In Progress Let's break my PB account in Jagged Alliance Back In Action + Combat Evolved Mod, Ironman.

[someone else]

Let's Play Jagged Alliance Back In Action + Combat Evolved Mod, Ironman.

http://boards.jaggedalliance.com/index.php?/topic/1845-mod-combat-evolved-released/

1) Drassen Airport
2) Drassen and Water Pump Station
3) Cambria mine, Roadblock and Cambria Hospital
4) Cambria University, Cambria
5) Hicks Farm, Rebel Hideout, San Mona, Greenhouse Farm
6) Road Block, Crashed Truck, Hideout, Dumped Containers, Estoni
7) Hideout, Junk Yard, Cambria SAM Site
8) Alma
9) Alma Prison, Road Block, Balime Slums, Yet Another Road Block
10) Stakeout Point, Supply Depot, Hideout, Yet Another Road Block, Yet Another Hideout
11) Road Block, Grumm
12) Beach Promenade, Supermarket, Alma Barracks and Docks, South-Eastern SAM Site
13) Tixa Prison
14) Laboratory, Gas Station
15) Meduna SAM Site, Meduna Airport

Spoiler

Never played this mod before, I heard about people dying at the start due to mod difficulty so I'll go with normal since I'm playing ironman.

We are hired to kill the evil queen Deidranna of Alruco.

Time to recruit some mercenaries.
CE uses Jagged Alliance 2 portraits and includes the mercenaries from MERC.

Wolf is one of the best, he's gonna be our mechanic.

MD as the medic.

Biff because we don't have enough money left.

Start off outside Drassen Airport with an enemy soldier patrolling nearby.

We wait for him to come close and ambush him.

Another enemy appear to our left, he heard our shooting and runs towards us.

Killing the first enemy we wait for the other, he disappears from our sight but we can hear him.

He comes into view of our guns. Bang!

Sneaking into a hole in the fence, no wirecutters in this game.

One of the buildings has some armour.

Sneaking south we spot a guard at the entrance of the airport.

Spot another baddie patrolling one of the buildings.

And another. The red zone is the field of vision of the enemy, it only appears if they are unalerted and it is restricted to 55% of their normal view distance.

And another baddie appears from behind a building.

We waited until the patrolling guards leave then started crawling to do a sneak attack on one of the two nearby guards. The Guard to our right is blocked by the guardhouse.

He heard us! The three of us have poor stealth. Time to shoot!

After killing him, we turn on the guard at the entrance and kill him.

A patrolling guard returns. See those barriers? They will make good cover.

He heard us sneaking towards the barrier but we made it behind the cover. Two of us will crouch and shoot while the remaining merc shoot through a crack.

One merc investigates the building while the other two remain on watch outside.

Found a USP, good cos at the start ammo is limited.

Sneaking to the strategic target at the north of the airport.

Ducking behind cover as we hear approaching footsteps.

Pop up like a mole and pop him!

Aiming at a blissfully-unaware baddie from the back.

Another shootout, we got cover, he doesn't.

We can see the time for our shots above our heads.

Another baddie approaches.

He runs into lower ground and we have to stand to shoot him.

The first strategic target is captured! If we enter the strategic target area before killing all the baddies guarding it, it will make the baddies guarding it run towards the strategic target.

The other strategic target is well guarded.

So we sneak around and attack from the rear(East)

Crawling towards the building. The guard patrols around the building.

The guard will get a nasty surprise when he rounds the corner.

Entering and taking cover from the alerted guards.

Pop them as they rush in.

Advance to the opening.

Putting the mercs on guard mode where they will automatically shoot faster on enemy that pops into their guard zone(this depends on their perception).
We managed to eliminate all of Deidranna's men in this area!

The natives here don't steal our stuff we ship from overseas.

Some dude named Skyrider wants to get him his diamonds from his crashed helicopter.
Sure could use a eggbeater in this game.

Checking our email.
Bobby's Ray's Guns and Things is now open for business.

Guns and armour are randomized and restock every three days. Goods take 1 to 2 days to ship to this airport. Faster service means higher cost per kg.

Next stop Drassen.

 

[Azira]

 

[Thor Kaufman]

Looks pretty underwhelming. What's the appeal?

