So list posting isn't the norm, but I thought it might be interesting on the eve of what will hopefully be some decently large changes, to post what my archetypal list was starting to look like after a bunch of games and comparing it to what changes when the releases come out. Yang v8 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 10 4 CELESTIAL GUARD (Kuang Shi Control Device) Combi Rifle + Light Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 13) KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5) KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5) KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5) KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5) ZHANSHI Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11) ZHANSHI Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11) RUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1 | 20) SÙ-JIÀN Spitfire, Light Flamethrower, Panzerfaust / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (2 | 59) HAC TAO HMG, Nanopulser / Pistol, DA CCW. (2 | 68) GROUP 2 5 3 3 SHAOLIN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 5) KRAKOT RENEGADE Submachine Gun, Chest Mine / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 15) GŬILÁNG (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27) WÈIBĪNG Yaókòng Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16) CHAĪYÌ Yaókòng Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) ZHANSHI Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19) SHAOLIN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 5) WARCOR (Aerocam) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3) 6 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army In general, as expected for Yu Jing ARO is a challenge I just decided not to worry about solving. the abundance of cheap units means certain numbers of casualties is expected. Flash pulses, chain rifles and smoke to conceal important units are the order for the day. The list provided enough punch that even a successful alpha wasn't going to neuter the facepunching ability. A more specialist focused mission would trade some of that face punching and sponging for more specialists. Combat group 2 was focused on sponging. Either the guilang put down some mines, the krakot went on a suicide mission or the bots moved up to sensor the midfield for the Cat and Rui Shi to go chew up. Going into turns 2 and 3 its all about using command tokens to keep fueling the main group, I'd save at 2-3 solely for this purpose - so normally on got 1 coordinated order in, had to make that count. Probably the hardest part of this list was learning that sometimes a plan required orders being spent on only certain models and the sexy stuff like the hac tao or su jian can eat it for the greater good early or doesn't get many orders spent. Based on the teased units, I'm tempted to trade in the krakot and a couple peripherals to get a zhencha as I think they add a different vector of attack. They can also potentially fulfill the role the cat does (albeit less brutally) and still be a specialist when I need to cram more specs in the list. Maybe post your lists here or posit how you see the upcoming changes affecting this list!
The following finds itself in alot of my lists Yu Jing ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 5 4 8 SHAOLIN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 5) SHAOLIN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 5) SHAOLIN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 5) SHAOLIN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 5) KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5) KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5) KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5) KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5) CELESTIAL GUARD (Kuang Shi Control Device) Combi Rifle + Light Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 13) 0.5 SWC | 53 Points What normally happens is there's a 10th model in this combat group, sometimes a lone Guilang. I could see the Zencha taking the spot on the occasion. The main goal of the combat group is to be utterly expendable and handle the brunt of the fighting. Last night it got to turn 3 and my opponent was legitimately surprised combat group 1 still had 9 orders in it because he'd engaged and killed alot of my models, and there'd been alot of casualties on both sides. At which point I pointed out that the majority of fights that had broken out had been between group 2 which had been largely hurled at him with abandon just to trade for his midfield and skirmishers.
Ha classic. It took me awhile to start realising against an ISS opponent to try ignore the KS to an extent rather than let them bleed your orders... Pistol crits became a running gag though. What's your go to list to fill that out?
My fairly typical YJ list post-Uprising looked about like this: Yu Jing ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 10 ZÚYǑNG Lieutenant (AutomediKit) HMG / 2 Breaker Pistols, Knife. (1 | 39) DÀOFĚI Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) MULTI Rifle / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0.5 | 59) GŬILÁNG (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 26) GŬILÁNG MULTI Sniper Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 33) YĀN HUǑ Hyper-Rapid Magnetic Cannon / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 54) NINJA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Tactical Bow / Pistol, DA CCW, Knife. (0 | 29) Zhanshi YĪSHĒNG Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15) YÁOZĂO Electric Pulse. (0 | 3) MECH-ENGINEER Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15) YÁOZĂO Electric Pulse. (0 | 3) WÈIBĪNG Yaókòng Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16) PANGGULING (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) 5.5 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army Daofei, both Guilang, and the laid Mine are all within 8" of each other so that any one of them could be the mine or the minelayer. Ninja gets hidden-deployed where you expect the Daofei to get killer hacked. The baggagebot could be replaced with the 8pt repeaterbot, and the Ninja can be replaced with a Tiger.
