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Here are my early bird hints and tips for the uninitated (new players).

1. After achieving your first promotion, all soldiers should get +3 AP and +2 shooting. (some soldiers get the other way around, +2 AP and +3 shooting, since their shooting may be dirt low). Sure, accuracy is nice, but having AP means you can move further, and take more shots. After the first promotion, keep adding AP and accuracy at about +1 each, and add some bravery and health. Oh, and Reactions is VERY nice, especially later on (as in my soldier took TWO opportunity shots). Realize that these other areas are also useful. Specialize for the Throwers with less shooting, but do not go overboard unless you like the grenade style of play (even a 32 throwing skill can get the bomb on target enough to damage the enemy). Oh, and later on you will need strength. Strength scores of 40, 48, 50, 52 and 60 are eventual mid-game necessities. Not all soldiers need mega strength, but still. (EDIT. Also, er, str 70. hmm. probably more.)

(There are 6 main skills, AP, Health, Bravery, Reactions, Strength and Shooting. Throwing is less important since if you are that close you should not miss too badly. But you only get 5 points to spend. A balanced approach is needed, although some soldiers may specialize. I usually (but not always) load up on AP early with +3 and then +2 on the first 2 promotions, and if we miss the target ... oh well, another soldier gets to try. Your newer Rookies will drag the whole team down if they cannot move with the team.

2. Try to build one base a month starting in FEB the first year. DO NOT BUILD A BASE THE FIRST MONTH (they cost 1 million+ each, and you only have 1 million to start with. Wait until FEB when you get lotsa cash, then add a base every 1st of the month). After 3 new bases think about adding more fighters but you may have to save to build a base WITH FIGHTERS on the far side of the planet. You will need multiple sorties to handle the incoming load of aliens around APR/MAY. I usually take the three areas close to main base first since these hangars can assist the main base fighters. I don't add extra hangars until later.

3. Use the light tank early on as a scouting unit. Do not get too fancy with 'letting the soldiers get the kill'. If you play the vanilla game, you will be on many, many missions, and it takes a lot of exp to get the higher ranks. You can always replace a cheap tank, and keep your soldiers out of sickbay. This is important early on since you only have 8 soldiers to start with. You will get about 1 raw rookie per month the first year. Work them in on your team and realize you may need these guys sooner than anticipated.
Do not get too happy when you get a new tank design. You have to build them, and if destroyed it is gone. Also, the later tanks are nice but not much more powerful than expected. Eventually, I do not even bother with tanks, but it is always a nice fallback tactic to use a cheap tank in case many soldiers are out of action. I keep one each of the new designs at main base in case I am attacked there.

4. Be careful building too many labs or workshops early on. When assigned to projects you will waltz through the cash fast. If you get through the tech tree, the game knows this, and it gets harder. Be happy that your scientists have something to do.

(I was able to research all tech one items the first 12 months, and I did not add a new lab, but I did delete the initial lab and added a new workshop after advanced labs. I now have 3 workshops and 1 ad lab, which works well.)

5. Base defences are not that great. Have a few to keep smaller ships away, but understand that the aliens are masters in space and can wreck any base you have.

6. Patience. Later, huge ships will show up and it does not get any easier. Still, keep plugging away. You will succeed eventually.

7. If your soldiers are almost all in the hospital, think about not searching all enemy crash sites. The smaller sites are not that great anyway, and scouts are actually harder than much larger ships (until you get better armor on all mission soldiers).

8. Use all of the weapon types you have at your disposal. Always take a few rifle, shotgun, missiles, and, lateron, the various heavy and special weapons. You never know what you are facing until you are in the mission zone.

9. Later on, you will have more technology. Build everything. Consider, you have 2 new fighter cannons besides the stock one you can buy. Build both of them. They take a while, and if you build both you will get both. Meanwhile, if you build just the best item (which is usually harder to build and takes more time even with extra engineers), you will get one at a time, whereas if you built both the 2nd and the 3rd items you will get a steady stream of new tech (which is still way better than the stuff you can buy). Do this with the soldier weapons as well.

