1. First thing to note, especially when playing on Ironman, is what the principle 'Surprise!' threats to your soldiers are. These are the things that will suddenly result in the death of one of your hombres. The main ones are:
* Anything that can destroy the floor under you,
* faceless,
* exploding cars,
* Buried Chryssalids,
* Explosive weapons
* and most importantly....triggering multiple pods
I am paranoid about avoiding these things. My whole strategy is built around not triggering multiple pods, and I never ever use cars as cover in a firefight. I am pretty cavalier about getting on roofs because I think the accuracy bonus is huge and 'death from above' is really powerful, but I always focus on killing units (like bots) that can destroy the floor and make your guys fall to their deaths.
In the first couple of retaliation missions you need to be extraordinarily careful about faceless. Do not approach a civilian unless you have the capacity to put down a faceless with your leftover orders that turn. One swipe usually kills your soldier.
Explosive weapons that injure multiple parties that quickly snowball into a major problem if they happen in a few consecutive missions because you will have to bring in C-team soldiers who aren't very good and this will compound the problem. This is especially the case if you don't have the advanced warfare centre yet and your guys take weeks to heal.
2. My principle tactic is: use rangers in concealment (the phantom skill) to scout forward and ensure that you do not trigger multiple pods. When hovering over a square to check movement, you can whether moving there will give you line of fire (LoF) to an enemy by noting whether the little target icon appears next to the enemies health bar. Using this method, you can set up good strikes and stop yourself from triggering multiple pods.
One thing to be mindful of is the ranger triggering buried Chrysalids. A ranger rovering far forward can get themselves into a very tight spot with this because the Chrysalid will spot you when they attack, which might trigger a pod and your ranger will be stranded and probably out of movement for an escape. As a general defence strategy, use scanning beacons (My snipers usually carry them until I get wraith armour) when you suspect buried enemies. Scanning protocol is also good, but I think the field medic ability (3 medkit uses) is more important for your specialists.
3. The second half of my principle tactic is to set snipers onto killzone over pods that your ranger has scouted, then trigger those pods, typically by lobbing a grenade at them with your grenadier. The grenade will shred any armour in the vicinity, and then the snipers will take a shot per enemy as they move to cover. This is effectively like getting 6 free actions. It is brutally powerful. Your specialists can then mop up and your ranger moves on to scout more territory.
4. Most important rule of XCOM: only trigger one pod at a time, and always kill any area of effect (explosive) weapons before they can be used.
5. If your ranger gets revealed and you don't have the conceal ability to re-camouflage (I usually don't take it because run and gun is so ridiculously powerful), then use specialists with the ever-vigilant ability as scouts. They get overwatch if they double move, which means you don't lose an action.
6. If there is no time limit, slow it right down. Only double move with your first action, and even then keep your movements short and always end in full cover. Double back and make sure you don't accidentally get flanked. Scout out everything and plan your attack vectors. Get your snipers and grenadiers into high ground positions.
7. Flashbangs are extremely important early in the game - basically until you get 6 person squads. They have a large area of effect and effectively neutralise their targets for 2 turns. You often can't kill a whole pod at the start of the game and the only way to keep yourself from getting fried by a mark+shoot order from a captain is to flashbang the pod. I almost always take 2 into every mission.
8. Mimic beacons replace flash-bangs. I have my ranger (I usually only have 1 ranger) take one. If things get hairy she can reveal or use run-and-gun for positioning before throwing the mimic beacon and buying some time. They are especially important against Archons when they first start appearing.
9. In the early game (basically until you get magnetic weapons), grenades are the main way you kill people because they are a guaranteed hit. Your guns miss half the time and barely do any damage. For the most part, I take medkits rather than grenades.
10. Use the roof! A lot of veterans disagree with me on this one, siting the prospect of falling to your death, but I don't think that's a major issue for snipers because they are usually far back from the action. It is often a cinch to get ~100% to-hit chance when you're on the roof, and the accuracy bonus is really important in the early stages of the game. Just make sure that when you trigger a bot you put it down because it can launch mini missiles, and if an Archon drops pinions high tail it out of there.
11. Make sure you rotate the squad a lot, but rush someone to sergeant to get wet-works and squad size 1 and 2, all of which make levelling up faster. I usually roll 3-deep in all classes and I play an extremely conservative style.
