One of the more difficult tasks is picking teams of mercenaries while consistently winning scenarios in longer campaigns. The choices seem endless, and having to pick from 70 candidates can be overwhelming at first. You'll notice a trend in my advice (if you play longer campaigns): hire younger, cheap mercs with higher wisdom and train, train, train! You will spend more money in the beginning, but, by the end, you'll have a stable team of cheap, versatile mercs and a lot of money (if only more businesses used this advice)!

When tougher missions face you, you will have plenty of depth and enough cash saved to get the more expensive top mercs in the later and tougher missions, if you need them (and these mercs won't be dead or wounded). Here are some of my personal picks and advice:

(If you're surveying the ranks of AIM for the first few times, scroll through the mercs with the left arrow button-- many of the better affordable mercs are toward this end of the list, including Col. Leon Roachburn, "Buzz" Garneau, and Sheila "Scope" Sterlin!)

At the beginning, I almost always pick Buzz, no matter what... she's too accurate to pass up for the money. If I can ever complete a mission without her, I like to give her some medical training (either once or twice)... enough to give her some field medic skills, in case she gets shot and can heal herself without disrupting the other mercs. In my opinion, she is the best merc for the money in Jagged Alliance: Deadly Games.

Speck is one of my favorites... people use him as a mechanic and I like to hire him right away (on long campaigns). He has a high wisdom rating: don't overlook that! So, hire him, but train him in medical [and possibly, marksmanship skills (you never know when you'll need him out in the field... but try to keep him away from battle as a cheap base doctor and mechanic).] when he doesn't have much to repair. He improves rapidly, and his apparent nervousness in war is only a facade... it doesn't affect his combat skills one bit (if you can stand his complaints-- he'll just keep interrupting about feeling nervous). It's all psychological.

[If Speck is unavailable, I like to use Sparky as a mechanic. If neither is available, then Wally Yuntz, Elroy Tolken, or Vinny. The mechanics are specialists and are often only useful for one or two missions at a time, unless you decide to keep and train them. It's best to hire the cheaper specialists rather than to hire a more expensive mechanic who has other skills. When in doubt, ask yourself, "How much is it worth to repair w, x, y, ...?" while looking at mechanics' salaries. Also keep in mind that mechanics can only repair items while on base with the "repair" option, so their other attributes don't really matter (except for experience)! Financially, you'll probably lose money by repairing items, but, strategically, it makes much more sense to have equipment that works every time. Keep your infrastructure intact and your mercs free from jamming guns and holey kevlar vests!]

Mary Beth Wilkens is in a similar boat... if you can afford to train her, keep her out on the marksmanship range for quite a while (she'll improve by 3-5 points each mission before flattening out). She's already a good field medic for giving first aid. In the long run, she's a great bargain. Optimally, she'll have medical skills from 45-60 with a marksmanship of around 70-75 (unless you really want to train her that much more)!

Turtle is so cheap that I rarely pass him up. He's already a pretty good shot, and don't overlook his wisdom (2 missions of medical training and he'll be at 30, which will make him a good combat medic who can also shoot his way out of some tough situations!). If you have more time, you could obviously improve his physical training, as well as his marksmanship (from 75 to about 79-80, if it matters). At under $100 per mission, it doesn't matter how long you train him! Besides, he reminds me of Marlon Brando and he has the best damned line in the whole game ("This is war...! You don't get a phone call!") That's worth way more than $100 right there to have him on your team! :) If nothing else, take his darned kevlar helmet and fire him, for crying out loud, if you can't stand him... gee whiz! Do something with him!

Top snipers: Lynx, Scope, Sidney Nettleson, and Ivan, for their impeccable marksmanship at under $3000. Each can be trained medically with good results (especially Ivan), since they have high wisdom, and Sidney already has good starting medical skills. Any one or more of these mercs can form the backbone of your winning team. Marksmanship is, of course, the best skill to have as a merc!
[Tangent: Which merc is the top shot-- Lynx or Scope? They both have marksmanship of 99, but, in almost every campaign that I've played, Scope can eventually reach a perfect 100 (Lynx always stays at 99, or he does, at least, whenever I've had him on my team)... so, Scope is barely the best sniper by one point!]

Dr. Cliff-- an excellent medic and great shot-- his price is incredibly cheap compared to the original Jagged Alliance (I think he was over $3000 in JA; in JADG, he's only around $1300 per mission!). He is THE doctor to hire. Some physical training might help, but Cliff seems to be quite good already without further training!

Dr. Ahmad Koolhan would be my second choice for a cheaper doctor, if Cliff is unavailable... Koolhan's not as good of a shooter, but has high wisdom, if you'd like to train him in marksmanship. Don't believe rumors about his medical license being suspended: he is a very good doctor!

Hitman is an ultra-cheap marksman with minimal explosives skills (setting explosives). I think he's a pretty cool guy, too (you might not like being called "Ace" all the time, but I like it)! Buzz and Hitman should be your first snipers to consider.

Leech is quite stubborn and unpredictable, but if you can satisfy his thirst for killing, do so, but equip him only minimally in case he decides to take off suddenly (a three-pocket vest, a .357 with ammo-- no helmet, no kevlar vests, etc.)... or fire him after taking all of his equipment, if you're not sure. He's a very cheap marksman while you can keep him.

I hire Reuban every once in a while, just to add variety and strange humor-- he's too silly and cheap to pass up sometimes! Many of your other mercs won't like him (there are quite a few who refuse to work with you if you have Reuban on your team), but, at the very worst, you'll have some lethal hedge trimmers if Reuban is killed or you fire him. People focus too much on winning sometimes-- it's more fun if you hire a variety of mercs, especially some of the crazier ones (Reuban, Postie, Skitz...).

People tend to overlook Edward "Ears" Stockwell-- if you're looking for a cheap field medic or someone just to set (not defuse!) explosives, he's your man, and seems to be a diamond in the rough, just waiting to be trained (several sessions of marksmanship, then more medical training if you can or wish). Besides, he's a good informer and has a really cool voice as a bonus!

You might also find "Weasel" Augustin to be surprisingly trainable as well... unfortunately, he and "Ears" don't get along, so you'll have to choose one or the other for your team. "Weasel" is cheaper and more "god-damn!" fun to have on your team, but "Ears" is more well-rounded, has more potential, higher wisdom, and will let you know in advance which mercs are dissatisfied. If I had to choose between these two, "Ears" would have the slight edge.

Captain Bob Adams has one of the highest wisdom ratings (97)-- his fairly good marksmanship and medical skills can be refined even further with additional training. He's not a bad bargain.

"Carp" Melfield can serve you well for a few missions-- he has slightly above-average marksman abilities, and you can take his kevlar vest and give it to your other mercs (such as Ivan or Buzz)! However, Carp does not improve with training-- don't develop him!

Hector Alvarez is one of the more popular mercs (from what I had seen on other JADG pages) and I'm quite surprised that he didn't make it into the AIM ranks in Jagged Alliance 2. Other people like to train him, and so do I!