10. Try to keep soldiers with the same or similar weapons. That way you will look for them when the time is needed for a particular job. It makes it easier to keep track of who has what and adds 'personality' to your soldiers. (Gee, Nancy the Heavy Weapons specialist is out of action in sickbay, I guess we'll just have to go without Heavy Lasers this time ...)
Use the lowest ranking soldiers for advance scouting and opening critical doors. If they fall, you will still have your veterans. For one thing, someone has to 'take point' and perform the advance recon. In some of my toughest battles, a lot of soldiers died early on but we did damage and had to clear the enemy base with 'whomever is left'. It is very nice if your #1 and #2 officers are still alive in times like those ...

11. Although I have never done so, some players may suggest a quick evacuation in some situtations. There are enemies that you may have trouble with. If you do not have the right weapons some enemies are extremely tough to take out, so staying in those situations is outright suicide. Have your sqaud load up with every weapon type available, and have several soldiers capable of carrying heavy weapons in case the guy with the heavy weapon is dropped. Also, always load up on stimpacks and grenades and extra ammo. And don't get fancy with the kills! Whoever has a shot should take it, and if you move a different soldier into view ... WHAM, guess what? Mr. Alien had a few AP he did not know about and now your would-be experience getter is in sickbay. Also, save AP to move away from the target in case it does not die. I have seen 90+ accuracy miss since the soldier knew he was not going to be able to move afterwards and was gonna die.

12. Research. Advanced Cannon is a must have the first month, since if you can not shoot down the little ships you are gonna have a tough time. Keep building ad cannons for a long time, they are a nice plug-in when your better cannons are not available (due to combat losses).
As for the rest of the research, I do not want to spoil things. So, work on what you think is best for the situtaion. Need better weapons? Then go for lasers, (bear in mind, lasers lead to laser 1 which leads to laser 2 and then laser 3. You want 2 and 3, but after researching them you still have to FABRICATE them.)

13. Workshops. Early on there will not be much to build. Later on, your scientists will not have anything to research, and then the engineers will be very busy. Unlike the original game, some items just take too long to assign many workers to. Also, unlike the original game, you need everything. Grenades, ammo, guns (various types), armors, fighters, fighter equipment, specialized gear, the works. Basically, do a little at a time. I usually have 1 worker per project and 10-15 projects at all times. I prioritize for 'crucial equipment'. Also, I 'brainstorm' by adding many workers near the end of larger projects. I sometimes do this for research as well.

14. PS, I do not use any mods, so this is my list of tips for the stock game.

Anyway, hope this helps some. (lotsa typos in me post)

Update.

You better get nice strength early on, at least mid-way through promos. Strength 48 and especially 52 are very important. I am not certain about later, but methinks strength 56 and 60 are going to be important. I have not seen anything for str 56, but 60 is for lvl 3 armor and 54 is for a VERY nice weapon.

In the original game, it was easy to load up on AP and Accuracy (shooting). Not so this game. You had better get a balanced team, with specialists, and stick to it. All abilities give from 4-5 increase per training point. Here are some insights in the abilities:

Agility.
Required for lots of action points so you can move, shoot, move, and react. Very nice to have 90-100 AP, although 70-80 is more balanced. This allows you to use the auto-mode firing on some weapons, which lets you shoot three times. If you do not have AP you are stuck going very slow. Rookies are horrible, with about 58 or so each.

Vitality.
Gives Health. The capability to take damage and not die on the field of battle. Also, reduces some time in the hospital somewhat (just guessing on the time thing, although current trends seem to be so. Those soldiers with low health seem to go to sickbay longer imo). With decent health, you can take a hit during a battle and heal it for that battle. Although the soldier will go to the hospital after the mission, keeping soldiers in the battle is a must have.

