Jagged Alliance Jagged Alliance 2 - Recommended mods

[typical user]

Depends on the mercenaries you have and how comfortable you are with stealth. If you're good with it, and have some high agility boys, have your forces sneak into Meduna. The guards outside don't go in and there are no tanks inside the city IIRC. Still very tough though. I remember the airport had a ton of snipers, so you might be better off avoiding there. As long as you get the queen, it doesn't matter if you cleaned the rest out or not.

Since you spoiled tanks then let me add on what you wrote and clarify that there indeed are:
-2 at SAM Site
-3 at Airport
-2 in Residential
-2 in Royal Gardens

Also the areas are a bitch to take, unlike elsewhere in the game, the enemies sit at barricades or inside buildings and do not move at any chance. If I knew this before I would bring more explosives to blast them in their hiding spots. If the game taught me one thing is that you can never go wrong with C4 or Mortar fire (of course with properly skilled crew).

Also any weapon recommendations for this late in the game on Tons of guns mode? Thus far G41's and C7's were fine. I upgraded some of my troops to using FN-FALs, they seemed pretty powerful, but somehow in practice they're underwhelming as fuck.

FN-FALs are great because they use 7.62 ammo, it deals more damage and has better armor penetration. G41 fall flat in comparison to C7 and Steyr Augs as those have better range, firerate, lower weight and higher base damage. I also recommend M14, RPK-74 and AK74. 5.45 is easy to find as enemies in late game rarely drop 5.56 as far as I noticed. M14 is good for snipers with it's single-shot fire. Also have a mechanic combine steel rods with springs to reduce AP cost, it can turn mercs with good weapons into killing machines.

Rocket-rifles are meh, you need marskmen with above 90 skill to use properly, they cannot be modded, are largely inaccurate from lack of sniper scope, have low magazines and rate of fire. It felt better to shoot someone 2-3 times in the head with 7.62 NATO rounds than bothering with rockets.

Sometimes I don't even have a chance to actually do anything, they basically just spawnkill me. I tried doing these missions with 12 people, but at that point micromanaging them is a pain, and the only thing I end up achieving is there are more people getting wiped out.

Maybe you attack them from wrong side? I had those moments when I thought I would need to retreat from the sector because there was no area to back-out from glowing flares thrown by enemies. I usually layed prone and behind rocks or trees, had spotters come close without shooting so others would be able to shoot from afar and draw them closer. With scopes, lasersights and bipods they have pretty good chances to hit enemies outside their sight-range. You can also use smoke grenades to break lines of sight and force enemies to come closer. You can also attack with second squad from other side of the map. 12 is hard to manage but pays off if you need a flanking elite with rocket-rifle dead on the spot and your less skilled mercs fail to clutch and get the kill.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

I upgraded some of my troops to using FN-FALs, they seemed pretty powerful, but somehow in practice they're underwhelming as fuck.

Weird, it always was my favourite vanilla weapon.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

What kind of equipment do you have across the board? Steyr AUGs and FN FALs, basically? I don't think there's much better close quarters weapons outside of the LMGs.

Since you spoiled tanks then let me add on what you wrote and clarify that there indeed are:
-2 at SAM Site
-3 at Airport
-2 in Residential
-2 in Royal Gardens

Shoot, did I? I guess I assumed he saw some when he was feeling out Meduna.

Rocket-rifles are meh, you need marskmen with above 90 skill to use properly, they cannot be modded, are largely inaccurate from lack of sniper scope, have low magazines and rate of fire. It felt better to shoot someone 2-3 times in the head with 7.62 NATO rounds than bothering with rockets.

Depending on how much ammo he has it might not be a bad idea for his one of his scout or close-quarters guys to carry it.

Maybe you attack them from wrong side? I had those moments when I thought I would need to retreat from the sector because there was no area to back-out from glowing flares thrown by enemies. I usually layed prone and behind rocks or trees, had spotters come close without shooting so others would be able to shoot from afar and draw them closer. With scopes, lasersights and bipods they have pretty good chances to hit enemies outside their sight-range. You can also use smoke grenades to break lines of sight and force enemies to come closer. You can also attack with second squad from other side of the map. 12 is hard to manage but pays off if you need a flanking elite with rocket-rifle dead on the spot and your less skilled mercs fail to clutch and get the kill.

