2.3 Getting the tools you need

I'm going out on a limb here but I'm going to have to say again that FT has an absurd character arming system and one that I refuse to acknowledge. I don't believe I should be paying for weapons from my own army. I can understand being restricted in my choice of weapons according to rank and experience but having to bring back gear to sell at a huge loss to get new weapons to allow me to fulfill my own orders is absurd. I went through the game refusing to buy anything honestly from the Quartermaster or Medical Officer after the first few missions (The straw that broke the camel's back was when I discovered you could gamble for equipment from your own equipment officers), instead I fired up a trainer and used it to get all the equipment I needed from the corrupt/swindling scum that tried to make a profit on my blood and sweat.

If you want to play honestly, then ALL (:-)) you have to do is scavenge everything valuable that you can carry, remembering that:

1. Medical supplies generally weigh nothing (this may change in a future patch) and you can sell drugs to keep up your weapon habits,
2. weapons are more valuable than rocks and wrenches, the more damage they do, the more valuable they are,
3. barter and gamble skills are important (why buy when you can roll the dice and clear out the quartermaster using quick-load and quick-save [the results stay generally the same upon reload...]?)

Please don't bother writing to me about how this system makes sense in a post-apocalypse world where everyone is desperately scrabbling for supplies. It makes sense in Jagged Alliance where you're a mercenary, it doesn't when you're a draftee in a big organized military on a desperate mission to save the world. I can understand trading with individual Brothers but not with the organization as a whole. (And as another IMHO rant I also don't like the Waffen SS slant (crucifixions, concentration camps, and execution for incompetence) that has been giving to the Brotherhood which in the previous game shone with its own light and was ruthless but honorable.)

2.4 Turn or continuous turn based

A very valid tactic in squad turn based mode is the old "open the door, shoot, close the door, wait for the enemy turn, open it again" trick. The enemy will hardly ever open the door by itself and you can simply snipe the enemy to death by protecting yourself from their fire very easily simply by closing that door before the enemy's turn (phew...). A modification of this is crouching behind an obstacle during the enemy turn and standing up during your own. The enemy will sometimes try and use this "hide, shoot, hide" tactic in continuous turn based mode where it doesn't work... (you'll sometimes see an enemy stand up, hide and get blasted apart by the shots fired at it during the time it was standing up, shots apparently reach their target instantaneously, the animation doesn't keep up).

3. Miscellaneous hints (spoilers)

1. The APC is fairly damage resistant but don't get too close to the Mutants,
2. Be wary of mines and traps, if there's a minefield, you'll probably also encounter trapped doors, etc nearby. The game always hints that there's a minefield to be encountered (for instance you'll see a subtle hint like a sign saying "Danger, Minefield"),
3. Buy, loot, steal and read all the books you can in the game (remembering about specialisation),
4. Open all doors,
5. Check out all shelves, lockers, safes (particularly valuable), desks, anything that can be clicked upon basically, which is why lock-picking is an useful skill. So is Disarm Traps (hint, hint),
6. Talk to everybody you can though this isn't as important as it was in Fallout so if you can't be bothered, you don't really have. 
7. It's also a guide idea to visit all areas of a map, since there might be somebody or something useful hidden away,
8. If the power nodes keep on repairing themselves, try knocking them all out at once,
9. If the door won't open with lockpicking, there's probably a key or switch nearby,
10. Two squaddies, one with a ranged weapon and one with a burst should be assigned to each of the gates at the ghoul cathedral, though the North gate could be watched by a single sniper if the pressure at the West becomes too great,
11. Choose the less obvious route when in doubt,
12. If you can, run from a Behemoth, don't bother to fight it, its too much of a bother though it is worth quite a lot in experience points (but see below),
13. You get the most experience from finishing a mission, not from killing so don't bother wiping everybody out unless you're low on money/equipment,
14. Alway follows your orders. When in doubt, do exactly as ordered. Do it in the order that its been given to you, the game engine doesn't cope with out-of-sync actions as well as it did in the other Fallouts.
15. Repeat talking to "interactive" characters until they stop making sense.
16. On the hostage mission, talk to the Mayor after completing each mission, in the order given. Be sneaky when saving the war veteran, a direct assault will end up getting him killed.
17. The brains in the last mission need to be targeted manually, CTRL + right click. The doors will then open.
18. Cabhaal Lahourn wrote in and told me that "... in the mutant fortress stage, the APC *can* drive over the trenches. Surprisingly it can also make it over the green toxic pit surrounding the main mutant HQ. I drove the APC over the gap on the right side of the fortress in front of the sandbag fortification. I parked the APC there and ended up killing 80% of the mutants in the base as they ran up to the walls. No need to have anyone on foots the whole mission. This mission is also easier if done at night."
19. Cabhaal also reminds you that using the steal skill is the fastest way to exchange items both ways between characters. I just hope your squad mates don't mind stealing from each other.
20. He also mentions that after you finish a mission you can put one person on the exit grid and load him/her up with ALL the loot from the mission. When done collecting, place all members on exit grid to exit screen. On the map move vehicle away from mission site and click on location to go to tactical screen. Pull vehicle up beside overloaded squad member and have them enter vehicle. You can then unload them. This allows you to collect very large amounts of equipment on the missions that have you driving a vehicle. This is handy if you want to go in for the barter fallacy instead of just gambling or "cheating". 
21. As far as I know, there's no way to continue playing the game after you've seen the end movies so you can't take a tour looking for special encounters with your pumped up squad after watching the CGI. Do it before visiting the last mission location.
22. Carry around the note you find for the General's wife. It will come in useful near the end of the game.
23. Missions are often easier at night...
24. Here's a list of Special Encounters. They're almost all useless BTW:

"The wasteland might be radioactive, but it is not dead. You will encounter many things, most of which will attempt to kill you, some will attempt to steal from you, a few will trade with you and some will just leave you shaking your heads in bemusement as you wander whether to blow what you've seen up or not. Remember the first rule of the wasteland is when in doubt, shoot."   

"Read, reread, and learn. Dismissed."