Bravery.
The capability to avoid enemy mind attacks. Also, it is inevitable in most missions that someone is going to be dropped ('killed for the mission') in battle. Although that soldier will return if you win, all other soldiers take a temporary Courage penalty since one of the squad 'bought it'. Low courage throws off your aim, and of course, you need to shoot the enemy that just dropped your squad mate right after he falls. Courage will restore over a few turns, especially if you start winning the battle.

Strength.
Commonly overlooked by many players, high strength is a must have in the middle game. Without strength 40, 48, 54 and perhaps more, soldiers will not be able to use the later, better weapons. Also, strength 40 is needed for level 2 armor, 60 for level 3, and who knows? You may need str 80+ someday on a few people. Oh, btw, one of the late tech 2 heavy weapons requires str 70, although it is primarily for use against machines and armor. Also, one of the really great rifles I have researched needs str 54. And it is not a heavy weapon. (edit: you may need 1 guy with 90.)

Reactions.
This is the capability to shoot with reaction fire during the aliens' movement phase. 50 and up is very nice, but is hard to get on most soldiers. Just remember to never leave the Rocket Launcher armed for reaction fire. Nothing worse than blowing yourself up if you reacted and missed or shot at a close-range target. (I have not yet seen reaction grenade toss yet, but is probably likely if throwing is high enough.)

This skill also changes to Perception during tactical battles. It will increase your range sight. (Most aliens have superior range sight compared to your troopers.)

Throwing.
The capability to hit a target with a grenade. Luckily, grenades have an area affect and this is not too important for most soldiers. However, it is very bad to throw a grenade and hit your own squad due to a very low score here. It is the least important, since even mid-30's are ok in a pinch, 40's are preferred (just do not have anyone in front of you.)

Shooting.
Commonly over trained by most players. Sure, a few soldiers with 80+ here is great, but without decent strength and the other areas such a soldier will be forced to use inferior weapons. Although lasers are ok for a few people throughout the game, having your 1, 2, and 3 troopers with low strength and awesome AP/shooting etc. is not going to cut it.

You may want to specialize some soldiers. Having like 1 guy with 50+ grenade skill is ok, although there is no guarantee that he will get to use them. Heavy weapon specs with decent str are nice, and the Accurate Rifle shooter is good, too.

Remember, promotions take a long time once past a certain point. This is so you can fix some early training decisions. The last 3-4 ranks are hard to get.

(If you are playing a mod that gives huge experience early on, and did not train certain abilities, well, that is unfortunate.)

Here are some more hints:

A soldier with low starting strength will have difficulty getting to high strength. However, if you forego strength past 40, 48 or even 54, he can get many AP and have high Reactions (perceptions) and be a great Point Man (recon). Just don't have too many Recon Specialists.

On the harder difficulty setting, aliens are tougher to kill. Also, AP is harder go get. Try for 70-80 for the most part. All starting stats are THE SAME, meaining low for Rookies, on Hard setting, but the accessory skills need more points at the expense of Agility.

Edit: Especially Health. On the HARD diff I train 1 Vitality at each of the first 2 promos. It cuts down on the time in hospital. After the building tech for wounds, this is not important. Until then, many soldiers are down for 20-45 days each time. I try for 72+ or so health, maybe a little more in late promotions.

Oh, and the finances are less from monthly regions as difficulty increases. Easy is like 720k, Normal is 629k, and Hard is 469k maximum from a single province. The aliens show up faster, too. Bigger ships earlier. You will also fight more aliens in some battles as more show up in tactical. Depends, tho.

When exiting the Transport during tactical battles on turn one, the main objective is to clear away any immediate enemies. Use the Spirit light tank early on, and especially for scouts. For fighters, 8 troopers are better than bringing the tank. Move only out of the main transport interior and set up a defense line.

Later, move into the terrain, using it for cover, and scout a lot. If a tank is present, send it out to recon, but have some movement in case you run into contacts. Strange, sometimes all shots will miss a target that you MUST kill or it will hurt you in its turn. I dunno why, but maybe the soldiers feel the pressure in 'do or die' shots. I have seen 83% and higher quality shots miss by huge margins, and not just one shot, either (as in all soldiers miss no matter what.) So, bear that in mind.

