«

[Talkie]

No worries. I found information in this strategy guide:

http://www.speedy.franken.de/users/s...a/faq-2.1.html


Also available on GameFaqs, I think, but this one
is nicely HTMLed.

One of the message goes something like "S36 D9: Deliver Stork (L.S.)":


See what the Faq has to say:

*S36: 4 Crates (Camo in a boobytrap crate). 8 additional Crates on Day 9 in the morning. These special items include: .12G Shot Gun, .357 Magnum, 2 Grenades, Mines, and Ammos. (E-N)


So there are just hints for some items to be found, and the FAQ says they're generally not important (no difference if you get the sector before or after). It is possible I bypassed something by capturing a lab too fast, but we'll see. I wish there had been hints about using silencers where they are highly recommended (don't want to spoil anything).

I really like Elio and am considering keeping him until the end, because he makes entertaining comments about the island's history that enhance the narrative. The next native character I hear is a mechanic, but if he stays at home and I never hear from him, that's a little boring.

My crew is totally cliché, because having had to restart from scratch I didn't want to mess things up the second time, and picked the best recommended mercs. So it's Grunty, Vinny (stays at home to repair), Fidel, Hector, Elio, Dr. Fox, Ivan (of course!), and Ice (that's chronologically: started with the first four than picked 1 more each day).

I already decided I am going to replace Vinny, Hector, and Fidel, at some points, to try and see what some other mercs have to tell (got enough of "Leave Me Alone! I'm Busy!!!"). But the others are fun, I want to keep them. Of course that implies using Quick Restore once in a while instead of hiring new mercs the way you're supposed to. But only 2 characters ever get in trouble, because I keep everyone else behind with a lot of reserve points, which is the best strategy I find. And when your front guys have high protective shields and the best weapons, it's not too bad. They even survive the occasional bomb.


Cheers!

[zirkoni]

Originally Posted by Talkie

Vinny (stays at home to repair)

I always hire Speck for this purpose, saves a few bucks a day. Just never take him on the field:
Speck, salary 365, mechanical 99
Vinny, salary 385, mechanical 87

Originally Posted by Talkie

got enough of "Leave Me Alone! I'm Busy!!!"

There's actually a bug in the game you can use to circumvent this. If you lift the weapon Fidel is using (the 1st inventory slot bottom left) he will take orders again.

[Japo]

Speck is the name. I used him as the base mechanic. I used Vinny on the field.

[Eagle of Fire]

I did exactly the same than Japo. The thing is that Vinny never really lasted too long for me because he's not that good in any department. Fidel remained in my team until at least half game then I got tired of him and hired a better merc when the money was flowing.

I clearly remember another merc who look apish somehow, with a strange haircut. I don't think I kept that one in my team too long too but the whole point was the equipment he was carrying. In his case, if memory serve (but I could be wrong) he came on the island with a shield vest which was a very useful early armor.

[Talkie]

Hello,

I finished Jagged Alliance about 2 weeks ago, and promissed myself to come back here and add my own verdict/hints to the topic. Here I am.

I very much enjoyed JA overall, and can understand how it was perceived as groundbreaking back in 1994. However, some players might find a bit tedious that you have to fight the same type of enemy (generic redshirt mercs) all throughout the videogame, and the slow-paced fights get a little repetitive when you reach the late sectors of Metavira.

Also, not enough clues are given about important aspects of the videogame, but I'll come back to this as I want to proceed by listing various remarks that I have about Jagged Alliance that I haven't seen mentioned much in the couple strategy guides available online.


1.) There is no time limit, it seems, to complete Jagged Alliance. The main reason why people push you to do 3 sectors a day is because you need to secure a rolling economy fast, and also not disappoint your boss. So it is important in the early sectors to move fast, but once you reached halfway the map (and after a couple important speed-involving quests are completed, one involving Brenda), you can very much take your time (though in Hard mode it might be possible your sectors get attacked too much for you to relax). I ended at day 45 because I wanted to increase much of my mercs' skills (see below).

