Raen has some pretty good logic there, and I agree with him for the most part. Too much focus one area or another will hamper our results. I'm not 100% sure what the best options are for this round, since they all look like decent options, but I don't want to change my vote lest I trigger a voting war or something.

I put SHIELD first because, well let's face it, if one of our mech units gets possessed by an angry shapeshifter I don't see good things happening. MECHANICAL WARHORSE is more of a "this is a nice upgrade for everyone, let's go with that", though it helps me as well with the Dexterity option. After reading Raen's comments though, I'd say it and LEGIONAIRE are tied in my book.

For Research...well I'll be blunt I just want the VARIABLE STRUCTURE as soon as possible to upgrade to a medium mech (although I thought we already had those, just not for those low on the totem pole). NTAP 2.0 is probably a good idea to at least research. Personally I think FIRESTARTER is a bit silly for this initial point, there are far more useful things on the chopping block right now. Whatever floats the boat I guess.

Next round, I'm wanting to go full on defense, to make up somewhat for the more offensive upgrades we are getting this round. Project LEGIONAIRE and ALPHA are my top picks for next round. Wanting to fit in NANO and if at all possible, VARIABLE STRUCTURE as well, so we'd need to collect a lot of intact scrap. Research is more or less up in the air, don't want to get too ahead of myself.

Just some random thoughts.