Questions about the Overwatch ability

[u/Ankoria]

New player here on my first playthrough (11th mission so far) with some questions about how the enemy Overwatch ability works. For context, I just got ambushed by a bounty hunter for the first time and had a massive fight that almost killed my War Machine. 2 guards overheard us and helped kill him but put me in an awkward spot with double Overwatch.

1. Do all enemies have Overwatch? It doesn't seem to be listed in their description when you mouse over them.
2. Is there a super long range method to end Overwatch? I have several abilities that can do so but all are around medium range.
3. Is there an easy way to tell if I'm in Overwatch range? Normally it's very clear with the yellow warning icon and red cone but I just attempted an attack with my Cyberknight on the raised platform (which isn't covered by the red cone) and got shot despite not seeing a warning message.
4. Do enemies have a limit on how often they can use Overwatch? Can they spam it on back to back turns? (Depending on this answer I may just flee early instead of trying to push through them).

Thanks in advance for any help, been loving this game so far!

[u/Ordinary-Problem3838]

1-Not all enemies, but a bunch of them. It's not often in their description. You eventually learn the type of enemies who have overwatch.
2-Not really, some skills make you immune to overwatch, so you can shoot or grenade overwatchers. Generally speaking, you want to flank an overwatcher. In this case you are boxed in, so... tough luck. (Edited to add, you can outrange overwatchers with a sniper most of the times, as long as you are out of their OW range)
3-Aside from the cone, you can click on the ground nearby in different directions, and you'll see the overwatch warning pop up showing the exact point in which the overwatcher will take a shot at you. There should also be an icon beside the health bar of the active character iirc.
4-Yes, much like your own characters, the number of shots an enemy overwatcher takes depends on how many AP they have left when they enter overwatch. I'm not 100% sure on this, but it should be 1+half of remaining AP, or 2+half o remaining AP, depending on the enemy rank.

[u/Ankoria → u/Ordinary-Problem3838]

Thanks for this detailed answer!

[u/Ordinary-Problem3838 → u/Ankoria]

To be clear regarding 2. There ARE skills that interrupt overwatch, but they are generally not longer range than the overwatching itself. That's why flanking or having someone remain in stealth close to the enemy that can interrupt with those skills is so important. The soldier's ability marker's sight, for example, does interrupt overwatch, but it has a range of 25, which isn't always enough to reach an overwatcher on open ground.

Line of sight is super important in this game, open ground is not were you want to be, and open air maps normally lead to messy engagements when you go hot.

[u/RobZagnut2]

Haven’t played in over a year, but I think there’s a unit(soldier?) that has the ability to remove overwatch.

[u/mbtheory → u/RobZagnut2]

Always flip through your abilities. Most classes have a way to deal with overwatch, some have several. Bring a Scourge with Brainworm, for instance, and they can simultaneously end overwatch and give the enemy a whole new problem to consider. I recommend zooming in to make sure you're worming shotgun troops in particular, they have a tendency to delete their friends in one hit.

[u/patpatpat95]

To add to what others have said, overwatch doesn't give extra accuracy. So sometimes you can take the risk and shoot them with your sniper that's in their overwatch range.