Share Your Squads! c:

[DiveSignal]

Screenshots and/or favourite squad builds, anyone? It would benefit my balance-tweak quest greatly to get to witness most commanders' configurations and share the growth of their Ground Teams :) i wish to leave this an experience you can keep coming back to while we are hard at work dealing with post-launch and ramping up for a new kind of Strain game

[Murb]

I will say that i think a lot of the character types are not useful and in fact i would be curious if anyone uses them.

Examples:
-The irradiated guys
-Basically everyone in the starter base who doesn't start with equipment


For a long time i used:
Medic
Decon
Scout cyber swat
Minigun cyber swat
Flame thrower guy with shield (eventually switched to sniper cyber swat)

The cyber swat guys are probably... poorly designed. They are either completely overpowered making most other units useless, or they randomly go rogue and you have to reload. There is no middle ground. If you baby sit them a ton and have a morale booster, they are basically unstoppable, but they will still sometimes randomly go rogue for no reason even with that. The morale system can be wonky at times.

Now i am using:
-Colony Breacher X2 with minigun
-Fast Kill team to run around
-Kill team with sniper rifle
-Decon

Eventually i am going to swap the decon for fligth crew for the damage bonus i think.

Colony Breachers are an interesting unit. They are extremely hard to kill from fighting, but they are super slow, seem to have an aura that lowers morale, their damage bonuses are not high (compared to cyber swat mainly) and they take a large amount of sustained damage over time. They require a lot of micromanagement and careful planning, but they can be very effective. I use them with each one having the unlimited med kit with the rest of their slots full of speed boosts. Then i just perioidically (or in combat) drop the medkit
so they don't die.

I think the following elements are key to a good squad:
-Someone fast: there are missions that require at least one person moving around a ton and slow people are REALLY slow
-1-2 people who can take damage
-Someone who can heal: beinbg an actual medic helps a lot but isn't needed
-Someone who is immune to infection
-Someone who can heal infection
-Someone with the laser targeter abillity which boosts damage against a target (bonus points)
-A sniper (mid to late game mostly)

Obviously the same person can fulfill more than one of those elements. For example, My 2 colony breachers are my tanks and my healers.

Also because my two main fighters are immune to infection, i am going to dump my decon unit. I would always recommend having someone immune to infection in case you need to get in close with enemies, especially the nests.

Note that i'm still not sure that this squad build is better than just using full cyber swat, but i'm hoping it will lower the number of reloads due to someone randomly going rogue.


As a general comment, i would really like to see some of the soldiers without real abilities looked at so there are more soldier types that feel useful. I'd also like it if morale system was a little more... predictable. Although if morale was made easier, cyberswat may need a reduction in power.

[Eagle-1's Side Piece]

3x kill team DULF SONA RIES, 1x navex gunner ROWL, 1x aircrew SEAR for special assignments or hot pickups only

High speed no drag, kill everything with CAS, grenades, mines and RPGs to compensate for short range and lack of knockback. Deep 6 is often an asset rather than liability - its fun to think RIES is such a badass that she blows herself up in CQC rather than get Thing'd and compromise the mission :D Who cares, she'll get recloned and a new tatt on her sleeve to commemorate taking out a Spiker with her....

Mission-specific specialists ("tourists") rotated on as neccessary.

Direct action team drilling peel and break contact to LZ[i.makeagif.com]

[Angela™]

Most solid setup so far i've managed:

Rowl (standard xnaval) MAR4-DMR, AC unit, LIDAR "standby" FCS

Kain (Cyberswat) MAR4-DMR, AC unit, LIDAR "standby" FCS. Still worried AC unit doesn't in the slightest affect rogue duration but good lord it works so why not. Might get armor if it fails to do anything.

Moko (Cyberswat) Tactical Minigun 'gatty', AC unit, LIDAR "standby" FCS (see a pattern yet ?)

Jakal (combat engineer). Shotty, infinite infection kit, infinite medic kit. She's my medic / anti biohazard all in one. Saves 2 mans for 1 cooler mans with a shotty and an attitude.

Ries (Killteam) Static Assault Shield, 20MM Monster Killer. Switch as needed, good times in any situation. Soak too much dmg? Have a free grenade. Nothing to block? sniper mode. Works especially miraculous with shield out standing in those red clouds. Nonstop grenades basically. Can backfire but not often


Basic strategy, Ries & Jakal take point, rowl, kain & moko get vantage points where possible, wreck everything thanks to 200% spotting, 50% permanent dmg boost. Need solid sniping? Deploy LIDAR, Ries goes sniper mode, clears map in <10 minutes.

Unstoppable in any situation, occasionally setting traps but does fine without.

No medics, no anti infection people, permanent morale / spotting / dmg boost for any class, allround range cover, good times.

