Less dying = more smashing! What's not to like? Even the basic Tac Vest helps a quite a bit with face tanking, which makes all the difference when breaching.
I've only listened up to ~16 so far, but here's some stuff I have found to work well:
Squad setup:
~2-4 breachers with the heaviest armour I can get (Currently Tac Armor). They lead the way and draw the fire.
~4-6 scouts with armor that allows good mobility (Currently Tac Vest). Most of the time if you spread well, you take shots to the face so even Tac Vests work well.
~2-4 support gals with guns (for reaction fire/taking out annoying unarmoured targets like those close to civilians) or flamethrowers (pretty good against personal armour), smoke armour and harpoon guns if possible to reach out and stun unarmoured hostages-to-be (mainly G.O.s and Hostesses)
2 snipers that stay on top of the bonny (you can place the smoke between them and the enemies instead of on top of them)
The crew: Everybody else, following up with whatever weapons are most suited to them.
The breachers and scouts usually will not stay in smoke too long and are more worried about tanking shots. The support gals however will often stay a bit behind in smoky areas and rarely come under fire (since the scouts and breachers will get targetted) so smoke armour works well.
Another thing: Most enemies will survive one gun shot, so you can do things like: shoot them with a support gal or pistol, rush them and punch them until they drop, then let the "sweep crew" come up and use bandages/boozes to cure fatal wounds so they don't die on you. This way, you reduce the amount of stun damage that you have to do up close, so your gals are more likely to be able to stun and run for cover than to be stranded next to a standing enemy.
Edit: Oh man.. just finished #16.
