Did a more thorough check...

If you're going for a tutorial playthrough, check Core Collection, no gameplay changes with all the up to date QoL mods. Might also have some QoL mods that are missing here.


General notes:

Sensor Fences - known to sometimes crash on mission end after a fence is destroyed with environmental damage, for me has always worked after reloading the autosave, but I have heard otherwise. I still always use this one.

ADVENT NCE - A Harder War enemies arent suported by default, the config entries can be found in NCEs discussion, CX has theirs in the plugin

Carry unit fix - outdated, fixed in highlander, shouldn't hurt to have but not needed anymore.


Things I think are missing:

[WOTC] More Target Icons 2020, a companion mod for New Target Icons that gives new icons for the rest of the modded aliens.

[WOTC] Golden Path Missions Revamp allows modded enemies to spawn on story missions


Personal biased opinion of balance:

While tough, it should be realistically doable, I'm most concerned about the midgame when some of the (in my opinion) poorly paced enemies appear:

CX archons - Imo comes in way too early
Berserker Omega - can be quite bs
Bio 2.0 - mostly okay, but has some enemies placed poorly, i.e. hard CC units in covert ambush missions and things like that
Hive - same deal as Bio 2.0

Adding Delayed Force Increase can alleviate the pacing problems, but it does make the game a little easier. there would be a bit more room to do some mod added techs instead of just rushing better guns.

Expanded Enemies Plus - not my cup of tea, can make some mission types nearly unbeatable with absurdly tanky reinforcements.



A thing I am very biased about, feel free to ignore:

I dont like Increase Pod Size By Force Level, it has a couple minor issues that were never fixed, which annoyed me enough that made me do my own version of it. the list also has Diverse Alien Pods, and Surgical SitRep fix, both of which are included in my mod as they could potentially have wonky interactions with eachother.
Diverse Aliens By Force Level WOTC