2.) People seem to forget at times that Jagged Alliance is ALSO a role-playing videogame. By that I mean that the strategy guides regard as quasi-cheating the fact that your crew can stay at home to rest or train for a few days, improving your economy, when this typical role-playing behavior would be normal even in a real context with such a reduced personnel. So, when you take time to rest or train your whole crew or most of them, you actually make a good amount of profit. If you fear so much that Tappers or Guards might be upset by your idleness and leave their post, you can always let you more healthy merc travel around while the others rest. In the worst event, you can also offer slight augmentations to attract workers. Resting improves health tremendously after a couple days, and training is neat to improve skills. Generally if you use a couple days once in a while to train or rest from halfway the Metavira map up to the ending, all will be fine. The more your economy is rolling, the longer you can take pauses, and this brings me to the next point.

3.) Role-playing involves exploring terrain, and typically after long days of fighting, you don't necessarely have time to search all terrain and loot all you can find. This is why it is good when you get advanced on the Metavira map (and starting to miss readily in-your-face available ammo), to take a day off or two for the whole purpose of exploring previously conquered terrains and search every piece of furniture you can find, safely away from the stress of war. Your home mechanic can now be useful as your primary lockpick. Also, metal detectors are a must.

4.) Obviously, Jagged Alliance was designed for your mercs to die, and I suppose the standard player is expected to try out up to 20 mercs per playthrough. But sticking with the role-playing ideal, I preferred to stick with the same 8-staff crew from beginning to end (Grunty, Vinny, Fidel, Hector, Elio, Fox, Ivan, and Ice (not all hired at the start)), attempting to improve their best skills and, well, perhaps cheating a little by reloading during battle when things got too rough (but that is the whole premiss of the Quick Load feature). When you do this, you can play 8 times Jagged Alliance without ever playing the same characters (that includes the 4 Natives, but these characters must be employed and fired one after the other to get the next one available). Of course some mercs are not meant to be played together, but you will apparently miss fun narratives if you don't try them out together. Personally all my crew was fine working together.

5.) Some sectors are best conquered using silencers, and I take gripe that no clues are to be found anywhere about this in JA's manuels or within the videogame world. I am assuming this is because you are supposed to "botch" your first manufacture conquest but then learn from your mistake. Also, Sector 1 was a nightmare for me because there is no way to know until you read a strategy guide that enemy mercs are quasi "infinite" in that sector until you do something perticular. Apparently, there is actually a maximum of 800 enemy mercs in Jagged Alliance. That's good to know. But the first time I attempted Sector 1, I was in that burned building in the corner, attempting to lure the enemy there and destroy them all. It was an endless fight, and at some point I thought there was a bug, because typically you are supposed to "clear" a Sector in JA, right? So something hitting at the very large number of enemy mercs in Sector 1 would have been welcomed.

6.) I expected to see more animated sequences like the splendid opener while playing, mostly at key plot points, and was disappointed by the lack of any. This is why I think Elio was hugely important in my playthrough as a "plot enhancer", as he describes the function or strategy tidbits for almost each sector in a manner that makes you feel you are really part of an adventure, not just on a shooting hunt (on a sidenote, Elio is the only character able to do certain things, like, "translating" a letter... Ohhh major hint there!).

7.) The keys.... This is not mentioned anywhere much, but there is no need to try out every key at every door. Get one person carry all the keys, and ask them to open any door. If they have the right key, they will automatically select it. But doesn't it always feel like you never have the right key? This is because keys are spread all over on the maps. The right key to a door may be 3 sectors ahead that you haven't yet conquered. This is why I believe it is better to come back later on in a few "adventure-role-playing" days, where you just move along conquered terrains and search everything THEN, not right after battle. Also, some doors are simply meant to be opened by other means than keys.

8.) The obscure letters you find throughout Metavira are either codes that give you clues about the various "quests/missions" that you will get from Jack and Brenda, or there are indicators to places and times where you can get extra loot, generally above average loot. Any letter mentioning a "Stork" (which is that bird that brings babies at your door) means there is extra crates to be found on a certain time of day on a certain sector, and that is only valid if the sector is yet to be conquered. If you miss the rendez-vous, the crates will be gone or empty. There is one letter about Sector 4 which warns you of booby traps after a certain day. I mention this one because every strategy guide say to NOT wait THAT certain day and conquer that sector fast, like if to prevent an earthquake. Actually, if you wait, you will get extra crates, just that everything including the terrain is more dangerous. With a skilled explosive guy, a metal detector, and using quick save and load, you can deal with Sector 4. If you manage to find 3 pieces of paper that are obviously part of a whole, I suggest your lockpick guy to carry that around in all the west Metavira Sectors, because nowhere it is mentioned how helpful (though not essential to succeed at Jagged Alliance) this paper can be in a perticular spot.

