2. Is there any real benefit to choosing Male touch over Gals are superior? I know everyone says the Gals are better by far, but I like the idea of having a mix of both regular humans and mutants as well as boys and gals. Should I just stick with Gals are superior for my first run? Also, if you choose Gals can you not recruit men, or if you choose Male touch can you not recruit women? I'm not too clear on how it works.
tl&dr: stick with gals.
long version:
there are 3 paths now, gals, males, peasant revolution.
You are able to recruit every soldier type on every path, but:
-on gal path:
You will not have early spacious transport options to throw cannon fodder at the enemy. Recruiting males would take some time into the game (I think you need mess hall for the prerequisite research, so at least 2+ months into the game)
- on male&peasant path:
You get big and slow transport for cannon fodder. Recruiting gals would take a while (and they would be more expensive, you will be able to recruit veterans from the shop)
these paths get some transformations to make chosen path units better, but not beyond their cap, which is still worse than gals.
Every path would be able to get
ubergals from recruiting castaway gal prisoner and young uber (common reward on missions with civilian mutants). I think in my latest completed game I've got around a hundred of them combined.
veteran gals from glamour recruitment (rather expensive, tbh)
catgirls,
freaks, ubergal subtype (tied to bounty hunting reward from jack)
bugeyes from mutant alliance
peasants
lokknars
males
ogres
syn
gnomes
I think I'm missing some obscure things, like Destructoid (red codex exclusive unit) and voodoo related units( resurrected shadows, Chorts)
So, yeah, don't worry, your roster would be very diverse
speaking of codex, there are two more big choices:
1. Codex. 5 types, reject power (challenging)/ accept power (4 colors). I would recommend red (gives good early armor, and the best lategame melee weapon) or gray (gives lategame psi) for the first playthrough
2. Captain's character. I would recommend to not choose jackass (generates additional base assaults, which are pain in the ass). I'd say, soreass would be decent for the first try.