Hordes: Jaga Jaga
Let’s talk lady gators. Albino lady gators!
Blindwater players are spoiled for great Warlocks and Jaga Jaga is no different. She has a nice mix of old and new tricks to help lead the way to cold blooded domination.
Escort is wonderful. While Jaga Jaga is hardly the only Gatorman Warlock with some movement shenanigans there is always something special about a spell that applies to your whole battlegroup. With Escort and the Swamp Horror’s Elasticity, you’re looking at Wrasslers that can charge/Trample and end that movement in melee with something up to 12″ away – even more if you toss them first. Too bad the movement buff doesn’t affect Jaga herself or she’d be a potent assassination piece in her own right with that Poison Death Snake of hers. If you compare her movement tricks to other gator ‘locks, Rask’s Boundless Charge might give some extra movement, but it requires that you charge, and the freedom to not have to move in a straight line can never be overstated. And while Barnabus’ Warpath is also fantastic, it isn’t as good of a tool early game. Additionally if you keep a nice little 3 point Snapper within 3″ of Jaga it’ll give her a nice ARM buff that will stack with Spiny Growth for a very respectable ARM 20.
Ghost Walk goes great with Escort. A Wrassler that ignores Free Strikes makes a much better assassination tool since you don’t have to worry about chunks of it getting torn off as it makes it’s way to it’s target. Slip right around those Warders or Trample past Doom Reavers without fear of injury. Or better still use that 7″ walk to go right through a building on your way to a caster kill.
Deadweight is another potential game winner, but only if your opponent let’s you use it. Start every turn by checking to see if a good Deadweight opportunity has presented itself, and whether or not said opportunity is in fact a trap to get Jaga killed. A good deadweight casting can be an instant game changer. We’re talking about a spell that can keep Mulg or Beast 09 out of your hair for a turn. Of course it’ll work on Colossals too but they can still shoot you.
Grave Wind is another beauty. This one will make any one of your models ridiculously hard to kill. All it takes is one miss and whatever is trying to kill you gets pushed away. Bonus points if the push blocks another enemy model’s charge lane. Yeah it won’t happen that often but that just means when it does it’s that much funnier. Watch out for reach models that will probably get to continue attacking after the push, or huge bases that don’t care about your pushes even one little bit.
Since Spell Piercer is Jaga’s signature spell I saved it for last. Some gator lists can struggle with ARM, so while Spell Piercer isn’t a direct counter in and of itself, it is nice to know that your opponent won’t be able to get their ARM even higher with Arcane Shield or Defender’s Ward. Be wary of the things Blessed won’t let you ignore: spells that grant concealment, Stealth, etc – although gators aren’t too shooty for the most part, so that isn’t such a big deal. Of course if you just have to be different and want to be the shooty gator guy, Spell Piercer will let your Spitters ignore the Choir of Menoth’s “no shooting” prayer, so there’s that too. And while gators didn’t have too much of a problem with incorporeal before now, it’s nice to have a spell where you don’t even have to think about it.
The one rough patch in my love affair with Jaga is her feat. First, it conflicts with a lot of other gator tricks. Primarily I’m referring to the Swamp Shambler Bokor’s Raise Dead and the hopefully-to-be-released-in-the-next-six-months Sacral Vault’s Deathly Dominion. Whenever you kill anything during Jaga’s feat turn, you’ll have to pick which effect you use.
Regardless, in the right circumstances this feat can be killer, but those two words, “right circumstances,” can mean everything. Not every list you end up facing will have all the infantry you need to take advantage of Legion of Death. Even if they do, timing it for maximum effect may be difficult. As you go crashing into your opponent’s front lines, you might find none of your heavy hitters were placed right to take advantage of all those little Dark Shroud solos you made.
