# Versus Jump Infantry



## Galahad (Dec 21, 2006)

Versus: Week Twenty-Four​
This week we;re doing something different. Rather than pick a specific unit like Raptors or Veterna Assault Squads or Stormboyz, I figured I;d see what tactics work against Jump-Packers in general.

They move 12" and buzz over terrain, but are hosed if they have to land in it, Jump Infantry generally have to put terrain in between you and them to use it effectively, as opposed to simply holing up in a piece of area terrain like a standard infantry unit could.

Their speed makes them able to close in very fast, without being encumbered by transports...this makes them ideal Assault units. Indeed, except for Tau (whose Jet Packs are a whole different kettle of fish) just about all Jump Infantry tend to be assault-oriented. These are the ones we're going to cover.

So what are your tips and tricks for taking down Jump Infantry?


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## darklove (May 7, 2008)

1 non-assault Jump Infantry that comes to mind that can cause a whole mountain of trouble is Flamers of Tzeentch (sp?).

If I know that the enemy has a lot of jumpy assaulty types I tend to take a Deciever* (*insert your choice of MC here) as a powerful smack-down unit near anything too squishy as extra protection. If they use their jump power to DS then I try to get a large blast on them, like the P-Whip (S9-AP3) (works well vs death company etc).


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## KellysGrenadier (Jul 13, 2008)

Fucking shoot them!

That's probably the last words of every unfortunate Guardsman.


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## Underground Heretic (Aug 9, 2008)

Being a gun line Tau player I have a few different ways I deal with Jump Infantry (mainly Assault Marines and Death Company). This is mostly for shooting armies. 

1. If they are advancing across the board try to get an angle on them. If you can reach them around the cover, you can get another round or two of firing. If Jump Infantry, or any assaulting unit, fails to reach your line on the charge then you can either rapid fire at them or you can get the charge in. On this note, if you know that you will be facing an assault focused army with a shooting army make sure there are at least 18" between you and a concealing piece of terrain.

2. Make sure you have a reaction force. Jump infantry can deep strike behind your lines and tie up your fire support or get into your line. Have someone, for me crisis suits, near your lines so you can stop them before they can assault you.

There are some things, for instance vanguard veterans and death company dreadnoughts in drop pods, that can assault without being shot at most of the time. If you have a fire base or gun line style and get hit with one of these you can counter assault into the melee with any nearby assault based units.

If you don't you can make a much more cinematic end to the assaulting unit. If you have, say 10 Terminators with a chaplain hit your line, just march your troops into rapid fire range. Remember, they can't consolidate into you. Then you can kill them with the rest of your troops rapid firing into them.


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## Galahad (Dec 21, 2006)

Excellent points, Heretic!
For the record, everyone, this is exactly the kind of in-depth, insightful resonse Versus was meant to provoke.


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## darklove (May 7, 2008)

Underground Heretic said:


> Remember, they can't consolidate into you. Then you can kill them with the rest of your troops rapid firing into them.


1 slight problem with this theory: if they win CC in YOUR turn! If this happens then they can just walk up to your next unit and get stuck in without you getting even a single shot in!


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## Spot The Grot (Jul 15, 2008)

noramly when that happens it is a good idea to counter assault hime especialy if you happen to have a HQ near by


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## CommanderAnthor (Sep 28, 2008)

Bombard them bullets, and if they get too close have a flamer ready.



k:


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## darklove (May 7, 2008)

Why would jump infantry be in a tank...?


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## Spot The Grot (Jul 15, 2008)

ive got to say one of my favourites is to use LOS power on them and move them into cover , ( this is only for CC jump infantry) .To get out of the cover they either move at normal speed which means they will get shot easier , they can jump out in which case they have to take a dangerous terrain check and the finla option which is stand there , yes they get a cover save but they are not doing wat they are meant to do which is be in CC


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## Galahad (Dec 21, 2006)

darklove said:


> Why would jump infantry be in a tank...?


Better question is how, what with them not being allowed inside transports and all.


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## Morgal (Sep 26, 2007)

Well as a guard player who has some gun line elements..
Fast moving assault troops are a priority. So if i can shoot them, i do.

To do this move units on the other side of the board to see around the terrain, if this is not possible be far from the terain.

But eventually they will reach my lines, so i can sacrafice a 60-85 point 10 man squad. this ties them up without reducing my shooting a great deal. also gives time for eather a command squad or rough rider to get close to them.

If this is not an option move the sacrafice squad forward and the rest back, let them win combat then shoot them.


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## hippogryph (Oct 26, 2008)

One thing everyone should remember is jump troops are anti-infantry focused and if you have a mechanised army they will struggle against it. Plus a vindicator definitely says no to any jump troops in general.