Do not group your soldiers too close until you find out what you are fighting. Some aliens have an area attack which, in the early game, is very nasty. Spread out a little until you know what aliens you are facing. If there is no area attack, then group up for mutual support.

Remember to use the light tank for scouts, I prefer 8 soldiers for a fighter but even 4+tank can go to a fighter mission site if you are low on soldiers. If you want to, go on many missions, just to check things out. Of you have only 1, 2 or 3 soldiers, bring a tank, check the area close to transport, and if it looks bad clear out before someone drops. Even 1 kill is worth going for.

Once you get better tech and especially a large team, you can stop using tanks a lot since you have extra soldiers.

Notes:

Reactions, it seems, does not increase sight range. Am not certain. But it does allow you to take a shot when the enemy moves into range. Thing is, on hard difficulty, most enemies take 2-5 hits to drop (some take 10-20, depending on the weapon you have.)

Strength 90 is needed for at least one item, but 54, 60 and 70 are probably what to shoot for.

Labs and Workshops

Many players build many labs and workshops. Myself, I don't. I build bases close to main base the first fe months, and I try and get a base in Thermos since that region is part-way across the planet. I don't always have a lot of interceptors, in fact I wait until I have a better int I can build before I transfer and add more interceptors.

I stick with 1 lab until ad lab. If you are on normal or easy difficulty, ad lab is definately a good thing. On hard, the money is a lot less and ad lab is a luxury to avoid. Workshops, however, are very nice. I add a 2nd in FEB and a 3rd in Mar or Apr. Thing is, I have 3 interceptor hangars at main base (and 1 transport). This means my air attacks are pretty nasty against the aliens. Therefore, I have less room than many players for workshops, but I research with goals in mind. If I have 2 cool items I need to build, I research first one and build lots of that item. Then I go and get the second item.

Oh, on labs. If you have ad lab you will have times when there is nothing to research. ad lab costs 200k a month even if nothing is researched, as opposed to 1 standard lab that costs 80k. On hard difficulty this can be tough to pay for.

In one game I had many hangars on the major continent. I had somthing like 20 interceptors. The enemy just came in with HOARDS more stuff, like 5-7 at time. I found it hard to keep up with the production for all those air weapons. In my current game, on HARD, we pick and choose our battles. It is working out nicely.

Anyway, good luck and thanks for reading. [:)]

Early Game

The hardest part of the game has to be the first few months. None of your troopers are worth a darn and you have very few soldiers. It gets easier later whan you have more highly trained soldiers. Of course, later on the aliens get tougher.

Remember to train the stats with an eye for what you want a soldier to do. Weak soldiers have difficulty getting higher strength, soldiers with low AP need more, etc. I usually train Agility +3 and Shooting +2. On occasion, I reverse that, if someone has high shooting. Try for around 67-71 AP early on. Also, don't get too many soldiers with AP 100+. You need the other stat areas as well.

With around 70 AP and a little improved shooting you will do better. Of course, you still can't semi-auto fire across the map and hit anything, but that comes later. As long as a team member has some AP they can keep up and take shots. At 50-60 AP things are hard (you can't move and shoot, for example.)

Research
Stop here if you don't want inside spoiler info. The first thing you should always research is advanced cannon. It leads to a much nicer must-have item. Laser Tech is just an intro - it does not give any items you can build. Laser guns are a ways down the tech tree, so go for better interceptor weapons. It will help you down fighters and scouts are much quicker. Always go for the better int weapons as someday soon much larger alien craft will show up and you will have to hide in base or be shotdown. Furthermore, you need field healing badly. In the early game you cannot heal critical wounds, so keep an eye open for better tech on that.

Light Tank
Early on, until you have some armor suits, always take the light tank on a scout mission. It is replaceable and until you have more soldiers it will cut down on sickbay time. I have taken 8 soldiers to a scout and had 6 wounded. Scouts only have 4+2 aliens and are the smallest of the enemy ships for salvage. Later on you can leave the tank at home. (There will be a time when you can't take tanks since they will die too easily.) Oh, and any tank you build, if lost, has to be rebuilt again. So leave all built tanks at home ... in the future you will need them there.

