Gold! Gold from the Sump rivers! The Ironhead Squats, one of Necromunda’s newest gangs, have gained their first unique regular hanger-on in the form of the Claim Jumper. In this article, we take a look at this powerful new fighter.
The Claim Jumper, the recently-added unique hanger-on for Ironhead Squat Prospector gangs, is a force to be reckoned with.
Based around frontier miners who seize rivals’ land (rather than the Houston-based steak restaurant chain), they pack some serious gear, tasty skills and a helpful little buddy in the form of a Techmite Autoveyor.
The fighter card
Packing the Part of the Crew Rule, meaning they will show up every game, a Claim Jumper comes with an astonishing sets of weapons, gear, and rules.
Their statline is roughly that of a melee champion: WS 3+, two attacks, good headstats and (at 4+) surprisingly good Initiative for a squat. Straight out the gate, this makes them one of the best melee options available to the range-skewed squats, with melee chops on par with a Charter Master. Headstats are also solid — the only weaknesses, really, are typically slow movement (4″), and a single wound.
Let’s look at the weapons. A Claim Jumper carries:
- An Ironhead Autopistol
- A Gem Extractor
- A Power Fist
- A Power Pick
Yes, you read that correctly: there are no options here, they literally come with four weapons — including the juicy Power Fist — by default.
The Wargear isn’t to be sniffed at either:
- Frag grenades
- Smoke grenades
- Mesh armour
Skill-wise, they have Iron Jaw, which is improved but still a bit meh, and Fearsome, which is good against poor-Willpower chargers (Death Maidens, Goliaths and Ogryns are the prime examples). Together, these make them tough against both chaff and some brutes.
As well as Part of the Crew, they have a new Special Rule, Seize the Prize. This lets a Claim Jumper take the Claim Jump post battle-action: on a D6 roll of 5+, they can gain an enemy Territory boon. It’s not reliable but this is a nice perk in the right kind of campaign.
The Techmite Autoveyor is a pretty weak fighter, with T3, one wound, and one attack. But its job isn’t to fight: it’s to go and crack open some loot crates, using the There’s Always Another Secret rule to extract extra lucre and getting a re-roll on what’s in the box through its Tech Bypass ability. Notably, it has 5+ Cool (more on this later).
This is a lot of capability for one lil person and their robot pal! How much could such a capable fighter cost?
Well, sometimes, you have to laugh. A Claim Jumper costs just 60 credits.
Thoughts and prayers
This is ridiculous. Hangers-on often cost far less than the sum of their parts, but this fighter is a literal and figurative steal.
Yes, there’s a risk: hangers-on automatically leave when they take a fighter card-changing injury (even positive ones), of which there are now several more on the updated Lasting Injury table.
But it’s 60 creds. If you do lose your Claim Jumper, just… buy a new one.
With changes to the rules that mean gangs can now take hangers-on and brutes at foundation, the Claim Jumper is — in our view — basically an auto-include at foundation for Ironhead Squat gangs. Why would you deny yourself this much power and potential economic value at such a cheap price point?
OK, there are only a few reasons we can think of:
- You want to take an Exo-driller at foundation instead. This is a reasonable step at any level given how strong these brutes are, but particularly applicable in campaigns that start with high credit counts.
- You really, really want a different hanger-on immediately for some reason.
- Your campaign doesn’t use loot crates OR territories, and everyone else is playing Van Saar.
- You just hate Claim Jumpers for your own twisted and specific reasons.
How to jump claims and influence people
So how’s best to play a Claim Jumper on the board? Well, they’re such good value that they can happily just sit in your gunline and present a counter-charge threat, freeing up your other fighters to concentrate on shooting and utilising the Techmite Autoveyor as a screen.
They can also go hunting for Loot Crates, although here it’s worth considering the Techmite Autoveyor’s excellent Cool. On most board layouts, this little critter bot will only be a couple of moves away from a Loot Crate. And with their leader-level ability to pass nerve tests, it’s honestly probably worth sending the Techmite out on their own — you’ll only need to make a couple of 5+ tests to avoid breaking, which should be doable. This allows you to get the best of both worlds — a chunky melee threat in your gunline AND some economic power.
Alternatively, the Claim Jumper can march out on their own in search of adventure and kills. They’re likely to be competent, although vulnerable to pinning and not particularly mobile. But if the worst happens, and they get catastrophically killed… did we mention they only cost 60 creds?
Happy claiming, folks? Want to share your cool claim jumper conversion with us? Got a burning question about working out target priority? Drop us a line at Contact@Goonhammer.com.
