The lonely Shang Ji

It's a great point man in a Zhanshi core if you are also using a Yan Huo Haris in a limited insertion list. Nothing else can fill that slot and make use of all the remaining points:

Invincible Army
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10
DĀOYĪNG Lieutenant L2 Hacker (Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 29)
MÓWÁNG (NCO) Red Fury, Akrylat-Kanone / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (1 | 52)

ZHANSHI (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
ZHANSHI Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11)
ZHANSHI Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11)
HǍIDÀO Engineer Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 28)
SHÀNG JÍ (Tactical Awareness) Spitfire / Pistol, Shock CCW. (2 | 45)

ZÚYŎNG (Fireteam: Haris, Tactical Awareness) Combi Rifle + 1 TinBot B (Deflector L2) / 2 Breaker Pistols, Knife. (0.5 | 34)
YĀN HUǑ (FTO) 2 Missile Launchers / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 52)
HǍIDÀO Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 26)

6 SWC | 300 Points

Open in Infinity Army

 

I think you're discounting the HRL (it's not entirely replaceable by a ML), but yeah, those two are about it for unique-capability profiles.

 

I want to like the shang ji AHD, but it just seems so expensive. Specifically, I'd like to be able to take the haidao engineer in my zuyong core and be able to use the shang ji as an alternative hacking defence.

 

Yeah, I've used the Spitfire as well, but it's such an extremely situational figurine that if it were removed in favour of a unit that is less Zuyong-like I wouldn't miss it.

I don't think I am, simply because it costs more than double to competition. The compromise to Son-Bae is simply too good The HRL doesn't offer a lot extra due to having shorter range and it not being Support-able means its effective BS is fairly low, I typically take the Son-Bae a LOT (and it's a bit of a toss-up between the ML or SML, one does more damage while the other has better range bands and makes some opponents unreasonably frightened of hackers and FOs)

 

Hrm.

That would explain it.

I generally discount the Son-Bae. I should really fix that problem!

 

Bit off topic but I find that the Daoying with its extra LT orders is a reasonably legitimate spotlight threat in vanilla when combined with the efficiency of Infiltrating Guilang FOs with the deployable repeaters.

Sneak up to a link team drop the repeater then toss the mine down around the corner (important to do it in this order or they can "dodge" the mine when you try to lay the repeater with change facing) then invite your opponent to pick one of two shitty options:

• Reset against the incoming spotlight

or

• Dodge the mine

The link as a whole can't do both the Spotlight target can't declare dodge and the rest of the link getting sprayed by the mine can't declare reset, enjoy that! Their only other option is let the spotlights go off uncontested then eat guided missiles.

 

Evil!

I like it...

 

Can be done in IA using Krit and a Wildcard Panggo, as well (but rather more poorly)

 

Would veteran level 1 make Shang Ji not suck?

 

No, but they'd suck less.

 

So... a small Mowang with Veteran L1? The Multi Rifle Shang-Ji would likely be about 50-54 points, more expensive than Mowang, but without NCO and at lower ARM.

 

Yeah...
That's Mimetism and NWI over Veteran 1. I.e. the Shang-Ji would have Mowang stats and skills with surprisingly little differentiating the two aside from one being Wildcard and the other being cheaper with NCO.

I often say that the HI in that price range are the game's worst kind of units. There's a few specific profiles that stand out, either from being unique or for providing a uniquely well adapted set of gear (i.e. Santiago Knight KHD).

At this price point, the Shang-Ji most of all needs something that helps it win in a firefight to stand apart from and not be trumped by Wu Ming or Zuyong. Or something that helps in other ways, such as Stealth from Martial Arts, but that's more local to the AHD profile and the other profiles need something going for them as well.

 

I'd even say drop him to a 1W Veteran L2 with Bioimmunity. Refluff the disguised discount as reduced internal stability due to overclocking the hell out of the suit's performance. Then soup him up to reflect that.

Stop treating the HI designation like it even matters anymore, and just go wild.

 

Discount? What discount? 1 whole point cheaper isn't much of a discount to lose the unconscious state on a regular DZ-deploying trooper...

To reiterate, take Tai Sheng's stats but drop NCO and FO, gear this new trooper with Shang-Ji BS weapon options. Points difference to current Shang-Ji near nill and you'll have a troop regiment worthy of the name "superior"

 

At the end of the day, I think the Shang-Ji need gear changes more than rule changes to avoid redundancy. Sure a visual mod coupled with a nice gun pushes them into a more optimized link inclusion, but it's boring and Yu- Jing has troops with good visual mods and nice guns. That's the problem, we already have an HI for every points bracket. Give Shang-Ji some wacky gear to justify their inclusion in a link or list and then it doesn't matter if their stats and costs are comparable to other gunfighers in the faction because they're providing something new. Give them msv or koalas/mad trap/parrots/pandas or whatever the animal of the day is. Heck, let's have a Shang-Ji zookeeper with parrots AND koalas AND drop bears. Give em smoke or an lgl with some interesting payloads. Maybe something a little less exotic like a Feurbach or heavy flamethrower or multi marksman. Or make them a CQB specialist with some CC and close range weapons that a link drags along to mess stuff up in the midfield (kinda like how the old Domaru were used). Anything that isn't another HI with slightly above average stats and the typical primary (HMG/ML) or secondary (Spitfire/HRL) SWC weapon options.