 

[Baron Dupek]

Tried it few weeks ago and return to RTwP UFO trilogy from Altair/1C which was better for me.
Still - will watch for entertaining.

 

[someone else]

2) Drassen and Water Pump Station.

Spoiler

Day 1 0321
Drassen
The team spots a level 3 soldier exiting the bar.

He's wearing a helmet, a bulletproof vest and he has an AK47.
In contrast, none of us are wearing a helmet, only one has a flak vest and we have 3 handguns and a 4-round shotgun.
One burst from his AK is enough to take one of us down.

But we have strength in numbers, one of us distracts him from one side of the building while the another flanks around the building and shoots him in the side.

We then head down to the first strategic target, some sort of T-shirt sweatshop.

The team tires to sneak in for a closer shot but was heard and had to shoot prematurely in the open.

Gate opens and we are in trouble.

We took down two of them with severe injuries and ducked around the corner to heal. MD got to earn his pay.

Circle around the building and shoot a camper in the back.

Biff climbs up to the roof while Wolf and MD stays on the ground.

On the roof. Biff spots a guard, the guard turns and aims at him but Biff runs out of his sight before he gets shot.

The two on the ground seize this chance and shoots the soldier in the back.

Another soldier appears.

From the roof Biff shoots him in the back.
This clears the garment factory. I think the mod alters the quest here but I didn't talk to the factory owner.

On the way to the next target, the Church, the team hears a suspicious sound behind a building.

As we are preparing an ambush a soldier appears from the other side.
Note that the player cannot differentiate between civilian and enemy sounds.

The noise-maker appears and we then surprise both at the same time.

The Church is well protected.

Sneaking around we pick off the guards one by one.

A soldier investigating all the shooting caught us in the open!

We ran to cover behind a car and shoot.

Entering the Church triggers the remaining guards to return to the Church and we are waiting behind the pews for them.

The last strategic target is the mine.

Failed sneaking and Wolf got shot, we take cover behind some rocks.

Bang! Bang! Bang! We got rocks to hide behind!

One of the enemies hides between two cars, after camping for a long time and just as we were preparing to flank she left the safety of the cars and we quickly shoot her.

One merc reaches the strategic target while the other two camps for returning Deidranna's men.

Camping wins.

The priest says we should get help from a rebel called Ira at the bar.

Ira wants us to take over the Cambria mine before she believes us.

The drops on the first two maps are terrible.
Before we leave we check with the traders and decided to pick up an AK47 and a Mini-14. Not enough cash left to buy armour, let's hope the rifles are worth it.
The mod starts you off with a LAW and some rockets, apparently you can't buy rockets in the mod, best to conserve them for tanks.

The mine is to the west, on our way we will attack a water pump station.
It has 3 level-3 guards, we are still mostly unarmoured...

Before the pump there is a friendly house.

An AK47 is found hidden in a nearby bush. Its weakness is mediocre accuracy and penetration.

The doors are locked but Wolf can open them.

Inside we find a Mosin-Nagant, a old Russian sniper rifle. It can only load 5 rounds so MD takes the spare AK47 so he doesn't have to reload in battle.
Now we have 4 rifles!
But little ammunition for them.

The water pump is a small building. The roof to north is fortified with sandbags.

There are rocks to the west and the enemy has no cover, the team agrees to use that as a offensive position.

Wolf heads out and spots enemies, using the synchronise command system, Wolf will return behind the rocks and the team will then open fire at the same time.

The shooting starts a rush towards our position.

Instead of concentrating fire on one person, the team takes a single target, getting hit stuns and disrupts the aiming.

Biff is near death but we survive thanks to rocks.

The next attack is from the south, some nice rocks to hide behind there as well. We also get a good view of the door.
Notice the enemy aiming at us.

Lying prone for awhile cause the enemy to stop aiming and change position.

We then pop back up and shoot him.

Another enemy appears but we took them down easily.

Biff covers the door from the rocks while Wolf and MD stacks up against the door, the duo switch from rifles to shotgun and handgun which is faster than the rifles we own.
They are also shooting from the hip, a very fast rate of fire stance but very inaccurate, good for CQC.

The first room is empty, while Wolf and MD watches the door, Biff goes to the window.
We can hear movement in the next room.
On hindsight Wolf and MD ought be be at hip stance at this distance.

