Caution, lots of spoilers ahead!

After a first playthrough with Buns/Grunty/Raven/Hitman/Shadow/IMP, which resulted in a rather poor end result due to skipping almost all side quests, I decided on having a second go at it. I chose for the lowest difficulty level as my goal was to have the full story experience.

The starting squad

For my second playthrough, I went with what can be considered the recommended starting mercenaries: Livewire as mechanic, Barry as explosives expert, and MD as doctor. I added Fox for her talent and, uh, personality, and Ice as more experienced merc with reasonably high marksmanship. 

I immediately hired the IMP alter ego mercenary once he became available. I went for full wisdom/agility/leadership/marksmanship and distributed the remaining points over health, strength, and dexterity. I picked the Negotiator role and night ops and teaching as traits.

Ernie island

The five-man (actually three-man, two-woman) starting squad had no trouble with clearing the first sectors, although the coast where you have to rescue Herman isn’t super easy with a relatively weak starting squad and only handguns.

Rust gave me a bit of trouble. There are quite a lot of enemies here and not much cover. Once in the bunker, I stayed to the left and right of the door and picked off the enemies one by one. After this sector, I already had enough AKs and Gewehr 98s to equip my squad. I headed back to the village for repairs and treating wounds. The counterattack that came soon was easily defeated – I deployed my mercs next to the machine gun that was retrieved from the Rust bunker, immediately manned it, and took everybody out with MG and sniper fire.

The final sector is Pierre’s fort. Thanks to Barry, I could disarm the mines to the left and sneak in through the back. If you can get snipers on the roof, it’s easy pickings from there as the enemies are quite scattered. Pierre is quite tough, but nothing a few headshots won’t solve. I let him go.

Heading north

Instead of going to Fleatown first, I decided to land at Savannah coast. There are quite a lot of enemies here. I took out two roaming the sector quietly, then put Barry’s shaped charges to good use for taking out enemies bunched together. From there on it was on to Diamond Red. Once again not the easiest sector, lots of enemies and Graaf is very tough. Quite a few slaves were killed unfortunately, but Graaf had to pay for it with his live. Killing him yields a golden sniper rifle. It is single shot, but does considerably more damage than the other 7,62mm rifles.

Talking to the captured Maquis in the camp yields knowledge about Larry, one of the MERC guys who preceded us. It’s important to know that, once the first mine had been captured, the timer for rescuing Biff starts. 

Fleatown

After a brief rest to treat wounds and repair gear, I moved on to Fleatown. By now my squad was equipped with two scoped Gewehr 98s in addition to the golden rifle, which made short work of all enemies. I did all the quest-relevant talking, including talking to Blaubert. I decided to do the “Pirate Gold” quest first, so I crossed the river. Killing the few goons and then the mystery man for obtaining the treasure map wasn’t difficult. Unfortunately, I then was very low on 7,62 x 51mm ammo, and the game wouldn’t let me go back directly to where I came from. I would have had to make my way through Port Cacao, but I decided to go to Camp La Barriere instead. Even with being forced to switch everyone to AKs, this was anther relatively easy battle. Fox had hollow point ammo, which at this point in the game, where most enemies don’t yet have body armor, is very effective.

Luckily, one of the enemies dropped quite a bit of ammo so I could once again equip my sniper rifles. 

I gave the treasure map to Tooker, then tackled the haunted mansion at night. Here’s a walkthrough. I went west to take Mfumu’s mine, then up the coast to help captain Jack Sparrow, uh Jacques Pierrot, to get the Adonis boat repaired.

2nd team

With two mines generating funds, it was time to hire two extra mercenaries. I went with Wolf for his speed bonus to operations and Blood as relatively cheap combat merc who gets along well with others. They met up with the 1st squad at the camp where you can find Larry. I managed to take out all the enemies and then recruit Larry after giving him the Metaviron acquired in Fleatown. He joined Wolf and my high-leadership IMP who went to work training militia in Fleatown.

Pantagruel

Blood joined the 1st squad which moved north to Pantagruel. I stopped at the Refugee Camp and did the quests there (finding the passport, rescuing the girl, healing the sick). In Pantagruel, I obtained the Maquis Manifesto and cleared the area of Legion troops, obtaining the Abusers quest from Maman.

