I’m not talking about Firaxis Xcom’s system which I don’t like, and wish Phoenix Point had moved away from it. When I say classic xcom I’m talking about the Mythos Games xcom from 1995 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO:_Enemy_Unknown). Easily one of the best games of all time.
Your first ship brought 14 soldiers to fight and the best ship brought 26 soldiers. Your soldiers would get better movement speed and stuff automatically by fighting, but otherwise there were no levels or perks or willpower points, but there was some psychic stuff.
Firaxis Xcom took away all the soldiers, but gave you abilities which was just a worse system. Phoenix Point followed that and it’s just dumb. It’s not like you don’t have the action points for 10+ soldiers. Rally the troops on one soldier gives you a whole new unit worth of AP, but instead of just giving you the extra soldier you gotta click the stupid button first. This new system basically gives you 14+ soldiers on your turn with all the extra AP and willpower abilities, but you only have 6 soldiers when it’s the AI’s turn, so the best way to play is to deny the AI’s turn as much as possible. The game rewards you for never interacting with it basically.