What will be your first team?

[Solaris_Wave]

When did Ivan lose his ability with heavy weapons? I always used him as squad support in JA2 and gave him a machine gun at the earliest opportunity.

[M1k3K]

On 6/5/2023 at 12:51 AM, moqueur said:

Team one ("Intellectuals"):

IMP — competent marksman and leader with high wisdom and agility. No supporting skills — there are other mercs in the squad for that. Just shooting and teaching. Wisdom 85.

Buns — another purely combat merc. She is affordable, has decent physical stats and good marksmanship. Has a "Negotiator" trait useful in conversations. And for some reason I always liked this narcissistic girl for being so amusingly serious and egocentric. Wisdom 93.

Meltdown — the last combat merc on the team. Has a "Psycho" trait useful in conversations. And yet another strong and enjoyable personality. Fascinated to see her in the same team with Buns. Wisdom 80.

Livewire — the best mechanic you can get relatively cheap. Has a "Scoundrel" trait — the last of three traits to have impact on dialogues. She is also a new merc — and I believe I should hire at least one of them 😁 Wisdom 94.

MD — the best medic in the game. Never really liked him but I'm actually out of options. Wisdom 94.

Barry — the explosives specialist. Totally agree that he is heavily underpriced. Can't miss such a bargain. Wisdom 91.

Gameplay style — taking more nasty decisions and not hiring legendaries at all. The plan is to move slowly but steadily. All of the mercs are relatively low-level but have really high wisdom. I expect them to learn really quickly and to become a force to be reckoned with.

My thoughts go very much into a similar direction. But I am wondering if that team is going to break the bank, especially going the "slow but steady" approach.

I am very curious to see how the starting money translates to the final game (at least from the balancing of the difficulties). If I recall correctly from the streamers you should be able to start with IMP, Livewire, Barry & MD on 2 week contracts. Probably with your "Intellectuals" on 1 week contracts, but I'd assume they would still break the bank on 1 mine.

Potentially it could be an option to go with a sub-set of the "Intellectuals" and then reinforce the rest, once you get the additional 30k (or probably the same sum as the starting money on the difficulty). Maybe you can even go with 2 week contracts for all of them, at least that would make it a little bit more reasonable... even though couriers/ diamond sales will potentially still be needed.

(I somehow remember 2500$/day per mine but that might vary depending on diff & loyality or could have been a placeholder in the demo. But that would be 35k/2 weeks, which should without the medical fee be enough for Livewire, Barry, MD & Buns... not sure about Meltdown. But even without that, with captured diamonds/ artifacts & couriers it should work. But I would still rush for the first mine & fleamarket.)

 

[GODSPEED]

On 5/8/2023 at 4:29 AM, Wigen said:

Buns, Buns and...Buns 😄

Leave Buns alone please, she is mine!

[Solaris_Wave]

Having a team classed as 'intellectuals' has just given me a vision of mercs that are wearing black polo necked jumpers, black berets, round glasses, a pipe in their mouth and talking both about philosophy and the Human Condition.

 

"My father has been taken prisoner! The state of the country has been thrown into turmoil! I beg you to help us!"

"I think, therefore I am."

"What!?"

[Lunokhod]

This Golden account a bit ruin my plans.

So i will pick americans, perfect squad for debut: Wolf, Fox and Grizzly

Cant wait... >__<

[FGSchichau]

I don't use IMP's so my first team would be:

 

Hitman (leader, militia trainer, marksman) (6,630.00$/week)

Buns (markswoman, militia trainer) (5,480.00$/week)

MD (3,770.00$/week) or Mouse (5,010.00$/week) (doctor)

Barry (explosive expert, second mechanic, he's OP in JA3) (2,990.00$/week)

Livewire (4,600.00$/week) or Steroid (5,100.00$/week) (mechanic)

+ maybe Kalyna (4,200.00$/week) if I have some money left

Edited June 10, 2023 by FGSchichau

[Claudius33]

I'd like to have "The Africans" team for my first run. That's going to be rather difficult.

• Blood, South Africa : point man  + decent medic + some explosives knowledge (31)
• Ice, USA: assaulter, can help Intel, Militia and Repair missions
• Vicky, Jamaïca : support, sniping, mechanic, can help Intel and Militia missions if not repairing anything. I likely have to hire her on a day to day basis.
• IMP Nzinga 'Queen' Mbande, Angola : High leadership/wisdom, likely negociator/teaching.
• or IMP Seh-Dong 'Amazon' Hong-Beh, Benin, same specs. I haven't decided yet

Yes both are historical characters.

