Originally Posted by Zandel

I also find that making squad 1 mostly AoE girls with skill activate tends to win most fights in the first round.

That's my second unit (which is also my first unit on Whaleship missions) in a nutshell. The unit is great for clearing maps. It's just not ideal against raidbosses, although I hardly invested in their defense either.

Another thing to improve squads, is placing the ones with an AOE special attack in front of the girls with a special attack that targets only 1 pest.
Multi-strike units, like Anemone should be placed last on your squad. The first three strikes of Anemone's special attack always target one or two units if they happen to survive the hits. Only if the first two units get killed from the first two hits will her third strike aim for a third target (if one is available). That makes her ideal for the last position, since she can perfectly clean up remaining pests that way. On the other hand, if only 1 target is available, then all 3 strikes will hit that one target, which adds up to more damage than the special of several single-target girls. Her recently added fourth strike hits all targets, by the way, but it isn't as lethal as her first three hits.