Quick update on my progress, I just completed another couple of missions putting me on mission 9 next (and likely tomorrow) and that means 3 to go in the campaign. Progress is smoothing out as I learn more and more about the best tactics, who says putting it on Hardcore for my first playthrough was diving into the deep end to far?
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Tips
My general tips that I've learnt, some obvious, some less.
- High ground is advisable, it makes target spotting and engaging much easier, that said, look for the high ground with good cover natural or man made, as being caught in the open is never nice. At extreme ranges though, you can often get away with minimal cover.
- Flanking, extremely, is always a good option. Shooting an enemy in the back is much easier then shooting one who's already looking right at you. Use of suppressive fire or splitting the team in 2 helps make smaller flanking moves successful and safer. However for major engagements, sticking together and simply running right around the side to the best vantage point is useful. E.G. When approaching a built up area, village, fuel depot etc. from afar look for the best point of high ground with plenty of cover and good sightlines. Use the 'move fast' order to flank better, issueing a move fast at each location you want them to travel through, it allows you to control exactly how far around the team goes rather then leaving it to AI sense but means you have to babysit them through the move.
- Breaking contact is always a good idea when things are going wrong. Issueing the fall back order is not always the best way though as AI team members may do so very slowly and not deploy any smoke grenades. Setting a 'move fast' order is usually more successful, and to really speed things up, put some cover fire down on the most lethal target, then issue a cease fire order to make the team sprint straight to the point you set. They (usually) will keep down and crawl if under heavy fire, so don't worry to much about them getting shot in the back. Once contact is broken, relocate quickly to a better location, or if you're confident enough, heal up and go back in.
- When attacking heavily guarded positions, don't be afraid to soak up all the fire by providing covering fire, whilst using the map to send your team around a longer route (using move fast and return fire/cease fire to keep things quick) and giving them the engage or assault order.
- GOOD TIP: In hardcore mode, you have no HUD however, you can still access your compass by pressing R1 down, and also can identify friend from foe by holding R1 at an enemy. Red circle and assault/engage orders pop up for enemies, blue and follow target orders pop up for friendlies. Similarly, if you issue an order such as a move, assault order, holding R1 lets you see you're waypoint on your screen and even better, setting the engage order means you can see your target without actually needing to make eye contact. The engage icon will stay above them even if they move unlike other orders, meaning you can track them and kill them much easier. Particularly useful in woodland areas.
- Avoid unneccessary contact where possible. It saves ammo, and possibly health. Don't be afraid to take the longest route possible around to be sure you won't have to engage, but remember to issue a 'fire on my lead' or 'hold fire' order to avoid your team-mates ruining things.
- Don't forget your spread and formation. Tight is good for keeping hidden, combat is of course best when things are hot. Formation wise, Line offers the best cover for directly ahead of you, but makes you easy to flank. Wedge is my prefered combat formation, with a combat spread, as it gives you a better coverage to the sides, but still not perfect. Better to break contact or fall back to keep an enemy from surrounding or flanking you if you can't engage them directly.
- Don't forget to pick up weapons and ammo from enemys and downed friendlies alike ( and crates). Worried about running out of ammof or a good weapon? Pick up a PLA weapon and use it for easier engagements, saving your primary for when you need it most. Not worried about your ammo? Well carrying some sort of anti-tank weapon won't go a miss either.
- Speaking of ammo, use single shot for all bar the closest of engagements. Simple reasoning, accuracy, ammo conservation and it doesn't take many shots to down or kill an enemy.
- Eyes in the sky, you never EVER want to be caught off-guard by a chopper. Gunships can easily wipe out your entire squad in mere seconds if given the chance. If you're in the open, hitting the floor will usually keep you safe provided you're in grass or at night.
- On a similar note, if you've got time to spare, avoid open ground. If you're breaking contact run for the closest source of cover and, go through it to another spot if need be. Even when not engaged, you don't want to be caught in the open. You're only defence is to hit the floor should this occur, and then you are in trouble. You can't shoot and move whilst prone, and you move very slowly.
