I've been using Ye Mao a lot in WB with mixed results. I take the hacker a lot since he's good with WIP13, BTS, and can be with a Tinbot team. But after having bad results with the Spitfire lately, and good result with a Panzerfaust due to the Mimetisim and MSV1, I started to think about the Missile Launcher. There's only one other like him with a combo of MSV1+Mimetisim-3 with the Makhai. But YM has Super Jump. On paper it seems pretty good. Has anyone tried him? If I get a chance this weekend I'll try it out and let some know how it worked.
Once fought a Chaksa Longarms harris with a Ye Mao harris and the opponent forgot my guys had superjump on his deployment. Going first, I threw smoke between us, then jumped up with the missle launcher and proceeded to roll well enough to obliterate the enemy harris. Everytime I pick a Ye Mao I always feel like I could get a tougher unit that shines in another way, but so far they have done fairly well for me. In another game where the Ye Mao was in a core of Shanji, the missle launcher also beat the rolls of an enemy core with an Al Fasid. Thankfully I was just barely beyond his +4 burst heavy rocket range to enact a negative mod to him, and the missle launcher took him and his nearby pals out.
Why is it that whenever I try something new, it's killed the first order of the first turn? I had a fireteam of Bixie, Ye Mao ML, and SJ medic for Cryo. The YM was taken out by a Tagma viral sniper.
Bad things happen. The first time I used both my freshly painted Ye Maos in a haris - I did a wrong reaction and that resulted in the null-state of both Ye Mao and a turn later in the death of the Shang-Ji FO or Hacker ...
Yes it sure does lol. It was a fun game. It's just weird whenever I use a new thing something like that happens.
Well they got a little boost with the new FAQ on super jump (along with others). Shang Ji and Su Jian will be amazing on missions where they get Super jump!
I recently started playing with White Banner so I do not have much practical experience on it, my use of Ye Mao so far is limited to the killer hacker who has done a great work so far, but, has not seen any standard type action (or been linked) so far.
So far the hacker is the best but the Engineer is pretty good too but expensive. Unfortunately they are still in that MI hell where all of them are a bit too expensive for what they do. Now their mobility is a bit better so we'll see. Sadly they still can't make a 5-man team of just Ye Mao. But even if we could, I'm not sure I would.
My issue is that the monk haris is just nailed on for me: so good, so much fun, for such a great price. That leaves Ye Mao directly competing against Shangji-powered links. In that context, it's hard to justify a mixed core or haris that clock in at the same kind of price as mixed shangji links. Bixie has reduced their appeal even further.
To me their appeal was the MSV and Super Jump. But the price of them makes it hard to take more than one. I like the KHD because he can make use of cybermask and then move around. I think they loaded them up with too much stuff. They would have been fine with just a combi. Multi-rifle is nice but Combi (AP) or Combi (Shock) would have been fine. Panzerfaust and chain colt are overdoing it too.
I tend not to run a haris of Ye mao but I do often take the spitfire which i find does excellent work. The way I've always looked at them is that they're rodoks with MSV and better guns, and I do take teams of Rodoks, great at using terrain on a flank to get good firing positions the ML profile has always been good for me with SJ allowing you to get to a good firing position and MLs are better down a flank where they can try to shoot at the opposing quadrant. This sort of team obviously has it's weaknesses (1w, cost) but I think WB can leverage this reasonably effectively with a skirmish screen of monks ahead of them and a potential nasty suprise attack Hundun to give them covering fire or clear things out of the way for them to get into position
I tried out the Ye Mao ML in a three man YM team last night. It was surprisingly great! The combo of +1B, Mimetisim, MSV1, Super Jumping to get good positions was great. The bad part was, I was moving them forward in Frontline and quickly was in my 0 range instead of +3. But due to some good dice he worked out really well. Nice thing is, if it hits, it's probably dead.
I did kind of the same but opted for a haris and a 3 member core of Ye Mao, the ML was with a Tian Gou disguised as a Ye Mao, this allowed me to keep the ML back and the spitfire, engineer, killer hacker flexible to move forward.
I was playing Frontline so I had a FO, HD, and ML. I didn't want anything to stop them from super jumping. Also when a Fiday was used against me, I got +6 discover due to team and range.
I think of them as the same kind of price point as Scots Guard. I think that they're strictly better than (non-camo) scots guard and in a similar role, but I'm far more likely to take guards in CHA due to their faction's paucity of options. Whereas Ye Mao are facing such stiff competition from jujaks and shang ji, or just lone pieces like the guilang. I see a place for them in a hacking-denial list for sure, and I see a place for the spitfire ye mao just as a solo on its own merits, but as a fireteam I think they're far too restrictive, and therefore not a good pick unfortunately. WB just has far too much cool stuff.
I liked that combination of Super Jump, Mim-3 and MSV1. Sure they are not as hard as a Jujak but hopefully they don't get hit in the first place. There's not such thing as hacking denial anymore. Well mainly with Nomads and guided missiles. I've got to say the main thing I dislike about Nomads is how Un-fun they are to play against. It's really demoralizing when there's very little you can do against spotlight and after that the only thing you can do against the missile is to dodge. Also it's difficult to get rid of the spotlight unless you have an engineer. Also getting isolated and/or immobilized even with a tinbot. (yes on the weekend I lost most of my army this way. Not fun.)
Superjump is a nice way to clear all these repeaters, especially when there repeaters are named "Morans"
I played the Ye Mao spitfire in a 150 point game and he was devastating. Superjump really added to his mobility and in active turn it not much could stand up to the AP Spitfire shooting with mim-3 and MSV1. In reactive you wanted him well hidden. Yeah, one unlucky crit could have ended him, but that is why you have some redundancy in attack pieces. He is very efficient, so you trade survivability for efficiency. I'd love to play a Ye Mao in larger games, their sculpts are fantastic and I managed to get a hold of the limited edition one with the panzerfaust / missile launcher, but it's true that MI is in a tough spot right now.
I've got to say the Ye Mao KHD is fantastic. Being able to go into cybermask and then jump around to wherever needed is great. Of all of our KHD troops, I think the YM top due to the combo of good WP13, great BTS6, Super Jump, then a good gun with MSV1 and MIM-3.
