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Making the Lu Duan work

Discussion in 'Japanese Secessionist Army' started by Quickit, May 18, 2019.

  1. Quickit

    Quickit Well-Known Member

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    Conventional wisdom suggests the Rui Shi every time over the Lu Duan (LD), but I like to try giving underutilized profiles an honest chance on the board.

    Challenges:
    Dealing with 3x55mm bases is difficult - making room for all three bases to be visible and have active LOF to a target is tricky. Holo 2 usually only works once or twice, unless you want to use orders to re-establish the Holos.

    Strengths:
    -Heavy flamethrower on a 6-4 platform with marker state is a very viable threat. Mk12 is a solid 0 SWC weapon with a very strong range band for the platform it's on.
    -Holo2 re-establishes itself at the beginning of the reactive turn if there's no LOF on the Lu Duan.
    - cheap and easy way to clear mines, Koalas, etc.
    - Great for seeing if a camo marker tucked on top of a building is a hacker - they have to choose whether to hack what might be a holo.
    -Repeater- if a hacker goes after it, this gives your Ninja KHD (you did take one, right?) something to ARO against, or even use on your active turn to benefit from higher active turn burst.

    The important part is to take full advantage of Holo2.

    Active turn Holo2 benefits:

    My ideal use for the LD is as a first turn "missile", by using the first 5-6 orders on the first turn. Deploy so it has a reasonably straight path to the opponents. If you have a hacker, throw MML2 on it.

    Move forward, and wait for the ARO. Most reactive players will hold on their ARO, expecting you to shoot with the second half of the order. So move, wait for ARO, and then move again if they delay their ARO. Do it again, and let them struggle whether to do it again, or shoot, and have a 66% chance of missing. Remember you can't split fire on an ARO, so even link teams or TR bots only have a 33% chance of hitting. Your target is anything that you would like to bathe in fire, so link teams, cheerleaders, any clump of models you can catch with a large template.

    Order 1: hacker puts MML2 on LD. (this has the bonus of putting shock on both the HF and Mk12.)
    Order 2: Move, wait for ARO, then react accordingly. If they hold, move again. If they fire, you have a good chance to get a normal roll against them. Remember you also get Surprise Shot on this, so another -3 for the opponent is always handy.
    Order 3: reestablish holo's if you fired on order 2.
    Repeat as necessary until you have a target for the HF.

    If the LD is still alive near the end of the turn, you can put the model into Suppression. This turns the Holos off, but if the opponent has no LOF to the LD, it re-activates the holos for free at the beginning of the reactive turn.

    Reactive turn Holo2 benefits:

    Not many - that's why you send him forward on your turn! The weakness of Holos and ARO's is that as soon as you declare an ARO, the holos disappear. So all the opponent has to do is walk into LOF, and wait for you to shoot. At this point, he knows which one is the real one. You can play a bit of a game and not ARO to preserve the holos if he has a low burst weapon, but if you dont ARO, he might get an unopposed shot on it.

    Being attacked by a camo marker actually negates this weakness as you can hold your ARO. You suffer the -3 from surprise shot but MSV1 negates normal camo, and hopefully, you're in Suppression, so he has a -3 as well.


    Other thoughts:

    If you need to approach a difficult model that is holding a firelane that has a strong ARO (model in suppression, link team HMG or ML, etc), throw a Holo out to draw out the ARO, then use the second order to move closer to the target. Hopefully the 4" (10cm) move plus the 6" (15cm) in the next order gets you close enough to use the HF or be in their bad range.

    If the opponent has turtled (tucked away prone on top of buildings, inside buildings, etc) move the LD into position that the minute they stand up or walk out the door, you can ARO with the HF. See above with camo markers - if they come at you with Camo, take advantage of the delayed ARO.

    I've made several comments in here about using the LD to take on link teams, as the HF can be terrifying to a unit that's bunched together, as most link teams are. I had an opponent remind me of something important in my last game - link teams get SSL2. This allows the link team to hold their ARO until the second order (which I've recommended as a move). They can then fire on the LD (real or holo) with a normal roll, rather than a F2F. If they pick the real one, it's probably toast. So approach link teams cautiously, or even out of LOF if possible.
     
