Infinity Unit Review: Cube Jäger, Mercenary Recoverers
The Cube Jäger is an alien mercenary which joined the battle during Season 9 as the ITS exclusive mini, and can be used by many armies. They are fairly inexpensive, with some unique kit, but at first glance may not feel like that incredible of a unit, but I have grown to love them.
Stats and Special Rules
Their stat-line is fairly standard, BS11 and WIP13, and backed up with a minimal amount of survivability with ARM1 and BTS3, they do however have a decent pile of special rules. All Cube Jägers are Paramedics, and therefore specialists, so can be handy in ITS missions. Airborne Deployment L2 combined with Stealth helps them get safely to objectives, or to unconscious troopers. It is for those skills in particular that I really enjoy the Cube Jäger, in Ikari Company, we have minimal infiltrating specialists, and our other Airborne specialist only has Parachutist, which is a lot less flexible, and if deploying first, it’s very easy to pick a bad spot to deploy in. The difference between AD1 and AD2 is tremendous, and shouldn’t be undervalued.
Profiles
Submachine Gun + E/Mitter. Since this is the cheapest profile, it is probably the most common you’ll see on the table. The submachine gun itself isn’t terribly powerful on the Cube Jäger, but not bad either. The submachine gun does allow him to enter suppressive fire, and anyone knows that getting an AD troop in a bad spot with suppressive fire can be a problem to deal with. Furthermore, the E/Mitter, while only B1, can be incredibly problematic, should you hit your target, it is now ripe to get cut in two by the Cube Jäger’s monofilament CCW.
Boarding Shotgun. For a few more points, you can exchange the SMG + e/mitter for a boarding shotgun. With the same effective range as the SMG, the shotgun exchanges a point of burst, and the ability to go suppressive, for an extra +3 within 8″ and an impact template. AD2, stealth, and impact templates is a recipe for disaster, able walk on wherever is the most opportune, then sneakily advance into shotgun range, and potentially blast apart a few enemy models. If you are taking a Cube Jäger, I wouldn’t necessarily always jump for the SMG, with some leverage, the shotgun can really be ugly.
On the Table
The primary job of a Cube Jäger is to walk safely onto the table, and accomplish ITS objectives. They do have some ranged weaponry, but it’s short ranged, and while the monofiliment CCW can be really devastating, the Jäger isn’t that great in combat.
Despite the 0.5 SWC cost of the Cube Jäger, they are a lot cheaper than most factions options for airborne specialist troops. Many armies pay near near 30 points for an AD specialist, and most o the time only end up using AD Level 2, for that matter, they’re the cheapest AD2 capable specialist in the game, let that sink in. Also, don’t forget that this guy is a Paramedic, not just a specialist. I’ve had some luck deploying them to support Heavy Infantry who have gone down, using the Medikit to put them back into the fight. Sometimes a 50% chance to get a Wu Ming or Al Fasid up is well worth it.