the frustration about base size

[psavola]

How are you finding handling funds with 2 bases from start? With just 1 base I ended up with enough to buy scientists for the bio lab, intelligence building and science lab but didnt have much left over money so ended up delaying a 2nd base to get more, not sure if just got unlucky with never getting money bags or many money briefcases though. Not sure if I should try 2 bases to begin with also to have double science or if it would be hard to deal with the limited funds

I don't think building two bases right out is ever advisable. For one, you don't really need the second base until you need to get to the outpost of the fourth cult you can't access from your first base (or you want to expand the research infrastructure). And more importantly, you need to save money for various more important things (such as bio and int labs, later science lab). In the early game money is pretty tight and you don't have any reliable sources to get more (but depending on how much staff you have, you likely get something on a monthly basis from the council).  In addition to that your best bet are safehouses and special missions, if you get lucky with RNG and get the 100K or 500K money loot variants. There's nothing more frustrating than having to wait for a long time to get funds for some really critical facility because you spent them on some lower priority thing.

But you usually get the opportunity to build the second base around 5-6/1997, depending on various things such as RNG related to the sources of income. That's still very early in the game, relatively speaking, possibly a dozen play hours or less. Maybe that's what the previous poster meant.

[hairybert]

No, I really built the second base right away (wll, on Jan 1st to avoid unnecessary upkeep).

2nd base on Sri Lanka was 500.000 + Hangar for 200.000 + General Stores for 150.000.
By the time the general stores had been finished I added Living quarters for 400.000 (a bit delayed to avoid upkeep in February). When that was finished a Van and a few soldiers + equipment.
Over the following two or three months I added Prison, Animal Pen, 2nd Hangar.

I was always low on money for quite some time, but I did not have to delay Int Labs/Bio Labs because of money. Maybe I was lucky.