Its also worth point out he can largely imitate the practice they do. Have a few snipers stand back (assuming he has a few real sniper rifles) while you have your spotters come up close.

 

[Nas92]

Only one of my mercs use a Steyr Aug, the rest is FN-FALs and C-7s mostly, a couple also have AK-74s. I have one Dragunov for Scope.

I knew about the tanks, I spoiled myself way before. Did not know there were any at the Meduna SAM, I wanted to take that sector first so I could drop in all my guys and start getting supplies there quickly for the siege.

 

[urmom]

I stopped enjoying fighting tanks at some point. If they didn't respawn so quickly I guess they wouldn't be so bad.

 

[Nas92]

It's going a bit better now that I fight during the day and use 12 mercs. However, I'm once again stuck. I enter the Bloodcat Arena in Meduna and it's always an absolute massacre. The bloocats are easy, I just shoot them through the window, but then come the million elites and whatnot pouring in and completely destroy me. I've reloaded and restarted this mission and it's always a bigger disaster than before. Any tips for this one?
I would just say fuck it and avoid the area altogether, go straight for the SAM, unfortunately the outskirts area near the SAM that I'd need to conquer has tanks. Tanks don't seem to be too much of a threat, but destroying them consumes resources like crazy and I really don't want to waste my mortars, LAWs and grenades on random tanks in the wilderness.

 

[typical user]

It's going a bit better now that I fight during the day and use 12 mercs. However, I'm once again stuck. I enter the Bloodcat Arena in Meduna and it's always an absolute massacre. The bloocats are easy, I just shoot them through the window, but then come the million elites and whatnot pouring in and completely destroy me. I've reloaded and restarted this mission and it's always a bigger disaster than before. Any tips for this one?
I would just say fuck it and avoid the area altogether, go straight for the SAM, unfortunately the outskirts area near the SAM that I'd need to conquer has tanks. Tanks don't seem to be too much of a threat, but destroying them consumes resources like crazy and I really don't want to waste my mortars, LAWs and grenades on random tanks in the wilderness.

For the arena I attacked at night, camped windows near entrance with one squad and used the other to blast a wall on the other side of the map with C4. At the breach I spammed frag nades at anyone who dared investigate source of explosion.

 

[Nas92]

For the arena I attacked at night, camped windows near entrance with one squad and used the other to blast a wall on the other side of the map with C4. At the breach I spammed frag nades at anyone who dared investigate source of explosion.

Blowing a hole in the wall was the key to getting this sector, thanks. I camped out at the trees and at the edge of the sector, blew a hole in one of those side rooms which then triggered a whole lot of elites and blood cats to start advancing on my position. With the trees as cover it was actually managable. After that I camped out at the windows and killed the rest.

Anyhow, I actually got to a point where only the palace and the airport remains to be conquered. I think I'm gonna skip the airport, don't really see a reason to bother with it. Honestly, aside from the blood cat arena and maybe the residential area, Meduna hasn't been that difficult.
I have a question about the outside of the palace: Are the mines there undetectable? I have Barry and a lot of mercs with metal detectors but when I send them to sneak around and flag the mines they don't do shit other than getting blown to shreds. This has never been an issue for me in the past, my mercs always detected mines, what's going on here?

 

[Nas92]

Just managed to finish my first playthrough of this game. I enjoyed this game much more than I expected to, though I have mixed feelings overall. I think I'll try 1.13 now.

 

[Swole dude]

Always wanted to give this a try, how hard is this game?

 

[octavius]

Not too hard if you make sure your gun is longer than the other guy's gun.

 

[CaffeineConquistador]

Just managed to finish my first playthrough of this game. I enjoyed this game much more than I expected to, though I have mixed feelings overall. I think I'll try 1.13 now.

The game really opens up with 1.13. The 7609 build has a lot of stupid shit that may or not be to your liking. The previous 4807 build, while “outdated”, is still perfectly playable.

 

[typical user]

Always wanted to give this a try, how hard is this game?

