JA2 Difficulty Question
dis_g...@my-deja.com
When the game started up it said that the Easiest difficulty level was
for people who were unfamiliar with this sort of game, and that the
middle difficulty level would be most appropriate for those with more
experience. I have played Laser Squad, X-COM Apocalypse, and the
original Jagged Alliance, and I felt that the middle category was the
one for me. Now, however, I am about 20 hrs into the game and I find
that, in order to get my mercs through the combats alive, I need to
frequently save and restore during each combat. I regard this basically
as cheating, and it somewhat ruins my enjoyment of the game, but then,
so does losing my mercs on a regular basis. However, I am quite
reluctant to start over at the lower difficulty level, as a fairly
substantial amount of time and energy has gone into this game, and I
don't want to just throw it away. So, some questions:
1. Is it the nature of the game to require savegame "cheating" to
survive battles on this difficulty level, or do I just need to think
harder on my strategy? If the former is true, is this likely to change
if I play on the easier difficulty level?
2. At 20hrs, I estimate I'm about 1/5th to 1/10th my way through the
game at this point. Is this a reasonable estimate? Does anyone who's
finished the game (on either of the first two difficulty levels)
remember approximately how much time it took them?
3. A bit off the subject, but, in my current game, after taking Drassen
I went for Alma. I'm beginning to think this was a premature move, and
I should have been heading west instead of south. Any hints? (Please
don't give me major spoilers on this question.)
Thanks in advance for any help you're able to give.
Regards, Gus.
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Varn
dis_g...@my-deja.com wrote in message <866ql5$r41$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>...
>So, some questions:
>
>1. Is it the nature of the game to require savegame "cheating" to
>survive battles on this difficulty level, or do I just need to think
>harder on my strategy? If the former is true, is this likely to change
>if I play on the easier difficulty level?
Using a better strategy will certainly enable you to avoid the need for
save/reload on the normal difficultly level.
>2. At 20hrs, I estimate I'm about 1/5th to 1/10th my way through the
>game at this point. Is this a reasonable estimate? Does anyone who's
>finished the game (on either of the first two difficulty levels)
>remember approximately how much time it took them?
If you mean 20 hours of game time, then you are nowhere near to even 1/10th
of the way through the game. My first time through the game I took about 50
days, though it is possible to do it in about 5 days if you go straight for
the Queen and play on novice difficulty. Not much fun though - I just did
that to see what was possible. I have heard of people taking 100+ days to
complete the game.
>3. A bit off the subject, but, in my current game, after taking Drassen
>I went for Alma. I'm beginning to think this was a premature move, and
>I should have been heading west instead of south. Any hints? (Please
>don't give me major spoilers on this question.)
Alma is a tough place to take immediately after Drassen, because it's a
military base. It's usually a good idea to talk to the locals in each sector
of each town you conquer - they will tell you things like (in Drassen)
'Avoid Alma, there are lots of soldiers there' etc. etc.
After Drassen your best bets are probably Cambria and Chitzena.
Regards,
Varn
Leif Magnar Kj|nn|y
>
>1. Is it the nature of the game to require savegame "cheating" to
>survive battles on this difficulty level, or do I just need to think
>harder on my strategy? If the former is true, is this likely to change
>if I play on the easier difficulty level?
You do probably need to learn the quirks and details of the tactical
engine a bit better; most battles should be survivable (remember that it's
usually possible to run away, though). OTOH, if you play without savegame
cheating, you *cannot* expect to finish the game without losing any mercs
at all. You'll notice that there are many more mercs available than you
can hire at any time....
>3. A bit off the subject, but, in my current game, after taking Drassen
>I went for Alma. I'm beginning to think this was a premature move, and
>I should have been heading west instead of south. Any hints? (Please
>don't give me major spoilers on this question.)
Alma is a bit of a tough cookie, and even if you manage to conquer all
four sectors (which you probably won't), counterattacks are likely to
overwhelm any defense you can set up this early in the game. However,
it *can* be a good idea to just make a raid into Alma (maybe taking and
then abandoning one sector) just to get some better guns.
