There were plans for it once before IAs release and after the Uprising, but the idea got dropped because: 1. Post-Uprising Vanilla felt like a rather leaky or "unfinished" faction. 2. The impending IA release prompted waiting a while longer to make it, since they could have brought some really planet cracking changes. Nobody's picked it up after though.
And I have a hunch our vanilla playerbase is on the smaller side of vanilla playerbases, so maybe a smaller sample size as well.
I don't have time to write a full tactica, but I'd be happy to speak to my experiences with vanilla YJ over the last six months if anyone new to the faction wanted some pointers to tide them over until N4. YJ has been showing strong in our local community during that time, including an interstate day trip where myself and the other YJ player I play with locally took sixty OP between us over three rounds.
Please do tell. What is your general approach when building a list? Any underdog profiles that stood out to you?
I'm not sure if there are Vanilla Yu Jing tactics, rather you can squeeze just about every tactic in the infinity meta into one list and still have a with a turbo high order count and multiple redundancies. The only tactic that isn't really open to vanilla Yu Jing are link team tactics for obvious reasons. Take a Daoying hacker LT. Add a Mowang red fury for it to power via NCO, and a Rui shi for it to power via supportware. Add a CG KSCD to smoke for the rui shi, and enable you to enroll 4 kuang shi for orders and layered defence. Add 1-2 Husongs for ARO defense. Then do whatever you want / the mission needs but 4 shaolin, a liberto minelayer and maybe guilang FOs and/or ninja KHD are probably going to be a part of it. This list will probably win you more than half your games regardless of terrain or matchup.
The list below is pretty much the gold standard list for me, but it's very possible to flex out the Su Jian for a pair of Husong Yaokong TR HMGs if you need longer ranged firepower, or Guilang Skirmishers if the scenario calls for more midfield presence, or basically any number of things based on what you personally like to play. In general, the presence of 5pt shaolin monks and 5pt kuang shi plus a full spectrum of all the usual tools needed to play the game gives Yu Jing pretty much unprecedented freedom to indulge in luxury pieces when you want them, so there are very few profiles that are true 'underdogs' simply because you could slot anything into that overall package and it would be well insulated from failure. Yu Jing ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 8 2 6 SÙ-JIÀN Spitfire, Light Flamethrower, Panzerfaust / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (2 | 59) RUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1 | 20) XI ZHUANG Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower, MadTraps / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20) 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) SHAOLIN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 5) SHAOLIN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 5) GROUP 2 7 3 2 MÓWÁNG (NCO) Red Fury, Akrylat-Kanone / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (1 | 52) LIBERTO (Minelayer) Light Shotgun, Chain-colt, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 10) MECH-ENGINEER Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15) YÁOZĂO Electric Pulse. (0 | 3) ZHANSHI (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12) DĀOYĪNG Lieutenant L2 Hacker (Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 29) PANGGULING (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) PANGGULING (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) CHAĪYÌ Yaókòng Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) SHAOLIN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 5) SHAOLIN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 5) GROUP 3 1 WARCOR (360º Visor) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3) 6 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army
It's pretty unanimously "don't", with the exception of Daoying hacker LT2 and Mowang NCO red fury, which are "always". Kek.
I hope by the time N4 rolls around LIbertos aren't a quintessential Yu Jing skirmisher. The fact that they turn up all the time despite overpaying on SWC for minelayer shows how badly they underpay on points.
In terms of other IA profiles, I think the sniper Daoying has some possible play, but as part of a specific list (it'd want no remotes in need of supportware, and probably have a lot of camo markers), and the Liu Xing is a model that you don't necessarily want to take often but which is good to play from time to time just to remind people it exists and put the fear into them (a bit like the YJ equivalent of a noctifier, right down to how endlessly disappointing it is when it whiffs a roll needing a 15). Proletarian also made an excellent case for the Haidao engineer as a robust datatracker in some missions, like Frostbyte and Countermeasures. The Haidao sniper is also a circumstantial inclusion in vanilla just because sometimes your local meta will do things that need an MSV sniper to keep honest. Like for example, play the exact YJ list I posted above until everyone is sick of it.
I use that profile on the occasion. Doesn't need alot of camo markers or anything particularly special. Useful if you're finding your lists frequently have several 24" or less attack pieces and you're having issues picking off things like defensive remotes, spending the LT orders in the early game to eliminate Warcors, TR bots, Flash pulse bots etc is valuable just don't get greedy and try to shoot a defensive link team with it. Also a targeted pick on missions where you need to defend a public info LT as it brings its own mines+minelayer with the camo state.
MSR Haidao finds itself very often punching well above its weight for me in vanilla. He's easier to fit into most lists than a Hsien, and disappoints me far less than a Rui Shi. FO Zhencha is also an alright sidegrade to the Guilang. Sure, he's just a worse version of Dart with more vulnerabilities, but that's still not a bad place to be, Dart is stupidly over-optimized for this game. No resistance to shock is an absolute insult from CB, but he can still do work. The added bulk is also useful for missions requiring a Liason Officer. My final verdict on Lei Gong still needs development, but I'm very optimistic. His biggest problem is that he competes with a lot for room. But outside of that and the previously mentioned Hacker Lt2 Daoying and Mowang... yeah, just leave the rest of the IA to rot outside.
