So, today I won myself a Cube Jager at a local mini-tourney. So, I'd like to find out some info about the unit, what people think about, what are it's strong points and it's weak points, that stuff. At first glance to me, they seem like a solid little irregular Airborne Infiltration unit. They are relatively cheap ( That 0.5 SWC can be interpreted as costing you a Celestial Guard with the Kuang Shi device or an Acon Regular Minelayer, so there is that. ). Paramedics being Paramedics they probably won't be doing much healing I'd assume, maybe a high PH HI or two, but not much more, so probably gonna end up doing classifieds or button pushing more often than not. They seem to be armed with some semblance of decency too, what with having Stealth and a Boarding Shotgun or SMG they can sneak with into the better rangeband and cap some poor fellas in the back. E/Mitter on the SMG profile seems nice too, might brick a TAG every once in a while. That Monofilament CCW doesn't seem like it'll see much use, but as one of our local players ( Technically one of, if not the best player in our entire local playerbase and country. ) pointed out, shanking someone in the back with Stealth is still an option if you for some odd reason decide not to shoot them ( Maybe they're in some Nimbus zone or in smoke for some odd reason? ). So, what do you guys think about this unit? Like it, hate it, hate to go against it? Really looking forward to finding out.
It's a lot of interesting tools on a chassis that just can't support them. CC14 means your only chance of winning CC against an HI or TAG is to hit them with your EMitter first, but this also requires you to get within 16 inches of them first (or else shoot with awful odds.) The best case scenario I can see for a cube jager is popping up on the side and flanking a beefy HI or TAG, hitting it with an EMitter, then walking up and CCing it to death. The problem is that with CC14, you have only a 42% chance to kill something with your Monofilament per order if you are unopposed, or in other words, you need to spend 3 orders for an 80% chance to kill your target (and again, that's unopposed.) At a point the SMG has better odds since it has a 70% chance per shot of hitting something unopposed (your odds of missing all three shots are astronomically low). And all of these take so many orders -- walking in from the side is going to take 2-3 orders of just walking to hit them with your EMitter, then another order of walking to shoot or 2 more to CC, then the 2-3 orders it takes to kill something. And that's an absolute best case scenario. Take the same kit and give it to a CC20 MA3 BS11 unit? That's waaaaay more playable for the type of hunting it seems the kit was designed for.
It's an 18 point AD Specialist, that's 10 points less than PanO's next cheapest AD Specialist. The mono CCW is a red herring, it's there to bloat the profile and stop it being an autoinclude for some faction/mission combinations, you're not supposed to use it!
Yeah, its totes about having an AD shotgun/smg that can push buttons, the monoblade is just one-in-a-million garnish.
I have never tried the Boarding Shotgun variant, but the SMB and E/Mitter variant has done a lot of work for me. It has a low enough points cost that it can be held off until the 2nd or 3rd turn without feeling like you spent a bunch of points on something that did not participate in the entire game. The E/Mitter is a great ARO weapon, but I have also had a lot of success attacking heavy infantry, and Tags in the active turn. If you can get them in the back you are generally at 14s, and because the Jager has stealth it is not too difficult to get to a point outside of 8" without prompting a change face.
Stealth only work for Short Movement Skills and Cautious move. It doesn't work for Entire Order movement such as the AD skill.
That is correct, but with stealth it is very easy to drop in outside of an enemy units 8" zoc, and then sneak around them to line up a good shot.
Yeah. Drop behind a TAG, line up a good shot with your SMG, and laugh at their -9 change face ARO. Or, hell, hit them from beyond 8" so they don't even get to declare an ARO.
I rarely leave home without my Cube Jager in Ikari Company, and would be thrilled if I could take it in Druze. Having an AD:2 specialist is a huge deal over AD:1, you don't need to plan out during deployment where you're going to land, and you don't need to worry about enemies placing shotguns and flamethrowers guarding the edges nearly as much. Being a Paramedic is also handy, he's brought back Wu Ming and Al Fasid for me on multiple occasions. For my other armies, I'd definitely consider him in vanilla Ariadna, which doesn't get AD2, and for that matter, he's the cheapest AD:2 capable specialist in the game.
This alone makes me think the Cube Jager is a useful unit to consider when running any Vanilla faction. The fact it is a cheap specialist that can walk in from a board edge AND is for his cost no pushover in a fight is amazing IMO. I kinda regret at first being very ignorant of the presence of merc units... until I obtained a Jager and a desire to collect some Ikari. At which point I am starting to appreciate Armand, Krakots and the jagers a lot more. I'll be trying mine out soon enough as well, alongside trying out Crane Agents.
I've used it a couple times and it walked off a board edge in good range in cover and shut down a Duo of Geckos with three orders... Haven't used it extensively but I did bring it a couple times and it was okay in that game
I have used the Jager a few times now... I honestly quite like the Boarding Shotgun profile, since it both allows said Jager to: A: Push a button, because that's what the game is about. B: Sneak under the enemies radar and enter their side of the table with a shotgun and Stealth. Stealth being the real joy here, since you can enter the 8" rangeband safely at that point.
I learn he is paramedic on my Druze Bayram on the third game... and he was on the enemy side! XD so it was a mess! but a fun choice to have, hope they keep being mercenaries on the game, like the fluffy role they play
Ran him in ikari for an ITS event and he performed really well. I think it was power pack or one of the new missions with weird split DZ zones. Came on late game and exploited a good gap at the back, shot up a few guys and claimed the objective. Worked nicely
Solid unit, wins games I take them regularly too, 0.5swc puts them in a balanced place, they are probably too good at certain missions without swc tax.
I think like all Mercs he's good for some factions and not for others. Great cheap troops in Ikari and can be a real surprise for your opponent. At least. In Ikari you can have him, Yuan Yuan, and Bashi all jumping in! Unlike Bashi he can pick a side to come in on, on the fly. Don't expect him to be killing stuff. He's mainly there as a button pusher or to get some points in a section.
