Bash is the attack my most successful and reliable soldier build is using.
One day, I was trying to find out how to make the heavy useful. After a jetjump, there’s not much he can do: pistol or bash (later PDW). So I tried bash and did the math about how its damage is calculated.
- Bash damage = weapon weight x soldier strength
- Brawler perk (first heavy perk): +50%
- Reckless perk: +30%
- Close combat specialist: +20%
So a heavy weapon’s weight is 5 (sniper is 4). I brought my heavies (my only recruits) at 30 strength. That means 225 damage per bash. With luck and the two custom perks, you climb at 300 damage.
That’s enough to kill Arthrons and Tritons in one blow until late game where they get dazed most of the time.
If in danger, use war cry and all enemies around are incapable of doing lots of stuff.
Use Anvil armor to protect your 300 HP soldier and you’re pretty unkillable.
Now, melee damage is 140 (10 less than bash without perks) and uses 2AP.
I’d suggest this build to anyone frustrated about the game’s difficulty. It makes the game really easy. The devs are going to rebalance melee so wait and see. War cry should probably use 1 AP or be less powerful. Imagine it used against you… horrible.