dantedarkstar

I always stick with the same squad throughout the game. If some of your stats seem low, it is because they CAN be higher, they are just not trained. I sometimes do "training camps", where I for example make the group shoot their weapons (preferrably automatic) at ground, to raise their shooting and automatic fire (not sure of english names, I have polish version). You can also use normal non-automatic guns, but it trains shooting only, instead of two things at once. Of course use the weapons you prefer to have relatively high familiarity with, but have either unlimited ammo (because it's form "your side", like Mauser ammo for Axis, or .303 for Allies) or because you know you have enough of it scavenged to not worry about spending 200-300 bullets. Similarly you can train meele combat (do it one by one though, if you make group attack the same square, they may hit each other, which is bad, unless you want to train medicine too ). You can also train throwing (throw knives at a wall, though it's much more hassle than shooting and worth only for somebody really into throwing like knife-throwing ninja-scout or grenadier, since you have to retrieve knives after you throw all of them - that's why throw at wall or at least with wall behind, or it may fall beyond the map), action points (just run around in group), stealth (just hide/unhide), spotting (run around in group while hidden), medicine (wound somebody and heal, or just use some buffs, like painkillers, never really did this one though as usually the dedicated healer has enough skill from just doing the job), engineering (my preferred method, although dangerous is setting a mine and retrieving it, which increases engineering twice for just one use of anti-mine engineering item), sniper shot (for this, you need to train on random encounter, just sniper-shot a dead enemy over and over, you cannot snipe ground). Basically the only stats you cannot train reliably are HP (not sure if they raise just by levelling, or they just always seem to max out, or raise too slow to notice), evasion (dunno when it even raises, it doesn't seem to when I get shot ocassionally), interrupting (unless you manage to find an enemy at random encounter that will try to peek from a corner, fire SMG from too far away to hit and hide, repeat). I must admit the training camps are very tedious in SS. It's much better in SSS, where the skill, if much lower than level-dependent cap, raises very fast (as fast as one full point per use). In normal SS, it raises by 10% per use, only to slow down near the cap. In SSS it also slows down near the cap, but speeds up when it's lower, allowing much more efficient and less tedious training. Still, training some basic abilities may be necessary. Train hide, shooting and automatic fire, AP and spotting, since they are all relatively easy to train and you can train entire squad at once (just select all squad and issue orders).