***GAMEPLAY SPOILERS EVERYWHERE***

I'm a big fan of the turn-based tactics genre and have been having a blast with Jagged Alliance 2. At the moment I'm playing vanilla 1.12 but am considering switching to 1.13 due to some tactical issues with 1.12. There are a few questions where I hope the veteran players can weigh in. My questions all relate to 1.12, but I'm open to hearing about whether 1.13 might fix or continues to have these issues.

I have captured Drassen, Chitzena and Cambria, my Drassen mine has run dry and I have the Drassen and Cambria SAM sites.

Interface
Let's start with the easiest. People say that the GOG version of JA2 includes the Gold Pack updates. I've heard that the Gold Pack includes added features like line of sight from various squares. Some hotkey lists for the 1.12 gold version say that the End key allows you to see line of sight from the cursor. However, in the GOG version, the End key only shows me the line of sight for the selected merc. Nothing I've tried shows me what I want. Am I missing something here? Is it that the GOG version does not actually have the Gold Pack updates, or am I not doing something right?

Also, is there a way to turn on the grid? Sometimes the perspective makes it hard to see whether my merc actually is behind cover and the grid would be really handy. At the moment I have to use my cursor to align the grid manually.

Sniping
I have a sniper rifle with a range of 80 squares, but my merc's line of sight is probably about 30 at most. It seems they can still fire at unseen enemies as long as we have a spotter. I've noticed that it's less accurate when the target is out of the sniper's field of view, although attachments like the scope and laser sight seem to help a bit.

My question is: How much less accurate is it? I suspect the sniper rifle's probably not worth using, due to the issues further below about use of a spotter.

Door campers
Is there a viable strategy against door campers?

In the Cambria SAM site I've cleared the map except for the two-layered security building. The outer layer had two enemies camping behind a closed door. Making noise didn't lure them out.

It didn't seem to matter how we open the door, whether we use the handle or use a shaped charge, the merc crouches right in front of it and gets shot up by the campers. So what I did was load up my door man with the best armour and set the other 2 mercs on the team to prone behind him. It seems to be luck of the draw whether our mercs get the first turn or whether the enemies get the first turn. Even if we get the first turn, there are interrupt possibilities for the enemy.

I thought about whether this problem could be solved if there was a feature to force an early switch to turn-based mode, so that we can open the door during our turn. But it wouldn't solve the underlying problem of the enemies getting interrupts when we open the door.

There was only one enemy facing the door and luckily he only had a one-shot rifle. My door man survived and together they took out the enemy. But we could hear sounds coming from the corridor adjacent to the door so I knew there was another enemy there waiting to get a shot off the moment my merc stepped through. What I did was pop smoke, wait for it to expand, and then got all 3 of my mercs through the door and prone facing the corridor where the enemy was. The smoke cleared and turn-based mode began, with similar issues about luck of the draw on who gets the first shot.

I'd contemplated planting some TNT and blowing a hole in the building, but I want to learn to deal with this situation better in general. TNT is rare and there isn't enough for all the situations we might need it. In many of those situations, it's possible there are civilians in there. It also doesn't solve the problem that, once the bomb goes off, the enemy might get the first shot. I think this hurts the realism a bit because in a realistic scenario, the mercs would just chuck a flashbang down the corridor before charging in, but the grenade physics in JA2 isn't that versatile. The flashbang idea didn't work because the side corridor was so long. Also, grenades aren't always available (i.e. for sale) when these situations arise. And even when they do become available, the stocks at Bobby Ray's are quite small compared to how often we might need to use them. Realistically, we'd need to use a flashbang down every unknown corridor in hostile territory.

I had a similar situation in taking the hospital in Cambria. There was a sealed corridor with closed doors and the enemies were camping. I knew they were there and set up my entire squad in preparation, but opening the door was a big risk for the door man.

So here's a summary of my issues with door campers:

* Even if we know they're there and make the best possible preparation, the enemy might get the first shot and kill the merc who opens the door.

* Some doors have long corridors running along them. The first merc who crouches/crawls through risks getting shot and killed.

* Grenades and explosives aren't always a viable option due to scarcity, civilians, indestructible terrain or range. Also, the enemy may still get the first shot.

So my question is: What am I doing wrong? What can I do better? What's a viable strategy for handling these situations?