    #1 Quickit, May 18, 2019
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2019
  2. Section9

    Section9 Well-Known Member

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    Good advice for Holo2 use in general, really! Another prime use for Holoechoes is to clear mines and other perimeter weapons like CrazyKoalas or MadTraps.

    Don't forget that you can also Holo1 as something the same Silhouette, like a harmless baggagebot in the case of the Lu Duan. Nobody likes getting their face burned off by an HFT from what they thought was a helpless 8pt Baggagebot! :smiling_imp: Once that surprise has popped (say, toasting an Impersonator), you can then Holo2 and advance up the table as per your post.
     
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  3. neostrider

    neostrider Well-Known Member

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    I love the lu duan. My favorite trick is to deploy as a boarding shotgun aragato, move up carefully, approach a target and pop out to shoot at about 9 or 10", 'accidently' in sight of two targets maybe. Opponents will jump at the chance to shoot back a bsg over 8".

    Then reveal: +3 range band, surprise shot they are -3, and you have 1 more burst than they expected. That's a good swing in your advantage.

    I also sit backfield as EVO bot. Less obvious about if there's a hacker in board, easier to hide the point difference, and going second some opponents might want to deny the victory points
     
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  4. Triumph

    Triumph Well-Known Member

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    Eh, they should kinda know something is up when said Aragoto doesn't generate an impetuous order during the phase before hand.
     
  5. Maksimas

    Maksimas Heavy Infantry Addict Maxim

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    And if it only ever moves 6-4 opposed to 8-4.

    Disguising as an Aragoto is one of the few options available, but arguably one of the more dubious ones.

    That said the BSG or Combi+LSG near perfectly match the Lu Duans cost, second only to the Pango TR, which costs the exact same.
     
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  6. RobertShepherd

    RobertShepherd Antipodean midwit

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    I see people get taken in reasonably frequently by a harmless baggage bot turning out to actually have a heavy flamethrower.
     
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  7. zapp

    zapp Well-Known Member

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    You can only use the Surprise Shot if you are in the Holoecho2 (marker)state, not if you're moving up the board as a single Aragoto unfortunately. I took him in IA in some lists and disguised as a helpless EVO hacker, killing Dart once with that trick. But in JSA, as there can be no drop troops, a Aragoto would be the most tempting disguise.
     
  8. daszul

    daszul Well-Known Member

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    Are you sure that friendly troops block LoF while moving?
    I thought that you do not block LoF while moving,
    but I cannot find the rule right now...
     
  9. Jedkar Midune

    Jedkar Midune Member

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    I had assumptions on this as well so I checked and found:
    Q: When two or more troopers activate simultaneously, (through a Coordinated Order or Fireteam, for example) can one of them “hide” behind the others to avoid AROs?
    A: No. Troopers don’t block LoF while moving.
     
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  10. Jedkar Midune

    Jedkar Midune Member

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    I've recently experimented with sat-lock and EVO (to remote the -6) so there's value in having an EVO rem on the table. Loving sat-lock
     
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  11. EpicDiceFail

    EpicDiceFail Patron Saint of Horrible Dice

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    THIS! ^^^^^^
     
  12. clever handle

    clever handle Well-Known Member

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    "active" models don't block LOF at any point during the order. I believe the intent of the comment was that you can shoot a holo around a corner on your first skill, drawing out the ARO, and allowing you to use your second skill to scoot into position safely.
     
  13. Quickit

    Quickit Well-Known Member

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    my mistake - I'll fix the original post. I should know better! I will add "clever handle's" suggestion about drawing out an ARO with a Holo.
     
  14. Hos

    Hos New Member

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    I like my Kuroshi Rider - fast, template weapon, dogged - but expensive in pts. Lu Duan seems to me to be a much cheaper equivalent with the added bonus of holo shenanigans.
     
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  15. Nitroflaherty

    Nitroflaherty Member

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    I believe this is how it works but happy to be corrected :)

    Place your lu Duan in supressive fire at the corner of a building but out of lof of all enemy models . Then at the beginning of your reative turn you can reactivate holo echo state for free placing 2 holoechos in bsb with it one of which can now peak around corner then picking a new "real lu duan which is in supressive fire in lof of stuff :)

    Can be a neat trick
     
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