More mercs to hire

[Amadeus]

I have the problem that I am running out of mercenaries. I already lost 4 or 5 on the first island and kept hiring new ones. That works out quite well. But the game is really hard even on "easy". But now I have lost a total of almost 10 mercenaries and some are really outrageously expensive. I would have liked to have more choice in the inexpensive units. Mabe a wish for a DLC...

[SirRantsAlot]

What do you mean by "lost". Did they all die, are they offline or even m.i.a.? Money is a problem. But i like more choice too.
You can hire Larry and someone else in the church (really forgot his name) plus you can crate your own merc for a fix price once. Thats three for free. JA3 is a lot about tactics.

[Amadeus]

Yes, they fell in battle. Many players here say that the game is too easy. For me it isn't. It's really hard to survive. Often I need 2 or 3 mercenaries for one enemy. So I manage to overwhelm 2 sometimes 3 units per turn. Then when they counterattack I lose 1 unit sometimes. I do not like to save and reload. It's slowly getting better with the tricks here, but it's not easy anyway. Now I get into the mid/end of the game I hope but I running out of new mercs.

[['w']]

Create your own IMP before recruiting anyone else.

Get Mercs who are qualified for the task.
A Medic / Mechanic / Explosives Specialist

Scout forts before attacking them.

Attack always at night.

Use Cover.

Use stealth, if discovered move back stealth again.
If you are in stealth and one guy is discovered you might be save with the rest because they are in stealthmode.

Flank, like a L-shape formation.

Aim with you mercs, use at least one guy with a high power rifle.

Upgrade your weapons with mechanics like livewire, she is also great in discovering hackable devices.

Use someone like Barry to kill 1-X guys with his charges
Use someone like Blood for stealth kills *prepare stealth kill* and his throwing knife ability.

Get Perks that give you grid and crit, accuracy bonuses.

That said, I savescum all the time, playing on normal difficulty, still during some missions I win without a single reload or wound.

[wayne]

You should mainly only be taking a few wounds at most unless you make a big mistake or are pretty unlucky.

You might want to watch some gameplay on youtube as you seem to have the wrong idea about how it works.

Originally posted by |wilb|:

Attack always at night.

Interesting, this might be a great idea; even if you don't have the means to negate the reduced accuracy, it's still in your favor as the AI is overly aggressive (and take bad shots) while you get better use out of your cover and tactics.

[FatalException]

One thing that isn't quite intuitive but makes a huge difference to your killing power:

Automatics (ARs, SMGs, MGs) are best used to overwatch and do massive damage on enemy turn. Burst penalties do not seem to apply to overwatch shots, so your hitrate and shots fire are massively increase over using burst fire on your turn. Your turn is better spend repositioning for the next overwatch.

Rifles and Pistols on the other hand are best used on player-turn. Both have higher base damage, profit from aiming and are not very overwatch-efficient. Pistols get a small acc bonus in close proximity.

Hiding and successfull stealth attacks benefit all types of weapons, though they are much easier to pull of with rifles at long range and it isn't yet clear, whether overwatch can proc stealth kills, though it seems to be the case.

[Dre G Writer]

Do you stream or upload videos??? Im interested in seeing how you play.

But to answer your question, check the steams workshop for custom made merc mods to hire if the default ones arent available to you.

[Amadeus]

So many tips here, there is a lot for me to do and improve. Thanks to all who respond here. To be honest, I guess I played a bit naive and shallow at first and I guess I will have to start over. I am new to JA3 and have not played the predecessors. But the story and voice acting in the game is really impressive, so I didn't want to start over. This kind of game doesn't come around often, and I mean that in a positive way. But still, I would like to see more mercenaries from the beginning. Again thanks to all and I hope I will do it better now.

[['w']]

Originally posted by wang:

You should mainly only be taking a few wounds at most unless you make a big mistake or are pretty unlucky.

You might want to watch some gameplay on youtube as you seem to have the wrong idea about how it works.

Originally posted by |wilb|:

Attack always at night.

Interesting, this might be a great idea; even if you don't have the means to negate the reduced accuracy, it's still in your favor as the AI is overly aggressive (and take bad shots) while you get better use out of your cover and tactics.

they will shoot from further away I believe, at least if there are more enemies who can see you one will hit sooner or later

Ah I forgot.

Use Illumination against your enemy at night.
Attack from an angle where the enemy has to run through light or use glow sticks to illuminate them

Use gas ,teargas, if someone comes very very close throw a can, sometimes all enemies will scatter, same goes for molotov, but teargas can blind them

loot corpses from strategic map

you can use wirecutter to get gunpowder from tnt

[Rampage]

We need like double the mercs

[['w']]

Originally posted by Rampage:

We need like double the mercs

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3005657455&searchtext=

[Amadeus]

Ups it happened again at Fort Leau Bleu. I started from the very beginning with no serious wounds till this last fight on the first island. 2, 3 characters here are very strong and Pierre killed 4 of my 6 mercs after 2 of his chums fired several times in one turn.

[FatalException]

If you feel sneaky, you can find ways to climb up to the top floor of fortress during the day and rain death down on hapless defenders. Mine the approaches with proximity C4 for added fun. ;)

[['w']]

There is a machine gun next with unlimited ammo

[Dorok]

Originally posted by Amadeus:

Yes, they fell in battle. Many players here say that the game is too easy. For me it isn't. It's really hard to survive.

Lol, that's a tactical game, you'll always find rather vocals players whining it's too easy.

The game has very rude combats until you decide start exploit more the powerful tools:
- Stealth, not just stealth kills, but during combats you can re enter in Stealth and that's quite powerful tactical tool.
- Night combined with Stealth can be even more powerful. And yes you can wait night on global map.
- Grenades, firstly Barry special grenades he craft regularly, that can insta kill groups of multiple enemies. But also more standard grenades can damages groups enough to be significant, can destroy many covers, can allow ensure kill a specific enemy faster.
- Smoke bomb, even if you find not many, one for a critical pert can help a lot.
- SR even if you find a weaker version in first parts, you find many very soon on start island, and they are efficient enough for the first enemies. And not only they allow use some merc with a position further some enemies, and even can allow some head shot kills when in stealth so stealth isn't broken. But they are also a safeguard to ensure kill or kill faster some annoying enemy, just remind consider ammo aspect.
- Throw knife, it's more for some mercs and it requires close range, but once you try you realize it can be very helpful, they ignore any armor.
- Overwatch isn't an universal power tool, but in the right context it can be. And about that, use it during TB can be rather safer than in Real Time, so you can consider prepare it, then shoot in the air or on a target with a merc to start TB mode and then start an overwatch massacre safer, and much more powerful when mixed with Stealth.
- Weapon mods, many players certainly forgot this tool, and you need make choices as crafting material isn't unlimited, you need choose well the mods and the weapons, but it can help a lot.
- Terrain tactical design, there's a lot of design put in, this includes tools or terrains here to help you. From forced path ideal for overwatch ambush against enemies coming gradually, to many explosive barrel to consider exploit, or some fixed machine gun to exploit, many more.
- Last but not least for a newbie, consider start with a team of 5 including player created merc, not 4, even less 3. This should really help when discovering the game. And no you don't need keep much money in reserve when you start the game.

So when you start accumulate the relatively easy tools, you can start feel the combats but few aren't that hard at Normal difficulty, and still rather interesting and well diversified.