--
Leif Kj{\o}nn{\o}y | "Its habit of getting up late you'll agree
www.pvv.org/~leifmk| That it carries too far, when I say
Math geek and gamer| That it frequently breakfasts at five-o'clock tea,
GURPS, Harn, CORPS | And dines on the following day." (Carroll)
Selby Dyer
<dis_g...@my-deja.com> wrote in message
news:866ql5$r41$1...@nnrp1.deja.com...
> 1. Is it the nature of the game to require savegame "cheating" to
> survive battles on this difficulty level, or do I just need to think
> harder on my strategy? If the former is true, is this likely to change
> if I play on the easier difficulty level?
In order to answer this question properly (rather than yes and no) you must
consider that there are three types of battle in this game:
1) you attack an installation or a town controlled by the enemy,
2) you are attacked by the enemy in a town or installation, and
3) combat in rural areas.
When you are on the attack (1) you should be able to play without constantly
saving and reloading as long as you form a good assault plan and always
avoid the principles of fire and movement.
When attacked 2) you should allow your militia to take the brunt of the
assault and attempt to flank the enemy who should become easier and easier
to kill as they take damage from your militia.
If you have no militia you better make the best possible use of cover and
killing ground or you will be making frequent visits to the Load screen.
In the open you are pretty well screwed at times. I had one miserable
battle where I was ambushed by blood cats and 18 enemy. Between them my
whole force of mercs was wiped out. Another particularly nasty fight
happened when two patrols entered a sector where my guys were
resting/healing and repairing. This time I lost 11 of 12 mercs to an enemy
force of 31!!
Every time you retreat from a sector you lose overall loyalty so it is often
better to go back to a much earlier save and start your cross country move
again.
> 3. A bit off the subject, but, in my current game, after taking Drassen
> I went for Alma. I'm beginning to think this was a premature move, and
> I should have been heading west instead of south. Any hints? (Please
> don't give me major spoilers on this question.)
Going for Alma without a lot of long range weapons or night vision equipment
plus a lot of grenades and some explosives will get you killed. After all,
it is a military garrison.
Selby
M. Lance Michel
This is EXACTLY what I was just about to post!
X-COM was very enjoyable at the middle level of difficulty, but I'm getting
nowhere fast with JA2.
Last night I looked at the cheat codes, but just can't bring myself to use
them...
By the way, I went west after Drassen which turned out to be a bad decision
also!
My biggest complaint is that my Mercs just don't hit anything! The lowest
markmanship stat is 76 (Ivan's nephew I think).
I also have Ivan with a stat in the 90's but don't see any significant
difference. I've tried rifles, shotguns, pistols. It seems like the
shotgun is the worst.
Is their a surefire formula for success? Like - "use these mercs, buy these
weapons, go here first, etc..." Kind of like a walk through?
Thanks,
- Lance
dis_g...@my-deja.com wrote:
> I am in a bit of a dilemma with JA2 and was hoping for some advice.
> When the game started up it said that the Easiest difficulty level was
> for people who were unfamiliar with this sort of game, and that the
> middle difficulty level would be most appropriate for those with more
> experience. I have played Laser Squad, X-COM Apocalypse, and the
> original Jagged Alliance, and I felt that the middle category was the
> one for me. Now, however, I am about 20 hrs into the game and I find
> that, in order to get my mercs through the combats alive, I need to
> frequently save and restore during each combat. I regard this basically
> as cheating, and it somewhat ruins my enjoyment of the game, but then,
> so does losing my mercs on a regular basis. However, I am quite
> reluctant to start over at the lower difficulty level, as a fairly
> substantial amount of time and energy has gone into this game, and I
> don't want to just throw it away. So, some questions:
>
> 1. Is it the nature of the game to require savegame "cheating" to
> survive battles on this difficulty level, or do I just need to think
> harder on my strategy? If the former is true, is this likely to change
> if I play on the easier difficulty level?
>
> 2. At 20hrs, I estimate I'm about 1/5th to 1/10th my way through the
> game at this point. Is this a reasonable estimate? Does anyone who's
> finished the game (on either of the first two difficulty levels)
> remember approximately how much time it took them?
>
> 3. A bit off the subject, but, in my current game, after taking Drassen
> I went for Alma. I'm beginning to think this was a premature move, and
> I should have been heading west instead of south. Any hints? (Please
> don't give me major spoilers on this question.)
