Jungle Ranger

Combat role

South American Union light ranged infantry — cheap Range 2 skirmisher that takes half damage on Union home territory.

Lore

The South American Union never planned to fight expeditionary wars. Its founding premise was narrower and harder: nobody takes the basin. The Jungle Ranger is that premise given a rifle — light infantry recruited from river communities and highland towns, trained on the ground they will actually defend.

Rangers fight at a distance, from ambush, along approach routes they have walked since childhood. Their equipment list reads modest — a marksman rifle, a hammock, a satellite radio wrapped in oilcloth — because the terrain is the heavy weapon. Invading columns lose more soldiers to the basin itself than to the men shooting from it, and the Rangers are patient about letting the basin work.

Union recruiting posters put it plainly, in three languages: the forest already won. We just keep score.

When to use

Fight on your own territory whenever possible — the half-damage bonus turns Rangers into brutally efficient defenders. Use Range 2 to chip attackers before they close; off home soil they are ordinary light infantry.

Counters