Do Squads have a gameplay effect?

[LeaderEnemyBoss]

Hey everyone,

One thing i wondered about, is: do squads have a gameplay effect, or are they just for "bringing order into your roster". Because until now I never really bothered about assigning soldiers to squads. I just pick the soldiers i think fit best for the current mission, e.g. mission seems easy -> more squaddies with a few experienced leads, mission has no timer -> more snipers/gunners, etc. . I know Leaders give boni to soldiers that do multiple missions with them, so squads maybe helpful with that, but other than that, do I HAVE to use them, or is this more a convienience feature?

[mattprice516]

You don't have to use them if you don't want to. I like the narrative fluff, so I'll document the squad's exploits and such in the History field, but they don't really have an ingame effect. More of a QoL feature.

Officers do give bonii to soldiers who go on multiple missions with them. Having each squad be led by an officer is a useful organizational thing for me, but by no means required. You can view the leadership history of each Officer on the Officer Abilities screen (button on the bottom left).

[Tivec]

You don't have to use them if you don't want to. I like the narrative fluff, so I'll document the squad's exploits and such in the History field, but they don't really have an ingame effect. More of a QoL feature.

Officers do give bonii to soldiers who go on multiple missions with them. Having each squad be led by an officer is a useful organizational thing for me, but by no means required. You can view the leadership history of each Officer on the Officer Abilities screen (button on the bottom left).

Wait, history field? Squads have a history field? Frantically starts looking.

[mattprice516]

Yup, it defaults to the date the squad was formed but is editable and scrolls so you can fit a good amount of stuff in there if you so desire.

[WaShO]

Having squads and officers assigned gives a pretty big buff to infiltration times, so yes they are extremely useful

[ff03k64]

Does the squad actually have any impact on that, or just the officer in squads are easy ways to keep officers with the same troops?

[Zavek]

Does the squad actually have any impact on that, or just the officer in squads are easy ways to keep officers with the same troops?

the more missions the soldiers do with the officer the better bonuses they will get.
think of it like battlebonding.

soldiers that have been together know alot about eachother and trust eachother more and thus arent as stressed.

the newguy will be rebuffed untill they proven themselves and a for a brand new squad the trust between them isnt going to be high
thus their stresslevels will be higher and thus more prone to mistakes and moral getting shattered.

this is a guerilla war there is no such thing as bootcamp for them to bond with eachother in before being thrown out infront of that pissed off berserker.

Tl;dr the more missions a squad does the better the squad will become and not just in ranked soldiers.

[mattprice516]

Does the squad actually have any impact on that, or just the officer in squads are easy ways to keep officers with the same troops?

It's the second thing. Squads are purely a cosmetic and QoL feature, but they help with keeping officers' preferred troops organized. And I think they're important to the technical backend of the infiltration system (which is why a temporary squad is made any time you just send a bunch of people on a mission).

[ff03k64]

so until I get officers, which I got now I guess, squads really don't matter, thanks