12. Be mindful of who gets kills in the early game so that you can get that one soldier to sergeant but are otherwise spreading the experience. I find it's usually rangers who level up the fastest early on, then snipers once they get squadsight and killzone.
13. My priority is to get to magnetic weapons, wetworks and squad size 6 early on. Everything else is pretty redundant, but I do start digging to power coils ASAP. After that I tend to chill out and work on the ship and my radio network to increase revenues. I don't bother with psi at all until late in the game, and I think the advanced warfare centre is a bit overrated. If you're good and following the scout + killzone method, you won't need the healing ability that much, and while the bonus skills thing can be amazing, it's very random.
14. The sniper rifle and shotgun are the most important weapons to upgrade I think because they do the most damage and because snipers are your primary killers. Also because if a shotgun doesn't put down an enemy your ranger is about to get pawned. Grenadiers do most of their damage with grenades and shredding armour. Their damage remains low all game, and specialists often have other things to do like heal, alternate attacks like combat protocol, or are being used to polish off enemies on 2 health.
15. When building my radio network, I tend to make contact at 30 and 60 intel but then build a radio tower before spreading further. This improves revenues and also leaves more intel leftover to purchase things on the black market. Sometimes you can't do this because you desperately need to reach a facility, but that usually only happens once per game.
16. My default squad is sniper + sniper + ranger + specialist + grenadier + psi. Until you get a magi I usually replace the psi operative with either a second specialist or grenadier depending on how much hacking I think I'm going to need.
In retaliation missions the squad changes to sniper + ranger + ranger + specialist + grenadier + psi and if I don't have a magi yet I often take a third ranger. The reason for this is that run and gun is often extremely important for securing a hostage before they get boomed. Snipers are too slow in retaliation missions. Grenadiers are important but sometimes an explosion will kill a civilian. I will sometimes take a second specialist instead of a ranger but only if that specialist has scanning protocol. It is critical that you be able to handle faceless and buried Chrysalids in retaliation.
17. Make sure you always have hackers available for missions involving 'hack workstation' or 'rescue VIP from convoy'. This is for two reasons. First, hacking a workstation always has bonuses associated with it, notably "permanently increase this units hacking stat". Hackers will get these rewards more reliably, and the effect compounds over the course of a game. I once had a specialist who had a 90% chance to take control of sectopods. Second, the gremlin allows you to hack workstations remotely, which can often be the difference between a win and a loss in these missions as you can't quite reach the workstation in time and need to expose yourself to fire to do so.
18. Use the black market! Engineers are a bit too expensive but supplies, fast research and upgrades are often very cheap and well worth the intel. Fast research is particularly important early when you're trying to get mag weapons, and supplies are very important in the mid-game.
19. Here comes my equipment/skills breakdown. Note that * means that this class gets priority access to this particular piece of equipment
Snipers:
Wraith Armour*: the grapple and mobility bonus allows them to get into position at almost unfair speeds and they never get hit so you don't mind the lower armour values.
AP rounds*: my snipers typically shoot at targets before anyone else on my squad, which means they still have all their armour. Using AP rounds mitigates this and means you always get max damage. A grenade + 2 AP rounds from plasma snipers is enough to drop any enemy in the game besides maybe sectopods and gatekeepers, and even they struggle to stay standing.
Battle scanners: prior to getting their wraith armour, I usually equip my snipers with battle scanners because they don't have anything better to do and this allows me to scout territory and reveal faceless and Chrysalids. In late-game retaliation missions I will take these instead of wraith armour.
Enhanced mobility: I find snipers need to get into position in one turn and then keep firing while other people get into position. This helps me do that. Perception is also good for long-range kills, but I find that I've often got 100% anyway because of high-ground and no cover during kill-zone.
Scope*: This is obvious
Expanded Magazine*: This is so important. Having 4 or 5 shots means you can drop a 3 shot killzone and then keep firing in the next turn or if another pod gets into the action. You can then use death from above to reload.
Repeater*: My sniper is usually the first to fire at a target, so they are the obvious choice to receive an upgrade that gives a chance to instantly kill a target.
Longwatch: this is obvious
Lightning Hands: I default to abilities that give you extra actions. I often find lightning hands invaluable for polishing off a weak enemy (or a close range enemy with 2 pistol shots) while allowing my sniper to move into a better position. I have no doubt that this is better than deadeye.