Biff take a quick shot from the window and ducks out of view.

The injury causes the baddies to run around the room.

Just barely out of sight, Wolf prepares to throw a grenade into the room.

The explosion hurt our team as well but Biff easily takes out the final badly wounded soldier from the window.

Picked up a Bizon and a PPSH from the dead. Both are smgs.

Let's talk about weapons.
Range determines accuracy as well as damage, shorter range weapons do less damage at long range.
The type of ammo determines armour penetration. Each caliber only has 1 type of ammo.
Rate of fire is very important for CQC as the one who shoots first usually wins and he can stunlock or duck behind cover so he won't get shot.
Accuracy, only shotguns don't have 100%, it determines the spread of the bullets.
When shooting bursts, the first shot is as accurate as a single shot. Something JA2 didn't get right.
Durability, guns start jamming below 90% condition.
Guns have hidden accuracy rating for the 4 stances, prone, crouch, standing and hip.

SMGs for example are good for CQC as they are fast and have good accuracy shooting from the hips.

The types of guns:
Sniper rifles: -very low ROF, -poor accuracy standing and hip-shooting, the biggest ones can't even shoot well crouched. Best used with spotter to hit targets on the other side of the map. eg. M24, the 3 Anti-Material Sniper Rifles(AMR)- Barrett M82, OSV-96 and VSSK Vychlop.
Designated marksman rifle (DMR): -poor accuracy at hip-shooting. eg Mark 14 Enhanced Battle Rifle, VSS Vintorez(decent accuracy at hip-shooting).
Battle/assault rifles: All rounders, -heavy calibers have poor accuracy at hip-shooting. eg. Ak47, M16, FN FAL.
Carbines: Trade range for better ROF. +decent at hip-shooting. eg. M4, FN SCAR-H CQB.
Submachineguns: -short range but high ROF. +good at hip-shooting. eg. Thompson M1A1, Ingram MAC-10.
Handguns: -shortest range but high ROF +good at hip-shooting. eg. FN Five-seven, Glock 18.
Machineguns: +Highburst, -low ROF, same stance accuracy problem as sniper rifles. eg. FN Minimi Para, PK Machine Gun, Rheinmetall MG3.
Shotguns: Pellets, -short range -low penetration, -lower ROF than smgs, +decent at hip-shooting. eg. Remington M870, HK CAWS.
Grenade launchers: +I'm really glad the enemy don't use these. eg. M79, Milkor MGL.
LAWs: For shooting tanks, finite ammo.
Some guns are somewhere in between these classifications eg. the G11 and M27.
The gun type symbol is used to determine the mercenary weapon specialist trait.
Some ammo are rare and cannot be bought from Bobby's and are much more expensive.
The best overall gun appears to be the C7, just like JA2.
Grenades kill in one hit near detonation point, unlike JA2. Something I need to remind myself as I like to keep my mercs close.

BUG: Guns with inbuilt silencer aren't silenced, the stats of these guns are compensated for this. You have to use silencer attachments but guns can only use 1 attachment at a time.

 

[someone else]

3) Cambria mine, Roadblock and Cambria Hospital

Spoiler

Day 1 0352
Cambria Mine, North-East of Cambria

There are some nice rocks to the North-West, the team agree that it is a good place to start, even though we start in the east and have to cross the map.
Maps are huge in this game.
Proning makes shooting more accurate but keep close to the rocks in case we need them.

West of the mine, rocks provide cover as well as a place to get a better view.

Wolf scouts and pulls baddies to the rocks.

Relocating to another bunch rocks to access more baddies.

Sneaking around picking off lone patrols. If the mercs stealth is too low, instead of noisily sneaking towards baddies, we can wait in the path of patrols and ambush them.

Finally Alpha squad switch to CQC weapons and was about to go room to room in the mine building when the last defender ran out and meet some 12 gauge in the face.

Oswald the head miner, tells us he has another reward for us if we take over the remaining mines of Grumm and Alma.

Nice loot. We also have a good daily income from the mine. Sadly we cannot explore the mine and loot silver and gold. But we got a diamond from the head miner instead.
I wish Cliff is in this game.

On the way back to Drassen we attack a roadblock. 4 level 3 opposition.

