Right now, only the best and brightest are hired, but what if you have a run of bad luck, and just end up losing a lot?
I think we should open up the hiring to the not so great and not so best soldiers for when we need them. Maybe mention that these soldiers aren't recommended by the hiring board, and have them severely weakened as compared to your normal hiring stock... but, at least you won't be sending in 1 lone soldier without any support if it's near the end of the month and everyone else is dead or injured.
While this may damage the strategy element of insisting the players rarely lose soldiers, it is realistic. Earth hasn't been wiped out (yet). We have tons of people all around. Heck, hiring a scientist and putting a gun in his hands may be the only solution if it gets really bad.
Some people, like me, play oddly and like to throw in giant groups of soldiers to try to injure the aliens, and maybe kill one or two. If it's our last hope to win against a far superior foe, I'd be throwing everyone I could and hoping someone got lucky. In the games I've played, humanity had far more population than the few aliens in the battlefield.. .