Poachers and abusers

I immediately went to kill the first abuser. The second abuser can be found in the poachers camp. I killed him and his buddies, then talked to the boss to obtain the quest to get rid of Flay. You need to look at the dead bodies in two sectors to get him to appear, then recruited him. He brings a Winchester rifle that uses .44 ammo (which doesn’t drain my precious 7.62 NATO resources), which can be upgraded with a longer barrel and a sniper scope. I also picked up two Dragunovs here. One inaccuracy of the Jagged Alliance series is that the Dragunov uses the same ammo as the AK-47 (in reality it’s a longer 54mm higher-powered cartridge instead of the AK’s 39mm short cartridge), which also helped with my 7.62mm NATO ammo shortage.

The final abuser is down in Fleatown. The trip there brings more opportunities to show the Maquis Manifesto to NPCs, and kill the bus gang at the bus stop. I also confronted Father Tooker about Smiley, but didn’t talk to him just yet. 

Landsbach

With Fleatown and the mine covered, the militia training team went north to Pantagruel. With loyalty at 100%, Chimurenga was ready for retirement. The first squad went east, first clearing the bridge (which is an important choke point) and then moving to Landsbach. By this time, you’ll have had plenty of hints that something’s going on there with a substance called Diesel. You need to talk to Siegfried inside the mansion at the mine sector to get the quest. The Night Club is only open at night, I took Blood into the ring, where he made short work of both opponents. Then it’s following the trail of the van to obtain the Diesel.

There are multiple ways to go from here. The best outcome is to tell Siegfried that you are onto him, which is only possible if you’ve collected enough clues. A fight will then ensue, with Bounce’s guys entering the fray as well as he’s pissed that you didn’t give him the Diesel. I hid the entire squad inside the mansion to let Siegfried’s supersoldiers and Bounce’s thugs fight it out, then went outside to finish off the remaining supersoldiers.

Getting ready

Controlling four mines triggered the “Biff is under attack” event, so I didn’t have time to explore . I moved both squads to the bridge to intercept the assault squads and used the time waiting to repair items and treat wounds. As I was not practically swimming in money, I also decided to hire mercenaries for a third squad. I went for the Russian-German connection with Ivan, Igor, Grunty, and Thor.

The bridge has deployment spots in the center of the map up high, with good lines of sight. This made it really easy to take out the enemies. With the assault squads and a diamond shipment taken out, Santiago messaged that she wanted to see me at the refugee camp. I sent Charlie squad with Blood/Ice/MD/Livewire/Larry down to Port Cacao to prepare, and the two others to the refugee camp.

World flip

This remains an annoying part, but there’s nothing you can do about it. At the refugee camp, I positioned my mercs between the tents to break line of sight, and had Ivan do the talking. He managed to run away unscathed, I dodged the mortar fire, and took the enemies out one by one with minimal damage. I then sent these two squads up to Pantagruel.

Down in Port Cacao, I first cleaned the mine and the docks, then went back to the mine to prepare for the assault. The game lets you deploy on top of the main building, which is perfect. You can overwatch the ladder, and once the enemies have given up trying to climb up, your sniper can take out the rest. Larry also chucked a few grenades down. A small group is in the center of the mine and quite easy to take out. Unfortunately, I now started to run out of 7.62mm WP ammo, so I switched to other weapons for some to save the ammo for the Dragunovs.

Pantagruel was harder. I awaited the assault squads in the western sector (where Le Lys Rouge is), and the deployment zones aren’t great here. The enemies are really bunched up together in the beginning, so I deployed in the building next to the entry point so Barry and Wolf could chuck grenades at them. I still took quite a bit of damage, almost losing Flay in the process. Luckily the enemies came in two waves, first 20, then 10. 

With Pantagruel and Port Cacao saved (freeing the museum sector wasn’t difficult), it was finally time to consolidate and prepare for the counterattack. Up in Pantagruel, I sent all wounded mercs to the hospital for quick treatment. In Port Cacao, I set Livewire to work repairing gear in preparation for N-Night. 

Port Cacao

After leaving the hospital, Alpha (Ivan, Igor, Grunty, Thor) and Beta (IMP, Wolf, Fox, Barry, Flay) squads cleaned out Camp Grand Prix and Camp Barriere (where I finally found the necklace in the chair), then went down to Port Cacao. I still had some time left to drop off a treasure at the museum and send militia to Camp Grand Prix in return. I even found the time to have Barry craft some rounds of .50 ammo for the M82 that I had found a whole while back. I shuffled around my weapons to have Alpha squad work only with 7.62 WP ammo and the two others with 7.62mm NATO to help with ammo shortage.

