Thanks for all the info and bother u've went to, it means now I can have a rough idea of the best and worst case scenarios of the following. Whether or not the aliens have detected any of my bases and if they have what r the chances of them getting thru the base defenses and starting a base defense mission. I know it may be a bit lazy but I like to only do an absolute minimum of these missions especially late on in a playthru. Actually one of my bases is under retaliation atm by Ethereals and it's only early May!