Who gets to yell the orders in your squad? And misc Officer questions

[Saracan]

Hey everyone,

curious to hear what class you prefer for officers, and why. My first officer is a ranger ,mostly because... I like rangers, and bring one on almost every mission anyway. They are mostly in the middle of my formation, so that's nice for command range. Other than that, I didn't put that much thought into it, and now i'm wondering if I should. Mostly because with command and orders, she misses out on potential shooting.

The other option would be a specialist (same as rangers, basically, with the added benefit that a ranger in that squad could benefit from focus fire twice) or a support skilled sniper. Shinobi and assault are most often not exactly close to the squad, grenadier and technical I don't bring on every mission. Gunners also like shooting a lot, so they aren't really optimal either.

Two questions, which admittedly I could test out myself once I get back home, but maybe someone already did (or I missed some tooltip): Do Orders (like oscar mike or focus fire) end your turn, and do they break concealment?

[trihero]

Oscar mike/focus fire do NOT break concealment.

I don't think you have to think too hard about who becomes an officer. The one time it might make a difference is if you want to pick up the skill "lead by example" in which case you would want that officer to be a sharpshooter for maximum aim benefit. They are increasing the range of a lot of officer skills in 1.1 so you won't have to worry as much about keeping people in the middle of the pack.

[dodger]

I've tried technical, gunner, specialist, and ranger so far, and of those I've mostly felt bad about losing the actions sometimes on the ranger or gunner. I've been considering shinobi though since I often leave then in stealth most of a mission and they could still contribute with some officer commands while remaining hidden. I suppose the same could be said for a stealth based sharpshooter/scout.

[trihero]

Sharphooter officer can be very powerful IMO bringing up the accuracy of your firepower a ton with lead by example, holo targeting perks, and giving extra actions to your ranger/gunner. I think it would help a lot with a lot of the super powerful hp sponges you see in the late game. Maybe even train him with pistol and some venom rounds to fill in the remaining action points.

[Valaska]

A Shinobi but fore purely narrative lore reasons lol. Ranger would be my typical choice though, or medic.

[trihero]

A Shinobi but fore purely narrative lore reasons lol. Ranger would be my typical choice though, or medic.

Narrative/lore? I guess you're trying to reenact "The Last Samurai?"

[Valaska]

A Shinobi but fore purely narrative lore reasons lol. Ranger would be my typical choice though, or medic.

Narrative/lore? I guess you're trying to reenact "The Last Samurai?"

Lol I wish, but nah the main character of a graphic novel I had basically sold to Dark Horse before our lead artist got kidnapped and likely murdered. He's legally considered dead. Anywho the main character was a section leader in her 20's, red hair, blue eyes, substance abuse issues and clinically depressed introvert who masked it in public etc by being very outwardly charismatic and extroverted when in public. It was a sci-fi setting where armor went a very long way in effectiveness and the military she was a part of met against an alien military.

Both used very different primary weapons and built their armor around different principles of warfare, in the end the type of troops she was a part of called Rapid Reaction Forces (RRF) would use a quick rapid insertion method that often left them landing inside of enemy troop movements, and their utility blade called Cairo blades actually became much more than just ceremonial S&R tools after your magazine is depleted. She was especially proficient in hacking people apart with these things and got the nickname Red Queen both for hair and just the... Sheer blood over everything. So with 112 pages of graphic novel that's completely un-useable due to said artist having some trademark on the pages of course and a share of the project... I kinda put that character into other games now and like to run a narrative with her lol.

[Eskimow]

I use a specialist mostly. They deal the lowest damage and are essentially the most supportive class. Healing, hacking, aid protocol only takes one action point... It's great. Medic specialists are great officers.
Grenadier and Technical I value the cover blasting and AoE too much to give it up for a command. Loading up a Grenadier with at least 4 grenades means he always has a use, and the technical I have up front with the Ranger for max flamethrower.
Sharpshooter I play up high and far back, although admittedly with the right perks, he could snipe a kill and still have an action to command. Will test later.
Ranger is up front, with the technical, being a meaty Frontline b*****d. Too much utility.
Shinobi generally stays stealth scout until almost the end of the mission unless Fleche is needed.
Gunner could be another option, but suppression chains and high damage usually means I have him busy enough doing damage control.

Those are my thoughts so far. The specialist action economy seems the most reliable, so many things he can do and then still command.

[jztemple]

A Shinobi but fore purely narrative lore reasons lol. Ranger would be my typical choice though, or medic.

My Shinobi don't last long enough to be considered for officer training. I just had a mission to destroy a relay. Enemy force was too tough so I ended up sending the Shinobi on a forlorn hope run around the back of the building while the rest lined up for the rope out. The relay got destroyed but the Shinobi never made it back.

[trihero]

Shinobis and assaults litter my injured list all the time T_T

[Valaska]

Shinobis and assaults litter my injured list all the time T_T

Lol they sure pull their weight and do a lot of the work I am finding. Every ranger I get I am just like... "Yas pls..." They really are workhorses, and Shinobi just have a lot of versatility. If you play them to live, they really get good too.