Easily managable to frustrating-at-times challenge. On the highest difficulty you get:
-more enemies on every single map obviously
-all enemies have better training
-they also have better equipment
-you start with far less money
-more enemies in country patrols

Early stages of the game require many close-calls and experience with the game, which towns to attack first, when special events take place, how to get access to huge surplus of weapons. On the easiest the game is more than fair so if you want to relax and try it for the first time I recommend that difficulty.

 

[octavius]

To make early game less frustrating, hire a merc or two with long range rifles.
Using small hand guns are just too tedious.

 

[Nas92]

To make early game less frusrating, hire a merc or two with long range rifles.
Using small hand guns are just too tedious.

This right here. Unless you enable drop all loot it's gonna be a long while until you finally find a rifle and can start effectively fighting enemies. Hiring high level mercs for one day solves this issue. It's cheesy, but the game is punishing enough as is without having to take entire towns garrisoned by badasses with rifles with only a crew of retards with pea shooters.

The game really opens up with 1.13. The 7609 build has a lot of stupid shit that may or not be to your liking. The previous 4807 build, while “outdated”, is still perfectly playable.

What stupid shit do you mean?
I'm asking because I was actually thinking 7609 update because a lot of mods seem to be using that version.

 

[Wizfall]

I would never recommended starting playing JA2 with 1.13 but once played vanilla ja 1.13 is a blast.
HOWEVER it requires massive customization, not that it's buggy (it runs very well) but lot of options need to be adjusted IMO especially the DCA (Drassen Counter Attack enabled by default, ambush, reinforcement) and scope attachment...lot of files to go through
The NCtH (new chance to hit) is very good (disabled by default unlike some years ago) for a different experience (i always play with it now).

I think AFS (Alruco folding Stock) mod balance the 1.13 version and have a good reputation (i never used it as i became very experienced with intensive customiisation 1.13), would look at it if not ready to spend a lot of time with customizing 1.13.

 

[CaffeineConquistador]

The game really opens up with 1.13. The 7609 build has a lot of stupid shit that may or not be to your liking. The previous 4807 build, while “outdated”, is still perfectly playable.

What stupid shit do you mean?
I'm asking because I was actually thinking 7609 update because a lot of mods seem to be using that version.

Basically this entire list, except the NCTH system:

Spoiler

JA2 1.13 Official Release (2014-08-28)
Revision: 7435


New Features

- Expanded Quests to 255

- Expanded Saveslots to 255 & Auto-saving

- *Improved Interrupt System

- Walking and Sidesteppng with Raised Weapon

- *Increase Squad Size to 8 (800x600) and 10 (1024x768)

