New to JA2

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Alright, I was reading the JA2 LP on the playground while moaning about how shitty AP was, when I said fuck it, if I want good turn based combat, why not go to the most universally praised game on the Codex. So here I am downloading JA2, and I want some pointers. Starting out, what should I know that isn't obvious to a four year old? What words of wisdom from the more experienced JAers is out there? Are there any mods I should use the first playthrough, and what difficulty is wisest?

I bow to the great wisdom of the hivemind.

[MetalCraze]

Download and install the latest 1.13 patch from Bear's Pit. There is no point in playing vanilla JA2. 1.13 is just superior in everything (and AI too , making it mandatory). The only things I didn't like in one of the recent betas - 4th gen NVG (imbalanced) and cartridge-based grenade launcher (imbalanced) - but that was about 4 months ago and only had their first appearance there, I'm sure they are more balanced now.
Also I recommend you use Talonsoft version of JA2 as it has some "mature" stuff SF version doesn't have. Adds to the atmosphere.

Other than that - use common sense when playing - always have a medic with you, don't run in the open, remember that surfaces produce different levels of noise, make your guys cover each other and all possible directions, if you are getting raped - retreat, you can always come back later - unless you'll be losing a critical advantage by that. And read the manual of course. It's mandatory as the game has no tutorial and otherwise you won't know which keys can be used for additional features (like checking which areas merc sees and which he doesn't and which areas he thinks are safe for him).
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[laclongquan]

No no! Play a v112 Unofficial Patch game first. 113 is not for newbie, you will get overwhelmed pretty damn quick. After 2-3 replays of 112 maybe you will get enough skills to try 113.
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Are you man enough to spank this bitch?

[Squirly]

Have at least one member of your team with decent leadership (60 and above), one medic (more is better) and one mechanic.

Skyway is right about 1.13, it's an awesome mod, or unofficial patch if you wanna be a dick about it.

Burst shot might be tempting but is really only useful later on when your guys are adept with their guns. Stick to single shot in the beginning unless it's a sure thing.

Stealth is useful, though not to the extent where melee becomes really viable, at least not in my experience.
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RAWR!

[laclongquan]

Kill them is easy, sneak up to them, beat the living snot out of them, strip them of all equipment, then leave their corpses behind, now that is a challenge.
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Are you man enough to spank this bitch?

[MetalCraze]

Knife sneak attacks have a 50% chance of killing an enemy instantly. That includes throwing knives.
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[desocupado]

Always try to keep some smoke grenades with all you mercs. They create cover (all versions), and can cover a supressed (1.13 only) character while he recover his ap.

[SCO]

Cover, like a next gen retard.
Always.

When attacking without line of sight - corners - , go out of cover, and go in again. It's normally 3 action points if you are running, so save for that. Beware doing this if low level or low agility (?) because you might get interrupted and get a burst to the face (but if you need to move to attack, not much can be done no?)
Beware of being flanked. Or cornered, because the enemy will sit there waiting to burst bullets all over your face when you try to exit.
Situations like that (going in out out) it's better to use explosives to demolish a wall. You will probably get the first round. Or smoke grenades to exit.

Prone and laying down increase accuracy (decrease theirs) but decrease mobility, and are only advantageous when you are not being swarmed (or on a roof).

Reaper is hilarious (the guy above me has his portrait as a avatar).
Getting good equipment early means stealing at night. Pick two stealthy mercs and go to a isolated enemy without line of sight, when you get as near as you can, set mercs to run, disable stealth and hope he gets no reaction, or create a distraction (throw a grenade opposite you, or at him, laying him down). Punch until he drops (and once more so he doesn't get up in the next round) and steal his weapon (CTRL+click on the body, weapons normally disappear for popamole game balance reasons)

[SCO]

Also don't sit too tight (on the ground at least) and be smug because your mercs have longer range guns.

There is something evil called a "stun grenade".

Oh, when you see a black or camouflaged enemy ... aim for the head.

