Secondary weapons useless.

[Kwic]

Hi,
I've just finished my elite campaign. What I noticed is that I've never used the secondary weapons. And I 've never used the bomb pack (the one exploding after two rounds).

Does someone found any utility of these items ? They might be useful if they could be used as some kind of "bous action".

[torra6]

The bomb seems mostly useful for area denial and it seems that when you throw it near a group they prioritize running away from it rather than attacking you. It does seem really situational, but when you're trying to get to the exfil and can block off an entire side of a building? Handy.

[FroBodine]

I used it once so far. And I agree with torra6 . . . it did not damage anybody, but made them run away.

[Carl Brutananadilewski]

The only time I've opted for satchel charges at all is when needing to destroy two aircraft and wanting it to be handled without having to shoot at them to do. I do feel like they have no real combat use (area denial aside) as nothing will stay in its range unless you break or stun someone consecutively. Grenades in general feel kind of weird, especially with how quickly they begin to lose efficacy.

As far as sidearms: I've only had use cases for them when I had 1-2 AP left and a shot I could take or 1-4 AP with an empty primary weapon that has a 5AP reload cost. I think their presence in the skill trees is kind of a waste (like hipfire accuracy bonuses on Leaders which only applies to sidearms for them).

[FroBodine]

I have taken +1 sidearm damage on quite a few of my dudes. I think it's pretty good. The pistols have come in handy many times for me. A little hit with morale damage is better than no hit at all.

Why does hip fire accuracy only apply to sidearms for leaders? I am unclear on that.

[Carl Brutananadilewski]

Yeah, their only primary weapons used aimed shots unless the STG changes that (but I don't believe it does). I have considered going all in on pistols with Comba (to keep Tremblay as a stand-by) and seeing how it worked out but some parts of the trees do feel a bit meh. +5 Morale isn't really going to be worth taking over basically any other option (aside from perhaps those hipfire accuracy bonuses in the leader tree). I also feel like killzone is just too damn good not to take on a heavy and the same for fusillade and the reload-on-kill with snipers. It feels like a waste to not go for the full heals on supports also.

[Dickie]

I use satchel charges while still in stealth mode to blow up armored cars on the same turn I break stealth. It's easier than getting up close to them, and it doesn't alert the enemies if none are in the small noise range when you first throw it. You toss them on one turn then move into a good position on the next turn and do the ambush immediately. The charge blows as soon as you end turn on that second turn, so the car can't shoot at you.

I also toss them where enemy reinforcements are coming in if I can get my heavy to overwatch the area.

Side arms are OK for heavies, since they'll stun on the second shot (even on a miss) if you have BULLETSTORM [Lv2]. In general, I think they're pretty good for secondary shots when you don't have enough AP to use your main weapon because you need to move a little.

The low accuracy on pistols means they're only usually able to do a small bit of morale damage instead of real damage, so I also use them sometimes to push enemies to suppressed or broken when they're slightly over the line. A guy firing a 0% chance to hit pistol shot that suppresses a guy and lets somebody crit him to death is nice. If it was going to take 2 shots anyway, I prefer to save ammo for my main weapon on one guy.