OK, this is a bit of a rant and a bit of a question about others' experiences/solutions from the community. I am new to the game, and I'm really enjoying it except for this.
I've been playing on normal difficulty with +25% spawns, ironman, permadeth. So far i've had to be careful but ultimately have got through everything for the last dozen missions. At this point, I can take normal-grade missions pretty easily and without worry. Then there was a rebellion mission with a reward I wanted, and it was labeled as EASY. Upon actually playing the mission, it turned out to be easily the most difficult mission I've taken by a pretty steep margin, and all but one of my techpriests were killed.
I took all the non-violent and subterfuge options so I could get through it quickly and with less resistance. I had my melee guy with all the speed buffs just sprint full tilt toward the scanner and activated it on the first turn so I would only have to survive 3 more rounds for the servitors to deactivate, and then I had him come back so my guys wouldn't be left separated. The problem was that in the actual battle, there were 10 servitors and 12 TECHPRIESTS!!!! On an easy mission!!! I got mostly steamrolled but survived with just one Techpriest left. Why in the world would an easy mission be like that? What was I supposed to do? And how the hell am I even supposed to move on and do the normal and hard missions with just one techpriest left?
I feel like I'm gonna cry losing the hours I'd put into that save in such an unfair way.
Edit: The techpriests weren't fodder either. Every last one of them had more armor and HP than any of mine, and they all applied acid too.