[Loira]

An image is worth 100 words, love blue berets, shoot to kill, no mercy, good on meele, not chickens like all the rest, im just missing a flametrower.
http://i.imgur.com/bpL1ju3.png

[DiveSignal]

Haha, loving that blue beret setup. Should give them some secondary machetes or stun batons and hot-swap em for when they go into bodyguard :) Its gd stuff

Found one of my fav pics! http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=931957625

[Caravan of the Souls]

2x Torp with LCR-E, P2 Compact, BioWar Standby healing, and Stinky Boots.

1x Sturm with "Stumpy", P2 Compact, BioWar Standby healing, and Stinky Boots.

1x Grav with "Outranger", BioWar Standby healing, HMG60/20MM MK, and Stinky Boots.

1x Moko with Static Assault Shield and 3x RPG

Torp is general combat and fire support. Sturm is point defense, distraction for Colonies, and fastest. Grav is heavy weapons, but carries the Outranger as a primary weapon. If really heavy weaponry is needed, drop Moko and start launching rockets. The strategy is to advance slowly and cover everything, stopping often to drop the BioWar kits and heal. Works amazingly on exterminate missions, less amazingly on rescue missions. On a rescue mission, drop as close as possible, then get to the objective. Have Sturm take the person, and make a defensive bodyblock line at the exit once Sturm passes. Breachers are really good at staying in place and blocking Strain, so always try to make defensive lines. If you get swarmed, don't worry, Breachers have stupidly high resistances. Because of their immunity to fire, the CBM-7 doesn't do much, so you can drop tight groups of CBM around them in a pinch. If more protection is required, switch the sidearms and boots with ballistic plates for those passive resistances (95% melee and ranged resist to 98% melee and ranged resist). Only 3% more resistance, but it means 60% less damage. If feeling fire inclined, switch Torp primaries with flamer, stolen from Sweeper Teams. If more 20MM MKs are required, go fight PMCs and steal their MK. If more RPGs are required, don't worry. The amount of killed Strain will generate lots of money, so you can buy 30 at once and still be able to buy like 200 (like me).

Don't worry about morale, infection, paranoia, blindness, or death. Colony Breachers don't have time for that. They're too busy slowly walking wherever you told them to.

On Heartbreaker, keep Moko in the Helibase. You should be doing this anyway, but in case you aren't, do it now. Once the bomb explodes, you can steal everything First Wave dropped, plus you can retrieve your expensive Breachers and their kit.

[DiveSignal]

Warms teh heart to see heartbreaker tactics c:

[libbmaster]

2x Assault class combat drones with shotguns
1x KOMA with DMR, 3x balistic plate
1x SCAB with Assault rifle, 3x balistic plate
1x SEAR with Decon standby kit (no weapon)

Notes:

The drones are the highlight. I love how the AI makes them stand back to back: they move through facilites like some kind of freaky robotic mashup between the boondock saints and the DOOM marine.

All those balistic plates are for protection from friendly fire. I've had bad experinces with the AI shooting each other in the back while angling for a firing position.

Don't know if you can tell, but I hate getting infected/microing decon pills so I tend to use drones/Decon personel.

SEAR is the exception: the 2x damage makes KOMA's DMR a one shot on nearly any enemy. Typicly drop my organic personel in a corner of the map for ground control and then send in the drones.

Using the drones to rescue hostages is very risky because of terrmius, but they're ususally so effecient at killing strain that I don't have to worry about infection.

[Bland]

Finished up Heartbreaker last night, left my squad and equipment as they were so I could write it up. Five soldiers dropped in to support omega team. Five soldiers extracted safely. DULF, CAST, KOMA, RAUK, and ROWL dropped in. The only sketchy part was when ROWL started panicking on the way to evac and KOMA had to hold his weapon for safekeeping. Yeah, I wouldn't have called that happening either.

KOMA, point-woman. Decon defender. 9-3-9 experience. Mission objectives: Breach and clear all the nests, treat teammates for infection, escort Breacher team. Dropped in with Outranger, Ballistic Plate, LIDAR, and a mostly empty frag bandolier. (Would be DIZZ, decon assault, if I were allowing myself to use the size upgrade consumables.)

CAST, field support. Medic assault. 9-2-9 experience. Mission objectives: Secure fallback locations for KOMA to reload, treat injured teammates, treat Breacher team before final exfiltration. Dropped in with LCR-E, Ballistic Plate, LIDAR, and an item that never got used.

DULF, close-in overwatch. Killteam assault. 9-1-9 experience (he hasn't learned a thing in 13 missions.) Mission objectives: Secure fallback locations for KOMA to reload, hold exfiltration route for escort team. Dropped in with LCR-E, and three items that never got used.

RAUK, long-range overwatch. Guncrew defender. 9-0-9 experience. Mission objectives: Suppress corridors to prevent enemy flanks, hold exfiltration route for escort team. Dropped in with MAR, LIDAR, iSlab, and an item that never got used.

