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JA2 1.13 in 2017?

Joined
Feb 19, 2005
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4,566
Strap Yourselves In Codex+ Now Streaming!
Thanks octavius I completely missed that drop down list...
 

GarfunkeL

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Nov 7, 2008
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Zombies are off by default, don't touch the ini.
I strongly suggest you to disable Drassen Counter attack (DCA), it's "impossible" to manage without cheesy exploits or without completely unnatural game progression (unless on easy difficulty).
Not quite. It is indeed impossible if you don't alter your playstyle. With the new ranger perk and enemy patrol routine, it is actually quite possible to defend against the counter-attack without exploits. I have all counter-attacks turned on and Drassen is the easiest because at that point you don't have to worry about mortars or machinegunners, and there are very few snipers.

The trick is that you need to have a mercenary with the scout/ranger trait in the Drassen mine sector. He will be able to spot Deidranna's forces as they gather around Drassen. As soon as one 20-man patrol appears, order an attack. It's probably night, so with six mercs and careful playing, you can take them down. Then retreat back to Drassen mine, have your mercs sleep for two hours, eat, and attack the next patrol. A single patrol is unlikely to attack Drassen as they wait for reinforcements before attacking. However, if an attack from more than 1 patrol happens, conduct a fighting withdrawal to the middle sector. Perform lightning-fast strikes from the middle sector to the mine/bottom sector and alternate your entry point between NE and NW corners - otherwise you will run into a situation where the enemy is waiting for you at map edge. If the middle sector gets attacked, you must conduct another fighting withdrawal, this time to the airport sector. Do NOT withdraw outside of Drassen, as it takes 1-2 hours to get there and the same amount of time to get back, at which point the enemy has probably taken over airport as well as having brought in reinforcement to garrison all 3 sectors. If you're unlucky, even the airport will get attacked. You must defeat the enemy attack here as otherwise you cannot buy more food or refill your canteens, nor fly in mercs or gear. Utilize the buildings and especially the chokepoint to the airport to your advantage. That's the strategic layer.

In my current game, I had to give up both bottom two sectors but I had weakened the counter-attack sufficiently that defending the airport was a straightforward fight against about 15 red shirts and 3 black shirts.

If you're struggling in the tactical layer, the trick is to know when to hunker down and when to keep mobile. The AI is smart enough to eventually envelope and encircle you, but only if you give it enough time. Night missions are not automatically easier either, because you won't have NVGs while the enemies will have them, giving them 1-2 tiles of sight advantage. So at night it is even more important to keep moving. In either case, when significantly outnumbered, keep moving so that the enemies cannot overwhelm you. Use grenades, and don't overlook the lethality of shotguns or akimbo-pistols. Fox, for example, is a cheap merc who has ambidextrous trait. Give her two fast pistols (and later the mini-MPs), and she will pepper the enemy with bullets. I keep one loaded with normal ammo and the other with HP ammo. Ira is free and while not a good shot, give her a 9mm SMG and keep doing aimed bursts. You will never run out of basic 9mm ammo so don't worry about ammo consumption. She is far more likely to hit with 1 bullet out of three compared to three individual shots and even if she misses completely, she will suppress the enemy, draining their APs. Shotguns, while slow to fire and heavy, are devastating especially with slugs, and mercs with poor marksmanship can use shot and an attached duckbill to improve their odds of hitting the enemy. Get close enough - like 15 tiles - and let 'er rip. If you have someone with the throwing trait, they can fairly reliably one-shot unaware enemies with throwing knives, but always be prepared to run away if they miss. What I did was to keep my squad together far back, have silent assassin slowly sneak ahead (crouched) in RL mode until they spotted an enemy. Then wait so you see what their patrol routine looks like, spot the right moment, sneak to 5-8 tiles or so, and throw a knife. If you miss, turn stealth mode off, switch them to running and spend all your APs running away. With little luck, enemy won't get an interrupt and you're off, free to try again at a different spot while the enemies search the area where you used to be. And when you do get into a firefight, don't be afraid to pull back. Often it can be better to not fire a single bullet but to have your squad instead relocate to a better position. The worst mistake you can do is to get pinned down. Also, as I said above, it is important to have your mercs rest, even if it's for two or three hours. That allows their energy levels to be higher, which helps with everything - a rested merc has more AP and (I think) improved skills. Or rather, a tired merc will get a malus to their AP and skills.

But to be honest, this is my third attempt in defeating the counter-attack "clean" without using building or map edge exploits, and I failed in the previous two ones, so it's definitely not easy.

Oh and one last tip - the counter-attack spawns extra patrols, instead of drawing from regular patrols. So don't think that the area around Drassen is empty and safe after defeating it. You still have to wipe out the regular patrols while you build up militia, so don't rush off.
 
Joined
May 19, 2018
Messages
415
It’s been over a decade since I played JA2 1.13. Jesus, there’s a lot of new stuff. what was the build right before the great bloat set in?​
 
Joined
May 19, 2018
Messages
415
Just bite the bullet and learn the new features. There's some good stuff there. Maybe turn diseases off as they can be annoying especially at early game.

Holy shit, you weren’t kidding. That new aiming (ncth, I think) system is vastly better than before. I have a bunch of old customized .INIs for 1.13 from before ‘09 I wanted to use before trying the new stuff out. I assumed it was all a jumbled mess and would take several hours to sort through everything. Nope, hour maybe. Not fine adjusting to my liking, but turning off stuff I didn’t want yet was easy enough.
 

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