I'm a big fan of the Druze HMG/KHD duo and use them as a button-pushing/objective holding fireteam that can be backed up by the fire power (and orders) of a larger core or haris. I also like the smoke + brawler MSV2 combo, and thanks to the changes in N4 you can run all of that PLUS a Ninja hacker and Daiyokai. https://infinitytheuniverse.com/arm...AgXoBBAAAgXoBBAAAgvABigoAAILwAYoKAACAogECAA==
Not bad, though I'm skeptical on EVO being worth the cost if it's just helping Yuan Yuan. To do that effectively you need to give up the YY impetuous order, then spend the only regular order in your pool putting up assisted drop, then you're using their own irregular orders to drop in, instead of killing something. Alternatively you could drop the EVO, and turn the tanko blitzen into a 3rd Druze to get that extra burst on the HMG. With the rest of the points you should be able to fit in a Fugazi to keep your orders up.
I only play massive core+2 remplacement or solo rambo, so I can't tell about my experience about haris in general in this game but to me the biggest problem with haris is that when you take on casualty you have two victims laying around, core can take 2 death and still be able to provide OK ARO
For sure, if it's a cheap ARO link, like a Keisotsu + Tanko link, then 5-man is great. But when it comes to more expensive units, or those who primarly work in the active turn, I'm almost never leaving them out for ARO if I can avoid it. Leaving a Wu Ming or Druze out for ARO just means I have less Wu Ming or Druze to play with in my own turn, haha.
Is the EVO also useful to slap fairy dust on Ikari's HI? Their WIP and BTS tends to be fairly middling so the Firewall should help them.
I'm not sure on the Jager. With more TAGs and HI going to be used, having a E/Mitter and Mono CCW in the backfield might be good. The Bashi EMine is great but it's depending someone stumbling into it. I think the EVO is good for more that helping out YY. Remember the Baggage. It can re-supply mines, koalas, blitzen, panzer, etc.
What's every ones opinion on Yuan Yuans now. My N3 Ikari lists started with 4 YYs +2 chearleaders in second battel group, but with the loss of the impetuous order are they a still that good.
I'd say yes but maybe not for doing combat jump. My opponents got so used to my YY that it was hard to use them. I started just deploying some in my deployment and using smoke like you would a Shaolin or Morlock. Throwing smoke on rui shi, and brawler MSR.
I'm looking at using the YYs for smoke and LuoDong Flamers. I think I need to retire my 'raining men' lists. N3 EVO with 4 YYs were just too efficient at wiping out chearleaders. The N4 format is not as YY friendly.
Of the armies I played before I've had the hardest time building N4 lists with Ikari and the EVO + Yuan Yuan changes are basically why. Yuan Yuans are what got me into the faction so it's been really disappointing. I haven't had chances to actually run any lists yet but I think it might still be worth taking them and trying to combat jump in. If you bring 3 Yuan Yuans even in the worst case of dropping in on 8s the expected value is at least one landing with only about 1/5 games where none of them land when your opponent brings an EVO. Since they wont scatter and be shot off the board anymore coming in on the edge of the DZ isn't too bad. Maybe CB will at some point add the ability to have an EVO program running at the start of the game by spending a command token. I feel like it was a missed opportunity.
