What is meant by "micro mods"? These are ways of playing JA2 that are radically different than the standard way BUT can be played using the standard game and files, perhaps with some .ini file editing.
Living off the Land
The idea is that your band of 6 IMPs1 is recruited to help out the rebels (not run the whole rebellion) and arrive in country to find everything in shambles. What's left of the rebels don't have the equipment you were promised they were holding for you, the people are completely terrified to fight back (with a handful of exceptions), and you're stuck in country until you take out the queen. You don't have the manpower to hold any sectors and have to sneak around the countryside raiding the towns and outposts for equipment.
General rules:
1) You start out recruiting 6 IMPs and can't recruit from AIM or MERC. You can replace dead IMPs. You can recruit in-country people (like Ira and Dmitri).
2) No using Bobby Ray. You can use Tony and other in-country dealers.
3) No training militia
4) No getting income from the mines
5) When you leave a sector destroy everything left behind that you aren't carrying (CTRL + LMB). See below about a "safe" sector to cache ammo.
6) Use drop all for enemy equipment.
For IMPs this team works well: a medic/sniper, a mech (lockpicking and electronics), a heavy weapons guy, and 3 "grunts" (various autoweapons, stealth, night ops, etc.). Everyone gets a minimal rating in everything (see below) because everyone will be helping out.
Playing this way is liberating. You don't spend a lot of time messing with militia and moving equipment around and you don't have to worry much about money. You do spend a lot of time dealing with Tony (trading in guns and getting a bit of cash) and Devin, too. Dodging patrols while trying to make it to a "safe" sector to rest gets really hairy. You can raid a sector by just moving in, taking out a couple of soldiers silently and grabbing their gear, then moving back out without taking out the whole sector. You have to be real careful about accepting locals (like Conrad and Iggy) because of the lack of income.
Be sure to adjust the game progress settings (set income and sector control to 0 and exploring and killing soldiers to 40-60, 50-50, or 60-40). You might want to adjust the IMP settings to allow up to 90 for stats (so you can make a heavy weapons guy with a 90 STR, nothing else above 85) and to allow down to 25. You also might need to up the starting guns and armor a bit; I suggest AUG Paras or perhaps M4s. You can use SciFi but no bugs; they wouldn't matter anyway.
Allow yourself one "safe" sector to store some consumables (ammo, grenades, etc.). Estoni works well though staying there to repair and heal can be dangerous as soldiers commonly move through and thus sometimes discover and confiscate your stored ammo, which is goodness. Actually, getting to Estoni early is key because the stuff Jake carries (med kits, repair kits, armor inserts) is crucial early on and Estoni makes a nice spot to raid in all directions.
Warning: the final push on Meduna is a real challenge. But remember that you don't have to kill everything, just get through to the palace.
1 Note: In case you didn't know you can create more than one IMP mercenary ("IMP" mercenaries are those that you create by following the instructions in the email you get from, well, IMP). After you create one you can create another (up to 6 total) by re-entering the code (XEP624) into the IMP web page.