- Added UB-1.13 Source Code, selectable in builddefines

- *Show Merc Ranks in Strategy Screen before Name

- *Faster Bobby Ray Shipments

- *AP cost for Manipulating Merc Inventory

- Individual Gear Kit Names

- *Adjustable Max BR Unique Item Orders per Shipment

- Walk instead of Swim on "Water" tiles for 2nd Level

- Expanded Possible IMP Face Selection to 255

- All Resolution Support Project

- *AI Turn Speed Up

- "Lock" / "Release" Mouse Cursor in Tactical Windowed mode

- Release Mouse Cursor in Laptop mode

- Increased Item Size Limit

- *Weapon Overheating

- Weapon Resting

- Ammo Boxes and Crates

- Allow Attachment and Use of Underbarrel Weapons

- Ctrl+Click from Delete to Auto-place Item in Strategic Sector Inventory Screen

- Item Transformations

- Coolness by sector

- Impact Explosives

- Better shot distribution inside aperture

- Improved NCTH Burst/Autofire

- Modifiable weapon degrade speed

- Fragmentation Explosives

- Zoomable Sector Inventory

- Sort and Filter Sector Inventory

- Crate-Splitting

- Improved Strategic Map Icons and Labels

- AI Enhancements

- Quick Attachment Selection Popup Window

- Toggle Scope modes

- Tripwire-triggered Mines

- Rifle Sling

- Mines/Bombs/Tripwires Display

- Layered Hierarchical Tripwire Networks

- Drug Effects System

- Prone Bandaging

- Pick up Items in Crouch Position

- New Misc filter buttons for BR by attachmentClass

- Block Iron Sights

- *Quiet Training

- *Zombies Spawning from Corpses

- Bombs Armed from Inventory

- Guns Traps made out with a piece of Tripwire

- Static Fortifications Built by Mercs

- Settings in Mod_Options.ini for Modders only

- *Food and Water System

- External Feeding Ammo

- Increased Action Items to 501

- MOLLE LBE Items

- *Mark Remaining Hostiles

- Dual Weapon Burst/Autofire

- Alternative Weapon Holding for Hip and Single-hand Pistol

- Energy Cost on Weapon Manipulation

- Suppression Effectiveness Modified by Caliber and Gun Loudness

- *No Enemy Auto-ready Weapon Option

- Fancy Big Merc Rifle Holding and More Random Idle Animations

- Kick in Hand-to-Hand

- Jumping Across a Tile

- Advanced Repair/Dirt System

- Gearkits for M.E.R.C. Website

- Covert Ops Trait

- Modifier Tag for the Explosive Damage in Confined Spaces

- Clothes Items Allow Recoloring of Mercs

- Random Items

- *AI Soldiers Jump through Windows

- *Massive Counterattacks in all Major Cities

- Prisoner System/Capture Enemy Soldiers using Handcuff

- Stun Gun and Pepperspray Item

- Scuba Diving/Deep Water Stealth

- *Enemy Assassins Disguised as Militia

- Class Specific Gun/Item Choices for Soldier Classes

- Multi-turn Actions

- Skill/Trait Tooltip on Merc Portrait

- *Equip Militia with Available Gear

- *Squad Names

- Items Applied to Others

- *Random Merc Stats and Salary

- Load Screen Hints

- Deaf and Shortsighted Disabilities

- Dynamic Flashlights

- Individual Militia and Enemy Profile Definition

- *Encyclopedia/Briefing Room in Laptop

- Quests LUA Externalized, up to 255

- *Civilians Drop All

- Swap Merc Position Order in Tactical Team Panel

- Updated Item Graphics

- 'Move Item' Assignment for City Sectors

- *Mercs Story Backgrounds

- Expanded Militia Training to 6x6 square

- *Delayed Reinforcements for Enemy and Militia

- Mobile Militia Improvements

- *Moving in Formation

- Improve Loading Speed of Stash

- Added MOLLE Items

- *Racism/Sexism/Appearance/Refinement/Hated Nationalities

- More Buddies and Foes

- Radio Operator Trait

- *Enemy Taunts

- *Land Mercs Anywhere from Helicopter in Hostile Sectors

- Improved Bomb Planting and Mine Disarm Dialogue

- *Improved Auto Fast Forward

- Spotter Trait

- *Helicopter Repair & Refuel System

- *Campaign Statistics & Battle Reports

- *Merc and Enemy Additional Indicator

- Snitch Trait

- Compare Item Stats

- Custom Sound for Non-Guns

- 10x Strategic Map Icons

Of course you can turn off or change just about anything you don’t like, but don’t be a dumb shit like me and lose your backup ini’s. The only mod I play is Nam ‘69, so I’m not up on what the other popular mods use. Whatever mod you take a fancy to probably already has a lot of 1.13 customized.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

I always wonder why they added in zombies in that update. Properly done its more of an annoyance than anything else, improperly done, things turn real sour, real fast.

 

[Lilura]

Weird, it always was my favourite vanilla weapon.

Mine, too. Some of the best shots I fired were with FN-FALs.

Pistoleering is also cool with Glocks or a couple of these:

 

[Stavrophore]

1.13+SDO+SevenFM AI improvements. Of course its best to tweak the game yourself to your own liking, thanks to the fact that most of the settings are externalized by XML you can have lots of customization, thought you can't change core mechanics without getting your hands on decompiled C++ files i guess.

Oh, Lilura is throwing hissyfit xD

 

[Nas92]

Weird, it always was my favourite vanilla weapon.

Mine, too. Some of the best shots I fired were with FN-FALs.

Tbh afterwards they did grow on me. I realized that I found them underwhelming at first because for one, I got them and started using them at the late stage of the game where even the redshirt goons were often kitted out with Spectra gear and had excellent health. Another thing was that I realized that I was basically doing it wrong - I was using it with my auto weapons mercs and burst firing every second enemy. The RPK-74 was a much better late game weapon for auto weapons mercs, but for everyone else I switched to FN-FALs whenever I could.