To be honest I think the early game is the most fun. The first few months are a riot!

Good stuff here, thanks for posting it. 

@GalacticOrigins

Love reading your tips and comparing them with my own experiences; very similar.

One thing you might want to make people aware of is that Scientists and Soldiers (Tanks don't count) are paid at the end of every day.
The first day you end with a negative cash balance, Scientists assigned to any research project immediately stop researching.
They are automatically put on Hold. There is no warning that this has happened. My first game I got caught off-guard by this.
The projects they were assigned to remain on Hold until you manually go into the research screen and put them back to work.
(at least I had to put mine back to work. However I did not wait for the next day to see if they would automatically go back to work)

So don't forget, as soon as you have a positive cash balance put those Scientists back to work. Every hour counts..

Ubbax
 
PS. For those who do not know; Scientists get 1133 per day each. Soldiers, Tanks not included, get 1333.00 per day each.

Edited to reflect the correct cost per day for a Soldier.
Duh although I wrote Tanks are not paid I included them when I first did the math.

Missions

You do not have to go to all mission sites. Some are not worth as much as others. Also, some smaller missions may cause casualties to your best team and then you have lesser soldiers when a big mission does arrive. You may also be waiting for soldiers to heal. Bear in mind there is usually a lot of activity at the end of a month. The missions at the beginning should be seen as training (unless you had a mission pending from the previous month).

Scouts
These are ok if you are bored, but be careful as there are few enemies and they seem to hide well enough to drop a few of your people. Other than Base Assaults, these are actually some of the nastiest missions, but they are short. Not much salvage here, as scouts are the smallest ship.

Fighters
Usually, these are awesome money makers and experience training missions. They can be hard, but as far as the larger ships go they are well worth exploring. I always try to get a few fighter missions in (until the end of the month).

Larger Ships
Best avoided unless you have to or you are ready. If they land before being shot down, they are performing a Recon mission to that region. Then, you really need to take them out. Also, if a really huge ship lands somewhere, and you explore it, you can get valuable information before being able to shoot it down. All of the larger vessels I have done this too so far. The battles can be tough, though, so be ready. Any large ship should be considered a major mission, as I do go to them often.

Base Assault
If you explore a ship that is landed in a region conquered by the aliens you learn the location of an enemy base. You can also find these bases with a flyby of interceptors, but it is best to tackle the ship anyway when it is grounded. Base Assaults are perhaps the most dangerous and longest of missions. You are going into their territory, and they have many hiding places. They also move around to your flank a lot.

Base Recovery
If the enemy locates your bases they will send in a very large ship and invade it. After they blow your base defenses to smithereens, they take the base. Anything you have their will be destroyed in about 10 days, however, you get all buildings back (minus destroyed defenses) if you retake it. These are not too bad, just send one team north and usually 4 soldiers south. Stick in pairs and 4's, and clean the base isle by isle.

Base Defense
Ooops, I have not had one yet!

Terror
These are designed to mess up your income from a region. You kinda have to go, but they can be very nasty. The map is usually very open, and some enemies are very dangerous. As a matter of fact, you might skip these once you just get to era 2 as you do not yet have enough weapons to do well. Still, they are important. Usually, many civilians die. Stay in groups of 2-4 and have the groups move in such a way that the area between them, on their backsides, is clear. I sometimes skip these if I have more than 2 in 1 month or I need the transport elsewhere, like Base Recovery. Otherwise I make these a priority.

In all missions I try and keep the entire team somewhat concentrated. This does not mean shoulder to shoulder but at least 3-4 soldiers working on area. Also, all soldiers should have the ability to run to the other team (within a turn or two) in case needed. Also, get medkits on ALL troopers, especially advanced kits. I like 6 old ones and 14 advanced.

