Stick one in Psi armour(100% hit chance on most aliens) they only need second level psi to move you on (though I recommend third) I also recommend 2 snipers with 'in the zone' for the final assault...
If your not on classic or impossible it's a "save my fave persons butt skill" on those 2 though it becomes a game changer

Considering it's Steamworks only game and so I can never play it, question is quite moot.

How many bases did you encounter? I only had one base and it seemed "story specific".

That is the main issue I have with the game. The geoscape feels to much "on rails". In the original you had the feeling the aliens had a plan in which I interfered, here I got the feeling I'm following a plotline.

But apart from that I consider it better than the old one. They cut a lot of fat in the right places.

The contrast to Xenonauts will be interesting.

There's 1 base and that's it and they removed base invasions, theres only 3-4 story missions outside the tutorial. My only annoyance so far was my first play through I had 3 countries close to leaving 2 days left on the sats I needed to get their panic level down and got whammied with all 3 as terror locations so had no choice but to lose 2.. I cried..

Yeah, you need another option to lower panic. I lost 2 countries despite doing great on the missions and choosing the "most panicky" nations/continents on abductions. They could to a "security advisor" event. You send 1 soldier (at least rank captain) for ten days into that country and panic is removed by 1.

It sucks, because you loose the continent bonuses.

Oh, and I want my "dissection pictures" again. I loved those ;-).

tbh the +funds starting area becomes super handy as it lets you get more sats up early game letting you lower panic and get more funding quickly, the arc thrower becomes the best thing in game as well as it means free weapons...

Early game the benefit is somewhat reduced because you also start in a country that gives less funds though.

Personally after finding out I barely if ever need to build a Research Lab I forewent Europe this time and went for Asia instead. I'm most of the way through the game and I have no research lab, yet I've been out of things to research several times. And even if you have researched stuff quickly it's usually the materials capping what you can make anyway. I built a workshop when I needed extra engineers and that's about it. (though I can possibly see myself making more of those next time).

Started in Asia, grabbed South America for the instant research on Interrogations/Autopsies and then went Africa, then NA, with Europe being the throwaway focus if I needed to.

Ooookaayyy...

Anybody care to explain the ending to me?

Damn, that was kind of a letdown. Last mission was nice, but the ending ...

Wait, I beat you on one? Now I gotta go check!
I think the idea is to get sats up early and rely on the extra income to detect and shoot down UFOs, the panic level seems to be increasing in most countries mainly because events are happening that you're failing to detect.

I think a second play through might go much better for me.

Setting us up for "XCOM 2: They came from the skies"?
It does seem to leave a few open questions, but let's not start the heavy spoilering in this thread. I did enjoy it quite a lot though, mostly because I first read your post, then managed to finish it, so I was prepared for a much worse ending :P

I'm guessing it's a set up for either a DLC or an actual sequel...
SPOILER
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I said SPOILER!! It seems to hint about the ethereals trying to prepare other races for something scarier than themselves.

Tried classic/ironman...

Lost my whole team in the first crashsite.

fsck that!

For god sake, don't make posts like that. Halfway through that post I had to ignore this thread till I finished the game >.<

unlike every other mode your first goal in classic seems to be lasers and the arc thrower, since you'll be turfing in at least 1 rookie a mission until you get armour give them the arcs and as soon as you get an intact plama research it!
Science buildings make sense in this mode 1 can almost halve research times (but just 1 any more seems a waste of cash) I've actually skipped the forge till I had half the planet covered in sats this time... makes captures harder(no imp. arc thrower) and no bigger medpack but until that point I didn't have a chance to survive a hit ;)