BTW do the enemies on 1.13 finally climb up roofs (or even better flank me on the roof and throw grenades into it)?

[SCO]

[desocupado]

[circ]

Whatever you do, be sure to hire Cougar when he becomes available. And Shadow. And Vince, after modifying his stats with the proto editor first. Same with Dynamo. You are set for some asskicking for goodness.
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KURIKAESU KONO PORI RIZUMU

[MetalCraze]

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Fucking christ, this game is going to make me lose my job. Anyway, playing 1.13 on Novice (OMG POPAMOLE FAGGIT!!!) for the first playthrough with everything pretty simple. Even on novice, though, I don't find it easy. Definitely not breezing through battles, and I'm learning to take my time on the tactical map.

By the way, does militia play any part aside from defending an area? Say I take the airstrip in Dressen, can I train militia there and use them to help on the Dressen mine?
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[laclongquan]

You can only train militia after you get over certain threshold of loyalty (20%+). Militia can help you in defense. Offense? I dont know. YOu can also train roaming bands of militias to patrol the countryside.
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Are you man enough to spank this bitch?

[MetalCraze]

Roaming militia will try to stick to you when you are outside of the city, like escorting you. You can then use them during your attacks if they are in the adjacent sectors.

It's too bad you've started on novice - the game may not seem easy to you at first, but as soon as you will get the hang of its mechanics and a better equipment it will become all too easy. You should've started at experienced. But on your following playthroughs stick to expert if you want some real challenge (insane is for masochists)
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[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Well I just hit an annoying setback. I'm plugging along, sniping fools, have taken four cities and have three mines going after eliminating the bugs from the Dressen mine, when a small, insignificant force attacks my militia in Alma. It crashes to desktop every single time, and no matter how I play either of my two saves, it seems to keep happening. Any known fixes for this?
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[Overweight Manatee]

I've yet to encounter a crash that couldn't be bypassed by saving right before and simply trying it 2-5 times till it worked. Your mileage may vary. For me it seems I have a 50% chance of crashing when going to the tactical screen for any battle *shrugs*.

If that doesn't work, try getting rid of the militia so they take it over immediately. Or try to get even a single merc there to intercept them and/or defend with the militia. Worst case, back up your saves and try loading it with a different version of 1.13 to see if you can get through it.

[circ]

CTD's are common in militia defense. Best way to counter it is to have a squad there and do a direct confrontation instead of letting the AI handle it. It takes a while, but no crash atleast.
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KURIKAESU KONO PORI RIZUMU

[SCO]

So the mod introduced memory leaks and corruption? Quality programming there.

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Eh, moved Ira to sector and waited about 20 minutes for the battle... still get annoying CTDs for about 50% of militia battles, but none of them have repeated. Any word on if the 1.13 modders are tackling these, or is it because I'm on a new system?
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[MetalCraze]

I've never encountered as many CTDs. In fact I've never encountered CTD up until 311x version where mail messages from Bobby Ray were crashing (they know about this)

Looks like the quality of coding has declined over the betas :<
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[Derp]

Has anyone else noticed that in the latest version of 1.13 it seems you level up a lot quicker than you used to. I installed the new version (3356) and after taking Drassen, Haywire, for example, has gone up two levels after a whopping 15 kills and adding 3 marksmanship points. My merc has gone up two levels as well and is closing in on forth level. This is after about 7 battles. In fact my mercs are leveling up so fast there's no way I'll be able to afford them. And this is Danny, Blood, and the MERC psycho brothers we're talking about.

Last year I installed the 2858 version and had a blast. So I'm wondering, was that the last stable build?

[GarfunkeL]

I don't have crashes like that. Very rarely I get a CTD when quick-loading and that's it.

Try not to scum the AI with only one of the superior tactics, ie sniper-fest or night-time luring - that'll get boring at some point, so once you get hang of the game, try out different things, like revolver/shotgun-fests!
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