I select my base at the southern tip of Africa. Even the smartest meat bag could not think I would chose that location. Named Primary, it will serve us well. At the top left is our resources. From left to right, it is:
Concrete, Alien Alloys, Electrium, Alien Food, and Organs. Electrium can only be gained from supply ships arriving from the Cereblem every month. How much supply we get depends on how aggressive we are.
This is our home on this alien world. To build structures requires concrete, and to maintain them requires concrete. I have set the foundation to create two more automated construction rigs, and one more construction dock.
From left to right, these facilities are....
Supply Pod: Essentially an access ramp when humans attack my base
Alien Quarters: Allows me to store 15 more aliens
Breeding Facility: Turns organs into one alien per day.
Automated Construction Rig: Creates 20 concrete per day.
Live Store: Stores alien food/organs.
Accommodation Lab: I assume this is research.
Construction Dock: Increases the rate at which UFOs are produced.
Equipment Store: Stores Concrete, Alien Alloys, and Electrium.
Automated Workshop: Produces 30 Alien Alloys a day.
This is general information about Prime. Balance is the net profit concrete I make every day.
This is the breeding menu. I can allocate %s to what rate I want each alien to be produced. Note that it takes organs, gained from harvesting missions, to create more aliens.
I start producing some more small scouts. Cheap, expendable, I will quickly map the world.
These are the available techs. I chose plasma rifles, since once humans get personal armor, they will almost always survive one plasma pistol shot, and if they take two, will usually live the mission(IE, unconscious, but not immediately dead)
I send my scouts out to the U.S., they fund X-com the most and should be prioritized on research. While risky, I harvest at my base. I need that alien food/organs badly, and while it may show X-com my base location, I'll have to take the risk. Also note: Research missions increase the mapping 'percentage' of a region. The higher the percentage, the better the results of a mission. Your home region starts at 45%.
While I'm at it, the other primary mission is abduction, which is essentially actual research.