Soldier Role Comparison/Pick Optimization

[Terminal]

What Soldier Roles/Weaponry does everybody find most effective, in what combinations?

Personally, the combination I find myself always leaning into is three Heavies, four assaults, and two snipers - having the assaults scout and lead to establish sightlines for the heavies and snipers. That way, I also don't have to sacrifice speed on timed missions, because with four assaults with high TU they can just sweep across the entire map quickly.

I tried using a Grenadier earlier on, but eventually phased them out - I found myself going out of my way NOT to use them since explosive deaths are penalized with less loot, and while the Smoke Grenade Launching is nice - especially for captures - I found that the sheer weight of the grenade launcher and ammo just wasn't worth it relative to having everybody actually carry demolition charges and smoke grenades.

I also used riflemen early on, but I found that they just didn't have enough stopping power at close range and not enough accuracy at long range - and given the insane trickshots aliens can pull even in the early game, it just seemed like a death sentence to me.

I also tried to use an automated/rover tank in my composition, but ultimately discarded it simply due to the cost. Even a tank upgraded with armor plating can die in just two shots from a normal Psyon, the basic rover costs the same amount as twenty-five soldiers to build and another twelve soldiers to repair every time it is destroyed - if it is even recovered (which it can't be on Cleaner Base missions where everything not brought back to the chopper is left behind). It's just not durable enough to merit the expense, especially since it largely does not benefit from cover the way soldiers do.

Finally, I tried using shield-users for a while but stopped for the simple reason that once all the scouting was done and I had an approximate idea where everything was, they were no longer really useful. Shields, even after upgrades, just generally aren't actually helpful for tanking shots. A normal Psyon can destroy a shield entirely in one shot. A Mentarch can both destroy the shield AND kill the soldier wielding it in one shot - and being restricted to pistols/batons/grenades for offensive options is not great, becoming even worse if they somehow live through their shield being destroyed.

[Terpus]

For me I tried to use sth like 2 snipers, 2-3 rifelmans, 2-3 assaults, 1 heavy and/or granadier.
I will in the future try something else, but rn Im wating for futher builds of the game.
But I have same problem, riflemans are useless, they lack range and dmg output.
I wish they could be more usefull, but they are trash. Its better to run and gun with shotties and set up few snipers.
To be honest I have problems with havies too, for me they awfully inaccurate, the suppresion in bugged rn in overwatch and roll on the dmg is rlly random.

[Warhunter]

before my transport upgrade i went with 2 assault 1 sniper 2 grenadier 4 rifles
after the upgrade i set it to 2 assault 2 sniper 2 grenadiers 6 rifles

my grenadiers are mostly set for cover destruction.
that building in the way? blow it up.
that forest blocking sight? blow it up.
that cargo container looks funny? blow it up

the fact HEVY launcher fire TU is fixed means that high TU soldiers can rapid fire them way faster than grenades.
my grenadiers had 96-100TU. i could rapid fire 4 grenades if i wanted to.
they arent for hurting the aliens but are support weapons to help the rest of your team

rifleman are just my standard. aimed shots do well and with the HEVY launchers blowing up every piece of cover they can hit stuff quite well
while maintaining enough mobility they can go places and cover with reaction shots

mars units get better once you get alloy plating for them. something like 40 armor when set to heavy.
which means they can soak a couple plasma shots. through i dropped them so i can focus on leveling up my soldiers

[Bird of Few Birds]

Shields are extremely good, and pistols are an excellent close-to-close mid range weapon compared to Xenonauts 1. I couldn't imagine playing without having two shield guys to scout ahead and breach UFOs with my assaults. They ended up having the most kills and least downtime out of all my soldiers.
Something would have to do over 180 damage in one shot to kill one of my shield guys with a base level shield, and 260 with the upgraded one, which is never going to happen.

Having two more assaults instead leads to faster missions, but they're practically assured to take damage/die, so it's only worth it for the turn limited missions.

[baddoggs]

At the start i use one sniper and the rest riflemen.
Anything else is just complication for the sake of it.
Rifles and 'nades get the job done, no muss, no fuss.

[silverthorn3]

2 shields, 1 sniper, 1 heavy, 3 assaults, 5 riflemen.

[Bloodman]

Six riflemen, two snipers, one MARS with rockets and smoke launcher; the riflemen do the busy work, overlapping cones of fire, and general engagements, snipers try to find the best vantage points and provide long range cover and lure enemies into overwatch, MARS provides smoke concealment and uses rockets to obliterate walls and cover to reveal as much map as possible.

I've tried assaults and heavies and aimed shots from riflemen just seem better, but I imagine accurate assaults are very deadly later on, and heavies sometimes are useful, just very slow, so I dislike them a bit. I haven't really tried shields much except for the very early game, but they seem okay.

[Darbie]

9 Shield with Stun Batons. You can play other ways?

[Catsander]

Shields!?