With the mod they start off with 1 bar and you can equip 2 thompsons for 45 (one thompson less than vanilla) and you lose one weapon slot. Recon paras were kinda brilliant because you could get 3 thompsons and 2 bars on them, which made quite potent
Specially with the Armor bug they got from teching Captain, if I remember right, that is still in the game.