[bobman0330]

I think I disagree with pretty much everything you have to say here.

Blarg's point about smoke (I assume), is that it's super useful for concealment. If your landing zone ends up being an open field surrounded by aliens with cover, you can lose half your squad just getting out of the plane (unless you do something lame like reloading a bunch). You need to keep in mind that the aliens always see as far or farther than you (especially at night), and cover your movements with smoke.

Tanks are sweet. Their weapons aren't that hot (particularly the rocket tank) compared to what soldiers carry, but they're invaluable as scouts, and for not dying after one shot.

Ditto on blowing the hell out of the terrain. Ironically, I usually find this most necessary on farmland maps where there's no cover to approach aliens camped in buildings.

Base placement: Ugh. Put it in Europe where all the countries are. Russia can't even be infiltrated.