the key to the hard badge: 2 schools training soldiers, 1 training scientists. I did it with only 2 scavenged items (a dog and a pistol I started with) so those weren't too important. It's more about leaving lots of soldiers to tend the base and getting the researches done.
I had this game faved but then I slowly realized that it tries to squeeze you for kreds in order to progress. I bought elite which should be enough without dropping a dollar every 15 minutes to play the game. 1/5.
I just did a pretty big bug fix and patch to address all of your concerns, especially the lack of a substantial difficulty curve. Thanks for playing and thanks for all the feedback. I will continue to fine tune things as people make suggestions!!