Oh man. So I've been trying to see if I got the game nicely balanced in my latest playthrough and while it was the most fun playthrough yet, it seems I just made it way to difficult.
I decided on a Europe start and just invest heavily into workshops and labs to get the research going and produce items cheaply, but in doing so I had nothing left to invest into getting more sats. My tech might have been to par but I couldn't afford enough troops or get my officer training school built and upgrading my squad size. I was starting to get some real good soldiers here and there to, but they simply got overwhelmed.
My finances just got competely stuck as well. All my income went into maintenance just to fund my engineer and science team, to the point where I couldn't afford much else. Meanwhile exalt bleeding me dry of what little cash I did have while I couldn't fight back due to not having enough soldiers. Panic slowly globally rising due to not being able to carry out all missions as they came in, while exalt had pretty much free reign to cause more panic.
So many tough calls to make though, love it. Just to bad I couldn't keep up with the rising tide. Might have to increase base funding just a touch.
As a last thought, I think I also overdid the panic missions a little bit.
That's what you get when the AI can and will use every unit it has on the field, and every civilian killed by a chryssalid offscreen will always turn into a zombie. Full blown infestation if you don't curb it fast enough.
And since I'm posting images anyway, damn I should have checked out all these customization option earlier, my soldiers look badass.