I'd consider Adil MI to be a top tier pick for White Banner, and very good in ISS. IMO, he's more important than Bixie for WB.
Specifically what does he put on the table that is invaluable? Personally the reason I'd want him in a list is sensor, but a group 2 Weibing has more or less kinda run him outta that role at the moment. The reason I consider him niche is because I can make an argument to get him in provided I wanted the combat group slot by condensing the sensor into a fireteam, combat slots are a much bigger factor in list building at 400 points. Bixie is super hard to fit in at 300 points for WB but they have alot of issues at that points level, she is utterly dominant at 400 points though if you're running a Jujak/Shang Ji fireteam.
I don’t think it’s totally the Jujak or Shang Ji, it’s the rest of the army that makes it difficult. Sure, we have Shaolin to give cheap 2 orders, but they don’t make up for having expensive skirmish, drop troops, characters, and others. Even expensive filler troops Tian Gou. A core of Jujak+Kwon is about the same price points as a core of Riot Grrls. But it’s the rest of Bakunin that matters. They have both good HI and other good cheap troops. For example, Guilang vs. Zero, Tiger Solder vs. Initiated, Zhanshi Yishen vs. Daktari. Other than Bakunin example: Zhanshi vs. Fusilier, Tian Gou vs. Hafza, and I’m sure there’s more. Edit: I should note that there's nothing that come as close in price to a 5-man Shang Ji team! Even Suryat's are cheaper.
Sensor combined with his close combat dominance makes him a fantastic body guard for a Shang Ji 3-man core, and CoC gives you a specialist and allows you to run a Daofei or Guijia Lt. Granted, a sensor bot is going to be plenty efficient for just sussing out enemy markers, but Adil's more about controlling space.
Now that you mention it he's a reasonable replacement for Lei Gong if you weren't running him for pure team bonuses.
For what it's worth, outside of Armoury Room style missions (where Adil is by his very nature more valuable than any purity bonus), I don't usually run full cores in White Banner, instead treating them like a second haris most of the time.
Should I bother with this anymore? I can’t tell the future, but I don’t think YJ is going to be getting much this year. It’s definitely Nomads year. Not even half way in, and they have more figures than the rest combined! I can’t belive Aleph and Haqqislam have gotten squat. Edit: Aleph got all new figures in their Booster Pack but Haqqislam got only a Re-Pack! WTF CB?! 2023 Nomads: 6 Releases, 23 figures (2 Wildcat, 1 Evader, 2 Tomcats, 3 Beta Pack, 9 Bakunin, 1 Dire Foes, 4 Coregidor FT Pack, Meteor Zond) Combined Army: 2 Release, 8 Figures (Hungries, Daturazi) Ariadna: 2 Release, 5 Figures (Wardriver, Pack Alpha) Aleph: 2 Release, 4 Figure (Agamemnon, Booster Beta) Haqqislam: 1 Release, 1 Figure (Shakush) O-12: 1 Release, 1 Figure (Roadbots) NA2: 2 Release, 2 Figures (Wardriver, Yuan Yuan) Yu Jing: 2 Release, 2 Figures (Lei Gong, Hulang) PanO: 1 Release, 1 Figure (Dire Foes) 2022 Combined Army: 8 Releases, 22 Figures Aleph, 5 Releases: 16 Figures Haqqislam: 4 Releases, 12 Figures PanO: 5 Releases, 11 Figures O-12: 5 Releases, 10 Figures Ariadna: 4 Releases, 6 Figures NA2: 5 Releases, 5 Figures Yu Jing: 4 Releases, 5 Figures (Shaolin, Hundun, Tian Gou x2 not counting Madtraps, Qiang Gao) Nomads: 3 Releases, 4 Figures Edit: adding 2021 and 2020 2021 New figure Releases Nomads 7 Releases, 23 figures PanO 7 Releases, 21 figures Ariadna 6 Releases, 15 figures O-12 7 Releases, 14 Figures NA2 9 Releases, 13 Figures Combined Army 5 Releases, 12 Figures Yu Jing 4 Releases, 10 figures Haqqislam 2 Releases, 2 figures Aleph 2 Releases, 2 Figures 2020 New figure Release O-12 8 Releases, 24 Figures Combined Army 9 Releases, 16 Figures Yu Jing 7 Releases, 12 Figures Ariadna 3 Releases, 12 Figures NA2 7 Releases, 12 Figures Aleph 1 Releases, 10 Figures PanO 5 Releases, 9 Figures Nomads 3 Releases, 6 Figures Haqqislam 2 Releases, 2 Figures
I've often run 5 man Shang Ji/Ju Jack with 2-3 tac-aware and used the guilang, monks, and Long Ya's as the cheaper fillers. Expensive, yes, but I find it to usually be durable and lets me play aggressive with orders to spare. White Banner feels easier to pad out a 2w 5 man pain train.
I mean you can, it's not great though it's an all in on that fireteam. Your opponent sets up to neutralise it you're just done with no secondary attack vectors. The Shang Ji/Jujak pure core is excellent at 400 though, actually lets the list get more protection and redundancies into it so it isn't an all eggs in one basket meme tier list.