Death From Above: The main reason why I take this is so that I can reload after killing a target. The sequence typically goes 3 shots in overwatch from killzone, then one shot in active turn to nail someone, reload and you're ready to keep rumbling. Having to reload costs you a whole turn without this skill.
Killzone: This is the most powerful ability in XCOM2. I often get 6-8 free actions out of it in a single turn by triggering a pod after setting 2 snipers to killzone over it.
Steady Hands: because I use rangers to scout, I rarely need to use hunker down. This ability improves the capacity of my snipers to kill any stragglers left alive after a killzone and often improves the killzone itself.
Serial: Free actions are the best actions. This is often important in the late-game missions where you have enemies continuously coming at you or just generally after a pod is weakened by a grenade.
Rangers:
Warden Armour, secondary: Wraith Armour
EMP grenade: Your ranger is typically the unit closest to a freshly activated sectopod or gatekeeper. Lob one of these babies at it and stun the bugger. Breathe easy.
Mimic Beacon: Your ranger is typically the unit closest to a freshly activated pod that you can't put down, and they also have the most mobility thanks to run and gun, so they are the most suitable soldier to lob one of these in emergency situations.
Laser sight*: rangers are all about using critical chance to put down things that spot them in a single shot. This upgrade is critical to that.
Superior Conditioning*: If anyone is going to cop an accidental beating in this game it's your ranger, so make sure they can survive.
Hair trigger*: Thanks to their mobility, penchant for one-shot kills and access to implacable, the ranger seems to me to be able to make the best use of free actions. Free action with implacable is savage.
Phantom: Can't scout without it, and swordplay is really quite weak
Shadowstep: So important for breaking overwatch, especially in the early game against bots
Run and gun: conceal is great, but this ability is actually busted. I thought it was the most powerful ability in XCOM1 (where I used to regularly run 3 rangers). The ability to cover huge ground and then deliver a 100% accuracy (thanks to flanking) 10+ damage shot to a target has saved my bacon numerous times.
Implacable: Free actions are always good and melee stinks. This helps you safely make suicide runs to put down targets with a shotgun by allowing you to then retreat to safety. It also combos phenomenally with hair triggers.
Untouchable: This is an insurance mechanism. Sometimes you just need to run out and shotgun something before it has a chance to lob a bomb at your squad, for example. But this leaves you hanging in the wind. Untouchable means that even if someone does track you down after your implacable retreat move, they can't hurt you. It also turns your ranger into a mimic beacon provided you can move so as to attract only one shot (notably from melee units).
Reaper: I very rarely use it and actually use rapid fire more often, but the capacity of this ability to do mop up, especially in multi-level buildings with the movement component, is important for insurance purposes. I think it just edges out rapid fire, but that is good too for sectopods, gatekeepers etc.
Specialist
Warden Armour
Skull jack: It's all about increasing your hacking stat. The main job for these guys is to shut down sectopods, bots and andromedons. Got to max that hacking stat. Skulljack also gives you an excellent instant-kill ability that unlocks intel. I always have 2 skulljacks in inventory for my specialists.
Medikit: always worth having
Dragon/Venom rounds: If you've got an extra slot from carapace armour, then these guys get the negative effect ammos because they do a lot of my desperation shooting. Note that the best thing about these ammos isn't the damage bonus, it's that the target takes penalties to hit. If they're on fire they can't even shoot.
These guys get whatever PCS I have leftover after the other guys get theirs. Perception is best.
Same goes for weapon upgrades, but I particularly like auto-loader, scope, repeater and hair trigger.
Superior Stock*: I do give these guys first dibs on stocks, because I typically use them to shoot last at beleaguered enemies. 3 guaranteed damage is often enough to ensure they go down.
Combat protocol: Medical protocol is unnecessary as you can just move to heal with a medikit, whereas combat protocol becomes increasingly more important as the game goes on. It does massive damage to robotic targets and always hits, which is huge.
Haywire protocol: One of the most important abilities in the game. Shutting down sectopods and andromedons allows you to finish off their pods efficiently before returning to take them out. This is basically a one-shot kill ability.
Field Medic: I tend to only have 1 specialist on mission, so having 3 medikits is useful. Late game scanning protocol is nice, but until then you've got scanning beacons on your snipers.