I know that saving and reloading is a simple approach, but I'd rather play it right than rely on luck. And higher level mercs might have more luck with interrupts, but it still seems to be overly reliant on luck, especially considering the frequency of these situations and when facing high level elites.

I am not aware of such a function ever being available, though I could be wrong. End key displayed LoS for your merc, and there should also be a key that displayed cover for your merc (either Insert or Delete from what I recall). No. There is no grid view, but there should be a cover display. Shooting outside the range of vision (not LoS) cuts the CTH by half. Same for shooting outside of a weapon's maximum range. Be aware that you can still have a ridiculous CTH with a sniper even shooting at unseen targets, I think pressing f should display your current CTH.
For more info on CTH calculation, see here, though it may have some 1.13 info as well. Best method is to make your own door. Use explosives and create a second door.

Second possibility is to attempt the breach with a high level merc, hoping for an interrupt by him instead of the enemies.
And you could also just empty your clip at the wall next to them, and hope there's enough penetration for the bullets to actually kill them. But it's doubtful.

Door breaching is always a pain, even with 1.13, though the use of tunnel vision may help you get the drop on the soldiers by making them turn around. As for the interrupt chance, highest factor to that is the level of the merc and the soldier, then a few extra stuff like remaining health, AP, breath etc. Actually, it wouldn't. 1.12 uses a prerandom seed, which is saved in the game, so loading a game and taking the same actions should result in the same events. You would have to do something different to change the sequence of events.

(These questions were supposed to be posted at the same time as the set above.)

***GAMEPLAY SPOILERS EVERYWHERE***


Line of sight

I have a few problems with line of sight in 1.12.

First, everyone seems to have eyes on the back of their heads. Say I spot an enemy and retreat my spotter a bit. I then send a couple of mercs to flank from the side or behind. I still have the enemy's attention at the front, but he's out of view. My flanking mercs crawl into position and spot him. He's still facing my point man at the front, so my flankers are behind him. He gets the first turn or an interrupt, turns around and unloads into my flankers, possibly killing one. Yes, they should be behind cover, but that's not always possible, especially when flanking against campers. I thought that flanking was supposed to be a good way of dealing with campers, but it doesn't seem to work when everyone has a 360 degree field of view.

At this stage of the game, camo kits are hard to come by or even non-existent. Also, I don't keep my spotter in view for the reasons further below.

The problem seems to be that if we can see the enemy, then they can see us too. I thought that being prone might help but quite often it doesn't seem to make much difference. My mercs all wear sunglasses too. Sometimes it seems to give an edge, but it seems most enemies also wear sunglasses so it just evens the odds. I also try to hide them in grass, but that doesn't work as well as I'd hope. All that grass seems to do is reduce both sides' fields of view, so if I can see them then they can still see me.

Here's an example of what happens. My spotter is prone and crawls forward square by square until an enemy comes into view. He stops advancing. If I end my turn, the enemy will turn and shoot him. This means that the enemy has the same range of sight as my merc. So what I do is turn of stealth and make my spotter crawl back a bit and hope the enemy comes running and my other mercs get interrupts.

This is a problem that relates to the sniping questions above. I'd like to use a spotter, but if my spotter can see an enemy then he is probably going to get shot. And if I keep my spotter one square out of view, move him forward one square to spot, have the sniper shoot, and then retreat the spotter, then the problem becomes the potential for interrupts to kill my spotter. Sure, the chance of an interrupt on any individual turn is low, but if this is the go-to tactic then the turns are rapidly going to add up.

There are similar problems at night. At first, night ops and night vision goggles gave me a massive advantage in night battles. Then the enemies started getting break lights. If the light lands at a merc's feet, it's often impossible to escape it in one turn. So they either spend one turn in the running pose in the light, or they get interrupted while trying to run.

And then my night spotter started getting shot, which means that the enemy has night ops and NV goggles too, or perhaps even better gear. Now night battles are dangerous because at the range when we see each other, a burst from a rifle is accurate and lethal.

At this point in the game, city battles seem to be the most interesting, but unfortunately the roaming armies make field battles the most common. Field battles have devolved into simple lures because I have better weapons and better line of sight than most of the enemies on any particular map. But once I start facing more elites, who will have comparable gear, the interrupts are going to be deadly.

