I just finished an Ironman run with this modlist on Veteran and had a reaaaally great time doing so, so i want to share this setup.

The enemy:
- A Better ADVENT 2
I guess i don't need to explain why i am using my own mod here. By now i tweaked it pretty close to where i want to see it personally. I use it out of the box, no alternate mission.ini or further changes.

XCOM:
- Shadow Ops LW
- Long War Perk Pack (pre-requisite)
Shadow Ops LW might just be my favorite class pack. It's very much tuned towards a more defensive style of play, where engagements go over mutliple turns instead of being decided in a turn. It has 4 classes, which seems low at first glance, but each class can be built in different ways and i found that this ends up being virtually 8 distinct classes.

UI:
- Additional Icons
- Gotcha
- Show Enemies on Mission Planning
- Mission Time Remaining
- Upcomng Events in Hours
Mostly self explanatory. I edited the ini of Additional Icons to only show the loot indicator when the enemy is scanned, otherwise it feels too cheaty to me. The mod is required for the enemy nametags, though. Highly recommended when playing with ABA.

Nerfs:
- Cover Damage Reduction
- Explosions destroy Corpses
- Grenade Falloff
- Cant Execute Rulers
These few mods don't look like much, but they are the main reason why i am having multi-turn engagements with many pods instead of the grenade spamfest of vanilla. For Can't Execute Rulers, i use the ini options that turns off the execution for all enemies and makes it deal extra damage instead. But in practice, i don't even use them.

Tweaks/Bugfix:
- Rewards Deck Refresher
- Heavy Weapon Tweaks
- Landed UFOs on Day 1
- LW Laser Pack
- LW SMG Pack
- Suppressable targeting abilities
I used them for this run, but I think i am going to ditch the Laser and SMG pack from now on. Or find a way to make the Laser weapons fit into the flow of the game better.

Buffs:
- Larger Starting Squad
- Timer Tweaks
- Configurable Protect Device
Making stuff a little bit more fair.
I used Timer Tweaks to give a flat 4 extra turns to every mission. Some timer extension is absolutely required due to the cover damage reduction and grenade nerfs, but i might tune it down to just 2 turns in the future.

The Fatigue Package:
- Scanning Sites Plus
- Mission Penalty Rebalance
- Soldier Fatigue Updated
- More Starting Soldiers
Keeping stuff more interesting by making me have to rotate through a wide roster.
Mission Penalty Rebalance + Scanning Sites Plus provides tons of new missions and interacts with the Fatigue mods in interesting ways.