Who is your favourite merc?

[Ablomis]

1. Raven
2. Raider
3. Buns

[Fritz64]

I always try to start with:

1. Ivan

2. Grunty

3. Barry - primary mechanic

As funds become available adding

4. Ice

5. Hitman

6. Fox

For mules I use:

7. Ira - also chief trainer

8. Gumpy

9. Hamos 

 

[Kayu]

I think steroid is underrated. He has high marksman strength and is a good mechanic. Also very cheap

Spider is also a good option. High intelligence so can level up quick, has night op and stealth. Also very cheap

And when i get a bit more money ill ussualy go for raven

 

[WILDFIRE]

I am curious how the mercs will react to each other this time. That some love or hate each other is also very important for the atmosphere. I hope the confrontations will be as good and funny as in JA2. Also it is necessary that mercs are unavailable in the hire screen when they are already on a mission or just dont want to work with you right now.

 

For some mercs it would be great that you should first earn their trust before you can hire them. So you must complete some tougher quests first before some mercs know that you are worth it.

[Bosiks]

My absolute favorite is Shadow. It was love from first sight (or battle mission in this case). Still remember the first fight. I was young anf unexperienced JA2 player, haven't payed much attention to game mechanics. As result I was struggling with my first playthrough... could not take over a simple, unimportant sector. Cheep beginning mercs are weak, but main reason for heavy loses was my lack of understanding. No shame admitting it now - I was shitty commander for my mercs at the time. Was really frustrated and about to quit the game for good (eaven though it looked promising). As last resort - decided to spend all my remaining funds to hire a good mercenary for short time and let him try.  Only one I could afford (and only one willing to work for me) was, luckilly, Shadow. Eaven more luck - after his arrival we started fight for sector during night (remember, i was bad commander and could not imagine game would take day/night cycle into account). So we enter the sector and few minutes later my jaw dropped - Shadow basically cleaned the sector single handed, without taking any serious demage. It was my first lesson in JA2. After that I hired specialised night ops team for Shadow. During days we where hiding, healing and regrouping, but came the night - we went out hunting Deidrannas men. That is how I fell in love with the game. After that I have many more playthroughs, and in most of them Shadow was taking part.

 

[Urethra Franklin]

Speaking from mostly a 1.13 perspective, because it's been so long since I've played the vanilla game.

 

1. Ice. He's just cool, and a highly effective merc at a reasonable price. Give him a quality machine gun and he can easily take out 2 enemies in a single turn.

 

2. Ira. Yeah, her voice is annoying. But she means I don't have to hire a medic at the start of a game. Binoculars and scouting also make her useful even when she can't shoot worth a damn. Besides, there's something rather entertaining about taking a random schmuck like her and turning her into a hulking beast that can clear out entire sectors all by herself.

 

3. Barry. Hire him at the beginning of the game and by the end he'll be a top tier merc at a quarter of the price. Compare him to somebody like Trevor, who starts with better skills and a higher salary, but within only a few levels has such an absurdly bloated salary you're no longing getting the proper value out of it.

 

And it admittedly it makes me a bit of a curmudgeon, but here's my least favorite mercs just to add on.

 

1. Reaper and Shadow. Huge edgelords. Reaper does look a bit like Mickey Rourke's character from Rogue Warrior, though. So imagining him saying some of that games more memorable quotes is pretty damn funny to me.

 

2. Every single wildfire Merc. Not interested in some dorks Eastern European OC voiced by a teenager trying to sound cool.

 

3. Manuel. Not sure where this guy came from, but I'm pretty sure he wasn't in the original game. Adds nothing to the original rebel crew and just talks shit when the other (Far more useful and interesting) rebels die. It is pretty funny that none of the other rebels seem to acknowledge his existence, though.

[LoboNocturno]

5 hours ago, Urethra Franklin said:

1. Reaper and Shadow. Huge edgelords. Reaper does look a bit like Mickey Rourke's character from Rogue Warrior, though. So imagining him saying some of that games more memorable quotes is pretty damn funny to me.

3. Manuel. Not sure where this guy came from, but I'm pretty sure he wasn't in the original game. Adds nothing to the original rebel crew and just talks shit when the other (Far more useful and interesting) rebels die. It is pretty funny that none of the other rebels seem to acknowledge his existence, though.

Hahah true the Rogue Warrior resembles somehow to Reaper, look at this Reaper killing Ivan. 😁

There is a Turkish actor called Hakan Karahan, his also looking somehow like Reaper.

 

BTW Manuel was in the original Jagged Alliance 2 Unfinished Business, was a very useful merc imo and 1 of the few Spanish speaking mercs.

[Bloodcat]

I liked Scully, Fox, Ice, Blood, Magic, Start was always with Blood and Fox, i liked the Martial Arts from Blood and the dual wield from Fox. I hope, that the martial arts animations are good and the dual wield still possible.

So far there was nothing to see from Fox, kind of strange, given the point, that she is for sure one of the most recognisable characters in the game.

[swatman]

Grunty 
Shadow
Grizzly
Lynx
Barry

[LoboNocturno]

On 3/8/2023 at 1:04 AM, Bloodcat said:

I liked Scully, Fox, Ice, Blood, Magic, Start was always with Blood and Fox, i liked the Martial Arts from Blood and the dual wield from Fox. I hope, that the martial arts animations are good and the dual wield still possible.

So far there was nothing to see from Fox, kind of strange, given the point, that she is for sure one of the most recognisable characters in the game.

Good point hope there will be few more animations for MMA this time, the turning kick like Van Damme was funny stunner in JA2, i liked Dr. Q for it, he was the best.

[Xeth Nyrrow]

Fidel loves killing and Fidel loves MONEY!

Meltdown, I hope she is able to say profanities still in JA3.

Ice, I'm glad all my favorites are back.

[Phallus_Maximus_Sextus_Non]

1. Ivan Dolvich
2. Gaston Cavalier
3. Cynthia “Fox” Guzzman

[Bloodcat]

On 3/8/2023 at 1:04 AM, Bloodcat said:

So far there was nothing to see from Fox, kind of strange, given the point, that she is for sure one of the most recognisable characters in the game.

Fox seems to be in the game. She is mentioned several times in devdiary 3.

[Bloodcat]

In JA 1 my biggest objective was to hire Mike and in Deadly Games, i went solo through a couple of missions with him.

 

Would be fun, if he appears in JA 3 too, overpriced, as always. But the best should be in the game.