The main problem with e.g. a 5 or 10-man squad is mostly a lack of staying power. You can’t recover from losses and don’t have a way to hold a position against even sustained T2 attacks (nevermind T3) if the squad is isolated from other squads.
I made a post about this before in an ASS thread.
What we need are:
- easier recovery from losses for small isolated squads
- something that make it more difficult to run over a limited manpower squad
- doing this without making that squad better able to kill, and without buffing the ungaball
The main things that I can see improving survivability:
- A way to get people up after losing the medic (universal defib idea - just strip it from the medic or maybe medics can be revived by anyone)
- Stronger/replaceable sentries so you can backstop your position and buy time to retreat
- Strong quickly deployed cades that can’t be shot through/over, which block movement and are time consuming to get through by aliens
These things would let smaller squads hold onto ground a little better - and the focus on deployable cades/sentries means it’s not something you can easily push offensively with, and it encourages more actual squad-leading and planning ahead rather than simply unga-ball charge.