On the bright side, even if you don’t actually get to use the Dark Shroud part, those Undead solos can wander off and go get in the way of your opponent’s army. That’s one round where you’ll get to hear them curse under their breath about having to waste their precious resources to re-kill their own models – assuming they don’t want their old comrades making free strikes and they like having open charge lanes to your army. A couple of units of posse can munch a lot of infantry in a turn, so an opponent that brought a lot of bodies along can find their lines hopelessly jammed up. If they do kill those models, you actually can go ahead and add them to your unit of Swamp Shamblers which is kind of hilarious. They don’t get RFP until the very end of your opponent’s turn.
All in all, it’s just one of those feats I’ll have to play to get a proper feel for. Getting all your pieces lined up to take advantage of a feat is a big part of your skill as a player. Jaga’s is just harder to feel out on paper. With Rask or Barnabus, just reading the text is enough to for me to know more or less what I can do. With Jaga it’s going to take a game or two before I think I’ll truly appreciate it. And even if there are times when the feat doesn’t look like it will be that helpful, there are always my other lists.
So without further ado, here is my first Jaga list. It’s not too original but I think it will get the job done.
Jaga-Jaga, the Death Charmer – WB: +5
– Blackhide Wrastler – PC: 9
– Blackhide Wrastler – PC: 9
– Swamp Horror – PC: 8
– Bull Snapper – PC: 3
Totem Hunter – PC: 3
Viktor Pendrake – PC: 2
Gatorman Witch Doctor – PC: 3
Gatorman Posse – Leader & 4 Grunts: 9
Gatorman Posse – Leader & 4 Grunts: 9
First the obvious. I’m not keen too keen on Jaga’s tier. In fact I don’t really see much of a use for it. I don’t know if I’ll ever bother with a Sacral Vault for her. This is not just because of the aforementioned feat conflict, but also because when I have a Warlock with escort, I want to spend those 8/9 points on another Heavy Beast. And I want at least two maybe even three units of Posse to maximize the number of enemy models I can kill on feat turn. Also there is no Totem Hunter in her theme and I think he is going to be the tops with Grave Wind. Cast it early and run that sucker up into the middle of things for some early game hair-pull-inducing chaos. Also with Leap it’s easy to get him where you want him to add bodies to the Legion of Death. Pendrake is another model you can’t get in theme, and he’ll give Jaga four dice against living beasts. You do want Jaga to one round a Mammoth don’t you?
Everything else in the list should hopefully be pretty self Explanatory. Two Wrasslers for Escort plus a Horror to hand out Elasticity. Two units of Posse because two units of Posse. And a Witch Doctor to help make one unit even harder to kill. But what if I had a burning desire to start the game with free upkeeps (despite this warlock’s 7 Fury) and an extra 2″ of deployment (Which Escort kind of eliminates the need for). If that were in fact the case, I guess I would go with something like this.
Jaga-Jaga, the Death Charmer – WB: +5
– Blackhide Wrastler – PC: 9
– Swamp Horror – PC: 8
– Bull Snapper – PC: 3
Sacral Vault – PC: 8
Feralgeist – PC: 1
Feralgeist – PC: 1
Feralgeist – PC: 1
Gatorman Witch Doctor – PC: 3
Gatorman Witch Doctor – PC: 3
Gatorman Posse – Leader & 4 Grunts: 9
Gatorman Posse – Leader & 4 Grunts: 9
I think it would work ok. I still have a couple nasty heavies to abuse escort with. I still have two units of Posse. But even before worrying about Jaga’s feat I already have some conflicting abilities. If I Zombify the Posse with the two Witch Doctors (which I had to take as a Tier Requirement) the Sacral Vault won’t get any tokens from them when or if they’re killed since they will become Undead. Yeah, I don’t think I’m going to bother buying and painting a third Feralgeist to run this list unless I really see the need for it after trying that first one a few times. The third option would be to take a couple units of Trogs and some Shamblers, but at that point I really feel like I’m just taking units that have some theoretical Synergy with pieces I’m being forced to take, rather than trying to build an effective list.
~Thanks for reading. And tell me Minion players, how have you been running Jaga Jaga?
