was my experience as well in my first "test run" campaign (which I only played into midsummer before restarting). It prompted me to switch my officer list to mostly consisting of Specialists, Shinobis, and my one Phantom Holo Targeter Sharpshooter. xD

I'm definitely prioritizing armor more for my next run -- officers in kevlar just generally scare me nowadays. xD

[Icreatedthisforyou]

Delete the first squad then never look back. You end up mixing and matching with wounds and different missions allowing different soldiers. Squads naturally shake out as a result so it is easy to still keep officers and soldiers so you still get that benefit, but without the annoyances.

Haven advisors is the big one, but just in general I find the mechanics of them clunky

[marceror]

It's a little sad to me that this feature seems to be getting minimal use from players, since it has been such a source of inspiration in my game. For me, the squads are working to the point that I consistently have the bulk of a squad in mission together, if not the full squad. Officers for some of my more established squads have run missions up to 10 - 15 times with their squad members, and counting.

I've somehow found a way to make it work. I'm not sure if it's because I'm playing on veteran and others are playing on higher difficulties, where it becomes less likely to hold a squad together? Surely I'm not the only one.

Also, what does it mean when you say that creating a squad is a death warrant for an officer? Since I haven't lost an officer yet in my game, I'm just uncertain what to think.

[Jacke]

I would say make 6 squads. Start all of them with a Shinobi that eventually gets 2Lt with Oscar Mike. As soon as possible, add in a Specialist non-medic who doesn't get officer so can be used with the Shinobi on stealth missions. For the first 3 squads, eventually add in an Officer with Focus Fire for fighting missions, either a Specialist Medic, a Ranger, or a Holotarget Sniper, and if the Officer isn't a Specialist Medic, add a Specialist Medic. Outside of the squads, build up Technicals trained as Officers with Focus Fire for Haven Advisors. Also Gunners, Rangers, Grenadiers, DFA Sharpshooters outside of squads and add them in as needed for missions. Eventually if you get enough, put 2 Gunners in each of the first 3 squads, as well as a Grenadier Support. For big missions, you can still add in across squads.

[Redjac]

I like to use squads for specific mission types and for role-playing. So I do the same thing the OP does. But where do all the soldiers come from? I have never played past May. But that seemed like a lot of soldiers. How many total in those squads?

I have only recruited about 4-5 rookies. Bought 1 from the Black Market. So far I have never made past May. I keep losing at Long War 2.
I won the XCOM 2 vanilla on Commander and Veteran with Ironman enabled. I was doing ok on Legend when the Long War 2 mod came out. There is something about the new geoscape I am missing. I really have no idea how to prevent Retaliations. Off topic I know.

Redjac

[marceror]

I like to use squads for specific mission types and for role-playing. So I do the same thing the OP does. But where do all the soldiers come from? I have never played past May. But that seemed like a lot of soldiers. How many total in those squads?

I have only recruited about 4-5 rookies. Bought 1 from the Black Market. So far I have never made past May. I keep losing at Long War 2.
I won the XCOM 2 vanilla on Commander and Veteran with Ironman enabled. I was doing ok on Legend when the Long War 2 mod came out. There is something about the new geoscape I am missing. I really have no idea how to prevent Retaliations. Off topic I know.

Redjac

It's October in my game and I currently have 93 - 94 soldiers total. How do I get them? I've hired every soldier available in the Armory since the game started, as well as every soldier available on the Black Market. I've gotten many soldiers from running jailbreaks, escort missions, etc. I would say that I've prioritized gaining soldiers pretty much at the top of my list, since even a poorly equipped soldier is better than no soldier at all. As I mentioned in my original post, I have not lost any soldiers yet (the exception that I mentioned in the OP notwithstanding).

[marceror]

Oh, and I also have a few Sparks, of course.

[shhfiftyfive]

i have a squad of:
- youtubers
- tmnt cast
- witcher 3 cast
- star wars troopers

i'm expanding my character pool now that LW2 is out. more squads will come.



also, for those who feel the squad thing isn't getting much use, due to wounds and lack of early game officers... try out the mod 'squad cohesion'. should be incentive enough to try to keep soldiers together, even w/o officers in play.

[marceror]

i have a squad of:
- youtubers
- tmnt cast
- witcher 3 cast
- star wars troopers

i'm expanding my character pool now that LW2 is out. more squads will come.

Nice! I knew I couldn't be the only one!

also, for those who feel the squad thing isn't getting much use, due to wounds and lack of early game officers... try out the mod 'squad cohesion'. should be incentive enough to try to keep soldiers together, even w/o officers in play.

I used it in my previous Legend run through. I'm keeping my initial LW2 run through very "vanilla", with just a few cosmetic and quality of life mods installed.

****
In my game I'm nearing the end of October, and for the first time I have all 10 out of 10 squads infiltrating! I have only ONE soldier out of 94 available. I may need to resort to pulling out Haven Advisors and/or officer/AWC trainees if I want to try and field another mission! Probably time to get back to recruiting some rookies too!

Damn, LW is great!!

[andanteinblue]

The squad interface does have a few usability issues (the Haven advisor thing comes to mind, and potentially could be an easy fix once the devs get around to it). I like the idea thematically, and so my squads started out as thematically organized, and then sort of grew into their own specialities. Currently just entered September and expanding my roster.

I have two and a half core teams. Firefly is based on the popular TV show. Due to its ensemble cast, they quickly filled out to a full squad, and get sent HQ assaults and supply raids. Not quite what I had in mind originally, but I'm sure Mal secretly enjoys sticking it to the man, guns blazing.

The second core team is based on some popular Youtubers that I watch. I could easily fill out a large roster with streamers, but for whatever reason, I kept this group fairly compact. They ended up going on the first tower mission, and they've become my go-to small strike squad for these mid-sized missions. I've kept them at a "half team" size for that.

The third core team is based on some close RL friends. They're my second "assault squad", usually tackling supply raids and troop columns while Firefly is infiltrating an HQ.

Then I have a few small squads for small team infiltration missions, themed after whatever came to mind at the time. I intend to keep these teams very compact (2 or 3 people each, including a dedicated officer), to rack up that officer bonus. I have a few small squads that will probably grow out to larger teams too, once I start to fill out my roster. I want a second full sized assault squad, and another mid-sized strike squad. I also have random seasoned floaters who lack a squad. They didn't thematically fit into any squad, so end up fulfilling haven duty until someone from the main squad goes on vacation in the sickbay.