Just did my first alien base invasion. Went in with 3 vets and 3 rookies. Only came out with 1 vet and 1 rookie. But it was awesome.
One thing that does bother me is the difficulty difference between normal and classic. I started this game on classic from the beginning, but was constantly getting pwned on just about every mission. You don't start with officer training school, you have to get a guy up past squaddie before you can build it. Other unknown conditions must be met also to research better body armor and laser weapons. Also, I believe that the max group size on classic is 5. This makes the game very hard to almost impossible.
So, I finally relented and started a game on normal. By comparison its a walk in the park except for the random difficulty spikes. I decided to play ironman normal to give that extra added difficulty that I feel that mode is lacking.
This game isn't perfect, but its still very good. I'm enjoying my playthrough immensely. To those who are frustrated by the randomness, go back and play original x-com. Talk about random. And your highest chance to hit is around 35% with rifles. And no cover or to hit bonuses. And this is on easy.
Check out my Youtube Let's Play channel here.