>
Baron Calamity
>I am in a bit of a dilemma with JA2 and was hoping for some advice.
>When the game started up it said that the Easiest difficulty level was
>for people who were unfamiliar with this sort of game, and that the
>middle difficulty level would be most appropriate for those with more
>experience.
I found JA2 pretty much freaking impossible even on the easiest level.
I too have played many Squad based games without any trouble on hard
levels. However JA2 just spanks me like a little girl.
Baron Calamity
email:rcme...@home.com
Varn
M. Lance Michel wrote in message <38871F45...@us.oracle.com>...
>Wow!
>This is EXACTLY what I was just about to post!
>X-COM was very enjoyable at the middle level of difficulty, but I'm getting
>nowhere fast with JA2.
>Last night I looked at the cheat codes, but just can't bring myself to use
>them...
>By the way, I went west after Drassen which turned out to be a bad decision
>also!
>My biggest complaint is that my Mercs just don't hit anything! The lowest
>markmanship stat is 76 (Ivan's nephew I think).
>I also have Ivan with a stat in the 90's but don't see any significant
>difference. I've tried rifles, shotguns, pistols. It seems like the
>shotgun is the worst.
>Is their a surefire formula for success? Like - "use these mercs, buy
these
>weapons, go here first, etc..." Kind of like a walk through?
POSSIBLE SPOILER WARNING
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Still with me? ;)
If you are really struggling to get anywhere, try hiring Gus and Lynx on the
first day, on a 1 day contract with equipment. That will get you two decent
rifles at the start - the G41 and a Ruger-14. Try to answer the
questionnaire in such a way that your custom merc starts with the secondary
skills of stealth and night ops. Develop a team of night ops specialists,
using mercs like Raven, Spider, Lynx your custom merc etc. Attack the enemy
controlled town sectors at night, with your entire squad in stealth mode.
Use NV goggles whenever you get them. The best weapons for night ops are
MAC-10s and MP5Ks with silencers. The FN P90 is even better if you can find
it, but is very rare. Practice with various different night ops tactics. If
you persevere and are careful, you will find it's easy to take out entire
sectors using this strategy, even with only 1 or 2 mercs like Raven or
Spider. If you ever choose to play on the expert difficulty level, you will
find this type of strategy to be essential to your success if you want to
win without cheating or save/reloading.
Regards,
Varn
Daniel Silevitch
<mmi...@us.oracle.com> wrote:
> Wow!
> This is EXACTLY what I was just about to post!
> X-COM was very enjoyable at the middle level of difficulty, but I'm getting
> nowhere fast with JA2.
> Last night I looked at the cheat codes, but just can't bring myself to use
> them...
> By the way, I went west after Drassen which turned out to be a bad decision
> also!
> My biggest complaint is that my Mercs just don't hit anything! The lowest
> markmanship stat is 76 (Ivan's nephew I think).
> I also have Ivan with a stat in the 90's but don't see any significant
> difference. I've tried rifles, shotguns, pistols. It seems like the
> shotgun is the worst.
> Is their a surefire formula for success? Like - "use these mercs, buy these
> weapons, go here first, etc..." Kind of like a walk through?
> Thanks,
> - Lance
>
Here's how I ran my second completed game (did a lot of floundering
around on the first one).
Grand Strategy:
0) Create a stealth/night ops custom. This gives you, among other
things, a free MP-5 submachine gun at the beginning of the game. It has
a respectable range advantage over the ubiquitous early-game pistols.
1) Hire 4 cheap mercs. I went with Buns, Grunty and two others I can't
remember right now. Someone who can pick locks is useful (I think I
used Barry). With your custom and Ira (recruit from rebel HQ), you have
an affordable 1st team.
2) Clear Drassen. Get the food sent to the rebels, get the mine running.
2a) Once the food has arrived (a day or so after you talk to the
priest), go to Omerta and recruit Dimitri. Put him on your team, and
use Ira to teach militia.
3) Find Skyrider (copter pilot). One of the people at the airport
(Waldo?) has some hints on where to look, but he's usually in the
swamps to the east of Drassen.
