1.3 - What to buy first

[stefan3iii]

Pretty much everyone agreed in 1.2 that your first purchase should be a GTS, so that you can start cranking out specialists and shinobis, to farm stealth missions. Also, so you can promote shinobis into officers, making for extremely easy extraction missions with Oscar Mike + Command.

None of that is relevant anymore, what might be the best opening strat now? Some options:
1) GTS
2) AWS
3) Scientist
4) Engineer

In my campaign I've built a GTS, but I'm not finding that I have many rookies to train as I have to use them pretty early just to complete the missions I'm getting. Officers are OK, but I feel like they could be delayed easily. Wet Work is really good. Vulture is very strong, but won't unlock until mid April or so anyway. Overall GTS first just isn't overwhelmingly compelling anymore.

I'm starting to think that scientist first might be worth trying. Hey Joinrbs, if you're reading this and are starting over on gatecrasher, maybe try testing this strat:
Buy Scientist Day 1, Buy Scientist Day 22. Research path: RC, Modular Weapons, Basic Research. After Basic research, go for something exciting that normally takes a long time to research. Mag weapons?

[Tuhalu]

I'm a GTS first fan, but it was by no means a universally agreed thing in 1.2. Many players argued for AWC first, especially on higher difficulties where GTS times are higher and wounds are more likely.

Randomness has a massive affect on any scientist or engineer purchasing strat. With luck you might have 2 of each at the end of April. Or 3 of one and 1 of the other. Or more, or less. Having said that, it doesn't seem like it would be totally wrong to grab an early scientist and/or engineer to assure smoother tech progression and room unlocking. It wasn't even an uncommon strategy in 1.2 to just buy whichever you were lacking by the end of March (by selling at the Black Market if necessary).

[stefan3iii]

I'm a GTS first fan, but it was by no means a universally agreed thing in 1.2. Many players argued for AWC first, especially on higher difficulties where GTS times are higher and wounds are more likely.

Randomness has a massive affect on any scientist or engineer purchasing strat. With luck you might have 2 of each at the end of April. Or 3 of one and 1 of the other. Or more, or less. Having said that, it doesn't seem like it would be totally wrong to grab an early scientist and/or engineer to assure smoother tech progression and room unlocking. It wasn't even an uncommon strategy in 1.2 to just buy whichever you were lacking by the end of March (by selling at the Black Market if necessary).

I don't think early AWC is very good, in both 1.2 and 1.3, on L/I. If you're taking lots of wounds, there might be something else you're doing wrong, and the extra perks you get just don't have enough of an impact in the early game. To actually reduce wound time, you have to slot a scientist, which means even slower research, delaying critical things like lasers/armor/shredders/incendiaries.

In my campaigns I've built AWC after GTS, Workshop, and Proving Grounds.

[Daergar]

I focused on buying extra engineers and scientists, figuring it'd be a good thing to rush into getting research done and excavating the middle for a workshop. GTS built in the first corner slot.

Got lucky with some vip extracts, so I got three scientists and four engineers in the first month iirc, seems like it helped speed things along greatly.