ok just picked this game up last night and started playing and no matter how hard I try I cant get silver or gold on 1&2 and cant even get halfway across the map on training 3, nowhere near winning. Is there some special trick to #3? its like for whatever reason the cpu is able to spawn about 10 enemies during its opening turn and no matter what tactic I try for (2 cheap planes 2 infantry, followed by a recon second round, or tanks and inf, or inf/recon/tank) anything I can think of, I just cant get it, Ive tried all 3 paths as well and either end up with 2 cp's and all the resources going to the cpu other then the one on the bottom, or all out destroyed and owned by artillery within 4 rounds... IM at a loss, any help?

I find that the top side of the map only really has infantry sent to it. One infantry with a sufficient buff does the job well for that side (If you have super buffs like Guerilla Fighter/Delta Force/Special Forces its a lot easier, otherwise backed up with buffs like High Caliber/Sharpshooter/Camouflage and a few Medics). You can back it up with a fighter or a heli if you wish.

The bottom side has about one, maybe two infantry sent towards it, but does tend to get overrun by recons, a heli comes in handy to defend that.

As for the middle, if your using a fighter/heli escort once your sure your infantry taking the sides are safe, send them towards the centre, by this stage you should hopefully have enough money to spawn some sort of anti-tank force to take down the middle. Sometimes theres a hero recon there, and anti-air, so be careful of your air support (A couple of repairs or overhauls does a nice job at keeping them alive) otherwise artillery does a great job at busting that down. Just be wary of how you use your infantry to take the mid, as for me they tend to focus fire it down (A Kevlar infantry does wonders there, especially if backed up with Medic/High Caliber/Camouflage.

That tends to get me silver ranking

To get most training missions on gold, you have to destroy enemy base.

well I finally beat it, seemed like dumb luck when I wasnt really paying attention to what I was doing, hmm maybe thats the key, its how I win playing shogi all the time, just go with the flow and play whatever comes... anyways now Im stuck on 4lol.. I dont ahve any paid for stuff and wont, my card collection is only what comes from the missions and starter