4) Take out the Drassen SAM site (forest east of the Drassen lake).
This gets you limited use of the helicopter.
5) Go SW to Cambria. Clear the univ and the hospital, at night if
possible. Once you've taken Cambria mine, you should have enough income
to hire 2-3 mid-range mercs. Do so, and split your forces into a pair
of 4-man squads
6) Go to Alma. After taking Alma, you should be able to afford some of
the good mercs. I recommend Shadow as a scout, and Lynx or Scope as a
sniper.
7) Blow through San Mona and Chitzena. These should be easy (esp. San
Mona). If your cash flow allows, you should be up to ~10-12 combat
mercs, plus Ira who follows behind the strike teams training the
militia.
8) Attack Grumm. Usually the richest mine, and well defended.
9) Attack remaining sites and cities
10) Attack Meduna. I had a full complement of 18 mercs armed to the
teeth.
Personnel Management:
Hire new mercs only when you can afford to add weekly salaries; it's
long-run cheaper than daily contracts. I only fired people who had
major personality conflicts; most of the low-level mercs were
comparable in ability to the expensive ones by the time you have the
cash to "upgrade".
At the beginning of the game, buy the merc's equipment as well; by
mid-game, it's usually better to hire the naked merc and outfit them
either from combat spoilers or from Bobby Ray.
Renew contracts for 1 or 2 weeks as soon as you have the cash; that
way, if a merc gains a level, you don't immediately have to increase
the salary.
I used Ira as a full-time teacher, plus 1-3 combat squads that always
travel together. Each squad had at least 4 mercs (this makes managing
them in combat easier).
Weaponry:
You start out with pistols, plus perhaps a SMG. Sometimes, there is a
SMG in the sweatshop in Drassen; shoot Doreen to get a key to her
office. As soon as possible, standardize on 1-2 pistol calibres; this
makes ammo sharing easier. I would recommend 9 mm and either .45 or
.357. The .38s are relatively worthless IMO.
Shotguns are the next thing to show up. The priest has a shotgun in his
office; pick the lock and take the gun/ammo. Patrols will start
carrying them in a few days as well. I didn't use them very much; they
don't have much range advantage compared to pistols, and don't seem to
be very accurate.
SMGs annd then single-shot rifles appear next. Rifles are preferable,
due to their longer range. The Mini-14 is IMO the best of the early
rifles. As the game proceeds, upgrade the rifles to early assault
rifles (the AKM is my favorite of this bunch) and then to modern
assault weapons. The best general-purpose weapons in the game are the
C-7 and FN-FAL assault rifles.
When you get a new and improved weapon, give it first to the best shot
on your team. Weapons then propogate downward, so the team klutz will
have a pistol until everyone else has something better. Try to restrict
the number of types of ammo; it makes logistics harder.
Tactics:
In the early game, operate at night as much as possible. A night-ops
merc with a silenced weapon has a killer advantage in the dark. Stay in
the shadows out of the light, and snipe your foes to death. When
attacking fenced-in installations (SAM sites, Alma, etc.), use wire
cutters to breach the fence away from the gate.
Keep your teams fairly close together for mutual support. Don't give
people long running orders in realtime; if you make contact with the
enemy, you will be all spread out. Move in short steps instead (~1/3 a
screen at a time), and regroup before the next more. Try to have
everyone ending their move behind some sort of cover; depending on
terrain, this may not be possible.
Don't shoot from "beyond effective range" and expect to hit very often.
It does happen, but it's rare. Get in close instead. This is a lot
easier at night, esp. with a night-ops merc w/ night-vision goggles.
Once you have rifles (esp. sniper rifles), give your best long-gun to
your best marksman, and put him/her in back of the front line (on a
roof if possible). Use the sniper to cover your front lines.
I hope this helps
-dms
Mike Webster
<dms...@pha.jhu.edu> wrote:
>In the early game, operate at night as much as possible. A night-ops
>merc with a silenced weapon has a killer advantage in the dark. Stay in
>the shadows out of the light, and snipe your foes to death. When
>attacking fenced-in installations (SAM sites, Alma, etc.), use wire
>cutters to breach the fence away from the gate.
