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[Fikes]

Welcome to Arulco!



Progress:
Chapter 0: XEP624
Chapter 1: Battle for Omerta
Chapter 2: Battle for Drassen
Chapter 3: King in the North
Chapter 4: Setbacks
Chapter 5: Thirteen days of ambush
Chapter 6: Storm Team

First things first. Jagged Alliance 1 and 2 have brought me almost as many hours of fury as they have brought me joy. No other turn based strategy game makes it so easy to lose men and so unforgiving when you do. The Elite enemies in this game are a rage sandwich with a side order of rape. So, what do we do to mitigate the rage the rage and ulcers this LP may or may not cause me? Same thing we did with X-Com! Let's play IRON MAN MODE!

Jagged Alliance 2, LMGTFY: Jagged Alliance is a turn based tactical game that came out in 1999. It plays fairly similarly to X-Com, with some notable differences. The biggest difference is that every unit you can hire has a personality and voice pack. This gives the game a lot of depth but also creates a problem; a limited pool of recruits. Thus, JA2 is much more punishing when things go bad and, to some extent, makes bad situations more likely.

The JA2 story goes that some friend of yours has hired you to clear his country of a dictator. He gives you some money to hire mercenaries to do the dirty work for you. Once the seed money is exhausted you have to take over and hold the island's gold mines to keep your finances "in the black".

Jagged Alliance 2, 1.13: Version 1.13 is a fan made patch. I am not sure there has ever been a fan made patch on this level. It adds tons of features and hundreds of guns. The patch is simply amazing.

1.13 adds things you wonder how you lived without. For example, you can click on a unit and see his field of vision. You can aim a shot and see your chance to hit. Your mercs can raise their weapons and prepare an ambush. All things that make the game even more tactical.

There is, however, one thing about the patch that annoys me to no end. It adds way too many guns. Way way too many. It takes a long time to decide which gun is best. Once you do you have to buy ammo for it and it can be a huge bitch to find the right ammo. In this regard it is too realistic. For example there are like 3 different 7.62 rounds that are not interchangeable! Why!?


This LP: I will be playing JA2 the Iron Man way. That means I will not save scum. I actually got the term (it turns out) from Jagged Alliance 2, which has the option in the "configure your game" screen. It is funny JA gave the option to play this way since the game is so intent on making it completely un-fun to do so.

Anyways, the goal will be to beat the game without destroying my brand new laptop.

This LP will be a bit more story centric and a bit less screen-shot-this-happened than the Apocalypse LP. JA2 will give us the chance to get closer to the characters and give them more personality than Apoc did.

I will be changing some settings that piss me off. For instance, the sci-fi bugs are disabled, as is the stupid counter attack on Drassen (if you don't know what that stuff means do not worry). Enemies will drop all their weapons.

How you fit in: You get to pick our squad flavor. This will be the general MO of our squad. You can suggest anything, but I'd prefer to keep it to options like the following: Night/stealth ops, long range, close range, or hit and run. You can also modify this with a general theme to our group such as cowardly, insane, brave, cautious, ect. For example if everyone wants to go Insane, Night Ops, our squad will sneak as close to the enemy as possible before running in with guns blazing and little regard for their own safety. This is a very bad idea by the way.

Next, once the game gets rolling, you get to pick the team's objective. At the end of every update I will give over stats and give options for what we do next. You all get to decide. JA2 is very open, there will be plenty of things to decide.

Finally, you get to be the mercenaries! JA2 has much smaller teams than even Apoc. Not very many people will get to be a mercenary at a time. Even if we wanted a larger team, our budget will limit us greatly. First pick on merc's will go to those that were active in my last LP.

If you are familiar with the game you can request a mercenary by name. AIM and MERC mercs can be modified to fit in better with our team. If not familiar with the game you can give some details about what you want in a mercenary (I can create up to SIX custom mercs).

Requesting should look like this

Name (add AIM after the name if you want an AIM Merc)
Role*
Trait/preferred weapon
Attitude
Backstory (if desired)

*Role can be any one of the following, the number is how many max we will have in our squad:
Assault (3) (long or short range depending on MO)
Sniper (1)
Medic (1)
Utility/Guard (1)

The utility role includes traps, lock picking, and repair. Lock picking is a must have right off the bat.

