So, I can't say that I didn't give this game due diligence. I started with the Stracciatella open source engine re-write. After playing for a several hours, I found out the hard way that my boredom was due to a lot of missing features (like enemies not trying to retake towns with militia stationed in them) and also that stealth was functionally broken in the first stable build that I tried.
Not being discouraged, I tried 1.13 since everyone seemed to be praising it. I had enemies shooting off four times the number of shots per round as my characters, meaning an insta-killed mercenary if you walk around a corner to scout (I'm not save-scumming through this game more than I have to).
That leads to my final effort, simply taking the CNC-ddraw that 1.13 used and adding in widescreen support manually. While this was a nice upgrade from the 640x480 original resolution, it did little to help make the game more interesting. The game pacing is painfully slow after working my way across the Northern part of the map. Even with a sizable squad of mercs, enemies are seemingly still outnumbering me in cities 2:1. I guess maybe I could grind more cash and buy more mercs, but that just bloats the already tedious and boring micro-management of the tactical segments.
In general, there are a lot of overarching design choices that I feel were in poor taste for this game in contrast to how robust the tactics system itself is. Maybe if I hadn't played the Fallout games before I even heard of Jagged Alliance 2, I'd feel differently; because I liked nearly everything about those games' combat much more. However JA2 is determining weapon/to-hit accuracy, it feels awful and unbalanced. Enemies have shot me through cover and walls while my mercenaries complain about 'being Harry Houdini.' I feel like that inconsistency was only amplified once modders started messing with the code in 1.13. Looking past the 'charm' of JA2, I can confidently say avoiding this one is a smart move.