A below-par-given-they-showed-up-at-all-but-still-significantly-above-zero count of Crawlers and Venompedes.
Relevant Weapons:
Artillery is the optimal counter for Tyrants.
Miniguns are very good at handling Scarabs (to the point that bringing more than one would likely be overkill), and pretty useless at most handling most other xenos (to the point that bringing more than one would likely harm our chances).
Lances are good counters for anything which isn’t a Tyrant or a Scarab. (And also not-terrible vs Tyrants)
Torpedos are slightly better than Lances when facing Abominations, and only slightly worse than Artillery when facing Tyrants.
(As far as I can tell, the other four weapons aren’t worth considering.)
What we’re facing:
A horrifying number of Tyrants,
A large quantity of Scarabs and Abominations, and
A below-par-given-they-showed-up-at-all-but-still-significantly-above-zero count of Crawlers and Venompedes.
Relevant Weapons:
Artillery is the optimal counter for Tyrants.
Miniguns are very good at handling Scarabs (to the point that bringing more than one would likely be overkill), and pretty useless at most handling most other xenos (to the point that bringing more than one would likely harm our chances).
Lances are good counters for anything which isn’t a Tyrant or a Scarab. (And also not-terrible vs Tyrants)
Torpedos are slightly better than Lances when facing Abominations, and only slightly worse than Artillery when facing Tyrants.
(As far as I can tell, the other four weapons aren’t worth considering.)
Current strategies per number of soldiers:
8 Soldiers: 3 Artillery, 2 Lances, 1 Minigun, 2 Torpedos.
(My model says this gives me >99% chance of survival, but also says that about just bringing one of every weapon. We can be more daring!)
7 Soldiers: 3 Artillery, 2 Lances, 1 Minigun, 1 Torpedo.
(My model says this gives me ~95% chance of survival.)
6 Soldiers: 2 Artillery, 2 Lances, 1 Minigun, 1 Torpedo.
(My model says this gives me about a 2⁄3 chance of waking up the next morning.)
5 Soldiers: 2 Artillery, 1 Lance, 1 Minigun, 1 Torpedo.
(My model says this has slightly worse odds than a game of Russian Roulette with five bullets loaded.)
4 Soldiers: 1 Artillery, 1 Lance, 1 Minigun, 1 Torpedo.
(My model says this almost gives me an entire 1% survival chance.)
If I have to pick one strategy:
7 Soldiers: 3 Artillery, 2 Lances, 1 Minigun, 1 Torpedo.