Has anyone had a chance to try it out and how as it been? On paper it seems like a fantastic defensive unit. It already has a mine out, then lay down a few more then go into suppression with the SMG. If you have two you can use coordinate order to lay mines and go into suppression as well. Then add in some Guilang doing the same thing with them and you've got something special!
Its a bulleteer with camo and 4 panzerfausts. It can't be a bad unit. TBH I feel using Long Ya as a defensive piece is a waste of efforts, with Heavy shotgun that guy is insane.
...and smaller silhouette, Minelayer, lower MOD, higher cost, and most importantly no Repeater. It's really good, but there's checks and balances and the lack of Repeater means it can't be used like you'd use a Bulletteer. At all. It's actually surprisingly good at messing with your opponent's order pool and target priority as an ARO piece. I'd go so far as to say it's my favourite defensive tool and that the Camo+Panzerfaust combo is the primary reason for it being a defensive tool, not the mines. The 5 point upgrade to Heavy Shotgun is also the hardest 5 points to save on because a Shotgun blast in ARO is so much better than an SMG bullet and I'd rather put it in Camo than Suppressive.
It is certainly a very interesting piece. HavenĀ“t used it (I am an IA player, wish I could!) but have faced him and I must say, that Mine makes an amazing Ambush decoy for the HunDun.
It's a 6-4 Libertos minelayer with a HSG instead of a LSG that can go back into camo, receive Assisted Fire supportware while in marker state, and has a B2 Panzerfaust if a model chooses to discover you instead of delay while you head to their DZ to drop mines and shotgun templates all over everything. I admit I haven't had a chance to use it yet, but I'm very much looking forward to it when I do.
Played it once in a TTS game against O12. Gave it assisted fire and it proceeded to double panzerfaust a FO bot, crit a razor's face off with its heavy shotgun, and double panzerfaust a wounded gamma (all hits going straight to dead) before getting mercilessly crit by an epsilon's pistol. 10/10 would run again.
Depends how the shotgun changes carry over to N4. If a Heavy Shotgun has a large DTW profile that can basically turn it into an uber sized mobile mine. Either you send someone in to "trigger" it and hopefully get rid of it for good, or if you get close but don't deal with it the 40mm "mine" starts running at you like a Krazy Koala.
I've been putting two in every YJ list for a little while now. So far they've been consistently good relative to their cost, without being consistently amazing, which feels more like user error on my part than anything else. One thing I have noticed is that they really like missions with 16" deployment zones; FD1 is way more meaningful when it's putting you and your mines anywhere up to 20" rather than just 16".
Another thing I've noticed is that they have a lot of defensive flexibility and I'm never quite sure which is the right choice. Given an order at the end of turn to either lay a mine, re-camo or enter suppressive fire, I've been feeling like whichever one I choose, I could also have chosen something else to good effect. Which is a good problem to have, but makes me feel like I really need more reps with them.
I played it once - does not much, because my opponent shot it down two times and the suppresive fire range was of 16" and ineffective. But still it shows its pontential as an ARO piece. My mine placement was a bit too obviously. I still will take it a lot in my lists.
Have used it for 10+ games now and really like it. Usually i include one, but sometimes even 2. Has been performing good as a defence piece or as more midfield blocking model together with the minelayer libertos and guilangs. Edit: and i have only used the cheapest SMG version. Hard to find the 5 point for the shotgun version