It's kinda damned if you do damned if you don't. If you attack them they bleed your orders, if you ignore them they jump all over you and cause havoc. I don't have a go to list. I keep practically every list I've ever cooked up in binders and carry them with me. I play everything and anything, the point is to be erratic and unpredictable and do weird weird shit. That configuration is basically just a cheap bolt on I can throw into any list and it mostly solves ARO issues by virtue of ablative armour. Camo Marker sitting in the open near a beacon, it's a mine right? No, it's moving. Guilang? No. Dao Fei? No. Hac Tao with TO Camo downgraded one level to disguise himself? Yes. Max AVA Tigers. People expect the first, they may even see the second coming. Sometimes they might even expect one of them to have an MSR because they know you own one. They don't usually see the third that's been hiding in a third combat group with a Warcor for 3 turns. Sometimes leave an empty slot in Combat Group 1 all game. People spend time looking for and defending against Tigers and Ninjas that don't exist. Run the Mad Traps Pheasant enough, so that sometimes if you want to save points and discourage people from diving your active LT model, you disguise a Mad Traps Kanren as one. Or do that with a BS Pheasant and have a hacker Kanren disguised as that.
I also do many shenenigans in most of my lists, but sometimes they don't work against opponents who don't know your army well enough. They are immune so to say and just ignore the mindgames. I don't personally like lists with too many orders. For once because playing fast with them can be painful and for the second, I sometimes have many orders left and cannot achieve anything with them because the vital attack pieces died to bad luck. So I tend to build lists with around 12 to 14 orders and I think the addition of the new IA profiles will benefit my playstyle in both IA and Vanilla. (Never played ISS)
I don't really have a standard list as such save for the instinct to stick with a single combat group. Below if a reasonably typical example of the kind of list I like to run. Took it to a small tournament and it did well for me. (Other list had Sun Tze2 in it with a pair of guilang snipers, so I'm all for trying gimmicky shit.) Redruth2 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 10 HSIEN HMG, Nanopulser / Pistol, AP CCW. (2 | 61) DÀOFĚI Lieutenant Spitfire / Pistol, Shock CCW. (1.5 | 55) ZÚYǑNG (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / 2 Breaker Pistols, Knife. (0 | 28) CRANE IMPERIAL AGENT (Sensor, X Visor) MULTI Rifle, 2 Nanopulsers / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 52) NINJA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Tactical Bow / Pistol, DA CCW, Knife. (0 | 29) MECH-ENGINEER Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15) Zhanshi YĪSHĒNG Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15) KǍNRÈN Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, MadTraps / Pistol, Monofilament CC Weapon, Knife. (0 | 28) PANGGULING (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) CHAĪYÌ Yaókòng Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) 3.5 SWC | 299 Points Open in Infinity Army
I think the cat is irreplaceable. Although Zhenchas are good IMO, they don't seem to fit your list. You have a really tight shooting trident with the Hac Tao/Suji/Rui over there that fits every bill. I imagine Zhenchas working on lists that are heavily invested in taking control of the midfield or clog it up, like the one @Section9 posted. There, you have your Guilang couple, a Daofei big daddy and the almighty Ninja KHD doing work. If you sprinkle a Zhencha (and even a Libertos) you could be counting 5-7 camo markers midfield (depending on how many minelayers you take). Those markers can press what needs to be pressed and shoot what needs to be shot. Having a long range gunner to back them up is a possibility, but a costly one. I'm thinking Lunah is more than a pretty face now that Marksmanship LX is useful, but I haven't tried her yet. Maybe something like this: Imagine a Zhencha and a Libertos in there ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 9 4 CELESTIAL GUARD (Kuang Shi Control Device) Combi Rifle + Light Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 13) KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5) KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5) KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5) KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5) DÀOFĚI Spitfire / Pistol, Shock CCW. (2 | 55) GŬILÁNG (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 26) GŬILÁNG (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 26) RUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1 | 20) GROUP 2 4 3 4 NINJA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Tactical Bow / Pistol, DA CCW, Knife. (0 | 29) SHAOLIN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 5) SHAOLIN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 5) SHAOLIN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 5) ZHANSHI Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19) ZHANSHI Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11) KRAKOT RENEGADE Red Fury, Chest Mine / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (1 | 24) 6 SWC | 258 Points Open in Infinity Army Libertos in group 2, Zhencha group 1. Points add up to 300. You have AF Rui Shi, like you should, a heavy midfield game and some button pushers.