 

[Gnidrologist]

So i wanted to see how 1.13 looks after more than 10 years, when i last played old version. First installed the standard and it was okay, but i remembered about improved weapon sounds that i wanted, because default ones are so shit. Couldn't find the standalone pack, but ere is the link to that sevenfm modpack, which has neatly packed 1.13 together with several other mod combos that can be launched from the same ini editor and it has all the sound enhancements and some more in the data folder. Chosen Wildfire 6.07 + SDO, because i always wanted to play Wildfire.

Now i don't know if it's that SDO mod (what is it supposed to do?) or there are some tweaks pertaining to Wildfire version in the 1.13 ini, but it seems like every sector right from the start is just tedious battles of attrition. It's like 1 shot in 10 lands both for me and enemies. I did set the NCTH on at the start, but i think i also set it on on the vanilla 1.13 prior to that and it was fine. I ave a sniper guy with both sniper perks and 85 in marksmen and ruger mini, which used to be great gun for starting areas, but not with this mod combo. Or is it something i don't get about NCTH? It also has new kind of aiming "hud" thing in place of the old contracting circle. It looks pretty neat, though i'm not sure what the dots in the middle mean. Anyhow, the shooting precision is atrocious and it made me duke out the very first Omerta sector for like 40 minutes and both parties almost shot out all ammo and there were like five of them lol. Is this the fault of SDO thing, which is some hardcore autistic shit or there might be some weird setting in the INI? I don't know were to look, because it's so damn huge and frustrating.
Also wat the hell happened to pistols and revolvers? They were always crap even in vanilla JA2, but now they seem to only be reliable in almost melee range, which is stupid, because i'd rather use a knife there.

 

[mondblut]

Now i don't know if it's that SDO mod (what is it supposed to do?) or there are some tweaks pertaining to Wildfire version in the 1.13 ini, but it seems like every sector right from the start is just tedious battles of attrition. It's like 1 shot in 10 lands both for me and enemies. I did set the NCTH on at the start, but i think i also set it on on the vanilla 1.13 prior to that and it was fine. I ave a sniper guy with both sniper perks and 85 in marksmen and ruger mini, which used to be great gun for starting areas, but not with this mod combo. Or is it something i don't get about NCTH? It also has new kind of aiming "hud" thing in place of the old contracting circle. It looks pretty neat, though i'm not sure what the dots in the middle mean. Anyhow, the shooting precision is atrocious and it made me duke out the very first Omerta sector for like 40 minutes and both parties almost shot out all ammo and there were like five of them lol. Is this the fault of SDO thing, which is some hardcore autistic shit or there might be some weird setting in the INI? I don't know were to look, because it's so damn huge and frustrating.

The last time I played a few years ago (and I believe it was Wildfire too) I had a similar problem. Even 5.56-tier rifles and LMGs couldn't hit a side of a barnyard from 10 tiles away. The game only became playable the way I am used to play after 7.62 started pouring in.

 

[Gnidrologist]

The shit's ridiculous. It also seems the every grunt is lvl 10. They interrupt me every time even when i successfully sneak upon them from the roof. They are bullet sponges. At least 5-6 successful shots need to be made on most enemies for them to go down. If the very first bydlos are already elite, what the xell is next? And i'm only on experienced. Will try the same setup only without this retarded new aiming system, where merc with 85 mrk, agi andd ex + double sniper perk is worse than Gasket and Flo.

 

[Stavrophore]

ncth in 1.13 is more focused on suppression, flanking and attrition. Given that its nigh imposible to flank the enemies, or its very very tedious, the mod tend to piss a lot of people. Only in late game you get good accuracy and can do reliable body shots at 20 tiles. That's still nothing considering how quickly enemies move. Many weapons have way too strong initial kickback and even at 3-5 tiles your burst can fly over enemies. 1.13 is nor realistic nor fun without tweaks. It's as you said exercise in attrition and masochism.
Sneaking is worthless, night sneaking even more so, interruption is also worthless[7.62 brigade had much better interruption mechanics].