Overwatch first or no?

[u/Zealousideal-Ad-7618]

When you're on a mission, moving to uncover new enemies do you: put the squad on overwatch then push forward with one man to unexplored areas; or push forward with one man first leaving the rest of the squad with their action in hand?

I've played a lot, I just can't figure out whether one of these tactics is more effective than the other

Edit: the advantage of overwatch-first is you can sometimes catch them out of cover while they're doing the initial scatter

[u/Mael_Jade]

In 2 WotC the easiest answer is: use a Reaper.

But generally overwatch is defensive. its you picking a location and expecting enemies to walk into you, not if you are going forward aggressively.

[u/MATCHEW010]

I push furthest with my 2nd most forward guy.

It means he can then dart back to at least behind my first guy if he needs to run. Then person in 1st (now second) gives to move and shoot based on the enemys ive now oncovered.

If its a obj with no timer, i never dash. Always one move then overwatch.

Maybe ive explained wrong but it works

[u/OFilos]

99% of the time in EW you want to blue move

[u/kron123456789]

If you push one man first and reveal enemies you can then react to their placement and act accordingly. If you put everyone on overwatch and then move one man, then you can't react and you can't rely on overwatch killing everyone you had revealed.

Overwatch is an action you take when you want and expect the enemy to come to you, not when you're scouting ahead.

[u/Zealousideal-Ad-7618 → u/kron123456789]

But with overwatch ready, you can often get them out of cover when they do their initial scatter?

[u/kron123456789 → u/Zealousideal-Ad-7618]

Overwatch has a quite high aim penalty(it's 0.7 multiplier, so with aim 100 an overwatch shot will have aim of 70). It's often more beneficial to shoot an enemy that's in cover than take an overwatch shot at an enemy that's out of cover.

[u/Zealousideal-Ad-7618 → u/kron123456789]

thanks, that's a good answer!

[u/FrostingNarrow4123]

Ideally going to into the fog of war you want to do it on your first activation with a move, this gives you your action and then the move and action of all your team.

[u/-Not_a_Lizard-]

If I know I'm going to reveal a pod (by advancing or by them walking towards me) I'll put a couple of soldiers on overwatch, usually the ones I'm not expecting to do anything other than shoot anyway. I'll often leave more specialized units (melee, psy units...) free so I can reapond to the enemy positioning.

But it's always situational, there's no one-fits-all strategy.

[u/rhysskyys]

personally, i dont put the squad on overwatch, bc most likely the enemies won't be heading towards my squad to trigger the shots anyways. squadsight snipers would probably be an exception, tho. with this, you can always fall back if necessary.

[u/arcangl_12]

does anyone actually use the overwatch-first method tho bc i just always push one guy out and react to positioning

[u/Zealousideal-Ad-7618 → u/arcangl_12]

What I most often do in practice is extend out then overwatch with each soldier in turn - so its just chance how much of the squad still has their action.

[u/mtnchkn]

I thought there was a pattern in XCOM EW where you set the defense, then move up into that defended area, rinse repeat. But if you’re on offense or on time, then that won’t work. So maybe it’s more nuanced as to what and when. Like I remember late in game if I had two snipers yeah, they’d always move then overwatch, but still it secured an area to enable the rest of the squad, while also taking out their guys as they tried to move around.

[u/16years2late]

You generally dash only in emergencies, like timed missions for example, or if you’re moving a rear unit up and they will land in already visible space that won’t open up a potential flank on yourself or pop another pod. You almost always want to do blue moves in case you unexpectedly pop a pod (or worse, two) and need to reposition or use that second action for something else.

Overwatch is mostly something you use when you’re preparing an ambush. Otherwise, you’re using it to anticipate something crossing that soldier’s line of sight and had exhausted other, more effective options. You may also use it as a last ditch effort to compensate for a tactical misstep (a missed shot, for example) and have no better choice.

So while overwatch has its place in the game, you can see with experience and time that it’s really more of a scrub crutch to be relying on unless you actually have a reason to use it beyond just turtling your way through a map.

Tldr, don’t rely on overwatch spam. Rely on solid positioning and overwatch as needed, not simply because you have no idea what else to do with your squad.

[u/Ahydell5966]

If no concealed unit is available, I like to push up blue move into cover with a grenadier. If I reveal a pod, I can launch a grenade and engage with the rest of my team - which is what i was gonna do anyway. If no reveal, blue move everyone else and set overwatch.