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## Steel Rain (Jan 14, 2008)

If it's assault marines, shoot battle cannons at them. If it's storm boyz, shoot heavy bolters at them.
/thread


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## CommanderAnthor (Sep 28, 2008)

darklove said:


> Why would jump infantry be in a tank...?


Assault marines in a land raider?

EDIT: Crap sorry I was thinking of assault terminators.


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

What I've seen is POV's from Gunline and shooty armies.

But what about Assault Oriented armies?

I have a Space Marine Assault Army - very little Man Portable Heavy Weaponry. Well, none at all really. I am limited to Plasmaguns, Meltaguns and Flamers, only weaponry mounted on the Dreadnoughts and Land Raider provide any Heavy Power Weaponry, and due to the 3 Dreadnoughts and single Raider, it means that these are armed with Lascannons, and a MultiMelta.

I therefore have little in the way of Ranged to take out Heavy Infantry, relying on Rapid Firing Plasma Guns to take them out (Haha, good joke, move on).

Orks are mainly the worst you can fight, because there is so many of the buggers, and you can't hope, without having insane luck, to kill them all before their other non-jump infantry hit home. In all decency, you are looking to having (Vanguard excluded) your squad tied up for 2 turns, which gives ample time for their charge to hit.

Chaos are similarly nasty - their jump infantry are harder than Orks, and generally better than Marines, unless the Marines tool up, which the Chaos tend to do as well. However, they last longer, but they are far more expensive, and their basic troops are equally good at shooting, so fingers crossed, they've plumped for some Shooty troops (with Thousand Sons, and Emperors Children, why not?). Again, you're fighting MEQ's, so Rapid Firing Plasma Guns are your best friend. Remember to focus your limited firepower on them. MEQ's, from 17 Bolter shots (8 Bolters, Bolt Pistol, and Plasma Gun) at 12" range are looking at taking maybe 3/4 wounds, so says number crunching averages, anyway.

MEQ jump infantry are going to be around 10 strong - You are not going to be able to wipe them all out with the listed 2 units shooting at them.

Winged daemon Princes. I hate these. Whipping people all over, or slaughtering in H2H. Normally, people say shoot them. Ever faced a daemon army with 3 of them, with a grand total of 4 Twin Linked Lascannons? Didn't think so. If they have two, I'd recommend splitting your fire, unless they just fly away, and whipping your troops away from them. Get each down to 2 wounds, before choosing your Assaults. When you've decided which ones you're going to assault first (if the Chaos Player had sense, he'd split them, so that its got the widest radius for their effects), and do that with as much as you can. Assaulting gets your Marine's away from Thousand Sons and nasty shooters in the Chaos Army. When you've decided on your attack, shooting your Lascannons at the remaining one will see it killed. If not, you've got a charging Daemon Prince up your arse.

Vespids. These buggers are rather nasty. Shooting them is the way to go forward. Wipe them out. Seriously. Unless you have some Railgun armed vehicles or Battlesuit units (Packing MEQ slaying guns) which can be insta-killed by Lascannons, then target these at them. Luckily, I've fought them only once - While still practising, I opted to go first. Plasma Cannon landed right on, killed 3/5. The other two jumped in, and opened fire on the vanguard. In return, the plasma gun killed the others. Blast Weaponry, with high strength should be targetting these (unless of course, you can insta-kill some suits).

Eldar. Little Buggers. Luckily, they're quite easy to bring down with Boltguns. However, them damn autarchs with Wings have a nasty habit of Popping up as a nice surprise. Heavy Bolters, Plasma Guns, Bolters, Rocks. Throw what you can at them. They eat Marines for breakfast in combat. Unless you've got a Chaos Lord/Chapter Master with Backpack, (why?), or Daemon Prince, I've not found much that equals their effectiveness for jump infantry.

Death Company. Cheap Assault Marines, lead by a Combat Monster Chaplain. Excellent. just another thing your army has to fight against in Close Combat, against a Close Combat Specialist army. Power Weapon/Fist armed units (Nobz, Chosen, Vanguard), lead by something which is hefty in CQC (Warboss, Lord, Chaplain/Librarian/Captain), without being too detrimental to your armies effectiveness (Oh - 2 HQ choices are important IMHO against Blood Angels to counter these units, so you've got one left when you see your countering HQ bite the dust against 30+ Assault models).

Necrons - don't have one, but spare a thought for Wraiths. Invulnerable, rapid moving power weapon (?) armed monsters, with a penchant for stalling your assault units, and against which your Power Weapons have no more effect than a combat knife. Grey Knights shooty weaponry is pretty handy.