Entering from the south, it does not look like a good direction to attack from (our enemy have good cover to the east) and we circle to the north where there are rocks to hide behind and the opponents have little cover.

Sneaking in close for a kill.

Made too much noise, Wolf got shot before we retreat behind some rocks.
I think I should stop sneaking with these guys. Better to expend more ammo shooting from cover than exposing ourselves in the open whenever we got noticed.

Hiding behind cover, Wolf throws a grenade at a rushing baddie.

Yeah! Grenades are fun in this game.

We then advance cover to cover attacking the remaining guards from the rear and cleared the roadblock.

Back in Drassen, the priest wants us to kill the Hicks west of Cambria, they are cannibals and so it is now ok to kill them.

IRA tells us Miguel the leader of the rebels is hiding to the west, she also asks us to take over the Water Pump Station, which we already did.

Ira then joins the team. She has low strength but has the trait Pathfinder which makes her squad move faster on the world map.
She also has good perception and stealth and can use a medical kit. I did not realise the importance of perception until later in this mod.

We sold the guns and bought helmets and flak vests and made our first order on Bobby Ray's. I made this decision base on the vanilla game.
Combat Evovled has lots of new guns and ammo, some of which cannot be bought from Bobby's.

Next is the Cambria Hospital, which has 10 level 3 opposition. But we have helmets and flak vests now (and Ira). Certain sectors give benefits if you take over them.

Day 1 0724
Cambria Hospital
Main entrance facing North.

Ira bought an interesting mask added by CE, it protects against gas attacks just like gas masks.

Entry from the side entrance to the east.
Enemy contact on the roof but he wandered off before we can get a clear shot.

A guard spotted us! We ran behind a container breaking line-of-sight.

He got surrounded and died.

Looks like some serious CQC in there.

But before entering we peep into the windows east of the Hospital picking off baddies inside.

Soldiers to the north heard us shooting and attacked us. I think the whole Hospital is alerted now. Stealth doesn't work well indoors, just opening a door is very noisy and stealth stances lack the mobility required in close-quarters.

Guarding both sides.
The northern duo are prone.

Southern duo spotted an enemy and grenade him.

They then took out the guy on the roof just as he is climbing down.

Ragdoll physics!

Entry into the Hospital. You can't see the interior of buildings unless you are near a door or window or spot an enemy inside. This is very annoying especially when you want to throw grenades.

Splitting the team in two we try to shoot this guy who is in a hard to hit position.
Popping around the corner and back shooting bursts from the hip we must have wasted more than a hundred rounds trying to hit him.
We have lots of handgun and smg ammunition though.

Finally got fed up and threw a grenade.

Boom!

Continue room clearing with grenades.

The enemy runs from grenades and having someone waiting for them is a good tactic.
The explosive skill determines the detonation timing of the grenade, a high explosive user can cook the grenade and cause them to explode on impact, giving the target less time to run away. But if you miss-throw it also gives you less time to react as well.

Ambushing baddies rushing through doors. If they get too close to you, you will fight hand-to-hand, something I want to avoid. Once engage in melee, you cannot shoot(but you can run away). You can force enemy into melee in room-to-room combat this way.

After clearing the first strategic point we move towards the the mortuary in the west wing.

Biff scouting ahead.

The rest are behind, prone and ready to shoot.
Here, Biff is given the order to go prone in case of friendly fire.

A view from the other side of our prone heroes (and heroine).

Cleared out the Hospital. More bodies to add to the mortuary.

Dr Willis wants us to contact his medicine supplier in Grumm.
There is another quest giver but it has a time limit so we will pass for now.

Next is the Cambria University on the same map. While enemies are on the map, running costs energy and we are unable to access sector inventory.

 

[Severian Silk]

I've always been curious about this game.

 

[someone else]

4) Cambria University, Cambria

Spoiler

Day 1 0724
Cambria University

Squad is in the Hospital advancing towards the University to the north.
Contact! north, 50 meters, 2 wimps.

Biff crawls towards a window, the rest prones and shoots through the doors.

Squad moves to the windows and starts shooting , one guards the door. All visible threats eliminated.
Windows give very good cover.

Squad exits Hospital taking cover behind a wall, from that position we took out any visible enemies.

Squad swings west using toll booth as cover. Destination is opening to the north of the Hospital.

