LW2 1.5 Officers and Squads

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Jacke
Posts: 623
Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2017 1:10 am

LW2 1.5 Officers and Squads

Post by Jacke »

What solder class officers do you use? With what perks? What squads do you make up? How do these influence what builds you go for on the various soldier classes?

From discussion on my LW2 1.5 Specialist Builds topic, I think considering the Officers and Squads overall is important to figuring out what builds to use.

I decided in my current game to go with Specialist Officers, primarily to always have their medical and hacking skills available, as well as some overwatch. I would also have Technical Officers (2Lt or 1Lt at most) for Havens and perhaps a Snapshot Sharpshooter Major with Trial By Fire and Lead By Example for training. And check out other Officers, like Shinobi and Gunsmoke Grenadiers.

Then Xwynns had a video today.

Long War 2 Legend S3E20 "Tactical Artillery"

Prominently, he had a Technical Officer use Oscar Mike at a crucial moment to get the squad moving. And use Command on a Specialist to get him in position to hack a jail break. Not to mention make an amazing rocket shot (must have Fire in the Hole) that just missed by enough to add in hitting a Mech along with a Sectoid and 2 ADVENT.

With mostly Specialist Officers, I often can't command a Specialist unless the squad has 2. But that would be true for all soldier classes. But maybe I should have gone for Technicals as my Squad Officers. Because maybe Commanding a Specialist will be needed more often and will help more than Commanding a Technical. Or some other soldier class.
Snipethis
Posts: 26
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2017 4:54 pm

Re: LW2 1.5 Officers and Squads

Post by Snipethis »

My Officers tend to be some of my Specialists but all Shinobis.

Rationale is the same as I read somewhere else... it allows my Shinobi to be useful throughout the mission rather than only at the end when he breaks conceal. Also my Shinobi tends to have greatest movement so he can run around the place to do his official duties on anyone in the squad without affecting the squad DPS.

I found that I wasnt using Specialists as much in this campaign (in vanilla I would routinely take a squad full of only Specialists), so wanted to get a bit more out of them. I am currently trying to respec my Specialists into Support and OW to make my Support Grenadiers redundant (as I never use at the moment).

Making Specialists Officers as well would mean they have too many options for only 2 action points, so cant see it being anything other than Shinobi.
TrainInVain
Posts: 27
Joined: Sat Sep 02, 2017 3:24 pm

Re: LW2 1.5 Officers and Squads

Post by TrainInVain »

I use both shinobi and specialist officers.

I prefer the shinobi officers on smaller missions with an OW/Medical specialist.

On larger missions and bases, I prefer to have my hacking specialists officers who are generally towards the back near the snipers for when I need to use Get Some for DFA snipers to Kibukiri.

Mid to late game I try to have as many psi soldiers as possible for haven advisors and train as opportunities arise. Its pretty hard to fit in training time between the psi soldiers needing the psi lab and finding spots in between shinobi's and specialists training though.
LordYanaek
Posts: 940
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2017 1:34 pm

Re: LW2 1.5 Officers and Squads

Post by LordYanaek »

I'm not currently playing a campaign, the following is based on my 1.4 campaign but there haven't been a lot of changes (if any) to officers for 1.5.

I play with fixed squads (personal preference and it maximizes the effect of "Esprit de Corps" which i find extremely useful just for the faster infiltration - not to mention other bonuses). That means each squad has his officer and even thought i try to keep "spare" officers available they are not built for synergy with the rest of the squad (and have low "Esprit de Corps" bonuses).
As a result a squad that doesn't currently have his designated officer available is a squad that's running at reduced efficiency and i want my officers on the field rather than training at the GTS so my officers are whoever have Quick Study. I had a varied staff of officers in that 1.4 campaign including an Assault and Grenadier who would probably not be everyone's first choice. I found out they worked pretty well thought as i built both with perks allowing them to take non turn ending actions.

I'm not a big fan of Shinobi officers as my Shinobis tend to be among the biggest damage dealers in GOps squads (both Shootnobis and Bladenobis can be brutally efficient) while Scoutnobis operating in larger squads can be pretty far away from the rest of the squad. I had a Shinobi officer but she rarely used command as she was very effective taking flanking shots with her assault rifle so she was mostly a passive officer.

As you see, different people will find different combinations best for their own play-style so you're probably best finding what works for you than adopting another player's build, even when it's a very good player. I think i'll try to get Psi Operatives faster this time as they would make the perfect officers for me. Quick Study guaranteed and a number of useful non-turn ending abilities while their turn ending ones all have cooldowns allowing them to use Command without loosing much power.
Dwarfling
Posts: 524
Joined: Wed Jan 25, 2017 12:16 pm

Re: LW2 1.5 Officers and Squads

Post by Dwarfling »

I use exclusively Shinobis and Non-OW Specialists. I don't use Lead by Example nor fixed squads (too much of a hassle I think and I change my squad composition based on objectives).

Rationale:

Shinobi: Normally I have them stealthed for the first half of the mission, close to the team but spotting for the other pods. This way they can use their Officer skills and commands instead of revealing themselves, so your team still gets a good amount of relevant actions per pod while getting map information.

Non-OW Specialists: these guys are usually on the weak side except for situations where they can hack or Combat Protocol. They have low aim (otherwise I'd have made them OW spec), so their shooting is also weak. But with Officer skills and Specialist skills you get a plethora of non turn ending skills which contribute to action economy. And with command can give up an action so that other soldier can take a stronger action. Plus I give them EXO and Skulljack which turns them from a "meh" soldier into one that can really contribute.
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