All this talk got me interested in playing again, and I think I'll also try Apocalypse and Interceptor, which I've never played yet.
In UFO I never favor heavy hand weapons (expect for one single blaster launcher), because by crunching numbers you easily reach the conclusion that they don't really deal more expected damage per turn at all. The best weapon is the laser rifle, and hand grenades are much better than rocket launchers. Only heavy plasma has better stats than laser rifles, but it needs ammo clips, which moreover take space in the Skyranger.
And I don't like HWPs because:
- They would make sense if they were like real tanks, I mean heavily armored, that is resistant to handguns. Their survivability is laughable.
- They're expensive to replace, and considering their low survivability it's ruinous. I don't even understand why are they so expensive, they can be destroyed by a single plasma shot just like a soldier, they must be made of cardboard, right?
- They are less stealthy than soldiers, specially at the time of exiting the Skyranger, when they're placed always up front. This makes it likely you will lose that tank during its first move, specially in terror missions it's almost guaranteed.
- Last but not least, if you like to fill the Skyranger to maximum capacity (as I do, and I don't think there's any reason not to, neither tactical nor money-wise) and so space is restricted, you can fly four kickass soldiers instead of a lousy HWP.