In an open field, downed enemy ship mission the entire team stays together. If you have to go through buildings do not get too far from each other, and always have someone watch the backside by turning around. Shotguns and, later, heayv weapons are good for rearguard since you usually only get one reaction shot off at en enemy that enters the view of the soldier, and it might as well be a strong shot. If someone is wounded and you have made a decent sweep of part of the map, that soldier can be rearguard since their accuracy is down even if healed.

Once inside a very large craft I move all inside since the aliens will lose AP if they open the door. Only then do I sometimes break the team up into two groups.

On some missions I only move like 3-4 steps with each soldier. That way I have a lot of movement left if a) I contact an alien while moving and b) I have mroe chance of reaction fire. Although slow, it works. Sometimes, over a large open area, I risk moving further. If I am in a city I sometimes run to a wall or get to cover but I try at all times to save movement.

I never work in just groups of 2. If there are 2 soldiers working together it is late in a mission. I try and have all groups to be able to support each other if something goes wrong.

Hope this helps, happy hunting!

By the way, get BMan's mod and turn on Damaged Ships - Buildings and Aliens. it REALLY helps on the missions against shotdown targets as there is ship damage and, at times, less opponents to fight. (You will have lots of opponents at bases and terror sites. There are also many missions until the end of the war, so going to shot down craft can be a tad easier with the mod.)

What stats and how highly trained?
 
AP = start with 70-80 for a while, later on you can raise it. I usually have one soldier with about 100, although that soldier's strength is low and late promotions for that soldier all go to strength (but the soldier is nice in the meantime)

Health = again, shoot for 70-80+ and then, for some soldiers, about 100

Bravery = 50 will do, although 50-60 seems good enough
Perception = again, 50 is enough, or about 50-60
Strength = 70, the best armor is 90 so a few soldiers can get that (or wait until the very late promotions)
Throwing = well, I -might- train this -once- on my best throwing soldier, otherwise I never train it
Accuracy = eventually very high, but do not forget the other areas. 80-90 to MAX is nice in the long run.

You need AP and Accuracy early on. Then, after the first 2 promotions start working on the other areas. Bear in mind, the best armors and weapons require high strength but these items are also late-tech, so chances are your soldiers will get late promotions and then you can fix these things. Just DO NOT train only AP and Accuracy for the first 4+ promotions, since 100 AP is rare until much later on.

Think about what your soldier needs in the current era. Strength 40 is needed for the second armor, and 54 is the requirement for the best one-handed rifle (which is better than anu heavy weapon). Then strength 60 and 70 are needed for new armors. Train your soldiers so that they get a little better as you go. Some soldiers can go all-out in a particular area, but have an idea as to what the soldier will end up as.


EDIT:
By the way, on Easy difficulty the aliens have 20% less health, and on Hard they have 20% more health. This equates to a few more or less hits, about 1 hit difference with the right weapons (and some aliens tend to have defenses against certain weapons, so this means a bit of a difference between the difficulty settings.)

Very nice GlalacticOrigins............I can't add anything to this other than Base Defense.These are very tough to deal with {only had one}.Your teams are spread out and vulnerable,so move quickly to concentrate them.Unfortunatley for me my best weapons and team were out on mission and i nearly lost home base.Had one warrior left at end out of 7 and a tank.

GO: Thanks for your generous advice. You are a gentleman/Lady. Best, Tag

On Promotions:
 
For me, #1 priority is giving the soldiers the strength to use decent equipment; second priority is accuracy.
 
I usually raise stats something like this:
 
1. Get Strength to 40, to use the first new armor
2. Get Accuracy to 50
3. Get Strength to 48, 52, 54 or 56, to use the best available rifle-type weapon
4. Get Accuracy to 60
5. Get Strength to 60, to use the second new type of armor (if already developed)
6. Get Accuracy to 80 (this gives you an aimed shot rating of 99% almost all the time)
7. Get Strength to 70, to use the third new armor (if already developed)
8. Get Agility and Vitality to about 60 each
9. Get Reaction to 60