Honestly, my go to lists ( Note I'm still a relatively new player. ) mostly boil down into: 3-4 HI. Max AVA CG FOs, with Xi Zhuang most of the time. Usually a Guilang Sniper. And then some combination of a Ninja, Zhanyings and Tigers. Been also using the Cube Jager a lot recently. And nearly always a single group list as well. I've just been really leaning into that "Massed Armour/Armored Warfare" style of play, really.
Nice, a fair few squishies in a 10 model list. How did you find using the crane? It's a model I kept wanting to use but always struggled to get to work for me
Triangulated fire on 10s? He's got the distance to outrange HMG bots... CC22, MA3 means he's a risk to take on with another CC monster, and he can bust up TAGs and objectives with PH16... WIP 14, 2 Nanopulsers means he's got a good chance of intuitive firing (yes, I know it's burst 1) onto models, and also forcing dodges from even 2 wound models. And, an x-visor for when you want to go on suppressive fire... what's not to like?
Usually for me, the price and order consumption that it takes to try and make use of all of that. I've come to the conclusion that Cranes can do so much that it's easy to try and maximize it which will make for a remarkably poor order efficiency. On the flip side, I've gotten remarkably good use out of Zhanying LT profile simply because that profile doesn't really need to get anywhere and can just stick around in suppressive fire once it's taken out the mooks that don't realize how dangerous B3 BS9 Breaker Rifles shots are when they ignore MODs.
Sensor sweeping on 20s? Dual Nanopulsers that make Ariadna links weep, while costing about as much as a full cheaper one? A decent hacker? Spitfires with no -3 in the 24"-32" range? Bullying midfield skirmishers? Oh wait, the Crane has those too...
I suppose the question is whether you want a utility belt over individual components - one expensive profile may still be cheaper than several cheap ones, though only generating one order...
The crane is a very order intensive midfield brawler, but one of the best, and he'll wipe the board clean of your opponent's skirmishers as long as you're ready to spend 10 orders doing so. Also, If your opponent decides to hide from your big guns, you might as well send in the crane and dish out the pain.
More about force projection. Several cheap profiles can be positioned where each individual component needs to project its threat and they are individually less order efficient at taking down. A single tower of lots of gear that is the Crane is hard to take out per attack, but exists only in one spot, has fewer total wounds and more vulnerabilities. Or more simply put: a Crane can't both be in a tower in your DZ like a sniper, near your opponent's cluster of camo markers in midfield and in your opponent's DZ hunting snipers and mooks - a Zhanying/Kanren, Ninja and Weibing together can.
Yeah, although maybe each job only needs doing once, before moving on to eliminate other threats. Luckily Yu Jing have access to cheap order batteries...
I like the Crane, I don't take them enough really but they are very useful pieces. Sensor with Wip 14 is just fantastic for discovering and triangulated fire on a BS 13 model with a multi-rifle is a seriously under-appreciated thing. The X-visor means he's a very solid suppressive fire piece as well. That list can offer some nice tricks and isn't as squishy as all that. The crane is a great problem solver and because it's a solid Lt option as well, many opponents assume he's it and I have deployed the Kanren as a pheasant to add to the deception.