With money still plentiful due to three mines in my possession, I also placed an order with Bobby Ray’s and hired Shadow.

I had managed to re-unite most of the Coffee Beans, so with all squads in attendance, N-Night was a breeze. With barely a scratch, three strong squads, and enough ammo, I decided to try the assault on the Good Place. I actually didn’t find it that difficult. The enemies are spread out, and with several capable snipers, Jackhammer wasn’t much of an issue. Beware of the landmines placed before the entrance to the underground part of the prison.

Freeing Fleatown and surroundings

I first sent all squads to Rimville to deal with the Blaubert/Luigi situation. I decided to side with neither. The resulting battle is considered one of the most difficult, as you’ll end up with 20+ enemies in close proximity. But with 15 mercs set up in an L-shape, it became more of a turkey shoot. 

I sent Charlie squad up north to free Diamond Red. The two others freed Fleatown. My militia had put up a strong fight, so there were only five enemies left at the mine. I then moved on to Camp Savannah and cleared it quickly. Upon return to Fleatown, I talked to Smiley, telling him that we would help him. This triggered an attack, but I managed to take out the assailants before Smiley got killed. He ran to Rimville, only to be told by Mollie that she didn’t want to be with him. He decided to join my mercs instead.

Charlie squad cleared the coast, then moved into Diamond Red at night. By isolating enemies, they were also taken out quickly, leaving me once again in control of the northeastern part of Grand Chien.

Saving Private Biff

Even without having a sober Larry, Smiley should be sufficient for getting the green diamond off of Biff. So I sent Alpha and Bravo squad up North. One thing that bugs me about JA3 is that, if one squad travels faster than the other, it doesn’t ask you if you want to wait for the second squad to arrive. So Bravo was there first and alone. After talking to Biff, the Legion attack starts. There are several waves, but the number of enemies in each is manageable. Most annoying are the mortar attacks, so you’ll want to scatter your mercs to keep at least some of them effective while others run for cover. Don’t expect much from the MERC survivors, they are pretty ineffective.

After all enemies were eliminated, Smiley managed to convince Biff to give up the green diamond, so this is indeed a way to get the diamond without a sober Larry.

We’re going deeper underground

Charlie squad got one of the treasures, at the C3 cemetery, then joined the other squads at Landsbach. I gave the necklace, the green diamond, and all treasures that I had found so far to Smiley to have him run errands – first to Pantagruel, then to Port Cacao. The others went to Landsbach. I cleaned the second underground sector, but couldn’t continue from there as the tunnel was blocked. 

So I crossed the river to go to Chalet de la Paix. The battle wasn’t super-easy as I attacked during daytime and there was some mortar fire. Here, you get the first mentions of a mysterious sickness that is killing people. Make sure to investigate all the clues. I then moved west to the jungle to the other underground entrance.

The fights here are difficult. There are no long sight lines, the enemies are tough and can do a lot of melee damage. I rotated squads once they had taken too much damage, and eventually managed to clear out all sectors.

The cure

This part of the country suffers from the Red Rabies sickness. To find a cure, you have to go to the Sanatorium. Sneak in around the rear to go downstairs without alarming the guards, fighting them is unnecessary. You’ll be given locations from which to obtain blood samples. Having more than one squad helps here to collect them quickly. I also cleaned out Camp Crocodile and Wassergrab while I was busy, then returned with the samples. Once you deliver them. Dr. Kronenburg (who has been infected with the disease herself) will turn into a zombie, so there’s no way around killing her.

Endgame choices

The endgame consists of three parts: killing Colonel Facheaux, saving the president and getting rid of the Major, and freeing Ernie Island and confronting Santiago. These can be done in any order, but since you can recruit the Major after defeating him, I wanted to to this battle first. You need a certain amount of influence to be able to recruit him, with a large chunk of that being provided by recruiting Pierre at Camp Bien Chien, so I sent one squad there to pick him up. I then moved all three squads towards Ile Morat. I cleaned up both the sectors and activated the projector at night to reveal the Beast.

