Having well-built soldiers has been the biggest advantage for me in terms of handling the difficulty spike in the mid-game. To that end, here are some of my insights into effective combos.
To that end…
Sniper + Heavy
Before level 7 these serve as my primary snipers. I equip them with a jump-capable chestpeice and put them up in a nest and have them plink away.
At lvl 7, however, they become my monster-killers. Heavy 7:Rage Burst (along with Sniper 7:Marked for Death when necessary) with a Sniper Rifle lets them kill anything they can see, almost regardless of range. Also take Sniper 5: Marksman since you’ll likely take advantage.
KEY NOTE: This will let you kill literally any one creature in one turn.
Loadout:
Sniper Head and Leg armor (for accuracy)
Heavy Chest (for jump jet)
Sniper Rifle and 2-4 extra magazines (since you’re empting the mag with each rage burst)
Pistol and 1 extra magazine (for killing worms and mindfraggers)
1-2 Health Packs (I always have every soldier carry them)
Mounted weapon if weight permits (it probably won’t, but 1AP attacks are great especially with 3AP jump-jets)
My preferred abilities:
Sniper: Literally everything, every ability in sniper is key to this role.
Heavy: Inspire and Rage Burst
Bottom row abilities of note:
Sniperist: It’s tempting for the extra Sniper Rifle damage but generally unneded and that -4 to will is rough. You need your will for ability use. If you take it, buy a lot of WP back!
Farsighted: 2 WP and +10 perception range when jet-pack scouting? Yes please!
Reckless: Tempting for the damage increase, but it may ultimately hurt you on a clutch long-range rage burst. I’d avoid.
Cautious: You may think you need the accuracy boost, but you should not. Don’t sacrifice the damage for it.
Quarterback: +2 speed is handy, as that jet-pack chest-piece will slow you down. I don’t care for grenades so the extra range is meh for me.
Bombadier: Has some applications IF you can handle the weight. Mounted rockets are handy as they cost 1AP and jump jets cost 3ap.
Healer: +2 wp is always handy, as are extra heals. Heals though are less exciting here though as they’re back-line fighters with heavy armor, so they don’t take a lot of damage.
Resourceful: +2 strength and … EXTRA WEIGHT!!! With a sniper rifle and heavy armor you’re going to be weight-capped. This lets you a mounted weapon and act as a mule for extra healing packs.
Self Defense Specialist: Take this and make sure to equip a pistol or PDW as a second weapon. Now you’ve got someone dedicated to taking out worms that get catapulted into your backfield, or knocking midfraggers off heads.
If it’s not listed, it’s because I don’t take it.
Assault + Heavy
Before level 7 I give these shotguns ASAP and put them on the front lines. Close in to melee, and get a kill. If you have Neuralizers, your’e also a great capture unit.
At level 7 these guys go crazy. Assault 2:Dash + Assault 7: Rapid Clearance + shotgun = a reign of terror as they bounce from enemy to enemy using the shotgun to one-shot everything on the board. A good one-round kill streak will be something like 5-10 kills.
You may need to have your other soldiers soften a few targets up beforehand, which leads into…
Why heavy? Heavy 6: Inspire - Each time you get a kill, your allies will get +1 will back. So if you have your allies spend down softening targets first, they’re going to be at full will after you mow down half a dozen targets.
Also, while you’re there, Heavy 7: Rage Burst is hard to say no to, in case you have enough will and one of your stops on your murder spree is particularly tough.
Loadout:
Any helmet (I’ve been using the assault helmet for a little extra armor)
Chest and Legs should be speed focused, the more speed the better
Shotgun and 2-4 extra magazines
Neuralizer (since you’re set up to close to melee, you’re also a solid capture unit)
Health Packs, as many as you can carry. you’re going to get shot more since you’re in melee.
If there’s weight capacity left, an Armor Piercing AR is nice or mabye a Hell Cannon for heavy targets.
