So I had to start over. It is now August in the game. We're about 30 missions in, roughly.
A 50 scientist count really starts dragging out after awhile. We just now were able to research Elerium, and are starting on larger Gauss weaponry. We have encountered Cthonites, Anthropods, Sectoids (lots and lots of Sectoids....), Floaters, Reptoids, Snakemen and now the MIA. We have radar and troop coverage in the Northern Hemisphere and South America, where the Sectoids seem to live.
The Sectoids took over South America, and we lost Brazil. They then took over South America again twice more, but forgot to build bases the final two times. A daring base raid allowed us to capture Commanders, Leaders, Medics, Navigators, Soldiers and 0 Engineers. We caught a Snakeman Engineer later, so our research is pretty much set for the next year. The order goes like this:
Alien Soldier -> Unlocked Research -> Navigator -> Unlocked Research, Engineer, Leader, Commander, etc. I figure we'll be done with the Navigator and mid-game aircraft by the end of August. We might get Gauss and Laser tech by the end of September. Then it's on to whatever order of advanced tech the leaders and commanders unlock.
After Action Report: Don't bring a tank to a swordfight.
We've been at the same tech level for three months. Inroads into alien power sources and elerium have yielded little results, and our paltry team of scientists is growing frustrated by the day. The world now worships the aliens, so recruiting more scientists is impossible. Fortunately, alien alloy tech has allowed us to overcome everything we have faced so far. Anything super-tough fell to our large rockets and heavy explosives.
We received reports of a terror attack in North Africa, and quickly flew across the sea to intercept. What we found waiting for us was not aliens, however, but humans. Their armor was similar to ours, except they lacked the ability to fly. We quickly used that to our advantage, popping up over buildings and fragging most of them with grenades. Their weaponry included weaponized laser technology attached to heavy weapons platforms, and gauss rifles. I'm curious how their technology is on par or more advanced than ours, but we were not able to capture anyone alive to interrogate. Our gauss research has yet to yield anything small enough to carry onto the battlefield.
We ran into a problem with their placement of tanks. It seems like they built the tanks in place inside buildings too small for them to escape. Two were found in a stable, one in a farm house, and the other in a small warehouse. The stables was destroyed from explosives, and those two tanks were felled by well placed high explosive charges.
The other two were very limited in mobility, and a couple of our soldiers, Reaver and Starving Poet, decided to see if Alloy Swords were able to puncture the armor of a tank. Their daring experiment proved a success, and we felled the last two tanks via sword. If we run into armored targets in the future, we can rest assured that simply walking up to them and hitting them with swords is the way to go!
End Report.