My article on Phoenix Point is up a few days early on Strategy Gamer, so if you are interested in tactical tips and tricks, definitely go check it out.
https://www.strategygamer.com/articles/phoenix-point-tips/
The process of writing this article doesn't really have much to say about it. The only particularly interesting thing outside the content itself is that my editor wanted it a few days early to fill in a light week. There are certain advantages for being recognized as "that guy you can ask for an article with a 24 hour turnaround and get it before expected," and I take great pleasure in being that guy.
In this particular case, I was waiting for the "first patch" to come out before I really started banging on pulling out the content, and I managed to make it because that patch came out the day before this article was requested. Unfortunately, if you have been following Phoenix Point development, that particular patch was underwhelming. While it did address some significant crash bugs, it didn't really touch some of the issues with balance and actual play which others have made a much bigger deal than I have.
The biggest thing with actual repercussions in the game has been the change of reaction fire from letting loose half a magazine in response to anyone within line of sight firing on your team to only responding to fire coming on that particular soldier but unleashing an entire burst in response. That sounds, on paper, as if it should be roughly equal in impact. In practice, it means that you are firing back more and more aggressively, resulting in much faster ammo consumption.
A point that didn't make the cut to get into this article is that ammo consumption is going to be a sticking point if you want to really get the most out of your soldiers in the field. The Stamina system which wears down as they take engagements is effective at forcing you to rotate through more units but the increased rate of ammo consumption is going to be the heavy limiter – because you have to take all that ammo to the field on your soldiers. Nobody tops up their weapons when they get back to the transport. You literally need to have spare ammo magazines in the pockets of your soldiers and they literally have to make those reloads out in the field. Not in your flying APC.
Given how tight you can be on resources from time to time, this is a huge deal, but there is some hope that it will be tweaked before much longer. Of course, it could be one of those "game traits" that becomes closely identified with the game itself and thus will never get changed. Let's hope that doesn't happen.
Obviously this particular article only talks about meta-issues around the game itself and a relatively tight selection of tactical considerations. I plan to write a follow-up article which drops another 1400 words on strategic considerations and the factions, so if you're interested in that stay tuned – it should be exciting.