My preferred Abilities:
Assault: Literally everything except Assault 6: Rally the Troops, I’m just not a fan of that ability.
Heavy: Just Heavy 6: Inspire and Heavy 7: Rage Burst
Bottom row abilities of note:
Literally anything that gives you extra speed or willpower. You need both in spades. Anything that decreases speed or willpower must be avoided. Beyond that…
Close Quarters Specialist: +20% damage with melee and specialist. More damage = more consistent one-shot kills.
Reckless : Absolutely take this!!! You’re going to be point-blank range so this is just a damage boost for you. Anything that ensures one shot=one kill is clutch.
Cautious : Never take this. You don’t need accuracy and less damage means you may fall short of a one-shot kill.
Anything else is likely wasted points that should be going into Will and Speed.
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Sniper + Assault
I just don’t think this works even remotely as well as the others. In theory, Assault 3: Return Fire with a sniper rifle is neat, but honestly this combo just ends up being a big “so what” for me, it has no tide-turning combo. I’ve been keeping one in each squad so I can Assault 2: Dash into a good position and then pop someone with the sniper rifle, but it’s rare that I really need to do that.
Assault + Priest
This is my new favorite. Especially good in defending bases, but anywhere that enemies are clustered they’re key.
Priest 7: Mind Crush + Assault 2: Dash = a highly mobile nuclear bomb. Dash into the enemies (if needed) and then Mind Crush repeatedly until everybody’s dead.
Assault 7: Rapid Clearance feels like it may be handy but I don’t think it’s really needed or helpful. That said, you may as well take it, hold a shotgun, and use the Heavy/Assault kill streak strategy above too when needed.
Otherwise, this combo is very similar to Heavy/Assault above and in general all of my advice is the same. Shotgun & speed gear with lots of focus on will and speed. The trick is to get a recruit WITHOUT mutated legs/chest so you can equip speed gear.
Then, on top of that, you have all of the cool toys that come with the priest. I take ALL of the priest abilities.
Note: Having / getting the head mutation that instills frenzy is a HUGE boon for anybody using Assault 7: Rapid Clearance
I’m surprised you didn’t mention Assault + Infiltrator. With the Thief trait especially and an Anu shotgun they’re beyond deadly. Some would say OP.
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I’ll give it a try, thanks! I’m still getting into Infiltrators; trying Infiltrator/Sniper ATM. Not sure how I feel on them yet.
Nothing overpowered in these setups, but i find them fun to play.
Priest mixed with heavy is a combo i like. Jetpack in and use the heavies shout to lower AP of a large chunk of enemies, and if you happen to do this to a siren after blasting their head off they cannot recover will as that costs 4 ap. Of course the priest abilities can also do fun things like lower their will or panic specific problem enemies.
If you get an assault with the Viral trait taking priest and focusing on viral weapons can be good to help sap the will of the big nasty enemies. Burst weapon that does 4 viral per burst on a full hit with the trait, dash in close and get off two bursts. Of course it’s the following turn, and for many turns after that, that the full effect is felt. Handy if you want to keep a siren from being able to use will based attacks while you deal with something more dangerous, then move in to capture the siren.
A tech with PDW and viral trait can also serve the same purpose, mix in some assault for dash and that’s 4 attacks with 4 hits each to do some viral damage. Up to 16 will lost per turn can lock somethings abilities down like the priest.
For lair assaults i’ve been using Assault/Snipers setup as 3 sniper rifle and shotgun carrying and 2 sniper rifle and pistol carrying guys. Sixth man is a heavy for jetpack spotting and AP lowering shout for capturing wounded Sirens. Between the 5 sniper rifles most enemies cannot last long at range, and up close even the sirens fall to shotguns to the face. Pistols handle any worms lobbed at the squad. Can also split off a pair of assaults for a quick shotgun push on the objective.
Berserker mixed with heavy is also fun, get up close and dish out some massive melee damage and armor shredding, then use the heavies shout to lower AP of anything nearby so they cannot recover will during a mass panic or move far enough to escape the berserker.
