Hello everyone, I've been thinking a bit about YJ's vanilla active turn pieces in the new N4 heavy-armor meta. I always considered active-turn pieces YJ's strength as a faction, with amazing choices such as the Daofei, Mowang, Rui Shi, and other, many of which don't have equivalents in other factions. I do think, however, that the wider changes in the game after N4 made many of these pieces worse, and most don't have the AP or MULTI needed to efficiently deal with TAGs. I know the Shang Ji AP HMG is a good choice in IA and WB, but I don't really see him being great by himself in vanilla. I tried out the HSG Su-Jian but found it lackluster, but I've thought about bringing the AP Spitfire Ye Mao more often. What active turn pieces do you all consider for dealing with opponents you know might take TAGs?
The Shang Ji should be fine in vanilla. Sure, you're not getting the fireteam bonuses, but it's still an HP HMG on a beast of a frame. The HSG Su-Jian is a missile, but you don't necessarily want to waste him going big game hunting. Sure, it can do the job in a pinch, but you're going to get better results muscling through to go after softer targets. The profile there is to take out a pesky HI or two in the way, not to stare down a TAG. Similar rules apply for the Daofei and Mowang. If your goal is to take out a TAG, your humble Shaolin or Ninja are probably your best bet. Lock it up with your cheaper model and let your opponent try to deal with it. Kanrens are also notable in this regard, because they can cybermask their way into position. If you absolutely have to kill a TAG, our own TAGs are actually fairly well equipped for the job. On the active turn, a Guijia's B4 will beat most other TAGs' B1, and the Blue Wolf's Spitfire can allow it to hit with B5 from most enemy TAGs' 0 bands. Both are also uncharacteristically strong melee combatants and will trash most other TAGs in a fist fight.
If You are looking for raw active turn firepower, Yan Huo's HRMC B5 S15 Ap are quite good (on paper, provider You are not gunning for an unburned Cutter ;) ). HMG Hsiens are also a decent choice - dough not for killing a Jotum behind cover.
Last game was against winterforce that included a jotum. Had an awful time trying to beat him. I got a spitfire sujian and a nco Hac tao hmg. The closest I was to stopping him was a shaolin, not to kill it, but to delay it. I'm beginning to thing that yu Jing depends too much on the shangjisus hmg. With the su Jian, it felt so easy to sneak through the enemy lines doing cautious movements that I'm starting to consider the bsg as an antitag weapon
So far my TAG kills Guijia: Killed an Avatar in CC. Monk set up smoke and assisted in CC for +1B. Liu Xing: Dropped behind a Squalos and caught it in the open and killed it with a Multirifle over a few orders. Blue Wolf: Took down a Zeta unit with conventional F2F AP Spitfire attacks. Required some maneuvering to maintain LOF as it retreated with Guts movement. Also played against a Sphinx. Didn't kill it though just possessed it and moved it out of scoring zones to win the game.
Best active model depends on matchup i guess. If you're talking about enemy TAGS: All my TAG "kills" with vanilla yu jing has been through hacking. Either possessing it, and having the opponent killing it themselves, or having it locked down with isolation/imobilization. Battle plan has usually been to get a guilang hacker or guliang deployable repeater within range, and then hacking from either guilang or daoying. I have not had good luck with shooting at enemy TAG in vanilla. Shang Ji AP HMG and Hac tao HMG NCO has been okish. My Mowang who did great work in N3, is retired for the moment because of all the armour. My test with our TAGs has been horrible. There are good CC options against TAGs, but the problem is getting them into CC. If you can set it up with smoke/terrain, there is good options with marker state/mimitism/EM/monofilament, like kanren, hulang or just a cheap monk.
If you can keep him alive, the Hulang has everything you need to take out a TAG, E/M grenades, Mono, D-Charges. I haven't done Vanilla yet with N4 but I think Vanilla still has the tools to help the Hulang. Krit is also now good for it with his E/M weapons, Heavy Shotgun, and can put down a repeater for the hacker. I think for going against a TAG, I think the tactic is still not always going against the TAG itself but the order pool. Kill everything that feeds his orders into it. I'm not sure about for going specifically against a TAG but for an attack piece, I really like the Mo Wang. The Red Fury is great for going up against 1W low armor troops like Haqq, Ariadna, etc. Su-Jian is still good for this as well. What I'm curious about trying out myself is the Jujak spitfire+HFT. he's fairly cheap, fast, and durable.
I love the Hac Tao in all of it's forms, but getting something heavy out of cover is really important if your gun has damage 13 (even with AP ammo). In N4 that is quite difficult. I find the Daofei HD Multi Rifle gets better angles for this, and he starts closer to the consoles/panoplies/buttons (and also gets the +3 range band). He also got D Charges, wich is nice!