- Never let your guard down, check your surrounding area as much as you can, using binoculars or scopes for maximum effectiveness.
- Use your map, alot, it's useful for issueing flanking orders, and in Hardcore, you can set your team to go to the location you want to go to, then follow them so you don't get lost so easily.
- When dealing with rescue situations, chances are you gain control of those units you're rescuing. If this particular unit is under heavy fire when you find them, head around to the quietest side via a long route (they're usually quite competent to survive themselves if they're in covered locations, unlike defending allies on a certain mission who regularly die). Don't be afraid to grab the unit in question, and order them to follow you and simply run out of there, using the hold fire order to get the ball rolling. Chances are the PLA will have reinforcements to come after you. Transport helicopters aren't much of a threat, they'll usually only drop troops off and if you keep moving, they won't have chance to engage. Gunships still need avoiding, and ground vehicles are best destroyed if they're chasing. You obviously can't outrun them BUT if there's plenty of trees around, the AI drivers won't pass through nicely. Use the trees as cover to take the vehicle out, or use them to break contact completely if you have the chance (remember, if you don't have to engage heavily, don't).
- Finally (for now) check your kills, in Hardcore you don't get a marker to tell you you've made a kill. Use your map to check the target is down. There's nothing worse then defeating an entire platoon to find the enemy you thought you killed is now right behind you and kills you.
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Commands
As regards commands, most of them are relatively common sense-ish. Such as combat spread being the most open (to avoid being blown up in one shot). But here's the basics. Once you hold R1 you have a few options:
- Right on the D-pad accesses the next sub menu - Offence (up), Defence (down), Movement (right), Follow (left).
-- Offence usually consists of Flanking (left and right) will send the team round the left or right of the waypoint you set at a slow pace, engaging targets dependant on your RoE (explained later). Assault (up) straight the point at the designated target, firing along the way to cover each other usually one fires, one moves and then they swap, Suppress/Halt (down) Suppress is useful to distract or pin the enemy down and Halt is self explantory.
-- Defence consists of Fall back (left), Halt (right), Defend (down), Follow (Up). The only one worth mentioning is Fall back, the team is SUPPOSED to throw smoke when they do this, but I find this unreliable. Still gets the job done though.
-- Movement consists of Move Fast (up) sprinting normally unless they're under fire, Move (right), Follow (left), Exit (down)
- Up on the D-pad after pressing R1 usually means some kind of direct movement. When looking at an enemy, this movement is assault, normally this is just standard move (they won't sprint like on move fast, they'll keep at a slowish pace).
- Down is follow, unless looking at an enemy it then turns to the useful Engage order.
- Left leads to the various formations and Rules of Engagement sub menus
-- Formation, Line (right) is a straight line across, so your team-mates are by your sides. Wedge (up) creates a pyramid shape with your team-mates. Vee (down) creates, you guessed it, a V shape around you. Finally Column (left) creates a straight line behind you.
-- RoE is quite simple, Fire at will (up) means engage whatever you see, Fire on my lead (right) the team will wait until you fire first, then the self explantory Hold fire (down) and return fire (left).
-- Spread, Combat (up) is most open, Normal (right) is half way, Tight (left) is closest. The closer you are, the less chance of being spotted normally, but the more chance of an explosion wiping multiple friendlies out.
The team won't move directly if they're firing at someone, hold fire will make them move as quick as they feel safe up to the speed of the order. E.g. Move fast whilst on fire at will, will mean the team will likely keep firing and move quite slowly. Set it to hold fire and they'll turn around and leg it. They're not stupid though, they might only crawl even on hold fire if they don't feel it's safe to get up
It is also NOT drop in drop out co-op. If someone leaves the game ends. 
I got my copy yesterday but no time to play it yet... I was busy and today I got a company dinner to go to... so I think I'll get my first taste tomorrow 
judging from what ive read here I will need to practice first so I'll be diving into the single player mode first for a while 👍
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