The Jagged Alliance series of tactical RPGs is one that is near and dear to me. I’ve stopped working on Starbase Zebra for the past month and a half because I’ve been playing Jagged Alliance 3, which I can say is a true sequel to Jagged Alliance 2 and very enjoyable. But, I don’t intend to write a review of JA3 here today; instead I’m going to finally write some of my thoughts on team selection that I’ve had brewing for about the past 10 years or so.
Most advice on which mercs to select for your team from walkthroughs and guides on the Internet is completely wrong. Here are some examples of commonly believed, but incorrect opinions:
- You should only hire mercs with a Marksmanship above 80
- Fidel is the only explosives expert worth hiring, because he’s the only one who can shoot well
- (JA2) Those guys from MERC are all garbage, just skip them
- (JA2) Trevor is an amazing value because he’s good at both explosives, mechanical, and shooting
The mistake common to all of these opinions is that they do not properly account for the unstated objective of all Jagged Alliance games. As a mercenary commander, your objective is not merely to defeat the enemy of the day, but to make a profit while doing so. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize the cost of the team in order to maximize said profit. In order to optimize the costs, it is necessary to account for opportunity costs and select mercenaries who possess a comparative advantage in the skills required to be successful.
Comparative advantage is a counter-intuitive concept if you’ve never heard of it before, so let’s illustrate it with a non-JA example. Let us imagine two people who both work at the same company:
- Bob, a 28 year old corporate sales executive. Bob can bench press 400 pounds and not break a sweat, type 200 words per minute, and negotiate multi-million dollar sales deals.
- Claire, a 60 year old secretary. Claire has bad knees and asthma, can barely carry more than 40 pounds, and types 60 words per minute.
Here’s a question: If Bob is better at carrying heavy objects than Claire, why is it Claire’s job to carry packages fully of heavy things to FedEx? Why is an old sickly woman doing the work that an able-bodied young man would do faster and better?
The answer is that there is a very high opportunity cost to having Bob carrying packages; any time he spends carrying packages to FedEx is time he’s not spending negotiating multi-million dollar sales deals. Even though Claire is worse than Bob in every way at carrying packages, it’s it is advantageous for both of them if Claire carries Bob’s packages to FedEx while Bob closes sales deals that keep the company afloat. In economics terms, Bob has an absolute advantage over Claire in carrying packages, Claire has a comparative advantage over Bob in carrying packages. By working together, they’re both better off than they would be separately.
Let us now consider an example from Jagged Alliance 1. Fidel is typically considered by many players to be a very desirable explosives expert, because he has 97 explosives skill and 85 marksmanship. However, he cannot disarm bombs and shoot people at the same time, he can only do one of these at a time. In the first game, Fidel’s rate is $1550/day, so you are paying ~$16/explosive point/day, or ~$18/marksmanship/day.
We can create a team with the same capabilities as Fidel, but at a lower opportunity cost, by selecting two mercs who specialize in one skill each. Ice has a marksmanship of 86 and a daily rate of $1300/day, or ~$15/marksmanship/day. Larry Roachburn has an explosives of 80 and a daily rate of $140/day, or ~$1.71/explosives/day.
Together, Ice and Larry cost less than Fidel and are more capable than Fidel is alone; Ice has more action points than Fidel does, and two mercs are more effective at nearly anything than just one. Yes, Larry is less skilled at Explosives than Fidel, but he’s way, way cheaper and still better than most other mercs at explosives. Yes, Larry has problems which make him less desirable than Fidel, but you can repeat this exercise with Kaboom and Smoke in the place of Larry and still end up paying less. That’s because Fidel is ludicrously expensive.
So, that is a small example about how a team of 2 specialists can be cheaper and outperform a single specialist, due to comparative advantage. By selecting a team of specialists, you can create a team that is simultaneously cost effective and successful in the field. Next time, I’ll show you what specialties your team needs, and how to pick them across all of the major games in the series.