How (Not) To: BA Jumpers II

So, we’ve done a How To on Jumpers for BA and looked at quite a few lists recently. We’ve come to grips with the problems deep striking imposes (again these are limited for BA so they can do it successfully), highlighted our key units which we shouldn’t leave home without and left a few options open but what should you NOT take with your Jumper army?

Firstly…anything that’s not got a Jump Pack (Blood Rodeo list is an obvious design exception but that is not a pure Jumper). Tacticals, Devs, all vehicles, Sternguard, Termies, etc. You’re all out. Out. Outoutoutoutout. I never want to see you again! Game Friday? Anyways, whilst these guys have DS options such as Drop Pods or Teleport, they are not what we are looking for. They are more likely to force the army to come in waves (how’s that working Daemons?) and it just doesn’t synergise with your army well. Yes this even means Libby Dreads w/wings are out. They can’t DS by themselves and don’t get Descent of Angels, it’s a sad but true fact (aka balance). This also means Mephiston (and any other character w/o a Jump Pack & chuck in the Sanguinor for good measure) is out. You need synergy here because you are at a disadvantage on the drop and you need to force your opponent’s hand and crush him as hard as you can when you do drop and subsequent turns. Splitting your army generally does not do that.

So, what units can we take that we haven’t covered? Dante (to an extent I haven’t covered him, consider him useful and you can take him), Chaplains, Reclusiarch, Captain & Death Company have all been overlooked. Two of these are HQs and are therefore competing with BL Libbys…not good (Dante can pull it off because he gives you an uber DS unit + Sang Guard as Troops) which help make this list tick by threatening castling. The Captain is also just plain bad…and for 15 pts more you get the Reclusiarch’s abilities (the 30 pts for the Reclusiarch over the Chaplain is a good buy, +1 to A/W/I? done) which are really suited to DC. Other than that they don’t add enough to the army like the Libby does (anti-castling + Hood) as they really only improve one unit (quite significantly for DC). The Captain also doesn’t add anything outside a combat boost (which the Reclusiarch does better). No special options to make something else Troops and a boring statline makes me sad (I really want to re-paint Shrike and use him). So skip x2 here for the Jumper army.

The Chaplain is the same really as Reclusiarch and I know I could find 125 pts I’d rather spend elsewhere. Again, it really buffs DC but Jumper lists are strapped for points as is and particularly since you combat squad a lot, the re-rolls really don’t have that much effect.

So what about Death Company? I said before in my Armies in 5th for BA I wasn’t a fan. Lack of rending is bad. Whilst the new boxed set is fantastic, they just don’t cut it at 35 pts w/a pack. On foot/in a Rhino they are a more appropriate buy but the near double in price for Jump Packs is hefty. We’d also want to include Lemartes or a Reclusiarch to gain the most from the squad and we are really eating into our points here and still don’t have any anti-armor or low save ability outside of the Chaplain dude. Start making any significant in-roads into this unit and your opponent will leave it on a merry chase thanks to Rage.

Running a Jumper army comes down to a few specific and key units:
Libarians
ASM
Vanguard Veterans
Honor Guard
Sanguinary Priest

With optional
Dante
Sanguinary Guard

When you start moving out of these units, your army loses synergy or something significantly important. Whether it’s melta, weight of bodies, FNP/FC bubbles or anti-castling/DS defense, these units provide that. It can be a bit boring but this is why we all invest thousands of pennies into this crazy hobby of ours!