Inspired by somebody elses UFO: Enemy Unknown endeavours, I started a new game over the weekend. Things went fairly smoothly with only a few casualties... that is until I managed to catch my first large Alien ship on the ground. The Ethereals took control of half of my team and wiped out the other half in rapid succession. Complete "party wipe". Ah well, had accumulated quite a lot of money and had a spare team in a spare Skyranger, so the loss was managable if humiliating. Second team didn't fare much better when running into a Muton ship. I had forgotten how hard to kill (with laser rifles and rockets) those things are. Also forgot that they tend to not stay dead and will sometimes get back again, behind your lines >_
One squaddie and a tank survived. Squaddie got a promotion too. Time to go on a recruiting campaign. At least I got to keep all my guns and personal armour.