OK, newbie question of the day.
How do you use the wire cutters on a fence? I tried everything I
could think of and all I could manage to do was drop them on the
ground near the fence ... :)
Mike
dis_g...@my-deja.com
Baron Calamity <nospam...@nothanks.com> wrote:
> However JA2 just spanks me like a little girl.
>
: ) Know the feeling. One thing that I found helped, was to spend the
greater part of my starting kitty getting Lynx. He comes with a rifle,
which will allow you to kill other people who have rifles, allowing you
to equip other mercs with rifles, &c. Those pistols you get to begin
with, otherwise, are utterly worthless.
The other tactic that helped me, a bit, was to get a couple of guys to
stand on the roof of a building, just above a doorway, and then get a
third guy to wander around near the door without stealth mode, until
somebody wandered through the door and allowed me to get about six head
shots at point blank range...
(Mind you, the very fact that these guys are taking any more than _one_
head shot at point blank range to die, helmet or no helmet, seems wildly
unrealistic to me. And I've seen it take four, which is why you need
two guys up there).
Gary White
right-click, the cutters symbol appears on the screen, the cutters
turn red when they are on the wire (aiming the cutters) and you click
like firing a weapon to cut. You must be kneeling or standing to
start cutting I believe.
>
> OK, newbie question of the day.
> How do you use the wire cutters on a fence? I tried everything I
> could think of and all I could manage to do was drop them on the
> ground near the fence ... :)
>
> Mike
--
Gary White
Lansing, Michigan, USA
mailto:garywh...@att.net
ICQ# 575452
shadows
[snip]
>Renew contracts for 1 or 2 weeks as soon as you have the cash; that
>way, if a merc gains a level, you don't immediately have to increase
>the salary.
Two weeks. If it's one week the merc can choose not to renew, if
it's two weeks the merc HAS to renew. A lot of people didn't read
the policy on the AIM site :-)
--
Thamer Al-Herbish <URL http://www.whitefang.com/>
-Buccaneer Heroes- Coming soon. <URL: http://www.whitefang.com/bh/>
There's only one reason not to release source: magic number embarrassment.
Matt Boyington
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.
.
I'm at the point where I'm trying to take the palace but I'm
very much outgunned. I didn't come accross many LAW's or
mortar shells (through salvage or purchase). I have a pretty
descent team of 18 mercs with 10 having rocket rifles and a
fair amount of grenades and launchers.
My problem is the enemy spots me and tears up my men with
rocket rifles. Then come my turn they are not exposed so
I don't really get a chance to return fire. Also their
rocket rifles do 50-80 points of damage while mine only do
20-40.
I wanted to finish the game without cheating but I just couldn't
make much progress without mortars and LAW's so I used a
save game editor.
In short I'd love to hear some advice on how to finish the
last stage of the game w/o cheating or having to reload
for hours.
Thanks,
Matt
Gary White
wall, then you can slowly go through that wing and to the entrance to
the Palace.
--
Courageous
> that, in order to get my mercs through the combats alive, I need to
> frequently save and restore during each combat.
You're not cautious enough in combat. If your mercs are
getting hit often, you're doing something wrong. Hit the
mud, find cover, crawl everywhere in stealth mode, and...
C/
K. Laisathit
>survive battles on this difficulty level, or do I just need to think
>harder on my strategy? If the former is true, is this likely to change
>if I play on the easier difficulty level?
The latter. You just need to be aware of a couple of things. In
the early going, you're really outgunned, outmanned, out-everything.
Enemy soldiers are much better equipped and in most circumstances
are just plain better soldiers than your mercs. Check your assumption.
Experiment. I'd bet that you started out with 4 or 5 cheapo mercs.
Don't do that. Good mercs are really worth their prices (with
few exceptions). Hint:Try getting one or two expensive mercs on
short term contract. Shadow is a good one. Gus is also very good,
but you can't afford him with anything except 1-day contract.
>
>2. At 20hrs, I estimate I'm about 1/5th to 1/10th my way through the
>game at this point. Is this a reasonable estimate? Does anyone who's
>finished the game (on either of the first two difficulty levels)
>remember approximately how much time it took them?