Yeah the team is weak regarding explosives and doctoring. Need to avoid bulletss and mines. Besides I likely can't afford Vicky for a week. Well with Blood and Vicky the team is grenades savvy ...

 

 

 

[moqueur]

On 6/8/2023 at 11:55 PM, M1k3K said:

I am very curious to see how the starting money translates to the final game (at least from the balancing of the difficulties). If I recall correctly from the streamers you should be able to start with IMP, Livewire, Barry & MD on 2 week contracts. Probably with your "Intellectuals" on 1 week contracts, but I'd assume they would still break the bank on 1 mine.

Good point. I was thinking of daily payouts instead of 1-week prolongations. Especially with my second team — I believe it will be impossible to prolong them for another week even with two mines under control. While less cost efficient, one day prolongations really helped managing funds early on in JA2 so I'm gonna try it again 😉

[moqueur]

On 6/9/2023 at 1:20 AM, Solaris_Wave said:

Having a team classed as 'intellectuals' has just given me a vision of mercs that are wearing black polo necked jumpers, black berets, round glasses, a pipe in their mouth and talking both about philosophy and the Human Condition.

 

"My father has been taken prisoner! The state of the country has been thrown into turmoil! I beg you to help us!"

"I think, therefore I am."

"What!?"

Actually I would really love to see such a merc — though I would imagine him as a stereotypical college professor. Beard, glasses, tweed jacket, black turtleneck. Maxed out wisdom. Quoting Beckett, Faulkner and other sophisticated writers. JA always loved to make fun of stereotypes so why not adding a typical high-brow intellectual to the list? Would really love to see him communicating with Steroid 😆

[Briggadoon]

"What will be your first team?" well thats easy:

Barry - 2.990 (expl)

M.D. - 3.770 (medi)

Igor - 3.770 (stealth/fighter)

Livewire - 4.600 (mech/medi) (will get all +Marksmanship-Magazines until Mark:75 then she will also be a sniper)

Ice - 7.200 (sniper)

IMP - 7.000 (lead/sniper)

----------------> 29.330,- (30.00,- starting cash as far as i have seen in all streams)

A 6 man squad that will be sufficient on all tasks. Ice and Igor 81/78 wisdom will be sufficient. Barry, M.D. and Livewire 91/94/94 wisdom... fast leveling for the Perks i want/need.

For my Imp:

Heal   Agil   Dext   Stre   Wisd   Lead   Mark   Mech   Expl   Medi

 75     85     85     50     85     85     85      0      0      0

Personal Perk: Any (not decided yet but so far 'Negotiator' is favorite)

Tactical Perk: Stealthy/Teaching (or maybe Night Ops... not decided yet)

He will be Leader/Sniper and pretty good at that even though he has no Mech/Tech/Medi-skills

[Lunokhod]

9 hours ago, Briggadoon said:

(30.00,- starting cash as far as i have seen in all streams)

But this is for noobs. I recommend u to play "Commando" difficulty. It will be 20-25 thousand at the start.

9 hours ago, Briggadoon said:

Mech   Expl   Medi

 0      0      0

Classic. ^__^

[Briggadoon]

22 hours ago, Lunokhod said:

But this is for noobs. I recommend u to play "Commando" difficulty. It will be 20-25 thousand at the start.

Classic. ^__^

This wont change much in my constellation:

Barry - 2.990 (expl)

M.D. - 3.770 (medi)

Igor - 3.770 (stealth/fighter)

Livewire - 4.600 (mech/medi) (will get all +Marksmanship-Magazines until Mark:75 then she will also be a sniper)

----------------> 15.130,- (20.000,-)

These four will be my starting Team, after i gained ~2.130 cash i will bring in my IMP

and after that (if the cash is flowing) i will bring in

Ice - 7.200 (sniper/Flanker) or

Buns - 5.480 as 'discount' Ice (lower stats (especially Str) but 93 Wis)

 

Also: "Classic. ^__^" well everyone i know min-maxed their IMP so you are absolutly right.