9.) Do not desparate: Jagged Alliance becomes, if not easier, more manageable as you get half through, get better weapons, and learn to rest your mercs to gain back important Action Points. The general strategy is to move forward your stealthier characters, and have the best markmanship mercs around everyone (front and back). Having everyone in a cluster is not recommended. It is dangerous for grenades attack, and it will be too slow to assess enemy position if mercs do not all participate in browsing terrains. I like to lure enemy by using rocks or a fast walking merc, or wait outside doors with much reserved points. Later on, the best shield vests possible are a must. Do not forget to add more guards than you need in sectors bordering those you intend to conquer. Leaving an enemy-bordering sector unguarded will lead to frustrations.

10.) Opening crates is NOT a task for every merc. Find out who can do it best, and generally he/she will require: a working crow bar and lots of water.

11.) Whoever drew the sleeve art for Jagged Alliance never consulted the designers about the outlook of Brenda. At least Lucas Santino is not too different (and if they thought that was Jack, slap them).


I....think I covered all I wanted to say. That's mostly a list of
information that I thought was missing when starting Jagged
Alliance. To resume in a sentance: it's not just strategy.
Allow yourself some role-playing time.

Cheers!


Talkie

After several tries in the course of several years, I finally beat this game yesterday. What a glorious feeling.

I played on normal difficulty. My main crew from start to finish was Ice, Fidel, Ivan, Grunty and Speck (he was at home the entire game and joined the very last fight for sector 1 and actually killed a bad guy).

Also had more team members. Two were killed, two quit, and I fired four.

Fidel bullied Hurl until he quit, so I got Fox as a medic instead. Got Hamous, but fired him after one day, never took on another native guide. When Vinny was killed a few days in, Fox quit on me. Then I hired Sparky (mechanical) and Eli (medic) in their stead, and shortly thereafter fired Sparky... Then hired Jimmy. As I was surrounding the Island, Hector was killed, and I fired both Eli and Jimmy, and hired Vicky, Sidney and Needle. This team took the top and bottom peninsulas in the West and beat the game.

A few things to note. A lot of people say there are around 100 redshirts in Sector 1. I found only around 8. Once I was on Santino's peninsula, enemy gangs kept attacking my sectors and getting their asses kicked. I read somewhere that these attacks deplete the high number of troops in sector 1. I was expecting the very worst from sector 1, but in the end only Ivan was seriously hurt. I think Fidel and Ice took small wounds also.

I never used silencers in the entire game, as I find it tedious carrying them instead of scopes, and since it's no guarantee you'll get the process plant. Instead I kind of reached out and attacked the process plants early on, so they'd be repaired when I needed them to be. I also simply blew up the infected tree with dynamite as soon as possible.

You don't really need a great medic in the field. Just get someone with more than 10 medical skill, they just take longer and use much more bandages. Give 'em 3 packs every day.

I had my field mechanic carry all the keys and the lockpick, and I'm really not sure it was worth the bother. I had way too many keys in the end, over 10 unused.

Looking back, the game becomes slightly easier halfway, as your troops gain rifles and decent armor. The hearing aid is easily the best support equipment in the game.

There are certain things I'd do differently should I play again.

First of all I'd keep a native guide as these provide useful and entertaining story elements. Get them to carry the bloody keys. The second native Hamous is thought by many to be best.

Second, I should have fired Grunty, he's very mediocre. Hector as well. As I was surrounding the island, I had over 100.000 surplus dollars to spend. So I could have gotten someone better.

Third, my team was a little boring. Ice, Ivan and Fidel are cool, and I was sorry Vinny got killed. Speck stays at home repairing, which is fine, but I'd like Fox on the team along with some of the higher end guys.