Survival Guide (EU2012)

Soldier rotation

Do not put all your eggs into one basket. Solder rotation is essential, even if your soldiers make it through their missions unharmed you do not only want one squad set-up. Rotate in rookies and lower ranked soldiers to let them have experience. Using rookies as scouts and "cannon fodder" will help your better soldiers survive more frequently, but don't throw them all away. Since if you loose your main squad of best soldiers, your remaining forces might not be strong enough. You're also going to inevitably lose soldiers due to a bad move or a "that's XCOM" moment; even if you don't lose them they might get hit and be sitting in the infirmary for half a month. Even if you have 1 or 2 main soldiers per type, maintain 1 or 2 squaddies in each class so that you know what they're specialty will be and so you have at least one ability to use in combat.

Optimal strategic development

This is my strategy for developing the base and satellite coverage on Classic. Tips and comments appreciated. The goal is to have as much money as possible, since money is a huge factor in the game.

Starting in NA, we get 180 extra funding from the beginning, and a bonus that is most beneficial at the beginning. Restart game until you get steam on 3rd level and not in columns 2, 3 or 6 (2 and 3 is where statellite facilities are going to be located, 6 makes it impossible to place workshops in a square). Optimal location for steam is adjacent to the access lift, to the right (5 column). I dont like steam at higher levels because its a very big investment of money to build a thermo gen right away.

Start by getting extra engineers ASAP and excavating left and right on 1st level. You need 10 engineers to build Satellite Uplink, so you must get 4 engineers and build a workshop. On first level, in first month, you are going to build a Power gen, Workshop and OTS, leaving space for the Satellite Uplink. Your power gen goes over the tile with the steam on the third level. Reserve space for Satellite Uplink next to the existing one. Workshop goes in 5 or 6 column (to the right of the access lift), space must be left to build 4 of them in a square. OTS goes either to column 1, 5 or 7, whichever is free and doenst disrupt workshop's square formation.

At first month, you need to build 1 satellite. Always build satellite uplinks (14 days) and satellites (20 days) so that they are completed before council report (so you get extra money immediately). You can build more than one satellite at once.

On later aductions, first chose the minimum panic hit, then try to get 4 extra scientists, but that's not as important. After you have >5 scientists, go for money rewards if it wouldnt be a huge panic hit.

Send your first satellite preferably to a country that gives big income (Russia or some $ 100 country), but you may want to prioritise a country that has maximum panic to prevent it from leaving the project. As soon as you send your first statellite, order at least 2 interceptors to that country.

Second month, you will be building a second Power Gen, Satellite Uplink and 3 satellites. By the end of the month, try to get a full country covered, preferably Europe (purely for money) or South Africa (again, for money). Also, by the end of the month, try to have access lift built to lvl 3, and room for thermo gen excavated.

Third month, you will be building a thermo gen, third Satellite Uplink and another 3 satellites. You may want to go for Nexus here, but it will require you to build extra workshop, and probably even more power, which you may not have money for. Make sure to upgrade to 4 interceptors right at the beginning of month 3, as big UFO's are going to show up. You may also want to have some phoenix canons built (2 interceptors with phoenix will usually take down a big UFO, in case of unluck 3rd one will finish it off with avalanchem but it takes all 4 of them to take down a big UFO with avalanches, and i believe if you get unlucky you're screwed).

If at any point you have no money, you should sell stuff on the grey market. You can afford selling items even if you didnt research them yet, since you will get them again. I had to sell every ufo component and lots of alien bodies to get me through the second month, but it was worth it - jumped from 250 to 550 income! Also, I am building alien containtment on the end of second month to save money, and i am not researching beam weapons until month 3, and foregoing manufacturing carpace armor (manufacturing only skeleton suit), also to save money. I have not built foundry yet (maybe i'm wrong on this) but i havent had any spare money or base space for it. I only got squad size upgrades at OTS.

By the end of third month, you have 2 countries fully covered, one of which should be Africa, and you should have a very nice paycheck. This will allow you to start getting all the nice stuff :)