A few final notes: I have not played this most recent build of 1.13 yet. Some things are confusing, but I will work through them.

I have never beaten Jagged Alliance 2. I have many hours into it but always give it up with a few towns to go. I vow to play this LP to the end.

Progress will always go at the top of this post.

My schedule is wonkity. In the past month I have been completely with out internet for 3 weeks. I will be off the grid again in the middle of next month.

All that noise out of the way lets get this bitch started! Someone tell me about our team!

[Xeron]

Name:Bill Tuck
Role*:Sniper
Trait/preferred weapon:Psycho,Dragunov Sniper Rifle
Attitude:Vicious yet friendly to those who get close to him
Backstory (if desired)

[Shadowgandor]

Name: Shadowgandor (I'd have taken Shadow but there's already an AIM agent with that name )
Role: Long range assault
Trait/preferred weapon: Anything which can pewpew accurate at a distance
Attitude: Sneaky, loyal, friendly as long as he gets paid. Prefers to get a height advantage in order to give covering fire to his squadmates.
Backstory (if desired)

[NRDL]

HIT AND RUN!!! Let's be guerrillas.

Name: Nix
Role: Assault ( long range )
Trait/Preferred weapon: Something that is versatile, for both close and medium range
Attitude: Friendly and optimistic, goes into a mad rage if one of his friends gets killed.
Backstory:(I don't think anyone desires it.)

[Taricus]

Hit and run? We're not some practical military force, We're ACTION HEROES! That being said, glad someone is doing an LP of this.

Anyway, my merc sheet is here:

Name: Taricus Elvare (AKA Guardian)
Role: Sapper/Marksman
Trait/Preferred Weapon Marksman/Technician/Demolitions. WoC: M14 EBR, FN Five SeveN sidearm.
Attitude: Cautious, prefers to stay in northern climates
Backstory: (Will work on.)

Is there no chance of having the bugs or the Drassen counterattack activated? The bugs have something that makes all their trouble REALLY worth the effort, while the counterattack is just plain ‼FUN‼ (Also free weapons.)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The Crepitus queen, once dead, drops an armour additive (Like C18) which superbly improves all armour, and unlike C18, it reduces the to-hit and AP penalties from the armour it's applied to, as well as adding more protection than C18. Makes it worth the trouble, the queen only drops five units of it, but more can be gathered by jar.

[Fishbreath]

Watching.

[EuchreJack]

Considering my extensive knowledge in the Art of Dying from the last LP, and my desire that others do not become as adept, I request the following character:

Euch-R-JAK-6 (AIM, since our stock of created members is limited)
Role: Medic
Trait: Coward
Weapon: Shogun (might as well be the Fallout Tactics medic  )
Attitude: Scared of dying, mutters about dying many times before and this being his last life.  Whatever that means.
Backstory (if desired)

[Anvilfolk]

Oooooh, I might actually learn how to play this... watching!

[Simmura McCrea]

You have a list of the traits?

[Fikes]

Spoiler: List of Traits (click to show/hide)

MAJOR TRAITS

(can have one on expert or two different; numbers are doubled for experts if not said otherwise)


