Jandau said:
1. Start in the US or Africa. They have the best bonuses for early game.
Someone crunched some numbers on this a while ago. NA is the fastest start, followed by Asia. Africa ramps up and becomes very strong late game, assuming heavy satellite saturation. Due to low starting cash and the slow ramp up, I would not recommend an Africa start. Frankly, if someone is struggling, I wouldn't recommend any start but a NA start due to starting cash.
Jandau said:
2. Focus on satellites early on. Build Uplinks in a square formation to get the most out of adjacency bonuses. One of the four square should probably be a Nexus (you need to research a UFO Nav Computer to get it). 3 Uplinks and a Nexus gives you a 14 Sat limit, enough to cover all but two countries. 2 Uplinks and 2 Nexuses (Nexii?) gives you full coverage. Remember to start building Satellites before you facilities are complete, so you don't need to wait too long on them.
Good advice. You can get by with just uplinks, but mixing in a Nexus is nice if you have the means.
Jandau said:
3. Try to cover entire continents. Abductions don't occur in countries with Sat coverage. Once you cover a whole continent, you're almost completely safe from panic in that area. Also, once you cover an entire continent you get its bonus (the ones you picked from at start). For this reason, cover your starting continent last (since you have that bonus already) or not at all (to farm Abduction missions).
Also good advice.
Jandau said:
4. If you need to sacrifice a country, cut South America off first. Their bonus is the least helpful. It's a nice touch, but research is rarely limited by time. You can afford to lose a few countries, but once a country is lost you can't get that continent's bonus anymore (since you can't get full coverage). If you still need to cut someone off, cut Europe. In general continent bonuses are N.America = Africa > Asia > Europe > S.America.
Here we differ. I like to saturate SA 1st or 2nd, depending on whether I'm playing marathon or regular. You're dramatically underestimating the impact of being able to speed through interrogations and autopsies, it saves you something like two months of research time. Earlier access to research credits, faster research of critical technologies...it all has a snowball effect. And if you're following your early advice and prioritizing satellite saturation, you're ignoring science. You're rushing engineers, building workships to meet the requirements for uplinks, and you're not improving your science at all. Getting the SA bonus (an easy two satellites) completely mitigates that research shortfall and puts you right on pace as if you'd been building labs the whole time.
You're right about Europe though. Europe is utter rubbish.
Jandau said:
5. DON'T rush critical research too much. It advances the main story and escalates the alien deployment. Once you get to the base invasion, I'd suggest stopping and researching all your shit first, because all hell breaks loose once you do the base. On the other hand, clearing the base drops global panic by 2, so you might have to do it...
This actually isn't the case. There are only two things you can trigger, and that's the appearance of Sectoid Commanders and Ethereals (and I believe Sectopods accompany the latter), which require doing specific story missions. The alien development ramps up quite cheerfully whether you're doing critical research or not. On my last marathon game I had serious science issues that had me still in normal armor and weapons when Cyberdisks were showing up. That was fairly bracing, I don't need to tell you. The only thing diddling around and waiting on essential research gets you is behind, especially early on, as the essential research is often pointing you at research credits so it doesn't take you a month to research carapace armor.
Jandau said:
6. If you don't have any Steam Vents on the first two levels, you're fucked. Try to get an Elerium Reactor going and get adjacency bonuses on your regular reactors. If you do have a Steam Vent on one of the top two levels, try to get to it as soon as possible.
Hardly "fucked". It's a fairly minor inconvenience. Too much steam is actually more irritating, as is steam on the wrong side (say, right in the middle of your uplink cluster).
Jandau said:
7. Labs are useless. Don't build more than one, and even that only if you have money to spare. Workshops are only really good for adjacency bonuses and maybe if you're VERY short on Engineers, but you can usually get enough of them from rewards and monthly bonuses. This is the reason why Europe's bonus isn't very useful.
Yes to labs, they are pointless. No to workshops, you usually need 2 if you're pushing for rapid satellite coverage. Missions alone won't get you the engineers you need, especially if you're giving some mind to panic levels.
Jandau said:
9. Skip Carapace armor and go straight for Skeleton armor. It costs less Alloys, gives a Defense bonus and the Grapple can be a cool touch.
I...wouldn't recommend this. Carapace gives slightly better coverage and is available sooner. Skeleton armor can still get you one shot with a crit.
unstabLized said:
Any tips from you master strategists?
I wouldn't call myself a "master strategist", but I made a fairly long post on this subject a while back, and I believe Bostur had some good elaborations as well.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.392446-I-find-XCOM-really-difficult#15829154
Along with Jandau's solid advice that should see you through to victory on Classic difficulty, at least.