Advancing east, enemy spotted in house to the north. Tricky shot to make.

Enemy exits house.
Wolf close to grenade range while the rest provide cover.

One strategic point is secured.

Squad moves east towards University.

Someone covers the door while the rest advance east.

Enemy contact north in building.

Squad opens fire behind cover.

Multiple threats! Wolf is injured, merc covering the door abandons his position to help the rest of the team.

Bang! Bang!

Contact on the roof behind cover!
He spots us and we retreated from his view.

He then runs off, probably running to the ladder to reach us.

Two mercs rush back west and intercepts him.

Splitting into two teams, Wolf squad will flank indoors from the west. Biff squad will advance from current position.

Biff shoots from the hip from the door with his Mac-10.

Wolf squad attacking from the west.
Should have healed before attempting this, there are more than enough medical supplies.

The two squad merge and takes down the last enemy.

Next Target Cambria. 10 level 3 opponents. Some serious street fighting on this map.
FIBUA is fun.

Day 1 0730
Cambria
Africa?
The strategic locations are a Prison, a Bar and the General's House.

Enemy contact, Wolf is detected despite proning behind cover. Ira is on overwatch across the street.

Why are the three of them running away?
See the little round thing near the red man?
It is a grenade thrown by him.
Good thing I heard him yelling fire-in-the-hole!
Note that you can only hear him if the player camera is near the thrower.

He misthrew and injured himself. The squad shoots this bozo.

More FIBUA, we have switched to close range weapons now.
Here we are playing pop-a-mole with windows.

This door to the prison is locked, let's keep it that way for now.

Caught an unaware enemy patrolling the streets.

The team heads to the General's house, switching to rifles in the outskirts of the city.
Here we don't have rocks so we use trees instead. Trees are very annoying to use as cover, the trick is to prone beside one so you are partially covered but still exposed enough to shoot. In an emergency you can get behind a tree and break line-of-sight.

You can even shoot through little holes and cracks in walls.

Using cover to attack the General's house, prone when things when you get too much to handle or when you need to reload.

Switching to CQC weapons as we prepare to storm the General's house.

One person distracts the guard from the window and while his back is turned, two mercs rush in and shoots him in the back.
I like to shoot people in the back, I also like rocks as well, these are two the reasons why this ironman is still ongoing.

Next target, the Bar.
Hmm she has a halo.

This game doesn't have fully destructible environment. Most objects stop bullets from shooting through as well.
The back of the bar has a green thingy, that is a wall where you can destroy with explosives, could be useful as this is one of the hardest place to assault in the game thanks to the stairs leading to the doorway.
But first we need to clear the streets around the bar.

Split squad in two, one clears the house next to the bar, the other clears the street outside.

Biff and Ira watch the street so Wolf and MD can take a look at the from the windows overlooking the bar.

Threat spotted at bar and eliminated with shotgun and PPSH.

Another threat spotted far in the street, Wolf and MD advance behind walls and grenade him.
Turns out that is the last baddie at the bar, looks like we don't have to blow a hole in the wall.

Last is the prison. Instead of using this locked door we enter through the opposite door.

MD takes a peep inside and finds at least three baddies in the final room. He makes a quick burst from his PPSH before retreating.
Probably shouldn't risk the good medic like this. I think I wanted experience points.
JABIA uses experience points, gaining a level gives 7 points for you to distribute.

We wait outside, they also wait inside.

Got tired of waiting and rush the door and surprise them with a dual smg fire.

Using Ira as a distraction by running pass a window, we threw a grenade into the room followed by a entry with two mercs.
Cambria is ours now.

Carmen in the bar has assassination missions for us. Our first hit is called Slay.

A shop keeper sells some useful weapons and supplies.
We have some weapons to sell.
The weakest weapons can be given to milita, the mod gives militia some decent armour as well. You can always take the weapon back from them, take note that if the militia dies they may not drop the weapon you gave them.
Forming militia raises the loyalty of the town, useful if the town has high income. Militia levels up over them, you can also pay to train them, as well as telling them to guard one or all of the strategic areas in the map.

With the money we made selling the weapons, I hired the explosive expert Barry Unger, instead of Red the other similarly priced explosives expert.
At this point I didn't pay attention to the perception attribute, Barry only has 56...

 

[someone else]

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