The sun will not die. More seriously, though, loathe though I am to use kenpeitai, it seems like the ability to shove an MSV2 kenpeitai into a 5-man link with Keisotsu and a spitfire Domaru is quite alluring, especially now that Rui Shi are 1.5 SWC; because the Husong is also 1.5 SWC, I can really only take one or the other. Not fun, hah. I still have yet to run my 5man powerball with the new rules T,T, but I look forward to more straightforwardly rescuing fellow Japanese from the YJ yoke. Though, I miss my combi rifle Haramaki already; I was never a fan of the BS 12 Domaru combi out of principle and I lament the loss of being able to run 4 Haramaki (combi and ML) with a single Domaru (chain rifle). Bostria, give me back my Zensenbutai (AVA 6)! TLDR: lovely track that I've loved for years seems incredibly appropriate. I dislike kenpeitai; I bemoan the increase in SWC of the Rui Shi and Husong; I lament the loss of Haramaki AVA and combi.
I wouldn't bother with the Spitfire Domaru. Having the Kempei for mid range, and maybe a Kei HMG for the first few moves, I'd take the Domaru Chain Rifle or maybe the Boarding Shotgun one.
Have to say, the fact that the MSV2 Kempei costs 1 SWC makes him a little less of an auto include for me...though he is still quite interesting. I am surprised they didn't add this model to the JSA Box but instead went with the Boarding Shotgun one which already has a (though old) model out there....
Chain of Command, I guess. They wanted to show the "support" side of the Kempeitai (Chain of Command + Number 2 + member of the FireTeam to provide the shooting bonuses to the Link) and not the "hunter" side.
Ew, i never did like the bs 13 on the keisotsu hmg. Sure, bs 15 is only a 10% increase, but it makes shooting at mimetism targets in cover that much more even. Never mind a domaru being able to take a stray crit without breaking the linked team, as well as having higher burst value and dmg. I did consider taking a bs kenpeitai instead, for the inevitable rooting out of hunkered troops, but i have to play a couple games to see what i think of the msv2 first. Of course, the only reason im even considering the msv2 campytai is because of the wombo combo 0.5 swc increase on the rui shi/husong and all the power armor increased by 1pt per. My razor edge list from before is less accommodating with the price increases T,T
The Rui Shi's SWC increase is definitely a hit, especially since you're paying another .5 SWC for a standard Hacking Device if you want to get full effectiveness out of that purchase. It definitely helps incentivize the Kempetai MSV2, though I wish they hadn't made the Rui Shi so dang hard to fit into a list now... That thing really needs Yojimbo, an Engineer and a standard device to operate at max efficiency and help justify that big SWC expenditure, and the Engineer and Standard Device aren't really that important for support other units in a list, so I'm very conscious of the cost there. The Kempetai MSV2 is much easier to slot in by comparison. Playing that link aggressively with a Domaru is an interesting concept. Traditionally I steer away from running light infantry links up the table like that, just because they're all so vulnerable to mines, direct templates, etc. That being said, it's an amazing late-game sweeper link. If you need something to seal the game in Turn 3, that's a phenomenal option.
I hear you, man, with regards to running light mixed links up the table. I'm only confident in attempting to do so because of the combination of saito (smoke and skirmisher assassin) and ryuuken 9 (mines in the midfield and, if i get first turn, odd suppression). That is....in theory, lol. Ill find out if my theory is held up in practice later today <,<. I found that the rui shi didnt necessarily need smoke to work. Smoke certainly helped make gun fights super in its favor, but the 6-4 mov and specialists' demand for smoke usually meant that the obj got smoke in favor of the rui shi. Rui shi with marksmanship 2 is hitting on bs15 against purdy much all targets in cover, equivalent to the bs of many 5man links. The 6-4 move then generally allowed it to close the gap on the usual reaction pieces toting mls, hmgs, msrs, such that the above weapons are in the 0 range band, such that they are firing at bs -3 at a rui shi in cover. On the high end, against a fusilier link or even rev moira link, that could mean 2 shots back on bs 12. Not too shabby a deal for the rui shi, heh
You're right the Rui Shi doesn't need smoke for gunfighting -- it is often shooting at sixth sense level 2 targets anyway -- but I do like smoke to get it into the 24" range band. It is such a dangerous unit it is almost always counter-deployed against. That, combined with its giant 55mm footprint means it can often find itself having to fight at the -3 range band, or else get stuck in the DZ unable to move out and do its thing. The five man linked Keisatsu HMG is indeed crap. But it's the second best HMG we've got, so it's an auto-include with any list I take that has a Keisatsu link. The Husong (upgraded with a hacking device) is almost as good and more resilient. Other than those two, you're stuck taking a TAG or else using smoke or camo shenanigans to get past 25"+ firelanes. As for our aggressive attack pieces, @barakiel is one hundred percent correct about the vulnerability of light infantry link teams up the table. The Rui Shi was always a standard for that role, as were the various oniwaban. I always really liked the Karakuri too...if you can push them up to the enemy DZ that heavy shotgun becomes brutal. It'll be interesting to see how the new giant guy does. But now I also think the Tanko/Domaru link has good potential for being really aggressive. There are two changes to them from the standard haramaki/Domaru link that I think changed their role. The first is the Domaru specialist. Now you can move out that link to sweep hard and push buttons on your way, the same way you can do with a Wu Ming link in ISS. The second is the swap of blitzen for flammenspeer. Blitzen are/were awesome ARO pieces because they stop an attack cold by isolating attack pieces. But they sucked on offense because when you isolated an ARO sniper it was still sitting there to ARO you and prevent you from moving. Now the Flammenspeer can be used at range to eliminate pesky snipers and move up the table. In the mid range the contender is an awesome ARO piece so when you run out of orders you should be able to castle up your link to make it hard to assault. The big question for that link is whether to pay the big tax on the spitfire Domaru. I'm gonna start out saying "no" and see if it works with Neko and the forward observer. But I'll admit it may require the spitfire to maximize its potential.
