Airborne operations

[Image Miroir]

What about airborne operations in JA?

It could be fun and structured that way:

1. Each merc is lightly equiped (just one weapon, and few gears)
2. Other equipments for the mission are gathered into a canister that will also be dropped
3. The player decides where each merc and the canister will land (according to objective/chosen tactic)
4. Merc (and canister) land more or less close to their landing target according to Agility (canister gets a default ability)
5. Weather could also affect precision (you decide if you keep the mission going on, or abort)
6. Once landed mercs have to recover their equipment (could be a race against enemies)
7. Gather/deploy your troop "according to" to your initial strategy (or what you can do from now)
8. Fulfill your mission objective

[Hendrix]

Oh dear god.

That reminds me of some of the missions in the old game Wages of War: The Business of Battle.

The mercs would be paradropped to the mission map, carrying pistols or small smgs. If you were lucky 4/8 mercs would be in fighting condition when your first turn started, the rest either incapacitated by the enemies or missed the drop zone. Hopefully 2 mercs would be in the vicinity of the equipment canister to get some rifles and giving them a fighting chance.

Those missions would normally end in disaster even if the objectives were completed.

[Image Miroir]

@Hendrix I was afraid to be the only one knowing about that game! It's why I wasn't mentioning it.

:-))

You see, over 20 years later you still remember it. For sure not for every mission, but a few like that could be memorable for people who weren't as lucky as we were playing Wages of War.

[Hendrix]

@Image Miroir still got it installed and running on both win 10 & 11 😁

I actually preferred that game to JA:1 and JA:DG, although I thought the mercs individual voices from the JA games were really cool to Wages generic 2 voices.

The JA2 Demo hooked me however and I played it relentlessly until I later got the full game.

Edited April 29 by Hendrix
Spelling

[Solaris_Wave]

I never knew of that game! I wonder why I missed it? Maybe I was in-between getting my PC magazines at the time, or it never got reviewed in a printed UK mag. Either that or it was one of those games that arrived without fanfare and was quickly forgotten. This would have been at a time when PC mags were much thicker, had more games coverage and were more essential purchases for information, so again, I am surprised I don't know about the game.

Apparently, after a quick Google, the team that worked on the game went onto make 101: The Airborne Invasion Of Normandy. That was another turn-based squad game. I think that might have got a review but didn't get too high a score. I remember playing it many years ago. I found it on an Abandonware site. I found it hard to get into as there was no manual for it and back then, instructions were large books and there would be very little in the way of instructions built into the game.

[Claudius33]

I also played Wages of War. Nice memories too. It was a initiative based system, right? The paradropped mission was memorable indeed. Also The guys outfits were depending on the mission. Kinda ninjas outfits for a heist mission in offices. Snow camo outfits for a mission in the North. Real nice touch.

@Hendrix how do manage to run it under Win 10/11? It needed the Win 16 bits library, if I'm correct. 

[Hendrix]

@Claudius33

Don't remember exactly how I got it working. Will dig up the notes I made and get back to you on that.

[Tzg]

10 hours ago, Hendrix said:

@Image Miroir still got it installed and running on both win 10 & 11 😁

I actually preferred that game to JA:1 and JA:DG, although I thought the mercs individual voices from the JA games were really cool to Wages generic 2 voices.

The JA2 Demo hooked me however and I played it relentlessly until I later got the full game.

Now, that's a name I've not heard in a long time. A long time.

Ah that was a good one but somewhat flawed. I don’t remember now what I didn’t liked about it - but remember getting frustrated a lot. I think (but could be wrong) I felt like there isn’t enough purpose in it. I think I was fresh after playing (a lot and I mean A LOT) of Sabre Team and Wages wasn’t giving me a good reason to continue - I think (if memory serves) there was lack of any story that would hook me. 
JA was released same year although being inferior many ways (the top down kinda view vs isometric really annoyed me) it had a good story. 

[Tzg]

11 hours ago, Claudius33 said:

I also played Wages of War. Nice memories too. It was a initiative based system, right? The paradropped mission was memorable indeed. Also The guys outfits were depending on the mission. Kinda ninjas outfits for a heist mission in offices. Snow camo outfits for a mission in the North. Real nice touch.

@Hendrix how do manage to run it under Win 10/11? It needed the Win 16 bits library, if I'm correct. 

I think version from this website worked for me some time ago no problem (on windows 7 or 10 though) https://www.old-games.com/download/8809/wages-of-war-the-business

[Hendrix]

I do recall some old .dll file was driving me nuts trying to get the game to run.

The game claimed the .dll was missing from the C:\Windows\System32 folder in windows, despite placing the .dll in that folder.

However placing the .dll file in a different folder, (if I remember correctly the windows\SystemResources) folder fixed the error and I could launch the game.

Be aware you will probably have to try a couple of different compatibility settings.

The PC were I have the notes of how I got the game to run is packed down at the moment since I am moving my home office to a different room. Will probably have it all running by the end of next week.

[Claudius33]

Thanks @Hendrix and @Tzg. I have the package in ISO format from a so-called "abandonware" French site. Take your time, there's no rush.

[Image Miroir]

So, if all of us remember these airborne missions quite positively, I think the development team should think about it.

Again, it's not for all mission, but at least one like should raise the positive feed-backs on JA3.

The proof, if one needed, that old gamers can bring something positive!

[Solaris_Wave]

13 hours ago, Tzg said:

Ah that was a good one but somewhat flawed. I don’t remember now what I didn’t liked about it - but remember getting frustrated a lot. I think (but could be wrong) I felt like there isn’t enough purpose in it. I think I was fresh after playing (a lot and I mean A LOT) of Sabre Team and Wages wasn’t giving me a good reason to continue - I think (if memory serves) there was lack of any story that would hook me. 
JA was released same year although being inferior many ways (the top down kinda view vs isometric really annoyed me) it had a good story.

Someone else remembers Sabre Team!

[Tzg]

1 hour ago, Solaris_Wave said:

Someone else remembers Sabre Team!

Spent countless hours playing it. I think pre JA2 only original UFO took more of my time and Laser Squad before it if anyone still remembers this one! 

[Solaris_Wave]

I was just talking about Laser Squad recently in another thread.

https://community.jaggedalliance.com/forums/topic/153-jagged-alliance-1-my-opinion-whats-yours/?do=findComment&comment=3500