Hello!
Game do not "prevent you from winning" but you are right that difficulty is increasing with every next island.
Its because your mechs also get stronger and have new abilities, otherwise it would be too easy after first island.

Also there are missions marked as high difficulty, they usually have higher rewards but they also spawn elites very early, so that might be your case.

Why not play on easy until you get a better grasp of the game mechanics?

Thanks for tips. I think I understand mechanics. @Mighty Mike you are right, more elites appear in further islands. i think I just played too conservatively. Not tried new things, I guess. And higher difficulty missions seems to be a must, actually. Without more skill points and reactors, there is no possibility to win. I changed my approach 2 days ago I won at last :-).

Originally posted by Chuczek:

Thanks for tips. I think I understand mechanics. @Mighty Mike you are right, more elites appear in further islands. i think I just played too conservatively. Not tried new things, I guess. And higher difficulty missions seems to be a must, actually. Without more skill points and reactors, there is no possibility to win. I changed my approach 2 days ago I won at last :-).

One thing that has helped me a lot is realizing how important getting corporate reputation is. I'm always trying to get 8 per island, and to get a "perfect" island (completing all objectives). When you do that you get a bonus reward, and that plus a bunch of cores really helps you a lot.

@Soteria Thanks a lot for this tip. I admit, this game creates so many variations I'm not able to get it most of times. But I admit it helps.

There's also picking the right map for your team. The best example I can think of is the Hazardous Mechs. You want to choose maps where the leap mech is able to make most jumps without being forced to hit one of the buildings otherwise you're limiting your potential safe moves.

Flame Behemoths do well in maps with lots of forest you can set on fire too. Some mechs suck at keeping the volatile mech alive. Some mechs suck at protecting the train.

There's little tidbits of learning, things you might not think of unless you were really considering it.

@Chibi You seem to choose missions depending on advantages of the squads? For now I tried to choose them basing on possible gain most of the time and eventual demise, basing on mission preview. This is different approach. I will try it. Do you have any experience with Zenith Guard? Any tips in this matter? I see they have limited elimiation capabilities. I use Abe for a ramming tank, but ensnaring Veks block me all the times so I can't reach power stations under attack, on spreaded boards. Approach with having specific territory for a mission may be needed here.