Shoot, I could have sworn that it was possible. I just double checked and its not. If you are looking for a unique list Idea, try 2 RuiShis and 2 Lu duans. Then Holomask\Project the Lu duans as RuiShis. Deploying 8 Ruishis is a bit of a mindfuxx for your opponent. It worked well with 4 YY dropping smoke for the RuiShis, and the shell game gets confusing for your opponent. In the list below I dropped the list to 2 YY not to be AD. I used the Fasid as another Smoke Dropper. With 3 potential Lts. https://infinitytheuniverse.com/arm...AAgUAgXoBAwAAgXoBAwAAhPsBBAAAgJABAQAAgJABAQA=
Played my first game of N4 today using Ikari Company. It was a friendly game where we decided the mission randomly just before the match with each player having one veto. So you had to bring a generalized list. My opponent vetoed Looting and Sabotage as he had just played it and I vetoed Power Pack since I felt I didn't have enough specialist for it. We ended up with Frontline which fits Ikari very well. I have a really hard time building lists for Ikari in N4 with most lists ending up having a severe lack of regular orders, specialists and lt decoys. I don't know how many times looked at the finished list I just built and said "nope, this doesn't work" and scrapped the whole thing... This is the list that I finally settled after doing some late tweaks on the buss on the way to my opponent: https://infinitytheuniverse.com/arm...BAgAAgKEBAQAAgKEBAQAAgOABguUAAIF6AQMAAIF6AQMA My opponent played ISS, he had a Hsien/Crane Adil/Zhanying Haris, Kuang Shi Core, Sophotect, Su-Jian, CSU, TR bot and a Kanren hacker disguised as a Pheasant. It was a very back and forth match with lots of crits on both sides, Yojimbo was saved by his Crit Immunity as he took a crit from a TR bot on his first order but took only one instead of the otherwise likely 2 wounds. I lost my Wu Ming HMG against crits from the Hsien but countered next turn by double criting the Hsien with a BSG Wu-Ming putting him into loss of lieutenant. While my first turn where really lackluster my second ended up really good, killing off his whole haris and locking up the Sophotect in CC with Yojimbo, the opponent killed both by shooting into the CC with his Su-Jian. My opponent was very much pushed back with a Kuang Shi being the only unit of his the crossed the center line of the board. The Tanko ML didn't get to shoot at anything but held an important lane that limited the Su-Jians movement options. He tried some shenanigans with the Kanren using holo echoes but failed to kill the Wu-Ming he was aiming for, he was going to try contest the center area which where held by he 2 Wu Ming by using his classified as Intelcom but needed to kill at least one wu ming for it to work. 7-1 victory!!! Very happy with the result, specially since it been like 8 months since I last got a game in and my opponent is a very competent player who wins most of the local tournaments. While it was a mission that fit well for Ikari it wasn't like it was a bad mission for my opponent (other than him not having any Forward Observer to be Liaison Officer). But I do think that I wouldn't have done as well had it been a more button pushing heavy mission. List wise most of it worked out fine, it was a bit awkward to have only BGSs left in the Wu Ming group after the HMG died. The Multi Rifle/GL would have been better but while list building I felt I needed some hacking defense. My initial list had a Brawler Doctor in the link instead of the FO and since the HMG only unced I could have saved it which would have been nice. So many interesting profiles and so little space in a Wu Ming Haris. Still not sure what is the best combination.
@Mcgreag Nice report cheers, mind if I ask you how you used your other units not mentioned please, ie the Keisotsu, Yuan Yuan, Yaozao's, Ninja etc ?
The keisotsu/tanko core never received an order, they where just cheerleaders. I moved one yuan yuan in from the side in a bad position, missed that his su-jian could see the location so it just died, the second one I tried to drop behind total cover but failed so it had to come in in my DZ, it then moved up and placed smoke that the Rui Shi made use of to take out his TR bot and the went into suppressive fire, the su-jian took it out in 2 orders and my opponent spent another 3 orders with his kuang shi link to make sure the Rui Shi was dead instead of unc so I couldn't repair it, which meant I didn't get any use out of the engineer, I did spend an order on it in the last turn to move into the closest zone to score a point. Still forcing the opponent to spend 3 orders made it worth bringing. My TR bot covered a lane for most of the battle, moved in the last turn to cover another lane where it dealt a wound to the Su-Jian which guts into cover and then kept it from advancing down that lane (while the Tanko covered the other option it had). At the start of turn 2 I moved both Yojimbo and the TR bot to group 1 to take the place of the HMG Wu Ming and the Rui Shi so could spend more orders on them. The ninja had infiltrated to mid field, it reviled in the last turn where it took out some kanren holo echos and the went back into marker in the opponents zone. During the opponents turn it killed the kanren which was trying to kill my wu ming only to be shot in the back by a celestial guard. Think that was all of them.
@Mcgreag Thank you for the additional comments, they really help to paint a picture and find out how you're using the models in the list :)
