Jagged Alliance 2: tonight there’s gonna be a jailbreak

Tixa isn’t too far away from Alma, so after resting up and training militia in the town, the Dispensables are ready to go bust the mine owner’s brother out of prison. Attacking Tixa during the day would be a huge mistake, so again, I go in at night.

In the past, I’ve often gone with a frontal assault on Tixa, because I usually don’t take the prison until I’ve progressed a bit farther in the game, and I have enough high-powered weaponry to blow a whole right into the building. However, for my second Thin-Lizzy-inspired entry, I’m going to be a bit sneakier.

After the jump, all hell breaks loose, alarms and sirens (don’t) wail

As Ira so helpfully points out as soon as the Dispensables arrive on site, the warden of Tixa has a house on the prison grounds. I come in from the east, so the house is right in front of me. Mantis cuts a hole in the fence and lets herself in.

The warden’s husband is…surprisingly helpful. According to him, the warden keeps “popping out kids” and never spends time with them, so he has to do all the work, he’s sick of the marriage, and so on, and so on. After listening to him complain about his wife for what seems like ever, he actually gives me a key to her office. So, uh, yeah, I’m going to go kill her now… that cool? Right, see you later.

Mantis gets the drop on the warden and gives her some shuriken-based reconstructive surgery. See those two switches on the office wall? The one on the right floods the prison with tear gas. The one on the left warns the guards about it. Guess which one I’m not going to hit?

With my entire team equipped with gas masks, and the guards busy wiping the tears and snot from their face, taking the rest of the prison is the work of mere minutes. The guards from the front gate run across the yard to try and help, but they’re stopped by the combined efforts of Buzz and a newcomer to the team, positioned on the roof.

I hired Raven before I left Alma, while the rest of the Dispensables were training militia, and immediately switched out her Colt Commando for an M24 sniper rifle. Raven’s skills are more suitable for wielding an assault rifle, but she’ll do as my resident sniper in a pinch. She also shines in nighttime operations, just like this one.

None shall pass.

As I’m emptying out the cells, I meet my rescue target, Dynamo, and recruit him to the team. He’s ambidextrous, so I give him Meltdown’s old pistols, (which she’s been carting around in her backpack,) until he can get something better. Oh look, he’s psychotic too. That’s what, 3 psychos now?

Oh well, at least none of them are claustrophobic, because we’re going underground. I’ve taken the ground floor of Tixa, but there’s a basement I have yet to clear out.

The basement can be a huge pain because of two doors that require either extremely high lockpicking skills or high explosives to get through. You can see one of them at the very top right of the above picture If you can’t get through them, about half of the basement level will be completely closed off to you. Fortunately, Chopshop can break into anything, but Meltdown was waiting with TNT in case he failed.

Once I clear out the underground, I meet Shank.

So basically, Shank’s a former trust fundie and a pothead. He only costs $20 a day, but you get what you pay for. He’s got a high wisdom, but his starting stats are worse than Ira’s. His low strength, (less than half my next weakest merc,) means that he’s not even any good as a pack mule. I equip him with a pistol and a set of binoculars; he won’t be doing much fighting, but he’ll do as a spotter for Raven.

Also, there’s this little hole in the floor:

Tixa goes down way deeper than just two levels, but I really, really do not want to go down there until I’m ready. I know what’s down there, and it (they) will completely tear me apart unless I’m prepared. So yeah, not going down there yet.

In the meantime, just look at all that loot.

I’m especially excited about that LAW. The streets of Arulco’s capital, Meduna, are guarded by tanks, so I want to start stockpiling LAWs ASAP in preparation for my eventual push to the queen’s palace. I also now have enough night vision goggles to outfit nearly all of my team. They’ll be useful, because it’s time to experience the nightlife of Cambria.

Next time: taking Cambria
Click here for the previous Jagged Alliance 2 entry.

Dufresne, known to his friends as Sam, lives and works in the Boston area as a game designer. His hobbies besides gaming include the guitar, LEGO, and the occasional regime change.