Eagle’s Nest

I split my squads. Alpha was sent to take the western approach, Bravo and Charlie went through the cave, which is considerably shorter. This gave Bravo the time to clear up the sectors adjacent to Eagle’s Nest. Once all squads were in place (Bravo to the west, Alpha and Charlie to the south), well-rested and with equipment in good condition, I launched the assault. I tried a daytime assault. Thanks to Livewire and intelligence gained earlier on, all enemies were visible. It was actually quite easy to sneak into the base with all three squads and position them under the rocks for the assault.

The main challenge is getting the president out alive, as he will be attacked by the Major and other soldiers in the tent in the northeastern corner of the sector. I moved as close as possible before starting the fire. The snipers targeted all exposed soldiers, and the grenade launchers targeted the soldiers around the tent. The grenade launchers were key here – it’s difficult to get line of sight quickly with sniper rifles, but the grenade launchers shoot in an arc and have decent range. The Major only got one round of shooting on the president before being taken down.

I first spoke to the president, then to the Major. I had gathered enough influence to convince him to join us, so I left the Eagle’s Nest with 17 instead of 16 mercenaries, heading back to Ille Morat for some rest before continuing.

Leftover quests

With this battle completed and the end of the game approaching, I wanted to do the remaining quests.

The Twin Manors murders are quickly solved as they don’t need much traveling. I apparently had killed some crocodiles so I could easily convince the witch near Wassergrab to stop her doing. The Teddy Bear Murders are also straightforward, just examine the clues in the Farmland sectors. Around Ille Morat, I repaired the Effigees to raise loyalty, which will eventually allow you to convince the Beast to fight the Legion. Another quest here is finding a grave, be sure to bring a machete.

Don’t forget to talk to the hermit, the former boss of the Ghost from the Haunted Mansion. Bringing them together will provide extra evidence against Corazon.

I finally found the diary of Roger Wilcox plus the missing page and could confront the doctor at Chalet de la Paix. Some Landsbach supersoldiers then appeared but were quickly dispatched. I did not manage to unite the two factions at the Dump – by the time I got their for the second time, the Legion had taken over.

Fort Brigand

I was a bit stupid before the attack. I had Larry make a whole lot of 40mm HE grenades, but forgot to distribute them amongst the other squads. I had Alpha squad approach from the west, the two others from across the river. This allowed me to deploy in three different locations. Beta squad, at the breach in the wall, took the brunt of the fight, and I actually had to reload after getting them all killed. I was more cautious on the second try. Larry and Blood peppered enemies with 40mm grenades, Alpha squad ran over the bridge and attacked the Legion from the rear. Faucheaux got killed by a couple of sniper rounds to his head.

Back to Ernie Island

I prepared for the final assault at Port Cacao, fixing gear, distributing ammo, and resting. The sectors before the fort went smoothly, so Pierre got to talk to his dad. For the assault on the fort, I tried several approaches. It turned out that the easiest way was to keep everybody outside. A few mercs with suppressed weapons hid behind one of the large rocks, while Shadow went sneaking around with his M82. The enemies never spotted him, so they simply ran out the front where I could easily take them out. They never got a shot off and I thus avoided the annoying mortar fire.

I sent Alpha squad downstairs to go after Santiago. You should never stay in the open here because of the flashbang grenades that otherwise come flying your way. Sniper rifles were once again king here, but in the end it was Igor with a machete who took down Santiago. 

The end game slides showed what I was hoping for: by doing all the important quests, I managed to get the best possible ending! 

Takeaways

Mercenaries

You really need mercs with high Explosives, Medical, and Mechanical rating for the various quests plus detecting and disarming landmines and traps. High leadership is also important. As a result, it is very difficult not to recommend Livewire, Barry, and MD as members of your starting squad. You could create an IMP merc that excels in one of these fields, but you’ll then need someone else with high leadership. And while you could switch them out later on once you have more money available, I think most players don’t. You get attached to your starting squad, as as they get more experienced, they get considerably better while staying very affordable.

Fox is great, too – you get to attack twice with her if her surprise attack lands. She’s also a capable medic, just not good enough for some of the medical checks required for quests. Ice is good, but it’s easy to forget his special talent, as most of the talents are passive (triggered automatically). Wolf is great as all-rounder and teams up well with Fox. Regarding Blood, I struggle with melee, but he’s fun in a team with Ice.

