Hello everyone, I am planning on starting a new army, and I have decided on the IA as my weapon of choice. The miniatures are amazing, they have a diametrically different Playstyle from my main army (Nomads of all flavors), and they are just cool in general. I was wondering in what order should I start buying stuff? Some obvious minis like daoying, zhan his and haidaos are easy choices, but how do I approach heavy infantry though? Is there a box of zhuyongs of Shang jo's to buy and in what order should I start buying those juicy heavy infantry model's? Thanks in advance for your tips and your time! Sent from my M2007J3SG using Tapatalk
Buy all the things! Or more seriously, * Starter box (has the Zuyong you want) * REMs (or make do with proxies from other factions for a while) * Krit blister * Zhanshi Support box * Hac Tao blister * Zhencha blister * Haidao sniper blister This will probably last you a while without going all-in. In 2077 when they release Shang-Ji, I suggest getting a box of them. Mowang is a pretty decent buy, as is Tai Sheng and Guijia, even if they are on vastly different price points. Zuyong HMG blister is also pretty decent, even if the sculpt is subtly smaller and older than the others and the pose is a bit wonky. There is very little bad stuff you could buy for Invincibles, nearly all of it has a niche to tweak your list around, but I do suggest you don't buy Yan Huo (they're mediocre at best) nor Zhanshi SWC box (you'll probably only want the hacker). Vanilla Yu Jing contains the Zhanshi you need or you can go for the White Banner starter and their Gucci jackets. Either way, to get official Zhanshi miniatures you're getting stuff for other sectorials unfortunately, and you'll probably want Zhanshi. Word of advice is that the highly iconic Zuyong in vanilla Yu Jing box (aka Red Veil box) has a Multi Rifle and you'll probably never use it as such, similar to how it was proxied as a different profile in Red Veil starter/story missions. Also, he's very front-heavy so consider adding weights to his base to compensate. Daoying is a bit funny. The Hacker/BSG profile is probably the one you'll use the most, at least starting off, but it'll spend most of the game as a camo marker so you can probably get away with some outrageous proxy for quite some time without anyone complaining.
I agree with almost everything in this post, but for the OP I would actually suggest using the Sniper Daoying Lt. Now that most things in N4 have dropped in SWC cost, it’s very easy to slot in the now reduced to 1SWC Sniper profile. The Minelayer profile is one of the best Lt.’s in the game. She’s a WIP14 Lt.2 that has ARM3 and protected in a marker state as well as Mimitism -3. She comes with mines as the army desperately needs and adds a protective layer against assassins, as well as the opportunity to leave your opponent guessing witch marker state is the real one. The fact that she comes with a MSR is entirely coincidental but it isn’t useless. In a pinch she can use her sniper to clear stragglers in turn 3 or act as a last turn ARO-piece if you don’t care about kill points and LoL isn’t relevant anymore. If it weren’t for the Avatar, I would nominate her to the best Lt. In the game.
Priority #1: Hac Tao double blister, because it will probably be discontinued on January (because one gets moved to a box with a Hsine HMG and a Zhanying hacker... which are both from Imperial Service). They are on last chance, btw. The Zhuyong HMG is not an urgent buy, but you will possibly get him sooner or later. The Mowang is quite useful for a lot of situations (I mounted mine with the two weapons and no pistol). The starter has a lot of what is needed, but it becomes expensive. You will need about 2 boxes of S3 remotes (total reaction, 2x flash pulse/specialists and the missile launcher), the special remotes box (the Rui Shi is not as needed as in other sectorials thanks to the Haidao sniper and because of the absence of smoke, but the Lu Duan is a MSV1 holomask holoprojector minelayer with deployable repeaters, usefull for midfield cleaning), and the S4 baggage box (because the 12pts light shotgun pangguling is a wildcard). As it was mentioned... use whatever remotes you have, personally I rotate as I prefer because their painting scheme is specific for each pair (I know, it's better if the painting is coherent... but I've found it's best if the colo scheme is totally different to avoid confusion in the table, different painted bases does not suffice -.-U) I got a 2nd Daoying because I bought it before starting Invincible (I was going to use her for a proxy, but since I started Invincible...) and Tai Sheng because of the Tinbot she adds to a fireteam. Also, she can be her own SubOfficer if the first Lt bites it, which is funny but also useful to keep moving the link. The rest of the sectorial would be bought just for the "looks great" factor, frankly... the Yan Huo look great but have little use as defensive units, and as offensive the Core-linked Zhuyong HMG or the Mowang outshine him.
