How many soldiers do you prefer to have? Bases?

[kharille]

I'm still in my first playthrough, got 8 bases, 250 soldiers, scientists and all.  I'm sort of culling all soldiers with psi strength less than 40 and will be working my way through.  I guess if I lose a country I'll probably finish the mission, start again... 

Do you prefer smaller forces?  I remember my first playthrough I had one base in the Arctic...  and maybe 50 soldiers....

[yrizoud]

250 soldiers sounds completely overkill to me, it's better to fight all battles with same soldiers in order to make them more experienced.
I keep something like 12 soldiers in early months; hiring a bunch and only keeping the elite. At some point I'll peak at 30 soldiers in order to have a Commander (rank), but it's my maximum. At this point I rotate the soldiers to keep them similar-experienced, the reserve soldiers can replace the wounded and occasionally do a second mission while the main team is already busy. With two assault crafts ready, I've managed to never miss a ground mission.

[Mr. Quiet]

If I remember correctly, I'd have maybe 60 or 70 Operatives on stand-by in the late-game, but I know it was way more in my last win. I just love being able to work with different teams world-wide, especially renaming them as a whole and I'm a big g.i. Joe fan, so Cobra Vipers go! Then next I can send out my Alley Vipers, or The Dreadnoks if the price is right. My Snow Serpents will be stationed in the North and South Poles. Then out of my Cobra Legions world wide, I will pick out the best of the best to form the Crimson Guard to protect the new Cobra Commander when he decides to personally deal with the Aliens and for the final mission. The Crimson Guardsmen will be equipped with the best of the best armaments.
Of course, other members of the Cobra Hierarchy will be commanding the other bases.

If the Commander goes down in a battle, I'll give him one more chance, since he has been able to recover from near death in his comics thanks to his loyal agents. After a second death, next up will be Destro, then the Baroness with burning revenge, and then the twins, Tomax and Xamot. Serpantor, maybe.

[Incognito]

Like 10 per base, maybe 20 at my original base as a backup squad for injuries and to do mass psi trainings.

[Mr. Quiet]

Do we have a limit on bases? I'd like to try making a ton of bases on my next game.. Hehehehe control every nation of the world with a base on each one.

[Solarius Scorch]

Do we have a limit on bases? I'd like to try making a ton of bases on my next game.. Hehehehe control every nation of the world with a base on each one.

As of now, the limit is 8, just like in the original game. However, AFAIK the engine could just as well handle a thousand bases if we enable it to.

And I seem to have a similar setup to Incognito: 10 - 14 soldiers per base, with one having some extra hands.

[Danny]

Like 10 per base, maybe 20 at my original base as a backup squad for injuries and to do mass psi trainings.

Yeah, 10 troopers  in personal armour with laser rifles and 2 laser/plasma tanks, is enough to guard any additional bases with the right layout.
And then a few extra in your mainbase to guard it, while the skyranger is away on a mission XD

[yrizoud]

As of now, the limit is 8, just like in the original game. However, AFAIK the engine could just as well handle a thousand bases if we enable it to.

Just to clarify, the most limiting factor is the graphical interface in the "base" screen : The vanilla screen layout has room for exactly 8 "base" buttons, nothing more (and no space for a slider or [<] [>] buttons ).
Maybe there are also less evident limits, like for example the transfer screen : I'm not sure if it expects a list of destination bases that doesn't fit entirely in one screen, and thus need to scroll.

[LouisdeFuines]

20 in the first base; 10 in each other base.

Only no soldiers in bases, that don`t have aircrafts, but only radar.

[moriarty]

I usually have 20 soldiers per base: 10 as the "active crew", the rest as stand-ins for the wounded as well as for base defence.

I usually start by building a second base immediately (usually Europe -> USA or USA -> Europe), then add additional bases as the money comes in, trying to get as-complete-as-possible radar coverage on the land mass. if the game goes on long enough, the last two bases cover the north and south poles

[Ran]

I normally only use 2 fully equipped bases in the US and central Asia with about 10-15 soldiers each. I see no use in keeping lots of mediocre soldiers when you can have a handful which are the absolutely elite. Then spread other bases around the world to cover most of it's surface, but I only use them for tracking and emergency interception of UFOs. Those tertiary bases won't get attacked soon and once you have plasma or even fusion ball defense there's no need to station soldiers there. Actually I find it quite boring that bases with a bit of serious defense are completely invincible to alien attacks.
I think you don't really need more than 2-3 bases to win the game even on superhuman, but it's more convenient to have hyperwave coverage the entire globe. And what else could you waste your money on? A base with one missile defense and many grav shields is also fun and will drive them aliens insane.

[Marrik]

i usually use 10 soldiers and a drone for each mission, and then 10 soldiers and 4 drones for the Cydonia mission, and keep like 20 or so soldiers in reserve to replace casualties.

i usually have 5 bases, one main base for soldiers and research, one base for storage and manufacturing, and 3 "strike bases" that consist entirely of hangars and radar.

personally i dont like to use the upgraded aircraft as i think it makes the game too easy, Interceptors with plasma beams are able to handle any UFO's. i also like to use only human weaponry, unless im up against a very large Ethereal UFO, in which case i send 2 guys with blaster launchers and 3 drones, and use Blasterbombs to totally demolish the UFO from the foot of the Skyranger ramp then send in drones to finish off any survivors.

[Camalex97]

When I make bases I setup 5 normal bases then 1 for research and manufacturing (usually in Hawaii) then 2 as storage and a barracks, I ended up having over 1k soldiers in my first play through (they were armed with random weapons from the storage but there were so many of them they could stop mutons no problem) then, my second play through, I had 5 soldiers to guard the storage base and they would just huddle up in the barracks room behind a bed for cover and shoot aliens with laser rifles (they were the highest ranking of that play through needless to say)

[myk002]

I usually go for:

• global radar coverage
• 3 "alpha" bases (handle assault missions, research)
• 4 "post" bases (airlock, radar, stores, living quarters only)
• 1 "industry" base (manufacturing, one empty hangar)

I generally sell off my interceptors immediately and only assault landed alien craft.  This means that my "alpha" bases need to be evenly spaced across the globe so landed UFOs can be assaulted promptly.  I find that USA, Africa, and China are good locations, with post bases in South America, U.K., Northern Australia, and India.  My industry base is invariably named "IcePlanetHoth" and is located at the south pole : )

I have 20 soldiers at alpha bases, and 10 at each of the other bases for base defence missions.  So by the endgame, that's 110 soldiers total, though if I'm strapped for cash I might just not build stores and living quarters on the post bases and keep my soldier count down to 70.