Shotgun focused assault with sniper to lower attack costs by 1 ap… dash in close and get up to 4 shotgun blasts in at point blank. Took out my first Scylla in a citadel with a pair of these guys, though both had the melee trait to help boost shotgun damage.
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About Assault and Heavy, shotgun problem is enemy armor, if not because of some weak point, ok but I found fun with first weapons to mix sometimes Shotgun and chaingun to either dash and double shotgun or dash and move and chaingun, or dash chaingun and move. That said Shotgun and Cannon Hell is a nice pair more versatile.
But Sniper/Heavy is easier to exploit and more required.
Well, but is it fun to you? I mean playing with rage burst this, rage burst that. I stopped playing this game after 22-25 hours or so. Coz there are no tactics to defeat 10-12+ 400+hp mobs in later mission with 20-40 armor except the op ones. And ofc you need to drop 8 ppl. So i got bored that every mission is the same(i ended up with heavy snipers/sniper heavies, depends what came into my hands first and some priests). Get many priests, get many heavy snipers. I thought i bought the tactics game not the pokemon sim(lol you can find assault class in cities like 85% of the time, so lame. Devs limited spawn rate for the op classes lol. I then go for the ending of the game on youtube and deleted it. What were you beta testers doing? The game is not fun, the balance is broken. English is not my main but you can find many detailed and well-written topics about the core problems with balance in this game.
p.s. i just can’t understand you are doing same missions with same abilities with same weapons with same monsters over and over and you are happy with that? I mean after 25 hours i had almost all the tech trees from all 3 factions + this stupid phoenix tech tree with +10%dmg too.
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I don’t care for the adaptive difficulty that causes the difficulty spike either; that’s the most un-fun aspect for me, as it turns the game into a slog no matter how good/clever you are. IMO, that’s why difficulty levels exist … if I find my current difficulty too easy I can increase it. Having the game do that for me at every level seems silly.
What I’m looking for in this thread (hopefully while they balance the game a bit more) is as many viable combos for late game as possible so I have tactical options, which I do consider fun.
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Ok, got you. I think their biggest mistake was to upgrade creatures with both hp and armor. There should be ordinary monster types in this game. Got new enemy? Some tech delay - bah! - get ready to fight new enemy types with new weapons and abilities. And here we have same old monsters with same abilities just with much more hp and armor. And we have so little weapons that are useful and fresh to be fair. Mainly new damage type(acid, poison) and armor piercing. Even some cool looking weapons(like independent ones) have low stats. Main problem with monsters is their armor + they have boring abilities. Main problem with factions - tons of almost identical items with a few with better stats(and actually useful). It was painful to find the item i need in the construction list after i got other factions tech. 
For me all combos need Assault for Dash.
As Assault I used Sniper but I tend to make Assault/Engineers (Turrets!) in my future games.
Turrets are so heavy and expensive though for single-use items. Then, when I do try to use them, invariably I end up needing to move my troops somewhere out of range!
Those Engineers frequently come in with 30 weight in gear and 20 strength!
Turrets single use? They are lost when used? But you can also take them back so it would be weird if they are lost.
Can´t they be retaken? To deploy again? I think there was such a button.
You have a point, sure. On the other side in most missions I think they still can be of use. Might even be good in Lairs to cover the back so you can go straight forward.
For me it was just that I did not use much of the sniper skills for my assaults and I like the idea of automated support units
Wait I can pick the turrets back up? Will have to get an engineer in my current game and try that out!
Wait turret are really lost when not pick back?
Pick back a turret is to bring it at another place, but it’s slow I would admit, I would make it cost zero AP.
I’m going to have to check; I thought there were expended like grenades and med packs.
Yep, there are two different actions:
Deploy turret - 2 AP cost
Retrieve turret - 1 AP cost
It would be weird if turrets were expandable and overpriced pieces of equipment, requering another expendable item (ammo) to shoot and one more (mech arms battery) to be repaired))