Impossible to say. There is only one objective in this game:
Kill Deidranna. Someone on the NG did that in 3 days (game
time), probably something like 5 hours real time, I should
think.
>3. A bit off the subject, but, in my current game, after taking Drassen
>I went for Alma. I'm beginning to think this was a premature move, and
>I should have been heading west instead of south. Any hints? (Please
>don't give me major spoilers on this question.)
Well, basically the difficulty increases from North to South. Yeah,
taking Alma after Drassen isn't a good idea.
Later...
David Short
Matt Boyington wrote in message ...
Brian Robinson
> How do you use the wire cutters on a fence? I tried everything I
> could think of and all I could manage to do was drop them on the
> ground near the fence ... :)
>
gun. Then you will get a wirecutter icon for your cursor. Hold it over a
fence until it turns red. At that point you can cut the fence. Note that
the wirecutters do not work on some fences found later in the game.
--
Brian Robinson
brob...@ist.ucf.edu
Institute for Simulation and Training
Ben Flieger
>This is EXACTLY what I was just about to post!
>X-COM was very enjoyable at the middle level of difficulty, but I'm
getting
>nowhere fast with JA2.
>Last night I looked at the cheat codes, but just can't bring myself
to use
>them...
>By the way, I went west after Drassen which turned out to be a bad
decision
>also!
>My biggest complaint is that my Mercs just don't hit anything! The
lowest
>markmanship stat is 76 (Ivan's nephew I think).
>I also have Ivan with a stat in the 90's but don't see any
significant
>difference. I've tried rifles, shotguns, pistols. It seems like the
>shotgun is the worst.
>Is their a surefire formula for success? Like - "use these mercs,
buy these
>weapons, go here first, etc..." Kind of like a walk through?
People will tell you to get NightOps/Stealth. Don't. Get NightOps/Auto
Weaps. Early on, that NO/S guy will kick ass, but once you run into
people who don't die from 1 SKS round, you need to put multiple
bullets into them. It's something else to see a NO/AW guy with a G3 or
FN-FAL dealing death. When distributing points, decide whether you
want Explosives or Mechanical. 0 whichever one you don't
want(explosives is less useful, but it's easier to find high mech
guys). 35 the other and 35 medical. Boost Agility and Wisdom high,
they don't increase through use.
Hire Lynx on a 1 day contract and 2 cheap mercs for week long
deals(Buns and Steroid are good picks). Use Lynx and the custom to
clear Drassen, it should take you one night.
Let Lynx leave, hire Raven. She's probably the best AIM merc in the
game. Head west, hitting Cambria, Chitzen(you can flip these if you
are having trouble, Chitzen is easier), the Chitzen SAM, the Cambria
SAM, Grumm, then Alma. Until Grumm, all you will need is a 2 man team
of you and Raven. Add Lynx and Scope as money permits. Other good
mercs include Shadow, Ivan, and Wolf.
The variously piddling places can be taken at your leisure, and there
are several free(or nearly free) mercs available throughout. They make
excellent pack mules, at the very least.
Keep in mind, I never beat the game. I'm stalled after the Meduna
airport, out of LAWs and with only a few mortar rounds. It's like
gameday 120, and Bobby Ray doesn't sell either. Every so often I can
grab a shell off Tony.
The best weapons are the FN-FAL, Steyr, C-7, G3A3, and all the various
machine guns. IMO, the RPK(a machine gun) is the best sniper rifle,
though the Steyr rocks too. The Dragunov and M-24 can only get off 1
shot a turn, stay away from them. I have the same problem with the
Rocket Rifles. It's just not worth it. I can put 2-3 bursts into
somebody for the price of one RR shot.
My team is Lynx, custom, Scope, Raven, Ivan, and Buns.
Charles Tyson
>Mind you, the very fact that these guys are taking any more than _one_
>head shot at point blank range to die, helmet or no helmet, seems wildly
>unrealistic to me.
I must disagree, it's highly realistic. Didn't you know that
Compound-18 is the dandruff shampoo preferred by 9 out of 10 Arulcan
soldiers? "Hair so shiny...so manageable...so bulletproof!"
Charles Tyson
(for Email replies, remove all Xs from my address)