Thanks for the thoughtful comment! I just wanna note that the bags and pelts perk completely solves the shield problem…7 of your guys can start the battle with shields in their hands so that the formation is solid and nobody gets a lucky(unlucky?) goblin poison arrow to the knee on the first round :D
The amazing thing is that those 7 guys can still fire 2 bolts on the first round!
You start out holding a shield: 0 AP for quick hand switch to 1st xbow + 2 AP to fire + 4 AP to switch to 2nd xbow + 2 AP to fire = 8 AP in total, which can be done since everyone has 9 AP (but not sure if this will change in future game versions)
SO yeah, grab fast adaptation ASAP and then go straight for quick hand and bags and pelts.
Though I do wish there’ll be an easier way to switch weapons. It’s a hassle as of now. XCOM 2 handles this part quite well, so maybe implement something similar? :)