AUTO WEAPONS -> MACHINEGUNNER : (mrk 45-60, str 40-55, dex 50-65, hlt 45-60)
* +5% Chance to Hit with Assault Rifles, SMGs and LMGs
* -30% penalty to chance to hit on auto fire/burst
* Reduces chance for shooting unwanted bullets on autofire
* -10% APs needed to fire light machine guns
* -10% APs needed to ready light machine guns
HEAVY WEAPONS -> BOMBARDIER : (str 45-60, wis 55-70, exp 35-50, dex 45-60)
* +25% chance to hit with rocket launchers and grenade launchers (even underbarrel)
* -20% APs needed to fire rocket launchers and grenade launchers (even underbarrel)
* -10% APs needed to fire mortar
* Reduce penalty for mortar CtH by half (penalty is set to 60% by default)
* +30% damage to tanks with heavy weapons, grenades and explosives
* +15% damage to other targets with heavy weapons
MARKSMAN -> SNIPER : (mrk 65-80, dex 55-70, wis 50-65 )
* +5% Chance to Hit with Sniper Rifles
* -5% effective range to target with all weapons
* +10% aiming bonus per aim click (except for handguns)
* +5% damage on shot per aim click after third
* -25% APs needed to chamber a round with bolt-action rifles
* Adds one more aim click for rifle-type guns (max is eight)
HUNTER -> RANGER : (mrk 55-70, agi 45-60, hlt 55-70, ldr 35-50)
* +5% Chance to Hit with Rifles
* +10% Chance to Hit with Shotguns
* -25% APs needed to pump Shotguns
* +20% group travelling speed between sectors if traveling by foot
* +10% group travelling speed between sectors if traveling in vehicle (except helicopter)
* -30% less energy spent for travelling between sectors
* -50% weather penalties
* -50% worn out speed of camouflage by water or time (i.e. experts have permanent camo)
GUNSLINGER -> GUNFIGHTER : (mrk 55-70, dex 50-65, agi 50-65)
* +10% chance to hit with pistols and revolvers
* +5% chance to hit with machine pistols (on single shots only)
* +5% aiming bonus per click with pistols, machine pistols and revolvers
* +15% firing speed with pistols and revolvers
* +10% effective range with pistols and revolvers
* -15% APs needed to raise pistols and revolvers
* +25% reload speed of pistols, machine pistols and revolvers
* Adds one more aim click for pistols, machine pistols and revolvers
HAND TO HAND -> MARTIAL ARTS : (dex 55-70, agi 55-70, str 50-65, hlt 45-60)
* +30% chance to hit with hand to hand attacks with bare hands
* +25% chance to hit with hand to hand attacks with brass knuckles
* -15% AP cost of hand to hand attacks(bare hands or with brass knuckles)
* +30% damage of hand to hand attacks(bare hands or with brass knuckles)
* +30% breath damage of hand to hand attacks(bare hands or with brass knuckles)
* enemy breath lost due to your HtH attacks takes much longer to regenerate
* Focused (aimed) punch deals +75% damage (spinning kick in case of regular merc)
* +35% change to dodge hand to hand attacks(+another 5% with bare hands or with knuckles)
* +20% chance to dodge attacks by melee blade
* -33% APs needed to steal weapon from enemy hands
* -25% APs needed to change state (stand, crouch, lie down), turn around, climb on/off roof and jump obstacles
* +25% chance to kick doors
DEPUTY -> SQUADLEADER : (ldr 50-65, wis 60-75 )
* +5% APs per round of other mercs in vicinity
* +1 effective exp level of other mercs in vicinity, which have lesser level than the squadleader
* +20% total suppression tolerance of other mercs in vicinity and squadleader himself
* +1 morale gain of other mercs in vicinity
* -1 morale loss of other mercs in vicinity
* +50% fear resistence for Squadleader (expert SL cannot cower)
(Only three bonuses can stack, i.e. for one expert squadleader and one deputy or three deputies)
(Minor Drawback: triple morale loss for squadleader's death for all other mercs.)
TECHNICIAN -> ENGINEER : (mec 45-60, expl 35-50, dex 50-65, wis 45-60)
* +30% to repairing speed
* +30% to lockpicking (normal/electronic locks)
* +40% to disarming electronic traps
* +40% to attaching special items and combining things
* +20% to unjamming a gun in combat
* Reduce penalty(which is -75%) to repair electronic items by half
* increased chance to detect traps and mines
* +10% CtH of robot controlled by Technician (it has normally -10% CtH)
* Only Technicians can repair the robot
PARAMEDIC -> DOCTOR : (med 45-60, dex 50-65, wis 55-70)
* Ability to make surgical intervention by using medical bag on wounded soldier instantly returning 30% of lost health back to him (50% with expert). This drains the medical bag a lot. (This can only be done once for every injury, the remaining HPs missing have to be regenerated normally.)
* Can heal lost stats (from critical hits) by the surgery/doctor assignment.
* +25% effectiveness (speed) on doctor-patient assignment
* +30% bandaging speed
* +15% natural regeneration speed of all soldiers in the same sector

MINOR TRAITS

(you can trade major traits for minor traits, so if not taking major trait at all, you can have three of these; if one major taken, you can have two minors; if both major taken, you can have just one minor trait; the minor traits have no expert level;)

