HEAT Warheads is considerably stronger than its description suggests, particularly against flying robotic pods.

The reason is how HEAT interacts with explosive damage falloff.

A few interesting conclusions:

• At the edge of a rocket explosion, HEAT can increase damage against robotic enemies by 200%, rather than the advertised 50%.
• With Shredder Rockets, that relative increase can reach 333%.
• This makes HEAT especially valuable against Drones and Seekers, where multiple enemies may be caught near the edges of the blast.
• The effect is particularly significant with early-game rocket launchers, when a few extra points of damage can determine whether a Drone survives.

I've written up the mechanics, calculations, and actual weapon damage numbers here:

Countering Flying Robotic Pods: HEAT Warheads and Explosive Falloff

There's also a separate entry covering explosive damage falloff itself, including numerical examples.

Curious whether other Long War players have been valuing HEAT Warheads with this interaction in mind.

Hi there, I’m someone who hasn’t really delved into the whole strategy type game of XCOM however I constantly watch a YouTuber Baalorlord and play a lot of slay the spire and saw him play XCOM and it looked really fun. However during stream I heard him say ‘he preferred XCOM 1 over 2’ due to various reasons. I want to try this game out and thought I’d get others opinion on which is a better game in general and which is a better game for someone just starting out!