So I can feel, really feel the great game below the surface of this one... the problem is I'm having problems "starting up." I'm about a dozen days in and I feel lost. I thought a good strategy would be to build up some cash (I'm at about 43K and have a mine), do some training and explore. The game is informing me by email that I'm doing too little and wasting time. Running with a 5 merc team, I'm having problems taking the second "mine" town (the one just South of the Airport - Alma maybe?). I'm also having problems 1) keeping my mercs healthy and 2) keeping them awake! As in, I spend time trying to get them all on the same page sleep wise but someone is always low energy (even putting low energy mercs in one person squads just to sleep doesn't seem to help). And I try to heal them up post-fight, but it takes a long time (even with good doctors). Can I get a decent beginner's pointers set of advice? I know I'm supposed to be enjoying the sandbox, but the game is making me feel like I'm doing too little, too late and when I do try and branch out I have a tough time of it.

And if the advice is to do night missions in stealth, I'm not that interested (sorry!). I've tried stealth once or twice, I've tried night missions (I have a "night ops" main character) and I find it to be a slow pixel hunt in the dark. I'm not ADD but taking 20 minutes to find one enemy, while squinting at my screen was far from my idea of fun.

Thanks!

Ignore the e-mail. You can take as little (speed run is less than two ingame days as I recall) or as long (Gorro usually has campaigns that last more than 2 ingame years) as you like. There is no effect from the e-mails you get. So your second target after the small airfield is the army training facility? Don't you see something wrong with that picture? Try going to the west, San Mona and Chitzena. You do know you can force them to sleep, right? Pressing the bed column gets them to sleep, useful to do before attacking. The Patient/Doctor assignment uses medikits, not first aid kits, and it does take a while. Best solution is to net get hit of course ;) The Night Ops trait gives the merc that has it +1 vision in the dark, a bit of hearing bonus, and he makes less noise. So the idea is that you can see the enemies before they can see you, giving you the chance to take them out with a silenced weapon, without alerting the whole sector. It is of course a game of patience then.
You can also do night missions using break lights, allowing you to create patches of light to fire on the enemy while you yourself are unseen. Just remember to use muzzle flash hiders (or even better, silencers), otherwise the muzzle flash will give your position away, leading to trouble.
Or try to find scopes and do the missions during the day, that also works ;)

P.S. Also, take a look here. A few things may be for 1.13, but most of the advice still stands.

Or create a nice kill-zone, where the enemy must approach you through well lit, open ground (like a road with breaklights) while your men are well hidden, and then fire the loudest weapon in your arsenal and let them come to you. :) a little exploity, but it works, unless the enemy is really numerous or well armed.
Night battles are easier than daylight battles, overall, because you can prepare some nasty ambushes.

And a 5 man team does not seems much after taking your first city. Do you include your character and the rebels? After Drassen is taken, Dimitri and Ira should be in your team, so that makes 3 "free" characters, including yourself.

Talk to the rebels, read the files that Enrico sent you, talk to the airport crew and the bar patrons, and you should have a better idea about where to strike next. Alma, the heavily defended regular army base, should NOT be your first choice. There are far crunchier targets to the north and the west ;)

and welcome in a really cool game!

Solid advice thanks! I was hoping to hear I was "doing it wrong" and it sounds like to an extent I might have been - I was taking the email to mean I was behind the curve and I went to the nearest "town" because of its proximity (not sure I realized it was an army base, and the first time I went there I must have had REALLY good luck as I took out a few of the enemies, but reloaded after I lost a character to a cheap machete swipe - and didn't get as lucky subsequent times ;) )

The sleep / heal thing is still a bit annoying (yes I had been putting mercs to bed in solo squads), but hopefully once I hit targets that aren't as "hard" as Alma it won't be as big a deal. I like the idea of setting up night ambushes - I hadn't thought of the enemies hearing my weapon fire without being on screen - or rather I wasn't sure the game was so reactive. I've heard it was (features like this are what made me so interested in it and little touches are what make me think it'll be a great game) but didn't exactly expect it.

Yes, having your whole squad rest together by forcing them to sleep might make you lose some time, but it ensures they all are ready to fight at the same time. And it's less micromanagement. win-win

For the healing, I often have people doing maintenance/militia training after major battles, so the wounded do not make me lose much time. And if you have 8-9 men in you organisation (easy to do after Drassen if you have your own character, Ira and Dimitri for free, and a few cheap but decent mercs like Grunty, Steroid or Buns on the payroll), then you can continue operations with a full squad while 1-2 wounded are being treated by a medic.
Ira can be a quite good as medic and trainer, and she's free (and she's a good "local guide" too, which can be useful when you visit/assault a town), but if you want a pro, MD is a poor merc, but a very good "stay at home" medic, and very cheap too.

So, more to the point, you'll lose less time if you have a few more men. 5 people (mercs + locals) is a little short if you already control Drassen.

You DID talk to the rebels in Omerta, right?


For the ambush : They will not always hear the gunshots, but it should at least draw the nearest enemies to you. And when the gunfight start, it will make quite a ruckus. That's the reason things can become a little hairy when you exchange gunfire with some guard : It will draw his pals to the fight, and they can quickly outnumber and outflank you if you're not careful. The advantage of throwing knives and silenced guns is that they allow you to kill them one by one without drawing the whole garrison on your position, even though killing an enemy in one turn is always tricky.

In this game, range of sight and hearing are really important. So you will have many equipments that can alter that : weapons with lower muzzle flash, night-visions goggles, hearing enhancement, heartbeat detectors (not sure if this one is in this game?), camo make up kits, silenced weapons, etc...
And your enemies can use those, too, so be careful.

I think making a few more hires will help move things along. I do have Ira (not bad) and Dimitri (really good!). I'm running low on medpacks (the "big") ones and the store doesn't sell them yet. I'm a bit hesitant to hire someone just to get their gear ;) I already have a doctor (the one with the strong southern bell accent).

With a few more characters I'm guessing I can stage a good assault or two while healing up my previous messes - right now I have two in the wilderness just healing which I think is a mistake - last night they were attacked by a roving squad of 8 mercs - time to move them to a town I think...

Yeah, resting in the wild, or sending a lone explorer, can be useful, but it's dangerous ^^

For your lack of supplies : There are some traveling merchants in the island. Check the taverns when you have some men in town, it can be pretty useful. But yes, medical supplies can be scarce at the start of the game, especially if you have many wounded

I don't agree with hiring mercs just for their gear either - they should be useful as well. As others have said though, check the towns for supplies - you'll likely find some stuff for free (generally search every container in every house, unless doing so will upset someone of course!), and/or a merchant or two who will be happy to sell something to you.

It gets a bit easier healing-wise once you capture the centre town, since it contains a hospital (among other things which might be useful). You have to pay for the service, but the healing time is MUCH faster than what your best docs can do (and it sounds like you have plenty of cash at this point anyway) - and you're not using your own medkits or mercs to heal. Also your chopper can medivac your guys to there. For this reason (and others) I typically use it as a base of operations for most of the game.

Finally, to follow on from the advice of getting more guys: once you get enough troops, I'd recommend attacking a location from multiple directions at once. Just make sure they all arrive at the same time - the game has a mechanism that enables you to do this easily. Makes it much easier to flank the enemy for a start...