Hi.

I only started to play the JA2. And managed to get to Drassen without combat. Is it okay? Or should I try to eliminate patrols whenever possible?

You managed to get Drassen without combat? Without combating patrols you mean?

Anyway, Patrols are loot, and the more your mercs get to shoot things, the more their marksmanship will go up (which is an incredibly important stat in my opinion), so feel free to just kill them all.

Hi,

Generally at the beginning of the game I avoid patrols to concentrate on capturing the first two mines Chitzena and Drassen.

Anyway we are too limited by money at the beginning of the game and we are forced to start the game with low level mercs and their weapons which are pistols have a limited range to be effective.

Moreover, fighting them early in the game is also taking the risk of ending up with men who will be too wounded, remember that you have a very limited stock of medical supplies and that as you may not have liberated the Drassen airport, Bobby Ray's site and his medical supplies are not available at this stage of the game.

In fact I have come to realize that if you are the type like me to take several days before attacking enemy forces, once you have income and trained militia, that if you don't want to lose loyalty fighting a patrol and killing at least one enemy will prevent the loss.

You know the famous e-mail from Enrico quite annoying and that comes to ruin all your efforts in addition to your profits.

You are outnumbered... you fight in the open... the hit probability is in the gutter...
There is no strategic play involved... it is simply chance against your favour.

I don't see much to gain beside wasting ammo for some small (ineffective) marksmanship.

There are a few maps that are pretty open, sure, but don't forget trees and rocks.
But to each their own. I agree it's easier taking down patrols once you get your hands on a few mini-14s and stuff like that; I kinda like wasting ammo in these early fights though, since pistols are soon useless anyway. :)

I wish the pistol time would last longer and be fore fun (tactical) too...
But truth is.. you wan't to be able to dispose of threats reliably and asap. At this stage it's simply dice rolls... cover doesn't change that really. The loot you can find doesn't put you ahead in any way.. and you only loose ammo for your in shape guns.. and risk the health (AP) of your mercs for taking Drassen.

This also depends on if you are playing 1.13 with the counter-attack on or not. Personally I avoid patrols in the vanilla game but in 1.13 I feel likes its pretty critical to get more equipment.