I was wondering if the first couple of bases could be a little bit smaller than they are now. I'm running into bases in November that are staffed with a dozen light blue Androns and a couple other critters, and I don't think this is completable with laser weaponry (at least it shouldn't be).
Perhaps the first couple of bases could be shown as "alien outposts" or "small alien bases" on the Geoscape? They would use the same alien base tileset and everything, except they would be smaller and staffed by Corvette-tier aliens.