As a side note, imperials can find Grey Knights to be the ultimate as a counter unit. WS5, Str 6 I5 units, lead by Power Weapon armed Justicars, also hitting at Str 6, with True Grit Storm Bolters. A squad of 5 can munch their way through even MEQ full squads. Consider Incinerators for the teleport attack, and Psycannons for Purgation squads. Normal Knights - the only upgrade should be the Justicar has Psycannon Bolts. Terminators. These are teleporters. Consider a Grand Master with Incinerator, and an Elite Choice Grey Knight Terminator Unit, Brother Captain with Incinerator, and as many incinerators as the troops can carry. Try putting them in a Crusader, and your opponents facedrops when he sees 3 Str 6 Flamer Templates hit his Jump Infantry.

Flamers are handy as a Stop Gap if you don't have much to counter an assault. Guardsmen Special Weapon teams, armed with Flamers can clear out a fair amount of close combat nastiness, while Devestators, Havocs and the like each have 4 flamers. Terminators have Assault 4 rending weapons, or Heavy Flamers, followed by an assault move, equipped with Power fists. Daemon Princes - try watching an assault unit get near your Thousand Sons, or tasty havocs, while you're whipping them away.

Just a few ideas to mull over. Sorry that it's based from MEQ view.


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## darklove (May 7, 2008)

Vaz said:


> Necrons - don't have one, but spare a thought for Wraiths. Invulnerable, rapid moving power weapon (?) armed monsters, with a penchant for stalling your assault units, and against which your Power Weapons have no more effect than a combat knife.


They do not have power weapons, and against them power weapons are effective because they negate WBB even if they still get an invulnerable save.


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## Dessel_Ordo (Jul 28, 2008)

I play a footslogger marine army (once again, meq veiwpoint, sorry, sont know anything else really yet) and I found the best way to take down JP assault units is to use terrain to your advantage. By this I mean that you are best off to have all of your heavy weapons (man portable) as elevated as possible (try to get a deployment zone with some city ruins in it, camp a Combat Squad with a PC on top of it... works wonder for cover denial and straight killing power... I guess other heavy weps could work to). Prefferably all of your juicy, dangerous units with an alergy to CC are up, and safe from most JP units trickery, so all that you have left on the ground are units that at the very worst can hold their own in cc with a little help. Dakka the offensive JP units untill the last possible second... then assault them, make very sure they dont get all the extra goodies for being the ones who initiated the assault *shudders* may seem crazy, but its defianately the lesser of two evils.

as for DP's and other monsorous JP types... hit it with the heavy stuff, charge it with a CC oriented HQ and retinue (I found a captain with command squad can take down quite a bit w/out dying, give the capt. a relic blade, one vet a pfist, get the rest pw's and make sure your the one who assaults (took a Bloodthirster and a DP with wings in the same game with that unit... Only the captain survived it all, but it worked))

@vaz I'll be gettin 10 grey knights pretty soon (traded with a bud) I'll have to give those loadout suggestions you have a try.


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## Marneus Calgar (Dec 5, 2007)

Well, I only play marines, obviously, I tend to use sternguard against those fast attacking CC beasts, or, just blast them with a decent tank, Vindicator, obviously they will only hit directly 2 in 6 times, but im sure it can take out a few of the gits.


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## BlackApostleVilhelm (May 14, 2008)

since both my armies are fairly balanced here's my two cents;

keep your squads close enough so that if one were to be assaulted by jump infantry they could be supported by numerous other squads. now i dont meant put them all together in one horde i mean overlapping fire zones. especially since i play chaos the average marine is better at holding his own in cc if only for a little while. this enables the other units to open fire on the jump infantry and killing them in a hail of bullets. find out how many jump infantry they have and once all are dead then you can start spacing out your army a little more. overlapping fire zones is the best bet.


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## Lord Reevan (May 1, 2008)

I play a BA list with nothing but assault units and There a few ways to defeat them. one of the best ways is to horde them. Cheap plentiful units will wear them away faster than you think. These include guard, firewarriors, kroot, guardians, generic daemons do it wel too. 
Also pinning them is always a great help. Snipers, barrages, ordnance they will all do well against them. one sniper shot is all it takes to cause a pinning test and when that happens you're free to assault them and take away their extra attacks for charging and gives you more attacks too. 
multi shot decent strength weaponry also does it. heavy bolters upwards gets rid of them fairly easily as they are wounded on at least 3+ compared to previously, and then being hit by so much means that armour saves will fail....


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## Deneris (Jul 23, 2008)

Thousand Sons are rather spoiled for anti-jump tactics, as the AP3 boltgun seems to be the perfect weapon for mowing down "jumpers". If the jumpers hug cover, then the Sorcerer can simply use "Wind of Chaos", which will likely kill half the squad. Doombolt is also great at jumper krumping. Even "Gift of Chaos" can prove annoying if you turn one jumper into Spawn and then have the new Spawn attack his former brothers, delaying them from the assault.

And even if the jumpers DO get into combat, the Sons are one of the best tarpits around, giving you a chance to move in a Lord or DP to help clear out the assaulting forces...


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