My personal challenge is to not use the Class A War Criminals, I mean the Kempeitai. Not too hard in my "go big" lists, a bit more challenging in any list with a Keisotsu Core.
I think it's perfectly doable. Need to play with them more, but I reckon focusing on Tankos and Aragotos as your core troops is very viable as they are actually relatively cheap for what they do, and bring plenty of orders.
Whelp, I did just try to run an Aragoto in one of my games; it did not go well because the thing can't hide. The opposing Tohaa player walked all the way around with his HMG Sukuel and pasted both the Aragoto and the MSV2 campytai. Definitely gonna replace the Aragoto with the far more reliable Husong to try and slow my opponent down; the Ryuuken, midranged campytai, and Domaru spitfire didn't cut it. The sheer burst value on the Husong is too good to pass up, it seems like; otherwise, I'm looking to go first, but that's not so reliable to count on, heh. That said, the Ryuuken 9 in the midfield worked wonders. With their Xvisors on SMG, they aren't too shabby at picking off random loners; if given half a chance, they're incredibly difficult to root out because they can coordinated order suppressive fire. Boom, -9 to shoot at them without visors. I just got double crit, lol; double 4s, my only weakness.... The mixed link of Domaru, campytai, and Keisotsu did well for itself; I can't complain with their performance. As noted earlier, it is a more active team and suffers badly in reaction. Definitely prefer the powerball for being a rock, if I need one.
Given they're a paramilitary police force in open rebellion against the Emperor and the Imperial Court, I'm going to be painting mine blue and white and calling them the Shinsengumi.
Damn, I'm really liking the Ryuuken 9. They're doing an awesome job of holding my opponents back just long enough, in conjunction with the Husong, for my link and Saito to counterpunch. I'd prefer to not have a random lone Domaru hanging on her own, but, oh well. Another thing to try fitting in would be the 37 pt SMG Oniwabanzzz, cuz that seems awesome. Props to my Ryuuken 9 for passing their medkit rolls to Obj Assault ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 10 SAITO TOGAN (Specialist Operative) Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, EXP CCW, Knife. (0 | 40) DOMARU Spitfire / Pistol, E/M CCW, Shock CC Weapon. (2 | 39) KEMPEI (Multispectral Visor L2) Shock Marksman Rifle / Pistol, CCW, Electric Pulse. (1 | 25) KEISOTSU (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10) KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9) KEISOTSU Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9) DOMARU Lieutenant Chain Rifle, E/M Grenades / Pistol, E/M CCW, Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 26) CHAĪYÌ Yaókòng Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) TOKUSETSU EISEI Doctor (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14) TOKUSETSU KOHEI Engineer Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14) GROUP 2 6 RYŪKEN (Forward Deployment L2, ODD) Submachine Gun, Antipersonnel Mines, D-Charges / 2 Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 24) RYŪKEN (Forward Deployment L2, ODD) Submachine Gun, Antipersonnel Mines, D-Charges / 2 Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 24) HÙSÒNG Yaókòng HMG / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 25) KEISOTSU Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 17) PANGGULING (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) PANGGULING (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) 6 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army
@EDOCGenKip Are you running the Keisotsu special core up the table or leaving it entrenched? Having no weapons with a sweetspot over 24" I imagine you need to move up it up out of the deployment zone for it to be at its most effective.
Yup, because of the general lack of long guns, I am absolutely being aggressive with the link. To begin with, i think the keisotsu stats are simply too low to leave them entrenched; theyd be waiting behind cover or leaving their heads out to die (keisotsu hacker winning against a shrouded in the reactive turn, with my opponent having spent 4 orders, is a bit of a fluke XD). By using them aggressively, the higher burst is supposed to mitigate their lesser stats. If i get 1st turn, i do expect to boost the husong and use it to crack the opponent's longrange msv2 and saito to smoke the non msv2 approaches. If i go 2nd, i position the link such that it has a protected enough approach from msv2, such that it can close range and use the spitfires, with saito to again smoke the non msv2 approaches. I suppose i ought to take pics and do a batrep to demonstrate what im talking about XD. That oughta be fun