AMBIDEXTERITY: (dex +10 / 60)
* Eliminates the penalty for using two guns at once
* +20% reload speed of all weapons with magazines
* +33% reload speed of all weapons with loose rounds or wrong magazine
* -33% APs needed for picking items, work backpack, handle doors, traps, burying/disarming bombs and mines, attaching/removing items
MELEE: (str +10 / 60 )
* -20% APs needed to attack by blades
* +40% chance to hit with blades
* +30% chance to hit with blunt melee weapons (except brass knuckles)
* +30% damage of all melee weapons (except brass knuckles)
* +30% chance to dodge attack by melee blades (+ another 20% with a blade in hands)
* +20% chance to dodge attack by blunt melee weapons
* Aimed attack by any melee weapon deals +50% damage
THROWING: (dex +10 / 60 )
* +15% max range when throwing blades
* -20% basic APs needed to throw blades
* +20% chance to hit when throwing blades
* +5% chance to hit when throwing blades per aim click
* +20% damage of throwing blades
* +5% damage of throwing blades per aim click
* +20% chance to inflict critical hit by throwing blade if not seen or heard
NIGHT OPS: (wis +10 / 60 )
* +1 to effective sight range in dark
* +1 to general effective hearing range
* +2 to effective hearing range in dark on top
* +2 to interrupts modifier in dark
* Needs to sleep less than others
STEALTHY: (agi +10 / 60)
* -50% APs needed to move quietly (does not work for 25AP system)
* +40% chance to move quietly
* +25% stealth (being "invisible" if unnoticed regardless the terrain)
* -25% reduced chance to being seen for movement
ATHLETICS: (agi +10 / 60 )
* -25% APs needed for moving (running, walking, swatting, crawling, swimming, etc.)
* -33% energy spent for movement, roof-climbing, obstacle-jumping, swimming, etc.
BODYBUILDING: (hlt +10 / 60 )
* Has 20% damage resistance
* +30% effective strength for carrying weight capacity
* Suffers only half energy loss when hit by HtH attack
* Has lesser chance to fall if hit to the legs
DEMOLITIONS: (exp + 10 / 45 )
* +20% max range when throwing grenades
* +30% chance to hit when throwing grenades
* -25% APs needed to throw grenades
* +25% damage of bombs and mines
* +50% to attaching detonators and planting/removing bombs
* Decreases chance enemy will detect bombs and mines set by ourselves
* increased chance shaped charge will open the doors
TEACHING: (ldr + 10 / 45 )
* + 40% bonus(speed) to train militia
* + 40% bonus to effective leadership for determining militia training
* + 40% bonus to teaching other mercs
* Skill value counts to be +25 higher for being able to teach this skill to other mercs
* +25% speed to train stats through self-practising assignment
SCOUTING: (wis +10 / 60 )
* +40 to effective sight range with binoculars (and scopes separated from weapons)
* +10 to effective sight range with scopes on weapons
* -20 tunnel vision with binoculars (and scopes separated from weapons)
* If in sector, adjacent sectors will show exact number of enemies
* Prevents the enemy to ambush your squad
* Prevents the bloodcats to ambush your squad

Source. That first post is updated regularly. It will be one of the main sources for game information I refer to.

Is there no chance of having the bugs or the Drassen counterattack activated? The bugs have something that makes all their trouble REALLY worth the effort, while the counterattack is just plain ‼FUN‼ (Also free weapons.)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The Crepitus queen, once dead, drops an armour additive (Like C18) which superbly improves all armour, and unlike C18, it reduces the to-hit and AP penalties from the armour it's applied to, as well as adding more protection than C18. Makes it worth the trouble, the queen only drops five units of it, but more can be gathered by jar.

I said no to these because they are both situations that are impossible to win (death free) without serious save scumming. The queen bug is positioned so no one can get the jump on her. As soon as someone walks in her field of vision, she opens fire and kills them. If you don't kill her that same turn she will kill another merc. To me both the situations leave room for anything other than a meat grinder.

I could leave the Drassen counter attack on and just flee when it launches, but then we just have to re-take the town. It honestly just seems a little pointless.

If you guys want to try and convince me this will need to FUN and not ulcers, I am open to the idea.

