You need to start with more reputation, maybe some initiatives which let you get a lot lot more reputation so you can try hold out in the limited land you have so you feel accomplished when you go from pretty much nothing to winning. Overall I do really like it though and the detail, keep it up.

Thanks for the feedback, I will work to fix the issues. I will attempt to make a v1.1 update soon with the improvements.

Really liked the scenario! Interesting custom initiative tree, though it is lacking on a few points. When playing mega brutal, even with every civilian initiative purchased (and all the government initiatives too), zones weren't stabilizing - those might need a buff. The foreign relations office wasn't unlocked no matter what I bought, resulting in me having to constantly publicly accuse, which was aggravating. The military front was challenging and fairly well balanced, I had to try quite hard to capture the city before I lost to reputation. It is a little bit misleading though, to make the air force initiatives be different from the initiatives that actually give airsrtikes - I'd add a note to those initiatives that says something like "Increases national soldier strength."