Bike vs. Remote

What about the Lu Duan? You can use the Holoproyector to mimic MORE BIKES!
And it's also a very good attack piece.

 

Definitely the Rui Shi, no question. Even with the tax that JSA pays for it (and it's under costed in the other factions where you can take it, IMO) it adds SO MUCH to your list that I can't imagine not having one in your arsenal. It's not going to perform as well as it does in Yu Jing/Dashat, but it's a super solid attack piece that can be buffed with hackers and shoot through smoke to solve problems that you will struggle with otherwise.

It does compete with a linked Kempeitai, but it's better in most circumstances and, honestly, there are games where you will want to take both.

So yeah, even though it's a Yu Jing remote, I think the Rui Shi is a staple of JSA. I never even used to run JSA bikes outside of Yojimbo.

 

Welcome back! The RuiShi is the best straight forward attack piece JSA currently have when its buffed.

 

Yeah, the Rui Shi buffed by a hacker is a really good attack piece,
and might help if the enemy tries the smoke trick on you.

And even if you did not ask for them, you should consider the Karakuri!
The recent change to Total Immmunity made them extremely resilient!

 

Rui shi and karakuri are definitively two of the best options in JSA, karakuri being incredible allrounders and ruishi being awesome hunting camos. I tendto use ruishi a lot so i can add into the link team a CoC kempeitai that alliws my Lt being more agressive.

Aragoto are also very cost eficient, i tend to use one or two, usually 1-2 spitfires and 0-1 specialist

 

In the past I've had great success with both the Aragoto and the Rui Shi. I've never made extensive use of the Lu Duan as I always felt the opportunity cost for an attack remote was better filled by either of these other S4 models.

The answer is (as always) it depends.

Aragoto can function as either disposable attack pieces or nimble specialists (or both). I've had games where the assault hacker just runs rampant over my opponent just using the combi and lsg to decimate their order pools on turn one. The addition of the Aragoto KHD profile is great as it allows you to save a few points on a good specialist, and with the bikes being so fast you may be able to attack your opponent's hackers from unexpected angles. Equally as often they get taken out on their first order so it may be prudent to hold them back for the first turn.

The Rui shi is a great attack and area denial piece. If you pay the full 2 SWC to take a keisotsu hacker plus this guy, anything within 24" will be worried. Supportware, advance, end in suppression fire. He's not efficient at hunting down camo tokens, so pair him with a weibing and chaiyi to sensor sweep anything first. This guy is incredibly fragile at ARM0, so if you plan on relying on him you need to plan to include an engineer as well.

The Lu Duan is an interesting piece. It lacks the raw aggression of the Rui Shi but brings more versatility. You can deploy using Holo1 to bait someone into going after your pangguling baggage bot early in their attack run only to stumble into a heavy flamethrower. Or you can deploy as a Rui Shi (if you needed that SWC elsewhere) to give your opponent pause before they rely on visual mods or smoke to attack from a certain angle. Advancing into the midfield and dropping into suppression with Holo2 up can cost your opponent a few orders if they don't have the right tools in place.