Jagged Alliance

Hire a colorful squad of mercenaries and liberate an island one sector at a time in this deep tactical strategy classic — Jagged Alliance is free in this browser tab, with no installer, no setup pass, and no account. Sir-Tech's acclaimed 1994 turn-based tactics game loads in seconds and blends mercenary management, exploration, and tense squad combat. A touchscreen copes with the hiring screens, but combat asks you to put a merc on one particular tile and spend points carefully, and that is pointer work.

How to Play Jagged Alliance Online

Your first contract is roughly a minute away:

1. Press Play to bring up Sir-Tech's original Jagged Alliance.
2. Wait a moment while it loads — the island map and the A.I.M. roster come up before you hire anyone.
3. Click inside the game frame so the game captures your clicks; you'll be issuing every order with the mouse.
4. Hire mercenaries from the roster using your budget, then begin.
5. Move your squad sector by sector, fighting enemies and reclaiming the island.

Jagged Alliance rewards careful tactics — use cover, aimed shots, and your mercs' skills, and manage your budget between contracts.

Controls

Jagged Alliance is played with the mouse, controlling your mercenaries:

Each mercenary has limited action points per turn — spend them wisely on moving, aiming, and shooting, and use cover and stances to stay alive.

What Is Jagged Alliance?

Jagged Alliance is a turn-based tactics game developed by Sir-Tech and released in 1994 for MS-DOS. You're tasked with liberating the island of Metavira from a villain who has seized control, and to do it you hire a squad of mercenaries — each a distinct character with their own skills, personality, salary, and quirks — from the colorful A.I.M. roster. You then deploy them to reclaim the island sector by sector, fighting enemies, defending trees that produce a valuable sap, and steadily pushing back the opposition.

Jagged Alliance is beloved for its rich blend of tactical combat and character-driven management. The turn-based battles are deep, rewarding the use of cover, stances, aimed shots, and each merc's individual abilities. But just as memorable are the mercenaries themselves — full of personality, with relationships, attitudes, and banter that make managing your team a delight (and occasional headache). Combine that with budget management, equipment, and a campaign of gradual conquest, and you get a strategy classic that launched a much-loved series and still earns praise for its depth and charm.

How the Game Works / Gameplay Basics

You start by hiring mercenaries within your budget, choosing from a roster of characters who vary widely in skill (marksmanship, medical, mechanical, explosives), personality, and cost. You then deploy your squad onto the island map and advance one sector at a time, with each sector that contains enemies becoming a turn-based tactical battle. In combat, each merc has limited action points to move, change stance, aim, and fire, so you must position carefully, use cover, take aimed shots for accuracy, and exploit your team's strengths to overcome the enemy.

Between and during fights, you manage the broader campaign: handling your budget (mercs charge by the day, so progress must outpace costs), equipping your team with weapons and gear, healing the wounded, and protecting the island's valuable sap-producing trees, which fund your operation. As you clear sectors, you expand your control and face tougher resistance, hiring or rehiring mercs as needed. The interplay of tactical battles, resource management, and the personalities of your squad gives Jagged Alliance lasting depth and a uniquely engaging character.

Beginner Tips

• Balance your squad. Hire mercs with a mix of combat, medical, and technical skills.
• Use cover and stances. Crouching and prone improve accuracy and survivability.
• Take aimed shots. Spending more action points on aiming greatly improves your hits.
• Watch your budget. Mercs cost money daily, so make steady progress.
• Protect the sap trees. They fund your campaign — don't let them be destroyed.
• Heal between fights. Keep your mercs patched up to avoid losing them.

Why Play Jagged Alliance Online?

A browser tab is the shortest way back into one of the deepest tactics games ever built. No installer, no floppies to swap mid-mission — a 1994 disk release that expected its own corner of a hard drive is served straight to the page instead. An afternoon covers a few sectors; the whole of Metavira is a much longer commitment.

The island can be liberated from any machine with a browser, and nothing is written to your drive along the way. For a game its own sequels never entirely replaced, that kind of availability matters.

Troubleshooting

• Game won't start? Let it run all the way through to the A.I.M. hiring screen before you click anything.
• Mouse or keyboard not responding? Click once inside the frame; Jagged Alliance is driven almost entirely by mouse clicks, so nothing at all happens until it has focus.
• Text hard to read? Fullscreen makes the merc stats and action-point counters legible, and you need both at a glance mid-firefight.
• Running slowly? Close other tabs and background apps; large sectors with many enemies are where you'll feel it first.
• No sound? Check the tab isn't muted — your mercs comment on almost everything, and that chatter is half the game's character.
• Losing mercs? Use cover, take aimed shots, heal often, and don't overextend.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Jagged Alliance free to play online? Yes. Sir-Tech sold this at 1994 retail prices on floppy disks; hiring your first merc here costs nothing.

Does anything get installed on my machine? No. The island, the A.I.M. roster and the whole campaign come from this page — no installer, no disk swapping, no sign-up.

Can I play Jagged Alliance on mobile? It runs, but the merc stats and the action-point counter are small print, and misreading either one mid-firefight tends to cost you a mercenary.

Is this the original 1994 Jagged Alliance? Yes — Sir-Tech's first Jagged Alliance, the game the rest of the series grew out of.

What kind of game is Jagged Alliance? It's a turn-based tactics game where you hire mercenaries and liberate an island sector by sector.

Can I save my progress? Yes. Save from the game's own menu, and keep a slot from before you enter each new sector — losing a well-equipped merc costs you both money and days.

An occupied island and a roster of mercenaries await. Load it up and begin the liberation.