ROWL, long-range assault. Guncrew assault. 9-0-9 experience. Mission objectives: Suppress corridors to prevent enemy flanks, escort Breacher team. Dropped in with MAR, LIDAR, and two items that never got used. PANICKED.

Everyone came home alive and in one piece. I had the opportunity and inclination to pick up another seven people, but they wouldn't get in the helibase for some reason. It's not the hardest mission I've played so far. That would be either 22, THE SLOT, or 31, SOLAR WARRENS, with the assumption that you only consider success to be the live extraction of the mission objectives. Four words for you: Maulers without air support.

EDIT: HAHAHA. Oh jeez. I just realized I probably look like some try-hard wanna-be military with my username and how I wrote that post. I just play a lot of HELLDIVERS and enjoy the satire in that game.

[libbmaster]

Originally posted by 5.56mm Freedom Delivery:

snip

How did you deal with the parinoia pods in the corners on the way in? I've never been able to deal with those things without using drones/rockets through walls/standoff engaments.

[Bland]

Paranoid (and Xenophobic!) soldiers still obey overwatch orders. So the trick was to set up CAST and DULF to provide visual overwatch on KOMA, and then walk KOMA in under strict "overwatch the spawner" orders. Once she had a clear line to the paranoia pod I toldl her to throw a frag at it (because she needs her shotty rounds to keep safe). Then I backed her up under strict "overwatch the corridor" orders to reload and wait until the paranoia fades. Then it was a simple advance to pop the first spawner. Rinse and repeat for the other side. You could do it with any soldiers, although I would not recommend using Xenophobic soldiers for your second line unless your point-soldier was infection immune.

More generally, if you have line of fire to a paranoia pod you can just spray bullets until it pops. And if you have to get in close you need to send one heavily micromanaged soldier with the others providing support.

[空.明]

This is my fav squad for open space fighting:

2 Blue Beret: both with tactical shotguns or SMG
2 Droids with SAW and 1 Blue Beret with Minigun.

No nonsense side effect squad. Heavy hitting as hell in the open.

[空.明]

My sniper team! Stan + Sear! Yes, a fully upgraded STAN with a monster killer sniper rifle, carrying a LIDAR with Sear the aircrew right behind him listening to his ipad... put this couple in one corner of the map and they will one shot everything, including drones, before they can ever see it coming! Insanely illegal detection range and over +400% range damage!!!! This feels really like the squad sight plasma sniper of XCOM except the spotter is right next to him instead haha.

[NoodleCup]

My running squad for Neptune Command Difficulty consists of:

1. WhiteCell Assault Vet: 9-9-9
-Outranger Shotgun
-Neo-Brigadine Cape
-GPR Tracker
-Dasboots
Role: Uses the Shotgun and GPR to breach buildings and deal with Seekers, swapped out to machete on high range resist Red Sites to deal with regenerating enemies like stabbers.

2. Medical Assault Vet: 9-2-9
-Outranger
-Neo-Brigadine Cape
-GPR Tracker
-Dasboots
Role: As above, using the shotgun and GPR to breach means the unit has respectable detection range (normally a decon or medic assault can only use a SAP or stumpy to make the most of their optimal range). Tends to be used as a tank because of the passively regenerating health. On range resist redsites, will swap to use static shield.

3. Decon Assault Vet: 9-2-9
-Outranger
-AC Unit
-GPR Tracker
-Dasboots
Role: As above, but keeps close to the medic for morale boosts ensuring the tank remains tanking. Mostly in the team to keep everyone from bursting into strain. Also uses static Shield on range resist redsites.

4. CyberSWAT Assault Vet: 9-7-9
-Heavy Battle Rifle
-Neuromax
-GPR Tracker
-Dasboots
Role: The sniper of the scout-sniper team. Used to lock down firing lanes and provide longrange support with the recent Battle Rifle buffs that increase velocity. She would be using the 20mm, but it's far too unreliable at long range due to its slow velocity. In general she is kept at long range to avoid going rogue and does absurd amounts of damage with the help of the UNX Drone. An upgraded LX unit could also replace Moko for faster aim and movement speed, at the cost of being more likely to murder your entire squad. I deploy her with an LCR-E on high range resist sites. (Excluding 100, which just puts range out all together.)

5. UNX Recon Drone
-MAR-4 Pyrate
-GPR Tracker
-LIDAR FCS
Role: Used as a Spotter that designates targets through walls (like Aircrew can) and strain clouds, effectively meaning it never needs to be micro'd due to the GPR tracker and usually stays with Moko for the scout-sniper team.

This team is really good.

[DiveSignal]

Seems your WCell Assaulter has seen the most action..loved that build. Curious if it was natural hard knocks in its life levelling or through, ah... Assisted means :)