Here's a list of troops that could still come out for Yu Jing. Obviously weapon variants. I'm not counting limited edition figures. To me, they are still not available. ZHÀNYING (Sensor, Triangulated Fire) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 19) ZHÀNYING Heavy Machine Gun, Chain-colt / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (1 | 26) PHEASANT IMPERIAL AGENT (Hacker, Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, E/Mitter ( ) / Breaker Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0.5 | 30) CHIEF JEONG Combi Rifle, Light Rocket Launcher, D-Charges / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 30) BEASTHUNTERS (Surprise Attack [-3], Camouflage, Forward Deployment [+8"]) Heavy Flamethrower, Panzerfaust, AP Mines / EXP CC Weapon(+1B), Pistol. (0 | 17) HÙNDÙN (Multispectral Visor L1) Shock Marksman Rifle ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 31) YĚ MĀO Missile Launcher, Chain-colt / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 29) YĚ MĀO (Engineer, Deactivator) MULTI Rifle, Chain-colt, Panzerfaust, D-Charges ( | GizmoKit) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 31) YĚ MĀO MULTI Rifle, Chain-colt, Panzerfaust / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 27) HǍIDÀO Red Fury / Breaker Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 26) SÙ-JIÀN Heavy Shotgun(+1B), Panzerfaust / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 50) JUJAK Breaker Combi Rifle, Heavy Flamethrower / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 28) JUJAK (Engineer, Deactivator) Boarding Shotgun, Panzerfaust, D-Charges ( | GizmoKit) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 30) DÀOFĚI Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 49) DÀOFĚI (Hacker, Hacking Device) MULTI Rifle, D-Charges ( ) / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (0.5 | 56) HAC TAO Missile Launcher, Nanopulser / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (1.5 | 60) HAC TAO Heavy Machine Gun, Nanopulser / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (1.5 | 63) CRANE AGENT (Triangulated Fire, Sensor, X Visor) MULTI Rifle, Nanopulser(+1B) ( ) / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 46) CRANE AGENT (Hacker, Hacking Device, Hacking Device) MULTI Rifle, Nanopulser(+1B) ( ) / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0.5 | 46) LIÚ XĪNG Spitfire / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (1.5 | 38) LIÚ XĪNG (Specialist Operative) MULTI Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 35) MÓWÁNG (NCO) Spitfire, Flammenspeer / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 47) SO-RA KWON Shock Marksman Rifle, E/M Mines / Breaker Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 32) HSIEN MULTI Marksman Rifle, Nanopulser ( | TinBot: Firewall [-6]) / Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 53) TAI SHENG Mk12, Chain-colt, Flash Pulse / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 40) GŬILÁNG MULTI Sniper Rifle, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 32) GŬILÁNG (Hacker, Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Shock Mines ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 30) GŬILÁNG (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 26) SHAOLIN Boarding Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 10) SHAOLIN Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (0.5 | 10) Open in Infinity Army
Let me narrow that down for you, these are the only ones of actual importance: ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 6 1 BEASTHUNTERS (Surprise Attack [-3], Camouflage, Forward Deployment [+8"]) Heavy Flamethrower, Panzerfaust, AP Mines / EXP CC Weapon(+1B), Pistol. (0 | 17) DÀOFĚI (Hacker, Hacking Device) MULTI Rifle, D-Charges ( ) / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (0.5 | 56) LIÚ XĪNG (Specialist Operative) MULTI Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 35) HSIEN MULTI Marksman Rifle, Nanopulser ( | TinBot: Firewall [-6]) / Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 53) GŬILÁNG (Hacker, Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Shock Mines ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 30) GŬILÁNG (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 26) HAC TAO Heavy Machine Gun, Nanopulser / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (1.5 | 63) 2.5 SWC | 280 Points Open in Infinity Army You also left out Sun Tze 2.0. He needs a resculpt.
I agree but i'd throw in the Liu Xing Spitfire too. That guy has sone some Work for me! The Ye Mao ML actually did pretty well for me too recently. Also, I wouldn't complain about a Pheasant Hacker. Recently I've been making a lists with him in a team with a Hsien Tinbot PHEASANT IMPERIAL AGENT (Hacker, Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, E/Mitter ( ) / Breaker Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 28) HSIEN MULTI Marksman Rifle, Nanopulser ( | TinBot: Firewall [-6]) / Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 53) CSU (Specialist Operative) Breaker Combi Rifle, Nanopulser(+1B) / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 15) 0 SWC | 96 Points Open in Infinity Army
I see no Ye Mao in that list so its not all who are important, maybe different players have different ideas of what models are important.
Ye Mao has a hacker, spitfire, and panzerfaust model. Without consolidating them into a box, there's really no room to release another sculpt. The panzerfaust can act as just about any profile not represented by the hacker and spitfire. Personally, I have all three and can't be arsed to even get one of them painted. They just don't pop up much for me. Maybe the hacker. But I know some people like them.
The Panzerfaust mini was a limited edition mini. Now, this didn't stop them putting the Ninja LE mini into a box with other Ninjas. Spitfire is part of a CodeOne pack, though, so that's out of the question. I'd suggest that recycling the hacker SKU into a box set SKU is possible
The Panzerfaust is a LE miniature and for the majority of people it is unavailable or never available, plus to really field Ye Mao heavy lists you would need multiples of her.
YM are pretty much the only troop they could come out with as box set right now. Most others are already available, or they would need to re-sculpt / create new troops. They could do a lot if they ever re-structured ISS. Then we could have new Bao, Cranes, Zhanying, Celestials, and hopefully new troops. If we got more Ye Mao, I think it should be at least a Panzerfaust. It takes care of Basic troop, ENG, FO, and can proxy as a ML. But they could do a box set of ENG, FO/Basic, Missile Launcher.
Guilang could, as well. Sniper sculpt's gone MIA, the Guilang hacker is wanted, and there's potential for a specific FO sculpt. Alternatively, I can see a good SKU with Guilang Sniper, Guilang Combi w/ or w/o hack pose and Daofei Hacker for pure theme and sectorial purposes. This would also be fairly suitable CodeOne pack.