In fact, even when I only had two cities and my best weapons were MP5Ks, I had battles where I had to retreat because I'd run afield of entire squads of elites who had better vision as well as better range of sight. They were probably also wearing camo, which I didn't have. They would camp in cover at the edge of their weapon range and I couldn't get in range without exposing my mercs. It seemed like an insurmountable edge, so I retreated. The squad of elites then assaulted Drassen and got wiped out by the militia. They killed hardly any militia either. Go figure.

So my question is: What should I be doing better? When I start facing more elites with good gear, will the game devolve into a match of who has better cover and more rounds on target, with heavy damage on both sides? Or are there tactics I should be learning that will give my mercs an edge? Especially when it comes to campers. It seems like it's going to be very difficult to get within range without being spotted, especially in field battles.

Bloodcat ambushes

This is a gripe because I don't think there's much to do here except to reload.

A bloodcat ambush on a squad without at least MP5Ks and decent marksmanship is lethal. They gang up on one merc and can easily kill them in two or three swipes. I know because I tried to surrounded the injured merc and the bloodcats go around the other mercs. It's even worse at night, when they go from invisible to killing your mercs during their turn and you might not get interrupts. This rules out a big chunk of the day for travelling on foot. I'm also pretty sure a couple of the ambushes came when my squad was sleeping on the road, so better start that walk to the next city at 7am.

Sorry, I meant to post the entire set of questions above all at once but didn't figure out until now that I had to post bits at a time.

JMich:

Maybe I was mistaken in reading that the gold version added the ability to view line of sight from the cursor. Gameplay footage shows that 1.13 has this feature but I could have sworn I'd read somewhere that the 1.12 gold version had it too.

The button to show cover is Delete, but it only shows cover against visible enemies. It's useful if the target is already in sight, but when preparing our positions against "some noise to the North" a grid would help me a lot if there's an option for it somewhere.

I think CTH calculations are a 1.13 feature since pressing F only tells me if the enemy is within range. Thanks for the link - it was very informative. So it seems that once 7.62mm rounds become more plentiful the sniper rifle might be worth using assuming there's a good way to keep the spotter alive.

I was afraid that door breaching and corners might ultimately come down to luck. In your experience, would loading the leading merc with the best armour help him survive against a camping elite with an FN-FAL on burst fire who lucks out with the first turn against my merc?

I'll take your advice and carry along some explosives for a safe breach on the maps without civilians. Areas like the hospital where I don't know if there are civilians behind the door still seem tricky.

My concern is that while I managed to clear the hospital without losing anyone, that sort of indoors map has a lot of closed doors and corners, and each instance comes with its own roll of the dice. Our mercs have to get lucky every time but the enemy only has to get lucky once. Even with a high level merc, when we roll the dice enough times, we're bound to lose eventually.

What do you think of 1.13? Do you think it improves the player's options for dealing with the trickier situations? That tunnel vision thing sounds like a very useful feature that might make flanking a viable option. Should I install 1.13 and start afresh or would you recommend finishing the game I'm on right now?

Opening a door with explosives has the advantage that you might actually be lucky enough to catch 1 or 2 enemies in the blast. That should force you back into turnbased mode if you weren't in it. Knowing that, have your mercs ready in a half circle using cover. Once the door is open, you might throw in 1 or 2 grenades or fire a LAW in if you heared a scream or heared someone drop after the explosion.

Spoiler alert:













From memory, in Cambria you have 2 behind the door. 1 on both sides of the corridor. 1 is at the end of the hallway in your line of side when standing outside the building but right in front of the door. The 2nd is somewhere on the left of the door.
There should be a 3rd inside the room. IIRC none of them are stationary once you've entered the building.
Having 1 high xp merc with a long distance rifle facing the door, migth cause an interupt on the enemy at the end of the hallway.

Concerning night fights, do not stay in the same spot after shooting. The enemy identifies a grid as the position of the shooter, either through the muzzle flash or through the noise (each point of loudness for a weapon carries one tile, so a 70 loudness weapon can be heard 70 tiles away), so they will attempt to throw the breaklight at that position. I have had breaklights thrown to the position I was a turn or two previously, so moving is imperative. And always carry a few breaklights of your own, they can help to see targets or deny them routes of approach, since they will either step into the light and be seen, or avoid the light and have to find another way (I think that's 1.13 AI behaviour though, not 1.12).
Additionally, do not ignore knives. A throwing knife on an unsuspecting enemy (aka one you got the drop on) can one shot him, and it is silent to boot. And depending on merc, you may be able to run next to them and slit their throats with a normal knife as well, though I can't say I've been fond of that tactic.


