On difficulty and XCOM : UFO Defense

At first, there is nothing. The earth rests in tranquility.

You see, I've just started a new game of X-COM : UFO Defense. I dug up my old Collector's Edition copy and downloaded a 3rd party patch from here. Since I'm rusty, I start a game on "Ridiculously Easy", or whatever they call the easiest of the five difficulty levels.

I place my base and then wait. The earth is tranquil, blah blah blah.

Then I receive a warning. A UFO has been spotted. A single red X skitters across North America. I launch an intercept. A yellow X emerges from my base and angles towards the UFO. The X's intersect and air combat begins.

I don't remember the controls exactly, but I remember enough to down the UFO. With that taken care of, I send my operative-laden transport to the crash site.

My transport lands, and I carefully deploy my soldiers, one by one, and click the "End of Turn" button.

A single alien emerges from an unexplored portion of the map and fires a Blaster Bomb at my soldiers, killing all eight. Since all my soldiers are dead, I also lose my transport. Good game.