Jump Shoot Jump

Printer friendly version | Rate this Article | Comment on this Article

Thanks to Shasocastris for this.

Jump Shoot Jump

One of the few things a Tau player needs to learn is how to jump, shoot, jump, or JSJ for short. This manuver utilizes the full power of our crisis suits, stealth suits and gun drones. People may call it cheesy, but this is one of our strengths. If they call you cheesy, point out something that signifies there army and call it cheesy, like ATSKNF, or We'll Be Back (for Necrons). That usually deterres people up quickly. Anyway, on to how to pull this manuver off correctly, in my honest opinion.

Deployment

That's the first and most important way to pull off this manuver, deployment. You need to put your crisis suits in a position where they can move in and out with little chance of retrubution from the enemy. Lets look at this Crisis Team.

Here the crisis team is safely behind some woods. These woods are size three so even vehicles can't see them. On your turn, WALK in to the woods. This is very important, do not jump in, it is not worth the risk of losing a crisis suit. I've lost more suits to trees alone than enemy shooting, but that was way back when. Here's what it should look like now.

Now you can unleash firing, and hurt something. Now here's where I, and many other new Tau players, and even some vet, sare guilty of, we FORGET TO MOVE them in our assault phase! That is bad. We want them back in hiding. If we play hide and seek, so what. That's how we fight. Don't let your opponent get intimidated by saying it's girlie to do that. Say "so what" and proceed to wipe him out. ;-)

What to deploy Behind

Deployment is a big part of the 40k universe and what to deploy behind or in is a very tough decision. As Tau (and especialy mechTau) can be very fragile, generally players deploy behind there terrain for cover or hull down, etc. For JSJ troopers, they have dibs on terrain, second only to our main battle tank. They need it to JSJ effectively. Ideally, you want to stck JSJ troopers behind a building or size three terrain. Then nothing can shoot them and they can shoot the enemy. However, sometimes there is no size three terrain available. Then, deploy behind rocks. Rocks are size two, which blocks LOS from everything but tanks and MCs. But remember this, if a tank shoots you it shoots through cover and you get the cover save of 4+! What a deal. You either don't get shot by anything or get a 4+ cover save by things that can shoot you. Very effective.

Things to Remember

There are alot of things that are liitle rules in the 40k game. Those little rules can make a big difference when playing a JSJ tau army. The first thing is that when using jump infantry you only roll for dangerous terrain when you end your movement in terrain. That means you can leave forests without hurting yourself. You must remeber this rule because you always use the jetpack when you use our assault phase move. Here is another important point: the extra move is in the assault phase. This may seem trivial, look at the example.

You see what happened. The guardians were shot at by the crisis suits and fell back. Instead of retreating behind the woods, the crisis suits can now advance. You advance because the morale check for the guardians is at the end of the shooting phase. This is before the assault phase and thus, helps us determine where our suits should go. Many people I've seen move their suits and then the enemy fails a morale check. He says, "oh man I could've moved my suits there." I point out that he can, as the morale check happens before the crisis suits assault move. This little rule has helped me win many games becuase the suits capture of objectives and avdance instead of keeping their heads down.

In Conclusion

I hope this helped many Tau players understand JSJ. If anyone has anything else to add, please fell free. Also, I'd like to say here that JSJ manuvers aren't confined to hopping aroud terrain. You have 12 in worth of movement a turn, which is excellent for capuring objectives and such. I hope you all liked this article.

For the Tau'va!

If you like this site, please consider helping us out greatly by donating to us.

Rate this Article

This article currently has a rating of 7.9 (out of 10).

You must be logged in to rate this article. Please login or register to continue.

Comment on this Article

This article has been commented on 8 time(s).

You must be logged in to comment on this article. Please login or register to continue.

Comment made by Joostuh on 10:15:45, 15 May 2008
O nevermind, Ill ask a mod to remove these 2 posts...

Comment made by Joostuh on 10:14:17, 15 May 2008
And why is my "Enter" not working?

Comment made by Joostuh on 10:13:15, 15 May 2008
You canNOT do this! You can't WALK in the M phase and JUMP in the A phase. The Tau jetpacks are just like normal jumppacks, but half of their movement happens in the M phase and half happens in the A phase. Everything that prevents movement in the M phase also prevents movement in the A phase (like deepstrike or pinning). Of course you can walk into the forest, but if you walk you can only move up to 6 inch in the M phase (just like al jump infantry) and thus you cannot jump out of the forest in the AP (note: this also triggers a Difficult terain test, as you are walking). The BBB seems to have my back on this, and I quote (p55): In the MP, they only move 6" when using their PACKS, but are allowed to move 6" in the AP even if they don't assault. You can JUMP into and out of the forest, but jumping in forces you to make a dangerous terrain test. It would be better to jump round or (if possible) over the forest. You can also choose a flat hill which you can hide behind and jump on top of (as most hilltops are flat and thus don't provoke DTT).

Comment made by Joostuh on 10:13:15, 15 May 2008

You canNOT do this! You can't WALK in the M phase and JUMP in the A phase. The Tau jetpacks are just like normal jumppacks, but half of their movement happens in the M phase and half happens in the A phase. Everything that prevents movement in the M phase also prevents movement in the A phase (like deepstrike or pinning). Of course you can walk into the forest, but if you walk you can only move up to 6 inch in the M phase (just like al jump infantry) and thus you cannot jump out of the forest in the AP (note: this also triggers a Difficult terain test, as you are walking).

The BBB seems to have my back on this, and I quote (p55):

In the MP, they only move 6" when using their PACKS, but are allowed to move 6" in the AP even if they don't assault.

You can JUMP into and out of the forest, but jumping in forces you to make a dangerous terrain test. It would be better to jump round or (if possible) over the forest. You can also choose a flat hill which you can hide behind and jump on top of (as most hilltops are flat and thus don't provoke DTT).

Comment made by Kai on 06:33:32, 8 August 2007
Balistafreak, you can DEFINATLY move in the movement phase and the assault phase, its the eniter point of the jet packs (as oppossed to jump packs). I can't remember what page its on, but its covered in infantry movement types in the core book.

Comment made by fattyboy5 on 02:18:06, 1 August 2007
i wish i had read this when i first started tau...

Comment made by Droids_Rule on 13:52:53, 22 July 2007
Nope, I am 95% sure you can move/jump, shoot, and then jump in Assault Phase. Anyway, nice article. :)

Comment made by shasocastris on 07:53:20, 22 July 2007
Where does it say this? Of course you can use the assault move. You can only not use the assault move if you're falling back.

Comment made by balistafreak on 18:43:47, 21 July 2007
Erm, I was under the impression that if you walked in the movement phase, you could not use your extra move in the assualt phase. Clarification, please?