Now, concerning 1.13. 1.13 changes a lot of things, and it can be overwhelming at first. The best time to move to 1.13 is when you feel confident enough playing 1.12 and want something more. Do make sure to read through the ini files and modify any options to your liking before starting, and don't hesitate to modify them again. But we of The Bear's Pit are guilty of assuming everyone has followed the development of 1.13, so most of the explanations are in the forum, not ingame.


I do think I had more to add, but it is late here, and I'm losing my train of thought. Don't hesitate to post questions though, I will do my best to answer them.

Thanks for the tips guys.

I've captured most of the map. The only unexplored areas are in the airspace controlled by Meduna's SAM site.

Since I was swimming in money, I decided to hire Gus. Talk about a beast. He consistently gets interrupts against elites. Using him to open doors would probably solve the soldiers-in-waiting problem, except I don't want to risk losing him to one unlucky instance when he doesn't get the first move. So I instead use cheap high HP mercs kitted with the best armour. There have been some close calls but nobody's died from opening a door yet.

Luckily there aren't too many indoors fights in this game.

I wish the explosives merchant didn't move around all the time. Bobby Ray's doesn't stock any of the fun stuff like TNT and RDX, and his selection of grenades is usually low in stock.

I looked for some let's plays of JA2 on Youtube. It's a shame there aren't many in English. There's a pretty detailed one by an experienced player called Moerges and after watching some of his videos I'm looking forward to 1.13. Particularly the new line of sight and aiming features. And the expanded inventory. And binoculars! Now maybe spotting will become a viable strategy without getting the spotter all shot up.

Does 1.13 add the ability for enemies to retreat? I've read that it allows enemies to reinforce, but retreating can be important too. There was a battle where Flo and Biff were defending a SAM site with 20 militia when a bunch of elites attacked at night. Both lovers got a few kills and managed to critically injure the final elite, who retreated back into the darkness to camp but remained on the map. The last militia ran around wildly and eventually got killed. Then it was up to Flo and Biff to hunt down an elite all on their own. It was scary since they were militia trainers meant to be on the back line, so they only got the hand-me-downs and weren't even wearing any pants. Luckily, they managed to scrounge a couple of grenades. I think that in a situation like this, both from the realism and gameplay perspective, the enemy should retreat off the map and give up their assault. After all, they attacked me so I should be able to hole up and make them come to me. Camping in the trees and making the defenders come out doesn't fit the nature of an assault force. Unfortunately, the game doesn't allow us to speed up time during a battle. Otherwise I'd have just locked Biff and Flo up in a room while one of my strike teams arrives to help.

Not sure if 1.13 allows retreat, but JA2 in general allows auto-resolve of any fight. I've never actually tried doing this with a fight that I'd already decided to fight manually, so I have no idea if it's possible to auto-resolve a fight after you've already done 99% of the fighting - but it should be! Worth a try though?

Unless of course you're paranoid about the auto-resolve injuring/killing your mercs, which I guess is possible.

1.13 does allow you to "kind of" control the militia - not directly, but via commands such as "cover me" and "attack!" and the like. I think there might be an option to give you direct control as well, if you want to go that far.

On grenades, 1.13 definitely appears to have much more available from all merchants (default setting), and you can always up that to crazy levels if you want.

Also, sometimes it's worth chucking a grenade through a window. Flashbangs and the like are great since they at the least reduce the enemies AP, and should (in theory) reduce the chance of them getting an interrupt (or at least ensure they spend most of their "interrupt turn" getting back up). Not sure if flashbangs were introduced in 1.13 or if they're already standard though...

For 1.12 there are 1 good strategy when fighting against door camper enemies, it is particularly useful when the building have 2 doors. Simply make a noise with 1/2 merc on one door, create a big ruckus in fact then slip through the other door with your best merc. If there are no doors but 1 make a noise instead in front of the window on the opposite side of the door, albeit this is somewhat tricky to succeed. If there is no door, no window but one, just use the TNT :p.