Okay, so in my first X-COM game, Ironman and Classic, my very first team was nearly wiped out by Sectoids on our initial run. The only survivor was a heavily wounded guy from Africa, who was promoted to Heavy Squaddie, and sent to the medbay. My next team to go out consisted of a German woman, an American man named John Blake, because he's American like that, A Korean and a Nigerian. They actually won their first mission with zero casualties or injuries, and became my main fighting force for the next couple of missions.
Things went to shit once we got our first downed UFO. We encountered a non-Sectoid in that mission, some energy being that shot dead our Assault boy, the Nigerian named Ondende. My two snipers, the American and German, gunned it down.
Things were going great, until our next mission, where my Heavy from my very first mission was finally put back in action. We were ambushed by Sectoids in an area full of cargo to be shipped. They hid amongst the crates and ambushed us, killing the German (my favorite, actually, because she kicked all the ass), and the Korean Support man.
Both my Heavy and Blake were heavily wounded in the initial assault, and responded with copious abuse of rocket launchers and headshots, wiping out the majority of the Sectoids before setting up a crossfire and killing the last few to come in.
Now both the last survivors of their initial squads, they got to bond in the medbay while a team of rookies, a Japanese woman, a British man with a handlebar mustache named Henry Cavill, and a Russian man and woman duo. This was my first Thin Man fight, and I found them to be pretty easy this go-around. The Japanese chick actually slaughtered the majority of the enemy forces on her own after getting separated, only to be gunned down by a Sectoid. Her sacrifice made an opening, though, and the others escaped with the scientist.
And then the next mission all three of these soldiers and their rookie squadmate were slaughtered by jetpack monsters and thin men, and I ragequit.
Will let you know how my next game goes, hopefully a bit better than this.