Threat assessment: I tend to default to insurance abilities when I'm unsure, and covering fire doesn't seem to trigger for me sometimes when I think it should. Threat assessment is helpful when you've got a trooper exposed. They get a defence boost and a free shot. This can be extremely helpful for rangers about to get eaten because their free shot often does a tonne of damage.
Ever vigilant: This turns your specialists into effective secondary scouts. Guardian is useful but kind of overkill, whereas ever vigilant protects you from the primary threat in XCOM2 - triggering multiple pods.
Capacitor discharge: Restoration is really good, but killing people before they hurt you is better than healing your own guys. The discharge has the added benefit of completely wrecking bots.
Grenadiers:
WAR Suit: I mostly take this for the extra heavy weapon. I have never used the shield ability, but if you play without the scout-killzone method I imagine it is much more frequently useful.
Plasma Grenades: I don't bother with the special grenades except for a single EMP grenade for a ranger. Plasma grenades do the main things you need grenades to do better than any other grenade: destroy cover and shred armour. The other grenades all sacrifice one of these. The acid grenade is okay and I sometimes give it to someone (psi or secondary ranger) to throw, but it isn't useful for the grenadier. Additionally, nobody is immune to the plasma grenade while various enemies are immune to the other types. As such, you often can't actually get 'multi-hits' with the other grenades the way you can with plasma, so the damage output of plasma is higher overall.
Plasma bomb: I can't remember what it's called but it is NOT the plasma blaster. This is the experimental heavy weapon that fires a homing plasma grenade. The other heavies are mostly crap. The shredstorm cannon is my backup because it has a decent dispersion and range and shreds armour, which is the main thing I need from my grenadiers.
Bluescreen ammunition: With spider suits, I usually give my heavies this because they spend a lot of time shooting at robotic enemies to shred their armour. Might as well get some extra damage in too.
Superior Perception*: Grenadiers are remarkably bad at hitting things with their gatling guns; this helps that a bit.
Auto loader*: Grenadier abilities take up all your ammo, so free reloads are much more important than larger clips, which should be given to your snipers instead.
Other upgrades don't really matter, but my grenadiers are usually second in line for repeaters and scopes. The first because they often take first shot at big targets and the second because they are quite bad at hitting targets.
Shredder: A critical skill. Only the grenadier can really do this effectively and you need it against the top-tier enemies.
Suppression: Not as useful as you might think, but a good insurance policy.
Holo-targetting: Tough call. As I mentioned, my heavy is usually the first to fire at a target to shred it's armour. This means that my grenadier then confers a to-hit bonus to everyone who fires on the weakened target. It's a good force multiplier. Heavy ordinance is also good.
Volatile mix: Another tough call here but I find my grenadiers are bad at hitting targets, so taking a -15 to aim isn't worth the chance for an extra shot, especially as heavy damage is quite low. Instead I take this to improve grenades, which is the main thing my grenadiers bring to the party.
Hail of bullets: Yet another tough call. I really rate reliability in XCOM because it sucks when you're 85% to hit shot misses and leaves you in the lurch. Hail of bullets with holo-targetting is a very effective way to put down hard targets, and the 3-ammo requirement is not a big deal with auto-loaders.
Rupture: Saturation fire doesn't have a wide enough arc. Rupture booms something and applies holo-targetting and the rupture effect, making it very efficient.
Psi-ops
Venom/Dragon rounds, mimic beacons, bluescreen rounds, EMP grenades, scanners: the loadout for these guys really depends a bit on what others are bringing to the mission. By default, I equip my psychers to kill robots because their psi abilities kill organics. In late game missions where my snipers have wraith suits I will always take a scanner on my psi-ops in retaliation missions, otherwise it's either a mimic beacon or special ammunition.
Superior Will*: Will determines whether your domination powers work. Mobility is also good because psi operatives are really slow.
Superior Stock* I use these guys in a very similar way to specialists to put down weakened enemies. After the stock they usually just get whatever is left lying around.
It's largely pointless to talk about psi abilities because you don't really get to choose and I don't usually take them into battle until I have all of them. Taking a hit just slows down their rate of power acquisition. The most important ones are domination, soulfire, void rift and confuse in that order. The rest are largely irrelevant, but null lance can occasionally come in handy because it is a guaranteed hit. Don't think of it as an area of effect attack, think of it as a definite hit.
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