Jagged Alliance 2. A battle report

Liberate Arulco down to the very last sector, solve every side quest in the game, primarily using my own character. All other hired mercenaries will act as medics, drivers, carriers, trainers, mechanics, etc.

As the game begins, you need to hire initial mercs, and create your own character. The initial mercs are incredibly important, and need to fit the tasks of the first 24-36 hours perfectly. Thus it's not acceptable if the mercs needed for the job are not available at the start of the game. So I simply restart the game until all of them are available.

A rundown on the mercs that are absolutely required and for how long:

Lynx (24h):
I hire Lynx purely for the gun he brings in. A Mini-14 outranges everything in the early game, and it is semi-automatic. Additionally Lynx is an incredible shot, which is important to carry my own character through the first few sectors as he is still learning.

Bull (1 week):
Bull is the cheapest character in the game, but he is really, really useful. He is the strongest, so he can carry a lot, and is the best to break things open with a crow bar. He is also a hand to hand expert which makes him valuable later in the game. Must pick.

Buns (1 week):
Buns is an excellent coach, which is important to train militia. I am playing sort of a Blitzkrieg style, and I have always trouble holding captured terrain, so I need lots of good coaches who train lots of militia.

Additionally, Raider should not be on assignment, since he is needed on Day 2. So restart the game until all these guys are free.

On to the creation of my own character (Eric). Here are the attributes and skills:

Agility 85
Dexterity 85
Wisdom 85
Leadership 85
Strength 85
Health 85
Marksmanship 35
Explosives 0
Medic 0
Mechanic 0

Basically everything is important but Marksmanship and the specialities. For the specialties I will hire the experts when the time comes to need them. And Marksmanship I expect to learn in game, as my guy will be the only one shooting. This makes the first few sectors challenging as he can't hit anyone outside of point blank range, but is worth it for the mid and late game.

As for skills, what he needs is Autoweapons (Expert). Additionally, he should be a Psycho. The reasoning is that mid to late game, a good autoweapons expert is the strongest fighter possible. Psycho means he will fire automatic whenever he can, even when not ordered to do so. This is unwanted in the early game when he doesn't hit anything yet with automatic fire, but excellent in the late game as it requires less action points each round.

Gameplay

My Strategy is as follows:

Day1 Objectives
- Omerta
- Drassen
- SAM Site 1
- Alma
- Bloodcat nest

Day 1
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Omerta is pretty standard. Sector one, get the letter to the woman, and pick up the crow bar and pliers from the house bottom right. Sector two, talk to the rebels and recruit Ira. Onwards to Drassen.

There is one patrol on the way, which should be no problem even for my 35 Marksmanship dupe as long as he has Lynx' Mini-14. I try to conserve ammo as much as possible through reloading on failed shots and switching to pistols on closer ranger. A bit obnoxious, but those 90 shots of 5.56 ammo are precious.

Drassen is standard as well, free all sectors, talk to Pater Walker, and the airport guy, and Carmen, if he is there.

Now we need to find out where Skyrider, the pilot, hides. There are four possible sectors, so take your 4 mercs and spread them out to look for the guy. Reload once you know the sector. There is a bit of luck involved - the furthest away sector sucks majorly as it robs you of like 4 hours in your time table.

From now on every move has to be executed down to the minute. Send Bull to the pilot, Ira to train milita, and Buns, Eric, and Lynx to SAM Site 1. The idea is to disable SAM Site 1 while Bull gets Skyrider. Once we have him and the helicopter, the skies are already cleared and Skyrider can pick us up at the SAM Site.

SAM Site can be a bit tricky but just means lots of reloading. Important items from the site: An SKS, one automatic (either Colt Commando or Type-85), night vision goggles, and break lights. Especially the last two items are essential for the go on Alma later that night. Put everyone to sleep as they are waiting for Bull and the helicopter.

Buns stays at the SAM Site to train militia. Bull, Eric, and Lynx heliport down one sector next to Alma (sleeping!). Once they are there, walk them into top right Alma.

Top right is impossible to take at this stage yet, so just leave the sector towards top left.

Top left is the main barracks of Alma. Easiest way to take the sector is cut through the wires from the north east, and take the roof. There are two snipers on the roof, which are very annoying to kill. You can either sacrifice Bull's HP by running him into sniper fire, or try to get the sniper with the flares. Just in plain dark they will almost always get the first shot.

Enter to top part of the building, and locate and recruit Conrad. You can easily gethim: Talk to him 2 times direct, then recruit. Refuse his quote, and recruit again to get a 3000 / day rate. Conrad is an excellent merc, well worth that. Especially since you don't have to pay in advance.

Rest: Bandage the wounded soldier for extra points with the Alma civilians. The general is easily killed with gas or smoke. You should have one gas grenade by now. There is an elite soldier locked into a room in the north of the barracks, which kind of sucks, since she will always get the first shot. Gas or smoke can solve that sometimes, but it takes a lot of tries.