I’m a bit more mixed in feelings with regard to the Russian/German squad. Thor’s herbal medicine is great for dealing with tired soldiers, but like Fox, his medical is just a bit too low for the quest checks. As I already wrote, I struggle with melee, so I don’t think that I got a lot of value out of Ivan. Grunty is decent for the price and can repair stuff, but his talent can be a liability. Having him with Igor and Ivan is still fun for the banter. In one case, Grunty asked Igor how much money he gets, which Igor didn’t want to answer – until being offered some Schnapps by Grunty.

So for next time, I’m still a bit undecided. I definitely want to try a Raven/Raider team. It’s also tempting to go with Fox and Wolf again. I might build my IMP closer to what I had in my first playthrough – with good mechanics skill, so that I can skip Livewire, and hire an AIM merc for high leadership instead. Barry is pretty much a given, as you really need a good explosives expert to deal with the landmines, and he provides his shaped charges as extra bonus.

The “free” mercs that can be recruited in Grand Chien are of mixed value. Generally, the earlier you can get them the more useful they are, as you can then train them in battle and don’t have the money yet for AIM alternatives. Flay got a considerable number of skills, and his Winchester uses an otherwise unused caliber. Larry is good, too, given how important explosives experts are. But Smiley was only useful for getting the green diamond off Biff and running errands. Pierre and Spike are obtained too late in the game to make much impact, and Pierre isn’t particularly impressive, either. I think the only way to get much use out of them is to recruit them early (you’ll probably need Pierre to get Spike), but this will mean an early battle at Eagle’s Nest with a team that isn’t at its best yet.

Three combat squads is probably too much, half of them will be standing around or be in each other’s way. I think two is the sweet spot, for being at different locations at the same time (after the world flip, Red Rabies quest) and for more hitting power in the large battles.

Weapons

This second playthrough didn’t really change my opinion on the weapons that are available. Sniper rifles rule, enabling even mercs with lower marksmanship to reliably kill enemies with a single headshot. They only struggle in underground sectors with short sight lines (especially Landsbach/U-Bahn) as they suck at overwatch at short range. That’s why I always combine them with a few assault rifles in a squad, which have a much wider overwatch cone and allow for adding a grenade launcher. The 40mm frag grenades are awesome, being super precise with decent range, and you can make your own grenades for them from C4. Hand-thrown grenades are also great for enemies that are bunched up or behind cover.

I tried melee, with Ivan and The Thing. Yes, he can take out enemies in one strike and get AP from it, but one miss leaves him exposed. The same holds for other melee specialists. You really need specific builds for them, whereas sniper rifles can be used by almost anyone. I didn’t even try shotguns, but should probably do so in the next playthrough – at least for the close combat sectors. As has been written often, SMGs are generally underwhelming. I tried dual UZIs with Fox, but the damage output was underwhelming.

I also tried playing with machine guns. I’m still underwhelmed. The Minimi that I gave to Grunty and some point broke down quickly and didn’t do much damage. For the final battle, I gave Ivan an HK21 that I took off one of the enemies. This did more damage, the bonus being that you can both do attack during your turn and retain overwatch. But it once again requires specific merc builds and lots of ammo, which may be scarce at times.

Story and quests

I really recommend to go for the full experience by doing all the quests, at least once. They add a lot of depth (and playtime) to the game. Not all of them affect the ending slides. If you take out the squad that goes after Biff, you can pretty much tackle the game at your own pace. Taking Diamond Red first offers two important benefits: it provides a lot of income, and you’ll end up with the Gold Fever sniper rifle that can one-shot most enemies (no silencer, though). I’ve also read that some people recommend going to Port Cacao early on, which is something that I might try next time.

Verdict

I love this game. I got addicted to it the same way I got addicted to JA2 more than 25 years ago. Two things define it: the characterful mercenaries and their interactions, and the tactical combat that forces you to think about what you’re doing. I’ve read some complaints that it is too easy, and there apparently are plenty of people who manage to finish it with a single merc (though this appears to be predominantly Ivan or Shadow). If that’s your thing, go for it. I find it challenging, as I don’t like losing mercs and will load a save if I do, or when battles go badly. But planning the assault on the Eagle’s Nest, moving my squads in slowly, waiting for the perfect moment to strike, gave me a feeling of anxiety that’s just awesome.

I’ll probably let the game rest for a bit, then tackle it for a third time. I’m considering using one of the rebalancing mods for a bit of added realism.