[Narcissistic_Martyr]

Mine are all specialists because every single squad has a healer focused specialist no matter the mission.

Also... they're kinda my go to class for training meh rookies because they're very useful stationed in havens so I've always got a few extra lying around.

[GavinRuneblade]

>.>

<.<

>.>

I probably should make those sorts of decisions based on capabilities and synergy. instead of who looks coolest or got the best voice pack.

For the record, my Kerrigan is ALWAYS an officer. We already have one alien invasion happening, don't need zerglings all over the place too.

[trihero]

>.>

<.<

>.>

I probably should make those sorts of decisions based on capabilities and synergy. instead of who looks coolest or got the best voice pack.

For the record, my Kerrigan is ALWAYS an officer. We already have one alien invasion happening, don't need zerglings all over the place too.

Have you reenacted the starcraft cinematic where she gets abandoned? Like evac your troops 1 turn before the timer but leave her out to dry? Then she comes back as a chrysallid queen ';..;'

[aedn]

For stealth missions its shinobi's. the ability to command without breaking concealment is ideal. This allows you to do all the hack, recover item, and jailbreak missions extremely easy since you can get your specialist to break stealth, then get out of range or use another action via command.

Other wise, specialists are my go to offers currently, or my shinobi ghostwalkers if i do not have anyone available. Having tried most of the other classes i found them lacking in combat situations, they spent to much time as officers and not enough doing what they need to. Sharpshooters are ok, but a higher levels really come online so need to be killing, Technicals need command to get flames into range at times, rangers, gunners and assaults are all pulping aliens for energy drinks, and have better things to do then chat up the rest of the team.

[Elfich]

I use a specialist mostly. They deal the lowest damage and are essentially the most supportive class. Healing, hacking, aid protocol only takes one action point... It's great. Medic specialists are great officers.

I would like to add to that thought. I admit, I'm on rookie. Mid campaign I am trying to adjust my squads and my officer core. I am realizing the "Previously led" officer bonus is important for infiltration (among other things), so trying to keep the same squad together is very important. Like everyone else I have been caught borrowing officers/medics from other squads to patch holes. Due to this scrounging I have an officer that has led thirty different people once.

Current proposed solution:
I am currently trying enlarge my officer core to have two medic/officers in each squad. A primary and a secondary. That means there is (hopefully) less cross squad scrounging. Reducing the cross squad scrounging improves the cumulative officer bonus that occur for each squad (there will inevitably be some cross training) and if the primary officer is toasted on mission, the back up officer is moved into the primary position while a new medic/officer is trained.

[GavinRuneblade]

That is a really good idea. I'm going to be restarting my campaign soon and will keep that strategy in mind.

[Mavoc]

Having 2 fully trained officers in each squad sounds like a ton of time training via only 2 training slots. What if instead you only did the first officer level for your second-in-command. I'm thinking have the specialist/medic be the primary officer and a sharpshooter/holo/gunslinger be the secondary officer. This assumes that the only change to leadership perk with higher officer levels is a larger radius for bonuses.

[trihero]

I've come to realize recently that you don't really want specialists to be officers, because then sometimes they outrank your shinobi and then your shinobi can't command from stealth (commanding from stealth is super important for low man missions). I would make all shinobis into minimal officers, all haven advisers minimal officers, and at the very least train one sharpshooter all the way down which leaves room for one more deeply trained officer in a reasonable amount of time.

[Mavoc]

I've come to realize recently that you don't really want specialists to be officers, because then sometimes they outrank your shinobi and then your shinobi can't command from stealth

Please elaborate on the game mechanics of this for those of us who have yet to try multiple officers in a squad. What effect does having a higher rank officer have on a lower rank one?

[trihero]

Only the highest ranking officer in a squad gets to use the officer moves. So if your Shinobi is less ranked than your specialist, guess who can't issue orders from concealment for that mission? Once I realized this I sadly recruited a new low ranking specialist to replace my super high ranking + officer specialist, as I really missed having the shinobi be able to Command from stealth without losing stealth. It makes a huge difference if they can get another yellow move or hunker down with that action in terms of surviving until evac.

[Matlocko]

So far the nicest officers for me have been Support Grenadiers. Rapid deployment makes them able to move + flashbang + do whatever it is you want officers to do. Extremely powerful and versatile in my opinion.

If you get flashbang with these guys on AWC it's even better.

[The Boz]

...our lead artist got kidnapped and likely murdered. He's legally considered dead.

Wait. What?
How did everyone just gloss over this?!

[GavinRuneblade]

...our lead artist got kidnapped and likely murdered. He's legally considered dead.

Wait. What?
How did everyone just gloss over this?!

That's xcom baby!

[Valaska]

...our lead artist got kidnapped and likely murdered. He's legally considered dead.

Wait. What?
How did everyone just gloss over this?!

That's xcom baby!

Yeah it was years ago though, about 9 now? Went ot visit a new boyfriend in the states and vanished. The officer in my squad in XCOM is based in the graphic novel he and I (few other artists) were working on.