One problem I forgot to mention is that custom Mercs don't cost any money to keep hired. For that reason I will try to match our characters to "real" mercs (the expensive kind). If you are particular about gender, let me know.

I may make an administrative merc for myself. Someone who doesn't fight but trains up the militia and repairs gear. We can do something interesting if he manages to die. Succession JA2?

[inteuniso]

To explain why 7.62 ammo isn't interchangeable (sounds like someone was going for pure realism) you have to understand that a 7.62x54R round (used in the Mosin-Nagant rifle) has a different length than the 7.62x39mm(used in the AK-47 and SKS, other AK variants) and THAT has a different length 7.62x38mmR(used in the Nagant 1895 revolver)... this goes on and on. All these cartridges fire differently, and no gun is chambered for all of them. That's impossible.

[EuchreJack]

I may make an administrative merc for myself. Someone who doesn't fight but trains up the militia and repairs gear. We can do something interesting if he manages to die. Succession JA2?

Why not just play as Biff? 

How much starting cash do you have?  I'm trying to decide which AIM merc I'd suggest as my avatar.

If you don't like how many guns have been added, you can always select "reduced guns".  You'll still get all the guns the original had to offer.  But, but 700 guns to chose from... *drool*

[Simmura McCrea]

Name: Simmura
Role: Utility
Trait/preferred weapon: Technician, athletics, night ops, any weapon, I'm not fussed.
Attitude: A little flinchy but remarkably happy to stay somewhere dangerous to get something done.
Backstory (if desired)

[Fikes]

Spoiler:  Part 0: XEP624 (game setup) (click to show/hide)

On the experienced level our starting cash is 35,000.

Speaking of the experienced level, here is our options screen.



In order to play fair, I have defaulted to AIM mercs since they cost money. After reading the character descriptions, I have come up with the following

Shadowgandor


The merc here is Raven. I have used her in most of my games. She is a great shot and has a good voice, all for a decent price. By default she is night ops and heavy weapons.

I have changed her traits to be a marksman/hunter. That gives her a better chance to hit at long range and less penalties for automatic fire. Her goal will to be the mid range rapid fire support. She will help get the close range mercs into any building requiring breaching.

Shadow is welcome to change her back story, EXCEPT that she must stay in love with Ron... speaking of which...

Taricus



Ron, by default is the squad leader type that is good at teaching. This role isn't required for us...

I have changed Ron to be a forward assault/explosive ordinance disposal type. In areas we think there are mines he will move in first to find and disarm them. An extremely dangerous job, but it doesn't generally worry Shadowgandor... generally.

The Shadow/Taricus combo would cost us too much money, so instead we will have to separate the loving couple until we get some income.

Shadowgandor was hired for 1 day and still cost us about $9,000.

Next up we have the all important medic. For that job we have...

Euch-R-JAK-6



MD, by default, is a doctor that is good at melee combat. Melee combat is only used when the enemy is already down and you hope to increase the mercs strength. Therefore....

I have changed MD to be the epitome of medic/coward. He is a paramedic/hunter, making him good at combat healing and more likely to hit with the I-can't-aim-when-I-am-shaking gun of choice, the shotgun.

He is so cheap we can hire him for a week, with all his gear, and pay less than $7,000

That leaves us with the utility fielder. The mule and idiot savant. It leaves us with...

Burnt Pies.



Seroid, by default, is the tough guy with high strength who, get this, probably does steroids. He is kind of an idiot, but great at mechanics and pretty decent at lock-picking. There is a problem, therefore...

No, I lied. There is really nothing wrong with steroid, so he will be kept exactly as he was setup for 1.13. Big, dumb, and useful. Only his name will change.

We hire him for a week.

We have just enough cash for the last two. First, for the sniper we have...

Xeron




Xeron is our first IMP merc. IMPs cost $3,000 to hire, but no money to keep them employed. Originally you could only hire one and he or she took the place of your avatar.

For our last merc we have our leader, we have...

Me.



For the most part, Booyah will remain in safe areas and repair equipment or train militia. With the squad leader ability he causes other mercs to fight better, so we will bring him out some times.

Now we have 5 starting mercs and $4,873 in the bank.

Next stop, Arulco.

[NRDL]

Will you be able to add the rest of us in when you've got more moneyz?