Ok, so I finally bought ArmA Armed Assault (got the gold edition with Queen's Gambit). I have'nt tried a lot of stuff yet but from what I have tried I can see it's a fairly vast game. My first question really is about the campaign mode. If you have the expansion pack then you will know there are 3 loadouts to choose from. Royal Flush, Armed Assault and Rahmadi Conflict. Which one is the first campaign? Is there an order you should play them in or does it not matter?
Whats the difference between 'mission' and 'campaign' mode?
I am also finding the missions really really hard. Perhaps as I'm used to games like CoD or BiAHH. Anyone got any tips?
And lastly, the game runs smooth when I'm in veichles but as soon as i go on foot and try and aim or shoot, it seems not laggy but sorta slow. Is this just my pc or how the game plays? Like it seems to take a while to focus on targets if that makes any sense.
Anyways, thanks for reading if you got this far
EDIT: new question below

Well there is an order in the campaigns...

I guess it's:
Armed Assault then Rahmadi Conflict then Royal Flush

But you don't have to play them in this order, and you don't even have to play them.
Since the Armed Assault campaign is not fun... (from my point of view) you better skip it and play the others two (even if they are very short).

About the game difficulty, yes it's hard but you'll get used to it: like everyone else ^^

Armed Assault is the first campaign, Rahmadi Conflict and Royal Flush build upon the events of the original campaign, but not each other (so if you play Rahmadi conflict first, you get any spoilers of the events of Royal Flush, and vice versa).

That said, Rahmadi Conflict and Royal Flush are a lot better than the original campaign!

Missions are just that, missions. The campaign spans a large number of missions with an overarching storyline, missions are just single operations.

Best Tips:
1. Cover! If you can't find any cover, hit the dirt. (In urban areas, leaning around corners is usually the best strategy)
2. Don't stand too close to other friendlies, or you'll make an easy target for grenades. More importantly, don't run out ahead of your group. That's the easiest way to get killed.
3. Strike First, strike hard. The enemy can't return fire if they're dead.
4. Don't get in the line of fire. (Pretty Obvious, but you'd be surprised how often people forget)
5. Don't get into a fight you can't win.
6. Don't turn Super-AI on

If you're getting Lag, the easiest way to reduce it is decrease (or turn off entirely) anti-aliasing and Filtering, it doesn't make too much of an impact, but has a major hit on performance.

-Situational awareness. Try to keep an eye on where you are, the soldiers under your command, friendly units (including assets such as ammo, medical support) and the enemy. Of contact with the enemy has been made, whip out the map, work out a plan of action (in a perfect game, this would be the moment where you call in fire-support, but well...ArmA...), execute said plan;
-Don't trust you Ai squad too much, they /FAIL at situational awareness;
-Watch your ammo and health, that of your team and any medical assets you have. ArmA is not a game where you simply run over an ammobox or medkit providing instant replenishment;
-Spray and pray doesn't work in real life, and it's doesn't in ArmA neither unless you're trying to suppress the enemy in a multiplayer game;
-Always "double tap" (two rounds fired in quick succession (but controlled) to the same area of the body) an enemy, especially at close/medium ranges, so that the enemy is definitely not able to return fire;
-I never use full-auto on anything but actual machineguns, just not accurate enough after the first shot and wastes ammo. Two semi-automatic shots work much better.



A note on this:

If you manage to sneak up on the enemy without being detected, make sure that the first shot(s) go into officers (squad leaders), machine gunners, snipers and medics (or armoured vehicles in case there are any of course). They're force multipliers. The same goes for soldiers that are bunched up, if you are out of handgrenade range, and you don't have a grenadelauncher, prioritize your targets.

Thanks for the helpful replies people, I will try some of these tips next time I play.

- If you are a sniper, fire one shot, change position, fire again, change position.

-Reload when you can, not when you must, and always take cover first. When you are exposed and your weapon is dry, switch to the pistol (assuming you have one) until you get to cover to reload;
-Fill up on ammo whenever possible (killed squad members especially), if a squad member carrying a special piece of equipment (AT weapon, laser-designator etc.) is killed, take that equipment yourself, do not trust the Ai, they have the tendency to get themselves killed just when you need that piece of equipment deployed right away;
-Don't fire directly at moving targets, spend some time in the mission editor to learn about lead (aiming ahead of a target to account for the time it takes the bullet to get there), bullet drop etc;
-Vehicles can also offer cover, preferably ones that have been destroyed already since otherwise the enemy might fire an AT weapon or grenade at it, killing you as well;
-Try to move into a flanking position on higher ground than the enemy;
-Usually leaving wounded squad members behind in a defensive formation (like covering approaches, providing suppressive fire, covering retreats and advances etc) is better than taking them with you because they are easier targets for the enemy, and aren't as accurate, heal them as soon as possible.

Thanks for the replies, I'm getting the hang of it now. I've got a question about the aircraft though.

When I get near my target, particularly in the fighter jets, I am unable to target them and then shoot them. Is there a default key for 'select target' that I'm missing? I remember in helicopter training the bit on targeting things but I never got it.

Thanks
oh just remebered another question I had
If you have a gunner e.g. in the SU-34 jet how does this differ from being a solo pilot? Is there an option to make him engage all enemies in sight however he sees fit?