I will now explain the haven mechanics as well as the infiltration mechanics.

Firstly, you have Havens that you have to manage. When you start out the game, you will start with 6 Haven Members that can do "four" different jobs. They are supply gathering, recruiting, intel gathering, and Hiding.

In the first month, it is advisable that you focus most of your haven members on Intelligence Gathering, as well as one or two members on recruiting. Intel gathering accrues not only a point of intel every few days, but it also increases the likelihood of not only detecting missions in a specific region, but detecting them sooner. Detecting them sooner means that you will generally get longer times to infiltrate a given mission.
Now, Infiltration is a mechanic that somewhat replaces the old "Fatigue" mechanic from Enemy WIthin Long War, as it requires you to send a group of soldiers to devote a certain amount of time to go on a mission. The bigger the squad, the longer the squad will take to infiltrate, and vice versa.

Examples of missions that you should consider vs missions that you should absolutely avoid. You set your guys to intel gathering, you scan for missions. First mission pops up, it's a "destroy the relay" mission that has 6 days and 17 hours on the timer. This is a mission that you potentially think about going on with a four to five man squad, depending on the enemy activity.
Enemy Activity reported corresponds to the amount when a squad has infiltrated to 100% infiltration. A four to five man squad, at least at Commander difficulty takes around five or six days depending on the classes that you bring on the mission (grenadiers, gunners, technicals take longer to infiltrate due to having bigger guns and/or bulkier equipment), and you can decrease infiltration times by mounting things like Suppressors on your guns, and occasionally using SMGs on certain soldiers in a niche way.

A mission that you generally tend to avoid are missions that have low timers on infiltration, missions with only 1-3 days to infiltrate. Occasionally you can send a solo soldier on a mission to break someone out of prison, or extract a VIP (shinobis are extremely valuable in this regard), but this is somewhat of an advanced strategy that definitely takes some experience to become proficient at. Bottom line, if a mission has a low infiltraton time of a few days and your squad or your solo shinobi are unable to infiltrate to at least 100%, and the enemy activity is anything other than extremely light, I would advise against going on that mission until you have better trained soldiers as well as officers. Officers can extend timers on missions by using the Intervention ability, which spends 10 intel to extend the timers 2 turns. It is not something you want to make a habit of doing as Intel is extremely valuable but it does have its uses if you got pinned down in a firefight and you need a couple of extra turns to get to evac.

Boosting Infiltration Score is also a thing to consider as well. Depending on the Difficulty you are on, you can boost the infiltration score by a set amount for about 25 - 30 intel. 25 is for Veteran/Commander, 30 is for Legend. I'm not sure about what the value is for Rookie. I believe that boosting provides you with a boost of 75% on Veteran, and 50% on Commander, unsure what it is for Rookie but it could potentially be 100%?
Boosting missions is one exception to the guidelines that I stated above. If you have a mission that rewards you an Engineer, a Scientist, or is an important mission that you should definitely go on, spending a bit of intel to boost is also a thing you must consider as well as it can significantly make some missions that much easier. Again, it's something that you should use sparingly but when you use it correctly it is definitely impactful.


P.S. I forgot to add - the Avenger counts as 4 Haven Members set to "Intel" when scanning in a specific region. Keep this in mind.

One other exception to the rule. When a Supply Raid or "Ambush Troop Column" mission pops, it is a good idea to potentially "drop what you are doing" and go on these types of missions. Why? Because they award you things like Alien Alloys, Elerium Crystals, and Corpses. Things that are extremely important and are rare as you evac from almost every mission and you will find that resources are quite hard to come by.
Whenever these missions come up, if you have squads out infiltrating on other missions, try and get them back home. Boost infiltration, or recall your squads, and prioritize the supply raids and ambushes.
Once you recall your squads, Create a 10 man squad with plenty of tools to crowd control the enemy, make sure you carry a few medkits, smoke grenades, and flashbangs. Also make sure that you have a pair of suppression gunners to control enemies that you are unable to kill, and snipers to deal reliable damage to enemies almost every turn. (Having a sniper with a good scope, depth perception PCS, as well as a stock is highly advisable, as a stock will allow your sniper to steady their aim and get a significant boost to hit chance (+15 aim and +15 crit is what the standard stock will increase), scopes will boost their aim on all shots and stack with the bonuses that you get from Steady Aim as well as your Depth Perception PCS. Depth Perception PCS is also fantastic when you are able to get on an elevated position because it will not only increase your hit chance but it will lower the enemy's "Dodge Stat" which will decrease the times that your Sniper will graze a target when they do manage to hit them. Death from Above is also an advisable perk to take on your sniper as well.

Everything else is up to you to adapt to your own playstyle, just remember to consider LOS when you go on supply raids and troop column missions, and ALWAYS have a shinobi that acts as a human battlescanner. I could go on and on about strategy, and perhaps I may do so if you have any more questions. Until then, I will leave you with the wealth of information that I have written here.

Helpful

Wow ... he can if he wants, without any insults, showing all diffrent solutions ... and respecting that diffrent ppl play diffrent styles.
THIS way its helpful ... yes.

Originally posted by TRJoker:

Wow ... he can if he wants, without any insults, showing all diffrent solutions ... and respecting that diffrent ppl play diffrent styles.
THIS way its helpful ... yes.

To be fair, I don't have to tailor my responses on low character limits in the forums. It's a little hard to fit everything that I want to talk about in the comments section and I can come across a little blunt at times. I apologize for that, but the truth is you did frustrate me a little, truthfully :P.

Damn Ninjacat I am already doing almost eveyrthing you said and I figured it all on my own, I guess LW2 isnt as confusing as people make it seem, nevertheless It is quite a relief to hear this form someone else given how LW2 is so stupidly complex in some regards and that im not losing my mind by keeping tabs of all that. Damn nice post

Originally posted by Andy Garcia:

Damn Ninjacat I am already doing almost eveyrthing you said and I figured it all on my own, I guess LW2 isnt as confusing as people make it seem, nevertheless It is quite a relief to hear this form someone else given how LW2 is so stupidly complex in some regards and that im not losing my mind by keeping tabs of all that. Damn nice post

Likewise :D

Thank you very very much guys. This was very helpful !

Another thing to consider are missions that "get ADVENT's attention" I tend to avoid these since they can ramp up the difficulty in a region by increasing ADVENT Strength. The exception is taking out Dark VIPs since that's part of the liberation process.

30, huh? That ain't much if one rather faces 45 without ever being under fire as the neat statistic shows)!

Well, of course one needs some heavy weapons for that or just/along with a sniper that can do a 24 kill streak because truck balance and make reaper rangers/shinobi suicide soldiers instead, one graze and well, duck~

Seriously though, what may also be of quite some use is the mission description to help you prioritize mission. Anything with "Liberation" in teh 2nd row will lead to the missions that will ultimately liberate the region while some many merely are to find a lead/intel that might reveal those.

And the earlier you can break the game, the better, i.e starting mission right away and having your best soldiers always ready in case of an emergency or high reward mission (supply raids and other mission that reward "Enemy Material" rewards natueally more of that/bodies if you a) do have more enemies and b) kill less enemies with explosions and alike that destroy bodies.