It’s a game.  There are bugs and quirks.  Here are a few I’ve noticed so far.

Bugs

The game does crash, and the “send log” feature takes about 2 minutes to complete.  I’ve had this happen a half dozen times now.

Quicksave sometimes doesn’t work.  I use this when I start a new map and continue to use it as I progress 3-4 turns.  There’s an auto-save feature, but that’s pretty inconsistent from what I’ve seen.  Combined with game crashes, this can have me lose an hour or so of play.  I’m now in the habit of manually saving.

Quickload sometimes doesn’t work.  I mean, the quicksave is there, just that the button does nothing.  So you have to manually load the game.  It’s like the keystroke doesn’t work.

The Templar overwatch is on button 3 – everyone else is on button 2.  When you press 2 with a Templar, you will shoot someone (or do nothing).  I’m chalking this up to bug, because anyone who spent 5 minutes playing a Templar would have seen this.

The Reaper ability Silent Killer does not always work.  This is supposed to keep you in stealth mode if you have a kill shot.  I play my Reapers forward, as they clear the fog of war.  When their kill shot breaks stealth, they are pretty much dead.

Psionic Bomb doesn’t always show up on the screen.  I know it was cast since everyone needs to reload (only keep melee folks together to avoid the pain of this), but the actual graphics don’t show.  This makes it really hard to position soldiers in order to avoid the explosion.

Scientific breakthroughs do not account for covert operations.  What I mean is that if your do an operation that unlocks +1 dmg on assault rifles, you can still end up with that as a research progress.  The research completes instantly, you get no benefit, and the breakthrough is essentially wasted.

I’m not sure what the trigger is, but enemies had a 100% success chance on any psionic attack for a long time.  Eventually my squad starting resisting some of them.

Enemies can and will ignore mimic beacons, even if its thrown at their feet.  Also, never sell a Faceless corpse.

The Planewalker Chosen ability is like teleport.  If it triggers off a melee strike, the Chosen can move to a separate part of the map but the character still appears in front of you.  If you try to shoot it, then you’re aiming for an empty spot on the map.  Confusing.

Melee strikes on overwatch do not prevent other soldiers from shooting.  I’ve wasted a few overwatch turns just to have my Ranger kill it in 1 hit, then have 3 other soldiers shoot a corpse.

Quirks

Hacking still sucks.  With a Gremlin III, it’s still a 50% chance of stunning a Sectopod.  Controlling a mech unit is a crapshoot.  Maybe it doesn’t work and they get buffed.  Maybe it does and they all of a sudden see a massive chunk of the map and activate 2-3 pods.  I am finding very little use for dedicated Specialists…but I can see why they would be useful in Ironman or Legendary – you need the heals.

You can’t Bladestorm a Spectre.  One great tactic is to attack with melee and stand next to an enemy.  The AI will 99% move, allowing for a free melee strike.  This does not ever seem to work with Specter (black and green guys).  You can shoot them, just can’t use a sword.

ADVENT Priests and stasis are just painful.  They won’t die, come back with 1 HP and then mind-muck a soldier.  Put someone with Bladestorm next to them.

In the base game, light armor with Grapple was essential.  You needed this to clear timed maps that were in the city and had large obstacles.  These are no longer relevant in WotC, and Warden armor (giving an extra accessory slot) is way more useful.  Exception!  Using the Wraith skill to go through obstacles can make easy work of any sabotage mission – especially on high mobility rangers.

Shot chances are seeded, so save scumming is not an option to increase a single soldier’s odds.  It will randomize the 2nd shot taken though.

Melee strikes, while extremely powerful, are extremely dangerous.  In most cases, you will end up triggering another aliend pod.  The best way around this is to put someone in stealth behind the pod and ensure there’s nothing else around you.  Templar, Ranger and Skirmisher can all do this.

I only needed 1 resistance comms building in my base this time, as covert ops and exploration missions can unlock more connections for you.  Massive quality of life boost.

An infirmary with an Engineer makes quick work of any injuries.  There is no way to speed up recovery time from being “tired”, and it appears to be a separate timer.  I had one person tired for 12 days.  Also, removing negative traits requires a fully healed/rested soldier.

The ambush missions after covert ops are generally poorly laid out.  You start with 2 soldiers and have to cross the entire map, through a dock-like map.  There are no enemies on turn 1.  Turn 2 you will wake a single enemy pod while moving forward and reinforcements will come to the start of the map.  Turn 3 is just pure movement, trying to find cover from the first pod and likely triggering the 2nd.  Turns 4-6 are just about getting towards the extraction zone without dying and then triggering the Lost faction waiting for you.  Walk in, extract, done.  You should never fire a single shot during these missions and you want to spread the soldiers to avoid grenade strikes.

Covert Ops provide permanent buffs to soldiers.  Pay attention.  Especially for the mobility boost, which is a massive buff to any melee soldier – particularly Rangers.

Covert Ops priorities should be useful breakthroughs, scientists (til 6), engineers (til 6), reduce avatar progress (if above half), extremely useful resistance orders (like 33% less chosen progress).  Hunting chosen 1 and 2 provide an extra slot for resistance orders, so it may or may not be useful.  Covert Ops also change every month, and when a Chosen mission is complete.

A fully buffed sniper can take out nearly any target in a single turn, anywhere on the map.  On lower HP enemies, he can take out an entire pod (with Serial).  A reaper doing the recon work can provide a secondary kill shot and remain in stealth.  This is borderline OP.

If you don’t have a timer mission, there are no enemies on screen, and you have skills on cooldown – go into overwatch without moving to recharge those skills.

My typical squad rollout has 1 sniper, 1 grenadier (with Shredder), 1 ranger.  I take an extra stealth class (reaper, ranger).  The rest I rotate for experience, or on tough missions, I load out all 3 new classes.