This recomendation is gonna end booming soon. As basics I would say Starter box is the obvious first choice As Xargoth said, The hactao double blister is gonna be splitted It's future is uncertain Don't know if I'd recommend the zencha... a complex and uncertain tool with short rangebands that heavily depends on the table set up. Plus it can be proxied if wanted with a daoying, a zuyong or the liuxing Pangoling does a lot inside invincible either in it's hacker or FTO. And it can be a Ruishi Proxi When they bring the HMG shangji it's gonna be one of the top choices. Meanwhile a new player needs that zuyong HMG blister Yanhuo HMC or Mowang is another Required troop. You need at least one S5 to proxi As recomendations The basic remote box is a highly recomended purchase The support box doctor+engineer is a recomended purchase when a new player reaches this point, he would probably know already what he wants/needs for the future
Well... whether you value the Zhencha highly or not, it is the only thing that fills the role of a traditional skirmisher in the faction and as such will always be useful. What Xagroth say about the Hac Tao blister is true; I would not agree it's a #1 priority if it weren't for the fact that it's being bundled with an awkward pair of miniatures. In fact, given how often it fails me compared to its price, I'm not sure why people are so in love with it. As for the Daoying choice, as far as purchases go you will get the sniper from the starter pack and if you do use the hacker or plain BSG it'll spend a LOT of time as camo marker, either way I think you can move the Daoying hacker down on your purchase list :p
I agree with almost everything but I'd put Tai Sheng higher on the list. She's great as is but you proxy her easily as a regular Zuyong.
Thank you so much everyone, this has been incredibly helpful, and now I have my purchases mapped out! Sent from my M2007J3SG using Tapatalk
NCO HMG with Surprise Attack and Mimetism -6 that pops out from nowhere... His "mirror" would be the Swiss Guard, who gets -4CC +1BS -1WIP and lacks the +1'' dodge and nanopulser and is just 2 points cheaper... "Minitag" comes to mind, frankly (and both are more expensive than the Hoplite Achilles, btw), but that's it. The Daofei is his main competitor as HI to place in lists, but frankly for me it's because it's a threat to the opponent (is that a guilang or a daofei?).
Daofei also typically fails me. They're both expensive enough that including them has a significant impact on the list meaning they have to perform and it's a lot harder to recover from them failing. To then have them die to a random set of unlucky rolls against TR REMs (albeit with N3 crits) or simply take most of an order group's orders just to put a TR REM into UNC-2 (that then gets repaired) is not good results. I typically get a lot better results from running several lighter (pronounced "dis-pose-able") units. I dunno, maybe the new edition will treat the Hac Tao kinder for me. I guess we'll see what's up and down in whatever TTS games I can get in over the next few weeks.
please. any hactao can put a TR bot on -12 with ease. It's all about positioning. Zenchas have it more complicated to get to 0-8 rangeband against a TR bot And daofei pretty much of the same stuff My only point agaisnt using them is that both are too mainstream
If you're blessed with opponents who allow you to attack a TR Remote from outside 32", and dice who doesn't routinely hate your premium models, then go for it. While I do have a tendency to hammer square pegs into round holes myself, I still wouldn't compare the Zhencha and a Daofei/Hac Tao - that's like trying play Zuyong like melee units.
People are still sleeping on them in N4 imho. They got a significant boost from the new Crit mechanics, lower Order counts and the ability to go Prone (+standing up automatically after repairs). Less Warbands means less Smoke to counter their thing and less board coverage, which they bring thanks to a 360 Visor. Layered with a TO ARO piece they're excellent bait, Alternatively they're one of the few things that can lock down your own DZ against unexpected AD instead of exposing them frontally to your opponent.
