I played into a Yadu core link the other day, my only complaint about it was the same as every other limited insertion list you go first or you go with an inherent disadvantage and I much prefer to build my lists equally happy to play either turn. They're pretty similar in cost to Wu Ming, about 6pts difference, and those are considered pretty strong and you have an advantage over them in that most of the link is unhackable and e/m weapons are literally useless against them. Rudras was also baller. Mine Dispenser with link bonuses reliably gets those mines in some very upsetting positions if you go first. He's a game changer for a link team vs link team fight, spec firing a mine into the enemy link, then you have the Yadu attack them and give them nothing but bad options to take. I don't like limited insertion though so personally I'd probably stick to Haris links in favour of a wider selection of troops.
Yeah I've used her abit but I actually find a bounty Hunter sniper fulfills the speed bump role only marginally worse than her for 8 less points. She definitely could have done with a few points off, or for mmlx to actually do something. ABH are pretty solid wee Aro units who can roll some nice buffs on occasion.
The more i play Lunah (and i play her a lot) the more i value marksmanship LX. Statistically it's always better to use it, and sometimes it makes one hell of a difference (+6%/-6% in some not-so-uncommon cases). Until now marksmanship lvlX just lacked the good trooper to use it, but lunah has the perfect kit to fully exploit it: mimetism helps keep the opponent's BS low, but not low enough for you to reliably aim for the success gap, and lack of MSV means it might also be of great help against other mod users.
The only time I can think of when it's statistically better to shoot with MMLX is when you're shooting into some disgusting modifiers, like a Bulleteer SF mode in cover. But that raises the question of why the hell are you doing this, they're still garbage odds to succeed. You'd be better served using your orders to do something else, rather than engaging in a firefight your opponent is statistically favoured to win. For her everyday work like popping TR bots she's better off firing at B2 statistically speaking. It's marginally more likely to land a wound by a couple of %, plus it has the chance to outright kill the target instead of leaving it repairable. Whenever I use her that's her job. She kills a TR bot, then if she does anything else the entire game that's just considered a bonus.
When yu jing had oniwaban and kitsune were you guys using them as aro pieces or just kept them hidden deployed? I don't think I ever used mine to try and stop someone coming through the midfield. Granted the ninja aren't as good as the oniwaban but I find they can still punish overextended rambos and assassinate some people pretty well.
You don't use them to ARO anything, you use them to stab anything foolish enough to come over to your side of the table on turn one. Their potential presence in a list meant on turn one pushing into the midfield with anything valuable was a no go unless you wanted to risk getting it stabbed. Stab a few TAGs, kill some expensive HI like a Kriza or Achilles, pretty quickly people learn to test the waters and look for the Oniwabans before rushing across the table. Created a slower, less aggressive turn 1 without actually needing to do anything or sometimes, even be in your list to have this effect. For Vanilla they were commonly paired with Strategos to ensure they were optimally placed as well. Anytime Sun Tze was on the table big question marks were had about whether or not there was a Shinobu on the table somewhere. If the Ninja had a cheap E/M CCW profile they'd be a reasonable budget version replacement. As it is they don't threaten most of the bigger problem children. The Greeks were scared before, now they don't give a shit and MO's Knight links (which just got buffed) don't give much of a fuck about the Ninjas either, and trying to punch down TAGs with the Ninja's phys 12 DA CCW is an order inefficient waste of time.
Like so many things in this game, it was situational. Trying to ambush enemy models with an engage was often tempting and sometimes very effective. It was also much less reliable than you'd like for such an expensive model. Shinobu and the Oniwaban come with nanopulsors so there was also the option to template link teams. (Especially nasty if they were using the second half the order to get around the corner our super ninja was hiding behind.) Other times it just wasn't worth the risk so they stayed hidden till my active turn where they could often punish a (now usually) spread out and quite vulnerable back field.
I loved my Shinobu in vanilla for that very reason, in fact I think she was the first model I bought. And her disappearance from Yu Jing was upsetting - one of the biggest draws for infinity is how much it rewards playing within a relatively stable meta, and amongst the same friends by allowing for private information shenanigans. I missed her so much (and the JSA were tempting enough) that I bought into the new faction, and I'm enjoying playing the sectorial just as much. I know it's an evil capitalist ploy (one which Bostria has been upfront about), but that's the world we live in...
@Section9 I think he means roughly "before we make IA the black sheep" -- I just had my DoTanko link diced up by Tarik. A Ghazi moved up and EMarated them which spread them out and then Tarik jumped in to shoot them all dead or into hiding. Due to table I was forced to move up to get kills, however, and overextended. Ninja KHD made two of two infiltration rolls. That's nice. Died to hacking AROs both times, though, which is less nice. Need to stop taking the KHD... -- We need to wait for Mowang and Hulang before we know if design space was used or not.
Marksman LX isn't literally useless. Statistically it's slightly better for her to use it than not in almost every active turn shooting situation. Makes her both more likely to inflict wounds and less likely to take them.
Running quick numbers, it is barely better if the total MODs on TO HIT is 6 (mimetism + cover)*. Against any targets which are incapable of inflicting MODs (ran it against Bao in cover, Fusilier in cover, Guijia in cover, Guijia out of cover, or Husong in cover) it seems burst 2 is preferable. But rule of thumb specifically for Lunah's stats; use Marksmanship X to get closer to +3 if lower than +3, or if shooting at a fireteam * There is a break point against a unit slightly less sturdy than Hac Tao HMG that I haven't tried to find. MMSLX is better against a Ninja, but worse against a Hac Tao when they don't have cover. Edit 1: "quick" is apparently 18 minutes of cross checking. Edit 2: could also add that this seems consistent regardless if the target is trying to shoot back or not. Also it's weird that MMSLX is better against a Zhanshi in the open and in a 3+ man Fireteam (regardless of weapon) while the same is not true against a TR HMG REM. I do note that the difference is less pronounced with Wu Ming than Zhanshi...
Onyx Contact Force ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 3 XEODRON Red Fury, Blitzen / Heavy Pistol. (1 | 59) STALDRON Flash Pulse / Knife. (0 | 0) XEODRON Red Fury, Blitzen / Heavy Pistol. (1 | 59) STALDRON Flash Pulse / Knife. (0 | 0) UMBRA SAMARITAN (EI Assault Hacking Device. UPGRADE: Goodnight) Plasma Carbine, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Vorpal CC Weapon. (0.5 | 43) 2.5 SWC | 161 Points Open in Infinity Army
You know, you said that before Uprising, and the fluff in the book was worse than what had been spoiled. So quite frankly, CB has lost my trust.
Eh, I mean you can enjoy something but at the same time acknowledge it was dumb and full of plot holes. You could enjoy uprising but you really needed to turn your brain off and stop asking questions because it started falling apart the minute you did.
