The problem with the game is that it automatically assumes you are familiar with the series and already know its ins and outs. If you do not, than yeah, it is going to punish you very harshly.
Personally, I have modded a few things to make it easier on myself, like increasing the experiance modifier to 1.2 (it is 0.35 on hard) in order to give my pilots the experiance necessary to get the skills to win the missions.
Also, I highly recommend you put off doing the primary missions until after you get your Mastiff repainted in Elio. Once you get repainted in Elio, I recommend you wander about the galaxy and hit all the hidden caches, as well as look for places where NPCs fight eachother, let them fight it out, than loot the remains. You can get a lot of decent third generation equipment like Stronghold Shields, Squall Antimissile systems, and Avenger gattling guns which leaves you with only having to buy fighter chassis.
Of course, there is one system where the NPC fights will actually net you free Usiel particle accellerators and Daga Laser cannons (Apparently traders are stupid enough to wander around systems infested with pirates), which are the best you can get for free, but you have to be able to fight the pirates that also roam the system.
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For instance at the start of this last mission where I have to escort My friends Transports through a bunch of gates, if one dies I lose. anyway I had 4 Mercs with me, and my two guys in ships.
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Tip #1: Do not bother hiring mercenaries from the station, they are a complete waste of credits.