Frontline
This mission is mostly about killing stuff while getting forward, but with some nuances. TO camo markers and AD troops that can come in on the final turn are excellent for getting your frontline, and baggage bots are excellent for defending it. HI link teams are helpful - if they win the middle they can spread out with a single order to distribute points as needed. A single TAG is enough to get the frontline. Scoring also happens on the final turn, which incentivises lame play on turns 1 and 2 followed by a mad dash, especially if you are the second player.
Rescue
MI without terrain are almost completely useless in this mission, so if you see a list with such a link team at its core (rare because most MI have terrain) then expect your opponent to play a very defensive game.
HI and LI face no serious penalties except for the slow down when they first hit the terrain area, so expect to see such link teams. TAGs are a little bit slower, but no slower than a link team. This makes them a bit easier to hide against on turn 1, but still scary. Note that some of the light TAGs like the Tikbalang and Sphinx have terrain, and the Jotum operates as normal in the terrain area.
A critical aspect of rescue is that defending four objectives 4" from your DZ is not hard. You can spam a lot of AROs onto anything that comes through that space. In our four playtesting games of this mission, nobody has ever rescued more than 1 civilian. Going second is thus potentially beneficial, and deploying second is probably the correct choice if you win the WIP roll. With such low scoring, it is also imperative that you score your classified objective.
Nimbus Zone
The person who gets first turn has a massive advantage in this mission. Move forward and press your two buttons, then blow away one of the others and you've already got 3 points that your opponent can never take back. Download a data pack or two and you've basically won, especially if you are then in retreat on turn 3. Intelcomm compounds this problem. Not a good mission.
Landing AROs in this mission is hard because of the -3, but solo snipers get a bonus because active turn shots against them are at -1B while they suffer no penalty. Minelayers and such cannot deploy in such a way that they can stop your opponent disconnecting/shooting antennas on turn 1 because of the exclusion zone, so snipers are imperative, but weak. Not a good mission.
What to do if you are going second? First thing to note is that because you draw classifieds before the WIP roll, you always want to keep your classified because it is critical for grinding out a win if you have to go second. After that, try to stop your opponent disconnecting that third antenna. It's pretty damn hard. Failing that, you need to download a pack from all three central antennas and control more of them at the end of the game than your opponent. Hopefully your opponent has over-extended themselves a bit trying to disconnect the antennas. If they have, take out all their key pieces, download the packs, then hide. You do not want your opponent to be able to run and you and put themselves into retreat for turn 3.
God I hate this mission.
Biotechvore
I actually think this mission is okay, but it does require a particular type of list (which is why most people hate it). You need at least one link team to have a hope in hell of getting out of your DZ on turn 1, you need units that excel in the midfield because that's where most of the game happens, and you need to be able to get people forward using combined orders. You also need to avoid infiltrators and AD troops because they suffer massive penalties in this mission.
If you go second, use a command token to prevent your opponent from using more than one combined order on their first turn. Watch the viral chaos. This is not effective against a 5-man link and a harris. That will likely be a low order count list though, so the usual -2 orders from the pool will work a treat there.
Common wisdom is that you want to go second in biotechvore and harass your opinion as they try to exit the virus. While this is a fair strategy, another is to go forward and open a beachhead. If you can get some combi-rifles into the midfield, drop a combined order and put everyone on suppression. Your opponent will never make it out of their DZ alive against that wall of death.
Note that classifieds are a big deal - 1 point each and an extra 1 for scoring more than your opponent. Also note that simply killing more than your enemy gets you three points, so together that's enough to eek out a win. Don't worry about survival - it's not possible in the midfield chaos. Get into the midfield, score your classifieds and put your whole army into suppression.
One core and one harris fireteam is the best way to tackle this mission. Janisarry and Sekban lists are hell to beat, as are steel phalanx lists.
Tic-Tac-Toe
The thing to realise about this mission is that while things may seem to be happening on the turn 1 and 2 and pressing buttons early and often is certainly sensible, it's really all about that final turn. A decent press down a flank can easily knock off your opponent's line and give you one, turning a 5-3 loss into a 7-1 victory. Unless you fear the retreat rush, try to conserve assets until the last turn. You can very easily play lame in this mission. Concentrate on your classifieds in mission 2, and try to plan ahead for the final turn swing. Fast, reliable specialists like the Sophotect and Medchanoid are ideal for the final turn press because they only need 4 orders to completely run amok.
Part of the reason why this is so effective is that the field clears out by turn 3 and makes dashes much more viable. If you go for broke on turn 1 and 2 you really need to be able to defend your position, which means mines and link teams. Rodoks are pretty good at this with all their shotguns and mines, but few link teams can really handle warbands of chain rifles coming through the front door.
Engineering Deck
Similar to tic-tac-toe, you can play cagey in this mission and focus on the final turn. Do not get in the bunker early unless you want to die. A smart opponent will have grenades and chain rifles to root you out. Focus on clearing out things around the bunker and prepare for a final turn press. If you have top, make sure you lay mines and surround the central button so that nobody can make a charge for the button on bottom without first killing everything in the room. Turn 1 and 2 should just be able to conserving assets and scoring your classifieds. Even if your opponent gets the central button, if you have 3 of the others and a dude standing in the room you still win comfortably.
This mission is great for lists with just a few quality specialists that are otherwise excellent at killing stuff, like Vanilla Yu Jing, Pan-Oceania and the balanced Nomads lists. You can mostly just focus on death dealing and then at the death your Spectrs and Tomcats can steal the win.
A spanner in the works of many lists in this mission is that the central building has infinite height. It is often sensible to have a refuse flank in the early game guarded by a lone sniper. If your opponent takes him out they still can't press the button because all your other units will blast them from across on the other flank, and you can easily send a specialist over there later to get that button back. Note that this only works if you set up second and can spread your opponent thin. That way you can do the L-shaped sweep yourself.
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