Previously I gave a brief explanation of comparative advantage and how it can be used to choose a team that is more cost effective than certain popular choices. It used an example of how overrated and overpriced Fidel could be outperformed by a team of Ice and Larry in Jagged Alliance 1. A team of specialists who each have a comparative advantage in their own specialty can will be more cost effective than a team of people who are all good at many different things.
In order to use that general insight more effectively, we must answer the following questions:
- “What specialists does my team need?”
- “How do I know someone is actually good at that role?”
- “Which one do I pick?”
What follows is a discussion on how to use comparative advantage, the knowledge of your character’s stats, and certain information about the game to answer all of these questions. The end goal is a process that can be used to produce cost effective teams that are capable of winning the game.
Note: The details that follow are specific to Jagged Alliance and Jagged Alliance: Deadly Games. They also apply to Jagged Alliance 2, which builds upon those first two games. These details do not apply to Jagged Alliance 3; the concepts are the same, but the mechanics of how skills are applied in that game are very different.
I intend to write separate articles about JA2 and JA3, largely because I’m writing this as a series of blog posts rather than a single in depth comprehensive guide, so there’s limits to how long I want the whole thing to be. (I may concatenate the posts and publish a guide at the end of this process).
I claim the following roles on a team are needed for successful execution of a Jagged Alliance 1 campaign:
- Marksmen - to close with and kill the enemy
- Locksmith - to pick locks encountered in the field
- Demolitions Expert - to disarm landmines and other traps in the field
- Medic - to bandage wounded mercs in the field
- Doctor - to heal wounded mercs back at base
- Mechanic - to repair equipment back at base
Marksmen obviously require high marksmanship, but additionally they should have a larger than average number of action points as well. You want them to be able to chase down enemies and attack them multiple times per turn. I like to choose people for this who have Marksmanship above 80 and a minimum of 16 Action points; these are above average but just slightly less than 1 standard deviation greater than the average merc.
Astute readers will note that this is the only role I named with a plural noun. Having multiple marksmen is advantageous. For the remaining roles, only one of that role is necessary on the team at a time.
Locksmiths need to pick locks in the field. Locks are picked according to how many “Door Points” a merc can produce vs. the door’s difficulty. Door Points are a derived statistic that is computed from a merc’s wisdom, dexterity, mechanical skill, and level. Anyone who produces more than 2000 door points is a candidate to be a Locksmith. It uses the following formula, rounding down to the nearest integer:
((Wisdom * Dexterity * Mechanical) / 200) + (250 * Level)
Demolitions experts need to have high explosives skill. This is in very short supply amongst AIM mercs; the average demolitions skill is 25.5, with a standard deviation of 27.2, which means anyone above 52 is abnormally good.
Medics exist to bandage mercs in the field, only. There is some debate regarding whether or not you actually need medics, since any merc can bandage themselves or any other merc. I would suggest that a dedicated medic is worthwhile for two reasons: a medic can bandage a wounded marksman while the marksman can continue shooting, and medics use first aid kits more effectively. I would consider anyone with a medical above 40 as a possible medic.
Unlike the Medic, the Doctor heals mercenaries who stay at the base to have their wounds treated for the day. The hit points treated by doctors is calculated by a special “Doctor Point” formula. Most mercs are terrible with Doctor Points; 21 is the statistical mean with a standard deviation of 28. I limit myself to people who have “Doctor” in their name (except Raffi, for obvious reasons) and Fox. Doctor Points are calculated with the following formula, rounded down to the nearest integer:
2((Dexterity + 4)/5)(Medical/100) + ((Medical * Wisdom) / 100) - (Medical / 5)
Mechanics stay at home base all day and repair damaged items that have been brought in from the field. Items are repaired with “Repair Points”, another derived statistic like Door Points or Doctor Points. For cost reasons, the only two people even worth thinking about for the mechanic role are Sparky and Speck, even though a handful of other mercs do produce more Repair Points than them. The Repair Point formula is:
Mechanical * Dexterity * 0.015
So, given that we now know what roles we need and how to tell if someone is actually good at that role, how do we pick who to fill it? Simple: take the salary of every merc, and divide it by the key metric that the role you are considering them depends on. This gives you the merc’s cost for that ability. Pick the one that costs the least who you can still accept.
You don’t stop there, however. Through the course of the game, mercs will level up. AIM Mercs are entitled to a 50% pay increase on level up. You will find that after a few levels, your bargain-basement mercs will not be the cheapest anymore; those guys who were too expensive for you at the beginning of the game will start looking like a bargain. So, whenever the merc you have in a given role becomes more expensive than a possible replacement, you trade up by whatever means at your disposal (e.g. firing, or letting them die in battle; in JA2 you just let the contract expire, which is more humane).
I use spreadsheets for all of this. I should probably post them. Maybe that’ll be a website feature, since I don’t want to do the Google Doc thing, even though I use Google Docs. Anyhow, next time I’ll talk about JA2 specific changes and additions to this method.