Edited June 20, 2023 by Briggadoon

[Raeven]

On 6/19/2023 at 2:51 AM, Lunokhod said:

But this is for noobs. I recommend u to play "Commando" difficulty. It will be 20-25 thousand at the start.

AFAIK starting funds for other difficulty levels are not known yet.

[5Cents]

I will choose just 1 or 2 mercs. Testing Games harshness and unforgiveness in its hardest difficult &  hopefully Iron man mode, right from the start and learn it the hard way..😁

If iam able to succeed, rest of Crew will follow later in.

[Chris Xia]

 

Первая команда? Конечно, это должны быть Иван и Игорь Дорвичи.

[Koinsky]

I have yet to explore the starting options but in JA2 i used to run something like: 

Barry
Igor
Wolf/Ice
IMP (marksman, leader) 

I would later get Ira as a medic.

In some runs i might go with Lynx, as i believe he was the fastest way to get a 5.56 weapon, that made all the difference early on. 


Some others i would run an early two men team of IMP and an elite merc like Shadow or similar. Then, when the firt mine was captured, i would dismiss the expensive merc and bring on the cheap promissing ones.


 

[Uncle Nick]

Starting off with 3 person team:

1> IMP (myself)

2> Trevor 

3> Someone, whoever available in AIM with a good rifle who i'm going to fire after one day and keep their gun. 

[chr_isso]

Remember, you get about 20k after conquering the first town, Ernie (3rd Sector).
So you might wanna start small and get some good guys after that.

[sandman25dcsss]

1 hour ago, Uncle Nick said:

Starting off with 3 person team:

1> IMP (myself)

2> Trevor 

3> Someone, whoever available in AIM with a good rifle who i'm going to fire after one day and keep their gun. 

Is it a good idea to play with just 2 mercs?

[chr_isso]

47 minutes ago, sandman25dcsss said:

Is it a good idea to play with just 2 mercs?

For an experienced player? Why not?
I guess it will depend how well stealth/throwing knifes etc work in JA3.

My buddy soloed JA2 Vanilla with Shadow.

[sandman25dcsss]

7 minutes ago, chr_isso said:

For an experienced player? Why not?
I guess it will depend how well stealth/throwing knifes etc work in JA3.

My buddy soloed JA2 Vanilla with Shadow.

On last difficulty level I suppose? Now I will laugh every time someone says devs couldn't add a toggle for displaying CtH because game wouldn't be balanced.

Edited July 11, 2023 by sandman25dcsss

[D13]

My initial team is more about different quality levels than names (can't know which individuals will be available). For me it's usually two cheap mercs with potential, plus one strong merc who makes sure the others live long enough to reach that potential. It will be interesting to see if I can actually get a strong merc with the new AIM gold level requirement.

One merc I will dearly miss is Barry. He died during my first JA2 campaign back in the 00s, and now I feel I should not pick him in JA3, if only to keep my JA story consistent. Made worse by having played JA2:UB with mercs imported from that JA2 savegame, which meant no Barry there either.

I hope nobody dies during my JA3 campaign or JA4 will be hell 😇

[Uncle Nick]

1 hour ago, sandman25dcsss said:

Is it a good idea to play with just 2 mercs?

This is JA, you have to try different strategies first, don't spend all your money on mercs in the early stage of the game. From what i've seen in the beta previews, the enemy never chase you, it's like they play a zone defence.

 

So, maybe 2 good shooters can pick off one enemy at a time? Who knows? I will try this first, save some money.

[sandman25dcsss]

3 hours ago, Uncle Nick said:

So, maybe 2 good shooters can pick off one enemy at a time? Who knows? I will try this first, save some money.

That would be awful, I had similar experience in xcom2 where sharpshooter and reaper could clear the whole map in stealth mode i.e. enemies never shot back. Really repetitive and boring. 

Edited July 11, 2023 by sandman25dcsss

[GODSPEED]

I haven't planned yet; I tried hard to NOT see what mercs say, or merc profiles.. just the game mechanics. I want the discovery and surprise when I play the first time.

I'm waiting to see the mercs in their profiles, hear their voices and see what skills (qualities/flaws) they have.

I usually like sticking to the more cost-effective mercs, even later in my game.

Voices seem to be quite different from JA2, but I'm hoping Buns will be her!

Edited July 11, 2023 by GODSPEED